Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Okay, so I didn't really care for this City Girls album. If I'm being.
You can burn all thing down.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: I.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Don'T care if you're uncomfortable. We can burn all thing down.
Killing us since we were property no stopping me from saying how it is. This ain't the whiz, ain't no easing down the road where we live, that's a biz. We can't go out for a jog or a swim, walk a dog, fall asleep in the car, fall asleep where we live so we bout to let it burn just like gushers say they be trying but I do not care what gushers say? Putting black screens up, make a few bucks my life isn't marketing. Yo, who you think you trying to play? I liked it better when like, nerdy was all fun and stuff. This is really angry, like, don't you think you've said enough? Well, that's freaking tough because I'm being loud and the people are not playing with you now. Yeah, you can burn all thing down I don't care if you're uncomfortable. We can burn all thing down. You can burn a whole thing?
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Views from the ground?
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Views from the damn ground?
[00:01:39] Speaker C: Views from the ground?
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Views from the damn ground?
[00:01:41] Speaker C: Views from the ground?
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Views from the damn ground.
[00:01:43] Speaker C: And that's on that.
All right, so welcome to October.
So this is going to be the Artist Interview day.
But before we get into those, we're going to start the show off here with Kota.
[00:02:05] Speaker D: Hi, everyone. This is Koti. This segment is anti imperialist diaspora dialogues. Usually I'm joined by Comrade Lal, but they're not available today. In our segment, we look at struggles across the Third world, anti imperialist struggles, anti colonial struggles, and look beyond the headlines and try to understand the inner dynamics and what we can learn from them, how we can support them, how we can build up our own revolutionary consciousness here in the belly of the Beast, America today. Of course, for the past three weeks, I'm sure everyone has been following what's been happening in occupied Palestine. And today's segment, we're going to dive into that. First of all, I think we should broaden out the scope and make sure we understand the struggle in Palestine as part of a global struggle that has been going on for centuries. Many people, they'll see what's going on and be all surprised, trying to make it like, oh, this only was maybe something that's been going on in the past few decades. Or if they have a bit more historical knowledge, they'll date it to 1967. So 57 or what is that now? Yeah, 56 years. But reality, we're looking at 530 years, because 1492.
That's the year that European settler invaders traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and began plundering and pillaging and destroying the native nations of Turtle Island. That settler colonialism is again at play in Palestine.
And the chattel slavery, the plantation economy that grew out of the invasion of Turtle island, expanded across the globe in the following centuries. So we're talking 500 years.
And in the 20th century, as many established imperialist powers, colonialist powers such as the British Empire, such as the French Empire, as they were facing upsurges, anti colonial struggles from the people they had thought to have conquered. They were never actually conquered. They were always resisting, whether it was in Algeria or whether it was in East Africa, Kenya. These were massive insurgencies against colonial European colonial rule. The 20th century saw the demise of most of these empires, but we see in the mid 1940, in the mid 19. 20th century. Sorry. 1948 is when the Zionist settler entity is proclaimed by armed settler militias from Europe. They're pushing out Palestinians. They're taking their land. They're massacring them by the thousands, tens of thousands. This is what Palestinians describe as the nuqbah, the catastrophe. And we have to always put in its context. So if we look at the struggles that have occurred in occupied Turtle island, there is very many a parallel with the struggle in Palestine, with the struggles in North Africa, specifically Algeria, against the French settler colonial regime. That regime was overthrown in the 1960s, but it lasted for well over 120 years. From the 1830s until 1962, the French settlers thought they owned Algeria. And so when we look at Palestine, I know many people say, because they see the tragedy on the news, they say, this is genocide, and it is genocide. The Zionist settler entity is committing genocide. But I would argue, and I think many militants and others with the radical and historical analysis would argue, that the genocide has been ongoing. This is an acceleration of that genocide in the same way that in so called America. Right. This is the belly of the beast. This itself is a settler empire.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:06:22] Speaker D: It's built on settler colonialism, on anti black chattel slavery. Those are not going away unless people rise up and defeat them. They are still here, holding the entire structure together.
And so many people will, unfortunately, try and present the current Zionist offensive against the Palestinians, which is only in response to a stunning defeat that the Zionists received at the hands of Palestinian guerrilla forces. But they'll present this current genocidal bombardment of Gaza, in particular, as genocide, as if the preceding 75 years. So the years from 1948 till now were not genocide, were not dispossession. They were. But now that genocidal process is accelerating and the resistance to it is also intensifying. If we look to this continent occupied Turtle island, there was a peak of militant, as in all out warfare between resisting native peoples, between the escaped African peoples who had burnt down the plantation, who had taken to forging what they would describe as maroon societies away from white European settler society, as a way to bring in more of their own and also make alliances with native people. That peak of struggle when they were actively fighting the US military, when they were actively destroying entire cavalry regiments.
We know about. Maybe people have heard of Little Bighorn, right? This is in the 1870s, when the Lakota completely crushed one of the most elite cavalry units of the US military. Custer's last stand, all of that, right? They valorized him, but he was a genocidal colonizer and he got what he deserved. And so to draw a parallel, many people will not want to think about it this way, but the way that the Palestinian resistance forces took the Zionist entity, which is armed to the teeth by surprise and completely shattered this myth of an invincible Zionist force, right?
That is akin to Little Bighorn. That is akin to the Tet Offensive, when Vietnamese communist revolutionaries in 1968 pushed the US military and the puppet regime of South Vietnam out of many cities and towns through a massive guerrilla offensive. So we have to see this in its historical context. Anti colonial struggles are always going to have these peaks and valleys. And right now it was definitely a peak. And we're seeing the imperialist backlash. And it's brutal, it's horrific. All solidarity with Palestinians and all oppressed peoples. We need to figure out ways to support them and also actively try and disrupt the US imperialist machinery here. Right here. Not think, oh, let's just watch the news and hope these guys overseas fight it out and beat the Zionists and the US. We shouldn't just cheerlead from the sidelines. We should actually be finding ways to agitate, to educate, to organize, so that the machinery here, which is sending arms, which is sending money, you've seen maybe there's a lot of news reports, they're outright sending huge shipments of assault rifles to hand out to every settler, which, again emphasizing the point, the settlers are militarized, they act as a militia force. They, on their own free will, go and steal land and kill Palestinians. They are not civilians. They chose to take other people's lands and brutalize them and actively undermine any chance of Palestinian self determination. When you do that when you engage in that sort of warfare, you are an open target. Many people don't want to hear that. That is the fact. So try and steal people's land, try and oppress them, brutalize them, cram them into an open air prison for decades upon decades, and then be surprised when there's resistance and it takes on an armed character. That's going to happen. History has shown that happens over and over again in America. We often try and avoid that level of brutality. But the same colonial system operates with incredible violence, but it spreads it out. It doesn't concentrate it. So the US military, the police forces will do the same form of killing and massacring and containment, imprisonment, but they won't do it in such a concentrated area.
They won't do it in such a blatant way as the Zionists have been doing recently. So many people.
Popular misconception is that the US maybe believes in human rights or isn't as brutal.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Right?
[00:11:30] Speaker D: It's a joke. It's a joke to even hear that. But the way that people are saying, why can't the US lean on the Zionists and tell them, slow down a bit? And again, we have to look at, these are entities that connect. They have affinity with each other, they uphold each other. The US is the blueprint for the Zionist occupation of Palestine.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: Say that again.
[00:11:53] Speaker D: Is the blueprint. Everything the Zionists are doing has been done and is continually being done here on this land in many ways. And the genocidal process is going on right now. Settler colonialism is an ongoing structure. It's not an event, as many people think of it, as Europeans arrive. That's the point of settler colonialism. No, it's continuing today. So the violence that we see the system inflict on oppressed native peoples, on black peoples, African peoples, Third World peoples, most broadly, that violence is decentralized here in a certain way, and so headlines won't pick it up. It's not as stark and as visceral as it is in Palestine, but that also means when the intensification of struggle in Palestine reaches us here, when we see it and we understand what's going on, it heightens all the contradictions that were already existing here. So all the struggles we've seen in the last three years, when it was the uprising, right, who now is standing with the blue lives? Oh, it's surprising. The guys who also drape themselves in a white and blue flag, the Zionists who was supporting blue lives to the tune of millions of dollars of training, millions of dollars of equipment, the Zionist entity, and it goes both ways. They train the US police forces and the US military industrial complex provides them with unlimited arms and unlimited diplomatic backing. So people now recognizing those commonalities in terms of the enemy are also finding common ground and solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian people.
And if anyone else wants to throw in on that, because I feel like the very obvious dynamic in America right now is how many want to erode solidarity of Palestine to the point of shutting down any mention of Palestine.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: I think one of the things I've heard about this specific topic, and I think is a really great talking point, is to see who's on whose side, exactly. See who's on whose side, especially for those of us who have found ourselves in leftist liberal abolitionist spaces. And I know that there are people on that side of things that are confused. And they're like, oh, what am I? Well, this seems like it's more complicated. And I always say, ask yourself who's on whose side?
If the very same America that we're fighting here is on the side of one group, fully, unapologetically, without any sort of context or any sort of gray, is fully in support of one side, maybe you should take a look at who those people are. Because if you believe that this country, and I think it is true to say that this country has very destructive and evil foundations to how they treat marginalized people, the people that they rock with, probably feel very similarly. And if you ask yourself, like the colonization of the United States of America, if we had social media back then, what do you think you'd see?
What side do you think would look like the side we're talking about? You know what I mean?
What would they say about the Native Americans fighting back against their land being set? What kind of articles do you think would be posted? What kind of like, oh, well, they did all this and they did all that, and that stuff could be very violent. And we know that to be true. But also, you ask yourself, but we also know with the power of hindsight that it was wrong for what America did. It was wrong how they got us to where we are now. So if you know that, and I mean, like, if you know that, if you have ever sat in your high school history class and felt that, oh, wow, that was really bad, what happened? Imagine what that would have looked like with social media. And ask yourself today, is there a parallel here? Which I think is what you were saying. It was like, think about it. America didn't just start off where we are now. It started off with brutal murder of innocent people by the genocide. That's how it started.
The only reason we're seeing this stuff now is because back then there wasn't Twitter. Back then there wasn't stuff like that. It was a town crier that would maybe say what they wanted is that.
[00:16:30] Speaker E: And one of my favorite posts I've seen recently was it said if social media was around during the Haitian Revolution, y'all would have been on the side of France.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: Say that. Oh, no.
[00:16:41] Speaker E: Because literally, how can you?
You're seeing an oppressed group of people fight in the only way that they can, when historically that's what they have to do. Like, if we're talking slave revolts, if in your history book, you read that Native Americans indigenous to the US, where the US is now, people indigenous to this land, if they all got together and rose up and fought off some pilgrims, are you going to call them terrorists? Are they literally fighting for their liberation?
[00:17:14] Speaker A: Knowing what we know now, knowing what we know now. Exactly.
[00:17:16] Speaker E: Knowing what we know, the millions and hundreds of millions of lives that were erased, that is what they would have had to do.
So if we look at that in current times, how can you not see the parallel?
[00:17:30] Speaker A: It's an intentional ignorance.
[00:17:32] Speaker D: Exactly.
And the way also that people are trying to obscure the role of the US in this. Like, oh, the US is unfortunately having to come in now and deal with this conflict. They always term this a conflict, right? It's a conflict in the sense that there is an oppressor, and they are using all means at their disposal to destroy an oppressed people. And the oppressed people are resisting with all means at their disposal. In that way, you can call it a conflict, but it is war. It's genocidal war. And it's ultimately one small example of this larger genocidal settler colonial system, settler imperialist system. Because all over the world, people, whether you look to South Asia, we know in India, there is the oppression and occupation of Kashmir, which is very much similar to what is happening in Palestine. The Indian military uses Zionist advisors. Zionist military specialists will go to India and advise the government and say how you actively crushed a people's insurgency. This is how you do it. Because we have experience in oppressing Palestinians. Or they'll say, look, we'll sell arms to Azerbaijan recently, just few weeks before the Aluxa flood, which the resistance operation that completely crushed the Zionist forces by the Gaza Strip, just a few weeks before that, Azerbaijan, which is armed by the Zionists.
And this also speaks to the lie where Zionists want to present this. Zionist imperialist forces want to present this as some sort of religious or holy war. They'll constantly say that this is age old struggle between Muslim peoples and Jewish people. That's not true, because by that standard, why is the Zionist entity armed to the teeth by the US, providing arms to Azerbaijan, which is predominantly Muslim? Doesn't make sense, right? But then you realize, of course, it was never about some very simplistic religious conflict. It was always about the interests of imperialism. Azerbaijan actively ethnically cleansed Artsak, which is a portion of Armenia where Armenian peoples have lived for centuries. Indigenous Armenians were completely dispossessed and kicked out. This is, again, a few weeks before the Zionists have tried to crush Palestine permanently. So that model is being replicated all over. And of course, that struggle, Armenian struggle, doesn't get much attention because people broadly in the west and news media won't cover it in the same way that they'll cover Palestine. The reason they cover Palestine so much is, again, because the Zionists have a lot of power in America and because the Zionist entity is a settler colonial regime. Can't emphasize that much. A settler colonial regime with so much affinity and commonality and connection with this settler colonial regime.
And of course, there's a huge amount of propaganda that goes into getting young Jewish people to see themselves as Zionist, to see themselves as what they would say, returning to their land. But in reality, they are being groomed to become colonizers, to become killers of Palestinians. This is what the whole birthright program is about, if you've heard of that. They actively indoctrinate these Jewish youth.
And it's not just Jewish people who support the Zionist entity. Of course, we know that there's a lot of Christian evangelical, hard right reactionaries who give money to the Zionists, but they specifically groom Jewish youth, whether it's on college campuses or just broadly from a young age, to see it as their birthright, to be able to steal land, kill Palestinians, subjugate them to mass terror, put them into concentration camps, and then deny them any human, basic human rights. Human rights itself, we know, is something that can only be achieved through revolutionary force. But they do this. And so their influence in America is everywhere. The US imperialist power is constantly upholding this lie that the Zionists are the victim. They're not the same way. The US government cannot be the victim. The US government is the one oppressing. And all over the world, people are raising their eyes to Palestine saying, look, this is the struggle that we see as our own we support the Palestinian people. We support them 100% in their just struggle for national liberation, for decolonization, for the destruction of the Zionist entity, for the end of imperialism.
And I know there's been a few rallies here, so I hope more activity and organizing is coming out of that. And I hope people are educating each other on that.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:22:47] Speaker C: Thank you so much for bringing all this amazing information. We really appreciate it. Also, here at KFAI, we are having a pledge drive, so if you want to become a member, call 612-375-9030 once again, if you want to become a member, call 612-375-9030 we'll be right back after this break.
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Car, truck, boat, motorbike, and towtober.
Actually, we'll take lots of vehicle donations. Just go to KfAI Car easy.org for more information. Car, truck, boat, motorbike, tow, and snowmotober.
[00:24:09] Speaker C: All right, welcome back to views from the ground.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: Views from the damn ground.
[00:24:13] Speaker C: And we're going to let Brandon take it away here.
[00:24:16] Speaker E: How y'all doing, everybody? It's your boy Brandon. I use he him pronouns all month long on words of freedom. We've been listening to a local poet, listening to his words, listening to his poetry, listening to his stories, and talking about his life and things that he's seen, things that he's felt, things that he's lived through. We're going to go ahead and let our poet of the month go ahead and introduce themselves.
[00:24:42] Speaker F: Hi, all. My name is Max, 22, born, raised St. Paul and happy to be here.
[00:24:50] Speaker E: We are happy to have you here again. I appreciate you sending me all the stuff, getting that to me and giving it to me to share to other people. That's kind of like what this platform is here for. And I'm glad that we were able to get your work out to more people, people who may not have known that they needed to hear it, but after hearing it, realized that's exactly what they needed to hear. So again, we appreciate you and your powerful, powerful words.
Let's just get right into this interview. Let's think back as a young Max, when can you think of a time where you found art as something that you enjoyed or was an outlet or something like that. Just in your younger life.
[00:25:34] Speaker F: Ever since third grade, I remember wanting to be, like, a choreographer for somebody big, like Justin Bieber or like, Chris Brown. Somebody that you saw him in music videos. He's like, dang, I don't know if they made this up. Maybe it was a choreographer, but somebody came up with this, and I feel like I could do that. And so me and my sister, to be honest, always dancing. Since then, writing took off in, like, 6th grade when I tried to rap, and I did rap, but it was like goofy rap, just like kind of messing around rap. It wasn't anything serious, but, no, I think the OGR forms for me was dancing and just playing around with rhymes on a beat.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:26:22] Speaker E: Yeah, that's what's up. When did that sort of transform more into poetry specifically?
[00:26:29] Speaker F: That was all like, senior year, high school. Okay, senior high school. I forgot if my sister started writing first or if I started writing first.
I think it was her. But either way, poetry felt a lot more.
It was, like, slower, and it felt easier to be able to articulate anything I wanted. I wasn't stuck within a certain rhyme zone type thing. I could just do whatever, whenever, and it just felt a lot more free.
[00:27:06] Speaker E: Got you. That's beautiful.
When did you really start getting into performing your poetry?
[00:27:14] Speaker F: Performing? I think ever since I started writing, too.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:18] Speaker F: Because I looked for any opportunity to just get in front of a crowd. Because I feel like I've always been comfortable because of me. Growing up in church, I was always in front of the altar and everybody looking at me, like, just having eyes on you from a young age, I think you feel like you get used to it. So, hOnestly, any exposure I could get to, any people I could share with, because I was really eager to share because I knew what I had and I valued it. Regardless of whether other people liked it or not, I knew it was raw for me. I put my blood on there.
That's very cool.
[00:27:57] Speaker E: A lot of times I ask people, when did it go from this being something that I do for myself to being something that I want to share with others? And that's kind of cool that you knew as soon as you started writing it. Then it was like, other people need to see this, too.
Is there any times now or then where you do have some writing or some other art that you've made that you kind of keep for yourself? Do you have, like, a journal of things that may never see the light of day? Something that's, like, a lot more intimate or personal? Anything like that.
[00:28:29] Speaker F: I definitely do. But maybe not because I feel like they're too personal. I feel like I'd always share with my. I feel like I'd always share with my immediate circle, like, my close friends, my sister. I don't know if there's anything I wouldn't share.
Maybe I just haven't gotten that deep with myself.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:28:48] Speaker F: Maybe I'll get there one day. But no, there's definitely, like, notebooks of so much stuff that I've written that I've honestly forgotten about. And maybe those might never see the lottery day. But other than that, no. I feel like most of everything, if not with the whole world, with my closed circle, they'll definitely hear it.
[00:29:06] Speaker E: Got you.
If you could think back of a time, because being an artist, there's always, like, a lot of insecurity that comes with it. You don't exude insecurity too much. You sound and seem pretty confident. You say, oh, I got to do. People got to see this type of thing. But if you can think back to whether it be writing, performing, whatever, where there was a time where you finished something or you performed something, you were like, yeah, I did that. Can't nobody tell me nothing. That was dope, that was raw. Whether they like it or not, I know they're going to like it because you can't tell me anything else. What was, like, that piece or that moment or whatever that was, like beforehand.
[00:29:45] Speaker F: Before I shared it, that I was.
[00:29:46] Speaker E: Confident in it while you shared it, whatever. Something that if you look back and there's, like, a highlight of your artist career so far, where it was like, man, that couldn't have gone better. I couldn't have wrote it better. I couldn't have performed it better. Something like that. That you can think of.
[00:29:59] Speaker F: Damn, okay, we can actually go back, like, two weeks ago. Two weeks ago. It was cool. I got to be part of this really small collective. Do you know Jason? Jason Gonzalez?
[00:30:10] Speaker B: Maybe.
[00:30:11] Speaker E: I know more faces than I know.
[00:30:14] Speaker F: Probably you know a lot of people. I feel like you probably know him. But he put together this collective. It was me, him, and this other girl. We organized this event. We had some people over. We all gave some poetry, and it was reflections, and we kind of had a conversation surrounding everything we gave. And I performed this poem called I Fell in Love with you from the dark. And it was about my struggles, my kind of process with my sexuality, and how I was stepping into that and how different it felt. And, man, I think ever since this past summer, I've let go of a lot of insecurities. And so when I'm in front of people, I'm just not afraid to smile. I'm not afraid to kind of just change my tongue.
The first couple of poems before I did that one, initially, I was like, sitting down and I chose it. Just try it out. And I wasn't rock with it. So I literally got up, went to another part, and I performed it. And if I wanted to move my arms, if I wanted my legs, if I want to go slower, faster, like a more gentle tone, I just let it all out. And definitely after that performance, whether they liked it or not, I was like, yeah, this is raw, this is good.
[00:31:33] Speaker E: That's what's up. That's beautiful.
I mean, you talked a little bit about it just now, but can you tell us a little bit about how your art and your writing and your expression has helped you grow as an individual from. I mean, I've only, I met you a couple of years back now, and just seeing you now, it seems like you've grown into yourself as an artist and as a person. Talk about how the art has helped your growth.
[00:31:57] Speaker C: Oh, man.
[00:32:01] Speaker F: The art really helps me read my emotions and see myself in different versions.
Being able to, especially with myself. And I know a bunch of other artists, like being able to mix medias and kind of make some video with it, with their poetry, kind of put some music over that they made themselves type thing. I know, you know that we try.
[00:32:28] Speaker E: Exactly.
[00:32:29] Speaker F: No, for real. Being able to put multi different types of mediums together has helped me look at myself, take a step back and realize not only did I make this or off of the fact that I made this, this is a part of me. And so being able to value the vulnerable, the ugly, the awkward.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: I don't.
[00:32:55] Speaker F: Know, the shy in me, and being able to display that through writing or videography or photography, whatever it is, has helped me just, I guess, yeah, take a step back and appreciate myself and let go of insecurities, not out of some prideful process, but more of a raw process that's letting me lay out what I am and be proud of it. Does that make sense?
[00:33:20] Speaker E: Got you again. Beautiful. Speaking of growth, you've done a lot performance wise. You're putting out videos and stuff like that. What is something that you haven't gotten the chance to do yet that you really want to do? Or maybe you have some steps going in that direction where you're in the works type of thing. What's something that we haven't seen you do yet that you would like to do?
[00:33:43] Speaker F: I have so many dreams, man.
[00:33:44] Speaker E: It's crazy.
[00:33:46] Speaker F: Like any artist, I feel like something big you just want to have in due time.
I'm in school right now, so I'm really, man, homework classes are hard, but what I want to do, what I wish to do, what I hope to do in the next. I don't even know, a couple of years.
Definitely dumb after. By the time I'm getting towards 30, I want to make an album with rap, telling my dad story coming in, and implementing a different way of approaching my Ward Smith character as I am, because I've noticed, and I realized that a lot of Latinx, a lot of white, if you're not black, sometimes it feels like you're trying to be with your rap. And I want to give a very different perspective that comes from my roots. Using rap as a gateway to do that and not trying to emulate or copy, I don't know. I feel like certain things that might feel cool when you're, like, you're trying to do them rap. I don't know if this is making sense.
So, like, using different instruments from my indigenous group or using different symbols, like, what am I going to name it? How am I going to tell this story?
And Kendrick has always been, like, a really big inspiration just because, especially with jazz and how he's used that as art form, he's really done it justice. And so I want to do it justice when approaching it in my way, with my culture, with my history type thing. So that, man, a short film.
I want to write a script. There's so many things. It's crazy.
[00:35:45] Speaker E: Here's to you putting that out there so that in due time, when these things happen, you'll have this on video that's going to be posted so you can look back like, where was that interview at? Like, five years ago, man, I accomplished that.
It's cool just to hear you say that. And then years from now, you can look back and see that you did that.
So you talked a little bit about using your Indigenous roots and expressing that in your artwork. Can you talk just a little bit about that process? I think the first poem I ever heard you recite was kind of talking about finding your indigenous roots outside of the church, like the church versus the indigenous side of you. So talk a little bit about these past couple years and that process that you've gone through.
As much as you'd like to, you don't got to dive too deep into.
[00:36:44] Speaker F: No, no, I'm open it's kind of funny, because I just studied abroad in Peru this past semester, and I had a lot of classes entailing Indigenous knowledge in different ways. And that whole semester made me second guess my indigeneity so much. Like, so much with me not being born on the land that I feel like I'm from, or that I know I'm from, but me not being born there, me not being raised there, me not understanding the culture, I feel like there's so many reasons why I'm not.
But I know that there's different ways that people can approach what they once were. And I know that different people identify as indigenous for different reasons, in different ways. And that's like a really vast highway that people approach differently. And so, for me, I've struggled so much with coming to grips with, like, am I indigenous? Am I not? Do I want it? Should I own it? Is it mine? I see everybody else doing it, and I love that for them, and I love my group, and I want the best for them. But for me, I need to make sure that this is authentic to me. If that makes sense, if I'm going to carry this, I want to carry it good and well. Even if there's doubts, even if there's questions, I want to dig in, that I want that to sink in my heart.
And so when I do make an album, when I do make something that entails my story, that has indigenous roots, that has my family, my grandparents, anyone, that I can carry that, even if it feels awkward sometimes, even if it feels uncomfortable.
[00:38:39] Speaker E: So, yeah, I think I can feel part of that as well, with my father being Jamaican immigrant, so from Jamaica, trying to tap in with the roots there. But at the same time, when we're talking about roots to south and Central America and us questioning, is this authentic? Is this whatever? That's literally the process of colonization is to make us doubt that, say that that's literally the process of the world. Their manifest destiny had us questioning our roots, had us questioning and not feeling tuned, know where we come from. I can trace my ancestry back to Jamaica, but Jamaica wasn't an African nation at one point, right? It was colonized, and then slaves were brought over, and all the indigenous were murdered or exiled. So, I mean, only as Jamaican, as an African can be is what my father know. But creating that culture is something that I can tap into. And I know you said you want to do it authentically and not make it awkward, but just know that the world that we live in, the world that we live in currently is one that they tried to exist without us having any path to that. So I think any path that you do choose to find your indigeneity, to find your roots is like, whatever path you need to take, I think that's the most beautiful thing you can do, is to try.
[00:40:08] Speaker F: Yeah.
There's so much talk and conversation on what's problematic, what's not Hispanic, Latin, Latinx, what are you supposed to identify as? And I feel like one reason why it's a big blur is because one reason why this whole controversy is happening is because everything that entails me in a different life form that comes from the Sapotec and all their traditions and all that is now just has a. What's it called?
Now is blanketed over Latino or Hispanic, which literally entails. Like, Hispanic means I speak Spanish. Latine or Latinx means that I have ancestry in Latin America. But even with Latin, where does that come from? And so what I'm trying to say is everything that I could be entailed through, everything that I could be connected through with my indigenous story is ignored when I say I am Hispanic type thing.
There's another side to it that I'm also struggling with, too.
I see both sides, and. Nah. Yeah, it's a struggle for all of us, because at some point, we're all completely different.
[00:41:22] Speaker E: Yeah. I mean, the most beautiful thing you can do is try your best to put the pieces together of the puzzle that they threw apart. You're trying to find all the pieces that you weren't meant to. So that's all you can do is to try and whatever labels that people give you or whatever are labels created in a world that they tried to create. So, I mean, if however many hundreds of years ago, the Europeans never came over here, who knows what your form would be currently. So it's a lot. But not to get too deep, we got a couple of minutes left. I got to get back on my script here. I'm sure we could talk for quite some time about this type of stuff, but a question I ask every poet that I have that comes through here is, what is your favorite part, and what is your least favorite part about being an artist?
I know that's a hard question. You can go ahead and answer whichever one comes to you eat more easily.
[00:42:23] Speaker F: But, yeah, my favorite part.
My favorite part is being able to stand back and look at what I've made even before anybody sees it, before I show anybody, before I tell anybody. I don't know if you feel this, but after you make a really good ass poem. And the whole day, you're just like, you just think about that poem. You're just like, oh, man, I forgot I made this. But this is amazing. I'm so excited to share this or with the video stuff that I've made. Being able to take a step back and just play it and see it run through and everything's clicking, everything's good. And you're like, wow, I'm done.
[00:43:03] Speaker E: I made that.
[00:43:04] Speaker F: I did that type thing. I love that feeling. Least favorite thing about being an artist, I don't like turning down opportunities. I hate turning down opportunities. When people ask me to do this or do that or to perform or to do that, and mainly just because I have conflicting schedules or I got a test or something dumb that I wish I could just dismiss.
I really don't like turning down things as an artist. I wish I could be everywhere, all at once.
[00:43:40] Speaker E: I think, okay, I definitely feel both of those answers a lot, but I think that's about all the time that we got. So, again, we appreciate you so very much, but before you go, go ahead and tell people where they can find you, where they can support your work, all that type of stuff. And then any last words you got for the people, sir.
[00:43:59] Speaker F: You guys can find me on Instagram at Max Lopez.
M-A-X period. L-O-P-Z.
That's my Instagram. Don't really have anything else, but thank you for having me.
[00:44:15] Speaker E: Thank you for stopping in. We appreciate you. I think that's all we got. So we're going to kick it back on over to DJ.
[00:44:21] Speaker C: Yeah. All right, well, we're going to go home, break real fast. We'll be right back.
[00:44:27] Speaker E: KFAI is pleased to present co headliners Coven and Lucifer. Tuesday, November 21 at the Fine line in Minneapolis with special guest, Early Moods.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: This show will have you communing with the Beyond.
[00:44:42] Speaker E: Tickets for Coven and Lucifer are available.
[00:44:44] Speaker D: Now at First Avenue's website.
[00:44:47] Speaker A: Visit first avenue.com for more details.
[00:44:57] Speaker C: All right, welcome back to views from the ground.
[00:45:01] Speaker A: Views from the damn ground.
[00:45:03] Speaker C: We are here on Membership Drive.
If you want to listen to a dope show about Palestinian Liberation and all this local art and artists, you can always call 612-375-9030 Once again, that's 612-375-9030 with that being said, I'm going to give it over to the one, the only, Nerd D. Yo, what's up, my.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: Guys gals, nonbinary pals. It's your boy, Nerd D. Thanks for listening to the best radio show in existence.
It's been said, and has been said it again also, as we've been rocking all day, just want to let you, sir, I'm saying free Palestine till it's backwards. Yes, we out here for real. Just in case you were confused, you've just tuned in. That's what we're about.
But I am very excited to be able to have this time on the show. As you might have been aware, this month is in fact my birthday month, so I've been having a lot of time to.
[00:46:15] Speaker C: Happy birthday to black version. Happy Birthday.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: Did you know there was a new black version of Happy Birthday?
[00:46:23] Speaker C: I saw it on TikTok.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: Yeah, we're really trying to change stuff up, man. Stevie Wonder's still around.
Like maybe wait, let him end with thinking that, that we were just going to keep it forever anyway because it was that I got to spend these last weeks putting on songs of mine that feature other artists or I am featured on other local artists, which is always a treat. One of my favorite things to do in music is to feature, to be on, to put other artists over or allow other artists to use their talents to help me. It's a really powerful thing to do. So in the spirit of thAt, of talking about other artists and getting them up, I decided to invite a very special guest who was already on the program once before. But we had so much fun with them, we needed to bring them back. You know them, you love them. It's Isaac Jordan.
[00:47:22] Speaker B: Hey, how y'all doing? How y'all doing? How you doing?
[00:47:26] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. Hello.
[00:47:29] Speaker B: I would like to apologize for my tardiness. Officially, y'all, my apologies. No drama, child. Lots of drama.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: But we here. We here.
[00:47:36] Speaker B: We're good.
[00:47:36] Speaker A: We are here. You're safe. And that is what matters.
Last time we had you on the show, we talked about a lot of different stuff. Quite a bit musically, quite a bit. So I'm going to try to ask more deep questions as we go. Come on. Deep. But we're going to do that.
This show has been a really good show. Just throwing out.
[00:47:55] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: But all right, first and foremost, before we get too much into it, I want you to take some time to tell everybody kind of about the stuff that you have coming up because I don't want us to get lost in the sauce. And then we're trying to do it real quick at the end. Facts. So tell everybody what you got coming up.
[00:48:10] Speaker B: Well, first and foremost, if you miss any of this, you can first check out any extra details. Social media links, new music releases, all those things, old music on my website, www.isaacjordan.org. That is Isaac with two A's. Chad, don't get it wrong. Don't forget it. Amen. Now, what I have coming up is quite a bit. So I've been working on a new album and with that new album, of course, comes a little promotional single. And that's coming out next Saturday, November 4. Yes, Saturday. Yes. The single is called Let Loose.
I love it dearly. It's one of my favorite bodies of work and it's indicative of where I'm at in my life and the message of wanting to spread nothing but love, joy and instilling self confidence in people on their own healing journeys. And I think it's just so important. It's called Let Loose. You kind of imagine how it's going to be let loose.
[00:49:02] Speaker F: Real fun.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: How do you feel when you have a new song coming out that you've worked really hard on? Explain to people who might not be doing that sort of thing. What does that feel like?
[00:49:12] Speaker B: It's cathartic. Yeah. It is one of the most beautiful releases you can have as an artist, especially if you're writing deeply from the heart and the soul or just writing shoot the mess. It is what it is, but all in all, it's beautifully cathartic and it's rewarding. And what's really fun is letting it go for the rest of the world to have. And I'm so excited to do that with this. And with this single, I'm putting together a huge show down in my little hometown, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. You know, came from there, got my music career started there, and I'll be doing it big for this song and kicking off the new era for the new album.
[00:49:49] Speaker A: That's what's up.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: Yeah. It'll be at the ideal Theater in Bar down in Cedar Rapids. I'm happy to be back. And the event is called the Smoke and Mirrors Alter egos Ball a ball, baby. You can get your tickets right now on the Facebooks. You can search smoke and mirrors Alter Egos 2023 Ticket link is there. Discount Code is currently going on right now until the Halloween time, child, get your things. If you're in Cedar rappers, get your things.
[00:50:15] Speaker A: That's right. Buy a ticket.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: Buy a ticket or just support. Because I need money, girl. This is expensive. Being transparent, Chad.
[00:50:21] Speaker A: Speaking of that, speaking of that, a lot of people, when they see people doing music, like just music, doing it as an artist, they sort of get either one of two thoughts in their mind. Lisa, this is, I've experienced either you got no money or all you got is money.
[00:50:37] Speaker B: That part.
[00:50:39] Speaker A: Could you talk a little bit about your financial journey as an artist?
[00:50:43] Speaker B: I have almost always been, however, shout out to them, stimulus checks. But I have almost always been scraping the bottom of the barrel and with how inflation has been and everything in the economy where it's at, it's getting difficult, increasingly difficult. But we're making it. We're making do good because it's what we must do. I feel like as artists, we'Re on a mission, and at the end of the day, the mission is to make people feel good, and that's important. So I don't quit, we don't stop. But it's been tough and rejection is hard and it's real, but it's necessary because, yes, that door closed, but it closed for a reason. It closed so you can figure out, oh, that's where I got to go. And you'll get there eventually.
[00:51:26] Speaker A: Do you have a story or an example and you could change names, should you choose to, of when door has been closed and it's open. An opportunity for another thing in your career.
[00:51:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I would definitely say that there was a time where I think one could say a form of sabotage came to be thrown my way. And you can use your imagination, honestly. Sabotage is sabotage. I will, period. And do so. Amen.
But I said, you know what? I'm okay. I think this is my time to go to a community and find a space that wants to support me, not look at me as a threat because of my talents. Right?
Yeah, I think that's fair. So I did just that and I'm thankful for it. It was tumultuous. It was Rocky when it was happening, and I'm like, what did I do? Right.
Trauma complex talking. What did I do? Oh, God, it was me. No, girl, you're just sickening, that's all.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:28] Speaker B: And it was eye opening. It was okay. People can still be rude and not cute and kind of crappy, but that's okay.
[00:52:36] Speaker A: That's okay.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: Sometimes people hurt and sometimes they react in certain ways that give them their space. And I'm going to go find mine.
[00:52:42] Speaker A: And thrive as someone who's went from one community of music to another community of music, has there been any challenges for you to reinvent? I said, you're going home to do this big show.
Is it now like a different type of energy or how does it feel having gone from one marketplace to another?
[00:53:02] Speaker B: Well, I definitely would say that it matters kind of where you're coming from where you're going.
I now, granted, I didn't move to no know, no New York, right? But I came to Minneapolis, and that's where the love of music is. I really feel like, plus, I have family here, so I'm like, yeah, I'm going to keep it cute. And when I moved, it was in the middle of the pandemic. We still kind of in the thick of it, but, like, 2020, no vaccine.
[00:53:28] Speaker A: Oh, I forget that there was a time period, no vaccine. People were just the trenches living out their lives.
[00:53:36] Speaker B: And I went from a place where no one wanted to wear a mask outside to everyone's double masking, kind of at bare minimum. So I'm like, well, this is nice enough, at least that is nice. But trying to find your community in the middle of a global pandemic where no vaccine is out, and I'm kind of like, what do we do? So I just used social media to the best that I could and respected people's boundaries of having already established friend groups and tight networking circles and understanding. Hey, you're kind of weaseling your way in there. Be respectful of know. And there were challenges with that, but that's okay. That's life. But I made it work. It was kind of tough because I'm kind of starting brand new. And with the move also came a rebrand. So I used to use my government name. I will not tell y'all that. But now I go know Isaac Jordan, my chosen name, and I feel a more tight, spiritual connection to that. And I feel like it's more authentically me as an artist. So that's what we go and do, and that's what we went with, and it's been going swimmingly so far.
[00:54:34] Speaker A: We love that.
[00:54:35] Speaker B: Smooth sailing. Listen. Okay, come on.
[00:54:39] Speaker A: Shout out to smooth sailing.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: Shout out.
[00:54:41] Speaker A: We've played that on the show before. We love that. Yeah.
Wait, I see DJ, you're just, like, leading. Do you have a question?
[00:54:51] Speaker C: You all both just hilarious. You all just have me dying right now.
[00:54:54] Speaker A: We have fun.
[00:54:55] Speaker D: We do.
[00:54:56] Speaker A: We do have fun.
[00:54:56] Speaker B: We have to. Dear God.
[00:54:58] Speaker A: Yes. Okay, so I have a question and a question I don't get to ask a lot of artists, but I think it's an interesting question. Do you have a song that you no longer perform that you don't like anymore?
[00:55:10] Speaker B: Several. Yeah.
[00:55:12] Speaker A: Talk about the process of falling out of love with the song you've done.
[00:55:15] Speaker B: It wasn't authentic. That's the only reason I love everything that I do that is authentic to me. In my spirit. Anything outside of that, I thought was authentic maybe at the time, and that could still hold true right now in this moment. And later on, I'm like, what was you doing that wasn't you? Or maybe, you know what, it was me. And I've simply just grown. Because that's human, right? That's natural. But, yeah, I don't feel connected to them anymore. And I'm the kind of person where that's going to translate on stage. It'll very much look like, oh, he's doing an ABC. Okay. Rather than always giving his Beyonce. Okay. There's a big difference. Yeah, there's a big difference. If you've been to the Renaissance World Tour, you know the difference. That part. But, yeah, that's kind of how the process is. It's pretty simple. And for me, it just kind of pops up like, oh, I'm not feeling that no more, actually. But if fans, supporters, or even family sometimes, because I love them dearly, if they're like, could you just.
So if someone came energation, at least.
[00:56:16] Speaker A: We wanted to hear a song that, you know, that you're not really feeling anymore. Depending on who that person was, you.
[00:56:21] Speaker B: Just like kind of, oh, I'm going to tear that song up. Okay. Yeah, it's my job.
[00:56:25] Speaker A: Say that. Say that again.
[00:56:27] Speaker B: Now I'm human. I'm human.
But that's my job.
And if the check is clearing, it's my job.
That part.
[00:56:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
I've seen a lot of artists sometimes, I think, sort of forget their role in a particular area.
[00:56:47] Speaker B: Yeah, to an extent. For sure.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: To an extent. Depending on the type of vibe that you're being hired for. Sometimes it's like, well, I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to keeps it real. And it's like, all right, well, I love that you're being real, but no one's having fun. And that's, like, kind of what we're doing.
[00:57:05] Speaker B: But you know what? I can definitely say that there's room left for obvious respect for. If that's your gig, well, then, okay, not everybody's going to vibe with it, but the people that do, they're going to ride with you.
[00:57:16] Speaker A: They're going to ride with you. That's true, period.
Isaac JordAn. Yeah, my friend.
[00:57:22] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:57:24] Speaker A: I'm going to ask this question, and I'm going to say as a wonderful member of the alphabet Mafia.
[00:57:29] Speaker B: Come on, gang, gang.
[00:57:31] Speaker C: Do you.
[00:57:32] Speaker A: Gang, gang. I know a lot of times people assume that this career is 100% on the side of us.
Do you think that's something that you've experienced?
[00:57:45] Speaker B: I live in white supremacy America, period.
Yeah, absolutely.
I will say, though, within our industry, sometimes it can come to a shock, because I'm not going to lie. I get comfortable sometimes. I've lived in the life to know, baby, don't get too comfortable. But there have been instances where, yeah, I let my guard down because I'm allowed to be vulnerable just because I'm black. And I'm told you got to be strong and you got to be ethnic, girl, I'm human. You need to sit down and mind your business. Let me be human. Yeah, but be vulnerable. But people will take advantage of that. And sometimes it happens.
[00:58:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
Even here in our community, you'd say, like, oh, sometimes people take advantage of your trust. Or like, oh, this group or this place says one thing, acting a different way.
[00:58:39] Speaker B: 100%. Yeah, absolutely.
That money may do some things. Chad, listen, I'm not excusing it. Absolutely not. But, okay. I see where you're coming from, and it's real nasty. It's not cute.
[00:58:53] Speaker A: It's not cute.
[00:58:53] Speaker B: It's not cute.
[00:58:54] Speaker A: What advice would you give to young artists, both on any side of the spectrum, on what they should do in those positions where they are met with something? This will be our last.
[00:59:04] Speaker B: Follow your heart. Be honest with yourself. Be transparent with yourself. Trust your gut. Trust your gut. And if you need to ask, even if it's a stranger, present them with the situation. Keep it inconspicuous.
They'll trust their gut. But at the end of the day, I think you always will know the answer.
[00:59:25] Speaker A: Look at that.
[00:59:26] Speaker C: Well, thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate it.
[00:59:31] Speaker D: Truly.
[00:59:31] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:59:32] Speaker C: Yes.
Also, shout out to Max Low Lopez, who was here earlier in Kote. And just so amazing, extra special shout out to the birthday boy in the.
[00:59:46] Speaker A: Present. You want to give me a present? Go tell someone to research what's going on in occupied Palestine. That's what you to give me as a gift.
[00:59:53] Speaker B: There are links. Use them.
[00:59:55] Speaker C: All right.
