Kendrick's Super Bowl Symbolism, Adulting & Villain Obsession

[00:00:00] Welcome to Unsolicited Perspectives
[00:00:00] 
[00:00:10] Bruce Anthony: Welcome. First of all, welcome. This is Unsolicited Perspectives. I'm your host, Bruce Anthony, here to lead the conversation in important events and topics that are shaping today's society. Join the conversation or follow us wherever you get your audio podcasts, subscribe to our YouTube channel for our video podcasts and YouTube exclusive content.
[00:00:28] Bruce Anthony: I'm Rate, [00:00:30] review, like, comment, share, share with your friends, share with your family, hell, even share with your enemies. 
[00:00:37] Sibling Happy Hour Begins
[00:00:37] Bruce Anthony: On today's episode, it's a sibling happy hour. I'm here with my sis, J Andrea. We're going to be dilly dadding a little bit. Then we're going to be talking about Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show. And then we're going to be talking about villains, but that's enough of the intro. Let's get to the show.[00:01:00] 
[00:01:01] Bruce Anthony: Okay, sis. What's going on with you? What's happening with you?
[00:01:06] J. Aundrea: That is not our opening and that is not our opening. You did not gimme an opportunity to say what up brother
[00:01:18] Bruce Anthony: Alright, hold on. What up, sis? I
[00:01:20] J. Aundrea: What up brother
[00:01:22] Bruce Anthony: can't call it, I can't call it because we are all disjointed this morning, uh, or this afternoon as we record this episode. [00:01:30] But the world is upside down. So, so, I mean, I guess it kind of makes sense a little bit.
[00:01:35] J. Aundrea: a little bit. little bit, cause I was waiting for my thing to jump in and you just said, you know what, after 200 episodes, we're going to start it another way.
[00:01:50] J. Aundrea: And I,
[00:01:50] J. Aundrea: I, I gave it.
[00:01:52] Bruce Anthony: I, Hey, look, I, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know what to tell y'all how the show is going to go today. 
[00:01:56] Morning Struggles and Catching Up
[00:01:56] Bruce Anthony: I am disjointed and I'm disjointed because I [00:02:00] woke up in the middle of the night
[00:02:01] Bruce Anthony: because I decided to get McDonald's last night, which was a huge mistake. So I woke up in the middle of the night, but I went back to sleep and I got that second sleep.
[00:02:08] Bruce Anthony: A second sleep is beautiful, but then my alarm goes off and I said, you know what, let me give myself another 30 minutes. I did the majority of the work that I need to do for this podcast last night. I just need to tighten some things up. So I was like, I can sleep an extra half an hour before I need to get ready and hit the little timer.
[00:02:26] Bruce Anthony: I roll over, timer goes off. I'm like, what the hell? [00:02:30] What the hell just happened? So I've been disjointed this entire morning getting ready and everything.
[00:02:36] J. Aundrea: That's how it is. Yeah. I, uh, I barely know what month it is. Let it alone. What day? You know, I, I get your email that we got to show the day. That's how I know. Ah, this is Sunday. No, I mean, I, I've got, I've got five projects going at once. Not only that I [00:03:00] somehow got roped in to starting a student association for graduate data science students.
[00:03:09] Bruce Anthony: Why, like why did you say yesterday?
[00:03:11] J. Aundrea: I, here's what happened.
[00:03:14] Bruce Anthony: Please 
[00:03:14] J. Aundrea: is a, there is a particular professor that for some reason sees the best in me. I don't know why, okay. But I get a meeting invite and I'm like, Oh, what's this about? I joined the meeting the next [00:03:30] day and it's, you all are the founding members of the, I said, Yeah. Yeah. Excuse me. So here we are, this is where we're at. We we came up with a name, a mission statement, vision statement, and I have to present on Friday to the student body and let them know that this is happening. And so I got a lot going on,
[00:03:59] Bruce Anthony: Yeah, it sounds like [00:04:00] you got a lot going on. 
[00:04:01] J. Aundrea: not to mention interviewing for internships for the summer.
[00:04:06] J. Aundrea: So there's also that.
[00:04:08] Bruce Anthony: I don't know what to tell you. You got a lot going on. 
[00:04:11] Current Events and Social Commentary
[00:04:11] Bruce Anthony: The world got a lot going on though. Uh, the world is upside down right now.
[00:04:15] J. Aundrea: Completely crazy.
[00:04:16] Bruce Anthony: The, the people that voted for the current president and the current administration sitting up there complaining and crying now, cause me here in the DC area, just watching people just being laid off right and left.
[00:04:29] Bruce Anthony: [00:04:30] Illegally, mine and I had 
[00:04:31] J. Aundrea: Thousands of people.
[00:04:32] Bruce Anthony: and and they voted for him and they're like, well, wait a minute. Hold up. We went, we went talking about us. We was talking about some other folks.
[00:04:40] J. Aundrea: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. You, that good government job you had?
[00:04:43] Bruce Anthony: government job gone,
[00:04:44] J. Aundrea: Bye bye. Yeah. Everything that Musk did to Twitter, Bye bye. He is trying to do to the American government. So congratulations, you guys leave us out of it. Y'all, y'all voted for this. [00:05:00] Now there's consequences of repercussions.
[00:05:02] Bruce Anthony: During Black History Month, we got claims of reverse racism. A white guy wins his third straight slam dunk competition in the NBA slam dunk contest, Mack McCullough, like, like what is going on out here in these streets? What is going on? By the way.
[00:05:18] Bruce Anthony: The boy is the boy can jump out the building. Okay. So he is well deserving.
[00:05:23] Bruce Anthony: We're not doing any reverse racism. We just simply said a white guy has won the NBA slam dunk [00:05:30] contest three years in a row. Michael Joy didn't even do that.
[00:05:35] J. Aundrea: I mean, it's black history month.
[00:05:37] Bruce Anthony: Yeah.
[00:05:40] J. Aundrea: What's happening. It really, it truly, and like, we're halfway through and I, it, aside from Kendrick's Superbowl performance, it has, it just hasn't been, uh, living up to past Black History Month. So it really hasn't. I don't know what's [00:06:00] going on. You know a wonderful commentator, Simone, she said, Carter G.
[00:06:06] J. Aundrea: Woodson did not go to the mat. For Negro History Week. And I'm going to paraphrase a little bit so we can watch this young man win a slam dunk contest.
[00:06:20] Bruce Anthony: But look, no shade to him.
[00:06:22] J. Aundrea: No shame because I saw the dunks. They were 
[00:06:25] Bruce Anthony: Absolutely amazing. Like, 
[00:06:28] J. Aundrea: boy is good.
[00:06:29] Bruce Anthony: boy is [00:06:30] good. The boy is good. This isn't, this isn't, uh, uh, 
[00:06:33] Bruce Anthony: uh, 
[00:06:33] J. Aundrea: rightfully won.
[00:06:35] Bruce Anthony: This isn't a situation where they claim DEI, where somebody undeserving got the award. Nah, he was absolutely deserving to get the boy banned. the 
[00:06:43] J. Aundrea: He dunked over a person and spun around, dunked over a car. I think it was a Chevy Lumina. I don't even know for sure. Uh, he just, I mean, the boy is good. I can't take nothing away from him, but wow. During Black History Month, can't wait till March. All right.
[00:06:59] Bruce Anthony: Nah, I can't wait [00:07:00] till March. Yeah. Now, so the world is crazy. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on in my own life. You know what I'm saying? I'm waking up, sleeping, sleeping, and then waking up, and then sleeping and waking up again. That's just how my days go. And 
[00:07:13] Reflecting on Adulthood
[00:07:13] J. Aundrea: That's adulthood. Yeah.
[00:07:15] Bruce Anthony: adulthood sucks.
[00:07:16] Bruce Anthony: Remember when we was kids
[00:07:18] Bruce Anthony: and all we wanted to do was grow up? 
[00:07:19] J. Aundrea: A bunch of
[00:07:22] J. Aundrea: jackasses. 
[00:07:23] Bruce Anthony: ago. I'm 14, right? I'm 14. I'm about to end in high [00:07:30] school and all I want to do is grow up and get out of the house.
[00:07:32] J. Aundrea: Yes.
[00:07:33] Bruce Anthony: And, and I want to go to my 14 year old self. Essay. One, this is the proper way how to shower.
[00:07:43] Bruce Anthony: This is the proper, the proper way, this is the proper way how to groom yourself. 
[00:07:46] Bruce Anthony: Okay. All right. These deodorants do not work for you 
[00:07:50] Bruce Anthony: and these do. Okay. 
[00:07:52] J. Aundrea: Let's start. Let's start there.
[00:07:54] Bruce Anthony: Noxzema. Not the go to. Let's try to find something different. So those are the first things I would tell my younger 
[00:07:58] Bruce Anthony: self. The next [00:08:00] thing I would say is, man, you better enjoy the fact that you don't got no bills to pay.
[00:08:04] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:08:04] Bruce Anthony: Go upstairs and thank mom and dad right now. Just 
[00:08:07] J. Aundrea: you just, I actually saw a meme where it was like, I got to apologize to my mama because I never believed her when she said she was broke on payday. And the truth is, you be broke on payday,
[00:08:21] J. Aundrea: bills are no joke. You really, really do have to clean your house every day.
[00:08:26] Bruce Anthony: Yes. 
[00:08:27] Bruce Anthony: That's a 
[00:08:28] J. Aundrea: Like, you really [00:08:30] do.
[00:08:30] J. Aundrea: Like it's so much that you didn't understand as a child that now as an adult, I'm like, Oh, this is trash.
[00:08:39] Bruce Anthony: Cause if you cook every day, you gotta clean up the kitchen every day. And look, I ain't gonna lie. I clean. You know I clean. You've been seeing 
[00:08:48] Bruce Anthony: me. But my baseboards, that is what it is.
[00:08:53] J. Aundrea: I ain't, I ain't finna get down on my hands and knees and scrub these baseboards. I ain't gonna do it. I know my mother did it. God [00:09:00] bless her.
[00:09:00] Bruce Anthony: God bless her. She'll still do it. She will still do it. I'm not doing it.
[00:09:05] J. Aundrea: Nope. I'll pay somebody to do it,
[00:09:08] J. Aundrea: but I ain't gonna do it. Or listen, if you come to my house and be like, Johnna cool. But you, you see how you see her baseboards get out of my house. If you really coming in here commenting on, on the dustiness of my baseboards, get out of my house. You're not welcome here. So I'm, I'm not even, I'm [00:09:30] not even too worried about it to be honest with you.
[00:09:33] Bruce Anthony: Uh, the detour.
[00:09:36] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:09:36] The Humor of Social Media
[00:09:36] Bruce Anthony: You know, I, the, Vine created this, this new wave of comedians. 
[00:09:43] Bruce Anthony: Right. 
[00:09:43] J. Aundrea: Yeah. Mm.
[00:09:44] Bruce Anthony: And then these comedians went on Instagram and some of them have had real success. What social media and what the internet has done is given people a platform that the gatekeepers probably wouldn't have let in beforehand, but now they're [00:10:00] able to show their personality and then, wow, there's so many people that have great personalities.
[00:10:06] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:10:06] J. Aundrea: And are really, really funny.
[00:10:08] Bruce Anthony: right, that's what leads me to my point. Some people I've discovered are, like, beyond the normal, like, you run into people and they're funny. They can be legitimate entertaining comedic actors and actresses for the rest of their life. Druski is at the top of my list. 
[00:10:29] J. Aundrea: that is [00:10:30] one 
[00:10:30] Bruce Anthony: does, Everything that he does.
[00:10:32] Bruce Anthony: I haven't even watched his new little dating show. It's on YouTube
[00:10:36] Bruce Anthony: and it's, it's, it's fully, it's full production, VH1 esque type of production.
[00:10:42] Bruce Anthony: I have not watched it yet, but I've seen clips and I, matter of fact, today I'm going to watch it. Today I'm going to watch the first episode
[00:10:50] Bruce Anthony: because that dude is just hilarious.
[00:10:53] Bruce Anthony: Everything that he does. When Kevin Hart was on that Kai Carrot Uh,
[00:10:59] Bruce Anthony: Twitch [00:11:00] thing with Drewski. Drewski was the funniest person
[00:11:03] J. Aundrea: Yes. 
[00:11:03] Bruce Anthony: entire thing.
[00:11:04] J. Aundrea: He was killing Kevin, killing. And it was just talking about some bed bugs or something like that. It's something biting you. Something's biting me like that killed me because he played it completely straight and that's what made it even funnier. Yes.
[00:11:24] Bruce Anthony: where there was one clip that he was with somebody, [00:11:30] and he was with Marco. who's another funny person. And he was like, I heard you got kids. And Drewski was like, I ain't got no kids. So then here comes this little teenager. It was like, Hey, my mom told me that I'm your dad.
[00:11:42] Bruce Anthony: And Drewski pulled him in close. It's like you and everybody saying that could go to hell to get out of my face. And the kid kicked him in the shin. He's like, ah, the little bastard kicked me. And it was 
[00:11:55] J. Aundrea: Okay. You got wherever that video is. Find it. Send it to me, please.
[00:11:59] Bruce Anthony: Uh, no, you know [00:12:00] what? No, and I'm gonna tell you why, okay? Because I'm gonna put you on blast.
[00:12:03] Bruce Anthony: I'm gonna 
[00:12:04] J. Aundrea: Do it. Do it, because I have an excuse. You go ahead. Put me on blast.
[00:12:08] Bruce Anthony: Ladies and gentlemen, I am Meme King. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I'm always adding memes to my stories and things like that. And I send my sister memes and my close friend's memes that I don't post to my stories. It's because
[00:12:22] J. Aundrea: Mm hmm.
[00:12:22] Bruce Anthony: I don't want anybody that type of degenerate. So I will send my sister stuff all the time and she like [00:12:30] never responds.
[00:12:30] Bruce Anthony: But here's the thing. I sent her stuff this morning Okay, she doesn't respond for a really really long time. I sent her stuff this morning I know that she was on the phone because she responded in the family group chat But didn't respond to the stuff that I literally sent her this morning and she's gonna be like well i'm doing homework I'm working, you know doing all this stuff.
[00:12:51] Bruce Anthony: I'm busy. I'm busy, too I got three Like, I'm not going to say it. I got three full jobs. Okay. I got, I got a [00:13:00] lot of jobs. I'm doing a lot of stuff. I ain't had no day off. I was talking to my bestie. Yesterday was the first day that I had off 
[00:13:09] Bruce Anthony: since 
[00:13:10] Bruce Anthony: the year started, since the year started. And it technically wasn't a year and wasn't a day off.
[00:13:15] Bruce Anthony: I still did work in the morning. I just finished all my work before noon so I could drink and enjoy my day.
[00:13:20] J. Aundrea: Yeah, I don't have no day off.
[00:13:22] Bruce Anthony: Yeah, well.
[00:13:23] J. Aundrea: I don't have any day off. And also, also, ladies and gentlemen, I know that my [00:13:30] brother and I have very similar sense of humor. So if he sends me memes, videos, this, that, and the third, I want to actually sit and watch them because typically they're very funny. So if, if our, our, our brother was taking a flight, he acknowledged that he had landed safely.
[00:13:46] J. Aundrea: I acknowledge that I did not. Stop the work I was doing to watch the videos. My, my older brother sent me. Okay. But I had [00:14:00] some time very, very early this morning. And I did look at every single Instagram DM. There were at least seven in there that I hadn't seen. I looked at them all and sent appropriate emojis for all of them. But I am really, really busy. And so if I don't have time to sit still for a second and watch a video, I'm sorry. [00:14:30] I am sorry, but I did eventually watch them.
[00:14:35] Bruce Anthony: Yeah, 
[00:14:35] Bruce Anthony: I mean, they be funny. 
[00:14:37] J. Aundrea: Yes, they were 
[00:14:38] Bruce Anthony: and gentlemen, to explain, to explain to you me and my sister's dynamic. That's how we found out that we was best friends. Through our humor and those drives when I was dropping her off to college on the way back to my campus. I used it when I was in the house. I used to wake her up at three o'clock in the morning because I was up drunk [00:15:00] laughing at something.
[00:15:01] Bruce Anthony: I would knock on her door. Jay, Jay, what? Wake I got to show you something. Are you kidding me? No, this is hilarious. This is hilarious. 
[00:15:09] J. Aundrea: it would be, it would be some clip from the Bernie Mac show or something from the Mac perhaps. There was a lot of, there was a lot of seventies black exploitation that you would, you would watch back then.
[00:15:24] Bruce Anthony: Well, during, during that time, my boy at Hard Rock [00:15:30] Cafe, introduced me to, to, to black exploitation movies. He didn't introduce me to him. He introduced me to different, different black exploitation movies that I had never seen before. I'd seen Superfly
[00:15:44] Bruce Anthony: and I'd seen Shaft, but he introduced me to the Mac.
[00:15:47] Bruce Anthony: He introduced me to Dolomite. And I was like, well, Dolomite is absolutely the worst 
[00:15:52] J. Aundrea: It's terrible, literally terrible, but it's, it's funny still. So I watch it
[00:15:58] J. Aundrea: and [00:16:00] and I've probably seen it maybe three or four times, so I don't care.
[00:16:05] Bruce Anthony: And I still quote lines from the Mac.
[00:16:07] J. Aundrea: Yes, you do.
[00:16:08] Bruce Anthony: And they don't ever really work. The lines from the Mac have never really worked on me, trying to Mac with women. 
[00:16:13] J. Aundrea: Oh, no, that's absolutely not a good idea. This was one, a completely different era too. He was a purveyor of. bodies. I don't know how else to say it. It was a pimp!
[00:16:28] J. Aundrea: So I [00:16:30] wouldn't use those lines on human women. 
[00:16:36] Bruce Anthony: What type of women are they? 
[00:16:38] J. Aundrea: I 
[00:16:38] J. Aundrea: don't know. Maybe there's some sort of alien 
[00:16:40] Bruce Anthony: know! 
[00:16:42] J. Aundrea: to this. I don't know. Okay.
[00:16:46] Bruce Anthony: toxic face. Okay. And my, in my twenties, I was getting through it. Right. And, and he had a smooth line. She was like, where do we go? And he was like, to the top, if you're not afraid,
[00:16:59] Bruce Anthony: I'm going to be everything for [00:17:00] you. I'm going to be your mother, your brother, your father, but you got to believe in me.
[00:17:03] Bruce Anthony: You got to believe that what I say is good for the both of us. And I was like, yeah. And one time it did work. It worked with one ex girlfriend, because we were in a fight, and, and, and I, and I said that line, and she was like, okay, listen, and I was like, damn, the Mac actually works, but no, she was just young and dumb.
[00:17:22] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:17:23] Bruce Anthony: Yeah, 
[00:17:23] J. Aundrea: both were. You both were. [00:17:30] Okay.
[00:17:35] Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Performance
[00:17:35] Bruce Anthony: talk about the performance of Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl and get into the nitty gritty of the details of the things that you might not have noticed. And we're going to get into that next. What
[00:17:54] Bruce Anthony: Jay. So 
[00:17:55] J. Aundrea: were
[00:17:56] Bruce Anthony: talked about it for weeks leading up to it. Kendrick [00:18:00] Lamar, Superbowl halftime performance. At first he was like, he's not going to do not like us. Then last week he was like, Oh, he's got to do not like us. He definitely did not like us. And I don't know what the general consensus was for people that you spoke to, but I had some people say, Oh, it was great.
[00:18:17] Bruce Anthony: And the symbolic nature. And I had other people was like, it was a horrible performance. And I was like, God, when you think it's a horrible performance, I don't know what, I don't know what's going on in your head. Like,
[00:18:29] J. Aundrea: [00:18:30] watching.
[00:18:30] Bruce Anthony: I think they were thinking that he was going to play some of his older hits and he didn't really, he played a lot of his newer music.
[00:18:39] Bruce Anthony: And if you haven't really listened to the album, then I guess that you wouldn't really know.
[00:18:50] Bruce Anthony: I thought the performance and the, the, the, everything going around was really good. And I don't get why people were like with the performers that[00:19:00] 
[00:19:00] J. Aundrea: Yeah. I mean, I think, people were, you know, it's hard to be a rapper and put on an entertaining performance. I, you know, when we were growing up and go to rap concerts, it would be about 25 dudes on a, on a stage. Everybody got a mic and they're just all yelling and jumping around. There really wasn't like a stage performance.
[00:19:27] Bruce Anthony: hold on now we've gone to two [00:19:30] concerts.
[00:19:30] J. Aundrea: I've gone to a lot more than
[00:19:32] J. Aundrea: two concerts. 
[00:19:33] Bruce Anthony: talking about us 
[00:19:34] Bruce Anthony: particular me and you. Yes.
[00:19:37] Bruce Anthony: And we went to go see Diddy and the family, which was a show.
[00:19:41] J. Aundrea: Yes.
[00:19:42] Bruce Anthony: And we went to go see Bone Thugs,
[00:19:45] J. Aundrea: Yes.
[00:19:45] Bruce Anthony: which was a show. And I've personally seen Busta Rhymes. And that is also a show, but yes, I get it. When no limit is doing a concert, this is a bunch of dudes on stage and fatigue screaming and yelling.
[00:19:59] J. Aundrea: But I mean, [00:20:00] no, I mean, that's typically not like a whole stage production, like a story being told through the production. So it's, it's already difficult. Being a rapper and trying to keep it entertaining. And then he kept the cameos to a minimum. I think people were expecting a whole lot more cameos.
[00:20:22] Bruce Anthony: You only have one, right?
[00:20:24] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:20:24] J. Aundrea: We just had, we got scissor and which was phenomenal, but I [00:20:30] thought, let me tell you, I was at a super bowl party. So it was me in a room with a, with a handful of people. And when it was over, we were, Stunned into silence. But it, it, it was entertaining and I've watched it again, several times since then, because you know, there's always little things that you miss and, and stuff like that.
[00:20:55] J. Aundrea: And I just thought it was great. I thought it was great from start to [00:21:00] finish. So it's it's definitely not. Beyonce is not like Rihanna who had like 200 people up on platforms in the sky and stuff like that. Like I said, you know, a rapper is not an entertainer in that way, but Kendrick still, I felt gave us a story.
[00:21:20] J. Aundrea: He gave us like visuals for sure. He, there was a narrative there. Like it, it was a [00:21:30] full production. Even down to the camera angles and everything. It was a full production and I thought he did a great job.
[00:21:38] Bruce Anthony: Okay. So let's break it down because a lot of people that were watching it, they were just like, they just want him to perform songs and don't realize the layered symbolism that was going on throughout this entire production.
[00:21:50] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:21:51] Bruce Anthony: The layered symbolism, just to hit the points that we're going to talk about was the set design, you know Sam Jackson and Serena Williams [00:22:00] cameos, his attire, the formation that conveyed certain narratives, talking about the racial divides and reflecting on Lamar's personal artistic journey through hip hop.
[00:22:14] Bruce Anthony: All of these were touched on during this performance. So let's first talk about Samuel L Jackson as Uncle Sam. 
[00:22:22] J. Aundrea: Mm hmm. 
[00:22:24] Bruce Anthony: of control. Jackson's sanitized Uncle Sam narrative symbolized [00:22:30] society's attempt to police black artistry, artistry. Thank you. His two ghetto remark highlighted mainstream's marginalization of black expression.
[00:22:40] Bruce Anthony: Now, we get this all the time, that people being ghetto. I had somebody that was told me about the Diddy documentary that we're going to talk about a YouTube exclusive. We're not going to talk about on the show, but said that they couldn't understand what the people were saying. And then it wasn't in their world.
[00:22:57] Bruce Anthony: Essentially what they were saying was [00:23:00] their speech was ghetto. And I was like, you mean AAVE, which is nothing different than People with Southern accents who don't speak proper American English, right? But for let's say white Southerners, that accent or the way they speak is accepted, their expression is accepted.
[00:23:19] Bruce Anthony: But when black people express themselves through hair, clothing, or speech, dialect, things of that nature, it's deemed as ghetto, which is [00:23:30] essentially saying less than.
[00:23:32] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:23:33] Bruce Anthony: That's silly. 
[00:23:34] J. Aundrea: go ahead.
[00:23:35] Bruce Anthony: So he was just addressing that. Samuel L. Jackson was addressing that specifically as Uncle Sam.
[00:23:42] J. Aundrea: Yeah, he, he kinda, for me symbolized the, the voice of, like, America where we're at right now, like right in this moment. And I think it was really smart of Kendrick because, [00:24:00] you know, the Super Bowl was played to a global audience. There are a lot of people who don't know Kendrick's catalog. They were only introduced to him due to the, you know, the rap beef with Drake.
[00:24:11] J. Aundrea: Other than that, they hadn't heard, you know, probably hadn't heard of Kendrick before and certainly hadn't. Like listen to his music and got a real understanding of who he was as an artist. But I think, I think the use of, of Samuel Jackson as Uncle Sam. And saying, you know, give [00:24:30] the people what they, what they want, you know, don't, don't give them this, this too black, it's too ghetto. And Kendrick opening up and opening this performance by saying, You the revolution is about to be televised, you picked the right time, but the wrong guy.
[00:24:46] J. Aundrea: And I just thought that that was, That set the tone for me of like, Oh, this is, this is the black history month moment that I've been waiting for.
[00:24:56] Bruce Anthony: The only one. It's the 
[00:24:57] J. Aundrea: The only one.
[00:24:59] J. Aundrea: usually [00:25:00] Beyonce gives us a black history month moment. I've, I've been waiting for it. She did announce the cowboy Carter concert tour, but you know, but this gave me what I was looking for. And I thought he was really smart about being like, what is middle America going to think of me, a rapper? That they probably haven't heard of before, you know, the Drake beef. What are they going to see when they see me? They're going to see two black, [00:25:30] two Compton, two ghetto, you know, let them know that I know that they see me like that. And now I'm about to tell you a story about it. And I thought it was very smart.
[00:25:44] Bruce Anthony: Yeah, no, it was definitely very smart. And it, like, Kendrick always has a meaning in everything he's doing. Always has a meaning. And you, you say people were introduced to him through the rap beat. I guarantee you the majority of the people that are watching the Super Bowl don't [00:26:00] even know about the rap beat.
[00:26:01] Bruce Anthony: Like, when you talk about middle America, they are completely blind to everything that's going on that's in our culture. 
[00:26:09] Bruce Anthony: They don't care to know. They don't want to know.
[00:26:11] J. Aundrea: Right. 
[00:26:13] Bruce Anthony: Or, or it's not being presented to them that there's also that as well. It's not being presented. So you don't know where to go to find out about something.
[00:26:22] Bruce Anthony: If you don't know where to start. And sometimes, you know, that's our responsibility to be like, if you want to know about Kendrick, like, if you have [00:26:30] questions about the Super Bowl performance, if you want to be. Enlightened and open minded. We say, okay, start here. Start here. This is the reason why we're having to accept this segment to break it down and explain to people that the hidden meaning, but not hidden the in your face meaning, but maybe the meanings that you didn't understand that he was.
[00:26:48] Bruce Anthony: Another one was the American flag and it specifically focused on division and labor dancers forming the flag [00:27:00] underscored racial political divides, Kendrick Lamar's central stands representing a fragmentation all black dancers hinted at America's foundation on African American labor. So that's, that's really an important point, you know, so often.
[00:27:20] Bruce Anthony: That you would hear when I would talk about, you know, in the, in the mid 2000s, right. And I'd be in college or I was in the restaurant industry and I would talk [00:27:30] about, you know, slavery and things like that nature, Jim Crow and things like that nature. Nobody ever said it directly to my face, but you could tell like if social media was a thing, people would say, well, why don't you go back to Africa?
[00:27:41] Bruce Anthony: Cause that has actually been a thing that people have said. First of all, I don't 
[00:27:45] Bruce Anthony: have no connection. I have no connection to Africa. None. Okay. Except for my history that, that I can't really tell you from what region, right? Cause that's all been erased. also like, why am I going to leave the home that I built?[00:28:00] 
[00:28:00] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:28:01] Bruce Anthony: We built this. It was built on the back. America would not have succeeded had it not been for black people. And he was specifically pointing that out. Like you, you tried to marginalize us often and look past this, but realize that without us, there is no America. 
[00:28:20] J. Aundrea: Yeah. 
[00:28:20] Bruce Anthony: really important.
[00:28:21] Symbolism in Kendrick Lamar's Performance
[00:28:21] J. Aundrea: I mean, he built a flag literally with black bodies. I don't, that's [00:28:30] very on the nose, uh, uh, symbolism there of like, you can try to erase our history from the books. And erase us from the workplace and, and, and disenfranchise us and everything, all of those things, right? Repeal affirmative action and shut down DEI programs and initiatives and all of those things, right?
[00:28:56] J. Aundrea: You can do all of that. But what you don't [00:29:00] understand is that blackness and black culture is inextricably linked to the American story. And it cannot be. Separate it out and it cannot be erased because not only are we American history, we're American present and I'm sorry, but we're American future like it doesn't, it doesn't, we're not going anywhere. We're not going anywhere. And that's what, to me, all of that. All of that meant [00:29:30] that symbolism is like, no, this, you need to understand the way we understand that this is a country built on black bodies and we're not going to erase or suppress that history. Yeah.
[00:29:48] Bruce Anthony: the entertainment that you're watching during this game. Majority black bodies, literally, you're watching them crash into each other.[00:30:00] 
[00:30:00] Bruce Anthony: Uh, don't, don't get me wrong, this is, they love the game, right? And they're being paid for it. So this isn't, this isn't by any means something that they're forced to do.
[00:30:09] Bruce Anthony: But your entertainment, Literally as Kendrick Lamar is performing Super Bowl halftime show, you're waiting for it to end because you don't want to really pay attention to the meaning of, of his performance. You're still going to turn around at the end of this halftime show and watch the second half black bodies.
[00:30:26] Bruce Anthony: entertaining you. So there's also another hidden meaning [00:30:30] in there with that, that I thought was really clever. 
[00:30:33] The Video Game Motif and Hidden Meanings
[00:30:33] Bruce Anthony: There's also the video game motifs, right? And some people, like this went over my head a little bit, but then when I zoomed out and they did a lot of zooming out to watch the The setup, what is it?
[00:30:45] Bruce Anthony: Not the storyboard, but the stage, the stage, everything was built like a video game controller. And at the end, at the end in the crowd, he had game over, which signified a couple of different things. One, it was Kendrick Lamar's rise through the American dream. [00:31:00] And also the end of this Drake rivalry, because I said it on my show that released on Friday, that it's at a point now where Drake just got to fight him.
[00:31:11] Bruce Anthony: Like you got to fight now. You got to fight because he came out not like us and said some stuff, but we're not going to talk about that just yet, but, but the video game motif. I thought that was cool because that's really, that's what the kids is really about right now. Video games. You got these streamers on Twitch that's killing you even want to do something like that.
[00:31:29] Bruce Anthony: And you 
[00:31:29] Bruce Anthony: ain't even, [00:31:30] and you ain't even young.
[00:31:31] J. Aundrea: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so the video game motif and, uh, Sam actually says this is the Great American game, right? And so it's not just, we're not just talking about, it was like a dual meaning there. Yes. Football great America, the great American game, but also the [00:32:00] game that America plays with us. And, and as soon as I saw it, I was like, Oh boy, we about to get into it.
[00:32:11] J. Aundrea: And it, and he really like play into that. Not only that, but like, I don't know if you noticed that the, a lot of the The performance area looked like a prison yard.
[00:32:29] Bruce Anthony: I did not [00:32:30] notice that. But now as I, as you say that to me, yes, I see that that's,
[00:32:34] J. Aundrea: Yeah. So, I mean, that's, that's also part of it, right? 
[00:32:38] The Prison Industrial Complex and Economic Disparities
[00:32:38] J. Aundrea: Like this great American game, the game that America plays with its people in terms of you know, I read a really great article on The Root, a complete breakdown of the symbolism on this halftime show. And it's, it's the game that America plays, you know, with capitalism, with the prison industrial complex, with [00:33:00] disenfranchisement, with the things you're seeing in our current administration doing. So it is playing into both of that, right? Yeah, you're watching a great American game, it's the Superbowl, but there's also another game that's happening and it's happening to you. And now you're seeing, like I said earlier. You're seeing the result of your actions. This is ffo, and if y'all don't know what FFO is, look it up. [00:33:30] FAFO. . Okay. 
[00:33:34] Bruce Anthony: That's cool because I know in Kendrick's earlier performances, I don't know if it was a Grammys and might've been a Grammys years ago where he was performing. It was some award show where he was performing and he literally came out in chain gang and it shook up.
[00:33:49] Bruce Anthony: I think it was the Grammys and it shook up.
[00:33:51] Bruce Anthony: Everybody he was trying to point out. Hey, look, when you privatize the prison system, it becomes an incentive [00:34:00] to have prisoners.
[00:34:01] J. Aundrea: yeah.
[00:34:02] Bruce Anthony: And what ends up happening is policing is done in poor neighborhoods that are disproportionately people of color,
[00:34:11] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:34:13] Bruce Anthony: and they populate the prison system. It's not like people of color are predispositioned to crime.
[00:34:19] Bruce Anthony: No, no, that's not what it is.
[00:34:23] Bruce Anthony: Even though that's the myth that you want to have, 
[00:34:25] Bruce Anthony: that's not what it is. 
[00:34:27] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:34:27] J. Aundrea: that's the 
[00:34:28] Bruce Anthony: that you want to have. That's, that's not what [00:34:30] it is. But it is a. unquote pipeline from the, the, the poor areas to the prisons.
[00:34:38] Bruce Anthony: And that was cool. I didn't, I didn't real, I didn't notice that, but now that you bring that up, like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:34:44] Bruce Anthony: I see that. All right. There's also his attire and other references, his lyricism and this. 
[00:34:52] Kendrick Lamar's Petty Shots at Drake
[00:34:52] Bruce Anthony: So he had Gloria on his jacket and that's tied to his album themes of artistic power, a necklace [00:35:00] symbolizing either authenticity, ambition. Or probably just, uh, another diss to Drake with the lowercase a and the a minor.
[00:35:09] J. Aundrea: Yeah, guys, I, there's a lot of theories going around about that chain. Somebody said that it's the, alpha symbol for alpha and omega. It's not that,
[00:35:21] Bruce Anthony: That's, 
[00:35:21] J. Aundrea: that symbol is very different. Yeah,
[00:35:25] J. Aundrea: that's, 
[00:35:25] Bruce Anthony: that?
[00:35:26] J. Aundrea: I,
[00:35:27] J. Aundrea: I just, it's another thing that I've heard. It's a, [00:35:30] It's a lowercase a. It's a small a. It is an A minor, like that's, that's what the chain is. Yeah. Yes.
[00:35:42] Bruce Anthony: Drake.
[00:35:43] J. Aundrea: And, and boy spent a pretty penny on that. It was very, very blinged out. Like, yes, but that is, sorry guys. Like that lowercase a represents a minor. This is, there's
[00:35:57] J. Aundrea: nothing else about it.
[00:35:59] Bruce Anthony: also, [00:36:00] authenticity and ambition and all that stuff.
[00:36:03] J. Aundrea: Yeah, probably not. It's probably a minor chain.
[00:36:07] Bruce Anthony: He is super petty. And another way that he was petty was Serena Williams appearance. Now this is a two fold thing, right? Cause Serena used to date Drake. Used to date Drake. Okay. But also she was doing the Crip Walk
[00:36:22] Bruce Anthony: here and this performance of the Super Bowl, one of the most viewed events in the world.
[00:36:28] Bruce Anthony: But she was also [00:36:30] criticized back in 2012 for doing the Crip Walk at one of the tennis events. Performances and
[00:36:38] J. Aundrea: Yes. Yeah. 
[00:36:39] Bruce Anthony: Wimbledon that could have been the French opening or 
[00:36:41] J. Aundrea: She says she didn't do it at Wimbledon. She would have got fined for that. I don't know what tennis match it was, but it was not Wimbledon.
[00:36:50] Bruce Anthony: But 
[00:36:51] J. Aundrea: she posted a little video after the halftime show
[00:36:55] J. Aundrea: of just her, yeah, she, and yes, I, I, [00:37:00] Serena is forever that girl. So, yeah.
[00:37:02] Bruce Anthony: But I thought it was dope because it was also drake I mean not drake kendrick is just taking there's so many double entendres to to the things that he's doing Yes,
[00:37:12] Bruce Anthony: he's giving serena a platform and showing you know, she's doing a dance She was judged prior to doing this dance, and that's racially motivated, because other people can do a dance and celebrate, and it's not that big of a deal.
[00:37:25] Bruce Anthony: She does a dance, and then all of a sudden, it's a big [00:37:30] deal, and it's 
[00:37:30] J. Aundrea: Yeah. 
[00:37:30] Bruce Anthony: a black woman. And then also, I got Drake's ex girlfriend 
[00:37:34] J. Aundrea: Right. Yeah. A Compton native, right. Crip walking very much in the American culture, very much of the Black culture. Another shot or dig at Drake being Canadian. So like, as, as you know, the whole, the whole thing, I mean, you can even say the symbolism [00:38:00] of the American flag and everybody being in red, white, and blue could also be like another day at Drake, because Kendrick has said and. No uncertain terms that he considers Drake a colonizer of, of black American culture. So a lot of, a lot of double meaning, you know, Kendrick loves a double entendre,
[00:38:29] J. Aundrea: [00:38:30] loves it. So a lot of hidden meaning there, but, great, great performance. There was a lot, there was a lot of, of stuff in there. I, I love there's, there's this moment where he's rapping in front of a bunch of guys that look like they're just guys on the corner.
[00:38:49] J. Aundrea: Right.
[00:38:50] Bruce Anthony: hmm. 
[00:38:51] J. Aundrea: And it's just another kind of like the symbol of blackness, right. Of the guys on the corner back in the day used to [00:39:00] be Doo Wop and then in the eighties and nineties, it was rap with the cyphers, right. Like it's this stuff, but it's very much a part of our culture. Yeah. Those guys on the corner.
[00:39:11] J. Aundrea: Right. So like, it was just so much, it was so much, you got, you have to watch it more than once to get everything that he was doing. Everything that he was saying. Yeah.
[00:39:26] Bruce Anthony: for those people that don't understand what the 40 acres and mules is, there was a [00:39:30] proposal that once the slaves were free, they would be given land and things to help with that land. 40 acres and a mule. It was a promise
[00:39:40] J. Aundrea: Yeah. 
[00:39:41] Bruce Anthony: not just people out of homes and give them an opportunity
[00:39:48] Bruce Anthony: to succeed.
[00:39:49] Bruce Anthony: It was never fulfilled.
[00:39:51] Bruce Anthony: So he represented, he said that to represent the black economic the unfulfilled promises of black economic justice, [00:40:00] framing his music as a part of a broader struggle. Because
[00:40:04] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:40:07] Bruce Anthony: our movement into economic wealth. Has been done through various means, but a lot of times it's through entertainment, right?
[00:40:18] Bruce Anthony: And that's because we were deprived so long from advancing in education and getting jobs.
[00:40:26] J. Aundrea: Yeah. 
[00:40:27] Bruce Anthony: part of it was, Hey, we had to entertain you. [00:40:30] And even then the gatekeepers will say, you can entertain, but you can't entertain, you 
[00:40:34] J. Aundrea: Yeah, 
[00:40:34] Bruce Anthony: but you can't do this. 
[00:40:35] J. Aundrea: can go to this club, but not this
[00:40:37] J. Aundrea: club. You can perform at this club, but you can't eat here. Like, 
[00:40:42] Bruce Anthony: exactly. 
[00:40:43] J. Aundrea: you can't come in through the front door, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. That
[00:40:47] J. Aundrea: all. 
[00:40:49] Bruce Anthony: pointing out, he's pointing out how look. There have been economic hardships, and y'all, we gonna put this right in your face [00:41:00] so you can see it, and once again, for those people who are like, I didn't like it, you either didn't like it because you didn't want to hear any political meaning, or you didn't like it because you just don't like Kendrick.
[00:41:14] Bruce Anthony: Those are the only two 
[00:41:15] J. Aundrea: Yeah, there were definitely at the super bowl party. I was at, there were definitely some hardcore Drake stands there who spent the time in the kitchen, not watching the halftime performance. They were not into it. [00:41:30] So it can, it can also be that. But you know, I don't know. I, I, I think if you know anything about Kendrick Lamar and his body of work, I don't think you should be surprised.
[00:41:43] J. Aundrea: At just how black his show was. And that is gonna, it's gonna have some social commentary. It's going to have some political commentary because if you've watched any of his performances, they typically do. [00:42:00] And this time is no different. And, and honestly, shout out to the NFL for being like, do it.
[00:42:06] Bruce Anthony: Well. Yeah,
[00:42:08] Bruce Anthony: okay, yeah. They also took out the end racism out of the, out of the end zones that they had been having, you know, for the last couple of years because the president was there, and you don't want to see that. So, 
[00:42:20] Bruce Anthony: I'm not giving the NFLs too much credit. But also, Last but not least, man, Kendrick is so petty because of [00:42:30] course he did not like us and there were 
[00:42:32] Bruce Anthony: some legal things He skipped calling him pedophile.
[00:42:37] J. Aundrea: well, yeah. I mean, you just can't do
[00:42:39] J. Aundrea: that on the national global television. That's just, you can't, I can foresee the sensors being like, you got to cut that. 
[00:42:49] Bruce Anthony: also he looked dead in the camera 
[00:42:53] Bruce Anthony: and he said Hey Drake, I heard you 
[00:42:56] J. Aundrea: Yeah. [00:43:00] Yeah. And honestly, there is a like screenshot of him looking directly in the camera saying, say, Drake. That little like devilish smile he has on his face and the caption is, if I send you this, just know I'm gonna do it anyway. And, and I'm like, mm-hmm . Mm-hmm
[00:43:20] J. Aundrea: I, not only did I not think he was gonna do it after the, after the Grammys, I was like, okay, he's gonna do it.
[00:43:25] J. Aundrea: But, but I, I was still like, how, how can he do it? He [00:43:30] did. You know, change some of the lyrics
[00:43:33] J. Aundrea: he did. He had to, you know, just to make the song appropriate for that venue. But I mean, just him like in, in the round and the camera following him around this circle. And he's, it's just, it looks like it's like all of Compton behind him.
[00:43:53] J. Aundrea: Right. Like, and he's just walking around and looking dead in the camera. And [00:44:00] it
[00:44:00] J. Aundrea: was just, the grin.
[00:44:03] J. Aundrea: was like, oh my God, like, I, I, I was shook. Like, and I don't get, I don't get shook, but I was shook a little bit. Like, I could not believe that he looked right in that camera and said, I heard you like I'm young.
[00:44:22] J. Aundrea: And then when he got to a minor and the whole [00:44:30] stadium. erupted in unison to scream out a minor, like you can't Drake, Drake, baby, just go, go sit down somewhere. Okay. Like just, you'll be fine. At the end of the day, you're a superstar. You'll be fine.
[00:44:54] J. Aundrea: But 
[00:44:55] Bruce Anthony: who makes good music that 
[00:44:57] Bruce Anthony: people love. 15 [00:45:00] summers, 15 summers of jams.
[00:45:02] J. Aundrea: Yes. 
[00:45:03] J. Aundrea: Yes. 
[00:45:09] Bruce Anthony: forget about this.
[00:45:10] J. Aundrea: Yes. Yes. But for now, you know, the lawsuits didn't help, did not help at all.
[00:45:23] J. Aundrea: And honestly, you can't accuse, streaming platforms of like, [00:45:30] Pushing his stuff for payola when you, when he's in that super bowl stadium in new Orleans and the entire crowd, it's screaming a minor, like that moment out of a sliding down the wall, crying, snotting.
[00:45:47] Bruce Anthony: Like I said, you got to fight because at that point, you know, us and our family, our dad taught us about the dozens
[00:45:55] Bruce Anthony: and he taught us get to a point. Hit [00:46:00] him, hit him hard so that they get off of you.
[00:46:02] Bruce Anthony: And so I said, Hey, he's got to find some real dirt on Kendrick and do the thing that nobody else is going to say, or they got to fight.
[00:46:09] Bruce Anthony: He got to see him in the street. That's the only way you can come back from this.
[00:46:14] J. Aundrea: I mean, It's just that, that frame of him, it's them flare jeans, it's it's the, and it's just, and then when he says St. Drake, everybody in the background goes like, [00:46:30] like, it's just
[00:46:32] Bruce Anthony: He's petty. He's petty. And he won.
[00:46:34] J. Aundrea: petty. Anyone?
[00:46:36] J. Aundrea: Anyone? 
[00:46:37] Villains in Society and Media
[00:46:37] Bruce Anthony: Now he's absolutely the villain in Drake's story, but is he the villain?
[00:46:45] J. Aundrea: Good question.
[00:46:47] Bruce Anthony: We're going to get into the idea of villains. their place in our current society. And we're going to do that next. [00:47:00] So, Jay I think you finished watching it. Did you finish watching the series The Penguin?
[00:47:11] J. Aundrea: I didn't finish it, no,
[00:47:13] Bruce Anthony: Uh, 
[00:47:13] J. Aundrea: I got, pretty far into
[00:47:14] Bruce Anthony: very good show.
[00:47:15] J. Aundrea: Yes.
[00:47:17] Bruce Anthony: And you, as you're watching the show, you're kind of rooting for him to succeed, even though he's this really despicable person. You know he's a villain. I mean, he's a Batman main villain.[00:47:30] 
[00:47:30] Bruce Anthony: And this isn't a new thing, right?
[00:47:31] Bruce Anthony: Like, when you look at the history of cinema, You always kind of root for the villain. Your favorite character, your favorite villain of all is the Joker, 
[00:47:41] Bruce Anthony: right? And the movie The Joker, I still haven't seen the musical, but the movie The 
[00:47:45] Bruce Anthony: Joker was a hit. Other villains, whether people want to realize it or not, Scarface is a villain.
[00:47:54] Bruce Anthony: Brown is a villain. Michael Corleone is a villain. Even 
[00:47:59] Bruce Anthony: [00:48:00] Vito, 
[00:48:01] J. Aundrea: villains. 
[00:48:02] Bruce Anthony: Even Vito Corleone is a villain. And so there was a article written by Christine Chubba. And the Hollywood Reporter and the article is titled, is titled Vince Gilligan calls for writers to cut back on villain stories of my, of my, current political climate.
[00:48:23] J. Aundrea: hmm. 
[00:48:24] Bruce Anthony: screenwriter that you said he's been part of Breaking Bad and Community [00:48:30] kind of stuff 
[00:48:31] Bruce Anthony: that he's written. 
[00:48:32] J. Aundrea: Yeah. All
[00:48:33] J. Aundrea: of that. 
[00:48:34] Bruce Anthony: kind of specializes in framing villains as kind of heroes when you think about it because Breaking Bad, like he's a drug dealer.
[00:48:43] J. Aundrea: Yes.
[00:48:44] Bruce Anthony: kills people. Better call Saul as a shady judge. I mean Shady Lawyer.
[00:48:49] J. Aundrea: Hmm. 
[00:48:50] Bruce Anthony: so he asked, he called for writers to reduce the focus on villain stories, suggesting they have become overly inspirational in our current political [00:49:00] environment. He says that villain stories is advocated, he's advocating for fewer stories that focus on villains because they're becoming aspirational.
[00:49:09] Bruce Anthony: And I made the connection on the last show that Elon Musk is a real life. Lex Luthor. I've seen this storyline of, of exactly what he's doing with our current president, Donald Trump, in season four, a super girl with Lex Luthor, take control of the white house by manipulating the president, causing, [00:49:30] uh, a division in America from aliens to humans, saying that aliens are taking jobs and things of that nature.
[00:49:38] Bruce Anthony: So, I've seen it before and Elon Musk and in certain circles are being celebrated. So yes, villains are becoming aspirational because we got a villain. We have a real life villain that's in the white house right next to the president. So I thought this was interesting because [00:50:00] yeah, very Superman. The movie Superman is coming out and I don't know people are as excited for Superman as they were to see Downey Jr.
[00:50:13] Bruce Anthony: as Dr. Doom in an upcoming Avengers movie.
[00:50:17] J. Aundrea: Right. Yeah. I mean. Mm hmm. So, here here's why I think I get where he's coming from. Here's why I think his perspective [00:50:30] is stupid. There, uh, the villains that let's say, for example, our current administration seem to be trying to emulate are real life ones. I don't think he's trying to emulate anybody that he saw on TV. Trump is trying to emulate real people who really existed and were real [00:51:00] villains, and there's no amount of writing them out of, of, uh, TV and movies that's going to erase that history that does in fact exist. And villains are real. They're not fictional. They're real. And there are people who, uh, fit that bill.
[00:51:18] J. Aundrea: And, and I, it just isn't going, I don't think it's going to move the needle for us to stop writing villain stories. I think, I think what's [00:51:30] important about villain stories. Is the origin and the psychology behind how they became who they became. And we need to know that. And we need to be able to recognize the signs when we see it.
[00:51:45] J. Aundrea: And even though we all recognize the signs when we saw it during the election, y'all still, I'm not going to get into that. But, but like there are, he's, he's emulating real people. [00:52:00] He, he's not, he's not modeling himself after the Joker or the Penguin or anything. That's, that's not, and so I don't think it's gonna move the needle at all.
[00:52:16] Bruce Anthony: I think he's ripe of Mr. Mark. I don't think, I don't think villain, villain stories on television and media are directly influenced in political climate, but villain stories absolutely [00:52:30] influence society.
[00:52:31] Bruce Anthony: People watched Scarface and wanted to become a drug dealer. People watched Soprano's The Godfather.
[00:52:36] Bruce Anthony: Like, The Godfather has been labeled in the American Mafia as kind of this book to model yourself at. It influenced some Italian Americans to enter in the Mafia. Nino Brown and New Jack City influenced some people to sell drugs. Breaking Bad, Snowfall, all this stuff [00:53:00] influences some people To start their own villain story.
[00:53:05] Bruce Anthony: And, and, and, and in that aspect,
[00:53:08] Bruce Anthony: yes, he, I think he is right. We need to write more stories of heroes. The only problem is, is this everybody loves the bad guy. It's the reason why me and you argue about women all the time and how I say women love the bad boy, they love the bad boy and you're like, no, they don't.
[00:53:26] Bruce Anthony: I'm like, yes they do. Because it's excitement. [00:53:30] 
[00:53:30] J. Aundrea: Yeah, and there's, and there's typically charisma,
[00:53:35] J. Aundrea: There's typically, you know, charm, gift of gab, things like that. The point is the reason why, you know, a guy like Ted Bundy was as prolific as he was, is because he was attractive and charming. Well, I didn't think he was, but some, the people who stopped to help him did.
[00:53:54] J. Aundrea: So like, yeah, there's always going to be a little bit of that in it. And so you're [00:54:00] going to have people attracted to villains. But I think. I think people identify with villains in, in, in terms of like their origin story. I think people always are looking for, uh, be, to be included, right. As a, like a member of society to be seen, not to be ignored, not to be [00:54:30] pushed aside, not to be marginalized. And to see people that are from maybe a marginalized community taking control of their own destiny and future and even though it's by legal means or immoral means or both. You know, it's, it's the American dream that was sold is that you pull yourself up by your bootstraps and accomplish something. And you see people doing that.
[00:54:57] J. Aundrea: It's your local drug dealer, but you see him doing [00:55:00] that. You know what I'm saying? So I get like,
[00:55:02] J. Aundrea: it's like, 
[00:55:03] Bruce Anthony: his Timberlands.
[00:55:04] J. Aundrea: he pulled himself up by his Timberlands and that, and, and, and it became who he became, but it's like, you see that. And yes, it's aspirational when you're in a position where you don't see anything else. Yeah, I think we should have more heroes and more characters with positive traits and moral integrity and all of that. I, I definitely believe that, but you gotta [00:55:30] write them so that they're real and that people identify with them. Like people identify with their struggles, their, their growth, the way they overcome and things like that.
[00:55:40] J. Aundrea: That's why people gravitate towards. towards. villains, especially when you think about, like you said, like mob movies, right? When you look at somebody like Nino Brown, you know, and you're like, this is a guy from where I'm from, but look at, look at everything that he has. How do I get some of that? Oh, I gotta, [00:56:00] uh, gotta be a moral, or, you know, you know what I'm saying?
[00:56:03] J. Aundrea: Like, Okay, well, what does that even mean? In the con what does your morality mean in the context of our society writ large, right? Like what is it paying your bills? So I get it. I like I say he's not wrong, but I I just think that there are enough real life villains for people to find aspirational that I don't know that it's [00:56:30] really gonna move the needle to to not write them anymore
[00:56:34] Bruce Anthony: Yeah, because there's a reason why our president, Donald Trump, who is a villain, has a following, and Elon Musk, who is a villain, has a following, you know, they, a lot of times, villains have the power, 
[00:56:48] Bruce Anthony: and power is seductive, and attractive, and yeah, people are gonna want that. Hell, I want some power. I want the glow hands.
[00:56:55] J. Aundrea: Yes. Yes. You've mentioned that
[00:56:58] Bruce Anthony: I've mentioned it several times, you [00:57:00] know, I don't want to gloat here. And you know what? I like villain stories. I watch them. I'm not influenced by them. Like I watched the penguin and I was like, I don't ever want to be this guy. I want to be Superman. I don't necessarily want to be, I think also some of the heroes are written as villains as well.
[00:57:14] Bruce Anthony: Batman to me is a villain.
[00:57:17] J. Aundrea: He's a vigilante. He definitely, takes the law into his own hands. He's guided by his own moral code. It's not like you, you gotta kinda, know, question [00:57:30] that. It's the same issue I had with the glow hands. Like he is the one determining what is right and what is wrong.
[00:57:37] Bruce Anthony: Yeah, but I'm more righteous than Batman. So 
[00:57:38] J. Aundrea: Okay. 
[00:57:39] Bruce Anthony: for me to have to gloat here.
[00:57:41] J. Aundrea: Yeah, Batman, Batman should've got therapy.
[00:57:44] J. Aundrea: Um, like, honestly, 
[00:57:47] Bruce Anthony: of somebody who should have got therapy.
[00:57:49] J. Aundrea: very, very early, like, literally right when his parents were murdered, Alfred should've put him in therapy. He should've been in there, I would [00:58:00] say, you know, starting off once a week, and then we could move to every two weeks and see what happens, but definitely should've been in therapy.
[00:58:07] Bruce Anthony: considering the fact that they was murdered right in front of him. Like he saw them die. He held 
[00:58:12] J. Aundrea: Yes. 
[00:58:12] Bruce Anthony: they took their last breath. I mean, that's 
[00:58:14] J. Aundrea: And yeah, 
[00:58:17] Bruce Anthony: the reason why he goes into the communities of the lower income and beats the hell out of everybody.
[00:58:22] J. Aundrea: yes, 
[00:58:24] J. Aundrea: somebody got to do something about him.
[00:58:26] Bruce Anthony: somebody got to do something. I'll tell you who else is also a superhero, but it's also [00:58:30] a villain. 
[00:58:31] J. Aundrea: Hmm. 
[00:58:31] Bruce Anthony: boy
[00:58:33] J. Aundrea: Who's
[00:58:33] J. Aundrea: that? 
[00:58:34] Bruce Anthony: Deadpool.
[00:58:35] J. Aundrea: Yeah.
[00:58:36] J. Aundrea: Not, not a good guy. And
[00:58:38] J. Aundrea: he, and he's fully aware that like he's said before one of his movies, you know, like his his morality is on like a sliding scale, right? Like it's, he, he's, he has said that before. So he is fully aware that he is not the hero. He is the anti hero because even in the moments where he's heroic is still for [00:59:00] selfish reasons. Like, is he trying to save the world? Is he trying to save his friends?
[00:59:05] Bruce Anthony: Yeah, 
[00:59:05] J. Aundrea: And the world is being saved, you know, as a consequence of that. So like, Yeah, that I wouldn't consider him a hero, I barely consider him an anti hero.
[00:59:20] Bruce Anthony: So basically this whole segment we basically call Vince Gilligan a hypocrite because he's built his damn career off of writing and making villains [00:59:30] Aspirational and now all of a sudden he tried to say to everybody else. We need to stop doing this
[00:59:34] J. Aundrea: Well, he, he, in the article, he talks about, like, his philosophy of storytelling, right? That he's always emphasized that actions have consequences and design Like breaking bad, for example, where the protagonist turns into the antagonist that are supposed to challenge moral perceptions. Right. But like, you could also say [01:00:00] that you made a villain aspirational.
[01:00:04] J. Aundrea: Yeah,
[01:00:08] Bruce Anthony: okay. 
[01:00:10] Closing Remarks and Call to Action
[01:00:10] Bruce Anthony: All right Jay What do you want to tell the people out there?
[01:00:14] J. Aundrea: man, they not like us. They just not.
[01:00:19] Bruce Anthony: Who is who is they 
[01:00:21] Bruce Anthony: them? 
[01:00:21] J. Aundrea: honestly, I'm gonna say Elon Musk.
[01:00:24] Bruce Anthony: Yeah, you know,
[01:00:25] J. Aundrea: He ain't like us.
[01:00:27] J. Aundrea: That's a colonizer 
[01:00:28] J. Aundrea: too. 
[01:00:29] Bruce Anthony: He's [01:00:30] absolutely a colonizer. Yeah, that's not even 
[01:00:33] J. Aundrea: Yeah. 
[01:00:33] Bruce Anthony: not even up for
[01:00:34] J. Aundrea: How you against immigration? And you yourself are an immigrant, but
[01:00:41] Bruce Anthony: Yeah 
[01:00:42] J. Aundrea: Yeah
[01:00:42] Bruce Anthony: Yeah, well 
[01:00:44] Bruce Anthony: world is full of hypocrites. So and on 
[01:00:48] J. Aundrea: Yeah. 
[01:00:48] Bruce Anthony: ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening Thank you for watching and until next time as always I'll holla 
[01:00:59] Bruce Anthony: Ooh, [01:01:00] that was a hell of a show. Thank you for rocking with us here on unsolicited perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Now, before you go, don't forget to follow subscribe. Like comment and share our podcast, wherever you're listening or watching it to it. Pass it along to your friends. If you enjoy it, that means the people that you rock, we will enjoy it also.
[01:01:19] Bruce Anthony: So share the wealth, share the knowledge, share the noise. And for all those people that say, well, I don't have a YouTube. If you have a Gmail account, you have a YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube [01:01:30] channel where you can actually watch our video podcast, but the real party is on our Patreon page after hours uncensored and talk a straight ish after hours uncensored is another show with my sister.
[01:01:40] Bruce Anthony: And once again, the key word there is uncensored. Those are exclusively on our Patreon page. Jump onto our website at unsolicitedperspective. com for all things us. That's where you can get all of our audio, video, our blogs, And even by our merch. And if you really feel ingenuous and want to help us out, you can donate on our [01:02:00] donations page.
[01:02:01] Bruce Anthony: Donations go strictly to improving our software and hardware. So we can keep giving you guys good content that you can clearly listen to, and that you can clearly see. So any donation would be appreciative. Most importantly, I want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening and watching and supporting us and I'll catch you next time out e5000 peace[01:02:30]