Black History Month Chronicles ft Duan & Q - Episode 78

0:00 Yo Q what up? Man I'm keeping it real what up the what? Welcome to not just music where we keep it real and honest always Music Music Music Music What's going on? It's your boy Duann from not just music podcast Quincy Murdock in the building as always What's happening my friend What's happening, what's happening, what's happening brother We here you know You know successful black history month man I'm proud of what we did this month Especially you coming up with the idea educating the people, putting light on the black people man how you doing sir good, good Hopefully all you all are doing good too anywhere Another week of Not Just Music podcast, another week to talk about what we've just been through this past month.

1:01 We had a lot of interesting conversations, a lot of interesting topics, not just topics, more so than just giving history, being black historians versus just doing the usual podcasting and touching on little hits and hear their things and what goes on in the world. One thing that is for sure is that us as black inventors were very, very, very innovative in what we used to make be for the time we had, especially as the slaves and coming from the slave era, we didn't have a whole lot of people. We had to get very, very, very inventive.

1:43 You had to come up with something. Very creative. Easier way to make things for yourself and not only just for yourself, for your whole entire family and your family to come in the future. And eventually just the people, individuals. One thing is for certain is that I know, well, second thing is for certain that we have a timeline now that I was looking into from about the 1800s to the 1900s when I feel that was really our most innovative years, as I pointed out, due to not having, especially those that were farmers and those that were cooks or had something to do with cooking.

2:26 I noticed those were very, very, very big as far as when it came to blacks and being black inventors. So did you have anyone pinpointed, anybody that you liked or it was out of nowhere, like, okay, I didn't think about this or this is new to me, anything for you? Yeah. Man, I went back, the Jim Brown episode that we did, we used to talk about Jim Brown, his life story, how you were talking about his story, man, how a white man had paid for his college and how he was in the lead when it was heavy racism and trying to keep up with his academics and just facing the pressure of being black.

3:14 I put that with life today and it's like they had to crawl so we could walk, you know what I'm saying, in certain ways. A lot of us were great just from small things now in life, but imagine going through that and still having to stay strong. So it makes you look at life differently. Well, me, it did. It taught me not to be appreciative of what I have and less, you know what I'm saying, don't look at the things I don't have and appreciate and just be thankful. Another thing that I went back and some of the things that I was interested in and I seen clothing, for example, I would see artists, people I admired, was inspired by wearing certain clothes.

4:04 And the crazy thing is I never knew these, most of these brands were black African Americans. So it's a lot of stuff that went over my head as a black man. You know what I'm saying? Like, wow, that's important though, you know, because we wouldn't know that unless we actually went and researched. So I realized like we are talented. You know, we have a lot of history. We have a lot of great things about us, you know, that is unknown to our people for sure. So it opened my eyes to research also, like even when I'm about to buy something, I look into who's the owner brand or the founder and look up a business, you know, just from the small businesses, it makes me do my research.

4:55 So this was an eye opener for me, you know, to educate myself. Yeah. Nah, this is why, you know, for me, mine was, a big part of mine was, yeah, Jim Brown and another one that was big to me was Woods. I think his last name was Woods. That was a very big event to deal with the dealt with cars a lot, man. A lot of these people, we would never, like I said, I would probably never think about it again, unless I go back over and research it again.

5:36 But in time, I'll watch these podcasts in time to come and gravitate back to it and remember it. It's out there, that's the key. And if nothing else, too, like I said, even if I got to go research more stuff, go research more stuff. It's not like I had to just like stick myself in one position and like say, oh, this is the only thing I'll be doing. Because it'll make you research. It definitely makes you research. It'll make you want to learn more. Yeah. And put more stuff into a realistic manner. And not only that, like I said, it's motivating too. Not just like saying, you sitting up here just talking about just random people, but you talking about people that did something for us. Our background, coming from the same situation, circumstances that we come from, that we can relate to and be proud of.

6:19 Ancestors, I appreciate y'all highly. Highly, because it's a lot of stuff that I never would see in a normal world to be considered that. That was y'all norm. Our norm is totally different than what y'all norm is. And it's not a thing to say that I'm just not just grateful I'm humble too. It makes me more humble to be able to do things, especially like we have these platforms nowadays. If y'all would have had these platforms, I think it would have been pinnacle. So the little stuff that we do get to see and see that was documented as far as visual versus just saying black and white text in some manner.

7:06 It's levels to it, but at the same time, hopefully we're making y'all happy because we are making history too. There's a lot of stuff that we've made history with. As a black community that a lot of people, y'all probably never would have thought would have been able to possible. So that's why I always say look at these things and look at pictures of my grandma, my granddad, my aunties and stuff that's died. You're just thinking like, man, I hope they smiling down on this. Hopefully they enjoying this because in case they went through some stuff and had to deal with it, and here we are. But again, with our ancestors, I'm gonna ask you a question, bro.

7:53 This is something that kind of puts a seal on this black history thing. Have you ever looked into your history or your family history or thought about digging into your family history to see where you actually come from? You know what? I have thought about it, but I haven't. It's something I need to do for sure. I don't know what's stopping me. No excuses, but I need to do it. Like I said, I originally went back to Africa. I went to Africa and that was when I opened it too. That's when I really wanted to see my roots and the blackness, you know what I'm saying?

8:36 Where we come from, our culture, Nigeria opened my eyes a lot. I went over there with a certain mind. I came back with a different mindset. It was black, pro-black, you know what I'm saying? So when you experiment, stuff like that, it makes you want to learn it. Yeah, but that's something I need to get into, to learn it, dab into for sure. Actually take the test and stuff like that. Because I might be surprised, man. I think, man, I'm... Have you took it? No, I'm not. I thought about it as I got more and more into this month. Because it's like, man, it's a lot of taste now.

9:22 And I'm going to say taste meaning look at how many people have had kids over the past 50 years. And look how many mixed individuals have become, even if it was one coming from Africa, or whether it was someone coming from Germany, or wherever. And they mixing all of these together, and then they end up here. You wonder, okay, then you marry somebody that ain't from here, then there's another mix on your kids. So it's like, okay. It's a lot of stories like that. Women coming from Africa, getting pregnant by American men, you know what I'm saying? We never know. That's not an uncommon thing.

10:04 Jewish and all kinds of races. Yeah. It's not an uncommon thing, man. I think we sometimes may take things a little lightly. Are we just black? We just the N word. And it can easily ride under that. Easily ride. Yeah. So, I mean... That's the stereotype of it. Even us, like you say, small-minded. There was somebody online, and somebody went to school with you. They are black. They are, because you look at them, they're black. But when they did their test, completely Native American.

10:46 You see? Completely, brother. You can't just go off just the outer, man. Look at that neonating jeans, that tree. It looks, you can easily look at somebody, and like, okay, yeah, they black. Or even the ones that get me are the... Can I say something? Yeah, go ahead. I mean, I was like that too. Before I went to Africa, Nigeria, and then I get off the plane into the airport, and people telling me I look like, yeah, there's certain Nigerian, I forgot the names, there's so many different types. But it was like I look like a certain Nigerian man or something like that.

11:28 And I was like, oh, okay, appreciate it. Some people see it in me. I don't, as I get older, it's like, okay, your nails be growing fast, your hair growing quicker. You're like, okay, I love rice. Where is this coming from? My family don't like, what's going on? So that makes you want to, cautious too, or curious. Okay, why all these changes? You know what I'm saying? I mean, that's how it feels, man, like something different. And that's my styles of, I think, let me see what I was gonna say though. Yeah, I'm gonna pass. Dominican, no, you fine. Dominican people. Or what are they called?

12:15 Black Dominicans, basically. That's the case of it, so if you saw them, you would think, okay, this is a black person. But then when they started talking, straight Latin, there ain't nothing coming out of me. Not a lick of English. And you're looking at them like, oh, okay. I thought you were black. Yeah, and it's- We expected something else to come out of that. And that's like the consideration of how, and this is linking in a slightly not outer in our black history, but how you see the white Africans. That's a natural, that's a normal thing. I mean, you see a lot of these things, these things are not uncommon anymore.

12:55 It's like a thing like, okay, yeah, these people really are mixing the world up. It's not a bad thing. I mean, it was, eventually it was bound to happen. They left here and went over there, and most of us got brought over here. But a lot of those white Americans that wanted to know what it was like really in Africa, they went and saw about it. And again, big ups to them too, because like you were talking about with the Jim Brown situation, you had certain Caucasian that were for us, wanted to help us, wanted to better the situation for the black people.

13:37 So even as a 2024, and this is things that I want to say, especially to the younger generation kids, remember to pay homage to those that were ahead of you, older than you. And I'm not talking just about like your favorite rapper or like your favorite entertainer or like your favorite YouTuber or your favorite TikToker or your favorite IG. I'm talking about like, even if it's like your mom or if it's your dad or your grandma or your grandma or your grandpa, these are people, these are real more realistically sound to a normal individual.

14:27 Because you personally seen them get up and do it. You seen them lead by example. Just pay homage to those. I mean you can have somebody that, okay yeah, I look up to them, but don't forget about ... Like if it's podcasting for example, and it was like a black podcast that opened the doors for us, we're going to pay homage to them. You get what I'm saying people? Like anything that's helping you in a field that you're doing or making your life better in certain ways that people had to go through something before that. Pay homage to them. You know what I'm saying? Like your mom went through what she had to go through to give you a better lifestyle so you wouldn't probably have to deal with the lifestyle she had that probably wasn't so bright or beautiful, but she tried to make yours.

15:15 So that's paying homage. And that's excitement. Excitement comes along with those that did it. Show yourself like it's an excitement. Don't take it lightly. And I say that because just imagine, and this is something that I say too, those that did die for what, standing for what we are and who we are today. This is something that I love to think about them in a sense of honor and pride and as I was saying earlier, it's something that hits differently with me.

15:57 Because it's like what all they had to do to do this, how simplistically this is now. They had the option to even have an option to do it. It's crazy. Come in and set up this stuff and get to sit down and record it and put it out to the world. That should never be taken lightly, even if it's music or whether it's a book or whether this is just writings or poetry. What y'all seeing us on, what we using these phones? Like the recent episodes created by Black Man. People have these things, the tools, cameras and all of this stuff to be able to do these things is endless now.

16:46 And to take advantage of it is a good thing to take advantage of. Just because we didn't have it. And now again, we've kind of tarnished it in some ways, but I'm not here to talk about the tarnish. I'm here to talk about the positive aspects of what it can be, especially like it was a lady saying, we're rich in a lot of different ways. One thing again is be able to have your hands. The hands and your hands are like, your hands are your money maker. And to be able to set stuff and put plays in motion and see these things all the way out till somebody gets their hands on it and they'll have the tangible version to be able to hold on to it and you created that.

17:32 That is the most valuable thing that you could ever be able to possess. Whether it's fixing cars, whether if you're fixing, putting a house together, building a house, whether if you're a builder, whether if you're a, I mean, pick it. Gardener, whether if you're a landscaper, whether whatever it is, if it's a thing where you got plumber, electrician, don't take none of y'all take these jobs way too like they aren't anything. If you put your, listen, if you put your best efforts into it, I guarantee you that turn out to come out. But if you ain't putting your best efforts into it, if you just gonna constantly think, and this is what I feel as black people we do wrong, don't think about it as a little thing.

18:19 Think about it as a big thing. Think about it as a big thing. If you ain't putting the work in, if you're not putting the work in, and I'm hoping this somebody hears this part, if you're not putting the work in, you will not get a single result if you're not putting the work in. And you're talking, me, you're talking to a man that's done work plenty nine to fives from construction to fast food to the dumpster to the trash man. Whatever you, I done did it. You know what I'm saying? So, but one thing that I always did when I did these jobs is I always did my best like you just said.

19:06 Oh, you get out of it what you put in it. I mean, and I wanted to eat. You know what I'm saying? I wanted to feed my family. So, yeah, you're right. Mindset, that's the mindset that we have to have this generation now is, you know, nothing comes free. If you want it, you gotta get it. You gotta work for it. I'm not saying you, I mean, be passionate about what you do. And also, I mean, think about it, if it's not what you like to do, or what you love to do, think about your family. Like, okay, I'm doing this for my kid. If you got kids, I'm doing this for my kids. That should motivate you. Important. I'm doing it for my family. You know what I'm saying?

19:46 Like, my mom did it when I was younger. You know what I'm saying? So, why shouldn't I have to do it in labor? You know what I'm saying? So, that's how you gotta look at work. If it's not something you enjoy, think of somebody you love. Think of something, you know what I'm saying, close to your heart. You know, that will make you or push you to be the best. You know what I'm saying? And put your best foot forward. And that's history. Think about that. The mentality of a person don't probably think about stuff like that. But it go back to your history. You know what I'm saying? Because like work ethic, that's another thing. That's why, how you brought that up. Like, you know, checking your tree, you know, your family tree.

20:28 When we talking about black, we talking about characteristics and all, your bloodline, what's in that blood? Because that affects you too. And sometimes you have to know, and this is why it's important, it's good to know your tree because it's good to know the things you lacking so you can improve on that. So you can learn how to deal with that. You know what I'm saying? Because it's a lot of things that I personally deal with that I know probably came from my father. You know what I'm saying? My mom's side. So it's a battle. And you have to find those things and you have to find something to work and help that. You know what I'm saying? So that's important. You know what I'm saying? This is another thing too, right?

21:10 You have, you only have one life to live. Now, how much effort you put into this life is very important. Now, let me be honest. Here's a very blunt situation. Talk soon. Okay. So, it's a guy that I know personally who pays this attention and obvious that this is not something that is ever going to come across me ever again, especially from black to black.

22:06 I will, and this is for the, as I said, the work ethic of an individual period. For every individual who's listening to me now, don't take me as if I'm attacking. Take me as I'm showing love. I'm going to tell you why. Because sometimes we'll be going through something and we won't even pay attention to what we're going through because of the aspects of where we're trying to get our mental to be. Meaning, if I'm having problems at home and I come here to do work like this, if my mind is constantly on what's at home, what I'm doing here and trying to put all this together, something is going to crash somewhere.

22:52 It's going to run off the road. Now, to him, what I want him to know is take care of your family. Take care of you right now. That's important. You're messing up the whole entire situation of what you got going around you because you're not paying attention to the details of what you're doing personally. Take time to disassemble yourself from everything you got going on and take care of what's the one thing that is mainly important. The music, the podcasting, the entertainment stuff will never go away.

23:34 Never go away. If it's something that you got to take care of family-wise, if it's something that you got to take care of personally-wise, take care of that. Take care of that. Stop crashing out on folks because of the way that you feel. This is black to black, too. It's real talk. People that are black will do this a whole lot. They'll take out their frustrations on an individual for a reason of, one, like I said, it's personal. As a person, you can only fix something that's personal by yourself. You have to fix it on your own. Can I say that? Yeah. Also, think about it, when you attack another black man or a black woman, remember, what you're going through, they might be going through are even worse than you.

24:25 Don't never assume what looks good on the outside and what you see. You don't know what people are going through. You don't know how we could help each other talk about each other problems. I tell you my problems. You tell me your problems, where somebody is just listening, not criticizing you and judging you. You know what I'm saying? But if you just come attacking, what makes you think somebody is going to want to listen to you then? If you come and just talk, we all could just talk like adults and be grown, everything will work out, I feel. You know what I'm saying? So you have to put your personal to the side. This is towards him, too. It ain't no issues or no problems. As black people, it's good for us to be able to talk and channel our emotions because that's what we're known for.

25:14 We're emotionally wrecked sometimes, as they put it. We go based off feelings. Sometimes feelings can get you in the wrong position or get you hurt by yourself. I've learned that the hard way. You got to lose it all, lose something to get humbled again and realize, okay, look in the mirror, what am I doing wrong? What am I saying wrong? My approach. Maybe I look mean, the reason why people don't want to come around me and my approachable. You got to think of all this stuff. That's history, though. We have a history of that. That's the thing. I'm trying to crush that history. I'm so tired of the combativeness that it's like I can really cut it off fast, but at the same time, I don't feel that cutting it off actually ends it because that's what we do, for one.

26:10 Black people, we run from a situation instead of just facing it, even if it is the real. You always say somebody always has a problem with truth, and sometimes it's medicine that ain't good because it hits you, but at the same time, it's not going to go downhill. It's going to have to go up sooner or later. It's only there to help you. It's only there to make you better. The sickness goes away. It just takes time. It don't taste good either. The truth might not taste good, but it's going to help you. It's going to fix you. Patience is a hard thing.

26:51 That old school remedy. You take them drugs. Patience is a thing that some people that could go 50 years before they figure out how to get to that part to be patient. Everybody don't get that early in life. It's not a thing for everybody to have patience, and it's the reason why it's that way because if we didn't have the patient people, we wouldn't know what patience is. My thing is, like you say, it runs in our history though. Yeah, that's my DNA. Us as black people, but we know better too. We know we was raised right. We know we would get whooped, beat, in the store, in front of your teachers, the class.

27:33 We know better when we do things. That's not true. We know when we do something, it ain't right. Definitely. Deep down. If our mothers seen us on social media talking how we talk, I was saying how they wouldn't approve of it. Most majority of black parents' mothers wouldn't. I'm going to just be real. They'll tear you up. That's another thing. A lot of people are living these lives that their history, they didn't raise them to be that way. Our history, our ancestors didn't raise us to be fools. They raised us to be smart. Raised us to be respectful, yes ma'am, no ma'am.

28:14 That's how I was told. I used to get popped in my mouth. Forget a whooping. I said something at the Thanksgiving table, disrespectful in front of the whole family. Mom swiped me in my mouth in front of the family. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't even a pain. It was an embarrassment. That was just her showing, I don't care where you at, who you in front. You be disrespectful. You can get it. You can get it. You got to learn that way or you going to learn the hard way. You going to crash out. Fortunately, some people have to crash out in order to get the message. They have to lose everything to get the message.

28:54 It's sad. That teaches lesson. That lesson is always going to be one of the good ones. Going through hard moments and especially, again, the black community. We see stuff way too... We got to readjust our mentality and understand that things can't be different. Things can't go a little different if you just put a little effort in. Don't overlook the small. Even if it's the thing of you got to downsize. Downsize. You don't want to work out here in the real world, but you go to prison and work for 30 cents out.

29:37 Kill yourself softly. Kill yourself softly. Be thankful for the things you have. Like Walu said, be thankful you able to walk in the refrigerator, get it going, open the refrigerator. Be thankful you able to... For transportation, you able to get up when you want to, go out when you want to. You work a job, but like my mom said, they can't hold you all day. They can't hold you forever. You give them eight hours, you're gone. How many hours? They can't hold you, and you have that choice. But think about if you didn't have that choice. The same thing with our ancestors.

30:18 Think about if we didn't have these choices, what they paved, the way they paved and sacrificed for us to be able to have this. Think about that. So, now, Black History Month is officially coming to a close. When is the last... Yeah. This is the last Thursday of the month. Perfect. We are... Yeah. See, 24th. A little bit shy, but again, this still close us out.

31:00 We should do a special. It'll still close us out. We'll definitely be on something by then. But again, this still just put that staple... This is important too, man. You know what I'm saying? That staple of approval, that staple in that Black History Month to say that we actually spoke on it and did our part. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of it. I'm proud of it. I'm proud of it. It's in the part... Because you can go so many ways with this, especially the Black community. We need to hear stuff like this. Share is share alone. A lot of us will be definitely... We'll definitely be on to the next visionary of understanding.

31:46 Next month, we'll bring in some Black topics. We'll do some things to push our Blackness. Just to do things even more. It ain't got to just be for the gist of the month. Like I said, I wear that sweatshirt. Black History 24-7, 365. It's something I always talk about. But again... Every day, all day. We're not just music podcasts. Don't forget to check us out on our website. Go check out everything we got. Merch, all that stuff. All that. Just go to the website. It's there. Click on whatever you want to click on. Follow us. Subscribe into our subscription. Subscribe on our website. Subscribe. Find out all the things that you want to see. Stuff that you won't see. Things that people won't get to know. You'll be the first to know.

32:26 So again... Subscribe to that mailing list. That mailing list. We would definitely love to send you some stuff. Lastly, remember to... If you're on YouTube, remember, hit that subscribe button too. If you're on any other networks that we are on. Follow everything. Everything has a follow button. Even on Spotify, on Apple. Follow us everywhere. If you can, whatever your favorite network is. I meant to say that all the time. Subscribe, follow button on every platform. Lock in with us so you won't miss nothing. Also, anybody that's doing some big things, get in contact with us. We mainly want no racism or nothing.

33:09 We want black individuals that's doing something big. You got a podcast, clothing line, you sell candles, whatever. I'm realizing when I'm putting this in there, people are reaching out. Young lady reached out to me today. Got some big things I don't want to talk about. She's doing a little thing, movement. I'm doing a movement. I brought this to her attention. I'm going to be sending her some clothes from my clothing line so she can rock that. If you got any clothes, y'all let me... I'll rock your stuff. We broadcast it, whatever product. You got hats and whatever. I'm saying we'll rock it. We'll promote it. Yeah, I just want to throw that in there. All right.

33:49 Black History Month. Peace.