SPOTLIGHT on Cal "Gameface" Lee

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Hi, and welcome to this episode of Assassin's Sips Spotlight. Today we have Cal Game Face Lee with us. He is the co-host of the Baseline NBA podcast. He is originally born in Brooklyn. But raised in South Florida. He is not a Yankee fan. You're in the minority here, buddy. I almost wore my jersey. We both almost wore our jerseys. My husband was at the game yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

I understand. And after this weekend, and I man, look, okay, let's go.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

He grew up during the start and rise of hip-hop and was an MC and rhymer in high school and college. He's been involved in sports since he was a kid, which has translated into creating a podcast with his best friend and brother, Warren Shaw, who he's known since they were kids. And that's how the Baseline NBA podcast started. So welcome, welcome. I am Lisa, and today I'm sipping on some red wine.

SPEAKER_05 1:16

And I'm Agnes, and I am slipping. I am slipping. I am slipping that too. I am sipping on some kind of lime margarita seltzer mix thing. I don't know. It was in the refrigerator. I popped it open and called it a day.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

And I'm Cal Game Face Lee. And thank you, uh Lisa and Agnes. And I am sipping on some English tea uh because I still have things to do. But preferably if I'm sipping on something, I will be sipping on some good um some really good aged rum. I'm a I'm a rum sore. Uh yeah, and uh don't ask me where that where where all that the beginnings came from because that is South Florida.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Probably.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

No, no, not not necessarily from South Florida.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

Well, just because uh rum is a very Caribbean drink and is a heavy Caribbean influence in South Florida.

SPEAKER_05 2:13

So I feel like his Jamaican roots has something to do with that.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

A little bit. I'll give you, I'll give you, I'll give you, I'll give you a quick backdrop. At least you're not far from it. It's basically, you know, I had to take a uh, what do you call it? Uh it's a layover.

unknown 2:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 2:27

All right, all right. Let's do this.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Um, so during my college days, um, my best friends and I, we were part of what's called the Caribbean Students Association. Um, so during during this time frame, I I'm like a big, I'm I'm big into dance hall, you know, reggae dance hall music and things of that nature.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

Um the good old days.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Yeah, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Um Brooklyn in the 90s.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Uh the basement parties and stuff, man.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Oh, they were the best. Okay, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

I know you're gonna have me, you're gonna have me start re re-watching uh uh Sean Paul Get Busy videos all the time. So um during that time, we um as a you know as a as the association as a group, I was just getting ready to know. And this was actually the first time I was actually surrounded by people that were just not just Jamaican. Like, you know, Warren is Jamaican, I'm Jamaican, uh one of our in our crew, one of our good friends, Dwayne, he's Jamaican. So it's you know, we're just around Jamaicans. But this is the first time I actually has been have been around um a group of people where you know the we had friends are from St. Croix, we had friends from Barbados, we had friends from um uh Trinidad and Tobago. And so we were then introduced um to Carnival. And the first time that we heard about Carnival was during our days in college. And so um a good number of our friends said, hey, we're gonna go down to the Miami Carnival, right? We didn't even know that there was a carnival in our own backyard. You know, I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and I had no idea that there was an actual Miami Carnival, which operates in the same elk as Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival, if people are familiar with the Caribbean carnivals, right? Jamaica Carnival or Propover is Barbados Carnival. So this was our first time actually going down and experiencing Carnival, like seeing it. We didn't get to participate in it. It wasn't until um we actually went to Trinidad and Tobago's carnival. And when I tell people, if there's ever a bucket list, whether you're young, old, if if you're someone who really wants to better understand vibes when it comes to celebrating the Caribbean culture and spirit, you have to go, you have to put the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival on your bucket list. If people tell you, oh yeah, I've been to Carnival before, and that's like saying I went to Carabana or I've been to the West Indian Festival up here in Brooklyn and things of that nature, that's all well and good. But you ain't been to the Mecca. You gotta do the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival one time, at least once. Okay. Um, and I tell you, I I I'll never forget that experience. Um, because the first time that we went there, we just went there to spectate. I will tell you, don't ever go to a Trinidad carnival and think spectating. You go you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna participate. That's the given. That's a given we'll participate in in a TNT carnival. And uh it was it was just so much fun. But that was where I first experienced um experienced rum. Um because rum is the the flavor of the month, the millennium, the set like you want to call it. Um and it's from there that I actually just enjoy you know drinking you know rum in itself, like trying different rums. And you know, there's different styles. You have your in uh your English style type of rums, which are mainly throughout most of the Caribbean. You have your French style rums, which you'll usually get from Martinique, um, Guadeloupe, uh French-influenced uh uh countries or islands. Um, and then you also have your Spanish-style rums. Uh so you you know, they they embrace uh you know rums that are typically like rums that are uh mostly uh um uh distilled and and and and made. They they function between Panama and a lot of Central American countries and things of that nature, but also Cuban rums, uh Puerto Rican, um uh Dominican rums, you will find that prevalent here. And like right now, especially, you know, a lot of people are are getting into the rum scene, and you're beginning to see a vast investment, not just here within the United States and English and also the Caribbean countries, but even South American countries now have re-invested into the rum industry. So Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia is starting to get involved in it. And um, I'll even say this if like you've you know you come up here into the in you know into the city every year now, this thing is probably like the third year going and stuff like that. They have a rum festival in Brooklyn. They had it in Manhattan one year, but they have a rum festival in Brooklyn, and they introduce all of these different kinds of rums. And you you're just amazed at like how the the the technology and the innovation to it and stuff like that. So yeah, I I I enjoy rum. Um I I appreciate uh a really, really good rum. I appreciate the smoothness, and I can also appreciate the harshness of it. Um, and it's one of those few drinks that um, you know, after listening to some soaker music or calypical or you know swelling through your body, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

You know, um after listening to a little bit of that and drinking a little bit of that, man, you feel pretty nice.

SPEAKER_05 8:08

Yeah, I'm going to have to revisit my rum um tasting. Lisa, let's go drink some rum. Let's meet, you know, meet in Florida and then just travel the Caribbean.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

I hear Caribbean.

SPEAKER_05 8:23

Can we Florida? Well, considering that you're coming from New York, I'm coming from Wisconsin. We should just like, you know, pit stop and then, you know.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Layover? Lay over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just label.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Just layover. Absolutely. I'm all for it.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

Sounds fun. We could do that. Okay, sounds like a plan. Okay, like a Caribbean rum crawl.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

Island hoppings. I want to be crawling by the end of the week.

unknown 8:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

You see, you're speaking my language, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 8:54

All right, let's plan it. You know what? All assassin sips plus 19 media, we're all gonna go. There you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

There may be a couple of people rolling, don't know about crawling. Swermin, you know.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Okay. Oh, go ahead, go ahead. No, I was gonna say I was gonna pass it on to you. Oh, I was gonna ask you my silly question and put you in the silly seat. Are you ready? Oh, yes. If you punch yourself in the face and it hurts, are you weak or strong?

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Those are my only two qu uh the two answers, weak or strong.

SPEAKER_05 10:02

Well, no, no. Oh, any combination.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Uh how about annoyed?

SPEAKER_05 10:07

Confused. Why are you punching yourself? That's my question. I'd be like, why am I punching myself?

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Um I I would, I would, I would, I would say that strongly annoyed. How about that? Wrongly annoyed.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

Okay, that's fair.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

I'm still confused. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Well, I guess, you know, because if you're so strong that it you know, are you strong because it hurts or are you weak because it hurts?

SPEAKER_04 10:36

No, the question makes sense, but I don't know why I'm punching myself.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Well, that's so like I don't know either. So when you when you when you you know participate in sports when you participate in sports, sometimes you don't know your own strength. Okay. I'll I'll share, I'll share, I'll share a quick uh quick little scenario. Okay, so as you had had spoken to earlier, right? Um I am a Mets fan. As you are Yankees fans, I take it, right? Okay. So I love baseball. Baseball is my first sport. So it's ironic that I do a basketball podcast.

SPEAKER_05 11:16

I remember you I remember you telling me that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Nothing about baseball, right? Like, no, but I I I I love baseball. I grew up wanting to play baseball. Um, and I always played, you know, I always playing leagues. Like that's one of my things to do. And I remember I was playing um in Little League, and uh I had a friend of mine who would loan me um his bat because I didn't have a bat at that time, you know, for myself. And you know, listen, you know, you have guys of different heights, different lengths, you know, some tall, some skinny, some strong. A couple of guys on my team, pretty big dudes. Like, I don't even know if legally they were like 12, 13 years old. They say they were, but I think they're like 50, 60, right? Like they had mustaches already.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

Yeah, they had a wife and kids back there.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Yeah, they had a tattoo on it, something like that, right? So um, you know, I was saying, hey, you know, do you mind if I if I can borrow your bat? And he's like, Are you sure? I was like, I and he's my friend, but he knows me more than anything. He knows that, like, because I saw him swing and hit a home run, I'm like, I want to try his bat. Little do I know that his bat is like, I'm a twig, and this bat is like three times my size. He's like, I don't know if you should be swinging that bat. I was like, you know, and this is the reason why you practice with your equipment, you practice, you know, so that it's probably so that you don't hurt yourself.

SPEAKER_05 12:37

I know where this is going, but couldn't continue.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

We're MVP, and uh the coach is like, you know, he's throwing pitches, and I'm the very first swing, I whip that bat around because I knew it was heavy. So I figure I gotta be quick and let it fly with the hands. And I let that sucker come around and whack me right upside because I just did not, I it was too heavy and it was too heavy like for my grip and my swing. So I yeah, of course I cried by stupidity because I should have listened to my friend when he told me, man, that bat's too heavy for you. So lesson learned very well. Like, don't mess, don't be messing with other people's stuff.

SPEAKER_05 13:22

Don't mess other people's bats. So that's you were strongly annoyed at yourself at that point.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

I guess anytime after I punch my, like, you know, if I punch myself or do anything like that, I'm strongly annoyed because the very first thing in my head is, you know, you should know better.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

So that's what being strongly annoyed.

SPEAKER_06 13:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

I mean, did you really think I was gonna say I was gonna cry? No. Now that we know you did cry.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

But I don't blame you because I can't imagine what that must feel like, and I'm sure it hurt.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Oh gosh. Well, nothing hurts more though than when you have your back turned and you're you're you're you're playing catch, and then some other guys are playing catch and one of them is a pitcher, and rather than throwing the ball and just, you know, practice tossing, he's actually trying to pitch. And then the guy that's supposed to catch it is not really a catcher, and then one flies past him and hits you right in the back of the head, and you don't know where it's coming from.

SPEAKER_05 14:25

Because in my head, it hit me in the middle of my back. So I'm saying, like, oh, oh.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Oh, the back hurts. The back hurts less than the head.

SPEAKER_05 14:33

I can't even yeah. I think I'm done. This is why I don't do sports. I I watch, I don't I do not participate, do not like pain. I like sports.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

Um I like to play. I'm not like excellent or or even very good, but I like to play.

SPEAKER_05 14:51

The highlight was when uh what 18 like volleyball in junior high school. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

Okay, when well a few years ago it was Jim.

unknown 15:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

Pre-pandemic uh maybe 2017, 2018, I was working in a school doing like after school program for kids, and so we organized a kickball game with the teachers against the students. And um so obviously I was on the teachers team. Those those kids were good, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

And you know, we're there's always an incentive to beat the to beat the staff, to be the teachers.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Oh yeah, yeah. And I mean not not that we were letting them win, but we weren't trying as hard as we could have, you know, because we want we wanted them to have that like that fun, you know, that whatever. But one of the the teachers kicked the ball and like the way I went to catch it, but it shot and it hit right here. Do you understand that I ended up in urgent care the next day?

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 16:06

I had bruised ribs. I was like, it hurts. Why can't I breathe? And they're like, Okay, nothing is broken. But they were like, You you bruised your ribs, and I was like, damn. Like, and here I was thinking, like, I got it, I got it. Like, I I got the ball when the kid kicked it, and I was like, I got it.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

So it was adrenaline that carried you through that, right?

SPEAKER_03 16:28

I pay for it, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

I'd have flopped out.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

I'd have flopped out and been like, I was like, oh no, he kicked it right at me. Oh I'm catching it, but oh, it hit me hard. No regrets. It was still fun. I paid for it, but it was still fun. I'm glad you thought it was fun, because I'd have been I had to get that little sucker out, you know. I l I love all those kids, but okay, so but but we were playing, you know, we were playing.

SPEAKER_05 17:01

Like I would die to win a game. Like I I get I get it. Like if I need to like go to urgent care uh the next day, win the game, it's okay. That's fine. And I don't let little kids win. I'll beat little kids, it's fine. They need to learn.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

But that's a delicate balance though, Lisa, because you know what you were saying before was it's like, you know, we want the kids to learn how to have fun. Um, but you can tell that the kids actually wanted to compete, right? They wanted obviously the bragging rights. See, that's a delicate balance because it's not like the intent is you don't want to try hard, but you certainly do not want to go in there thinking that they can just walk, they walk all over you. I'm sorry, like I I'm not even trying, I'm not even trying to err on that side of caution.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

I'm I'm I try to do this to my nephews, and he said, I don't care if we're playing air hockey, whatever. I'm like, you I was like, you need to prove to me that you know what I'm saying, that you you're the man.

SPEAKER_05 18:01

Right, right, right, right. Because the kids came to kick ass. They don't care. You know, if you have like they have the permission to whip exactly, yeah. They're gonna get the biggest.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

You know, you're playing kickball with your peers, you know, like when you're when you're trying to get them out, I mean you are hurling that ball at them with your strength. Like you don't care if that ball sends them flying across the gym. So that's why I said, like, you know, when it's with the kids, you you want them to compete, and and we are competing, but also we're not attacking them from that level headshots with the ball. No, it's no no, I needed to keep my job, number one. That's very frowned upon. And that's the problem now, you know. But also like you, you just you want them to be encouraged and and to have like that positive reinforcement of like, look, you know, like we're competing and and the teachers are trying. Like, we're not just standing there like, oh, look at the ball fell down, and now oh, you made a run. And you know, we're we're playing, but we're we're not we're also not going as hard as we can because we'd also don't want to hurt them, you know. Like they were like fourth graders and fifth, like fourth, third, fourth, and fifth, I think. So if it was high schools in theory, it's high school game would be headshots would be fun.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

I was about to say, I'm like, man. I was like, I hope these, I hope these are they're like novices. Because I I'm just about to say, like, there has to be that one. There has to be that one that really thinks that he's he's he or she is older than they really think that they are.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Fucking smack, like they really think that would this not be a great opportunity to light them up, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Just to bring them back down to earth, like this is the perfect segue, like you know, yeah. This is why sports is great sometimes, because you know, as as as easily as it can gash you up, it can also humble you quickly, that's for sure, very quickly.

SPEAKER_05 20:06

I'm gonna stay out of all arenas with Lisa.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

Um at Lisa on my softball team. The like the small kid in the class, you know, and and playing Red Rover and getting fucking clotheslined because or like um dodgeball. I I couldn't compete, I was like three feet nothing, you know.

SPEAKER_05 20:31

She's making up for it now, some of those aggressions.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

I mean, Agnes has known me since the third grade. I was tiny, teeny, like nothing. I was always the front of the line, you know, I was the tiniest one.

SPEAKER_05 20:44

I think I was like the third one in line.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

You know, so when back then when we were allowed to play dodgeball and Red Rover, I lost every single time. I didn't get picked for the teams. I did I lost.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

So now as an adult, I'm like I got it's it's interesting, like it's interesting that you say that because I always used sports as a way to kind of I guess build myself up, you know, to be bigger, stronger than what you know I reflect. So, you know, full disclosure, like, you know, growing up, I wanted to play baseball, but I was too small. You know, like when I say too small, like my like I was maybe like five, six, five, seven. I didn't get my last growth spurt until like high school, like my senior year, is when I sprouted up to be like six-one. But if you're talking about, you know, wanting to play professional sports, if you have aspirations of playing in a major league baseball, whatever the case may be, I was about a buck 10, a buck 15 still in high school. So that's the reason I was running cross-country and track. You know, I never really like filled out, you know, or never tried to fill out in that kind of capacity. So, you know, it it kind of sucks. You know, the reality is like you want to, you know, play and and and participate. And this is the reason why I give a lot of credit to some athletes who defy the odds. Because like even right now in basketball, you know, the the idea is if you're five six or five seven or you know, smaller, there's no way you're gonna be. On a professional roster. But you know, you got guys like Muggsy Bogues and Isaiah Thomas and those guys who help defy those odds. And so, you know, listen, you are an inspiration, you know, for those who didn't who never made it professionally in Red Rover, Lisa.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Let you let them know that uh you know you can be, you can, you can grow up to be an adult to take it out on kids.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

You put those to pave the way for people to go out there and and and and play, you know what I'm saying, out their their their their their dreams.

SPEAKER_05 23:02

She's not gonna put the posters on her wall now, like I could be them when I grow up.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

So so what drew you as a baseball fan and wanting to be a baseball player, what drew you to making a podcast about basketball?

SPEAKER_02 23:20

So when I moved to uh to New Jersey.

SPEAKER_03 23:26

Um what part of New Jersey, if you don't mind me asking?

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Uh Jersey City.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

Jersey City. Um my cousin, you know, lived in Jersey City and he worked for uh CBS. And um he was um handling a uh website called GameCore. So at the time, CBS you know had its foot in the game covering video games, especially the height of popularity of video games, you know, when Call of Duty started coming out thing. But you know, there was also sports video games like Madden and NBA 2K and all those kind of things. And my cousin had access to you know the events that they would hold in the city, you know, whenever they were getting ready to release those games and things of that nature. And he was like, you know, if you had to interview Emmett Smith or Derek Rose or whoever, you know, he would ask me like what would be the questions that you would ask. And he realized, he's like, dude, you should like come and do these interviews. So I came up a couple of times, and during those events, I had access to you know do interviews with a couple of the players and things of that nature. At the same time, my my boy Warren, he's um, you know, basically writing articles on Yahoo sports, and you know, you know, we're always having conversations about things regarding basketball and stuff like that. So anyway, we got um I got invited to go to the NBA All-Star Weekend um one year, and I actually invited Shaw to come out there as well, too. It's this way gave him access to be able to interview some people, and he can help write stories and you know, like help, you know, build up what he was doing covering, you know, the NBA. And then after we got all of this material and stuff and everything, like most of that stuff unfortunately did not get featured on the CBS website. And so it kind of frustrated me in the sense that I'm like, man, they've got all of this stuff of talking basketball and no place to put it. So then one day I was sitting having a conversation with him, and I was just like, bro, do you want to do a podcast that's talking NBA? He's like, sure. And it's like, all right, let's do it, right? And so um we were trying to figure out what we can do in order to start the podcast. So we came across this app, shout outs to iPadio. This was an app, it was in a beta phase. I think they were an English-based um app company. And uh at the time I had access to downloading this app because I I had used I was using um an iPhone and uh we decided to record using two cell phones and that app. We recorded the very first episode of the baseline NBA podcast and you know kind of went from there. We we just basically wanted there to be a space where we're talking NBA and only NBA, and we're not, you know, being held hostage to, well, you'll talk about the NBA only after we've talked about college football, or only after we've talked about the NFL, which obviously are the most popular sports to be discussed on all the major networks. So, you know, we decided to say, oh, we want to speak, you know, our basketball, let's have it on this podcast. And, you know, that's kind of how that all came to be. But funny enough, our upbringing, we grew up on baseball. I grew up on baseball, and when I first met him, he was, you know, he was also a Mets fan as well, too. And in the neighborhood, he was the first person that, you know, I reached out to, reached out to me to be played baseball together. It was it wasn't until later on when he was going into high school that he really got into wanting to do basketball. Like he played basketball for high school and things of that nature. And even though he didn't wanted to carry it that into, you know, into college or anything like that, he was more into the game of basketball, say, than I was. Um, so it's just interesting like how one sport can take you to another. But that's not how everything came about, man. We just we wanted to have a podcast or a platform that kind of like really highlighted and featured basketball. And during that time, too, the basketball podcasts were, you know, they weren't common. There was only like a couple that were out there. And now they're all over the place. Everyone's got a basketball podcast. You got people who probably have never played basketball, never talked basketball, but they just have a basketball friend. And so now the person gets on their podcast, shares stories, and they got a basketball podcast.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

Yeah, yeah. So you've been podcasting since 2011.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

In terms of your podcast, I mean, you know, that's 14 years, so that's that's really, really early on in the space. So that's pretty cool right there. That the fact that not only that you started so early, but that you've continued and grown in that space. But for you reflecting on your podcast growth, how do you feel that the show has changed or grown from how you started to where it is now? Like is this something that you envisioned or is this kind of like an uh like a happy accident? You know, how did how does it feel to have such a long-term podcast? Like, I mean, because I think that it's amazing because a lot of people don't continue in in the space, you know, for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Yeah. So I often, I always, you know, and I and Sean and I we always kind of reflect on this um whenever we have the opportunity. I I just think it's just been a blessing that we've had this um opportunity to be able to do it. And I listen, I give all the credit to him um that we have this level of consistency and desire to continue to do it. I I don't think you can just do it just simply because, oh, I want to do it and things don't work out. You go and find somebody else and do it with. You know, you've seen iterations of shows where people go and get other people because things don't work out, and then they try to, you know, bring have, you know, try to recreate that same magic and it's just not there, which really tells you how much of yourself you put into doing the show and how much you put into doing the podcast. I can honestly say, man, it's been such a wild experience. Um, you know, do we have like the numbers that like you'll see from like most of these other major podcasts that are out there?

unknown 30:04

Nah.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Um, the one thing that I can honestly say that I'm proud of is the fact that we want to continue to keep doing it, and we still continue to keep doing it. And um, you know, for the people who have listened to us, whether they're still listening to us or no longer listening to us, again, just the fact that our voice has a place and we've we've we've asserted that uh has meant so much for us and and we appreciate that more than anything. And it's evolved. You know, um, you know, first the conversations were just him and I, right? Um, but we've had opportunities to interview athletes, authors, um, we've interviewed um pro-NBA players, we've interviewed uh people in who do partnerships with the NBA, uh, who, you know, those who work with NBA players and doing fundraising efforts. So like what's really been cool is the fact that we haven't just confined it to saying we're only going to talk about just what happened today in the NBA. Like there are so much other things that are happening in the NBA. In the NBA. Right. That I think most people don't know about, and that in ways can help give people um another reason for them to be interested in listening or not just us, but also checking out, you know, the NBA in and of itself. It's why, you know, as a global brand, the NBA has expanded so far. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, we've been fortunate to have uh a platform and help build a platform that can speak to those things. And uh it's been great. You know, it's been great to be able to do that for as long as we've been able to do it. Knock on wood, we'll continue to keep doing it until you know they say the wheels fall off. So, you know, that's that's how it's been. And to, you know, to your point, Lisa, I do think that in some ways there is that nothing is ever just only planned out. I do think that there are some happy accidents that that that take place. And and we've experienced some great accidental things in doing the podcast that I think has benefited us in continuing to be consistent and maintain that level of consistency throughout. So we've seen you know guys at great potential flame out. Uh, we've seen entities who promise the world, um, who promise to you know look out for our best interests and want to build us up and literally do nothing for us, right? And we hold no grudges. It is what it is, it's a business, we get that, and everything like that. And eventually, if you're true to yourself, you stay true to you know, seeing those that are actually true to themselves as well, too, and what their intentions are. If you're really trying to build a partnership or you're just trying to get what you need to get out of it, you'll be out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

I think that's an important thing that you said is being true to yourself. And um so one of the the podcasts that I listened to is actually like the Buzz Sprout Podcast. And I know the episode was from a few weeks ago. But they were talking about podcasting with the little P and obviously I'm not gonna remember what they said verbatim, but it was basically giving validation to podcast podcasts and podcasters who who show up every week, who continue to put out their content and regardless if they have like these big numbers or big following, that sometimes it's okay to just have a show that appeals to the niche, to the few. And also but also sometimes how important it is to feel validated when you don't have those numbers. And you know, so they they went on to say sometimes just simply receiving feedback or message, you know, saying, Hey, I really enjoyed your show this week is all we need to keep going to the next week because somebody out there is listening, someone and and that personal accountability, that continue effort to show to show up every week is sometimes it's a lot, you know. Sometimes life happens and things happen and it's not always easy, but but the fact that we keep showing up, even though we're not I mean, Agnes, you know, I also we're not getting hundreds of thousands of downloads, and that's okay, you know, because we have received feedback, we have received those messages that say, Oh my god, that was so funny when you said that, or whatever it is, you know what I mean? And it's like aw, like you know, a little bit imposter syndrome, a little bit like a lot of embarrassment, you know, but but it's it's so important that you're true to yourself because when it comes from a place of authenticity, it's easier to keep going, even if it kind of feels like no one is listening.

SPEAKER_05 35:15

And I think I've learned from the few, well, the two podfests I've gone to, it's pretty much universal people's thought. If you're going into this just for the numbers, your listeners can tell you're inauthentic. They can tell is you're not gonna get it. No one cares, as opposed to those like I want to do this because I want to do it. They're gonna make a couple of dollars out of it, great, but it's that's not the purpose. That's not and our listeners know, I think. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

Like we know, we know that um you know, people are gonna go to the major uh networks in order to hear and consume their information when it comes to the NBA. Um, and we get that. There's that there's no skirting. I think if the intent was is that, hey, you know, we want to then then why not try to do whatever we can to get signed by them. You know what I'm saying? Like that that's that that was the intent. I I and it's not to say that that's not that could ever be a goal, but I think where, especially for doing this for as long as we've been doing this, where I have seen that we have carved a niche, is one the uniqueness in the delivery. And then to your point and what you were just saying, Lisa, there is clearly a chemistry that myself and Shaw have had that have been built up over the years of doing this. It's not something that, you know, Shaw came in and he was a professional podcaster. I came in, I was a professional podcaster. There were certain things that that helped influence the ability for us to find that chemistry. What I take pride in, and I guess maybe it's not so much as a silly question to ask, but maybe to add on top of what you may have been talking about, is one of the things that I appreciate the most is when I get feedback from our uh people that we've interviewed, whether it's after the show or after the show has been released, and they come back and they say, Man, I had a really good time talking with you guys.

SPEAKER_06 37:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

He's like, damn, like, yo, I would love to. It's like, I would wish that you guys um, you know, let me know the next time you want to come back on. Like they want to come back on and have us do another episode or do another show. That means the world to us because it gives us a validation of saying they can go on a million and one of these different shows and they can feel some kind of way, but uniquely they felt a good way after the end of being on our show, regardless of whether or not our show got one listener or download or got a thousand downloads. Like that to me validates we know what we're doing. Um, especially when you have people, because our our our podcasts audio-wise, we tend to do it as a uh, you know, uh pre-recorded, you know, because we do the editing and we got to mix it down and stuff. We tell them, say, listen, if there's anything that you want us to stop, edit, do whatever, whatever, feel free. But most times, I want to say 98% of the time for all of the shows that we've done, interviews and things of that nature, it's been one take. I may have to take out a couple of things because there may have been an interruption in the in in the sound or got to splice something because something came off choppy, but the flow of the questions and the responses, everything literally just stays in there. And I think people appreciate that authenticity of the exchange with the host um and with the you know, the person who's being interviewed and back and forth. And and that to us speaks loudly. Like we respect that so much because it means it matters to us that what we're doing is we're making them feel comfortable. And you know, that's exactly they're enjoying that experience and not looking at it as oh God, I gotta jump on another show. I gotta do another, you know what I'm saying? And then you gotta try to force feed and engage in conversation that otherwise would never be engaging because they just have bad experiences with the people who are hosting that show or doing the Q ⁇ A's with them and things of that nature. And we just don't want that to be the experience for them.

SPEAKER_05 39:25

Yeah, it's the same here. I find that we've had quite a few guests after the fair after the fact was say, you know, that was fun. You guys gave me gave me a safe space to be open. And I it just it's straight to the heart.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

I'm like, we did, yeah, and and we don't want to say, oh, I would love to come back. It's that is one of the the highest forms, I guess, of flattery. And we one million percent never set out to embarrass anyone or to make anyone uncomfortable. Even the clips that we we try to put out, you know, we try to put out the things that are fun and catchy, but never never anything that feels like it's at their expense. At their expense because we don't want people to we feel like when you when you're on our show, you are a guest in our home. And and you should feel comfortable here because that's that's that's love, you know, that's that's kindness, that's what we want. We don't want somebody to be like those stupid fucking bitches, like what the hell? You know, like we don't right.

SPEAKER_05 40:42

I tell I my thing is when we we like we didn't do the whole thing. Spotlight is um as us talking on the veranda drinking mint julep, that kind of vibe. Or sweet tea, or whatever you or rum or rum punch. Or rum punch. That's the vibe we're going for. And I think we're pretty I think we do a pretty good job with that.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

So the next time that I that the next time I stop by your house, I will be I will shall shall be breaking open a bottle of some rum.

SPEAKER_05 41:19

No matter whose house is gonna be at, we'll make sure we have rum. Yes. I'm gonna keep a picture of rum punch just in case. And I'm Puerto Rican, we always have rum here. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

You know, hey, I'm listening, I'm good for it.

SPEAKER_03 41:35

So and you know, and even we've had guests who afterwards have said, you know, by the way, I'm a little unsure about how you know such and such topic may sound. And and and I've been like, you know what, I will send you the episode or I will send you the clip before I publish. And if you don't feel comfortable with what you said or or how it was presented, I will be happy to take it out. Because I just don't want anyone to feel like I regret I regret having that conversation with them. I regret putting myself on their show.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

Yeah, like that's you know, unfortunately, we're in a space where those who host shows are so driven by the idea of making sure that they get the numbers to obviously maintain their their their advertisement um partnerships, and that if they're asking a question, they're hoping that that person is you know gonna provide a click-worthy you know, soundbite. Soundbite. Um, and then what'll happen is it just makes for an awkward you know experience, right? And so part of the problem that you have is you know, is you as a as a as a as a as a guest, I'm sorry, a guest is but as a host, you have to challenge yourself in saying, is that what you want the outcome to be? Because what'll happen is that's easy. Yeah. The flip side to this as well, too, is look, you can have the greatest editors in the world. And you know, there are some great people out there who do great editing work and things of that nature, and they can edit everything and make it look all well and good. But what doesn't get discussed is if you're interviewing someone that's got a little bit of clout, they've got a little bit of teeth in the game. You don't think that they're gonna start talking to some of their friends. You eventually are gonna try and reach out to those same friends and want to do interviews with them, and the word has not already gotten around. No, no, no, don't do anything with that cat. That cat, nah, you're not gonna enjoy that experience. I we don't ever want to be in that space where our credibility is compromised just because it was so necessary to catch that person in a moment. You know what I mean? Like the moment really should be about what is it that you really feel is necessary to discuss. And I think as any good host, you can help elevate that conversation to such a degree that it will be clickworthy. But again, that comes with the desire of you know what it is that you want to be in this space. There's so many different lanes that you can travel in. Especially when it comes to podcasting. And one of the things, like I enjoy hosting, don't get me wrong, I enjoy it. But I also recognize as well that part of that is also helping. I guess maybe that's how it is. It's always been like in my background, like I mentioned, I used to MC. I used to love being on the stage and be in front of crowds, rocking the mic and getting everybody hyped up and getting them set. I didn't have to, I don't have to be the featured person. I don't have to be the one. I could very much just want to be the person to get everybody in the mode because I am confident that whoever else is following up, whoever else is coming up after me, is going to take that to the next level. If you feel threatened by the fact that I come off in a certain way that got those people thinking and speaking a certain other thing, that's a you problem. But my expectation is like if we're all on a team, we're all trying to build each other up, right? Like this episode is an episode to help build each other up. You know what I mean? Like we want everybody from different sects of whatever they feel from gathering in this show, whether it's from a sports perspective, from a cash perspective, from a friendship perspective, from a podcasting perspective. There's so many different perspectives. But I'm sure that any one person who's listening to this can take something from this and be like, I feel where you're coming from. I know exactly where you're coming from because it all it all is connected, you know. So, you know, that's one of the things, again, that I I've I've appreciated so much. You know, like my man Shaw, he's got this um uh he's got a show called Dope Interviews. And um, you know, I'm not trying to speak any ill of him or anything like that, but if you ever grew up around us, he is the kind of person that's very quiet in his demeanor, even off the very quiet in his demeanor. But I think a lot of what has happened between us and doing the podcast has allowed him to now create in his own space and do things uniquely that allows him to show us a different side. And I appreciate that because with him, there's aspects to what I used to do very quietly and stuff like that. Now that comes out differently, and it's all because we were doing this podcast.

SPEAKER_05 46:38

Doing that.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

We've been doing it for as long as we've been doing it. And so that's always been like, again, like when I say it's just, you know, things happen for a reason and stuff like that, man. That's the reason why I've appreciated so much. And now through that, we have, you know, 19 Media Group, and we have the family of all of these people with unique personalities and unique stories to tell. And we're helping to help create a platform that gives them that voice for them to speak those stories, to give that perspective and to reach out to even broader audiences. And even our sports listeners, they're not always listening to sports. There may actually be something from that that they can pull from there and be like, yo, these guys do something more than just talk NBA. You know what I'm saying? And so if there's a way for us to continue to keep doing that, we're gonna continue to keep doing that. Like, especially like right now, the NBA season is uh the regular season is coming to a close. And around this time of the year, uh Sean and I, um we have you know this theme where teams that are being eliminated from you know being able to participate in the playoff picture, so to speak, um, we do what we call the autopsy reports. So um once the uh once the NBA has has has confirmed that they're, as us Jamaicans say, dead and gone, Barry and Gwe, uh Shaw and I uh play CSI and we you know kind of look at you know what's going on with this team, why things turned the way that they did, and whether or not you know there's a possibility of resuscitating their resuscitating them for next season. Like what is it gonna take in order to you know probably look into doing things in the offseason for them to improve and and and possibly improve upon what obviously has been a disappointing year if you're getting knocked out this early. So we just finished doing um the Charlotte Hornets and the Utah Jazz. And you know, we try to cover all the teams, you know. So it's good that we start on the early side because then once the playoffs kick in, now all the focus and attention is on the teams that are still alive, right? Right. So we get a jump on that not to make light of the those that have already had their seasons, you know, but it's good to get on get on them early. So this way we give the time to speak about what happened with the season and things of that nature and stuff. So that's kind of where things are. Like we just finished recording the uh Utah Jazz and the uh the Charlotte Hornets. And so, you know, every week we'll do one or two teams that we know have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs and put them in the autopsy report. And then even when the playoffs take place, a team gets eliminated in the playoffs, they're the next team that gets put on, you know, gets we call them put them on the slab. We put them on the slab, yeah, we we we discuss them in the uh in the autopsy. So um it's it's fun. Um we actually you know stepped up our game a little bit. Now I got a lab coat, a stethoscope, and and uh a get up man shaw came out in the scrubs.

SPEAKER_03 49:47

Uh that's so great.

SPEAKER_02 49:52

We you know, we we we like to, you know, we like to you know not make light of, make fun of. But we obviously, you know, we take joy in, you know, in being able to say, hey, you know, this is the concept we came up with. We wanted to, you know, not make it so serious at the same time, though, you know, kind of put emphasis on the fact that, you know, we're talking about these teams and trying to hopefully put a perspective on it that's making it say, like, hey, like as a fan, if you were disappointed, what about the season is disappointing? And also, what can you look forward to, right? Like, is and it could be something as simple as maybe a player, you know, they had a rash of injuries. It could be the uh the organization, it could be whatever. Um we have fun in in doing that and stuff like that. I think there was one time we had like uh we had a uh a guest on, and uh if we had thought about it ahead of time, we would have loved to have kind of themed it out a little bit. But you know, it's kind of one of those things where you know now we're it's it's becoming a thing. People are kind of like looking forward to it. We'll get some feedback from people. Oh, yeah, I love when you guys do the autopsy and stuff like that. So we kind of roll with it and uh we have fun with it.

SPEAKER_03 50:58

Okay. That's I mean, that sounds so like um a unique take. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 51:05

Yeah. That's it's one of the reasons that I think as um as a podcast and as as a show um has allowed us to be able to continue to keep doing this. I think it's great, you know, everybody wants to kind of weigh in on the hot button topic that's going on. And that's great. But I think if you're planning to do a podcast, if you're planning to do a show, a lot of it has to be the uniqueness of your creativity, like being able to put yourself in a different space and getting listeners to think in a different space, approaching it a little bit differently. And I think that's what keeps, you know, that's just my personal opinion. I think that's what keeps people loyal to you, keeps loyal to your fan base, so to speak, within the community of people, because it's not, you know, you can go to ESPN and and and you know, if they are in the mood, they'll have a conversation about your team, maybe something controversial. Um, or you can go to any of these major networks and they'll probably talk about what's going on. What Sean and I like to do is we like to try to bring some perspective to it that may go beyond that, and it may be something that most of these networks don't have the time to decide that conversation. So we're not afraid to want to do it. You know what I'm saying? Um does that make mean that you know it makes us the most credible? Probably not. But I'm sure that we're not the only person who's thinking along those lines, like, you know, hey man, is it that once the team gets eliminated, we can't talk about them? You should talk about them. Like if you're a fan and you're paying money, you want to know like, what do I need to do for me to come into that same arena, but not as a team that's 16 and 58. You know what I'm saying? 58 and 16, right? Like, I'm sure you want to have like a community of people talking about why your team needs to be better or what you would like to see for them to be more successful. So that's that's kind of like you know, been our MO a little bit is trying to come up with unique scenarios and segments and things that kind of extend the conversation. And and in a way, it's kind of highlighted us as individuals about how we feel about this the sport, you know, how we feel about basketball. We got another segment we call is you know who you got. And the the idea of the segment really just stems from the fact that I grew up, you know, uh the days listening to Black Sheik, Mr. Lounge, and Drez, and it's either you can get with this or you can get with that. Yeah, exactly. So we take a lot of what we grew up in, our hip hop culture, and we found a way to kind of implement it. I know a lot of people, the first thing people think about is they think of Stuart Scott, you know, God rest his soul, one of the pioneers of um NBA, uh not MBA, but um sports uh uh uh coverage, sports hosting. Um, he took his influences of hip-hop and interjected it when he's doing the play-by-play highlights. And it spread like wildfire. And I mean, if people don't acknowledge and recognize that, then they you know have been in a cave because that this doesn't come out of anywhere. A lot of our media influence, whether it's podcasting, radio, wherever your background comes from, if there's something from within your culture that has made you uniquely different and you figure out a way to fuse that in there, you've you've quote unquote, you have uh found the ring.

SPEAKER_05 54:26

You found the ring, right? You found the sweet spot.

SPEAKER_02 54:29

Exactly. So that's you know, kind of like where we are, man. Like I like the idea that we, you know, we may seem like old heads to most people because of some of the references and you know, uh phrases that we've thrown out there, but I like that because I know that a good portion of our audiences are people that grew up watching the game of basketball the same age as we are. And um, while we're still trying to bridge the gap, you know, young kids write, they're they're on the Anthony Edwards and the Jason Tatums and those guys, they're still that um they're still that bridge. You know what I mean? Right.

SPEAKER_05 55:03

You know, I think with hip-hop, even if it's before your birth, God, fucking aging myself, it's still transcend. The hip hop as a whole transcends time, space, culture, what have you. Because it's it's it's music that you feel from your soul. Yep back to jazz, back to you know, it's something you can relate to regardless of your age. So bring those young kids in and teach them how, you know, using sports to teach them good music, okay? I know it, I know the purpose is vice versa, but isn't it funny how how this has evolved, right?

SPEAKER_02 55:44

Like I grew up, you know, when I was growing up in Brooklyn, I was fascinated by the eight-track at the end of when eight-tracks were being used, right? But the first person um the the first time that I actually was you know introduced to music was through that eight-track. You know what I'm saying? And so I didn't know anything about hip hop until I started hearing the boom vap and when you know cool her came out, and you know, then then his name starts resonating in the in the boroughs. Like it's funny how word travels differently nowadays. Word travels via through what you do on Instagram or Twitter, but word traveled just as equally fast, if not resonated more so on the Bronx, and you live all the way down in Flatbush, right? Like, and the word still travels, it just travels differently and it resonates differently with the culture as well. So nowadays, I think a lot of kids they gravitate to what the media brands as the form of communication that you use. Whereas you, as the individual, used to be that person, you used to be the carrier of that.

SPEAKER_05 57:00

You your own algorithm.

SPEAKER_02 57:02

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 57:03

Brings a tear to my eye, warms my icy heart.

SPEAKER_03 57:10

Well, it's just something so inherently good when you see people extend the hand for others, you know, instead of burning the bridge behind you, extending your hand to help others cross it.

SPEAKER_05 57:27

And I find that's inherently between podcasters, like podcasters have realized that market share expands the more people that are in it as opposed to dividing it up. And I think as a whole, the podcasting community is extremely inclusive.

SPEAKER_02 57:45

Yeah. And I think, you know, what we've I don't know if you gathered this, but uh what I've noticed in especially in being at Podfest, which I'm again ever so grateful, is in you know, basically in our stomping ground out there in Orlando, Florida, you know, shout out to University of Central Florida. You know, that's that's that's our stomping ground, Shaw and I. We graduated college from there and everything like that. Spent a lot of years in Orlando before I eventually moved back up uh north. But one of the things that I appreciated more than anything about what I think part of the message was is you don't know how valuable you are until you find a way to ingratiate your unique space to others for them to listen to. Like once you figured out a way to get the Sassin's Sip listener to take a listen to a baseline NBA podcast episode or a small town episode or something. You know what I mean? Like if you figured out a way, it's kind of like the Da Vinci Code. If you figured out a way to put yourself in their space to bring something that can uniquely bring them to you, not to say that they have to be a dedicated listener. I think people get that confused. Confused. I think that they they have to be like subscribing to you. They don't have to subscribe to you, but they can be uniquely keen in and saying, oh, you know, I remember that person from such and such. And then the next thing you know, they'll follow you on a short. And then the next thing you know, they'll follow you on another platform. And then the next thing you know, like you're speaking about something that in that moment, they're like, oh yeah, I get where that person's coming from. And now all of a sudden, they're following you, the person, maybe more so than they are following, say, the show. So in a way, they're still following you because if you are connected to your show, they're following you. You know what I'm saying? And so your show benefits from it regardless. So, yeah, like, you know, that's one of the things that we've actually recognized, especially for the years that we've been doing this. It's like we didn't, you know, we were so focused about trying to carve out our space in the NBA space that we didn't even realize that we were also having an impact in other spaces because of the material and the content and the way that we've been going about doing our show, the influences that we we we input with the hip hop, uh, things that we speak to from a political sense when we addressed, you know, certain stances that the um NBA players took during uh the um with uh George Floyd and Milwaukee Bucks. Like we didn't have to be in those spaces. Our advocacy to see uh more um uh uh black women um uh being prevalent and present in the in the sports space and things of that nature and giving opportunities for you know those uh that are currently doing shows to get on and and talk about their shows, but also talk sports with us and things of that nature. We've done those things. Now, have we done those things where it's like three million people plus people were able to catch that, see that? No. But even if it was just that small gathering of people that did catch on to that and uniquely fine into that, hopefully that they know that we genuinely wanted to make that something that is a part of our ethos, right? A part of your ethos, and that it's something that we do feel, right? Like, so that's what we've hoped has happened on most, if not all, of the shows that we've done is get a level of a connectivity there where if it doesn't necessarily have to be about the show, that's fine. But if it's us, you don't see too much of a diff a difference between the two things.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:19

Right. Yeah, and I think that intersectionality invades all spaces. Sports, not just sports, you know, it's not just who won and what was the score and who did they play and who attended. Same with like me and Agnes talking about TV. It it leads to so many other and you know, I remember having a teacher in college who always viewed it as like railroad tracks, you know, you have the two, and then each bar across is like and it it it crosses this way and it crosses this way and it crosses this way because it just evolves into so many different topics. But but that's how life is. That's how life is. It's we don't exist in a vacuum. So sports has an impact in politics, in race, in family, in finance, music. Yeah, like we do a disservice if we don't acknowledge it. If we just say, Oh, well, the game, you know, yesterday so-and-so played, and this was the score, and so and so hit a three-pointer, and it was a good game. Nobody got into a fight, everybody was happy. Kumbaya. No, no, that's not life. Like that's just yeah, maybe that's what happened, but we're not talking about why and when and how and what didn't happen.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:53

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:53

We need all of it. We we need to understand all of the parts. You know, you get into a car, all right. You maybe most people get into a car nowadays, they push a button, all right? I get into a car, I turn a key. But but it's all those parts coming together to make that car turn on, and all we know is what we push the button. Or turn the key. Or turn the key, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:19

And then when it doesn't turn on, you're already cursing you're already cursing out the right, right.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:23

But you know, we we like to say, okay, well, get in and turn on the car and you go. And that's that's what we want, right? We want the outcome, but sometimes we need to take a step back and figure out, well, how does this work? Because when when it doesn't work as we expect it or as we want it, then we're like, well, wait a minute, what went wrong? And now we have to start dissecting this part and there's this part and there's this part, and this is how this works with this, and then it works with this, and then it's a whole big thing. But everything is like that. You know, everything has all of these layers and all of these parts that work together for different outcomes, and I think a lot of people get so focused on the outcome that we forget about the parts, and we can't forget about the parts because the parts working together is is how we come to the outcome. You know, it's it's it just doesn't happen. Things don't just happen, we make them happen, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:28

Yeah, no, absolutely. I completely agree with where you're coming from, and you know, to your point, you know, that's how 19 media group is, right? Like 19 media group really doesn't happen unless and I'm not saying this because I'm trying to be um uh braggadocious, obnoxious, or anything like that. But 19 Media Group doesn't happen unless shows like ours and the ones that we help support and the ones that support us in turn are doing that and are doing that on a consistent basis. There's no way that people can look and say, oh yeah, 19 Media Group is about amplifying voices, but neither of these guys really try and support each other. And then you can tell me you're gonna have a coherent message telling anyone, whether it's in front of a camera or off the camera, that that's exactly what's happening. So, to your point, in order for you to be able to help amplify the voice, you gotta know about those individual shows, those individual hosts. What, what are what is it that they're doing to build their platform? What is it that they're doing to, you know, that and where can you come in to help elevate that? You know what I mean? Um to me, it's it's even if you're someone who's just doing an individual show, knowing who's helping you work on the show, who's helping you put together, you know, the topics for the show, who's helping on your on your um your marketing strategy or your social media strategy. Knowing all of those things plays a big role in how you collectively come together to make it the best product possible because it's a representation of yourself. It speaks to who you are and what it is that you're passionate for. I can't imagine that you just leaving it in the hands of someone, but you don't know who that person is. Who it is and thinking you're gonna get the outcome. That outcome that you want, right? Who you are as a person. That's asinine. It'll never happen. Even if you think it is, it's not. Because eventually people are going to affiliate themselves to whoever it is that's responsible for it. And that person that's responsible for it will be the first person to tell you, I'm the one who did that. You know what I'm saying? And very rightly so. Because you decided to give that up. You gave that part of it up. It doesn't mean that like you have to be the person completely working, you know, on it all the time, but you gotta have a hand in it some way, somehow.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:58

It's the only way that you're gonna know that your imprint is even on this on there, and that who you want to represent yourself as is being representative properly. My cat. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:11

He's just I thought for a moment, I thought your cat was was was was saying, I I agree, I agree.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:19

He's like getting in my face and nudge. I'm sorry. Like a toddler.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:25

Good never asked your silly question.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:28

Oh, my silly question. Um, okay. Oh, wait, I gotta get the right wording because it can come out. What's your favorite silly song to sing in the shower? Oh, in the car. Anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:44

In the car.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:45

I had to change that because I'm like, okay, this is this add the car to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:51

Um goodness gracious. And they were just talking about this dude. Um, what's his name? Uh hold on a second. Okay. You were just talking about this dude.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:13

This is gonna be good.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:15

Y'all remember that song um from Jermaine Stewart? You don't have to take your clothes off. You don't remember this song?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:26

No. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Have a good time. Yes. Oh yes, yes. You know, yes, yes, I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:39

Which is ironic. Y'all are drinking wine and you don't even know what I'm talking about. Like this is because we're drinking.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:44

I know what you're talking about. I didn't know we I had to I had to no, we needed to rendition. I shouldn't always think about the names of songs.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:50

That was what you wanted. That's what you did about Wait, I'm sorry, I forgot again.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:57

Can you sing again, please? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:01

Yeah, so that's uh I don't ask me how. Don't even ask me why, when, how, what. You know, you know what it is? I think it was one of those songs that when it came on the radio, because it was such a one-hit wonder, right? And at that time there was like 30 other songs very similar to that to it. How? So, like, you know, Janet Jackson.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:22

I was because that's the one that I was and I was like, no, that's not Janet Jackson.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:25

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:26

Oh, of course, you know, I'm sitting here thinking to myself, I'm like, oh. This song has been like in my head intermittently, like throughout forever. And so I have an actual playlist I called a Wayback. And so uh I'm sitting here just rifling, like throwing songs in there. The first thing coming to my head around stuff that I was listening to is a kid, because I know I'm gonna forget about it, but I'm probably gonna want to listen to it in here.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:53

Like the random you're never hearing. It's not something that would get played again ever.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:58

So unless unless you're on that radio station person who's as old as you that like don't know the song, well, nobody else does, right? Um yeah, so shout out, shout out, and you know, prayers up to Jermaine Stewart. You know, what was that song in Gidley's?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:15

What was that song in the first time? I can't remember now.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:21

Yeah, just replay this video this episode. That's all you gotta do. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:25

Okay, yeah, we deserve it.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:28

Oh yeah, just around and get into a car accident, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:34

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:36

I'm sorry, did you get the head movement too?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:39

No, you gotta get the yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:42

Night of the rocksbury.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:44

This is definitely going as a clip.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:49

Oh my goodness. I wasn't supposed to sign some sort of waiver, some disclaimer or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:56

I think you did already. I probably did.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:59

I don't even know what I signed off on. Oh bad.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:03

Oh, yeah, you know, blood type tissue shop, sign in blood, and also free babysitting anytime we ask for it.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:10

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, do that too.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:13

All right. As long as y'all, as long as y'all pay for the you pay for the uh what is it, the travel expenses.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:18

The travel. Where where are you now? Are you still in Florida?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:22

No, no, I'm in uh I'm in Jersey.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:24

Oh, okay. I'm in Jersey.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:26

See? Easy breezy.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:28

You say you got your got your free babysitter.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:31

I I where we're in Jersey. I'll edit it out if you don't want to say.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:34

No, no, no, it's fine. I'm in uh I'm in uh Port Lee.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:38

Oh, okay. I'm in Oldbridge. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:41

So you're down.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:42

Yeah. I was I was up in Bergenfield yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:45

Oh, were you? I think it's a good my people's there in Bergenfield, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:49

Yeah, I got family.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:49

Oh, you got family there?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:50

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:51

It'd be it would be um interesting if I mentioned to if I mentioned to my boy uh Jamal, I'd be like, Do you know Early and Lisa? He's probably like, oh, I know this family.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:02

We are the loud ones. So it's it's uh my husband's cousins and it's two two different cousins. Like they're also cousins, but they live like caddy corner, you know, to each other. So when we go up there, it's like, okay, whose house are we going to?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:20

Well, you know, it's so funny. Like uh one of the things that I've learned, um, at least in Bergen, New Jersey, is people don't believe in this area, man. Like, I I know a lot of people who, yeah, maybe they've gone and and left for a short stint, but have wound up back here and like they're back here and they're like have cousins and everyone like that, like all still in proximity of each other. Like the like the yeah, like the there are people here who I know more of that went to school in Teaneck, went to Bergen Community. Um, they may have gone to Ruckers, maybe they've gone to Villanova, whatever, but they they move back here, they're here. You know, like I I've never even seen that. Because like if I live down in South Florida, like most of everyone that I know of, the people that I went to high school with, man, they ain't there no more. And if they're there, it's because family is kept is still there. Like they're in that area, that neighborhood, because family is still there, and that's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:18

Yeah. Well, that's how his cousins ended up there. I mean, we're pretty much all originally from Brooklyn, and then his one cousin. They I think they ended up in the Bronx or somewhere in the city, like north you know, like not Washington Heights, but somewhere over there. And then the friend was selling the house, so they went to look at it and they were like, you know what, actually, like we could see ourselves here, you know? Whatever. So they started over there. And then the other cousin was kind of like new start, a house came available, you know, so so close that they were like, you know what? We like where he lives, it's it's a really nice neighborhood, and so they went when we decided to make our exodus from New York a few years ago we looked more north because there's already family, but the taxes were just too high. So you know, we we the only reason that we're here is because it's still commutable, it's a very commutable neighborhood, and the taxes were lower, and it's not too far south.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:33

It's not like you know, I mean, you still have the ability to travel north and still be within proximity of you know, obviously your immediate family people that you do want to see mostly, because that's one thing that I will give, you know, Jersey in its in in this in the fact that you have the Garden State Parkway, got the turnpike, and you can basically run through most of the state, you know, very much down, you know, coming from that far south down to be able to come up north and be able to catch everything like that. Once you get past Jersey and you're starting to head east, northeast and stuff like that, that starts narrowing down those options of how your travel is and travel time to see people. Got a cousin, love him to death. What's probably one of the most funniest people. Like, if you ever had him on this on this show, he'll have you laughing so hard. But you know, he he went and copped a space up in in in Connecticut, man. And we don't even say that, dude. Like it's just like he he hits us up on the WhatsApp, and we're like, oh my god, there's a pulse, he's still alive, right? You know it's it's like the moment he moved he moved up to CT, man, he's just O U T.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:40

It's just so I mean my mom is in Staten Island, so from here to there it's like a half hour and like a block and a half walk from my door, I can get the bus to Port Authority. So, you know, and I'm in the city in less than an hour. So it's there there's not immediate family here for us in this neighborhood. But all things considered, we're we are enjoying where we are. You know, it's it's a good it it's a good um compromise, you know, of proximity to things and and also not having to be in that city city life like we were, you know. Yeah, which is a yard, the kids have their own bedrooms, and it's like look at us with a driveway.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:38

You mean I don't have to you know you mean I don't have to uh I have to parallel park all the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:42

No more alternate side parking.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:45

I can actually none of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:46

None of it the street sweeper comes by pavement in the sidewalk and then pavement.

unknown 1:16:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:54

Every time like the street sweeper comes by like maybe once a month, and I'm like, every time I see it, I'm like, oh, what's that thing? Oh yeah, I forgot.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:08

I I often say to myself, I just think it's an insult, you know, what people were thinking when they made when they make the houses like in the inner city the way that they do, where you have like a front stoop, right? Then you have like this little patch that you consider your garden, right? And then you have fence, and then you've got this little little strip that's supposed to be your your where you park your car, your car garage.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:32

And I applaud people because I seen them, you know, back in the day, right? The people with these Cadillacs and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:37

And pulling it, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:39

Three fourths of the the back end of it out in the sidewalk.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:42

Sidewalk.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:46

Because you know that you know they're not trying to put that car in a downhill slope, especially during the winter when the when the snow and the ice gets going nowhere.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:56

Turn the wheels very strategically so that they up against the curb and oh yes, because my mother, my mother always drove those cars. I learned how to drive on a Oldsmobile Delta 88. Okay, the boat. But let me tell you, I could fit all my friends in it, so it was great, you know. Like how many fit? Is how many we got? 10? No, come on, we could get we could get more.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:21

We could fit six more, come on.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:23

You literally had carnival in your own car.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:26

Pretty much, pretty much, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:29

It always comes back to carnival, doesn't it? Well, for me it does, yeah. You're not wrong, it's okay. Thank you. I appreciate I know someone appreciate that part of it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:43

Off camera? Okay, when we stop recording, right? We don't want no proof.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:47

Oh, okay. I was like, you could tell them on, but I couldn't wait till off. Okay, I guess we're waiting till off. All right.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:02

I know you had something to do. I was told that you have something to do today, right? Yeah. Okay. Okay. I just because um I don't want to keep you past your time. Oh, we do. We don't care, it's fine. We don't care about your personal life. It's about what we put on show readings.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:19

We own you.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:21

You owe me.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:22

You are Alice. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:28

Before we wrap up, please tell everyone where they can find you and and feel free to plug anything you want to plug.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:37

Uh, well, first off, I want to say, you know, Lisa and Agnes, thank you so much. Um, I am so humbled to have been able to be a part of the Sassin's Sip. Um, and hopefully will not be the the the last time to to to jump back on and and chop it up with you guys. This this is what I enjoy most, you know, is being involved in not just podcasting, but you know, being able to have great conversations with great people and laugh and you know give insight and get insight and stuff like that. So thank you so much. And and I love you guys, flow, and I love everything you do.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:13

Um pleasure is ours. Like, let's be real. Really, it really is. But thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:19

Um, so our you know, I'm a co-host of the Baseline NBA podcast. Um, the baseline NBA podcast, we discuss the hot button topics of the NBA. I co-host it with my best friend PNC partner in crime, Warren Shaw. Um, you can always catch us on all the major outlets as far as where you listen to podcasts, whether Spotify, Apple Podcasts, uh Stitcher, whatever you use, you can just look up the Baseline NBA podcast. We also have a website, www.thebaseline MBA Podcast. And you can catch, you know, not just this episode that we're currently doing covering the autopsy report, but all the great episodes we have archived on there. So we encourage y'all to kind of you know check us on what we used to usually are doing and and what we are doing. Um and then also as well, too, as we've been kind of been spotting it in every now and again and sprinkling it in about the 19 Media Group family. This is an effort um headed by my man Shaw and uh my brother Malik Johnson. You know, these guys, man, you know, these are my brothers. We grew up in college together. Uh, you know, we wrote rhymes, but now more importantly, man, they've helped establish a platform that allows other great content creators to have a voice for them to, you know, uniquely elevate a space, you know, to create a community for the things that interest them and hopefully interest their listeners. And so go to www.19media group.com to check out not just our show is also on there, featured on there, but there's a you know, we got a list of of great content creators and their shows and things of that nature. So whether it's music, culture, sports, entertainment, you name it, somewhere on there, 19 Media Group has got it in there. And so definitely go out there, show your love and support, man. And you know, that's that's what it's all about, man. Um instilling and building.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:08

So ooh, we're stealing that.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:13

Instilling, building, and stealing.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:17

Straight up in your face. I'm gonna take them stealing it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:20

You can tell, you can tell that's the Brooklyn and Agnes right there. Brooklyn keeps on taking it. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:27

We take it, but we expand on it. We do better.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:31

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:34

So once again, we say thank you for hanging out with us and coming on the show and chatting with us. And I will put your information and your links in the show notes so that it's really easy for anybody to be like, click and link.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:49

Awesome, awesome. Let me know if whether or not there's an issue with any of them either, uh, as well too. I'll be sure to uh uh I'll resend them, uh resend them your way. But this was fun, man. I I enjoy it. Thank you for the thank you. Thank you for the silly question. I I appreciate it. It wasn't really silly. I just didn't think I just didn't think I had to divulge kind of I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:10

I appreciate We got some, you know, a part of you that many people don't get.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:16

I know. Somehow you brought that out of without the rum. Damn, we're good. Listen, that okay, so that's Jermaine Stewart, uh, and I'm not inebriated. So I now I cannot even imagine what that song actually was gonna be if I was.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:34

That's for part two, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:36

Yes, part yes, for part due. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:42

So we want to say thank you to all of our listeners, and we remind everyone to drink responsibly and not to drink and drive. You can also visit us at sassinsips.com for all the ways to connect with our show to find out more on our guests, and even for ways to support the show. And until next time, I'm Lisa.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:59

And I'm Agnes, and we're out of here. See you later bye.