Hip Hop at Karaoke: The Don't, the Do, and the Deuces

Hip Hop and Karaoke: the Don’t, the Do, and the Deuces

Adam Wainwright: Hello and welcome back to "The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly," the podcast that takes karaoke exactly as seriously as it should be taken. I'm your a hip hop a hippie hippie to the hip hip hop and a don't stop karaoke.

host Adam Wainwright.

Ed Cunard: And I'm rocking to the bang. Bang boogie said up, jumped the boogie to the boogie of the buggy to beat Ed Cunard.

Adam Wainwright: That's about as easy as it gets at for open right there. I think that's the quickest you've ever come up with a response to my intro.

Ed Cunard: It's quite possible here.

Adam Wainwright: You would think that the category, the thing we're talking about this week is kind of right up your alley. Like this is home for you, isn't it? Like you have a home, but if we're talking about music, if we're talking about karaoke, like this is like a blending of two of your greatest loves coming together

Ed Cunard: It really is. I mean, let's face it. I grew up in a Hot 97 airspace. I listened to this stuff almost exclusively growing up, which is kind of why our tastes in it are somewhat different because there's a slight age gap between me and my best friend, Adam Wainwright. He's younger. But Adam, I do want to say that I did not take my era of hip hop into account when I did this trivia challenge for you and let's roll right into it.

Adam Wainwright: I've never been more ready for. a trivia challenge. I knew you're so passionate about this. I can't wait to fail it epically. Let's go.

Ed Cunard: Here's what you'll get five trivia questions based on the episode's topic with varying degrees of difficulty. Each question is worth one point. So the top score for any round is five points. If you get stuck, you can ask for one hint per game. Even if you get all of the questions wrong, you can still win by answering the impossible question, get that one, right.

And you will get all five points, but remember, even if you save your hint, there are no hints for the impossible bonus.

Adam Wainwright: Wow. Ed, you think I've heard that before, but I'm amazed anyway, and ready to go.

Ed Cunard: Now, typically we start this off with a karaoke parody, but since we are doing hip hop and you and I are kind of battling, I put something together more in line with the theme of this episode, it's too late for you. You're already dead.

Adam Wainwright: Damn. Like, I feel like I've been put to shame already. You like this isn't fair.

Ed Cunard: I just figured I'd start off with a little battle theme music to, to get us going, but are you ready, Adam? Are you ready for your karaoke trivia bullpen?

Adam Wainwright: I don't know how I could be any more ready after hearing that shit. Let's go.

Ed Cunard: So question one, you know, I love comics and you know, our guest today loves comics too. Did you know there's a comic series devoted to hip hop by Pittsburgh cartoonist Ed Piskor called "Hip Hop Family Tree?" If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it. But this question isn't covering the book.

It's covering what the book covers, which is the history of hip hop. Book one covers the years, 1975 to 1983. Back when it all began. Which pioneering DJ is credited as the godfather of hip hop, kicking things off in the 1970s through his back to school jam hosted on August 11th, 1973 at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where he would isolate and repeat the breakdowns and records to encourage folks to keep dancing?

Adam Wainwright: Um, Grandmaster Flash.

Ed Cunard: I am sorry. It is DJ Kool Herc.

Adam Wainwright: Hmm. Okay. A couple of names I was kicking around there yet.

Ed Cunard: Yeah. I promise you. That's the only one from, from my era.

Adam Wainwright: Well, I mean, you can ask questions through your era.

1. Like I'm not unfamiliar with the era. Like there's a lot of directions you could have taken that question that I would have been comfortable with. Like the real birthplace of hip hop is in the Bronx.

 People will argue Brooklyn and they're wrong.

Ed Cunard: They are wrong. But question two, maybe you'll do a little bit better at this one. This is the nineties. This trivia challenge started with a bit of a battle centric theme and battles are a big part of hip hop culture. I could go into the stuff from my era, like the BDP and juice crew stuff, or LL Cool J versus Kool Moe Dee.

But I figured I'd keep it in tune with the era you grew up in. Which rapper got into beef with LL Cool J when in the song "4, 3, 2, 1," he asked LL if he could borrow the mic on his arm in a verse that was later altered, which led LL to responding that "the symbol on my arm is off limits to challengers.

You hold the rusty swords. I swing the Excalibur." Fair warning: all of these multiple choice answers were featured on the song, but only one of these artists went on to produce a response track with Wyclef Jean and Mike Tyson, A) Method Man, B) Canibus, C) Redman, D) DMX.

Adam Wainwright: Oh man. Um, this is like, apparently my era. Uh, I, I, I'm going to guess DMX, so,

Ed Cunard: It was Canibus

Adam Wainwright: To be completely forthright, I don't know who Canibus is.

Ed Cunard: That's okay. I don't think anyone remembers him these days. Either

Adam Wainwright: That's fair.

Ed Cunard: question three, I have never hit one of these special events and to my knowledge, neither have you. But there is a touring karaoke concert called Trap Karaoke, which celebrates hip hop culture and often has special guests like Cam'ron, Soulja boy, Wale and others. Founded in 2015 by Jason Mowat, Trap Karaoke is a user generated concert series that empowers fans to jump on stage, grab the mic and perform their favorite trap anthems in front of an electric crowd of their peers. What Southern city did trap music originate in: A) Atlanta, Georgia, B) Memphis, Tennessee, C) New Orleans, Louisiana, or D) Tampa, Florida?

Adam Wainwright: I'm going to use a hint here cause I have it narrowed down, but I. See if you can get some clarification here.

Ed Cunard: I will strip out Memphis, Tennessee and Tampa, Florida.

Adam Wainwright: Tampa was never in consideration there, buddy. You did exactly zero help for me. Cause I had it narrowed down to Atlanta and New Orleans.

Ed Cunard: oh, no,

Adam Wainwright: I did that's that's 100% true, uh, trap music, man. It has, it has to be Atlanta.

Ed Cunard: you are correct. It is Atlanta, Georgia.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah. It's not quite the new Orleans sound. It's not quite. Yeah. All right. Good.

Ed Cunard: right. One point.

Adam Wainwright: one. I'm happy with that. We're good.

Ed Cunard: Speaking of comics and comics artists, and keeping with the hip hop theme, mark Teixeira was a huge presence in the comic scene in the 1990s and two thousands. Many fans probably associate Tex with his long run on the reboot of Ghost Rider, but he also illustrated plenty of other books, including Moon Knight, Punisher, Wolverine, and Black Panther.

Even though he was busy with comics in the nineties that did not stop him from providing the artwork for this Long Island hip hop group's 1994 album "Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age?"

Adam Wainwright: got nothing. I mean, Public Enemy.

Ed Cunard: You got it.

One last bit on hip hop, comics, and... er, Ghost Rider.

Adam Wainwright: Okay.

Ed Cunard: So that 1990s Ghost Rider series centered on a new person taking the Ghost Rider mantle, Danny Ketch. When the flame-skulled spirit of vengeance first appeared the person he was tied to was stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze. Johnny Blaze is also one of the many aliases this Wu Tang Clan number goes by, though quite possibly for different reasons. What's the name this rapper is best known as?

Adam Wainwright: I'm going to pause the trivia for a second here and let's have a discussion real quick. I don't know what you think. My era of hip hop it is, but it's not the Wu Tang clan man. Like I've never listened to Wu Tang. I never got into them. I couldn't, I don't know if I could gun to my head name, a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. You can say you failed. There's a lot of other shit that I could talk very knowledgeably about and extensively about, but you managed to just completely dodge it. I don't know if I can name one member of Wu Tang. I'd never listened to Wu Tang.

Ed Cunard: Not even Method Man?

Adam Wainwright: But I've listened to Method Man. . Like I don't even make the association of Method Man with Wu Tang because I was like, "You're All I Need to Get By." Like, we could talk about that song all fucking day with Method Man.

Ed Cunard: It's all right, though, Adam, you got two points. You came by them honestly. You have a chance come by all five honestly right now with the impossible bonus

in the past six episodes our impossible bonus questions sampled a disparate array of sources: British diarists, ASMR, geography, acid jazz, mathematical physics, and lengthy songs.

We often stray from music in this part of the game, because we're trying to bring in a wide and surprising variety of topics and sources into our trivia challenges. And that's what's great about hip hop and how it developed. DJs and producers often brought in a large amount of sometimes surprising samples, connecting the music to the past and carrying musical heritage forward.

One of the reasons you won't find De La Soul's classic album 3 Feet High and Rising on music streaming services is because of the licensing cost of all the samples in the album, which range from James Brown to Johnny Cash to Liberace. To get this question right, you'll need to give me two things.

The name of the legendary producer of this album and the amount of samples that Discogs tracked down in the album.

Adam Wainwright: I can't, I don't know who the producer of the album is. Um, I'll guess at the other one though, cause it's a number and You could just randomly guess at numbers. So they're like right at like what, like 90% of the time that's how numbers work. Um, I'm going to say there were 69 different samples.

Ed Cunard: You were so close. Prince Paul was the producer for 3 Feet High and Rising, and it was 67 samples.

Adam Wainwright: I can't believe I was that close on even a random guess.

Ed Cunard: Your homework now is to track down all 67 samples and report back to me.

Adam Wainwright: I will not be doing that, but I appreciate the effort, Ed. I, I love the questions. I feel like I learned some stuff today and I have some homework to do on my own. Even if you vastly misunderstood what my era of hip hop would be.

Ed Cunard: I just assumed it was the nineties.

Adam Wainwright: there was aspects of the nineties. Yes. You didn't ask one question about my favorite like region of hip hop.

Like I love Chicago, but the Chicago sound the sound that like came out of Chicago, like asked me about Common. Ask me Kanye. There's so many different ways you could've got about this and you asked me questions about like, shit that I just, I thought for sure, you're going to ask me about some of the songs that you sing at karaoke.

Ed Cunard: fair because we do do a lot of hip hop at karaoke.

Adam Wainwright: We do. We do, but it's, it's a mistake for everybody to do It

Ed Cunard: It really is. Why is it a mistake, Adam?

Adam Wainwright: because listen, y'all, and I, I have seen just evidence of this time and time again is that people don't understand how difficult it is to do hip hop at karaoke if you can't hit the meter of the song, if you don't know it, like it's incredibly difficult to pick these things up, you can fake your way through songs.

You can't fake your way through a meter in a hip hop song.

Ed Cunard: Melody is much more forgiving than rhythm.

Much more

forgiving.

Adam Wainwright: Yes. Yes. And it, and you just can't make that up when you sit there and look at it. I'm like you can't, you, you should have some familiarity with it. I know we stray and say, you don't need to be familiar with a song, but like, man, for hip hop it's tough, you just, can you try to "Rap God" without knowing "Rap God?" Good luck.

Ed Cunard: indeed. I mean, these are songs you should not need the screen for if you're going to do them. That's my advice always when doing rap at karaoke, if you need the screen, you maybe shouldn't do it.

Adam Wainwright: Maybe if I would argue that if you have a little bit of a familiarity with the song and you maybe just need some help with the words you like, at least you can understand the rhythm of the song and you can understand the intricacies because the same way that singers will hit high and low notes, rappers do that with the rhythm.

Like it's never consistent the entire way through like very rarely are they looking to hypnotize you with the thing. So you're going to have variations in the rhythm. And if you don't understand the variations, the vocal variations that they're inflicting, I think Lil Wayne does this really well.

 He'll settle into a certain thing, but he'll work inflections in, in differences and like switch his rhythm a little bit where he's working more syllables into this particular section than the other section. And if you don't know when those things are coming, then you're, you're going to fall apart on stage.

You're going to feel bad. The audience is going to feel awkward. Like it's just not good.

Ed Cunard: And also just don't do it ironically,

Adam Wainwright: Yeah.

Ed Cunard: like don't get up there and just say words

Adam Wainwright: No. Why would you, why would anybody do that?

Tell me why would anybody do that?

Ed Cunard: because people are assholes, Adam, and I've seen it happen on more than one occasion

let me also say this. We are a living cliché, Adam and I, we are two middle-aged white best friends with a podcast. So as much as either of us may or may not know about hip hop, we are certainly not experts, but there is one thing I know that Adam will agree with me on. And if you are also a white guy of any age range, there's probably a word that you should skip when doing certain songs.

And by probably, I mean, you fucking should.

Adam Wainwright: If we have to say what this word is too, you're a fucking asshole. Don't listen to our podcast. Sorry. I'm sorry. Not sorry. We don't need you to be listening to it. If you're going to argue with us on this point, or if you don't know what word we're referring to, like just don't listen to us. Cause we, I don't care about you just to straight up.

 It bothers me I have to discuss this Ed. It really does. It bothers me. We have to even have this conversation and put this into the ether and really clarify this about karaoke. But we do. And we do it because we've been to karaoke nights where some privileged white motherfucker walks up there and just throws this word around, like it's nothing like it doesn't have any kind of context or meaning or deep historical meaning.

And it doesn't like, God damn it.

I I'm struggling to articulate myself right now.

Ed Cunard: and this is just my honest advice, maybe you think you're one of those dudes who has a pass when you're with your friends, but I guarantee you that not everybody in that bar is your friend.

Adam Wainwright: Even if you think you have a pass with your friends, that doesn't apply to everybody. It's the way you can joke around with your friends. You should just, as a person acknowledge that, not every joke you say with your friends is going to fly with strangers that you're around.

And this is just being empathetic to everybody's struggles and understanding and acknowledging everybody has different boundaries with the language, with culture, with physicality, like just be a good person. There's alternatives to that word and you can still deliver a great hip hop performance that includes that word without using that word. Find a word that has similar syllables, like work it in there. Do that anything, but use that word.

Ed Cunard: Now, Adam, let's take it on a positive tip. What do you think are some great songs for doing hip hop at karaoke?

Adam Wainwright: . I'm going to kick it off. I'm going to say "Bust a Move" by Young MC is an underrated one that is every time I've done it. It's a,

guaranteed banger

Ed Cunard: yeah, I feel you.

Adam Wainwright: Every single time.

Ed Cunard: I think a lot of it depends on the median age of who is in the bar because.

Adam Wainwright: I don't think it does. I think that one really transcends, from my experience singing that song, because this is one of the ones that's in my karaoke rotation that I know by heart that I can stray and do my thing around the bar with and sing to people. I think it sets the right tone and atmosphere for a party atmosphere that people can dance to and they can pick up on it by the third time that the chorus rolls around, you know, do you want it?

You got it. Like, even if you don't know the song, it has such a hook to it that by the third time that hook rolls around, everybody in the bar can be singing that hook and they'll know exactly what it is. It's easy to pick up. It's easy to dance to. If the person that's singing knows what they're doing, like you can really set the tone for it.

I, I love that song. I really do. I think that's a good one.

Ed Cunard: yeah. Same that one's a lot of fun. I will kick it back to the first song that I think I did with you at karaoke when I did "Just a Friend" by Biz Markie because I can nail the rap part and I couldn't sing worth a damn. So it was the perfect song for me, but like nowadays, maybe "Hotline Bling", I mean, that one always seems to get a crowd going.

I don't really like Drake, but eh,

Adam Wainwright: I don't like Drake either. That's what I was gonna say. Like what? Or like, I'm trying to think of some modern songs, like some modern hip hop that, would really get a crowd going.

Ed Cunard: I'm still looking to do the Kendrick part to "Bad Blood" by Taylor Swift with somebody.

Adam Wainwright: Oh yeah. Man, like we'll have a separate discussion, uh, offline ad about Kendrick Lamar. Cause I think he may be the most gifted rapper in the game today.

Ed Cunard: I agree with you wholeheartedly,

now what about songs that you think might be surprisingly difficult? I don't mean like Eminem's "Rap God" or, or "Slow Jamz" by Twista. I mean, like, what do you think would surprise somebody by how difficult it is?

Adam Wainwright: Why don't you give me what you're thinking here, Ed?

Ed Cunard: For me, it's Naughty By Nature. Cause Treach's flow is just severe and dangerous the way he'll double and triple up on a beat.

Adam Wainwright: that's fair. Are we working on the context that , somebody knows the song or they don't

Ed Cunard: yeah, I'm going under the context that somebody knows the song, because I don't think anyone's going to bust out Twista, if they don't know it,

Adam Wainwright: Well, no, one's going to bust out Twista but I'm saying like songs that could like sneak up on you where you're like, oh, I've heard that shit once. Like I can, I can sing that. You know like that's what I'm trying to think of right now. Most of the shit by Tribe, will sneak up on you.

 One of my favorite A Tribe Called Quest songs that I haven't been able to do a karaoke is "Excursions" and I think that would just murder someone. It has this like just a simple beat to it, but like the way that they adjust their rhythm and the way that continuously flows without a hook, I think could really throw you off.

 Any hip hop song that omits a hook, I think would be a, a pretty bad night there at karaoke, honestly, especially if you weren't super familiar with it and you didn't know the hook. Also a Childish Gambino, I feel like has a feel like this, specifically the song "Freaks and Geeks," cause he switches up his tempo so much, I think it could fuck with somebody in, in a major way where he starts a certain way, but like works in inflections and meanings and like there's a lot of double meaning and twisting words.

 I think Little Dicky's another one too. . I think if you try to do "Professional Rapper" by Little Dicky at karaoke, I feel like there's enough variation in everything that goes on there that it could create some issues, even though it's technically just a conversation that he's having with the Snoop D-O-G-G..

Ed Cunard: And then lastly, Adam, what would you love to find at karaoke that you haven't found yet

Adam Wainwright: I would fucking kill to do "They Reminisce Over You" by CL Smooth and Pete Rock? I know that song, like the back of my fucking hand, you want to talk about a song I would murder at karaoke.

 I don't even need a karaoke version at this point. Give me that fucking beat and I will give you a T.R.O.Y. 100%. Like the back of my fucking hand, hands down. That would be my shit right there. the other one that I'm sure exists at karaoke, but for some reason I haven't seen it or haven't actively looked at it is "Children's Story" by Slick Rick.

Ed Cunard: that's a good one

Adam Wainwright: I'm always going to be attracted to storytellers and that's just storytelling.

Ed Cunard: for me. It's actually going back to the Versuz that we talked about. I think previously on this, I would love to see more KRS-One or Big Daddy Kane,

that those would make my night. But if I saw that in a karaoke book, I'd be like, well, I know what I have to do.

Adam Wainwright: Oh, another one. I haven't seen "Alphabet Aerobics" out there yet either. And I love to do try that at karaoke

Ed Cunard: Oh, that would be so tough. That would be so good though.

Adam Wainwright: It would be so tough would be so good. And the only reason I really want to try it is because I saw fucking Daniel Radcliffe do it. And if Daniel Radcliffe can do it, I like to think I can do it.

Ed Cunard: That's fair. You are taller,

Adam Wainwright: I am taller, but I'm not fucking Harry Potter, Ed. The dude's just magical at this point,

Ed Cunard: right?

Adam Wainwright: rarely in an actor, you do get listen. I'm one of the most iconic, fictional characters of all time, but there's also a good chance that if you went and saw me in the theater, you saw my Dick, like it's a rare combination of the two with Daniel Radcliffe.

He brings two worlds together in a very unique way.

Ed Cunard: That he does. Adam, do you have any final thoughts on hip hop at karaoke before we talk to Young Deuces of the Geekset podcast?

Adam Wainwright: Don't do it. Don't do it if you don't know the song, don't use the word that you know you shouldn't use. But if you do love hip hop and you want to try it out, don't be afraid to like, I, I fucking love doing hip hop and karaoke. I really do.

Ed Cunard: it can make a night very fun.

Adam Wainwright: I can, it can, do you have any final thoughts,

Ed Cunard: No, I'd rather us just talk to our new friend and expert Young Deuces. How does that sound to you?

Adam Wainwright: man? I can't wait to do that because this dude is doing some shit that is rad as hell with the people from the Geekset podcast. So let's just cue the guitar and roll right into it.

Young Deuces

Adam Wainwright: If you heard our episode with Douglas Wolk, you know that we've got a strong nerd streak in us, and if you listened to any episode of our show before you know that we love hip hop, and that is an important part of our personal karaoke song books. Well, today we've got a guest who combines the love of geek culture and hip hop, in his podcast "Geekset" where he and his pals Bacardi, Lib, and Didge hit on all matters of hip hop and nerd cultures.

 And he's currently crowdfunding for his documentary, "The Black Geek Documentary." Young Deuces, welcome to The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly)

Young Deuces: yeah. Thank you guys for having me, man. I love concept of this podcast is so much, and so I'm excited to be here.

Ed Cunard: And we did not pay him to say that.

Adam Wainwright: no, no, not this time. Not this time. I, you know, the feelings mutual though. Like I love the concept of your podcast, which we're going to talk about a little bit more, but I, like, I checked that out. I adore the concept of your podcast, but the first thing we like to hit our guests with is we need to know the background.

Okay. So we talk about karaoke here. We're going to dig into it a little bit more. Tell us a little bit about your experience with karaoke or your, we like to phrase it as your "karaoke origin story."

Young Deuces: Oh, yeah, no. So, you know, four scores in seven years ago now. Oh no. So, you know, just like most people with karaoke, it really started with family because... So, you know, family would get together and, you know, they have those know whether it's a barbecue or a birthday or whatnot. And then at some point somebody is going to start like the singalong and everything.

And the reason why I say it starts with family because... Those singalongs. the times are really karaoke even if we''re not we're not prefacing it karaoke, but this is, you know, because you'll have that one cousin or aunt or uncle who like this is their song and they kind of, you know, so there's like, you know, you gotta let them have their moment.

so like, that's like generally like where my origin story, but as far as like official karaoke is definitely bars, you know, going out and hanging out with friends or, going on our Milwaukee got a huge college scene. And, you know, especially, you know, Milwaukee is also a huge beer scene. So being born and raised in Milwaukee, that, that was a constant with those bars.

And I just love the energy. I love being able to be in a place where everybody is there to have fun, which I, you know, we'll get into it, but the karaoke scene and the comic book conventions, there's some similarities regards to it because, the one thing that I love about karaoke is that.

 This is not, "America's Got Talent." This is not, you know, it's not "Star Search." So it was like, about being the best voice at karaoke. It's more about like, are you throwing your all in it? Are you having fun? are you like, what, what type of performance are you putting? So, yeah, so my origin is definitely, that is definitely bars, um, you know, and sell into and singing Journey.

Cause that's always the go-to.

Ed Cunard: nice.

Adam Wainwright: Nice. Yeah.

Ed Cunard: what is it that you love about karaoke? Because we talked about that a little bit before we got started recording today.

Young Deuces: Yep. So I love the inclusivity. Like, I love that. Like, no matter what walk of life that you are from, people accept you, you know? Because, and the reason why I say it's mirror comic book, convention, and comic book conventions, there's a lot of cosplays. Right? And whether you are a person who spends thousands of dollars on your cosplay, or, or you just put together a cosplay two hours before the convention, going to get the same amount of love, respect people, are going to recognize, oh, that's I know where that's from.

 so I felt like that the same thing with karaoke a song could come on that, you know, you have to be a very good vocal talent. And if you're not a vocal talent, nobody's going to look at you like, oh, you're butchering the song. No, they're going to look at you like, yep. I'm going to sing along and I'm going to sing off key with you.

And I love that because I feel like it's not taken too. It's taking the seriousness out of it and it just it's pure fun. And so that's what I love about karaoke.

Ed Cunard: Now do you do cosplay yourself?

Young Deuces: So I am embarking on a cosplay journey. My, so in our, within our collective, Bacardi is our, he's our resident cosplayer. So he cosplay us all the time. I like to collect like masks and everything. So for the, for my nerds here, who's watching it. One of my favorite villains is Deathstroke. He has a really bad ass mask. Like his mask is like really, really, really, really vicious. And so I, I got that mask and I, I generally use that mask. and then I said, you know what? kinda, I want to get the full suit. I want to do the full cosplay. So I'm piecing it bit by bit piece by piece and I'm going, on that journey for it.

Adam Wainwright: man. That's a heck of a journey right there. the things you're talking about is what we love about karaoke. That's the spirit we're trying to instill in this podcast, that karaoke is for everybody, you know, it's inclusive and we don't give a shit how you sound. We don't care what you look like when you're out there, but it's just joy that you're experiencing in a room.

And like, man, that's too, that's too rare nowadays. It just really is. That out of the way . Give me how you grade a karaoke performance. Like there's a difference. We can get somebody to get up there and joy and rough, but you know, when somebody steps up there and rips, it like produces what's, what's an ideal karaoke performance.

What is out of the park? The best you can possibly do?

Young Deuces: Well, the first thing that I grade it off of is commitment.

Adam Wainwright: Ooh.

Young Deuces: again, like I said, you don't have to be the best vocal talent, but if are you committed to trying to perform something, right? Like, are you committed to the song that you are singing? then the second one, it is I, now I get into the performance aspect.

 I, you know, if you're going to sing, if you're, if you're doing a ballad, want the sways. If you if you're singing, if you're singing it a song, they got the energy, I need the hands I need the, I need, I need all of that. I need that energy in my karaoke song.

 stage presence is, is the second thing that I'm grading it off of.

 then, you know, uh, the third one is. Like creativity, like, okay, what are, what are you doing? That's outside? Cause you know, sometimes you'll get the person who who's wanting to jump off the stage. You're going to get the person who's going to, who's going to say, get in your face. And you know, I'm looking at that performance, like how are you commanding that stage?

 and then, are you having fun? You know, that's the last thing. So those are my four pillars, but when I'm grading a good karaoke is that, you know, I want, you know, are you committed? You know, are you giving a good performance? Is there any type of creative aspect and how much fun you're having?

Adam Wainwright: it sounds like a chapter on our future book ed right here, like the four pillars, the four pillars of a karaoke performance. Like you just did the work for us there.

Ed Cunard: I think Deuces would have liked that time. I was down in Cape Coral, Florida, and I put in, it was like a really great live party crowd. So I put in, "Let Me Clear My Throat" by DJ Kool.

and and their track froze. And the guy said, while I was doing, and he's like, do you want me to find like a different version?

I'm like, no, I got this. And I'm just walking around the bar. There's no screen to help me out. And I'm like, no, I got this. I did all that crowd work. And then I had drinks bought for me, which was always a lot of fun

Young Deuces: That's how, you know, you killed it. That's how, you know, you

Ed Cunard: I mean, cause I love hip hop. Adam loves hip hop. You love hip hop. What era of stuff did you grow up with and who do you love now?

Young Deuces: So I did go up there what they call the golden era of hip hop. So, which also side note, had a conversation on another podcast, nineties. To me, it was late eighties, nineties to me is the best era of music in every genre. I feel like we got some really good pop, really good rock, really good country,

 really good hip hop.

Like I felt like everybody was just given so much greatness and it's shaped a lot , of my childhood. My favorite era of hip hop would probably be like mid nineties, late nineties because the one thing that I love about like, when I listen to hip hop, I appreciate the diversity of it.

Right. So I appreciate the really introspective lyricism of like a Rakim or Nas, or, you know, Talib Kweli, Wu-Tang. Like I, know, that era, but I can also love, you know, like creativity like a Busta Rhymes or the melodies of like Nelly or like, you know, so like I had to have a good I'm a student of the game.

I really love hip hop. But favorite eras, as far as albums, and I think it was due to the digital era where it lost a little bit of flair because I still love hip hop much now. But the one thing that I used to love. Mid nineties, nineties going to the CD store, buying the CD, opening up the package, reading the lyrics,

looking at the composers, the writers, like I think booklet was so much, and then, you know, you know, we used to have the CD wallets.

So like I put a lot of times and like, I it's, the word is curating now, but I put a lot of time in curating my CD while there, I was like, okay, this page is going to be all over like Roc-A-Fella and Jay Z, but I'm gonna have the, album cover booklet behind it. So it was like, when

you look through my book, I feel like that we don't have that no more when the digital era.

And I feel like even though music is still good, that connection, that experience, that whole like whatever it was to, you know, that whole, whole moment that you created with that album. And then also with music and Spotify. We have so much access to music. I feel like albums come and go.

We're at that time, when you spend 15, $16 at Sam goody and I'm in this, I did say Sam goody,

Adam Wainwright: yeah.

Young Deuces: you spend that time buying that CD, that CD you probably stayed in your car or your boom box for weeks until you got another CD. So it was like you had more moments and memories with those albums.

And I just, at that time, for me, it just can't be recreated.

Adam Wainwright: I think Ed and I felt that to our very core, everything you just said there, like, cause I, I do remember that. I remember like having the cases like stored under the seat so nobody could see and steal it and stuff like that. But then the tracks found it and like having the attachments to that, those albums, . My first hip hop album that I own, this is before Ed exposed me to a lot and this was very early on as like 12, 13 years old or something like that. I own Tag Team's album

um, whoop, there it is. That was my first hip hop album. And I still remember one of the full verses from like a track on that called "Wreck the Set".

yeah. I still remember a full verse from that and I can't get out of my head because they get attachment to that album, like nothing was in there constantly and yeah. Okay. Talking about tag team, I would love to have

a deeper discussion about, oh no.

Young Deuces: on, "Whoomp! There It Is". It's a great karaoke song.

Adam Wainwright: Oh, it is nobody ever busts it out anymore.

Young Deuces: Yeah, that is amazing. Carry on.

Adam Wainwright: Nobody ever bust that out anymore. Maybe it's because like, okay, so let's, let's, let's cross this bridge right now. Hip hop and karaoke. Okay. It's tough. And I think it's a lot tougher than people really understand or give a credit for. So what are some missteps you see when people are trying to pull it off the karaoke?

Young Deuces: So one of the missteps that I it's weird because it works in every other genre except hip hop every other, genre if you bust out your favorite song, likely. Good karaoke, favorite song. Right. But in hip hop, those B side records. like a lot of the times they're not there. They don't translate on the karaoke stage.

Right. So I think that that is the that's the misconception people was like, I want to pick this on as my favorite song. When in reality, when you do hip hop, you do kind of have you got to have that performers mindset a little bit. You got to be like, okay, what is a song, a universal song that I know, like, you know, the crowd will be able to get rallied behind because you know, with hip hop, there's a couple of elements.

One of the elements of hip hop is just like showcasing like vocal and verbal talent. Right. But it was like, okay, yeah, this is a good song. And it's very impressive if you can recite these lyrics, it's not a, a, good karaoke song because one of the elements of karaoke also is singing along. So it's like, that's where I think a lot of people, you know, they it's, it makes it harder for hip hop to translate into karaoke.

Ed Cunard: I absolutely agree with you. One of the mistakes I often see is people who are like, oh, I can't sing, but I can rap. It's just talking. And then it comes on and you are treated to the worst "Baby Got that you've ever seen in your entire

fucking

life.

Adam Wainwright: the worst "Juicy" you've ever heard in your entire life. That's another one.

Young Deuces: but that's why I say it goes into commitment because it's like, okay, if you're just going to read it and then it's not like, you know, I think with karaoke, karaoke is the old, one of the only genres you can mock somebody's cadence. And it's AOK because like, if I do juicy or, you know, if I do, you know, one of the, one of the, a good hip hop karaoke song is a notorious big, it was all a dream.

Adam Wainwright: Oh yeah.

Young Deuces: if you listen to anybody recite that song, you hear them kind of try to sound like big and small. And everybody always goes, it was all a dream. Like they try to, they try to use right. They try to use that voice. Very rarely. Do you hear people say it was all a drink? Like they try to throw the verse.

And I th I feel like that's, that's one thing about, karaoke that's accepted is like, you know, if I'm going to sound like, you know, if I'm going to, if I'm going to sound like Freddie mercury, I I'm going to try to throw it. going to be a horrible version, of Freddie mercury, but I'm a try and, you know, but it's a it's appreciated in there.

So it was like, that's, that's the thing about like, rap, don't read the lyrics. You got to perform it.

Ed Cunard: Absolutely. what can someone do to absolutely kill a rap song and karaoke for you?

Young Deuces: with rap songs, if you got to have some familiarity with it, because one of the things about like rap is that, um, certain words get re like get certain, like influxes, like in the voice. Right? So going back to, even with the juicy, right? If you read the lyrics, it was all a dream. I used to read word up magazine, right?

It's like, it doesn't hit, unless you, you gotta hold that dream. It was all a dream. Like you gotta, you gotta have that doom. So it was like, if you don't know the song, then you not hitting those points, those punches that need it. And so that's one of the things that you like, you really, really need to at least know that cadence and be able to hit those punches.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah.

And it comes, it comes in. I think that's almost universally with Robin. I think that's the biggest mistake I see too, is not understanding the cadence because everything's just like just every rapper, especially has like a little bit of a different cadence to

Young Deuces: Yeah.

Adam Wainwright: or way to the attack or approach a song like little way.

It's going to sound infinitely different than Jay Z. Like they're,

Ed Cunard: Well,

Adam Wainwright: different like way they attack a song and approach a song.

Young Deuces: Yeah.

Ed Cunard: say is if that your natural inclination is to clap on the one and the three and a half, maybe don't maybe don't try it.

Young Deuces: But again, it goes back to what ed said, because you said when people are just reading the lyrics, because like, even if you think about, just like other, like of songs that people sing along or whatever like that, right. You know, you think about sweet Caroline, you know, if you like, if you don't know that tone, and you're just saying, if you're not holding the sweet Caroline, like if you're not doing that, right. It's not going to hit, you know, so it's like you, and I think because people think rap is just, oh, I could just, I just say words, they think that you don't have to have cadence and you do.

Adam Wainwright: I think you need to have cadence more on rap than in about any other thing. Cause like it's so much which relies on the cadence. Like you can mask a bad cadence with a good note sometimes, but if your cadence is off with rapping, it's out the window. Okay. So we're gonna, we're gonna put that aside a little bit because I want to talk a little bit about Geekset because I was geeking out over geeks at earlier today with that. Okay. Listen. So I tuned it up, was listening. I was like, I was geeking out. I love the chemistry you guys have. I love what you're doing for the culture. Can you just tell me a little bit how to geek set get started? Where are you guys at now? What's next.

Young Deuces: So the one thing about Geekset that, and it really starts the basis before we actually started to formulate. It that we were all loving of the culture, anime, comic books, video games, and everything like that. Right. And so we of like how we are, you know, with music, like we were historians of it.

We've watched it, we've put, we put in a thousand hours, like we know the culture, right. And so we would watch all these different properties, comic book, man, comic story, and like all these people. And we love them because they give us the knowledge. They give us the history, they give us the insight. But the one thing that we realized it was like, man, you know what, the way that we talk about it.

And we're not seeing that on TV. We're not hearing that on podcasts and the way that we talk about it. And it's, it's a, it's a constant joke like one of those, if, you know, you know, in like black culture is that barbershop talk, barbershop talk the way that you hear barbershops and you're there. And like, especially when on sports.

Right. And so we often use the joke, like when you hear black people debate Batman versus Superman, it sounds like in the barbershop debate in LeBron versus Michael Jordan, it's that passion. It's that, it's that yelling it's, you know, and it's funny because it's like, you know, if you don't know of that culture, let's use them in Lebron versus Jordan.

 You'll hear somebody, you know, they'll say like one of the things, and it's not even a disrespect, but one of the things in black culture and it kind of mirrors. I will say Italian culture. You'll hear somebody say something to take like, oh man, Lebron is 100% better than Jordan. And then you'll hear somebody out the back, like, man, get the fuck outta here, man.

You crazy. Right. And so now people was like, you know, it sounds so passionate, but it was like, but it's still respect. Nobody took offense and everything, but it's like, it's that passion? So I was like, I want to bring that to the podcast. I mean, to geek culture, I want to, I want people to hear us talk passionately about Dragonball Z and Naruto and everything.

But the moment that really catapulted, because I listened to a lot of podcasts and all these geek, shows when Black Panther was coming out, a hip hop group by the name of Run the Jewels was for a lot of people who, if you don't know, Run the Jewels is, it's pretty much like a grassroot hip hop, group.

 Their song was on the first commercial for Black Panther. And for hip hop culture, I'm like, yo, this is crazy. This is Disney. This is Marvel. This is Black Panther. And they're using Run the Jewels in their commercial, but no other podcasts. I heard talked about the importance of that.

And I said, see, that's, what's missing. We need to beat the bridge, the show, you know, to link that because a lot of the, the roots of hip hop and the lot of the roots of geek culture, mirror each other, they're like both cultures where, you know, seemingly, talked about and chastised of both cultures had some toxicity in it.

 Both cultures and melt are now are some of the most dominant cultures in the world today. It seems like everything, no matter what has either a graphic novel, or a comic book based, and has some type of hip hop elements in it, whether it's the way they talk, whether it's the music within it. Um, the visuals.

 It's funny because I, I, I made a Facebook post. I said, man, I want to do this podcast. And it's like, you know, about geek culture and hip hop culture. And Bacardi actually got tagged in it now in Milwaukee, in our hip hop scene. I know Bacardi because he's a producer in Milwaukee. And so, and I do music as an artist.

So I was like, oh, okay. I already know Bacardi. And then, Lib, also a producer in, uh, in the city. I worked with them as well. And it was like I'm down. And I know that he's a comic book head because his first album that he did was called "The Wade Wilson Project." For those who knew who Wade Wilson is, it's Deadpool.

So I was like, okay. I was like, you know what, let's, I'm gonna go with these three because the one thing that I didn't want is I didn't want to have to go through the woes of learning a new host. Right. You know, having to build that relationship on screen as we go, I was like, I know these two.

You know, kickoff running. So we got together that night, I made the posts, we made some steaks drunk, some whiskey, and we kind of figured out like, how are we going to do this? And then we came up the Geekset podcast, the only podcast that blend hip hop culture and geek culture together.

And the evolution of it has been so amazing because, you know, we, I got, like I said, we've been in with these culture as long as we can remember, but we didn't really have a name for it. And then the term "blerd" started popping up and I didn't know what "blerd" was and is essentially a black nerd. So as I started looking into what blerd is and what a black nerd, I said, wow, this is, this is, this is me.

This is who I am. And, you remember that moment in Black Panther at the end where that kid sees T'Challa. And he's back in the United States and he's not in Wakanda. And he's like, who are you? And he sees the ship. And he, it kind, kinda like that awakening like, oh my God, like, this is much more bigger than what I thought.

And now you see the potential of what you can be as a kid. I felt that with blerd culture. When I realized what blerd was and the culture was, it was like an awakening, like, oh, whoa, look at this. This is this whole tribe. This is this whole group of people here that I can relate to. That is just amazing.

And then it became a badge. It became something that I wore with pride. And this was like, this is us, right. We are blerd culture. And then we just wanted to make sure that we did the culture justice. So we made sure that we operated with morals. We operated at a high standard and started putting together different shows and different content and everything.

And started elevating, started going to conventions, started being on the scene and started to try to make sure that we can push the culture in a positive way.

Ed Cunard: I love it. You guys have had some great guests on your show too. Who were some of your favorites and what did you learn from them?

Young Deuces: one of my favorites, definitely Jay Ellis, uh, he plays Lawrence in "Insecure.". We was able to interview him at the height of his, of "Insecure" during the final season. Everybody wants it, but what I loved about it is, and this is what. It kind of is the whole essence of what Geekset is everybody has, some geek in them, right.

Everybody does. But a lot of the times, and, you know, growing up in, growing up in the nineties and, you know, in school, a geek with kinda you, you got talked about, you know, it wasn't a nerd, you know, it was like, that was the thing, but it was like, we all had that. And that's what I realized. I was like, now we're in a space where it's all about inclusivity and it's about love.

So when I interviewed Jay Ellis and I was like, I didn't know, everybody's going to want to talk about this final season. And yes, we did talk about his final season. It was cool. we had that moment, one of the greatest moments that I love is that we spent like 25 minutes talking about his favorite comic book, what comic book, character that he would like.

And this is where I was like, oh, he's a real nerd. You think about you talk to people about your favorite comic book here, they're going to say the big names. Oh, I love Superman, Batman Spiderman. He went and he said, yo Blue Beetle is one of my favorites. And I said, wait, you know, about Blue Beetle? Cause I was like, oh no, you, you, you in the thick of it.

 But I was like, nowhere else, you can search any interview. He has not talked about his love for comic books. He has not talked about his love for anime. He have not talked about identifying himself as a blerd and how you know, it was like, yeah. I see Steve Urkel and I, and I, and I respect Steve Urkel, but that's not the portrayal who I am. other nerds because that's the issue with media right now. And one of the reasons why we're doing the documentary and, and we'll talk about it later, but one of the reasons why we wanted to embark on this journey is that. When you see media portray, not even just black nerds, nerds general, they always make nerds the butt of the jokes.

They always make us the ones who can't get the guy or the girl. They always make a socially awkward. It was like, no, there's a lot of people. That's just like, you know, there's just, you know, cool people as well that are nerds. There's people like there's all walks of life. And we don't want to show that.

So it was like, I got this a-list actor talking about being a blerd. And I was like, this is amazing. Like, this is amazing. But then on the retrospect, being able to talk to some of our legends and, you know, Phil Lamarr and Deborah Wilson and what they've done for the blerd community and Rachel True's, like being able to talk to them and for them to see it.

For me to be able to timeline with them when there wasn't no blerd culture being accepted to now that the explosion of it and being able to hear from them, like, yeah, when back then I was the only one or felt like I was the only one. And now seeing this, I love it. Those are some of my favorite favorite ones, because it was like, you, it's the essence of what geeks that is.

It's like, let's celebrate this, let's celebrate our heroes while they're here. And let's uncover certain people, you know? And I always love when I do an interview and I have a moment where somebody goes, wait, what? You know? It was like, because even talking to people who are from, you know, London, England, I got to, I was fortunate enough to interview Abubakar Salim for "Raised by Wolves" fans.

He plays Father. Right. And so I'm talking to him, obviously "Raised by Wolves", amazing show. It's a nerded out show. It's all about scifi. I got Ridley, Scott, you know, for Regan, say like, is, this is a nerd show and I'm talking to him and I was like, Hey, have you, do you know about the term "blerd"? he's like, no.

And I was like, oh, and on screen moment that I told you, that that kid had with T'Challa? On screen, in my interview, he had that moment about blerd culture. This is it, this is exactly what I it's like. I'm having that moment. He had that moment where he was like, oh my God, I'm a blerd. I didn't even know this and that.

And he was like, I'm about to research all this. And I was like, yo, this is beautiful. Like, I love those moments being able to have stuff like that. So those are some of my favorite that we've had.

Adam Wainwright: I love that you're creating the space in the internet. Just, just straight up. I love the fact that you like, all creating this space in the internet because it's so, so unbelievably important. And the things you're talking about are so like impactful and beautiful and like

Young Deuces: Yeah.

Adam Wainwright: people like, like I love the, I really do.

I, I

love this concept. I think it's super important. so that's what I want to talk a little bit about. Okay. You mentioned briefly about "The Black Geek Documentary," which you're currently working on crowdfunding. how did you get started on this project? Tell us a little bit about it.

Young Deuces: So, this has always been something that was in the back of my head. Cause I'm a fan of documentaries. I love a good documentary. But I was always like, man, I would love to do something that's about this culture. Right. And where it really formulated. I'm all about collaborating, like all about working with as many peoples because I love to, you know, amplify people's voices.

I love to empower people. I love that whole process. So we're really, I got pushed. Full force was, during Black History Month. And I keep on telling this story and I want to make sure I preface it. This is not a big at Buzzfeed at all, because I love a lot of stuff that Buzzfeed put together. But one of the things I was looking at, I was searching up like the simple videos.

What does Black History Month mean to you? And I saw that Buzzfeed did one and I was like, oh, that's dope that they did it. But I was like, huh, why, why hasn't any black company did a, "what does Black History Month mean to you?" And I was searching and I said, I didn't, I didn't see. I saw it like Buzzfeed. I saw like JKNews doing stuff.

I saw a lot of YouTube channels that I, that I love that I watched, but I was just like, I would love to also see, you know, a black ran one. Right. And I said, well, why don't we do it. And so what we did was for Black History Month, this year, we reached out to 30 blurbs across the world and we asked them three simple questions.

What does Black History Month mean to you? What makes you proud to be Black? And then word association, when you hear Black History Month and blerd culture was the first thing that comes to mind. And we put together this video and it was so, so dope to me because I was like, yo, look at all these people that come from the same walk of life, but it's all over the globe.

Like we all, you know, we talk about Black History Month and how it was taught to us as kids. We talked about being a nerd and being a Black nerd and what it means to us. We talked about, you know, Black History Month plus blerd culture. You're putting it together. What's the first thing that come to mind.

And we had some funny, crazy conversations around that, but I was like, I like this. This is something that I want to do. But I realized that. We don't have anything that officially timelined everything. And I said, let's put it together. And I was like, I, you know, most of my interviews, I've, we've done through zoom.

And I said, I want to do this for real though. I don't want, I was like, I want this to be a full fledged, a full feature documentary that we can take. Film festivals and we can pitch the stream and services, so we started calling it a love letter to the blerd culture because it's for the blerd culture by the culture, you know, it's kind of, it's, it's ran by blerds and we, we we've gained the trust and the support for the blerd community.

 but it's also, we're going to film it at a , Black owned soundstage. Our director is going to be Black, shout out to Brandon Champ Robinson. Who's our director, that's in it. and the way that we're working on this documentary is like, we're including all these other people involved with it.

As far as like, if we can't get you onscreen talent, you know what? You can help us out with the research. You can help us out with gathering B roll. So now it's not only just a Geekset thing, it's like, oh, geek set, plus this podcast or this host in this. And then a lot of the people that we've already interviewed also agreed to be on-screen talent.

 So now. the way that we've been pitching it, because even though we are crowdsourcing it, we have been taking meetings with some studios to try to see if they're like, if they can eventually, if they choose to fund it, then we'll find something else to do with those people who have already helped us with the crowdfund.

So we're just trying to figure out how we can get this to the people in the best way. I've been telling everybody I'm really excited to see the credits. I'm really excited to be able to, to tell somebody like, Hey, we used you, you are in that credit.

So when you see it, I want to make sure that, you know, that like, I'm really excited about people seeing themselves in a light and opening that door because eventually, know, I want to, I want Geekset to be like a Buzzfeed or a source fail, how it was back in the day where it's like Geekset as the brand.

But look at all these other talented individuals that we are amplifying with different shows and stuff that they're doing on different platforms. I want to be able to bring that hub of doing that and the one. Is a commonality. And why I think that this documentary is going to be very important is that even though it's called the black geek documentary, we can't tell the history without talking about how, know, how much we love Japanese animation culture, how much we love nerd culture in general, you know, you know, and those and those stripes.

So it was like, it's not a, it's not a like, uh, oh, this is black versus white or black versus this is like, just telling our story. But we also, we're not X-ing out the story because like I said, I, I quoted Kevin Smith from comic book men that is high tier. Like, we love Kevin Smith.

We love Feige. We love John Favreau. Like, it's like, there's a lot of people that we love that, you know, may not be a black geek, but it's like, we cannot talk about being a geek without highlighting these people, you know, highlighting Stan Lee, highlighting from other cultures, Toriyama, who does Dragon Ball Z, like there's people from other cultures.

 So it's like, it's still a love thing. And I think that one thing that r eally great about this documentary and going on this journey is that, the , other properties don't feel like it's excluding them. You know, like I said, I, I got a chance to interview a comic store. And as you guys see, I do say, I like to make sure I say names and references, it helps, you know, fuel who is comic story.

And as a person who he dramatically reads comic books. And I love it because it's like, if you don't have the means to read a comic book, you can play them like a podcast and you can still get it because he goes in with the characters and everything, and I love. His channel for that. And I use it a lot to get my history.

 So it was like, even that moment of saying like, Hey, I just want to let you know, we referenced it and let them know how much that we referenced it and, you know, Hey, we're gonna include bits and pieces of it. So like his name will be in the credits. It's like, I love that. It's like, even though it's a Black geek documentary, we're also including the geek community and the Japanese animation community.

Cause it's like, it's very important to our makeup. So it was like, it became that it became that love letter of let's timeline. It let's, let's talk about how it felt being a kid and seeing black power Rangers, Steve Urkel, static shot, and that representation of, you know, of being a black eat. But then also talking about how we feel like how, why do we always get the same tropes?

Why are we always socially awkward? But then also talking about now, how we're changing that narrative, how we got, people that are working with Netflix, Black animated studios, Black voiceover actors, and in talking about the future, where's it going? How things have evolved, how now we have a blerd con and a blerd Fest.

It's like we have actual, specific stuff that are going in. So we want to be able to do all of that, but also our, our heroes have the people that are moving and shaking today. A part of this documentary talking about their, journey. And I think it's going to be something that's going

Adam Wainwright: Yeah.

Young Deuces: very, very dope, you know, because, again, I said, I love documentaries and the feel and the theme that we want to go with.

It's kind of like toys that made us and the movies that made us like how it's like, it's a good documentary, but it has some fun elements to it. Cause I don't want this to be a super serious one as you guys can see, I like to have fun. I like the joke. I want that. I want people to be able to watch this documentary, learn, laugh, get introduced to new people and have awakenings.

That's my whole goal for this.

Adam Wainwright: Deuces, you're nothing but love. And I, love that. I really do. And

like, everything you're talking about is super important. And I'm super excited for this.

project and everything else you got going on.

because I, I, definitely think you have a space in the world and that not only have a space to do this, but the space that you're inhabiting is so incredibly important and it's just doesn't exist yet.

And exciting to watch somebody creating something like this and what you and your team at Geekset are doing is you're creating a space and

Young Deuces: Yeah.

Adam Wainwright: voices in. I love it so much. I really, I really do. I just want to stress that I really want to stress that. Like, I love it so much. I'm going to love so much taking you down this road too.

Cause we're going to jump into our quickfire game. Now hit me with your best shot. If you're

Young Deuces: Okay. I'm ready.

Adam Wainwright: It's five questions. First thing that pops into your head, you don't owe an explanation to anybody.

Young Deuces: Okay.

Adam Wainwright: So whatever your opinion is, no matter how high to take you think it is, you just give it to the person that pops into your head roll with it, stick with it.

Since it's only fair at the end of those five questions, you're going to have a chance to fire away. That means you can ask and I, any kind of question that you would like, and we saw, and we swear we're going to answer honestly.

so do, since you're ready.

tell me The best thing you've seen at karaoke.

Young Deuces: The best thing I seen in karaoke. So at anime conventions, there's a lot of people that karaoke, best thing it does is they have different rooms. I do karaoke. The best thing that I seen in karaoke was a full Naruto cosplay group. I'll talk about there in full animated cosplay, but they were rapping Snoop Dogg and Dr.

Dre "Gin and Juice" and it was just like, wait, what? It was so amazing. It was just seeing those, seeing that coach. Cause it was like, you don't expect it because you see the cosplay, the good cosplay. So now you're seeing the character. So in essentially I was saying, Naruto and Sasuke singing "Gin and Juice." It was amazing.

Ed Cunard: What is the worst thing you've seen in karaoke?

Young Deuces: So the worst thing I've seen, and this is where I said, you can't, you, you can't be too serious. it's just, again, hecklers, man. Like somebody up there singing and trying to, trying to have fun. And you, you, you heckle in there singing. but it, it, it eventually turned to a great thing because the crowd turned on the heckler, which is like, yeah, I love the community and everything.

Adam Wainwright: That's that Sounds like I feel like Ed has threatened to punch somebody in the face before that started heckling in the bars. So like, I feel

like

that sounds like you. So what's the one song that you would love to do karaoke, but you've just never been able to find.

Young Deuces: .

Ooh, that's I don't, you know what, I don't know, because haven't karaoke it as much. I can't go. I can't base it off of, I haven't been able to find it because certain ones, I guess I never looked, but I'm gonna base it off of if I just never did it,

Adam Wainwright: Let me rephrase the question a little bit for you then. So a song that you would love to hear someone sing a karaoke that you've just never heard.

Young Deuces: The one track that I think that I would like to hear from karaoke. So because I'm bringing the hip hop elements to it and everything. I'm going to say. "1st of tha Month" by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. And the reason why I say that, and the reason why I love Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is because they were one of the first artists that did bring cadence and everything like that. And I believe that one "1st of the Month", it's such a feel-good song. Like the same way as like today was a good day because who doesn't love the first of the month.

Right. And because of the way that it happens and, and the ones, things that I do love is like, again, when it comes down to the cadence, it's a good single on it's wake up, wake up, wake up. It's the first of tha month, get up. So I was like, I feel like, I feel like I haven't seen many people go to that one. I feel like it's so fit perfectly for karaoke.

Ed Cunard: Now imagine that somebody kidnapped your family and the only way to release them was to wow. The kidnappers with a karaoke performance. What song do you choose?

Young Deuces: "Wayward Son."

Adam Wainwright: All right. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. I love it.

Young Deuces: and the, oh, and this and the, oh, I'm going to give an explanation for this one.

Adam Wainwright: Please.

Young Deuces: I feel like, so the wow factor will be like, "he chose that song?" Like, they'll look at me and they're like, that's all. And then when I go in with it and I give the commitment of a lifetime and that's the, that's the one, that's the extra wild factor, like, oh, yo you really know this song.

Adam Wainwright: Can I dig into this just a minute? Is this his "Wayward Son" like a reference to like Supernatural or is it just something that you do? It's Supernatural. Okay. I just wanted to

Young Deuces: supernatural.

Adam Wainwright: gotcha.

Young Deuces: I've always known the song. probably by, by season four, was like, this is my song. I was, cause I looked for it and for fans out there, I'll be, like I said, I'm a geek. I think it was season nine. One of the seasons at the, I believe it was season nine at the season finale, they didn't do it.

And that bugged me for the longest, because, you know, in Supernatural they sang "Wayward Son" at the season finale episode of every season, every season and season nine, they didn't. And I was just like, wait, what? And even when the next season happened, I just always prefaced it back. Like, why did they make that choice?

Like, I felt so empty about it. Didn't feel like the official send off of that season. So, yeah.

Adam Wainwright: I just, yeah. Okay. I just needed to get to the bottom of it cause you had it. Okay, great. So here's, here's my favorite question to ask people, if you could magically strike one song from every karaoke playlist forever. So no one will ever sing at a karaoke ever again. Which song would you choose?

Young Deuces: Okay. So hip hop, you probably gonna be mad, but I I'm going to say "Baby Got Back." I feel like "Baby Got Back" has been. Has it as I wouldn't say it's played out, I would say it needs to be retired. We should, we can retire the Jersey. It's like, I feel like everybody has done it at this point.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah. We can put it in the banners. You're going to get no arguments for us. Yeah.

Young Deuces: Yeah.

Adam Wainwright: Um,

Young Deuces: because we got to respect it. We got to respect it for what it is. So it's not like, just get it out here. We gotta just, you gotta put it in the batteries. You gotta hang it up.

Adam Wainwright: Can I get up? Yeah.

Have the ceremony for it. The light, the whole nine

Young Deuces: Yeah.

Adam Wainwright: yet the whole nine yards.

Ed Cunard: My absolute favorite thing about that song though, is that sir Mix-a-Lot samples himself and a previous song on it. I'm like is the most hip hop thing I can think of. I am sampling myself.

Young Deuces: Well, so, so now I'm about the nerd out. Would hip hop real quick hip hop fan? One of my favorite producers is DJ Premiere or AKA Primo. You may have heard people call them out, but that's what he does. If, when any artists that he works with, he samples them and he's a DJ. So he scratches it. And so like, you'll hear that artists, previous songs being sampled as the hook or like the bat, or, you know, um, the additional vocals on a track.

But he is one of my favorite producers because of that. I love that aspect of it so that you are right on the money. That is, that is definitely pure hip hop.

Adam Wainwright: See now this is like the expansion of my hip-hop education, which has never going to be ending. And I love it. So I'm going to have to go about go back and check out what You just talked about. Yeah. I don't think I've ever listened to like DJ premier. I've never dug into it, so I'm gonna

Young Deuces: You may have and didn't even notice it. Right. So it was like, I, I don't, I'm not for sure. Who would you like your, your hip hop era, but like with, so one of the biggest songs that a lot of people know, cause it was on the radio, Nas had a song when he first came out called "Nas is Like" and it starts off, you know, you hear like, "Nas is like, Nas is like," and that's him from another song. And it kind of gets sampled and get a sample and everything. But even with like Jay-Z, like I said, he had a song on volume three calls, so ghetto and it's same thing. You're hearing him being sampled and everything. And so pre DJ premier works with a lot of people and you probably heard it, but didn't notice who that producer was.

When you embark on this journey, you start listening to, you're like, oh yeah, I do know this song. I guarantee you you'll hear a song that, you know,

Adam Wainwright: . We hit you with our best shot and you have a chance to fire away. If you have any questions, you can ask any question you like, and we saw this where we're going to answer, honestly. Yeah.

Young Deuces: Okay. It's a two part question. And I want to one who, who was the first artist that you heard? Hip hop? What was the first hip hop artists that you heard?

Ed Cunard: So, I mean, I grew up I'm a little older than both of you.

Young Deuces: Okay.

Ed Cunard: the first person I remember hearing myself had to have been Run DMC.

Young Deuces: Oh, that's a nice one.

Ed Cunard: 'cause I, I, you know, I was born in the seventies, grew up in the eighties and that's what I listened to growing up. So it was, it was Run DMC.

Young Deuces: Okay.

Ed Cunard: It might've been Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five but just, I, I feel like I heard Run DMC first,

Young Deuces: I mean those around the same era so I can, I can see like, w like that could be kind of, I don't know which one heard first, so.

Ed Cunard: Yeah.

Adam Wainwright: Let me, okay. So I talked a little bit about Tag Team and that album, the first album that I owned, I'm pretty sure the first hip hop song that I remember hearing and becoming obsessed with as a, we'll say a Def Squad's cover of "Rapper's Delight.".

Young Deuces: Oh, okay.

Adam Wainwright: I remember just like hearing that and just being obsessed with it.

Like I couldn't get the beat out of my head. Like I knew all I knew still know every word to Rapper's delight certain versions of it. And that's one of the magic tricks that we do. but that was one of the first things I grew up with was so I'll, I'll go with that. Yeah.

Young Deuces: That's that's another good karaoke

song.

Ed Cunard: it's very long, but it's fun when Adam and I do it because we don't need the screen for most versions. we will just walk around the bar and be jerks.

Young Deuces: Do you guys, do you guys bounce off?

Ed Cunard: Oh yeah.

Adam Wainwright: Oh yeah.

Young Deuces: Yeah.

Adam Wainwright: Every, every Ed and I's magic trick is "Rapper's Delight" where we'll bounce off verse and we'll like, do some of the vocalizations that are like on the undercurrent of the track to, um, just add to it. And for Run-DMC like, you have to have that back and forth. looking for the track. If you asked ed and I, the track that me, the track that I really, really want is, um,

Ed Cunard: Piper.

Adam Wainwright: run.

We love that one.

Young Deuces: Yeah. Okay. So the second part of the question is what is your favorite hip hop song of all time? And this is a hard one, but it,

Ed Cunard: deuces. That is a mean question.

Young Deuces: I know.

Ed Cunard: your favorite, your one favorite. That is mean,

Adam Wainwright: I have one that pops into my head. I'll start and I'll give it a second to think about this. You asked like a little bit, my hip hop learning like expanded a lot when I met ed, but I grew up in the nineties. my favorite artists for a very long time. So one of my favorites of all times to Jay Z, like I just love the sound.

I loved what was coming out of that era. I loved just the flow, the whole entire like beef with Nas. Like I loved everything that was being created there. there is a song on, that is a B-side that he did called. "I Can't Get with That"

Young Deuces: Love it.

Adam Wainwright: That I absolutely, I can't get over that song. I hear that every time you hear that song, it's one of my favorite things to listen to.

I trip I got a money machine and it. goes that, that, that like entire flow, like he, but he was dropping down. I'm like, what? what the hell is this? Like,

Young Deuces: classic Jay Z.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah. That's, that's like raw. Jeez. Like,

Young Deuces: Yeah.

Adam Wainwright: cause he got heavily produced a little bit later and that's just when he was just spitting when he was young, like

Young Deuces: Yeah.

Adam Wainwright: or Rockefeller records.

So that's, that's my favorite track of all time. I mean, there's a lot of newer stuff

Young Deuces: Oh yeah, of course.

Adam Wainwright: but like that's, that's the one that I will hold onto forever.

Ed Cunard: The ringtone on my phone is "My Melody", Eric B and Rakim,

Young Deuces: that's a nice one.

Ed Cunard: but If I have to go with like my time, like just, just the, the one track that like I will put on it and be extremely happy with hearing is " Ain't No Half-Steppin big daddy Kane

Young Deuces: Yeah. You guys got some, got some chops. You guys made it seem like you guys do like, was not like, like I was going to pick like some cookie cutter hip hop. Like you guys, you guys are deep, man, man.

Ed Cunard: I did literally write a grad school paper on "Ain't No Half-Steppin'."

Young Deuces: Oh, you do you, should you, at some point you gotta like re reproduce that out. Uh, show the world that, that, that sounds pretty dope.

Adam Wainwright: We're all waiting for that. I have like add, we'll go deep. Uh, like mind's definitely not as my hip hop rap knowledge is definitely not as deep as, and like I said, I'm in a constant state of learning and just experiencing it. But that's it Deuces. That's all we have for you today. it was great talking to you.

And what we'd like to do at this point in the show is it's now your show, do a talk, whatever you want to talk about, tell people how they can follow you, how can find you, how can support Geekset you want to talk about the floor is yours.

Young Deuces: I will. Thank you. All right. So again, first things first, man. Thank you guys for having me, man. This has been an amazing time and I felt like I could talk to you guys forever. I look forward to meeting you guys in person at some point throughout some walk of life, man, we're going to, we're going to have some beers and we're going to sing some karaoke and hopefully that, and thank you to all the listeners and you guys, as viewers who's been watching, who's been rocking with you, I'm excited to be introduced to them.

 I go by Young Deuces. I'm part of the Geekset Podcast, the only podcast that blend hip hop culture and geek culture together. And we are creators in this space. We are not just a podcast. We kind of put out videos. We do interviews, we got a review show.

Uh, that's called a geeks at rewind where we give our live reactions to stuff, to shows and, and, and big major properties. we have our tour review show cost. Sofrito Papi's review ran by, uh, one of my cohost Lib, and it's literally a review show. He talks about figures and unboxing. It talks about that.

 And we got a show coming up. That's called "Create a Player," where we're talking to cosplayers and we're pretty much detailing them on an episodic journey of their, their cosplay journey. How did you, how they go shop, how they put things together, , how they choose the cosplay and then the reveal of it.

 So it was like, we're excited about those shows, um, in regards to that, but right now the mission is the "Black Geek Documentary.". As stated we are crowd sourcing it, and you know, we're trying to, again, we want to make sure that we're. We're not half stepping on this procedure, like, so we want to make sure that we're filming it, with a director who knows where they're doing, we're doing it at a studio, so we get the best audio quality.

 and we're making sure that, you know, it's going to be a documentary that is like, you know, this is something that is really, really cool. So the best ways to support it is, we have two financial ways, which is the GoFundMe. And then our Patreon, our Patreon, all funds are being reallocated towards the "Black Geek Documentary.".

And of course the go fund me. But if you don't have the means to support us financially, that's AOK because you see the tweet and you see the documentary, you see the post, whatever like that, like commenting and re-tweeting it.

This is something we, that is just as important as, you know, donating to the funds is in regards to it. And also, you know, just, I I've been on this kick for, for the geeks that are listening. One of the things is I've been saying in my sign out, is that anime that you have in your queue for two years, that you say, I'm going to get to watch it today.

If you hear me right now, jump off and after this and go watch it. In the geek community, we say, oh, I'm gonna watch this. I'm added to my queue. I'm adding to the queue two years later down the road, you never jumped into it. So I'm trying to get, I'm trying to change that.

 You can find me at , all social media platforms, me personally, young underscore deuces, consistent everywhere. And then @geeksetpodcast consistent everywhere. Videos weekly. So you on YouTube, youtube.com, backslash geeksetpodcast, check us out.

 And yeah, man being a part of the community is the all-inclusive community. We accept new geeks. We accept old geeks. If you're new to a genre, come in. And like I said, we love creating lists. That's the one thing that we love doing. Some people just like, I don't know where to start.

I'm like, all right, well, look here, I'm going to create a list. And I get creative with my list. I add a little bit of hip hop flare. So I'll be like, all right, if you want to watch an anime where people are catching them hands, or you're watching these animated, if you want to watch anime where it's like, they go crazy with like, I use that type of terminology, but it's like, I make it simple for people because it's just a shoot out of.

It's like, okay, you don't like, why am I starting this list? I, I categorize the list and I love doing that for people. I base it off of the people's personality. So it was like, come join, come, come join in our, in our discord, in our YouTube comments, get, get introduced to some really cool people across the world.

And let's talk some geeks shit. That's what that's, that's one of our slogan. We were talking that geek shit.

Adam Wainwright: deuces, I can't thank you enough for coming on and talk to us about karaoke, uh, introducing our listeners to what you got coming on and talking about the space that you're creating. Like, um, I'm really grateful. Thank you.

Young Deuces: No, no problem, man. I appreciate you guys having me.

Ed Cunard: And we certainly hope to see you singing at a screen sometime soon.

Young Deuces: Oh yeah. Listen here. It's only right in matter of fact, it's going to be like a, it's going to be like a sleeper agent. If I see you and you see me and we're somewhere, I'm going to figure out a way to karaoke cause I feel like that's, I don't. Oh, they're here. So I've got to karaoke.

Ed Cunard: You're not

wrong.

Adam Wainwright: we're adding Milwaukee to our tour. Now we're going to karaoke tour of the world. We're out of Milwaukee to the tour.

Young Deuces: man. You know what I mean? There's some good bars. If y'all come to marquee, definitely let me know. I'll make sure that we get you guys out there and we'll we'll, we'll go we'll well, that'd be the mission tonight. We are going karaoke.

End Notes

Adam Wainwright: Everybody out there in podcast land, I have one message for you. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to us. And if you're happy, and want to make us happy, then you could, you know, go ahead and follow us on Twitter at sung poorly, we have a Facebook page out there for "The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly)" make sure to find us on Facebook. We're going to start like posting questions to really engage the audience because I feel like that's something we are going to make a concerted effort to do. is engage you the best listeners in the world in some questions. So you can check out the one we're asking about this particular episode, in the Facebook group, we want to hear from you.

We'll mention you, you drop a response, we'll meet you in the next episode. Sungpoorly@gmail.com is where you can reach us. If you're interested to ask us some questions, I know we're going to have a full on episode where we're going to answer your hot karaoke questions, address some of your hot karaoke takes.

Www.sungpoorly.com is where you can go to check us out. Find a way to share with your friends, the great shit that we're doing here, or just buy some merch that you can rock at your karaoke night, send us pictures of you wearing the merch too. Ed, don't you love seeing those. I love seeing you where our merch.

Ed Cunard: I'm pretty sure I wear nothing else at this point. And while you're doing that, if you get a chance to leave a review on Spotify, iTunes or Goodpods or Podchaser, or, you know, wherever you can leave a review. And also thanks to Ben Dumm, one of our dear, dear friends who has given us our theme song "Gasoline." You can find him at the Ben Dumm 3 on all music platforms or his earlier projectsBen Dumm & the Deviants and the Marauders.

Adam Wainwright: And make sure to tune in two weeks from now, when we go back to the funny stuff? I feel like we've had a departure from the funny stuff this episode, but we're going to refocus on being funny next episode with someone who loves karaoke almost as much as she loves Weird Al. That's it, that's all there is no more.

So until next time I'm Adam Wainwright.

Ed Cunard: I'm Ed Cunard.

Adam Wainwright: and remember that singing off key is still technically singing.