Swizz Beats and Timbaland UNDER FIRE for Partnering with Elon Musk

Okay.

All right, so look, welcome to the Abundance Conversations. This is just like, yo, honestly, it's not— it's not, you know, I'm just so used to, to, to being like, oh, welcome to this show, but this is really just a conversation, um, that, you know, you know, I mean, so, so Amina, uh, the First Lady and I are always having conversations Um, and they're really good conversations. And we, we actually even just joked about putting cameras around the house so we could just talk about, um, stuff on the fly. Um, but today, today, today, today, I want to talk about, um, is, uh, being for the culture right? Could you really be for the culture? Is that an egotistical thing when somebody say they're for the culture? Is that being egotistical, right? And so just kind of giving context, just giving context is today Juneteenth, right? Swiss Beats just announced Swiss Beats and Timbaland just announced that they are in partnership with Elon Musk to distribute verses on X, right? Twitter X. Um, you know, the caption— a matter of fact, I could, I could, I'll, I'll read, uh, the caption, right? Because it's, it's like it's starting to get, uh, they just announced it, but it's starting to get like mixed review, right? And so, uh, and this is where the context comes from, right? So, uh, a pic— there's a picture of Swizz Beatz, uh, Elon Musk, and, uh, uh, Timbaland on, on his, uh, timeline. And it says, um, you know, you know, life begins at the end of your comfort zone. It's official, Versus is back and 100% Black-owned again. Let's give the people what's been missing. We will also be building new entertainment businesses on, on, on the X platform. Who should we, uh, first kick off the show? Let's go, right? Uh, full story in our link.

Oh, that's a good one. Yeah.

And so, and so, and so a lot of people have been, you know, like, it's been, it's been some, some mixed, mixed reviews, right?

Mm-hmm.

And, and I think, and I think that my, my, my question was like, man, you know, Elon Musk is a polarizing individual. He says what he feels. And, you know, lately he's been, he's, there's been some, um, you know, borderline racist things or, or things that are not, um, for the Black people. In fact, in fact, uh, he recently liked a post, a quote or a post on Twitter about Black people killing Black people, right? And so it— so, so, so, so I guess me, if you want to, can you give some context? I know I'm doing a lot of talking. Can you give some context around my thought process and how, how we got, how we got here?

So, um, I mean, before we get in— I mean, not before we get into that, I do have a question though.

Yeah, yeah.

You said that he liked a post, um, about what, Black-on-Black murder, Black-on-Black crime?

Yeah.

But what was, what was the post saying? Was it celebrating Black-on-Black crime?

Um, let me, let me, let me see if I can find it, right? Let me see.

Because the last thing you want to do is give out some misinformation.

Yeah, yeah.

Context of what he liked is very important.

Black on black, uh, tweet. Let's just see, let's just see what it says.

Um, was it like a Klan post saying, oh great, they're killing each other?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't— um, yeah, I really, I really— I just— so, so, so, oh, 10 hours ago. There we go, there you go.

Okay, okay.

So Elon Musk under fire over response to insanely racist tweet about Black homicide rates, right? And so, um, and so, um, let's just see. Um, Elon Musk is facing backlash after amplifying a tweet with a false claim about Black homicide rates. So on Monday, June 18th, Musk shared a characteristic response to a post claiming there was, uh, a significant increase in the number of Black people killing white people in America in the decades since 1950s. Um, it's true that things have changed since the 1950s, a user with, uh, the handle, uh, i/show shared. The 1950s, Black killed about 600 more whites each year than whites killed Black. Now Blacks kill nearly 15 more whites each year than whites kill Blacks.

Oh my God.

Elon Musk expressed his amazement at the post, replying with an exclamation point and highlighting the tweet for his 197 million followers on the platform, right? Um, so Uh, Elon Musk's, uh, response attracted backlash from angry users furious, uh, he would amplify such a post. This is so insanely racist, one person wrote. Um, this kind of stuff is why I'm trading in my Tesla, SMH. Elon has went full racist, another person wrote. Uh, look, look, look what this responds to. A third person said, quoting Musk's post, If Hitler had a Twitter, Elon would be under every tweet saying, wow, very interesting. Okay, wait, um, so Elon Musk failed to clarify the figures, uh, review any sources, consider any possible nuance, and perform any due diligence before responding. Um, alleged disparities in homicide rates between races are often used as misconstrued by racists to promote the bigoted idea that Black people are violent by nature.

Selective outrage is what I'm gonna say. Okay, right, because he didn't say anything. He just put exclamation marks. I'm not done. I'm just asking for clarity. That's what he did. He put exclamation and he pressed like.

Yeah.

Um, and, and that's the rhetoric that followed, you know, he's a racist, blah blah blah. I'm not saying that he's not a racist, right? But it just seems odd that the anger is not more towards the person that posted it.

No, no, the reason why the anger is not towards that person, just for clarification, is because if that person has 100, you know, if, if the person has 100, uh, followers or even 1,000 followers, even 10,000 followers, it's not that big of a deal. The fact of the matter is that Elon Musk highlighted it, right? So it's almost like saying, um, somebody with a bigger voice retweeted something for the world to see. There is a level of responsibility there. Right, because, because Elon has 197 million followers. And so, so, all right, so it's almost like this. You know what this is akin to?

Uh-huh.

This is akin to our brother Kyrie Irving reposting a book, right? Reposting a book, right? And the same reason, the same reason they gave to him that he needed to apologize, right, pay a fine and all that stuff, was because in what they were saying was that he was highlighting this book to more people than, you know, to more people, right?

Right.

And because he has such a big platform They were, they were saying he has a responsibility to not highlight certain things to a mass audience.

We did not agree with that, right? So collectively, we didn't agree with that.

No, so, so we didn't agree with it because we did not feel like it was, um, like what, what Kyrie was, was sharing was something that was highly researched so that people should have had the opportunity to see this and, and, and, uh, uh, make a decision for themselves, right? They were calling the book anti-Semitic, but it was a highly researched book. And so, and so, and so yes, we didn't agree with it, but the fact that it was, it was still, uh, researched the fact that it was—

Same elements, same elements apply, right? You got to give people the opportunity to do the research themselves, right? But it sounds like for some reason we don't trust that whoever's reading this is going to do it. Like, we're automatically thinking the negative because I'll tell you what I first thought. Yeah, that, uh, and which is, which is why I asked, was it just exclamation points and was any Words confirming that, because what if that was just a reaction of shock? Right? He's a he's a he's a person just like us, right? And I'm not trying to defend him in any way. I'm just trying to give a different perspective. Elon is a person just like us, regardless of how wildly popular he is, how wildly rich he is, innovative, all the all the things. What if he just read that and his first human reaction? He's not thinking, oh wait, I got a responsibility. The average person is not thinking about that. No celebrity, at least I think, is not thinking. They're just reacting as a human being. So maybe he read that and was like, wow, that's insane, and just put the exclamations. You know, the, the way they— the way people are responding, it sounds like they're making it seem like he intentionally did it to incite some type of race riot or something. Like, how you get all that information from some exclamation points.

I mean, again, it's like, it's like one of those things, like, um, you know, and again, I, I, you know, I'm not saying that he is a racist, you know, right? But I think that, um, highlighting, you know, information that may not necessarily be true is problematic for somebody who has that big of a voice. That's all, right? But that's not even— that's not even the— that's not even—

That's not the point.

That's not even the point, right?

Right.

The point is that because— and, and this is not the first time he's being called a racist. And I— so, so in full transparency, I really don't follow what Elon Musk says, and so I cannot tell you why people believe he's a racist. Yeah, right. Um, but there's been a lot of, um, you know, conversations around him not caring for real about the Black culture. Let's just say that.

And, and, and, and my response to that is like, who cares, right?

So, so, because— and so, no, no, but, but, but, but, but, but, but I know that he's been very vocal on um, DEI stuff, affirmative action stuff, um, and, and, and, and a piece of it, you know, because I, you know, and I don't mean to cut you off, but a piece of it is around what he, um, is Black culture still pandering to him? And what it feels like, you know, people supporting Tesla, people buying Tesla and making it popular, uh, people still on X, you know, on, you know, on X. Um, like, like, like, like, it's almost like you're, you're like, if you have these feelings but you're having these conversations on a platform of the person who is, um, who you say you don't like, like, what's the point in that?

You just said that he's having these conversations on the platform. Not he, the people. Right, right, right. That was the point that I was about to make, right? That was exactly the point that I was about to make, because I'm like, well, if it's such a problem, right, why are the people still utilizing his products, right? We live in Georgia. I remember when we first moved down here, you couldn't turn your head without seeing a white Tesla.

Right.

They were everywhere. I thought they was on sale. And we know that the majority of the people out here in the city are African Americans, so who you think was driving them cars, right?

And so, and so, and so we still support it.

So then what's the problem?

And so here, so here, here's the, here's the main question, because I, because I, because we keep stopping before we get the main question out, right? The main question is really around the— this announcement that Swiss Beats and, um, Timberland, um, and Versus partners with Elon Musk to make this announcement. Um, the conversation that you and I have, and this is the conversation I want to have, is around, um, fan base, right?

Mm-hmm.

Because right after, and I don't think it's a coincidence, know, uh, but right after, um, you know, the announcement, um, Isaac Hayes, right, who owns Fanbase, uh, posted a, uh, uh, something with him on The Breakfast Club. Like, literally, like, as, like, like, as I'm— as we're having this conversation, like, this is fresh off the press. Like, the whole, uh, Versus thing, like, it just happened, right?

Mm-hmm.

And literally an hour ago, right, literally an hour ago, Um, you know, you know, you know, um, Isaac Hayes was talking about, um, fan base and really talking about, um, you know, um, hold on, let me, let me see if y'all can hear this. Capital, uh, wait, hold on, can you hear it?

I agree with you, it's the stupidest thing in the world when I see people saying things like, I think Elon Musk is racist and I don't like Elon Musk.

But you're saying it on X, you idiot.

Right. I mean, building Black wealth is one of the things that, you know, we have to really focus on. And the fastest way to build wealth moving into the future is technology. And so if you're gonna get mad at Elon Musk and yell at him on his platform, that doesn't make sense. So there has to be alternatives. And we've never been here before. Again, I say this all the time. Fanbase is really one of the first of its kind where we've never seen a Black founder start a social media platform from the bottom up. I spent my own bread to build this thing. We scaled it up, we raised capital. Um, and so now I want to give people an alternative because we also have, you know, the ability that people own this platform. We have over 15,000 investors that have invested in Fanbase, have gone to StartEngine, um, they own shares in the company. And we got to build this, this Black wealth, or we're going to be customers to our own creations. We will never have a seat at the table at all.

Right. And so, and so, and so what started our conversation was me coming to you and saying, I wonder if Isaac Hayes was not the public face of Fanbase, would we have— would we, would we support it faster, right? Because nobody knew who owned Clubhouse, right? But all the celebrities and, and influencers were behind Clubhouse, and we, and we grew that to a billion-dollar valuation, right? Fanbase came out like, yo, Black-owned, but that— I don't know, it feels like it's backfiring because at the end of the day, you know, and, and I don't, I don't know, I don't know the nuances, right? But why would— like, it would make sense if you're, if, if you're Swiss Beats and, um, if you're Swiss Beats and Timberland and you're saying this is 100% Black-owned, why not go with a Black-owned social media platform? Like, it would be— and again, I don't know the nuances, so I'm not saying this As a matter of fact, but but to me, from a like I don't know if Twitter or X could do or yes it has more users right so from a distribution standpoint it has more users so so versus can um you know reach more people but you know fan base also has the capacity. To have just as much users as Twitter. So imagine if Versus was exclusively on Fanbase. Like, I don't know, what's your thoughts?

So just going back to your first question, if Fanbase was not presented as a Black-owned, um, and founded entity, would it have grown? Absolutely. And I think that if he would have taken the same approach that Clubhouse took, right, nobody needs to know who you are. Have all the celebrities jump on. The masses are going to follow the celebrities anyway, right? Because they always want to know what they're doing. They want to be close to what's popular. Have all the celebrities, all the influencers jumping on, and just make it about the platform versus it being about him being the first Black founder of a social media and all that whole rhetoric, right? I think that was probably what got in the way of its growth. As horrible as that sounds, I truly believe that's what got in the way of the growth of Fanbase. Because it's— I've been on it and it's, um, it's up to par with Instagram.

Mm-hmm.

Literally. Like, there's nothing lacking. as far as I know, you know, and I'm not the biggest social media person, but there's nothing lacking from that platform that would make you say, ah, no, I don't really like it. Plus the added bonus of being able to monetize your, your space really quickly, right?

Yeah, yeah.

If we erased Isaac Hayes, if he would have stepped— stayed in the back and just put it out there as, oh, it's just this new platform, blah blah blah, and we got Because he has celebrities on there. We got all these people on there and blah blah blah. It would have been— it would have skyrocketed. Probably been— I would maybe not neck and neck with Instagram, but close enough, right?

Especially when you think about like Instagram, who like lost a lot of his luster. Like a lot of people were like, you know, you know, once Elon bought it, a lot of people were like, yo, I'm not rocking with— with—

No, not Instagram. Elon bought Instagram?

No, Twitter. Twitter.

Twitter.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, so Twitter, like, Twitter, like, lost its luster. So even once, you know, he bought Twitter, um, you know, people, like, it was a, it was an opportune time. Um, and so, and so, and so it, you know, it kind of, kind of goes to, you know, the conversation that I really would— or not the conversation, but the, the thought process I really wanted to get out was, um, man, you know, like, we've never really been in a room with billionaires Um, you know, you know, we don't know sort of like the nuances that go into these conversations. Um, you know, because, because, because like Jay-Z, um, catching flack over, you know, backing this, uh, $300 million, um, you know, uh, scholarship, school choice scholarship in Philadelphia that is, um, backed by another billionaire that people are outraged about, you know, saying that he sold out the culture, things of that nature. Um, and, and, you know, it kind of begs to differ or begs the question, um, are we, you know, uh, do we have this opinion about, you know, people and their partnerships with billionaires because we don't have access to them. So we fully— like, we're too low on the totem pole to understand, like, what it takes to really, like, uh, uh, negotiate or, or have those level of connections. Is it really about the culture, or is it about securing your legacy first, right? And you said something very interesting about, um, securing your legacy, if you don't mind sharing?

Um, I believe— I definitely believe that it's about, um, securing your legacy first, right? Um, the culture is and has always been a great marketing tool to secure others' legacies, as we've seen in hip-hop, um, as we've seen in every brand you can think of— Cadillac, Um, a lot of these, uh, hair— even for like in the beauty industry, a lot of these hair care product brands, they're— they look like they are to some point created by Black people and part of the culture. And when you do the, the work, you follow the money, you'll find that they're owned by white people. So our culture is one of the best marketing tools to use, use to build wealth, right? And that's why what I was saying is that you definitely— it's about building your personal legacy first, not about trying to be the savior of a culture.

Yeah. And, and, and, and so, and so, um, you, you connected it to, to like scripture though, right?

Right. So, and when, when I was connecting into scripture, because in, in I can't say definitively every— I know in the Bible, I know in the Quran that it tells— it teaches us to make sure we leave behind inheritance for our children's children's children, right? And you can't do that if you're focusing on the masses, right?

Mm-hmm.

And if the importance of that is, is that if you're, if you're working on that legacy from the inside it has more longevity than it would if you go out to the masses and try to help the culture, because it's more, it's more personal.

Mm-hmm.

It has greater value. And there's like this— there's just a stronger emotional attachment to the mission of that legacy if you build it from the inside out versus the outside in, right? Think about if you, if you focus so much on the outward culture with the goal of impacting the culture at the masses. And what are you doing, hoping that somebody that you impacted carries on your legacy? No, that's, that's not how that works. That's not how it works. They'll, they'll continue on and get motivated enough to do whatever it is that they want to do, but what you were trying to do is going to die at some point or get lost in translation.

Hmm.

So I compared it to that family of military vets, right?

Mm-hmm.

If you know a military family, and I don't know if this is still— if it still rings true today, but I know when I was growing up, if you knew a grandfather that was in the military, then his son was also in the military, and then his son was also going to the military too. It's like a legacy thing because there's some sense of pride of carrying on this message and being able to say my granddad was a sergeant, I'm a sergeant, blah blah, just like I brought up the Divine Nine, right? Those organizations are upheld strongly because families that got into it, they passed that down. It's a tradition. If, if your mom was— your grandmother was a Delta, the expectation to the point is that you, to some point— I'm not gonna say everybody is, is like this But you would likely— if you're a man, you're likely going to marry a Delta, and you're going to want your daughter to be a Delta, and blah blah blah. All that family lineage, that's— there's pride in that.

Mm-hmm.

And that's what upholds the organization. And that's why there's such a stronghold, especially in the Black community, when we know they was created because they didn't feel like they belonged anywhere. So you got to create something that you feel like you belong to, and you think that gives you power. Right? But yeah, that, that was just my point. It's like, I think that working on your legacy and making sure, sure you build a strong foundation and a strong legacy from within so your lineage can carry it out to the masses has more impact than you trying to reach.

And so, and so, you know, I, I think, I think my, my, my conflict— because I mean, when I heard it, I was like, man, that, you know, I mean, it's true, right? Because I, I've I've read it in the Bible, right? I've read it in the Quran, right? Um, and, and it may— it made me ask myself, well, is, is building your legacy, your individual legacy, more important or more godly? Let me not just say more important. Is it more godly? Is it more divine to build your, your personal legacy for your family? than mass altruism, right? Because you think about the Marcus Garveys, the Malcolm Xs, the Martin Luther Kings, like, who, you know, dedicated their life to mass altruism. But if you know, like I know, you know, you know, unfortunately Brother Malcolm didn't die with money, but he had a legacy, right?

Right.

You know, Dr. King really didn't die with money either, but, you know, has, has a legacy that's upheld. And so, but, but the legacy that's upheld is a human legacy, right? So that legacy is like, oh, it's a Martin Luther King Day. Is there a Malcolm X Day? There's no Malcolm X Day. Yeah, but either which way, we honor Malcolm X on his birthday, things of that nature. But nowhere in the Bible nor the Quran, right, right, does it talk about, um, creating something where your name is remembered.

Because all— it's just that their name is remembered, right? And one, one of your other questions was, is that egotistical? And, you know, we've had these types of conversations for years, and I've always believed that a lot of our leaders were moving from an egotistical standpoint. It was Dr. King who kind of realized, oh snap, this is not the way, right? Let me go to building wealth and creating legacy from an economic standpoint. And that's what got him assassinated, right? Because the others, they get it, right? The others get it. They like you. When you think about The Jews who do a lot of things that technically are against their religion. When you think about the type of things that's being done within the music industry, it, it doesn't match. It's not in alignment with what their religious beliefs are, right? However, personal legacy takes precedence. I have to build wealth to make sure my family is good so they can continue to own what we own. They have to be able to sustain this.

Hmm.

That's why we still don't own nothing in the music industry, because they created that legacy on the inside so it won't be let go. It's not going nowhere. They gonna keep it because they worked on the outside in. They wasn't going— they wasn't trying to help the creative African-American community, the creative hip-hop community, so that they could eventually own. No.

Mm-hmm.

That's just not, you know, that's not how it, how it goes. You know, even when you think about the Arab culture growing up in New York, they had a lot of the bodegas. Granted, they wouldn't serve pork bacon, but they, they still serve things that they wouldn't consume. Just like Chinese people, they serve things that they won't consume to build their personal legacies and make sure that it carries on. and carries over and continues year after day. You, you still go in the hood in Brooklyn and you still want to see a Chinese restaurant. They're everywhere in every inner city impoverished neighborhood, right?

So, so, so ego— so ego is— so wanting to be remembered, wanting to, uh, create things from a legacy standpoint Um, that's attached to your name is, is ego-based, right? And so—

At least I think it is. Yeah, I think it is.

And so, and so if, if, if someone, um, if someone is trying to please God, let's just say that, right? Because this is Abundance Conversations. Abundance is our birthright, um, and we serve, you know, you know, we, we're slaves to God, right? So if we're— if someone's trying to serve God And they— their best bet is to become the best that they could be and maximize their full potential. And that legacy will trickle down right to their kids, kids, kids, kids, and ultimately be of service to human mankind.

Mm-hmm.

Right. Is, is, is that what I'm understanding?

That, that's how I understand it. Yeah, yeah, right. Because, and again, I— what the other example that I used was JPMorgan Chase, right?

Yep, yep.

That legacy was created on the foundation of really they had a mission of helping people financially, right? Now what it evolved into is something totally different. And yes, while we know his name, his, his legacy is still attached, that his family is still benefiting from from that.

Yeah.

And it carries, continues to carry on, and it's developed into— I don't know, how did they start? As an insurance company? I don't know. You do know this?

No, I think JP Morgan was— I think they were like steel. There was something, there was something, there was something like railroads. Yeah, either railroad or, or steel or something like that. Yeah.

And you know, yes, like I said, his name is, is still on it, but his, his legacy is familial legacy still benefits, reaps the rewards of the financial benefits of that, which makes it able for them to continue to do business today. That was what, like 100 years ago?

Yeah.

Even the, um, what was it, Fleet Bank, right?

Yeah, was providing, uh, they started with slave ships. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, that legacy still lived. And, and I'm old enough to remember Fleet Bank, and that family was still attached to it because they built from within. And as it may not start as the financial institution, but regardless of what it starts as, if it starts as you selling bracelets and evolves to you— like, I was reading something the other day, like IKEA.

Yeah.

IKEA was writing pens. It may start as a writing pen, but you got to make sure You create something that's strong enough for the legacy to continue to go on no matter how it evolves, or, or make them do that succession planning strong enough that they hold— still hold on to the name.

Yeah.

Even though it's now a department store.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A warehouse. Back, back in then, that family is still—

Yeah. All right, y'all, so listen, we, we wanna, we wanna get y'all— we wanna get y'all thoughts Uh, let us know in the comments, right? Let us know in the comments. Um, should you be focusing— with everything that we said, should you be focusing on your personal legacy, or should you be focusing on the culture at large? Let us know your comments. Let us know what your thoughts are. Uh, we cited the Bible, the Quran, um, you know, the culture of, you know, what's happening with Elon Musk, and, and, you know, and Uh, you know, and Twitter and Versus and fan base. Let us know all of your thoughts below. Um, yeah, make sure y'all subscribe, like, subscribe to the channel. Um, and, uh, yeah, that's, that's all we got. Mina, any last words for the people?

No.

All right, y'all, the, the, the, the, the views and thoughts of Amina— nah, just playing. Now we, we are, we are one, so I, so I stand You know, I say wholeheartedly.

Well, listen, I know, I know that I can naturally think way outside the box, and yeah, so my views are definitely my own.

So, you know, you know, whatever, whatever, you know what I'm saying? Whatever, whatever. But look, make sure y'all subscribe, uh, make sure y'all like, make sure y'all share, uh, but, but definitely make sure y'all Leave your comments, let us know, uh, your thoughts. This is Abundance Conversations with Ash Cash and Amina. All right, y'all, peace and blessings.