Yo, I'd like to welcome everybody back to the new episode of the Cognitive Collage
podcast.
I'm your host, Queen Golden.
We're friends and family, Cognitive Collage, and you can do the same.
We all friends now.
How do y'all want to start this today, man?
I'll start by saying tomorrow's election day, right?
And I don't want to get all political and all that type of shit.
But in my heart of hearts, I really feel like this might be the most important election
we've ever had.
And I know that's kind of typical to say every time election time comes around, but
no, this won't show a difference to me.
It's just, I don't know.
I don't even want to say it to put it out into the universe, but yeah, these people
are a rabbit out here.
Like they're just fucking me.
It doesn't matter what either candidate says or does.
There is no common ground.
It's a clear divide in the country.
You know?
So that got me to thinking, okay, what if this election does kick off a legitimate,
like, civil war type of shit or, you know, just a real divide to the point where, like,
the country itself becomes more hostile than it already is on its normal basis.
What if it becomes a thing where it's based on survival?
And that got me to thinking about what's my survival kit?
Entertainment wise, because, you know, the standard shit would be canned food and water
and batteries and shit like that.
But let's say you have access to electricity still and you have a DVD player.
You know what I mean?
You got like a little mini fridge or whatever.
You can maintain.
What's five movies, five albums, and if you could have your top three favorite foods,
like what would it be?
And I got to thinking to myself, like, shit, what would my list be?
So as far as albums, number one would probably be Stevie Wonder, Music and the Key of Life,
Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, Nipsey Hustle, Victory Lab, Marvin Gaye was going on album,
and probably Chris Stableton, Tennessee Whiskey.
I know that's not the name of the album, but whatever album has that song on it.
It's an incredible album.
And as far as DVDs would go, I would go Malcolm X, I would go Paid and Fool, I would go 40
year old Virgin, the first toy story.
And then I would probably do Heretic Turn, like the horror movie, which is an absolute
masterpiece.
And then as far as foods, pizza, definitely pizza, the Giorno or Redburn, but I like the
Giorno, I feel like the personal Redburn is too thin, but Redburn might have like better
sauce than the Giorno.
Sometimes the Giorno sauce tastes sweet and I'm not a sweet guy, I'm a savory guy.
So pizza for sure, bologna and cheese, but it has to be Oscar Maya beef bologna, pause.
Pizza, bologna and cheese, and then lasagna, like the makin' for lasagna.
With the exception of ricotta cheese, I do not like ricotta cheese, I don't like the
texture, I don't like the smell, I don't like the taste.
So whenever I make lasagna, I do not put ricotta cheese in it, I do not.
It's just my like feet, I don't want to eat this shit.
But hopefully I don't have to, you know, enact my survival guide, you know what I mean?
But I do think about that, like especially like, I'm a big fan of The Walking Dead, so
I watch how like they form the communities and the places that they choose to make a
community like The Saviors, it was like an old industrial type of factory that they converted.
And then Rick and the rest of the people at Alexandria, they kind of lucked up because
it was like a new development and the suburbs would, you know, they had like, what are they
called?
Oh, man, it's blowing me, I can't think of it.
They give you energy, they, solar panels.
Damn, why do I have a brain fart like that?
Solar panels.
And then they kind of had like some kind of like, you know, independent water filtration
system so they could like, shower and use the bathroom and all that type of shit.
But if I'm basing it on like, I guess real life or reality, I would probably try to take
over like an Amazon warehouse based on the supplies alone or a shopping mall, particularly
like a Bass Pro Shop.
Got weapons.
You got small shit you can snack on where you could like sustain.
And the weapons help keep like, keep your living space like a strong cold more or less.
Damn, man, I wonder.
All right, so I read this article once, it was from the University of Miami and Pennsylvania,
which I didn't know was the thing, but it is.
And they dedicated $2 million or it was like $3 million to zombie survival research.
And I think to myself, why would, you know, why would a college spend that much money
on zombie research if they didn't believe that it was a possibility that this research
would come in handy?
The main takeaway from it was they said the best place where you should, I guess, try
to survive a zombie apocalypse type of thing would be in the mountains.
They was like, because of the elevation.
You know, I guess it would be safe because it takes skill to climb a mountain, which
is something I never want to do.
Like whenever I watch stuff about like Mount Everest or, you know, other famous like mountains,
like the Siege Mountains or Mount Kilowijero or like, it's like, bro, all right, I get
it.
You want to, one, it's a test of the darts.
So it is something to be proud of if you accomplish that feat, but you made it to the top to do
what?
The same shit you could do with a drone and just have a good view.
That shit kills me too.
Now I think about it like what hotels and shit like you want to pay for like the top floor
so you can get like, I guess the view of the city or whatever serene surroundings that's
around you.
But the funny thing is most people statistically are afraid of heights, but that's not really
the case.
Nobody's truly afraid of heights.
You're afraid to fall, which is a big difference.
But having a nice view is just like, all right, that's cool.
But what do you really get from me?
I mean, like people who like to go to the beach, like I'm not a fan of the beach.
One is how to fuck to is typically crowded the shit.
And it's like, what, getting the water, sit on the sand, getting the water, make a sand
castle, barbecue or fucking burger, get sand in between your toes, your ears, your eyes,
your butt.
Like, I don't get it.
But I guess there's a level of like serenity to it.
Like, I haven't been to like a couple of beaches and like, that ain't for me.
Like if I had the choice of like going to a beach or like being in like a city or like,
you know, but a cool downtown or like just a cool city in general, like San Francisco
or New York or Chicago.
Chicago is gorgeous.
Super expensive.
But so is San Francisco, so is New York.
I think I lean more towards New York and it could be probably because like I'm a big hip
hop fan and whenever I think in New York, it's a few things that come to mind.
Hip hop, fashion, Ninja Turtles.
Three things I fucking love.
So I feel like New York and bodies, all of that.
And I have a lot of friends from New York, I have some family in New York too.
And if you've never been or if you've only been once, you haven't truly experienced New
York.
Like if you have for like a day or two, you'll just think like everybody's rude and all that.
It's not.
That's not the case.
Everybody has some shit to do.
So they typically be in a rush.
So if you walk in, let's say if you're in like Manhattan, because that's the most populated
earlier.
So whenever people think in New York, they typically think of Manhattan.
So they're like, man, you can't drive there.
It's not true.
If you go anywhere in the city outside of Manhattan, the traffic is normal as whether
you probably was.
There's plenty of parking.
It's chill.
It's like whenever I go to New York, like my preference is like Harlem.
I like Harlem a lot.
Brooklyn is cool.
Brooklyn is beautiful.
Queens is dope.
Queens remind me of like Baltimore County, the way the houses are like fully detached
and they have driveways and shit.
So like Queens probably remind me the most of where I'm from if you live in a suburb
type of shit.
But as far as like the city are concerned, the city that I think is probably the closest
to Baltimore aesthetically is Philadelphia.
I mean, granted, we neighbors, but the way the row houses look, the only true difference
honestly is like what the street signs look like.
Like even to like the way we dress, like I've been seeing this a lot lately on social media.
Like there's been this debate about a particular style of fashion that Baltimore has, DC has
and Philadelphia has and who started this, who was the first to wear this.
Who the fuck truly knows?
You know what I'm saying?
One thing I can say is when people say shit like New Balance, I would lean more towards
Baltimore.
Maybe that's just my bias or whatever, but I know a bunch of DC niggas who wear New
Balance and been wearing New Balance.
Truly too.
But as far as the underarm of shit, it's Baltimore.
Easy.
It's a Baltimore based company.
Not that that makes a difference, but they wear that shit here religiously.
The thing about Baltimore, which most people was not from Baltimore, probably don't understand.
Baltimore is more than murder.
Granted, that's what get the attention.
That's what makes the news, the statistics or that shit, but it's really not that.
Baltimore is a beautiful city.
It's historic as shit.
It's super culture.
It's a lot of cool art shit going on here.
Like the music scene is dope.
The way we talk is unique.
The way we dress is unique.
And again, this is probably all coming from a bias place, but honestly, I love Baltimore.
And I think the reason why the violence is the way that it is is because, all right,
I don't know if it's like this everywhere else, but speaking for Baltimore, as far as
taxes are concerned, when you buy a home, when you pay mortgage as opposed to the rent,
the taxes that they take from your mortgage, they use that money from your mortgage, the
taxes on your mortgage, to fund the schools.
Now, if in the inner city, nobody's really own a home and they rent, now the schools
have to be provided or the monetary needs of the school comes from the taxes that's
taken out of people's paychecks who live in the city.
But the same thing, fire departments, police department, like civil shit like bridges and
potholes and all that shit also comes out of that tax money.
So when the crime rates are so high, they can justify allocating that money more towards
the police department and not the schools.
And there was in lives the problem because there's so much crime because of how bad the
schools are.
And it becomes like a thing where like, all right, you go to school, the class is overcrowded.
It's 30 students, 35 students per one teacher.
And now this teacher got to try to devise a lesson plan to hold the attention of these
35 kids, 30 to 35 kids.
And they have extreme home lives because they're lack of education.
So now it becomes a thing where it's a lot of myths.
It's a lot of myths as far as like, Baltimore go and like the, you know, there's no good
fathers in the, that's bullshit.
The way the system is set up is that, all right, okay, if you don't have the highest
level education that you could have, even if you finished high school, there's only
but so much opportunity from an employment standpoint.
Now, after the young lady you dating is in the same boat, you're already at a disadvantage.
So now it becomes a thing where like, all right, we just started a family, but we really
can't afford to eat and pay for where we live.
So then you had programs like Section 8, but the caveat with that shit is they typically
don't approve somebody for Section 8 if it's a two-parent household.
So now you got to sneak the father in and out of the house that's supposed to still
like a home.
You know what I mean?
So I love what resentment is built.
And like, if he get caught there when he's not supposed to be, you could lose those
benefits.
So now as a mother, you got to decide, yo, do the kids have shelter and food stamps to
eat or do I want to, you know, maintain this family and struggle?
And most people like take the ladder, they going to take the, you know, the food stamps
and whatever little financial benefits and the housing that come with it.
So now the man is out on the street and it becomes a thing of he left his family.
No, the way the government is set up, they view it as, all right, if he's there, he
should be providing.
But if he doesn't have the education to get a good enough job to provide, he's forced
out the house.
So in turn, if you don't got the highest level of education, what do you do?
Return to the least path of resistance, the easy button, which is the streets.
Being a street nigga ain't a hard thing.
I'm not saying that it's not a dangerous thing because it is.
It's extremely fucking dangerous, but it's not hard.
The key to being a street nigga and a good one is a fear or a lack of fear for consequences.
If you don't give a fuck about Don and you don't give a fuck about going to jail, the
streets is the streets.
You know what I mean?
So most people don't want to be in the situations that they end.
I mean, if you gave them the opportunity to get up and get out and do something positive
and they can make money in the process, they would absolutely do it.
Don't get me wrong.
I ain't speaking for all because there's some niggas who just like, man, fuck that
work shit.
But most hood niggas that I know, the second that they got an opportunity to better themselves
and get a job, they jumped at that shit.
They wasn't too cool for a job.
You just want to have something meaningful because most niggas are like, man, I ain't
working on fast food.
And they catch a gun charge or a drug charge or whatever, some felony level shit to where
now they can't get a regular job.
So when they are released, yo, all right, employment is like a contingency of your release from
prison.
Like you have to have a job or a violation, parole type of shit.
So now don't save street niggas, tattoo tears and shit.
Them niggas is flipping birds.
And when I talk to them niggas, yo, they happy and they proud of being flipping burgers because
they ain't nobody trying to be in jail.
And that's, I know I'm going off the rails, but that's another thing I don't understand
about jail.
You niggas make that shit harder than it has to be because it's too many chiefs and not
enough not enough Indians.
And yo, I think I run the phones.
Oh, this is our phone right here.
Can't nobody else use it?
Nigga, this is our bathroom.
This is not our bathroom.
All right, no booths don't use those just to tell you, that shit is stupid.
If anything, and I'm not still no idea it's government in case you're listening and you
think I'm trying to fucking start a movement or some shit, I'm not.
But what I'm saying is hypothetically, that's important.
Hypothetically, if niggas was in jail, and go, yo, what you in here for?
Oh, tax evasion.
Hey, yo, this nigga over here is like collar criminal.
He knows some financial shit.
Y'all learn young bill.
Now jail's not that bad.
It's basically college and free housing.
But still, who the fuck would be away from that family,
not have the ability to get up and fucking just go outside
and take a deep breath if you want, or drive to the store,
fucking order some KFC, you know what I mean?
Popeyes is better than KFC, but you know what I'm saying.
I don't know.
I think the bullshit is so glamorized that, you know,
they start out as not having a choice in the matter
to a point, and it turns into weighing the struggle
as a badge of honor.
I mean, and I guess it is some commendable shit
to be able to go through something traumatic
and come out on the other side of it
and say that you were able to survive it,
but for me, it's even better
if you never go through the traumatic shit.
Now, some situations we don't have a choice in.
I mean, you might be born into them circumstances,
but a lot of the times, most of the shit
that niggas find themselves like wrapped up in
is, you know, self-inflicted,
because it's just, most niggas got that,
it can't happen to me.
Shit, ain't nobody gonna do nothing.
I don't have that mindset.
I know, I prepare for everything
because I know that anything can happen.
You know what I'm saying?
And this ain't me giving no tough guys' loose,
but trust and believe,
ain't nobody putting their fucking hands on me
and walking away.
And if you think you're gonna come to where I live at
and do some tough guys' shit, you better have your fairs
in order, but that's no here to at.
What I'm saying is,
people make shit harder than it has to be,
but back to like Baltimore being a beautiful city,
it truly is.
The shit that really fucked the city up,
so there's an area in West Baltimore
for those who aren't familiar,
it's called Pennsylvania Avenue.
And back in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s,
it was predominantly black.
It still is predominantly black,
but they had their own butcher shops
and you know,
dry cleaners and tailors,
but we had arts and theater and shit like that.
That's where people like Billie Holiday got this stuff.
That's a place where people like Duke Eleton
would come play.
It was almost like the equivalent of what
the Renaissance of Harlem was in the 1930s and 40s,
like with the Cotton Club and shit.
And
you know, when Dr. King was assassinated,
naturally like they ride it
because they didn't know what else to do.
So they fucked the area up, like you know,
but it's out of hurt, it's out of like, damn,
y'all didn't kill Malcolm,
somebody who was like, man, you know,
the definition of manhood,
the definition of I ain't going for that shit.
And then you kill Martin,
who was the, hey man, turn the other cheek,
let's put golfers, let's be peaceful,
we can coexist.
And that let people know that
whether you were positive or rather you were militant,
they would kill you no matter what.
You know what I mean?
But when that shit happened,
the city ride, they burnt down a whole bunch of like shit.
And most of the owners of the shit
were non-African-American.
So, or I can't even say that
because a lot of that shit was like, you know, black-owned type of shit.
You gotta think this is the 60s.
So they were just like, insurance companies like,
whoa, you know, this wasn't an act of nature, this shit,
it wasn't an act of like awesome,
this was like something afflicted from the community.
So they never, they never cut people
wearing them insurance checks and shit.
So to this day from the 60s, and now it's 2024,
they had buildings that still dilapidated
and burnt out from the Dr. King assassination riots.
And it could have been far worse,
but at the time there was a kingpin by the name of Lil Melvin,
who passed a few years ago.
Funny enough, a lot of this shit from the series, The Wire,
especially like season three and four, mainly three,
a lot of those like shit where they showed the police cracking the code.
That shit was based off of like shit
that Lil Melvin was actually doing, like,
he had a genius level IQ, but, you know,
he had a stronghold on the community.
So when people out there riding while now,
he put the word out, he cut that shit out, and they did.
And then they salvaged what they could of, you know,
Pennsylvania Avenue, but it became what it became.
So, but now the city is on a roll up swing.
So you got the University of Maryland
and whatever that development group was called.
And then you got the John Hopkins like development group.
So the thing that kind of divides East and West Baltimore
and that side is how this Martin Luther King Boulevard.
So everything to the West of Martin Luther King Boulevard,
the University of Maryland been purchasing and renovating
to the 10 and like housing projects and putting up like,
you know, luxury high rises.
Like, and it makes the city look beautiful, but it, you know,
it moves the people out of the community because they can afford to stay.
And then everything to the East of Martin Luther King Boulevard,
particularly when you go over to the bridge past Mercy Hospital.
That's when the East side really started in the oil industry.
Not that shit.
John Hopkins been purchasing everything
and they've been doing that for like well over a decade now.
So the city is starting to look beautiful,
but it raised the cost of living and shit.
So I don't know, man, it's complicated,
but I feel like a lot of this shit is by design.
Like none of this shit is old by chance or coincidental.
Like, no, this shit has been going on for a long time.
So the city is fucked up because the school system is fucked up
with the school system being fucked up.
You don't get the level of education to maintain meaningful employment.
So then, you know, you got to survive.
You got to survive for your family if you had one.
So the streets is the least path of resistance.
And it can usually take that route.
But then once, you know, it becomes generational,
like, damn, my dad went to jail.
You know what I mean?
Now he go to jail, or you go to jail,
then you have a kid, that kid eventually go to jail.
It's like, damn, bro, it just becomes a cycle.
And you got the rare cases where, like, people break that chain,
but it's easiest than it done.
So the city became what it became,
one because of lack of funding that started with the school
system was turned into, like, domestic shit in the house.
And, you know, we are where we are now.
But I really feel like it's on the upswing, you know.
I feel like the city is getting back to,
well, I can't even say getting back
because this is the only thing I've ever known.
And prior to me moving out of state and moving back,
I would hear people from out of state, like, kind of bad,
my bottom one.
I'm like, oh, man, fuck, nigga, y'all don't understand.
But then I got a chance to live in an environment where I'm like,
oh, shit, people really live like sitcoms and shit.
You go to the mall and at the food court,
there's the jocks at one table, the cheerleaders at one table,
the Dungeons and Dragons kids at one table.
Like, oh, shit, this shit is based on real shit.
And, you know, I wonder if I was born somewhere else,
like what I had the same personality,
what I have the same outlook.
Probably not because I would think that, you know,
your atmosphere kind of plays a role
into who you develop to be.
But that's not even necessarily true.
You know what I mean?
Because I know people who were born and raised in the same house,
went to the same schools, had the same circumstances.
And their lives just went in the like polar opposite direction.
So it still comes down to like personal choices.
But I don't know, man.
Like, I love Baltimore.
I love it wholeheartedly.
But, you know, if the zombies come,
they got out of the survive.
That's pretty much just what I was trying to say from this whole shit
is just like when the zombies come and they might be self
of this election shit, this shit could be the catalyst to like
civil war slash zombie shit.
Like, I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.
But I kind of do.
Ah, look at that.
Yo.
If I could be a zombie, I would love to be a zombie.
But I would want to like maintain like a level of consciousness.
So I could pick and choose like who I bite and shit.
They are not going to bite you.
I could tell you haven't watched the day.
I ain't gonna bite this man.
He he smells salty.
You know what I mean?
And after just to pick back up the zombie shit,
I was thinking about like, you know, if there is an afterlife,
like what if you got a choice?
Like you get to choose if you want to be like reincarnated.
You get to choose if you want to be a ghost.
There's some great beyond some other shit.
If those are optional, I 100% want to be a ghost.
Because I wouldn't even try to be like the scary haunted ghost.
Like, like I'll just do some shit where like if you watch
on TV, I'll be sad of a hundred.
And then like if you laugh at a joke, I would laugh right after
you just to make you whip around.
What the fuck was that?
I do shit like that.
I'll just say like the shoestrings, I just sneak it.
So you like, what the fuck?
Yeah, but I wouldn't be like no scary haunted type shit.
I was just, I'd be a weird ghost.
I heard somebody saying people are nothing more than slush puppets
with ghosts inside of them.
I say, yeah, that shit is dope.
I like that shit.
Weird.
But anyways, I hope everybody out there is.
Have a safe and productive week.
Any goal that you're working towards,
I hope that you get one step closer to it.
If not achieve it all together.
You know, if you want to challenge anything I said or
comment on anything I said, you can reach out to me on Instagram.
My Instagram is QGMusic.
That's QGMUSIC.
And yeah.
Peace.