Goats, Lists, & Taxes

Anthony: 0:47

This record motherfucking man got turned out super bow into another episode of the culture.

Jeff: 0:53

What did you rambling about man? Can I do my introduction

Anthony: 0:56

you look at you looking like looking at like you're trying to see if you can record his record and I can see the fucking thing it says recording that's the number he's just super bad so we can record this shit.

Jeff: 1:06

It's a fucking Super Bowl weekend aunt's birthday weekend he's in a bad mood happy happy early birthday metallic Julianne

Anthony: 1:16

it was a that's the whole thing without recording man. It's not really early because the shit gonna be on Monday. So he just kind of jumped forward in the future. I don't plan on dying tonight so yeah, should be fine.

Jeff: 1:28

Oh, happy early birthday as of the recording Happy belated birthday as of the release of the episode.

Anthony: 1:35

Yeah, you take me back in time.

Jeff: 1:37

Anyway, shout out to our patrons.

Anthony: 1:40

I'm telling you though.

Jeff: 1:42

We have we have one of them here today with us. Mikey she thank you for coming back on the culture was good.

Anthony: 1:54

couldn't make it because we always tell him like yo, if you don't want to come on, come on. Like you paint. Like, it seemed like Mike feeling like he was the Preferred Guest like No, like we tell you my father's Come on, like jump on. Like we don't care. Pick some shit.

Jeff: 2:07

He comes on like once a month. So we'll come back. Well, thank

Mikey: 2:10

you for having me. Yeah, I feel like you roll out the red carpet for me and I really appreciate feeling appreciated. So thanks for having me. I'm here.

Jeff: 2:18

Do you want to do anything you want to sell or promote? Or tell the people what

Mikey: 2:23

I mean? I'll promote the fact that I have an adorable 13 week old baby, go to my Instagram and fall in love with him. His name is Riggs. We've I have a podcast called Mikey and Ren eat in we're on a long ass hiatus from it right now. We're planning on taking a little bit of time off for the baby. It's been like it's been like three months since we put out an episode but Mikey and rent eat and it's still really fun. There's like hundreds of back episodes you can listen to me and my wife talking about food. Make lots of jokes. It's great. Otherwise, no, I just want to come on hang out with you guys.

Anthony: 2:56

Cool. Actually quick question. Yeah. So since it's been 13 weeks, like do you have like a top three baby food?

Mikey: 3:03

Top three baby food? Yes. I mean, it's all breast milk at this point. Like, are you aiming baby food for me? up to maybe four. I mean, I have eaten baby food for sure. Which is delicious. Well, it's pretty young once.

Anthony: 3:19

Once a kid THE FUCK IS continue moving forward. The bed is dead. The bed?

Mikey: 3:24

The answer is sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are the best food ever. It's like canned. It's vegetable candy. And healthy and healthy.

Anthony: 3:38

All right, are you done? You're free and we're done with the baby leaves away off our fearless leader. Yes, we are.

Jeff: 3:45

On the second half of this episode, we're going to speak to a gentleman about taxes a tax expert. You're gonna educate our audience. You know about the do's and don'ts about filing taxes and you know what the IRS and what companies do to take advantage of the underprivileged. But first and foremost, I want to get into a few of these topics. When my boys here. I know. Mikey she doesn't give a shit about sports. So real quickly, I'll discuss this a little briefly with Ant because LeBron James just broke Kareem Abdul Jabbar is record for the all time points leader in NBA history. And as a result, now people don't want to call him the goat. And I wanted to take I want to get your take on it because to me, he's not the goat. Kareem Abdul Jabbar had the record for 40 years. And nobody called him the goat. So in my eyes Michael Jordan is still the goat it is an impressive accomplishment for LeBron. I salute him respect. But no, he is not to go and

Anthony: 4:44

you don't have to over talk to us. He's not to go see the all time leading scorer in NBA history, but he's not the go. Cases like it's not a hard decision. Michael was six for six in the finals. Michael was probably the best player I've ever seen in my entire life. Michael, easily, easily. Play one on one pray, pray destroy LeBron. LeBron and like so many people with the five greatest players ever. But Michael had a particular tenacity and pissed off fishiness about his game that always showed up whenever it was game time and he got close. You always showed up and you always show it out. So it's not even a hard argument. The only thing that LeBron has that the record he has now is never going to be broken. That's about it. Like it took 40 years for it to be broken. The game has changed in ways where you're not getting a mean score is going up. But it's hard to do that for 20 consecutive years. These guys rest more. So think about LeBrons like the longevity like until the past couple of seasons. He's never really had a debilitating injury where like he lost the season. The only guy will probably we'd be able to catch him ever would have been Kevin Durant. But Kevin, he's lost a couple of seasons from like the ACL, the knee the foot, like he's lost some time. So therefore, it's probably a record that's honestly because of the way the game is played. And the way that people play it, it's not ever gonna be broken. So congratulations on that. But I'm gonna go now, I'm actually I'm actually tired of people using that word. Like everybody's a goat. Everybody's a goat, everybody to go no, no, no. There are a few greatest of all time. i Lee Gretzky, Jordan, magic. Kareem is one but it's not a lot. Everyone above everybody's a goat. Like it's, it's losing his flavor. It should be like the pinnacle of the pinnacle. The bronze there because of his longevity, his ability, his career. You talk about whatever we want to talk about what LeBron especially like. I mean, the guy went to was a seven consecutive finals. Like he was actually he was actually a great in Jordan. Oh, my bad. Sorry about my mathematical arithmetics a little bit off eight in a row. But six foot six is saying a lot. And like, Mike took a year off to play baseball. He broke his I think he broke his foot at like, after his rookie year. And I don't think Mike was ever the kind of guy who was really worried about like, how many points I can score. He's great score. Absolutely. But for him, it isn't always will be about winning. Nothing ever came before. Nothing will ever come after it. That's what separates him from LeBron, that you get this six times you win him six times. You've never lost in the final. Everyone else has. I mean, that's an accomplishment onto itself. So what LeBron did was great. Yes. It was making the greatest of all time now.

Mikey: 7:37

Well said, Jordan was just so much more fun to watch two

Jeff: 7:40

facts. He just had the killer mentality The Killer Instinct.

Mikey: 7:46

Yeah. And he watched the last dance. And it's like, I mean, he was just, you know, it's like say what you want to go do not like, you know, he was just in a mindset and like a game that was different than what's played now. And it was you know, I kind of like after Jordan after the kind of 95 mid 90s bowls era, like I kind of lost interest in basketball because I don't know, I just didn't think the energy was in it that was in that. And I also want to like piggyback on one answer that I've just been, you know, there's everybody's using the word goat so much lately, like, there's a lot of people talking about, like, there's a lot of lyrics that are talking about, like how it got a cosign from one of the goats or, you know, whatever. And it's, I just think it means greatest of all time, it should mean one person. And you can't be like a Mount Rushmore of people. I just think it's like it's now just being watered down and overused in in kind of everything, especially rap.

Jeff: 8:35

Yeah, that's the fact. But I don't want to spend too much time on LeBron. Everybody knows how I feel about LeBron, and any of these new generation players anyway. Fuck him. But congrats to him. It's a great accomplishment. I'm not going to downplay what he did. But I'm just tired of people saying, Oh, he's the goat now. He passed Jordan. He passed Kareem he passed everybody No, relax. I know Mikey she didn't watch the Grammys boomin and stood up till midnight watching this fucking shit. And the reason the main reason why me and and stayed up till midnight watching this shit is because they were honoring the 50 years of hip hop. And they had the little What was it like a 10 minute segment? I want to say it was 10 minutes. They tried to cram 50 years of hip hop into like, it was 12 Okay, so they crammed 50 years of hip hop into 12. And one thing that stood out to me, you know, it was entertaining. We enjoyed it. LL Cool. J came on and he did a disclaimer saying like, Look, don't get mad because we can't include everybody. And that's understandable because obviously they left off some people that we you know, might have or should have probably been on there. But the one thing that stood out to me as a text and sent me when we were watching the show, he says you have just watched the literal disintegration of hip hop from beginning to end. And I was like fuck you're right. Because they start off with like Run DMC you know what I mean? The people you grew up with and they you know, I think they did wu-tang wrong I was I was texting and I'm like, yo, they their routine wrong they played you know, they show the Wu Tang logo met the man comes out looking pretty because that's where he is now man you know man would have met fresh shit. He does half of a verse of his me th o demand and then that's it and they go to the next person. You know, Buster came out he did his didn't read a bit a bit a bit a bit a bit a bit and he did his fast shit. But then, you know, obviously it just keeps going and going Nellie then eventually the end would like to mumble rappers and that's what it was like yo, we just watched the literal deterioration of hip hop from beginning to end. But overall, I think that was the best part of the fucking Grammys because we know the Grammys are a joke. I don't know who's in charge of picking these fucking winners. And they had Beyonce like in every category because they wanted to give her the record. And I don't have a problem with that, you know, she's now the she has the most Grammys of all time. But they had her in every category. She won like best r&b. And then before that they had her in the category of Best techno dance, electronic music and I'm telling you, and I'm like, wait a minute, what's what is her album? Is it dance? Is electronic or is it r&b Because she just won Best r&b. Next thing, you know, they were gonna put her in the Best Gospel category, I think they were gonna put her in every category. And so she broke that record. And she was she did so congrats to her.

Mikey: 11:26

Well, I heard I heard that, you know, there's like, if you listened to that Renaissance album, it's like there's, you know, four or five songs kind of packed in the middle that like, they say are like, you know, disco influenced or whatever. And it's, and so then it falls into that category. It's just, I don't know, it's also like, you can't define like a, you know, any good album that's like, that's, you know, got some inconsistencies to it, or that's very, it's like, how are you gonna put it in one category. But it's, you know, I just agree, I feel like they were trying to shoehorn her into everything just to get that big win. And I don't know if that was a good album. It was a really good album, but I don't know that it deserved everything that that you know, that everybody was saying it got.

Jeff: 12:01

And I need Jay Z to do something with his hair, bro. To be honest, he is looking better as ever. She goes out there, she's winning awards. And he's coming out here looking like a fucking predator. Looking like, I don't know what and she goes up there. And she's like, you know, I want to thank my beautiful husband on the way yet. You're not talking about Jay like, I guess when you become a billionaire, you start giving less of a fuck about what you look like? Is that what it is? He's not giving any shit going on. Dude.

Anthony: 12:31

He got the basketball thing he'd been trying to do that man and you get old he get older. Like he's older than her like the book. Like, I'm just gonna be great and like five years. I mean, it's still Jay Z. I mean, I mean, I need to kind of say that about him. But I mean, he still matters so much to the coachee so close up the show. Even though I've never been like God did I just I just don't I love his verse but it basically his verse on Wayne's everyone else's can kind of go they give him three minutes to get three and a half minutes to go and spit to shit and it's like, it was what you expect from the Grammys. I mean, I'm glad after all the shit they kind of put you know, culture through over the past however many decades that they are able to do this tribute. It's good to have him there. It's good. See Melly Mel still, you know, doing pull ups in protein bars.

Jeff: 13:18

Jesus Christ

Anthony: 13:19

rollin like the Hulk. Oh my god, man, I wouldn't know what steroid cycle that man using because when you're those like what the fuck man and like he got he got bigger. Macy got smaller.

Mikey: 13:34

Dude, I can't even look at Missy. It's upsetting.

Anthony: 13:40

But I don't think it's like weight loss surgery. No shit like that. I think it's like she just like, really? Like, I'm going to grind down this because she's not really tall. Like she's not really. She always had weight or no, but she was never like a really, really tall person. Yeah, it's just it just the fact that it's good to have that kind of celebration. They're glad it was enjoyable. I felt kind of kind of fucked up where like it like when it started off with bad bunny and people looking at loss. They both start letting music and shit like this. Like, I don't know what to do here. It's just like, throw my hands in the air and just wave them side to side. Like, what is this? This is? This is a lot of sound. But I like it. Love those performance was great. Stevie Wonder's always has great things for him. And Chris Stapleton that was doing higher ground was amazing. So maybe you can find the shit on YouTube anywhere? No, I mean, all in all, it's a good celebration. I think what people really got to understand like, You got to fit a whole lot into it. But there was no Karis one. That should have been other members of tank land. Maybe Lauryn Hill, maybe the food Jesus, something else like that. But I mean, to give that window to show appreciation. After all that time is definitely a plus. Or they can do something else like that. Again, not because it gave you a mindfuck your little 50 year celebration. Y'all get the most out of it after that going back to business. And it's what it what it is, it's an underappreciated art form that influences everything. And then you get a chance to put it on in front of millions of people to really show like, the growth of hip hop, like I said, it started to fall apart. They put out little baby and glow reload and luzie I'm like, I can't, like this is what's wrong, man. Like, you really felt like it trended up you sort of peak and down the fucking mountain. They felt like alright, yeah, last two minutes. I'll fuck all this.

Mikey: 15:33

That's funny that you sent that to him. Because it's I said to my wife. I was like, it's like watching a candle melt. Like by the end. Jesus Christ. are we kidding? Like, I have to watch fucking, I don't know glow Rayleigh like, whatever man you He's so not my flavor. I hate the way she raps and it's just like if this what it's become wolf

Anthony: 15:54

it's like having a cigarette and it's that last little pin it in like a little smoke that like, like, smoking down to the filter. You don't just it's just it's tough the rest is good. You got all the steak and

Jeff: 16:09

even even the performances you can see the difference from generation to generation Run DMC comes out, you know and they live you know what I mean? You got public enemy with flavor flavor, and he you know, he's a character and they're out there, you boy, you got salt and pepper and they come out and they do anything. You know what I mean? They you know, and then it's like, you see the difference, like the stage presence is different there. And that's why I'm speaking you know, of KERS. Like he would have been in a he would have rocked the house, because that's what he's known for, for going on that stage and tearing it up. You know what I mean? But it's like these new guys. I don't know. I feel like they have the stage presence either.

Mikey: 16:44

No, it's been snorting Xanax. But this is dude. But then But then you talk about people that do have stage presence now. And I've been like, like core day like you watch like his concert footage. And like that dude goes off. You watch. Jay, you know, Jay Cole, like these are people that they're actually performers. And I just feel like I don't know what there's been a lot of, I don't know, there's been some pushback people felt what did you guys think about the fact that black thought was kind of the like, overarching emcee. Like I love black dad. He's one of my top three lyricist. But people were pushing back the fact that he was, you know, he kind of let it off.

Jeff: 17:19

Yeah, him and him and lol going back and forth. That was dope. That was a dope moment. I felt like I loved it.

Anthony: 17:26

I mean, of course, love is cured and shit. You're not gonna have black thought? Like, I'm sorry. Like, I'm not gonna have any fucking hitting drum for 12 minutes. Fuck you.

Mikey: 17:36

Right. And, I mean, black thought, I think like, um, you know, you can't argue the fact that he's one of the best lyricist of all time. I mean, for sure, whoever sure searches on bass frontman.

Jeff: 17:47

I think it helps his cause they left a lot out. But I mean, it's possible. I think it helps their cause that they're on the Jimmy Kimmel show or whatever, or Jimmy Fallon rather, Tonight Show with Jimmy so I think that helps, you know, I'm saying because now, you know, they're, people get to see them every night. So they know who they are as a poet, you know, that brings a whole new audience to them. I felt like the roots that probably would have never knew who they were.

Mikey: 18:13

Yeah. I'm a little salty about it. But that's okay.

Jeff: 18:17

Why Jimmy Fallon is a hip hop fan. Why?

Mikey: 18:21

No, I know. But it's and it's, you know, it's great that they become a household name, but it's, you know, the roots were the roots. Like, it's like, people talk to me, like, oh, man, like the house band for Jimmy Fallon. And like, no, like, the roots were like one of them established Hip Hop acts and in history, they're like, you know, one of the only groups as a live band, like the roots are, I mean, I've been listening to the roots since since the beginning. And so it's like, when they became the house band, like, Fuck, yeah, it's a great thing to be, but like the fact that like, there's a lot of people that might not have known who black thought was, or Questlove or whatever. If it wasn't for the Jimmy Fallon show. I don't know. I'm just I'm a little bit like, I don't know. It's good for them because they're going to huge payday and they get exposure and people should know who they are. But like, I just hate people that like think that the routes started at you know, their, whatever their second last album, like their first three albums were the three of the seminal albums in hip hop, and people don't even know about them.

Jeff: 19:11

I like how the Grammys opened up with that bunny, and he had white folks confused and that motherfucker he had these motherfuckers dancing moraine gay and shit and fucking reggaeton Taylor Swift was shaking her hips dancing moraine gate. For a minute why folks thought they were in the wrong fucking room. They were like, What the fuck is this Latino bring the Latino Grammys, they thought they were in the Latin Grammys for the first 10 minutes of the show.

Mikey: 19:36

They're confused until they look at his album sales and they're like Holy fuck, he sold more than like everyone at the Grammys combined.

Jeff: 19:42

And streaming numbers. You look at the sales and streaming numbers.

Mikey: 19:47

I mean, like people like whose people like who's bad Bernie and like, it's the same thing with like Shakira when you saw Shakira numbers like worldwide album sales and streaming, it's like, unbelievable. We don't have a sense of how big How big heard you know, like Latin music is until and then people are like, oh, man, we're gonna start the wash.

Jeff: 20:06

They forget that we're out here. You know what I mean? And then they have the audacity to give like Harry Styles Album of the Year over bad bunny over Beyonce. I'm like, Are you serious?

Anthony: 20:14

I don't I don't get hairstyles doing David Bowie cosplay. And it's like an album like I seen shit already. Man. I know who David Bowie is let's just fucking music like you're doing the same. You're just rehashing the same shit. You're talented. I'm not saying that you're not but come on now. And that's the beginning man. And wait for like what's the are we your Spanish Harlem what we're in LA? Or are the Mexicans here like oh my god, y'all just get the fuck up and dance man that shit supposed to make you feel alive and that's exactly what it is. Yeah, people all races gender Share. Eat whatever it is everyone just has have a good time. And I think that is like the issue with the Grammys. And that's why the hip hop thing was just like surprising, because it's like, Y'all just so white bread about this like, like, this is going beyond the simplicity of what you thought music was. It's all genres, shapes, blends everything. You have to learn to accept that this is just different way of the world. Like, we don't want to hear who won best jazz. I'm sorry. Not that it's a dead art. But I'm like, it's not it's not you're not drawing our audience here. Bad bunny is Stevie Wonder. Still it is Jay is Naess. Lizzo is like these are these are the people of now. They are of different colors. They are different genders. They are of everything. But again, in the end, what some old white lady won a major war which was surprising and Harry Styles when I'm like, back to usual. So that's a great well, you people.

Mikey: 21:45

And it's like, you know, you talked about that. And it's like if you look at Rock and Roll sales and like things like that, like you know, actually like rock music sales comparatively to like hip hop and r&b. It's they pale in comparison. And everybody's like, Oh, man, like, you know, we're gonna give hip hop this like this big tribute. And I don't know, it just it felt like the like, I have black friends of television performances. It was like, we're gonna have our friend Questlove who you know, we know him he's a safe black. And we'll have him arrange you know, the this like, you know, curated like, you know, and it's just like, Dude, this is hip hop out sells everything hip hop, every commercials hip hop? Like, I don't know, I just I just think it like the Grammys feels so far behind in relevance to speaking of

Anthony: 22:25

saying the Grammys curated by Chuck D. Yeah, but

Jeff: 22:28

like you mentioned the word safe. They literally skipped they literally skipped the entire gangsta rap era. Right. Right, total totally wishes a big part of the whole 90s was a big part of, you know, taking the hip hop to the next level. I'm not saying you know, go up there and say Fuck the police or anything like that. But they skipped NWA. They skipped you know what I mean, Snoop Dogg and Dre and 50 cent and whoever you know, 100% I guess they figured okay, Public Enemy. That's enough.

Mikey: 23:00

Yeah, look at the Super Bowl halftime show from last year. I mean, that was like that was to me that was like, that was the Megablast. That was like the a bomb that dropped in the music world. Like around when the chrono came out when doggy style came out. Like that was when I think Hip Hop really hit mainstream in my in my mind. Right?

Anthony: 23:18

I believe so. So there was like, since it's 50 years, you still got the BT Hip Hop Awards coming? Like say it's a lot left on the bone. Like, you left out no limit, you left out bad boy, you mean you had some rough rods thing, but you need a little more. You left out you know, guys like ti ludicrous. II 40 Bunch of guy from the Bay Area. I mean, he had to show which is appropriate, but you need to other shit to go and kind of go along with it. But it's kind of missing that part like and I'm saying you couldn't fit a lot in that time. But you have a lot of other artists that are going to get they're just doing just a claim, like, say 50 years. Yeah, there's other shows like The BT has their have their regular boards have the hip hop board. So there's time in place to do it, hopefully to get you know, the acknowledgement. And Jeff was right, like leaving out the west coast and like, like not being able to put snoop. They're given Dr. Dre the global award and even anathema it's a great day, but not having them out there to perform or someone from that point in that era or bad boy to do something at that time. It's kind of strange and diplomatic Dipset you know, digging into crates, it's a lot of stuff that you left out there going to the lyricist, lounge error, but it'll get to it. Hopefully, there'll be other celebrations and everyone to get there. Just do

Mikey: 24:33

it. You know, what's kind of an interesting thing to do, I've been like, I have a couple like tick tock pages where they were, they were showing the, the list of names that they had scrolling behind people while the performance was going on. And like, I will say that they went pretty on some pretty deep cuts with like, who they were throwing out like name wise in there. And I mean, they had some pretty underground artists, they had people that I was kind of surprised to even like knew about, but this is Jeff, Is it cool if we go from this into that top? 50

Jeff: 25:00

Yeah, let's go ahead. Because obviously, that's, that's a polarizing topic, at least to us. Because when that list came out, and it was a billboard and vibe, right? They put together their top 50 greatest rappers of all time. And before we get into the list, let me read you their criteria. Okay. And we do this every year to good thing that I feel like every year some magazine or some website puts out a list. And we come on here and we trash it and we're like, Yo, this is bullshit. This is blasphemy but that you know, whatever. It's all opinion, I guess. And it gets people talking right. But the important thing is to mention the criteria. This is the billboard when they pull out the statement. This is what they said in determining these rankings, Billboard and viability foreal teams opted first to limit the rap arena to North America. So that already alienates a whole bunch of rappers. Okay, cool. British rapper Slick Rick isn't on this list. We also opted not to include the significant contributions of reggaeton and dancehall MCs just to keep our pool of nominees a little more focused okay cool I don't have a problem with even though slick Rick's deserves to be on any list. But okay. From there, the teams took into account the following criteria not in any particular order, body of work, achievements, charted singles, albums, gold, platinum certifications, cultural impact influence, how the artists work, foster the genres evolution, longevity years at the mic lyrics, which includes storytelling skills, and flow, which is vocal progress. So keeping that in mind, and although they they disclaimer that it's in no particular order, they put lyrics storytelling and float and they see no

Mikey: 26:50

wait, what's in no particular order? The judgment?

Jeff: 26:53

No, they said that this is the criteria and no order. Oh, the criteria is in okay. But it stood out to me that they left lyrics and flow to the end, you know, I mean, because when you look at this list, I feel like they prioritized album sales and popularity and shit like that. So if you don't mind, I'll start off with the top 10.

Mikey: 27:11

Well, hold on. Jeff, before you start. One of the things that I wanted to bring up and like so we were coming from like the 50 year performance on the Grammys, we're you know, we're going into this which like, of course, like you said, this shit happens every year, someone always puts out some some list. But I just think it's like an it's an impossible thing. I think we have to look at it like a conversation starter, right? Because there's no way to sum up hip hop and 50 MCs, there's no way to say like, no one's ever going to agree on a top 50. And of course, you're going to leave out like really influential acts, and then you know, they're gonna push like, people to the top that are just more popular and have had more album sales. And it's, I just think it's an impossibility. And we have to like we have to look at it like a conversation started because I saw this top 50 list and I was like, get the fuck out of here. Like, it doesn't have a mean just it's so Miss waded in my mind. But I'm also a 42 year old white dude that grew up when not where I grew up, listen to what I grew up listening to. And it's like, I just don't think there's any ability to actually make something that's going to happen make everybody happy, for sure. But I'm also picking back and piggybacking this off of the greatest singers competition, or the list that you guys talked about that like left off Celine Dion. You know, like, Celine Dion is like if she's not on your top 200 list than you fucked up big time. And I think this list has a couple oopsies where they fucked up big time.

Jeff: 28:32

Okay, so let's start off with the top five. I don't have a problem with the names in the top five. I have a problem with the order that they're in. Okay. So they have Jay Z at number one, which is fine. I guess.

Mikey: 28:46

I have a problem with that they

Jeff: 28:47

have Kendrick Lamar at number two. And this is where the problems begin for me. Huge problem with that. They have NAS at number three. They have Tupac at number four and they have Eminem at number five. Jay Z NAS and Tupac to me are automatic top fives in whatever order you want to put them those three guys need to be in the top five and they are so that's fine. Nobody on this planet can tell me that Kendrick Lamar is better than NAS. You just can't lyrically storytelling, popularity. hit records. Success even you can't tell me that Kendrick is better than NAS

Mikey: 29:30

I can Yeah. Influence. Oh, really?

Jeff: 29:33

No. Longevity.

Mikey: 29:36

I can go hard.

Anthony: 29:41

All right. So Jeff, you've been a huge nice fan, right? I mean, not least he got

Jeff: 29:46

double digit albums, bro. Way more than Kendrick. And he keeps dropping out and he drops an album every year. He dropped two last year. I

Anthony: 29:54

mean, he's probably contractually obligated to do so. But I mean it's cool I understand that of all those out in time in your classics and beyond don't just be like it should be like sure how many outside of Illmatic under now I'm

Jeff: 30:08

gonna say probably five

Anthony: 30:10

oh your highest fuck Okay, we're gonna continue forward. You mean to him that now it's a five could

Jeff: 30:16

be more because the king disease albums you can argue there's people that would argue that the king disease albums are classic.

Anthony: 30:22

They're very good than okay. Well, they're very

Jeff: 30:25

ill Matic it was written I am to me are all three of those are classics. Stillmatic is a classic one back when I am Nostradamus maybe. No, okay, but ematic it was written I am still mad, that's for Okay. Kendrick has been he's having the Hendrick doesn't have for classic album. His last album was trashed and he won a Grammy for it. And it was his work. This body of work

Anthony: 30:50

by having the advertising released. I don't know. What does it matter? Yes, the classic. Damn is a classic blackberries a classic. And butterfly. Classic. So let's say so it was for first of all African probably arguably outside of maybe black in America, probably to all classics like he can make a like legit argument for that. He has an album that he won a Pulitzer for. He has an album that they actually teach in class. I know we had this thing before he said Karis teaches in school, but

Jeff: 31:21

they still they're still teaching Illmatic in universities when he told him

Anthony: 31:26

right, in music classes, not in literature classes, or Phyllis philosophy classes, or anything else like that. Now, and we had discussion yesterday, he's only been in this shit for 13 years. It's a massive output for 13 years. And like, we had this conversation with

Jeff: 31:45

Dan. So is he better than NAS? Was he better than NAS?

Anthony: 31:50

If you're if you're taking the all around criteria that they're saying, Yes, last for me. If you're saying everything, all around criteria that they're saying, yes. Is he as good as a storyteller as nice? Yes. Not not as great not not as the longevity of the career of nozzle ability. His first album is literally a story of someone looking outside of their window and describing the world going on around them. But good kid maad city, it's pretty much him doing the same thing. him trying to survive a night talking about all the shit going on with this garage rain and trying to get by and all this craziness going around. And he's a master storyteller doesn't seem like it because he's Kendrick. You think like he's his earthly, smart guy, so on and so forth. But he's always been well spoken. He's so well rounded and can do pretty much anything. Like it's like, it wasn't even on his album. And everybody went crazy for the heart part five, because like, yeah, that's how Kendrick ripes like when he when he really wants

Jeff: 32:49

and I had a problem at the Grammys where they give him the Grammy for whatever the fuck Best Rap Album. And that's the song that they kept using to promote the shit in the song is not even on the album, the song is not even on the fucking phone, right? It's a throwaway, like, this is good enough for great, but it's not an example of how but it's not an example of what's on the album. The album was not that good. So they chose the best song that he dropped in the last year. And they're using that as his soundtrack to represent how good he is, but the song is not on the album. Anyway, let me let me complete the top 10 Before we go on a break, because we got to continue this argument on the Patreon page. We're gonna we could go here all day with about this shit. They have they have the Notorious BIG at number six. Some would argue that he's better than Tupac. But because of longevity and whatever else. They have Tupac in the top five. Okay, so they got big yes, six. They got little Wayne at seven. They got Drake at eight. That's blasphemy. Yeah. It's no, it's not hard because Drake has no business being in a top 10 list.

Anthony: 33:59

You know, continue to continue. Go ahead.

Mikey: 34:03

Unless we'll hold on. I think the other thing we need to consider just consider the sources in this in this situation, right? It's billboard and vibe, right? Like, you combine those two things and it's like Drake is their fucking wet dream because he's like, Oh, he's you know, he's fucking super popular like he charts every time. But I call him Top 50 Top 10 rappers. I love Drake. I'll bring everyone who has albums. I don't like calling even calling them a rapper from me is like, oh, that's kind of a stretch.

Jeff: 34:34

Then they got Snoop Dogg at nine. And then they got Nicki Minaj at 10

Mikey: 34:39

Get the fuck out of here.

Jeff: 34:40

I wouldn't even call it Nicki Minaj the best female rapper.

Anthony: 34:44

There's my disagreement.

Jeff: 34:46

I work with any of you two guys called Nicki Minaj. The best female rapper of all time? No. So then she shouldn't even be on the top 10 rappers list? She shouldn't.

Anthony: 34:55

Why do we? Why do we have the same discussion, man because I tell people about Nicki all the time. She made her entire career. Her entire career off of one verse was a monster. Yeah, once once you heard diversity like Who is she? And what is she doing? Like you have you have some? Yeah, some of the best rappers in the world. She that one verse makes her entire career. What she does what is afterwards. kind of tricky, but that one thing wasn't wasn't a song. It wasn't an album. She did one single verse on on a classic album, but one song one one fucking verse. And they like she's the one and it never stop.

Mikey: 35:38

And she did define a new like she made a new genre of of rapper. I feel like she kind of created a new thing, which then created Cardi B which then created you know what I mean? It's like butterfly effects were huge. She's, she's great. I don't deny that it's just when I tapped in. And no, I don't think top 10 And it's also like, but we're you know, but if you go criteria if you go on sales, if you go on all that stuff, it's like, yeah, I mean, if it's true, that's why this why this is a hard list for me because it's not like, it's not really talking about true art. It's talking about art plus commerce plus popularity, which is fine, which is how we define success in our in our country. But yeah, I don't know.

Jeff: 36:16

But I we're gonna continue Queen Latif is like in the board. Yeah, we're gonna continue this argument as a Patreon exclusive so if you haven't signed up for the Patreon, you want to do that. And go over to the Patreon app or the site and you go here let's continue with the top 50 But let's take a quick break yo before real quick. What's your Super Bowl predictions man before we go on his break, because I'm a little torn and because normally when any team on any sport goes to the championship, I normally lean towards rooting for whatever team is closest proximity to me as far as geographical area. So in this case, it would be the Philadelphia Eagles except that they eliminated my New York Giants and I hate them and the Empire State Building lit up green when they made it which was which was fucking disgusting and embarrassment to the tri state area. So I can't really root for them. So I'm forced to root for the Chiefs I'm anxious to look to hear your your who you ruin for who you got. Winning

Anthony: 37:26

Eagles eagles and eagles and won't be close no

Jeff: 37:29

no I beg to differ bro ego the ego the eagles had an easier road to the to the championship.

Anthony: 37:38

I don't give a fuck this is not a sports sports talk radio show man.

Jeff: 37:41

Okay, well, I'm letting you know why it's not gonna be a blowout.

Anthony: 37:46

They're gonna I mean the the Chiefs gonna lose anyway. I will say at least by seven it's tighter than that but we're gonna see I mean we're gonna find out when the game all right. And we're gonna see all those billions of dollars worth of gambling that the United States has pumped back into this economy. Go right.

Jeff: 38:01

Mike do you give a shoe who wins?

Mikey: 38:04

I don't. I'm ultimately I'm gonna win because I'm making chicken wings that are so delicious at my house and that's what I do. As my tradition and I get to watch Rihanna has beautiful singing at halftime show. That's what I'm in it for.

Jeff: 38:19

Winning hotdog in Bologna and chicken and macaroni. chillin with the home is. Let's take a quick break. When we come back on my chest. We're gonna be talking taxes, man educate you a little bit will be bad. Yeah, yeah. represent a culture to represent like, the culture podcast. Okay, folks, our next guest is a certified public accountant. He is a business consultant out of Houston, Texas. His firm solves IRS and business related problems. It is tax season. So we're gonna be talking taxes with Mr. Joe mastriano. Thank you for coming on, buddy.

Joe Mastriano CPA: 39:08

Yeah, I'm glad to be here.

Jeff: 39:10

Tell us a little bit about your man. Okay.

Joe Mastriano CPA: 39:13

Well, I grew up in New York City housing projects, what AOC calls NYCHA and it those survival techniques made me really good at helping people with IRS problems, because going after the IRS can be tough sometimes. So I started out in the county, did taxes in 1975. Started my CPA firm in 1980. Quickly tried to do the most cases quit counting you have to do in about 3000 cases. And now continuing up help people. You know, I've kind of built my tongue over the years watching people get taken advantage of. And right now, while the government's trying to go after people like crazy, auditing them trying to get as much money as they can from them. Trying to be more forthright doing podcasts and letting people know what they can do to protect themselves and not to be taken advantage of by a lot of people that take advantage of people that have lower income. Yeah, and obviously, you

Jeff: 40:31

know, the name of our show was as a culture. So our our audience is going to be predominantly you know, black and brown people, Latinos, you know what I mean? Urban. So, I mean, do you see some type of discrimination, you know, against black and brown people Well, not necessarily

Joe Mastriano CPA: 40:49

racially, it's more low income. Because what happens is people get taken, we got these refund Advantage programs. And so they advertised Come Come to us, and you don't have to pay for your tax return. And we'll take our fee out of your refund. And they overcharge, there was a guy in Houston that was setting people up. And I remember he would tell us about this one woman, her name was cookie, and she would charge $1,000 per return, it would take, like 20 minutes to do. And he's and she did 80 returns and made $80,000. So let

Jeff: 41:37

me get this straight. So yeah, so if you're just gonna pay upfront cash, the bill, you would assume or the price is smaller, but if they're going to take it out of your returns, they assume you know, they figure, okay, it's not going to hurt you as much because you're not going to feel it. Or you're not going to see the money.

Joe Mastriano CPA: 41:52

Exactly, exactly. So they charge you a lot extra, or return there probably could have cost 300 400. With somebody that's experienced that knows how to do returns, let me keep it simple at first, and they'll just jack up the price three times the amount. But there's another problem with that, because a lot of people now what's happening is, some of the bigger companies like Intuit TurboTax, or h&r block, they're saying, I'm gonna give you up to a loan of up to $3,500, they're advertising now. Plus, you don't have to pay for the return. And these people that do these returns have very little experience. There's a programs that they use, tax Slayer is one of them. And there's pictures of the forms. So these people take your W two and your information, and they just copied on to the program, and they give you the return. And they know nothing at all about tax returns. In fact, Jackson Hewitt down here, and some other offices every year, this taxpayers that punch out these preparers, because they rip them off, and they lied to them. But the biggest problem is also that if you don't tell people how to support what's on the return, then they get audited, and they get these big 20 $30,000 bills. And sometimes those bills are as much as your whole annual salary. And I've got clients like that now I've got this girl that does eyelashes for people. And this audit, oh laid into her, and in jacked up to Bill. And by the time he's done with penalties and interest. He's trying to make a pay $35,000. And I'm in conversation with the manager right now about that. So what's going on now is if you get audited, they do the year before the year after. So they're auditing three years, and you're trying to disavow all kinds of things. And so you're getting ripped off even more, the best thing to do is go to someone like me, and there's plenty of people like me around that have many years of experience that deal with the IRS that knows exactly what they expect. And I represent a lot of tax preparers before the IRS because they screw up this stuff. And some of my clients charge more for returns than we do, because they're jacking up the price because they get you a bigger refund.

Jeff: 44:43

But I mean, okay, so this is some of the things that companies do. What are some of the things that the IRS does, you know, to take advantage? Well of minorities? Well, you know, or underprivileged, rather,

Joe Mastriano CPA: 44:55

yeah, it's really not so much it's more of an economic thing because they'll go into your account. Well, a lot of people don't realize that for free online. You can get your transcripts is one called a wage and income transcript. It's a list of everything the IRS has on you, that people put on you. And when people don't do that, the IRS will send people bills, and they'll say, Oh, well pay me 750 bucks. Pay me 1200 bucks. If you don't have money to hire someone to defend you, you're going to lay down for the IRS, just like being induced to say, either get down or lay down and too many people lay down But, you know, what was that public property or something that movie? Too many people lay down for the IRS? And they shouldn't? So the answer your question what the IRS does, the IRS knows how you're going to act, and they know that you're gonna pay those bills, because you can't afford to hire someone to defend you.

Jeff: 46:12

And then the rich get richer and the poor stay poor. Now go Yeah, well,

Joe Mastriano CPA: 46:16

you know, but, you know, I blame it also on on people. Because, you know, if you live in paycheck to paycheck, and you're desperate, and you got to have, you know, money for rent, you got to have food for your kids, especially single parents. They're trying to save what they can. And it's very easy to get tricked by people who, you know, tell you, they're going to take their fee out of your refund, or you want to get someone that, you know, someone comes around says, Oh, I'll do your return for 100 bucks, or they got people that will do it for free. Now. You just have to educate yourself a little bit to know, you're going to get ripped off. It's like anything, it's like,

Jeff: 47:07

it's like, yeah, it's like these organizations feed, like you said on people that are desperate, right? It's like the old rumor that you know, scratch off the winning scratch offs are always in the rich neighborhoods. And you know, the ones that are the losing ones are always in the, you know, the poor neighborhoods, because they know that people in the poor neighborhoods are desperate. So they're gonna continue to buy them, right. Yeah, and yeah,

Joe Mastriano CPA: 47:29

I don't know, if we have the winning tickets? Or if you do, let me know.

Jeff: 47:34

But why people do either retake

Joe Mastriano CPA: 47:37

it.

Jeff: 47:38

Yeah. Well, I haven't won shit yet. So. But same here. But what can people do to maximize their returns? And also, conversely, those that are in certain tax brackets that have to owe money? What can they do, you know, to help their situation where they end up? Owing, not as much as you know, they should?

Joe Mastriano CPA: 47:58

Right? Well, you know, it's an age old problem, if you got the money, you're going to have the benefits. You know, a lot of people, you know, try to say, oh, you know, the rich, don't pay taxes, and all of that. And every opportunity that's there for them is also there for you. It's just that they can pay people like me, to educate them. And so you're not going to find that knowledge. By searching online. You can watch people's videos and everything, but it's not the whole picture. Actually, I would say, watch my YouTube videos. I have a trademark, an official US trademark killer IRS. I'm the killer IRS CPA. So if you Google killer, IRS CPA, you can get to my website, you can get to my YouTube channels, I try to give free information. In fact, if you give me your email, if you go to tax problem dot O R G, and put your email in my four part checklists to come up for free. And to this day, when we use that audit prevention checklist, not one person has been audited, and we could take aggressive positions. So the best thing for people to do, number one is don't get audited. And another thing is to get your wage and income transcript. Because once you know what the IRS has on you, then you know what you can put down because a lot of people want to put down and the tax preparers want to put down extra mileage, they want to make your hobby into a business, all kinds of stuff. And if you don't know how the IRS is going to react to it, then you're going to get audited, you're going to have a problem. So if anybody's going to do your return, you need to ask them go over these numbers. What exactly does the IRS require for me to defend this return? If they can enter it go to somebody else.

Jeff: 50:16

I could take them somehow I could teach you

Joe Mastriano CPA: 50:18

in an hour how to do your own tax return.

Jeff: 50:22

What do you charge for something like that? Oh,

Joe Mastriano CPA: 50:24

my first initial consultation is 300 bucks. My normal hourly rate after that is only 195. I've kept it that way for for decades. So but when you do my initial consultation, I tell people how to get their own transcripts. You know what the whole game is about? How to do if you owe money us before, if you owe money to the IRS, how to do a binding agreement, I've got competitors, that'll charge a few $1,000 to get you in a currently not collectible status, which is a band aid because they can come back on you. And you can do that yourself. You could set up your own payment plans, I just gotta tell you how to make sure you've pay on time file on time, check your transcripts. It's not difficult, it's just that, you know, people get scared and they don't want to take the responsibility. If you don't want to take the responsibility, then you're going to get taken. If you want to take the responsibility, all you got to do is I just got to explain to you, when your taxes are due how to get your transcripts, the you can get a free tax package from Turbo Tax or tax act, you can download it. I couldn't explain to you what things to look out for. And if you need an agreement, a binding agreement. I've had people do their own stuff, add one guy who was on Social Security. I coached him he did his own offering compromise, we got to charge at least four to six grand for an offer. Sometimes it's more. And later on in the process. He paid for another hour. And then a few months later, he mailed me, Joe, thank you very much. I got my offer. I got my taxes knocked down to just 10%. And he paid me less than 1000 knows me he did it himself. So people need basic education on what's going on with the IRS and how they should, you know, take some more responsibility. Yeah, that's the key. Most people just they're lazy about the responsibility. Here, go do my taxes. Oh, how much am I getting back? Oh, well, $5,000. Thank you. And then they get audited. And then two other years good to get a $30,000 bill.

Jeff: 52:59

Sounds about right. But that's good stuff. Man. I'm definitely going to put those links and those websites on my show notes. I think I spoke about it in the last episode that you know, me and my wife used to do our own taxes on like Turbo Tax. And you know, for years, we were either getting very little return or we were owing and we were like how how was this happening? So we decided to take it to the guy, you know? Yeah, you need to and so we ended up? Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. Yeah, I was gonna say so we just started taking it and the last couple of years to some guy. And, you know, we got he gave us the biggest return we've ever had. And I was like, Okay, we were thinking we must have we were probably doing something wrong, or I don't know what he was doing. You know, I took the money and ran with it. I mean, I wasn't gonna really ask a question. Do you know, and I was thinking, you know, okay, well, if he did something, yeah, no, but if he's doing something illegal or putting something down that he's not supposed to, I'm thinking if we get audited, I'm sending them to him. I'm coming right back to him and questioning him.

Joe Mastriano CPA: 54:01

Yeah, but it's not going to help you because you sign the return under penalties of perjury, it's your liability. And a lot of people think the way you just said, oh, I'll just go back to him. And some of those people disappear, and they move to a new place also. And they're gonna

Jeff: 54:20

see that I've seen that. Yeah, yeah.

Joe Mastriano CPA: 54:23

I've had people here. There was a CPA in Houston that went to jail for doing phony party planning businesses. He'd say you ever set up some parties for families and friends? Yeah. Did you use your vehicle? Yeah. Did you drive to the store and buy stuff. And he made the phony business and got busted. For that we are we represented about 20 of his clients before the IRS. And we cut a deal with them that they won't charge any penalties if we just lay down for them. But we had to because it was phony. And I didn't want them to send them to criminal investigations. I've talked criminal investigations out of their cases a few times. Because the taxpayer was really innocent. They weren't trying to cheat. It was the preparer that was trying to cheat for them. Wow. Yeah,

Jeff: 55:16

that's good stuff, man. But, you know, I just wanted to educate our audience real quick, since it is tax season. You know, I don't want to take any more of your time. Now. You did say you grew up in. You did say you grew up in Brooklyn, correct.

Joe Mastriano CPA: 55:26

East New York in Brooklyn. Yeah. Right by the Belt Parkway. Right before they built Fairfield towers if you familiar with that next to Canarsie Kunal. So we were we were in Linden houses, it was called the projects, your projects. Absolutely. If you're in Manhattan and you tell people that take you to the projects they drive down the street. They used to I don't know about now.

Jeff: 55:57

But yeah, Mr. mastriano, thank you for stopping by man. Tell people where they can find you tell the audience where they could phone

Joe Mastriano CPA: 56:03

tax problem, one word tax problem dot o RG or just Google killer IRS CPA, I'm in all over the web. I post videos on YouTube and Facebook almost daily. And my videos will will teach you. But if you want to have four part checklists that to this day, so let's say you have a return, you want to get aggressive in your deductions, but you don't want to be audited. Don't file by April 15. matchup that transcript, but if you give me your email, a page will come back at you that's going to have those four parts on there. But my main thing to everybody is there, there's not going to be a magic bullet. It's going to be awareness. If you think the refund is too big, you're probably right. You got to use common sense if you made 40,000 A year and your taxable income is down to 5000 and you got two kids the IRS is going to question how did you live how did you have enough money to pay pay your bills? You got to use some common sense

Jeff: 57:25

I think that's lacking in today's generation but I could be wrong I hope I'm wrong.

Joe Mastriano CPA: 57:29

Nah Don't remind me you're kind of right.

Jeff: 57:33

But thank you for stopping by man

Joe Mastriano CPA: 57:35

Yeah my pleasure. Anytime people need to not be taken advantage of and they all every day so

Jeff: 57:46

thank you brother thank you for stopping by we appreciate you man you bet all right

Nas: 57:49

(Nas- Rare) Yo, I'm in rare form (Rare form) Niggas speak down on my name like I wasn't there for 'em (There for 'em) Talk about back in the days, this isn't back in the days (Back in the days) They want me back in my ways, chipped tooth and the fade (Tooth and the fade) [Verse 1] Uh, musically I'm on Mars Walkin' all over the beat, puttin' my feet on the stars I rock it like Lenny, thinkin' like Jimi the first time he seen a guitar Standin' in front of where they shot Ahmaud and said we gotta know who we are (Know who we are) Uh, I'm in rare form (Rare form) Wearin' rare Jordans straight from Air Jordan, this a fair warnin' Too many young gods beef over nothin' When you get money, you know that it's comin' Sayin' they homies, but they ain't a hunnid We the most hunted, uh I got my Mets hat on to the back (Back) Y'all already know where we goin' with the stats (Stats) Hall of fame only, kings and queens only (Queens only) They all be grabbin' my style but you know they can't hold me Yeah, I'm in rare form (Rare form) Y'all still on the ground, you know I've been airborne (I've been airbone) Studyin' Big, studyin' Nietzsche You gotta call in a chopper to reach me Homie, I don't need a jeweler to freeze me Ice in my veins, I make it look easy Mentally, I'm in Queens More money more problems, you gotta be ready for all that it brings Let 'em say what they