All right, we talked about what we needed to talk
about.
Now let's talk about what we want to talk about.
And let's start with Beyoncé's album,
Cowboy Carter, now officially out for one week.
Roy, this was supposed to be her country music debut,
but what we got was so much more.
Yeah, I think what we got in addition to the
music was a history lesson about the roots of blackness
in country music at a time time where all we
love to do is reject the truth about the origins
of so many things in this country.
And I think that's the conversation that I've been happy
to see happening around the album is the fact that,
oh, not only am I going to come into this
genre and do something new and inventive,
but I'm also going to put on my back a
lot of the black people that are already in the
genre and were already the beachhead long before I got
here and pay homage to them.
Hey Dolly Parton, come on over too.
Let's do a remix. And I think that part is
what made it so enjoyable.
When she goes on, you need to buy stocks and
cowboy hats.
That's
whatever company. Make the cowboy hats.
That's the, that's the stock.
I'll say too loudly. Trump will come out with cowboy
hats.
These are truth hats. But you know,
same thing. Because Beyoncé is not going to get 1619
for doing it,
Which is interesting, right? Because this the the story of
the black contribution to country music.
Not even contribution. Ken Burns,
you know, did a lot on this in his documentary.
Is That it? His first his first episode in his
documentary was was called The Rub.
It was about the black and white origins of country
music that evolved into a country that didn't want to
share origins.
So they decided that country music was the white thing
and R&B was the black thing.
But in fact so many of their roots
we're we're in the same place and the same type
of music and the same types of stories about love
and loss.
And I thought that was interesting and that that conversations
died down for the last couple of years and it's
coming back in.
And I think, do you think this is a political
album?
No, no. I think. I think it's an everything.
I think people first of all Beyoncé and but the
the more important thing is
if what as we get used to this we will
understand that when black people have country music hits it's
not it's not a stretch it's not going into someone
elses world it's it's going back into your own.
There's no novels. There's no novel right.
Then what's your take, Amanda?
The criticism, there's not a lot of it,
but there is some that's loud.
It's from the far right,
which I don't even understand why,
But what's your take? Some of it is targeted towards
a black woman who is amazing at what she does
because she's a black woman who's amazing at what she
does. That's a whole list of black
women. Some of it is well thought out,
like there are some songs that are better than better
than others,
but they're all interesting. Like there's so much there.
She gives us essentially a history lesson.
I heard say Jones describe it as like the Great
American novel,
but in music form. It is beautiful.
Now, some of the critiques are
super racist and problematic, but I do think there's some
more interesting conversation happening around the music because she gives
us so much to dive in on.
But how about the fact that some of her biggest
supporters on this album
are the collaborators, the original artist,
It's Paul McCartney. It's Dolly Parton playing Dolly Parton
said three years ago. I think it was to Trevor
Noah.
I hope that one day Beyoncé covers Jolene.
I mean the fact that Miley Cyrus was once saying
I can't wait to see Beyoncé and now she is
also
a part of this project.
I think it's a beautiful thing when you watch people
who are considered as as deep roots in country like
Dolly Parton being able to say,
yes, this is absolutely a beautiful take and wear this
country music genre needs to go further
and I think it's getting rid of the novelty factor.
There are so many brilliant black musicians who have been
in this space and who are now talking about the
Beyoncé bump of their streams going up,
them being recognized as artists in their own caliber for
being featured in this way.
And I think that for some people who say that
Beyoncé might have,
I know that there are some critics out there who
are saying it's it's too commercial,
it's not enough country, it's Beyoncé.
This woman is mainstream and she is huge.
That's always how she's going to do it.
But if other people can well with that
and her album gets nominated for any number of awards,
all those people get nominated too.
Which is like what an incredible thing to do for
that.
It's gonna be hell. At the
CMA's Beyoncé wins some country Music Awards because now you're
gonna have people who are purists who are going to
act like there aren't other commercialized country music artists.
It's a broad genre. There's a lot of country music.
As a Swifty I will tell you what was Taylor
doing when she got big in country.
You were you were using Beyoncé crossing genres to
to try to uplift your narrative that this is some
sort of attack on whiteness,
and it's not. And to act like anybody
of only one specific race can do one specific genre.
That's wrong. The only person getting attacked is Jolene,
and she's been getting attacked for the last 50 years.
Jolene's fault, and she deserved to get stomped on on
it acoustically.
So, OK, let's talk about some other extraordinarily powerful women
this week.
I'm talking March Madness. Is this a turning point for
women in sports?
Because traditionally when women don't get paid or they don't
get the resources,
it's always like, well, like they can't sell out arenas,
They don't have the audience,
but boom, they do. Yeah,
What do you think in this moment?
I mean, just the fact that people like Shaq and
others are coming out and saying that Angel Reese and
Caitlin Clark,
these are the most talented people.
Shaq saying he doesn't even know the names of the
men playing.
And you know what? Same.
And I love that. And I love that we're talking
about it as just basketball and not women's basketball as
much anymore.
Like, these are just amazing athletes,
and I'm excited for the fact that there are so
many young kids,
not just girls, but also boys,
who are clamoring for a Caitlin Clark jersey or who
are remembering to be like Angel Reese.
That is the dream right there for anyone who was
little.
I mean, I had Mia Ham when I was playing
soccer and Brandy Chastain,
and that was like the fact that kids,
now we're going to have all of these different women
to look up to in sports.
From Sue Bird Megan Rapino All of these amazing women.
I love this. This is amazing.
I'm thrilled and I don't and I hate basketball.
How does the WNBA keep this mojo going,
right. How does how does the how do they take
this excitement and and and bring it bring this excitement
to arenas for professionals that's easy.
When when Caitlin Clark goes presumably #1 I believe,
to the Indiana Fever who have the first pick.
Then you start putting those fever games on TV 1-2.
You start making sure that you have women that are
the face of the league and you put faces to
these teams and they've already started that process.
It just continues because now Caitlin gives you the hot
rookie to follow
into the pros. I think the issue with the men's
game is that so many players are one and done.
NIL has you playing hopscotch from school to school,
so you don't have a relationship year after year.
The fact that this was a revenge game,
there's no men's basketball game where you could say last
year
he did this against him.
This year it's time for the
He's gone. That's right. That's the interesting point.
It's not a good thing or a bad thing.
It's good for this momentum that we've got right now.
But ultimately is the is that is that a weird
answer that
this works because women don't,
you know don't don't leave and get drafted.
They're not going one to go.
We've seen their story for the last four years.
Do you think that's what's so special about this group
of women?
We know their stories. We followed them.
We love and hate them.
I mean Angel reason now she was entering the WNBA
draft with like a beautiful photo shoot in Vogue.
Like it's amazing. Amazing. And you're going to see her
and Caitlin Clark enter the WNBA at a moment where
they can really capitalize on this story.
You know last year the Liberty Games out in Brooklyn
were some of the most fun places you could go.
See sports. We're going to even more at that next
year.
I think I saw women,
sports is gonna break a billion dollars in revenue for
the first time.
It's just the beginning. Yeah,
women, soccer, everything. And the Olympics too.
With off we got Simone Biles coming back.
It's gonna be a good summer.