Class of 3000 & The Temptations of Fame's Double Edge

Fame is a double-edged sword that's cut down countless talented artists throughout history. What happens when success, money, and adulation transform someone from a passionate creator into an ego-driven caricature of themselves?

This episode explores two seemingly different yet thematically connected stories: André 3000's animated series, "Class of 3000", and the classic Motown biopic, "The Temptations". Through vibrant animation and jazz-infused lessons, Class of 3000 showed children the importance of artistic integrity through Sunny Bridges and his diverse student ensemble. Meanwhile, The Temptations dramatized the real-life struggles of maintaining brotherhood amidst growing fame, with David Ruffin's infamous ego-driven downfall serving as a cautionary tale for anyone climbing the ladder of success.

We break down why these stories continue to resonate, from the symbolic "selling your soul" episode where Little D faces temptation from "Big D" to the gut-wrenching moment when Ruffin declares, "Ain't nobody coming to see you, Otis!" Both narratives demonstrate how easily talent can be corrupted when perspectives become warped by fame. As we dive into the characters, music, and legacies of these works, a central truth emerges: when artists become "public action figures" rather than human beings, something essential gets lost.

The conversation expands beyond entertainment into a thoughtful discussion about empathy versus sympathy, the importance of having an exit strategy in any venture, and why maintaining authenticity while managing ego is essential across all aspects of life. Whether you're familiar with these stories or discovering them for the first time, this episode offers valuable insights about navigating success without losing yourself in the process.

How do you maintain your authentic self while pursuing your ambitions? Join us for this exploration of music, fame, and the human cost of success, and don't forget to check out our new merchandise dropping soon @ zone-alliance.com!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Class 3000 and The Temptations
• 2:28 The Colorful Cast of Class 3000
• 7:36 David Ruffin's Ego and The Temptations
• 15:05 Legacy and Teaching in Class 3000
• 20:12 The Impact of Motown Movies
• 28:23 Life's Unfairness and Human Empathy
• 38:05 Sympathy vs. Empathy Discussion
• 55:17 Final Thoughts and Merch Announcement

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

what up, gang? It's time for another double feature from the zone podcast. This time around, I want to talk about class 3000 and the temptations.

Speaker 1: 0:11

Now the reason why I want to talk about those two and one go is because they both touched on a subject that we all could learn from, but outside of that they're like related to music and you know it's like something to enjoy. I'm sorry, I'm totally honest with you, I'm kind of going off script this time around because you know, I'm starting to realize that maybe my best takes are the ones that where I'm not writing notes and, you know, just speaking, speaking off rip. So let's just go in and zone in on it. For starters, let's start with class 3000. Now, I grew up on this show. Well, it wasn't around for very long, it was only around for like two years, between class year 2006 and 2008, and it follows around superstar and music teacher sunny bridges, who is voiced by andre benjamin, or andre 3000 as we know him, and he's teaching this group of students at atlanta, georgia, called the Wesley School of Performing Arts, and while Sonny Bridges is this jazz and blues artist who occasionally lectures at somewhere else, at this place called Little Five Points Residential Area, you know, referencing both OutKast and Cartoon Network being based in Atlanta. There were like 28 episodes that were produced, but two of them was unaired. They got a colorful cast of characters.

Speaker 1: 1:57

Funny thing is, I think Classic 3000 did Wokeness better than recent works because at least here, aside from Sonny being black, you have two black students, three white students and two kids. That's like twins, fraternal twins that happen to be Asian, and honestly they don't feel like too one-dimensional. It don't feel like Too one dimensional. It doesn't feel like they are just there to fill a role, like they all kind of bring something to the table. Like, for instance, lil D he's like this Bumbling idiot In a way. He kind of come off a little bit of like a, a dick rider for sunny bridge. I mean, I understand that's his hero and whatnot, but like sometimes I'm like bro, tone it down, like I guess you could say he's like the closest to the stereotypical black kid. Uh, aside from, you know the way he looks up the sunny bridges and whatnot. He's bright, he's talented, he's confident to a fault, but when it comes to music he's all about it, especially when he's on the drums. So yeah, you have Madison, who's like this very cheerful girl, but she got breaking points sometimes, like she's not always chill, but for the most part she's like kind of bubbly.

Speaker 1: 3:33

You have Tamika, the tough girl, and here's the thing it was weird when you know like how you had that one black girl that would be like ready to Fight somebody, and that one Episode where she decided to Hang out with the cool girls Quote unquote because they didn't Turn out to be Girls, I don't think. I think it was like one guy and one, but they were like scam marks and what not. Anyways, point being is that While she was gone, lil D made a statement saying that, oh man, it's not the same without tamika. Uh, around you know bullying well, not really bullying them, but more like punching them and shit. I'm like, wait, you like that shit can't be me. Uh, speaking of liking that shit, eddie, I think eddie kind of annoyed me second time around. I didn't mind him the first time when I was a kid, but second time around I'm gonna be honest with you, the rich kid. He kind of got on my nerves just a little bit because he was like that kind of rich kid to where he just be blowing his catch. That's for the hell of it. Like I mean, I understand flexing don't have to make sense, but bro, like it was just dumb uses of his money and on top of that he kind of had it bad for tamika. But I'm like, bro, like I don't. I don't think you're tough enough for a girl like tamika. Honestly, I'm sorry, but I feel like she can just walk all over you, take your money and all that shit. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Madison is on violin and cello, tamika is on guitar and the harp, eddie is on trumpet and clarinet.

Speaker 1: 5:21

Now that I'm caught up on trumpet and clarinet, now that I'm caught up, there's philly phil, who's like this brainy nerd who makes all the gadgets and whatnot but they often end up, um, malfunctioning to some degree. So kind of like that, with, uh, some kids who are trying to make shit up but they keep bailing on them. But some things work, like that one robot he made that's supposed to be designed to be popular and that was like one of the best things he did and ironically, he had to stop that invention from taking things too far. He is on the double bass and bass guitar. And then there's the twins, kim and Cam. Kim is the DJ who's you know more laid back and you know all about popular trends and whatnot, being on the xylophone and other percussion instruments. And then Cam is more like the conservative boy where I want to say he kind of like the logical one, which is ironic because you know you were thinking with Phil he would be like the logical one, but he is. But I'm just saying like Phil is the nerd, the logical one on, but he is. But I'm just saying like phil is the nerd, but cam is more like the, the stick in the mud, I want to say, and he's on keyboard and pm. I'm gonna be honest with you.

Speaker 1: 6:56

They had some pretty good episodes and then there's some episodes that's kind of bland. But the one episode I do like which will tie into the temptations, it was the one episode where little d was selling out per se to this one guy uh, big d, he called himself, and it was for this ham company and little d was pretty much selling out for that one music video. And I like that music video. By the way, you know, give me your soul, you know that one, right, I like that one. Now, see, the reason why I like that one also ties into what I'm going to talk about with the temptations.

Speaker 1: 7:39

It's because when I watch the temptations like first of all, let me just say it was the first time in a while that I'd seen the Temptations and it was about how Otis Williams, melvin Franklin, david Ruffin, eddie Kendrickson, some others was coming together making music and whatnot and it was all cool and whatnot, like they were trying to make a name for themselves. It wasn't the easiest road but they were getting up there. But I want to say by the second act, because, keep in mind, it's like a docu-series where it's like a two-parter and it was like three hours long. But I want to say like halfway into it, essentially David Ruffin was starting to get a big ego. And you know the quotables when Otis and Blue was confronting David about him not showing up to practice and whatnot.

Speaker 3: 8:35

And then David was like I'm the one selling the records yeah ain't, nobody can't get to see you, otis.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Alright, come to see you, otis.

Speaker 3: 8:44

Alright, come to see the temptations.

Speaker 1: 8:47

That was funny bro, like he was saying oh well, it might as well be David Ruffin in the temptations. Yeah, it got. Good. I'm like hey, bro, you better get together or you gonna get. Hey, bro, I'm singing right after that. Bro, you better get it together or you're going to get them out of here. Hey bro, just kill him bro.

Speaker 3: 9:05

I'm seeing him right after that. My name is David Ruffin, and these are the Temptations, petty.

Speaker 1: 9:16

But, man, let me tell you, when I kind of did my light research on the Temptations, I wanted to know a little bit more about it because I thought it was like pretty good man. I was not ready to walk into this slew of technicalities where a lot of shit that happened in this was inaccurate, like I mean, granted, like some things it's going to be inaccurate, but I didn't know how inaccurate it was gonna be until I saw all this. Like, for starters, the way they depicted david ruffin was wrong because they were, um, saying that it was inaccurate for ruffin, for kindred's and for edwards uh performing together before the 1982 reunion tour, where in reality ruffin and kindred didn't start performing together until 1985 and edwards joining them in 1989. So it's almost like a reimagining of the events. But keep in mind that it was from the perspective of otis williams, who was the only member that was still alive to make this shit. So it's like it was just his word against everybody else's.

Speaker 1: 10:27

But trust me, when families came at him, like especially on david ruffin's family came at him, like hey, yo, like I don't like the way you uh depicted my boy like that, especially um the way he died where it wasn't as unceremoniously being dumped out of the car near a hospital.

Speaker 1: 10:46

It was more like he had this drug overdose and was taken to the hospital by a chauffeur who notified the attending staff of the Ruffin identity and because nobody claimed his body immediately after his death, his corpse was just laying in the morgue for two days until his family showed up finding out about it and then they were like yep, that's him. So there was like some inaccuracy going on with all that, but outside of that I thought it was pretty good. It was a pretty good watch. It just goes to show how, with like with the temptations, things can fall apart if you don't move carefully, especially if you. Once again it was based on the miniseries, but you know how David was getting on that crack and all that and then he was just getting real messed up Between Lil D and David. I want to say that I, as the leader of the zone, have to keep myself in check to where I can't let any form of success get to our head, like I don't want to be like Riley from the Boondogs. You know that one episode with the chocolate bars where he was raising all those funds and he was thinking that he was practically being invincible, but his mistake was fundraiser yeah, the fundraiser, yeah the chocolate

Speaker 1: 12:16

but his problem was he was throwing the money around to his partners. You know how they say you're not supposed to be spending company money and what not. So he was thinking that oh, nobody can stop him, until some big boy showed up trying to shut him down and whatnot. So sometimes you got to think about where you're going with all this. Funny enough, there was one YouTube video where it was talking about how this one episode pretty much told you how you can get rich, and the first thing was you gotta begin with the ending in mind. So in other words, if you're gonna do anything, you need to already have an exit strategy once you already made your money. And all that because you can be like some of those celebrities where they're not getting the memo, to, where they need to edge out of the spotlight now, and then they just age age ungracefully, in a way to where, like, they just start embarrassing themselves.

Speaker 1: 13:18

where I'm like, then you have some folks where, okay, I made my money, I don't have to keep doing all this extra shit, like I could just chill out and retire, true because if you have an end goal in mind, you spend your money wisely.

Speaker 2: 13:31

People who don't have an end goal in mind spend their money just to be spending and then find themselves broke constantly looking for the next thing, like, oh, I need to get another job, I need to get another gig because I'm broke. But if you had your money, you knew where you was going to spend it at.

Speaker 1: 13:50

You had a plan of action you would accomplish that and you'd be better off. It's the most successful businessman. Always do that. Oh yeah, it's like with um not to call anybody out but it's like with youtubers and twitch streamers and whatnot. To where it's like we need to get more subs, more sub, we need to hit a million, whatnot. But I'm like, what are you gonna do after all that?

Speaker 1: 14:05

Like and honestly, you would think that people making or having millions of subscribers or followers, you'd be thinking they'd be making big money, right, well, not on youtube alone. Like you gotta get sponsorships and you gotta sell merch and whatnot. Like it just looks like being a big-time YouTuber or Twitch streamer. It just seems like, oh, you must be making a whole lot of money. Nah, like, there's a lot of work behind the scenes to make that shit happen. But once again, like you gotta have an end goal in mind. Like, do you really want to be? Want to be in your 50s and 60s doing the same shit? No, personally, my personal goal is I just want to make enough money to where I don't have to. Working should be optional in my older age. So that's how I feel. But uh, starting with you, goki gatsu, how you feeling about class of 3000 and the temptations like I don't know how strong you're on.

Speaker 2: 15:17

I know you're ready for class 3000 but I don't know how you feel about temptation, but how you feeling I mean, I love temptations and the thing thing about it is that that movie always felt a little off to me, but I never dove as much into it. I've seen it twice. Funny enough, I actually like Temptations so much. Before this movie even came out, there was a time at one of our old jobs that we had you know that call center job where we had dress up Fridays and stuff. One of my most iconic outfits is I had a black. I had a red button-up shirt, some black slacks and what I did was is that my hair is very soft. So you know, I got a lot of. I still got my black features. So it's still an afro, but it's real soft. Whenever I wet it I don't even have to put no product into it, just water, and I can get it soft and really curly. So what I did was I could shake my fro however I wanted. So we used to have really big afro, um, dressed up as like cats for, like our football team one time because it was the game night, and so we wound up having 80s day. No, we had 70s day and so 70s day, 60s, 70s day. I was like, no, I don't want to. Um, do just a regular afro like the disco afro. I want to go something a little bit different. So I wound up looking up hairstyles and I picked Otis's hairstyle. Funny enough about how the accidental haircut the little angle. I was able to shape my afro to look just like that, to where it had a nice little angle, to where it slanted up, and that was by far one of my best outfits that I ever had. I didn't have to buy no costume or nothing with it, didn't have to buy no extra hair products. I just had a red button-up shirt. I already had some cufflinks, had them rolled up and everything. Just had them rolled up and I walked in immediately and Got so many people in trouble because they stopped working as soon as I walked in. But anyway, wow, by the way, it was still fun. Temptations is a really great show.

Speaker 2: 17:05

Even though there are a lot of inaccuracies, the message still kind of goes through. Like you said, the main thing is don't let the money, the power, the fame get to your head. We hear this happen again right now. Obviously, the Kendrick Lamar beef with Drake, and that's one of the things that he's preached inside of his videos and his songs with against Drake as well. You let the money to pie get to your head. You think that you are untouchable. And now, somebody that touched you, now you don't. Now you're feeling some type of way. Now, somebody that's past you, now you really feel this type of way. Now your music ain't looking as good, no more. Now you really feel this type of way and it just kind of really starts getting on. But you know, everybody's got to have that humbling ref beef. But you know now that lawsuit situation anyway, um, it's still very important to understand that you cannot let money, power, fame get to your head and stuff. And it's interesting that you do want to tie this in with classic 3000, because there is a lot more that happens with classic 3000 a lot of people won't admit onto. So class 3000 never finished season three. It never even finished it. To um, to the tango. We wound up.

Speaker 2: 18:07

Having the principal and the lunch lady wound up having their own moment was the first and only episode of season three, and the reason being is because the series got pulled in 2007 on the end that December, for two main reasons, but only one was made publicly One of the things that Andre wound up talking about was the fact that it became too much of a hassle. They were making him write a new song for every single episode and they were trying to push out episodes to come out like every two weeks and that was just too much. It was a lot to put on, a lot of pressure put on to him. He was still raising his family, he was still trying to take care of things, he still had his own personal goal. He had a bunch of other things he was trying to take care of and it's like he had already started stepping back from the music world. But it was like they were trying to cartoon network was trying to pull all of his time to just just them, like, only do what we want you to do. And he's like no, I can't do that. I still got other gigs, still got other stuff to do. Y'all gotta chill out, um. And it's like well, there's not. These are like just simple songs.

Speaker 2: 19:04

But every single song in class 3000 hits in some form or fashion. Each one has a message. Each one has a big thing into it. Like you said, all you want, all we want, is your soul. That's a big thing. Like, yeah, selling yourself out, um, life without music talks about. You know how we live. If we didn't have any type of music whatsoever, you know life is, it'd be crazy. We live day-to-day life and even if you don't try to, you know.

Speaker 2: 19:29

Every single time, randomly, you start playing a song in your head. That's a natural brain function because your brain associates music with whatever situation you're dealing with. You're going to randomly pop up a random song in your head because you're starting to correlate it in some form or fashion. Your brain needs something, whether it be a distraction or just to kind of add on, to intensify the situation.

Speaker 2: 19:49

You watch those movies. You watch any movie that has absolutely no music whatsoever to it. It's insane. The first movie silent movies had to have music to it. It was too much to just sit there and read. It was like reading a book. You couldn't do anything. But most people when they read books, would put something on their record players like that. Everybody listens to music. It's an all thing. Way back when bars were very important, we played dnd. Bars are extremely important anyway, but like it's just one of those things, like you couldn't live life without music.

Speaker 2: 20:19

Um, living the blues, understanding what it means to be sad. We had those moments. Um, bankhead versus bunkhead. You know it was like you mentioned. We had a nice diverse cast. It wasn't just diverse as far as race, but also money. You know, like eddie was rich, you do lived in bunkhead and it's like, why are you here in bankhead? And it's funny because, like how that whole iceland, greenland thing? But you know it's like, oh, it's called iceland but it's actually really green and greenland is really icy and stuff. They swapped the names to get more people to like come visit and bunkhead wants to be in.

Speaker 2: 20:49

The richer people, even though they have, they have more bank and bankhead, even though they call themselves bankhead, are actually the poor people and it became there was a whole episode about this whole fight between them because it's like why do you know, you don't know my struggles and nothing like that. And they had a whole thing of like you know, being rich is a rich shade of blue winds up being like. You know, being rich. There's still blues that come with that. Because the thing is, yeah, I was born rich, but people only respect me for my money. They don't respect me for who I am. And you know there's a message every single song. You couldn't just put out a song like that because everything was important. It hit us. That's why this show sticks with us.

Speaker 2: 21:28

The other reason that the show wound up being canceled this is one of the other things is the fact that there was a rock star and a country singer who absolutely started fighting for rights on this show because what he claimed was that this was originally his idea and that he wanted to actually make a show about having a music class and being a music teacher. And it was like you stole my flow word for word. The only difference was, instead of making it rock and country, you made it hip-hop and blues and jazz and stuff. So it's like you stole my idea. But they later proved that that wasn't the case.

Speaker 2: 22:04

But due to the backlash that was already happening, on top of the issues that Cartoon Network was putting, the pressure that they were putting onto Andre, he just backed it down. He was like there's entirely too much to handle and they wound up cancelling out the show. So it's like he said said I'm not gonna sell my soul for this. Like this is too much. Um, so the lot that kind of goes into that temptations, like you said, there's a lot of inaccuracies, but the reason they did that is because they wanted people to be more engaged with the show. Um, but the min, like you said, it was based on the mini series into it and the thing is because a lot of people have this expectation of people doing certain things.

Speaker 2: 22:42

If people seem too perfect, no one's going to want to watch, no one's going to be interested, no one's going to want to do anything, so they have to create flaws that weren't there. And, yes, it was a pain people in a bad light, and it's especially disrespectful to do this to someone who already died. That's rude. But let's be realistic. Hollywood would do anything for money. They don't care.

Speaker 2: 23:03

We just had to go through this whole battle recently where they had to. We had to fight for our actors rights to be able to still act and get paid in movies. It was like, oh, we're gonna sell, just sell us your right to your face and we'll do whatever we want to do with it. No, you can't do whatever you want to do with my face. What's wrong with you? Like the hell. And so it's like there's there's so much that goes into it and we battle hollywood every day. That's just realistic, but it's one of those ones that you just kind of get that understanding. The show must go on and it will. It can tank a person, but temptations is still a great, great movie to watch. Um, I mean the temptations itself was being a great name in itself. It was a name for the group because it was like oh, you know, we're very tempting and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 23:50

But I want to be imperfect for the movie because the whole premise of the movie was being tempted about fame and money, like we talked about. There's a bunch of quotable lines, money, like we talked about. There's a bunch of quotable lines. Yeah, like we talked about this, there's a bunch of portable lines for temptations. There's.

Speaker 2: 24:06

I have the playlist for class 3000. I listen to that a lot. Um, I actually have it. I live. I make my kids listen to it and they be sitting here a rich shade of blue, like I was just saying. Like we listen to the songs and the car rides and stuff. It's just it's like it's too iconic not to listen to. It's too important to not listen to it. It's important for both. These movies are important for our black society. It's very important for how things are. Um, so I mean as far as the generic thing into it. I love both of them.

Speaker 2: 24:40

Uh, I love the character development for um for class 3000, because each character at least before it got canceled, every character did get their own moment. Tamika, she has this moment. We do understand she has to put on a face, she has to portray herself a certain kind of way, because she's a young Black woman and she's had to grow up early and had to understand what that means, and having two Black daughters myself is one of those ones that really touches base more especially now in seeing that, because society portrays our Black women a certain kind of way. So now we have to really understand how we're going to do that, how it is that we're going to protect our Black women, because, let's be honest, most black men don't protect black women. That's just really realistically what it is and it's terrible. But as one of those ones, like we still need to understand what it is that they're dealing with so we can better help them, so that we can better protect them, so we can make things a little bit easier.

Speaker 2: 25:40

Like we talked about Eddie, little D, like you said for him, he was one of the blessed ones. He met one of his heroes and it turned out well. But he met another one of his heroes because big D, he was excited. He's like, oh, it's a big dude producer, big record producer Like I'm absolutely going to do this and finds out this dude, big D, is literally the devil. Big D, big devil that's what it was and was actually trying to take his soul, literally in the show, but figuratively in the understanding of how things were.

Speaker 2: 26:04

Um, the twins, like you mentioned before, one is kind of new school, one is old school, and so there is this new way of doing things. So it's like I wonder how this is going to go. I wonder how things are going to be, because they don't always get along, which is actually normal for twins. It it's okay. You can be twins and still have two separate things. And the last thing, madison. She is that white girl that is ignorant to society. She has no idea what's really going on and this show her being in this class helps understand more about what's happening in the real world and she becomes that white girl that speaks up for black lives, that speaks up for black people, for asian people, for people of color people, different descent, hispanics. She understands that because when she first starts off she knows nothing, but we love seeing that development that she gets, and so that's pretty much what I got.

Speaker 3: 27:03

It's hella, black people and Mark. We rocking with Mark because he rocking with us.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Alright. So I know you're more into talking about the Temptations, but I understand that, maybe not that much on Classic 3000, but what you got, alright? Yeah, you know, but I understand that, maybe not that much on Class of 3000.

Speaker 3: 27:22

But what you got All right. Yeah, you know, it's not like I don't like Class of 3000. Because, first of all, I'm an Andre 3000 fan. I love everything he puts out, all his bodies of work, his artistic view. It's just top tier. It's top notch in everything that he does, even though all you want to do right now is travel around to random places and play the flute, like I understand that once you at the epitome of where you are and you at peace with yourself, well, all you want to do is stay in that element. So that's completely understandable. So, um, what I want to talk about is probably sunny bridges, but I do also want to hark on. I agree, class of 3000 does have like vibrant animation. It got catchy songs and the character is very diverse. But sunny bridges he just reminds you of a Mr Feeny, if you will.

Speaker 3: 28:22

Like he's just a good teacher man. Not just a good teacher, but he's a cool teacher. He's like. He's a living embodiment of principle. He don't just impart technical skills on you, he cultivates passion. He fosters individuality but, most importantly, he provided a safe space for these young raw talents. As a person that dives into music, production, engineering and understands the artistry of talent management, that's kind of what you need. When you got a raw talent and you're trying to experiment. You gotta fail and find your own voice and your sound Like that's dope, bro. Yeah. When you see potential in each student like that's hard to cultivate, that's hard to find Like. But even if they don't see it in themselves, he used his own experience and his success and his failures to illuminate their paths. And that ain't just traditional schooling. It's about authenticity. It's about wisdom and artistic spirit. It shows that the legacy in art ain't just about personal achievement, it's about the future, and I believe that children are our future.

Speaker 3: 29:37

This was chocolate Name. Sounds so good, don't you?

Speaker 1: 29:41

agree. And it's funny because, like, damn, I was just reminded of something how like not just musically, but with the shenanigans that the children get into you know those things that's outside of music how you can tell that sunny is a very patient teacher, like you know how, like, yeah, he might get mad every now and then, but for the most part he like keeps his cool. Because ultimately it's about sometimes you gotta be patient with, um, your students, because how do you expect them to learn any better if they're too busy trying to drown out your Anger? You know I'm saying like, sometimes, like it depends on how people are functioning or how they're wired where, I'm gonna be honest With you, I don't mind being taught, like from a kid to even now, like I don't mind being teachable. I know I'm not always right, but you still got to talk to people in a certain way where it's not going to warn them wanting to knock your lights out. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3: 30:55

Like, look here, like, just because you got a point doesn't mean you got to be an asshole about it, I agree, but diving away from that and going into the Temptations Right First of all, man, the Temptations is one of my favorite movies, associated with like Motown. The only other movie that I think is in the same bracket as that is the five heartbeats. Just both of these movies alone this carries so much weight, so much nostalgia, so much entertainment. See, that's the kind of movie that got me hooked on stuff from the sixties and the seventies, like. Got me looking at um, like, why do fools fall in love with Frankie Lyman and teenagers Just listening to that? Like understanding, like at like, why do fools fall in love with Frankie Lyman and teenagers Just listening to that? Like understanding, like Elvis, like you know what I mean, just understanding stuff from that era. That's what really got my musical ear and my talent Like. But it got so many things that, so many caveats, so many quotables, like the quotables alone. Like, even if you look at one of the quotables from Blue, when you're looking at a group as they dive into stuff that break them apart and bring them together. Ain't nobody coming to see you, otis? We coming to see the temptation, because there ain't nobody bigger than the group. Most groups break down because they don't believe in that One person always think they better than the group. You know what I mean. You see it time and time again Now, even though we know Michael Jackson, the greatest in the group, but Tito, jermaine, janet. There's other talents, latoya, there's other talents that can be explored, but the group was great.

Speaker 3: 32:44

The movie was great. Like I know, there's a lot of cliches in like these kind of movies and anytime you do a biopic there's always gonna be cliches and stuff that don't. That didn't make it or people are gonna say this wasn't exactly accurate. But when you're making a movie, you got to make it so people want to watch it. You got to have impact. You got to have emotion. You got to have stuff that get people going. People love drama. Sometimes it's good to overemphasize on the drama for storytelling purposes.

Speaker 1: 33:15

Now, granted, I was never complaining about it being inaccurate, but, to be fair, it's just fair enough to let the listener know if they're happening to be listening to this, that don't watch the movie thinking that this is what actually happened, word for word, bar for bar. There was actually, like it played out a little differently, but, like you said, sometimes you, you gotta spice it up a little bit for entertainment purposes, and it did it's job yeah, that's a fact.

Speaker 3: 33:47

Like even when, like David Ruffin, like his exit and he would sneak back on stage, he was kicked out and then he would sneak in concerts, jump on stage, sing and then disappear like a thief in the night. Like that shit was crazy. But like it broke my heart in so many ways. But because someone that loves music, it just it was crazy. But, um, like when they did a cover of like ball of confusion, the vocal switch between the different characters, like when you go from the different vocal range you go to the deep voice, you go to the high-pitched voice, like you go to alto man, it's just the way that it seemed like in the 60s everybody could sing.

Speaker 1: 34:29

Like, bro, listen, like when I was watching it I was thinking, okay, I like how these men are dressed up, like they were really trying to impress the white folk and nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying, like you know, sometimes you gotta like entertain people outside of the community in order to blow up, because otherwise entertain the money yeah, like bring in more money that way.

Speaker 1: 34:56

But uh, bro, listen, like with all that bullshit they got going on behind the scenes. You, if you didn't know what was going on with them behind the scenes, you would never think that these guys were behind songs like earth, angel shout uh. Paradise, oh mother of mine, uh, I want to love. I can see you're thinking like damn, like these songs are really beautiful songs. But Paradise, oh Mother of Mine, I Want to Love. I Can See You're thinking like damn, these songs are really beautiful songs. But then you hear about what happened behind it and you're like damn, y'all can't drum like that.

Speaker 3: 35:30

Oh, mother of Mine, that is my joint right there. When I tell you, paul killed that whole movie. Man, my boy, paul, was singing, he was singing. Never mind, boy, paul was singing, he was singing. Never mind that he was drunk, he was still singing. Man, you feel that the smooth dance moves on Paul, but shout out to Bluto because my boy went and got them ribs and never came back. That's on fire, yeah. Must have been some good riffs sometimes it is man and what's ironic?

Speaker 3: 36:07

the most ironic thing is, since David said ain't nobody coming to see you, otis, and Otis, the last one living, everybody coming to see you, otis don't do that, cause even he was very upset cause he was just like see, I knew I was rude, butis.

Speaker 2: 36:21

Don't do that, cause even he was very upset cause he was just like see, I knew I was rude, but I wasn't like that. Don't even do that.

Speaker 3: 36:26

Otis still living, everybody coming to see Otis. Otis was just at Wild Events it was, wasn't he? Wow, that's all I had to comment on both of them, man, yeah, wow, that's all I had to comment on both of them.

Speaker 1: 36:41

Yeah yeah, like Between class of 3000 and the temptations, I'm gonna be honest with y'all, like, if you're gonna do anything, do it with some passion In your heart. You know that fire, where that genuine desire To put your Creativity, creativity, breathe your creativity into this reality, if that makes sense. But don't let the money blind you, don't let the fame blind you, because honestly, like bro, at this point it's kind of dangerous being a celebrity like I mean, granted, yeah, people like you and you're making good money. But, bro, once you become famous, I swear to god, the fans don't see you as a human being anymore. You're a public figure. That means you need to always be this mental picture that the fans see you as. So, in other words, you can't be moving any type of way anymore. Like you gotta pretty much fit the mold for what the fans want you to be and if you do anything outside of what they expect you to do, then they'll turn on you.

Speaker 2: 38:03

That's why I think my public figure just like a toy story, like right the toys and stuff. So like not just public figure, public action figure. That's what you are like you said. You can't move how you want to as soon as the people come around you. You got to go back to being your toy. You can't be who you are no more. You got to be who you are behind the scenes.

Speaker 1: 38:22

Right, I like that, I like that. That's the whole thing is like y'all treating. See, that's the funny thing about people in general how we're all human beings but we treat each other like either we're less than human or superhuman. We never look at each other like we're just human, like yes, you may be capable, but you also have limitations. People don't have that kind of empathy. It's almost like empathy is a rare skill nowadays. It's like an obsolete, endangered skill nowadays when people don't Like the few people as folks that could fuck up if they Could possibly fuck up, or they could bounce back if you give them a chance To bounce back. But nah, it's like you gotta fit that mold, you gotta fit that framework, otherwise we don't want to fuck with you anymore. It's like Crazy how unforgiving people can be. And this leads to my last point and honestly, we can just cut it off right there.

Speaker 1: 39:28

For the longest time ever since I was a little kid, I keep hearing that famous line life is unfair. I don't believe that. I believe life can be fair, but it wasn't until I grew up, until I realized life can be fair. But it wasn't until I grew up until I realized life is fair. People are unfair Because, think about it, we're the ones that mainly run shit on this planet, right? So you got all these different people mistreating you, treating you dirty and whatnot, and we're just supposed to accept that treatment, right? We're just supposed to be cool with it. We're supposed to be stoic, right, like normally. Yeah, you're supposed to stand up for yourself, but usually people act like, oh, you bugging. Now that you're standing up for yourself, who the fuck? You think you are having standards and boundaries? And that's just the thing. Like, people want to manipulate, lie, cheat, steal, kill, destroy all the other shit, and they just expect you to turn a blind eye to all that shit. They just don't expect you to call them out on that, and if you don't do that, that means they don't feel any accountability to change who they are. Therefore, they're gonna going to keep doing what they're doing Until they destroy themselves Almost what happened With David Ruffin, where he Think he was untouchable, like I said before, until he started destroying himself.

Speaker 1: 40:58

I dare say that it isn't. That life is unfair. I think people Are unfair to each other and to themselves, so that's why I said we gotta do better as far as making sure that we keep our egos in check. But also we need to make sure that we tell folks hey, bro, like you need to chill out, bro, because you kind of going off the rails and, uh, we're just trying to help you and all that. But, um, aside from that, yeah, like I said earlier, like don't let the fame and the money get to your head because once again you let your guard down and you start slipping, you start destroying yourself, so don't do that okay, I mentioned one quick thing before we close out is about, like the previous one that you mentioned about sympathy, about empathy sorry, about empathy.

Speaker 2: 41:57

But also the main thing is I know a lot of people don't know the difference between sympathy and empathy and this would be something that's more easily touched based on with Callie, so hopefully, you know, we get an opportunity to really talk about it with her at another time, at a later time but the difference between sympathy and empathy, oh, we're definitely doing that for the fatherhood episode.

Speaker 2: 42:16

Oh, bad, bad, bad. So difference between sympathy and empathy Sympathy is I don't know what you're going through, but I feel bad that it's happening to you, right. So you hear a lot of people talk about I don't want your sympathy, I don't want sympathy. It's true, a lot of people don't want sympathy. I don't want you feeling bad for me. You don't know what I'm dealing with, so just give me my space. You can't actually help me, but you could be there for me.

Speaker 2: 42:42

There aren't good forms of sympathy, but most people reject it so much. It's like you don't know what I've been through. They don't have to know what you've been through to show you that they care. There is a form of sympathy to show that you care. Some people don't really show that. That's not sympathy, that's just feeling sorry for you. There is a difference into it, exactly because the thing about it is it's like no, I don't want your pity, but I would accept sympathy, because sympathy means that you actually care. Empathy is I have been what you've been through, even if it's not exact. I've been through what you've been through and this is how I made it through. Let me help you out. And that's where the biggest thing is. You're right. A lot of people don't have empathy, and it's the biggest thing into. It is because there's two reasons. One, people have not been through stuff but want to lie about it. That's a big thing right now. People always want to say, oh, I did this, I did this, I did this.

Speaker 1: 43:37

No, you ain't did jack shit and then you have the people who've been through what you've been through. But oh, I got out of the money, so can you. I'm like. But, bro, like, just because you did it that way doesn't mean that it should. I mean, we say that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but sometimes it's like, bro, like some things where it's like it shouldn't, it really shouldn't be that way, and yet we keep entertaining because, oh, that's just how it's always been. Like, say, for instance, when I want to say a good example is whenever you have like teachers or whatnot, you know, like whenever they've been there for a while, and then the new person come along and the new person probably making More than what the old person does, and the older person Is going to feel a little Cheated because, hey yo.

Speaker 1: 44:33

I've been doing this for way longer. But Then again the new person. Oh well, they ain't got nothing. I mean, I'm sorry, I'm kind of going in a different direction that I don't even know. It's even relative, but yeah, like you were saying yeah, like good.

Speaker 1: 44:52

It kind of felt like I was kind of going off point for a second. But uh, my point being is that uh, sometimes people will act like well, yeah, I've been there too, so just you know. It's like saying yeah, I know what you've been through, but they're not showing you any empathy. In fact, they're showing you apathy to where it's like oh well, grow up and be a man and whatnot. Stop complaining, you bitch.

Speaker 2: 45:22

But the thing about it is also is that some people have wound up going through and they want to fit in, but then they get called out on it and then it gets. Then it becomes bad because you've been called out, but now you have to prove yourself that you've been through it. Most of you don't expect that to be the case, and that's where it becomes that whole. Oh, you know, I was just trying to help, I was just trying to be. No, he was trying to be fake. That's what the issue is. You got called out in the falsity. But then there's one last thing about empathy. That is one that I, that you and I well, actually, no, all three of us we have personally experienced people doing this with us.

Speaker 2: 45:52

Some people have been through but instead of being empathetic about your situation and it's not even that whole moment of like well, everyone got out. So you figure out yourself. It's one of those ones of I suffered. So now the world owes me, and that's the most dangerous, because those are the people who, like, like I mentioned, they suffered, but instead of trying to learn to help out other people out of those situations or at least kind of get an understanding, they're the ones that were down you for. So you've been through it, but you should have been able to figure this out. You should have been better. You know what it happened to me too. We're going to go take the world, we're going to go destroy the world like this, and they will destroy the world because they're hurt, and that's where it's the biggest issue.

Speaker 1: 46:44

Actually, I like that you brought that up because it brought up a big issue that I'm having with people in general, to where, whether it's men or women, it doesn't matter. Like, I just hate it when you have some folks going out the way to either fuck over everyone else or they just pretty much don't trust people in general, based on what a small few people did. Now, granted, like when, like you were saying, we dealt with people like that before, where, oh, I've been hurt before, so I'm just gonna hurt everybody else, yeah, but I it didn't get to a point where I just lose my faith in humanity because I just figure OK with those people in particular. All right, it's just those people. Like I'm just hoping.

Speaker 1: 47:32

Like, oh, not everyone's like this, right, right, the more common it's becoming, the more that's when I'm like, yeah, like some folks, or people in general, can be kind of fucked because, like, it didn't take like a few people for me to realize how fucked up the world is. It took a lot of people, it took a lot of patience for me to get to a point where, yeah, I'm kind of done with people, but I'm not completely done. I'm, but I'm not completely done.

Speaker 2: 48:05

I'm just saying I understand it gets bad, but I wanted to make sure I had a chance At least bring that up To that point of understanding. There are some people who are. There's some people who are sympathetic but they don't know how to be. They're trying but they don't really know the best way In. They're trying, but they don't really know the best way in doing so, which is fine. There are some cases you can try to learn. The main thing is that there are some situations it's not the best at, just like With Thanksgiving. That's not the time to practice with the macaroni and cheese. Okay, that's not the time to practice with the potato salad If you don't know what you're doing. Thanksgiving is not that time, bro. You need to know what you're doing. If you don't step back and let people who know what they're doing do what they're supposed to do, so like if somebody's on the verge of.

Speaker 2: 48:46

Hey man who made this potato salad.

Speaker 2: 48:49

If somebody is on the verge of wanting to hurt themselves or hurting somebody else, if you don't really know what to do, let a professional handle it. Direct them to the right way into it. Sometimes you may have to step in for a moment to try to be that person that immediately stops them, but get them to somebody who will actually be able to do something. Don't assume you have fixed the situation. A lot of times you can wind up making it worse. Let a real professional handle if you don't know what to do. Or speak to a professional to figure out how you can help out your friends and family.

Speaker 1: 49:19

One of those questions those applications, those online job applications. If your co-worker was having a problem, how would you handle that?

Speaker 2: 49:31

It ain't my job to do so. That's the whole point of having an HR department. They are specifically trained to handle that. That's the whole point of having counseling. They're specifically trained to handle that. So I'm just saying, yeah, I hate when jobs be asked the question, but for reals though, it's going to be that moment of like let the trained professionals handle what needs to be handled type of thing.

Speaker 2: 49:54

It's okay to help out your friend, it's okay to point in the right direction, it's okay to try to do little things to benefit and assist, but don't assume you can handle a situation if you've never done it before. Please don't, because, like I said, nine times out of ten, you can make that situation way worse and you never know that. That's what happened. You have that moment that you're like. I just spoke to them on the phone last night. They seemed like they was doing better. They probably was doing better enough to get you up to stop talking to them. It may not have been a oh I hate you type thing or I'm angry with you type of thing. It couldn't even be that, but they were just waiting for you to get off the phone because they probably was ready to decide that this is what we're going to do and you tried your best. It just didn't work. It's not on you, but direct to professionals, because some people they're trained to handle these type of situations to prevent it from getting worse.

Speaker 2: 50:44

Help out the other people. That's one of the best ways of being sympathetic. Being sympathetic is I don't know what you're going through, but I'm going to help you find the right help. I don't know what you're going through, but I'm going to help you find the right help. I don't know what you're going through, but I'm going to direct you to somebody who might know better, might actually know Type of thing. And that's what we need in this world. There's not going to be a lot of empathy. There's not going to be. Not everybody's going through the same struggle that we're going through. There's people going through similar and they can help with their empathy, but not everybody's going through the same stuff. Accept some sympathy, but understand how to give sympathy. But that's what I got.

Speaker 1: 51:20

Yeah, like because crazy enough, like, once again not saying any names, but let's just say that I dealt with coworkers where it just seemed like they'd be hearing different problems that other folks be having, and I honestly try not to pay attention to or to their conversations because me personally, I'm just at the job, just trying to do my job. But you know some folks they want to yap and yap and I'm just standing right here so I'm like, yes, I'll just listen, but I'm not going to say anything, I'll just listen. I'm not here to judge, I'm here to. I'm not going to judge, I'm just here to listen. You know, I'm saying uh, but point being that, um, sometimes we listen and we do judge but uh, I'm judging mentally.

Speaker 1: 52:09

I'm mentally judging you because, uh, I'm like I ain't trying to jeopardize my job over me crashing out over an opinion. But my whole thing is that sometimes the way they be viewing people who may be going through shit is like it would seem like they have some sympathy, but at the same time it's like they don't. It's like I feel like they have faith and sympathy to where it's like you say that you kind of understand, but the way you handle it just kind of feels a little careless. Like once again, it's one of those things where, okay, okay, I can kind of understand where you're coming from, but you need to stop acting bitch made. I mean, that's not their exact words, but that's the gist of it and I'm like, hey, bro, like look, sometimes, if you know how they say, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Like I don't know if I would Go that far. I mean I kind of get it, but at the same time, first of all, like sometimes Not all Things that need to be said, it's going to be nice. Like that's why I say Sometimes I would rather hurt your feelings with the truth than to entertain you with lies Because, honestly, the truth is the truth, but anybody can just make up lies just to feed your delusion.

Speaker 1: 53:46

But that's beside the point. Point being is that, bro, sometimes I hear these conversations and I feel like, just like you said, kokiasu, sometimes, hey bro, like if you ain't really got nothing better to say than that, you were better off just shutting the fuck up. I'm gonna be honest with you. Like, sometimes you're just better off just saying nothing than saying the wrong thing sometimes. But that's just me. Tuck, you have anything you want to add on to all this?

Speaker 3: 54:24

I just want to say God is good. That's all I want to say. True I ain't got nothing else to add on it. I think I made fair points across For both. But music is iconic, no matter what kind of medium or what kind of entity you in, just enjoy the music, man.

Speaker 2: 54:45

Real quick for all those people that were listening, our fellow black folk, if you wind up saying All the time, yes, all the time, god is good. I just wanted to make sure we finish up that candle back and forth. I'm not gonna leave you hanging like that.

Speaker 3: 54:58

All right you yeah, and all the time. God is good.

Speaker 1: 55:00

Amen, amen again oh, shit, uh, my bad, I thought good guys had more to say, but yeah, that's all we had to say on Clash of 3000 Temptations. Take away from all of this is Keep your egos in check, have an exit strategy in mind For any ambition that you pursue. And also, come on, y'all, be more human. Like People be going through shit, like we got enough assholes running around, uh, making us feel worse, like don't be part of the problem. See, that's the main thing. Like I may not be perfect, but I refuse to be part of the problem. That's my thing with that being, I'm going to go ahead and close this one out. Y'all. Go ahead and have yourself a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night. Take it easy on yourselves, stay nerdy and remember that great things are coming. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1: 56:08

Our merch store. It is opening up on the 1st as planned. We got the merch listed and everything, so check us out at zonealliancecom. But yeah, we're going to try to make things happen On Patreon, on Instagram, twitter, facebook, trying to work on a YouTube channel. We just need to get the people organized and ready to actually make things happen. But until the next episode, y'all go ahead and enjoy yourselves. We're out.