Transcript
The “Sad Clown” Truth, Black Business Is BOOMING & Shaq Gets Caught in the Crossfire
The Grapevine · Mon Sep 21, 2026
what up y'all welcome
Live from the American Family Insurance Studios.
It's your boy Ray Nitty Prince of the City holding it down.
Brother Z got me with the production and sound.
We are talking about.
Right now, if you just joining us.
When a star lands their name.
Athletes and institutions go under fire.
I got the hiccups.
What is going on?
The actual substance underneath this week's headline.
You was listening to the lunch break earlier.
We debuted a new segment was popular with Shannon and Shannon talked about.
Shaquille O'Neal.
All right.
So we're going to give it a different lens right now.
The actual substance underneath this week's headlines.
FBI Director Cash Patel named Shaquille O'Neal an honorary FBI special agent at a National Academy graduation ceremony September 17.
The backlash wasn't really about law enforcement broadly.
It was about Patel's own recent separate controversy.
A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where he testified the FBI removed bestiality.
from its list of automatic hiring disqualifiers specifically to avoid punishing childhood trafficking victims.
The testimony drew bipartisan mockery, including Senator John Kennedy's exchange asking Patel directly.
So you disqualified the animal.
A moment that had already made Patel a target before Shaq's honorary title.
Connected the two names together.
I think we talked about.
The bestiality cash patel thing.
Last week on the lunch break.
And by no means am I saying that I'm for what cash did with, you know, whatever.
But I think it's it's important that we.
We at least say it right.
Do I agree with anything that this administration is doing?
No.
All right.
Let's clear that right now.
No.
I am not in agreement with a lot of things that this administration is doing.
Many things.
But you know, I do feel it's our responsibility to inform folks of what really is being said.
And what's not being said.
because it's easy to just get distracted by everybody online, reaching for clickbait and just saying all of these things.
What he's stated in that hearing.
What I questioned it all myself.
All right.
But I had to be objective because I feel like I'd be too hard on.
You know.
This administration is easy to just, you know, be unobjective.
But what I did want to share is that.
What was said is people who have been human trafficked, right?
Human trafficked.
He gave the reference of.
No, anybody that just willingly participates in bestiality is not qualified to run or not run is not qualified to participate
rather.
I'm assuming they had somebody, I'm not gonna say it's just a whole bunch of people that was trafficked into bestiality that applied for the FBI, right?
I'm not gonna sit here and just say that, but I'm assuming they had one which brought this line of questioning up or let's look into this, right?
What he's saying is there have been cases.
of people who have been child trafficked and forced into the acts of bestiality or human traffic and forced into the acts of bestiality.
And what he's saying is if you were trafficked into it, then they're not going to hold it against you because I guess their reasoning is, you know, people that go through these very traumatic situations.
Human trafficking, you know, some people pursue.
A career in law enforcement, they're motivated to go.
Have a career to fight the injustices that they had to deal with.
So I could see that, but I don't know how many that is.
So I won't speculate.
OK.
So I won't speculate on it.
What we do also want to talk about is this isn't a new pattern.
OK, what we're seeing happening with Shaq.
Now, by no means am I putting Shaq Shaq's response to.
Regular folks on social media.
I'm not saying it's the same as a Colin Kaepernick.
Who.
took a knee against police brutality and people forget that he was encouraged by a veteran to take a knee to show respect versus him just standing in the locker room or sitting on the bench because that's what this same individual did.
They saw him sitting on the bench minding his business and they was like, well this is disrespectful.
Then once they heard what he was
protesting about.
It was like, well, you know, should take a knee.
It's more respectful.
It's a sign of respect.
And you know what happened to Colin Kaepernick?
I don't need to go into the story.
But he was blackballed by his employer.
From fire to founder.
OK.
As many.
Many individuals we could speak to.
We could share their story.
About.
What they went through.
What they.
Had to endure.
To speak up or speak out.
against a certain injustice.
I got a list.
A black man ranked.
Oh, no, no, no.
This ain't it.
I'm sorry.
That's not my list.
But I do have a list.
I need to find it.
Of folks who laid it all on the line.
OK.
Folks who laid it all on the line.
To speak out.
They had Colin Kaepernick on.
Is it all the smoke?
All the smoke podcast with the homie stack five.
And what's dog name that do the show with with stack five?
His name slips my mind right now.
But they did the show with stack five and They talked about 15 athletes blackballed by their own sport.
All right, and we're gonna get into those Athletes in a little bit, but this isn't a pattern All right, this isn't a new pattern I should say
It's a reoccurring one worth naming plainly.
Athletes and entertainers regularly lend their name, image, and credibility to institutions, brands, or public officials.
I lent my name and brand to a few public officials.
In this town, you hear me.
Sometimes deliberately political.
Sometimes just a photo op neither party thinks through fully.
OK.
The backlash cycle is nearly identical every time the institution gets a credibility boost from the association.
Then the star absorbs public anger for whatever controversy the institution is already carrying.
regardless of whether the star had any hand in that controversy.
All right.
Shaq's own pattern this year specifically.
Now people would say Shaq has some questionable steps, right?
Shannon brought it up when he just went and saved Papa John's.
I was being devil advocate on the show with Shannon, but he did run over there, but he bought it.
He ain't just went and got an endorsement.
He went and bought the company.
Now it's popped the original racist dude still a part of it.
That I do not know.
But Shaq's own pattern this year specifically, okay?
This is at least the third public backlash moment he's faced in 2026 alongside comments about Angel Reese's outfit and a defense.
of Stephen A Smith that drew its own public backlash, meaning some of this reaction may be less about any single incident and more about accumulated public patients wearing thin.
Don't go anywhere, y'all.
When we come back, when we come back, we're going to be wrapping this segment up and don't forget we giving away some Bryson Tiller tickets.
OK.
Don't forget this hour.
We are giving away some Bryson tickets Right here on the award-winning one-on-one seven of truth.
Don't go anywhere
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It's your boy Ray Nitty holding it down.
Live from the American Family Insurance Studios.
Brother Z got me on the production of Sound.
We're talking about a lot man.
It's been an amazing Monday.
It's the extended lunch break.
833-212-1017 is a number to dial.
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We keeping it moving, y'all.
So we was talking about.
The public backlash, we was hinting on, we perused around the chat conversation a little bit, but we talked about that on the lunch break.
All right?
If you missed it, that was our 1230 segment, What's Popping with Shannon.
So make sure you don't miss it tomorrow.
Ain't no telling what she gonna say next.
All right?
So we talked about the pattern and the actual fair question.
To actually debate, right?
Is it reasonable to hold a celebrity accountable for the institution they're photographed with, even when the specific controversy.
like the FBI firing hiring policy has nothing to do with the celebrity themselves and they likely didn't research it before showing up.
I ain't going to go that far now.
I'm going to assume Shaq heard about bestiality.
Hey, he heard you got a PR team.
You got you got people on your on your squad.
That looks out for red flags, things that you should or shouldn't do.
So I ain't gonna say he ain't research it before showing up.
I ain't gonna go that far.
All right?
Or does simply showing up and lending your name mean you own some of what that institution is doing, whether you research it or not?
Now that's a different question.
I can't agree with that.
You should research the companies that you're aligning yourself with.
You definitely should.
You should know what you are aligning yourself with.
Speaking of Papa John, it's a commercial right now.
All right.
833-212-1017 is the number to dial.
Share what you think.
Share your thoughts.
Share your truth with us.
All right.
Share your truth with us.
We want to know.
So let's name another example, right?
An athlete, a musician, an entertainer who took heat for an institution's baggage that wasn't really their own doing.
Is it?
The backlash is the backlash usually fair or is it often just misdirected anger looking for a famous face to land on?
That sounded crazy.
We can name a few people that caught back.
We can talk about Ed Sheeran.
We can talk about him.
Macklemore was removed from the show.
Not by Ed himself.
I think that's fair to name it didn't remove.
But it ain't remove himself and say, hey, man, you getting rid of my boy, then you getting rid of me, too.
Sometimes the bag is too big.
Sometimes the bag is too big to walk away from.
But I was surprised.
I was surprised because.
And.
He apologized.
He had a show in Philly.
If you're not familiar, Macklemore spoke out a lot about the war in Gaza, the occupation in the West Bank and the genocide that is happening right now.
He spoke out a lot about it and Robert Kraft sounds like it's who ultimately.
made the call to get rid of Macklemore.
And I guess it's important to note while Robert Kraft still was pledging to donate whatever a million dollars, two million dollars to the aid in Gaza.
But they didn't name it specifically like where that aid would go or who it would go to.
We'll do it.
But you can't you can't be here prompting Ed It was a lot of backlash ticket sales went down It was getting a lot of backlash the opening acts Remove themselves from the show completely.
It was still eight shows left They remove themselves completely
They said, we're going to stand for something because we ain't falling for just anything.
Ed was on an island by himself, not a bandmate, not a nothing, not an opening act, not even Macklemore to stand with him.
So much so he had to apologize.
He apologized.
Do we got that apology?
Let me see if I text it to you.
You know what, we might not even have time for it anyway.
Because we gotta give away these tickets.
Okay?
And it's coming up soon.
I need y'all to be alert and prepared Okay Alert and prepared is what we need We could give you some more examples
of athletes.
Oh, that's what I did.
I had this up.
It was a post by.
All the smoke podcast, right?
They gave a list of 15 athletes.
Black balled by their own sport because they spoke out.
Because they decided.
Silence wasn't an option.
Need like a screwdriver.
They decided silence was not an option and they were gonna speak out about it and they paid the ultimate price.
I'ma name some of these athletes, right?
Started with Colin Kaepernick because all the smoke interviewed Colin Kaepernick last week and he talked about his whole process.
of kneeling and the backlash that came and Jay-Z getting involved to put out counter messages to spite the protesters and all of these different things, not Jay-Z particular, but Rock Nation.
But they started with Coppinick and then they put out a list of others and maybe you know them.
I don't know.
Maybe you can share some with us.
Who do you remember?
Spoke out.
and lost it almost all.
I got one.
We interviewed him right here on this show.
Larry Sanders.
Spoke out against the NBA, not having enough resources for mental health and people struggling with mental health while actively playing in the NBA.
So much so, he had to walk away from $44 million.
because it's too much of a distraction.
But now, shortly after that, Kevin Love was the poster boy for mental health in the NBA.
Similar to what happened with Kaepernick in the NFL.
They made all these other players the poster for unity in
the NFL.
Muhammad Ali in 1967, the boxer champion refused to be inducted into the US army and was immediately stripped of his heavyweight sentence.
So his heavyweight title convicted out of draft evasion.
He was sentenced to five years and think about that.
Five years in prison because you don't want to go fight for a country that's not fighting for you.
That you, people were going to fight in a war and coming back home and couldn't sit and eat at a restaurant.
But you're going to lock me up for five years for not wanting to fight for a country that does that to me in return.
He was also fined $10,000 and banned from boxing.
The best ever.
Appeals kept him out of jail, but it still cost him three and a half years of his prime.
Don't go anywhere, y'all.
When we come back, we're going to read a couple more of these names right here on the award winning one on one, seven of
truth.
Welcome back.
Welcome back.
Yes, it's your boy Ray Nitty, Prince of the City.
You already know live on the award-winning one-on-one, 7 of Truth from the American Family Assurance Studios, man.
We having a good time today.
It's almost that time, man.
It's almost checkout time.
Coming up in the next break, we're gonna be giving away some tickets, man.
Make sure you're all ready to call in and name that song, all right?
In the next break, we need y'all to call in and name that song.
It's gonna be a Bryson Tillers song.
Get ready, all right?
As a matter of fact, if I'm not mistaken, it's the end of this hour.
I'm gonna be reading something and y'all gotta be prepared for it, okay?
We just talked about a lot today, y'all.
We talked about a lot.
I had a good time today.
I ain't gonna lie.
Shannon dropped some news on it.
Brother Z, she sent me the text too.
I'm gonna send it to you.
No, don't send it to me.
It wasn't bad.
It wasn't bad at all.
I'm still gonna leak it.
Don't send it to me.
I'd say less.
baby Shannon.
trying to see if you wanted to go to Vista.
Chula Vista.
Chula Vista.
Chula Vista, baby.
Oh
Oh, I was reading some names Let me get back to that real quick before we get into this last segment Muhammad Abdul Rauf 1996 the Denver Nugget star was suspended after refusing to stand for the national anthem calling the flag a symbol of oppression and
He was fined $32,000 and team quietly.
Stopped calling.
They just stopped calling and he was cold too.
He was like Steph Curry before Steph Curry.
Way cold.
Peter Norman.
After standing in solidarity alongside American sprinters Tommy Smith and John Carlos during the 1968 Olympics, Black Power salute Peter Norman was sidelined, ostracized, and shunned by Australian sports authorities for his support of the pair after wearing an Olympic project for human rights badge.
Akeem Aleel publicly spoke out against abuse and discrimination he experienced while trying to confront racism in hockey.
Triggered a major cultural reckoning across the sport and claims teams iced him out for exposing the truth.
First of all, I don't need nobody to speak out for me to even assume that hockey had racism in it.
Shoot, NBA got racism in it and it's all us.
The
NFL got it.
You think the hockey don't got it?
They probably was just beating niggas up for fun in hockey.
I could only imagine what
Glen Burke, first MLB player to come out as gay, announcing it.
In 1982, after he retired, began his career with the Dodgers in 1975, where his sexuality quickly became an open secret and the front office offered him 75,000 to marry a woman.
That's crazy.
They said, man, I'll give you 75 Gs to marry a woman.
Please.
That is, that's crazy.
I've never even heard of nothing like that before in no sports.
offered him 75,000 to marry a woman.
He refused and was traded to the athletics, playing two seasons before being called a F bomb.
And having his contract ended by newly installed manager, Billy Martin, he was never signed by another team.
Come on now.
They called that man the F word.
Eric Reed, that's the guy who knelt.
Alongside Colin Kaepernick.
Craig Hodges.
1992, during the Bulls Championship visit to the White House.
We talked about this on the lunch break, not this case in particular, but you know.
Hodges wore dashiki.
and delivered an eight page letter to President George HW Bush urging the administration to address racial injustice.
Never played another NBA game again.
We can't make this up, y'all, for speaking up.
Could you imagine?
Could you imagine?
A Jewish player going to the White House is speaking up against.
Jewish hate and then being banned would never happen.
Wouldn't happen.
Well, at least I've never seen it happen.
Let me not say never.
I haven't seen it happen.
Kurt Flood.
the MLBS Reserve clause writing to Commissioner Bowie, coon that he was not a piece of property to be bought or sold after refusing to be traded, filed an interest lawsuit and lost.
Of course you lost, Fred.
I'm sorry, Kurt.
His career faded away.
He paved the way for free agency.
Free agency started because of Kurt Flood.
It's a lot more, man.
I'm going to just name him.
I ain't going to read the whole situation.
Paul Robinson, outspoken civil rights advocate advocacy and refusal to denounce the Soviet Union during the Red Scare.
This is an old pigeon.
Paul Mulvey.
During 1982 game against the Canucks, a fight broke out where the King's head coach ordered Mulvey out onto the ice to fight.
Boy, go fight.
Tommy Smith and John Carlos suspended from the US team, banned from the Olympic Village, received death threats upon returning to the United States after returning to the United States, a place that they represented.
in the 1968 Olympics, okay?
One gold, my fam.
One gold.
Brought home the gold medal.
And because they put a black glove on and raised a fist for a black pile salute on the 1968 Olympic podium, this was before athlete activism had a name.
Mark Jackson.
Gwen Berry, Spencer Haywood, Colin Kaepernick.
OK.
That's just a few.
It was 15 names.
I'm sure it's 100 more.
That spoke out whether it was for sexual identity.
Racial injustice.
Hate of all sorts.
Human rights.
Very often we see some sort of backlash.
Some sort of retaliation.
And we would say, oh, it's not retaliation.
Oh, nobody blackballed the college cabinet.
Well, why the hell somebody who went to the Superbowl.
Took the 49ers to the Super Bowl fan.
And because he kneeled shortly after that, he just, just automatically just was trash.
He couldn't be on
a team.
Tim Tebow was able to be on a team.
I think that's what y'all ready for.
Y'all ready for some Bryce and Taylor tickets?
All right.
Get your phones ready, okay?
And know the name of the song, all right?
Cause we ain't just giving it to you cause you got close.
All right.
Truth Nation, I think it's about that time.
Truth Nation, call in right now at 833-212-1017.
You have been listening and waiting for your chance to win tickets to go see Bryson Tiller, live and in person at the American Family Insurance Amper Theater on the Summerfest grounds and now is your chance to win a pair of tickets.
Call in right now.
833-212-1017.
We're about to play a game called Name That Song.
We're about, what's about to happen is, DJ Brother Z is about to play one of our favorite songs from Bryson Tiller, and if you can call in and guess the name of that song correctly, you can win a pair of tickets to go see Bryson Tiller live.
It's that simple, but you got to know the song.
Truth Nation, are you ready?
Brother Z, play that song and take us to break.
This is Ray Nitty, the award-winning one-on-one-seventh of Truth.
All
in.
Don't
in
with that number, y'all, with that answer to these
Soft!
What
Welcome back, Truth Nation.
Bryson Tiller is coming to Milwaukee, September 29th.
And 10170 Truth has the hookup for you.
Right now, we're playing a game called Name That Song.
And if one of our lucky contestants
On the line, right now, can name the song we just played.
Go on the break or guess the name of the song we just played coming back from break.
You have a chance to win a pair of tickets to go see Bryson Tilla live.
And if you guess the name of that song incorrectly, we will go down to the next caller until we find our winner.
Truth Nation, are you ready?
I said, Truth Nation, are you ready?
Who do we have on the line right now?
Call it number one.
Can you name that song?
We played earlier, Roger.
What'd it do?
What up, bro?
This is Elijah, Big E, and I think that was Don't by Black and Chiller.
If it was Before Break.
I thought it was the same thing.
Don't.
But you said that's not it.
And if it was the one that you were just playing, that was love.
She said it was.
What's the call saying again?
Love.
Is that right, brother Z?
It's technically right.
All right.
Well, you know, I'm just going off of what we got on the paper.
But Tony, I guess you are correct.
Congratulations.
You and a friend are going to see Bryson Tilla.
Who are you taking with you, Tony?
I don't know.
It's crazy because it's been popping up on my feet, but probably my best friend.
Who's your best friend?
So Javon Tierra, you are going if she don't take you.
Javon just know she she lied on Truth Nation.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Don't go anywhere.
Tony, please tell Truth Nation who made you a winner to go see Bryson Tiller right here in Milwaukee on the award winning one on one, seven the truth.
One on one, seven the truth.
That works.
Thank you.
Don't go anywhere.
We're going to get some information from you.
All right, y'all.
Congratulations.
Congratulations to Tony, man.
That was fun.
So, y'all got, we got to listen to instructions, right?
When you hear don't, that ain't the song we play.
That's just a hot key.
All right?
That's brother Z doing his job because we got things that we're supposed to cue you up and stuff like that.
So when you hear don't.
That's just us making the read.
But the song that you hear, that's crazy.
Everybody got offline now that the Bryson Tiller tickets is giving away.
Like this show is over with this contest is done.
I'm out.
I don't want to hear nothing else about this.
But yes, congratulations to Tony.
You are going to see Bryson Tiller at the.
Am fam American family insurance studios at Summerfest ground September 29th.
Yes, one on one seven.
The truth made you a winner.
She taking her friend with her, man.
How y'all feeling, man?
How y'all feeling?
We gonna close this thing out.
It's been an amazing day.
I am full.
I am full.
I hope everybody else is full.
We gonna be giving away tickets.
All, what, all week?
I feel like all week, right, Meach?
So make sure y'all continue to tune in, tap in with Jazzy's up next.
Jazzy, you giving away some tickets too?
Not yet.
All right, it ain't Jazzy's turn to give it, it was my turn today.
Jazzy will have her turn coming up.
Make y'all, I bet you can't name a Bryson Tillers song that Tupac was featured on.
Jazzy's making fine that song.
Oh man, we're closing this out, y'all.
Different land same day, right?
We gonna land this whole two hours set on this.
Really four hours because lunch break was an amazing experience today as well, right?
But the lunch break gave us, well gave you the headlines and the human moments today of all that we talked about, right?
Talked about so much.
Shaq suicide The story of Ryan Clark from fire to founder Okay Gay you the story We talked about today on the on the extended version of the lunch break a comedians crisis Then we talked about
A debut gossip segment with Shannon earlier today.
It's not just gossip, right?
It's not just gossip.
It was filled with facts and information.
News you could use.
Reads that leads.
Things like that.
What's popping with Shannon?
Every Monday through Friday at 12.30.
Make sure y'all don't want to miss it too.
Today we found out Shaq was in her DMs.
She sent me the text message, Meach.
I seen it.
I was calling cap.
I was calling Kaepernick.
I was calling Kaepernick, but she showed it to me.
I
heard some shock
Big Diesel was in there.
He was in there putting in work.
So ain't no telling what the hell Shannon going to reveal tomorrow, but she ain't she ain't expose nothing to our listeners, but I confirm that it was real.
Cause we wanted her to be able to spill this tea and what's popping with Shannon.
What else did we get into today?
We talked about one man's comeback, Ryan Clark.
We talked about a neighborhood's Renaissance, Bronzeville.
Shots out to all the woman cocks.
Lay lay, what a dope, dope.
This show existed to ask, okay.
But what's the actual underneath?
That's for three of those four threads that we talked about today The real clinical data behind comedy and depression the real national movement behind one man's comeback story That's very similar to a lot of people's comeback story, right?
And a real reoccurring pattern behind one viral backlash moment be careful what you just accept man
A lot of times these politicians, they don't care about the backlash we have to go through.
They just want to give you the award, how you stand up with them, take the picture, but not thinking of what the backlash is.
All right?
Then we also talked about the real national movement.
No, we did talk about that.
We talked about the real reoccurring pattern behind the backlash.
So in closing and closing I'm gonna say this right next time a headline makes you laugh Get angry feel inspired Ask what the bigger less flashy story underneath actually is because it typically is one It's usually a filter
over the story, right?
That's the whole job this show just did twice in one afternoon, y'all.
And in my closing quote, never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up by Jesse Jackson.
It's gonna be fitting to close this show.
Comedians hiding behind
hiding pain behind laughs, entrepreneurs building against real odds, and a star absorbing heat for someone else's mess.
Everyone on today's docket was more complicated than their headline.
Tomorrow, we're pulling back the filters, the filters that we put on our Snapchat and Instagram, but the filters that we wear in real life as well.
Don't go anywhere jazz is up next with the lunch not the lunch break with the tap in but tomorrow Catch me and maybe Shannon on the lunch break.
We getting into the filters of life y'all quit hiding who you truly are Sheboy Ray nitty Prince of the city you already know I'm out