Speaker 1: And Jenny and I are joined via phone by Grizzy Hendrix.
Speaker 2: Hello, Yo, Yo, what's the worry you are y'all doing?
Speaker 1: Hey?
Speaker 3: Good? Good good.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you couldn't be here with us live in studio,
but it's good to talk to you via phone.
Speaker 4: Work.
Speaker 1: Are you in Boston right now?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I'm in Boston right now.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 2: You have a whole show tonight the Lord You and
friends part of Jim Jones's artist I went Brockton Loves
in Boston and she I'll pull ups and be a vibe.
Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent. Now, tell us about yourself because you are
obviously you know you're a musician, but you also do
you host a radio show and podcast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so basically my you know, for everybody. I don't
know why you are in you know you favor Old
g hounshow represent Talk of the Town. I am the
CEO of Talking to Town six and seven podcast. I
used to do music, but I stopped doing music and
more so and you know, going showcases and you know,
being the pop ups for local businesses, you know, and
that's basically know basically mean now they see st showcases,
let artists come on the stage. You know, you know,
do what they do, showcase their craft, and you know
that fun doing it.
Speaker 1: Now I'm curious what is it that caused you to
make that switch, because, like you said, you used to
do music, but now you're you're instead of creating your
own music, you're more interested. It sounds like you're just
more interested in helping other artists. Was there something specific
that precipitated you kind of shifting your focus over to
helping others?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just felt like there was so many artists
out here and not enough help. There was like, there's
a lot of artists out here, but there's not enough
people that's out here, don't showcases for these artists to
come out right perform and you know, do what they
love to do. So I just felt like I wanted
to make that switch. Instead of being the artist, I'll
be the person that you know, provide the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, excellent? And how long has Talk of the
Town existed? How long have you been doing that show?
Speaker 2: Three years? And now three years? We just celebrated our
university with my god Charlie Clips, So it's been three
years now.
Speaker 1: Congratulations. Yeah, and now where can people hear that?
Speaker 2: You could find us at on Instagram, I talked to
Town six one seven or on YouTube. We just dropped
our new episode with Charlie Clips. I talked to Town
six one seven on YouTube as well.
Speaker 1: Oh very cool. Yeah, Charlie Clips. His name came up
on the show recently. I think it was when Jenny
Who did we have on the show? Who was talking
about Charlie Clips? You remember?
Speaker 2: No? Was it? Oh?
Speaker 1: It might have been mister Goodbars because we're talking about
battle Rop.
Speaker 4: Oh that's who was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he was mentioning Charlie Clips. Yeah.
So what do you do on Top of the Town?
Is it an interview or do they perform or how
does that work?
Speaker 2: So on the podcast, we I basically interview everybody, interview artists,
celebrity says, had stylists, whatever you do. Basically I done
probably covered and interviewed. I also do like food reviews,
restaurant reviews. I do a little you know, tricky trippy episodes.
I then did a stream episode before, so you know,
it's it's basically all content type. Think like we just
shot the Poppya balloon, the fond Love episode, so that's
dropping real soon. So it's basically like you know, everything
that you could think of, but mainly podcasting. Yeah, there's
different channels, but mainly podcasting.
Speaker 1: Okay. And how often does it come out? Is it
weekly or you've got a lot going on every week?
Every week? Yeah, excellent, every week. Do you have a
Is there a particular episode of the show that's really
kind of blown up where you just got a lot
of traffic? Have you had anything that went viral, any
particular interviews that people don't seem really interested in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we had a few. We had the episode
with uh Charlie CLIs will close. You have the episode
with Bobby Schmurder. We had one episode, the Shoom episode
that went viral. We are I am. Yeah, we have
one episode when a guy came on his eight strict
marijuana like he just ate week like it was it
was crazy.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it gets it gets crazy, like it gets real crazy.
But my favorite episode, I tell everybody this had to
be the part one with Missiana Bean from BT. She
was the first one to show me nothing but the
utmost love and she came on for part two and
then he's just been walked in ever since. So that's
probably my favorite episode.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, and where do you do it? Where do
you do you have a do you record these in
a podcast studio or are you out and about remotely
or how does that work?
Speaker 2: So I have my business partner, he shout out to
my guy and anybody that needs a studio. When y'all
come to mask and she's happening with Undeniable Sound, he
literally does everything everything, okay, recording to you know, to editing,
to videos to all of that. He actually shot. He
shot all of my episodes for my podcast, so tapping
with him Underniable Sound. He's in my bio, He's under
every video in my YouTube. So Undeniable Sound, Undeniable stamd
and she.
Speaker 1: Taking fly Oh that's cool. Does he work with other
podcasters as well?
Speaker 2: He can, but he mainly works with me because you know,
we that's my business partner. So yeah, and he's he's
also an artist as well, So any like any showed
that I have, y'all probably haven't seen him on to
see him on the.
Speaker 1: Flyers, so oh, very cool, very cool. And where are
you from?
Speaker 2: I'm from Dorchester, Boston, Mass Dorchester born and raised, grew
up there.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I was born in Boston. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Jenny was born in Boston too. Yeah, uh.
Speaker 2: Had a connection.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go. How is uh how's the hip
hop scene changed there over the years. I'm a little
you know, I I I talked to a lot of
hip hop artists from from up here, but not really
too many from Boston. I don't know what, at least
not lately, has the scene changed. Is it more competitive
than it used to be?
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say more competitive. I always there's more on
the map. He got more people that's taken a craft
series that's actually going and dropping not even weekly like
they'll drop every two d's. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
So it's just like I wouldn't say it's more competition.
More wise, I would say there's more people shown that
they're hungry and just showing that they basically got that
talent in the city.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I was curious because one of the things
that we talked about a lot on this show, it's
really a recurring subject, is how the Internet and how
social media has changed everything and how it affects the
music industry. And you know, hip hop artists tend to
be very prolific. You know, there's a lot of you
know a lot of rhymes that that the most hip
hop artists that I meet, you know, they're constantly writing
and they're always making new new tracks. So it's now
you have a delivery system with social media where you
can have an idea, record something that day and get
it out immediately. So and and to kind of to
be able to promote something, well, let me ask you this,
so podcast like Talk of the Town, how did you
what was your strategy in terms of promoting that. You're
obviously successful with it. You've had some some pretty big
guests and and you're getting a lot of traffic with
it and podcasting. You know, there's a lot of competition.
What's been your strategy to really put that out there
and to have the success that you've had.
Speaker 2: Being outside, literally being outside at every event that you
could think of, even if it's not my event. I
make sure me and my brother the outside. We have
the cameras you do interviews or artists, but we just
do random interviews just you know, just to catch some content.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, this is.
Speaker 2: Being outside showing support to others, you know, and hopefully
getting the support back. You know what I'm saying, because
that's one thing I will say out here there is
a lack of support, but we're fixing that. We're getting
we're getting better with that. So yeah, I was just
say being outside and just being being present.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're out there putting the work in, that's for sure,
and that's what it takes. Yeah, it's like you know,
in the music industry, a lot of people get into it,
whether it's as an artist or you know, or or
doing something else, and they and they think it's going
to be easy, and they think if they put something
out there that you know, people are just gonna come
to them, and it's really you know, you have to
put the work in, you have to build, and that's
exactly what you're doing. So I commend you.
Speaker 3: Has the has the.
Speaker 1: Podcast changed over the three years? Has it kind of evolved?
Is it or or or has it kind of stayed
the same in terms of what the original concept was.
Speaker 2: Oh no, it definitely evolved. My very first episode, My
very first episode was with Trevor Holmes from out of
Boston as well, so you know, it definitely evolved. Now
you could tell the difference from there to now. You
can see how like I wasn't as confident back then.
You know what I'm saying. I didn't really know if
I really want to do this, but now you can tell, like,
this is what I want to do. So it definitely
has evolved with me, evolved in my personality, evolved with
the content and the way I create the content, you know,
and my different idea is so at first there was
just gonna be a podcast strictly a podcast, but now
I'm literally covering all types of content that will, you know,
either make you laugh, you know, make you sit down
and think, or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1: So right, right, No, that's excellent. Is everything available online?
Is the entire three years? If people want to go
back and kind of go through the archive, Is everything
up and available?
Speaker 2: Yep, yep. You can go right on top of the
Town six one seven on YouTube there on ig So
it was my very first post and just scroll up. Excellent,
you'll see the evolution.
Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent. And I think, did we meet you through
our friend Hope the rapper? Is that how we met you?
Speaker 2: Yes? No, yes, yes, that's my brother right there yet
him performing August twenty third for my birthday bash with
Charlie clips x case. He will be hitting the stage.
He shall hold the rapper.
Speaker 1: Oh, very cool, very yeah, he's amazing. We love him.
Has he been on I assume he's been on the podcast.
Speaker 2: Now he hasn't. He hasn't been an episode yet. Surprisingly,
he's been on about about eighty of my showcases, but
never on the podcast. That's kind of crazy. Oh no,
you gotta make that happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm surprised. Something to look forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got to get you, got to get you
out up on the podcast too.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we would love it. Definitely, count us in definitely.
And what now when you talk about showcases, for some
of our listeners will know what you mean because we uh,
we know that we have a lot of people in
the music industry who listen to our show. But but
for people who don't know what exactly is a showcase
and how is that different from a regular show.
Speaker 2: So a showcase is basically you can get I like
gathering artists. So I probably do about ten to fifteen
houris on my lineups to get everybody the opportunity of
whatever the case may be, so you know, they let
them come up whether they want to perform seven minutes.
I do two different things to do the seven minutes
or ten minutes, just to you know, they depending on
the comfortability of whatever the case may be. And you know,
they come up, they do they they do, they think.
So if you're an artists out there, if you make music,
you ever you've never been on the stage, you never performed,
but you've always been looking to get on the stage.
You're always looking at perform. Let us know we're actually
about to start the tour on the day counted this
out tour the start in September twenty seventh out in
the bowl at Smokehouse. So make sure y'all tap in.
You got a lot of opportunity for a lot of artists. Podcasts,
you're trying to work. Let's work. Anybody's trying to work.
Speaker 1: Let's just work and the tour. How many dates are
on the tour.
Speaker 2: I believe ten for the first way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so we'll.
Speaker 2: Basically we're book from September up until this no November,
late November, then we'll take it December. You know, we're
going to start the second leg of the tour in
late January.
Speaker 1: Oh outstanding? Yeah, very cool, very cool? Is that that
must be challenging to manage, right, A showcase where you've
got where you've got that many artists on it. I mean,
is it difficult to kind of keep everybody organized and
make sure they get enough time and all that? Is
that a challenge to pull that off?
Speaker 2: Definitely? Definitely, because people are showing up from black people,
turn people are showing up link it by we we
some people only got the venue from eight to te like,
so many time we'd be having a venue till like
one o'clock and people like showing up at tin. We
got to crunch up seven minutes to ten minutes you have,
you know what I'm saying, And I host the show.
So it was just like you gotta over the time.
We get used to it, but when you know, the
first couple of times, you're going to be like geeesh, yeah,
come on time a little barely R.
Speaker 1: No, I can I can relate to that because so
I don't do it currently. But I used to promote
a lot of shows and sometimes we would have you know,
we would have full bands, but we would have five,
four or five bands in a night on a show
and uh yeah, if somebody, if somebody was late, or
if somebody, you know, they got to the venue, you know,
What happened a lot with bands is you know, part
of the band would be there on time, but not
everybody could be there on time. Maybe somebody was getting
out of work late or whatever. You know, which happen happens,
and you just have to make the best of it.
But it can be really stressful. So I can only
imagine what it's like when you've got a showcase of
that many different artists and trying to do you do
you have like a list, like do you try to
do you try to map it out ahead of time?
Who's gonna go on when? Or does it kind of
go by who shows up when, and then you just
kind of slot them in in the moment.
Speaker 2: Neither Actually, I go by off the vibe of the crowd.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, you know.
Speaker 2: Some artists have, you know, upbeat music. Some artists have
R and B music. You don't want to put on
the artists with like drill music and then put on
the artist that singing right after, you know what I mean.
So it's like you just got to me personally, I
just go with the vibe of the crowd. I go
with the vibe of the art the vibe of the
artists and who the type of music they make or whatever,
because I know when it comes to my playlist, like
when I'm like listening to music, if I'm listening to rap,
I like slowly transition into R and B. Me if
I'm listening to R and B, I'm slowly transitioned into rap.
So that's how I try to keep it for.
Speaker 1: The Well, oh that makes sense. That's interesting. I like
that approach. That's uh, that's that's really cool. Now at
these showcases, have you seen Are there specific artists who
have participated in these showcases who then you've seen go
on to uh to be really successful either locally or regionally,
or or any any success stories that we should know about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, honestly, there's this Every artist that I would say
have been on my lineups, been on my lineup consistently,
that you would say been on my lineups more than like, hope,
he've been on my line up probably one than twenty times.
I haven't been over I think almost three hundred showcases now,
I'm not like to eighty seven, I believe, So it's
just like over the over the three years, so he
been on a lot of them. So I think any
any person that I consistently put on my lineup I
know for sure is gonna take off. And I know
for sure they mean business and they actually mean what
they what they You know, they work ethic, right, they
work crafts, so they mean you know, some people don't
Somemorrros don't understand. You got to put money behind you yourself.
You feel what I'm saying to Mars don't understand. So
tomorrows think that you just can get everything handed to
them or wherever the case may be, just because they
know they're nice. No, don't go like that. It's like
it's like a once in the blue moon that goes
like that. You feel what I'm saying. So right, That's
basically why I'm at with it. Many artists I put
on my line up persistently. That shows me that they're
here's about their work ethic and network in their craft.
Then I know they're gonna make it.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, oh excellent, excellent. All right, So tell us again,
Well actually two things. Let me ask you this first,
because I want to make sure our listeners know exactly
where to find the podcast. And yeah, so just remind
everybody is it is it YouTube?
Speaker 3: The best place to go for it?
Speaker 2: Yep. YouTube is the best place to go for the podcast.
I want to see some funny reels. Go to our ig.
Both are talking at Talk of the Time six one.
Speaker 1: Seven, Okay, okay, cool? And uh tell us again about
the show tonight because we want to make sure for
people who are listening live that they know about it.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, so we got vamp Wife's own, Jim Jones own,
Boston's very own. Lord you coming to Brockton for the
Lord's You and French Part two. We have a bunch
of artists from all over coming in performing. We actually
have one arts that flew in this morning, so it's
gonna be crazy. Makes she y'all pull up? It's twenty
at the door. Lord, You've never disappointed. She's been going crazy.
We just got off to a word not too long ago,
and she always shuts the stage down. She always brings
the vibe, so he's not gonna want to miss it.
Lord You Want Friends? Part two at sound webs Doors Open.
Speaker 1: That nine pretty excellent. Hey, By the way, are there
a lot of venues to do what you do? Are
there a lot of hip hop venues available these days?
Or that has that changed? I know a lot of
places have kind of come and gone. But what's the
current state of that.
Speaker 2: Nah, there is, there's a few, there's there's definitely a
lot of venues. I'll let you come in and do
what you gotta do. Good good, But there's also a
lot of venues that you know, you just got to
follow the guyne Yeah, you know me, Sona should be
perfectly fine with people that I just want to come
in and you know, built the establishment up and built
the you know, the resume when it comes to the showcases.
So definitely is a lot of venues and a lot
of opportunities.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good. That's good to hear. Very good. All right,
well listen, Grizzy Hendricks, thank you so much for joining us.
I'm sorry we didn't get to talk in person, but
I'm sure we'll be able to make that happen in
the future. Good luck with the show tonight. I'm sure
it's gonna go great and the tour and the showcases.
Love what you're doing, and we will talk again soon,
I'm sure.
Speaker 2: Definitely, definitely, y'all both are invited. August twenty third, I'm
gonna send you you guys taking some yll pull up
August third my birthday past which Hardy clips. Everybody that's
listening to make sure y'll pull up is going to
be a the outside once again. Thank y'all again.
Speaker 1: All right, Grizzy Hendrix, thank you so much. Man. Take care.
That's sir, all right, bye bye, all right, very nice.
So sorry we didn't get to talk to him in person,
but Grizzy Hendricks, he's doing great things in the hip
hop scene down there, and I think what we'll do.
I think we're gonna play Club Paradise. Yeah, I'm gonna
play one more club Paradise song because I love these
guys we talked to them earlier. I'm just I want
to make sure I play the There's one particular one
that really stood out to me. But now I'm it's
like I lost it somehow. Trying to find it again here,
I accidentally, uh closed I closed the tab that I
did not want to close, and now I am regretting
that I closed that particular tab. Yes, yes, and uh
but that's okay. It's only live radio. Okay, I think
I found it, oh neighborhood, Yes here it is. I
found it. So we're gonna play. If you're just joining
us Club Paradise was the band that skyped in from
the UK in the first hour and really loved talking
with them, and they did send us a couple of
great tracks to play, but we're playing even more than
what they sent us because we love this band that much.
So we're gonna play another one of those. This is
called Neighborhood from Club Paradise, and then we've got plenty
more to come. Don't go away.
Speaker 6: You know he made me feel light about there.
Speaker 7: You can like when y'all stand.
Speaker 8: The fount my fad cant my ice clos Hello, still
Heaven sakes me home?
Speaker 6: And I would sing no loader.
Speaker 7: Out, sing the.
Speaker 6: Song favorite songs to South seen fo out, singing.
Speaker 9: My stiles coming ca the dusting that stand back, came back,
stands coming home came harding, trusting, start back.
Speaker 10: Looking aft the mountains, looking at the dirt track, the
fine picking fist, see the strongest.
Speaker 8: Spaceball, the wow those two strolling back football and down
the streets.
Speaker 7: An I want to be so and so la.
Speaker 6: Scene lot in the going for and no scene. It
is all the strung to soun fulling.
Speaker 9: Home, I trusting and stop a deep back. I was
trying home a tack deep Bunny jumps the bay stop
deep bu.
Speaker 7: Bu the.
Speaker 9: Stop shout to its king by SAMs and the chair
the space that was the cold level to not take
it's more back skinned of the truth, gave the.
Speaker 7: Time and the game resignable.
Speaker 6: Game it up.
Speaker 9: I was turning home by attack on the jus got
to start back.
Speaker 6: I was talking that stop, but.
Speaker 9: I was talking about about.
Speaker 7: Stop.
Speaker 6: I was talking just stop, but came back.
Speaker 5: Here.
Speaker 11: Want you say you're talking about your assic can men, you.
Speaker 7: Made one mistake.
Speaker 11: Listen of the constant confident you leave in.
Speaker 7: Hal fall back with your help.
Speaker 12: Fancy you phooting yourself to the grown.
Speaker 7: Take your time.
Speaker 4: When you jumping to the lance.
Speaker 7: Side whisnal tide.
Speaker 11: You fall your falling Wow, you not want to break
until you get over your head.
Speaker 1: You're trowing the came.
Speaker 7: Not saying you.
Speaker 12: Can't try talking univation gone where when your complex your
bass are crashing to the ground.
Speaker 7: Take your time.
Speaker 12: When you jumping to the fire wisdom time the fall wake,
Take your time to shie. That's a stamp across the
land line.
Speaker 6: Drifting in your world up sending your f.
Speaker 9: Your far nowhere, Try to wait to away, make the
best of every day, to waste the way.
Speaker 7: Out of the day. Let's rise. Say take your time.
Speaker 6: When you jumping to the.
Speaker 7: Wisdom you fall, take your sun.
Speaker 12: Lets you stand across stand mine, drifting in your world.
Speaker 7: I send you fun no fun words words.
Speaker 9: Following the word.
Speaker 1: That is world of zen. That is from day to Attend.
And if you happen to be watching live on on
social media, I am wearing my day to Attend shirt.
And we had those guys in our chat room. Hopefully
they're still there. But I love that track. Of course
we had them on the show. What was it two
weeks ago? I lose track. I think I think it
was two weeks ago. Yeah, great, great band. And and
before that, we played a track called Neighborhood from Club
Parent And if you're just joining us, Club Paradise was
with us via Skype from the UK during the first hour.
That's not one of the songs. That's the one I
was trying to. I was getting them all mixed up
in my head. That's not one of the two tracks
they sent us to play, But I listened to that
one and I don't even have the words for how
much I love that song. That is so catchy that
that should be. That should be an international hit song.
If there were any justice in the world, it would
be I Love That. I'm gonna listen to that again
and again and again. Not right now, obviously we have
a show to do. But yes, if you are just
joining us, of course, this is Matt Connorton Unleashed and
we are live from the studios of w m NH
ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire.
As we cruise into our final segment today on the program,
I want to remind you all of something. Of course,
one week from today, August seventeen, I will be at
the Sister Witch Company for an event. The event starts
at noon. I won't be there at noon, be getting
there till two pm of course because of the radio show.
But but you should show up at noon because they
have great stuff going on, a gritting class, a healing
circle and hypnotherapy which I will be providing when I
arrive there. But the event is from noon to five
pm and that is going to be at the Sister
Witch Company one week from today, so you can check
that out. And Jenny has something that is ongoing with
your art at.
Speaker 4: The Nashua Creatives Collective. I have twelve of my pieces
on display Midnight Creatives collect Midnight Creatives Collective. What did
I say, Nashua. Yes, it's in that Nashua Midnight Yes, yes,
forgive me, please forgive me. Yes, I have twelve of
my darkest paintings actually, yes, up there, and they're up
for the entire month. Yes, which is amazing. Absolutely yep
in nerve wrecking. Yes, you wonder like people are looking
at them.
Speaker 6: They like it.
Speaker 1: You've had not like it. You've had your art shown before,
like at the Mosaic, Yes, Creative Collective. Hopefully I'll be
back there again too. Yes, yes, right here in Manchester
Mosaic is. They're amazing, But this is the first time having.
Speaker 4: Like twelve painting well painting. Yes, I've had a painting
up on a wall, but no, not twelve paintings up
on wall.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's pretty intense to have so many pieces, yeh,
at once, and it's interesting to looking at them. Never
put all of these pieces together like that before. They're
the darkest paintings I've done thus far that are that
are what I consider presentable. But it was weird to
see them all together and just actually looked really amazing. Yeah,
and then having Dead Harrison playing in the background is
like bonus.
Speaker 6: That's so cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, in the video, there's a video.
Speaker 4: Of this if you want to check it out on
my socials. There's a video of all the twelve pieces
that are up and it's Dead Harris and you can
hear playing in the background, which is really really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And if you missed it last week, we
did have We had Eleanor and Spelfie and of course
Andre who was also in debt Harrison. They were here
with us last week in the third hour talking about
all things Midnight Creatives, Collective and Terminus Underground And definitely
should definitely check that out if you haven't done so already.
I'll go ahead and give the studio line if anyone
wants to get in with a call on our next subject.
As we are in our final segment this week six
oh three two five six seven, six oh three two
five six seven. We did hear from John Hopwit earlier,
which was that that was a nice surprise. Haven't heard
from haven't heard from John and quite some time I
miss but uh, there's another our article here from billboard
dot Com. A new Senate bill could protect artists from
AI deep fakes. And this is of course part of
our ongoing discussions about AI. We discussed it a lot
on the show, but also the music industry and is
having an ongoing discussion about it.
Speaker 5: And uh.
Speaker 1: This is called the No Fakes Act first intro use
as a draft bill last October. Aims to provide federal
protection on one's voice and likeness for the first time.
And this is something you know something about from your
own experience as a state legislator.
Speaker 4: Yes, I've worked on this issue specifically.
Speaker 1: It says here. A bipartisan group of US senators introduced
the highly anticipated No Fakes Act on July thirty one,
which aims to protect artists and others from AI deep
fakes and other non consensual replicas of their voices, images,
and likeness. If passed, the legislation would create federal intellectual
property protections for the so called right of publicity for
the first time, which restricts how someone's name, image, likeness,
and voice can be used without consent. Currently, such rights
are only protected at the state level, leading to a
patchwork of different rules across the country. Unlike many existing
state loss systems. The federal right, Yes, the federal right
that the No Fail Act would create would not expire
at death and could be controlled by a person's heirrs
for seventy years after their passing. The balance personal publicity rights,
I'm sorry, to balance personal publicity rights and the First
Amendment right to free speech. You No Fakes Act also
includes specific carve outs for replicas used in news coverage, parody,
historical works, or criticism. Now, yes, yeah, tell us about
the uh your experience with the bill about r JD. Salinger?
Speaker 4: Right, So this in the article one hundred percent correct.
The laws are patchwork across the nation. Here in New Hampshire,
as an artist, you have the right to protect your
image and your likeness until you die. The moment that
you did, you have no protections anymore, nor does your family.
Nobody can control that or take ownership over your likeness.
It becomes fair game. So what happened in New Hampshire
is JD. Salinger's family has tried to protect his image.
You know, Catcher in the Rye, famous American author. And
there's a place, it's like a store or something that's
near where the Salinger family it has been in New
Hampshire and they put JD. Salinger's face on toilet paper
something wasn't too happy about that. I don't blame him,
but they were putting dad's face on things that weren't
very respectable and they weren't happy about it, and they
wanted to have control over their dad's image. But New
Hampshire law didn't allow it. So the effort was to
change the law to allow that to happen, because it
does exist in many, many, many other states. California, it's
one hundred years, so it's that patchwork. So when I
say years, I'm talking about when you die. So you
are a you are a public persona you Matt Connerton
on this show. In theory, you would have the ability
to control your image up until the point that you die.
In some states, when you die, whoever is your bequeathed
or you're next to kin has the right to continue
that control over your image, your likeness, your voice for
a certain amount of time. In legislature, it's usually been
around lifetime, thinking basically like we want your kids and
your grandkids to be able to control your image. But
after that it's been enough, but still allowing for people
to be criticized or be satired, so narrowing the intent
of the bill of that control like it is in
other states. We got a lot of pushback trying to
do this like this was a huge fight, a bigger
fight than I ever thought it would be. And I
did manage to get it out of committee and I
almost got it passed into the law, but the Republicans
on the House side would not have it and trashed
it because I was in a supermajority at the time
as a Republican. Mind you, they wanted industries to be
able to utilize people however they wanted to. My argument was,
if you look at the New Hampshire State House, it's
across the street from an adult store. So I would
give the example of you know, you die and the
next day your kids see your face on an adult
toy in the adult store being advertised in the window.
How do you feel about that? Should that be allowed?
Should a pub person's image belong ownership of that image
belong to the next of kin. I think it should.
I believe it should. You're a public figure, you're making
money off of your image, you have created a brand
of you, and you should be able to becreath that
brand to your next to kin. In my opinion, this
law gets into that because now it has to. Now
we're adding this whole new animal into the mixture of
AI and the ability to mimic people, to pretend to
be people, to convince people that that really is that person.
These deep fakes are pretty bad, Like you really can't
necessarily tell the difference between one person or another. Take
somebody's image that you love and means the world to
you and have them say the most horrific things and
have no control over that, or we allow that to
be controlled. I think you should be able to do that,
and that's what I advocated for, and that's what I
fought for. Unfortunately, the bill died thanks to House Republicans
because the Senate was ready to pass it. The Salinger
family is very respected in New Hampshire and we usually
take pride in our in our in our in the
successes that come out of our state. J. D. Salandra
is one of the most amazing American writers that is
known throughout our country and around the world for for
for his for Catcher and the Rye and his works.
So you see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: About but it gets so these things do get complicated though,
because they do. Because so this happened a few months
ago and we never got to it on the show.
But do you remember the Scarlett Johansson thing. Yes, it
was in the news. Yes, I found an article from
the Hollywood Reporter. Again, this is from a few months ago.
But Scarlett Johansson's AI legal threat sets stage for actors
battle with tech giants. So here's what this was about. Artists.
This is a little bit of a side street, but
it's relevant. So artists were first to sue. Then authors
hit generative artificial intelligence companies with a value of lawsuits,
followed by publications. As battle lines over the use of
AI tools in Hollywood are being drawn, actors maybe the
next group of creators to open another front in what
would be an industry defining legal battle against AI firms
over the use of copyrighted works and personal data to
power their human mimicking chat bots. On Monday, and again
this is from the end of May, Scarlett Johansson threatened
legal action against open ai, which is who created chat GPT,
for allegedly copying and limiting I'm sorry imitating her voice
after she refused to license it to the company. According
to the actress, Open Ai asked her to be one
of the voices called Sky for its newest AI system.
She declined, though she said that didn't stop chief executive
Sam Altman.
Speaker 4: And that's part of it right there, like for example,
sports heroes in games and making sure that they have
control over that imaging and that money in a game. Yeah,
so that's where this legislation.
Speaker 1: But here's here's the problem though. Well, okay, so this
is what she said in her statement, and then I'm
gonna play Devil's advocate as I.
Speaker 2: Like to do.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be I'm gonna because this because I when
I first heard this, I was very skeptical that she
had a case. Okay, so she wrote in a statement, quote,
when I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered,
and in disbelief that mister Altman would pursue a voice
that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest
friends and news outlets could not tell the difference. Unquote. Okay,
here's the problem. So from her perspective, so she feels
they asked her, she said no, So they just generated
a voice that sounds.
Speaker 4: Well, we'll go to court and deal with it in court.
But we got it.
Speaker 1: But here's the problem. What did they? Does Scarlet Johanson
have such a distinct voice? Is there no one else
who sounds like her? I?
Speaker 4: Ah, yeah, come on, now, come on, we want you
to be our voice. We want you to be a voice.
No no, no no no, So we make one up
that sounds just like you.
Speaker 1: Come on? If I so? If so, if I go
and hear this, am I going to say? Oh, that's
Scarlet Johansson?
Speaker 4: I mean according to her, she's saying. Yes, she's saying
that news outlet to her. According to her, So who
are these news outlets and did they really feel that
way and contact her? If that is true, then she
absolutely has a case.
Speaker 1: I'm very skeptical.
Speaker 4: The thing is even even the Motion Picture Association is
getting in behind this bill. And I do want to
say one thing about the bill. Senator Blackburn is on it,
who's a Republican, and Senator Clovishar and Senator they so
this bill is bipartisan in effort to try and protect artists, athletes,
people who have a public persona from being turned into
some kind of an AI.
Speaker 1: Now, and you know I'll always advocate on the side
of artists at the end of the day. But I'm
just saying though from a again, from a practical and
pragmatic standpoint. So if somebody sounds like you, now you
can go and suit film.
Speaker 4: If this suit if this actually sounds a lot like her,
or sounds like her period after them turn after she
turned them down, that's that's not coincidental, that's not that's intention.
But they're gonna get what they wanted because they figure
tied up in court, they get away with it.
Speaker 3: But who they get away with it?
Speaker 1: But who's to say.
Speaker 4: Unless she gets a stay of some kind and some
kind of emergency injunction to stop them from using it.
They're getting to utilize it while you're going through court.
Speaker 1: But so this company though, so because that conversation was
had with Scarlet Johansson, now, this company can never ever
use any voice that might.
Speaker 4: Sound much like yeah, I'm gonna say yes, see that
to me sounds if it sounds just like her, like
you can't tell the difference. No, they shouldn't be able to.
Speaker 1: There's not another actor somewhere who has a voice like her.
What what is so distinct about her?
Speaker 4: Voice if it sounds just like her and you can't
tell the difference. After they went to her trying to
get usage and she's said, no, I don't know. We
have to put some kind of limitations on a I
or it will run rampant. Where is your line, Where
is your line in the stand that you're protecting the artist?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I do think there's I do think there's
the uh and and this is why I bring this up.
I do think there's the risk of abuse in the
other direction, man, there is, which.
Speaker 4: Is why this, This is why this Yeah, and it's
why these kind of laws are difficult to pass because
you do have to narrow the scope because you still
have to allow for perspective, sorry for protected speech. You've
got to allow for there's got to be you know,
we have to be able to have satire of people.
Speaker 1: We have to be able to So that's the right
thing about That's a big thing I'm worried about.
Speaker 4: Is that part of But that's been done. It's done
in many places.
Speaker 1: Because satirical works are generally protected. And that's already and
I'm worried about that no longer.
Speaker 4: A lot, but it's already been on the books for
for forever, especially in California, there's laws on the books
that protect artists but allow for satire. California, you protect
your image for one hundred years after your death. Some
states are seventy five. New Hampshire is no time. New
Hampshire is you're dead, You're done. Your family doesn't get
to control it. You show up in the middle of
some adult stores window too bad, too sad, don't show
your kids. I don't like that. I think people should
be able to control their image, their persona, and when
they die that shouldn't just die with them. If they
know you're you are a commodity of your own and
you've established this commodity, you get to bequeath that to
whoever you wish and they get to contain that ownership
for however many years the law allows. But like our
state doesn't. Our state gives no protection at all when
death happens. This law is going waif this law has
to happen, this stuff has to happen. AI is exponentially
growing on a daily basis. Let's face it, technology is amazing.
It grows every day. There's good and bad about it.
The ability to mimic someone's image, likeness, voice. There's a
lot of danger involved in that. There's a lot of nasty, underground,
criminal things that can be done with that, you know.
I mean, I worry about that somebody puts a video
of somebody making it look like they've committed a crime,
that person goes to jail. This kind of technology can
be so horrifically abused that if we don't put safeguards now,
it's going to be too late when it's out of
the box.
Speaker 1: For all you know, I might not really be here.
I could be a deep fake.
Speaker 4: Well I know, because I'm here.
Speaker 1: Oh that's true.
Speaker 4: But the listeners could be listening to too deep fakes.
Speaker 1: They could be listening to an AI generated version of
the show.
Speaker 4: Maybe we're not here, maybe we're in Aruba.
Speaker 1: I do want to do that sometime. I think it'd
be fun make an AI generated version of the show,
just to see what it comes up with. They did
that once on The Howard Stern Show. It's pretty well
the conversation between Howard and Robin and the AI version
that they did. It was funny because it was so
it was so it was like, you know, Howard's like
asking Robin, Robin, how was your weekend and Robin's like
mine was good? Howard, how was you know, It's just
like a conversation they would never have, but it was
like it was the best that the AI could come
up with.
Speaker 4: There is an organization called their Human Artistry Campaign that's
out there that's actually trying to work on these issues
to protect artists. We're talking about. When you talk about artists,
you talk about everybody. We're talking about music, actors, painters, everyone.
Huh if we I'm serious, Like, so, I want to
know from you, Devil's Advocate, where's your line? Where is
it that we are protecting? Where do you put that
line to protect the artists?
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know. I mean that's that's the thing
we're kind of That's what's so fascinating about the subject
to me is it's it's complicated. It's it's complex, and
we're kind of trying to find our way through it. Now.
I do tend to be I might be lenient on
a lot of this, though I might an internal bias
because so you know, I'm a co host on Retrospection
Radio with pol C on Friday nights, and one of
the things that one of the uh if you've never
heard the show. Every week Paul picks a different subject,
and one of the subjects that we've done a few
times that Paul has shows in his plagiarism where he'll
play a song and then yeah, and then it's a
song where there was some sort of perhaps someone said, hey,
they you stole my song. I'm going to sue you,
and there was litigation or the threat of litigation or
just accusations of plagiarism and so forth. Led Zeppelin, by
the way, the most plagiaristic band ever. But but when
we're when Paul plays these examples for us, I'm usually
the one in the room who says not guilty. I'm like,
I'm the most lenient when it comes to these accusations
of plagiarism, because I'm the guy who says, yeah, I
know that song sounds like this other song, but that's
because it's using a chord progression that is very common
in rock music and shows up in a lot of songs.
I'm the most lenient one. So maybe maybe because I
tend to maybe maybe I have an internal bias that's
making me say, hey, let's be a little bit careful
about what we assume but that's different. Is copying something else.
Speaker 4: I want to challenge you on that. That's different because
you're comparing what's coming out of a human mind to
a computer pretending to be somebody else.
Speaker 1: But what is the same is this is this notion
of copying, this notion of hearing something or reading the
data of something. However you want to think about it
the way a large learning model works machine learning. The
part that's similar is taking something and replicating it in
some way.
Speaker 4: True, but without the human element. And that's that's a
big difference. There's the difference between the human being and
the computer.
Speaker 1: Well, but it depends on the situation, right, I mean,
if I take a if I take somebody else's song
and I just basically copy it and I barely change it,
and I've plagiarized it, that's actually worse.
Speaker 4: Than that plagiarism not a deep fake, right No, But.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, though, that's actually worse than if I
type an AI prompt and I say make a song
that kind of sounds like this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, that is worth because that's a direct right copyright.
Who's the who's the rapper that did that? With David
Bowie's song Queen under pressure, who's stole from under pressure
Vanilla Vanilla Ice, that's what it was. Yeah, yep, but
see that's that's plagiarism. That's stealing somebody's work.
Speaker 1: Well, that's not technically, it's not plagiarism. It's it's a
it's ample. It's an uncleared sample. Yeah, because he didn't
ask permission and then he got held over a balcony
by Sugar Knight. It's a whole thing. Geez, we can
do a whole show about Vanilla Ice. What a fascinating man.
Speaker 4: This is true. Yes, but you don't want to anger anyone.
Speaker 1: No, that's true. We don't want Sugar Knight to come
and hurt me.
Speaker 4: Hang you over or we do have a balcony. Yes,
you could hang you over a balcony by your ankles.
Speaker 1: That would be terrible. It's it's a very good I mean.
Speaker 4: I support the effort. I think this bill should pass.
I think it should be law. I think there should
be protections against We have to start. If we don't,
we're already kind of late to the late to the Gamia.
We need these laws on the books like yesterday. Because
technology grows and leaps and bounds by the day AI especially,
we don't we need we need this stuff now right,
not before before it gets too far out of the bag.
But you know, I'm sorry, but I still I have
to disagree with you on Johanson issue. She was approached,
she was asked, they wanted her, they courted her, she
said no. Then they created something that sounded just like her. Yeah,
I don't, I don't see.
Speaker 1: I don't even know, though I would have to hear
it and make my own determination to really have an
opinion a hundred, which I have not. It's like with
the George Carlin thing. Remember all these guys who made
an AI version of a George Carlin album, a new
George Carlin album. Yeah, And I remember I played a
little bit of it on the show, and well, I
ended up listening to the entire hour, and I thought
it was good. I actually thought it was funny. And
George Carland's one of my all time favorite Duck comedians,
of course, But but I remember saying to you, Jesse
was with us on the show that day, and I
remember saying, my observation was, you know, yeah, it sounds
a lot like him, but not exactly. And if you
were to play this for me, and I'm sure it's
still on YouTube. If you don't know what we're talking about,
just look up George Carlin AI. You'll find it and
it's actually funny, like the jokes are good. But I'm
skeptical that it's all AI generated because some of those
jokes don't sound like they could have been generated by AI.
They're actually too clever. But I remember saying to you
and Jesse that if you, if you just played this
for me and said to me, didn't tell me anything
about it, and just said, Matt, who is this comedian?
Do you recognize this? I'm might say it reminds me
of George Carlin, or it kind of sounds like George Carlin.
I would not say, oh, that's George Carlin.
Speaker 4: Well you guess, because you know he's dead.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, But I'm just saying. I'm saying if
if you, if you just.
Speaker 4: Played that for me, you would have pined it out
right away and.
Speaker 1: Tell me anything about it. I probably would have said
it reminds me of George Carlin, But I would not
have said that's George Carlin because it didn't sound enough
like him to me. The AI version that's one example.
It is It's just one example. It's anecdotal. But I'm
just saying I would have to hear the the Scarlett
Johanson which is not which is not available. They they
took it down, avoided a lawsuit, and all of that.
That's all been saying you.
Speaker 4: In favor or opposed to the legislation.
Speaker 1: I'm generally in favor of protecting artists. I don't know
enough about exactly what the legislation is to really have
a firm opinion, but I'm generally in favor of protecting artists.
At the end of the day, I will always advocate
on behalf of artists. Having said that, I'm also always
worried about abuse, I will say, and frivolous lawsuits and
all of that.
Speaker 4: There are a whole host of organizations that agree with you,
that are representing artists. Organizations like the Nashville Songwriters Association
or the Production Music Association, the Recording Academy are all
joining together in support of this bipartisan legislation, which is
nice to see. I just hope that the sun doesn't
sit on it forever and that they actually do get
it passed into law sooner rather than later. To protect
artists is not artists, culture, art everything needs to be
protected from AI, it really does. If we don't get
these laws in place now, it's just going to be
too late. And I really do think there needs to
be laws, and especially in regards to deep fakes.
Speaker 1: Perhaps well I think on that note, well, we'll begin
to wrap up. I'm going to play the new Hope
the Rapper single one more time on My Way Week nine,
no right of our ten weeks of Hope the Rapper
singles world radio premieres, and next week is is week ten.
It will be our last one, although I mean we'll
always going forward, you know, anytime he has something new.
I mean, we love Hope the Rapper. We'll certainly play
it on the show.
Speaker 4: But I've been exciting ten weeks, a lot of great music.
I've enjoyed every.
Speaker 1: One of them. Absolutely have to say, yeah, you said
last week that track snapchat, you said that was your
favorite one.
Speaker 4: I really like that one a lot, I do. It's
still my favorite, still my favorite.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna end with this one on My Way.
It's called but thank you everybody, and if you miss
any part of today's show, and we'll be up in
just a little bit at wmnhradio dot organ on my
website Matt Connorton dot com, and we will leave you
with this on my way, Hope the Rapper, and we
will talk to you a little bit later.
Speaker 3: By everybody, I'm on my way now.
Speaker 6: Why would I wait? Now?
Speaker 4: I'm on my way now?
Speaker 6: Why would I wait now?
Speaker 7: Now?
Speaker 13: I'm on my way now?
Speaker 4: Why would I wait?
Speaker 6: Now?
Speaker 2: On my way?
Speaker 4: Like things like eat a sports is.
Speaker 13: Touchdown we're getting when I'm on that fill, how don't.
Speaker 1: Give a shout?
Speaker 4: What's because I'm working on mine?
Speaker 6: No, it need a good deal.
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hold on?
Speaker 14: Wait local WABBII and fuck up. Pay the biggest man
than me. I make okay, pen went up with it
in the pain of ramber bitcher with the biggest bit your.
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They said, I'm on my way. No, I'm on my
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now I'm on my way now. Why would I wait?
Speaker 2: Now? Wait?
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