Speaker 1: And so, and last but not least, we lost Malcolm
Speaker 1: Jamal Warner this week, and for the first time, I
Speaker 1: think ever, we've never featured two od bits, like two
Speaker 1: people who.
Speaker 2: Wrote, you know, appreciations. I wrote one first.
Speaker 1: Charles called me when we first got the news, and
Speaker 1: we remember Malcolm Jamal Warner nineteen seventy to twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Charles wrote eulogy for a brother.
Speaker 1: So Charles, I'll let you go first, man, talk about
Speaker 1: you know what you the memories you shared, or your
Speaker 1: feelings around the passing, the tragic passing. I would ask
Speaker 1: of Malcolm Jamal Warner.
Speaker 3: It's kind of ironic because as you were talking about
Speaker 3: the clips coming in, I was never that hip hop
Speaker 3: kid like that growing up. I can listen to a
Speaker 3: lot of things. Matter of fact, I didn't see Printing concert,
Speaker 3: but I did see Azzie and Uh with Metallica, and
Speaker 3: before Metallica was big, they opened up for OZI and So.
Speaker 3: But Malcolm Jamal Warner, Yeah, he's right here. So Malcolm
Speaker 3: Jamal Warner when he came on The Cosby Show, this
Speaker 3: was a role that spoke to me because I lived
Speaker 3: that middle class life.
Speaker 4: Not it wasn't in the hip hop world, and I
Speaker 4: wasn't in, but I was in the middle.
Speaker 3: And so a lot of the things that theo Huxtable
Speaker 3: went through were the things I experienced. I grew up
Speaker 3: in a house full of women, and he in a
Speaker 3: house full of women. So I drew a kinship to
Speaker 3: theo Huxtable and and thereby Malcolm Jamal Warner Malcolm named
Speaker 3: Malcolm Jamal Warner named after Malcolm X.
Speaker 4: And Ama Jamal uh So.
Speaker 3: I mean, I I've I've listened to his spoken word,
Speaker 3: I've listened to I mean, I just followed him all
Speaker 3: my life. And so when he's like two years younger
Speaker 3: than me, but I again, to me, he was the
Speaker 3: brother I never had, because I don't have any brothers,
Speaker 3: and that was a guy that I was like, I
Speaker 3: just rock with him. And so when to hear him
Speaker 3: pass it was it really hit me hard. It really
Speaker 3: was a devastating blow because I'm like, that is me,
Speaker 3: He's he was me, and so a piece of me
Speaker 3: passed along with him as he you know, even even
Speaker 3: the whole story about the rip current and how he
Speaker 3: got caught in it and out there, I've experienced that
Speaker 3: I was younger and fortunate. But you know, I came
Speaker 3: out the other side because I just I didn't have
Speaker 3: the strength to try to fight the rip current and
Speaker 3: I just got drug drugged out to the sandbar. But
Speaker 3: it's it's a terrible loss for me. I don't I
Speaker 3: don't know about the rest of the world, but as
Speaker 3: we do our top one one hundred lists, I'm expecting
Speaker 3: the Cosby Show to be high up now, maybe even
Speaker 3: higher because of because of this relevant topic.
Speaker 1: Here for the record, sir, the Top one hundred list
Speaker 1: at least the first seventy was completed before.
Speaker 4: I know that.
Speaker 3: You know, just like, just like we were working the
Speaker 3: seventy one through one hundred.
Speaker 4: We are not working.
Speaker 1: We are not reworking one through seventy one through seventy set.
Speaker 2: So I will just say so.
Speaker 1: Don't be thinking once we like, oh man, I had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with with Malcolm Jamal Warner, but I
Speaker 1: can say that.
Speaker 3: But I already know what the top one through seventy are,
Speaker 3: right right, right right, I got you. But tell me
Speaker 3: what you were feeling when when you heard about this.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go through a couple of notes that
Speaker 1: I wrote that were in the piece I called him
Speaker 1: America's son, because my memory was that.
Speaker 2: You know, for as much what's the word to use, as.
Speaker 4: Much flack.
Speaker 1: And criticism, and rightfully so, that Doctor Cosby has generated
Speaker 1: over the last ten to fifteen years, people forget and again.
Speaker 1: I was making a joke earlier about certainties. You know,
Speaker 1: the album of the year, movie the year. There are
Speaker 1: a couple of certainties I can make about the nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties because I.
Speaker 4: Lived in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: Okay, there's no album that I've seen before or since
Speaker 1: it will ever top Thriller. Okay, And there's no television
Speaker 1: show that I've ever seen before or since that will.
Speaker 2: Top the popularity of The Cosby Show.
Speaker 4: In the mid eighties.
Speaker 1: It was literally, it literally was not just the number
Speaker 1: one black show on television, here's the number one one
Speaker 1: show on television for like five years.
Speaker 4: It made an NBC credible as a network.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they created an entire block.
Speaker 4: Of programming around saying that.
Speaker 1: No, this around the Cosby Show, and they called it
Speaker 1: must see Thursdays. So all that started with The Cosby Show,
Speaker 1: and theo Huxtable was a huge part of The Cosby Show,
Speaker 1: right and you go. But he was the son Yeah.
Speaker 1: To Charles's point, he was the only boy in a
Speaker 1: family full of women, and he was modeled after Bill
Speaker 1: Cosby's about Mill Cosby's late son Ennis, So a lot
Speaker 1: of the storylines about fatherhood, a lot of the things
Speaker 1: that you know, he showed like this, this the way
Speaker 1: they showed black fatherhood on television through the relationship of
Speaker 1: doctor Cosby and Malcolm Jamar Warner.
Speaker 2: I thought it was brilliant.
Speaker 4: That's brilliant, Like, like, it's funny.
Speaker 1: I have in my in my thing, there's like three
Speaker 1: or four clips right of like famous episodes, and like
Speaker 1: I think it might have been the pilot when you
Speaker 1: know he told his father he was like, you know, hey, man,
Speaker 1: you know you got of being hard on me because
Speaker 1: he was getting bad report conference.
Speaker 4: I just want to I just.
Speaker 2: Want to be a regular kid. Man. I come, I
Speaker 2: can't be And everybody clasps in the studio audience.
Speaker 1: You know what, Bill Gotsey came back and went, that's
Speaker 1: the dumbest thing I ever heard.
Speaker 4: Don't wonder you getting c's and d's in school. So
Speaker 4: you had that moment.
Speaker 1: What was the name of the famous oh my god,
Speaker 1: the Gordian Trail shirt when when he goes his father
Speaker 1: and says, the shirt is ninety five dollars.
Speaker 4: He said.
Speaker 1: The only kid that should be wearing shirt that's ninety
Speaker 1: five dollars is he's on stage singing.
Speaker 3: With There are all these classic moments, and then the
Speaker 3: other one.
Speaker 4: I'll end with why I says two.
Speaker 2: Remember when he had forget his.
Speaker 1: Teacher played by Sonya Braga, who came to the house
Speaker 1: and they you know, he had she had something to
Speaker 1: give him, and they're having this pleasant evening. She's got
Speaker 1: she's looking all normal, and she invites Steele out to
Speaker 1: the living room and as this sitting there talking, she
Speaker 1: pulls her glasses out and she's putting. So there are
Speaker 1: so and I and I and and and and Trust me,
Speaker 1: if you're sitting at home and you're like, man, I
Speaker 1: can't believe Tim and Charles and Shane is letting them
Speaker 1: talk about the Cosby Show.
Speaker 2: Cosby shit was great.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I mean what I say, I'm sorry The
Speaker 1: Cosby Show. It's a fantastic show. You might not like
Speaker 1: the man whose name is on the show, but you
Speaker 1: cannot discount, like the importance of that show, what that
Speaker 1: show actually did for not just black culture, but for
Speaker 1: the culture, right, just for the culture. So I say
Speaker 1: that that Malcolm Jamal Warner represented America's son. I was
Speaker 1: on a show in Philadelphia and they brought me on
Speaker 1: to talk about this, and I was like, I never
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to meet him, never had a chance
Speaker 1: to interview him. I learned so much about him just
Speaker 1: this week with all the clips that I've saw on YouTube,
Speaker 1: and I did. I want to finish with a poem
Speaker 1: that I saw that Tyreeese.
Speaker 4: Row did you read about this? You read this, Shane?
Speaker 2: Did you read of this?
Speaker 1: The poem is called and I'm gonna read this called
Speaker 1: the Gentle Giant right, a poem attributed to our beloved brother,
Speaker 1: Malcolm Jamal Warner. And this is from a couple of
Speaker 1: days ago. He said, today we lost a gentle giant,
Speaker 1: a man who won our hearts not by force, but
Speaker 1: by quiet grace. From the very beginning, Malcolm Jamal Warner
Speaker 1: reminded us that being calm, classy, sophisticated, and soulful could
Speaker 1: carry you far in life. He was the soft spoken
Speaker 1: strength behind a generation's most beloved show. We watched The
Speaker 1: Cosby Show and saw for the first time a world
Speaker 1: many of us had never known a black family made
Speaker 1: up of doctors, lawyers, artists and thinkers. Wow, a household
Speaker 1: rooted in love and education, laughter and dignity. Let me
Speaker 1: see if I'm reading this and right, I must have
Speaker 1: skipped the part so it says today we mourn what
Speaker 1: feels unimaginable, a loss that cuts through nostalgia, through childhood,
Speaker 1: through what we thought would always be My sincere prayers
Speaker 1: go out to his wife, to his children, to his family,
Speaker 1: to everyone who loved him, worked beside him, and walked
Speaker 1: life with him. This tragedy hits us hard, not just
Speaker 1: because of who he was on screen, but because of
Speaker 1: who he remained when the cameras turned off. We lost
Speaker 1: more than an actor. We lost the presence a gentle, regal,
Speaker 1: beautiful soul who walked with dignity and reminded us, especially
Speaker 1: as black boys and men, that you could be powerful
Speaker 1: without being loud, important, without being arrogant, respected, without ever
Speaker 1: demanding it. Today is we sit in that grief, and
Speaker 1: we say goodbye to a man who gave us more
Speaker 1: than entertainment. He gave us hope. He gave us another
Speaker 1: way to exist. Rest well, Malcolm, you were everything we
Speaker 1: needed Wow.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: That was from Tyrese Gibson wrote that dedication to Malcolm
Speaker 1: Jamal Warner man. So yeah, this one hurts. And not
Speaker 1: to diminish the families, uh and friends of Chuck Mangioni,
Speaker 1: Hulk Hogan and Ozzy Osbourne, but Malcolm Jamal Warner was
Speaker 1: our community, our community rest in peace. I literally hate
Speaker 1: that we have to keep doing these and one day somebody,
Speaker 1: you know, it's so funny I was telling I think
Speaker 1: I was talking to Charles earlier today. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been listening to Hamilton a lot. You know, in the
Speaker 1: back of my mind, I keep thinking about the closing song.
Speaker 1: You know, who lives, who dies and tells the story?
Speaker 1: Somebody has gotta tell the story. There are plenty of
Speaker 1: people who want to tell the story of Malcolm Jamal
Speaker 1: Warner and all of the folks that we lost.
Speaker 4: But I think about it inwardly.
Speaker 1: Like, you know, we live our lives and at some point,
Speaker 1: who's gonna Who's gonna tell our story? Man, who's gonna
Speaker 1: tell the story of Charles Kirkland Jr. Who's gonna tell
Speaker 1: the story of Shane Lewis, who tells the Tim Gordon story?
Speaker 1: So you we have to continue to keep on pressing
Speaker 1: and hope that we leave enough work behind that somebody
Speaker 1: can continue to tell our story.
Speaker 4: Man right,