RZA on Joe Rogan: How Qigong Clears Mental Noise Before Noon

Joe Rogan 0:00 [upbeat music]

Joe Rogan 0:02 Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out.

Speaker 0:04 The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan 0:06 Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night. All day. [upbeat music] We're up. So the guy that did your bar, uh, Flying Guillotine-

RZA 0:17 Uh-huh

Joe Rogan 0:17 ... is the same guy that did The Mothership.

RZA 0:20 Oh, wow. Wow.

Joe Rogan 0:20 Richard Weiss.

RZA 0:21 Yeah, Richard. Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:21 Yeah, Richard, the same designer-

RZA 0:24 Designer, yeah

Joe Rogan 0:24 ... architect who did your bar. I have a Flying Guillotine T-shirt that I wear t- sometimes. I did, I c- was trying to find it this morning.

RZA 0:29 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 0:29 I couldn't fucking find it.

RZA 0:31 I wore mine yesterday. I, w- I went to the Alamo Drafthouse and did a screening of, of the film and, uh, I said, "Would, would it be appropriate to wear my Staten Island [laughs] -

Joe Rogan 0:40 Yeah

RZA 0:40 ... Alamo Drafthouse to them?" And the guy there, he was like, he thought he, he, he wanted to wear his but, 'cause he t- he, he stole a stack [laughs] from Staten Island, but he couldn't find no more. But, uh-

Joe Rogan 0:51 I've got it somewhere

RZA 0:51 ... the Flying Guillotines.

Joe Rogan 0:52 I've got it somewhere in my house, and I, I was scrambling this morning looking for it, looking for that T-shirt, couldn't find it.

RZA 0:57 Well, we gotta send you some more. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 0:59 Definitely. Definitely. So, uh, it's great to see you again, man.

RZA 1:03 Back at you, man. Back at you. Just, uh, I, I, it's like I got questions for you. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:08 Shit. What do you got?

RZA 1:09 Well, I was think, like, like, well, uh, remember you had the, this place in Woodland Hills?

Joe Rogan 1:14 Yes.

RZA 1:14 That was what, eight years now?

Joe Rogan 1:16 Uh, we've been out here for six, six years.

RZA 1:18 It's about six years ago.

Joe Rogan 1:19 Yeah, you were there, like, eight years ago, I think.

RZA 1:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:21 Yeah.

RZA 1:21 Um, and I just remember you having, uh, the, like, the hyperbolic-

Joe Rogan 1:27 Hyperbaric chamber?

RZA 1:28 Yeah, the hyperbolic chamber.

Joe Rogan 1:29 Yeah.

RZA 1:29 Do you still, are you still doing that?

Joe Rogan 1:31 Yeah. Was that what it was, or was it the sensory deprivation tank?

RZA 1:35 Oh, the one where you float?

Joe Rogan 1:36 Yeah. Is it that? 'Cause we had that at the studio.

RZA 1:39 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:39 We, that, we didn't have a hyperbaric at the studio.

RZA 1:41 Okay, so, so-

Joe Rogan 1:42 But I do have a hyperbaric.

RZA 1:43 You have that now here?

Joe Rogan 1:44 Yeah. Not here. I have it at my house. Yeah.

RZA 1:46 Yeah, I just was always impressed at, um, just your consciousness on things that's, are unique, right? And, and, uh, I just, you know, and as time goes on, sometime, you know, as we e- evolve, whether we evolving physically, mentally, spiritually, or economically, sometime we leave certain things behind.

Joe Rogan 2:05 Right.

RZA 2:05 And I was, I said, "I, I wonder if Joe keep moving his chi in the same direction."

Joe Rogan 2:11 [laughs]

RZA 2:11 So that, that's my question to you. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:14 Well, sometimes it gets caught up in momentum, and you gotta step back and just realign yourself. That's, that's definitely a factor. Like, sometimes I'm too busy, and I get too caught up in momentum of things, and you kinda, like, lose, like, "Why am I doing this?" Like, what is the-

RZA 2:30 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:30 ... what's the process? Like, what, what is the reason for doing all this? But vacation always fixes that.

RZA 2:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:36 Like, you take a few days off and you go, "Okay. Now I enjoy it."

RZA 2:40 Like recharge that flame.

Joe Rogan 2:41 Yeah.

RZA 2:42 And I, I feel the same. To be honest, I've been running around for, like, uh, I don't know, for, like, eight days straight, and I like to kinda make sure I exercise, do my tai chi or something, or stretch my body. Uh, but, um, I was telling my wife last night, like, "Yo, I haven't worked out [laughs] since we've been moving."

Joe Rogan 3:00 Mm-hmm.

RZA 3:00 And, uh, but I've been drinking every night. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 3:03 [laughs]

RZA 3:03 You know what I mean? So I'm like, "I gotta..." Um, so today, this morning, or be- before I came here, I got up a little bit earlier, and I went and stretched and got all that out.

Joe Rogan 3:13 Mm.

RZA 3:13 And that's what made this question come to my head, was, like, I wonder, like, as we grow and we become more and more involved, and we getting whatever it is in life that's given us, how we getting these blessings, but how far do we get away from the blessings that kinda made us solid? You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 3:29 Yeah.

RZA 3:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:30 I try not to get as far... I, I try to stay as close as possible to, like, centering my body. Like, if I don't work out, like, just a couple days in a row, I start feeling weird.

RZA 3:40 Right.

Joe Rogan 3:40 Just two days.

RZA 3:41 Right.

Joe Rogan 3:41 Two days I just start feeling like-

RZA 3:43 Yeah, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack

Joe Rogan 3:44 ... antsy.

RZA 3:44 Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 3:45 I feel antsy. I feel irritated. Just I don't think, think I'm thinking clear. I don't feel relaxed.

RZA 3:51 I think I'm the same. I, maybe for me it's three and a half days. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 3:54 Well, what drives me nuts is, like, how many people out there, that's their whole life. There's no exercise in their life. Like, my God.

RZA 4:01 Right.

Joe Rogan 4:01 You're doing yourself such a disservice.

RZA 4:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:04 You're not, you're not a... Your mind, not, not just your body, but your mind needs that. You need to blow out some steam, and run the machine, and stretch it out, and relax it afterwards, and s- recenter yourself.

RZA 4:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:19 And if you don't do that, you're gonna be anxious. And so many people are dealing with, like, constant crippling anxiety all the time.

RZA 4:25 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 4:26 And how many of those people don't exercise?

RZA 4:28 Right. I, I think that, um, in, in Shaolin philosophy we, um, you know, there's qigong, right?

Joe Rogan 4:35 Mm-hmm.

RZA 4:35 And there's, uh, the, the, the chi travels through your blood, so you gotta always continue to have the blood moving because the blood is the supply you have. But the oxygen, you know, gets it in and oxidates it, and just keeps it flowing. And when you do stretching, or you do exercises, or you build up your respiration, uh, it actually energizes the blood, which energizes every part of your body.

Joe Rogan 4:59 Yeah.

RZA 5:00 It tra- that chi travels through every vessel and, uh, every meridian of your body, and it actually does enhance you and, and, and reinvigorates you. Um-

Joe Rogan 5:10 100%.

RZA 5:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:11 Fires up your endorphins, fires up your-

RZA 5:13 Yeah

Joe Rogan 5:13 ... endocrine system. Everything just feels better. And it calms you down. I, I feel like human beings are almost like batteries.

RZA 5:20 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 5:21 Like, you're storing energy all the time, but if you, if you've got too much energy, it's leaking out of the battery, and you're, you're, you're not, you're not purging some of it.

RZA 5:30 Right.

Joe Rogan 5:30 You gotta pur- you gotta ... Your body has, like, human requirements for movement.

RZA 5:34 Right.

Joe Rogan 5:35 And if you don't, if you don't use those requirements, if you don't meet those requirements, you're just gonna feel like shit, and I think that's a big part of what's wrong with society today. There's just way too many people that aren't doing that, and they're just tense, and their, their tense, anxious feeling that, and the mental health problems that come with that, it just spills over into everything else.

RZA 5:57 Right. I got, I gotta agree with you. And, um-I know that people that, like my Sifu Shi Yan Ming, who, uh, he probably works out like six times a day because he has to train, he has individual clients and all that.

Joe Rogan 6:09 Right. Right, right.

RZA 6:10 But, um, I think Sifu is maybe 10 years, 10 years old, [clears throat] 10 years older than me. Look 10 years younger than me. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 6:17 Right, of course.

RZA 6:18 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 6:18 Yeah.

RZA 6:18 'Cause he's just constantly, uh, moving that chi and exercising. He s-

Joe Rogan 6:23 Mm-hmm

RZA 6:24 ... he still could kiss his toes, all right, in his 60s.

Joe Rogan 6:28 Wow.

RZA 6:28 I, uh, babies could do that, right? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 6:31 Right.

RZA 6:31 He still could kiss his toes like a baby. Um, but he said something to me that I, that I, that I took just heed to for myself. I said, uh, "Sifu, why do, like why do you work out so much," right? He gave me two answers. He says, "One, it feels good. It makes me feel so good." But then the other a- answer he gave me was that because in Shaolin, when you get up in the morning, you have to exercise, run up a mountain, run back down a mountain, [laughs] do chores and all that before you eat. And he said, "If you don't do that, you don't eat." And so I was like, "Well, that sounds like something from the Bible where it says that, uh, man should work to the sweat of his brow." You know what I mean? And I took that philosophy, so I nor- I don't normally eat in the morning. I would normally get up, I mean, I drink coffee now, so I've been drinking coffee about 10 years I think. Uh, but I will have some coffee, some water, and bamba lama. I st-

Joe Rogan 7:31 Yeah

RZA 7:31 ... I, I get into my exercise routine when I'm home.

Joe Rogan 7:33 I think that's the best way to start a day. Yeah, I do the same. I don't work out. Uh, well, I don't eat rather before I work out.

RZA 7:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 7:39 I always work out first.

RZA 7:40 Right, so... 'Cause we, then, then the, then the water is fresher, the-

Joe Rogan 7:44 Mm-hmm

RZA 7:44 ... the food tastes better, the-

Joe Rogan 7:46 Yeah. You earned it too.

RZA 7:47 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 7:47 Yeah.

RZA 7:48 You earned it.

Joe Rogan 7:48 It's just a good way to start the day too. You already did the hard part.

RZA 7:51 Right.

Joe Rogan 7:51 The most difficult part of your day is done.

RZA 7:53 Right.

Joe Rogan 7:53 And then everything else, and also, like, th- that difficult thing makes the mental difficulty of the rest of the day work smoother.

RZA 8:00 Yeah, you have a, remember that old commercial, um, the army commercial?

Joe Rogan 8:05 Which one?

RZA 8:06 It was like, "We do by 6:00 AM."

Joe Rogan 8:08 Oh, yeah. Yeah. [laughs]

RZA 8:10 Something like, "We do-

Joe Rogan 8:11 Yeah

RZA 8:11 ... before 6:00 AM what most people do all day."

Joe Rogan 8:14 Yeah.

RZA 8:14 It's like, back when you first, you know, when I saw that when I was young, I was like, "I don't know what the fuck they talking about." [laughs] But as a man, I'm like, you know, that's, that's, um, that's wisdom.

Joe Rogan 8:21 Yeah.

RZA 8:21 Get up in the morning, get your chi going, uh, and have a beautiful day.

Joe Rogan 8:25 There's something too to getting up early where you, you force yourself to work. You force yourself to rise. The comfort of your bed calls you but you go, "Fuck you." You get up-

RZA 8:35 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 8:35 ... you get shit done, and you're like, "I already won. I won today."

RZA 8:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 8:38 "I've got a victory. I've got a victory over my inner bitch."

RZA 8:42 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 8:42 You know, "I got out there. I did something." And then-

RZA 8:45 No, I'm laughing, no, 'cause you say he told the bed, "Fuck you." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 8:48 Yeah, that's what you have to say.

RZA 8:49 Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 8:49 You have to get up almost angry. "Fuck you. No, you're not gonna call me in there-

RZA 8:53 Right

Joe Rogan 8:53 ... with your octopus tentacles-

RZA 8:55 Right, bring me back in

Joe Rogan 8:55 ... and suck me into your depths, your depths of warmth and comfort. No, fuck you. Get up."

RZA 9:01 That's it.

Joe Rogan 9:01 "Get up, get going." That's why I like to get in the cold first thing. That's my, my morning routine is cold plunge before I work out.

RZA 9:09 Ooh, that's deep.

Joe Rogan 9:09 Yeah.

RZA 9:10 I can't do that. Now, that, that is, that's kinda extreme for me. Um, [laughs] you know, 'cause I'm not fucking with the cold like that, you know? [laughs] I mean-

Joe Rogan 9:17 You get used to it, I'm telling you.

RZA 9:18 Damn.

Joe Rogan 9:18 You get used to it.

RZA 9:19 That's-

Joe Rogan 9:19 It becomes, like, a normal thing.

RZA 9:21 How long, how long you stay in the cold?

Joe Rogan 9:22 Three minutes.

RZA 9:23 Wow.

Joe Rogan 9:24 It sucks, but, uh, every time I do it, I almost don't do it.

RZA 9:27 Mm.

Joe Rogan 9:27 Every time I do it, I'm almost like, "Don't do this. I don't wanna do this. Fuck this."

RZA 9:31 Right.

Joe Rogan 9:31 And then I get in, I'm like, "Oh, we're doing it. We're doing it."

RZA 9:34 Ah, shit. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 9:34 And then I, I f- I take my phone and I set, I got a little kickstand on the back of my phone, you know. So I put the timer on there, and I look at it, and it's at like a, it's at a minute. So I'm like, "All right, we're good. We're past the minute."

RZA 9:45 Once you get past the minute...

Joe Rogan 9:46 Yeah, the minute mark is the tough part. Once you're past the minute, it's pretty easy to get to three minutes. You just relax.

RZA 9:51 I only did one ice bath, uh, and it was, um, they had brought this, uh, Tibetan lama to, uh, to New York, and it was me, I forgot the brother name. We was doing this, uh, TV show thing, and they was trying to find out, they like, they was scanning our brains and see what would happen if we got in the cold bath before meditating, then meditated, and then get back in. Like, so whatever. It was some, some science s- shit, and I said, "Yeah, I'll do it." I don't know why I agreed to it, but I did it, right? But, uh, I got in that motherfucker, bro, and when I got in there, I was like, "This is not the shit," right? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 10:30 [laughs]

RZA 10:31 I'm like this. And the host, he got in too. Now, I don't know if that was his first time or not, but he was younger than me, skinnier than me, you know what I mean? And when I couldn't take it no more, around one minute and whatever, it's, it was past the minute mark.

Joe Rogan 10:51 Mm-hmm.

RZA 10:51 I got the fuck out, but he was still in there. And I was like, "I can't have this motherfucker beat me." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 10:59 [laughs]

RZA 10:59 And yo, I got back in.

Joe Rogan 11:00 Nice.

RZA 11:01 You know what I mean? Um, and I d- um, they got some footage of that. I think I stayed in, I don't think it was three minutes, but I think I really impressed myself because I'm super anti-cold. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 11:13 Yeah.

RZA 11:14 You know what I mean? I, I run hot. I stay hot. I'm the hot part of the, of, uh, getting, you know, my... If my wife is cold, she just put her hand on me, and I'm, I'm the heater.

Joe Rogan 11:23 [laughs]

RZA 11:23 So, so cold is, like, something that, um-

Joe Rogan 11:26 Yeah, I don't like it.

RZA 11:27 Right.

Joe Rogan 11:28 I don't enjoy it.

RZA 11:28 Mm.

Joe Rogan 11:29 But there's a little mind game that goes on, and the mind game is almost immediately you're like, "Oh, fuck this. Let's just fu- uh, just g- let's get out of here. Let's get out of here." You gotta ignore that and just concentrate on breathing. So what I do is I, I breathe to a count of 10. So I, I do this one, [inhales] two, three, [inhales] four, and I just concentrate on the numbers, and then by the time I get to 10, it's basically like a minute, and I'm relaxedAnd then I just settle in there. It's just you concentrate on breathing and don't think about that part of you that wants to get out.

RZA 12:10 Right. So may- I'ma, I think I'ma, I'ma try a cold shower.

Joe Rogan 12:14 It's really good. Well, cold shower in, in New York is great if you, uh, like, in the winter because that's real cold.

RZA 12:20 Right.

Joe Rogan 12:20 That's real cold.

RZA 12:21 Right.

Joe Rogan 12:21 Like, that's like... I used to take cold showers in Bo- my friend Bob Caffarella, he used to do this, uh, at our TaeKwonDo school. He would take cold showers after training and I was like, "That guy is a fucking animal." And I tried it a couple of times but, uh, I was a bitch. I did it, like, 15 seconds-

RZA 12:34 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 12:34 ... and I jumped out. But he would just l- stay there and lay in the cold, freezing cold winter cold water-

RZA 12:40 Right

Joe Rogan 12:40 ... and just wash himself.

RZA 12:42 Yes.

Joe Rogan 12:42 And I was like, "This guy's an animal, man."

RZA 12:44 I think, um, my brother, Kung Li, I haven't seen Kung Li in years.

Joe Rogan 12:47 Kung Li the fighter?

RZA 12:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:49 Yeah.

RZA 12:49 Um, um, I remember we was... 'cause we did a movie years ago in China, but he was, he was the cold plunger of the crew. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 12:57 Oh, yeah.

RZA 12:58 My man.

Joe Rogan 12:58 Kung, he's ahead of the curve on all that shit.

RZA 13:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:00 Yeah. It's just, it's the mental thing is where it really, where it benefits you. And not just while you're in it, like doing it 'cause you don't wanna do it, but when you get out, you feel so good. Your brain just is flooded with all these endorphins.

RZA 13:14 Right.

Joe Rogan 13:15 You feel so good, and it lasts for hours and hours.

RZA 13:18 Look, I'ma, uh, I'ma re- we've, I'ma revisit that. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 13:22 I think there's, like, there's numbers on the dopamine increase but I, I forget what they are off the top of my head, but there's a giant increase in dopamine that lasts, like, two to three hours after you're getting out of the cold plunge.

RZA 13:34 Wow, I didn't know that.

Joe Rogan 13:34 Yeah.

RZA 13:35 I didn't know that.

Joe Rogan 13:36 But yeah, I know you are, you're a longtime martial arts student, and I think anybody that does martial arts for a long time realizes that it is as much for your mind as it is for anything else.

RZA 13:47 Yes.

Joe Rogan 13:47 Like, it's not just a workout. It's a workout, but it's also, like, there's something about going through the motions of, of martial arts and training in martial arts. It's so... it's, it's so, it requires so much concentration and it requires so much of your focus that the rest of the world just kinda fades away-

RZA 14:06 Right

Joe Rogan 14:06 ... and r- and the impact of it is relaxed-

RZA 14:08 Right

Joe Rogan 14:09 ... because of that.

RZA 14:10 I mean, it's mental, physical, and spiritual.

Joe Rogan 14:12 Yeah.

RZA 14:13 Uh, it's emotional.

Joe Rogan 14:14 Yeah.

RZA 14:15 Um, it's will. You know, there's a, there's a esoteric thing, um, you know, seven planes of energies or five stages of consciousness. I don't know if you ever came across these type of, uh, terms but... probably have. But, but sometimes we, we get stuck on, uh, on just the three dimensions. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 14:34 Mm-hmm.

RZA 14:34 Just three planes, you know, and, and you don't get to the emotional. You don't get to the will part of it. You don't get to the realization, the control, right? If you could get to realization, then you can control what's going on because you realize what it is. It's almost like you can now f- have the foresight of what it is. Um, and then, then if you could get to that type of, uh, plane of energy, then the possibilities become infinite because you realize that y- that you... like it's, you know, they say we all have a free will, right? But then you realize that the will can be controlled, right? You also realize that with a strong will, you can control others as well.

Joe Rogan 15:17 Yeah.

RZA 15:17 Because some people are walking around with weak wills. Um-

Joe Rogan 15:21 That's how you start a cult. [laughs]

RZA 15:25 [laughs] Oh, by, by having the strongest will.

Joe Rogan 15:27 [laughs]

RZA 15:27 And then, "Yo, come here." I, yeah, hold on. You made me... Uh, I have a, a, I have a, I do have a film and shit, right, um, um, called One Spoon of Chocolate, and-

Joe Rogan 15:39 I watched half of it.

RZA 15:40 Oh, it's cool.

Joe Rogan 15:40 I had a problem to... there was a problem with the, the early screener. I was mirroring it on my television-

RZA 15:46 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 15:46 ... and it kept breaking up. It kept fucking up where, like, the sound would cut in and cut out.

RZA 15:51 Okay.

Joe Rogan 15:51 And I did it a couple of times, and then the screener ran out 'cause I guess you can only watch it a few times.

RZA 15:56 [laughs] Yeah, the time on, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:57 So then I had to contact your people, and then they gave me another one, but then they gave me one on Vimeo, and I watched that in the gym today. So I watched the first half of the movie-

RZA 16:05 Okay

Joe Rogan 16:05 ... and I'm gonna watch the second half and all is good.

RZA 16:06 Oh, good. Take, take your time. Take your time. It's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a crazy one. It's a fun watch. It's a lot of ways, but, um-

Joe Rogan 16:12 And you did it with Tarantino.

RZA 16:13 Yes, yes, yes.

Joe Rogan 16:14 Which is ama- and it seems like-

RZA 16:16 Yeah

Joe Rogan 16:16 ... kind of a Tara- it's got a Tarantino flavor to it

RZA 16:18 ... it is, it's definitely that kind of vibe. But I was, I was... I brought it up just to say that there's a, there's a, a character who actually takes ice plunges, [laughs] right?

Joe Rogan 16:24 Yes.

RZA 16:25 Um, and 'cause-

Joe Rogan 16:26 The bad guy.

RZA 16:27 Yeah, the, the villain.

Joe Rogan 16:28 Yeah.

RZA 16:28 So he's talking about cults and things. In a way, there's a scene where, uh, when he, when we introduce him, you could tell that everybody else there are bending to his will, right?

Joe Rogan 16:41 Right.

RZA 16:41 He, he shows them how to do this and, "Yo, you do this and you do that." And the, then the, the, there's the fucking, I guess, the weak will guy, and then he's like, "And that's why Jimmy's the fucking king, man." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 16:52 [laughs]

RZA 16:52 Right? So, so he-

Joe Rogan 16:54 I laughed at that.

RZA 16:54 Exactly, exactly.

Joe Rogan 16:56 But, uh, yeah.

RZA 16:56 It, it was... so that's the point I'm making, is that, so will can control, you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 17:02 Yeah.

RZA 17:03 But if you realize yourself and have that self-realization, self-actualization, you gain control over yourself, you know what I mean, and control your planes of energy. So we was talking about martial arts, and martial arts help you achieve that goal.

Joe Rogan 17:17 Yeah. My, uh, instructor used to say that martial arts are a vehicle for developing your human potential.

RZA 17:23 Mm.

Joe Rogan 17:24 Yeah.

RZA 17:24 I like that.

Joe Rogan 17:25 That if... it's so difficult that in learning how to get... I, I, I don't like the term mastery 'cause I don't think you ever really master martial arts, but in learning martial arts, the difficulty that's involved in that, it expands your potential in everything that you do.

RZA 17:40 I agree. And for me, I, I actually, you know, I always tell people on a physical level, I don't, I don't know if I'm good or not, to be honest, you know what I mean? I took up some Hung Gar and Shaolin, of course, uh, um, little bit of Wing Chun here and there, but, but I don't claim to be, like, a martial art fighter. But I will claim to be a martial artist because of the mind.

Joe Rogan 18:04 Mm-hmm.

RZA 18:04 Because the way I think, because the way it allowed me to think. You know, it's like, it's like I have probably 20 books on Tai Chi and I read them.And so I understand it, the application of it. Like, there's a meditation called the eight pieces of brocade. You ever come across that one?

Joe Rogan 18:22 No.

RZA 18:22 So, uh, it's-

Joe Rogan 18:24 What's the word, brocade?

RZA 18:25 Yeah, brocade meaning blockage, right?

Joe Rogan 18:27 Oh, okay.

RZA 18:28 So it's eight ways to unblock yourself, like, to unblock your chi. Uh, one of the first ones, of course, you sit in lotus, and you just take your thumbs, and you bang on the back of your, basically your medulla oblongata. Like, even if you... Could I touch this real quick, if you don't mind?

Joe Rogan 18:44 The back of your head?

RZA 18:44 Yeah, right here.

Joe Rogan 18:46 Okay.

RZA 18:46 And see how loud that, see how loud that is?

Joe Rogan 18:48 Yeah.

RZA 18:49 Right? So you cov- so you cover your ears, and you bang on those drums first thing in the morning.

Joe Rogan 18:54 Ooh.

RZA 18:54 And it... Exactly, and it opens up some of your chakras.

Joe Rogan 18:58 Ooh.

RZA 18:59 So...

Joe Rogan 19:00 That feels weird.

RZA 19:01 [laughs] Because it's, it's loud. It's l- as loud as it could be, right?

Joe Rogan 19:07 Yeah.

RZA 19:08 My point being made, by studying all these different, uh, books, it's like the physical part, of course, is exciting, but to me, the mental part is even, became more exciting the more that I can apply. So th- therefore, I can apply it to my music, I can apply it to business, I can apply it to how to be a, a, a better father and all those things.

Joe Rogan 19:28 Mm-hmm.

RZA 19:28 Versus, uh, me just punching and trying to break a brick, [laughs] you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 19:32 Right, right, right.

RZA 19:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:34 Yeah. There's... I mean, that's Tai Chi, right? It's all mental. The Tai Chi is a, a martial arts sorta. I mean, I guess, like, it... you would learn how to move your body better. That could kinda help you i- applied in a self-defense situation, but it's much more of a mental martial art.

RZA 19:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:49 And I used to... When I lived in San Francisco, I used to watch people in the park. These, uh, old Chinese people would go out there and practice-

RZA 19:55 Right

Joe Rogan 19:55 ... practice Tai Chi. I was like, "What are they doing?"

RZA 19:57 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 19:57 But I was a kid. I was-

RZA 19:58 Right

Joe Rogan 19:59 ... you know, I was eight. I was dumb. But I was like, "What is the purpose of doing this all day?"

RZA 20:03 Right.

Joe Rogan 20:03 Like, and then once you do it a few times, you're like, "Oh, this is not easy to do."

RZA 20:07 Right.

Joe Rogan 20:07 The... And then in doing that, it cleans your mind of everything else that's going on, 'cause all you're concentrating on is these movements, these d- very difficult mo- They're not stupid. Like, they've been doing this for thousands of years-

RZA 20:19 Of course, of course

Joe Rogan 20:20 ... for a reason, 'cause it, it helps them.

RZA 20:22 Well, the crazy thing about Tai Chi, um, um, give you a little, uh, information about it, uh, that you may or may not know, but the idea with Tai Chi is that if you master it or if you have that control over it, you should be able to move 1,000 pounds with just four ounces of energy. So the idea of them pushing constantly means if something ever came to them, th- that's, they'd push that aside without even thinking about it.

Joe Rogan 20:48 Mm.

RZA 20:49 Right? Because just four ounces of energy can divert... It's almost like tripping a giant.

Joe Rogan 20:55 I think it's great on paper. [laughs]

RZA 20:57 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 20:58 An actual giant, I don't care how much Tai Chi you know, a, a dude who's, like, a 300-pound All-American wrestler-

RZA 21:05 Right

Joe Rogan 21:05 ... he comes charging at you, you ain't gonna use four ounces of energy and divert him.

RZA 21:08 Well, I'm gonna argue that, right?

Joe Rogan 21:09 Okay.

RZA 21:10 The four ounces you use is just step to the side. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 21:13 Yeah, everybody says that, step to the side.

RZA 21:14 I mean, it, it, it ain't easy, of course.

Joe Rogan 21:15 That shit doesn't work.

RZA 21:16 Right. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 21:16 It doesn't work. They grab you.

RZA 21:19 Right.

Joe Rogan 21:19 You're not getting up.

RZA 21:21 [laughs] But then, then another, a- and... Well, I mean, a fight is a fight.

Joe Rogan 21:24 Yeah.

RZA 21:25 That's a, that's a, that's a difference between a martial art and a fight, right?

Joe Rogan 21:28 Well, it's also just the, the reality of physics.

RZA 21:30 Right.

Joe Rogan 21:30 You know, I mean, it's, it's one thing if you're doing that to an unskilled person, but to a skilled person, really you need to know the skill that they're applying. Like, you know what I mean?

RZA 21:42 Of course.

Joe Rogan 21:42 Like, that's the difference between, like, someone who's practicing something that is great in theory, but I mean, it's not, it's not just in theory. Like, physically and mentally, it's great for you, but it's just, it's not the right application in terms of actual hand-to-hand combat.

RZA 21:59 Yeah. I mean, a fight is a fight. I don't care, um... I mean, m- in my opinion, a fight is a fight. I don't care which... I don't care, you know, if you the best boxer in the world that knock motherfuckers out, like, like, like one of our greatest fighters, Mike Tyson, who it wasn't just that he was a fighter, he was a fighter, right?

Joe Rogan 22:23 Mm-hmm.

RZA 22:23 Of course, he had a skill set, and he was, uh, well trained, but it, but in the peak of his fights, I don't care how much somebody else trained, when he got in the ring to fight, there weren't better fighters. They could've been better boxers, better athletes, better whatever. So I think a fight, and this is my opinion-

Joe Rogan 22:43 Mm-hmm

RZA 22:44 ... uh, it's a instinct. It's a, you know, like, would you... You know, [laughs] like, when Mike bit his ear-

Joe Rogan 22:51 Mm-hmm

RZA 22:52 ... right?

Joe Rogan 22:52 Right.

RZA 22:53 That's a fight.

Joe Rogan 22:54 Yeah.

RZA 22:54 That's, that, that has nothing to do with, [laughs] with boxing.

Joe Rogan 22:57 I think that was frustration, you know, unfortunately. You know, that was, uh, Evander was beating him up.

RZA 23:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:04 And I don't think he liked it.

RZA 23:06 Uh, Evander was beating him up-

Joe Rogan 23:07 Yeah

RZA 23:08 ... uh, professionally-

Joe Rogan 23:09 Yeah

RZA 23:10 ... skillfully in boxing, but then Mike went to fighting.

Joe Rogan 23:14 Yeah.

RZA 23:14 And fighting, like in, like in MMA, you can't bite in MMA.

Joe Rogan 23:17 Right.

RZA 23:17 You can't bite in no sport, right?

Joe Rogan 23:19 Yeah.

RZA 23:20 Uh, you ain't even supposed to hit the nuts, right? You ain't supposed to.

Joe Rogan 23:23 I know, which is crazy, 'cause-

RZA 23:25 In a fight-

Joe Rogan 23:26 ... the nuts are one of the best spots to hit. [laughs]

RZA 23:28 Exactly. And the eyes. You ain't even supposed to poke the eyes.

Joe Rogan 23:32 My friend Eddie had a, a, an idea for a comedy sketch called Ultimate Sack Fighting-

RZA 23:36 Ooh

Joe Rogan 23:37 ... where it's just dudes that just, just the nuts are the only target. [laughs]

RZA 23:41 Ah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 23:43 Yeah, it's amazing how vulnerable we really are, our balls just sitting on the outside like that.

RZA 23:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:48 Yeah, fights, you poke in the eye. I mean, you poke in the eye in an MMA fight, the referee stops the time, and you get a point deducted.

RZA 23:54 Right.

Joe Rogan 23:54 But it's a very good technique in an actual fight.

RZA 23:57 Yeah. That's, well, that's, that's just so, that's what I meant by saying, like, so you could train and train and train, but when you are... when it's life against life or life or death-

Joe Rogan 24:06 Mm-hmm

RZA 24:07 ... it's a whole nother chamber of, uh, of fighting for survival. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 24:11 There's some horrible videos of no-rules fights where they have these no-rules fights in Russia and a bunch of other places, but they do them outside in a field. And these guys fight, and this wrestler gets this guy down, and he just shoves his thumbs in his eyeballs.... he, he m- gets on top of him and he just grabs his face and shoves, and the guy's just screaming and he's trying to move his head away, and he, he taps.

RZA 24:31 That's it.

Joe Rogan 24:32 His blood all over his eyeballs.

RZA 24:33 Party over. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 24:34 Party's over, yeah. You realize, like, how devastating that is, like the pain and the, the, just the...

RZA 24:40 And you know what's so crazy? The person who did it, like the, maybe the guy who got the chance to do it, it's not easy. And tell me if you agree with this, you could disagree, but it's not easy to do that either.

Joe Rogan 24:53 No.

RZA 24:53 I don't mean not easy that you can't do it. It's not easy for your spirit to do it.

Joe Rogan 24:58 Right.

RZA 24:59 You see what I mean?

Joe Rogan 24:59 It's evil, it's evil.

RZA 25:00 Yeah. So, so that's, that's a whole nother chamber. It's like, "Yo, will you do it?" [laughs]

Joe Rogan 25:06 Will you blind a man?

RZA 25:07 Yeah. Will you do it, right?

Joe Rogan 25:09 Yeah.

RZA 25:09 And it's like, maybe you won't. And but if he will and you won't...

Joe Rogan 25:13 Right. Yeah.

RZA 25:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:15 Yeah. That's it.

RZA 25:16 That's the, that's the, that's what I... That's when... My sifu says that about... He, 'cause he doesn't train nobody how to fight. He said, "I can't teach nobody how to fight." You know what I mean? I could teach you how to build your body, how to build your chi, how to build some strength, but a fight, bro, s- uh, it's, [laughs] it's, it's different. There's no rules. It's, it's-

Joe Rogan 25:34 Yeah

RZA 25:34 ... life and death. And it's like... And, and, and your will, going back to the will, what we talked about, your willpower, uh, has better be strong to survive. The, the... I love what Bruce Lee said, uh, he practiced the art of not fighting. You know what I mean? So, and I told that to my son, I was like, "Yo, bro, listen, if you can run, bro, run."

Joe Rogan 25:53 Yeah. [laughs]

RZA 25:54 You know what I mean? Be up out of there. That motherfucker chase you, you know, you gotta, you gotta go to, you gotta think on something. But if you could just, "Yo," that's, that's like now, "Yo, yo, RZA, you wanna fight?" "Oh, yo, you know what, Joe? I'll see you later, bro." [laughs] You know what I mean? It's-

Joe Rogan 26:09 I know, there's too many people that get into fights for no reason, and then you wind up changing the rest of your life. You got a scar that's gonna be with you forever, or you accidentally kill somebody. It's stupid. It's a stupid thing to do. And there's so many men that feel like they just have to prove themselves, which is what a gym is for. Go to the gym.

RZA 26:26 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 26:26 Go to the gym. Work out with-

RZA 26:27 Exactly

Joe Rogan 26:28 ... with other fighters, train, get beat up, realize where you're at, get a, a realistic sense of your actual ability, and then improve upon them.

RZA 26:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:37 But don't go getting in street fights.

RZA 26:38 Nah.

Joe Rogan 26:38 Please, God, don't do it.

RZA 26:40 Don't do it.

Joe Rogan 26:40 Don't do it.

RZA 26:41 And, uh, and for me, I put all my aggression and all my energy into my art. You know, you think about, um, some of my early songs, you know, "Bring the motherfucking ruckus," bro.

Joe Rogan 26:52 Yeah.

RZA 26:53 That was, that was like... I used to had a, I had a, um, I had, like, a, a, a problem of, uh, I don't know if it was anger management maybe, uh. But I, but I would just, like, like, I don't know, like I needed to hear the sound of breaking glass. I used to scream. Like, GZA was like, "Yo, this dude." Like, 'cause I, 'cause I was... And I realized that I had so much, uh, anger in me that, you know, I couldn't really get it out. I was kinda Hulk-ish in a way, like, like, B- Bruce Banner or some shit, right?

Joe Rogan 27:24 [laughs]

RZA 27:25 Uh, but then through music it started to come out, and it started to come out. And so by the time I got to, um, um, Wu-Tang Forever, a lot of my anger was in the song. "If you want beef then bring the ruckus," wh- And, like, all that stage and all that energy, so it really helped me. And then I realized, going to s- to bringing up to date to my, to my new film, I'm watching it and I'm just like, "Okay, once again, I took all the anger and I put it into the art."

Joe Rogan 27:58 Mm-hmm.

RZA 27:58 You know what I mean? There's actually a, a character in the, in the film, uh, name, his name is Unique. Did, uh, did you catch that when you saw the piece? Unique is the, is the name of Ol' Dirty Bastard. His original name was Ason Unique.

Joe Rogan 28:14 Ah.

RZA 28:14 And so that was my way of, uh, of giving homage to him by naming the, the lead character of my new film Unique. And, and, and, and he's... And it says in the film, he says, uh, "You got a problem with anger, anger management," [laughs] right?

Joe Rogan 28:30 Yeah.

RZA 28:30 Right? He says, he says, "Yeah, I'm working on that." And, um, and it, what I, what I love about, uh, the art of it is that the problem that he had with anger management was his reaction. Like, a lot of us, we just react too much. We react before we think.

Joe Rogan 28:47 Mm-hmm.

RZA 28:47 Right? Um, 'cause they say a man could think seven times before he reacts. That's how fast your mind can move. But we go on that first impulse. But this, this character, he keeps, uh, he holds the anger until one morning he's, uh, he's at, he's at a veteran home, right? And he's sitting there, and he's having breakfast, and he has this can, right? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 29:09 Yeah.

RZA 29:09 You, you seen this thing, right?

Joe Rogan 29:10 Yeah. I saw the scene.

RZA 29:10 And he's like, he digs the spoon in there, and it's like, fucking, there's nothing in it. Like, it's, it's not even... It's like one spoon of chocolate in it. And he gets, what? Angry.

Joe Rogan 29:18 Right.

RZA 29:18 And he bangs it. Boom. "Who the fuck left one spoon of chocolate in the can?"

Joe Rogan 29:22 Yeah.

RZA 29:22 But then it took a old man that was settled to tell him, "One spoon of chocolate-"

Joe Rogan 29:29 Change a whole glass of milk

RZA 29:30 ... "changes a whole glass of milk." [laughs] And then you notice that character-

Joe Rogan 29:33 Yeah

RZA 29:34 ... from that, then he calmed down.

Joe Rogan 29:35 Mm-hmm.

RZA 29:35 He started reading to the kids.

Joe Rogan 29:36 Yeah.

RZA 29:37 He start- So... And that was kinda me taking some of my personality, some of U- some of Ol' Dirty's personality, some of personalities that I see in my community, and putting it into this character, this, uh, this, say like, "Yo, sometime, yo, calm down. Listen to the wisdom of your elders," right? Have you ever, have you ever, um, in your life, I'ma ask you, have you ever, like, come across some old person, whether it's a homeless guy, a veteran, a guy, your uncle, somebody, that you kinda didn't look up to in no way, just kinda they was... But then they say something to you that's profound and changed your life?

Joe Rogan 30:13 Oh, man. I'm, I'd try to find an example. I mean, I've, I've definitely gotten, gotten a lot of advice from old-timers. But definitely people, especially people that have done a lot of things, you know, people that have accomplished things and made mistakes and-... recovered from their mistakes.

RZA 30:31 Right.

Joe Rogan 30:31 Yeah.

RZA 30:32 I mean, I, I ask because I was, uh, maybe 11, and there was a, uh, like a dope fiend that was dating my aunt. And he was at the table and shit, and he was, like, nodding, but he was just, he was kinda in his, in a chamber, bro.

Joe Rogan 30:50 [laughs]

RZA 30:50 You know, you know with kids, we looking-

Joe Rogan 30:52 Yeah

RZA 30:52 ... looking at this guy and shit. And he said, said something about like, you know, "I don't care, man. You gotta get knowledge, man. You gotta get knowledge, man. The gods is right, man. You gotta get knowledge." I started reading since that day, bro.

Joe Rogan 31:08 Really?

RZA 31:09 Seriously. I-

Joe Rogan 31:10 The dope fiend-

RZA 31:12 Yeah. The dope-

Joe Rogan 31:12 ... inspired you to read.

RZA 31:13 Yeah. He said, 'cause he said, "You gotta get..." What happened was he had knowledge of self, I guess, back before the drugs hit him.

Joe Rogan 31:20 Oh.

RZA 31:20 And now he's, like, dead, and he was like, he was just saying, "You gotta get knowledge. The gods are right. The gods are right." And, and so-

Joe Rogan 31:27 Whoa. What was he on? What, what was the drug of choice?

RZA 31:29 He was on... Fucking, he, he shot that shit up.

Joe Rogan 31:32 Heroin?

RZA 31:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:33 Yeah.

RZA 31:33 He was on heroin.

Joe Rogan 31:33 That's the old days, back when they shoot it.

RZA 31:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:36 Now everybody's on pills.

RZA 31:38 Right. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 31:38 Yeah. I mean, now-

RZA 31:39 I never, I never, I don't know about that drug

Joe Rogan 31:40 ... I don't know about it either, but I mean, I don't know about it personally, but that's, it's essentially what oxycodone is.

RZA 31:46 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 31:46 All those pain pills that you see all these people dying of.

RZA 31:49 Right, opioids, right?

Joe Rogan 31:49 Yeah, opioids. Yeah. The number-one problem, I mean, the, I think the, the deaths in America, it's, it's upwards of 70,000 a year. I know it's crazy.

RZA 32:00 That's crazy, bro.

Joe Rogan 32:01 Yeah.

RZA 32:02 Just from the, just from overdosing on pills.

Joe Rogan 32:04 Yeah, and most of it happened because of the Sackler family.

RZA 32:07 The what?

Joe Rogan 32:08 The Sackler family, this one family that convinced people that taking these incredibly potent opioids... Uh, did you ever see, see that Netflix, um, docuseries, Painkiller?

RZA 32:20 I didn't see that one.

Joe Rogan 32:21 It's really good.

RZA 32:22 Okay.

Joe Rogan 32:22 It's all about the Sackler family. It's, uh, Peter Berg made it.

RZA 32:26 Oh.

Joe Rogan 32:26 Um, same guy who made-

RZA 32:27 I know, I know it

Joe Rogan 32:27 ... you know Peter?

RZA 32:27 I know Peter, yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:28 He's great.

RZA 32:28 He's great, yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:29 Lone Survivor. Made a-

RZA 32:30 Yeah, yeah

Joe Rogan 32:30 ... bunch of excellent movies.

RZA 32:32 That's the man.

Joe Rogan 32:32 He's great. Uh, he made this, uh, documentary on documenting how... Well, it's not a documentary, a docudrama series or recreation, showing how this one family, um, they, they wanted to figure out a way where they could sell opioids to everyone. And the way they did it was, like, giving people pain management tools, giving people medication that you could be on forever. And they, they made it, and they pushed it through these different doctors, and they had all these hot ladies who were representatives of the pharmaceutical drug companies that'd come to the doctor, and they were the, the reps that would come and sell the things.

RZA 33:11 [laughs] Rep it.

Joe Rogan 33:11 Yeah, I mean, really. And they were all financially incentivized to sell it, and they tried to pretend that it wasn't addictive, and they lied about that. And they got who knows how many thousands and thousands and thousands of people ruined their lives because of it. And like I said, 70,000 die every year just in America, just from opioids.

RZA 33:31 That's crazy, bro.

Joe Rogan 33:32 From overdoses. I mean, and how many more would there be of that if it wasn't for Narcan? That's-

RZA 33:37 That's the, oh, that's the, that's the counter, right?

Joe Rogan 33:39 Yeah, that's the stuff that the EMTs give you if they find you overdosing. They give you Narcan, and it, it, it kills it and brings you back to life. And, uh, that one family, you know, no one's gone to jail. No one's gone to jail. They... I mean, I don't even know how much they've been fined.

RZA 33:55 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 33:55 But if it wasn't for what they did, and a- again, well-documented in that Netflix series, it's, it's horrific, man. It's really sc- it's really terrifying because it's not just the people that died and the people that are addicted, it's all the family members that were affected by them, all the children of those people-

RZA 34:11 Right

Joe Rogan 34:11 ... and what happened with their lives, all the spouses and the brothers and sisters of those people and what happened with their lives.

RZA 34:17 Right. That's crazy. Me... When you were saying that, my, my, my i- uh, imagery in my head was that scene in American Gangster when, uh, it was, like, Thanksgiving, and, and they showed, uh, Frank Lucas at the table with his whole family. They had a nice spread of food, and then they s- the camera went and showed all the families that was hooked on the Blue Magic drug.

Joe Rogan 34:41 Yeah.

RZA 34:41 They had, like-

Joe Rogan 34:42 Yeah

RZA 34:42 ... the lady dying over here-

Joe Rogan 34:44 Yeah

RZA 34:44 ... the kid, the kid looking at her mother dead or... So the, with the difference, I guess, um, that's the image that came to my head when you said that, but the, guess the difference is in that particular case, uh, somebody goes to jail and pays the price-

Joe Rogan 34:58 Mm-hmm

RZA 34:58 ... for the crime, but in this particular case, you're saying that nobody-

Joe Rogan 35:02 Nobody went to jail. They did it legally. Somehow or another, they pimped it out and then sold it to everybody legally.

RZA 35:09 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 35:09 I mean, it's, it's, it's sick. They're the biggest drug dealers that have ever existed. Fuck all these street drug dealers. I mean, these guys killed 70,000 people a year-

RZA 35:18 Sh-

Joe Rogan 35:19 ... for who knows how many years, and it was probably more than that-

RZA 35:21 Right

Joe Rogan 35:21 ... before they figured out Narcan. And, and a part of it is also because people get a- addicted to it, and then they get stuff from the cartel that has fentanyl in it, and that's why they're dying. But there's a bunch of people that just died from straight up overdose of opioids, too. It's terrifying. And-

RZA 35:36 And it's over the counter, like-

Joe Rogan 35:37 Yeah, and they... Yeah, no, it's not over the counter. You have to get prescribed, but doctors are happy to prescribe it for you. I got my nose fixed. I had a deviated septum, and they cleaned it out, and the, I, I was leaving the doctor's office, and he gave me two prescriptions for opioids. And I said, uh, "But I, I don't, I'm not in pain." He goes, "But you, you probably will be." And I go, "But is it gonna be worse than this right now?" Like, we're just out of the operation. My nose was s- I have, like, this-

RZA 36:04 Right

Joe Rogan 36:05 ... these things stuffed up your nose to keep your nostrils open. And-

RZA 36:08 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 36:08 ... and I was like, "Are you sure it's gonna be worse than this?" And he gave me two prescriptions. And I, I went home, and I was like, "I don't need these." Like-

RZA 36:17 Hmm

Joe Rogan 36:17 ... I didn't fill them, but I'm like this is not... But this guy was giving me two different opioids-

RZA 36:23 Right

Joe Rogan 36:23 ... to take.

RZA 36:25 You would've been... He would've had... [laughs] You would've went back.

Joe Rogan 36:27 I probably would've been hooked.

RZA 36:28 Yeah, you would've went back.

Joe Rogan 36:29 I mean, I know a lot of people that got hooked, man. I'm not, I'm-I, I'm under no illusion that I'm stronger than those people, that I would've figured out a way to not get hooked.

RZA 36:37 Right.

Joe Rogan 36:37 So many people that I know got hooked.

RZA 36:39 So you're saying like... Let me just go back on this, 'cause I actually don't take nothing, bro.

Joe Rogan 36:44 Yeah.

RZA 36:44 Like, I drink tea or, you know, I, I'm very, um... I mean, I do pump a asthma inhaler. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 36:51 For real?

RZA 36:51 Yeah, when I get, when I get it, 'cause I had asthma-

Joe Rogan 36:54 You had asthma

RZA 36:54 ... since, yeah, had asthma my whole life. Other than that, I don't really take no Tylenol or nothing, bro.

Joe Rogan 37:00 Yeah, fuck all that stuff.

RZA 37:01 But you're saying though, at the end of the day, just taking, throwing this back at you, the doctor basically sl- gave you some free shit-

Joe Rogan 37:12 Yeah

RZA 37:13 ... to kinda have you as a customer. 'Cause when crack came out, I remember this-

Joe Rogan 37:15 I think he's financially incentivized.

RZA 37:17 That's what I mean.

Joe Rogan 37:18 I think they're financially incentivized to prescribe you this medi- 'Cause he didn't say, "If you're in pain, contact me and I'll fill you a prescription." 'Cause it's just my nose, man.

RZA 37:27 Right. Right.

Joe Rogan 37:27 It's just the nose. It's not that big a deal. Like, I slept fine.

RZA 37:31 [laughs] Right.

Joe Rogan 37:31 It was nothing.

RZA 37:32 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 37:33 And I tried to tell him, I'm like, "I don't understand why you're giving me..." Like, we had a conversation, I go, "Is it gonna be worse than it is right now? Like, right now I'm not in any pain." He goes, "It could probably get worse." I'm like, "How much worse? 'Cause right now I don't feel anything. It's like nothing."

RZA 37:47 Right.

Joe Rogan 37:47 "It's, like, mildly uncomfortable because I have these tubes stuffed up my nose."

RZA 37:51 Right.

Joe Rogan 37:51 But this is not... This doesn't require heroin.

RZA 37:54 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 37:54 This is crazy.

RZA 37:56 I'm not laughing at you, bro. [laughs] I'm laughing, I'm just-

Joe Rogan 37:58 But it is kinda nuts that-

RZA 38:00 It's, it's kinda b-

Joe Rogan 38:00 ... financially incentivized.

RZA 38:02 [laughs] Let, let me go back to the film. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 38:05 Okay. [laughs]

RZA 38:06 No, because in the film there's a, uh, there's a, um, article that, uh, I hear, well, opens up in the, in the paper. And it's not the same subject, but it's a medical thing. And then it s- it says, like, this, this particular county is leading-

Joe Rogan 38:23 Right

RZA 38:23 ... is leading in, in this particular process, uh, because there's money in it.

Joe Rogan 38:28 Mm-hmm.

RZA 38:28 If it's money, sadly-

Joe Rogan 38:31 Yeah

RZA 38:31 ... you know... I mean, and, and that's, that's a movie but sadly, if there's money involved, uh, people can become insidious, right?

Joe Rogan 38:39 Yeah.

RZA 38:40 People can become like, uh... Yeah, you, you, you could get strung out, you could get strung out. I done sold, you know... I got, I, I wrote 20 prescriptions this week, and they're not cheap, right? How much is the prescription when they, when you fill it? Is that, like, 40 bucks, 100 bucks, 300 bucks?

Joe Rogan 38:56 I don't know. It's not cheap. But more importantly, the doctor gets incentivized.

RZA 39:01 That's what I mean.

Joe Rogan 39:01 You wanna hear some dark shit?

RZA 39:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:02 I was reading about this doctor that was a, an oncologist, so he's dealing with cancer patients, and he was giving chemotherapy to people that didn't have cancer because it would get him more money.

RZA 39:12 Oh, no, no, man, you kinda fucked me up with that. Yeah. That kinda hit my emotion, 'cause I just lost my brother to cancer, my brother Power. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:23 I'm sorry to hear that.

RZA 39:23 Let me take a moment.

Joe Rogan 39:25 I'm sorry to hear that.

RZA 39:28 It's good.

Joe Rogan 39:28 Yeah, it's one of the most profitable, um, medications unfortunately for physicians. Well, not unfortunate... Look, if it saves your life, that's wonderful, but the reality is this one doctor that I'm discussing, this one doctor decided that he was going to get paid more by just giving chemotherapy to people that didn't have cancer. So he diagnosed a bunch of people with cancer that didn't have it. He said, "Oh, unfortunately you have cancer. The good news is we get you on chemotherapy right away. We think we can kick it." And they were regular people with nothing wrong with them, and these, this fucking guy gave them poison.

RZA 40:01 You know how much the chemo costs?

Joe Rogan 40:03 It's very expensive.

RZA 40:04 Yeah, talking about 30 to 60 grand a sh- uh, a, a hit.

Joe Rogan 40:08 Yeah. I'm not, I'm not surprised. And the doctors, uh-

RZA 40:12 That's-

Joe Rogan 40:12 ... profit off of that. It's one of the most profitable medications that doctors prescribe unfortunately.

RZA 40:16 That's, that's kinda fucked up.

Joe Rogan 40:17 And look, most doctors would never fucking imagine doing that in a million years. But this one doctor, like, his, his-

RZA 40:24 That's just us

Joe Rogan 40:24 ... thought process was, "Hey, this is how I get paid, you know? I'm dealing with all this overhead, I'm dealing with all this liability insurance, I'm dealing with medical s- school bills. I'm dealing with all this. Fuck this. I'm just gonna start prescribing a little bit of chemotherapy here and there to people that don't actually have cancer." And I don't know how he got caught. I don't know what happened, but I think it was just-

RZA 40:45 They got him though

Joe Rogan 40:45 ... there was some red flag... Yeah, they got him. He's in jail. There was some red flag where they noticed, like, why are so many people getting cancer with this one doctor? Like, why is his number so high? It doesn't... It's not representative of the norm.

RZA 40:58 Of the percentage that...

Joe Rogan 40:59 Yeah.

RZA 40:59 Right.

Joe Rogan 41:00 Yeah.

RZA 41:00 That's crazy, bro.

Joe Rogan 41:01 But that's what, that's what's hard to imagine is that money would incentivize someone to tell a person... Like, how many people just commit suicide 'cause they think they're dying of cancer and they go, they go, "Fuck, I'm not on... I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna suffer. I'm just gonna fucking go out on my own terms," you know?

RZA 41:19 Yeah. Well-

Joe Rogan 41:20 How many people, how many people's lives did that ruin?

RZA 41:23 Well, I don't... Well, that's, first when I was talking to you, I got, I had, I had to kind of emotionally rebound from that because it's just... You kinda s- made me think like, yeah, I don't know. Like, like, you know, we don't have the answer to shit, you know what I mean? And things happen in life and then sometimes you just, like, you know... But I, I, I do have instinct and I always, I, you know, I just felt that something wasn't, uh... I don't know. I won't even go there. But you said that money, why would the... Why would he do it for the money? It's like, yo, everything is for the money, bro. Motherfuckers is doing, you know, cash rules everything-

Joe Rogan 42:00 Everything around me

RZA 42:01 ... around me, bro. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 42:02 Get the money.

RZA 42:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:03 Dollar, dollar bill y'all.

RZA 42:03 And people are stuck on that, you know what I mean? The, the goal hopefully, 'cause we live in a capitalist society-

Joe Rogan 42:09 Well

RZA 42:09 ... but the goal should be that cash doesn't rule you. Money shouldn't rule you.

Joe Rogan 42:14 Right.

RZA 42:14 We need it, you know what I mean? You know, food, clothing, and shelter.

Joe Rogan 42:18 Yeah.

RZA 42:18 You, you're gonna need that. There ain't nothing given here. But, but it doesn't surprise me, you know, that that's the motivation for insidious behavior, you know? I was, um, I'ma go back a little history here. Um, it's, um... We're working on another project-Where we tap into, uh, this kind of fantasy. I'll, I'll, I'll just write off my imagination. But, but I, I had the, the... This family, uh, they are, they are ances- their, their ancestors are from Congo. And in the Congo, they trace their ancestry back to the Leopold days. And you think about the Leopold days, millions of Africans were mined, chopped off their arms and shit, all because the gag was they wanted them to work and to get the rubber from the rubber tree. So the rubber at one point became the main gold of the world, right? And, and King Leopold went over to Congo, and you get Tarzan out of this shit, all right? That's the, that's the, the fictional story. But he goes over, and I think they said at minimum two million people, but I think it's five million, that were just mined or killed just for the economic profit of what those rubber trees was offering to, uh, Western civilization.

Joe Rogan 43:51 You know that's happening right now with cobalt. I had this guy, Siddharth Kara, on the podcast. Uh, he wrote a book. Jimmy, do you remember what the name of that book was? His, uh, book on cobalt mining in the Congo. So cobalt is a critical mineral that's used in cellphone batteries-

RZA 44:07 Yeah

Joe Rogan 44:08 ... and many electronics. And, uh, that is Cobalt Red: The Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. It's a very disturbing conversation. And he had... He snuck in, uh, cameras and got some footage of these people doing what... You know, you think that this stuff is mined in some sort of industrial process. Look at this. This is how these people are mining.

RZA 44:32 Ooh.

Joe Rogan 44:32 And you've got women who are, uh, have babies on their backs, and all this cobalt that they're knocking out of the ground is completely toxic. Some of them ha- just have, like, a bandana over their mouth that they're using to protect themselves from it. But look how deep that is with human beings that are just pulling cobalt. They live on dirt floors. They a- they live at the lowest level of poverty imaginable. They don't have clean water. They don't have good food. And they are pulling out a mineral that's essential to the most technologically sophisticated aspect of our society, which is our connectivity through the internet-

RZA 45:09 Ooh

Joe Rogan 45:09 ... through cellphones. And this is at the... Which is kind of crazy if you think of, like, the most technologically sophisticated aspect of our society, if you follow it all the way down to the very bottom of the food chain, you've got slave labor.

RZA 45:24 That's-

Joe Rogan 45:24 And that's a giant percentage of the cobalt that's in our cellphones and our, our electronics is coming out of this place.

RZA 45:32 You know, it's so... I never seen that before, bro.

Joe Rogan 45:34 A lot of them are run by China. Yeah, and it's, it's very scary, man. It's-

RZA 45:39 I never seen it, but, but I wrote a lyric that touches upon it. I never, I never seen those images before.

Joe Rogan 45:44 He's got video. See if you can find the video. The video's dark, dude.

RZA 45:47 I think my lyric said, uh... Let's see if I can remember my lyric. It was a song I wrote called The Fate Of The World Is In Your Hand. It was me and DJ Scratch. And, uh, what I s- I knew that, I knew that cobalt, or I knew that they was getting the mineral from Congo, um, but I didn't know it like that. It was something like, you know, as a artist, your fucking antenna, right? You get shit.

Joe Rogan 46:13 Right.

RZA 46:13 But I said something, uh, I said... I'm trying to remember the lyric I said. It was like, uh, um... Hey, could you pull up the lyrics to [laughs] , to RZA's song-

Joe Rogan 46:24 Here's the, here's the video

RZA 46:25 ... The Fate Of The World as well?

Joe Rogan 46:25 Play that.

RZA 46:26 Can you do this?

Joe Rogan 46:27 Yeah, play that video real quick, please. Look at this. How crazy is this? By the way, all this scene, almost biblical toil, the prize is cobalt. And here's the thing, all this shit is super toxic, so all these people are breathing in this insanely-

RZA 46:43 Right

Joe Rogan 46:43 ... toxic dust, and they're knocking it out of the ground with hammers and carrying it off in bags.

RZA 46:47 Look at this shit, yo.

Joe Rogan 46:48 Yeah.

RZA 46:49 This is, this is... This looks biblical, bro.

Joe Rogan 46:51 Right, and imagine how fucking heavy these bags are, and they're doing this all day long. Look at these guys struggling to pick those bags up. And they're carrying this shit all day long, and they're just knocking it into the ground trying to pull out this cobalt. And the thing is, is like this is what we need to power our phones, which is so crazy. If you think about all these people that are virtue signaling about how wonderful and ethical and moral they are, they're doing it on a phone that is literally powered by slave labor.

RZA 47:21 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 47:22 It's crazy.

RZA 47:22 Yeah, I mean-

Joe Rogan 47:23 And it's crazy that this is going on in 2026-

RZA 47:25 Well-

Joe Rogan 47:25 ... and most people aren't even aware of it.

RZA 47:27 Well, this is... While you're back, like I just said, I'm, the, my, the, the project I'm working on now, we just talk about it. We, we take... We're tracing it back to the rubber tree, but-

Joe Rogan 47:36 Yeah

RZA 47:36 ... it's still going on.

Joe Rogan 47:37 Still going on, still going on. And it- that's just cobalt. There's other stuff that they're mining there too that's... It's very similar. There's other, other what, what they call conflict minerals.

RZA 47:48 Pull up, pull up my lyric for, uh, The Fate Of The World. Just wanna just point out what I s- what I said there if you, if you, if you got that on Genius or something.

Joe Rogan 47:59 Here it is.

RZA 47:59 Yeah. It says, uh, "A thousand years of darkness. The world got struck with sorrow. Hallowed be thy name. We need a better tomorrow." Go to the second, uh, the second verse. Let me see. Uh, uh, let me see. Wait. Oh, no, wrong song. That's what it... Listen, I got too many songs.

Joe Rogan 48:19 [laughs]

RZA 48:20 Uh, it's called, uh... Dun, dun, dun, dun.

Joe Rogan 48:24 You forgot the name of your own song?

RZA 48:25 Yeah, bro.

Joe Rogan 48:25 That's hilarious.

RZA 48:26 Yeah, I got too-

Joe Rogan 48:27 You got too many songs

RZA 48:28 ... I got too... What's the other one on that one? Uh, um, go open that. No, not that one. Go to the other, uh, the other, uh, what do you call it? The other... Go to the album title. Yeah, hit the, the album Saturday Afternoon. You gonna edit some of this, right?

Joe Rogan 48:42 No.

RZA 48:43 You don't edit? Okay. Well, we going, y'all going, y'all going bear with us.

Joe Rogan 48:45 [laughs]

RZA 48:47 [laughs] So-

Joe Rogan 48:47 Saturday Afternoon-

RZA 48:48 No, no

Joe Rogan 48:48 ... Kung Fu Theatre.

RZA 48:48 No, like go to the, uh... Oh, it's called the, uh, wait, The Great Fisherman, right? Let me see the titles of the songs

Joe Rogan 48:58 "Fisherman"?

RZA 48:58 "Fisherman." Yeah, pull that one up [laughs] with those lyrics

Joe Rogan 49:02 So what is Genius? Genius is it shows all the lyrics?

RZA 49:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:06 That's what it is? And then it actually has the song underneath it. Oh, that's cool.

RZA 49:09 Yeah, yeah. People can-

Joe Rogan 49:09 I didn't even know that existed

Speaker 49:10 People can annotate and tell you what people were meant by what they said.

RZA 49:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:13 Oh, really?

Speaker 49:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:14 On Genius?

Speaker 49:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:15 Oh, cool.

RZA 49:16 Okay, right there. There you go, look. "The great fisherman, a fisherman, are trying to make a remedy for the elixir of sin. A premonition, we need divine intervention. This whole world it is... The whole world is a stage, so it's time for intermission. In the middle of the Congo jungle, there's a combo of concentrated elements that make the world's phones glow."

Joe Rogan 49:36 Wow.

RZA 49:36 "But they got a small zone for their phones though, 'cause they don't even got reception out there. But we used to communicate just banging on the bongo. That's when the village was more motherly and more brotherly. But then the Dutch came through and killed them all for the rubber tree."

Joe Rogan 49:50 Ooh.

RZA 49:51 "King Leopold's city was built from a sea of gold, and the resurrected still trading on a silky road." Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:59 Those are some bars.

RZA 50:00 [laughs] Respect.

Joe Rogan 50:01 That's phenomenal.

RZA 50:02 But point... But not, not, not doing that to show off or nothing, but-

Joe Rogan 50:04 But it's real. Yeah.

RZA 50:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 50:05 You nailed it.

RZA 50:05 But you just gave me... But you gave me, like, the full... You gave me the connotation and the annotation-

Joe Rogan 50:11 Yeah

RZA 50:11 ... of the lyric by s- by... 'Cause I didn't even see none of... I never seen that before.

Joe Rogan 50:14 Oh, that's crazy.

RZA 50:15 I just, I just h- heard that they gotta get it from there, and I knew the history of King Leopold, but I did not know that. This is still-

Joe Rogan 50:24 Still

RZA 50:24 ... this is crazy, bro.

Joe Rogan 50:25 Yeah, it's still going on, and it'll continue going on as long as no light is shone on it. And this is what Siddharth Kara was trying to do with his book and, you know, the, the tour that he was doing, and doing podcasts, and trying to let... And he, me, mean, he risked his life, man. I mean, they questioned him, and he got very lucky that he got out of there with that footage.

RZA 50:44 Right.

Joe Rogan 50:44 Because they wanna make sure that nobody knows about this shit.

RZA 50:47 Sh-

Joe Rogan 50:47 They don't want any outrage. They want the mining to keep going as planned.

RZA 50:51 I mean, it's, it's-

Joe Rogan 50:54 It's dark

RZA 50:54 ... it's dark. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 50:54 Because it's a multi-multi-billion dollar industry that's powered-

RZA 50:59 It might, it might be-

Joe Rogan 50:59 ... by abject poverty

RZA 51:00 ... probably trillion.

Joe Rogan 51:01 Probably trillion.

RZA 51:02 Yeah. [laughs] 'Cause, like-

Joe Rogan 51:03 Yeah

RZA 51:03 ... it's, that's like you just saying, like, if it's, if it's in all our phones, that means-

Joe Rogan 51:07 Not just our phones, but I think it's in a lot of electronics. I, I think it's... It might even be... Is cobalt in electric cars? I think they're tr-

RZA 51:16 Wow

Joe Rogan 51:16 ... they're trying to make new formulations of batteries without cobalt. So there's, uh... Jamie, what is that... I know a lot of the Chinese cell phones are using a different battery technology. Instead of lithium ion, they have something else that's more dense.

Speaker 51:33 Well, that's what... Yeah, cobalt's a critical component in lithium ion-

Joe Rogan 51:37 Mm

Speaker 51:37 ... battery's construction.

Joe Rogan 51:39 Right.

RZA 51:40 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 51:41 Yeah, lithium ion batteries. What are the... What is, uh... Like OPPO, there's a bunch of these new Chinese companies that have cell phones that have much more battery. Like, instead of, like, a, like a Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has a 5,000 milliamp, uh, battery in it. I think these OPPO phones have 7,000 plus, but it's... I think it's carbon, silicon based-

Speaker 52:08 Mm

Joe Rogan 52:09 ... batteries. I wonder if they have cobalt in them. They've, they, they've... You know, as technology for batteries changes and advances, they need different kinds of components in them.

RZA 52:21 Right.

Joe Rogan 52:22 But, I mean, then you gotta find out where, where are they getting that shit from?

RZA 52:25 Well, the thing-

Joe Rogan 52:25 Is that another, like, m- conflict mineral that they have people digging out of the ground with sticks?

RZA 52:30 Well, the other thing to think about, you know, just... Okay, let's say it is worth trillions of dollars. Like, when do, um, the people who... You know, like, if that's on my property, bro [laughs] you know what I'm saying?

Joe Rogan 52:44 Mm-hmm.

RZA 52:44 It's my... You coming to my crib for it.

Joe Rogan 52:46 Yeah.

RZA 52:46 I should get, be getting paid off of that.

Joe Rogan 52:48 Right.

RZA 52:48 I should be... I, I mean, this-

Joe Rogan 52:51 Well, you know how it works. China comes in. It's... A lot of these are Chinese run. China comes in, they pay off the people that are in power in these areas.

RZA 52:59 Right.

Joe Rogan 52:59 And those people will get wealthy.

RZA 53:01 Right.

Joe Rogan 53:01 And then all the people that are the workers, they all get l- like-

RZA 53:06 Pennies

Joe Rogan 53:06 ... the, uh, uh, as small a wage as you could possibly pay them to keep them alive.

RZA 53:11 Right.

Joe Rogan 53:12 These people live on dirt floors.

RZA 53:14 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 53:14 No food. It's horrible. It's, it's really dark, man, because it's what powers electronics, which is nuts, 'cause that's the most sophisticated aspect of our society in terms of technology.

RZA 53:26 Well, the government of those places, and not to get ahead, like I'm a, like, you know, I'm a artist and I'm a spiritual man, but it... They should be like, "Yo, hold on, bro."

Joe Rogan 53:37 Yeah.

RZA 53:37 Like, like in Alaska, right? There's a pipeline that goes through Alaska. You know about this pipeline, right?

Joe Rogan 53:43 Mm-hmm. Sure.

RZA 53:44 But the citizens of Alaska get s- they get a royalty for that.

Joe Rogan 53:46 Yes. Yeah.

RZA 53:47 Okay? Like, the, the... Like, if I'm in Congo and I got s- this cobalt that's worth trillions, and I got all, all these people, give them a, give them a royalty.

Joe Rogan 53:56 100%. If that was America, that would probably the only way to do it. But obviously you couldn't pay people the way you pay people in the Congo in America anyway. We have laws. But this is also why they want illegal immigration. That's part of the reason why they like illegal i- immigration, is because-

RZA 54:10 Right

Joe Rogan 54:10 ... you don't have paperwork. You don't have to pay people what they're supposed to get paid.

RZA 54:14 Right.

Joe Rogan 54:14 Could you pull that back up again, Jamie, please, about the silicon carbide batteries? So it seems like one of the reasons, uh, for utilizing this new technology is because it's not using as much cobalt. So, uh, "Advanced lithium ion technology using silicon to replace traditional graphite anodes, offering roughly 20 to 40% higher energy density and faster charging, especially in smartphones."

RZA 54:40 Mm.

Joe Rogan 54:40 Does it say anything... I thought the li-

Speaker 54:42 Yeah, it did, 'cause I had cobalt added onto it.

Joe Rogan 54:44 Yeah.

RZA 54:46 So it has cobalt in that as well?

Joe Rogan 54:48 Mm.

RZA 54:49 But less maybe?

Joe Rogan 54:49 Says enables more sustainable cobalt reduced designs. So you have less cobalt.

RZA 54:54 Less, right.

Joe Rogan 54:55 And it's more energy densitySo these Chinese phones are... Yeah, here it is, Honor Magic 5 Pro. A lot of these, uh, OnePlus 13, a lot of these, um, Chinese-made Android phones are using, um, much more advanced battery technology.

RZA 55:13 So they trying to ease up on it a little bit, basically?

Joe Rogan 55:15 I mean, I don't know. The hard... The, the question is, like, w- well, where are you getting everything else?

RZA 55:20 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 55:20 Where's all that other shit that's in your phone, and how are you mining that? If you're hiding how you mine cobalt, how are you mining all the other stuff? 'Cause they're all conflict minerals, and a lot of these minerals, unfortunately, are m- mined out of the Third World. They find them in these places where people are really poor-

RZA 55:36 Right

Joe Rogan 55:36 ... in the mount- And the people that live there, they don't benefit from it. Their lives don't get any better. In fact, they get worse, 'cause they get poisoned.

RZA 55:42 Well, the thing, the thing that... But, but here go, here go, let me add some wisdom to that. The people gotta realize that they are not poor, right? Because if that is valuable and you're standing on it-

Joe Rogan 55:53 Yeah

RZA 55:53 ... then you're standing on value. You know, but-

Joe Rogan 55:56 And that's why they keep them poor, because they can't organize then.

RZA 55:59 I know, because... But think about the Holy Quran for a moment, right?

Joe Rogan 56:01 Yeah.

RZA 56:01 Let me, let me go here for a sp-

Joe Rogan 56:02 Okay

RZA 56:02 ... little spiritual here, right? So in the Holy Quran, it mentions that, uh, you know, if the Muslims were to do what they was gonna do, that they would have many wells, right? Because, you know, they living in the desert, basically, right?

Joe Rogan 56:17 Mm-hmm.

RZA 56:18 And it says they're gonna have abundant of wells. It's not an abundant of water wells in the Middle East, right? And these are people that are living nomadic, economically not really at the level of the rest of the world. But it's a prophecy telling them that they gonna have wells. But what kind of wells they end up having?

Joe Rogan 56:41 Oil.

RZA 56:42 Oil wells.

Joe Rogan 56:43 Yeah.

RZA 56:43 Right? And so now, all of a sudden, they become the most richest small region in the world.

Joe Rogan 56:51 Right.

RZA 56:52 So the promise is fulfilled, right? But the gag is that the people gotta realize sometime where you stand. Where you stand on your land, you know what I mean? The value of it, as the Bible would say, yo, "Work to the sweat of your brow to dig and plow and make your land valuable." But now, if you... If, so, if, if... I'm just saying that the people, where they're going to get whatever they gonna get, bro, okay? I don't care if you're going to get some berries in the Amazon. If the berries [laughs] is worth money, then the dude who got all the berries gotta realize that, "Yo, bro-

Joe Rogan 57:25 Right

RZA 57:26 ... let's make a deal."

Joe Rogan 57:28 Yeah.

RZA 57:28 But it, but it seem like that ain't happening.

Joe Rogan 57:30 No. No, it's not happening. And m- the reason why it's not happening is 'cause you have enormous corporations who come in from other countries. They get contracts, and they pay off the people that are the leaders of these countries-

RZA 57:41 Right

Joe Rogan 57:41 ... or the people that are the leaders of the military.

RZA 57:44 I love that. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 57:44 And then those people keep these people oppressed.

RZA 57:47 Right.

Joe Rogan 57:47 And that's what... I mean, it's, it's the people that are running these countries that are making sure that these people don't get paid what they deserve, so that they can keep them working there for slave wages. So they keep their profits as high as possible. They also keep the options as low as possible, so people don't have any options.

RZA 58:05 Right.

Joe Rogan 58:05 If you're living in the Congo, and you're, you're near where these cobalt mines are, what are your other options?

RZA 58:11 Right.

Joe Rogan 58:11 You know?

RZA 58:11 I remember, um... I'm gonna shout-out Burna Boy. Uh, Burna Boy's a good dude. He, um, he had told me some s- gave me some insight about, uh, Nigeria. And, and, and, and, like, he was saying to me, like, how Wu-Tang, when we was young, you know, we had to sling street pharmaceuticals, right? But out there, oil is like a street pharmaceutical. Like, dudes was, was, was slinging, uh, petrol and slinging oil and shit. I was like-

Joe Rogan 58:41 In Nigeria?

RZA 58:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:42 Wow.

RZA 58:43 It's... Like, that's crazy, right?

Joe Rogan 58:44 That's crazy.

RZA 58:45 But the gag, I'm saying, is that still, you know, of course the government controls all that, but, but sometime the people gotta just, uh, snap s- you know, just, yo, I don't know. Stand on your land, yo.

Joe Rogan 58:57 Mm-hmm.

RZA 58:57 And, and, and, and, and realize the value of where you stand. You know, every man, um, ha- has a value, um, right? We, we all walk with a living value. Every life is precious. Every life that's born changes the world. Soon as somebody is born today-

Joe Rogan 59:13 Yeah

RZA 59:14 ... this ain't the same world it was yesterday.

Joe Rogan 59:16 Right.

RZA 59:16 Soon as somebody return to the essence, this ain't the same world. But, so we gotta kinda... But the people, I'm going back to the people, not to the military or to the government. The people gotta realize that, "Yo, hold on, bro. It's you. You're the value." Because without them, right, until they do get t- uh, uh, [laughs] 10 million robots to do that shit, which I don't... I'm not opposed to that.

Joe Rogan 59:38 Right.

RZA 59:38 Send 10 million robots to dig it up, bro.

Joe Rogan 59:41 Right.

RZA 59:41 And, and, and, and still, though, if it's on my land, break me off. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 59:46 Right.

RZA 59:46 You know what I mean? But people gotta snap into that.

Joe Rogan 59:48 Well, these are, these places are all guarded by the military, so-

RZA 59:51 Yeah, well, yeah

Joe Rogan 59:52 ... like, it's all people with guns.

RZA 59:53 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:53 You can't leave.

RZA 59:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:55 You're doing their bidding. You'll get shot.

RZA 59:57 Yeah, it is.

Joe Rogan 59:57 They kill people. They bury you. No one notices.

RZA 59:59 That's it, yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:59 No one cares. The value of human life is extremely low.

RZA 1:00:04 Well-

Joe Rogan 1:00:04 Yeah, it's, it's, it's satanic.

RZA 1:00:06 Well, let's-

Joe Rogan 1:00:06 It's dark

RZA 1:00:07 ... well, let's jump back on my film, because in my film, the value of life-

Joe Rogan 1:00:12 Yeah

RZA 1:00:12 ... uh, is once again, um... We talking about the world, but yet I gotta relate it back, because in our film, the value of life seems low as well.

Joe Rogan 1:00:22 Yeah.

RZA 1:00:23 Right? Low for the person living, uh, more for the... valuable for the person that kills them.

Joe Rogan 1:00:29 Right. Yeah.

RZA 1:00:30 You know? And that's-

Joe Rogan 1:00:30 Without giving too much of the film away, um, what happens in the film actually happens in real life. I mean, that, that is-

RZA 1:00:37 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:00:37 ... it's based... I mean, you say it's based on real life-

RZA 1:00:39 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:00:39 ... but it, there's been real live cases where people, they've harvested people's organs for profit.

RZA 1:00:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:45 And that's a thing. I mean, that's a big problem with people in China. You know, people go to China for, for organs. Like, there's a tourism to get organs replaced.

RZA 1:00:54 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:00:54 Like, say if you need a new kidney or you need a new liver, whatever.

RZA 1:00:57 We got it.

Joe Rogan 1:00:57 Yeah, they have it, and what they'll do is they'll take their fucking prisoners and they, "Oh, look, A, AB blood type? Perfect."

RZA 1:01:03 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:01:03 Whack.

1:01:05 And then now you got some dude's heart

RZA 1:01:07 Business.

Joe Rogan 1:01:08 Yeah.

RZA 1:01:08 There's a-

Joe Rogan 1:01:08 It's crazy

RZA 1:01:09 ... there's another element that, um, um... This is the RZA right here. I'm live on Joe Rogan Podcast.

Joe Rogan 1:01:16 [laughs]

RZA 1:01:17 I got a new film coming out May 1st. It's called One Spoon of Chocolate, uh, written and directed by the RZA, starring Shameik Moore, Paris Jackson, Blair Underwood, Rockmond Dunbar, to name a few. It's produced by Quentin Tarantino, and my wife, Talisa Diggs. Hey, baby. [laughs] I, I did, I did a, an official radio drop, 'cause-

Joe Rogan 1:01:37 That sounded like we're on the radio

RZA 1:01:38 ... yeah, I did that shit.

Joe Rogan 1:01:39 [laughs]

RZA 1:01:39 Ladies and gentlemen, um, this is the RZA. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:01:42 Coming in at five after the hour.

RZA 1:01:44 [laughs] You know. But I love how art can touch upon, uh, things even if it's, uh, n- unintentional, right? Um, what I mean by unintentional is that, you know, as a artist, I just let the shit flow. Like, I d- like, when you showed all that, uh, Congo cobalt-

Joe Rogan 1:02:03 Mm-hmm

RZA 1:02:03 ... I never seen it. But-

Joe Rogan 1:02:05 But yet it's in your lyrics

RZA 1:02:06 ... yeah, but that's in my lyrics.

Joe Rogan 1:02:07 Yeah.

RZA 1:02:08 And so it's... And even as you telling me this China stuff here, I don't know about that. I, I do know some things that happened with some articles, but I wasn't... I'm not, uh, in debt, in depth with all the... N-D-E-P-T-H.

Joe Rogan 1:02:22 In de- yeah, in depth

RZA 1:02:23 ... I don't have in-depth knowledge-

Joe Rogan 1:02:25 Yeah, yeah

RZA 1:02:25 ... of it. But I, but I strive as a artist, Joe, is to actually to at least show the surface so that, you know, I don't know how deep the pool is, but I will show, show the surface through my art. Um, and I think in this film, which is a, it's a action film, though, right?

Joe Rogan 1:02:42 Mm-hmm.

RZA 1:02:43 You, you... So Joe only seen the first half of it, so he doesn't know about the revenge-o-matic ass-kicking, and I'm not gonna spoil it for you either.

Joe Rogan 1:02:50 Well, I believe it. There's already plenty of ass-kicking already that I've seen so far.

RZA 1:02:53 Right, right, exactly. Seen some, okay. But it gets fucking, uh, you gonna have a good time.

Joe Rogan 1:02:57 I'm sure I will.

RZA 1:02:58 You're gonna have a good time. But still, once again, the art of it, um, it has a, a, it... I've, I'm realizing as I'm watching with different audiences, like when I watched it in, uh, New York, I had motherfuckers yelling at the screen, "Fuck that..."

Joe Rogan 1:03:13 [laughs]

RZA 1:03:14 [laughs] I'm serious. They was on some shit. When I watched it in LA, the audience was like, it, it was a, like a sense of nervousness was in the room.

Joe Rogan 1:03:24 Mm.

RZA 1:03:24 When I watched it in Chicago, it was standing ovation. You know what I mean? I watched it in San Francisco, and the, the Q&A was very intellectual. So I'm, I'm realizing now, okay, this is touching. Then when I watched it this other place, The Girl, uh, with Dave, actually. I watched it with Dave Chappelle. He said that, uh, "You got bars in this motherfucker." [laughs] I said, "What you mean by bars?" He said, "Well, the guy says, uh, the girl says, um..." First the girl... This, this come... You haven't seen this scene yet, but Paris Jackson is telling him that everybody in this town goes to church on Sunday except for Jimmy and his gang of degenerates. They party all night Saturday, and they sleep all day Sunday. She said, "And I guess they're not afraid to go to hell." And then the hero says, "But where I come from, they say heaven is what you make it, and hell is what you gotta go through to get it." And she was like, "Uh, sounds right." And Dave was like, "That's a fucking bar."

Joe Rogan 1:04:28 [laughs]

RZA 1:04:29 [laughs] And yo, hold on. So last time I was here it was Donnell Rawlings was here, right?

Joe Rogan 1:04:33 [laughs]

RZA 1:04:33 So check it out, bro. I was showing the film to Dave, right, and we gonna do a Q&A. I'm, I'm in, I went to Yellow Spring, Ohio, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:04:40 Was Donnell there?

RZA 1:04:41 Bro.

Joe Rogan 1:04:42 [laughs]

RZA 1:04:43 [laughs] He was there, yo.

Joe Rogan 1:04:45 [laughs]

RZA 1:04:45 And then he got up, and he asked a question. And he started, uh, he, he, he, he interrupted. He talked about the day we was here, and he, and, and 'cause you inspired him to do a podcast. I remember you said, "Yo-

Joe Rogan 1:04:58 Yeah

RZA 1:04:58 ... start a podcast. Boy, you might even help them." Right? And then he said, uh, then I said, "Yo, yeah, if you need something, hit me." So he hit me up, said, "Yo, l- let me get a, a, a opening theme track." And so I got like a, a bunch of beats that's on my little thumb drive. I sent him like five of them, right? And he chose one.

Joe Rogan 1:05:16 Yeah, you told me about this.

RZA 1:05:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:18 [laughs]

RZA 1:05:18 So now he choose one, and that becomes his theme. And it's, it's, it was a nice fucking... But that same five tracks, uh, my manager is sending it to other people too [laughs] and shit. So it w- I, and I did give it to Donnell. I gave it to him gratis. But he comes up in the middle of my Q&A with Dave about my film, and he starts talking about the beat. And he says, "RZA is a Indian giver." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:05:42 [laughs]

RZA 1:05:42 He said, he said, "I was-"

Joe Rogan 1:05:44 Oh.

RZA 1:05:44 He said, "It's, I was playing," he said, "I had it on my podcast for almost two years, and then one day it said flag license," uh, whatever they do and shit, uh, when you can't use it-

Joe Rogan 1:05:56 Yeah

RZA 1:05:56 ... use a motherfucker's shit. And I was like, um, I said, "Oh, yeah, bro, yeah. The, the, the people from the Minions, they had got, um, those five tracks as well, and, and, and they chose it-

Joe Rogan 1:06:08 Oh, no

RZA 1:06:08 ... and they put it, and they put it, and they paid us a lot of money."

Joe Rogan 1:06:11 Oh. [laughs]

RZA 1:06:11 And, and not, not s- not going back to the money of it all, but [laughs] I... So I told, I said, "Yo, just choose another beat." He said, "Nah, son, that was the one."

Joe Rogan 1:06:20 Oh, no.

RZA 1:06:20 "That was the one." I said, "Bro, they chose it. My manager made the deal."

Joe Rogan 1:06:25 Oh, no.

RZA 1:06:25 "It's off the table now." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:06:27 Oh, no.

RZA 1:06:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:27 So he had to change his opening?

RZA 1:06:29 Yeah, so I owe-

Joe Rogan 1:06:30 Oh, no.

RZA 1:06:31 I, I owe Donnell.

Joe Rogan 1:06:31 Well, that gives him more to complain about.

RZA 1:06:33 Yeah. Oh, no, bro-

Joe Rogan 1:06:34 It's almost worth giving him the beat just so he doesn't have to complain.

RZA 1:06:37 [laughs] Yeah. I, I owe you, Donnell, and then I'm gonna hook you up with something.

Joe Rogan 1:06:40 Oh, no.

RZA 1:06:40 Actually gonna cook you up something nice, all right?

Joe Rogan 1:06:43 I can't wait for this phone call. [laughs]

RZA 1:06:46 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:06:47 "Son, you know what he did to me, son? He took it back."

RZA 1:06:50 [laughs] He said that shit in front of the audience, and I, I, I couldn't-

Joe Rogan 1:06:54 Oh, he's so funny

RZA 1:06:54 ... I couldn't deny it and shit. I was like, "Yeah, they, they, they..." You know?

Joe Rogan 1:06:57 That's hilarious. That's hilarious.

RZA 1:07:00 Um, but anyway, um, but they loved the film, too, like, like, the audience and, and, uh-Um, I'm only saying that 'cause I love, I love when, when my peers react to something

Joe Rogan 1:07:10 Is this your first feature length film?

RZA 1:07:12 It's my fourth

Joe Rogan 1:07:13 Fourth.

RZA 1:07:14 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:07:14 I know you've done other stuff, but is, did you, have you written and done other things like this-

RZA 1:07:20 I wrote-

Joe Rogan 1:07:20 ... the way you're doing it this way?

RZA 1:07:21 This is my second one writing.

Joe Rogan 1:07:22 Okay

RZA 1:07:22 So I wrote my first film, Man With The Iron Fists.

Joe Rogan 1:07:25 Right

RZA 1:07:25 Right, uh, which was a Quentin Tarantino present-

Joe Rogan 1:07:28 Right

RZA 1:07:28 ... as well. And then it was a, you know, kung fu movie, so then I didn't wanna get stuck in like, "Oh, that's all he does." So my second film I didn't write, uh, it was written by Ni- Nicole, and she, um, she... It was called Love Beats Rhymes. Uh, and, uh, that was like a movie about poetry and a female lead, and it was actually, um, John Da- JD Wa- John David Washington, it was his first feature film as well.

Joe Rogan 1:07:56 Mm.

RZA 1:07:57 Um, and then my third film was called Cut Throat City, which I didn't write. Um, just once again a hire gun as a director. And in that film I had Shameik Moore as the lead actor, and I kinda like fell in love with his talent. So that's why he was in Cut Throat City. He's in the Wu-Tang series, he plays Raekwon.

Joe Rogan 1:08:17 Mm.

RZA 1:08:17 And now he's the star of my new film. So he's kind, we kinda got this, uh, uh, I hate to say it, but we kinda got this, uh, this Denzel Spike Lee energy, this Coogler Michael B. energy. I, I really like this guy. But on this particular film, yes, I decided to write it and direct it. Um, and I'm back to the basic, right? Quentin Tarantino presented my first film, and now here's my fourth film and he's back in the building.

Joe Rogan 1:08:44 And one of my favorite songs from that first soundtrack is Baddest Man Alive.

RZA 1:08:49 Oh, sick.

Joe Rogan 1:08:49 That you did with Black Keys

RZA 1:08:51 With the Black Keys. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

Joe Rogan 1:08:52 Dude, that song. That song killed it.

RZA 1:08:55 Shout out to, um, shout out to Dan and Patrick, yo.

Joe Rogan 1:09:00 Yeah.

RZA 1:09:00 Those are two cool motherfuckers

Joe Rogan 1:09:00 I love those two guys.

RZA 1:09:01 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:09:01 They're cool as fuck, and that song kills it. That song kills it. That's such a good song. Bunch of dudes use that song as walkout, walkout for the UFC.

RZA 1:09:10 Yeah. I, I, I seen it on a fucking Car Commotion one day [laughs] .

Joe Rogan 1:09:13 [laughs]

RZA 1:09:13 I was like, "Okay."

Joe Rogan 1:09:14 Did you guys listen to the lyrics? [laughs]

RZA 1:09:18 [laughs] Right. I guess all you need is that hook, right?

Joe Rogan 1:09:20 Right, yeah.

RZA 1:09:21 On, on this, on this, uh, how we doing on time, we good?

Joe Rogan 1:09:24 Yeah, we're plenty good.

RZA 1:09:25 On, on this, on this particular film, uh, a guy, a guy named, do you know Jason Isbell?

Joe Rogan 1:09:30 Yeah, sure. Yeah.

RZA 1:09:31 Yeah, so Jason Isbell did a song, uh, in the film, uh, it's called, uh, Comic Book Life. And, um, it was, you know, it's, it's my first collaboration with him as well. Um, um, and that, it was a pleasure. Uh, lyrics go, "Jesus Christ walked... " It's, "Jesus, uh, Jesus Christ may have walked on water, and Superman flies through the sky. The immigrant crossed the border, he's looking for a better life. Trying to find it, he's reminded that dreams are born to die. His reality kills his fantasy. It's not a comic book life." You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:10:17 Mm.

RZA 1:10:17 And, uh, so it goes on. Um, um, and I, and so I try to, when I do films, I try to make s- like a unique musical collaboration. Of course, that was me and the Black Keys back then. And, but on this, on this, uh, on this film we got, like, music from Jason Isbell, we got clearances from the Isley Brothers, who, check this out, bro. I'm on a plane three days ago heading to Atlanta to show the film. Guess who's sitting in first class in the seat right there? Ron

RZA 1:10:48 Isley. Now, I never met him before. I'm like the big fan, I love his music. I got two of his songs in my movie, and I'm like, and I'm going to show, and I look over, I'm like, my mind's like, "Yeah, that's Ron Isley." And I was like, I got a chance to get up and thank him, uh, for, you know, for his work and for even allowing, uh, his music to be in my film because, um, that was, that's special.

Joe Rogan 1:11:09 Oh, that's cool.

RZA 1:11:10 Are, are you a Ron Isley fan?

Joe Rogan 1:11:12 Not really.

RZA 1:11:13 You're not a Isley Brothers bro? Listen, bro, you gotta, let me, I'm, I gotta put you on some Isley Brothers, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:11:17 Please.

RZA 1:11:18 Because if, you know, I'm quite sure your love life is good, all right? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:11:24 [laughs]

RZA 1:11:24 I'm quite sure you got a good love life, bro. But if you ever get into any love life trouble, okay, put on the Isley Brothers, it will smooth it out.

Joe Rogan 1:11:33 Tell me what to get.

RZA 1:11:34 I'm gonna say to- Sensual.

Joe Rogan 1:11:36 Sensual?

RZA 1:11:37 Yeah. Put that one on. And, um, and, uh, yeah, I'm gonna just give you that one because-

Joe Rogan 1:11:44 All right

RZA 1:11:45 ... when that, the way that comes on, bro, your shoulders are gonna start moving and shit. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:11:50 [laughs] Okay. All right.

RZA 1:11:52 You, you come in with two glasses of wine.

Joe Rogan 1:11:53 Ah.

RZA 1:11:54 And I'm telling you, bro, it's, the, the, the, you gonna be good. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:11:59 Yeah. I'll check it out.

RZA 1:12:00 Who, who's your f- who is your, uh, um, w- who's your fa- favorite musician?

Joe Rogan 1:12:05 Oh, boy. I don't think I have a favorite musician. I don't even have a favorite genre.

RZA 1:12:10 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:12:11 You know? I d- I like all ki- I mean, if you look at my Spotify green room playlist, it's all over the place. It goes from Nina Simone to Bill Withers to Wu-Tang to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Led Zeppelin.

RZA 1:12:26 Mm. Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:12:26 It's all over the place. To Gary Clark Jr. To... It's everywhere. I, I, I move around.

RZA 1:12:32 You naming some dope shit. Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:12:34 I like to move around. I like all kinds of shit. I'll listen to Dwight Yoakam and I'll, I'll follow it up with, um, you know, Cool G Rap.

RZA 1:12:43 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:12:44 I like, uh, you know, one of my favorite albums ever is when, um, The Brand New Heavies. Did you ever listen to Brand New Heavies when they got-

RZA 1:12:51 Of course

Joe Rogan 1:12:51 ... Heavy Rhyme Experience?

RZA 1:12:52 I don't-

Joe Rogan 1:12:52 Did you ever listen to that?

RZA 1:12:53 I don't know if I know that particular, uh-

Joe Rogan 1:12:55 Oh, Brand New Heavies got together with, like, Cool G Rap, they got together with a bunch of different rappers. Um, who else is in there? God, it's like, there's, there's a, a ton of different people that they did these tracks with, so they have, like, The Brand New Heavies playing the music.

RZA 1:13:12 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:13:12 And like, like, Heavy Rhyme Experience is the name of the track. Gang Starr's in it.

RZA 1:13:17 Oh, Main Source? Wow, man.

Joe Rogan 1:13:17 Main Source. Yeah, man.

RZA 1:13:18 What year is this, bro?

Joe Rogan 1:13:19 '92 I think

RZA 1:13:21 Wow

Joe Rogan 1:13:22 '92, yeah

RZA 1:13:22 Right, right, 'cause I remember that first album

Joe Rogan 1:13:24 Oh my God, you got to listen to some of this shit

RZA 1:13:26 Yeah, because by n- now, in '92 was... You know what happens to me in 1992, I'm on my own dick now. I don't listen to nobody. I'm just Wu-Tang'd out-

Joe Rogan 1:13:34 Oh, okay

RZA 1:13:35 ... trying to, no, when, when I'm trying to make it.

Joe Rogan 1:13:36 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

RZA 1:13:36 So I'm like, "Enh."

Joe Rogan 1:13:38 Yeah. Oh, I get it.

RZA 1:13:39 But, so I missed it.

Joe Rogan 1:13:40 Oh, yeah.

RZA 1:13:40 I actually missed a lot of things during my career, bro. I realized I, I, like I'm going backwards. Like, there was a point in my life where I couldn't stand R&B.

Joe Rogan 1:13:50 Really?

RZA 1:13:50 It made me nauseous. I'm serious. Like, like, like, like, like, if I'm driving and R&B's on, I felt... No, I was so fucking hip-hop, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:13:59 'Cause you're so concentrated.

RZA 1:14:00 Yeah, it was-

Joe Rogan 1:14:01 Yeah

RZA 1:14:01 ... it was weird. Like I said-

Joe Rogan 1:14:02 That makes sense, though

RZA 1:14:02 Yeah, it makes sense. But it's, it's wrong.

Joe Rogan 1:14:03 Yeah, because you were on the grind.

RZA 1:14:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:14:05 You were really trying to make it happen.

RZA 1:14:07 Now, give me, now I play R&B, me and my wife, we be dancing around the motherfucking house. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:14:12 [laughs] It's... I, I mean, there was a point in time where I was only into '90s hip-hop. Like, '90s hip-hop-

RZA 1:14:19 Right

Joe Rogan 1:14:19 ... was my shit.

RZA 1:14:20 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:14:20 'Cause I've... That was when I was young, and I was on the road a lot, and that was, like, my getting fired up music-

RZA 1:14:26 Right

Joe Rogan 1:14:26 ... was, like, '90s hip-hop. But then I started expanding, and then I got into, like, a lot of, like, old classic rock and roll, and I just think it's all dependent upon your mood, but there's so much different shit that you could listen to.

RZA 1:14:40 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:14:41 But this, you gotta listen to some of this Heavy Rhyme Experience.

RZA 1:14:44 Yeah, I'm gonna put that on my-

Joe Rogan 1:14:45 Yeah

RZA 1:14:45 ... on my list right there.

Joe Rogan 1:14:46 Play him that, uh, Kool G Rap Death Threat. This is, like, one of my all... Well, so in the green room, we'll have to cut this out of, of the podcast unfortunately, 'cause we don't wanna get dinged, but at, uh, in the green room playlist, this is, like, one of my first beginning of the night when the comedy show starts-

RZA 1:15:04 Hmm

Joe Rogan 1:15:04 ... and we're in the green room getting fired up.

RZA 1:15:06 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 1:15:06 Pouring a couple drinks, everybody's getting fired up.

RZA 1:15:08 [imitates lighter]

Joe Rogan 1:15:08 Someone's rolling a blunt. This is one of my favorite songs to start the green-

RZA 1:15:12 Hit-

Joe Rogan 1:15:12 ... the green room playlist off with

RZA 1:15:13 ... hit me with it. [music]

Joe Rogan 1:15:16 This is Kool G Rap and the Brand Nubians.

RZA 1:15:19 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:15:20 It's great, and, uh, the Gang Starr Hectic, that's another one of my favorites.

RZA 1:15:24 You know what's so cool about it for me, so I never heard it, but it immediately, like, put me right back in the Stapleton Projects, like, right back in that time of me, like, my... 'Cause Kool G Rap is-

Joe Rogan 1:15:34 Love that dude.

RZA 1:15:36 So it put me right there. Thank you, y'all.

Joe Rogan 1:15:37 "Cockblockin'"-

RZA 1:15:38 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:15:38 ... one of my all-time favorite songs. [laughs]

RZA 1:15:39 Right, right. Uh, "Talk Like Sex." Um-

Joe Rogan 1:15:43 Yeah

RZA 1:15:43 ... I mean, he has so many. "Ill Street Blues."

Joe Rogan 1:15:44 "Ill Street Blues" is amazing, and Kool G Rap, I just think in mainstream just doesn't get the respect he deserves for, like, the influence that he had in the '90s.

RZA 1:15:52 Yeah. I think the, I think the, the artists, we give it to them.

Joe Rogan 1:15:55 Yes.

RZA 1:15:55 But yeah, you're right, the, the, the public-

Joe Rogan 1:15:57 Mainstream-

RZA 1:15:58 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:15:58 ... people, there's so many people I, I bring up Kool G Rap, and they're like, "Who?"

RZA 1:16:01 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:16:01 And I'm like, "Oh, sit down. Sit down."

RZA 1:16:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:16:03 "Let me play some shit for you."

RZA 1:16:04 Yeah, he... And he, I didn't never n- he told me this years later, that the G stood for genius.

Joe Rogan 1:16:10 Ah. [laughs]

RZA 1:16:11 [laughs] And he's a f- he's a fucking genius, even though we, we got the GZA the Genius in our crew.

Joe Rogan 1:16:16 Yeah.

RZA 1:16:16 Kool G Rap is a, is a genius, man. I was blessed to, um, I was blessed to do a couple of tracks with him in my, in my catalog. We actually-

Joe Rogan 1:16:23 Oh, nice

RZA 1:16:24 ... we actually, um, got a couple that we did together and a couple that I just produced with, uh, like him and Inspectah Deck and, um, and things of that nature. So that's one of the greatest blessings of, uh, of the art is that, I'm c- I'm sure you do the same as, you know, whether you're doing comedy, whether you're doing your physicality, that you have people that you admired, and then all of a sudden, you're, they're your peers.

Joe Rogan 1:16:44 You're collaborating.

RZA 1:16:45 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:16:45 You're doing shit with them. Yeah. No, it's very exciting, just d- being able to hang out with them, you know? We did, uh, uh, we went to dinner with, uh, Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary, and then they came to the comedy show.

RZA 1:16:58 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:16:58 And then we're all hanging out in the green room.

RZA 1:16:59 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:17:00 And everybody's like, "This is the fucking coolest night of all time."

RZA 1:17:02 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:17:02 We're just chilling, hanging out with Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary-

RZA 1:17:06 Right

Joe Rogan 1:17:06 ... at the mothership green room.

RZA 1:17:08 How you gonna beat that?

Joe Rogan 1:17:09 Yeah. It's hard to beat, man. Everybody, the next day we were like, "Did last night really happen?"

RZA 1:17:13 [laughs] Right.

Joe Rogan 1:17:13 Like, that was so fun.

RZA 1:17:15 Sh- when, when, um, uh, when I... This is, I, I got... Speaking of Quentin, when I, um, had a cut that was, um, you know, worthy to show him, uh, our buddy Javed and my buddy Abuzar, they, uh... So Javed kind of owns the, the old Desi Arnaz studio.

Joe Rogan 1:17:34 Oh, wow.

RZA 1:17:35 Yeah. Um, he's the guy that started Red Camera. So, and he has this amazing screening room. And so he said, "Yo, um, you can screen it here for Quentin." I said, "All right, cool." So we finally got the date to do it, and I go there, and his plus one is, is Fincher.

Joe Rogan 1:17:53 Oh, wow.

RZA 1:17:54 [laughs] Exactly. So I'm just like, "Oh sh-"

Joe Rogan 1:17:55 That's crazy.

RZA 1:17:56 Yeah, so yeah. So now like, "Okay, whoa. Okay." Uh, and it, and it was, and I played the film to them, and it's... Once, it was another great night. Uh, some great, uh, what were we sipping on? We were sipping on, um, some great scotch. Yeah, we had some great scotch. I don't smoke weed like that no more, so you know, that's... Do you still smoke weed?

Joe Rogan 1:18:16 What happened where you stopped?

RZA 1:18:19 I just, I, I don't function good in public on weed, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:18:22 [laughs]

RZA 1:18:22 Straight up.

Joe Rogan 1:18:23 Who does?

RZA 1:18:24 Well-

Joe Rogan 1:18:24 Who does?

RZA 1:18:25 I g- yeah, well... [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:18:26 [laughs]

RZA 1:18:27 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:18:27 People think they do.

RZA 1:18:29 Exactly, but I-

Joe Rogan 1:18:30 [laughs]

RZA 1:18:30 ... I don't wanna see that photo. I don't wanna, I don't-

Joe Rogan 1:18:33 That photo. [laughs]

RZA 1:18:34 Yeah, I don't wanna be that guy no more. It's like, if I'm home... Also, to be honest with you, if I smoke weed, bro, I start doing kung fu, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:18:42 Really?

RZA 1:18:42 Yeah, I'm either gonna sit quiet and, like, be a total-

Joe Rogan 1:18:46 Oh, you start, "Wah."

RZA 1:18:47 Yeah, and motherfucker's like, "Yo, what's this..."

Joe Rogan 1:18:49 [exhales]

RZA 1:18:49 Yeah, exactly.

Joe Rogan 1:18:50 Wow.

RZA 1:18:50 I'll start doing shit like that.

Joe Rogan 1:18:52 Yeah.

RZA 1:18:52 And then with a fucking suit on or some shit. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:18:55 Yeah.

RZA 1:18:55 So, so-

Joe Rogan 1:18:56 That sounds fun.

RZA 1:18:57 Yeah, well-

Joe Rogan 1:18:58 [laughs]

RZA 1:18:59 You know, so I, yeah, I kinda... 2015 was when I, when I stopped.

Joe Rogan 1:19:03 Really?

RZA 1:19:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:19:04 Completely?

RZA 1:19:05 Maybe, I mean, not... Yes, well, completely, but then I said I would only smoke with, uh, with two or three people in the world. One of them is Quentin Tarantino, um, because we watch our kung fu movies. We're not going nowhere.

Joe Rogan 1:19:19 [laughs]

RZA 1:19:19 If I smoke a, if I s- have some weed with him, I know that I'm in a, you know... No photos is happening.

Joe Rogan 1:19:24 Right, right, right.

RZA 1:19:24 You're not gonna see this, the, the, the Zonkey RZA. Uh, my other brother I smoke with, I won't say his name 'cause I don't know if people know he smoke. I think everybody knows he smoke, but I won't say his fucking name and shit. [laughs] Um, and I'll only see him-Once a year, twice a year

Joe Rogan 1:19:40 Mm-hmm

RZA 1:19:40 ... you know what I mean? Um, and that's really it. And even, like I haven't smoked a blunt with Method Man in over 12 years, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:19:49 Wow.

RZA 1:19:49 And that's my, that's my, that was my... He's the king of smoking. Anyway, but that was like my... But I just, like I said, I just don't like how, uh... Yeah, it just doesn't fit my, my, my today's personality, so I'm a sipper now.

Joe Rogan 1:20:04 Mm-hmm.

RZA 1:20:04 I just sip on some, some, uh, not no syrup. I mean, let me be clear.

Joe Rogan 1:20:07 I know what you mean. Yeah.

RZA 1:20:07 Okay. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:20:08 Yeah. A little scotch.

RZA 1:20:09 Little scotch, little tequila.

Joe Rogan 1:20:10 Yeah.

RZA 1:20:10 I love tequila. Mezcal.

Joe Rogan 1:20:12 Mm-hmm.

RZA 1:20:13 You know.

Joe Rogan 1:20:13 Look, there's nothing wrong with all those things. I think they're all tools, and I think one of the things about tools is you can misuse them.

RZA 1:20:19 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:20:19 And I think there's a lot of people that just live in the cloud, and they just get high all the time, and then they just feel like their life is out of control, and then pure abstinence becomes the only solution.

RZA 1:20:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:20:30 But it's really, you just started abusing the tool. I think marijuana is an excellent tool for creativity.

RZA 1:20:37 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:20:37 And the way I like it the most is writing. I think it's the, it's the greatest thing ever for writing. There's something that happens with just, not a lot, just a little bit of weed, just all of a sudden, bing, ideas start sparking off in your head.

RZA 1:20:52 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:20:52 Then I go, "I don't think that these ideas would exist without this stuff." That's one of the things that Carl Sagan said.

RZA 1:20:58 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:20:58 Jimmy, what was that famous Carl Sagan quote on, uh, cannabis? But Carl Sagan, who's obviously, like, one of the most famous-

RZA 1:21:06 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:21:06 ... astronomers of all time, he had, uh... and wrote that great movie Contact, that great book Contact. He had this quote about cannabis that I always like to say to people that wanna say it's for dummies.

RZA 1:21:18 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:21:19 'Cause it's like, no, man, it's, there's something to it. You could look like a dummy if you abuse it, just like you could look like an idiot if you get so drunk that you can't walk.

RZA 1:21:29 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 1:21:30 It's the same thing, but a little bit, just a, just a little bit sometimes just fires up. "The illegality of cannabis is outrageous and impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world." That was one quote, but there was a- another quote that he had about ideas that are available through cannabis that aren't available without it.

RZA 1:21:58 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:21:59 That h- his perception w- and obviously, here's a, here's a guy that, I mean, what better way to utilize weed than to smoke a little and stare at the fucking vastness of the cosmos and just try to-

RZA 1:22:10 Right. Well the-

Joe Rogan 1:22:11 ... open up your mind to the-

RZA 1:22:12 That's, that's exactly what I mean, for me, right? So, so if I... So it's only two things gonna happen for me. I'ma smoke, then I'ma just be like... Even if, I'll be in here finding fucking constellations and shit. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:22:25 [laughs]

RZA 1:22:25 You see what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:22:25 Yeah.

RZA 1:22:26 Or-

Joe Rogan 1:22:26 Kung fu

RZA 1:22:27 ... I'm doing kung fu.

Joe Rogan 1:22:28 That's, those sound like two good things.

RZA 1:22:29 Yeah, I'm not knocking them, but it's definitely, uh, with my schedule, it doesn't- [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:22:33 Yeah, it doesn't fit in

RZA 1:22:35 ... it doesn't fit in. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:22:35 But that's the thing is like, what is life? Is life about schedule, or is life about enjoying moments? And I think there's, there's something to be said for enjoying moments, and there's certain things that will help enhance moments, and I think, uh, that's where cannabis comes in, into play. I think the problem with it is the problem with anything that human beings abuse, whether it's soda, chocolate, whatever, alcohol, food. People abuse things.

RZA 1:23:04 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:23:04 They go too far with it. You don't use it correctly, and I think it's also part of the problem with it being illegal. One of the things about alcohol being legal is we understand what a dose is. If I give you a shot of tequila, and we both clink glasses and we do a shot, we understand the dose.

RZA 1:23:20 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:23:20 That is one shot of tequila.

RZA 1:23:22 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:23:22 It's not confusing, whereas we all know weed. You know, you get a hold of some of Snoop's weed or-

RZA 1:23:28 Ooh

Joe Rogan 1:23:29 ... some, some people are just, they're-

RZA 1:23:31 Sh-

Joe Rogan 1:23:31 ... they're dealing with botanists-

RZA 1:23:32 Right

Joe Rogan 1:23:32 ... that are on another planet, man.

RZA 1:23:34 Let me, let me say one thing about Snoop's weed one day, bro. When I was smoking, I did a interview with him, and, uh, that's when he had that GSC, he had the G... He had some, some network that he had.

Joe Rogan 1:23:44 Mm-hmm.

RZA 1:23:45 And we was talking about my movie, and then I was going, everything was fine. Like, then, you know, he's, he's rolling it, you know, he's talking. Then he lit that motherfucker up and passed that shit, bro. I hit that shit, hit it back, hit it again. I was like, "I'm getting the fuck out of here." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:24:04 [laughs]

RZA 1:24:04 I, and yo, I was gone.

Joe Rogan 1:24:06 Yeah, that's Joey Diaz weed, too.

RZA 1:24:08 Man.

Joe Rogan 1:24:08 Joey Diaz got that same kind of weed. I, I've given it to some people, and I'm like, "Careful, that's Joey Diaz weed," and they'll, and they get scared. Like, "Oh, Jesus."

RZA 1:24:15 Yeah, you gotta go home-

Joe Rogan 1:24:17 They take that one hit

RZA 1:24:17 ... and get, and make-

Joe Rogan 1:24:17 Yeah

RZA 1:24:17 ... put a pillow, get a pillow ready, 'cause that shit is gonna fucking... And he could do it all day. Like him and-

Joe Rogan 1:24:23 I know, that dude's crazy

RZA 1:24:24 ... him and Method Man out of, from my... And I'll give Burna Boy in that category as well. Those are the three most people that I've seen very weed tolerant. Like, like, like, like they could be on the third one, and then you hit it, and you're like, "What the fuck, yo? How the fuck-

Joe Rogan 1:24:44 [laughs]

RZA 1:24:45 ... how the fuck are y'all all going like that?" They just-

Joe Rogan 1:24:48 Going all day long.

RZA 1:24:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:24:50 When Snoop was in here, he just kept rolling blunts, and I was like, "How are you still awake? How, how are you, how do you function?" But they're so accustomed to it.

RZA 1:24:58 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:24:58 Their tolerance is so high, and that feeling of just being in the cloud all the time.

RZA 1:25:03 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:25:03 They're fine with it. Did you find that other quote?

Speaker 1:25:05 There's multiple quotes. It can... He had an essay, so...

Joe Rogan 1:25:08 It was something about, uh, ideas being available.

Speaker 1:25:11 Um.

Joe Rogan 1:25:12 That aren't... That was the big quote.

Speaker 1:25:15 Yeah, it didn't say, uh, understand himself. It doesn't say that in here.

Joe Rogan 1:25:20 Eh, that's okay.

Speaker 1:25:21 I failed.

Joe Rogan 1:25:22 No worries. I should have found, I should have had it ready. But the point is, it's like, it's a tool, and you could use any tool correctly, or you could use it and abuse it incorrectly.

RZA 1:25:32 So what's your frequency of smoking? Like do you, you smoke once a day, once a week?

Joe Rogan 1:25:36 I just wish it was legal. If it was legal, then people could s-

RZA 1:25:40 It is legal many places, isn't it?

Joe Rogan 1:25:41 Yeah, but it's not federally legal.

RZA 1:25:43 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:25:43 It's just got changed to Schedule 3. So Schedule 3 is the same as Tylenol with codeine. So what does that mean? That means that you have to get a prescription for itSo it doesn't carry the same, uh, pre- the crazy thing is it's completely legal in California, and it's generating tax revenue.

RZA 1:26:02 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:26:02 It's completely legal in Colorado, generating tax revenue. And then people a- always wanna point to the negative aspects of it, but, like, you could f- you could have negative aspects with everything else that's legal, too. Think about how many people die from obesity every year, obesity-related diseases.

RZA 1:26:18 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:26:18 Let's put that into Perplexity. Put that into our AI sponsor. What is... How many people die because of obesity-related diseases every year?

RZA 1:26:28 So you're saying that-

Joe Rogan 1:26:29 So should we regulate food? Should we regulate the amount of food that people are able to consume? Should we stop people? Should w- should we make cake, and Ring Dings, and Ho Hos-

RZA 1:26:39 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:26:39 ... should we make that shit illegal? No. You have to have some s- personal responsibility and some self-control, and an understanding of, like, what the ramifications are. What, what is the, what are the dangers of overeating or eating the wrong kinds of food? That's the same with cannabis, the same with alcohol. If you think that alcohol should be illegal, well, you're gonna... People are gonna drink it, and then you're just gonna empower organized crime-

RZA 1:27:01 Right

Joe Rogan 1:27:01 ... like they did during the Prohibition. Okay, how about this? World Health Organization reports that at least 2.8 million people-

RZA 1:27:09 Ooh

Joe Rogan 1:27:09 ... die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. That's fucking crazy.

RZA 1:27:16 That's crazy, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:27:17 Globally, it's three to five million people a year.

RZA 1:27:20 Wait, so where's the 2.8 at? That's here?

Joe Rogan 1:27:23 D- I don't know.

Speaker 1:27:23 No, here is, uh, US is down here.

RZA 1:27:25 Okay, it's, okay.

Joe Rogan 1:27:26 US is here. So-

RZA 1:27:27 Well, we at... Let me see US here

Joe Rogan 1:27:28 ... US, it's 280,000 to 325,000-

RZA 1:27:33 Holy fuck

Joe Rogan 1:27:33 ... per year.

RZA 1:27:34 They knocked out opioids.

Joe Rogan 1:27:36 Knocked it out of the park. So that, so we're, we're all worried about opioids-

RZA 1:27:40 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:27:40 ... and no one's worried about pizza. [laughs]

RZA 1:27:43 [laughs] Hey, hell nah.

Joe Rogan 1:27:44 But that doesn't mean that pizza should be illegal.

RZA 1:27:47 Yeah, you gotta get it though.

Joe Rogan 1:27:48 And that's the thing with-

RZA 1:27:48 Especially New York pizza, bro. That's the best pizza you gonna get. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:27:51 Best pizza. Connecticut. New Haven.

RZA 1:27:53 Uh, s-

Joe Rogan 1:27:54 Look, th- there's, you just have to have an understanding of what to do and not to do, you know? Don't eat pizza 24 hours a day every day. You'll die, right?

RZA 1:28:03 Right, right. Wasn't it-

Joe Rogan 1:28:03 Don't eat a pound of salt.

RZA 1:28:05 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:28:05 You eat a pound of salt, you'll be dead.

RZA 1:28:07 Wasn't there a documentary where the guy, um... I'm not talking that-

Joe Rogan 1:28:10 Super Size Me.

RZA 1:28:11 Yeah, that, that dude.

Joe Rogan 1:28:11 Yeah.

RZA 1:28:12 What was he eating every day?

Joe Rogan 1:28:13 He was eating McDonald's. Yeah, all day, every day, for every meal.

RZA 1:28:16 And that was, like, 30 days before, like, the Grim Reaper started knocking at the door?

Joe Rogan 1:28:20 Yeah, he wasn't doing well. Uh, he- he- he had all sorts of liver problems. Didn't McDonald's just release some subscription where you get, like... It's, like, $52 a month, and you can eat as much as you want?

RZA 1:28:31 Holy shit.

Joe Rogan 1:28:31 I think they just did that today. What's that look, Jamie? What's that face?

Speaker 1:28:35 That doesn't make any sense.

Joe Rogan 1:28:36 I know. It doesn't make any sense.

RZA 1:28:37 $52.

Joe Rogan 1:28:38 I think they just did that today. I saw it on my Google News alert this morning.

RZA 1:28:44 Did that make sense?

Joe Rogan 1:28:45 No. It doesn't make sense unless they're limiting the amount of meals that you can have in a day. But if you have a subscription, say, if you have a McDonald's subscription and it's $52 a month, and they... and that's all you eat.

RZA 1:28:59 Shoot.

Joe Rogan 1:29:00 You could live off of $52 a month easy.

RZA 1:29:01 Well, not according to that documentary.

Joe Rogan 1:29:04 No.

RZA 1:29:04 That's, that's two months, you outta here. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:29:06 Well, what if you only ate their salads, and you only ate their beef patties without any bread?

RZA 1:29:12 So-

Joe Rogan 1:29:12 You'd probably be better off

RZA 1:29:13 ... you'd be better off? Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:29:14 You'd probably be okay. But even their beef probably has, like, fillers in it and shit.

RZA 1:29:19 I'm still, I'm still living a vegan lifestyle.

Joe Rogan 1:29:21 Still?

RZA 1:29:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:29:22 Yeah?

RZA 1:29:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:29:22 What do you get mostly for your protein?

RZA 1:29:25 Mostly beans. Um, I probably do c- consume a little bit too much soy, I think, 'cause I do eat tofu.

Joe Rogan 1:29:31 Shout out to our friend CK.

RZA 1:29:32 Hey, in the building. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:29:34 He, he bought in.

RZA 1:29:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:29:36 I couldn't wait to eat something. I said-

RZA 1:29:36 Wu Chow.

Joe Rogan 1:29:36 Wu Chow. That-

RZA 1:29:37 That place rules

Joe Rogan 1:29:38 ... yes. He, he, he bought us lunch-

RZA 1:29:40 Rules

Joe Rogan 1:29:40 ... which we will eat after we finish this.

RZA 1:29:42 Phenomenal Chinese restaurant here in Austin. Phenomenal.

Joe Rogan 1:29:45 You know what he got that, that I realized?

RZA 1:29:47 What?

Joe Rogan 1:29:48 He has those Sichuan peppers.

RZA 1:29:50 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:29:51 That shit is crack, bro.

RZA 1:29:52 They kick.

Joe Rogan 1:29:53 [laughs]

RZA 1:29:53 Yeah. They kick. They make my, my bald head sweat.

Joe Rogan 1:29:56 Yes. [laughs] No, it's... [laughs]

RZA 1:29:57 I start dripping.

Joe Rogan 1:29:58 Yeah, that's what happens.

RZA 1:29:58 Dripping down to my eyebrows.

Joe Rogan 1:29:59 Exactly. I'm sorry, what were we looking up again, Jamie?

Speaker 1:30:02 This McDonald's unlimited plan.

Joe Rogan 1:30:03 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1:30:03 I think you made it up.

Joe Rogan 1:30:04 Did you find it? Is it fake?

Speaker 1:30:05 Well, I'm just, uh... The only places that it pops up are a, there's one Instagram post.

Joe Rogan 1:30:12 It was in my Google News feed.

Speaker 1:30:14 Uh, it, it, people are reporting it, but it's, seems to be only based off of a photo-

Joe Rogan 1:30:19 [laughs]

Speaker 1:30:19 ... which is most likely, uh, AI. It's-

Joe Rogan 1:30:23 Oh, yeah, 54 bucks a month

Speaker 1:30:25 ... this photo's going around, but the, the, uh, there's no links to... Mc- McDonald's isn't saying it. There's no, like, press release about it.

Joe Rogan 1:30:31 Interesting. Oh, 'cause so it's bullshit. It's bullshit. 'Cause I was thinking, like, how could they afford?

Speaker 1:30:36 Now, what also I would say, they do do test stuff, and it is claiming it's a pilot program being tested somewhere, so-

Joe Rogan 1:30:43 Oh

Speaker 1:30:43 ... potentially they're trying something out somewhere, but-

Joe Rogan 1:30:46 Somewhere

Speaker 1:30:46 ... I, again, I don't see any-

Joe Rogan 1:30:47 Interesting

Speaker 1:30:48 ... reporting of it.

Joe Rogan 1:30:49 Unlimited meals is a weird... If you're gonna limit it, you can't say unlimited because if you don't, if you, if it's unlimited, then you could just feed your whole family for $54 a month.

RZA 1:30:59 Right. You go, you go, like-

Joe Rogan 1:31:00 Yeah

RZA 1:31:01 ... take one, "Hey," you gonna go back in and get another one.

Joe Rogan 1:31:03 Yeah.

RZA 1:31:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:31:03 Well, you could just say unlimited. I like to eat seven Big Macs. Give me seven Big Macs, seven orders of fries-

RZA 1:31:08 Right

Joe Rogan 1:31:09 ... seven sodas, and then you're feeding everybody-

RZA 1:31:11 Good

Joe Rogan 1:31:11 ... for $54 a month. That's crazy.

RZA 1:31:13 Does McDonald own Chipotle?

Joe Rogan 1:31:16 I don't know. Do they own Chipotle?

RZA 1:31:17 Seems to own Chipotle. I'm bringing up Chipotle because I got Chipotle, I did a campaign with them, and they gave me a card, lifelong card. I could eat at Chipotle for free for the rest of my life.

Joe Rogan 1:31:31 Really?

RZA 1:31:31 And-

Joe Rogan 1:31:32 That's part of the campaign?

RZA 1:31:33 No, this was, like, the gift.

Joe Rogan 1:31:35 For you? Yeah.

RZA 1:31:35 Yeah, this-

Joe Rogan 1:31:36 I didn't even know that that was a thing.

RZA 1:31:37 And, and, and I could, and I could have up 10 people with 24-hour notice, and I think it's, uh, I could do a catered event at least once a month-

Joe Rogan 1:31:47 Wow

RZA 1:31:47 ... for the rest of my life.

Joe Rogan 1:31:49 That's a pretty good deal.

Speaker 1:31:50 That is a real thing.

RZA 1:31:51 Really?

Speaker 1:31:51 That's a, like, a celebrity gold card thing they offer.

RZA 1:31:54 Oh.

Speaker 1:31:56 Some people have gotten their hands on it through different ways. Like Travis Barker has one here

Joe Rogan 1:32:01 Interesting.

RZA 1:32:02 I got one.

Joe Rogan 1:32:03 Well, Travis is a, he's a vegan too.

RZA 1:32:05 Yeah, I'm a vegan too.

Joe Rogan 1:32:06 So he's eating the, just the bean burritos and stuff.

RZA 1:32:09 But it's sofritos. They got some shit called sofrito.

Joe Rogan 1:32:11 What is that?

RZA 1:32:12 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:32:14 Hopefully there's no chicken in there. [laughs]

RZA 1:32:15 No, I, I don't think it's no chicken. I think it's like a, it's like a vegan, vegan meat.

Joe Rogan 1:32:21 So most of your animal pro- or most of your protein is from what?

RZA 1:32:26 Bean, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:32:26 From tofu-

RZA 1:32:27 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:32:27 ... beans.

RZA 1:32:27 Chick- chick, I love chickpeas.

Joe Rogan 1:32:29 Chickpeas.

RZA 1:32:29 Lentils.

Joe Rogan 1:32:30 Yeah.

RZA 1:32:30 I'm crazy for lentils.

Joe Rogan 1:32:31 Um-

RZA 1:32:31 My wife'll throw a pot of lentils on.

Joe Rogan 1:32:32 Pea protein is really good.

RZA 1:32:34 Pea protein.

Joe Rogan 1:32:35 Hemp protein's really good.

RZA 1:32:36 Hemp is good.

Joe Rogan 1:32:36 Hemp protein is, uh, I think it's one of the few plant-based proteins that contains all the amino acids.

RZA 1:32:42 We-

Joe Rogan 1:32:42 And it's very bioavailable too.

RZA 1:32:45 Pumpkin seeds, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:32:46 Pumpkin seeds.

RZA 1:32:47 Pumpkin seeds.

Joe Rogan 1:32:48 Really?

RZA 1:32:48 Yeah. Look up pumpkin seeds, bro. Pumpkin seeds probably have the most best protein ever.

Joe Rogan 1:32:54 Really?

RZA 1:32:55 I keep-

Joe Rogan 1:32:55 Pumpkin seeds.

RZA 1:32:55 I keep them-

Joe Rogan 1:32:56 They taste good too

RZA 1:32:57 ... I keep them in my car, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:32:57 When they're roasted?

RZA 1:32:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:32:59 Yeah.

RZA 1:32:59 Roasted pumpkin seeds.

Joe Rogan 1:32:59 A little salt on them.

RZA 1:33:00 Little salt, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:33:01 Mm.

RZA 1:33:01 Trust me, every time I get in the whip, I got-

Joe Rogan 1:33:04 Pumpkin seeds

RZA 1:33:04 ... pumpkin seeds. What's that?

Joe Rogan 1:33:06 Wow.

RZA 1:33:06 What does it say?

Joe Rogan 1:33:06 What does it say about the...

RZA 1:33:08 Oh, and they do-

Joe Rogan 1:33:08 "May reduce the risk of cancer"

RZA 1:33:10 ... look at that. Look at that

Joe Rogan 1:33:10 ... "and improve bowel and prostate health." [laughs] Wow.

RZA 1:33:14 Pumpkin seeds, bro, that's it.

Joe Rogan 1:33:15 "Rich in protein, fiber, unsaturated fats, and must-have minerals, pepitas are a great healthy snacking option." All right. Yeah, pumpkin seeds are delicious.

RZA 1:33:25 Yeah, so you get those and you get some chickpeas.

Joe Rogan 1:33:28 Isn't it weird that people, when they make, like, their fucking jack-o-lanterns, they scoop that shit out and throw it away?

RZA 1:33:34 Yeah. Give them to me. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:33:35 That's, like, the most, the healthiest part of the pumpkin. That's weird. It's weird what we throw away. Like, we're just so used to, like, waste.

RZA 1:33:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:45 So used to, like, having an abundance of food that we're not concentrating on this part of the plant that has the most protein-

RZA 1:33:51 Right

Joe Rogan 1:33:51 ... in the plant, probably the most nutritious part of the pumpkin.

RZA 1:33:54 Well, you know, my buddy was here yesterday. He, uh... they don't throw away too much of that, uh, too much of that meat for that Texas barbecue you guys got-

Joe Rogan 1:34:04 No

RZA 1:34:04 ... that motherfucking barbecue. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:34:05 No, they don't fuck around down there.

RZA 1:34:06 Yo, they, yo, do you... th- th- there was a l- a, a 15-minute wait line around the corner, 200 people.

Joe Rogan 1:34:12 Where were you at? Which place?

RZA 1:34:13 Um, it was... I don't know the name of it. Um-

Joe Rogan 1:34:15 Terry Black's?

RZA 1:34:17 I don't know, 'cause I just drove. A- my man Abbas went there.

Joe Rogan 1:34:20 Oh, okay.

RZA 1:34:20 They say, you know, he couldn't come out to T- Texas and not get some Texas barbecue. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:34:24 Yeah.

RZA 1:34:24 I'm a vegan, what I'ma do, you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:34:26 [sighs] Well, they have some good beans and-

RZA 1:34:28 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:34:28 ... macaroni and it's just a bunch of different stuff that you can get there. Potato salad.

RZA 1:34:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:34:33 Yeah.

RZA 1:34:33 It's all good. Yeah. Well, potato salad, I gotta watch out for it.

Joe Rogan 1:34:35 Oh, that's right. It's got mayonnaise-

RZA 1:34:36 The milk and shit, yeah

Joe Rogan 1:34:37 ... and milk and eggs. Yeah. You've been a, you've been a vegan for a lo- since the '90s, right?

RZA 1:34:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:34:43 That's crazy.

RZA 1:34:43 Well, no, I started vegetarian, uh, in the '90s, and by the time I got to 2000, I started letting go.

Joe Rogan 1:34:49 You don't fuck with eggs at all? Nothing?

RZA 1:34:50 No, I got rid of the eggs.

Joe Rogan 1:34:51 No?

RZA 1:34:52 Yeah. I don't... the eggs... What got me off the fucking eggs, bro? I think my personality got me off the eggs. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:35:00 Personality. [laughs]

RZA 1:35:01 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:35:01 Why is that?

RZA 1:35:02 I don't know. So, like, you know, it's like, like, like, I'm, I'm, I'm like... what's the word? I could be scornful. Is that the word? Like, when you, like, like, like... I don't know. Like, I... like I'm, like, I, I, I... Like a Felix Unger type of shit, you know?

Joe Rogan 1:35:16 Mm-hmm.

RZA 1:35:16 You ever watch Felix Unger?

Joe Rogan 1:35:17 Yeah.

RZA 1:35:17 Like-

Joe Rogan 1:35:17 Odd Couple.

RZA 1:35:18 Yeah, like-

Joe Rogan 1:35:18 Yeah

RZA 1:35:18 ... he don't want pits in his orange juice or some shit.

Joe Rogan 1:35:21 Uh-huh.

RZA 1:35:21 So eggs, like o- like one day, it's just, it's just, it's just the slime of the egg. It's just-

Joe Rogan 1:35:27 Man, just cook it.

RZA 1:35:29 Y- yeah, but it then got that little, little white shit in there, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:35:33 [laughs]

RZA 1:35:33 [laughs] I'm just saying.

Joe Rogan 1:35:34 It's so good for you.

RZA 1:35:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:35:35 And if you have your own chickens, like I have my own chickens-

RZA 1:35:38 Oh, nice

Joe Rogan 1:35:38 ... eggs are karma-free protein. They're like pets that give you free protein.

RZA 1:35:42 Right. Right.

Joe Rogan 1:35:43 Because they're, they're, they're laying an egg that will never be a chicken, 'cause it's not fertilized.

RZA 1:35:49 It's not fertilized, right.

Joe Rogan 1:35:49 Exactly. So it's just free protein.

RZA 1:35:51 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:35:51 And they lay them every day, basically-

RZA 1:35:53 That's-

Joe Rogan 1:35:53 ... or close to it, and you feed them, and they run around the backyard, and they pick bugs and grass, and-

RZA 1:36:00 Right. What do you feed them?

Joe Rogan 1:36:02 Chicken food. You know, you buy-

RZA 1:36:03 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:36:03 ... chicken feed, and we also feed them some table scraps and vegetables and, and different things, but they're carnivores, man, which is really wild. Like, you see them eat a mouse, it's crazy.

RZA 1:36:13 Oh, what?

Joe Rogan 1:36:14 They tear mice... You never seen a chicken eat a mouse?

RZA 1:36:16 I never seen a chicken eat a mouse, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:36:17 Chickens are straight up dinosaurs. There's some great videos of chickens around a cat, and a cat's playing with a mouse, and the chicken just runs up on the cat and steals the mouse from him and tears it apart.

RZA 1:36:29 I didn't see that, yo.

Joe Rogan 1:36:30 I fed a chicken that I ha- well, it, one chicken stole the mouse, but-

RZA 1:36:34 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:36:35 ... so th- this is what happened. So, uh, in my house in California, we used to have a wrought iron fence, and we replaced it with a glass fence.

RZA 1:36:42 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:36:43 Unfortunately, hawks couldn't tell that it was a glass fence-

RZA 1:36:46 Oh

Joe Rogan 1:36:46 ... and we lost a few hawks.

RZA 1:36:48 Boom.

Joe Rogan 1:36:48 And they slammed into it headfirst and got KO'd, and some of them di- we lost, like, two hawks died. It was really sad. But one of them survived, and my family, my wife and my daughters, took the hawk and put it in, like, a large cardboard box. It couldn't fly, and they had to feed it over the weekend-

RZA 1:37:04 Oh

Joe Rogan 1:37:04 ... because the rescue shelter couldn't take it over the weekend. We had to bring it in on Monday. And so they go, "Well, what do hawks... How do you feed it?" We went to the store and, uh, the, the pet store, and the pet food store had these things called pinkies, and what they are is, like, little baby mice.

RZA 1:37:19 Mm. That's sick.

Joe Rogan 1:37:20 And so you put these little baby mice in with the hawk, and the hawk ate most of them, but one of them lived.

RZA 1:37:25 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:37:25 One of them, the hawk didn't eat it. And so-

RZA 1:37:27 The hawk, it had enough, had enough-

Joe Rogan 1:37:28 Yeah

RZA 1:37:28 ... pinkies.

Joe Rogan 1:37:29 It ate enough. So my daughters are like, "Well, we want to keep that one alive." I'm like, "It's not gonna live. It doesn't have the milk. It doesn't have its mother."

RZA 1:37:36 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:37:36 "It hasn't been weaned. It's going to die."

RZA 1:37:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:37:38 And I said, "Let me just feed it to the chickens." I didn't even know if they were gonna eat it.

RZA 1:37:41 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:37:41 I didn't know what was gonna happen. I put that little mouse down in the cage-

RZA 1:37:45 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:37:45 ... and that chicken just ran up and snatched it, and they all stole it away. So watch this cat. This cat's fucking with this mouse. The cats, you think cats are ruthless, and they are.

RZA 1:37:53 Yeah, he's playing with this motherfucker.

Joe Rogan 1:37:54 But he's playing with it. He wants to watch it hop away, and then the chicken gets annoyed after a while, and the chicken's like, "Give me that shit, bitch." And when the chicken runs up on the mouse-Okay, watch this. Instantaneously, as soon as the chicken realizes this, like-

RZA 1:38:08 Fuck outta here

Joe Rogan 1:38:09 ... st- "Give me that shit, bitch."

RZA 1:38:10 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:38:10 And just starts tearing it apart.

RZA 1:38:12 Holy shit.

Joe Rogan 1:38:12 Chickens aren't into playing with things at all. They just rip it to shreds.

RZA 1:38:14 Nah, that's it. This is dinner.

Joe Rogan 1:38:16 Yeah, just shaking it-

RZA 1:38:16 You playing with the food

Joe Rogan 1:38:18 ... and mangling it

RZA 1:38:18 ... I'm outta here. What is that?

Joe Rogan 1:38:19 Well, they were all chasing each other around the chicken coop where this one chicken had the mouse in its mouth, and they were all trying to steal it from her mouth.

RZA 1:38:27 Damn.

Joe Rogan 1:38:27 And they're all j- oh, they wanted it more than anything.

RZA 1:38:29 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:38:30 'Cause they don't act like that with chicken food at all.

RZA 1:38:33 Right, right. They want some, they wanted some meat, bro. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:38:35 Yeah, yeah. Or y- dried worms or, or that's one of them, like worm meal. You buy these, like, boxes of dried, and you shake it and they come running, and you'll, like, leave that out for them.

RZA 1:38:44 Right, right.

Joe Rogan 1:38:44 They love that.

RZA 1:38:45 So okay, so now your chickens, you got your own how many?

Joe Rogan 1:38:48 I have 15. 15 chickens.

RZA 1:38:50 Oh, wow.

Joe Rogan 1:38:50 Yeah.

RZA 1:38:50 So you getting, what, two d- how many eggs?

Joe Rogan 1:38:52 A bunch of eggs. Like, probably at least 10 eggs every day.

RZA 1:38:55 Wow.

Joe Rogan 1:38:56 And so, 'cause they don't always lay them every day.

RZA 1:38:58 Of course, of course.

Joe Rogan 1:38:59 But it's free protein, and it's healthy for you. You know exactly where it came from. There's no hormones, no pesticides, no herbicides.

RZA 1:39:07 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:39:07 No nothing.

RZA 1:39:08 Let me, let me interrupt our podcast for a moment.

Joe Rogan 1:39:10 Okay.

RZA 1:39:10 This is the RZA. I'm sitting here with Joe Rogan. I have a new film coming out May 1st.

Joe Rogan 1:39:16 [laughs]

RZA 1:39:16 It's called One Spoon of Chocolate, starring Shameik Moore and Paris Jackson, produced by Quentin Tarantino, in theaters everywhere May 1st.

Joe Rogan 1:39:23 And that's only a couple days from now. Today is the 27th, so it's this Friday, May 1st.

RZA 1:39:28 This Friday.

Joe Rogan 1:39:29 There it is, One Spoon of Chocolate. Dun, dun, dun.

RZA 1:39:32 Yeah. Because one spoon of chocolate can do what?

Joe Rogan 1:39:34 Change a whole glass of milk.

RZA 1:39:36 Change the whole glass of milk. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:39:38 [laughs] Yeah. Um, but anyway, eggs is good for you.

RZA 1:39:42 Okay, so-

Joe Rogan 1:39:42 They're very good for you, healthy, and karma free.

RZA 1:39:46 Now, the only-

Joe Rogan 1:39:46 You don't have to worry about anything suffering

RZA 1:39:47 ... right. Now, the only thing I, only thing that I don't complain about as a vegan, and I don't cook with it or use it, but if some butter slipped on my shit-

Joe Rogan 1:39:56 Mm-hmm

RZA 1:39:57 ... I'm not gonna flip out.

Joe Rogan 1:39:58 Yeah, you shouldn't, because it's just milk that comes out of a cow. It doesn't, you know, especially if you get it from an organic farm, it's no big deal.

RZA 1:40:05 Right. So that's the only, that's, so that's the only thing that, and, and I, you know, I don't, you know, I don't, I, I use all that plant-based butter and, uh, they got this thing called, um, well, now Country Crock got a plant-based avocado oil butter.

Joe Rogan 1:40:20 Really?

RZA 1:40:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:40:21 How the fuck do they make that? [laughs]

RZA 1:40:23 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:40:23 That's the problem with all that stuff that's, like, fake meat and fake this, is that it's really processed.

RZA 1:40:30 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:40:30 You know, I think if you wanna eat vegetables and vegetarian diet, like, the way to do it is the way the Indians do it. It's, like, Indian food from India.

RZA 1:40:40 Oh, oh, yeah. Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:40:40 You know, there's a lot of amazing Indian-

RZA 1:40:43 Yes

Joe Rogan 1:40:43 ... vegetarian food.

RZA 1:40:44 I stay in an Indian restaurant.

Joe Rogan 1:40:45 Oh, so good, so spicy and so delicious.

RZA 1:40:49 C-

Joe Rogan 1:40:49 And they've been cooking just vegetarian dishes for-

RZA 1:40:52 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:40:53 ... probably thousands of years.

RZA 1:40:54 Cleans you right out, too, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:40:55 Yeah. Oh, that's true.

RZA 1:40:56 [laughs] That's, that's-

Joe Rogan 1:40:57 Yeah. It opens up the gates.

RZA 1:40:57 Lama Lama.

Joe Rogan 1:40:58 Let's go. [laughs]

RZA 1:40:59 Let's go, baby. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:41:01 [laughs] Yeah.

RZA 1:41:01 Don't, don't have a flight.

Joe Rogan 1:41:02 Yeah. [laughs]

RZA 1:41:03 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:41:03 Exactly. If you do, get a seat in the back.

RZA 1:41:05 Yeah, yep.

Joe Rogan 1:41:06 Yeah. It's, uh, but it's, there was a place that I used to l-, um, live near, near my old house in California that was, uh, in an Indian neighborhood, and there was this Indian restaurant. It was like a, you know, like a cafeteria style, where you just go and p- I didn't even know what the fuck the names of these things were.

RZA 1:41:23 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:41:23 They had photos of whatever it was.

RZA 1:41:25 [laughs] Right, you point that, that-

Joe Rogan 1:41:25 But it was all s- in Indian.

RZA 1:41:27 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:41:27 And I would just point at, and it was all, everyone who ate there was Indian.

RZA 1:41:30 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:41:30 It was very few regular, uh, I mean, no white people, no-

RZA 1:41:34 Wait, w-

Joe Rogan 1:41:34 ... African Americans. It was all Indians

RZA 1:41:35 ... where is, where's that... Wait, I feel like I might have fucking been there, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:41:38 In the Valley.

RZA 1:41:38 In the Valley.

Joe Rogan 1:41:38 It's in the Valley. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

RZA 1:41:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:41:40 Yeah.

RZA 1:41:40 And it, yeah, it's, it's not a restaurant.

Joe Rogan 1:41:41 No, it's like a store.

RZA 1:41:42 Yeah, I've been there, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:41:43 And in the back of the store. You've been to that place.

RZA 1:41:44 Yeah, and you can buy some fucking spices of your own.

Joe Rogan 1:41:46 Yes.

RZA 1:41:47 Yeah, bro. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:41:48 Yes. God, I wish I remembered the name of the place, 'cause the spices were awesome, too. It had... It was a great place, and in the back they had this, like, cafeteria style.

RZA 1:41:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:41:55 And it was phen- and it was all Indian people.

RZA 1:41:57 Yep, yep.

Joe Rogan 1:41:58 Phenomenal. Phenomenal restaurant.

RZA 1:42:00 I'm the kinda guy that'd do that, too. I, like, I'll go to the Asian market and shit.

Joe Rogan 1:42:03 Mm-hmm.

RZA 1:42:03 I'll go, "Fuck." I'll go, I know that I'm getting a bunch of good shit.

Joe Rogan 1:42:07 Yeah. Oh, that's it.

RZA 1:42:07 Look at that.

Joe Rogan 1:42:07 India Sweets and Spices.

RZA 1:42:09 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:42:09 Damn, Jamie's a wizard.

RZA 1:42:11 Nice.

Joe Rogan 1:42:11 Where is that joint?

Speaker 1:42:12 Uh, Canoga Park.

Joe Rogan 1:42:13 Can- that's it.

RZA 1:42:14 Canoga, Canoga. Yep, yep.

Joe Rogan 1:42:14 Canoga Park. That's exactly it. That's the spot.

RZA 1:42:17 That's not far from our-

Joe Rogan 1:42:18 And that is-

RZA 1:42:18 ... our old office

Joe Rogan 1:42:19 ... oh, it, oh, that's real close to where my old studio was, too.

RZA 1:42:23 Yeah. And, and, um, my, my, I was on, my s- I still got the same office, though, right over there. Yo, bro, your old studio, right?

Joe Rogan 1:42:29 Yeah.

RZA 1:42:30 You know what happened to it, right?

Joe Rogan 1:42:31 No.

RZA 1:42:31 Bro, that whole shit, they tore that shit down.

Joe Rogan 1:42:34 They did?

RZA 1:42:35 It's now the LA Rams training facility.

Joe Rogan 1:42:38 Oh, wow.

RZA 1:42:40 You remember that A- do you remember that AMC?

Joe Rogan 1:42:41 Yeah.

RZA 1:42:42 Bro, whoosh.

Joe Rogan 1:42:43 Really?

RZA 1:42:44 Tore it down, bro. They building some other shit there now.

Joe Rogan 1:42:47 Wow.

RZA 1:42:48 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:42:49 That is crazy.

RZA 1:42:50 'Cause back, that's for the fans to know, I could, I could see Joe's office from my window, or his studio from my window back in those, back in those days and shit.

Joe Rogan 1:42:57 Wow.

RZA 1:42:58 But now all that is the LA Rams training facility, so I watch the Rams train and shit from my window.

Joe Rogan 1:43:06 Oh, man. Well, that's crazy.

RZA 1:43:07 Yeah, right?

Joe Rogan 1:43:08 That neighborhood's very interesting. There's a lot of cool stuff. There's a phenomenal Mexican spot down there. What is it called, The Big Burrito? That's what it's called, right?

Speaker 1:43:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:43:17 I think that's it. There's, uh, this phenomenal Mexican joint, and you go in there, it's all, like, Mexican soap operas playing. Everybody speaks Spanish.

RZA 1:43:25 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:43:26 No, no one there is speaking English, and the food is sensational. It's just-

RZA 1:43:31 Yeah, Big Burrito.

Joe Rogan 1:43:31 That's it.

Speaker 1:43:31 El Big Burrito, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:43:32 El Big Burrito. That place fucking rules. I, when I lived there, I didn't tell people about it, 'cause I didn't wanna blow up the spot.

RZA 1:43:39 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:43:39 I wa- I wanted to be able to go in there.

RZA 1:43:41 Right, right. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:43:42 I would never bring it up on the podcast, and they've reached out to me thanking me, because we've, we've brought it up a few times. But that place fucking rules. You wanna get, like, a legit burrito, legit quesadilla.

RZA 1:43:54 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:43:54 Like, legit tacos, like lengua tacos, like cow to-

RZA 1:43:58 Right

Joe Rogan 1:43:58 ... I know you don't eat meat, but if you did. And even their burri- their bean burritos are fucking phenomenal. It's just, like, real legit spicy Mexican food.

RZA 1:44:07 Well, to me, it's all about the sauce. If, if, if you got good salsa-

Joe Rogan 1:44:11 Mm-hmm

RZA 1:44:11 ... [laughs] you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:44:12 Yeah. Oh, that place is so good. That, that's, I mean, there's those places that you find in LA that are real hard to find in Texas. Texas, you get a lot of Tex-Mex, you know?

RZA 1:44:22 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:44:23 Whereas in LA you get straight Mexican, like real Mexican.

RZA 1:44:25 Let's talk, let's, let's talk about that for a moment, 'cause I, I, I actually thought about that. 'Cause New York, you, you, you, I mean, now it's okay, but New York, we, for years, bro, we didn't have good Mexican food

Joe Rogan 1:44:38 They do now?

RZA 1:44:39 Yeah, 'cause now it's been more, some more brothers come, came and, and there's, there's some, there's some pocket communities.

Joe Rogan 1:44:44 Mm-hmm.

RZA 1:44:45 But trust me, in New York, bro, for ye- I didn't... I thought I was eating Mexican food until I went to California.

Joe Rogan 1:44:52 Yeah.

RZA 1:44:53 And I was like, "Okay, now I-"

Joe Rogan 1:44:54 San Diego has some of the absolute best Mexican food in the world.

RZA 1:44:58 San Diego is great. But, but I, I find Texas and, uh, New Mexico, like, I find this part of the country as well having, having, uh, a lot of good flavors. But I'm interested, how do you... Like, if you were to say from your travels, the best Mexican food, is it California? Is it the Midwest? What, what, what would you say?

Joe Rogan 1:45:19 Well, there's really good Mexican food in Texas, but you gotta ser- seek it out, whereas there's a lot of Tex-Mex here, which is also really good, but you can tell it's not straight Mexican. You know what I mean?

RZA 1:45:32 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:45:32 It's like a fusion.

RZA 1:45:33 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:45:34 And in California you don't have any of that. And California is just-

RZA 1:45:37 It's real

Joe Rogan 1:45:37 ... Mexican, and there's so many great Mexican restaurants in California.

RZA 1:45:41 Right, right, right, right, right. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:45:41 San Diego is filled with them, but LA's filled with them too. But it's spots like that, like the Big Burrito.

RZA 1:45:46 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:45:46 Where you go to a place like that, you walk in, you're like, "Oh my God, I'm home."

RZA 1:45:50 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:45:50 'Cause it's like you... The smells, and then you see the Spanish soap operas playing.

RZA 1:45:54 Right, right. Yeah, this is real.

Joe Rogan 1:45:55 You're like, "Oh, okay, this is legit."

RZA 1:45:56 Yeah, I was driving down the street, uh, last night and shit, and, um, it... I just found this really funny, right? So I'm driving down the street. I mean, I'm not driving. Personally I don't drive, but the car, my car-

Joe Rogan 1:46:06 You don't drive at all?

RZA 1:46:07 I don't drive. I haven't driven-

Joe Rogan 1:46:07 Really?

RZA 1:46:08 ... since 2012 I haven't driven a car.

Joe Rogan 1:46:10 How come?

RZA 1:46:12 I just, I just, uh, let go. You know what happened, bro?

Joe Rogan 1:46:15 What happened?

RZA 1:46:16 I was in China. Um-

Joe Rogan 1:46:19 You don't wanna drive in China.

RZA 1:46:20 Well, I, I gotta be honest. Like, we was doing a film there, and every time, every morning that they, I would go to work, it al- it almost... Like, every day it almost happened. Like, it almost, like, that's, that-

Joe Rogan 1:46:34 Almost car accident.

RZA 1:46:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:46:35 Yeah.

RZA 1:46:35 Every day, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:46:36 Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

RZA 1:46:38 So, so, and even, even, even, even, like, when my brother Russell Crowe, like, we'll get to set in the morning.

Joe Rogan 1:46:43 I love that dude.

RZA 1:46:44 And yo, he'll say the same thing, like, "Yo, Bobby," like, "Phew." I'll be, "Yeah, bro." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:46:49 [laughs]

RZA 1:46:51 "We made it."

Joe Rogan 1:46:53 Yeah. [laughs]

RZA 1:46:53 Right?

Joe Rogan 1:46:54 Yeah.

RZA 1:46:54 But so, so then when I came home, I just stopped driving, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:46:58 You just didn't wanna be a part of it anymore?

RZA 1:47:00 Nah. Nope. I haven't drove since, since then.

Joe Rogan 1:47:02 Have you ever fucked with any of those Waymos? You ever gotten in, in-

RZA 1:47:05 No

Joe Rogan 1:47:05 ... those things?

RZA 1:47:06 You?

Joe Rogan 1:47:06 No.

RZA 1:47:07 No.

Joe Rogan 1:47:07 No.

RZA 1:47:08 No.

Joe Rogan 1:47:08 But I do have a Tesla that'll drive me.

RZA 1:47:10 Have you did it?

Joe Rogan 1:47:10 Yeah. I've had it drive me all the way home.

RZA 1:47:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:47:13 It's crazy. Yeah.

RZA 1:47:15 How do you feel, though? I-

Joe Rogan 1:47:16 Un- uncomfortable.

RZA 1:47:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:47:17 I don't like it.

RZA 1:47:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:47:18 I like driving. I do, I do.

RZA 1:47:20 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:47:20 I enjoy driving. But with my Tesla, I'll put an address.

RZA 1:47:24 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:47:24 Like, say if I wanna go to a restaurant or something like that, and go doo-doo, and it'll drive me. It'll stop at stop signs and stoplights, it'll change lanes if there's anything in the way. It, it hits the blinkers to change lanes. It turns. It does everything.

RZA 1:47:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:47:38 I mean, it literally can drive you from point A to... Do you ever fuck with it, Jamie? You ever use it?

Speaker 1:47:44 I just found out through the update that, like, and then I'm not, I haven't been using full self-driving. I've been using whatever was right before that.

Joe Rogan 1:47:51 Oh.

Speaker 1:47:51 Which to me I thought was the exact same. It drives itself, too. But-

Joe Rogan 1:47:56 What's the difference?

Speaker 1:47:56 I don't know. [laughs] 'Cause I, it said that you're, it like, it gave me an option to turn it on.

Joe Rogan 1:48:02 Oh.

Speaker 1:48:02 I thought I was... What? Hold on.

Joe Rogan 1:48:04 [laughs]

Speaker 1:48:05 What the... What, what am I doing then?

Joe Rogan 1:48:06 Oh, that's weird.

Speaker 1:48:07 'Cause it still drives itself.

Joe Rogan 1:48:08 I don't remember, because I turned m- I got my... It's a part of a subscription, right?

Speaker 1:48:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:48:12 Isn't it?

Speaker 1:48:12 That's when I got, was like, "Wait, I thought I had it. Hold up."

Joe Rogan 1:48:15 Yeah.

Speaker 1:48:15 Or, well, what-

Joe Rogan 1:48:16 I've-

Speaker 1:48:16 ... whatever, whatever it's been doing.

Joe Rogan 1:48:17 Whatever it is, I definitely have it because I use it.

RZA 1:48:19 What you mean, what you mean it's part of a subscription? You mean-

Joe Rogan 1:48:21 Yeah

RZA 1:48:21 ... it ain't automatic?

Joe Rogan 1:48:22 I think so. I think you pay more for it. I'm not sure. I don't wanna talk out of turn. Uh-

Speaker 1:48:27 That's why I also didn't understand it either, but yeah, I think so.

Joe Rogan 1:48:30 I think you pay for it, because I think it's more complex. It's using a bunch of different pe- I don't know. I'm making things up. I don't know.

RZA 1:48:38 Watch, but-

Joe Rogan 1:48:39 But I do know it works. If you press it, doo-doo.

RZA 1:48:41 I saw a Waymo. I saw a Waymo on the way here to you.

Joe Rogan 1:48:43 Mm-hmm.

RZA 1:48:44 And it was right beside us. I looked in there and I was like, "Yo, bro, why have a steering wheel with the old school fucking, uh-"

Joe Rogan 1:48:52 With a gear changer?

RZA 1:48:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:48:54 Yeah. [laughs]

RZA 1:48:54 If nobody gonna drive this shit.

Joe Rogan 1:48:56 Well, in case it breaks, and then if, if somehow the, maybe there's an override where you could just drive it.

RZA 1:49:02 Yeah, but still, that's the grandma thing, bro.

Joe Rogan 1:49:05 The shifter on the column?

RZA 1:49:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:49:07 [laughs]

RZA 1:49:07 It's like, this is, we in the future. Ugh.

Joe Rogan 1:49:11 Ugh.

RZA 1:49:11 It, there shouldn't be no steering wheel like that. It's-

Joe Rogan 1:49:13 My Cadillac has that. My Cadillac shifts on the, on the column like that.

RZA 1:49:17 That's for the what?

Joe Rogan 1:49:18 An Escalade.

RZA 1:49:19 That's for the... Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:49:19 Yeah.

RZA 1:49:20 That's it? I thought-

Joe Rogan 1:49:20 Putting drive like that

RZA 1:49:21 ... I thought the shit is right here and then...

Joe Rogan 1:49:22 Uh-uh. Da-der. Put it-

RZA 1:49:24 I got my shit right here, bro

Joe Rogan 1:49:25 ... pretty sure

RZA 1:49:25 ... ba, ba, ba, ba.

Joe Rogan 1:49:26 Right?

RZA 1:49:26 That might be for your lights or shit.

Joe Rogan 1:49:27 Cadillac Escalade. No, I'm pretty sure.

RZA 1:49:29 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:49:29 I mean, I have a bunch of cars, but I'm pretty-

RZA 1:49:31 I don't drive, so I don't even know, man. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:49:32 I don't drive. We're gonna put a, um, a studio in at the racetrack-

RZA 1:49:36 Uh-huh

Joe Rogan 1:49:36 ... at Circuit of the Americas. I'm gonna take you around the racetrack. I'm gonna k- put you-

RZA 1:49:40 What you mean?

Joe Rogan 1:49:40 ... in a car. You're gonna drive around a racetrack.

Speaker 1:49:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:49:43 And then you're gonna auto start driving.

RZA 1:49:44 Oh, yeah, well, I don't put nobody-

Joe Rogan 1:49:45 Yeah.

Speaker 1:49:45 I have this thing for the Escalade, I thought.

RZA 1:49:46 Yeah, that's the, that's the shit.

Joe Rogan 1:49:47 No, not the new one.

Speaker 1:49:48 Yeah, it says 20- 23.

Joe Rogan 1:49:50 No, 2026 Escalade, uh, V. Escalade gearshift.

Speaker 1:50:00 I don't have Escalade gearshift.

Joe Rogan 1:50:00 Yeah, but it doesn't... That's not how it works. I'm 90% su- There it is right there on the column. See it?

RZA 1:50:07 Oh, yeah, by the-

Joe Rogan 1:50:07 Right there. That's how it is. That's what mine looks like.

RZA 1:50:09 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:50:10 See that little-

RZA 1:50:11 They, they, they put it back up there?

Joe Rogan 1:50:12 Yeah, they put it back up there.

RZA 1:50:12 Thought it was down there.

Joe Rogan 1:50:13 Because it clears all the room on your console.

RZA 1:50:16 Right, for your cops and all that shit.

Joe Rogan 1:50:17 Yeah, that's, that's where mine is.

RZA 1:50:19 I love that though. But, um, so anyway, I'm coming... Well, I'm in a Escalade yesterday, right? [laughs] I don't know where the gear shit was at, but I got the window down, getting some of this beautiful, uh, Austin air, and a b- a, a, a truck drives up beside me, uh, playing this Spanish song. He's blasting this shit. Dun, dun, dun, dun. The shit sound cool like a motherfucker, right?I'm like, "Yo, what is this shit?" So I Shazam it [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:50:45 [laughs]

RZA 1:50:46 Right? So anyway, I Shazam it, and then I get the song, right?

Joe Rogan 1:50:51 Right.

RZA 1:50:52 And then I start playing it in my car, and the truck, he's going on... But then we s- you know, he's still driving slow. Then I l- I can see the car th- beside me, they Shazamed it. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:51:02 [laughs]

RZA 1:51:02 You know what I mean? And I was like, wait a minute, that's, that's... That doesn't happen. I mean, that's what we need again.

Joe Rogan 1:51:07 Yeah.

RZA 1:51:08 Like, where, like, somebody's just playing some fucking music, you never heard the song before. You like it-

Joe Rogan 1:51:15 Yes

RZA 1:51:16 ... you got it.

Joe Rogan 1:51:17 Yeah

RZA 1:51:17 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:51:17 Yeah.

RZA 1:51:18 And so I got-

Joe Rogan 1:51:19 I love Shazam

RZA 1:51:20 ... I got two Spanish songs now in my, in my, uh, in my joint that, um, is part of my, my new playlist, yo. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:51:28 They just got from listening to people's cars.

RZA 1:51:30 Yeah, just driving by like, "Yo, hold on. That shit sound dope." Uh, yo-

Joe Rogan 1:51:33 Yeah, that's a new thing, right? Because we don't have radio as much anymore. There's not a lot of people listening to the radio. A lot of times you're getting new songs like, uh, well oftentimes, like I'll be at dinner someplace-

RZA 1:51:43 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 1:51:43 ... and they'll be playing music and I'll go, "Ooh, what is this?"

RZA 1:51:46 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:51:46 And I'll put my phone up in the air and try to catch it.

RZA 1:51:49 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:51:49 You know?

RZA 1:51:49 That's dope that... That's one of the greatest things about technology to me because is, is that ability to know.

Joe Rogan 1:51:56 Mm-hmm.

RZA 1:51:57 You know? Like, you can know now if you wanna know. You, you like-

Joe Rogan 1:51:59 Yeah

RZA 1:51:59 ... you don't gotta wait to know.

Joe Rogan 1:52:00 Yeah.

RZA 1:52:00 You can be like, "You know what, motherfucker?" Like, everything we... Every ti- every time you get a thought here that we not too sure about, we could hit, he could hit that button-

Joe Rogan 1:52:08 Exactly

RZA 1:52:09 ... and give us a reference, you know.

Joe Rogan 1:52:10 I know. I w- sometimes we leave a podcast and I'm like, "Maybe we should've looked that one up," 'cause it turns out that shit's not true. [laughs]

RZA 1:52:17 Well, I have, I have beaten Google a few times now.

Joe Rogan 1:52:20 You've won? You've beat Google?

RZA 1:52:22 Yeah. I've beat 'em. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:52:22 Well, Google's a little deceptive, I think. But if you use AI, like we use Perplexity, it searches for the whole internet.

RZA 1:52:30 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:52:30 It doesn't just, you know, use whatever Google... The problem with Google, not, it's not, not that it's a problem, but it's, these are curated searches. So like, like say, like here's a perfect example. Um, say if you wanna find a Mexican restaurant.

RZA 1:52:47 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 1:52:47 Right? And you use Google. What Google's gonna do is some people are paying so that their restaurant-

RZA 1:52:54 Right, pops to the top, right

Joe Rogan 1:52:54 ... gets to the top of the search list. That's a little bit of a problem.

RZA 1:52:58 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:52:58 Because that might not be the best restaurant.

RZA 1:53:00 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:53:00 That might just be a restaurant that paid Google. Whereas if you go to like Perplexity and say, "In terms of like restaurant r- critics, what is the favorite authentic-a- authentic Mexican restaurant in Austin?" And it'll tell you.

RZA 1:53:17 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:53:17 It'll say, "These people believe that this is it," and there's no curation yet.

RZA 1:53:21 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:53:22 I mean, one... Like, my wife is actually, we were talking about this today, like, one day they're gonna fuck that up, too.

RZA 1:53:27 Hm.

Joe Rogan 1:53:27 And people are gonna pay to get that to-

RZA 1:53:30 Right, right

Joe Rogan 1:53:30 ... but right now they haven't done that. So right now you could find spots, like cool spots that haven't, you know, with no curation.

RZA 1:53:38 And aren't, are sponsored, right.

Joe Rogan 1:53:39 Exactly.

RZA 1:53:40 And let's check... Let's, let's, let's do a test real quick.

Joe Rogan 1:53:42 Okay.

RZA 1:53:43 Okay. So there's 196,940,000 square miles on the planet, right?

Joe Rogan 1:53:48 Whoa.

RZA 1:53:49 There's 63,360, uh, inches, right, in um, in a mile. 'Cause it's 5,280 feet in a mile. So I'm gonna start over. There's 196,940,000 square miles on the planet.

Joe Rogan 1:54:06 In the country.

RZA 1:54:07 In the planet.

Joe Rogan 1:54:08 On the planet?

RZA 1:54:08 On the planet.

Joe Rogan 1:54:08 On the planet, okay.

RZA 1:54:09 Okay. For one mile, there's 5,280 feet.

Joe Rogan 1:54:14 Okay.

RZA 1:54:15 Right? And of course, there's 12 inches in a feet, so you multiply it, that by 12, you'll get to 63,360 inches. I want Perplexity to tell me how many square inches on the planet.

Joe Rogan 1:54:30 Ooh.

RZA 1:54:31 Let's see what you get. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:54:33 Boy, that number's gotta be bananas. That... I, I guarantee we're gonna look at a long fucking number.

RZA 1:54:41 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:54:41 Lot of zeros. That's a good question. That is a good question. Dun, dun, dun.

RZA 1:54:50 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:54:52 Does it even have an answer?

Speaker 1:54:54 Uh, it says-

Joe Rogan 1:54:54 It's probably confused.

RZA 1:54:55 It's like, "Hold on, what the fuck you talking about? Are you perplexing me?"

Joe Rogan 1:54:58 It's like, "What are you doing?" [laughs]

RZA 1:55:00 [laughs] We perplexed Perplexity.

Speaker 1:55:04 Yeah, okay, there.

Joe Rogan 1:55:05 There you go.

RZA 1:55:06 Okay.

Speaker 1:55:06 It did answer correctly the first time I typed it in.

Joe Rogan 1:55:09 8 times 10 to the 17 square inches on Earth's surface. Um, what does that look like-

RZA 1:55:15 Okay

Joe Rogan 1:55:15 ... in a raw number?

RZA 1:55:17 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 1:55:17 Ask it what it looks like in a raw number.

Speaker 1:55:19 Now, eight with 17.

Joe Rogan 1:55:21 17 zeros.

Speaker 1:55:22 Pretty much.

Joe Rogan 1:55:24 10 to the 17th? That's what that is, 17 zeros?

RZA 1:55:28 So basically, it took, it took the 63,360 and it squared it.

Joe Rogan 1:55:33 Uh-huh.

RZA 1:55:34 And that's how they got to there.

Joe Rogan 1:55:36 Wow.

RZA 1:55:38 But it didn't give us no fucking, uh, a direct answer, right?

Joe Rogan 1:55:42 Well, it did, but it, it did it with 10 to the 17th.

RZA 1:55:45 Okay, let, so let's do this now. Well-

Joe Rogan 1:55:47 Type that out

RZA 1:55:48 ... type that number out and divide it by four.

Joe Rogan 1:55:51 Okay. Let's see, type it out. I wanna see what this looks like. This must look bananas. Whoa. [laughs]

RZA 1:56:03 And now divide it by four.

Joe Rogan 1:56:04 Yeah. Uh, before you do that, can you s- ask it how would you say that?

Speaker 1:56:09 I thought I s- I was trying to figure it out.

Joe Rogan 1:56:10 Like, it's not a trillion.

RZA 1:56:11 No.

Joe Rogan 1:56:12 It's not a quadrillion. Like, what is that?

Speaker 1:56:14 I think it is a quintillion.

RZA 1:56:15 Qui- quin- it's a quintillion.

Joe Rogan 1:56:15 Is it a quintillion?

Speaker 1:56:16 This is billion, right?

Joe Rogan 1:56:19 Yeah.

Speaker 1:56:19 This is trillion.

Joe Rogan 1:56:21 So it's-

RZA 1:56:22 A quadrillion. Wait, no.

Joe Rogan 1:56:24 How... Say-

RZA 1:56:25 Is it 18?

Joe Rogan 1:56:25 Just-

RZA 1:56:26 Sorry

Joe Rogan 1:56:26 ... just s- ask it how would you say that, please. How would you say that? Hmm. 800 quadrillion-

RZA 1:56:41 Quadrillion

Joe Rogan 1:56:41 ... square inches.

Speaker 1:56:43 Yeah, quadrillion.

Joe Rogan 1:56:43 Wow.Remember when you were a kid, you'd think that was a fake word?

RZA 1:56:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:56:47 "Bro, I want a quadrillion money." [laughs]

RZA 1:56:50 Would you believe that the Earth weighs, the atmosphere weighs 15 quintillion tons? This is, this is remarkable.

Joe Rogan 1:56:58 Just the atmosphere?

RZA 1:56:59 Yeah, just the atmos-

Joe Rogan 1:57:00 Just the gases

RZA 1:57:00 ... 'cause the planet Earth, the planet Earth weighs six sextillion.

Joe Rogan 1:57:05 Kanye said the wildest shit on my podcast once. He goes, "How much does the Earth cost?"

RZA 1:57:11 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:57:12 Right? And at the time I was like, "What?"

RZA 1:57:14 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:57:14 And then I thought about it, I was like, "Oh, shit, like, property is valuable."

RZA 1:57:18 Valuable.

Joe Rogan 1:57:18 You can own property.

RZA 1:57:20 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:57:20 Right? Like, everybody kind of, everything is owned.

RZA 1:57:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:57:23 Like, how much is the Earth?

RZA 1:57:25 That's a big, that's a, uh... Well, you could get the number there too because, well, if you count the minerals-

Joe Rogan 1:57:31 Right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

RZA 1:57:33 [laughs] Then you got a whole nother hustle.

Joe Rogan 1:57:34 And then there's the ocean.

RZA 1:57:35 And the oil. And the ocean.

Joe Rogan 1:57:36 The ocean.

RZA 1:57:37 And the fish.

Joe Rogan 1:57:38 Yeah. Right. And then all the animals.

RZA 1:57:41 Wow.

Joe Rogan 1:57:42 Yeah.

RZA 1:57:42 And then, and then it has to appreciate day by day [laughs] right here.

Joe Rogan 1:57:47 Right. Why don't I put that into Perplexity? If you were gonna sell the Earth, how much would it be worth?

RZA 1:57:52 Ooh.

Joe Rogan 1:57:53 In- including everything on it. That's a mindfuck and a half. "Economists usually estimate the world's real estate, all land plus the buildings on it, a few hundred trillion US dollars, not counting oceans, polar ice, or unowned space." That sounds like a bargain.

RZA 1:58:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:58:11 A few hundred trillion? That's it?

RZA 1:58:13 Nah. Uh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:58:14 Okay, let's say, let's a- ask, what is the worth o- of the Earth, all its property, all its minerals, animals, and objects? That's a crazy question.

RZA 1:58:31 Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:58:32 That's a crazy question.

RZA 1:58:33 Yeah, it's a good one, though.

Joe Rogan 1:58:34 Yeah. Everything on Earth. Every watch, every diamond ring, every hat.

RZA 1:58:39 One dollar. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:58:40 Every piece of art.

Speaker 1:58:43 Well, I mean, I, the question I typed in was property and land, so you-

Joe Rogan 1:58:46 Right

Speaker 1:58:46 ... would have to add-

Joe Rogan 1:58:47 What is the value-

Speaker 1:58:48 Animals to it

Joe Rogan 1:58:49 ... of everything on Earth?

RZA 1:58:51 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:58:52 Every-

RZA 1:58:53 I like the way you said it too, though [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:58:54 ... every electronic... Value of everything on Earth i- including, including animals, minerals, property, and objects. Oh, boy. I wonder how it's gonna figure this out.

Speaker 1:59:15 I don't think it will.

Joe Rogan 1:59:17 I bet it will.

Speaker 1:59:17 Well, it's got, it's gonna look off of-

Joe Rogan 1:59:19 It's gonna freak out

Speaker 1:59:20 ... people who have written-

Joe Rogan 1:59:20 It's gonna blow a gasket

Speaker 1:59:21 ... it's not figuring it out, it's reading it.

RZA 1:59:22 Yeah, it's gonna give you some BS.

Joe Rogan 1:59:23 There's no precise number. Oh.

Speaker 1:59:24 Yeah. Reading-

Joe Rogan 1:59:25 Somewhere in the quadrillions to sextillions of US dollars, depending on what you count and how you value it

Speaker 1:59:33 ... it says plausible attempts to add it up.

Joe Rogan 1:59:35 Right. There's no single agreed-upon price tag for everything on Earth, but this is the answer to Kanye's question.

RZA 1:59:41 But you know what, though? Now, look at, now hold on, we just learned something there. It said quadrillion to what?

Joe Rogan 1:59:48 Sextillions.

RZA 1:59:49 Now ask how much does the planet Earth weigh.

Speaker 1:59:51 Yeah, that's what I... I mean, I already did that, but we, we had, we've passed it before I could show you. Atmosphere was quintillion.

Joe Rogan 1:59:58 12 quintillion pounds-

RZA 2:00:01 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:00:01 ... in total.

RZA 2:00:02 Yeah. I said 13, so I was off. Okay, I forgot that number. But ask how much does the planet Earth weigh.

Joe Rogan 2:00:08 Whoa. How much does the entire Earth weigh?

Speaker 2:00:17 Um, uh, including the atmosphere.

Joe Rogan 2:00:21 Let's guess.

Speaker 2:00:23 It might not-

RZA 2:00:24 But no, not, no, no, don't do the atmosphere. We're just trying to get the value.

Speaker 2:00:27 Oh.

RZA 2:00:28 I wanna see if, I wanna see if it gives you... I mean, the atmosphere should already be included, right?

Speaker 2:00:31 I think it, that's why I think it won't include it.

Joe Rogan 2:00:38 [laughs]

RZA 2:00:39 [laughs] So basically-

Joe Rogan 2:00:40 What is that word? What is that in a word? Ask that what that is, that 13.

RZA 2:00:46 Yeah, tell him put it, put that, put it in pounds, not kilograms.

Joe Rogan 2:00:50 'Cause that's not even seven, that's eight. What does that mean?

Speaker 2:00:53 Right, here.

Joe Rogan 2:00:53 Right, but what does that... Ask it to say that. Can you say that? Yeah, what does it mean? Well, how do you say it?

Speaker 2:01:06 Septillion.

Joe Rogan 2:01:08 Septillion. 13 septillion pounds.

Speaker 2:01:12 That doesn't sound as impressive.

Joe Rogan 2:01:13 [sighs]

RZA 2:01:13 No.

Joe Rogan 2:01:14 No. [laughs]

RZA 2:01:14 [laughs] It doesn't.

Speaker 2:01:17 It sounds like a couple lizards on the Earth.

RZA 2:01:18 But yo, you know, I believe it's wrong, bro.

Joe Rogan 2:01:20 Why?

RZA 2:01:21 Because when you take the square miles, the circumference, right?

Joe Rogan 2:01:26 Right.

RZA 2:01:26 And you multiply the, uh... There's a formula to get that weight.

Joe Rogan 2:01:30 Right.

RZA 2:01:30 It doesn't come out to that.

Joe Rogan 2:01:32 What does it come out to?

RZA 2:01:33 Six sextillion. Six followed by 21 zeros.

Speaker 2:01:37 This is more. This was three more zeros on top of that.

RZA 2:01:41 Yeah. But it, it sounds good. But if you take the formula of, of, of, of a sphere-

Joe Rogan 2:01:50 Right

RZA 2:01:50 ... of the mass-

Joe Rogan 2:01:52 Mm-hmm

RZA 2:01:53 ... like, this, this number is closer.

Joe Rogan 2:01:55 But does it take into account the density of the inner Earth? Because I think that's probably where a lot of the weight is coming from, right? The density of the inner Earth is im- immense.

RZA 2:02:06 Yeah, I mean-

Joe Rogan 2:02:06 It's all compressed down to-

RZA 2:02:08 Yeah, it's compressed energy, yeah

Speaker 2:02:09 ... it's a hollow core.

Joe Rogan 2:02:10 If it's hollow. [laughs]

Speaker 2:02:12 It could be hollow.

RZA 2:02:13 It could be hollow.

Joe Rogan 2:02:13 If it's hollow.

RZA 2:02:14 Okay, hold on. Uh, it's like a, we gotta take a, uh, uh, a sponsor break. This is the RZA live on the Joe Rogan podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience. I have a new movie coming out.

Joe Rogan 2:02:23 May 1st.

RZA 2:02:24 May 1st. It's called One Spoon of Chocolate, starring Shameik Moore, Paris Jackson, Blair Underwood. It follows a ex-military convict who comes home and is trying to find a better life for himself, ends up in a small town where everything goes fucking bananas. In theaters everywhere May 1st.

Joe Rogan 2:02:44 When is it gonna be available on streaming?

RZA 2:02:47 I don't know. Soon, right?

Joe Rogan 2:02:49 How do you usually do that?

RZA 2:02:50 Well, to be honest, I'm like, um-

Joe Rogan 2:02:53 Like, Iron Fist was, what year was that out?

RZA 2:02:55 That was 2011, 2012.

Joe Rogan 2:02:57 And it was a different atmosphere back then.

RZA 2:02:58 Different atmosphere, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:02:58 Pre-COVID. COVID changed a lot of, like, movie-going habits, right?

RZA 2:03:02 Changed everything, yeah. I want the movie-going experience to come back, though.

Joe Rogan 2:03:06 Uh, yeah, I do, too. Yeah. I mean, there's something about going to see a great movie with a bunch of people that's a real experience.

RZA 2:03:12 Yeah. I, I, I think... I, I, I'm so mu- I mean, my c- my art, my career is based on sneaking into a fucking movie theater and watching three kung fu movies.

Joe Rogan 2:03:23 Yeah.

RZA 2:03:23 So, so I'm, I'm a big into cinema. I think what we did... So, so, so this, so this particular film is actually coming through my own distribution company called 36 Cinema, and I think we did a deal with the, uh, theaters that they could have at least 30 days. A lot of people were doing 17 days in the theaters or 21 days.

Joe Rogan 2:03:42 Mm-hmm.

RZA 2:03:43 Uh, and cinema is suffering because of that because why would... go to the theater if I got it at home? You know what I mean? And I, and, and home is, of course, a great place to watch a movie, but when you making a movie, right, you're making it for the theater. We haven't... TV is made for home, but cinema is made for cinema. Like, we haven't, um, what can I say, like the sound, the color, the framing. Like, I use anamorphic lenses, right?

Joe Rogan 2:04:09 What does that mean?

RZA 2:04:10 Anamorphic, like the lenses of the '50s where you fucking get this whole fucking scope. You know what I mean? And so, yeah, you could watch it on your phone.

Joe Rogan 2:04:19 What is the difference with an anamorphic lens and a regular lens?

RZA 2:04:21 A regular lens would be, uh, the way, the, the way, the way it bends the light in all reality.

Joe Rogan 2:04:26 Uh-huh.

RZA 2:04:26 So, so, like, you could have, like, a 16.9. Okay, see, that's... So that's... Most lenses are s- are spherical now. That's that, right, which is cool, right? But look at anamorphic. It's the way, it's the w- it's, it's the way it controls the light, way the subject is happening, and so it kinda gives you more of a, a cinematic feel.

Joe Rogan 2:04:46 Well, your focus, it's certainly, like, a little more blurry in the background.

RZA 2:04:50 Yep.

Joe Rogan 2:04:51 Yeah. Okay.

RZA 2:04:54 And it kinda s- it c- it, it's the way it's compressing that light differently.

Joe Rogan 2:04:58 And so you, with this lens, do you do everything on film, or is it digital?

RZA 2:05:04 I actually shot this on digital. Um, so yeah, so I mean, I'm in the digital age, so I did shoot digital.

Joe Rogan 2:05:10 Right.

RZA 2:05:11 But I did, um, we did make 35 millimeter prints of the movie.

Joe Rogan 2:05:15 Oh.

RZA 2:05:16 So if you are, so if you're in California and you go to the theater called The Vista, have you ever been to The Vista?

Joe Rogan 2:05:20 No.

RZA 2:05:21 Sh- cool theater.

Joe Rogan 2:05:22 Where's that?

RZA 2:05:23 I think it's in Los Feliz or some shit like that.

Joe Rogan 2:05:25 Okay.

RZA 2:05:27 I'm bad at my Hollywood neighborhoods. I'm, like, I, I'm still a New Yorker.

Joe Rogan 2:05:30 Right, I get it.

RZA 2:05:31 But, um, The Vista Theater will show the film on 35 millimeter for, like, two weeks. It'll be there starting May 1st.

Joe Rogan 2:05:37 Oh, that's cool.

RZA 2:05:38 So if you wanna see it, yeah, if you wanna see... And 35 millimeter w- oh, there you go.

Joe Rogan 2:05:42 Ooh.

RZA 2:05:42 The Vista. I love this guy. Hey, Jamie, you, you-

Joe Rogan 2:05:44 Jamie's the best

RZA 2:05:45 ... yeah, yeah, his, his, his trigger finger is a motherfucker.

Joe Rogan 2:05:47 Oh, he's a GOAT. Well, he's psychic, so he knows what you're talking about before you-

RZA 2:05:51 Ex- exactly.

Joe Rogan 2:05:51 Yeah.

RZA 2:05:51 He's like, "The Vist-," da-da-da-da. Duh. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:05:54 Yeah. Um, so that's The Vista. So that, so what is the difference, like, the way it looks to you when you see it on 35 millimeter versus digital?

RZA 2:06:03 Well, it's... I think the 35 millimeter kinda, it, it makes the colors a little more richer and darker, like kinda how, how, how the '70s films looked-

Joe Rogan 2:06:13 Mm-hmm

RZA 2:06:13 ... and even up to the '80s. Um, the digital one, the... 'Cause I've wa- I've watched my film on both formats. Dig- the digital was more brighter and actually more familiar now to us.

Joe Rogan 2:06:23 Right. We're, we're accustomed to it.

RZA 2:06:24 Yeah, we're accustomed to it. Um, but, um, when we, I played it at 30, at the, on April 22nd, I, at a... In fact, I wanna talk about that a little bit, if you don't mind. But on April 22nd, we had our premiere in California on 35 millimeter, and it was my first time seeing it on 35 millimeter. I mean, so... And it felt, it felt very nostalgic. I felt like I was back... It felt like a movie only.

Joe Rogan 2:06:51 Mm.

RZA 2:06:51 Like, I mean, not like, not, not like a movie and a TV show or a movie and... It felt only like a movie, the only a movie experience, the flickering. Uh, when you, when you, you know, when you're doing 35 millimeter, you need a, you know, a real camera.

Joe Rogan 2:07:06 Right.

RZA 2:07:06 And so the light is going from this camera, from this one, then they gotta s- switch the reel from this, from this. And it's like, it's a certain thing that's happening and a certain pacing and a certain gra- granular thing that's happening that for me, for my film, it felt almost like a honor to watch it like that.

Joe Rogan 2:07:21 Oh, that's cool.

RZA 2:07:22 Um, I wanna s- give, make a, make a, uh... So check this out, bro. So we talked about this last time I was here, but April 22nd, right, that was the day that I was acquitted from a crime and s- started my life over. I was facing eight years. April 22nd, that's back in 1992, okay? As you can see, a year later, I'm a platinum producer, but before that, I was heading to hell. April 22nd, serendipitously, is the day that my film premieres on 35 millimeter in the, at The Vista Theater in Hollywood.

Joe Rogan 2:08:09 Wow.

RZA 2:08:09 April 22nd. But you seen the opening of the film as well. So when my character gets out of jail, he marks on the calendar the day he gets out, April 22nd.

Joe Rogan 2:08:22 Mm.

RZA 2:08:22 It's special, bro. This is a special film. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:08:25 [laughs]

RZA 2:08:26 It's special. It's, for my life, I'm saying, for me, it's like-

Joe Rogan 2:08:28 Yeah, that's cool

RZA 2:08:29 ... and it's, and it, and it was my, my buddy Shavo from System of a Down birthday. We, we, we, we actually celebrate April 22nd every year because it wasn't my birthday, but it was the birth of the RZA, because before that I was known as Prince Rakeem. But after that acquitting and my mother telling me, you know, "You got a second chance," I was like-Exit Prince Rakeem, enter the RZA [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:08:51 Nice. That's amazing.

RZA 2:08:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:08:54 So when you were talking about, um, the streaming thing, so do you ... Is that something that's negotiated beforehand? Like it'll be in the theaters for X amount of time, or do you, once it's in the theater, do you then, like depending on how well it does in the theater, is that how you negotiate a streaming deal, or how does that work?

RZA 2:09:12 No, it works, no it works ... It's n- it's usually negotiated ahead of time.

Joe Rogan 2:09:16 Okay.

RZA 2:09:16 Um, and the, or the streamers kinda dictate what's gonna happen. So since we had, so since we had this on our own company, we had a chance to make the, the rules ourselves. So I didn't make a streaming deal, um, but I made the theatrical deal first, and I gave the theaters 30 days first. And so now my streamer, he would go a- my streaming distribution, which is, uh, Samuel Goodwin, uh, they would, they would go and, uh ... Hope I pronounced that right, bro. I, I could fuck a word up sometimes.

Joe Rogan 2:09:45 [laughs]

RZA 2:09:47 Yo, I think, I think-

Joe Rogan 2:09:48 I think that's the right word, yeah.

RZA 2:09:49 Okay, okay. [laughs] What up, Peter?

Joe Rogan 2:09:52 I'm the wrong guy to ask, though.

RZA 2:09:54 Yeah, I could fuck a word up. But anyway, um, so it i- so yeah, he'll solicit to streamers, but we wanted a 30-day cinema experience. If, and, and in the future I'ma try for 45 days, bro. Remember when we was kids, bro, s- Star Wars was in the theaters three times before you had a chance to [laughs] see it come home.

Joe Rogan 2:10:14 Yeah.

RZA 2:10:15 And what did you do? You went back to the theater.

Joe Rogan 2:10:17 Yeah.

RZA 2:10:18 Because the lights, the sound-

Joe Rogan 2:10:20 Mm-hmm

RZA 2:10:20 ... the vibe of what you're creating, I make it for the theater. I gotta be honest with you. I make film for the theater. My, when, when my other film came out during the pandemic, Cut Throat City, since there was a pandemic, you know, even though my contract said it w- it should be in theaters, the pandemic of it kinda made it a force majeure, like maybe not in theaters. But my producer, um, Michael Mendelson, he, who, you know, is a good guy, he, um, he said, "All right, but..." I said, "Yo, bro, I didn't make no, I didn't make this shit for no streaming, bro. Okay? I shot my shit on anamorphic lenses. I got all the sound. Like, I made it for the theaters." He was like, "Yeah, but the theaters ain't popping [laughs] bro. Nobody's going to the theaters."

Joe Rogan 2:11:06 Right.

RZA 2:11:06 I was like, "Well, I don't know. Then hold it." But he s- "I can't hold it, bro. Like, you know, it's business." But he still, no, but he still said, "Okay, I'ma pitch you on 200 screens, and you could go and get to," you know, and he did it. You know what I mean? So all my films has always go to the cinema first, and if I have my way, every film I make will always start at a cinema.

Joe Rogan 2:11:29 Have you ever tried using those, what are the, what is the Apple one, Jamie? The, uh, those Apple AR goggles.

Speaker 2:11:36 Apple Vision Pro? Apple Vision Pro.

Joe Rogan 2:11:37 Yeah. I heard watching movies on those is phenomenal.

RZA 2:11:42 Yes. Okay. But you have to also design it for that, too.

Joe Rogan 2:11:46 Oh, really?

RZA 2:11:46 Yeah. I mean, to get the full experience because, come on, you're going like this. And some, there's been some artists who have been able to create stuff for that. It's almost like a ... I mean, I won't say it's like the Sphere. Have you been to the Sphere?

Joe Rogan 2:11:58 Yes. Oh, but only for a fight.

RZA 2:12:00 Right, no-

Joe Rogan 2:12:00 They did a UFC there. It was amazing.

RZA 2:12:03 No, no, I love it there. But Darren Aronofsky had did a, a movie made directly for the Sphere. In fact, there's another movie-

Joe Rogan 2:12:09 Wow

RZA 2:12:09 ... they're doing. They're doing another movie right now that they, they showed me a clip of that's gonna be made in the Sphere, and it's actually very sports based and so it's crazy. And of course, The Wizard of Oz.

Joe Rogan 2:12:20 I heard that's nuts.

RZA 2:12:21 Yeah, I seen that there.

Joe Rogan 2:12:22 You saw The Wizard of Oz?

RZA 2:12:23 Yes, yes.

Joe Rogan 2:12:23 I, I heard there's all sorts of crazy new effects, and they added a bunch of stuff to the movie.

RZA 2:12:27 It's amazing.

Joe Rogan 2:12:28 Yeah?

RZA 2:12:29 It's amazing, and it's fucking ... But the Sphere is amazing anyway, right?

Joe Rogan 2:12:33 It's an incredible experience.

Speaker 2:12:34 This is a new thing AMC has just shown recently and announced called ScreenX.

RZA 2:12:39 What?

Speaker 2:12:39 It's 270 degrees. It's gonna surround the, the audience in some way.

Joe Rogan 2:12:43 Sh- well, that, that's how you get people to go back to the movie theater.

Speaker 2:12:46 Yeah.

RZA 2:12:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:12:46 Give them something like this where they're like, "What?"

Speaker 2:12:49 It's kinda like recut, so it might be a fun way to go back and s- maybe see a movie you really like in a whole new way or something like that.

Joe Rogan 2:12:54 Oh, like see Avatar in that.

RZA 2:12:56 Yeah, they-

Joe Rogan 2:12:56 Or Alien

RZA 2:12:56 ... they got The Matrix like that now. I think they did it for The Matrix.

Speaker 2:12:58 Yeah, that's that Cosm, that's kind of like the Sphere thing.

RZA 2:13:01 That's Cosm or something.

Joe Rogan 2:13:01 Oh.

Speaker 2:13:01 This is, uh, this just sort of is announced. It's only in two pla- two cities right now.

Joe Rogan 2:13:05 There's a place, um, I know there's a place in Dallas where they show UFC fights in-

Speaker 2:13:11 Yeah, that's Cosm.

Joe Rogan 2:13:12 That's Cosm?

Speaker 2:13:12 Yeah, that's where the, that Matrix thing.

Joe Rogan 2:13:14 That's nuts, man.

RZA 2:13:15 I love that he got the answers, bro.

Joe Rogan 2:13:16 Yeah. He's a genius.

RZA 2:13:18 Yeah, he is.

Joe Rogan 2:13:18 But with the, the place in Dallas, the Cosm place, like you're seated here, and the screen is like 60 feet tall, and it's right in front of you.

RZA 2:13:27 So it's like-

Joe Rogan 2:13:27 And you're watching the fights as if-

Speaker 2:13:30 This is The Matrix.

Joe Rogan 2:13:31 Oh, so this is The Matrix.

RZA 2:13:32 Yeah, it's The Matrix. Yeah.

Speaker 2:13:32 Yeah, they worked with the film company to sort of like remake it and add extra stuff.

Joe Rogan 2:13:37 Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:13:39 There's also a new screen I just saw. I think it's gonna be in Clearwater, Florida. It's gonna, it's the, gonna be the world's biggest screen.

Joe Rogan 2:13:46 See if you can show-

Speaker 2:13:47 I'll show you the fight thing.

Joe Rogan 2:13:48 Yeah, show me fight scenes. Like, uh, people were watching the fights there, and I was like, okay, that might actually be better than being there live. Like, look how crazy the size of the screen is.

RZA 2:14:00 Right.

Joe Rogan 2:14:01 Like, look who you're watching. Like, you're sitting right there. I mean, that fight is gigantic. It's huge 'cause the thing about going to see the fights live-

RZA 2:14:12 You fall-

Joe Rogan 2:14:12 ... look how, how big that is

RZA 2:14:13 ... you fall away when it's-

Joe Rogan 2:14:13 Yeah, g- show that again. Like, look at that. Look how nuts that is.

RZA 2:14:16 Right.

Speaker 2:14:17 Yeah, that was, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:14:17 That is nuts.

Speaker 2:14:18 You don't get to see these camera angles at home either-

RZA 2:14:21 Mm-mm

Speaker 2:14:21 ... which is awesome.

Joe Rogan 2:14:22 No, not like that.

Speaker 2:14:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:14:24 Not like that.

RZA 2:14:24 I love this because this is giving me hope, bro. Like, everything you just, you just showed me is giving me hope for cinema in a-

Joe Rogan 2:14:30 Right. This is-

RZA 2:14:31 Just like-

Joe Rogan 2:14:31 ... and this is, like, cheaper than buying tickets, and this is better than any ticket you could ever buy for the fights. Like, better than anything, better than my seat.

RZA 2:14:39 How much-

Joe Rogan 2:14:39 And I was sitting cage side

RZA 2:14:41 ... how much w- how much a ticket like this would cost?

Joe Rogan 2:14:43 That's a good question.

Speaker 2:14:44 They do sell tickets for this. I don't know. It's-

Joe Rogan 2:14:47 Um, g- te- click on that oneMay 9th. How much does that cost?

Speaker 2:14:53 100 bucks.

Joe Rogan 2:14:53 40 bucks. 100 bucks.

Speaker 2:14:54 If you wanna sit probably real close, you got 20 bucks to get inside.

Joe Rogan 2:14:57 Okay, general admission is 20 bucks. What is the front row? Where's the screen? The display's right there.

Speaker 2:15:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:15:03 What are those, like, right there where it says two?

Speaker 2:15:04 Depending on where you'd wanna be.

Joe Rogan 2:15:06 Well, like-

Speaker 2:15:06 167.

Joe Rogan 2:15:08 How much? 167?

Speaker 2:15:10 167.

Joe Rogan 2:15:10 That's a, that's a bargain-

Speaker 2:15:11 That's a bargain, yeah

Joe Rogan 2:15:12 ... compared to how much it would cost if you actually went to see the fight.

RZA 2:15:16 Nice. Okay.

Joe Rogan 2:15:16 And it's probably a better experience. Plus, you get commentary, you get to hear everything.

RZA 2:15:21 Right

Joe Rogan 2:15:21 ... and you're right there. And then it's not just like being at home, which is great, because there's a bunch of people you're experiencing with, so it adds to the excitement-

RZA 2:15:29 Exactly

Joe Rogan 2:15:29 ... and the energy.

Speaker 2:15:29 That's the knock I was gonna say with the Vision Pro is you're... it's still to right now, you're by yourself.

Joe Rogan 2:15:34 By yourself.

Speaker 2:15:34 Which is kind of, for me, I'm a s- like, single guy in my apartment with a dog, perfect.

Joe Rogan 2:15:39 [laughs]

RZA 2:15:40 [laughs]

Speaker 2:15:40 But yeah, if you're at home with anybody, you're like, "Well, if I... I can watch it. You know, I don't-"

RZA 2:15:44 Right, right.

Joe Rogan 2:15:45 Right

Speaker 2:15:45 ... have five of these."

RZA 2:15:45 Yeah, catch up with me, catch up to me later. [laughs]

Speaker 2:15:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:15:47 Like, could you watch it with a chick where you hold hands with both that-

RZA 2:15:50 I know

Joe Rogan 2:15:50 ... Vision Pro and you both start at the same time?

RZA 2:15:52 Which is weird. I'll just be the one doing it. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:15:52 Three, two, one, go. [laughs]

RZA 2:15:55 That's funny. Yeah, that's-

Speaker 2:15:55 I'll be the one doing it. No

RZA 2:15:55 ... hey yo, that's me and my wife on the plane.

Joe Rogan 2:15:58 Oh, you, you do that?

RZA 2:16:00 We l- even on the way here, bro, who we watch? We watch, oh, uh, Sebastian, uh, what's... I say Se- Sebastian the last name is? He's a-

Speaker 2:16:07 Maniscalco.

RZA 2:16:08 Yeah, thank you, bro.

Joe Rogan 2:16:09 Oh, the comedian. Yeah.

RZA 2:16:10 Yeah, yeah. We watched him. Uh, he's funny as hell.

Joe Rogan 2:16:12 Hilarious.

RZA 2:16:13 That motherfucker's funny as [laughs] fuck, bro.

Joe Rogan 2:16:14 Very funny.

RZA 2:16:14 And so yeah, so we, we do that every time though, but we watch someone away, so I don't want... she wouldn't wanna see me laughing and she ain't laughing yet, so we hit the button at the same time. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:16:24 [laughs]

RZA 2:16:24 And uh, yeah, he, he... that guy is crazy. Yo, he's funny.

Joe Rogan 2:16:28 Yeah, that's the thing. They should have, like, simultaneous viewing option. Are you gonna watch it with someone else? Would you like to view it simultaneously?

RZA 2:16:34 One-

Joe Rogan 2:16:34 And then have 'em sync up with each other

RZA 2:16:36 ... one plane does that. One plane does that. Um, what, what airline was that? The, uh, um, [tsking] Q- Qantas.

Joe Rogan 2:16:45 Oh, okay.

RZA 2:16:46 I think Qantas is up on that.

Joe Rogan 2:16:47 Well, they got those 16-hour flights. They gotta make things interesting.

RZA 2:16:50 [laughs] Yeah, they gotta say, it's, actually it says, "Watch with a friend."

Joe Rogan 2:16:53 Oh.

RZA 2:16:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:16:54 That's smart.

RZA 2:16:55 Yeah, that's smart.

Joe Rogan 2:16:55 That's smart. Yeah, it's interesting, like, what is the next level past AR with those goggles? It's gonna be an immersive experience where you're actually... We had the people from Perplexity were, who were here earlier today, and we were talking about how people, uh, with AI and all this stuff, they're g- they're gonna want more human experiences, like going to see a live concert or seeing, you know, a, a sporting event live.

RZA 2:17:21 Right.

Joe Rogan 2:17:21 I'm like, yeah, until it's completely immersive and then it's like you're playing a video game but you're in World of Warcraft.

RZA 2:17:31 Right.

Joe Rogan 2:17:31 Or you're in Battlefield Earth or whatever, whatever game you're playing.

RZA 2:17:35 I think, yeah, I think for that form of entertainment, a video game, yes. But I still think because even, you know, it's more senses, bro. It, it ain't just the sight and sound.

Joe Rogan 2:17:46 Mm-hmm.

RZA 2:17:46 It's the smell.

Joe Rogan 2:17:47 Yeah, but what if they can recreate that? Like, what if, what if they get the technology where you can create a movie, but the person who is watching the movie is standing on the street, like in the opening scene where those girls pick that dude up-

RZA 2:18:02 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:18:02 ... in that, that Saab convertible.

RZA 2:18:05 Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:18:05 Like, what if you're standing, you feel the street-

RZA 2:18:07 Right

Joe Rogan 2:18:07 ... and you watch the dude get in the car.

RZA 2:18:10 I think that's amazing.

Joe Rogan 2:18:10 Right.

RZA 2:18:10 But you're saying at home by yourself?

Joe Rogan 2:18:12 Yeah.

RZA 2:18:13 Well, then you'd be terrified in my film. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:18:15 You would be... Yeah, of course. But you'd be-

RZA 2:18:17 You'd be like, "Oh, shit"

Joe Rogan 2:18:17 ... but you'll be in it.

RZA 2:18:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:18:18 You'll be in it, right?

RZA 2:18:19 That'd be interesting.

Joe Rogan 2:18:20 I think that's coming, man. I think that's coming.

RZA 2:18:22 Okay. Well, if, if that comes, reach out to me and I'll write a script. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:18:27 Right.

RZA 2:18:27 To, to make sure that we fucking hit you with it right.

Joe Rogan 2:18:29 Right. You're gonna have to, like, capitalize on all the different things that can take place.

RZA 2:18:34 What did you think about that, uh, that Saab? Do you remember the Saab fucking 900?

Joe Rogan 2:18:38 Oh, yeah.

RZA 2:18:39 Right? I-

Joe Rogan 2:18:39 A friend of mine had one of those

RZA 2:18:41 ... it was a cool car when it was out. [laughs] It was like-

Joe Rogan 2:18:43 Yeah. They were interesting looking.

RZA 2:18:44 They were, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:18:44 They were, like, s- futuristic. They were different than any, any other car.

RZA 2:18:47 That's why in the film I was like... they was like, "Well, what kind of car you want?" I was like, "Give me a Saab."

Joe Rogan 2:18:53 Yeah.

RZA 2:18:53 They said, "Why?" I said, "Well-"

Joe Rogan 2:18:53 Do they still make 'em?

RZA 2:18:55 I don't think so. I think, uh, they might have... No, I don't think, they definitely don't make, make new ones.

Joe Rogan 2:19:00 Saabs?

RZA 2:19:00 Uh-oh, hold on. This, this is a good thing.

Joe Rogan 2:19:01 Hold on. [laughs]

RZA 2:19:02 Yeah, this... [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:19:03 I got it. I don't know. That's a good question. I know they make Volvos still.

Speaker 2:19:07 Yeah, I was in a Volvo the other day.

Joe Rogan 2:19:08 I don't know if they still make Saabs.

Speaker 2:19:10 No, it was bankrupt in 2011.

RZA 2:19:11 Yeah, no more Saabs.

Joe Rogan 2:19:12 Damn.

RZA 2:19:13 But, um, the punchline for me was that this Saab... Oh, and I, I'll give you one spoiler of the film. Um, as you, you know, as you finish the second half of it, um, there's no time. So I removed the time from the film so you don't know what year you're in.

Joe Rogan 2:19:29 Hmm.

RZA 2:19:29 And that's why you'll see the Saab and then you'll see when they, when they're playing their video game and shit-

Joe Rogan 2:19:35 Mm-hmm

RZA 2:19:35 ... uh, they playing-

Joe Rogan 2:19:37 Oh, right, with, yeah

RZA 2:19:38 ... a fucking-

Joe Rogan 2:19:38 The AR goggles

RZA 2:19:39 ... and a glove that don't exist.

Joe Rogan 2:19:41 Yeah. Right. I thought that too. When, I was seeing them move around, I go, "Is that real?"

RZA 2:19:44 [laughs] Yeah, the idea is like, I want-

Joe Rogan 2:19:46 I'm glad you brought that up

RZA 2:19:47 ... I want that to happen. I wanna see one day I could play a basketball game like this. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:19:53 Right, right, right.

RZA 2:19:54 That'd be dope, right?

Joe Rogan 2:19:55 Right. That would be.

RZA 2:19:56 Yeah, so.

Joe Rogan 2:19:56 They're getting real close to stuff like that. They're getting real close to stuff like that. We have, um, uh, an AR game out there that you, you... it's a zombie game, and you put the headphones on, the, the, uh, headset on, and you, you run around and you have an actual gun, and you're shooting zombies.

RZA 2:20:13 Right. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:20:14 And you're pointing it at it, and it's like they're getting really close.

Speaker 2:20:17 I'll show you something I discovered. This... Shout out to this guy. I think he's doing this all on his own. Uh, I found him and tweeted at him one day, but he didn't answer. Daniel Habib is his name.

Joe Rogan 2:20:26 Okay.

Speaker 2:20:26 He's got this company called True 3D. He's done this with two movies so far, and I think you have to be in the theater to experience it, but it's kinda exactly-

RZA 2:20:34 Ooh

Speaker 2:20:34 ... what we're talking about. He, he converted a movie, I think Insidious, a scary movie.

Joe Rogan 2:20:38 Uh-huh.

RZA 2:20:38 Oh, that's a scary movie.

Speaker 2:20:39 So you're-

Joe Rogan 2:20:40 Yeah

Speaker 2:20:41 ... he's not showing you what, 'cause he's being smart. He's also developing it still. And he also did it with Interstellar just recently.

RZA 2:20:46 Whoa.

Speaker 2:20:47 And I w- I almost flew to New York just so I could go see it, 'cause I want... I was very curious and w-

Joe Rogan 2:20:52 This looks cool

RZA 2:20:52 It looks awesome

Joe Rogan 2:20:53 Yeah, it looks cool

RZA 2:20:53 So he a- adapted it to the Vision Pro?

Speaker 2:20:55 Yeah, these are just in Meta Quest headsets, I believe, and you probably have to be at the theater, 'cause I think that's where the sound's coming from. You probably had-

RZA 2:21:02 Oh.

Joe Rogan 2:21:02 Right, right, right

Speaker 2:21:02 ... and, and, um, looked it up. As the user l- watching it, you get to decide how in-depth this becomes, because if you wanna see the people next to you, you can sorta, like, go, like, level two and still see your neighbor.

RZA 2:21:13 Oh.

Speaker 2:21:13 Or go level four and be, like, fully in the room, and you can't see anybody else. You can maybe just touch them-

RZA 2:21:18 Wow

Speaker 2:21:18 ... 'cause you know they're there.

RZA 2:21:19 Right.

Joe Rogan 2:21:19 I like how some people are jumping, then there's some people that are, like, dead on the inside.

RZA 2:21:23 Well, and also-

Joe Rogan 2:21:23 They ain't moving. There's-

Speaker 2:21:24 Because these are jump scares, he has that built in, so you know when a jump scare is coming, or you don't know when a jump scare is coming.

RZA 2:21:30 Oh.

Speaker 2:21:31 So you don't... You, you can-

RZA 2:21:31 Interesting

Speaker 2:21:32 ... either be super scared, or you can, uh, know and not be scared that, you know, someone's gonna ch- come from behind you.

RZA 2:21:39 Why would you mess up?

Speaker 2:21:40 Ah, dude. Um, maybe it's on... [laughs] This seems like it could fucking give you a heart attack. [laughs]

RZA 2:21:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:21:45 Yeah, maybe it's people with weak hearts.

Speaker 2:21:46 It could be too good.

Joe Rogan 2:21:46 Like, let me know.

RZA 2:21:47 Right.

Joe Rogan 2:21:47 Let me know when I'm gonna get freaked out.

RZA 2:21:48 And also Dolby, I saw... You seen the... I saw Dolby made this thing, uh, these glass... Have you seen these Dolby glasses, Ro?

Joe Rogan 2:21:55 No.

RZA 2:21:56 That, that, uh, that you could hear shit, bro. Like, like surround sound with glasses on. Dolby. Yeah, I mean, I, I hope I'm not revealing a secret. I, I was- Well, what is it doing different? Like, what do you mean you can hear things? So you can- Like- ... watch, see, and hear. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:22:14 In Dolby Vision.

RZA 2:22:15 So it's surround sound-

Joe Rogan 2:22:16 Yeah

RZA 2:22:16 ... glasses.

Joe Rogan 2:22:17 Yeah.

RZA 2:22:18 And so the glasses, is it projecting it into your inner ear? Like, how is it doing it? Is it... Does it plug into your ear? No, it doesn't even plug into your ear. So it's one of those things that sits above the ear- Yeah ... on the outside- Like, yeah ... like pressing against your skull? Yeah, they kinda- They have headphones like that, right? I've seen that. Or- Yeah, I've seen some headphones that give you 12-

Joe Rogan 2:22:36 Yeah

RZA 2:22:36 ... 12.1.

Joe Rogan 2:22:37 Yeah, like earbuds, and they, they don't go in your ear. They, like, sit on the skull.

RZA 2:22:42 Yeah, see if you can find those-

Joe Rogan 2:22:43 And it makes the sound

RZA 2:22:44 ... Dolby, those Dolby glasses. I don't know if they... I don't know if... I, I went to Dolby, uh, some months ago, and they-

Joe Rogan 2:22:50 Is this a spoiler alert? Did you edit-

RZA 2:22:51 That's why, that's, that's why [laughs] I told you... I said it, you could... You ain't edit. You can't edit this shit, right? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:22:55 We could if, if we can't-

Speaker 2:22:57 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:22:57 ... if you're not supposed to know.

Speaker 2:22:58 I don't know. There's something in here that doesn't... It's showing some 3D glasses they have, but it didn't say the sound is coming out of them. I would imagine if Dolby's-

RZA 2:23:06 Huh

Speaker 2:23:06 ... marketing sound is involved.

Joe Rogan 2:23:07 It has to be, right?

Speaker 2:23:09 Yeah.

RZA 2:23:09 Dolby Cinema.

Joe Rogan 2:23:10 Oh, it's 3D. They're 3D glasses.

Speaker 2:23:13 I don't kn- I don't see-

RZA 2:23:14 No, no, no, bro

Speaker 2:23:14 ... nothing that says-

RZA 2:23:14 Listen, I put them on, bro

Speaker 2:23:16 ... 3D.

RZA 2:23:16 You could hear shit.

Joe Rogan 2:23:17 Mm. So did you put them on to watch a movie? Like, what did you put them on to watch?

RZA 2:23:22 Yeah, I d- I put them on, like, they had a whole demo room like that. I was looking at something.

Joe Rogan 2:23:26 Mm.

RZA 2:23:27 And it, and it sounded like I was in the room with... It, it sounded like I was in the movie theater, but I took the glasses off.

Joe Rogan 2:23:35 Oh, look.

RZA 2:23:35 It was-

Joe Rogan 2:23:35 This is what it is.

Speaker 2:23:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:23:36 So it's showing you everything in 3D.

Speaker 2:23:38 But you would need to have the glasses, I think, to get the test.

Joe Rogan 2:23:40 Oh.

RZA 2:23:42 And the s- and the sound is, is, is, is, is, is, is connected. So that's something.

Joe Rogan 2:23:46 That's 2021.

Speaker 2:23:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:23:48 So this is five years old already.

Speaker 2:23:50 Yeah, uh, again, I don't... This might not be-

RZA 2:23:52 So this is a Vision, but it n- but what about this Dolby Atmos? Atmos is the sound.

Speaker 2:23:56 Yeah.

RZA 2:23:57 Plus Dolby Vision HDR. [button beeping] 12... Yep, 12.6.1. What's, what, what, what year is that?

Joe Rogan 2:24:08 Hmm. And that's certain-

RZA 2:24:11 That's, that's, that's, that's-

Joe Rogan 2:24:12 ... 2024. Well... Oh, okay.

RZA 2:24:21 That's, that's diff- that's for your... Okay, that's for your home. That's, that's having your system. But they got some shit with it. It's in the glasses, bro.

Joe Rogan 2:24:29 Hmm.

RZA 2:24:29 Anyway.

Joe Rogan 2:24:30 Well, we're, we're in an interesting time when it comes to technology and all this-

RZA 2:24:34 Yeah. And entertainment

Joe Rogan 2:24:35 ... AR, VR stuff and-

RZA 2:24:37 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:24:37 ... and where it's going.

RZA 2:24:39 I'm happy about it. Are you?

Joe Rogan 2:24:40 Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, I know a lot of people are freaked out about AI. There's a lot of that. A lot of people are freaked out about AI music. A lot of people are freaked out about AI replacing actors and the, their ability to generate images and video.