This is amazing.
I can't believe we get to hang with T-Pain.
Hey, he invited us to his studio to listen
to some of his new music.
That means listen.
Yeah.
I'm a grown up.
You think I'm going to ask T-Pain to check
out my new jam or something?
Come on.
Roy, dude.
ROY WOOD, JR.: Yo, what up? What up?
- Yo, how you doing? - Man, good to see you.
- Brother, how you doing? - This is Michael.
Hey, Mr. Pain. I'm Michael.
You got to check out my new track.
I got a sick track.
I don't know if people still say something's fire,
but my track is fire.
Fire's still an acceptable word.
I'm sorry, man. We gonna go.
I didn't know he was-- - No, no, no, no, no, no.
It's totally fine.
I'm not a crosser of dreams.
This could be a good thing.
This man could be the next Eminem.
You never know.
Why?
Because I'm white?
That's not--
MICHAEL KOSTA: That's a little problematic, T. Do better.
I'm going to go spit fires in the booth.
T-PAIN: Ooh.
It's mostly because he's got on Eminem's uniform.
(RAPPING) Hey there, like D. Give me some sugar.
And sugar in this case means let's smash butt.
Oh, I got a lady with some thick-ass knees.
I don't know why that's what I'm into.
But them knees make me super horny.
I'm horny.
T-Pain is horny.
Roy Wood is horny.
Kosta is horny.
I'm sorry, man.
That's not even my friend.
For real, we just share an office together.
[laughter]
T-PAIN: (RAPPING) Cause I'm the super devil.
This is the future of music!
(RAPPING) Girls like a guy who's 6
foot 3 with a penis that's crooked like an old oak tree.
Woo!
This beat!
[laughs]
Y'all done lost your damn minds.
[shouting]
T-PAIN: (SINGING) T-Pain Is horny.
Roy Wood is horny.
Everybody's super horny.
[theme music]
Coming to you from Atlanta, the city from that show, Atlanta,
it's The Daily Show.
Tonight, political violence in America,
is Atlanta Wakanda, and T-Pain.
This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
[cheering]
What's going on, Atlanta, Georgia?
How you doing, everybody?
Welcome to the show, night two.
We're still here.
Take a seat.
Let's do this thing.
Let us do it.
What's going on, everybody?
I'm Trevor Noah.
Welcome to The Daily Show, coming to you from Atlanta!
We're here in the flesh.
Oh, and I'm loving it.
Can I tell you how much I am loving it here?
Last night-- last night I celebrated
my first Atlanta Halloween.
I feel like I learned so much about this place.
Yeah.
First up, we went to a place called Virginia Highlands.
[cheering]
And I don't know if I'm right or not,
but those people must be rich.
Yeah, because forget full-size candy.
They were giving out king-size bars.
It was just like, full--
I was like, damn, even with inflation?
They were like, yeah.
They're balling out there.
We had a hipster Halloween.
We were in Little Five Points.
That was really cool.
It was quaint.
Yeah.
[cheering]
We stopped-- we stopped at a little party in Georgia Tech.
That was cool as well.
Yeah.
I think we got there late, though, because there
was like no women.
We were ready.
I don't know what happened.
Oh, then we went to a place called Decatur.
That was really interesting.
Yeah.
[cheering]
Decatur.
I could tell, like, that's where
a lot of the white people live because of all the Black Lives
Matter signs on the lawn.
I could tell.
[laughter]
Oh, my favorite party of the night
was-- my friend took me to a Halloween party in Bankhead.
[cheering]
That was interesting.
Yeah.
I learned a valuable lesson in Bankhead.
Do not assume that the people are dressed up
just because it's Halloween.
[laughter]
Yes, that just might be how they dress.
I walked up to a gentleman, and I was like, wow, man.
I was like, you look dope.
Are you Shakespeare?
He's like, no, I'm a pimp.
[laughter]
I was like, well, here's your king-size Snicker
bar, my friend.
You did well.
Pleasure meeting you.
We're back, people, night two.
I'm so excited.
Everything's going on right now.
Midterms are happening.
The world is still happening.
You know, the news-- what's happening in the news?
What's happening in the news?
Oh, well, let's kick things off with the big news of the day,
right, starting with Elon Musk, the guy
who always looks like a ghost, whether it's Halloween or not.
For months now-- for months now,
Musk has said that he wanted to own Twitter, right?
And the reason he wanted to own Twitter
is because he wanted to make sure that it became a haven
for free speech, right?
He wanted to change it to that.
Because let's be honest up.
Until now, you know, people have
really held back on Twitter.
[laughter]
And I always find myself scrolling and thinking,
but what do you really think?
Why are you so reserved, sir?
So, anyway, on Thursday, the day Elon officially took over,
right, we got a taste of this extra free speech, right?
Because in the first 12 hours under Elon's ownership,
the use of the N-word on Twitter shot up 500%.
[booing]
500%, which, no, you don't know.
You don't know. Who knows what it is?
It could be racist.
Yeah, it could be, could be, right?
It's just you feel free and feel emboldened
to say it now, right?
Or it could be Black people watching Elon
take over like, this nigga.
[laughter]
You don't know which one it is.
You're not sure.
Because he's going crazy. Here's my question.
I really want to know this.
Why is it always when the free speech people,
right-- all those people are like, we want free speech--
why do they never want to use their free speech
to say words like perambulate or pusillanimous?
Like, it's never stuff like that.
Have you noticed?
They're like, we want free speech!
We want free speech!
You're like, OK, what do you want to say?
Nigger.
[laughter]
Like, really?
All the things you could have said in the world, every word,
everything you could have spoken about,
all the issues, what do you want
to say than any other word?
Hmm, niggers.
Feels like he doesn't want free speech.
You just want to hate on people, right?
So, yeah, it looks like Elon is--
he's scrambling.
He's scrambling to figure out, you know,
how to make this whole thing work.
Because, remember, he spent $44 billion--
well, he was forced to spend $44 billion
because it was a troll that turned into a real--
he used his free speech, and he paid a big price.
And it's going to be hard to make money from this thing,
you know?
Twitter has a lot of debt, right?
They're not profitable as a company.
And so today, to try and mitigate this,
Elon Musk came out, and he said he's going to start charging
people $8 a month to be verified with a blue check
mark next to their name.
Yeah, $8 a month for the blue checkmark because I guess
he's hoping that everyone else on Twitter
will also make terrible financial decisions like
he did.
[laughter]
No, because I'm sorry. $8?
What are you-- what are you spending $8 a month for?
Like, the blue check-- you realize what you--
with $8 a month, you can subscribe--
you can get, like, Netflix.
You can get Paramount+.
You can get Hulu.
Or-- or can pay so that people verify that they
actually shitting on you.
It's just like, oh, this is the real Trevor Noah.
I hate this guy!
Yeah!
Oh, what was even funnier was the reason.
This is the reason Elon Musk gave.
He said the reason he's doing this-- the reason he's doing
it is because he's sick of Twitter's current lords
and peasants system for who has or who
doesn't have a blue checkmark.
And then he ended it with power to the people.
Blue for $8 a month.
[laughter]
So here's my question.
If you're trying to create equality on Twitter,
why charge anyone to be verified?
Huh?
Yeah, just give everyone a blue checkmark then.
Why are you charging the people?
[applause]
Give it to everyone for free, or give it to no one.
Give it to no one, right?
But it doesn't make sense to offer it as equality,
and then put a price on it.
Do you get what I'm saying?
Can you imagine if MLK was out there like, I have a dream.
I have a dream.
And I'll tell you all about it for 8.99 a month.
[laughter]
It wouldn't be the same thing.
[applause]
It's all about equality.
No, you're trying to make money.
I get it.
Yeah, so I think this $8 a month thing is ridiculous,
you know?
If you ask me, if Elon Musk wants to make money
from Twitter, what he should do,
don't charge people for blue checkmarks.
No, you know, charge white people to say the N-word.
[laughter]
Twitter will be the most profitable company in history.
Racists are going to be taking out loans.
I need a bit of extra cash.
My neighbors are so goddamn loud.
I could use this.
What else is going on in the news?
Oh, of course, of course, it's the story of that crazy dude.
I'm sure you've all seen this by now.
The crazy guy who broke into Nancy Pelosi's house, and then
attacked her 82-year-old husband with a hammer.
Now you would assume--
I would assume-- probably all of you
would assume that everyone, regardless of their politics,
would be against hammering the elderly, right?
You would assume that, right?
But, apparently-- no, but, apparently,
things have changed.
[applause]
Because it turns out there are many Republicans who find
this whole thing really funny.
A lot of Republicans have publicly
condemned the violence.
But some are actually making jokes about it.
Yeah, that's exactly right, Wolf.
I mean, instead of this moment of unity,
what we have seen is Republicans actually mocking
Paul Pelosi and the attack.
In fact, Donald Trump, Jr. tweeted out some really
crude memes, making fun of Paul Pelosi and the incident
that happened.
And then you have Kari Lake, who
is the Republican candidate for Arizona
Governor, who had this to say at a campaign event
earlier today.
It is not impossible to protect our kids at school.
They act like it is.
Nancy Pelosi-- well, she's got protection when she's in DC.
Apparently, her house doesn't have a lot of protection.
[laughter]
But--
[booing]
I'm not--
I'm not going to lie.
MAGA comedy is weird.
I don't get the-- you hear the joke about the old man
who was almost killed?
Huh, that's it.
That's the joke.
What?
Like, who are these-- you know what's-- this
is what's crazy to me.
What's crazy to me is these are the very same people--
the very same people who are devastated
and appalled because somebody was rude
to Ted Cruz at a restaurant.
Huh?
These are the same people.
They will be like, this was at a restaurant.
They were rude to Ted Cruz at a restaurant!
[cheering]
Where people go to eat, and Ted Cruz goes to lick the napkins.
They were rude to him.
This is America.
And, look, I get it.
It's like-- it's not all Republicans.
I'm not saying it's all.
Some Republicans think it's a joke.
Many other Republicans are not laughing, but not because
they're being civil about it.
No, they've chosen to turn this into a giant conspiracy
theory, right?
Yeah.
They've said, there's a whole bunch of crazy conspiracies
they've come up with for why this has happened, right?
And then some of them have chosen to just dismiss it.
They go like, oh, this is not a big deal.
This is just the random kind of crime that happens if you
live in a Democrat-run city.
That's what they're saying, which--
which is weird, right?
Because you're telling me this is random.
It's like a random, completely random, everyday crime, right?
You're telling me some right-wing conspiracy theorist
broke into Nancy Pelosi's house screaming, where's Nancy,
and you think that was a random crime?
Yeah, because we've all experienced this, right?
Yeah?
You're just walking down the street.
Some random guy jumps out with a weapon.
He's like, where's your wife, Nancy Pelosi?
And you're like, what?
I'm not even married.
And he's like, oh, well, if you do get married one day,
you look me up, and you tell me where you live.
You're like, how will I even find you?
He's like, oh, look me up on Twitter.
I'll be verified.
[laughter]
All right, that's all the time we got for the headlines.
Stay tuned because after the break
we're going to answer the big question--
is Atlanta the real life Wakanda?
You don't want to miss it. We're in Atlanta.
We're having fun.
We're on the road, people.
We'll be right back!
You guys are amazing.
Thank you so much.
[cheering]
[applause]
Welcome back to The Daily Show
coming to you all the way from Atlanta.
Now this city is known for its history and culture
of Black excellence.
And sometimes-- sometimes, it raises the question,
is Atlanta the real life Wakanda?
Well, Atlanta's very own Dulce Sloan went to find out.
[applause]
DULCE SLOAN (VOICEOVER): Hello, friends,
I'm Atlanta-raised celebrity Dulce Sloan.
Now Atlanta has been called many things--
the Black Mecca, Wakanda, a Black utopia.
It's basically the opposite of Portland, Oregon.
But does The A live up to the hype?
I'm at Pond City Market to talk to fellow ATLian
and cultural curator Bem Joyner of Atlanta Influences
Everything to find out.
My name is Bem Joyner, co-founder of Atlanta
Influences Everything, which is a civic-minded creative
consultancy known for our popular
phrase and shirt in Atlanta.
You said a lot of--
it sound like a very Atlanta thing
because it sounds like you've got a bunch of, like, slashes
on your business cards.
BEM JOYNER: Hell yeah.
Like, do you also DJ?
No, but there is a DJ in the store.
There's always a DJ.
OK, we've been talking about this question for decades.
As Black people who live in Atlanta
or who are from Atlanta, is Atlanta a Black utopia?
I don't know if I would say a utopia.
We still in America.
Black Mecca, Black utopia, Wakanda, all of the things.
It's a place where Black people are comfortable.
Right.
Utopia makes it seem like, you know, ain't no crime,
ain't-- you know, ain't no-- ain't no problems,
you know what I'm saying?
Well, it is interesting because where your story is,
we're in The Pull Up and we're at Ponce City Market.
But you know and I know for a long time,
on this back street, this street
used to be very sketchy.
Man, it's crazy you say that because the other piece
of that-- remember the name of the Kroger
that was right here.
Yes, and I don't care how--
I know y'all call it Beltline Kroger.
It's Murder Kroger.
We don't care.
And when they tried to change it,
we called it Murder Kroger.
So this is a multi-layered thing.
Yeah, there are the perceived streets
paved with gold for Black people
to achieve whatever they are trying
to achieve without a barrier.
Right.
But there's also, like, multi-layered classism
here, too.
That's just how Black it is.
You know--
DULCE SLOAN: Right.
It's aggressively Black where it's tribal like Wakanda.
Right.
It's a safe Black place to be Black.
And you have a fair shot to make
it what you want it to be.
Do you think that Black people here
have a different experience than Black people
from other places because we've seen generations
of Black wealth, and Black higher
education, and just upward mobility for Black people?
It is rooted in the Black narrative kind of going back
to W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington's debate
on Blackness that took place on the Atlanta
University Center campus.
So, yeah, and we want to tell that narrative all the way up.
But if you look, none of these other Black cities
have anything like the Atlanta University Center.
Right, so there are four HBCUs,
Historically Black College Universities, in Atlanta.
It's Morris Brown, Clark Atlanta,
Spelman, and Morehouse.
And so, you know, if people grew up here
to see, like, not only one Black school,
but four Black universities--
Yeah, and so it's that post-secondary education that
Oakland, Chicago, Detroit-- they don't have the Morehouse
and Spelman thing.
And I think, along with the consistent Black mayors--
DULCE SLOAN: Yes.
--that became the attraction.
Is the fact that Atlanta has had Black mayors for 40
some odd years--
has that made a significant impact on the city?
Most definitely.
And the mayor that kind of set everything off,
Maynard Jackson, he put forth those policies
and took that risk.
He understood that police chief, police force,
superintendent, teachers, everything
that the public sector could touch,
that that also had to be on mission like what he saw.
And if he couldn't get buy-in from the working class
people in those sectors, that this was the mission.
So everybody got to get along,
so we have to understand.
So, I mean, that's a very interesting thing for you
to come-- for someone to come in and just
go-- especially a Black man to come in and go,
OK, we got a chance.
Yeah.
So compared to the rest of the country,
is it easy to be Black in Atlanta?
So the way we engage with Blackness,
the way we engage with white people,
we didn't know that it was odd until you start traveling
or you get these other stories.
We're like, man, you talking to white people like that?
Like, yeah.
Yeah.
You just have more confidence, whether it's loud
or whether it's quiet confidence,
than the average Black person.
And we don't know that that's odd
until people start exposing us to the rest of the world.
It's like, oh, you don't move like that where you from?
I think white Atlantians are unique in their experience
with Blackness, for better or for worse.
Atlanta seems to have become a safe place for that.
As somebody who grew up here, is from here, what
do you love about Atlanta?
The ability just to be my Black self, you know,
whatever I say that is.
[applause]
I like that.
DULCE SLOAN (VOICEOVER): So there you have it.
Atlanta might not be Wakanda, but it is a city where you
can just be your Black self.
[applause]
Thank you so much for that.
Dulce Sloan, everybody.
All right, stay tuned because when we come back,
Atlanta's very own T-Pain will be joining us on the show.
You don't want to miss it.
[applause]
[applause, cheering]
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My guest tonight is a Grammy Award-winning artist,
who is also a pro gamer and the CEO
of Nappy Boy Entertainment.
Please welcome T-Pain!
[edm trap music]
What's going on, brother?
Welcome to the show.
Oh, yeah!
T-Pain himself.
- Yeah, man! - Welcome.
Welcome to The Daily Show.
Woo!
Welcome, first of all.
Second of all, thank you for welcoming us.
Obviously, we know you started your career out in Florida,
but you've made Atlanta your home.
And it feels like Atlanta has fully adopted you as its own.
Absolutely, man.
Absolutely.
There's no denying that music today cannot say--
especially hip hop, cannot say that it hasn't been
shaped by T-Pain as sound--
I appreciate that, man.
--the way you've created everything,
from how you used Auto-Tune to the way you defined the music.
You've also been really vocal about the journey
that you've been on.
I found it interesting.
I mean, it was terrible for you,
but people started blaming you for music.
Like, you came out with a style of using Auto-Tune that nobody
had ever seen before. - Right.
In my humble opinion, I'm not a musician,
but I felt like you used it properly.
Then everyone just came out, and (WARBLY SINGING)
everything was like that. You know what I mean?
[laughs] TREVOR NOAH: And then people--
Yeah.
TREVOR NOAH: --started saying to you-- they're like,
oh, T-Pain spoiled music.
T-Pain destroyed music. - Yeah
And you went into a depression.
And you spoke about how you had to work on your mental
to come out of this. - Absolutely.
I love being vocal about things like that
because it wasn't set in the blueprint before me.
Everybody was always-- it's all about blinging.
It's all about having a bunch of money and having all this.
And nobody tells you about the down.
Everybody always tells you about the up.
And I always look back at the people that came before me.
And I'm like, why didn't y'all tell me about this?
Damn.
Like, according to them, it was all--
it's money, girls, big house, somehow your wife don't
find out about any of that.
[laughter]
You know, the fantasy world.
But nobody told us about the downs.
So I try to stay vocal about that to let people know,
these things are going to happen.
As much as you try to create this perfect world around you,
no matter what you do--
you can have charities; you can do all these great things--
you're still going to have these downs because there's
no magical world in the Multiverse
that everybody is happy all the time.
AUDIENCE: That's right!
It just-- [laughs]
And I feel like it's tough to say that.
I feel like you have to--
you've also had to do what few people ever think they'll have
to do, which is ride a wave of immense success,
go through a period where your mental is challenged.
As you said, you struggled with depression.
Yeah.
And then financially, you've shared the stories of how you
thought you had it all forever, and then you
realized that the wrong people can give you the wrong advice.
All of a sudden, your money's not where it's supposed to be.
Absolutely.
But then you have to build yourself back up.
And now, Nappy Boy is back in the game.
T-PAIN: Yeah, yeah.
You're mentoring artists.
You're creating music that's moving
the culture forward again. - Absolutely.
Where does T-Pain go from here?
Because very few people have been in the second peak
of their life, where they have to rebuild everything,
and they have the opportunity-- - Right.
--to do it all again.
What would you do differently, and why?
Condoms.
That would probably be--
[laughter]
But that was-- [laughs] I would probably--
I'd probably invest in them bitches [inaudible]..
No, man.
I don't think I would change anything.
I think the most important thing
that came out of how I've done everything is the lessons I've
acquired while doing them.
TREVOR NOAH: Right.
And knowing each end of the spectrum
is always better than going in it blindly
and going off of faith.
As I said, having that information,
if I would have came into the game,
and I would have stayed successful for this long,
the downfall would have just been from a higher height.
TREVOR NOAH: Right, right.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
So I kind of embrace the fact that I
was able to go jump in the kiddie pool real quick
and then move to the high--
I just wanted to have that experience in my life,
and I don't regret any part of it.
I love everything we're doing.
TREVOR NOAH: That's a good way to live life.
Yeah.
That's a good way to live life.
Thank you so much for joining the show.
Absolutely, bro.
- I appreciate you so much. - Thank you, man.
Thanks. - All the best.
And I'll catch you online.
All right, everybody, stay tuned.
We're going to take a quick break.
We'll be right back after this.
For real, man, thank you.
[applause, cheering]
Well, that's our show for tonight,
but stay tuned because Jordan Klepper's brand
new special is coming up next.
Now here it is, your moment of zen.
[applause]