Jayson Rodriguez
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jaysonrodriguez.info
Jayson Rodriguez
@jaysonrodriguez.info
NOW: Backseat Freestyle 🚙, Smarty Art
THEN: 7PM in BK, The Breakfast Club on BET, Spotify, Vevo, XXL, MTV
ALWAYS: Family man, Philly sports fan, 🇵🇷

Recent work + newsletter signup ⤵️
jaysonrodriguez.info/mylinks

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It goes w/o saying Tyler, The Creator is a creature of Al Gore’s internet. Surely he saw the viral post/subsequent convo after a DJ said he couldn’t play any hip-hop from the past five years or no one will dance. His response: Stop, Tyler time.

backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info/p/tyler-the-...
Please Tyler Don't Hurt 'Em
With his new dance-inspired LP, the Odd Future founder proves his rap peers can't touch him.
backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
Government is shut down. Chaos in airports. 42 million going hungry. 24 million face skyrocketing healthcare costs. Economy in turmoil. And the president of the United States is in the Fox broadcast booth calling plays for a football game.
November 9, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
It's ironic that an industry being funded by billions each year has to be subsidized by starving artists.
October 8, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
Once again, if an industry cannot exist without stealing, that is an argument against the industry, not an argument for stealing.
October 8, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
October 8, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
the core of MAGA government is giving resentful mediocrities to power to act as tyrants and dominate others
September 18, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
Seems like the kind of thing federal agents could handle if they weren’t busy tracking down America’s most wanted DoorDash delivery drivers in DC.
SCOOP

I spoke to the leader of the 764-linked swatting group that is behind the recent spare of hoax active shooter calls at university campuses across the US.

He claims to have earned $100,000 in the space of just six days

www.wired.com/story/purgat...
This Is the Group That's Been Swatting US Universities
WIRED spoke to a self-proclaimed leader of an online group called Purgatory, which charged as little as $20 to call in fake threats against schools.
www.wired.com
August 28, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
Republicans keep telling us not to "politicize" these shootings, but that's only because they understand that these shootings were entirely motivated by the political arguments they themselves have been making and entirely facilitated by the political campaign against gun control that they have led.
The Minneapolis shooter was apparently a fan of several mass murderers who were motivated by the same "Great Replacement Theory" that has pretty much taken over the Republican Party.
After showing his guns emblazoned with racial slurs, far-right slogans, Minneapolis shooting suspect displayed a message "Hail Breivik. Hail Brenton."

Neo-Nazi Anders Breivik killed 77 in Norway in 2011. Brenton Tarrant killed 51 in shootings at 2 mosques in New Zealand in 2019.
August 27, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
It goes w/o saying Tyler, The Creator is a creature of Al Gore’s internet. Surely he saw the viral post/subsequent convo after a DJ said he couldn’t play any hip-hop from the past five years or no one will dance. His response: Stop, Tyler time.

backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info/p/tyler-the-...
Please Tyler Don't Hurt 'Em
With his new dance-inspired LP, the Odd Future founder proves his rap peers can't touch him.
backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info
August 7, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
I'll say it a thousand times -- any account of the past that only celebrates the good parts of a nation without reckoning with the bad is not what we call "history"

It is propaganda, pure and simple.
You can't teach U.S. history without "divisive" narratives. Slavery wasn't "unifying." The Japanese incarceration wasn't "unifying." The anti-immigrant Operation Wetback (real name) wasn't "unifying."
It's history's job to tell the truth, not cover up past racism to pave the way for future racism.
White House Announces Comprehensive Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions
www.nytimes.com
August 12, 2025 at 10:29 PM
It goes w/o saying Tyler, The Creator is a creature of Al Gore’s internet. Surely he saw the viral post/subsequent convo after a DJ said he couldn’t play any hip-hop from the past five years or no one will dance. His response: Stop, Tyler time.

backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info/p/tyler-the-...
Please Tyler Don't Hurt 'Em
With his new dance-inspired LP, the Odd Future founder proves his rap peers can't touch him.
backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info
August 7, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Working on my next newsletter to drop later today. If you aren't yet, subscribe below: you'll immediately get 2 playlists in your when you do: 10 new songs I listen to every week + new 2025 songs & the songs they sample. Tap in! #hiphopsky #newsletters

backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info
Backseat Freestyle
Your weekly hip-hop cypher. Featuring an original essay + curated links to new music, good reads, music videos and pod recommendations. Fresh every Friday!
backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info
August 1, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
🚙 The Clipse Conversation: What does Pusha T & Malice's press run reveal about hip-hop journalism? Dive into the latest issue of Backseat Freestyle! Subscribe & share! backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info/p/the-clipse... #HipHop #Newsletter #Clipse
The Clipse Conversation
What Pusha T and Malice's press run says about the state of hip-hop journalism.
backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info
July 20, 2025 at 12:37 PM
🚙 The Clipse Conversation: What does Pusha T & Malice's press run reveal about hip-hop journalism? Dive into the latest issue of Backseat Freestyle! Subscribe & share! backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info/p/the-clipse... #HipHop #Newsletter #Clipse
The Clipse Conversation
What Pusha T and Malice's press run says about the state of hip-hop journalism.
backseatfreestyle.jaysonrodriguez.info
July 20, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Zohran Mamdani and Mahmoud Khalil Are in on the Joke: By Hanif Abdurraqib

www.newyorker.com/news/essay/z...
July 13, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
Rather than spoon-feed you the same major label albums you already know about, CABBAGES presents an all-new-to-you midyear feast of independent and underground rap music from the past six months. You're welcome.
www.cabbageshiphop.com/ten-2025-rap...
Ten 2025 Rap Albums You Haven't Heard—But Should
Add handpicked records by C-Red, Dobey Dobe, Eddie Valero, and more to your Best Of The Year So Far listening.
www.cabbageshiphop.com
July 10, 2025 at 1:24 PM
A manifesto for 2025
it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between who’s kidding and who’s stupid
July 8, 2025 at 10:28 PM
....was a popular drink and it still it/I get more props and stunts than..... #ripGuru #dwyck
Hip Hop Riddle for my OG hip hop fans... Give me the lyric and name the song! (Difficulty Level: Easy)
July 8, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
one of the projects of the court is to expand the ability of states to pursue reactionary ends and constrain the ability of the federal government to set minimum standards *or* of democratic-led states to expand upon existing rights
🚨By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court ALLOWS states to defund Planned Parenthood, holding that Medicaid does not give patients a right to obtain care from its providers. All three liberals dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
June 26, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
On Friday night, we walked the length of Manhattan, from Inwood Hill to Battery Park.

New Yorkers deserve a Mayor they can see, hear, even yell at. The city is in the streets.
June 23, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
AOC: If Senator Fetterman or anybody else is concerned with law and order, we should be looking at one of the most law breaking agencies and administrations that we've seen in the United States.
June 10, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
I was in downtown #losangeles at the beginning of this week. The streets had a way different feel from what’s been on my screens. No signs of insurrection just love and peace. For more check out this full post open.substack.com/pub/baratund...
June 11, 2025 at 2:06 PM
This was an interesting headline choice, as if to almost say bullets just happened to hit her rather than someone (maybe...an officer, perhaps) shot said reporter. This is not how we learned to write in journalism school, by the way.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/u...
Reporter Covering LA Protests Hit by Rubber Bullet During Live TV Broadcast
In one episode in downtown Los Angeles, an Australian television journalist was struck when an officer fired a nonlethal projectile while she was on the air.
www.nytimes.com
June 11, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Clearly a talented journalist, said something that was truthful, but two things: 1) Clowns whining (not gonna call it bad faith arguments) and 2) this premise of unbiasedness instead of pursuit of truth is wrecking journalism.
June 11, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Reposted by Jayson Rodriguez
The U.S. government is spending $134 million dollars to deploy troops in America while veterans sleep on the streets.
June 10, 2025 at 5:02 PM