Trump Loses Another Court Battle over Rule of Law

Have you ever wanted to share your opinions with MS Now about our TV programs, podcasts, live events, and more? Now's your chance to have your voice heard. Join the MSNow Insights community at MS.com. Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melbert tonight. We're actually just going to start like this. President Trump operates in bad faith, meaning he deliberately deceives and defrauds. He leads the government with improper goals. which is a way of saying that apart from policy or ideological differences, which can be vast but are fine, that's part of democracy, bad faith means his core purpose is improper and invalid in his use of authority. Stay with me because I'm going somewhere. We also start tonight by saying that Trump demands public officials funded by your tax dollars. He demands they misuse their power and their roles to manipulate the government and its functions. And that ranges from the executive branch agencies, which he is supposed to lead, but not in bad faith, to the judicial branch's courts, which he is supposed to follow their rulings under our constitutional system. Now, there's evidence for the conclusions I just said to you. There are Trump's efforts to steal an election, which got him indicted repeatedly, although... Never put on trial before his reelection ended those cases, and he was legally presumed innocent, but that's a type of evidence. There's also his explicit public embrace and reward of the violence of January 6th, something he would like to minimize and lie about, but honest Americans, journalists, experts of law, will not let him do that. We will remind you that his pardons for those violent convicts and his later attempts to seize taxpayer dollars for MAGA. Allied convicts, all of that shows his bad faith. And that failed bid to take that money is actually back in the news tonight because the reason I started with this is that each point that I just stated is not just a general summary, not an opinion. not a view or an accusation of bad faith by one person against another. And you could say, well, everybody's got opinions and views about politics. What I just told you, and what I'm going to show you in more detail, is actually the new binding finding of an independent judge that rebukes how Trump's lawyers operated in bad faith. for Donald Trump to try to manipulate the government in his now pause, frozen sort of DOA bid to seize that money for criminals. Now, you might remember this project was in the news a lot because it was so brazen that Trump found there was Republican opposition. He had his aides ultimately claiming they would back down from his MAGA convict fund. The news tonight in that fund that was already, as I mentioned, kind of falling apart is that a judge has now ruled to void the entire effort by Trump to take that over billion dollars from the IRS and get this sort of legal power grab. This is a huge blow to that, the judge.

finding that the case they used to try to make this happen was brought to manipulate the judicial process, meaning it was not some valid effort to say, hey, maybe we should do this and then judge's rule, but it was actually, like other things Trump has done, a wider bad faith manipulation of the courts and his access to them. This is a federal judge in Florida. The ruling as a matter of what's happening blocks what was already this frozen fund. and also now blocks Trump's plot to try to extend some sort of tax immunity and audit protection to himself. And that's not all. The judge referring Trump's lawyers to the bar for possible discipline, which is a big deal. Now, the order that I was kind of summarizing at the top here tonight, it finds that Trump's side acted in bad faith in a matter brought for improper purpose, an attempt to use the court. to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people affiliated with Trump and to take billions of dollars from American taxpayers. This is a big deal. This is a judicial finding that, as I mentioned, reinforces what you might already know. You might say, okay, I'm watching the news. I know Trump's. lying. I know he acts in bad faith. That's kind of his thing. But this is a judge finding this in a way that has real repercussions, especially for the people around Trump and MAGA who thought they could continue to use these devices with the judge calls manipulation or seizing funds to try to arm up a potential future militia force. Which is not rhetoric. That's kind of what happened with the proud boys and others who were convicted of sedition for Jan 6. The judge calling out this corruption. It's something that, as I mentioned, was already on the rocks because leaders in both parties, as soon as this brazen deal was announced, started sounding alarms.

This is a corrupt deal. I think it's stupid on stilts. That is the definition, as Thomas Jefferson, I think once said, of tyranny. It's our job in the Congress and the Senate and the House to hold the executive branch accountable. I don't think it's inappropriate use of money. Please, talk about this. What is the decision fund from the president for the city? Yeah, not a big man. I call it a. payout pot for punks. It's all about weaponizing the tax dollars of the American people to support Donald Trump's private militia. This is a issue that's in politics. So it's notable, as I just showed you, that in politics where there's great disagreement about most things Trump, and especially his whole January 6th convicted sedition. and pardons for those people. Even on that, you saw Republicans in public saying, no, too far. Imagine what they were telling the White House in private. So the whole thing was questionable. A judge ruling against it now, an independent judge, saying basically this is totally corrupt and referring Trump's lawyers for the review of possible sanctions. Now, it is rare to see lawyers sanction for what we would call standard zealous advocacy back and forth. Indeed, courts require it and operate on it. In very serious issues, you can imagine a murder trial. You've got one side, the government, saying this was murder, and you have the people defending what they say was not murder, right, or if it's convicted, defending murder. And so there's a lot of back and forth there where you could say, oh, you know, you went really far to defend this murderer. You're allowed to do that. If you go to law school or civics courses, there's a lot of talk about how much protection there is for that adversarial system. If you watch this show regularly, you may know I happen to be a lawyer. And lawyers talk about how you need to really protect that. You don't want to criminalize or dissuade zealous advocacy of all kinds of positions. But that doesn't mean you can lie in court or manipulate the system. There has to be an outer edge. And this judge is saying Trump's lawyers may have crossed it. As for Trump's DOJ, the government itself, the judge notes, their conduct is equally untenable. The DOJ tasked with enforcing U.S. law has remained absent and silent from this case, which the judge is saying perverts the enforcement of law. This rebuke comes as. The embattled acting AG, Todd Blanche, who was trying to sell this now pretty much aborted fund, heads into a confirmation hearing this very week. Todd Blanche spearheaded the settlement and was quite dodgy even when it was under attack about backing off it, because as I told you, the judge said it's untenable, the Republicans said it's a no-go, and yet he still was dodgy in backing off. We are not moving forward with the fun, period. Not moving forward ever. Correct. Oh, there's no more fun then. Is there any way that you could put this in writing? I'm not committing to putting anything in writing. I'm going to set it today over and over again.

Lanch fighting an uphill battle. He also has ethics complaints. He's lost this fund that he was hatching and any good lawyer or status, you know, sort of strategic person will tell you you don't want headlines like this and why do something that costs a lot gets you criticized if it also loses, meaning even by the narrow standard of serving Trump. He lost. As for his reputation, well, he's already lost that. He's got an unprecedented number of DOJ vets arguing against. his stewardship of DOJ in promotion to be permanent attorney general because of the bad faith I'm telling you about. This is different than saying you never liked Trump or you disagreed with his ideas or you even find him loathsome as an increasing share of Americans do. He's got the lowest approval of any second term president since we've been measuring. This goes to something deeper, the corruption, the rot, and the bad faith as adjudicated by an independent judge as we continue to figure out what America's going to do. with someone who, if the courts didn't stop him, would be stealing your taxpayer dollars and handing it to convicts, like some sort of reversed case, doomsday scenario of how to subvert law and order and make the country literally less safe. I want to bring in Governor Dean, former DNC chair and Maya Wiley, a former civil prosecutor with the SD&Y, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Maya, I set this up deliberately because Anyone who's watched Donald Trump could say, liar, bad faith, duh. But here, it's liar, bad faith, trouble for the lawyers, a rebuke of this DOJ under the acting AG Todd Blanche, and an actual step that could stop the bad faith things. Your view of why this could matter. Well, you said it very well, Ari, and let me just say it could matter because we're talking about the courts providing a ground to sanction attorneys for the government. But to your point, Todd Blanche, the guy who's been doing this as an audition, literally for the top job to be the lawyer of we the people. One of the things it's so striking about what this judge is setting out in the opinion is exactly this point about this is not the job. This is not the job description. And this is not the oath of office. Essentially, you are literally, we are watching attorneys be a vehicle for something no one of us would ever do. I mean, Ari, when would you ever be both the plaintiff and the defendant? When would you ever say? I'm going to let my defense attorney also be the attorney for the plaintiff. You would never do that. That's exactly what's happening here. And to your point, it's happening here both in creating a slush fund for the political advances Donald Trump as a politician. wants to make to what I call his foot soldiers potentially, people who are not keeping us safe, but making us less safe. He's trying to use the Department of Justice as a vehicle, and Todd Blanche is auditioning for the role by being whatever Donald Trump needs it to be, even if it makes the rest of us less safe. And the immunity thing is outrageous, like literally outrageous. How would we ever say that?

Private citizen Trump or his children can't even be investigated for making money and not reporting or engaging in tax evasion even well out of office. And this would have nothing to do with being president, but this gets slid in. You know, it is outrageous, but it's also an example of how. Todd Blanche is really evidencing something that we're seeing too much in our government, and it is so critical for a court to call it out and say, no, you don't. By the way, if you do, we will do everything in our power to ensure you pay the price. And that's called oversight. That's called accountability and the transparency of this opinion and if the process is deeply important to the American public. Very, very clearly put. Governor Dean, I have many questions, but I'll let you take your opening shot at what could be a significant ruling here if it holds. Yeah, I mean, thinking about the bigger picture, all systems of our government are broken. We have a guy who's probably the most corrupt president in the history of the country in the presidency. We have an ineffective Congress, which is out of touch with where the American people are, and we have a court system which is corrupt at the top. So the real problem is we want something that I think Republicans and Democrats can agree on, term limits, term limits for the Supreme Court, term limits for the Congress on both the Senate and the House side. The problem is inside the Beltway is too cushy for people. They preserve their seats at the expense of the American people, and they're not all bad people. But I always like to say, basically, Washington is middle school on steroids. They work hard, they're smart, and it's all about them all the time. And so even the Democrats, I think, are out of touch. That's why you're seeing the people from DSA and all these young people taking seats. And I frankly hope they're a little of my left, but I hope that more of them do that because we have got a big generational problem. It's time for my generation to step aside and to have 30-year-olds who actually care about the future of the country. And they're not a hell of a lot of people in Washington who think seriously about the future of the country. There are some. who I admire. But they're virtually none. I mean, the one I like the best was Thomas Massie, even though his politics was appalling to me. But at least he stood up for what he believed in. And there's so little of that in the Republican Party today. I think they're going to get wiped out, assuming we can have an honest election. And Trump is doing everything he can to attack that election. Right, and you just... As it's not Todd Blanche. Yeah, and you drew the connective tissue there that you need, you'd still need to have the election that is the accountability. Go ahead, Maya, please. Yeah, well, the connection to, I think, this incredibly important point about power is that we're watching the same...

power being used from the Department of Justice to persecute people who are organizing people to be able to vote. I mean, we saw that with Southern Poverty Law Center, which is a story civil rights organization that also helps people vote, but goes after the Ku Klux Klan, gets a indictment, even though it had had a working relationship with the Department of Justice and the FBI over a number of years. Todd Blanche has to retract statements that were not factually accurate about whether or not they were working with the FBI. But this is, again, the opposite of the groups that were probably, and people who are probably going to get paid out of the slush fund, right? This is an effort to persecute to say, don't trust the people who are trying to help you participate in a democratic process. Think of them as the enemy. And then they roll into Ohio. and paper the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, again, registering black people to vote suddenly looks like it's something that deserves a Department of Justice investigation. We are watching in real time not just this disgusting deal that happened that is just both graft, but also an effort to take the reins of government and use it to Trump's political advantage. But it's also weaponized, banks to Todd Blanche and others. to actually come for the rest of us, to literally say we can persecute you by prosecuting you because we just don't like what you're doing because we don't like who you're helping to vote or how you're helping them to vote or what you're doing to ensure there's no gerrymandering or anything else that's about a democratic process. That's the tyranny. That's also the red line that actually no Republicans should want to see cross because you don't want any party doing that. As you say, some even see it that way. I mean, we saw even the Senate leader of the Republicans go against Trump on the issue. We're discussing the fund as well as the voting midterm plot that Trump wanted. I want to show also how the judge ripped apart the abuse of the both sides of the case thing that Maya mentioned. So we have a quick break 90 seconds. We'll get into that next. Hey, everyone, it's Chris Hayes. This week on my podcast, Wise is happening. What really happened with the border during the Biden administration? Asylum at the border needs to be changed. And that was part of the legislation supported by President Biden. And that's what got killed by Donald Trump because he wanted the crisis to live for political benefit. So what has happened is there are many fewer migrants presenting themselves of the border. The Supreme Court just basically shut that down and allowed the administration to do what it wants. That's this week on Wise. happening. Search for Wise is happening wherever you're listening right now and follow. Back with Howard and Maya on a big lost day for the Trump DOJ and the effort to sort of seize taxpayer funds. The kind of immunity that Trump was trying to give himself as if he didn't get enough from the Supreme Court was coming out of a case that Maya pointed out was.

you know, fraudulent, basically, to begin with. Many people kind of felt that way. It was so brazen. No one's really tried it this way. I want to read, though, from a summary of this new ruling, noting that the judge held Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS was manufactured to justify its settlement. So it's not a real case or controversy. I think we have this from Politico. Exactly. Multi-billion-dollar so-called anti-wabization fund for legal allies, shield from IRS scrutiny. Maya, why does that matter that other presidents didn't try this because they didn't try to shake down the government blatantly for money this way, even though not they weren't all perfect, and that this is now called out in court as a fake case to begin with? Because other presidents of both parties understood. that this is an abuse of power and should be considered unlawful and that shouldn't pass the sniff test. It's that simple. You can't say, I'm going to use my power as a president for my own personal gain. And I'm going to do it brazenly by telling people who I control, I'll bring the lawsuit. And then I'm suing myself. So then you do what I want you to do. which is line my pockets, protect my graft, and ensure that I have a slush fund to pay off anyone I want to pay off. Yeah. Governor Dean, the politics of this at a base level are when corruption wins, and you can look at other countries, it becomes more common. when corruption is too costly or loses, there's still some people doing it in the same way that some people are always going to be a part of the criminal element. Can you speak to that deterrence? Do you think the courts are finally perhaps after delay helping draw that line? I think it's bald partisanship in the courts. If you get right-wing people in certain circuits, Trump gets what he wants. And that was designed. That's been a 20-year effort on the part of the right-wing with billionaires participating in recruiting right-wing judges in ramming them through as often as the leader of the Republican Party did in the Senate. And so they've manipulated the judicial system. You get the results that they want. But there are some very good judges and thoughtful judges, including some Trump as appointed, must have gotten through his screen somehow because he doesn't believe in competent people. He only believes in obedient people. So I don't give up on the judiciary, but I do think it's broken because the Supreme Court has invented these crackpot theories like unitary presidency and all this stuff to basically let Trump do whatever he was. They're just making this stuff up. And that's what they got put there to do over the years.

Yeah, really striking. Howard, Maya, my thanks to both of you on this important story up ahead. Trump promised a short war that hasn't worked out. We have the latest from Iran. Marco Rubio also finding he's eating his words. But next we go to the heat on the Trump-allied billionaires who are trying to take control of CNN. We actually have a special guest leading the lawsuit that could try to stop that merger. Tonight we're turning to new pressure on the MAGA Media mogul who has spent a lot cozing up to Trump and wants to control CNN and a lot of the other things you see on your airwaves. This is a big issue around free speech and business and who controls what in our democracy. There are now several Democratic-led states that are formally suing to try to block that big merger we've been covering, where the Ellison family basically... puts down about $110 billion to get the massive conglomerate Warner Brothers, which includes HBO, CNN, and a lot of other stuff, movies, you name it. This case is now arguing that the deal would create an unlawful merger, that it would be just too big an anti-consumer, that it would harm movie theaters, cable distributors, and audiences. Now, this is the deal that would give the Ellison's basically control of several streaming services, including HBO Max, a bunch of cable channels, two movie studios, CNN as mentioned. So there are First Amendment questions. Ellison has control of CBS News where there's one clashes, you remember, over its political independence. Stephen Colbert, 60 Minutes, CNN might get the CBS treatment once this whole merger closes. Ellison reportedly told Trump there would be sweeping changes to the network that he would like. Trump has also been quite public in calling for. You have some good companies bidding on it. I think the people that have run CNN for the last long period of time are... And disgrace, I think it's imperative that CNN be so. The fake news like CNN, like the New York Times and like others, have abused our people. Wait a minute. Be quiet. Have abused our people so badly. And you should be ashamed of yourself. CNN does such false reporting. But now they have new ownership, so maybe it'll straighten it. And I doubt it. But it's hard to straighten garbage out. Thank you for calling in. Have CNN go in a normal path, and we'll do that. Well, I'm on a normal path right here, sir, and I appreciate your time, and thank you for calling in. That's what it looks like, to be clear. The president, like anybody else, can criticize the media, including us, all he wants. That's what the First Amendment protects. But when you heard him quite publicly talk about whether the ownership would change and the ownership are people that have been very close to him, that raises larger questions. He is directly referencing the Ellison's might make these places more Trump-friendly. And then there's a money trail, Allison, spending, supporting MAGA.

projects throwing a party for Trump while he controls the regulatory approval over the merger. DOJ leaders actually surprised some of the independent, unpartisan sort of long-term staff who thought that there might be issues here and they didn't even get an opportunity to object. Now, Paramount says this lawsuit that I'm reporting on tonight distorts antitrust law and is based on a misrepresentation of competition. also we should note that paramount and cbs leaders say they are not trying to do anything at the behest of trump or the government that any editorial changes are their independent judgments and it is certainly true that apart from antitrust issues people buy media companies all the time and can make changes That's okay. The question legally is whether there was quid pro quo or these many media targets that you see here, including cancellations and going after Kimmel and abusing government power and lawsuits amount to something that goes beyond the First Amendment's protection of free speech with no government interference. We've tried to set this conversation up quite fairly, high stakes, and we're joined by Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford. one of the 12 Attorneys General on the suit I mentioned. Welcome. So very much. Good afternoon or good evening to you. Good evening. Depends where we are. On the West Coast, still good afternoon. You're arguing not that this is just unfair or might change the editorial, but there's something unlawful about merging this much editorial and media. Why is that? Yeah, certainly. And that's been the case, frankly, with all the lawsuits, my colleagues in our abroad, and that's that there's always an unlawful component to it, which is why our victory record is 85% or 90% such is going to be the case here as well. Look, in layman's terms, or the bottom line is we have two big companies here, a movie company, TV companies, that are trying to become one. And if that happens, we're going to see. four companies of a left that control almost all of the movies you see in theaters. Together, those four companies are going to control 85 out of 100 movies that are released in our movie theaters. But it's more than just movies. It's also about TV. This merger is going to combine two of the five biggest owners of basic cable TV. And so together they'd own about 59 out of every 100 cable channels. in the country, more than 50 channels in total, including news and sports channels. And we believe that there are several antitrust violations associated with this merger, and that's why we are opposing it. That makes sense. And I think most people, apart from politics, say, well, I'd like a free market, which includes real meaningful competition, not a duopoly, not two or three big guys who are close with the government calling all the shots. Having said that, what do you say to the legitimate question that if it wasn't this buyer, it would have been another buyer. It would have been Netflix. It would have been somebody else that the market wants some sort of consolidation and scale.

Well, the fact is, it is this buyer. And the fact is, this buyer. associated with this particular entity being acquired would create a problem for us. Look, let's talk about the movies, for example. People still love going to movies. Americans spent more than $8 billion at their box office last year, and we're looking at about $10 billion this year. Theaters need a steady stream of new films to stay open, and just a few companies control those movies, and they will be the ones who are deciding what gets on the screen. We've also noticed that Blockbuster movies, the ones that are based on, for example, like Harry Potter or Marvel. They don't come very often, but when they do come, they are the big money makers from 22 to 25, 22 to 2025, the big movies were only about 15 out of every 100 or so movies, but they made about 88 out of every 100 box office dollars. So after this merger, four companies will control about 93% of all that money, and that's just too much power. I'm going to jump in because our time is tight. I hear you on the movies. I want to get to war coverage. Pretty damning to have the... Defense Secretary say the buyer I mentioned, the Ellison's, he wants them to come in to change the war coverage. Just a short bite. Take a look. More fake news from CNN. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better. Is there a concern here of improper government relationship with this Ellison buyer? Look, I'll let the facts speak by themselves. Absolutely. The CEO attended the state of the union, hosted a dinner for the White House and CBS correspondents, I think went to UFC. This sitting cabinet secretary is publicly cheering on this takeover of CNN. Nevadans and Americans can draw their own conclusions about whether that kind of access affects how thoroughly a merger gets scrutinized by the feds. And that's one of the reasons why we think we need, we have to get engaged. Yeah. Attorney General Aaron Ford, you're leading in this charge. People can hear. You're steep in the details. We wanted to give you time with your perspective. And of course, the Ellison's, the new owners, they're welcome to come on as well. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Appreciate it. At a time where we are also polarized. New York came together in a big way, and I was up past three in the morning, and I'll explain why it involves those Yankee Stadium shows. We have a special guest on it by the very end of tonight's program, but first we do turn to Donald Trump failing to end the war on the timeline he promised. An update you need to know. We're going to give you the reasons why the peace deal is well past the sell-by date. Home to the Rachel Maddo Show. Morning Joe, the briefing with Jen Saki, and more voices you know and trust. MS Now is your source for news, opinion, and the world. Learn more at MS. Now.

The round war is facing more escalation. This weekend, you might have seen some of the reporting, strikes, counter strikes, both sides involved, Trump threatening a new return to his blockade of the strait oil surging again. It was just about a month ago that Trump said the memorandum of understanding that he reached would end hostilities and basically functionally be a path to peace. This came after other broken promises like the length of the war. He said it would be easy. Fast, he's all but declared it over in public. Day eight, we've already won. Day 10, the war is very complete. Day 39, he announced total and complete victory. We are in day 136 since this began. And even if you want to say that there were periods of the ceasefire holding of low to zero hostilities, we are still that far along in a war that's not over. Trump's new threat is basically about extorting ships, 20% fees, his own government was saying that very maneuver would be illegal just last month. Well, that's the law. It's an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That's existing international law. That's the way it is. A fact check for Marco Rubio. Go look in the mirror. Look at your own statements. Or, since we know the Secretary of State likes a little lyric here and there, he's known to quote, nothing wrong with that. You better check yourself. We are 113 days away from the midterms as we count in both directions. There is reporting that Donald Trump was worried that this war getting too close to the midterms would further hurt his party's chances. There are better reasons to end the war, but that's one of the measurements everyone is now watching. We're going to fit in a break when we come back, why New York is uniting from the Knicks to this Jay-Z show. We have a special guest next. From the Knicks to the World Cup to July 4th, Americans have had many celebrations of unity lately. And this weekend, the stars were out at Yankee Stadium, along with over 45,000 people. Even Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries was seen dancing to an artist from his borough of Brooklyn. As Jay-Z marked the 30th anniversary of his debut album with a string of shows that swiftly sold out one of the city's largest venues. In breaking records, few performers can sell out large stadiums even in their prime, let alone decades later. As you can see here, New Yorkers turning out in droves, showing the spirit, loyalty, and diversity that can inform an empire state of mind. This is a drone video that shows what was going on this weekend. Across these shows, Jay brought out Eminem, Alicia Keys, Usher, Farrell, his former disc competitor, Naus, and a lot of other artists you see here. His wife, Beyonce, came out on two nights. Rihanna, just last night, or this morning, really, did her first performance in years. Now, Jay leads an entire generation of rap while he brought out icons from the genre's history, slick Rick, Gizi, Eclipse, and loyal artists who came up with him like Memphis Bleak, who rocked the stage. with Coming of Age. There's just some of the footage that fans were posting. It was more than a concert. It was national news that today's show hailing the all-star surprise lineup USA Today, noting this caps a blockbuster New York summer. And if you read The New York Times today, reports the weekend shows by Jay were transcendent, dizzying, deeply memorable, and it discusses the musical feat of a concert that often boiled down to one man rapping with dexterity and flair commanding a stadium.

full of fans. Jay Z is already a unique icon in our history. He went from public housing to a self-made writer, poet, entrepreneur billionaire. He embodies the triumph of talent, work, and vision in a way that we know inspires many Americans, including those excluded from past empty promises about an America dream. Obama recognized that, tapping Jay is a powerful validator in his first run for the White House before he won. These weekend shows bring it back to the art. demonstrating that people are still with him, and he's still got it. In fact, in an era of virtual propaganda and fake news and a kind of cultural authenticity crisis, where singers routinely lip sync on stage and some concert fans focus more on making their phone content than like dancing or listening, these shows were the OG real thing. The artist filling the stadium with his real voice, rapping the poems he composed, which clearly still resonate decades later. That's not an automatic thing for any songs, even hits. Like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or Billy Joel, artists' great songs become classics because they actually get even better with time. Jay Z's catalog is full of that material, songs that bring you out to dance at a wedding, even if you weren't a devoted fan, or songs that make you think harder, the closer you managed to listen to them. And that's not all. I mentioned it's a feat to sell out the stadium, but Jay didn't do it with some greatest hits collection. The stars I mentioned were mostly surprise announcements. The first night was devoted to a live performance of his entire debut album front to back. the second to his entire classic album, The Blueprint, 25 years later. Just having one full album triumph, no skips, as it is said, is hard enough. Let me tell you something. It's a musical flex to play the entire album and satisfy a demanding stadium crowd with material that demonstrably, provably resonates now decades after it was first created. To get a perspective on this from the stage, we're joined by the Great Memphis Fleek, rapper, longtime collaborator with Jay-Z. He was one of the many guest stars that performed over the weekend and has a new song out now, called No More. That's right. Welcome back to the beat. What's up, man? Thank you. Thank you, man. I'm happy to be here. I'm surprised I'm awake. We were both there in different ways past 3 a.m. So it was really this morning. Now we're here. I appreciate you coming in. What did it feel like when you touched the stage and looked out at, as I mentioned, that diverse crowd that was with it? It was surreal almost because we had an enclosed, what would you call a rehearsal. Yeah. They had the tent, the top over the stage, so you couldn't really feel how big the stage was. When I walked out there and saw the crowd, saw the stage... My heart just was pounding. I was nervous like it was my first show again. You felt nervous up there. Bro kidding me? You didn't look nervous, bleak. I didn't. And then remember, I haven't performed. We didn't perform coming to age the song probably in like 16 years. So it was like, wow, the first record that changed my life. That's what I had to tell Jay when the show was over. I was like, it's so awesome that 30 years ago we were praying.

this worked and this is the result of those praise of what worked. Yeah. You talk about the timing. We have some little pictures of where you and Jay Z started out and how you were coming up. And that story is inspiring to so many people. So this was back in the day. Talk about the growth and the elevation that he embodies and what it means because not all albums 30 years later are getting played, let alone on a stage. Some albums ain't getting played, let alone 30 years later. Like some of the things I learned from Jay is just, Being a man first, you know, I grew up without a father. So, you know what I mean? My older brother was like the one who took care of me, showing me the ropes. But getting with Jay, it was like telling me. how to be a man, hold your composure, how to be a business man. You know what I mean? And the reason I know if you're not 15 minutes early, you're 30 minutes late. So it's like those type of things he instilling you and just respect, you know, command in a room, never forget who you are, never diminish yourself to be in any room. You make a room. appear to you. You don't appeal to anyone. They appeal to you. So just knowing who you are in that belief and determination, man, Jay just embrids like, never quit, share a desire that I'm going to win. Even when everyone say no, I believe. My belief is stronger. Never quit. That's right. Never change. That's a fact. On the core, I saw him you perform. We also have pictures of people at. The shows. Oh, we got you paper planes, of course, which is one of the visionary brands of Jay-Z, the idea that you could make the plane fly just like you could make a paper plane. You got the Yankee gear. I saw a lot of people with my own eyes at these shows either rocking the old stuff or getting new stuff that they wanted to share. What does it mean to you that people want to share in this? Like people was making, like you saw the new, it's another New York hat. I forgot the designer name, but it's a really dope hat where he made the New York Yankee logo. actually say Jay-Z, where he wrote it on there. The hat is going viral. It's amazing. I've seen New Jersey's, like people making Brooklyn jerseys with their own number and J-name on the back. Just for the fans to come out like that and show that support 30 years later. That's significant. Yeah. It's like, that's what you do it for. You know what I want to play a little bit of, he does these acapella raps when he's got stuff to get off his chest. They see, I sold out. Yeah, I did sell out. Three nights. I sold Yankee Stadium, man, man, hell out. Now I'm a target. Hey, don't miss that target. So, excuse me, all he's doing with. Apple and World Law did him.

You shopping at Amazon or you boycott. You post it on Instagram. That's matter for something. Y'all know Google on YouTube. You can't choose in the politics as usual. For those who might not know, tell us about this poetry. He composes usually in his head in Philly and now this weekend he's dropped these new poems speaking to current times, talking about how do you represent for civil rights while also being an entrepreneur and some of the things he says people are pushing on him. He says are sort of double standards. But tell us about how this works. And have you seen him kind of pop up and drop these gems? Like, Jay is a, he's a weird, weird artist. Like to see him work, you'll see him work. That's like you're sitting right here, we're talking. Yeah. As I'm speaking, you're writing the rhyme in your head. So when I'm done talking, you're like, bleep, I'm going to go in the studio and spit this verse. I'm like, how? When did you write it? That's Jay. And writes it in his head. In his mind, right there on the spy. I remember we did a limo ride from his apartment, 560 State Street to JFK. It's about a 30-minute ride. He wrote the whole song Sunshine in that ride. Really? From beginning to end. And you testified. All he was doing was playing the beat. By the time we got to the airport, turn the car around. We went back to the studio, then booked the flight later. I love it. I love it. Look, it's feeling like whole summer. Are there any more surprises that we should be prepared for? Definitely, man. We got London coming up. We got... L.A. coming up, So far stadium. Paris coming up, September 4th, September 10th, October, I think 12th is so far. Man, it's going to be just get ready. Yeah. This is a whole summer. This is a takeover. It's a takeover. In closing, I've said this to you off there, but I'll say it in front of the people who watch the news. At a time like this, music still inspires. It brings us together. Growing up on artists like yourself and Hove and others and then getting to meet you guys and then being there and seeing everyone together, there's the energy to that. It's what we need. We need more than just debates and division. We certainly need authenticity because there's a lot of fake stuff going on. An honor to have you back. Oh, thank you. I appreciate you, man. I honor to be here, like I said, it's an honor to be amongst the greats to work with somebody like Jay. Like I said, if I would have known the person from my building was going to eventually be the greatest, I would have wrote a plan. I didn't plan well enough. Memphis Bleak, back on the beat, and check out the new track from Bleak called No More. You can get it on streaming services. We'll be right back.

Finally, my question to unite, what is your favorite classic timeless album? Something from your youth or decades ago that works today. You can tell me on social at Ari Melburgh, whichever one you use. I hear from you guys on Facebook, some of the other platforms at Ari Melburgh. You can always also go to Ari Melbor.com to connect with me. But what is your classic album? We explored one tonight. On behalf of those Jay-Z shows, thanks for watching. Real talent is defined by what people can do, not where they learn to do it. So by stopping at the education section of a resume, you might throw away the perfect hire. Skills first hiring helps you see talent others miss, like more than 70 million stars, skilled through alternative routes. Let their story unfold and gain a competitive advantage. Because hiring managers who start with skills are 60% more likely to find a successful hire. Hire skills first. Learn why at tear the paper ceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council.