It's Always Personal

Wood was tired of the raging culture war topic of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese getting all its run on Instagram. The two rookies, leading the class in production, squared off today in Indianapolis for their first meeting - and ESPN aired the showdown. IG replies be damned, let’s discuss the results of Chicago Sky versus Indiana Fever.

Wood talks through Apple TV’s surprisingly solid historical drama MANHUNT. Other topics include a BLACK ENTERPRISE article on Major Taylor cyclist Kirk Charles, new music, NBA& WNBA topics, and the new day in Major League Baseball for the greats of the Negro Leagues.

Wood revisits Rapsody and her sharing on Please Don’t Cry, Jason Whitlock says Caitlin Clark is the 2024 Jackie Robinson… does anything more need to be described???

Wood talking community, fitness, running, walking, and Rapsody’s new Please Don’t Cry album.

Wood shares ongoing commentary on Caitlin Clark, the WNBA’s OTHERS (Hey A’ja Wilson), Black soc med’s weird fandom of Angel Reese, The Book of Clarence on Netflix, and saying goodbye to a great pet.

Just Wood spittin… masculinity, manhood, attitudes towards abortion in Black America, infidelity vs Black Love, WNBA is the new battlefield for the raging Culture War, new Ghostface Killah album and rapping at 50 & above…

White America might be down bad if Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese messes around and has a successful career.

Wood discusses Blacks calling WNBA racist for not showing Angel Reese’s debut preseason game, but choosing to streak No. overall draft pick Caitlin Clark’s. Let’s look at the facts, details and raw data between the two - then tell me how you’d deploy your limited resources.

Wood shares some random thoughts on the world of sports’ biggest headlines, along with the influence from the Culture and Social Media. Subjects include Kendrick Lamar, Drake, J Cole, Ryan Garcia & PEDs, a Canelo event’s promotion versus Gervonta Davis vs Frank Martin, Naoya Inoue’s destruction of Luis Nery on ESPN+, understanding Devin Haney moving on from a big rematch.

Wood heard about a new book, THE BLACK TAX, that claims $600B was stolen from Black Americans by discriminatory taxation. Well, at least author Andrew W. Kahrl is seemingly pointing to a legitimate paper trail, and has provided a dollar amount to be used for the argument for reparations. Sadly, reparations, or a realistic path towards any financial resolution, remains as unpaved as it was in 2005,...

With each day Wood continues to be disheartened with what’s increasingly being widely, and unconditionally, accepted as being real. There’s a large bill coming due for such problematic discernment. Also, check out the SHŌGUN series finale reaction, which is different from the livestream available the Pay Me No Mind YouTube channel.

Didn't Ice Cube drop one of the greatest dis songs of all time in his joint "No Vasline" back in October 1991? More importantly, he himself famously spit, "...now let's play big bank take little bank..." to describe his takedown of his former group N.W.A. Cube thought his departure from the trailblazing Compton crew would ultimately hurt the quality of their music, as w...

Wood eats crow over his disqualification prediction for this past Saturday’s Pay Per View championship fight on DAZN Devin Haney vs Ryan Garcia. More fans will celebrate Garcia’s guile during the lead-up to the fight than question how disingenuous he was with respect to making the 140-pound max limit. What rules do we follow nowadays? Other topics include the National Cycling League’s lost 2024 se...

Bite down, boxing. Twenty-five year old Ryan Garcia is one of boxing’s most popular figures, but he’s single-handedly undermined the success of his own Pay Per View fight versus Devin Haney. Like D’Angelo Barksdale said on The Wire: So you’re gonna take his money all day and just treat him like a dog?” The strained relationship between boxing, boxing fans and boxing fans’ money will undoubtedly be...

Wood just going on about some random observations about difficult relationships. Maybe you have some similar occurrences with the others in your circles. Newer rap artist Vega7 the Ronin dropped his second album in two weeks, Shadow Runner, and Wood just talks through his pre-first listen thoughts on Vega and the current state of the genre.

Wood unpacks the riveting penultimate episode of FX's fascinating limited series SHOGUN - Crimson Sky. This week we got our biggest peek at Toranaga's mastermind plan to put down his arch rival Ishido. However, Toranaga's multi-layered plan fatally costs him one of his most coveted members of his flock. Team Toranaga is always in jeopardy behind the walls of Osaka.

Wood truly understands Thelonius Monk’s book title in the award-winning film American Fiction. In this episode we discuss the “pafology” of two very troubled institutions in (Black) families and… boxing. Boxing is often a business comprised of Black and brown families, so…

The leader of Blaze TV's Fearless podcast, Jason Whitlock, was so distraught after Dawn Staley's Gamecocks trampled over Caitlin Clark's bid for the undisputed G.O.A.T. designation for Women's basketball in last week's National Championship game that he... assailed Black people and our troubled record with marriage and/or stable families. Whitlock blitzed his Foolish Army with...

The Part Two of this discussion is on the playlist, but the initial episode on this subject ended up being less than three minutes in run-time. No wonder it became one of the most listened to episodes! Look, a conservative co-worker has been listening to the gradual shift in sports talk, and coverage, the past six years and adopted his mantra of: Just don’t be a dick. Said co-worker has remained a...

After eight episodes, and losing some critically important allies in subsequent episodes, Wood stands with Yabushige and his nephew Omi that the belief in, and commitment to, Lord Toranaga is waning by the second. Let's talk about the developments in Edo (future Tokyo) as a suddenly ill Toranaga returns home to bury his son Nagakado, and the next piece of his big plan for Ishido and Osaka play...

The Black Podcast and Black Sports Media Mobs successfully both censored and censured FS1 SPEAK host Emmanuel Acho. Some of us Black folk can’t even talk sports anymore without our Blackness being impugned as a result of the day’s powerful groupthink. Facts be damned!

Wood talking sports… Caitlin Clark, Women’s Final Four, UCONN Lady Huskies done wrong, Shaquille O’Neal, Angel Reese vs America, Bronny James is headed to the NBA Draft, and some lessons from Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs when it comes to “supporting everybody Black.”

The big music headlines is all this Men's and Women's basketball seemingly inspired a hip hop Final "Big 3" bracket. The only three seeds are Kendrick Lamar, Drake and J. Cole. Earlier this week Kendrick fired the first shots at Cole and Drake, and we have a whole brand new album from the Dreamville MVP. Other major recent music happenings include new projects from elZhi, Vega7 T...

For many reasons, for Wood, 2023 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player and now WNBA Draft-bound Angel Reese is off limits. Simultaneously, challenging ignorant Black men, who are athletes or performers, are pretty untouchable as well. Due to the fact they've likely been attacked and/or criticized by white people up and through the height of their relevance. Say less? Also, Wood's not int...

You can check out this week's recap of SHOGUN episode 7 "A Stick of Time" on the Pay Me No Mind YouTube channel, or you can listen to the audio-only version, if necessary. This week's episode was a bit slow on the over-arching storyline - the impending Ishido & The Council of Regents-Toranaga showdown - but we have our first death of a major character. The biggest headline this week on SHOGUN was...