Hey, what is up? It is Roy Wood Jr. And this is Beyond the Scenes. This is the podcast where we journey deeper into topics that we've already explored on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Today, we're going beyond the scenes on a segment that myself and Dulce Sloan during the show called can We Combo? And this particular segment was about the Black TikTok strike. Let's roll the clip. So these are black TikTok users who are still using the app. They're just choosing to abstain from creating a dance trend to MEGANE. Stallion's new song, and the reason is that historically, when they've created these dance trends, they have been wildly profitable for white creators, and black creators have not seen the same sort of credit. They've not had ownership of these trends, and they're not compensated in the same way as their white counterparts. They're really frustrated, and the strike is their way to take a stand. So the new song for the Summer's MEGANA. Stallions got ship right, because we need an anthem, we need a hymn, we need a spiritual. This is supposed to be the song of the summer, right, but the black TikTok dance creators have decided that because their dances keep getting stolen by white people and they keep getting credit for it, they're not doing a dance this summer for thought ship. So, like I will say this, it takes a lot of fortitude as a black creator to not dance to making the stallion on camera. Man, hats off to them. It's like me giving up sugar, I mean truly, or me giving up on these date maps because they keep making me sad, but I keep going back to help me go deeper into black content creators. Pulling all the ship off of a platform is one of our daily show Deep Dive producers. Chelsea Williamson Chelsea, Hello, Hi, Roy, Good afternoons, good evening too, good mornings, ETCeteras, ETCeteras also joining Chelsea right now for this first segment. We're gonna be joined by a couple of awesome guests later on in the podcast, old founder and CEO of Collab Crib Keith Dorsey, Keith, how you doing, pamp great? Thanks for having me. Now before we get to you, Keith, because we got you in here to really break down the strategies and what's happening to black creators. But first, Chelsea, let me start with you. Walk us through how this segment came together, because you know, we've already talked about this on the podcast in the past. The idea could come in the elevator, it could come in an official meeting, it could come from a million different places. So walk us through how the Black TikTok strike actually came to be. Yeah, so about mid July, Megan the Stallion released thought Shit, her song of the summer, and in response, a lot of Black TikTok creators actually said we are going to take a stand and do a strike against TikTok by not making a dance for thought Shit. And they did it because they're like, we are so tired of our dances being appropriated and then taken by white content creators, um, and we're not getting credit. Now, let's let's give a little backstory. Let's slow it down, because look beyond the Scenes as a podcast that reaches across all demographics, including age demographics. So let's backtrack for a second. TikTok people go on there, they do a little funky dance, everybody else does a little funky dance, the dance goes viral. The person who created the dance then gets sponsorships because they have all the eyeballs on the channel that I break that down correctly as a forty two year old man. Correct, correct. Okay, So some of these people are taking the dances from black content creators that may not have the following, that may not have the bigger influence digitally, and stealing dances from black creators, putting them on their channels white white tiktoker's, and then everybody goes, oh wow, the white TikToker created that, Let's give her all the money and all the exposure. Exactly. Okay, tell me a little bit about this Instagram post where you Canna was getting to do it with you stir at the let's just say you stir at the pot. Yeah. So I watched the Hulu documentary that is about collab Crib. The New York Times presents who gets to Obedian influencers what it's called. That inspired me to do like a bunch of Instagram stories that was just all about it and like how we get to choose who are the top influencers like in this country and why most of them tend to be white. So that was basically like what kind of jumps started. The whole thing was just that because I found it very interesting and it's something I've been also wondering for quite a while. So Keith breakdown first and foremost, what what is collab Crib? Yeah? Absolutely, clab Crib is a all black continent house, actually the first black continent house in the United States that features seven top not just TikTok creators, but social media creators who already have big platforms on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, all of them Snapchat, um collective of talent, not just dancers, but just like Robbie, he is a film film director, like Kyln Castle, she's a singer entertainer. We have models, we have actor, actors and actresses. As a house full of talent here in Atlanta. Comedians. Do you have room for comedians? We do have comedians in Robbie world as well. Okay, okay, well, I'm gonna we're gonna talk after the after the So what made you You're the CEO and co creator of this of this platform. What was the as the Great Alabama businessman A. G. Gaston once said, find a need and fulfill it. Yeah, what was the need that you saw needing to be fulfilled? What gap does collapse crib feel. Yeah, well we feel a huge gap. Number One, there were no black content houses all black content houses. There were not in Atlanta, there were none in the United States. So Robbie and I we've been discussing this content house literally years ago, like we all started on Vine. All people remember the great behind days and we've always been discussing like how when creators come together. Whenever all of them came together to make content, their numbers would be really strong. You know, they would gain different fan bases and it would grow really fast. It's like what do we live together? But but really really boosted our boosted ups to really go really quickly to make this happen quick is when we start to see all the opportunities and all the things that the white content creators were getting in l A just off of TikTok and off of something we've been discussing for years. It was like, oh no, we can't miss out on this. We are the talent, we have the culture. Most of the stuff that has been taken from Atlanta. Let's go ahead and take take this pure grist and get this huge house and make it happen. It's not only just for us, but also create a hub here in Atlanta where other creators can have access to what we're doing on a grand scale, to where they now can believe something like this can happen for themselves, because at first they were they were not at all until we started. Yeah, there was something very dope that Atlanta used to have, maybe like eight or nine years ago, in the early days of video on Instagram. UM, there was a collective call Ratchet People Meet and it was a collective of other comedians all from Atlanta who were doing skits and they got no Let's pour them all into one pot and everyone comes here and we all get exposure and I'll give credit uh to one another, Chelsea. Before we get into meeting some of the other content creators, what are some of the issues that you believe face UM content BIPOC content creators out there, They don't get as much UM notice like, they don't get as much attention, and it's for a variety of reasons. I think you have within tech itself its own bias. That's been written about many times that a lot of these apps, a lot of these um tech applications are literally not coded for brown and black people, uh to be seen to show up for our hair like X y Z reasons. But then on top of that, you just have this classic dynamic that's been happening for years, which is if you have a black content creator or black person doing something and a white person doing something, typically the white person will get more attention, and therefore we'll get more money, and therefore we'll just get more of everything, um just because that's how you know, we live in a white supremacist society. UM. So that's just kind of how it is. So yeah, you know, it is, it is what it is. But I think you especially see it on social media where you will have these huge, like white content creators that are making like crazy, crazy money, and then a black content creator who could have even started at the exact same time and at one point may have had the exact same amount of followers. They never get the same amount of attention, they never get the same amount of sponsorships, and they never get the same amount of following. I feel like that's one of the biggest disadvantages we should take a break, but I want to, real quick just give a shout out to you know you know what. I'm gonna tell the Jimmy Fallon story on the other side of the break out, I teach your ass. I be on the scenes. We'll be right back. How you thought I was going to tell you, I didn't tell you. With us right now, I'm still drained by the wonderful, wonderful Chelsea Williamson and Keith Dorsey from Collapse Crib real quick before we joined by our two content creator guests, Keith, what what did you think when you saw the Jimmy Fallon story happened? Um initially and for the people who don't know TikTok her named Addison Ray was invited on Jimmy Fallon because she has a huge following, and she did a bunch of dances and then Black Folks was all on the internet the next day going, nah dogs, she stole him from Black Folks, and then Jimmy Fallon was like, I find him Black Folks because I need to get them on the show because I don't need y'all hate knowing Jimmy Fallon all summer. But when you first saw it, like just sitting and watching the clip for the first time, what was your initial emotions? Well, the first thing, one of them I know very personally, her and her mother. So for me it was like, again, how did this happen again? After the whole Julia story with the renegade, the New York Times article went out, and then you guys don't have a team in place to research this first before you bring them on the show to stop this, Like how could it happen again? You know? And then when they brought them all, you know, and the kids were you know, excited again and felt like they were gotten their their credit. But it was just like, how does this happen again? I didn't understand it. So let's meet two of these influencers now that are part of the collab Crib family. First stop, we have Robbie. Robbie, Hello, Hey, what's happening? What's happening? What's happen? And also with us with Robbie is Calin. Caitlin. Good afternoons and good evenings and good mornings to you. Hell so, Caitlin, I'll start with you in terms of content creation, you know, what does an average they look like? Because I think the thing that people. You know, people think that because it's a quick video, that there was no thought or strategy or ideation. You know, as part of the creative process. Walk us through some of your creative process every day. Okay, yeah, so usually I stopped my day editing, So the little fifteen seconds that you see or thirty seconds or sometimes three minute videos. I usually wake up around seven and I'm just editing those videos just to get them ready to post by three four o'clock. Um, So that's mostly a part of the creative process for me when it comes to shooting like actual content, Like since collab crib has happened, it's become a collaborative act of just like, hey, Rob, what do you think about this video? And you know, the input from other creators around us in the house that we created is really what's taken on content to the next level. So for me, it's usually just about content collaboration, um, brainstorming right and early, and then editing. So Robbie, Robbie, Oh, but that's where the magic is made. You got a trim. You gotta trim. You gotta trim because nothing's working. You know what, you know, what really sucks is when you have a like a video that was like thirty seconds and you're watching a man. This could have been seventeen seconds. Man, I could have trimmed something. Robbie, what about you? What made you want to be a part of just creating content in general? Like what's your process every day? So my process every day and you can ask Keith, I wake up at five o'clock in the morning. You gotta you gotta get up before your competition. You got to um get up at five o'clock in the morning. I pray, meditate because UM. During content creating and during um like online, it can be like a headache, it can be like it can wear your mental health down. I do that. I check my phone, of course, see what videos I gotta post. Then, like Kaylin, I edit. We usually call each other. And I love editing. I know she hates it, but I love editing. Then make sure I post everything. Make sure I got like my post ready, to make sure post ready for my content, collab, crib, make sure promos are done. Um. And then I have a writing session and look up what's like trending, like look on Shade Room or world Star, see what's trending. As far as you know, like what's going on on the internet. Then I write skits or TikTok's or reels about them, and then I'll shoot them either probably the same day or the nays nice in the moment. So now, when when people are creating all of this stuff, Keith and you know, collap Crib is trying to decide, you know, here's what we think we'll gain traction today, here's what people are talking about today. What are some of the drawbacks of being a black content creator on some of these other sites out there, like TikTok and like Instagram. Talk to me a little bit about how the algorithm works, either in our favor or against us. I think they want to ask that, but I mean, honestly, it's it's hard at work. They had to work a hundred times um more than their white creators. And the reason why is because, you know, over the years, we've just seen like the numbers are really low, Like certain content doesn't get shown or promoted, like Klin explaining our New York Times documentary on Hulu about how, you know, Delighting. You know, she had to make sure the lighting was a certain way because of their brown scan making, Like she even had to color her hair to kind of stand out to trick the algorithm, you know, and you know Rob has face scanning and deciding with yeah, it really does that. And also certain things like Robbie is a comedian, sometimes he does makes dark content, but he even cleaned it up for TikTok, but certain things he does and makes fun of it gets deleted when content creators do the same thing and it stays up. So it's always a consistent battle of the algorithm what they can do, what they cannot do, and getting things moved and getting their pages band I mean, even like we did the Create Challenge, Our Create Challenge was removed immediately, and I go on hype House TikTok page and their whole it did eventually get removed, but their whole great Challenge was still up, you know, and we didn't show people falling. You know. It was just really interesting about how you know, we have to over we have to really overthink before we posted. And robbed he hates this exactly. Speak on that, Rob, speak on it, because it sounds like they're constantly moving the goal post on you. So like I'm explaining two situations that happened. So it was a situation where it was a challenge and you had to look at this person saying a young thug song or whatever. Right, but um, he was um special. But I did it from a white creator of minds. They didn't bash him, they bashed me. And they were still saying funny to him and all that. And I called him, I said, did you get any hate from doing this video? No? They loved it and it was literally the exact same video, and and and they deleted Minds because and I was like yeah, because people complained. And it was another situation where I did a TikTok. It wasn't even bad. I didn't show nothing, it was just like just a joke. Deleted it two hours like out I posted. But then an hour later somebody else did the same exact TikTok, used the exact same sound, and it's up and they went viowl for it. The same concept, same thing, and it's just like it's aggravating and like now like like like when I was telling you keeping up with the trends, So I did a video about the squid games. You've seen that on Netflix. Yeah, So I did a whole giant squid game in um collabtera, but I have to put at the end in which I think you stupid, But I still have to put at the end so they wan't delete my post. Hey, we did not use real guns. Nobody wasn't injured, and it was just using nerve guns. And I have to say that because they would delete that because of my skin complexion and I'm shooting a gun and that's just not fair. Please, guys, do not report this. Nobody didn't get shot, nobody didn't get killed. It was no harm done to nobody. Everybody was just having fun. This is a kid's game, read like green Light. We use toys and which is nerve guns, and that's it. It was nothing like that. So nobody got hurt. It don't go against no community guidelines. We're just having fun. Caitlin didn't speak to that as well. For me, you post a video, you edit, as you say, from eight in the morning until about three in the afternoon, and you post that thing at three o'clock and then at three oh eight you get that email from the old terms and services department. Well, usually when it comes to the editing, I've edited the content like days before, so you know what, we always try to keep everything done in advance. Um. But yeah, the moment you do post and you get that message from community guidelines that says you violated them. And however they don't say how or why you violated them. They just tell you that you violated and they take your video down immediately. So in my experience, I I just do singing videos, so it really just it blows me sometimes that you just sit I'm just sitting there singing, or it's a video where someone approaches me and asks me to sing a song and my video disappears. I don't know how that really works. But you know, they have given us, given us the appeal option to whereas you can press the little button and appeal it and they still say no, I have to you appeal it or sometimes they give it back to you. But um, yeah, that's been my experience. Or even working with brands. Um. I think we were doing a music promote this one time and a brand had actually reached out to me and asked me, can I do the TikTok dance in a bathing suit as white creators have done it. They sent me the example video of a white creator doing the TikTok and I had to respond, I'm sorry, I have to turn this. Is there something else that I can do because me as a black creator in the moment I put on a bathing suit on TikTok, I'm banned and I didn't even do anything black woman tempting these white folks, So get down right now. Yeah, it's it's definitely a lot of bias going on on a lot of these apps, and it's it's really algorithmic because we reach out to them and we have our contacts now that since we've created collab Cravement, with all our success, we've been able to get in contact with these apps, but it seems like their reps are like, I don't really know what's going on either, So it's like we're fighting computers at this point. But okay, so then to that point then, Keith, do you all ever reach out to like, are there any representatives from any of these social media sites that will actually get on the phone and go, here's why we deleted the video or is it just a dog? Sorry? Well, basically they talk, that's how they're talking. Silicon Valley, by the way, basically, it is what it is. Because you funked up. Shouldn't have did it, bro Well, the thing is we're very blessed to have contacts at each of these platforms, but what we're running into is who is above them and what is above them that they can't they don't know, you know they you know, even TikTok right now has a black TikTok Um. They developed to where they're starting to give a lot of support to black creators, but it's still happening and they're not giving a direct answer. And one of the things that even with with Facebook or no Robbie has been doing a lot with Facebook videos lately, um and even with those contacts, were like, can you tell us what the problem is, so we can you know, at least say what video Sometimes you don't know what video it is, or sometimes you do know what video is, but we don't know what particularly the issue is. You know, it's always like the vague guidelines that says do not do this, do not do that, not do this, or you'll be banned or you'll be deleted, but they don't really know. It's like confusion what'sapp group with eight creators in there from all platforms and conversations all the time, it's about what TikTok is doing and how their pages are getting deleted, what and how to to the point where they're now doing troll videos where one kid he and him and his friend was in the pool with clothes on, like, hey, we're trying to uh they had there was a song on the back. It's really funny. I say, we're trying to stick to the TikTok guidelines. Was in the pool, we're fully closed. Is really funny. So it's they're trying to make the best of it, but it's just like they don't know. So with all of that being said, UM, I would like to end this this part before we go into the break coming back to you, Chelsea, because you do all of the research, so you know this is an issue and everything that our creators have just brought up in the last a couple of minutes or so. Right now, how to hell do you trim down the script to go, Okay, here's the area where I think we can play creatively on the Daily Show and still make some degree of a point. Yeah, I feel like we start broad and then it's just kind of like, what is going to be the heart of this specific segment, the specific issue, um and for this one because it was specifically on TikTok. We knew we were going to focus on the one app and then we just thought it made the most sense to really go in about the dancing choreography side of things because that seems to be where we see a lot of the stealing happening. Um though it does happen across more than that area. UM So yeah, I feel like with this one, it was just kind of it lended itself well to a very specific and focused Uh can we convo? All right? So after the break, we've we've already talked enough problems. I want to talk solutions with all of you all. Um. Also, I think I got some viral ideas. Maybe hell, I need to be on collab crib. Y'all allowed forty year olds on there. I mean, you could work, but everybody can collap. Yeah you say, if I okay, if basically y'all just said, if it's good, then we'll see. Okay, I'll see what y'all just did. That's fine, that's fine, sized me up. I respect that ship. Beyond the scenes, we'll be right back. First thing, I want to go back to our black content creators right now, Robbie and Kaylin. Do you think the strike help, because here's what I saw, and Chelsea was talking about it in the first break before you all came on about how the black TikTok creators like Megan the station got a hit song wing on Dino Dan to it, and then there were a series of dances that started getting passed around. I'm more on Twitter than TikTok, so on Twitter after it was yeah, we get, we get, we get the dope to three days later it's been stepped on. But they started posting videos of all of the white people trying to do their own original dances and they were flopping. They were flopping terribly. What I am and joined though, is that black creators are roasting the white girls who are trying to create that they don't know what to do with the rhythm. Oh, it is Boston Market, it is Kenny Rogers Roasters. It is a full blue out. We are out here spit roasting. It is uh azing. Somebody sent me one and it was the girl with her hands in the air. This that is not thought ship. She gave you the instructions, hands on your knees, shake your ass. It's not so Kaylin, I'll start with you. Do you think the strike was successful? Okay, I okay. I don't think the strike failed necessarily, but I do think it had its own little segment of success to a certain extent because mostly to everyone on the app, you open the app, and people say immediately because the moment you open the app for the first time, they show you Addison Ray or Charlie's Amilio. You know, just anybody in that little click that's that's who. That's who you see first when you open the app. So people's people's thought about TikTok. People used to think, oh, TikTok is such a white app, right, It's it's an app for the white creators. And what I learned from the strike is people started to really recognize that the app is black originated to a certain extent, because everything, like all of the content is coming from black content creators. So I would say it is successful. It was successful to a certain extent because people really did start to take notice that what is the app without all the TikTok dances that are being created from people like we're having a house like Neil Neil was one of the creators that they're still a bunch of his dances, not even just one or two. It's happened like continuously, and yeah, it's I think it kind of was successful. Just just a piggyback off that too. I think it was kind of successful too, Like it made a noise, it made a point, but it's still like, okay, like they're not the issue is still not fixed. You feel mean like and then with the strike being said, as a creator, it's like saying, okay, you you're not going to work for a month or two, So do you lose out on a lot of money? You lose out and then it's hard to get your engagement back where how it was. So that strike was a sacrifice for us black creators because if you don't post for a long time on social media, you're pretty much like dead and it's hard and it's hard to revive your account, and then the algorithm puts you at the lowest so even when your content to all of the new faces or existing fans, because I know some people that got a million plus followers that was on the strike and now they're back on the country and they're only getting five hundred thousand views, Like that's impossible, and we're getting. Before the strike, it was getting three hundred thousand, millions of millions of views, like hundreds of thousands views to three hundred views to thousand views, and you got five point five million followers. That's that's like okay, you know, we're putting this nigger down, like we're cutting it's like basically cutting the water off on some of these creators, like and it's just sad. And it's the most maddening form of racism because it's the one you can't prove. Yeah, at least for Karen chasing you down the street, you got proof and say, hey, look it's going on right here. So Keith, with everything over there at collap Crib, I know that you all have things that you all are doing that probably move differently from there. A lot of these existing content platforms, what are some changes that you would like to see implemented to help level the playing field? Well, I think, um, a lot of it can be really out of our control, you know when it comes to the platforms, because we don't own it. You know, we could strike and go back and forth and make posts about it, but if we don't own the platforms, there's really nothing we can do about it. Um, We've gotten attention to a lot of reps, and what is good is that a lot of these companies aren't implementing reps who are in touch with the black creators. And Instagram is one of them, you know, and Facebook is one of them. You know. We recently just sat down with the Instagram rep who's helping us, you know, navigate through what the issues that we're having. All the labels are starting to reach out even when the strike hit. Of course, Megan the Stallion with her affiliations with three hundred a n T, they reached out. I actually had the privilege to speak to Kevin Loos of three hundred N ten and just basically asked me, you know what can we do better? Huge? Music exact right there, Music exact, low key, count on the TikTok is because y'all are the streets, y'all. If you all decide the song, if you put the dance with the song, then that's more. That's worth more to a music artist than an actual music video. Low key in terms of exposure impressions. I don't mean to cut you off, but just for the white folks listening, want no ship about rap music and to add on to that, to um, that count our TikTok counts as their streams, so they're getting paid from our TikTok's as well. It's like, so if we do a skit or a TikTok to that song and they get a million views, that's like close to like two hundred streams that they made. Yeah, and TikTok has been the driving force of a lot of the top billboard songs and um, so those things are happening. Then when it comes to like you know, we always talk about the problem, you know, with the solution. You know, we always engage you know, what we're doing on a grand scale. You know, we really, to be honest, have been the beacon of light for a lot of people that create all the whole the whole culture for black creators. You know, we're always doing interviews like this, We have a documentary we're talking about on our shows. We have all types of press out there. You know, we've been their voice, you know, and we are super connected to a lot of these people. You know, when we sit down with TikTok, when we sit down with Instagram and even you know, partnering up with black owned apps like we're done with fan Base, you know, ran by Mr Isaac Hayes. You know all of my creators, the creators that are on that creative advisory board for fan Base, all my creators. So now we can bring ideas we could you know, um, the issues that we're having. We can put it in something that we actually can have some ownership in and some say so and someone will actually do it, you know, which is really really good it and it gives us like somewhat of a like cushing to say, all right, there is some type of cope out there, you know, and started just falling to the mercy of these are the other algorithm of things that we don't know. Let me bring it home back to you, Chelsea as it relates to the Daily Show in the way that we try to unpack things in the building, because I feel like the gift and the curse of our show is that we get to be funny, but also unfortunately it has to be funny otherwise it's very difficult to unpack. How much do you feel like this TikTok issue connects to a larger conversation around appropriation And I know we didn't really get to tiptoe into that in the actual segment. But how much do you feel like this is connected to a much larger conversation. Yeah, I definitely feel like this is like a symptom of a larger disease. Honestly, Um, you see appropriation across pretty much everything, Like we talked about it all the time in file sh and we talked about it um in regards to hair and nails and all of that, And it very much exists in the digital world because we're just presenting ourselves and it's just like basically a place for black people to almost just be themselves. But in doing that, that gets appropriated to because that's cool, Like there's just an automatic black cool for a lot of things. So I definitely feel like this is like just a part of it that is just showing that it's only continuing to uh just evolve instead of being stopped. Um. But hopefully in regards to the solution side of things through the variety of ways that like Robbie Kalin and Keith have mentioned these like this will stop eventually. But I do say the onus is really on the apps and that these tech companies need to be not as performative honestly and like actually invest in what the black and brown creators are saying needs to be invested in. It needs to be changed in order for them to have an equal experience to their white counterparts. All right, well, thank you all so so much. Keith from Collab crib, Kalen, Robbie, thank you all so much for what y'all do. Thank you all for moving the needle forward. You know what, man, I might have to sing you on some of my stand up comedy clips to do some of that that that ad living you know, the lip Duvin sinking ship they do with some of the stand up clips on TikTok. Yeah, I need I need to find some of them people. Man, some of the comedians don't like it. I love it. You wanna memorize my ship in front of a mirror for five minutes? You all right with me? That's how it start? You got it right there? And the all right man, Well, thank you all so much for coming with this. Beyond the scenes almost said behind the scene were beyond. That's all the time we have for today, but hopefully we've taken you beyond the scenes. See you next week or hear you next week. Well, I won't hear you because you're on at you'll hear me. So yeah. If you like the podcast, rate and review us. Please and review I'm just raping and review us or is it just review? I should? It don't matter, you know what I meant. Just do it please respectfully

Hey, what is up? It is Roy Wood Jr. And this is Beyond the Scenes. This is the podcast where we journey deeper into topics that we've already explored on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Today, we're going beyond the scenes on a segment that myself and Dulce Sloan during the show called can We Combo? And this particular segment was about the Black TikTok strike. Let's roll the clip. So these are black TikTok users who are still using the app. They're just choosing to abstain from creating a dance trend to MEGANE. Stallion's new song, and the reason is that historically, when they've created these dance trends, they have been wildly profitable for white creators, and black creators have not seen the same sort of credit. They've not had ownership of these trends, and they're not compensated in the same way as their white counterparts. They're really frustrated, and the strike is their way to take a stand. So the new song for the Summer's MEGANA. Stallions got ship right, because we need an anthem, we need a hymn, we need a spiritual. This is supposed to be the song of the summer, right, but the black TikTok dance creators have decided that because their dances keep getting stolen by white people and they keep getting credit for it, they're not doing a dance this summer for thought ship. So, like I will say this, it takes a lot of fortitude as a black creator to not dance to making the stallion on camera. Man, hats off to them. It's like me giving up sugar, I mean truly, or me giving up on these date maps because they keep making me sad, but I keep going back to help me go deeper into black content creators. Pulling all the ship off of a platform is one of our daily show Deep Dive producers. Chelsea Williamson Chelsea, Hello, Hi, Roy, Good afternoons, good evening too, good mornings, ETCeteras, ETCeteras also joining Chelsea right now for this first segment. We're gonna be joined by a couple of awesome guests later on in the podcast, old founder and CEO of Collab Crib Keith Dorsey, Keith, how you doing, pamp great? Thanks for having me. Now before we get to you, Keith, because we got you in here to really break down the strategies and what's happening to black creators. But first, Chelsea, let me start with you. Walk us through how this segment came together, because you know, we've already talked about this on the podcast in the past. The idea could come in the elevator, it could come in an official meeting, it could come from a million different places. So walk us through how the Black TikTok strike actually came to be. Yeah, so about mid July, Megan the Stallion released thought Shit, her song of the summer, and in response, a lot of Black TikTok creators actually said we are going to take a stand and do a strike against TikTok by not making a dance for thought Shit. And they did it because they're like, we are so tired of our dances being appropriated and then taken by white content creators, um, and we're not getting credit. Now, let's let's give a little backstory. Let's slow it down, because look beyond the Scenes as a podcast that reaches across all demographics, including age demographics. So let's backtrack for a second. TikTok people go on there, they do a little funky dance, everybody else does a little funky dance, the dance goes viral. The person who created the dance then gets sponsorships because they have all the eyeballs on the channel that I break that down correctly as a forty two year old man. Correct, correct. Okay, So some of these people are taking the dances from black content creators that may not have the following, that may not have the bigger influence digitally, and stealing dances from black creators, putting them on their channels white white tiktoker's, and then everybody goes, oh wow, the white TikToker created that, Let's give her all the money and all the exposure. Exactly. Okay, tell me a little bit about this Instagram post where you Canna was getting to do it with you stir at the let's just say you stir at the pot. Yeah. So I watched the Hulu documentary that is about collab Crib. The New York Times presents who gets to Obedian influencers what it's called. That inspired me to do like a bunch of Instagram stories that was just all about it and like how we get to choose who are the top influencers like in this country and why most of them tend to be white. So that was basically like what kind of jumps started. The whole thing was just that because I found it very interesting and it's something I've been also wondering for quite a while. So Keith breakdown first and foremost, what what is collab Crib? Yeah? Absolutely, clab Crib is a all black continent house, actually the first black continent house in the United States that features seven top not just TikTok creators, but social media creators who already have big platforms on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, all of them Snapchat, um collective of talent, not just dancers, but just like Robbie, he is a film film director, like Kyln Castle, she's a singer entertainer. We have models, we have actor, actors and actresses. As a house full of talent here in Atlanta. Comedians. Do you have room for comedians? We do have comedians in Robbie world as well. Okay, okay, well, I'm gonna we're gonna talk after the after the So what made you You're the CEO and co creator of this of this platform. What was the as the Great Alabama businessman A. G. Gaston once said, find a need and fulfill it. Yeah, what was the need that you saw needing to be fulfilled? What gap does collapse crib feel. Yeah, well we feel a huge gap. Number One, there were no black content houses all black content houses. There were not in Atlanta, there were none in the United States. So Robbie and I we've been discussing this content house literally years ago, like we all started on Vine. All people remember the great behind days and we've always been discussing like how when creators come together. Whenever all of them came together to make content, their numbers would be really strong. You know, they would gain different fan bases and it would grow really fast. It's like what do we live together? But but really really boosted our boosted ups to really go really quickly to make this happen quick is when we start to see all the opportunities and all the things that the white content creators were getting in l A just off of TikTok and off of something we've been discussing for years. It was like, oh no, we can't miss out on this. We are the talent, we have the culture. Most of the stuff that has been taken from Atlanta. Let's go ahead and take take this pure grist and get this huge house and make it happen. It's not only just for us, but also create a hub here in Atlanta where other creators can have access to what we're doing on a grand scale, to where they now can believe something like this can happen for themselves, because at first they were they were not at all until we started. Yeah, there was something very dope that Atlanta used to have, maybe like eight or nine years ago, in the early days of video on Instagram. UM, there was a collective call Ratchet People Meet and it was a collective of other comedians all from Atlanta who were doing skits and they got no Let's pour them all into one pot and everyone comes here and we all get exposure and I'll give credit uh to one another, Chelsea. Before we get into meeting some of the other content creators, what are some of the issues that you believe face UM content BIPOC content creators out there, They don't get as much UM notice like, they don't get as much attention, and it's for a variety of reasons. I think you have within tech itself its own bias. That's been written about many times that a lot of these apps, a lot of these um tech applications are literally not coded for brown and black people, uh to be seen to show up for our hair like X y Z reasons. But then on top of that, you just have this classic dynamic that's been happening for years, which is if you have a black content creator or black person doing something and a white person doing something, typically the white person will get more attention, and therefore we'll get more money, and therefore we'll just get more of everything, um just because that's how you know, we live in a white supremacist society. UM. So that's just kind of how it is. So yeah, you know, it is, it is what it is. But I think you especially see it on social media where you will have these huge, like white content creators that are making like crazy, crazy money, and then a black content creator who could have even started at the exact same time and at one point may have had the exact same amount of followers. They never get the same amount of attention, they never get the same amount of sponsorships, and they never get the same amount of following. I feel like that's one of the biggest disadvantages we should take a break, but I want to, real quick just give a shout out to you know you know what. I'm gonna tell the Jimmy Fallon story on the other side of the break out, I teach your ass. I be on the scenes. We'll be right back. How you thought I was going to tell you, I didn't tell you. With us right now, I'm still drained by the wonderful, wonderful Chelsea Williamson and Keith Dorsey from Collapse Crib real quick before we joined by our two content creator guests, Keith, what what did you think when you saw the Jimmy Fallon story happened? Um initially and for the people who don't know TikTok her named Addison Ray was invited on Jimmy Fallon because she has a huge following, and she did a bunch of dances and then Black Folks was all on the internet the next day going, nah dogs, she stole him from Black Folks, and then Jimmy Fallon was like, I find him Black Folks because I need to get them on the show because I don't need y'all hate knowing Jimmy Fallon all summer. But when you first saw it, like just sitting and watching the clip for the first time, what was your initial emotions? Well, the first thing, one of them I know very personally, her and her mother. So for me it was like, again, how did this happen again? After the whole Julia story with the renegade, the New York Times article went out, and then you guys don't have a team in place to research this first before you bring them on the show to stop this, Like how could it happen again? You know? And then when they brought them all, you know, and the kids were you know, excited again and felt like they were gotten their their credit. But it was just like, how does this happen again? I didn't understand it. So let's meet two of these influencers now that are part of the collab Crib family. First stop, we have Robbie. Robbie, Hello, Hey, what's happening? What's happening? What's happen? And also with us with Robbie is Calin. Caitlin. Good afternoons and good evenings and good mornings to you. Hell so, Caitlin, I'll start with you in terms of content creation, you know, what does an average they look like? Because I think the thing that people. You know, people think that because it's a quick video, that there was no thought or strategy or ideation. You know, as part of the creative process. Walk us through some of your creative process every day. Okay, yeah, so usually I stopped my day editing, So the little fifteen seconds that you see or thirty seconds or sometimes three minute videos. I usually wake up around seven and I'm just editing those videos just to get them ready to post by three four o'clock. Um, So that's mostly a part of the creative process for me when it comes to shooting like actual content, Like since collab crib has happened, it's become a collaborative act of just like, hey, Rob, what do you think about this video? And you know, the input from other creators around us in the house that we created is really what's taken on content to the next level. So for me, it's usually just about content collaboration, um, brainstorming right and early, and then editing. So Robbie, Robbie, Oh, but that's where the magic is made. You got a trim. You gotta trim. You gotta trim because nothing's working. You know what, you know, what really sucks is when you have a like a video that was like thirty seconds and you're watching a man. This could have been seventeen seconds. Man, I could have trimmed something. Robbie, what about you? What made you want to be a part of just creating content in general? Like what's your process every day? So my process every day and you can ask Keith, I wake up at five o'clock in the morning. You gotta you gotta get up before your competition. You got to um get up at five o'clock in the morning. I pray, meditate because UM. During content creating and during um like online, it can be like a headache, it can be like it can wear your mental health down. I do that. I check my phone, of course, see what videos I gotta post. Then, like Kaylin, I edit. We usually call each other. And I love editing. I know she hates it, but I love editing. Then make sure I post everything. Make sure I got like my post ready, to make sure post ready for my content, collab, crib, make sure promos are done. Um. And then I have a writing session and look up what's like trending, like look on Shade Room or world Star, see what's trending. As far as you know, like what's going on on the internet. Then I write skits or TikTok's or reels about them, and then I'll shoot them either probably the same day or the nays nice in the moment. So now, when when people are creating all of this stuff, Keith and you know, collap Crib is trying to decide, you know, here's what we think we'll gain traction today, here's what people are talking about today. What are some of the drawbacks of being a black content creator on some of these other sites out there, like TikTok and like Instagram. Talk to me a little bit about how the algorithm works, either in our favor or against us. I think they want to ask that, but I mean, honestly, it's it's hard at work. They had to work a hundred times um more than their white creators. And the reason why is because, you know, over the years, we've just seen like the numbers are really low, Like certain content doesn't get shown or promoted, like Klin explaining our New York Times documentary on Hulu about how, you know, Delighting. You know, she had to make sure the lighting was a certain way because of their brown scan making, Like she even had to color her hair to kind of stand out to trick the algorithm, you know, and you know Rob has face scanning and deciding with yeah, it really does that. And also certain things like Robbie is a comedian, sometimes he does makes dark content, but he even cleaned it up for TikTok, but certain things he does and makes fun of it gets deleted when content creators do the same thing and it stays up. So it's always a consistent battle of the algorithm what they can do, what they cannot do, and getting things moved and getting their pages band I mean, even like we did the Create Challenge, Our Create Challenge was removed immediately, and I go on hype House TikTok page and their whole it did eventually get removed, but their whole great Challenge was still up, you know, and we didn't show people falling. You know. It was just really interesting about how you know, we have to over we have to really overthink before we posted. And robbed he hates this exactly. Speak on that, Rob, speak on it, because it sounds like they're constantly moving the goal post on you. So like I'm explaining two situations that happened. So it was a situation where it was a challenge and you had to look at this person saying a young thug song or whatever. Right, but um, he was um special. But I did it from a white creator of minds. They didn't bash him, they bashed me. And they were still saying funny to him and all that. And I called him, I said, did you get any hate from doing this video? No? They loved it and it was literally the exact same video, and and and they deleted Minds because and I was like yeah, because people complained. And it was another situation where I did a TikTok. It wasn't even bad. I didn't show nothing, it was just like just a joke. Deleted it two hours like out I posted. But then an hour later somebody else did the same exact TikTok, used the exact same sound, and it's up and they went viowl for it. The same concept, same thing, and it's just like it's aggravating and like now like like like when I was telling you keeping up with the trends, So I did a video about the squid games. You've seen that on Netflix. Yeah, So I did a whole giant squid game in um collabtera, but I have to put at the end in which I think you stupid, But I still have to put at the end so they wan't delete my post. Hey, we did not use real guns. Nobody wasn't injured, and it was just using nerve guns. And I have to say that because they would delete that because of my skin complexion and I'm shooting a gun and that's just not fair. Please, guys, do not report this. Nobody didn't get shot, nobody didn't get killed. It was no harm done to nobody. Everybody was just having fun. This is a kid's game, read like green Light. We use toys and which is nerve guns, and that's it. It was nothing like that. So nobody got hurt. It don't go against no community guidelines. We're just having fun. Caitlin didn't speak to that as well. For me, you post a video, you edit, as you say, from eight in the morning until about three in the afternoon, and you post that thing at three o'clock and then at three oh eight you get that email from the old terms and services department. Well, usually when it comes to the editing, I've edited the content like days before, so you know what, we always try to keep everything done in advance. Um. But yeah, the moment you do post and you get that message from community guidelines that says you violated them. And however they don't say how or why you violated them. They just tell you that you violated and they take your video down immediately. So in my experience, I I just do singing videos, so it really just it blows me sometimes that you just sit I'm just sitting there singing, or it's a video where someone approaches me and asks me to sing a song and my video disappears. I don't know how that really works. But you know, they have given us, given us the appeal option to whereas you can press the little button and appeal it and they still say no, I have to you appeal it or sometimes they give it back to you. But um, yeah, that's been my experience. Or even working with brands. Um. I think we were doing a music promote this one time and a brand had actually reached out to me and asked me, can I do the TikTok dance in a bathing suit as white creators have done it. They sent me the example video of a white creator doing the TikTok and I had to respond, I'm sorry, I have to turn this. Is there something else that I can do because me as a black creator in the moment I put on a bathing suit on TikTok, I'm banned and I didn't even do anything black woman tempting these white folks, So get down right now. Yeah, it's it's definitely a lot of bias going on on a lot of these apps, and it's it's really algorithmic because we reach out to them and we have our contacts now that since we've created collab Cravement, with all our success, we've been able to get in contact with these apps, but it seems like their reps are like, I don't really know what's going on either, So it's like we're fighting computers at this point. But okay, so then to that point then, Keith, do you all ever reach out to like, are there any representatives from any of these social media sites that will actually get on the phone and go, here's why we deleted the video or is it just a dog? Sorry? Well, basically they talk, that's how they're talking. Silicon Valley, by the way, basically, it is what it is. Because you funked up. Shouldn't have did it, bro Well, the thing is we're very blessed to have contacts at each of these platforms, but what we're running into is who is above them and what is above them that they can't they don't know, you know they you know, even TikTok right now has a black TikTok Um. They developed to where they're starting to give a lot of support to black creators, but it's still happening and they're not giving a direct answer. And one of the things that even with with Facebook or no Robbie has been doing a lot with Facebook videos lately, um and even with those contacts, were like, can you tell us what the problem is, so we can you know, at least say what video Sometimes you don't know what video it is, or sometimes you do know what video is, but we don't know what particularly the issue is. You know, it's always like the vague guidelines that says do not do this, do not do that, not do this, or you'll be banned or you'll be deleted, but they don't really know. It's like confusion what'sapp group with eight creators in there from all platforms and conversations all the time, it's about what TikTok is doing and how their pages are getting deleted, what and how to to the point where they're now doing troll videos where one kid he and him and his friend was in the pool with clothes on, like, hey, we're trying to uh they had there was a song on the back. It's really funny. I say, we're trying to stick to the TikTok guidelines. Was in the pool, we're fully closed. Is really funny. So it's they're trying to make the best of it, but it's just like they don't know. So with all of that being said, UM, I would like to end this this part before we go into the break coming back to you, Chelsea, because you do all of the research, so you know this is an issue and everything that our creators have just brought up in the last a couple of minutes or so. Right now, how to hell do you trim down the script to go, Okay, here's the area where I think we can play creatively on the Daily Show and still make some degree of a point. Yeah, I feel like we start broad and then it's just kind of like, what is going to be the heart of this specific segment, the specific issue, um and for this one because it was specifically on TikTok. We knew we were going to focus on the one app and then we just thought it made the most sense to really go in about the dancing choreography side of things because that seems to be where we see a lot of the stealing happening. Um though it does happen across more than that area. UM So yeah, I feel like with this one, it was just kind of it lended itself well to a very specific and focused Uh can we convo? All right? So after the break, we've we've already talked enough problems. I want to talk solutions with all of you all. Um. Also, I think I got some viral ideas. Maybe hell, I need to be on collab crib. Y'all allowed forty year olds on there. I mean, you could work, but everybody can collap. Yeah you say, if I okay, if basically y'all just said, if it's good, then we'll see. Okay, I'll see what y'all just did. That's fine, that's fine, sized me up. I respect that ship. Beyond the scenes, we'll be right back. First thing, I want to go back to our black content creators right now, Robbie and Kaylin. Do you think the strike help, because here's what I saw, and Chelsea was talking about it in the first break before you all came on about how the black TikTok creators like Megan the station got a hit song wing on Dino Dan to it, and then there were a series of dances that started getting passed around. I'm more on Twitter than TikTok, so on Twitter after it was yeah, we get, we get, we get the dope to three days later it's been stepped on. But they started posting videos of all of the white people trying to do their own original dances and they were flopping. They were flopping terribly. What I am and joined though, is that black creators are roasting the white girls who are trying to create that they don't know what to do with the rhythm. Oh, it is Boston Market, it is Kenny Rogers Roasters. It is a full blue out. We are out here spit roasting. It is uh azing. Somebody sent me one and it was the girl with her hands in the air. This that is not thought ship. She gave you the instructions, hands on your knees, shake your ass. It's not so Kaylin, I'll start with you. Do you think the strike was successful? Okay, I okay. I don't think the strike failed necessarily, but I do think it had its own little segment of success to a certain extent because mostly to everyone on the app, you open the app, and people say immediately because the moment you open the app for the first time, they show you Addison Ray or Charlie's Amilio. You know, just anybody in that little click that's that's who. That's who you see first when you open the app. So people's people's thought about TikTok. People used to think, oh, TikTok is such a white app, right, It's it's an app for the white creators. And what I learned from the strike is people started to really recognize that the app is black originated to a certain extent, because everything, like all of the content is coming from black content creators. So I would say it is successful. It was successful to a certain extent because people really did start to take notice that what is the app without all the TikTok dances that are being created from people like we're having a house like Neil Neil was one of the creators that they're still a bunch of his dances, not even just one or two. It's happened like continuously, and yeah, it's I think it kind of was successful. Just just a piggyback off that too. I think it was kind of successful too, Like it made a noise, it made a point, but it's still like, okay, like they're not the issue is still not fixed. You feel mean like and then with the strike being said, as a creator, it's like saying, okay, you you're not going to work for a month or two, So do you lose out on a lot of money? You lose out and then it's hard to get your engagement back where how it was. So that strike was a sacrifice for us black creators because if you don't post for a long time on social media, you're pretty much like dead and it's hard and it's hard to revive your account, and then the algorithm puts you at the lowest so even when your content to all of the new faces or existing fans, because I know some people that got a million plus followers that was on the strike and now they're back on the country and they're only getting five hundred thousand views, Like that's impossible, and we're getting. Before the strike, it was getting three hundred thousand, millions of millions of views, like hundreds of thousands views to three hundred views to thousand views, and you got five point five million followers. That's that's like okay, you know, we're putting this nigger down, like we're cutting it's like basically cutting the water off on some of these creators, like and it's just sad. And it's the most maddening form of racism because it's the one you can't prove. Yeah, at least for Karen chasing you down the street, you got proof and say, hey, look it's going on right here. So Keith, with everything over there at collap Crib, I know that you all have things that you all are doing that probably move differently from there. A lot of these existing content platforms, what are some changes that you would like to see implemented to help level the playing field? Well, I think, um, a lot of it can be really out of our control, you know when it comes to the platforms, because we don't own it. You know, we could strike and go back and forth and make posts about it, but if we don't own the platforms, there's really nothing we can do about it. Um, We've gotten attention to a lot of reps, and what is good is that a lot of these companies aren't implementing reps who are in touch with the black creators. And Instagram is one of them, you know, and Facebook is one of them. You know. We recently just sat down with the Instagram rep who's helping us, you know, navigate through what the issues that we're having. All the labels are starting to reach out even when the strike hit. Of course, Megan the Stallion with her affiliations with three hundred a n T, they reached out. I actually had the privilege to speak to Kevin Loos of three hundred N ten and just basically asked me, you know what can we do better? Huge? Music exact right there, Music exact, low key, count on the TikTok is because y'all are the streets, y'all. If you all decide the song, if you put the dance with the song, then that's more. That's worth more to a music artist than an actual music video. Low key in terms of exposure impressions. I don't mean to cut you off, but just for the white folks listening, want no ship about rap music and to add on to that, to um, that count our TikTok counts as their streams, so they're getting paid from our TikTok's as well. It's like, so if we do a skit or a TikTok to that song and they get a million views, that's like close to like two hundred streams that they made. Yeah, and TikTok has been the driving force of a lot of the top billboard songs and um, so those things are happening. Then when it comes to like you know, we always talk about the problem, you know, with the solution. You know, we always engage you know, what we're doing on a grand scale. You know, we really, to be honest, have been the beacon of light for a lot of people that create all the whole the whole culture for black creators. You know, we're always doing interviews like this, We have a documentary we're talking about on our shows. We have all types of press out there. You know, we've been their voice, you know, and we are super connected to a lot of these people. You know, when we sit down with TikTok, when we sit down with Instagram and even you know, partnering up with black owned apps like we're done with fan Base, you know, ran by Mr Isaac Hayes. You know all of my creators, the creators that are on that creative advisory board for fan Base, all my creators. So now we can bring ideas we could you know, um, the issues that we're having. We can put it in something that we actually can have some ownership in and some say so and someone will actually do it, you know, which is really really good it and it gives us like somewhat of a like cushing to say, all right, there is some type of cope out there, you know, and started just falling to the mercy of these are the other algorithm of things that we don't know. Let me bring it home back to you, Chelsea as it relates to the Daily Show in the way that we try to unpack things in the building, because I feel like the gift and the curse of our show is that we get to be funny, but also unfortunately it has to be funny otherwise it's very difficult to unpack. How much do you feel like this TikTok issue connects to a larger conversation around appropriation And I know we didn't really get to tiptoe into that in the actual segment. But how much do you feel like this is connected to a much larger conversation. Yeah, I definitely feel like this is like a symptom of a larger disease. Honestly, Um, you see appropriation across pretty much everything, Like we talked about it all the time in file sh and we talked about it um in regards to hair and nails and all of that, And it very much exists in the digital world because we're just presenting ourselves and it's just like basically a place for black people to almost just be themselves. But in doing that, that gets appropriated to because that's cool, Like there's just an automatic black cool for a lot of things. So I definitely feel like this is like just a part of it that is just showing that it's only continuing to uh just evolve instead of being stopped. Um. But hopefully in regards to the solution side of things through the variety of ways that like Robbie Kalin and Keith have mentioned these like this will stop eventually. But I do say the onus is really on the apps and that these tech companies need to be not as performative honestly and like actually invest in what the black and brown creators are saying needs to be invested in. It needs to be changed in order for them to have an equal experience to their white counterparts. All right, well, thank you all so so much. Keith from Collab crib, Kalen, Robbie, thank you all so much for what y'all do. Thank you all for moving the needle forward. You know what, man, I might have to sing you on some of my stand up comedy clips to do some of that that that ad living you know, the lip Duvin sinking ship they do with some of the stand up clips on TikTok. Yeah, I need I need to find some of them people. Man, some of the comedians don't like it. I love it. You wanna memorize my ship in front of a mirror for five minutes? You all right with me? That's how it start? You got it right there? And the all right man, Well, thank you all so much for coming with this. Beyond the scenes almost said behind the scene were beyond. That's all the time we have for today, but hopefully we've taken you beyond the scenes. See you next week or hear you next week. Well, I won't hear you because you're on at you'll hear me. So yeah. If you like the podcast, rate and review us. Please and review I'm just raping and review us or is it just review? I should? It don't matter, you know what I meant. Just do it please respectfully