In January, two military veterans released a rap song about loving America and defending our freedom. “The Patriot” quickly soared to the top of the charts. But then two weeks later, it was removed from all streaming services without explanation. The entertainment industry tried to cancel patriotism. For this podcast, Anna talks to Christopher “Topher” Townsend, one of the creators of "The Patriot." An Air Force veteran and a man of faith, Topher is not your typical artist. He’s a conservative activist using his platform as an independent rapper to fight the culture war. Anna and Topher discuss the suppression he’s experienced and what he’s trying to accomplish as a conservative hip-hop artist. As Topher explains, this fight isn’t just about patriotism. It's about good versus evil, and he won’t compromise his morals. And guess what? He doesn’t have to do so to put out great music.
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Up next, Luna Talks with Anna Paulina. Luna part of the gang which enough with a tyranny. We come to take our country back for all citizens, white, red, brown or black. Return her to her former glory. Fix the bloody crack on her crown. Fetch your gown, it's going down. Today we talked about the man who made these lyrics come to life. A rapper, a veteran, a man of faith, and a patriot. This is Luna Talks with on a Paulina. Welcome back to today's episode of Luna Talks with Me, your host on a Paulina Luna. When people think of politics, they typically don't think of rap. In fact, some of you are probably now like, where is she going with this? Well, I was able to actually come across an artist by the name of Tofur. Tofur is a rap artist, but he's also a veteran, and he happens to be a number one Billboard artist. But why haven't you heard of him? And why isn't he, you know, on v H one or b ET or the Next Essence magazine And it's because of the fact that he is conservative, and so they actually try to drown out his music. Well, his song The Patriot, which I'm about to play for you not only charted at number one, but shortly after it came out a little after January six, it was actually removed from every single streaming service shortly after it started trending as number one, without any explanation, and they of course blamed it on him, saying that he was solely responsible for what happened on January six, which is completely false. But of course we're talking about the mainstream media here, and we're talking about Hollywood, and as you known, as stated in previous interviews from people that have left Hollywood, like Kaya Jones, Hollywood is essentially controlled by leftists, and they work hand in hand with the mainstream media, and they work hand in hand with leftist politicians to push their terrible, terrible ideologies. Anyways, to play for you song because I think that the lyrics of this song are so important. And he's not cussing, he's not talking about, you know, raping women, he's not talking about women in a derogatory fashion. You could literally listen to his music with your family present and not feel embarrassed. And yet because of the fact that he's conservative, they censor him Meanwhile, you literally have Party b who's talked about drugging men, and she's what I considered one of the most successful rappers in the world. I went by goods short and broom fool fool, tens of thousands on my right, thousands by my side, on which were good and evil watching the fiscal lot better forth read them. Now to the smiss we ride flags waving all around, pages full of pride. This is what we make a stand. No more give a taken mantra, baldy capitals on the city goods, but impress on their next into the truth, breaks all bonds of corruption, take out all the snakes and starts spangle bound. I gotta playing a lot and proud people for more wats of life, filling up the crowd to fill a constitution. Many more were your avoul casting down into your magasine with bucking cow. Enough fertilly need be come to take a country back for all citizens, white red, brown of black, returned to a former glory, fixed the bloody crack on the crowd. Set your gown. It's gonna down to My mama told me, yes, she want me that the state would come. I'm like my father go to combat with the blazing guns. I came back to the place from the face off all these ads in the battle in the you can write me down, tell me why. I mean. You hear his music and he is arguably better than a lot of your top Billboard artists today, and in fact, he's trending with some of these artists. But again, because he's conservative, he's censored. And so I wanted to bring him on today to talk about that song and to really talk about what he's doing to impact the culture war, because we know this is something that Candice Owens and Charlie Kirk have all mentioned, even Brandon Tatum, and every single person knows that if you want to help impact, especially the younger generation, that you have to have crossover with the music industry and with Hollywood. And that's exactly what this guy is doing. And it's a shame that he's not given the platform that he deserves because he's honestly a godly man. He's making music that doesn't do anything but really help educate people, and he's a black man, and he's he's censored. He's censored because of it. To Fir, thank you so much for joining me here. Today on Luna Talks, I can tell you that I'm actually staring right behind you, and that's your billboard. Correct, correct, the number one billboard for digital rap song sales February six, the week of Fairware six this year. And it was amazing. So interestingly enough, I was actually looking online and watching your music video, The Patriot. It has millions of views on it, and right at the beginning, it says basically, on January the Patriot, a song by two military veterans, charted at number three on hip Hop, number four and R and B and number thirty six and all digital songs. You're an independent artist. How did that happen? We we don't know how it happened. We know why. So apparently our distributed district Care received a take down order from stores. They never specify which store, um they navi gave you any more detail than that, so it was very nuanced and we didn't know, so we just uh, the kind of like okay. And what we did after that was we decided to go direct to consumer. So we started to sail directly from a well site and allow people to download from there until eventually we was able to go through another music distributor Hito Music, and then we was allowed to get the Patriot put back up. But I would have to say that the timing of it must have have happened or must have been because of what went down January six at the Capitol. So your lyrics, tho, I mean, you're just talking about, I think something that I would argue most even establishment Republicans, are too afraid to say. You're talking about loving your country. You're a military service member, I mean as someone who served this country and now is basically transitioning into a role where you really are engaging I think in the forefront of this battle, which is the culture war. What do you have to say about that? Hey, no, I fought it everywhere. I fought it over I have in personally follow the seas, but I've aided overseas. And you know, there's nothing to fight at home, you know, because you don't care at home, then it doesn't really matter. So I take it as a badge of honor. I never expected to be in this position, to be fighting a cultural war. When I was a kid. It's like, Yeah, to grow up and make music, signs to a major label and just do what I want and they see, you know, I'm I'm leading a whole culture movement. It's like, yo, see, it doesn't always tell people like you ask God, you know what, what what does he have in store for you? And if He gave you the process and what it would look like, a lot of us would turn it down. It's like, no, I don't want to stuffer. I don't want to struggle. I don't want to be name called, I don't want to do none of that. I don't want to be canceled. Right, A lot of us don't want that to happen, and then we'll probably missed the opportunity. So it's it's it's been a blessing, and I do handle it with some importance. So I make sure that I try my best to represent the culture or veterans or anybody right independent artists to the best of my ability. But you know, ultimately you make sure I represent God and all that I do well. I mean, I think it's incredible too, because I realized that right now, especially conservatives, it's so important for people to stick together. And I really we find that when I actually went through I listened to every single song that you had um and I was actually able to see that you're collaborating with other like minded artists, and I think that that's really important because right now, especially there is mass censorship. I mean it even says on that music video that you have online that two weeks later after your song was trending and literally I mean for you to basically come out of being an independent artist and then to be trending like this, then it was removed from streams. So they didn't give you any reason why. They just completely pulled it down, bletely pulled it down. There's there's multiple stories and articles are reknown and black Rifle call Fee did a really great right up and we have screenshots from the distributor, email correspondence, nothing and to this day, nothing no apologies for me missing income that could have went to my family. Uh, it's like you said, if you're independent artists and I do this full time, that's taking food off the table for no reason, right especially to do it without giving the explanation. You know, we didn't take any further than that. I just kind of like, okay, whatever, But definitely I'm more aware of that possibility now and if it happens again, we definitely we got some stuff in place for that. How did you come up with a song? Because it's very powerful. I think there's one um segment that you have in there talking about you wanting to take the country back for his red, white, brown, or black, and I think that that's really powerful. You're talking about unifying the country. What was the inspiration behind the song? Just what I saw all year in twenties twenty, you know, from you know peep the protests, whether it was BLM or Antifa, or just just just the climate of the country. Will say that climate of the country. I was out in different rallies and protests and I got to see everybody in person and just to see the emotions, and I wanted to create a song that kind of capture the emotions of the people in this country because, like I said, it was a very intense time, one of the most important elections of my life for sure, and I just wanted to let people know that at the end of the day, me, You've been a black person, despite the narrat despite what's going on, me being a veteran, I love this country. I'm going to fight for this country and no matter what form that evil may come in, and trying to dismountle everything we all fault for. I'm going to fight against it and gonna stand up against it, and I'm hoping many more people will join me in that fight. And that's kind of what the Patriot was about. That's why I didn't mention any political parties. I didn't mention any political ideologies. I'm just like, yo, man, you love this country, and he willing to fight that defended. Obviously, in listening to your music, I think that it's very clear that you believe in gone right, and so you talk a lot about basically there's a lot of good versus evil. I do have to cut to commercial break real quick, so we'll be right back with that question to tight Okay, back to your music. You talk a lot in your lyrics about basically the battle between good and evil, and I think right now, I mean, like you said, it's not about political party. It's about really, I think, standing up for what's right and loving your country. That's not a racial issue. That's not a you know, issue of man versus woman. That's just if you love this country, if you believe in what this country is found upon, which was Christian values, you're going to stand up for those things. I noticed that a lot of times in Hollywood when you have artists that end up finding gods. You had Kaya Jones, she was a part of the Pussycat Dolls. You had Kanye West who basically came out and said, I'm no longer going to be writing the music that was how it was of the world. I'm gonna be focusing on, you know, gospel music. And he did that transition into Jesus's King. And then you had I think other artists that started to more or less kind of come around to what the conservative ideology would be. Do you feel that because you are not willing to compromise your morals, that you've essentially been suppressed, because honestly, I hear your music, and I do think that it is definitely comparable, if not better than a lot of what you hear coming out of the top hip hop charts currently. Are you correct to even abjectively speaking, I mean, which arting with the best of the best. Right, we just had another song hit bill Board and right next to us with Jake Cole and Little Nas and all the people that you see all the time, and like I said, we're doing this independently, which means that it's very organic. It's way more organic than the what the industry is putting forth. So where we're proud of that, and we're probably everyone that supports us, you know, people like you and your husband, So we thank you for streaming, thank you for buying O music and sharing it with your family and friends. I think it's a point for the people to know that there is a demand and you're not alone. Right. That shows the strings that you see on the Patriot Um and everything else that we have going on. It shows that we're not alone. And I want to make make that clear. And that's why I'm making myself to be more visible than most artists right that. I'm always going live on Instagram because a lot of artists are. They just put music out and they don't really engage and in the act. But I try to stay active in the communication, active in the community, just to talk about things and let people know that I'm just a regular guy that stood up. You know. It's like like a Lincoln, you know, it was just a regular guy that's like, hey man, I don't like this. I'm gonna go up here and do something about it. And that's kind of how I take that approaches and another reason why I don't really wear flashy things. I thought about changing my looks and I was like, man, you know, but who cares if the red hat made me look homeless? Sometimes you know, but it's it is well, I just think, you know, it could come off. Sometimes people say that, but it's it's one of those things like it keeps me humble. I keep warring hoodies. I just want to dispel the image that people have pushed upon, you know, the youth or what it what a successful artist looks like, like they gotta have a bunch of money. They have a bunch of money. It's very important. I'm not getting funny, but boyd uh, gotta have a bunch of tattoos. I'm gotta be cussing like you ain't gotta do notne of that stuff. You don't have to compromise on your mores to put out the music that's gonna help sustain the living that you want. So that's that's that's one of the reasons why I continue to fight for what I do. So did you always start out a conservative? Because you said you you know, you may the conscious decision to speak up, And sometimes I think For a lot of people, that's the hardest thing. They're worried about, this stigma that comes along with if people find out that their conservatives. I always tell people, you know, the minute that you shake that off and you stop caring what other people think, that's actually one of the most free moments in your life because you might lose some friends, but you'll gain people in your life that you'll be able to be friends with for a lifetime. I mean, how did you grow up? Is that a factor in an influence and why you do what you do? Absolutely, like you said, I've I've always kind of had some some now so popular opinions or I went against the herb mentality that we have here in the black community, and I got a lot of flight forward. I mean I used to just make random posts on Facebook and people would just shoot me down, and to dissolve the drama, I would remove the post and I agree to not post anything on my opinion about something for a long time, and then I come back and pust something without another event and still wrong, TOPHI is still doing the wrong and still get you know, hate comments. And then eventually it got to a point where I was like, no, I'm not gonna shut up because I remember being uh, when I was in school, we didn't have any conservatives, specifically with about black conservatives. If we're talking about representation, to come to my school and be like, yo, these are all the things you can do versus all the things you can't do because you're black. In America, you know, we never had those conversations. So a lot of us grow up thinking like, oh, I'm just gonna go to jail this this country hates me. There's nothing I can do. I'll never be successful. All I can do or all I can be as a rapper or ball player or something like that. It's like, no, man, there's so many things we can be and we have more, way more control and power than the media will let you let you know you have, right, So that's that's kind of what made me speak up. And when I started to see so many people like Gottics, they started um doing a lot of videos on YouTube. She was former leftists and she you know Red Peeled, she said I helped Red Peeled was just crazy because she's a she's a beast um you know. Create long. So many other people that just came around, like even kids, now that um contribute their faith and their and and their boldness to watching my videos pop up on their screens on TikTok, you know, and there's no value you can put on that. So I appreciate it, and I'm just gonna continue to do it because at this point, it's not about me anymore. It is about it's about us. It's about what guys doing through me, exactly. And I think that your platform, I mean, you're able to do things. You know, you can have politicians up there ranting and raving about it, you know, it being this party's faulter, that party's fault. But when you're able to actually go down to I think those core issues, which are like you're communicating with people in a more intimate fashion because it's through music, because people are listening and directly engaged and sometimes even memorizing your lyrics like here. I mean, I've listened to your song a couple of times, and I already knew some of the song lyrics. But that's because you were able to frame it in a way where people can easily digest it and understand it. I think that that's so important. And to see that you have been suppressed even though you are. I mean, you're still trending with a lot of these artists. But why is it that you have you know, little nas who's selling just some awful satanic shoes and you're better artists than he is. Like, and I'm not just saying that because you're on this podcast, you genuinely are. And I actually prior to this, I actually rolled a segment for the audience to hear just kind of some of your music. But you are doing some incredible things. What is a message that you have for the younger generation of those that are looking to get into you know, performance art like what you're doing with rap, or maybe that want to get into Hollywood but don't necessarily morally aligned with Hollywood do it and allowing yourself with others that do, Like I'm not doing this alone, and I contribute a lot of my success to that, right. I have the Marine rapper d Cure who we're we're talking daily and we crossed promote all the time, you know. And then if you're throwing burden Bryson Gray Tyson, James Kelvin, j Um, you know muses. Now we've got Hi Rez and you know Jimmy Levy you know, shout out to them boys for having a number one hip hops on this week that was being out the rock and Tech nine, which is crazy. Are I didn't know that that's cool? I think Jim actually on social media and Bryson so yeah. So it's like we don't do this alone and we actually support, like when we ain't talking, just share content. Like if I drop a project or single, they're buying it and telling everybody else to buy it, and we do it. We do it for them as well. So having a strong community is very important, and that's how you're able to overcome things. You know, when when when it comes to those temptations when it comes to you possibly um giving up your moles or or almost say give up or at least suspended them for a time so you can get some money. But like I said, you don't have to. And if you feel like you do, hit toe for hit somebody. We're trying to create a community where we get so many other people out there. Man, but you don't have to. But do it anyway, and even if you go across that line and you get over there, you can always come back. It's okay, We're gonna accept you. We're gonna we're gonna rinch you off, We're gonna wash you off, we get you back into the phone where you're supposed to be, and it's gonna be a okay. So I do have one last question for you, and I do have to take our last commercial break, and this one's actually about whether or not you guys will be going on tour anytime soon, because I feel like if I was sitting here as a conservative phil anthropist and I saw the talent that you guys had. I mean, you have some of these clown shows running around at Coachello, you guys, if you were to do a conservative nationwide tour, I think that you guys would be able to pack out some arenas just based on your music. Um, we'll be right back after this quick break. Okay, let's talk tours. Do you see that as something that you might be doing in the near future. Sure, I would love to go on tour, but it's kind of tough, right because a lot of stuff we want to make sure that we still give people the freedom to wear a mask and not wear a mask and don't have to wear about so distancing. You know, they's still got the COVID restrictions and a lot of different places and it's kind of tough especially you know. It's funny, I look at my statistics. I well, most of my listeners are coming from it's like all blue cities, just like New York City, Dallas or you know, l A. And I'm just like, man, this is a while, you know it just maybe because they're lumping everybody into one big city, right, but still, just there are people listen to our stuff. You know, they might not live in Freedom, but they want to at least here and listen to it. So I would love to go on tour and if anyone wants to support us, please reach out to us. We will set it up. We had a really successful show Freedom Festival we had down in what was Orlando, Orlando, Florida August seven this year. We had a really great one. It was me Hores ms Is, the Marine Rapper, Jimmy Levy and Burden and we brought the house down. People flew all the right from California that people drive down for Ohio, you know, all across the states just to come see us all in person, which is incredible, you know. So it's it's a demand for it. But we just got to find out how to make it work. Well. I I remember growing up when I was in so I actually I'm from California originally, and I remember hearing some of the back then we had Atmosphere that was one of the bigger independent artists at the time, and so a lot of my friends in high school and we listen to Atmosphere. But I mean, you guys, it's something that's definitely doable. And I feel like, if we are going to really take back this country with people that believe in the constitution or just the basic ideas of you know what our country was founded upon, that we have to be able to share this message with everyone, right, And so you bring in this aspect of a lot of people that are following. I think rap culture typically don't tend to put politics into it. And then when you think of what's happened previously, I mean, you had the evolution of rap, you had Big, you had Tupac. There is some serious movement and I think power in your voice that I think a lot of people are afraid of and I think that that's why you get suppressed, and so I think that it would be really powerful to bring that forward. Um, where can people go to find you on social media? And if anyone ever wanted to reach out and book you, like I know here, we're actually gonna be bringing you out to Tampa Bay here in a little bit to do an event with black Set where you'll be performing on November one. But where can people book you and where can they contact you and follow what you're doing and Dowlandry music at toford Town Music. That's t O p h R t O w N m U s I see tofa Town Music and if you want to send me an email is tofor at toford town dot com and just reach out, just let me know what you're trying to do. We'll see if we can make it work and just go from there. But make sure you just look up to for on any musical platform, and you should pull up my profile and make sure you download and purchase my album No apologies, I think it's on any platform, but if you also can get a physical sign copy from my website if you go there perfect. Thank you so much for joining us today on Luna Talks. We look forward to following your journey your music career, which obviously I think we are just getting started with everything. Especially, I'm telling you guys, I'm looking behind him. He has this amazing billboard frame number one. It's everything that you could ever dream of. I hope to really see some incredible things coming your way soon. But thank you so much for joining us, and we look forward to having you back. Thank you. If that interview doesn't give you chills, I don't know what will. It's important that we as conservatives increasingly especially invest our spending power in people and companies that support our value system. It's interesting there's an organization called Second Vote and it actually will track what corporations give to leftist causes and where you can better spend your dollars. And I feel like, especially in this argument, when you're talking about, you know, getting your kids involved or actually making politics cool, it does take people like Toford to do that, to kind of transcend those party lines. And it's important and it's important to support him as an artist. So I'm going to do a plug since he didn't, but I highly encourage you all to download his song The Patriot. That is not a paid ad. That is me saying that this guy is really talented and I hope to actually have on some more people that he actually was mentioning in that interview that he's working with because as we continue to move into four, it's going to be important the way that we campaign. You know, I call it guerrilla campaigning, but it's kind of thinking outside of the box of what your typical campaigning would be. And that's because you know, you talk about the platform of the Democrats and what they're really bringing forward, and I can tell you, having been boots on the ground in Georgia, that the Democrats were actually busting people. They had this one bus movement, it was called Souls to the Polls and they're actually bringing in very very famous R and B and gospel singers to actually get people activated after church to go to the polls to vote, and they were pushing the leftist message. And whether or not it's you know, to for talking about his conservative values or these people talking about leftist values, I think it's important to note that music does have a factor in politics, and that if you can harness that energy and do what he's doing and provide really a platform and a mechanism to help encourage people like him to perform and to stand up and to really target that base, and that audience. I think that that's really important, not just for our generation, but really to help I think, raise up the next generation of conservatives. So I hope you guys check them out. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode, and we look forward to having you back at our next Before we go, I want to thank Tober again for such a great interview, and I want to thank you guys so much for listening. If you enjoyed today's show, please leave us a review and rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts. To your more of my episodes and get my weekly newsletter, go to Gangridge six dot com, slash on a and you can also find me on Twitter, Parlor, Facebook, and Instagram at real Ana Paulina. And a special thank you to producer Drew Steele, writer Aaron Kligman, and executive producers Debbie Myers and Speaker New Gangridge part of the Gangridge sixty Network