Local Planned Parenthood sees uptick in appointments, confusion following Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade

S1: Local abortion providers respond to the Dobbs decision.
S2: It just cannot be legislated. It is health care.
S1: I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. This is KPBS Midday Edition. How religious communities are reacting to the end of Roe v Wade.
S2: There are some very.
S3: Conservative churches and some.
S2: Progressive churches. And.
S4: And.
S2: There were various positions in between.
S1: A close look at why dozens of people had gone missing in Baja , California , and the latest fix to ease cross-border sewage contamination. That's ahead on Midday Edition. Reaction to Friday's Supreme Court announcement overturning the Roe v Wade decision continues to reverberate across the country. But how are local abortion providers adapting to this new reality ? Though California abortion laws do not appear to be in danger , the situation is not as clear in other neighboring states. Here to talk more about how local providers are adjusting to the court's decision is Dr. Tony Marengo , chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest. Dr. Marengo , welcome.
S2: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
S1: Though this decision announced Friday was surprising , it was not completely out of the blue. A draft of the decision was leaked in May.
S2: But keep in mind , we've actually been preparing for months and I'll dare say years for this possibility of happening. I think the leak draft , what really helped us prepare emotionally more than anything , because I think , quite honestly , operationally , we have already been planning to expand abortion services.
S1: There are a lot of misconceptions about why women seek abortions.
S2: There are many reasons people with uteruses seek abortion and what's acceptable for one person may not be acceptable for another. I think the bottom line answer is abortion is health care and we don't walk in their shoes. That being said , I have the privilege of being in the room with many patients when they do seek care. And it really ranges from , you know , I'm unable to care for the other children I have right now. As we know , many patients who come seeking abortion are already mothers to I am not able to become a parent right now because I'm in school and I'm trying to improve my life and get a career and be able to provide for a family one day. And then we have patients who unfortunately have fetuses affected with fetal anomalies and they desperately want that child but are unable to continue the pregnancy because it might be life threatening to them or frankly , might just be a devastating outcome to their fetus if that fetus was born. So it's very nuanced. It's not black and white. And when we legislate it , I think politicians and the general public sometimes miss the nuance and it just cannot be legislated. It is health care.
S1: And you mentioned earlier how Planned Parenthood has been preparing for this reality for years.
S2: And unfortunately , three justices later , this is where we are. So I believe that this affiliate , as well as abortion providers across the country , had to brace for that reality and thinking about what would that mean ? So a lot of research , a lot of time , a lot of effort has been put into how do we continue to care for people with uteruses across our country when we now see the reality that 26 states are either about to severely restrict or ban abortion altogether ? A dozen of those had pre ROE trigger bans in place so that abortions literally that were in the process of happening or are about to happen had to stop on Friday.
S1: It's hard to predict the future , but how are you expecting ? Planned Parenthood clinics in San Diego , Imperial and Riverside Counties will be impacted by the Dobbs decision.
S2: It really is hard to predict. I mean , I think it was not surprising that we had a bump on Friday of patients since SB eight. Quite honestly , in Texas , since that law went into effect and abortion was restricted as far away as Texas , we've started to see an uptick in patients because Arizona is our border state. We knew we would see an increase. We've had close relationship with our sister affiliate and Planned Parenthood in Arizona. So we had some awareness of what could happen. But I can tell you , we had a 100% week over week increase in number of abortions booked at our affiliates. So from the Friday before the SCOTUS decision to the day of the official SCOTUS decision on Friday , we had 100% more abortions booked across our affiliate , not all patients from Arizona , but I think it was really , really a wake up call that I think patients in Arizona in particular weren't really sure what they were going to do.
S1: And that's a large increase.
S2: Assuming patients , many patients will be driving. But really across our region , planning that increase. So I believe we are ready for that. We are making strategic moves to absorb this initial bump and expanding even further over the coming weeks as we need to. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You know , what are your immediate concerns for women carrying either unwanted pregnancies or pregnancies that aren't viable in states right now that have banned abortions.
S2: For patients out of state who can't access abortion when they need it or want it. I'm very concerned about , number one , forced continuation of pregnancy , because pregnancy is also not a benign condition. It's far more dangerous , actually , to carry a pregnancy to term and deliver that fetus than to actually have an abortion. So I think a lot of people don't realize , you know , maternal mortality is quite high , especially in states. I think the highest maternal mortality is in Mississippi , which has some of the strictest abortion laws. Number two , the thing I worry about is , is patients , of course , self managing their own abortion. We know this can be done safely , but it's the safest when it is under the care and guidance of a trained health care professional.
S1:
S2: But moving forward , we need to find out and figure out how we're going to get our rights back. And we really have to do that at the ballot boxes and we have to understand who we're putting into office. Unfortunately , this fight is lost probably for a generation in the Supreme Court , at least. And what they've done is return this to the states , and it's very chaotic. What you're seeing right now is people in states , as well as legislators in states really not understanding where they stand , what are the real laws ? What can they do ? What's legal ? What isn't legal ? So there's chaos right now. And moving forward , we need to earn our rights back. And so we need to fight like hell for our reproductive autonomy. And it's going to be fought over in the legislature. That's where the battle has to be won , at least right now.
S1: I've been speaking with Dr. Tony Marengo , chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest. Dr. Marengo , thank you very much for joining us.
S2: Thank you so much.
S1: Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down Roe v Wade , abortion will be banned or restricted in more than half the states. California plans to welcome more than a million people from those states who need abortion care. And it may even help them cover the cost of traveling here. KQED health correspondent April DEMBOSKY starts off with the volunteers who have been mobilizing to help.
S5: After the Supreme Court's draft decision was leaked in May. Lee Mitchell posted a message on Facebook written in code. It said , If you are a person who suddenly finds yourself with a need to go camping in another state that is friendly towards camping , I will happily drive you and support you.
S2: I was just furious. What I did was I fueled myself.
S5: In looking for.
S2: Ways to help. Others.
S5: Others. Mitchell had a vision of picking women up at the airport in San Francisco , driving them to the clinic for their abortion , then offering them a place to sleep on her couch and really a hand to hold something she did not have when she came to California for an abortion in 1970. I lived in Minneapolis. I looked and looked. And back then it was there were no sources. So I had to pay the money to fly to California. It was one of three abortions Mitchell had before Roe v Wade. There was no counseling. There was zero. I went in there to that.
S2: Back room and had the abortion.
S5: And came out. Mitchell is 75 now and can hardly believe this is happening again. California is expecting a nearly 3,000% increase in the number of people coming from out of state for abortion care. Since the fall , nonprofits have been working to recruit and train wannabe volunteers like Mitchell.
S2: I am amazed.
S6: At people coming together and supporting and showing up for people that they don't even know.
S2: In droves.
S5: Patricia Gray is the volunteer coordinator at the nonprofit Access Reproductive Justice. They've already been getting calls from people in Texas , Arizona and New Mexico who need help with travel. She says she has about 60 active volunteers now , but is working to bring that up to 250 statewide.
S6: Part of what I'm doing is recruiting near Westchester in L.A. X.
S2: As a basis because they're close to the airport.
S5: With the pandemic. Volunteers are still giving rides , but home stays have been put on pause. Volunteers help pay for and book hotel rooms instead.
S2: It's a boom , boom , boom.
S6: You're you're ready to go. Type of deal.
S5: A hotel can run about four or $500. Add to that the cost of a plane ticket , childcare and lost work hours , and the logistical costs alone of getting an abortion can surpass a couple thousand dollars. With the growing patient volume. Nonprofits Can't Keep Up. California lawmakers want to help by establishing a new state fund. It would help support the work of volunteer coordinators like Gray. And it would also provide cash to help out-of-state women pay for travel costs. It's an idea local anti-abortion activists are opposed to.
S4: We're calling it , you know , abortion , tourism.
S5: Greg Burt is with the California Family Council.
S4: Come to California , go to the beach , get your abortion done and we'll pay for it by the taxpayer.
S5: He says he wishes the state would put more money into removing the obstacles to having a child. Rather than focusing on clearing the obstacles to abortion.
S4: Those incentives send a message that we value one more than the other.
S5: Almost 80% of Californians have said they're opposed to overturning Roe v Wade. So at the mall in San Francisco , I found a similar majority. We're okay with the state using their tax dollars to help women from other states come here for abortion care.
S4: I think it would be a good idea. I think it's okay.
S5: I definitely agree with that. In the fall , Caroline Fong will leave for college in Missouri. It's one of 13 states with a so-called trigger law set to automatically ban abortion after the Supreme Court's decision. Setting aside taxpayer money is really important to ensure safe abortions for women. Two people I talked to did not like the idea.
S3: You know some of the aquariums.
S5: Construction worker Joe Burson says he believes in protecting life. His wife , Claudio Sanchez , says there are better things we could be investing in than that. Okay.
S2: Okay.
S5: So the proposal is one of 13 bills moving through the legislature , all aimed at making California an abortion sanctuary state. Lee Mitchell is looking for ways to be more involved , more hands on. She imagines what it might have been like when she was 20 , if her future self had picked her up at the airport. I would have liked it. I think I probably would have opened up to the person.
S2: To the 75 year old Lee.
S5: I would have. I don't know if everybody would have. Seasoned advocates like Trisha Gray say today. The simple act of giving someone a ride to the clinic is revolutionary. I'm April DEMBOSKY.
S6: The court's decision to revoke the constitutional right to abortion and leave the question up to individual states has been criticized in many quarters , from civil rights advocates to medical professionals and legal scholars. But the ruling came as a long sought after victory for various religious institutions across the country. Celebrations took place in some churches in San Diego on Sunday. Other religious groups had opposite or more measured reactions. Joining me is San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Phil Diehl. And Phil , welcome to the program.
S2: Thank you , Maureen.
S6:
S2: There are some very conservative churches and some progressive churches , and there were various positions in between.
S6: So let's talk about the churches that celebrated.
S2: It's one of several Baptist conventions.
S6: And that congregation has opposed abortion rights for years , hasn't it ? Yes.
S2:
S6:
S2: They encourage people to stand up for what they believe. They they can't get too political. I don't think they contribute money to political candidates or things like that , but they do a lot of counseling and they could participate in rallies maybe. But but that's about the extent of it.
S6: Tell us what happened at Shadow Mountain Community Church yesterday.
S2: Well , at this church , and I think a lot of others , they have their sermons planned weeks in advance. And so they tend to stick to that , but they will sort of touch on the important topics going in. So at Shadow Mountain , the pastor there , David Jeremiah , spoke briefly at the beginning of his sermon about how pleased he was with this decision and how long it's his congregation and Baptists in general or or people in his church had worked toward that end and how pleased he was with it.
S6: Pastor Jeremiah said the battle is not over.
S2: And I think he's still hoping that someday the state will outlaw them.
S6:
S2: A few years ago , they issued a resolution opposing same sex marriage. They so definitely that is another thing that they are concerned about.
S6: So the threat that this decision that overturns Roe has for same sex marriage was highlighted at one San Diego service that you reported on. Tell us about that.
S2: The St Paul's Cathedral and Episcopalian Church , they have a pretty good LGBT community there. A significant number of their congregation. And they were concerned about that. They were also concerned about the statements made by Justice Clarence Thomas that additional subjects that that have been decided for a long time could be addressed and there could be changes and things like same sex marriage and contraception. So that was very concerning to their congregation.
S6: Now , the Catholic Church has been an active opponent of legal abortion since the Roe decision 50 years ago.
S2: They also talked about how they would support these people and continue to work on this from a number of directions. Basically , he said that today is the day to give thanks and celebrate. Catholic social teaching holds that life begins at conception , which is long been an important part of the Catholic faith , I believe. He said that the ruling affirms that belief and recognizes the ability of states to regulate abortion , to protect the rights of the unborn.
S6: Now , the Catholic Church has been working to bring down Roe for decades.
S2: Sean. They have a specific agency , Catholic Charities , that helps provide housing , helps provide health care services and a lot of things like that. So that is sort of an arm of the church that works on those things.
S6: Other religious groups in San Diego had a more measured response to the reversal of the Roe v Wade decision. Here's Phil Metzger , pastor of Calvary San Diego.
S4: Every place. I don't care what institution it is. Statistically , somebody in that group had an abortion.
S2: So we have to ask ourselves , are they.
S4: My enemy ? They're not. And whatever reason brought them to making these hard choices , God loves them.
S6: Did you hear any other more measured responses from church leaders around San Diego ? Yes.
S2: I talked to Pastor McLean at First Presbyterian Church in Oceanside , and he talked about how diverse the opinions were within his own congregation. He asked people who had strong feelings about it , and a lot of people responded. But he said that that is something that everyone has to work out between themselves and their faith. So he just encouraged people to get along and to try and understand that there are many ways of looking at this issue.
S6: In your article in the Union-Tribune , there were also reports from other religious leaders , some of them non-Christian , and especially from the Jewish religion. Tell us about that.
S2: The rabbi of a congregation in Irvine , California , was disappointed with the ruling and said that a lot of the members of her community still support each other and are concerned about this and what it would mean for the rights of women and others that will be affected.
S6: I've been speaking with San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Phil Diehl. And Phil , thank you.
S2: Thank you for having me.
S6: This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH with Jade Heineman. A group of parents of missing children uncovered a mass grave hidden on the eastern edge of Tijuana last week. And this isn't the first time parents have formed search parties because they don't trust the government to look for their missing children. KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis has more.
S7: The stench of rotting corpses is so strong that it makes volunteers sick after just a few minutes. So parents take turns digging out the eight bodies they found buried in a ditch.
S4: Who knows ? At that level , people are living in a way that I write. Although if I had a mother.
S7: That was Eddie Carrillo warning volunteers not to spend too much time near the bodies. Carrillo is the founder of a collective called Doulas Almost. Erik Carrillo. It's made up of people who help each other find missing relatives. Carrillo named the Collective after his own son , who vanished in 2018 while visiting his mother in Tijuana. Roughly 50 people joined the search party that day. Carrillo says none of them should be out there. That's the government's. Job.
S4: Job. Canada Familia is a political activist. He's a local Lebowski Scalia.
S7: He says government officials are doing nothing , so parents must scour the landscape for their lost relatives themselves. There are currently 12,000 missing people in Baja , California. Governor Marina del Pilar Avila says that her administration is prioritizing these cases. The state agency tasked with finding missing persons says it found 90 people last year compared to just ten the year before. Critics say that progress is not good enough. Most of the 90 missing people found were dead and accounted for less than 1% of all missing person cases in Baja , California. Francisco Together founded the original collective made up of parents of missing children back in 2008. He says the agency tasked with finding the missing is underfunded and only has six investigators. That's not nearly enough to find the thousands of missing people in the state , he says.
S4: Life is clear yet , and I must say this embassy , Alvarez.
S7: Oseguera , says that the government is not conducting thorough investigations. It's emblematic of a larger problem in Mexico , where murders and robberies often go uninvestigated.
S4:
S7: Despite being less than three years old , Carrillo's collective has more than 400 members. Of course , Sophina martinez joined soon after her son went missing on December 26 , 2001. She says state officials assigned an investigator to the case , but no one has ever called her about how you.
S2: Might boucheron if they. Lost.
S5: Lost.
S2: A hint of Miami million model Mariana the model.
S7: She also says they won't return her calls. And that's a common refrain among members of the search party. Carrillo says police view victims with suspicion. They assume that people who disappear are tied to organized crime or were up to no good.
S4: Nobody's normal. So it's possible that Narcos.
S7: Carrillo says investigators often tell loved one things like , your son runs with the wrong crowd , your husband is a narco or your uncle is a thug. Raul Cornejo is another member of the collective. He joined in February , shortly after his brother went missing. Cornejo says the collective is like a family. Parents of missing children come together , bonded by the pain. He says they find hope in their shared mission to find their loved ones.
S4: Familia RAMOS But it's not going to end with more law and more sentimental condolences.
S7: It's been nearly six months since he last heard anything about his brother. But Kaneko refuses to give up because doing that would be like admitting that his brother has gone from.
S4: A city under the seat of an old widow. It is almost unthinkable , as. Mm hmm.
S7: The collective is still waiting to discover the identities of the eight bodies they found last week. Parents submitted DNA samples hoping to find a match. Gustavo Solis , KPBS News.
S6: Joining me is KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis. And , Gustavo , welcome.
S7: Thank you , Maureen.
S6: 12,000 missing people in Baja , California.
S7: They actually publish annual reports on missing folks. They break it down by missing children and missing adults. For example , in 2021 , there were about 37,000 adults reported missing and more than 36,000 were found alive in one way or another.
S6: So one of the theories about why so many people are missing in Baja.
S7: Well , the main theory that the one that came up the most in my reporting was some kind of connection to organized crime. It's something that that comes up both from parents but also from law enforcement. A lot of law enforcement and government authorities tasked with finding these missing people share that same theory , which actually hurts more than it helps. In a lot of cases. Families find that when they report their loved one missing , the missing person is automatically kind of assumed to to to be a bad person.
S6:
S7: If they share this kind of information , it gets out who who did this right ? I mean , we're talking about mass graves. I mean , like that's obviously like multiple crimes right there. Right. So if you have information about that , you don't want your name out there both because it would get the police attention , but it would also get the criminal organizations attention. So in this case , it was an anonymous tip. I know they do a ton of work on social media. They do livestreams of of their searches , and they do shout out their call outs for more information. Actually , in this latest one where they did find the mass grave , they there's video of them when they find it and when they're uncovering it. There's videos of the organizers telling the volunteers to stop digging and and step away because of the toxic fumes from from the body. So they're very active on social media and they get tips that way from all over Mexico , not just Baja California , actually. They're actually going to a couple of states like Guerrero and Michoacan later this month.
S6: Once the bodies were found , this time to the government of Baja take over.
S7: So they they did take over. But eventually you can see if you follow the group on some of the Facebook lives that the volunteers were digging for more than a half an hour before any official came , right before before there were like medical examiners or paramedics or any type of official government response showed up. They were digging themselves. They were calling the police. That response , in the volunteers view , was a little bit lackluster. And it kind of speaks to bigger criticisms they have of the response.
S6: Well , Gustavo , this is a really a tragic story. The people involved are already in distress because their loved ones are missing and they're looking for them and then they dig up bodies in their search. Did you get any sense of how the members of this group are holding up emotionally ? Yeah.
S7: I asked them about that. And they just do it together like there is. These volunteer groups are essentially just a bunch of broken people coming together , holding on to the last bit of hope that they have and finding strength in that community. Right there are there I spoke to a mother of a 21 year old from Chiapas , the most southern state in Mexico that borders Guatemala. Her son came to Tijuana in October for vacation , went missing. She stopped her whole life and is now living in Tijuana. And unfortunately , she found her son in the morgue office. He he had passed away. She is staying in Tijuana and helping other people. She's participating in other searches and is kind of finding meaning that way. She actually was kind of afraid to go back to Chiapas because she doesn't want to go back to her home where her son's room is still the way he left it back in October. There's this kind of sense of dread and excitement when when you uncover a grave , you know , is this the one ? Is this where you're going to find the person you've been looking for for for months , if not years ? And are you ready to kind of face that ? I spoke to some people that that said even even finding the corpse of your dead relative is , you know , relatively speaking , a win because you don't have that uncertainty that that unknown. Right. This this idea of you get some sense of closure. It's obviously not what you wanted , but it's you can stop searching now. You kind of found it and you can move on to another part of the grieving process. People handling it all kinds of different ways , but common denominators that they they do it together and they do find some kind of therapy through the the act of volunteering and searching.
S6: Gustavo , thank you very much.
S7: Well , thanks for having me , Maureen. Really appreciate this.
S1: The big fix for the San Diego region's US-Mexico border. Sewage problem is several years away. But that doesn't mean sewage will flow unabated until then. KPBS environment reporter Eric Anderson says some smaller scale projects are already having a positive impact.
S4: This is the line portion of the channel where it transitions to the natural.
S8: When Morgan Rogers surveys the concrete line T1 , a river channel as it crosses the international border , he sees progress.
S4: This is a good viewpoint. You can see that all the sediment that has accumulated. This is from the the wet season.
S8: Rogers is a civil engineer in charge of pollution control on the U.S. side of the border. This concrete channel is a conduit for pollution that fouls the ocean just a few miles away.
S4: You see , when it rains , we get rainwater. It carries a lot of sediment , a lot of trash. So you see a lot of tires here.
S8: But when it's not raining , most sewage tainted flows can be stopped by a relatively low tech solution.
S4: What we have here is a sediment berm. This is constructed with the sediment that was deposited on the concrete channel. This is constructed and maintained by Mexico. We provide the equipment. In particular , a wheeled loader and whatever else they need to facilitate their constructing the berm and maintaining it.
S8: Look over the sediment wall and there's standing water a few hundred yards north. A mexican pump station pulls most of that water out of the river channel.
S4: During the dry season. This is very effective for preventing flows from coming down the river and crossing the border into the United States.
S8: And there are other small success stories. Rogers takes us to a culvert just north of the border wall. Look through the fence here and you can see cars zipping by on a mexican highway.
S4: This is Stuart Strand , one of our five canyon collectors.
S8: Crews recently fixed an underground gate here that was locked in place , creating pressure when sewage flows under the border wall. We're heavy with the gate now. Fully open flows are easier to manage. There is a trickle of water coming through the drain on this day , but it's hardly an issue.
S4: So this isn't something I would worry about. I mean , we want to eliminate all flows , but we're handling this one.
S8: The progress by the International Boundary and Water Commission has been noticed and is welcome. I'm very happy with what I call the micro fixes that the IWC has made , micro fixes that can stop flows that can result in weeks of closures. Surged. Medina is the mayor of Imperial Beach. He says stopping the flow of sewage through the Tijuana estuary helps. But those micro fixes don't solve the border pollution problem. His city's beaches have been posted as polluted for much of the summer because of a broken Mexican sewage treatment plant. They discharge.
S4: 30 to 50 million gallons.
S8: Of raw sewage on the beach every. Day.
S4: Day. Between I think it's four and a half to.
S8: Six miles south of the border. During South Ansaroff , when that comes up , it's Imperial Beach , as well as all the other discharge sites from Playa southward to Rosarito. That's one reason the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is pushing for a comprehensive solution , which includes projects on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Officials hope to capture and treat sewage tainted flows that cross the border on land and build a treatment plant that works south of the border. But it'll still be a couple of years before any major sewage treatment plants start to be built.
S2: It's not fast enough. But but it is it is a priority for us.
S8: Nora Vargas is the vice chair of the County Board of Supervisors. She says it's important to remember that a fix is coming for communities that have long endured the public health crisis. She says focusing on pollution postings at South County beaches during the dry summer months shouldn't become a distraction.
S2: Let's not villainize the test. Let's not make it about businesses or communities. Let's make it about our communities being safe and healthy so that everybody can enjoy the beauty of our beaches in Southern California and in the South Bay.
S8: The hope is with all these small projects already underway and the big projects that are on the drawing board , they'll all work together to keep sewage tainted flows out of the river valley , which in turn will keep those sewage tainted flows out of the ocean. Erik Anderson , KPBS News.
S1: You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. San Diego has a thriving , diverse music scene from rock and roll to jazz to classical to rap. There's a lot to listen to in the border region and a lot of artists making great music. One of those artists is rapper Rick Scales , one half of the hip hop duo 18 Skills , along with emcee Raph Quasar. Not only is Scales a recording artist and performer , he also co-hosts the monthly Slap and Hands , hip hop and R&B showcase and frequently collaborates with the Old Globe's Word Up program as part of KPBS is influential series. We asked Scales to make us a playlist of music that influenced his work. Here are the tracks he chose in his own words.
S3: My family , we were kind of the family that we would sit around in the basement and listen to tapes and records and sing and dance and play the piano and harmonize together. So it's safe to say that their music was a part of my musical development. Music's always been a part of my life. It's always going to be a part of what I'm doing.
UU: It's in the government side. Yes. Was. Punching in the way your face can.
S3: Skeletons by Stevie Wonder. Its influence on me has been existent for as long as I've been alive is one of the first records I recall ever listening to. My mother and father had it on vinyl and I just remember listening to the song and it had like this funky vibe. And then as I got older and started to comprehend more what he was saying , I realized that is there's a lot of social commentary in the song and that's always had a large influence on not only how I view the world , but how I go about the music that I make. Because the song Skeletons in and of Itself , it's very danceable. It's very fun. But he's also saying something in such a way where it's like it's not direct , it's not like finger shaking , but it is definitely like you can tell that there's something going on deeper if you're not fully listening.
UU: And it's not that getting shot sometimes.
S3: That's always been one of my general favorite things about Stevie Wonder in general is his contrast , whereas like , he'll have a song that sounds like a sad song , but it's a happy song or vice versa. The song Skeletons is basically been a song , has been part of my life for as far back as I can remember. Wow.
UU: Wow. Mm hmm. Quick.
S3: Quick. Sam Millennium From The Roots is one of my favorite hip hop songs of all time criminally underrated. They have this way of going about music. I don't even know how to explain it. It's just a beautiful song when you listen to it and then you take into consideration what is being said in the song. You know , it was prior to , you know , the year 2000 where everyone thought the world was coming to an end. And then the lyrical aspects of the plays on the ideas was what always got to me. Like in the chorus , a song somebody told me is the end of the world , but that's just the song. Peace to the Dead. String to the Chosen Quicksand. Millennium Quicksand. When I took it out , somebody told me , It's to end the new world with. That's just the song. Thanks to the Death Trap , The Chosen Quicksand. Let's take it back , examine the ass , beat back the passion , the task of Wilson itself what that Memphis for adds up to Martin Luther King so yeah , for us to track back to the old song classic just the way that they went about the sonic aspects of it , the keys , the horns in the background that just kind of like gliding at the very beginning. Their cadences and things of that nature are just things that really always resonated with me. I know I play , you know , this fallout shelter slash to make this revolution full blown ghetto would probably come back during a fall off a soldier just got clap the album I've seen them on the cover on a daily basis you know I could barely move my little A Tribe Called Quest Award or one of my favorite songs ever. I remember when I first started identifying as like what you would call a hip hop head at a young age. I was about 14. I was playing a video game , actually. It was a Thrasher Skate and Destroy. They had a crazy soundtrack. I just remember being immediately drawn in by the beat. It was just a general vibe , like it was clearly jazz influenced , it was fun. Then they had like the feature. From there it was true Boy from De la Soul , the way we just went about it , we on a ward. So when mom and my mom go with each and every place where the making.
S2: We ? People give me a sloppy.
S3: Sjoblom it's enjoyable to know you win the once I heard that it kind of made me realize rap music doesn't have to be about just money or selling drugs. It can just really be about whatever Tribe Called Quest The War Tour is definitely a life altering song for me. We.
UU: We. One. Make sure that my CV.
S2: I can take my eyes off me.
UU: I have been watching you.
S3: By the way , your mom. I've been watching you , Bob. Parliament is another one of those songs , the clones of Dr. Frankenstein. It was in my family's vinyl collection , and I remember looking at the album cover and being like , What is this ? Weird stuff is like a little kid. And then you check it out and you come across it. It's just a fun song. It's another one of those songs. There's such a blend of feelings and like ambience. They're like , they have this way of singing that's very unconventional , is another thing that's very whimsical , but then very serious. I love the way it comes in , the guitars bass line. They have so many things going on and then it's like when they come in , they're all kind of singing in unison with this weird kind of having watch and yeah , you know how to play your mum. No sex. And now. No , just the way that they do it. It's always had an influence on the way I go about making my music. It's just one of those things like , I just love George Clinton , his voice , the way he plays with the like. It's a thing where it doesn't take itself too seriously. While seriously , doing something is very important to me. Parliament Other than watching you close , dog focused on super influential for me. No idea is original by Nas. Oh man. I think it was my junior or senior year of high school. He had this project called The Lost Tapes , which is Hands Down , my favorite NAS project. It comes in and it starts with the beat and you just hear Nas. Oh , oh. And then the first thing that he says , No ideas , original. There's nothing new under the sun. It's never what you do by how it's done , what you base your happiness around , whatever you women in large paper and makes you a fairy , you're not made no ideas original. There's nothing new under the sun. It's never what you do but how was done ? What you base your happiness around material women the large people that made you with. That's like my mantra because here in the hip hop world , there is always a constant like , Oh , well , I did this first , but did you you saying like , everything's been done before. Everything's been said before. Pretty much every movie that you watch is a Shakespearean story , but it's the way that you go about doing those things. And then there's just so many different things about that song , the cadences , the way that he raps to be able to say so much with so little words. It's always been something that I've tried to emulate. Like Nas is another one of my all time favorites. No Ideas original from the Lost Tapes pops in my head like three , four times a day. Super influential. But today's mathematics we lost children and this was going on. And every New York ghetto kids listen , 5% is set is talking jello. We coincide we in the same life maybe a time difference on the different coast , but we share the same sunlight you're part of the world might be like colors and gangs while on my side brother some murder for different things , but it all revolve around drugs. Fame is shorties stuff for your bling strip for your chain. The same story. There's so many things going on in the San Diego hip hop scene. It's one of those things where you think you're going to find out about it. You're going to go there and there's nothing going on. There's a lot you're going to pull up. You're going to be blown away by how many people are in the scene , how many people are participating , and how many people are just there to be there. There's pretty much always something going on in the city of San Diego. It's a beautiful time to be a part of San Diego hip hop. It's a beautiful scene , and I'm super lucky to be a part of it for sure , and thought that you can start to live up to the sun for as long as I'm going to be kicking rock to come on the floor. That's where you can set the LED lights on the floor. Let's go shake carving , buddy.
S1: That was local rapper and hip hop artist Rick Scales , who will be performing as part of 18 Scales live at the Music Box on July 27th. But more details , as well as a playlist of all of these tracks. Go to our Web site , KPBS dot org.
S3: Daydream of what demand for in the bar bodyguard army legs beg your wasn't it's a conversation but this one is more like what you want one.