Black Voices: Jace the Great, I want to ask you about "Where's the Parade?" You can't find music today that celebrates black women, in general, today. Talk to me about that song and why it was created.

One, I got a call from Doc at 6 in the morning, and I got this idea. You heard what he said, "Bepah, bepah" [sound of trombone], and I'm saying, Where's he going with it? So he said, "Look, that's the sound of the parade, that's the song I'm hearing, the horns, I hear the parade for women, black women, for women all around the world." I said, Wow. When he said that, I was comfortable with it. It was different [for me], because I never rapped on a track like that.

["Where's the Parade" opens celebrating the achievements of Venus and Serena Williams, among many other successful black women.]

Bill Cosby: But the idea of the Williams sisters coming from Compton...

Brother Hahz: [They] "...served the world and didn't let nothing stop them." It [their accomplishments] was deep to me. So once I knew the concept, I said, I have a Mother, I have a grandmother, I have a sister. I lost my mother, and I always understood the value of women, and like you said, you made a point, there's women that came way before us that put in a lot of work, they lost their lives.

Bill Cosby: They put in a lot of work to study [their crafts]. So these guys [the group] dug deep, they put in a lot of work [to make this tribute right].

Brother Haz: With that said, they needed a celebration, let the confetti fall, let the champagne pop for that.

Bill Cosby: And see that's the genius of these guys, I didn't say, Let the champagne and the confetti fall. "Where's the Parade, man," and that's the key in the song. We say, Where's the parade, man, talking to men, because you can't enter this world. There's only one way, only one way through a woman.



Black Voices: What's the future for black men and women?
Brother Haz:The future of black men and women, as far as relationships, I think the respect factor and the input of monogamy has to be more enforced in relationships. That's the most important thing, and I think once everything falls under that, that will bring more husbands and wives more long-lasting relationships.

Jace the Great: That correlates with "Where's the Parade?" because I think, the future and education tie in, because the more educated black women are of who is calling them out of their names, who are making these derogatory statements, [And for black men,] when you have knowledge of who the true black women is, you have a different [perception] and a different aspect of who she really is and you'll begin to treat her differently.

Brother Haz: I think the union of a man and women is powerful and strengthens each individual. So when you can have a strong bond between a man and a woman, when one is weak in one area, the other one can lift that other woman up vice versa, so I think a union can cause each one to be each other's crutch.


Bill Cosby: Going back to the question of black men and black women, there is something missing, and that's love. It may just be with the black man and the black women, for some of the people coming from a life of being abandoned by a Mother or a Father or not being able to find one.

I've met women who have been sexually molested. This young lady in Wilmington, not long ago, age 10. She had an abortion from her uncle. Then she had another abortion at age 15. When i went to hug her, she did like that, and i heard [ a muffled cry] but no tears. Dry.

Men as boys being molested are not telling anyone. There's a guilty feeling because, at age 7 or 8, he allowed a man to talk to him and enter his body. From that point on, he was not able to go to the Mother and say, "There's the man who...."

It's a tough thing, and some of us, even if it isn't about that molestation, it may be the fact that you are a part of some lower economic and Christmas comes and there's no presents, there's no tree. Somewhere there is a disconnect, and we've got to find in us the thing that hurts. We can't keep it in anymore, because that's what's making all of that anger. And as soon as anything happens, there's this explosion. We got to talk.

Some lower economic people won't accept that they have mental problems. They give it to white people; no black people are crazy. l didn't say you were crazy. I said, Here, because you are hurting, here it is here. Look at the way you are treating your children....

The worst thing for me is to hear incarcerated men who have to do another 20 to 30 years. They've got it; they understand life. "Hello, I got it. I got it now." They started out at age 17, no high school diploma, stopping in fourth grade. Doing the stupidest robbery, blowing somebody's brains out for $12.40, and now, after about 9 years [incarcerated], they've got it. Now they're in the library. They've got it and are even brighter than the lawyer who defended them, but they are still not ready to love.

For females. I know two of them, who were molested by the age of 7, being molested right up to age 19. It's the same thing, and both of them married, and both of them say, "I'm not in love with him" [their husbands]. I like him, I wish I could love him."

So when you speak of that [black male and female relationships], it is real, but there's so many of these feelings. Hopefully, hopefully, we can hear from the people attending these listening parties and they will say they had an epiphany.

If we had could have a man that came to his girlfriend or to his wife, who said, "Look, you don't need to say that you have my back anymore, because I have your back and we have each other." That's what it's about, love, respect, integrity. Then you got those little ones. Take those teeny hands, now you are going to raise what you have begat.