Speaker 1: Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. I've been so curious about
Speaker 1: the artist that I'm about to interview today.
Speaker 2: I love that Checking In we have a variety of.
Speaker 1: Guests that check in, whether it's a doctor or an author, entrepreneur, artist.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about this Grammy nominated artist and writer.
Speaker 1: Truly authentic, truly and original, but with some respectable influences
Speaker 1: that you can hear in his tone and in his style.
Speaker 1: I'm getting ready for this guy right here. Y'all, stay tuned,
Speaker 1: get locked in, come on in. Raheem Devon is up next. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: welcome to another fun, awesome episode of Checking In. Now
Speaker 1: this might be a little well, I don't know what
Speaker 1: it's gonna be, but we're gonna let it do what
Speaker 1: it's going to do. I am just really, really thrilled
Speaker 1: to have an amazing artist. I really think in every
Speaker 1: sense of the word artist. He's so intentional with his work.
Speaker 1: He's so intentional with the music, He's so intentional with
Speaker 1: his art. I'm excited that we have four time Grammy
Speaker 1: nominated singer and songwriter. We already know his debut album
Speaker 1: and his album's period continue to do wonders in our
Speaker 1: souls at least mine. Don't be nosy, y'all. Welcome raheen
Speaker 1: devon to checking in.
Speaker 3: Hello, Hello, checking in.
Speaker 4: This is ry for album check in and then officially
Speaker 4: right now listen.
Speaker 2: Thank you for checking in?
Speaker 1: What did you think when they were like, Yo, you're
Speaker 1: gonna check in with Michelle Williams?
Speaker 2: What was your thought?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: You know something you have like you did certain calls
Speaker 4: where you know, some people call and you try to
Speaker 4: figure out, oh, what's my schedule? You got other people
Speaker 4: that call and when you call, you just say okay,
Speaker 4: win and where. So this is like a winning where
Speaker 4: I would love to do it opportunity. So thank you
Speaker 4: again for having me. Congratulations on your you know, all
Speaker 4: your endeavors. Of course things you already accomplishing. You know,
Speaker 4: it's always about I guess what's what's the word. I'm
Speaker 4: looking for the incline and the growth, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, and doing new things. So I know this
Speaker 4: is one of your new things passion projects, So thank
Speaker 4: you so much for having need be part of that.
Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely I get a chance to talk to some
Speaker 5: of my favorite voices, And I think you are classic
Speaker 5: and timeless at the same time.
Speaker 1: You evolve and grow, but you still are one of
Speaker 1: the classic voices. And when I say classic, y'all at
Speaker 1: eight because he came out.
Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty two or nineteen seventy.
Speaker 1: Five, he has been around this game. Listen, now, let's
Speaker 1: let's check it. Let's check it now. Now he could
Speaker 1: have some stuff that I'm not privy to, maybe back
Speaker 1: in the MySpace days, but all the way back to
Speaker 1: two thousand and five. Yeah, classic timeless. How are you
Speaker 1: feeling out in the streets to know that you've been
Speaker 1: in this game a long time?
Speaker 3: It's amazing, Like you know, I mean young og mode
Speaker 3: at this point.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm able to get a game two younger
Speaker 4: artists at Amazing Day yesterday, which you know involved connecting
Speaker 4: with the artists that I already have known for some time.
Speaker 4: It's like revamping their thing as an independent artist. And
Speaker 4: then there's a new artist, Jordan. I can't member Georgia's
Speaker 4: last name, but he's going to kind of like viral
Speaker 4: on the internet right now. And we had been communicating
Speaker 4: and happy to be with Jordan's so we got to
Speaker 4: say to have an opportunity to talk, and then I
Speaker 4: spoke to another nd artist.
Speaker 3: Is all like two three o'clock in the morning, is
Speaker 3: all going on? WHI I'm at the studio by the way,
Speaker 3: and I say that can say this is that you know.
Speaker 4: It gives me the opportunity to be able to like
Speaker 4: you know, spit the games younger artists and share my
Speaker 4: experiences and what has been you know, I've been I've
Speaker 4: always operated as an independent you know, my own independent
Speaker 4: artists with my artistry, but uh, you know, to be
Speaker 4: independent over ten years, you know, and to be able
Speaker 4: to put everything and people see I'm now starting to
Speaker 4: understand how it looks from the outside. And I've been
Speaker 4: so focused, like tunnel vision, on what it is, what
Speaker 4: the mission is, what the goal is, you know, reinventing
Speaker 4: myself constantly and just the things that you know, because
Speaker 4: this is a you know, working supporting yourself as an
Speaker 4: independent artist. It's like you become your own passion project.
Speaker 4: So you have to take you have to you have
Speaker 4: to have like tunnel vision focus on it. You have
Speaker 4: to know certain things not not believe, but like no,
Speaker 4: you have to you have to know, you have to
Speaker 4: be borderline I don't know. I mean you have to
Speaker 4: kind of go as artists. I think we are a
Speaker 4: little insane. You know, we're all a little touched in
Speaker 4: the sense of like to be able to you know,
Speaker 4: bear our soul, you know, convey our emotions, uh, heal people,
Speaker 4: you know, whatever the process is through uh, through our.
Speaker 3: Gift of the arts.
Speaker 4: You know, in a room full of strangers, Like it's
Speaker 4: the most one of the most vulnerable things that you
Speaker 4: can do. You know, to go in the studio and
Speaker 4: create a song that you know speaks from your point
Speaker 4: of view or something that you're wearing on your sleeve
Speaker 4: or something vicarious leader that you've experienced, and to share
Speaker 4: that and then to go and give that to the world.
Speaker 4: It's one of the most vulnerable.
Speaker 3: Things you can do.
Speaker 4: So you know, it takes a very tough skin to
Speaker 4: do what we do. And I would just say that,
Speaker 4: you know, sometimes the season happens different. It doesn't happen
Speaker 4: when you pray for it. Sometimes it doesn't happen that
Speaker 4: you're ready for. It doesn't happen because you want it
Speaker 4: right now. You know, everything that that you experienced perpause
Speaker 4: for your season, and everybody hasn't like you know, so
Speaker 4: you have to be able to identify when you win it,
Speaker 4: you know. So for me, I think I think I
Speaker 4: can really say that, you know, uh, you know at
Speaker 4: this point in my career, like I'm in my season,
Speaker 4: you know, uh, and it's a good I'm in a
Speaker 4: good space.
Speaker 3: You know. Music that's so good.
Speaker 1: I love that you say that everybody has a season.
Speaker 1: Now we all know the four seasons winter, spring, summer.
Speaker 2: And fall.
Speaker 1: Then you have where some people say, I'm in my
Speaker 1: winning season. Can you explain heck, maybe you feel like
Speaker 1: you've always been in your winning season.
Speaker 2: Have you ever had a.
Speaker 1: Season of wait, this is my waiting season, or a
Speaker 1: season of transition, a season of uncertainty?
Speaker 4: Yes, all of those things I think I prepared me for,
Speaker 4: like for my winning season, which is all seasons now,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. Like, that's that's where I'm
Speaker 4: in it. I'm forever in my bag. That's how I feel,
Speaker 4: you know. Like mentally, I'm in that mental space and
Speaker 4: I'm forever in my dad. Like musically, I know that
Speaker 4: I can go in the studio at any given time
Speaker 4: it's something amazing, something timeless can come out.
Speaker 3: I can curate, I can curate something.
Speaker 4: That speaks to you know, not only my one percent
Speaker 4: demo of like eighteen year olds, but also my twenty
Speaker 4: seven percent demo of like that thirty five to forty five,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean that or that twenty eight
Speaker 4: you know to.
Speaker 3: Thirty two, you know, so age group.
Speaker 4: So uh you know, and you know, seeing that the shows,
Speaker 4: it's kind of like the proof of the put In
Speaker 4: because you know, I do the meet and greets and
Speaker 4: it's like a mother and a daughter there somebody the
Speaker 4: mother the daughter, or the mother the daughter and the grandmother,
Speaker 4: the mother, the daughter and the grandfather, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. So it's interesting, you know, like you know,
Speaker 4: music is not only the heartbeat of about people, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, but it's the heartbeat of like
Speaker 4: the world. It doesn't you know, I truly believe that,
Speaker 4: you know, music is colorblind. You know great music, you know,
Speaker 4: it's colorblind, it's gingerless, it's all it's all the things
Speaker 4: you know that brings all these people together from different
Speaker 4: walks of life to come here.
Speaker 3: Whatever it is. The messages that you're conveying, you.
Speaker 2: Know, that's so good. Y'all.
Speaker 1: Don't get the pleasure of seeing him on this video
Speaker 1: like I do when I tell y'all, he is suited
Speaker 1: and booted, the glasses are on, the skin is moisturized,
Speaker 1: the hair has been washed and conditioned. I'm so happy
Speaker 1: about that. I'm so excited to.
Speaker 2: Have you here. Now. One thing I know, if rahiem
Speaker 2: Devon don't.
Speaker 1: Do nothing else, he is going to give us music.
Speaker 1: You've got three albums that you've released within the same.
Speaker 2: Year, Am I correct?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, you know I'm gonna I'm on
Speaker 3: a system of like.
Speaker 4: Putting out, putting out, you know, three or four projects
Speaker 4: a year, you know what I mean, you know, tentatively,
Speaker 4: you know, even for twenty for twenty twenty four. Some
Speaker 4: things that you know happen enough that I'm involved in,
Speaker 4: you know. Uh, you know, the business model is spanding
Speaker 4: now like you know, it's not. It doesn't always have
Speaker 4: to be me in the front the center, you know.
Speaker 4: In some cases, and maybe me presenting a project that
Speaker 4: you know, produced or executively produced. And you know, so
Speaker 4: in some cases, maybe a Rayen Devin presents, you know,
Speaker 4: or it may be a three song pack of something
Speaker 4: that is me, you know, Uh, it may be a
Speaker 4: female artist, say like Tanya Nolan, who's a phenomenal independent
Speaker 4: artists out of the Houston area. He's self made, you know,
Speaker 4: reconnected doing the duet that we did pace Yourself and
Speaker 4: had a relationship from there and it just kind of
Speaker 4: just like group.
Speaker 3: Shout out to Corey Moe who connected us.
Speaker 4: And one of the things that Corey uh initially asked
Speaker 4: me when when he talks to me about time and
Speaker 4: saying like, hey man, I would love to see you
Speaker 4: take her under your wing and kind of just show
Speaker 4: her the tools and you know, the secret sauce, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. So we've been able to connect
Speaker 4: it and do that, and that's work into me like,
Speaker 4: you know literally like you know, co executive producing her
Speaker 4: first official like project or you know, which would be
Speaker 4: dropping some time this year. So it's been great to
Speaker 4: be able to go from being the clay to allow
Speaker 4: myself to work with artists who like trust me with
Speaker 4: your art, which I feel like is a sacred thing.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I constantly tell artists like Tanya and different individuals I
Speaker 4: work and I'm working with currently, it's like, hey, like,
Speaker 4: thank you for trusting me with your art because it
Speaker 4: means that you know, I know, that's a vulnerable space
Speaker 4: to be in. You know, it's not about it's not
Speaker 4: about your heart earned money, get your investments to yourself.
Speaker 4: It's more about for me, it's about the art and
Speaker 4: not to move about the music and people want something
Speaker 4: to maken here and fielm and that has a nostalgia
Speaker 4: to it and you know what I mean. So yeah,
Speaker 4: so so giving myself to the art in a different way,
Speaker 4: taking time to work with new artists and stuff of
Speaker 4: that nature and features. You know, it gives me an
Speaker 4: opportunity to show myself with a different light, which was
Speaker 4: a space that I grew into because as you know,
Speaker 4: as a as a as a songwriter, a producer.
Speaker 3: And the vocal producer, there is a patience that's required.
Speaker 3: There's a level of patience.
Speaker 4: It's a level of patience and communication you have to
Speaker 4: have with someone that's coming into the studio. You know,
Speaker 4: in some cases a lot of times working with you
Speaker 4: for the first time. In some cases they you know,
Speaker 4: depending on what who they're signed to, with the politics are,
Speaker 4: they might not even want to be there. They kind
Speaker 4: of just like they were either told to be there
Speaker 4: or you know, it's kind of like all right, they're
Speaker 4: stepping out of their comfort zone, so they're looking for
Speaker 4: something new or you know what I mean. And and
Speaker 4: again it's you know, it's the vulnerability that that can create,
Speaker 4: you know. Uh, you know, I wanted to be finding
Speaker 4: for them. I wanted to be a learning experience for them.
Speaker 4: I want to create something that's that's great, that's iconic,
Speaker 4: and it's amazing. But I also I wanted to be
Speaker 4: those things for me as well, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So yeah, so it's again it allows me to be
Speaker 4: able to just like put out be part of different
Speaker 4: you know, projects versus doing like one one song, and
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, it's just kind of just
Speaker 4: like chase chasing the single or I don't necessarily even
Speaker 4: want to call them like EPs or or albums now design.
Speaker 4: It's just like projects, you know what I mean. Because
Speaker 4: a project maybe you know, so like I said, two
Speaker 4: or three songs, a project maybe fifteen tunes. The project
Speaker 4: may be five you know songs, you know, or it
Speaker 4: may be a soundtrack for a film or independent film.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I am here for everything.
Speaker 1: That's why I have I've just been sitting here listening
Speaker 1: because I mean, you're answering so many questions. Now the
Speaker 1: latest three albums that you released in the last year,
Speaker 1: Love You, for the Summer of Love, and fall in Love.
Speaker 1: Now would you I'm assuming like, can I call it
Speaker 1: a trilogy?
Speaker 3: H man?
Speaker 4: If it would be a trilogy, it was a trilogy
Speaker 4: long ago, like for the cult following fans, like, you know,
Speaker 4: love has always been you know, the word love has
Speaker 4: always been intertwined in some form of fashion, like in
Speaker 4: all the projects.
Speaker 3: It's something that just kind of just continue to figure
Speaker 3: out and do in real time. You know. That's from
Speaker 3: a love experience, to love behind the Melody, to the
Speaker 3: love of what master.
Speaker 4: Piece, to a place called love Land, love such passion, Yes,
Speaker 4: decade of a Love King, you know, from Luster Dawn,
Speaker 4: which was like a passion project which which I connected
Speaker 4: with a lot of different artists from you know, social
Speaker 4: media at that time, and you know, some of which
Speaker 4: I'm still working with, two of which i'm you know,
Speaker 4: I'm mastering. I'm in the mastering stage of their projects.
Speaker 4: So you know, these things take yeah, the thing, Yeah,
Speaker 4: these things take time. You know.
Speaker 2: So if you've been that busy yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how you be finding time to be doing some
Speaker 1: of the stuff that's in your album.
Speaker 2: If you pick up, if you pick up when I'm
Speaker 2: putting down.
Speaker 3: It's always what they say. We always made time for
Speaker 3: the things we love.
Speaker 4: We may time if you if you're if you're a
Speaker 4: praying woman, you know, praying man, you're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 4: find time make time to pray, you know, just like
Speaker 4: you're gonna make time to lay.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean. You got to you got
Speaker 3: to pray before your name, All right, come on?
Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean I guess I am lyrically a lover,
Speaker 4: not a fighter, you know, But I also understand like
Speaker 4: it's my gift, you know what I mean, Like I've
Speaker 4: coined and carved out a lane for myself that that
Speaker 4: when people get the music and receive it or here
Speaker 4: there's a new project, I know what I know, what
Speaker 4: the expectation is.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
Speaker 4: And part of you know, part of my rebranding, part
Speaker 4: of my you know, the secret to my success, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: You know, And part of being in your season is
Speaker 4: knowing that it's knowing and loving who you are and
Speaker 4: knowing who you ain't who you are, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean? As well likes knowing. It's knowing what you
Speaker 4: are and who you are, as well as knowing who
Speaker 4: you're not and what you what you would never be,
Speaker 4: and what you don't desire to need, and you know,
Speaker 4: and then and then and then moving on intention of it,
Speaker 4: like you know. Yeah, So that that you know, for me,
Speaker 4: you know, allows me to be the conscious lover you know,
Speaker 4: or mister Jimmy conscious you know, one of the many
Speaker 4: attributes that I have, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Nicknames?
Speaker 1: You know, So what's the nicknames for me? Sitting the
Speaker 1: seat that I'm in? You have to be naturally curious,
Speaker 1: not nosy.
Speaker 4: I have a lot of monikers, you know, because you know,
Speaker 4: so it's uh, it's a let's see, uh, the R
Speaker 4: and B hippie, neo soul rock star a k A.
Speaker 4: Sup Cooler Jones a k A. Smoky Temptations, the Lypt God,
Speaker 4: the who God, the Lipt God.
Speaker 3: Yeah, l I P l l I P.
Speaker 2: I thought he said LIMP.
Speaker 3: God capital capital L capital all caps l I P. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Young Marvin Marley Mayfield. This is one of my fast
Speaker 3: which is one of my favorites, you know.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so in a and the list goes on, I
Speaker 3: mean these days, it's the lesson.
Speaker 1: You should say all of those names because I hear
Speaker 1: all of those influence.
Speaker 2: Okay, Marley Gay Mayfield.
Speaker 3: Yeah, young Robarn Marley Mayfield Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I'll say Isley's as well. Absolutely Isley Brothers.
Speaker 1: And on the latest album there is someone that is
Speaker 1: speaking who is giving me Is it Jamaican Nigerian?
Speaker 2: The woman doing the interludes?
Speaker 3: Rob Brown is half black, half Filipino. Yeah. She grew
Speaker 3: up in Philly, you know what I mean, Like she
Speaker 3: actually went to school with like Jill Jill Scott. She's special.
Speaker 3: She's she's a really dope spoken word artist and a
Speaker 3: phenomenal like a writer.
Speaker 4: Like she does a lot of writing for different different projects,
Speaker 4: you know, outside of like the conventional like making records
Speaker 4: and making albums, you know, work world.
Speaker 3: You know. Uh, she's been part of my journey, whether
Speaker 3: she knows it or not.
Speaker 4: And I went back to like kind of like go
Speaker 4: grab her at the right time, and like, you know,
Speaker 4: I want to start incorporating you know, spoken word artists
Speaker 4: and poetry into what I do. So, you know, the
Speaker 4: first open mic that I ever touched in d C,
Speaker 4: she was she was the host. She's talking you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. We're talking over twenty five years ago,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. Yeah, we talked years you know,
Speaker 4: So taking it back there, like before the world knew
Speaker 4: my name, like you know, uh, there was there was
Speaker 4: a spot I would go to Bar None, which which
Speaker 4: which a lot of people think I was discovered there,
Speaker 4: but that's where I went to kind of just like Shave.
Speaker 4: It definitely had the like the Love Jone. It was
Speaker 4: given like Love Jones vibes, we need to go in there,
Speaker 4: you know. But you had spoken word artists, you had
Speaker 4: you had mcs, you had singers, you had instrumentalists you
Speaker 4: know that would go through there, and uh you know
Speaker 4: that was that became the hub and in my safe
Speaker 4: space to be able to go and be vulnerable and
Speaker 4: you know, and work on my craft, you know, and
Speaker 4: get comfortable form, comfortable beforming in front of people. My
Speaker 4: first CE or mixtape that I sold out of a
Speaker 4: knapsack like out of a book bag was like Apple.
Speaker 2: None so and people got to know that that part
Speaker 2: of the journey.
Speaker 3: Okay, you know, so yeah, it was it was it was,
Speaker 3: it was, it was. It was the knapsack.
Speaker 4: It was broad Now it was the green camera had
Speaker 4: the green had this little beat up green camera toyo,
Speaker 4: thea cameray and I, you know, and and I used
Speaker 4: to basically like hand in hand, you know, sell my music.
Speaker 2: So you knew you were dope.
Speaker 1: You knew and that that confidence that I see now
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: I knew I had something special. I knew that it
Speaker 3: was that I was still developing it.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I knew back then that I had something
Speaker 4: that was unique and that and more importantly that when
Speaker 4: I would jump off the mic, I would see the
Speaker 4: reaction or like the questions I.
Speaker 3: Would People would be like, yo, where can I get
Speaker 3: that song?
Speaker 4: So I let me know that was create at demand
Speaker 4: and that you know, the hustler of me said, okay,
Speaker 4: well if they're asking for it, then you know then
Speaker 4: I mean I got to get product ye immediate, whether
Speaker 4: that means like buying a CD burner, and you know,
Speaker 4: the quality might not be what what we might think
Speaker 4: it needs to be, you know, but I have to
Speaker 4: start somewhere, you know. And and that's so that's always
Speaker 4: been my you know, that's always been my mentality. That's
Speaker 4: always been my goal and understanding that you know, you
Speaker 4: start somewhere, you know, and then from there you evolve.
Speaker 4: You keep moving, you know, keep moving. I look at
Speaker 4: my career, I look at my life as a as
Speaker 4: a marathon. You know that it's never been to it's
Speaker 4: never been the sprint, you know, it's been there's always
Speaker 4: been that like, Hey, we're gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 4: get on these tracks with these individuals, with my peers,
Speaker 4: you know, pull my b love. But you know, it's
Speaker 4: a very competitive business. So I'm gonna get on this
Speaker 4: track and I'm gonna start to run. And when they
Speaker 4: say all your market said, go I want to start,
Speaker 4: I'm going to start running and I'm going to like
Speaker 4: and if I get tired, want to walk.
Speaker 3: You know, you don't let your feet stop moving, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean.
Speaker 2: That's great.
Speaker 4: Get thirsty, you know what I mean. You have you know,
Speaker 4: there's no there's no eye in the world team. So
Speaker 4: you might have a team member that runs up and
Speaker 4: gives you, you know, something to drink. But if the
Speaker 4: game and the rules of the game are hey, when
Speaker 4: this race starts, the last person that whose feet are
Speaker 4: still moving will be declared the winner. Then you know,
Speaker 4: my mindset is that Okay. I'm just going to just
Speaker 4: like but you can do whatever you need to do necessarily.
Speaker 4: You can do whatever you need to do in the process.
Speaker 4: If you need somebody to hand you a sandwich because
Speaker 4: you're hungry on your feet, don't stop moving, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean?
Speaker 3: Whatever?
Speaker 2: I love that because you run your race.
Speaker 1: You're quiet about it, but you still have results. You're
Speaker 1: not like the loud arrogant. It don't seem like you
Speaker 1: have beefs with anybody in these R and B streets
Speaker 1: that I know of. You seem to know your niche
Speaker 1: like and I don't want to say because some people
Speaker 1: like you know your lane because that means what you say,
Speaker 1: I can't I can't go to the middle lane if
Speaker 1: I want to, I can't go to the left lane.
Speaker 1: But your niche or your sound? Did that take a
Speaker 1: while for you to discover.
Speaker 3: My sound?
Speaker 4: I think that happened organically, you know, like you know,
Speaker 4: being able to have mentors like DJ Jazzy Jeff like
Speaker 4: that nature average you know, I have an access to
Speaker 4: somebody like that. Let me just start there. If you know,
Speaker 4: you know, Jeff has always created an environment for artists.
Speaker 4: I would describe it as like X men, Mmm, you
Speaker 4: would be uh, what's that, professor X Yeah, and like
Speaker 4: you would be the equivalent of like that for me
Speaker 4: or for us. You know, the rooms I've been in
Speaker 4: with the level of talent, like the caliber of talent,
Speaker 4: like like not just in here in the US, but
Speaker 4: like globally, like the meetups I've been in, and what
Speaker 4: I've experienced being under under his watch you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. He was at a very important time, Like
Speaker 4: he was there. You know, he took me under his
Speaker 4: wing and learning from him. You know, the relationships that
Speaker 4: people that I that I met as a result from
Speaker 4: kicking it with him and being around him in this
Speaker 4: cool musical environment, you know Ken Dope and Louis Vanger
Speaker 4: and DJ Terry Hunter, you know who are like worldwarnow
Speaker 4: like DJs and producers and seeing the world and going
Speaker 4: you know, Jeff taking myself and uh and other artists
Speaker 4: like around the world at the time where you know,
Speaker 4: my brand was still building, Yah, and being being able
Speaker 4: to just understand that like music or R and B
Speaker 4: and like soul music is just one gearure in music
Speaker 4: that's just listen to start.
Speaker 3: There, and and that it's a very big world and
Speaker 3: a lot of people love.
Speaker 4: You know, there are people that love what we do
Speaker 4: and what we create that don't even speak English in
Speaker 4: some places, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I mean, we think it's corny, but I used to
Speaker 1: see it when I was growing up as a child,
Speaker 1: when music was actually in the schools, they would see
Speaker 1: the sign music is a universal language.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah it is, you know, And those things
Speaker 4: help is developing your growing in real time if you
Speaker 4: allow yourself to be you know, it's easy to kind
Speaker 4: of put yourself in a box though too, you know,
Speaker 4: depending upon like you know, listening to the labeled or
Speaker 4: listening to the A N R. Sometimes, in some cases,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, it could be one of
Speaker 4: the most toxic things for an artist, you know. But
Speaker 4: it's about knowing and trusting that gut you know, the
Speaker 4: voice of intuition is God whishper in your ear, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. So that gut feeling, that's the
Speaker 4: voice of God like telling you. That's you know, as
Speaker 4: universe saying like, hey, this is what you need to
Speaker 4: be doing. Get It morphs into like knowing I'm in
Speaker 4: a space where I know what I wanted to feel
Speaker 4: like tastes like smell like.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, like okay, like you look
Speaker 3: like yeah, you know, so you know has a greeing
Speaker 3: and the cologne.
Speaker 2: I'm here for it.
Speaker 3: I cam here for it. Can you smell it, Colonne
Speaker 3: through the speaker's baby, I can smell it.
Speaker 1: It's given amber, sandalwood. It's given a little bit of
Speaker 1: well you said it in your song. It's given backwoods.
Speaker 1: It's given although I'm like, now, wait a minute, don't
Speaker 1: mess up your vocal cords. It's given brown sweet liquor, y'all.
Speaker 1: If you know what I'm saying, is given honey butter,
Speaker 1: I'm hungry.
Speaker 2: It's giving.
Speaker 1: It's giving everything sophisticated. I think it could because of
Speaker 1: the season we're in, But if we're in the spring
Speaker 1: or somehow, I would have said, it's given juniper.
Speaker 2: It's giving.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to stick to the smells because you probably
Speaker 1: don't want bath and body work types since.
Speaker 3: That's for the lady.
Speaker 4: I'm not like biased, know to a woman that you
Speaker 4: know uses back in the bodyworks, you know I'm not
Speaker 4: biased me personally, you know what I mean? Go, you
Speaker 4: know I'm there's so many like dope, black owned businesses
Speaker 4: there are their eyes.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like, you know, what are your favorite sense what are
Speaker 2: some of your favorites.
Speaker 4: I'm you know, I'm a sucker for a woman as
Speaker 4: you know that has that Carol's daughter, you know, you know,
Speaker 4: but that but look brown sugar, but look, but look,
Speaker 4: but you got to have like the source. You gotta
Speaker 4: get that you know, word on the streeter. And she
Speaker 4: does like a you know, if you know, you know
Speaker 4: she'll do she does like a bat. She still she
Speaker 4: still whips it up in the.
Speaker 2: Kidnap for some of those of her. By the way,
Speaker 2: I know which bats you're talking about.
Speaker 1: I know which bat you're talking about because I'll never
Speaker 1: forget back in the day in the early two thousands,
Speaker 1: walking down it just takes me back.
Speaker 2: To the Brownstones of New York. I know exactly what
Speaker 2: bat you're talking about.
Speaker 1: I'm not no, I'm not going to ask nothing like
Speaker 1: specific as far as dating business. But what I do
Speaker 1: want to ask, because you are the love king you
Speaker 1: say you people have called you the lip God.
Speaker 2: Do you find it pressure to be that or to
Speaker 2: be who you are as an artist?
Speaker 3: Is that?
Speaker 1: Who you are as a man in relationships? Is or
Speaker 1: are you like, wait a minute, I don't feel like
Speaker 1: all that today. Yes, if you want me to just
Speaker 1: listen to track twelve, but I can't be that right now.
Speaker 1: Have they expected you to be that in a day
Speaker 1: to day relationship?
Speaker 3: Well, in transparency, like you know, I'm not married, engaged
Speaker 3: and I am dating. You know what I mean having
Speaker 3: that dating like that? You know?
Speaker 4: Okay, and just like you know, I think that not
Speaker 4: to be cliche, but I would probably have to say,
Speaker 4: like my wife, girlfriend and mistress is like my music
Speaker 4: their career.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he told you, he told you on checking in
Speaker 1: with Michelle Williams. His wife, his girlfriend, and his mistress
Speaker 1: is music. So don't have no expectations.
Speaker 4: Just but I understand that like outside of that, like
Speaker 4: you have to have experiences, you have to you know,
Speaker 4: I understand the point is of like love and plutonic
Speaker 4: friendship and growth in allowing yourself to have experiences that
Speaker 4: you want to feel something. So with that, with that
Speaker 4: being said, I want to make sure I'm to ask
Speaker 4: you a question one more time.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure I like, if I were
Speaker 1: dating a therapist, don't make him feel like the pressure
Speaker 1: to be the therapist.
Speaker 3: I got you here, Rahim Devon the.
Speaker 2: Artist you know.
Speaker 4: So yes, there have been times where I feel like pressure,
Speaker 4: but I think it has nothing to do with necessarily
Speaker 4: like even the content. It's just the fact that, like
Speaker 4: who I am and just being a public figure, I
Speaker 4: was having this discussion every day, and I feel like sometimes,
Speaker 4: you know, sometimes a woman may feel the need to
Speaker 4: be like, give me an extra hard time because I
Speaker 4: am because of who I am, and because he.
Speaker 2: Wants to know that you are who what you sing about.
Speaker 2: You ain't romantic enough what you're talking about. You didn't
Speaker 2: grab my torso like you said in the music or you.
Speaker 3: I don't really have that problem. I don't have that problem.
Speaker 3: And I think I don't have that problem.
Speaker 4: I think because to love me is to really know me,
Speaker 4: and to really know me is to know that like
Speaker 4: they're very there's a lot of different shades and tones
Speaker 4: to me.
Speaker 2: And that and that you know, that's that like that
Speaker 2: you know that's where I'm going to yea, you know.
Speaker 4: There's you know that's that that can be very you know,
Speaker 4: it kind of would tell me a lot about the person,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, if the expectations it because
Speaker 4: it can be kind of like superficial, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. Or it can be like it's like, hey,
Speaker 4: do you want Raheen divine? The entertainer or the singer
Speaker 4: or the you know, the writer, are you here? You know,
Speaker 4: are you here for Raheem divine? Like the human beings
Speaker 4: like you know what I mean, the person you know,
Speaker 4: the person who who lost his father or a year ago,
Speaker 4: or the or the person who still figures out how
Speaker 4: to still be you know, uh just still you know,
Speaker 4: you never stop figuring out how to be a parent,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean when you have children or
Speaker 4: could just be like the you know, the amount of
Speaker 4: what I'm providing in terms of you know, being self
Speaker 4: independent and being self made. You know, I'm still providing
Speaker 4: jobs for people you know, down to like my musicians
Speaker 4: and you know, uh and what have you know, an
Speaker 4: economy and in a space that where like people come
Speaker 4: out to buy a ticket for something it's election. Regardless
Speaker 4: of what level you are in this business. You know,
Speaker 4: if you can fill seats during this time, like that's
Speaker 4: a unique gift to be able to be able to
Speaker 4: fill seats or to know that you can go and
Speaker 4: do the MGM and it's sold out already before you
Speaker 4: go to touch it, and you know, and and and
Speaker 4: people are there because you provide a very unique service,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. So it's like to know
Speaker 4: the men and to know the music and then know
Speaker 4: the lyrics, to really know the man behind the music
Speaker 4: and the you know I means so yes, which means
Speaker 4: like you got to come correct too, you know, as
Speaker 4: the woman who is you know, pursuing you know what
Speaker 4: I mean? I think in dating that the pursuit should
Speaker 4: be equally ooked, you know what I mean. I realized that,
Speaker 4: I realized it. I realized as a man that I
Speaker 4: like to be pursued. And that's not to be misunderstood as.
Speaker 2: You want to feel that they want you.
Speaker 4: If you the woman that's waiting by the phone for
Speaker 4: me to call you or like you know, daily and
Speaker 4: you know whatever, the like, yeah you're not because you know,
Speaker 4: I believe like if you think, you know, if you
Speaker 4: think about me, then or show reach out, you know.
Speaker 3: What I mean? So like you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: So like yeah, so it's you know, hopefully I've answered
Speaker 3: good question.
Speaker 1: No, it has been amazing And I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I want to make great use of our time together.
Speaker 2: You've given me so much. You've given us so much.
Speaker 1: I told I was telling some folks that I was
Speaker 1: interviewing the other day, they poured, you literally are pouring.
Speaker 1: And I really think I'm thankful for that. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to didn't want to come across offensive because
Speaker 1: I was like, Man, I'm sitting here and just wondering
Speaker 1: as I'm listening to music as a fan of like,
Speaker 1: does he have pressure in that area?
Speaker 3: I don't feel the pressure.
Speaker 4: I mean, not that I mean in the day about
Speaker 4: that life, like I talked, like I talked with I
Speaker 4: talked that talk about.
Speaker 3: That that life.
Speaker 2: So he's not a hypocrite, Like you're not gonna everything.
Speaker 3: You know, but everything for everybody.
Speaker 4: You know, you're doing in moderation and you know, even
Speaker 4: in real time, you know, learning a lot about myself
Speaker 4: and and uh, you know, and dating and you know
Speaker 4: from my previous relationship not to make the same states.
Speaker 4: And it's like all the all of those things, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, Like, you know, it's cool being
Speaker 4: an artist, you know, That's I think that's the cool
Speaker 4: part is that you can go through things and then
Speaker 4: you can be your own news for them and go
Speaker 4: in and you know, use your music.
Speaker 3: To not only hill yourself, but to also heal. You know,
Speaker 3: music is healing for the for the listener, you know,
Speaker 3: therapeutic in some cases. It's a doc connector to.
Speaker 4: Love and fatherhood and motherhood and just like all the things,
Speaker 4: depending on you know, what you're listening to, you know,
Speaker 4: and what you get, what you get from it, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Yeah, you mentioned your father. I just wanted to
Speaker 2: ask you. He was a jazz musician.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes ahead, I'm sorry, yes, yes, I do, I'll do.
Speaker 1: He was a jazz musician and so were you the
Speaker 1: son that wanted to make sure that he loved your music?
Speaker 1: Was he excited or please? Had Did he ever participate
Speaker 1: creatively with you music?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, he would hang out.
Speaker 4: Not many studio sessions he came to with me, but
Speaker 4: there's one it sticks out, and it was the night
Speaker 4: that I was recording the song just right. And he
Speaker 4: didn't make many suggestions that night, but one of the
Speaker 4: suggestions that he did make on the record is like
Speaker 4: it's it's literally the way it is because it's something
Speaker 4: that he suggested that I do, which was like there's
Speaker 4: a bridge that happens like a pre hook that happens
Speaker 4: in that in that record, in that song, and to
Speaker 4: kind of make a different between the two, it was
Speaker 4: there's this one line where he was just like, yeah,
Speaker 4: just leave out the one word right there, and and
Speaker 4: I'm like okay, and I'm me and the student anybody knows,
Speaker 4: like I'm very kind of like as far as like
Speaker 4: suggestions and stuff or.
Speaker 3: People like, hey, you should do like I hate that,
Speaker 3: like you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So sometimes I just need the space to get out
Speaker 4: what I need to get in my head before, like
Speaker 4: you know, and and and if I really, like, you know,
Speaker 4: I'll ask an opinion, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 4: it was just like Dad, and he made us right.
Speaker 4: He was he was right, and the records just right
Speaker 4: and it came out just right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: But but yeah, like you know, I think probably the
Speaker 4: part I missed the most is like, uh, we would talk,
Speaker 4: you know, maybe two three times a day, but even
Speaker 4: if it wasn't two three times a day, he would
Speaker 4: always kind of like tap in after the show, like
Speaker 4: you know, whether two three o'clock in the morning, you
Speaker 4: know something about musicians who just up and up at night, right,
Speaker 4: and uh, nocturnal and he and he would, he would, yeah,
Speaker 4: he would, just like tap Man. And you know, it's
Speaker 4: you can have people, you know, you can have different
Speaker 4: there's a different conversation that you can have, say with
Speaker 4: a parent who is in the.
Speaker 3: Music business versus one that's not it's just a level.
Speaker 3: They just understand.
Speaker 4: We talk a different language, we talk, We talk a
Speaker 4: different language than most you know what I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: whether we're talking business or on a you know, personal level.
Speaker 3: You know. But yeah, my dad, you know, for the
Speaker 3: listeners out there, you know, check out his work.
Speaker 4: He was a child prodigy cellist and went on to
Speaker 4: teach like some of his amazing students who are.
Speaker 3: Now doing phenomenal things around the world. Wow, and yeah,
Speaker 3: so yeah that's good. But I understand that, you know,
Speaker 3: it's the progression of life, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So I'm thankful to be able to say that that
Speaker 4: I had the experiences that I've had that I had
Speaker 4: with him, you know, and to know that also you know,
Speaker 4: they they definitely were in spirit, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Our ancestors are in spirit, you know, calling the plays,
Speaker 4: calling the plays that you will, thank you.
Speaker 2: So much for sharing.
Speaker 1: I understand, my I lost my father in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: but I rejoice in the fact that he was ready.
Speaker 2: It was time, It was his time, It was his time.
Speaker 1: Still miss him, still miss him dearly. He is a
Speaker 1: huge musical influence. He was a DJ, and he had
Speaker 1: like Milk Crates, Vinyl just from everything to the to
Speaker 1: Marvin Gaye to Aerosmith. So I feel like that's why
Speaker 1: sometimes I had a hard time kind of figuring out
Speaker 1: I think what my sound was gonna be. But I'm
Speaker 1: still a consumer to this day of just all things,
Speaker 1: so many genres. Two more questions for you. Are there
Speaker 1: any sounds that you still have yet to explore sonically?
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, there probably a lot of things. Like I'm
Speaker 4: in a space. I let that happen organically, you know.
Speaker 2: You don't force it like I'm going to do Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I like that. I like that I let
Speaker 3: the music dode. That tells me.
Speaker 4: I think probably the most eclectic record I have about
Speaker 4: right now, it's a record called Favorite Things to Do,
Speaker 4: which is which it has a It has a vintage
Speaker 4: failire vibe to it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I love him.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Shout out to DJ Terry Hunter, who produced that out
Speaker 4: of Chicago, you know, but to kind of like show
Speaker 4: the diversity like Terry also produced you you know.
Speaker 3: For me, you know, many moons ago.
Speaker 4: So uh you know, but again, you know when you
Speaker 4: start when I started getting my back and thinking about
Speaker 4: like the work that I that I've already done with
Speaker 4: like King Doapro in particular.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm gonna find it. I'm gonna find it.
Speaker 1: See me looking down because I was able to play
Speaker 1: Sondra Isador. I was the original Sondra Isidor in the
Speaker 1: Fela touring.
Speaker 3: Production that was on Broadway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was on Broadway.
Speaker 3: Okay. I came to see that in New York.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was on Broadway, but I was in
Speaker 1: the Broadway producers took it on the road and I
Speaker 1: was in. I was the original Sondra Isador on the road.
Speaker 3: Man. That was incredible.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, I was introduced to his music in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, and I'm like, I wish I knew
Speaker 1: of him in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 4: I just shout out to his son, to his kids
Speaker 4: and FAMMI you know, you know he is like that. Yes,
Speaker 4: he's like the split version of his dad. It is
Speaker 4: at the heart of this got the heart of a lion,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, Like, you know, so okay.
Speaker 2: I'm okay, I'm excited. I'm excited. Okay, thank you for
Speaker 2: sharing that.
Speaker 1: Last, but not least, the foundation of my podcast is
Speaker 1: regarding mental health.
Speaker 2: We know that we know, or I know, everybody has
Speaker 2: mental health, but everybody does.
Speaker 1: Not have mental illness. Even you, righting you have mental health,
Speaker 1: you seem to be very grounded. You shared so much.
Speaker 1: But to the heart of that creative who might be
Speaker 1: struggling with their confidence, to the creative who is just
Speaker 1: maybe they're.
Speaker 2: Just struggling in the area of their mental health. They're
Speaker 2: dealing with depression or anxiety.
Speaker 1: Have you ever walked that road where you were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've been down a little too long.
Speaker 2: Or absolutely that's some fear.
Speaker 4: For the first time in my life, I willingly intentionally
Speaker 4: started doing therapy, and it was like when I lost
Speaker 4: my dad, Black King, Come on now. Prior to that,
Speaker 4: I definitely probably was one of the people that I
Speaker 4: thought I didn't need or didn't get or like you know,
Speaker 4: or thought that you know, there had to be something
Speaker 4: like really going wrong to you know, ironically, you know,
Speaker 4: mental health.
Speaker 3: Is like one degree separation. For me, it's like very close,
Speaker 3: like so much so close.
Speaker 4: That like which I've never spoken about is public for
Speaker 4: me until now, right, is that my my dad has caisophrenia. Wow,
Speaker 4: And I've always been you know, for whatever reason, as
Speaker 4: he got older and I got older, for whatever reason,
Speaker 4: I was I was probably the one person out of
Speaker 4: the family that could kind of like get him back
Speaker 4: on traps, you know.
Speaker 3: So that became a thing for me, you know.
Speaker 4: So when I say, like it's one degree separation, I'm
Speaker 4: looking to go down the rabbit hole and and now
Speaker 4: and so so that's something that's like, you know, very
Speaker 4: you know, having my foundation, doing the work that I've
Speaker 4: done community wise, revamping the foundation and and and with
Speaker 4: new initiatives, that is something like mental health is like
Speaker 4: something that's very important to me.
Speaker 3: And I understand it like in a way.
Speaker 4: That most probably be wouldn't you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: because again on both sides of my family, like you know,
Speaker 4: it's one degree literally one degree.
Speaker 3: Degree separation.
Speaker 4: So I understand that, like you know, and I didn't
Speaker 4: understand until I started doing therapy how important therapy is.
Speaker 3: You know, the tools and things that you can be
Speaker 3: given the healing that can happen from it, and how
Speaker 3: you can identify the source of trauma, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, like like because sometimes the source of your
Speaker 3: source of trauma may be like all roads may lead
Speaker 3: back to one person yep, and and the series of
Speaker 3: a vist that it's transpired and then you know whether
Speaker 3: it's say, hurt people, hurt people.
Speaker 4: So it's so it's so important to get in tune
Speaker 4: with y'all, like your trauma and your hurt and your pain,
Speaker 4: because you don't want to be one of those hurt people.
Speaker 4: This is out here hurting people intentionally or unintentionally, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. So, yeah, mental health is like
Speaker 4: and everything for me, you know, for anybody out there
Speaker 4: that's going through anything.
Speaker 3: Is that I would just say, like in.
Speaker 4: Transparency and like again, as artists, like you know, we
Speaker 4: remember that it's something about the TV or the Netflix
Speaker 4: or the radio or these you know, or social media.
Speaker 4: It just makes us look bigger than life that sometimes
Speaker 4: people forget that we're human beings and we believe the
Speaker 4: same way you do. You know, we have the same
Speaker 4: losses that you do, we have the same anxieties, we
Speaker 4: have the same in some cases prayers. You know, I
Speaker 4: never try to claim the spirit of depression, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, Like, you know, I feel like depression
Speaker 4: is a word.
Speaker 2: It kind of it'sat it's just data.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I saw somebody say that.
Speaker 4: I can't remember when I saw this, but depression it
Speaker 4: really stands for decompression, like you need to It just
Speaker 4: means that your avatar is tired and that you just
Speaker 4: need to let your avatar like decompress, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. And whatever that process is. Maybe that process
Speaker 4: is you know, taking a quick trip for going like
Speaker 4: going somewhere and just like standing in the water, or
Speaker 4: you know, meditating or you know, you know, for some
Speaker 4: people it's like back with you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: But I would suggest finding good ways to you want
Speaker 4: to make sure that you're not running to like the bad.
Speaker 2: Habits, the bad habits, bad you know what. We Sometimes
Speaker 2: people feel like what is what's a solution?
Speaker 1: It's really a distraction and they're not getting to the
Speaker 1: root of that pain, you know, They're they're substituting it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, first of all, let me let you know that.
Speaker 1: Michelle Williams and I'm sure folks.
Speaker 2: That are with the Black Effect.
Speaker 1: Who my podcast is you know under Charlemagne, who has
Speaker 1: the Mental Wealth Alliance? Like whatever, however we can and
Speaker 1: I guess Charlemagne, I signed you up. Yeah, however, I
Speaker 1: let me speak for me. However I can get behind you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in whatever it is in that mental health space, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be following up because that's really big. And thank
Speaker 1: you for trusting my platform to share what you shared.
Speaker 3: Y'all.
Speaker 1: There are so many things about the artists that we
Speaker 1: know and love, like he said, go through the same
Speaker 1: things that we have. And maybe he just didn't feel
Speaker 1: or there is a safe enough space to share what
Speaker 1: he shared. Again, therapy is not always about It doesn't
Speaker 1: always have to be about trauma. It can be how
Speaker 1: can I unpack transition? How can I get an unbiased
Speaker 1: opinion about how to deal with a loss? And guess
Speaker 1: what therapy is about trauma too if you want to
Speaker 1: go there. Okay, so you have made yourself even more
Speaker 1: lovable by being vulnerable. That took some vulnerability to share,
Speaker 1: but that's what you know.
Speaker 4: But again, that all kind it goes back to like,
Speaker 4: it goes back to the art, like you know, ass right,
Speaker 4: And it's why you know, it's part of these These
Speaker 4: are part of the things that like our challenges, our
Speaker 4: things that we deal with that we don't speak on earth.
Speaker 4: You know, they shape us, state, mold us, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. And you know, so you know, it
Speaker 4: kind of gives people kind of wonder why I move
Speaker 4: the way I moved, or like people wouldn't believe some
Speaker 4: of the things unless they saw it, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, I heard it or you know, or you know,
Speaker 4: we had a conversation piece about it. So like, yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm looking forward to being more verbal. And you know, again,
Speaker 4: mental health is just it's it holds a very hold space.
Speaker 4: A lot of it purposely and intentional because of like
Speaker 4: you know, it being a one degree separation thing for me.
Speaker 1: Listen, thank you, y'all. His foundation is called love Life Foundation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Love Life Foundation.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's committed to raising awareness and funds for domestic island education, homeless,
Speaker 1: mental illness, if I is that correct.
Speaker 2: Mental health, autism, cancer, Listen.
Speaker 1: It's so well rounded for music and arts, HIV and
Speaker 1: AIDS if we can. Matter of fact, I'm gonna follow
Speaker 1: right now love Life DMV And as he said on
Speaker 1: one of his interludes.
Speaker 2: You can find him at Raheem Underscover Devon on Facebook
Speaker 2: as Raheem Divine.
Speaker 1: You can find him there. I think you poured so much.
Speaker 4: Thank you for checking in, Oh, thank you for having me,
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me. We gotta do it again
Speaker 4: for sure.
Speaker 1: Anytime, anytime, anytime.
Speaker 2: Okay, I did not expect I did not expect.
Speaker 1: This, and I'm so glad that he was just willing
Speaker 1: to share, because sometimes, you know, artists can be, you know,
Speaker 1: be wanting to be all and whatnot and not share,
Speaker 1: you know, but he was just absolutely a jewel. And
Speaker 1: we are dedicating this episode to his father, Abdul Dude.
Speaker 1: And I'm grateful that Checking In is a safe space
Speaker 1: where people begin to share things that they probably normally
Speaker 1: wouldn't share. And he's got my full support. And continue
Speaker 1: prayers and blessings into anybody out there. You've lost a
Speaker 1: loved one recently, just know that my heart goes out
Speaker 1: to you and I'm wrapping my arms around your body
Speaker 1: as best as i can and just praying for you
Speaker 1: and just wanting to send you some love as well.
Speaker 1: Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production of iHeartRadio
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