Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host,
Speaker 1: ramses job. He is Rams joh I mq ward. You
Speaker 1: are listening to Civic Ciphers.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 1: Indeed, very special episode today. We don't get to say
Speaker 1: that very often. We are two years old.
Speaker 2: Today, Well I'm actually I'm I'm forty but then on okay,
Speaker 2: so October.
Speaker 1: I'm forty two. You're right, you know, let me I
Speaker 1: should probably say that, well the show.
Speaker 3: Okay, the show is ten years old.
Speaker 2: Now I gooes too, and then if you round up,
Speaker 2: because my birthday's coming up, I'll be like forty one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: Man. So today we're going to celebrate. We're going to
Speaker 1: celebrate a lot of what has happened in the past year,
Speaker 1: in the past two years that we've been on the air,
Speaker 1: and we'll probably do a whole lot of thanking to you,
Speaker 1: our listeners, for supporting us. You know, that's saying something
Speaker 1: to have a radio show grow this big and be
Speaker 1: sustained and fortified by a listenership. You know, a basic
Speaker 1: of people that just tune in every week to listen
Speaker 1: to what we got going on and what we want
Speaker 1: to talk about. And we know we deal with heavy
Speaker 1: topics and subjects and so forth, So to have that
Speaker 1: support and to just be championed by you means a
Speaker 1: lot to us. So stick around. We will be discussing
Speaker 1: again some of the more positive things that have happened
Speaker 1: as a result of you know, all of our combined efforts,
Speaker 1: not just us, but yours and other great organizations. So
Speaker 1: we're going to look at the progress there. We're going
Speaker 1: to also spend some time discussing black media. You know,
Speaker 1: our show wouldn't exist if not for you know, the
Speaker 1: starting point was the Freedom Journal, the first black owned
Speaker 1: and operated newspaper in the United States, so we're going
Speaker 1: to spend some time talking about that as well. But
Speaker 1: you know, we like to start off with some Avenue excellence,
Speaker 1: So cue, how's that sound, sha we shall This week's
Speaker 1: Ebony Excellence is sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly Media and
Speaker 1: the story comes by US Sports Illustrated. I think you
Speaker 1: might know what's coming. We are going to celebrate some
Speaker 1: more black girl magic, like we like to do around
Speaker 1: here by talking about Serena Williams. So I will read
Speaker 1: a bit. We knew it was time for the Queen
Speaker 1: Goat Williams to lay down her rackets. She remains victorious
Speaker 1: in winning our hearts because she's the greatest of all time.
Speaker 1: Twenty two major championships later, several close calls for an
Speaker 1: additional title, injuries, disappointments, marriage and motherhood. It was a
Speaker 1: forty one year old body to have the final scene.
Speaker 1: Many young black girls have been watching her resilience and
Speaker 1: competitive nature, wondering if they could one day possess the
Speaker 1: heart of Serena Williams and will forever look up to her.
Speaker 1: Congratulations Serena Williams and family, especially King Richard, Queen of mother, sisters,
Speaker 1: brother and of course Venus. You all made many across
Speaker 1: the world extremely proud. From Comptony England, Francis, Spain, Africa
Speaker 1: to Australia. Williams family reigns Women's Tennis Royalty Supreme. Serena,
Speaker 1: please continue to hold court wherever you may be. You
Speaker 1: see you're still our queen for forever. In a day,
Speaker 1: Serena Williams definitely the greatest of our all time, yesterday,
Speaker 1: today and tomorrow. For those who don't know, she has
Speaker 1: retired at the end of a very celebrated career and
Speaker 1: she is the living embodiment of excellence, being committed to
Speaker 1: not just your craft, but to who you are, standing
Speaker 1: firm in the middle of yourself, owning your blackness, championing
Speaker 1: your blackness in spaces where it's sometimes difficult, challenging, et cetera.
Speaker 1: And if we can, we will take this moment to
Speaker 1: salute you, Serena Williams. You are absolutely of any excellence,
Speaker 1: And if all goes well, the rest of the show
Speaker 1: is going to sound just like that. I know, I'm
Speaker 1: excited because we don't often get to have sort of
Speaker 1: a celebratory tone around here. But again, turning two years
Speaker 1: old is really something special. I want to remind you
Speaker 1: that this show, we didn't expect this to happen, right
Speaker 1: We didn't expect to you know, this was that we
Speaker 1: didn't have like a master plan right here. I mean
Speaker 1: that's the part of the story that I stressed the most.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because of the way things worked out, it seems
Speaker 2: like some stroke of genius that we fled radio to
Speaker 2: start our own fledging, fledgling media empire. And it's like, no,
Speaker 2: there was no plan, there was no exit strategy. You know,
Speaker 2: we stood on principal, we stood on our compass and
Speaker 2: made the decision that we had to make just by
Speaker 2: grace that things worked out and we're in a space
Speaker 2: now we're, you know, celebrating two years later. Just seems
Speaker 2: really improbable because even that we started well, I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't even know if we've ever told this part
Speaker 2: of the story out loud, but I sat at Ramsey's
Speaker 2: dining room table and watched tears stream down his face
Speaker 2: as he said goodbye to not just a career. A
Speaker 2: lot of people have jobs and careers, but media, radio
Speaker 2: and broadcasting was Ramses's life. And because our people were
Speaker 2: being misrepresented and for what it meant to our culture
Speaker 2: that our home and radio told us no on the
Speaker 2: basis that what we were trying to do was black
Speaker 2: without hesitation, Ramsey said no. And you guys have to understand,
Speaker 2: there's a moment where it's like, yo, bro, did I
Speaker 2: make the right decision here?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I'm like you made the only decision that
Speaker 2: you could make. Thank you for that, Q, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So that it worked out and that
Speaker 2: all these opportunities have presented themselves. Now, if you don't
Speaker 2: know that part of the story, it just looks like
Speaker 2: a struggle of genius like, man, that's dope with y'all, Dia,
Speaker 2: how y'all went and start a civic ciphering. Told them
Speaker 2: that you know that they knew what they could.
Speaker 1: Do, yes, like we did not know that.
Speaker 3: We had no idea.
Speaker 1: And for those of you who may not know the story,
Speaker 1: we tell the story from time to temper for those
Speaker 1: who don't know. In brief, basically, Q and I are broadcasters.
Speaker 1: We have a hip hop background for DJs. We work
Speaker 1: in radio. During the protest of twenty twenty, we went
Speaker 1: to our old employer and says, hey, we'd like to
Speaker 1: do a show that really speaks to the issues on
Speaker 1: the street. There's some people that we'd like to interview,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And after some roundabout, you know, misleading conversations,
Speaker 1: they ultimately said that they didn't want to do a
Speaker 1: black show. And this is when we decided to leave
Speaker 1: on principle as Q mentioned, and we resigned to the
Speaker 1: city rather than to the station. We wrote the letter
Speaker 1: to the city just letting everyone know that this is
Speaker 1: why we would not be heard on the radio anymore.
Speaker 1: And what we were trying to do was for them.
Speaker 1: We were trying to give them an hour a week
Speaker 1: just to at that time it was a half hour
Speaker 1: a week, so that you know, we could tell our
Speaker 1: own stories and we could challenge what you know, Channel
Speaker 1: twelve was reporting as a riot, which wasn't a riot
Speaker 1: because again we were out on the street, you know this.
Speaker 1: We felt the need for that. So, you know, to
Speaker 1: go from a moment where it's like, Okay, this chapter
Speaker 1: of my life is over all of the tickets I
Speaker 1: gave away, all the listeners that grew up listening to
Speaker 1: me on the radio, all of the you know, I
Speaker 1: tried my best the whole time I was a broadcaster
Speaker 1: for that part of my career to not let that
Speaker 1: define me, to not let that become a part of
Speaker 1: my identity. Rather, but there's no escaping there's no escaping
Speaker 1: that when you've done it for that long. It just
Speaker 1: because it's second nature. It's as natural as breathing.
Speaker 2: So I've always been blown away every time you remind
Speaker 2: me because you question that, even like in the wake
Speaker 2: of that decision, you're like, man, that is a part
Speaker 2: of my identity, and it blows me away that you
Speaker 2: didn't want that because you I saw the time that
Speaker 2: you committed to being good at it. So I'm like,
Speaker 2: what is he talking about? Like, how are you going
Speaker 2: to do this this well and it not be a
Speaker 2: part of your identity?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 3: Seemed? You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like I watched you commit more hours than anyone to
Speaker 2: being good at.
Speaker 1: That, So Mamba mentality is you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I often told you, I joke with you even to
Speaker 1: this day. It's like a magician.
Speaker 2: Watching you work in that space, so that you commit
Speaker 2: that much time being good at it while also hoping
Speaker 2: that it didn't become a part of your identity.
Speaker 1: Seemed you know what it is though, q So. And
Speaker 1: this probably is indicative of I will say indicative of
Speaker 1: at least a facet of the black experience in this
Speaker 1: country at least, but I think it's also indicative of
Speaker 1: anyone's experience under capitalism, where you're in a corporate environment,
Speaker 1: you know, and you are at the bottom or in
Speaker 1: the middle, right or even at the top in some instances,
Speaker 1: but certainly the bottom of the middle. So going into radio,
Speaker 1: you know, two thousand and five was when I first
Speaker 1: got a chance to broadcast, and it was KKFR and Phoenix,
Speaker 1: which we're on now. So shout out to DJ Complex
Speaker 1: and my man.
Speaker 3: Eric over there.
Speaker 1: We you know, we all go back, Yeah, we all
Speaker 1: go back. So anyway, yeah, but yeah, complex, Eric Valdez,
Speaker 1: all these guys, they were doing power when I first
Speaker 1: got over there, you know. Five.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 1: When you first get into radio, you realize how volatile
Speaker 1: the industry is, and there's lots of industries that are
Speaker 1: very volatile. Tomorrow's not promised in corporate America period. We
Speaker 1: all know that layoffs happen. We all know, you know
Speaker 1: whatever well radio is particularly, I don't know if insidious
Speaker 1: is the right word, but you get what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say. So being the best kind of helps you
Speaker 1: to fortify your position, but it in no way guarantees
Speaker 1: a tomorrow fifty percent. You know, you might increase your
Speaker 1: odds by fifty percent, but it's not going to guarantee anything.
Speaker 1: And so I didn't want it to become a part
Speaker 1: of my identity because I knew that it could go
Speaker 1: away at any point in time, you know, and I
Speaker 1: I at the same time, I doubled down so that
Speaker 1: it would not go away, and then over time it
Speaker 1: becomes a part of your identity. I say that to
Speaker 1: say that walking away from it was obviously very emotional.
Speaker 1: You know I've shed tears on this show before. So
Speaker 1: if you, if you're a longtime listener, you know that
Speaker 1: this is a very emotional place. We have to tell
Speaker 1: real stories. We deal with life, and we deal with death.
Speaker 1: We deal with heavy topics here, and so I have
Speaker 1: no there's no shame in me letting you know that
Speaker 1: I obviously had I lost it a couple of times,
Speaker 1: having to walk away from how I did my family,
Speaker 1: what might made my family really proud of me and
Speaker 1: my friends and so forth, knowing that I would probably
Speaker 1: never talk on a microphone again. And I know that
Speaker 1: you felt the same weight of that. But I know
Speaker 1: you were kind of just moving with me. And I'll
Speaker 1: never ever be able to thank you enough for supporting me.
Speaker 1: You know, I knew that you. I know that you
Speaker 1: would and just like I support you, You and I
Speaker 1: have been a year. There was no other version of it, though,
Speaker 1: there was no version where that decision was being made,
Speaker 1: you know, in a vacuum with you by yourself like
Speaker 1: that was. That was us decision. Sure that I'd been
Speaker 1: disappointed if you felt like you couldn't make the decision
Speaker 1: because you didn't know which direction I leaned, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's still important to say it out loud because
Speaker 1: you know, even though it's a given, it still represents
Speaker 1: a sacrifice on your end as well. And so while
Speaker 1: you're acknowledging that, on my part, I want to make
Speaker 1: sure I say that for you. But you know, to
Speaker 1: go from essentially zero, well maybe not zero, but you know,
Speaker 1: we had some people who had they had come to
Speaker 1: know our names, but zero, no career, no no nothing,
Speaker 1: you know, no promise of tomorrow to now having a
Speaker 1: radio show that's on from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Speaker 1: Pacific Ocean, you know, where as far north as you
Speaker 1: know of state New York. I think we're on in
Speaker 1: the station in a couple of stations in Vermont, you know,
Speaker 1: so as far north as in Vermont, and as you know,
Speaker 1: obviously we're as far south as San Diego. You know,
Speaker 1: we crisscrossed the whole country. Now after two years and
Speaker 1: obviously tons of support, most of which comes from our listeners,
Speaker 1: is extremely humbling and we're really grateful and this is
Speaker 1: a very invigorating time and our careers in our lives
Speaker 1: because now rather than asking you to listen to the
Speaker 1: next commercial break and you know, giving away concert tickets
Speaker 1: or you know, doing celebrity gossip or things like that.
Speaker 1: We feel like we talk about things that really matter.
Speaker 1: Granted it's heavy stuff, but again we really feel like
Speaker 1: it matters. And there's another part of this too. And
Speaker 1: while we're here talking about this, I do want to
Speaker 1: say it. I'm not one of I'm not the most
Speaker 1: spiritual person in the world. That's not my way. But
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes there are things that happen that kind
Speaker 1: of make me feel like perhaps I have some favor
Speaker 1: with some sort of higher intelligence, higher power. And obviously
Speaker 1: having you know u Q and having such a storied
Speaker 1: career alongside you, our producer Maggie b Noan coming to
Speaker 1: the table and really helping lend that voice that we
Speaker 1: really needed in terms of writing our scripts, making sure
Speaker 1: that we account for things that we might have overlooked.
Speaker 1: You know, we can't articulate the pain that a mother
Speaker 1: might feel, you know, we can't. You know, there's certain
Speaker 1: things we can't do. But there's some other things that really,
Speaker 1: in hindsight, makes me feel like this was sort of.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 1: There was some there was some perhaps intelligent design behind
Speaker 1: this path, one of which is, you know, you mentioned this.
Speaker 1: This is a really small thing, but it's not insignificant
Speaker 1: to me, is that we had a treasure shove of
Speaker 1: elements that would really help us build out the show,
Speaker 1: frame it and then sell it to radio stations. But
Speaker 1: I think a more important, more foundational thing that happened
Speaker 1: was we've told the story before, so forgive me if
Speaker 1: you've heard it. But prior to us being told that
Speaker 1: our old station didn't want to do a quote black show,
Speaker 1: and it's a hip hop station, they didn't want to
Speaker 1: do a black show. Humh. Prior to being told that,
Speaker 1: two reached out to me. You know, once upon a
Speaker 1: time I had not done a lot of traveling in
Speaker 1: the US, only international travel, and I had an opportunity
Speaker 1: to go with Q to help them drive back a car.
Speaker 1: I think we went to go get your some fancy
Speaker 1: car that Q has. I don't remember which one was.
Speaker 3: That was what it was.
Speaker 1: Anyway, it was in Florida, and of course we're based
Speaker 1: in Phoenix, Arizona, and so he's like, hey man, you
Speaker 1: want to fly with me and drive the car back.
Speaker 1: And remember it's COVID at the time, you know, no
Speaker 1: one's outside. It's a way to get out of the
Speaker 1: house and check off a few states, which now I've
Speaker 1: obviously been off fifty states famously talked about that on
Speaker 1: the show as well, But at the time I had
Speaker 1: been to you know, four states or whatever. So this
Speaker 1: was a chance for me to you know, travel through
Speaker 1: the south, the southern part of the US and coming
Speaker 1: back to the to the city, coming back to Phoenix.
Speaker 1: We were pulled over in Mississippi and we because remember
Speaker 1: at the time, you got to think George Floyd had
Speaker 1: just gotten killed Breonna Taylor, you know, Ahmat Aubrey, where
Speaker 1: the country is dealing with these in real time, and
Speaker 1: then we get pulled over in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night in the darkest back road in Mississippi on our
Speaker 1: way to Louisiana.
Speaker 3: I need to add, just for those who are listening
Speaker 3: to us mentally, you know the darkest place that you
Speaker 3: thought of when he said that, Nah, it was darker.
Speaker 3: It was way darker than it was no moonlight. There
Speaker 3: was no moon The trees were.
Speaker 2: So big and so the greenery around us were so
Speaker 2: dense that moonlight couldn't get through.
Speaker 3: It was dark.
Speaker 1: And then all you hear is that Mississippi accident come
Speaker 1: from behind you, and we've told the story on the show.
Speaker 1: But anyway, this UH was an experience that Q and
Speaker 1: I both lived through. We went on I they pulled
Speaker 1: Q out of the car. Obviously the outcome were fine.
Speaker 1: They did it for no reason, but they pulled Q
Speaker 1: out of the car. We were pulled over for no
Speaker 1: reason really and certainly not enough reason to get taken
Speaker 1: out of the car. But I had my phone on
Speaker 1: UH Facebook and I was doing a Facebook Live and
Speaker 1: because we were bumping out cast driving through Mississippi and Alabama,
Speaker 1: you know, my battery was dead. So I'm on Facebook Live.
Speaker 1: Everyone sees there's police behind me, and everyone knows that
Speaker 1: we've been out protesting you know this, that and the other.
Speaker 1: They don't know. They don't know that we were in Mississippi.
Speaker 1: I have no idea where we are, and you know,
Speaker 1: obviously if something happens, we can't upload a video. So
Speaker 1: I got to go live. And then my phone dies,
Speaker 1: so all they see is Q walking backwards to the
Speaker 1: sound of a voice, and I'm in the car and
Speaker 1: then they come and pull me out of the car
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh God, and then my phone goes.
Speaker 3: Is getting pulled out of the car the phone died. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Man, it was a scary time.
Speaker 2: So needless to say, once his phone got some battery,
Speaker 2: it might have been fifty something messages Hi Moarnette.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people were very upset, but that served as sort
Speaker 1: of a foundational experience that helped us launch the show off.
Speaker 1: And so I said that there were certain things that
Speaker 1: felt like divine placements in our life and you know,
Speaker 1: to whatever it is that has set us on this path,
Speaker 1: and maybe it's a collective consciousness. Maybe there is something
Speaker 1: greater that we don't know about that's not for me
Speaker 1: to speak on. I just want to take this moment
Speaker 1: to say that I'm very grateful to be able to
Speaker 1: share some of these things that I'm going to share
Speaker 1: with you that have taken place over the past couple
Speaker 1: of years. So, without further ado, let's talk about some
Speaker 1: positive things since we've been on the air. So h
Speaker 1: One thing that is I think very very important and
Speaker 1: was very much pivotal, is that Donald Trump was voted
Speaker 1: out and he relinquished his post relatively peacefully relative I know,
Speaker 1: January sixth, but relative, I mean, he could have did
Speaker 1: a lot work.
Speaker 3: Not relinquish his post, and it was not peaceful. Well, okay,
Speaker 3: if I'm gonna do anything for y'all that can hear
Speaker 3: there was no civil war.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm trying to say that that okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: then you say it better than me, Go ahead say
Speaker 1: it better.
Speaker 3: It was not peaceful.
Speaker 1: Well either way, he's gone. How about that? And obviously
Speaker 1: for us that subscribed to the notion that black peaceeople
Speaker 1: are valuable and special and precious, and that our lives
Speaker 1: are valuable and our lives have worth. Donald Trump and
Speaker 1: really his base being sort of galvanized behind you know,
Speaker 1: reclaiming America and and you know, kind of getting off
Speaker 1: these strange, bizarre ideas about them, you know, being replaced
Speaker 1: and you know, all this sort of strange stuff that
Speaker 1: puts a target on our back black people, brown people,
Speaker 1: anyone who's not white, Christian, you know, heterosexual, you know
Speaker 1: that sort of person. To have him out of office,
Speaker 1: that's obviously a huge thing. And that has happened since
Speaker 1: we've been on the air. COVID. You know, we had
Speaker 1: to deal with COVID, you know, for we had a
Speaker 1: few episodes. We're still we're still dealing with it. But
Speaker 1: the worst of it, you know, in terms of the numbers,
Speaker 1: the death numbers and so forth, that feels like it's
Speaker 1: largely behind us. And we had to do a couple
Speaker 1: of shows where we tried to do some convincing of
Speaker 1: black people to really get vaccinated, you know, and we
Speaker 1: had to take into account that black people's history in
Speaker 1: this country, especially insofar as it relates to the government,
Speaker 1: and the government performing you know, untested or you know,
Speaker 1: not fully fleshed out medical solutions on black populations as
Speaker 1: a way of experimenting to kind of see what the
Speaker 1: effect on a human body would be before they release
Speaker 1: or altered formulas or whatever. I'm alluding to the Tuskegee experiments,
Speaker 1: which are harmful experiments that the United States government is
Speaker 1: documented performing on black people, had to apologize for, and
Speaker 1: they were doing it just to see what the outcomes
Speaker 1: would be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wish we would have been a bit more
Speaker 2: well versed in that precedent though, because it was kind
Speaker 2: of the opposite.
Speaker 1: They were denied treatment and things in medicine. That was
Speaker 1: that was really what it was with the tuskie Ge experiments.
Speaker 1: But we were denying ourselves life saving vaccination as a
Speaker 1: result of its very very little information.
Speaker 3: The fears were justified.
Speaker 1: We just didn't do a lot of due diligence and
Speaker 1: a lot of misinformation was passed on to us very
Speaker 1: easily because of that. But we're here, like I said,
Speaker 1: on the other side of the peak of COVID. So
Speaker 1: that is something that I believe is very much a
Speaker 1: positive outcome. There's been a not insignificant amount of focus
Speaker 1: on policing and obviously there's been some legislation that's been
Speaker 1: passed with respect to how policing is done or should
Speaker 1: be done in theory since George Floyd's murder. So before
Speaker 1: George Floyd, you have to remember, there were police killings,
Speaker 1: police shootings that were shooting children. You know, this sort
Speaker 1: of thing was have black children, what's happening? Over and
Speaker 1: over and over again. We were paying attention to it.
Speaker 1: We did talk about that on the radio when we
Speaker 1: were doing Radio Solstice, our old show that we were doing.
Speaker 1: We talked about that stuff over and over again every
Speaker 1: time we could. And after George Floyd and after the
Speaker 1: sentencing of Derek Chauvin, we started to see some changes.
Speaker 1: So that was something that was positive. We still have
Speaker 1: a long way to go. I'm not going to pretend
Speaker 1: like it's all roses and all that stuff. But I'm
Speaker 1: grateful to have seen progress and our time on here.
Speaker 1: And you know, there has been some cities who have
Speaker 1: taken police resources, fiscal resources and reallocated them. It's not
Speaker 1: a full defunding of the police, but some cities, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: have doubled down. And unfortunately the president is talking crazy.
Speaker 2: But you know, as it takes someone to juice out
Speaker 2: of us, voting the other dude out. Yeah, this dude
Speaker 2: be tripping.
Speaker 1: But now we have to hope that we turn out
Speaker 1: again to keep him there, right, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: because it's been some very discouraging outcomes in the wake
Speaker 1: of the worst human being that's ever held I can't
Speaker 1: say he's the worst human being that ever held the office,
Speaker 1: because I'm sure we had some dippity dude as back in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but in my lifetime, the worst person.
Speaker 2: You know, people get on the political side and the
Speaker 2: presidential pro I don't care how good or better president
Speaker 2: he was.
Speaker 3: Sure he was an awful human being there it is.
Speaker 1: And you know that that I think that further shows
Speaker 1: why you know, the student loan thing was. You know,
Speaker 1: I get that it helps folks, I just don't love
Speaker 1: feeling like it could be sort of a political tool
Speaker 1: to you know, bolster some some additional votes. But this
Speaker 1: is what we got and it's better than what we
Speaker 1: could have had in my opinion. So again, some more
Speaker 1: positive outcomes to focus. So