Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good People. What's Up is Questlove?
Speaker 1: And this is part two of qls's Black History Month celebration.
Speaker 2: All right, this particular episode, we're focused on the media.
Speaker 1: We got pioneers and innovators from radio, television, and theater.
Speaker 1: Last season, we had two episodes that really touched on Black.
Speaker 2: History from a media perspective.
Speaker 1: In the first, you'll hear Erica Alexander speak about the
Speaker 1: Freedom Theater in my hometown of Philadelphia, where she spent
Speaker 1: time growing up, and I missed it so much. Shout
Speaker 1: out to Dice Fral who's now one of the chair
Speaker 1: people at the Freedom Theater. All right, here's Erica Alexander.
Speaker 1: What part of Philadelphia? Where are you from?
Speaker 3: Mound Area? Oh?
Speaker 4: Nice?
Speaker 5: He was nice part of town.
Speaker 1: See, when you're from West Philly, I just think anything
Speaker 1: that's north of City Hall is just n o RF
Speaker 1: North Philly, even if it's Mount Area. So what was
Speaker 1: your beginnings in the world of acting? Like, were you
Speaker 1: a Freedom Theater kid? Or was this stuff in your school?
Speaker 1: Did you not want to go to creative and performing arts.
Speaker 6: Or well, you know, I think we had a conversation
Speaker 6: in Mire and I know you've had plenty of them,
Speaker 6: But you went to school with my little sister Charlanda. Yes,
Speaker 6: he's the one who went to the School of the
Speaker 6: Artists that you did. But I was discovered when I
Speaker 6: was fourteen in the basement theater called new Freedom Theater.
Speaker 6: The Freedom Theater closed. I talked to the council in
Speaker 6: the other day.
Speaker 4: We got to get that back.
Speaker 5: That theater is beautiful.
Speaker 6: It's beautiful, but it's stuffed in the middle of Temple
Speaker 6: University and surrounded by I don't think people who understand
Speaker 6: what it's.
Speaker 7: Significant gentrification, what's going on with Howard University. I can
Speaker 7: Roger that Roger that so discovered.
Speaker 6: In the basement theater by a movie company, merch should
Speaker 6: Ivory Film Independent Film came to Philadelphia. They were looking
Speaker 6: for Little Girls Back and Brown to audition for this movie.
Speaker 6: And after nearly twelve to thirteen auditions.
Speaker 2: And for screen screen tests, screen.
Speaker 6: Tests, yeah, I was the one they chose. When this
Speaker 6: is both cleared, Wow, Okay.
Speaker 2: What happened at Freedom Theater?
Speaker 1: Like because that was one of the places where I
Speaker 1: wanted to go, but instead my parents put me in
Speaker 1: Settlement Music School and my sister went to Freedom Theater.
Speaker 1: Like it was like, Okay, we're going to have her
Speaker 1: act and he's going to do music. But we would
Speaker 1: only pick her up afterwards. But I never knew like
Speaker 1: what happened in there, Like what was what would they
Speaker 1: teach you there?
Speaker 6: Well, Johnny Allen Junior and his partner, they started it.
Speaker 3: They started in the sixties.
Speaker 6: Sixties famously were starting to try to train black children
Speaker 6: the way the Black Panthers did. That they knew that
Speaker 6: the schools that were primarily white weren't giving them any
Speaker 6: sense of themselves. And you had people like the Great
Speaker 6: Meanness Simone talking about young gifted in Black so that
Speaker 6: that's really what was going on. There was some sort
Speaker 6: of idea that if you infused a child with the
Speaker 6: strong sense of themselves and you also gave them creative outlets,
Speaker 6: got them in touch with their body, discipline, voice, sound, body,
Speaker 6: all of those things, performance, speech, communication, that you could
Speaker 6: influence the rest of their life. And they proved their point,
Speaker 6: like a lot of the schools that were going around
Speaker 6: the country at the time and new Freedom Theaters of
Speaker 6: that kind of tradition.
Speaker 1: How old were you when you started Freedom Theater, Like
Speaker 1: at what age did you start?
Speaker 3: Fourteen?
Speaker 6: I only went there for the sixth week program, and
Speaker 6: then I also did like two summers of a play
Speaker 6: called under Pressure, which was their residents production that they
Speaker 6: put on every year every summer.
Speaker 1: Is the Hope where I guess the goal of the
Speaker 1: school to draw people, notable people to see the kids
Speaker 1: and have them work with someone notable or or is
Speaker 1: it just like we teach you the craft of acting
Speaker 1: and then you're out there in the world, like, are
Speaker 1: they like this how you get an agent?
Speaker 2: Or this is how you you know this?
Speaker 1: This this commercial casting directors come into our thing tonight,
Speaker 1: Like is it any of those things involved? No?
Speaker 3: Not. When I was going it might have changed.
Speaker 6: It really was about self love, self reverence, power, black power,
Speaker 6: young gifted in black, A sense of yourself inside of
Speaker 6: a white world.
Speaker 3: How can you move through it? How do you stand?
Speaker 6: Lifting your head, your skins, making the children go home
Speaker 6: and get undressed and look at themselves in a mirror,
Speaker 6: all parts of themselves, the lower parts of themselves, having
Speaker 6: some kind of regard and respect for hygiene. The way
Speaker 6: you spoke, the way you stepped up rammar, all of
Speaker 6: those things. It was really more like a boot camp
Speaker 6: for life for black kids.
Speaker 1: Did you realize that immediately or is this like in hindsight,
Speaker 1: like I hated going to Okay, I'm sorry. I did
Speaker 1: not hate going to Settlement music school, but I hated
Speaker 1: the homework assignments. However, I now realized, thank god, I
Speaker 1: went to sell them in music school. That saved my life.
Speaker 1: But you realize that stuff like when you're way older.
Speaker 1: Did you realize that at the time, or because even
Speaker 1: when we were doing those types of exercises at performing
Speaker 1: art school whatever, like we'd be in the back laughing,
Speaker 1: like you know, they want us to learn Elizabethan and
Speaker 1: project with your voice, and you know.
Speaker 2: We're just like that.
Speaker 7: Settlement wasn't as black as freedom in that way though,
Speaker 7: that's like a different experience, right right, that's true.
Speaker 3: I think my sister went to Settlement to my baby's sister.
Speaker 2: How many siblings do you have.
Speaker 3: I'm one of six, and fourth there's too younger than me.
Speaker 6: There's Charmanda, who you know, and then there's Mayesha, and
Speaker 6: I think she went to Settlement.
Speaker 2: And all of you have dabbled in the arts.
Speaker 6: Yes, in some way. Although my sister, he was a
Speaker 6: social worker, there in Philadelphia, and my brother's a Philly.
Speaker 4: Copp Oh, so your family really stayed in Philadelphia?
Speaker 3: They did, did we?
Speaker 6: Both My parents were orphans, so we didn't necessarily have
Speaker 6: a place to be. Wherever we were was where we
Speaker 6: were at. But I think you were talking about did
Speaker 6: I recognize what it was doing?
Speaker 8: Then?
Speaker 6: Yes, they were very over. They kept it was like
Speaker 6: a boot camp. It was like an officer and a gentleman.
Speaker 6: They were going to make you understand the power of
Speaker 6: being black and blackness, and more importantly, the power of
Speaker 6: self love. And we needed that because at the time
Speaker 6: I was going in there, the streets were a battleground.
Speaker 6: It was crack incarceration, Young women were getting pregnant. It
Speaker 6: was really like some kind of weird pathology movie. And
Speaker 6: I think they couldn't be soft about it. They had
Speaker 6: to be over. They didn't have the privilege to set
Speaker 6: back and not act like they were trying to do.
Speaker 6: They were trying to radicalize you, and I think that.
Speaker 3: It worked well.
Speaker 1: When you said offers and a gentleman, I'm like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute. I remember Lewis Gossig making it.
Speaker 2: Cry in the right in the rain. I'm like, wait
Speaker 2: a minute.
Speaker 6: So yeah, a lot of people cried, but they were
Speaker 6: crying because it was like church. You got in there
Speaker 6: and you had real awakenings and you reckoned with even
Speaker 6: though you might have thought a lot of people had
Speaker 6: to confide events and didn't have. I guess the fears
Speaker 6: that some children had, they all had that we weren't
Speaker 6: allowed to be children. And there I think that they
Speaker 6: knew they were different type of child and that they
Speaker 6: needed to break us down so we could be vulnerable,
Speaker 6: all right. Not me though, by the way, I'm a
Speaker 6: preacher's daughter. I came in already vulnerable. I was scared
Speaker 6: of Philadelphia and students and I wait, your dad was
Speaker 6: a pretty different student.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Church of God in Christ, baby, what's.
Speaker 2: All a kojak kojak? Sure? Where where was the church?
Speaker 6: Well, my parents are coming out of New Mexico, Carlsbad,
Speaker 6: Las Cruses. They were Bible students. They traveled around in
Speaker 6: the car, and that's why I spent the first eleven
Speaker 6: years of my life in a hotel called Starlight off
Speaker 6: a Root sixty six.
Speaker 2: Wow, that was where you lived?
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, that was Erica Alexander h Part one.
Speaker 1: Next up, we're gonna hear from Wayne Brady. In part
Speaker 1: two of his interview, Wayne told the story of him
Speaker 1: getting down with Chappelle's show, but not after his feelings
Speaker 1: were hurt and something that have shaped his journey. So
Speaker 1: my version of the story was when I was a
Speaker 1: staff member of the Chappelle Show.
Speaker 9: Sorry, I mean sorry sounds yeah, I don't want to
Speaker 9: hear here.
Speaker 10: What's your version is?
Speaker 1: Okay, So I'm a staff member of Chappelle, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: go on location with those guys. I did all the
Speaker 1: music for season two, and so the roots just happened
Speaker 1: to be in La at the time when we were
Speaker 1: shooting a lot of the La Chappelle things. And what
Speaker 1: you have to understand is that most shows are like
Speaker 1: planned week in events.
Speaker 2: They have a writing staff.
Speaker 1: The genius of season two was the fact that Neil
Speaker 1: Brennan and Dave Chappelle were pretty much just flying off
Speaker 1: the seat of their pants, knowing that on there is
Speaker 1: day night they had to turn in that tape the comedy.
Speaker 1: Really you're supposed to turn in like the Tuesday before,
Speaker 1: like days before. I mean there would be times where
Speaker 1: like maybe a half hour before the show's on the air,
Speaker 1: like the Sesame Street Q tip.
Speaker 2: Thing, that snoop thing.
Speaker 1: I happen to know that they finished the edit maybe
Speaker 1: a half hour before airtime. Yeah, before airtime, like Comedy
Speaker 1: Central has to like approve things were standings, like we
Speaker 1: went down to the wire. So I do know that
Speaker 1: we had went out to the Four Seasons because we
Speaker 1: wanted to get our Sinio to do the whole cheese things.
Speaker 2: Why don't you tell me the cheese was good, good.
Speaker 1: Right, that whole thing, and also got Anthony Anderson to
Speaker 1: do the Ashy.
Speaker 2: Larry You remember the dream?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what I remember was we have met Anthony Aji
Speaker 1: and the hotel lobby, Anthony Jay the bar wash. He's
Speaker 1: also the father Maya Rudolph's Fire and Bridesmaids and.
Speaker 2: He's legendary comic.
Speaker 1: We had spent so much time talking to him, and
Speaker 1: our Senio was there like just comedian war stories from
Speaker 1: the seventies or whatever. That I had to go so
Speaker 1: I can go to the airport. So what Neil will
Speaker 1: tell me when I landed? He says, dude, we just
Speaker 1: created a masterpiece. Like the way they were describing how
Speaker 1: the night was was like they had made Purple Rain
Speaker 1: and thriller at once, and I'm thinking, like, wait, from
Speaker 1: the whole.
Speaker 2: From that sketch.
Speaker 1: He says, no, man, He's like, so when you were
Speaker 1: leaving and checking out at the last minute, guess who
Speaker 1: we saw in the lobby. I was like, who it's
Speaker 1: a dog. We saw Wayne Brady and I said, oh
Speaker 1: my god, what happened? Because I instantly went back, Mooney,
Speaker 1: ipect this is going to be like even broccoli.
Speaker 2: I said, well, went down? What went down? He said, nah, man,
Speaker 2: we shot something.
Speaker 1: And so I'm under the belief that it was off
Speaker 1: the cuff.
Speaker 2: You just happened to be in the lobby.
Speaker 10: You and Dave.
Speaker 1: Had a meacopa kind of understanding moment thing, and then
Speaker 1: it was like, so what are you doing?
Speaker 2: Do you want to shoot something?
Speaker 1: And it was very off the cuff, and I was
Speaker 1: not prepared for any of those things.
Speaker 10: Like oh no, no, no, no, no no. It was
Speaker 10: so much different for you.
Speaker 2: All Right, So what's your version of it?
Speaker 9: Well, well, my version is, well, just going back to
Speaker 9: when the sketch aired, and I'll do it really really fast.
Speaker 9: And this isn't me complaining because I've said this before,
Speaker 9: like on the Breakfast Club, and there's always an asshole
Speaker 9: in the comments like like, well, you shouldn't have the
Speaker 9: reason that the sketch bothered me. And I'll just say
Speaker 9: it in the nutshell. Jokes are jokes. I do comedy.
Speaker 9: Everything jokes. A joke's fine. I just happened to come
Speaker 9: from a very, very particular place. And you can't tell
Speaker 9: me what I can and can't feel. I feel Paul Mooney.
Speaker 9: I worshiped at the shrine of Paul Mooney. I never
Speaker 9: said that Paul Mooney wasn't funny or home. Mooney was
Speaker 9: in a genius and a writer. I love Paul Mooney.
Speaker 9: I love Dave. So imagine my shock. I'm sitting at home,
Speaker 9: I'm getting my barber. Came over to my spot. He's
Speaker 9: doing Da Da Da Da, and the Chappelle shows on.
Speaker 9: I'm excited. I was like, okay, we can get through
Speaker 9: the whole thing. And then and then boom, Negro was
Speaker 9: Wayne Brady looked like him. I went, oh, oh, okay.
Speaker 9: I didn't laugh at it, not because I was like,
Speaker 9: I'm above being made fun of. If your joke is funny,
Speaker 9: please make fun of me. That's what we do. But
Speaker 9: to me, and now, because you saw me talk to
Speaker 9: my bullies. Oh, also Kendra and Nicole and Nicole come
Speaker 9: on now, it's Adams Jones, Johns Harris. Race has always
Speaker 9: been a subject that has played because what does it
Speaker 9: mean to be black? You know, the kid that grew
Speaker 9: up watching certain things, doing certain things, like making certain
Speaker 9: things that have died, so those things form you. So
Speaker 9: I've always had that in the back of my mind
Speaker 9: as a as a thing. So when I see that,
Speaker 9: I'm like, the joke isn't funny to me, It doesn't
Speaker 9: even scan because you're now making fun of Brian Gumbel, who, like,
Speaker 9: say what you want to say. But Brian gumble this
Speaker 9: incredibly successful man in his own right, doing this thing.
Speaker 9: So now you're gonna use me to take down him
Speaker 9: or him to meet And then that means that I'm
Speaker 9: not black enough? And so does that mean that one
Speaker 9: of my comedic heroes, Dave Chappelle, who I've rocked with
Speaker 9: since Robin Hood Men in tights and watching him at
Speaker 9: evenings at the Improv before he blew up, This dude
Speaker 9: really knows who I am. Oh, that's awesome, but nothing
Speaker 9: gonna shit on me. And Paul Mooney, who I love.
Speaker 9: He doesn't think I'm black enough. That's really wow. That shakes,
Speaker 9: which is why Wayne doesn't go out and talk to people,
Speaker 9: because I don't want to deal with that shit sometimes.
Speaker 9: So I was already in my feelings about it from
Speaker 9: a race place and just from a joke point.
Speaker 10: I didn't feel that it was a good joke. I
Speaker 10: thought it was too easy, so blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 9: So fuck those guys immediately, and I'm like, I don't
Speaker 9: give sex second and third chances. I am a I'm
Speaker 9: a very petty, angry person inside sometimes when it comes
Speaker 9: to certain things. So I was already like, well, I
Speaker 9: guess I can watch a Chappelle show. Click, I can't
Speaker 9: enjoy the genius that is Dave Chappelle. Fast forward to
Speaker 9: I forget what the show was. It was an award show.
Speaker 9: It might have been the Hoodies Steve Steve Harvey's Hoodies
Speaker 9: or something. But Donnelle was in the lobby bar. We
Speaker 9: were in the bar. Donnelle was with somebody else, and
Speaker 9: I recognize them immediately because I like the show. Oh
Speaker 9: it's ashe laire, but you gonna drink my drink. He
Speaker 9: comes over so wonderful and gracious, Wayne, Hey, I'm Donelle.
Speaker 10: I play.
Speaker 9: Actually I know who you are. I've seen your little
Speaker 9: play all right, just just through the energy. And he
Speaker 9: was so sweet. He was waiting blah blah blah. I said, oh, yeah,
Speaker 9: that's great. I love the show up until that whack
Speaker 9: ass joke by Paul Mooney.
Speaker 2: Blah dah da da da. But thanks.
Speaker 9: He goes, Oh my god, I mean we you know,
Speaker 9: we have love for you. I was like, I was like,
Speaker 9: to be honest, I don't know. And I have to
Speaker 9: preface it. I had been drinking. I had been drinking,
Speaker 9: so I was like, really, was that how you love me?
Speaker 9: Black man?
Speaker 2: Is that really?
Speaker 9: And so just going about my day, cut to the
Speaker 9: next day.
Speaker 2: This is how fast the shit did happen.
Speaker 9: So I don't know the timeline that you're talking about
Speaker 9: in terms of when you came out to LA, but
Speaker 9: it happened where well.
Speaker 2: I was at the fourth season hotel, so.
Speaker 9: Okay, so that might have been so so whenever I
Speaker 9: saw him. Then the next day I was doing my
Speaker 9: talk show. I get my assistant comes as I'm in
Speaker 9: the writer's room.
Speaker 10: Wait, wait, got phone call, who take Chapelle? I was like,
Speaker 10: why no, you're lying Tay Shamelle.
Speaker 9: Okay, hello, hey man, it's Dave oh Man, just so
Speaker 9: sweet as like, look, I didn't write that joke.
Speaker 2: Mooney came up with it.
Speaker 9: I really didn't like the shit either, but you know,
Speaker 9: I like the character and da da da, no offense
Speaker 9: was meant now the fact that and now we live
Speaker 9: in a day and age, no one's gonna backtrack on
Speaker 9: a joke for folks like I said what I said,
Speaker 9: and I said it like like I said, Dave was
Speaker 9: one of my guy He's one of my heroes. So
Speaker 9: that itself, we could have just stopped it there. It
Speaker 9: couldn't have gone any furthers like thank you, and I
Speaker 9: mean you didn't. Thanks, It's fine, it's cool. He goes, Hey,
Speaker 9: would you ever want to be on the show? Said,
Speaker 9: are you kidding me? It would be a dream of it. Well, then,
Speaker 9: what are you doing doing this weekend? Or if this
Speaker 9: was a Friday or something. So I flew out. I said,
Speaker 9: I'll come to New York immediately. Great, I'm gonna puts
Speaker 9: you in touch with Neil and you guys decide what
Speaker 9: we're gonna do, and we're gonna do something great with that.
Speaker 2: Great. Thanks Dave.
Speaker 9: I was on cloud nine, so I immediately started thinking
Speaker 9: of ideas. And this is where it is so cool.
Speaker 9: So I so I'm writing stuff on the plane. Neil
Speaker 9: had already worked out some stuff. So when I get
Speaker 9: to New York, it all happens like this. I get
Speaker 9: off the plane, we go to where you guys shot
Speaker 9: a think in Brooklyn or someplace whatever.
Speaker 10: We get up. As soon as soon as I.
Speaker 9: Get in, I go. Neil's waiting for me. He's like, so,
Speaker 9: what do you want to do? Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 9: He goes, We've got this idea of like doing this
Speaker 9: training day thing, because you know, like you do your
Speaker 9: talk show. Oh and at this time, this is when
Speaker 9: I was leaving my talk show because I found out
Speaker 9: that because I told somebody off at Disney that they
Speaker 9: that they threatened me and said said, oh, you know,
Speaker 9: if you don't do this particular thing, we always can
Speaker 9: find someone to do your show. And I said, oh,
Speaker 9: if you can find another Wayne Brady to do the
Speaker 9: Wayne Brady Show, please be my guest.
Speaker 10: I come back in. Tony Danza's name is in the papers.
Speaker 10: But that's cool. I was like, great, I'm out.
Speaker 2: Of this bask the wrong goddamn question.
Speaker 9: I'm handling all the black people because they they they
Speaker 9: had a band, not a band, because they were gonna
Speaker 9: say we never said that. Certain guests that I'd bring up,
Speaker 9: they'd go, oh, no, you can't do that, blah blah
Speaker 9: blah blah blah blah blah. So I was like, really,
Speaker 9: I had Missy Elliot bust the rhymes if you were black,
Speaker 9: and my favorite rapper. You were on that show you
Speaker 9: show at that time, so this was great. I was
Speaker 9: like yes. So in my mind, I was like, we
Speaker 9: need to do something that will burn burn the house down.
Speaker 9: Fuck it, let's go. So Neil's idea was the training
Speaker 9: day thing, and I said, well, if we're doing training
Speaker 9: day where I'm showing Dave through the neighborhood and doing shit,
Speaker 9: then we really need to lean into the fact of
Speaker 9: when folks are like, oh, Wayne, I love you because
Speaker 9: I see your talk show where you're this you're everybody's
Speaker 9: favorite black guy. Blah bah blah blah. I said, I
Speaker 9: want to do a thing where a cop stops me.
Speaker 9: And he started singing my jingle and I wrote that
Speaker 9: and then I'm gonna go, but be behind him.
Speaker 10: And I'm gonna kill him and that'll freak.
Speaker 2: That'll rereak out.
Speaker 9: Dave and I want a microphone to come down and go, great, well,
Speaker 9: let's do that and then we'll do the other thing
Speaker 9: with an ATM and you'll get your money. So like,
Speaker 9: we'll follow the beats. I said, great, So we came
Speaker 9: up with it. So we had these two ideas and
Speaker 9: mushed them together. We shot it all night. We wrapped
Speaker 9: like six in the morning. I had to get back
Speaker 9: on a plane to go back to shoot and then
Speaker 9: I get a call like Monday. He's like, dude, this
Speaker 9: is amazing. You aren't going to be ready. I think
Speaker 9: we I think we've made history. Yes, and I knew it,
Speaker 9: like not often are you in the middle of something,
Speaker 9: but I knew it as we're doing it, because there
Speaker 9: was such desparate worlds right of Daving this and me
Speaker 9: especially of that time, of what folks thought of me
Speaker 9: and the gigs I was doing. It's like, well, wow,
Speaker 9: does that all fit together? And we weren't doing a sketch.
Speaker 9: In my mind, I was like, no, I'm really doing
Speaker 9: this shit because I'm also showing you what I do
Speaker 9: as an actor. It's like we're really doing this and
Speaker 9: the way that he shot it. It was a beautiful
Speaker 9: thing that came together. And I knew that we made
Speaker 9: TV history.
Speaker 2: I knew it. And I'm telling you this, like Rick James.
Speaker 1: This we have a problem, right, Rick James and Prince
Speaker 1: they were excited about but we were more excited about
Speaker 1: the scripts because we had the scripts way before they
Speaker 1: were shot. But I do remember we up until that
Speaker 1: point they were really excited about the racial draft. But
Speaker 1: the way they were talking about how quickly this thing
Speaker 1: came together and how and I was I was disappointed
Speaker 1: because I couldn't add music to it.
Speaker 2: Like I was like, all right, so what am I
Speaker 2: gonna do? What am I gonna do? They're like, it's done.
Speaker 1: Already, man, you just you wait till it comes on
Speaker 1: and literally okay. So I mean that was that was
Speaker 1: the beginning of what we call like the viral phase.
Speaker 1: How did your hour was perception of you or reaction?
Speaker 1: How did that change after that episode?
Speaker 9: It was instantaneous because at that point, you know, the
Speaker 9: Chappelle Show.
Speaker 10: Was everywhere all the time.
Speaker 9: It was on a loop, so everywhere you went and
Speaker 9: being on tour and going you know, to very various cities.
Speaker 9: I could see the reactions like if and right after
Speaker 9: that it was on tour, you know, like I was
Speaker 9: in Philly and New York and and Atlanta and Chicago
Speaker 9: and Troit, so I got to see firsthand black reaction
Speaker 9: to the sketch. Now, the thing is that I never
Speaker 9: wanted the narrative to be like all black people voted
Speaker 9: unanimously that Wayne Brady was corny or whatever, because that
Speaker 9: was not the case.
Speaker 10: More black people rocked with me than not.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 10: It was some fine, you couldn't say what you wanted to.
Speaker 9: But I did notice as soon as that sketch hit,
Speaker 9: this is the thing that I got, which I loathed
Speaker 9: to this day. But I know where it comes from.
Speaker 9: When like there's a particular cat comes up, Yo, Wayne, nigger,
Speaker 9: that's that dude, i'mosa slap me a home. It's like, no, no, man,
Speaker 9: it's actually it's actually it's actually it's actually choko.
Speaker 2: That's what I meant. That's what I meant. I gotta
Speaker 2: tell you something.
Speaker 10: I gotta tell you something. I didn't fuck with you before.
Speaker 2: I didn't.
Speaker 9: I didn't fuck with you, honest, I didn't fuck with
Speaker 9: you before. I was like well, thanks for telling me
Speaker 9: you're in the thoughts I did. Really you didn't digest
Speaker 9: my Okay, fine, but.
Speaker 11: Now now.
Speaker 9: Now now hug me, now, man now, And then I'm like, well,
Speaker 9: thank you. But the funny thing is, oh, so you
Speaker 9: love me now because I had hoes, made Dave take drugs,
Speaker 9: and it was yeah, I get I get it, I
Speaker 9: get it. But the thing that I loved the most
Speaker 9: about it is whatever your reaction and whatever you felt,
Speaker 9: and I feel it to this day. It's a classic sketch.
Speaker 9: It's in the Museum of Television History. I love Dave,
Speaker 9: and I thank Dave, and I thank Neil for and
Speaker 9: I thank Donnelle for coming up to me because I
Speaker 9: got a chance to do something that was so dope,
Speaker 9: and I see the effects of it today that people
Speaker 9: got to see because I was doing a Disney talk show,
Speaker 9: I was doing an a ABC talk show. I was
Speaker 9: on a Who's Line at night. I was doing those things. Now,
Speaker 9: the people that followed my act, that saw me in
Speaker 9: the comedy clubs and theaters, they knew that it's kind
Speaker 9: of like the Bob Saget thing. My act is my acting,
Speaker 9: and you tell you tell folks just because you watched
Speaker 9: whose line or your kid likes Sophia the first, don't
Speaker 9: bring your kids to my show because it's not that
Speaker 9: kind of show. So it's not that. So I felt
Speaker 9: that that began a shift where folks to your point earlier,
Speaker 9: where folks say that they really don't know me, they
Speaker 9: know the things that that I do. I feel that
Speaker 9: was a step in people going Okay, I guess there's
Speaker 9: more to the person than I thought. And if it
Speaker 9: takes an event like that to make you open your mind,
Speaker 9: then cool. I don't care where it comes from, as
Speaker 9: as it comes.
Speaker 8: Well, then I'll ask you something I thought. We're on
Speaker 8: our way to being best friends. We started with we
Speaker 8: wanted to be friends friends?
Speaker 1: Is so excited, Yes, sir, And this is an objective question,
Speaker 1: so I don't know if I can get a definitive answer.
Speaker 2: Of course, is the grass greener on the other side.
Speaker 9: Well, you know, I would not know still because and
Speaker 9: this is a larger conversation for a thing I have
Speaker 9: issues where I still feel where now it's mostly oddly enough,
Speaker 9: ironically it's white Hollywood and white studio exects. And I'll
Speaker 9: even say agents that I've had in the past and
Speaker 9: people because black is black to me, we are not
Speaker 9: a monolith. That's what Whiz is about. Come see the
Speaker 9: Whiz until June tenth. So until oh no, no, but you
Speaker 9: got a seed in general. But just know that's onory.
Speaker 9: So black is all these beautiful things. But the problem
Speaker 9: is that when we call each other out and we go, oh,
Speaker 9: you're not black of this or your experiences in this,
Speaker 9: there are people on the other side listening, like studio
Speaker 9: execs and like other people that they're oh, so that's
Speaker 9: not black enough.
Speaker 2: So what is black?
Speaker 9: Jamal tell me what is black? And he's like, well,
Speaker 9: I don't mess with that, do But I think that dude, okay, great.
Speaker 9: So my problem on the grass side isn't even with
Speaker 9: my own folks. I love my folks, and my folks
Speaker 9: mess with me. It's how I am perceived. I think
Speaker 9: even for roles even in series that I know that
Speaker 9: I would kill it, I am by by the gatekeeper
Speaker 9: who maybe the show creators black, but the studio head
Speaker 9: is like, oh no, I wouldn't consider Wayne Brady for that.
Speaker 2: Are there three roles that got away?
Speaker 10: Three roles that got away?
Speaker 2: Three? Is there one? What role? Almost?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 9: I have a few that I have almost had it
Speaker 9: that that I'm not gonna blame on Race because maybe
Speaker 9: I wasn't the dude on that day. But I was
Speaker 9: offered some a couple of things, and then offers got oh,
Speaker 9: because but the one that sticks out in my head
Speaker 9: that and I feel it We're going so long, so
Speaker 9: I'm trying to make things quol Okay, this is not
Speaker 9: a great movie by any stretch, but it was one
Speaker 9: of the ones. It was around the Chappelle things that
Speaker 9: I was like, I'm gonna show folks what the fuck
Speaker 9: I do. It was snakes on the plane and here's
Speaker 9: the thing. It was for the role of the rapper. Now,
Speaker 9: now the dude that got it, that's my boy Flex.
Speaker 9: I did a movie with Flex. I love Flex. So
Speaker 9: if I'm happy that, yeah, she said. I was like
Speaker 9: doing another Flex, So if anybody got it, I was
Speaker 9: happy because Flex, And yes, that's fam But what I
Speaker 9: did and my audition was so genius. I have to say,
Speaker 9: this ship was genius. It was for the rapper. I
Speaker 9: looked at the script like, uh, not a great script.
Speaker 9: The concept you said. I was like, screw it, I'm
Speaker 9: going to go in. So I hired two actors to
Speaker 9: play my bodyguards, and I hired a couple of girls
Speaker 9: to be my video vixens, and I for the audition.
Speaker 9: For the audition, I'll never forget, I drove in traffic.
Speaker 9: Like if any of you were actors back in the
Speaker 9: day in la if you had to go over to
Speaker 9: Santa Monica to audition for this day, it was horrible
Speaker 9: getting there. I spent about an hour and an hour
Speaker 9: and a half in traffic, and I came up with
Speaker 9: the idea. I said, I could do this script, but
Speaker 9: what I'm gonna do is I'm going to be this
Speaker 9: dude and then I'm in a freestyle what's in I'm
Speaker 9: gonna freestyle the story of snakes on a plane, and
Speaker 9: then I'm gonna walk out. So I get there. I
Speaker 9: timed it so that my time was I don't even
Speaker 9: know what time. My time was like four thirty. I
Speaker 9: now keep keep in mind, I'm in full like I'm
Speaker 9: in my Adidas thing. I've got chains, the whole nine,
Speaker 9: I've got these rings, my shit to the side. I
Speaker 9: walk in and the dude, the one of the bodyguards,
Speaker 9: has a boombox. Were the track I walk in the
Speaker 9: casting office click boom booms, boom boots, the boom booms.
Speaker 2: Walking.
Speaker 9: There are actors waiting. I walk right through. I walk
Speaker 9: right through into the wait. Wait, you can't get a click. Hey,
Speaker 9: how you doing? Oh wait is it yo? I'm not waiting.
Speaker 9: I'm gonna read that shit. Blah blah blah. Went on
Speaker 9: this whole thing about that script, like that script. Look,
Speaker 9: he hit the thing and I did all. I can't
Speaker 9: even remember what I said, but it was based basically,
Speaker 9: because you want me to explain. I got snakes on
Speaker 9: a plane that's up in their legs and the contempt,
Speaker 9: and we got this dude, want to sit next guy?
Speaker 9: And Sam Sam said, fuck these planes.
Speaker 2: You know who I am. But I come and I
Speaker 2: do this about a da da dad.
Speaker 10: And when it's finished, like.
Speaker 9: I I cleared their desk of these papy flash dance
Speaker 9: of like the.
Speaker 12: Good shots in the scripts.
Speaker 10: I was like, because clear shit.
Speaker 2: And I through the script because I reading this ship.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 9: Walked right back out, walked out of the casting office,
Speaker 9: went to my car and I was.
Speaker 10: Like, oh, hey, thanks, here's fifty bucks. Thank you so much.
Speaker 10: You guys were great.
Speaker 9: I'm get as I'm driving home by the time I
Speaker 9: get home, I have on my next tail.
Speaker 2: I had a cease and desist.
Speaker 9: I had a message from my agent call nine one
Speaker 9: one oh. They wanted to offer me the role. They
Speaker 9: really liked you for this role is. I was like,
Speaker 9: I did it. It actually worked, and it was that
Speaker 9: thing of I've got a name. You see me on
Speaker 9: TV every day. Of these things, I'm still begging and
Speaker 9: fighting people to get into rooms, and I'm even trying
Speaker 9: to get into this whack movie. So at least I
Speaker 9: was like, at least I know that I'm good, and
Speaker 9: this thing happened, and now it pays off. Now here's
Speaker 9: where I'm gonna be careful because all I know is
Speaker 9: what I was told by my reps at this time.
Speaker 10: So they get a call.
Speaker 9: I'm not gonna name who the person was, but somebody
Speaker 9: who was in a position of power at the studio. When,
Speaker 9: of course these names are being run up the flag pole,
Speaker 9: Wayne Brady's name comes up, and this white person says,
Speaker 9: oh no, uh uh, not Wayne Brady. He's not black enough. No,
Speaker 9: he's not black black, He's not black black black black.
Speaker 2: There's always an expert air quotes, Yeah.
Speaker 9: But I love how he hit black black, so I'm
Speaker 9: not black black, but so so then flex gets it
Speaker 9: and that's cool. And I found out this information because
Speaker 9: I guess somebody at some point in the chain felt
Speaker 9: so They're like, I just want want you to know.
Speaker 9: So I was like, okay, So that one stung me,
Speaker 9: not because I didn't do a great job, but because
Speaker 9: I knew it would be something that i'd be facing
Speaker 9: and I'm not gonna boohoo because it's something that just
Speaker 9: as black actors, black people, black, black lawyers, black, we
Speaker 9: face a certain thing. The naivete that I had up
Speaker 9: until that point was, well, surely if I'm really dope
Speaker 9: and you've seen me do things and I'm a great actor,
Speaker 9: I do Broadway I do, surely I should.
Speaker 2: Get the job.
Speaker 9: Like Nope, because I don't think that you are based
Speaker 9: on blah blah blah. I was like, oh, I'm an adult, now,
Speaker 9: fuck it, I get it. So so that helped me understand. So,
Speaker 9: so that's that's the one that got away that I
Speaker 9: was disappointed in, not because of I didn't get it,
Speaker 9: but because I was like.
Speaker 2: Man, you're being judged.
Speaker 9: If I'm dealing dealing with this, then that sucks for
Speaker 9: the actor. Who is coming up and doesn't have any
Speaker 9: cloud or doesn't have who's a thing to fall back on.
Speaker 9: So so that made me very sympathetic to that.
Speaker 1: Damn man, I'm sorry you didn't get that, and it's
Speaker 1: this could have been.
Speaker 2: That movie was terrible though, right, I mean it was a.
Speaker 13: Commercial yeah, yeah, because it was actually one of the
Speaker 13: first movies I remember like that really went viral, Like yeah,
Speaker 13: the viral because the campaign that later later because they
Speaker 13: was like people.
Speaker 9: Right, I don't even say right, like, am I right?
Speaker 9: Thinking that Sam was already doing this thing? Of course
Speaker 9: he was Sam Jackson. But I feel like that line
Speaker 9: in that membost kind of made the mythos of Sam
Speaker 9: Jackson where in every movie motherfucker. That that and and
Speaker 9: the Tarantin Tino joint, so like those are the two
Speaker 9: that cemented Sam as that dude.
Speaker 1: You know what, I made a promise on that episode.
Speaker 1: Probably the one complaint that people have on me is
Speaker 1: sometimes my non committal and not by choice. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying noncommittal like as an I don't consciously choose to
Speaker 1: not commit. But of course even I can acknowledge that
Speaker 1: perhaps my love of work sometimes and maybe purposely keeps
Speaker 1: me from having to interact with people. I know that
Speaker 1: sounds mean to say, but I don't mean it in
Speaker 1: a such a blatant way. But yeah, I'll acknowledge that
Speaker 1: oftentimes when people are addicted to work and do long
Speaker 1: work hours, it's often because.
Speaker 2: Socially they lack in other area.
Speaker 1: So, you know, I said I would stay in contact
Speaker 1: and start a friendship with Wayne Brady. I have sort
Speaker 1: of dropped the ball on my end. We text occasionally,
Speaker 1: but yeah, we got to do that dinner. I just
Speaker 1: think it's important for birds of a feather to flock together.
Speaker 2: And if we take.
Speaker 1: Time out, I think we will all notice that we
Speaker 1: all have creative commonality, social anxiety commonality, a lot of
Speaker 1: things in common, and if we sort of just took
Speaker 1: time out to explore those things and share stories with
Speaker 1: each other, war stories or common stories with each other,
Speaker 1: we'll be better off.
Speaker 2: So but yeah, Wayne, I love that guy. Man.
Speaker 1: You know it's beautiful cat And I will hold up
Speaker 1: my end of the bargain.
Speaker 2: I'm saying this to the world, all right.
Speaker 1: So here is Kathy Hughes, who pioneered the quiet store
Speaker 1: format from her own record collection. Keep Mad that like
Speaker 1: you run a radio station, you got to use your
Speaker 1: own records to keep it afloat. So part one of
Speaker 1: our interview, and this is from twenty twenty three, Kathy,
Speaker 1: you shares a story and this is important history, so listen.
Speaker 14: But one of the things that I've been proud is of,
Speaker 14: quite frankly, was the assistance that we did provide for
Speaker 14: the do wop groups and for the oldies but goodies
Speaker 14: as they call them, because so many of these individuals
Speaker 14: were starving. Okay, all right, I mean they loved the art,
Speaker 14: they loved the music, but they couldn't work any longer,
Speaker 14: and disco just killed so many of them off. And
Speaker 14: it was not until we, during that same era, came
Speaker 14: up with this concept of you know, basically oldies, but
Speaker 14: we you know, put more sophisticated titles to it dealt contemporary.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you help us here in like nostalgia.
Speaker 4: Or the urban ac category.
Speaker 7: I mean, I think she's saying that they created the
Speaker 7: urban acne category.
Speaker 14: No question, okay, And it was to really provide platforms
Speaker 14: we have this had this event for years until it
Speaker 14: became too big, quite frankly for us to handle. I
Speaker 14: admired the fact that Philadelphia still is able to do.
Speaker 14: There's called the Stone Soul Picnic, and the Stone Soul
Speaker 14: Picnic was only these old groups that you know, the
Speaker 14: Ohio players, Okay, all these groups that had been dormant. Okay,
Speaker 14: nobody was buying them, nobody was sampling them, okay, nobody
Speaker 14: was recognizing them for their their brilliance, and uh, we
Speaker 14: started resurrecting them, Okay. And I kind of stumbled into
Speaker 14: it after I had created the Quiet Storm, because the
Speaker 14: Quiet Storm was love music, love was ballots, and I
Speaker 14: had to really reach back, all right to eras where
Speaker 14: lyrics told stories.
Speaker 4: You gotta tell that story. You need to tell the
Speaker 4: Quiet Storm story.
Speaker 2: Where's the name from?
Speaker 1: Explain to us who Melvin Lindsay was and how you
Speaker 1: guys invented. You guys basically helped triple the population.
Speaker 14: And let me tell you that. The reason, the main
Speaker 14: reason I want to write my book is because when
Speaker 14: w h U R celebrated as anniversary, there were several
Speaker 14: inaccurate accountings of the Quiet Storm. Number One, Melvin Lindsay
Speaker 14: was not the originator. Melvin Lindsay was my third era
Speaker 14: whoa not my first? He was my third. Okay, whoa
Speaker 14: all right. First was a kid named Don Roberts, who
Speaker 14: broke my heart because he was the most talented of
Speaker 14: my first three. But he was good looking, and he
Speaker 14: said to me, I got a face for television, missus
Speaker 14: linccoln's okay, because I wasn't even married to do even,
Speaker 14: He said, I don't want to be in at a
Speaker 14: radio studio where no one could see me. Sure not
Speaker 14: went on to be a big time anchor in Baltimore, Maryland. Okay,
Speaker 14: Don robert My first. My second was a young man
Speaker 14: named Jack Schuler. Jack Schuler was Melvin Lindsey's best friend.
Speaker 14: Melvin Lindsey was my intern that I paid out of
Speaker 14: my pocket. He picked my son up from school. He
Speaker 14: came because Howard said that they didn't have a budget
Speaker 14: for interns and I needed some of the students to
Speaker 14: actually be in a position to earn some money. So
Speaker 14: Jack Schuler was vomiting literally after each show or doing
Speaker 14: the show. He was so nervous, he was trembling. He said,
Speaker 14: please don't make me do this no more, missliggoans. Please
Speaker 14: please Melvin to do it, Melvin to do it. So
Speaker 14: Melvin told me he would do the Quiet Storm if
Speaker 14: I didn't make him open the microphone. So if there
Speaker 14: were any early tapes that you're looking for it, yeah,
Speaker 14: he would say good evening and welcome to the Quiet Storm.
Speaker 14: The next time you would hear Melvin Lindsay's voice, he
Speaker 14: would say, thank you for listening to the Quiet Storm.
Speaker 14: I'm Melvin Lindsay. There was nothing in between from Melbourne
Speaker 14: except the music. Great taste in music. It was my
Speaker 14: private music collection. And I started it out on Saturday
Speaker 14: night and then on Sunday, and then I decided that
Speaker 14: it was the conception of the Quiet Storm was for
Speaker 14: a senior to be chosen by the faculty, two seniors
Speaker 14: in fact, one for each semester, to give them a
Speaker 14: commercial experience on their resume. Okay. It was never for
Speaker 14: one person to host the show. It was never supprised.
Speaker 14: It was supposed to be a rotation opportunity. As I
Speaker 14: came to it was Milton Allen who was married to
Speaker 14: Pat Prescott in La Sheila Eldritch and Franklin. Those were
Speaker 14: my three, Okay, students that I was able to rotate. Okay,
Speaker 14: nobody else rotated. Okay. People came and got stuck, including Melbourne. Well,
Speaker 14: Melvin did so good that kys Kiss told him that
Speaker 14: they would give him an opportunity if he would come
Speaker 14: and be on the air at Kiss. So Melvin walks
Speaker 14: into my office. Now, this is like I told you,
Speaker 14: he said Jim Tern. I had literally supported him. Okay.
Speaker 14: His parents would say to him, well, you need to
Speaker 14: ask miss Liggans first before you do so. And so
Speaker 14: I had picked his classes for him the whole nine years.
Speaker 14: He tells me on a Friday that he's got an
Speaker 14: offer and he's going to work at Kiss. And I'm
Speaker 14: thinking he's somebody after graduation and all this. And I said,
Speaker 14: when he said Monday, I was so irate. I told
Speaker 14: him get out of my office. Hey, yes, So Dewey Hughes,
Speaker 14: who at that time had fourteen Emmys for his productions
Speaker 14: at the r City NBC fourteen Emmy's Okay, he created
Speaker 14: youth News, he created music videos as Quiets as Kep. Anyway,
Speaker 14: Dewey comes to my office and he tells me that
Speaker 14: it's a setup, that NBC just wanted Melvin off the air,
Speaker 14: and that they had him in the mill room and
Speaker 14: would I please bring him back? And I said bring
Speaker 14: him back, and he said, let me take you to
Speaker 14: dinner and talk to you about this well ultimately doing,
Speaker 14: and I got married and Melvin came back. Okay. And
Speaker 14: years later, okay there and years later, I'll never well forget.
Speaker 14: We were at this big affair and Melvin was being
Speaker 14: honored and I was in the audience with Dewey and
Speaker 14: Melvin didn't acknowledge the fact that I was even in
Speaker 14: the audience. And Dewey had torn his achilles, attended to
Speaker 14: play a basketball, he was crutches. He went up to
Speaker 14: the head table. He grabbed Melvin Lindsey around the neck
Speaker 14: and he said.
Speaker 15: I'm married because of you, Okay, and then we went
Speaker 15: back to the microphone.
Speaker 14: Well, I'm so sorry. I didn't know she was here.
Speaker 14: He grabbed her right in front of the whole room.
Speaker 14: It was hilarious because that's how Juey and I ended
Speaker 14: up getting married. The reason my name is Kathy Hughes.
Speaker 1: How did you get Melvin out of his shyness? Because
Speaker 1: I didn't know Melvin Lindsay as a radio personality. I
Speaker 1: knew him as when we first got cable. I knew
Speaker 1: Melvin Lindsay as a news personality. So he was like
Speaker 1: Brian Gumbele is, and I'm like, wait a minute, you
Speaker 1: were a quiet storm guy in so.
Speaker 4: Sexy and I was too young to even know it all.
Speaker 2: Yes, I was like, so how did you?
Speaker 3: And did the song come afore the show?
Speaker 14: I cannot take full credit for getting him out of
Speaker 14: his shell. Number one, Melvin was introduced to the gay
Speaker 14: lifestyle by I also had the distinction of hiring the
Speaker 14: first openly gay air personality, Robin Holden in d C.
Speaker 14: Robin Holden, I had to talk in code back in
Speaker 14: those days. She said, the children will be meeting this
Speaker 14: Friday night and so and so she was talking code
Speaker 14: and Howard University was up my rear end. Okay, are
Speaker 14: you out of your mind?
Speaker 2: Conservative?
Speaker 14: Okay, executive, conservative, homophobic, all of that, okay, and uh.
Speaker 14: At the same time, I'm getting all these rave reviews
Speaker 14: from the UH because d C, as quiet as it's kept, okay,
Speaker 14: is a big gay and lesbian sick all right, okay,
Speaker 14: all right, okay for many many decades and so okay.
Speaker 14: So Robin was, and Robin was an incredible air personality,
Speaker 14: incredible air personality, all right. And she helped Melvin come
Speaker 14: out of his show because I think that she made
Speaker 14: him comfortable with his sexuality. She made him feel that
Speaker 14: it was okay because Melvin was very closeted at that time,
Speaker 14: which contributed to his okay. He was engaged. I bought
Speaker 14: the engagement ring for a young lady and she left
Speaker 14: him because she recognized that he wasn't comfortable with her.
Speaker 14: But during those times when Melvin was quiet and withdrawn
Speaker 14: and went to open the microphone, his show was almost
Speaker 14: like a black musac, and so it grew in popularity.
Speaker 14: We didn't have any commercials because it was a student shift, okay,
Speaker 14: so they popular. We became number one in a matter
Speaker 14: of like eighteen months. We went from no listeners to
Speaker 14: being number one in the market because Melvin wouldn't open
Speaker 14: the mic and I had no commercials, so it was
Speaker 14: NonStop love music. Wow, Okay, okay, okay music the theme
Speaker 14: of Philly International. There's a message in our music. Okay.
Speaker 14: We believed in that, and the message was one of
Speaker 14: love and affection and attention. And so Melvin blossomed and
Speaker 14: went on to become an incredible personality, incredible, He grew
Speaker 14: into himself, He got comfortable with himself. Deanna Williams was
Speaker 14: very much a part of his growth and development, okay,
Speaker 14: because he realized that he could be loved regardless of, okay,
Speaker 14: his sexuality. His sexual preference had no bearing on his talent.
Speaker 14: And he really, really really blossomed and became this incredible,
Speaker 14: credible television and radio personality and died too soon, too early,
Speaker 14: and so age took him away, way too soon. But
Speaker 14: he was he.
Speaker 4: Was our first right like I felt like he was
Speaker 4: our first major.
Speaker 8: He was.
Speaker 14: It just it just hurts me to my heart to
Speaker 14: think what he could have been, what he could have
Speaker 14: done had he not been discriminated against, had he not
Speaker 14: been unable to be who he really was, because talent
Speaker 14: personality galore, and once it started coming out, it was
Speaker 14: only out for a short period of time and then
Speaker 14: he was gone.
Speaker 4: He still needs to be in the Radio Hall of
Speaker 4: Fame somewhere.
Speaker 14: Absolutely absolutely deserved it. He became my most popular, but
Speaker 14: the most popular of all the hosts of the cliss
Speaker 14: Starm was Von Harper in New York. Von Harper, let's.
Speaker 7: Talk about the franchising, the franchising of the Quiet Storm.
Speaker 4: Then, yes, I'm sorry, I don't mean interrupt you.
Speaker 14: Howard wouldn't let me franchise it. They wouldn't let me
Speaker 14: license it. And at one time it was on there
Speaker 14: were stations that actually called themselves the Quiet Storm station.
Speaker 14: Howard could have supported not just the School of Communications, Uh,
Speaker 14: they could have supported the entire school off just licensing.
Speaker 16: Yes, sounds like.
Speaker 14: The reason I left Howard University was I realized that
Speaker 14: they had taken a billion dollar baby that God had
Speaker 14: given me, you know, uh, the motherhood of Okay, that
Speaker 14: I had birthed a billion dollar baby for Howard University,
Speaker 14: and they had thrown the baby the bath water and
Speaker 14: me out of window. And so I resigned. Because I
Speaker 14: resigned telling Doctor Cheek that I did not want to
Speaker 14: miss the next billion dollar baby that God might impregnate
Speaker 14: me with. I would not allow anyone else to be
Speaker 14: in charge of my destiny. And that's what Radio one became.
Speaker 14: They became that Okay, that that baby that God once
Speaker 14: again blessed me with. Because before Howard they persecuted me.
Speaker 14: They punished me for the Quiet Storm.
Speaker 2: Really why terribly.
Speaker 14: I was very very very provocative in my days at
Speaker 14: Howard University. I stood up for the students. I you know,
Speaker 14: opened doors, and it wasn't Howard's fault HBCUs only you know,
Speaker 14: recently realized that education is a business. You have to
Speaker 14: make money at it, Okay, and all this to be announced, books,
Speaker 14: not being in classrooms, not being a signed, having to
Speaker 14: stand in line for hours to register, Okay, all of.
Speaker 12: That, that's that's part of the experience.
Speaker 14: But Howard was very good to me. Howard sent me
Speaker 14: to Harvard University for six weeks to learn broadcast management
Speaker 14: because when they told me they wanted to put me
Speaker 14: in the job as general manager first as sales manager.
Speaker 14: I said, I don't know how to do it, and
Speaker 14: they said, well, you know, you know some of the basics,
Speaker 14: and they paid my tuition to the business school at
Speaker 14: that time they had a six week course called broadcast Management.
Speaker 11: Wow.
Speaker 14: And then they paid my way for a two week
Speaker 14: course at the University of Chicago called psychographic programming. That's
Speaker 14: when I came back and created the Quiet Storm. So
Speaker 14: both times, so you know, they say that, you know,
Speaker 14: I was their best student that never matriculated at Howard University.
Speaker 14: But Howard invested in me quite seriously. I would not be,
Speaker 14: you know, professionally who I am or what I do
Speaker 14: now were it not for university. And so it was
Speaker 14: easy for me. When I found out that the School
Speaker 14: of Communications was, you know, in a danger of not
Speaker 14: losing his accreditation and perhaps having to close that, I
Speaker 14: was like, oh, no, that cannot happen. I can't allow
Speaker 14: that to happen, because they produced me. Okay, even though
Speaker 14: I was never a student. Okay, Howard University produced who
Speaker 14: I am professionally. You know, I think that that over
Speaker 14: the years that some of the things that I wanted
Speaker 14: for the students and for the university have come to fruition,
Speaker 14: and for that I'm eternally grateful.
Speaker 1: So the Quiet Storm. I lived in Philadelphia and we
Speaker 1: were lucky to have the legendary Doug Henderson. Like even
Speaker 1: when you talk about Doug Henderson and your voice goes
Speaker 1: down a couple of octaves. So we had Doug Henderson
Speaker 1: back in WDASFM one oh five point three. I believe
Speaker 1: he also came to Did he come to Power ninety nine.
Speaker 1: I'm not too sure I think he did, but yeah,
Speaker 1: the Quiet Storm format. When I was young, I didn't
Speaker 1: appreciate it. But you know, after they got rid of
Speaker 1: the Quiet Storm format in nineteen ninety seven, and suddenly
Speaker 1: I became the Quiet Storm format. So many of you
Speaker 1: have heard me many times sort of name drop and
Speaker 1: talk about all my illustrious friends that I make playlists for.
Speaker 2: This February is no different.
Speaker 1: Once a month I give over four hundred people my
Speaker 1: mixes because music calms the soul sometimes and so yeah,
Speaker 1: now I'm the guy that makes quiet Storm mixes. But
Speaker 1: back in the day, you needed a platform that could
Speaker 1: play slow songs all the time. If not, then you
Speaker 1: had to take time out to make like a three
Speaker 1: hour mixtape. So that way, when your loved one comes.
Speaker 2: By the spot, you got a soundtrack. And that's important.
Speaker 2: That's how we all got here.
Speaker 1: So all right, So next up is the legendary Lady B,
Speaker 1: the first woman on a rap record.
Speaker 2: She released a single to the beat Y'all back in
Speaker 2: the day. A little history for you.
Speaker 1: She spoke about the power of black radio in Philadelphia
Speaker 1: and how the legendary Mary Mason. If you're from the
Speaker 1: Tri State area, especially Philly, you know the name Mary Mason.
Speaker 2: Mary Mason shaped Lady B on air and off air.
Speaker 1: And there's also a great story about Nancy Reagan in
Speaker 1: there too, all right, enjoy for our listeners listening. She
Speaker 1: may h a t w h A T was an
Speaker 1: AM radio station. I knew as a kid. I knew
Speaker 1: it because like my I mean the way that people
Speaker 1: always listening to talk radio. Now, we had a woman
Speaker 1: by the name of Mary Mason in Philadelphia, who I
Speaker 1: owe grand mom, And I mean, I don't know how
Speaker 1: typical it was for a black woman to have her
Speaker 1: own platform to that of like, uh, I mean, who's
Speaker 1: just can tell you something.
Speaker 12: In terms of like Alex what's his name?
Speaker 16: Like, let me let me just share one Mary Mason stories.
Speaker 2: Please.
Speaker 16: Yeah, I'm eighteen years old and Nancy Reagan walks into
Speaker 16: the lobby the Secret Service with her blah blah blah.
Speaker 16: She just doesn't pop up right, dude, stop by to
Speaker 16: say how to marry? This is how politically strong she
Speaker 16: was was. And she told me, and I quote, tell
Speaker 16: that bitch.
Speaker 14: I don't want what.
Speaker 16: I'm trying to get.
Speaker 4: Carter and off.
Speaker 16: Here I am so here, I am, y'all eighteen Like
Speaker 16: how do I.
Speaker 4: Oh, she told you to tell that bitch.
Speaker 16: Yes, So I gotta go out here and look this
Speaker 16: lady in her face and like, ma'am, I'm so sorry,
Speaker 16: but miss Mason, it's a flattered that you stopped by, however,
Speaker 16: her schedule, you know, I had to go through the
Speaker 16: whole shebang. But that's what she told me. I've heard
Speaker 16: her hurst at the Mayor and hang up on them
Speaker 16: about her Philly's tickets like she Miss Mason was to be.
Speaker 16: She is the reason I have the backbone and that
Speaker 16: my shoulders are back. And I've never let anyone talk
Speaker 16: to me or or or try to get over at
Speaker 16: least not knowing me. I mean they ended up a
Speaker 16: couple of times anyway, but they had to sneak and
Speaker 16: do it. No, I've never allowed anyone to be blatantly
Speaker 16: disrespectful in my face.
Speaker 4: If you will, Oh, I'm gonna talk about that to me.
Speaker 1: She was like the original Russe Limbaugh like she's very
Speaker 1: controversial also, like I know she supported like Frank brazil
Speaker 1: Or she cried.
Speaker 16: He was a politician on the radio. Is what Mary was.
Speaker 16: And I will have to say that she walked her walk.
Speaker 16: She was dedicated to this community of people. She got
Speaker 16: on the air and talked about things that other people
Speaker 16: wouldn't even touch and called people on it like she
Speaker 16: she she may she I witnessed this woman changed lives.
Speaker 12: Yeah, and she was something.
Speaker 4: And then you took some baton and now you do
Speaker 4: the same thing well.
Speaker 16: Later, because I mean I didn't take the time from
Speaker 16: her then, because we take it. I mean she when
Speaker 16: she passed that the time.
Speaker 5: To me, I was doing hip hop.
Speaker 16: I was crazy. We was having fun.
Speaker 5: Y'all was having fun.
Speaker 16: You just said it. I was playing all that good
Speaker 16: stuff with y'all. I just came. I just came into
Speaker 16: my Mary Made vibe right now, That's.
Speaker 1: What it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: So I remember like discovering your show around like late
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty early eighty one, you know, every Saturday afternoon whatever,
Speaker 1: we my brother and I would just record.
Speaker 16: Like everybody says, I remind them of Paul's record. Paul's record.
Speaker 16: Whenever I see Banie Sgual, he goes, Paul's record.
Speaker 1: All right, No oh, you're world famous, fat get your part,
Speaker 1: press your pause, press your pause button. But to have
Speaker 1: a radio show, and you were on for like two
Speaker 1: to three hours, But I'm thinking, like back in eighty one,
Speaker 1: was there even two to three hours worth of quality
Speaker 1: hip hop to play?
Speaker 16: I like to explain it like this. I laugh every
Speaker 16: time I hear the term digging into crates and that's
Speaker 16: crates with an S. Because when I started playing hip
Speaker 16: hop on the radio, there was a crate one crate.
Speaker 4: Was it full?
Speaker 16: It was full to the max. I mean not everything was.
Speaker 16: I was picky. It was was good enough to play right.
Speaker 16: You know when when we first started, when we realized
Speaker 16: we could take what we were doing in our backyards,
Speaker 16: in our neighborhoods and our courtyards and put it on
Speaker 16: wax and that you know, this was possible. Everybody tried
Speaker 16: to do it, whether they could rap or not, but
Speaker 16: I was very I think the thing that number one,
Speaker 16: you have to understand when hip hop started, it was
Speaker 16: its purpose was to stop a terrible disease in the
Speaker 16: black community that was full of violence and gang war,
Speaker 16: and it was it was crazy. It was getting a
Speaker 16: little out of hand with it. So hip hop gave
Speaker 16: I mean, I'm sure if you spoke to an Africa
Speaker 16: band body he would co sign this. But hip hop
Speaker 16: gave us away to battle each other and represent our neighborhoods,
Speaker 16: not with knives and guns, but with turntables and microphones.
Speaker 16: And it became this thing like you had to wrap
Speaker 16: your nameighborhood with your rhymes and God forbid. If you've
Speaker 16: been to anybody else's rhyme, you had to come with
Speaker 16: your shit and it had to be real and it
Speaker 16: had to be raw, and it had to be authentic.
Speaker 16: And everybody couldn't do that. Some people just thought they
Speaker 16: could just get out a book of words that rhyme
Speaker 16: and put some shit together and hand it to me
Speaker 16: to get on the air, and that that happened a lot.
Speaker 16: But if I couldn't understand number one, what you were saying,
Speaker 16: like I no disrespect to what people like these kids
Speaker 16: like today or whatever, but mumble rat was it just
Speaker 16: makes my skin call because for me, a good MC
Speaker 16: is very articulate. You can hear everywhere. I don't care
Speaker 16: what if he's saying something wrong, disrespectful. I have to
Speaker 16: hear what you're saying or why did you waste that
Speaker 16: banging ass beat? Like why are you here?
Speaker 7: B do you remember like your first show and the
Speaker 7: records that you had to play out of the crate,
Speaker 7: like all right, this is my first show.
Speaker 4: I gotta get so well, you have.
Speaker 16: To understand then we kind of got, you know, we didn't,
Speaker 16: you know? I laugh when I see Jeff and Cash
Speaker 16: and and Richard Dean and them Casts and U Quest
Speaker 16: and and Biz. May he Rest in peace, go deep
Speaker 16: into this this DJ thing. But you have to understand
Speaker 16: when hip hop start is when we first learned how
Speaker 16: to cut and scratch a brake beat. So that took
Speaker 16: up so much time. And not only am I gonna
Speaker 16: just take the train, but I'm gonna take the train
Speaker 16: for about good twelve fourteen damn minutes, so that with
Speaker 16: a lot of.
Speaker 5: Time on the road, you know what I mean?
Speaker 16: Yeah, you go, You're gonna cut that joke, what sucker
Speaker 16: mcs And then you got the flip side, Then you
Speaker 16: got the instrumental that you could cut in with that joint.
Speaker 16: Then you got another DJ. At one time on Power
Speaker 16: ninety nine, it was so dope, me and Jeff Mills.
Speaker 16: May he Rest in peace. Had he got two turns, Yes,
Speaker 16: he had two turntables on his side. I had two
Speaker 16: turned turnative tables, and we had a reel to reel,
Speaker 16: So we have six elements coing in. I'm cutting in
Speaker 16: other songs in the minute people it was blowing People's
Speaker 16: make Blueyna cross my mind.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna just have a real dumb moment because I
Speaker 7: know I'm not alone in this I don't think it
Speaker 7: ever crossed my mind.
Speaker 4: And as you were literally mixing records like that.
Speaker 16: I remember run And and Dal coming to my studio
Speaker 16: for the first time. They're like, so you're gonna mix
Speaker 16: the record and interview us. I was like, yeah, right.
Speaker 2: You were more than just a personality. It's like I
Speaker 2: was a big.
Speaker 16: Girl on a radio and I still am.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I was gonna say that.
Speaker 1: You also, you guys would at least on like the
Speaker 1: like the midpoint or at least the last hour of
Speaker 1: the w H a t portion of your show, like
Speaker 1: you were also playing like craft work, like what would
Speaker 1: become like b boy, you know, like it's time.
Speaker 16: Well, you have to understand, break dancing was a major
Speaker 16: element for us in the beginning of this thing, So
Speaker 16: if you couldn't break to it, it definitely didn't get played.
Speaker 16: And they demanded it because you have to understand, I
Speaker 16: am taping the only hip hop y'all gonna have for
Speaker 16: the week, and then y'all with Jones until the next week.
Speaker 16: Like I was the only one with PEPSI understand, I'm
Speaker 16: the only only place you can get it. People were
Speaker 16: driving you canna ask Chuck d they would drive down
Speaker 16: to Philly to take my show. Yes, so it was
Speaker 16: like that. It was it was like this thing and
Speaker 16: everybody had to have it, and it was just so
Speaker 16: much freaking fun doing and it.
Speaker 7: Was so And Mary Mason never said she never pulled
Speaker 7: your coat on anything, not a record.
Speaker 4: Nobody ever said, listen, I can't be playing that no more.
Speaker 4: It was never.
Speaker 2: We won't even.
Speaker 12: Mention the discombobulated boobulator.
Speaker 16: No, I'd love this combined bulat you love that anymore?
Speaker 1: That all right, I'll get the nineteen eighty six in
Speaker 1: a second. Hang on, we had a small controversy with
Speaker 1: mc breeze discoboblaated boobulator. But wait before before I go on,
Speaker 1: there's two things I gotta ask you. One, how often
Speaker 1: did you record your own shows on w h A t.
Speaker 4: He wants them?
Speaker 16: I know everybody tap money, every DJ has asked me
Speaker 16: this question. So in my possession, I have not gone
Speaker 16: through them. I do have some real deriels, but as
Speaker 16: far as cassettes, people have been given them to me
Speaker 16: over the years. I meet a listener on the air
Speaker 16: and said that they used to take me and they
Speaker 16: still have them. As a matter of fact, I've been
Speaker 16: asking people to give them back or I can make
Speaker 16: a copy off them of them and give them back
Speaker 16: to them because and I didn't even have a cassette
Speaker 16: player in the house, but my niece and nephews brought
Speaker 16: me one last year. So it's fly little joint. It
Speaker 16: looks like a boombox, but its Bluetooth compatible.
Speaker 14: Is so cute.
Speaker 16: But I have was sitting there here on my desk,
Speaker 16: but I now want to get the cassettes so I
Speaker 16: can hear them. But I do have, like I do
Speaker 16: have some of those real to reels.
Speaker 12: You got to convert those in like I have to.
Speaker 16: I know I'm getting to the point. COVID did allow
Speaker 16: me to do a lot of purging, so there is
Speaker 16: a little order to my madness. So I'm getting it
Speaker 16: all together. At least I know tapes are here, real
Speaker 16: de reels are here, and now I just got to
Speaker 16: dive into them.
Speaker 1: Okay, I gotta ask a question. There's a record you
Speaker 1: used to always play and I thought it was a
Speaker 1: Philly record, and I'm just finding out that this guy
Speaker 1: is from New York. But do you know the whereabouts
Speaker 1: of our sela rock a ka the mic stro are.
Speaker 16: You ready, hold your hat, hold your hand, because you're
Speaker 16: not gonna believe it is right here. Hit me Sunday night.
Speaker 16: My show was sold out, by the way at the
Speaker 16: Dell Music Center. It's been sold.
Speaker 7: It is.
Speaker 16: It's my fortieth anniversary in radio and hitting the stage
Speaker 16: for the very first time at the Dell. We'll see
Speaker 16: everybody around the nation give you because I have to
Speaker 16: fulfill my obligation and set you on a gutification.
Speaker 5: But you don't need no vessel.
Speaker 12: You found our sela rock the micstro Yo.
Speaker 16: He's so hyped about doing this show that me and
Speaker 16: Charlie Mack are like, I don't know how old is now?
Speaker 16: And I'm like, does anybody told me he's gonna have
Speaker 16: to put a track behind him because he's not going
Speaker 16: to make her do all the lyrics.
Speaker 1: Like, there's no way me and Turk will drive down
Speaker 1: and do the lyrics for him.
Speaker 12: Yo, this is nine d expecting.
Speaker 16: Sunday night at the Dell. B there or B Square?
Speaker 12: Who else?
Speaker 16: Oh, you don't want to know you ain't ready. I've
Speaker 16: never had EPMD. They will be in the building because
Speaker 16: I've been doing this for ten years now. I've never
Speaker 16: had nice and smooth. They will be in the building.
Speaker 16: I have my iconic Sugarhill game Melo Email and his
Speaker 16: crew I have I've said Shantee, I always trying to
Speaker 16: have a female every year. She's my female. This year, EPMD,
Speaker 16: nice and well CuMo d will be in the building.
Speaker 16: And uh my headliner is Big Daddy King.
Speaker 12: Oh man, Yo, you know where the mixtro is.
Speaker 16: He's gonna be on my state. You gotta see this video.
Speaker 16: I gotta. I'm gonna say, send me your number. I'm
Speaker 16: gonna send you this video that he did. He is
Speaker 16: he He's the mice trop That's all I can say.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 16: You can't want somebody old lady beatings your bull or
Speaker 16: see the rock I'm coming down here to rock the joint.
Speaker 7: Or it's making be the promo videos for everybody.
Speaker 16: People were doing oh when you have to do one too.
Speaker 16: People are doing happy forty aeth the anniversary videos. We're
Speaker 16: trying to make happy fortieth Lady be. Spread the word,
Speaker 16: get everybody to do it. Let's blow the spot up
Speaker 16: hashtag happy fortieth Lady beat.
Speaker 2: Let's go woo wow.
Speaker 1: You know now, I think because we have the Internet,
Speaker 1: there is a sense of community in the Internet, but
Speaker 1: before the Internet, black radio was the Internet. It's where
Speaker 1: you learn new music. And you know, they had a
Speaker 1: trust in the DJ. The DJ was a taste maker.
Speaker 1: You hired someone that had good taste. That's the one
Speaker 1: thing I wish we could really, really truly grapple with
Speaker 1: the issue of taste. Someone discerning, someone that can make
Speaker 1: informed decisions on.
Speaker 2: What is good, what is not good.
Speaker 1: You know what needs work, what needs practice, what needs
Speaker 1: to be upheld, what is getting too much time? And
Speaker 1: that's what black radio was. You know, it was like
Speaker 1: a community billboard. You learned about, you know, local gatherings.
Speaker 1: You learned about like anything from like local inner city
Speaker 1: farming on Saturdays, like a farmer's market type thing, or
Speaker 1: an event happening at you know, local theater or that
Speaker 1: sort of thing, or concerts coming up. Music should be on,
Speaker 1: especially at nighttime. Radio would get more experimental. So that
Speaker 1: lasted up until about like nineteen ninety seven, and then
Speaker 1: you know, kind of the corporate arm of radio as
Speaker 1: money tool sort of came into play. But yeah, man,
Speaker 1: black radio was important for back in the day to
Speaker 1: keep you abreast of all you needed to know, all
Speaker 1: types of music. You needed to know, not just hit singles.
Speaker 1: All right, So here is Donnie Simpson. If you are
Speaker 1: my age slightly older living in America and you had
Speaker 1: cable television, you.
Speaker 2: Know who Donnie Simpson is.
Speaker 1: Donnie Simpson is such a pioneering figure in black radio.
Speaker 1: I believe on this show he shares with us that
Speaker 1: he is the reason why you know the song Benny
Speaker 1: and the Jets by Elton John. Having DJed in Detroit,
Speaker 1: he premiered the song like around seven pm at night
Speaker 1: on Detroit radio instant hit, and people just kept requesting
Speaker 1: Benny and the Jets. And then suddenly Elton John got
Speaker 1: word because you know, they heard that they were playing
Speaker 1: Biddy and the Jets in Detroit, and then nearby territories
Speaker 1: like Chicago, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and then of course you
Speaker 1: know the Tri State.
Speaker 2: And d C, you know the DMV.
Speaker 1: Suddenly the song just spread like wildfire, and Donnie Simpson
Speaker 1: is the first domino that fell.
Speaker 2: So yeah, man, Donnie.
Speaker 1: Simpson such a legend of BT in its early days
Speaker 1: with video soul. Such a hero is from back in
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, and Donnie's going to discuss his experience as
Speaker 1: an ambassador of black culture on radio and television. How
Speaker 1: are you convinced, uh to Well, you didn't totally abandon
Speaker 1: radio when you did video solo. Oh no, you did both.
Speaker 1: But did you figure that, Okay, it's time for the
Speaker 1: black version of MTV too, uh to come to fruition
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 2: Want to be a part of history.
Speaker 11: Now, Well, this has not happened. I mean, it wasn't
Speaker 11: my creation. I got a call from Bob Johnson asking me,
Speaker 11: or actually was Jeff Lee, his right hand man, said
Speaker 11: we're starting this show called Video Soul, and we like
Speaker 11: for you to host it. At the time, I was
Speaker 11: still doing radio, of course, but I was also I
Speaker 11: just started.
Speaker 5: Doing TV locally in DC.
Speaker 11: For the last two years, I was a sports anchor
Speaker 11: George Michael, Yeah Michael.
Speaker 5: Backup for George Michael Sports.
Speaker 11: Machine, so you know, so yeah it was cool. I
Speaker 11: mean I enjoyed that, but I like music, you know,
Speaker 11: sports is not what I do.
Speaker 5: So anyway, thank you, go ahead.
Speaker 1: Sports that you're thinking, that's actually how how I know you.
Speaker 17: I went to school down in College Park, Maryland in
Speaker 17: late eighties early nineties, so I was watching the George
Speaker 17: Michael sports.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, cool dream machine sports, machine sports legend Donnie Simpson.
Speaker 11: So so anyway, they said, wanted me to do this show,
Speaker 11: and I'll be very honest with you, my first answer
Speaker 11: was no. You know, no, I didn't want to do it.
Speaker 11: I've always been very careful about what I get involved
Speaker 11: in because all I have to sell is image, you know,
Speaker 11: so I'm very protective of that. You know, it's got
Speaker 11: to be right. And b e T in its infancy
Speaker 11: wasn't a pretty baby exactly exactly right.
Speaker 5: So I didn't want to do that, but I thought
Speaker 5: about it for two.
Speaker 11: Days and then finally the bottom line became this that
Speaker 11: this is our first black television network.
Speaker 5: If you have something to offer it, you have to
Speaker 5: do that.
Speaker 2: Period. Let's go.
Speaker 5: And so I'm glad I did, man.
Speaker 11: I mean it was, uh, you know, it was amazing.
Speaker 11: When we first started, we were in one and a
Speaker 11: half million homes. When I left, that number was like
Speaker 11: forty five million, you know, now it's like one hundred
Speaker 11: or something.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's just crazy, you know.
Speaker 11: And uh, you know, it put me in black houses
Speaker 11: all across this country.
Speaker 5: You know that.
Speaker 2: Just know about your radio career.
Speaker 5: I just yeah, most people around the country don't get
Speaker 5: shocked when they find out.
Speaker 10: How do radio?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, but you know it was really something special, man.
Speaker 2: It was you know.
Speaker 11: Terry Lewis, we were talking about it recently and he
Speaker 11: was saying how that I was just telling him about
Speaker 11: the love and respect that I get and how it
Speaker 11: just blows me away, you know every time. And he says,
Speaker 11: it's because you mean something to people. You know that
Speaker 11: you represented a time when music was fun. You know,
Speaker 11: the videos were fun and.
Speaker 5: All of that.
Speaker 11: You know, it was clean fun, you know, and you
Speaker 11: represent that time. It's like, well, I've never thought about
Speaker 11: it like that, but you know, it's I remember one
Speaker 11: night VH one did a series called Black in the
Speaker 11: eighties and then he had interviewed me for it, and
Speaker 11: so they told me it's coming on, So I watched
Speaker 11: it that night. It was an hour long and the
Speaker 11: first fifteen minutes they did Brian Gumble, the first black
Speaker 11: to host the early morning national television show.
Speaker 5: Then they did or Senel Hall, first black to host
Speaker 5: late night talk show.
Speaker 11: Then they did Cosby The Cosby Show and first black
Speaker 11: TV show where uh, the mother and dad were doctor
Speaker 11: and a lawyer, not a plumber and a Janitor or something,
Speaker 11: you know, and then they did Donnie Simpson and Video
Speaker 11: Soul and man, I'll never forget it. When the show ended,
Speaker 11: all I could think was, well, how the hell am
Speaker 11: I supposed to sleep tonight?
Speaker 5: Seriously?
Speaker 11: Because I never had it put in perspective like that,
Speaker 11: you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It's like.
Speaker 11: A line from that I've always loved from Elton John
Speaker 11: rocket Love. Not rocket Love, that's Stevie Wonder Rocket ma
Speaker 11: Man right when he says in all the science, I
Speaker 11: don't understand it's just my job five days a week,
Speaker 11: you know.
Speaker 5: I mean, you think this is a rocketman an astronage.
Speaker 5: It's like it's so glorious.
Speaker 11: You know you were DJ's a glorious man.
Speaker 5: I don't care who you are, what you do. It's
Speaker 5: just what you do.
Speaker 1: So at the time, you weren't thinking that you're doing
Speaker 1: a historical service for mankind, that there's.
Speaker 2: A bunch of eleven year olds watching.
Speaker 1: You and recording this because we will record the show
Speaker 1: and watch it over and over again.
Speaker 5: Crazy to me, No, I never thought.
Speaker 11: I've had three or four to ESPN anchors come up
Speaker 11: to me and tell me you're the reason I do
Speaker 11: TV because I used to watch you.
Speaker 5: It's like.
Speaker 3: That.
Speaker 5: Man, that's mind blowing to me. Of course, I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: Man, Between you and probably probably the only person that
Speaker 1: could challenge or even match your cool might be Don Cornelius,
Speaker 1: like you two are parents.
Speaker 2: It was cool one the next. And that's the thing.
Speaker 1: You always pervade, this, this level of of intelligence and
Speaker 1: cool and knowledge no matter who the artist was. Like
Speaker 1: if I were interviewing like Wild Animal era Vanity, I
Speaker 1: would have been sweating profusely.
Speaker 2: But you gave her the.
Speaker 1: Same level of respect that you would have done for
Speaker 1: Sergio Mendez or or Side Garrett or Quincy Jones or
Speaker 1: I'll be short, like you know what I mean. Like that,
Speaker 1: to me was was even more amazing. Like it's one
Speaker 1: thing to interview someone that you love and that you're
Speaker 1: you know that you have history of, Like I'm sure
Speaker 1: that you know if a Motown luminary comes on the show,
Speaker 1: then you know you're just.
Speaker 2: Giddy about it. But how do you prepare yourself.
Speaker 1: For an artist that you might not know of, Like say,
Speaker 1: of first year Karen White comes on the show and
Speaker 1: you might not know that much about her, but.
Speaker 5: I ask her.
Speaker 4: Like you did.
Speaker 11: Seriously, that's how I prepare. There's no like ten years,
Speaker 11: but there there's no preparation. I mean, every artist I've
Speaker 11: ever had on Video Soul, they would give me a
Speaker 11: bio and a list of questions and I would take
Speaker 11: a car right set.
Speaker 5: That on the side.
Speaker 11: Seriously, I would never look at it because I felt
Speaker 11: that there's nothing wrong with me not knowing you grew
Speaker 11: up in Tuscaloosa that I can ask you that. I mean,
Speaker 11: this is an interview, this is getting to know you.
Speaker 11: What's wrong with that being the first so where you
Speaker 11: grow up at? You know, Oh, I grew up in
Speaker 11: Philip oh Man, what happened to the Sixers the other night?
Speaker 11: That's conversation?
Speaker 2: Okay, you know it.
Speaker 5: That's just you know.
Speaker 11: I mean, if it's somebody I knew, I'm telling you
Speaker 11: this may be the depth of the preparation. I'd go,
Speaker 11: all right, Luther's on this show today. I'm riding in
Speaker 11: and I go, what is it you want to know
Speaker 11: about Luther Man? Why you why does your weight keep
Speaker 11: going up and down?
Speaker 5: I said, all right, that's what I'm going to ask him.
Speaker 13: And you know it's but you could ask him that
Speaker 13: though I don't think nobody else could get away with.
Speaker 5: But you know, and and that is a blessing for
Speaker 5: you to say that you get.
Speaker 11: It, that it's just like uh on, with all due respect,
Speaker 11: I'm going back to Johnny Carson the Tonight Show that
Speaker 11: when the conversation with Johnny was always different from any
Speaker 11: other host I ever saw because they had so much
Speaker 11: respect for him.
Speaker 5: He could ask things that others might not because they
Speaker 5: just lose. But but Jimmy's like that too, because he's
Speaker 5: so cool.
Speaker 11: You know, when you when you're cool with people like that, man,
Speaker 11: and they feel you and it's real, it's not staged questions.
Speaker 11: And you know, when you've read the bio, the chances
Speaker 11: are I'm to ask you a question based on that bio.
Speaker 5: It's something that you've been asked a thousand times already before.
Speaker 1: What was your first interview on Do you remember your
Speaker 1: very first interview on the show?
Speaker 11: Who was your first My very first interview is with
Speaker 11: the Fat Boys? Eighty three or eighty four? God, so
Speaker 11: like that? Yeah, man, the Fat Boys.
Speaker 5: Second one was with Rick James.
Speaker 2: Bitch Okay, what was that like? Okay?
Speaker 1: We have yet to have a potential off the chains
Speaker 1: guests we're kind of entertaining that, like all of our
Speaker 1: guests are either like super legend or we've worshiped them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but okay, Rick James a perfect example. If someone has
Speaker 1: the potential disorder be off the.
Speaker 2: Chains, Oh, how do you wheeld them in? How do
Speaker 2: you how do you maintain how do.
Speaker 12: You drive the car and not have them drive the car?
Speaker 5: Wow? That's wow, what a great question.
Speaker 12: Because you still have to steer and navigate.
Speaker 11: Yeah, you still gotta steer and right.
Speaker 1: And it was the eighties, so we know that Rick
Speaker 1: might have been on that, you know, so you don't
Speaker 1: know where the conversation was going to go.
Speaker 5: But I've never had that problem.
Speaker 11: I never had anybody, had anybody go rogue on me,
Speaker 11: just you know, go crazy, go just it just never happened.
Speaker 4: But a little left, you've had some people maybe go
Speaker 4: a little because even.
Speaker 5: That in every Everybody Left, you know, shoot.
Speaker 1: You has an interview going a little weird, and you
Speaker 1: guys had to do a lot of editing magic.
Speaker 11: Well back in the day for like what interview was
Speaker 11: like most of the years on Video Soul, we were live.
Speaker 11: It was live until the last three or four years.
Speaker 5: Really, Yeah, I never do that. Yeah, yeah, we used
Speaker 5: to do it live Man Risky.
Speaker 11: Well yeah, but today that's the way I liked it
Speaker 11: because that made it like radio.
Speaker 12: For me.
Speaker 2: I hate tape.
Speaker 5: I hate recording.
Speaker 11: It's just it's a different pressure that you perform better
Speaker 11: when it's live. For me, you know, when it's live,
Speaker 11: and I know you don't get to back it up
Speaker 11: and then it's real.
Speaker 5: Because for me.
Speaker 11: When you backing it up and editing, then you're trying
Speaker 11: to make it perfect. And like I never ever ever
Speaker 11: watched video soul. I don't listen to tapes of my
Speaker 11: radio show because I feel like I'm trying to make
Speaker 11: myself perfect and I'll never be that.
Speaker 5: All I need to be is me.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 5: That's all I need to be.
Speaker 4: Donnie Simpson.
Speaker 7: Does that mean a programmer has never pulled you in
Speaker 7: an air check meeting and it said.
Speaker 5: Oh lord, no, since.
Speaker 7: You were a teenager, there's never been a boss because
Speaker 7: I meant people know this, but like in radio, usually
Speaker 7: your boss will at some point at the end of
Speaker 7: the week, pool you in a room and say let's
Speaker 7: listen to what you did here.
Speaker 5: You know what.
Speaker 11: For one period when I moved to DC, in seventy seven,
Speaker 11: we did have a program director and oh my goodness,
Speaker 11: it was crazy for me. For a year and a
Speaker 11: half I did live under that. I've forgotten that because
Speaker 11: it was such you know, that's out of how many
Speaker 11: years got I started in sixty nine, so you know,
Speaker 11: one and a half years of slavery. But you know
Speaker 11: where he would walk in with a stopwatch and go
Speaker 11: that was seventeen seconds. You had to come in under
Speaker 11: fifteen seconds on anything you said, you.
Speaker 5: Know, I mean, it was just so finally I was gone.
Speaker 2: I was gone.
Speaker 5: I said I can't do this.
Speaker 10: I'm leaving.
Speaker 11: And I had a job offer in la and so
Speaker 11: they offered me the music directorship to keep me. So
Speaker 11: I stayed and then I worked under this music director.
Speaker 11: My music director was he's a brother, but he had
Speaker 11: so much or let me be careful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, really we know when we get it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we need Muller to investigate this one.
Speaker 11: But he we would have our record meetings or every week,
Speaker 11: you know, the music meetings, and he'd go around the room.
Speaker 11: I was the music director under him. He was the
Speaker 11: program director, and I had two assistants and both of
Speaker 11: them were political appointees.
Speaker 5: This is DC.
Speaker 11: One was David Brinkley's son, the other was his senator's son.
Speaker 11: He go around the room, he play, Uh, I'll never
Speaker 11: forget this. When he played Beast of Burden Rolling Stones,
Speaker 11: you know, so he goes, so, John, what do you
Speaker 11: think of that? Oh?
Speaker 5: I love it. I think it's great.
Speaker 10: David, what do you?
Speaker 5: I think it is great? I think Donnie, what do
Speaker 5: you think? I think it's great.
Speaker 2: We can't play that ship you.
Speaker 5: Right, you know, I mean I love it, but it's
Speaker 5: got the fit brothers.
Speaker 1: Can I assume that that was the single after Miss You?
Speaker 1: Were you guys playing Miss You?
Speaker 9: No?
Speaker 5: That was that was before Miss You?
Speaker 11: Because I Miss You came after, as I recall it,
Speaker 11: because I played Miss You as a program director, so
Speaker 11: I wasn't programming then. Yeah, I'm pretty sure we could.
Speaker 11: We could check the records. Yeah, I think that's the
Speaker 11: way it went. Because I played Miss You. That works,
Speaker 11: Beast Burden does not. Little River Band reminiscing we can't.
Speaker 5: Play that, man, you know. Yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 7: Because you also got to consider the area, right, Like,
Speaker 7: it's not just the people.
Speaker 5: In the d C and go go baby.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: It was hard, Yeah, that's my next question.
Speaker 1: Okay, Now, as the the top taste maker of DC
Speaker 1: that had the world's ears, how is such a beautiful
Speaker 1: subculture like go Go, How's it meant so many obstacles
Speaker 1: And I feel like the ripple never gets to expand.
Speaker 2: West West more West than West Virginia or.
Speaker 12: Ohio West Virginia or Okay.
Speaker 1: It's like, let's let's just go back to Virginia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's You've lived in DC for decades and I
Speaker 1: assume you still do oh yeah. How is black people's
Speaker 1: jam bam music not resonated to the rest of the
Speaker 1: United States of America at least?
Speaker 5: I have no idea why that is.
Speaker 11: It's like, I mean, we thought it was going to
Speaker 11: break out when we've had Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well and good to that movie came out.
Speaker 11: Chuck was the first bust and Loose was the first
Speaker 11: number one go Go song in the country. I mean
Speaker 11: it was number one song in the country. That was
Speaker 11: Go Go and uh. And then the second was the
Speaker 11: Butt by EU with the help of the movie School Days.
Speaker 11: You know, so we're thinking, man, it's great break out now,
Speaker 11: and it never did. Those are the only two to
Speaker 11: this day that ever went number one in the country.
Speaker 5: You know, you had people like Grace Jones.
Speaker 2: Some people used it, elements, yeah, I used.
Speaker 11: Elements, yeah, but it just never broke out for some reason.
Speaker 11: And I don't know, you know, I don't know why
Speaker 11: Western world never.
Speaker 5: Caught on to drop the bomb on the white boy.
Speaker 14: You know, I just don't get that.
Speaker 1: I wonder, all right, So that was Donnie Simpson back
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, and now we are fittingly going to
Speaker 1: Big Les in twenty twenty. So big Les came at
Speaker 1: a time in which, you know, to see people pivot,
Speaker 1: especially hip hop people pivot. You see the fresh Prince
Speaker 1: morph into Will Smith. You see a rapper morph into
Speaker 1: an accomplished actor.
Speaker 2: That's important to see. You see Jay.
Speaker 1: Z more from back of the trunk business to real
Speaker 1: business and real is and quotes. And for me, you know,
Speaker 1: big Les was such a pivotal figurehead and hip hop dancing,
Speaker 1: which often doesn't get celebrated as much as MCN and
Speaker 1: DJ and and graffiti art. So the fact that big
Speaker 1: Les was taken street dancing to a higher level, and
Speaker 1: you know, she became one of the most sought after
Speaker 1: choreographers and dancers and kind of pivoted to media personality
Speaker 1: and so yeah, such a legend to come on our
Speaker 1: show and talks big less from twenty twenty. What was
Speaker 1: the moment that led to you sort of ease out
Speaker 1: of comfort zone and go into being a personality because
Speaker 1: I've seen you on mini of Red Carpet doing Rap City,
Speaker 1: Like was that your first job as a Like how
Speaker 1: did you know that you had a personality? Because it's
Speaker 1: it's you know, even even for me to ease into
Speaker 1: this zone is a little weird, Like just because I'm
Speaker 1: a public figure doesn't mean that you know, just because
Speaker 1: you could do that doesn't mean that you can carry
Speaker 1: a conversation, go to be engaging and all that stuffing.
Speaker 1: You're really engaging, like you are a personality. It's almost like,
Speaker 1: you know, when I when I saw that you first
Speaker 1: started like doing red Carpet stuff and starting with Rap City,
Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, she's a natural, Like she is
Speaker 1: a personality, Like where did that come from?
Speaker 14: Wow?
Speaker 18: Thank you for saying that. Career, It's interesting the things
Speaker 18: that you write in your diary have so much power.
Speaker 18: When I was in high school, I was going to
Speaker 18: study journalism and I took like three journalism classes, and
Speaker 18: the last one I took I didn't like. So I
Speaker 18: was like, I'm switching to sports medicine and athletic training
Speaker 18: and all that other stuff. But I still always kept
Speaker 18: a journal. I always still wrote short stories and always
Speaker 18: kind of like been inquisitive by nature. Rahap City is
Speaker 18: a blessing that came after I did not become a
Speaker 18: fly girl, Like that's a whole other was curious audition.
Speaker 16: I didn't want to ask, that's so okay, Oh yeah, what.
Speaker 2: Gigs didn't you get that you wanted?
Speaker 18: Well, being a fly girl was the gig that I
Speaker 18: wanted more than anything. I literally did not get it.
Speaker 18: And it was already like set up. I had the
Speaker 18: best audition. All the local news channels are interviewing me.
Speaker 18: I did all these flips and this, that and the other.
Speaker 4: Everybody knew you.
Speaker 7: It was the New York fan, the Wayans and Rosie
Speaker 7: and yeah.
Speaker 18: But Rosie came over to me side barbers like can
Speaker 18: you lose ten pounds? And Jenn already been on the show,
Speaker 18: and I'm like, but Jen at the time was bigger
Speaker 18: than I was, Like I was really muscular, but she
Speaker 18: was thicker. And then I found out that you know,
Speaker 18: by Josie's own words, that she had been approached well
Speaker 18: before the audition, by I guess one of the ways
Speaker 18: called her and said, listen, we need you to show up,
Speaker 18: but we want to know if you want the gig.
Speaker 18: So she pretty much already had and just kind of
Speaker 18: had to look like she had the audition. And you know,
Speaker 18: usually they do what's called typecasting. You say you want
Speaker 18: somebody likes in this tall, Latino women, black women, whatever.
Speaker 14: You very specific.
Speaker 18: This was an open audition, but they already knew who
Speaker 18: they wanted and what they wanted. And Rosie years later
Speaker 18: came and apologized for even asking me that question and
Speaker 18: wishing that she had fought for me because she knew
Speaker 18: that I was the baddest thing in the room at
Speaker 18: that time. But rejection is God's protection. Right after I'm
Speaker 18: flicking my wounds and I don't get flygirl, I go
Speaker 18: on Madeline Woods Show video LP and dance on the show.
Speaker 18: I'm talking about all these artists that I've worked with,
Speaker 18: you know, as a dancer, that you spend time with
Speaker 18: on the tour bus and in rehearsals, so you know
Speaker 18: them more than the fans do, sometimes even better. Than
Speaker 18: the family does. And so they're like, you know these people,
Speaker 18: You've been around them even before some of them had
Speaker 18: their deals, And would you like to audition for rhaps City?
Speaker 18: And I auditioned, and the producer Keith Patchell and Sanita
Speaker 18: Brooks and Eric Watson still had to fight with me,
Speaker 18: had to fight for me with the producers upstairs, because one,
Speaker 18: I didn't look a certain way right there goes our
Speaker 18: lovely black on black colorism, and there wasn't a female
Speaker 18: voice really in hip hop on that level other than
Speaker 18: Dee Barnes who came before me. So once they were
Speaker 18: able to give me a couple of episodes to prove myself,
Speaker 18: I got the job. But they were gracious enough to
Speaker 18: let me do the show while I was still dancing.
Speaker 18: I think I was on tour with Heavy d And
Speaker 18: it worked it to their benefit because now as we're
Speaker 18: city to city, I could do interviews in city to
Speaker 18: city and they didn't have to pay like any extra
Speaker 18: for it, so I could catch up with Common in
Speaker 18: Chicago and so and so and so and seem when
Speaker 18: it became too much, they were like, you're gonna have
Speaker 18: to choose. And by that time, you know, I had
Speaker 18: already done like fifteen years of gymnastics, even though I
Speaker 18: wasn't ready to quit dancing, but I had transitioned into choreography.
Speaker 18: I was still doing more choreography and I could the tour,
Speaker 18: so I just kind of was like, let me focus
Speaker 18: on TV altogether. And that's kind of how that happened,
Speaker 18: and then radio was born from that.
Speaker 17: I think the thing I used to always like about
Speaker 17: you hosting Rap City, I would notice how a lot
Speaker 17: of times guests would change up who they were with
Speaker 17: you in a way that they wouldn't with like d
Speaker 17: or you know, Chris Thomas orhoever.
Speaker 2: I remember it was a Boogie Monster's episode.
Speaker 17: Hell shit, one of the guys he was trying, Yo,
Speaker 17: he was trying so hard to kick it to you.
Speaker 2: I can't remember which one it was. Yeah, Yo, man,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
Speaker 12: We all tried to kick it to Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, but I was so obvious though.
Speaker 5: He was like talking all my daughter.
Speaker 2: Shirt that day.
Speaker 1: I was like that first day of school feeling when
Speaker 1: you standing at the outfit iron my shirt, you know,
Speaker 1: iron shit.
Speaker 2: I get out there, I was like, Yo, we doing
Speaker 2: rap city today.
Speaker 12: Let me use my good shirt.
Speaker 18: The blessing that happened for me with that is that
Speaker 18: a lot of the labels and the artists would request me,
Speaker 18: and I think because they knew of me as a dancer,
Speaker 18: they knew me from the clubs, they knew I had
Speaker 18: been around and been in the trenches, and that they
Speaker 18: could trust me with their story. And then I actually
Speaker 18: knew the story, you know what I mean, because I
Speaker 18: was there, I was part of it, So it was
Speaker 18: easy for them to like come on the show and
Speaker 18: us just have real conversations. And you know, if you
Speaker 18: see my first episode to my like twentieth, yeah, I
Speaker 18: grew a whole lot because I had real you know,
Speaker 18: producers who would teach me how to talk and to
Speaker 18: listen and this and that and stuff. So it made
Speaker 18: a difference, and I felt really comfortable. I think when
Speaker 18: you're a performer, and maybe it's a little different for you,
Speaker 18: quest like there's certain things you're comfortable with or not.
Speaker 18: Like I've always, as a gymnast, been comfortable on camera
Speaker 18: and performing and being a show person. And I've always
Speaker 18: been a talker and I'm always inquisitive, like I'm nosy,
Speaker 18: and I can ask you like eight hundred questions and
Speaker 18: without a que Card and just because I want to
Speaker 18: hear your story and I have human interests love, Like,
Speaker 18: I just really want to know how you got from
Speaker 18: A to Z and I'm curious about it. So I
Speaker 18: think you kind of get that and appreciate telling their story.
Speaker 14: In that way.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: I want to thank y'all for celebrating Black History Month
Speaker 1: with Quest Love Supreme and stay tuned for more.
Speaker 2: Episodes coming soon.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme. Hosted by
Speaker 1: Amir Quest, Loft Thompson, Why You, Saint Clair, Sugar, Steve Mandel,
Speaker 1: and Unpaid Bill Sherman. Executive producers are Mere Quest Love, Thompson,
Speaker 1: Seanch and Brian Calvin. Produced by Brittany Benjamin Cousin, Jake Payne,
Speaker 1: Eliah Saint Clair. Edited by Alex Conwod. Produced by iHeart
Speaker 1: by Noel Brown. West Love Supreme is a production of
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.