June 17, 2024 • 59 mins
This week on the Black Perspective, we continue our celebration of Black music with Mo Kelly, Tia James, and singer Stokely from Mint Condition; News anchor Vanessa Tyler shares her conversation with pioneering music executive Angelo Ellerbee; and Tyrik Wynn sits down with gospel artist Deitrick Haddon.
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(00:00):
It's Father's Day weekend, June sixteenth, and today we honor the fathers in
our lives. We'll also continue ourcelebration of black music in June with Moe
Kelly, Tia James, and singerStokely from Mint Condition discussing the Rick James
stage play. Super Freak News anchorVanessa Tyler shares her conversation with pioneering music
executive Angelo Elderb and Tyreek Win sitsdown with gospel artist Diedrich Hadden. These
(00:24):
stories and more are coming your waynext. Welcome to the Black Perspective.
I'm your host, Mike Island.Welcome to the Black Perspective, a weekly
community affairs program on the Black InformationNetwork featuring interviews and discussions on issues important
to the black community. Good Sundayto everyone, and a special welcome to
all the black fathers in our community. Happy Father's Day and thanks for joining
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us for today's edition of The BlackPerspective on the Black Information Network. When
you think of the music greats,their success is made possible by people you
don't even see on stage. DuringBlack Music Month the Black Information Networks,
Vanessa Tyler goes behind the scenes andis a music management legend. Michael Jackson
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is the king of pomp, butAngelo Ellerby is the king of making black
music happen. He's bad, AngeloEllerby. Welcome to the Black Perspective.
Wow, what a wonderful introduction.I have to bring you along every time
I go out. Thank you.It's my pledge of being with you.
Reopened with playing a bit of MichaelJackson, but I could have started with
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Mary J. Blige. Babe,There's no need, sir, as far
as I include, I've been calm, My mom's in, so you don't
not worry or cooling the gang?Do you want to get out? What
you gonna? Do you want toget out? Or how about legends like
(01:57):
Dion Warwick? I am too.May The list of entertainers you've had your
hand in developing is mind blowing.Tell me which names I missed? Whitney
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Houston, Alicia Keynes, Drew Hill, Aaron Clark, Shear, Donald,
Lawrence, Patra Cobra, Shava,Beverly Sills, Laura Brannigan, the Keith
Brothers. Sometimes I forget, butI think Laarl Paine from the Cosmy Show,
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and then from Martin Antonio Fargus,the actor, the veteran actor.
Uh yeah, So the list goeson and on and on and on.
And I did a lot of filmstoo. I did the American gangster film
with Frank God blessing me passed away, I think about it two years ago.
Uh. Then I worked on thefive films that DMX did, which
was Exit Wounds. Here DMX starsand Exit Wounds the plot bringing down dirty
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cops. A lot of people talkabout police corruption, but no one ever
sees it. And I worked inthe capacity other not just his manager and
his publicists, but I worked inconjunction with as a producer on a lot
of his films. I have beenvery, very blessed to stay within an
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industry for fifty five years. Ithink we have covered every gendre of music
where you even worked with Beverly Sills. So there's no genre of music the
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double exposure has not handled. Itake every particular artist like a pattering clean
up, pattering pie, making surethat Because my degree is in designs,
so I look at everything as apattern, and I want to make sure
that we designed something special for eachand every client. I want to make
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sure that my see it. Mysisters are sharpening correctly. My charp paper
are there, and I have tocome up with something that is going to
be eyegadgy and all respects by eachparticular artist. Your company, double Exposure
is legendary in the industry, andwhen I ask what role did you play,
you just told me you you knowsoup, the nuts you do from
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head to toe everything I used tolook at it. I used to tell
people my company was like a onestop kind of shops, like a supermarket.
Get your cart, go down theaisle and pick out what you want
to pick out. I'm most proudof my artist's development program because it short
and educated, stimulated, and motivatedor motivated young minds to the awareness of
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their commitment that they have made asan artist and as a business person.
I'm more into the business of musicthan I am into the creative end of
it because I think people who looklike me have a problem of understanding what
whens, wheares and whys of themusic industry. I believe that these young
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kids don't understand the importance of forone, das K or social Security benefits.
All of the things that they're workingfor and all the things that they're
doing now is their retirement money,and I try to get them to understand
the importance of selecting the correct team. You want to get experts at what
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they do, because that is onlygoing to bring back revenue to you.
What do you look for in takingon a new client. Oh, what
I look for and taking on anew client is a very good conversation.
That's my first thing. It's notabout the dollars and cents at this stage
of the game. For me,it's about the commitment that I'm willing to
make to the artists. It's goingto take a conversation, and the conversation
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is not just with the artists.Once me and the artists have re understand
each other, but then I wantto meet your mother, I want to
meet your father. If you're married, I want to meet your wife.
Because I really don't necessarily read bios. I don't believe in reading bios.
I try to get the bio,the bio from the everyday experience of that
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artist. Bottom line, for AngeloEllerby, it is about knowing the music
business. Your long, jeffvity isgood ten years and if you're fabulous,
it could go forever. Let's justlook to say that you're not fabulous let's
just say that you got ten goodyears and then wonder that we hear so
much. That's very true, andthat's why you have to go and planning
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your victory because you don't know ifyou're going to have another it or another
it. So it becomes a businessteaching them the importance about investments, teaching
them about mannerisms and sitting at atable and understanding and what it takes when
in a relationship at dinner table,I'm speaking in the addiction and speech and
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the tonalities become very very important tome because that person on the other side
as a newfound respect where you whenyou're looking good and you're sounding good,
and you're speaking and making the kindof negotiations that make sense and if done
right, a music career can lasta lifetime. That's our dinorosis of the
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day at eighty years old, stillworking. That's how Dion Worrick's and to
day, there's the novel mores,it's the Patica bills, It's it's the
Glatis Knights. And this is whatI want young people to understand. I
pour in a certain energy. I'mnot just the publicist. I know that
I'm not just the publicist, becausewhen I get involved, they may come
to me for PR. But whenI get involved, I'm doing marketing,
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and I'm doing video shoots, andI'm setting up photo shoots, and I'm
doing all all these things because that'sthat vision that I have and I want
them to come out right. Iwant them to look exquisite. June is
Black Music Month. What is thestate of Black music today? There is,
for me, been a demise inthe music industry. I think our
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young kids are understanding the importance ofbecoming their own young executives and starting their
own companies, and starting their ownproduction companies. Everything today seems to be
ruled by social media. In myday, in my time, it was
about the talent, about going inand sitting down talking to an A and
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R person and them developing a soundwith you and signing you. Today it's
about your numbers in social media.Originality is so very important for me.
We don't need no more copycats.If we have a phenomenal Beyonce, we
don't need another phenomenal Beyonce. Ifwe have an incredible Mary J. Blot,
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we need another one. Be original, be who you are well.
In addition to running your PR marketingcompany. You are also a record company
executive. I asked you about thestate of black music, what about black
music companies? You are an Islanddef JAM, but I think of institutions
like Motown and now, of course, what will happen to bad Boy Records
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in light of Ditty's problems. Yeah, so yes, I was over at
Island Black Music as a senior vicepresident and then I went to Christmast Records.
So I went to Christmas Records firstas a senior direct up publicity.
It has changed immensely, is totallytotally changed, while it still remains the
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same. Black people are not gettingwhat their work is and white folks are
taking with their work is I cannotget into the celebration of fifty years of
hip hop. What bothers him mostMany of the originators of hip hop didn't
get paid. Now fifty years older, as elderly Black men women, they
are left with a memory, maybesome bragging rights. All moneies are generated
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to go through the record companies andthey're getting the dollar incent Those people who
are sitting in executive positions are gettingpoints off of their music because they signed
them. I don't have a problemwith people getting paid. But I also
have a problem with the artists andthe time of the original music, original
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music, which was rap music.They try to shut it down fifty years
ago. Fifty years ago, theytried to shut it all down because they
did not understand it. They didn'tsee the various divisions and sounds and concept
of music. Now you're celebrated,I could not celebrate it. I don't
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find that the people who were theoriginators of this are receiving their bonuses from
this music. Everybody wants to beboisterous to get on TV. Oh yeah,
yeah, we's money. Do youhave? How you living? How's
your mother live? What did youlearn in this? Did you grow from
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this? Which is why Angelo Ellerbyis so passionate about telling anyone getting into
the music game to have the rightpeople, the right advice, staples of
the trade. It took him fiftyyears to acquire half a century of knowledge.
Is in his latest book, BeforeI Let You Go. I think
mentorship is really important. I thinkthat's really all about where my book is
at this point. But I thinkit's really about selecting that right mentor.
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You have been so instrumental in guidingso many successful people, and you've mentioned
your book and you've been writing itdown for us little people. Tell me
about your latest book before I letgo, and may I ask, is
that a take from a song fromone of your legendary clients, the amazing
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Frankie Beverly. It is not atake from Frankie Beverly. Why I adore
this man and I think you sentjust an incredible person. I went through
many health issues this year. Iwent through health issues for about maybe seven
to eight months, not understanding ifI was going to be here or not
be here. And so my thingwas, I can't all of what I've
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worked for my own entire life.I can never ever take any of those
things with me. And so whatI wanted to leave for all of the
people who have been supportive of mefor these fifties some nine years. I
wanted to leave them jewels. Iwanted to give them a gift, and
the gifts as in the book,I wanted to give them lessons, life
lessons. And I thought that Iwould be such a great example to begin
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the life lessons. I speak aboutcoming and growing up in the city of
Nork as a gay black male.I speak of my mother who had an
eighth grade education and was a waitress. I talk about my sisters who won.
Two are drug addicts. I talkabout many defeats, and then I
tell them, men, somewhere inthe near of the book, you can
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you can come through this as well. You can really be who you want
to be. Angelo Ellerby has seenit all. His experience is long,
his faith is strong. I believethat God is so great and he makes
his children great. There are mirrorsof who God is. You're great,
You're greater, and then you becomethe greatest. If you stay in your
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path, if you share, ifyou give, I think that that's These
are some of the craziest things aboutthis life that we live. We don't
understand the importance to get back.My thought is, stop being so ambitious
and be ambitious. So many timespeople don't want to have an appreciation of
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somebody else's success. My thing is, if you're in the race, you
might as well stay in the race. Eventually you'll win. But if you
come out of the race in doubt, you come out of the race and
fear your loser. It takes thesame energy to stay in is to get
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out, So why won't you stayin and complete your task right. I
find that to be so important.It was one of the lessons that I
learned from my mom, and Ithink growing up with my brothers and sisters,
we had to be contributors, andwe had to share, and we
had to share with one another.We got to really get into the importance
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of giving back to each other.You know. I pray every day forty
five minutes, every single day ofmy life and ask for the majority of
my life because I believe that ifhe can give me twenty four hours,
I can give him forty five minutesof my day. I am thankful.
I am so thankful. I havenever did anything else but what I did
still to this day andrel Ellerby believesto who much is given, much is
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expected. Part of the proceeds fromthe book before I Let You Go,
will go to pull up others behindhim. What we're doing now is we're
doing free sales of the book fromMay until July. The book is released
in August. A dollar from thebook goes to HIV and AIDS. I'm
from the city of Nork. Norkis the largest city in the state of
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New Jersey, and there is alot of strange things that are going on
in the city of Nork as itrelates to HIV and AIDS. There are
children being let out of their ownsbecause they've chosen chosen another lifestyle. Parents
and aunts and uncles are not understandingthat. So what they do is they
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leave their homes, no places togo, and they wind up selling their
bodies and getting in trouble. Sowhat we did is we established the Angelo
lerb Foundation, and in this foundation, we're going to take three individuals a
year. We're going to take careof them for a year, give them
housing, give them three meals aday, and find out their areas of
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situation so that they can get ajob or go to school. What's next
for Angelo Ellerby? I am workingon and creating and developing a production company
for a film and for TV.Listen, if I go out of here
today, I can't take nothing withme, that's right, So I need
to just give it away. Giveout your knowledge, give out your experiences,
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help someone to give be better aboutthemselves. Follow Angelo Ellerby on all
platforms at double Exposure NYC. Bythe way, use double x's in the
word exposure. Well, you havegiven us so much knowledge and so much,
and I am going to call youthe legendary Angelo Ellerb. Thank you
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for helping bring the world so muchincredible black music and so much knowledge to
our people. You're so sweet.Thank you so very much, Vanessa.
I really really appreciate you taking yourtime sit and have a conversation with me.
God bless you, God bless you. Thanks Vanessa. As Mintioned,
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you can follow Angelo on all socialmedia platforms at Double Exposure, NYC.
We continue our Black Music Month celebrationwith Moe Kelly and his Look at the
National stage play Super Freak, starringStokely from the music group mint Condition for
the Black Information Network. I'm MoeKelly, based on Glow by Rick James
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and David Ritson Memoirs of a superFreak by Rick James. Let me tell
you about super Freak, the RickJames Story. The stage bursts to life
in the gritty streets of Buffalo,the backdrop for the arrival of the King
of Punk Funk, mister Rick James, standing five eleven with his iconic braids
and leather clad body. Rix flamboyantand unreally stage persona takes center stage.
Super Freak and Rick James story bringsRick James this turbulent life to the stage,
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sensual showcase of his popular hits suchas Give It to Me, Davis,
Mary Jans with Mary James, mymains the feeling, my fu and
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of course Super Freak Carol is prettywell joining me. Now not one,
not two, but three people instrumentalin Super Freak Rick James story. I'm
talking about Jacaris Johnson, Ty James, the daughter of Rick James, and
none other than Stokely himself who willbe embodying the Rick James spirit as Rick
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James. So let me start withyou. Some may not know of your
long history in the business as theformer lead singer of Mint Condition. Tell
me about your track in this businessagainst the backdrop of the history of Rick
James. Well, we're listening tohis music, roll Escape to his music,
you know, just getting into mysystem. We just loved it.
You know, read his books afew years ago. All these things I
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think I didn't know at the timewere preparing me for this role. Of
course, it's one thing to singthe songs kind of you know when you
roller skating, when you shower,but after to die with the character,
it's a totally different game, atotally different game. So it's uh,
but I think everything that that Idid before brought me to this, so
you know, but I was Iwas definitely familiar with the music and the
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energy and the pulse of it.You know, it's just lovely. Were
a big, big change of things. Yeah, we're back. Rick James
is here. Very nice, nicemeeting, and thank you for being here,
sir. This is incredible success foryou, isn't it. Yeah?
And uh a long time coming.I mean it didn't happen overnight like they
no kind of happened overnight. Itcongratulations, it was about ten years in
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the making. Yeah. My realname is James, right, Yeah,
Rick James. My stage names JamesJohnson. James Johnson's kind of laid back
and he likes one woman at atime. Rick James, give me,
Give me, Ty James. Peoplemay not know that you are the daughter
and president of the Rick James Estate. You probably knew this man better than
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anyone who's still living. What isit that you see and feel when you
see stokely on stage as your fatherman? Just a big overwhelming of emotion.
I feel like he's nailing it,if I can say it he's bodying
it. I feel like I'm doingmy dad justice. I feel like he's
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looking down, he's proud, andit's just a wonderful feeling. The crowd
is enjoying it. The story's great, well produced, well written, and
everything is magnificent. Jakaris Johnson asa producer of this show, how do
you go about blending what is inhis memoir with the memory of him that
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you may have and time may have, and also trying to make sure that
stokely is still within the pocket,as they say, because I remember Rick
James, You remember Rick James,and the world knows Rick James sometimes through
Chappelle Show, or they may knowit through just other music. I mean,
I go back with Rick James throughthe nineteen seventies. How do you
get that all together? The objectiveis to just humanize him while still keeping
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the nostalgia of wiz. So it'sa nostalgic experience with his music and with
the Rick James that we came toknow and love in the latter years.
But it's also kind of a reimaginingand a reintroduction of Rick James to the
consumer. Because we tell you everythingyou didn't know about him, which is
the kid with a dream to makeit in the music industry and the various
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genres of music that he went through. I mean he was He wasn't just
in funk and soul. I meanhe was rock. He was everything.
You know. So I think we'vedone a wonderful job, and I'm very
proud of the cast and the crewin Stokely for embodying and delivering that level
of versatil's Rick James, and it'sbig something. I'm glad to see here
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Rick be here. It would beso proud of him. Your mom is
very famous. She was. Sheused to run numbers. She did My
mother was a she was a dancerand she did run numbers and she supported
eight kids on her own and shedid a great job of it. My
brother, one of the guys whoworked with me as attorney, that's my
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brother, was one of the bestlaw schools in the country. And I
didn't turn out too bad, notbad at all. I like to know
who's making more money, the lawyeror the singer. He works for me.
Oh, ty, let me askyou this question. If Rick James
became a star in the age ofTikTok, what might have that looked like,
who might he have become? Ohmy god, universal, like the
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greatest space, like out of thisworld, Like, yeah, that that
is something I would have loved tosee. So maybe we can still create
that, all right, even beone of the biggest influences for sure.
Absolutely Stokely. Let me come backto you. If anyone knows anything about
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the history of Rick James, andyou and I both know knows that there
is a complex and complicated story tobe told. It goes to dark places.
How did you go about trying togo to that dark place but not
stay there? Very carefully, veryslowly, and as I say, I
call upon the spirit of Rick Jamesevery night and I put him back,
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you know, very carefully, soto make sure that it's not integrated with
my present life. But it isdefinitely it's it is spirits. That's a
kidding aside. It's serious, youknow, I really do take it seriously.
And it's a driving embody that andnot played on the nose because he
was he was his own person.You can't replicate that. It's just an
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island. You know, nobody likedhim, but to embody the spirit of
it to make you feel like,okay, that I can give it,
that you make sure that you believeit. Ty, My word is complicated,
and I can only imagine that itmight be tell me if I'm wrong,
very complicated for you as his darkor seeing portions of his life being
brought to the screen which may evokevery specific memories or feelings. How do
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you deal with the darkness, whichI know is going to be part of
this. So that's a great question, and every show it's a challenge.
There's part that I was like,Jakarius, can we just like take this
out? And then I thought aboutit. I said, you know what,
No, we have to give thepeople what it is. You know
who he is, who he wasbecause through those mistakes also became greatness.
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So you know, we have totake the ups and the downs and literally
it's you know, it's an emotionalrollercoaster, Like I find myself in tears
every show. Honestly, stokely,I know that there are people listening right
now who don't have any firsthand memoriesof Rick James, who don't know him
beyond let's say Chappelle's show, whomay not know him beyond a sample in
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an mc hammer song unfortunately, whatwould you hope people learn about him and
his contributions to music, Because I'mtrying to educate listeners day by day by
day. They don't know nothing aboutNo Fire and Desire, They don't know
anything about the early portions of hiscareer. What do you hope people come
away with when they see you up? They come away just knowing realizing that
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he had about ten different lives beforethe rich change that we knew, you
know, the fact that he wassigned to Motown a couple of times,
one of them with Neil Young,you know, up in Canada. They
had a bunch of different groups,and there's so many I mean, he
was just a master, you know, he was just honing his craft,
going through his life, you know, having all these challenges, you know,
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and learning along the way. So, I mean, there's so much
that you know in the first actthat you're going to learn before you can
get to like the Fire and Desire, You and I Mary Jane, all
of that stuff. There's so muchmore. I mean, it's it's explosive,
it's so amazing. Ty James,I was a senior in college and
an intern at Capitol Record in nineteenninety and there was this rapper by the
name of mc Hammer who was burningup the arts because he had this song
(26:00):
called you Can't Touch This, andI said, that's super freak now without
leaning into all the legal happenings behindthe scenes, and it was eventually worked
out and it was a wild wildWest as far as sampley was concerned.
I was disheartened to know that RickJameson's only Grammy was as the quote unquote
songwriter for you Can't Touch This,because it's basically it's his song with mc
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Hammer rapping over it. When Isay that to you, what comes to
mind? Is it bittersweet? Oryou please with that? That's a very
good way to put it as totallybittersweet. You know, love EMC Hammer.
Initially it was done kind of likeunder the table, so to say,
and we had to come back andgrab it without permission. I'll say
it, yeah, under the table. I'm trying to be sweet because you
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know, Hammer is our people.We love him. And it was funny
because my dad was kind of caughtoff guard, like wait a minute,
he literally thought his song was playinguntil you know, the first what five
seconds it is like wait, okay, hold on and you know from there
it was honestly, the genius steppedin is like, okay, well let
me handle this correctly, and youknow, ultimately it worked out for us.
(27:10):
So definitely bittersweet, great record.You know, sample multi multiple times,
so it is what it is.I would like to thank my guest
Stokely, who will be starring asRick James himself in Super Freak The Rick
James Story, Jacaris Johnson, producerof Super Freak The Rick James Story,
and Ty James, the daughter ofRick James and president of the Rick James
(27:33):
Estate. Thank you one, Thankyou all. I cannot wait to see
it myself and I appreciate how youare keeping his legacy alive and also expanding
upon it. Thank you so muchfor having us. It's been fun.
Yes, I'm Moe Kelly on theBlack Information Network. Welcome back. You're
listening to the Black Perspective on theBlack Information Network. I'm your host,
Mike Island and now it's time tocheck him with Gracie Award winning news anchor
(27:57):
Esther Dillard for this week's installment ofthe Color Between the Lines. I'm mister
Dillard on the Black Information Network,chatting with writers and authors who offer an
added perspective for our listeners. Thisis the Color between the Lines on this
(28:22):
edition of the Color between the Lines. We have a special guest Royalty in
the building. Yes, Media Royalty. We're speaking with award winning ABC journalist
Deborah Roberts. Likely you recognize heras the journalist from the news magazine twenty
twenty. She's here to talk tome about her newest book, Lessons Learned
and Cherished, The teacher who changedMy life. Welcome Deborah Roberts to the
(28:45):
BIL. Thank you, Royalty.I feel like I need to go look
for a crown in my office.I know I appreciate that. Though,
Oh my goodness, I've admired youfor years. I feel like, Wow,
I get a chance to talk toher. This is awesome. I'm
looking forward to it. I lovethis book, honestly, a lot of
great gems inside. I'm so gladyou do. I see by all the
(29:07):
interviews that the pandemic was really oneof the kind of parts of the reasons
why you pushed to write this book. But I want you to explain to
the listeners what inspired you, becauseit wasn't just this one teacher, but
a lot of other people. Correct. Yeah, you know, I started
thinking about Missus Dorothy Hardy, andI started off the book talking about her,
because I've talked about her a lotover the years. When I've given
(29:30):
talks about you know, women andempowerment, or journalists and careers, or
you know, any subject that Imight be speaking on, I often will
reflect on my you know, childhoodand my growth in small town Perry,
Georgia. And Missus Dorothy Hardy was, you know, just a teacher who
had such an impact on me becauseof the fact that she demanded excellence and
I decided I wanted to raise riseto the occasion and she raised the bar
(29:52):
and I wanted to be a partof it. And so when I think
about Missus Hardy and how you know, and I say in the book,
and I've said it when I've talkedto you people in that so the nexcent
and she said to me she thoughtI was a smart girl. I just
thought, wow, Missus Hardy seessomething in me. And that was the
one thing that I noticed with somany people when I talked to them about
their teachers. It was always thisstory about somebody who saw something in them
(30:15):
that they may not have seen,or they may not have had the courage
to really acknowledge, or you know, just you know, at a moment
when they needed it. And that'swhat good teachers do, and those who
change lives really do spark dreams andexcitement because they saw something. I mean,
don't we all want somebody to seesomething in us this special? Yes?
I really got that. Yeah.I felt that all the way through
(30:37):
the book is that being seen wasso important. Oprah Winfrey said that in
one of her pieces. In fact, I love the fact that you had
so many big names. You had, Oprah, you have Spike Lee,
you have Misty colpland Gail King,Rosie Perez, just like Robin Roberts.
Yes, and your husband even hemade an appearance too. I couldn't like
(31:00):
write the book without it, Iwould never I would never heard the end
of it. Did you have atough time convincing them to contribute? You
know what? What surprised me whenI got this idea that I wasn't going
to just I mean, I didn'thave enough of my own experiences to fuel
the book, and I thought Ican talk about some of my teachers.
But then I thought, wouldn't itbe cool to hear from other people about
their experiences, because it didn't takemuch to just like start talking to somebody
(31:22):
about a teacher and they would start, you know, going on about their
teacher. So almost anybody I raninto if I ran into Christy Turlington Burns
at Good Morning America. She waswalking out after doing a segment about maternal
health and that's her big passion.She's an activist. And I said,
Christy, I'm doing this book andI'm talking about teachers. She's like missus
Dane, Oh my gosh. AndI said, would you talk to me
about missus Dane? Absolutely absolutely letme know when there's a good time.
(31:45):
Danielle Blew, the celebrity French chefwho happens to be a friend. I
was talking to him about it andhe says, oh my gosh, my
teacher and Leo and friends. Youknow, he starts talking to me about
that teacher. Everybody got so enthused. Tom and I think people got to
kick out of stepping back and rememberingthat moment. When are those moments when
(32:06):
things changed for them? So Ihad no trouble whatsoever, and if anything,
at a certain point I had tosay, okay, I've got to
cut myself off. I've got togather the stories I've gathered and turn it
into a book, because I cankeep talking and asking all day. Viola
Davis had said yes, but wecouldn't quite find the time because she was
traveling. But you know, OctaviaSpencer said yes, and we found the
time, and so everybody just saidyes, yes, yes, I would
(32:27):
love to do this, and itwas a matter of just finding the time,
and every time I just would sitthere just, you know, just
basking in the glow of these stories. I love the fact that many of
the folks who contributed said that theyreally felt that teachers are undervalued these days.
And based on your conversations and youknow, with others, what do
you think that they think that canchange that? Well, you know what,
(32:52):
listen, I don't think anybody wouldsay that we are policy analysts and
we are not the solution to it. But I think everybody seemed to because
I would always ask at the veryend of what they would say to teachers
and what their message is. Andyou know, Spike Lee talked about that
too, about you know, showingthem the value, and we really don't
really show the teachers the value Ithink that more than anything else, we've
(33:13):
got to try to use our voicesto highlight this crisis that we're in right
now in education. Teachers are feelingundervalued. They're leaving the profession at record
rates. They've got a fifty yearkind of low in terms of job satisfaction
that they report sixty thousand teachers lefttheir jobs here in the US last year
alone, and knows what that numberis going to be like this year.
(33:34):
There was an article in Time magazinejust recently earlier that said, it's even
bleaker for teachers than you thought.You know, the teachers are feeling,
like, you know, so muchas being demanded of them, and so
little is being offered to them,and not just about pay, even though
their pay has been flat for afew decades. The landscape is really pretty
tough right now for teachers. They'reup against it. They're dealing with kids
who've come out of the pandemic distracted, many of them, you know,
(33:58):
traumatized depending on what they've been through. So they're dealing with a lot.
And I think we have got tosee this as an issue, whether it's
on a local level, a statelevel, or federal level, we all
have or so many of us dohave children in school. My kids are
graduated and I have a son incollege. But we all have some connection
to I think teachers in education,in schools, and I think we need
(34:19):
to use our voices to say thismatters. It's important. We need to
do something in our communities that prioritizeteachers, whether you've been the ear of
your state and local representatives or afederal government and write about it. But
I also mentioned in the book,and we can get to this later if
you'd liked, but I mentioned waysthat you can help teachers. Now,
you know, there's an organization calledDonors Choose where you can actually prioritize helping
(34:42):
teachers acquire the supplies that they needfor their classrooms. Because we all know
teachers go into their own pockets tosupply so much of what they need for
students and for their classes. SoI think we just need to see this
as a priority. I mean,yes, it's great for us to remember
all of these great memories of ourteachers, but we need to say,
we need to recognize that they needus right now. They yes, absolutely
(35:05):
do. And I think that also, you know, you also some of
the folks mentioned to just trying toget other people into the profession in college
is a challenge, So did youfind that as well. Well. Spike
Lee talked about going into it becausehe had relatives who had been teachers and
he just felt it was important.I mean, he's a successful director,
but he wanted to pass something onto the other students, and that's one
(35:27):
of the reasons that he teaches,and he talks about seeing that light go
off in the head of a studentwho you know, gleaned something because of
what he said. Octavia Spencer isinvolved in an organization, kind of a
grassroots organization in her community, highlightingteachers and it's all about just sort of
finding a way to give back locally. So a number of the people that
I spoke with, you know,talked about ways, small ways that they
(35:50):
have found to try to contribute atleast on some level and to try to
give something back to teachers. ButI think more than anything else, we've
all got to sort of do ourpart. And I know, you know,
it's not realistic to think we're goingto go out there and try to
volunteer and go to the school boardmeetings and make a big stink about it,
But I think that we need tofind ways to prioritize. I mean,
you know, when you read anarticle in your community about what's happening
(36:13):
with your schools, or you knowthere's a shortage of teachers this next year,
trying to get teachers to actually comeinto the profession. I think that's
an opportunity for you to reach out. I have a brother, an older
brother who's retired military, who wasa substitute teacher for a while because he
felt that, you know, blackmen needed to show up in the profession
that is largely dominated by women,and sort of show kids and particularly boys,
(36:35):
you know, a way that theycan sort of be be strong and
be held accountable. And he wantedto leave an imprint on them. He's
not doing it anymore, but hedid that for a while because he felt
that the community needed him. SoI think we all need to look for
ways to sort of reach out toour communities to show teachers that they matter.
Well, this is a lovely Jim. You've won countless awards for many,
many things over the years. You'vebeen around the world. What is
(37:00):
for you? Oh, oh,oh my gosh, what's next for me?
Well? I want to keep sellingthis book, that's one thing,
and I want to think about somethingelse, another book maybe to write.
But in the meantime, I justam enjoying being at the Helm of twenty
twenty co anchoring this program with DavidMuir. It's a program that I've been
at for, you know, morethan twenty years. Barbara Walters recruited me
to come here and to be ableto now be in this position with David
(37:22):
to co host the show has beengreat. Looking for stories and opportunities to
sort of shine a light on subjectslike this or even other subjects that are
important. I mean, that's certainlysomething that I'm going to keep focusing on.
And then outside of this, Idon't know, we'll see. I
just I can't sit still. I'vealways got all kinds of projects going.
(37:43):
So I'll be working on maybe anotherbook at some point, trying to think
about something else that interests me.But I don't know. We'll see what
the next project is. But fornow, I'm going to be working on
my report for twenty twenty this Fridaynight awesome, Well, thank you,
Deborah Robert. Too few or wonderful, and the book is wonderful. Again,
thank you for joining us on thebion. So happy to be with
you. Thank you. Yeah.That's it for this edition of The Color
(38:05):
Between the Lines. The book isLessons Learned and Cherished the tea shirt who
changed My life. I'm mister Dillardfrom the Black Information Network. Thanks Esther.
The Black Information Network has an amazingteam of commentators who bring their unique
(38:27):
perspectives to stories impacting the black community. Earlier in today's program, we heard
from news commentator Moe Kelly. NowRoland Martin joins us to discuss another topic
trending in this week's news. Americaand Black of America lost a freedom fighter
today with the passing of Reverend JamesLawson, Junior. Many people may not
(38:47):
even know who he is, andthe funny thing is that's exactly like he
wanted it. It was Reverend JimLawson who really understood and grasped the principles
of Gandhi in nonviolence. It wasReverend Jim Lawson who led the Nashville movement
that trained civil rights workers like JohnLewis, Ctvivian and Diane ash. It
(39:10):
was Reverend Jim Lawson, who isa pastor in Memphis, organized and stood
with black sanitation workers. It wasReverend Jim Lawson who was the one who
placed the call to Reverend doctor MartinLuther King, Junior for him to come
to Memphis. If you listened todoctor King's final sermon at Mason Temple on
(39:31):
April third, nineteen sixty eight,you would hear him reference Reverend Jim Lawson.
In my conversation with reverd Lawson,he said to me that my last
image of Martin was Martin and thepulpit and me sitting on the last pew
in the church. He said,I was where I was, and Martin
was where he was supposed to be. He chose not to become a civil
(39:54):
rights entertainer or a civil rights legend. He was all about the work.
He was a towering figure in avery small body. Folks, if you
want to really understand what leadership is, study the life of Reverend doctor Jim
(40:14):
Lawson. Rest in peace, mybrother. I'm Roland Martin. On the
Black Information Network, be sure tocatch Roland Martin, James T. Harris,
and Moe Kelly for exclusive daily commentaryon the Black Information Network and now
the Black Information Networks. Tyreek winnsits down with gospel artist Diedrich Haddn't to
talk about his new album One Nightin California, Reality TV, and so
(40:36):
much more. Tyrek What to do? Guys, It's Tyreek Win on your
Home for twenty four to seven News, the Black Information Network on iHeartRadio.
Appreciate y'all so much tuning in.We got an amazing guest in the studio
today. We got the bet yourHadden man, Tyreek, How you feeling,
Man, I can't call it.They'd working me down. They work
it from sun up to sundown man. Trying to get the word out.
(40:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, gotta putit in that work though, you got
to put in work. Artists don'tput in work, no more likely what
we used to. You know whatI'm saying. We hide behind social media,
but it's people that made you whoyou are. You got to remember
you got to go touch to people. Every campaign that any presidential candidate is
on, they start with people kissingbabies, hugging folks, going into the
businesses and we got to go backto that. Yeah, not as that's
(41:17):
definitely factual, especially like now sincewe out the pandemic. You know what
I'm saying, Outside, we outsidewe were. We were in scared too
behind everything asking there, but weout man, and we really out everybody's
on tour, and people learned alot of artists like all of y'all is
on going on tour. Man,we're just snatching everybody's money. Man,
take everybody. But people look atbut they're going, they're going. They
(41:40):
lets you know how powerful the musicindustry is. Uh is and people want
it. They want a good show. Yeah. I was like, why
you think every like literally everybody isgoing on tour now. It's the season,
man, it's the season because wewent through a season where nobody could
tour. All the promoters weren't makingmoney because that's how they make the money.
The promoters weren't making money, theartists weren't making the money, and
(42:00):
so now we got to make upfor lost time. So everybody's on tour
now. The problem is, whereare you going? If DJ's on tour,
ties on tour just for Fred's Kirks, the clark sists are doing double
tours with Fred. It's like,where do you go? So it's and
we're pulling from the same group ofpeople. When it comes to the gospel
music industry, it's the same group, so we got to be careful of
that, about oversaturating and overdoing it. But it's a wonderful thing because we
(42:23):
get to make that money. Youmake the most of your money to both
of your money through touring and doingshows. So that's a wonderful thing.
Yeah. Man, So let's talkabout this tour man. So this is
in partnership with McDonalds the Shaller,So they pay for all the tickets and
that's what it's free. Okay,there's no excuse. But man, they've
been standing around the building all theway down. They've been coming shout out
(42:45):
to all even okay see. Ithought okay see would be kind of light.
Yeah. Man, they packed thatthing out. You know Texas,
they will come out of Texas.But okay see, man, they don't
get a lot of gospel concerts.That's what I'm saying. Okay see,
shout out to okay see. Butthey show love and it showed us that
they want more gospel or just tocome. So yeah, it's a beautiful
thing. So talk about this newalbum. One Night in California. One
(43:07):
Night in California is my best albumperiod, and that's hard to say.
I know. I know it's astretch because I got a lot of records
out there. But I can say, is there's something different about this because
I approached it more like a mixtape, And so I'm just saying what's really
on my heart. I'm not tryingto be correct and be dance around with
these political people and religious people.I'm just I'm just saying what's really on
my heart, man, And soI'm feeling this one. You know,
(43:30):
when I make a record, Iride around for a good like three or
four months, man, just listeningto the music to make sure that I'm
getting the same feeling every time Ilisten to it. That's very important as
a part of delivering to you agreat record, man. You got to
get that feeling. And if Ican get blessed over and over again just
listening and sonically right, and youknow the vocals are there and everything.
(43:52):
I know that when it hits yourhouse and when you get it, when
you play it on the radio,it's going to be incredible. So the
problem is my family have to dealwith that. Every time I get in
the car, do I'm playing Okay, when is this song coming out?
Did you just reallysic? So wecould be done with it, you know.
But that's what they have to do. They have to listen to all
(44:12):
the music once we do it becauseI run it by my family. I
got a twelve year old, gota ten year old, got eight year
old. I run it by them, then my wife, you know,
so they got they they're the ones. They're my gauge to see if the
songs are good or not. Canyou tell me what does it take to
make a good song? Well,you got to be clear and on purpose
with what you're trying to convey andwho you're talking to and how you're going
(44:35):
to corral that audience together on yourhook. Your hook is what hooks everybody
in to pull them together to singit together. If you can get everybody
singing and dancing together. The hookcould be the beat, it could be
the melody, it could be thelyric. And once you hook them in,
you got a great song. Youknow. And I think a lot
of songs that are inspired by what'sgoing on in the culture. It works.
It works like a lot of Ithink the reason why a lot of
(44:58):
drinks and Kendrick Lamar songs are andright now because we all into the beef
the disc you know, like whogonna win? You know what I'm saying.
But in the meantime, they're hookingus in with these you know,
you know what I'm saying of yourlife. You know, kids are going
in so now we all they seewalking up there, you know, and
he got unlooked, you know.So, but it's all inspired by a
real beef that's going on between tworappers. Yeah, yeah, man,
(45:22):
I'm glad. I'm glad that youmentioned that. And so doing gospel music,
right, why did you? Obviouslyyou know, at first you decide
you wanted to be an artist,But why did you decide to do gospel?
It's a calling, man, it'sa calling. Sometimes I question myself
that asks myself the same question,why did I decide to do this to
fight with these people? The religiouspeople? Everything I do. They got
(45:42):
a problem with what I'm wearing,They got a problem with what I'm saying.
They got a problem with what I'mdoing just being a human being.
That's the toughest audience to have.When people say things like he trying to
be a rock start all this stuff. It bothers me to the core because
if I wanted to, I couldhave done it. I turned down four
major record deals. You know whatI'm saying. You get past all the
religious stuff, the drama of allthat, But lives have been touched through
my music down through the years,and so we got to give respect to
(46:06):
that. Yeah, that's good man. And hey, when you I mean,
when you sing it for the Lord, you can't go wrong. You
can't go wrong, man, becauseyour reward is in heaven exactly. You
know what I'm saying that It's biggerthan just money and stuff down here is
about touching lives. And if youcan, what's a greater reward? Man?
When I hear testimonies like this,man, I ran into a guy
who was a twenty five year vet. He was in a wheelchair for whatever
(46:27):
happened to him, and his wifewas standing there talking to me with him,
he said, But he was standingstrong. He said, man,
you don't know. I wanted tocommit suicide, and then I wanted to
commit suicide. Your song I NeedYour Help from your Revealed album played and
I decided not to kill myself.He said, no, look at me
now I'm walking. He had abig old truck full of food feeding hungry.
This is a twenty five year vetbro. Yeah, he said,
(46:49):
that's why I came to the listeningparty to meet you and tell you face
to face that your music has changedmy life. That's great. So what's
greater than that? A Grammy?Greater than that? No, no,
no, no, no no no, a record to say you got a
secular record? Deal, No,no that right there? Saving lives,
man is the most important thing,and that's why we sing gospel music.
(47:13):
Yeah. But my purpose behind allthis is to reach people, man,
reach young people, touch lives,stop them in their tracks, say something,
saying something with so much conviction thatat the moment when they need to
make a decision, it make themmake the right decision. That's the power
of the gospel. That's amazing.Man, when you hear those testimonies,
how does that make you feel personally? Like it's not been in vain and
(47:37):
like your work. You've been puttingin work and you're doing what you're called
to do. And it's not abouthow many followers you have, it's not
about how many awards you have.It's about that right there. That's the
assignment to touch lives, man,to pull people together, you know,
pull them in when the enemy istrying to tell them to do something else.
You right there, God's using yourvoice, your song to help people.
(47:59):
Yeah, and you talked about histestimony, but just imagine the ones
you ain't heard yet. You know, you're not gonna hear all of them.
And I had to be and Iwas on the road. I had
to be on the road to meetthese people to even ever hear that.
You see what I'm saying, Andso that's why I'm saying artists, get
out there, man, and meetyour people. And at the right moment,
God used your song to help somebody, but you would never meet them
if you're hiding behind social media andjust promoting on that way. You got
(48:22):
to go out and touch people.Wo Yeah, get gotta get out there.
Got to reach the community, man, that's important. That's the bottom
line. Good advice, yes,sir so. But yeah, man,
this has been great. Congratulations everythingyou got going on. Man, definitely
appreciate you so much of coming inAnd guys that where can people check out
the tour dates and get tickets goingto I gotta way toward dot com.
(48:43):
I got away toward dot com andget your free ticket for the next tour
date. But you can also followme on d Hattie Blue Check there d
Hattie d h A d d YDietrich had on Facebook on x Dietrich Hadding
got the blue check there. Youcan't miss me and all the wonderful things.
Also, you can download my brandnew album on my birthday. Your
downloading your stream will be a birthdaygift to me. So thank you so
(49:04):
much in advance. That's amazing man. Like I said, definitely appreciate it.
Appreciate you so much to coming in, and guys, appreciate y'all so
much for tuning in. Make surey'all stay tuned into the Black Information Network
on your home for twenty four toseven news. Peace out peace, Thanks
Tyreek and to listen to the fullextended interview with Ddrich Hadden, go to
bimnews dot com. Our very ownDoug Davis is back with another Black Music
(49:28):
Month interview. Remember songs like Backstabbers, I Love Music, Stairway to Heaven.
Man, I get chills just thinkingabout those incredible songs. Well,
Doug has a special guest with uswho is intimately tied to the iconic group
the OJS. Doug. Hey,Thanks Mike, this is Doug Davis and
we continue to celebrate the many contributionsBlack Americans have made to our rich musical
(49:49):
culture here in the US. Juneis Black Music Month, and I have
the pleasure to speak with Eddie LavertJunior, son of the legendary Eddie LeVert,
senior lead singer of the iconic soulgroup the OJS, here to share
some stories about growing up in afamily of entertainers. Eddie, Welcome to
the b I n H. Canyou share how your father's early experiences and
(50:09):
inspiration shape the unique sound and messageof the OJS. Well, you know,
a lot of the of the musicthat they were coming out went into
the beginning and when they signed withthe Gambling Huff in Philadelphia and National were
written by Gambling Huff about of thatthemes that they were speaking as far as
(50:32):
the the backstaders and the things thatthey did with the social conscious bone right,
because we were coming out of theCivil rights era at that time.
Yeah, so you know that alot of the messages were in the music,
as they say, right, thatwas how we did as the people
to get around. The music wasthe back in the day when the slaves.
(50:58):
That's how they community a lot throughthe music, So the same thing
with the music of the seventies,and a lot of that was communication on
how things were going for us asa people, so that the music definitely
helped shape some of the public thoughtsin America right growing up in that era.
(51:19):
You know, with your father,what are some of the memories some
of the things that you remember most, you know about being a child,
you know, seeing and witnessing oneof the greatest R and B groups that
ever ever did it? Man,man, just the fan fan and just
just going on stage and watching thembefore him, and watching the way that
(51:42):
women would actively the crowds and it'sjust you know, it's just it was
different. You know, it waslike, wow, this is what my
daddy does for a living. Youget to do this every night. Those
days were like incredible performance. Man, they capture the crowd and just have
them just crazy, man all theway into now they still got the they
(52:06):
not got the moves that they do, but they still capture the crowd.
Man. The songs, you know, the songs, you know, the
songs can't be set. So it'slike, you know, you know,
so we always great music. Yeah, yeah, for sure. How does
your dad view the Ojay's legacy rightnow and it's influenced on the music industry.
(52:28):
It's a whole different you know,today's music is it's not really no
more groups as for Safe as tothe nineties, who are really the maybe
the leather part of the earlier partof the two thousand, but then it's
really been no real groups to comelike the groups that have been around.
(52:49):
The new editions, the one twelveand those gaps can still work right now
due to people like those days,like the Whispers, you know, those
kind of groups. They keep theirfan base, you know, and the
longest and then even my kids andmy grandkids just got just because that they
rand daddy, but they enjoyed thatmusic too, because that's what they grew
(53:12):
up on. So the long laughingeffect of the music, I think it
always been around. Yeah, yeah, for sure. What was it like
for your dad to work with youand your brothers and Lavert, you know,
and how does that experience kind ofcompare to his time with the Ojason
Well, you know, he kindof let us fall on our heads a
couple of times before he really gotinvolved to see how seriously were you know
(53:36):
what I'm saying. We used tohave to do our own gigs and book
our own things set up, Igo to the show. But then when
he saw that we were serious,then he came in and he got with
Harry Coombs. So that's when LeVertgot the first deal with Tim Free and
they put out I'm still and thenwe went on eventually to get to deal
with Hank cock Well at the last, but he was definitely in rationed on
(54:00):
whipping the whip on us after that. May get sure that you know,
we were doing all the things tostay around and be successful right there because
we saw the bumps in the roadwhere things didn't go right all the time,
whether okay, and any group hastheir ups and downs, because you
(54:21):
know, in those times it wasabout today hit, you know, and
then you have to you have towork to get those spots because there was
so much competition back in the seventyand eighties. If you went over the
top twenty five tons of the jets, right, he wasn't getting to report
back right. So you know,they went through a lot of different things
(54:44):
with politically. You know, atone time they got banned from a lot
of stuff because they were one ofthe first acts to go to South Africa.
Okay, so hold on the bannedfrom doing US shows because they went
to South Africa. Yeah, noton the US shows, But like ye'll
never noticed back in the day thosedays, really never was on many award
(55:07):
shows, any the Grammys or theAmerican Music Awards. You can look back
in the history see how many timesyou ever saw them on any of those
shows or even getting those awards,and it's not been too you know,
they got banned from a lot ofthings in the in the history of UH
(55:30):
because of their going to South Africa. Wow. Yeah, yeah, man,
because you know, PARTI was stillin in the seventies. You know,
it was still you know, theystill didn't want that connected with US
and our people over there, youknow what I'm saying. So you know,
they even went as far as theplant things on the plane when they
was trying to come back, theyblew up the promoter's car and it just
(55:54):
was a lot. Yeah, theywent through a few things back in the
day. Dad asked this question,but I think it's it's an important one
regarding the tragic losses of Gerald andSeawan. Yeah, how did that affect
your father and your family personally andprofessionally, definitely personally, you know,
(56:14):
that was that was that was itwas because it was all unexpected. You
know. It wasn't like they weresick, sick and nothing like that,
you know what I'm saying. Itwas you know, Gerald passed from mixed.
You know, he had heard hisleg and he was taking team medison
and he had went and got toovercount of medison and then it didn't click
(56:35):
and he had a heart attack.You know. So that was that was
just a blow to us a lotof ways, financially mentally, and then
then eighteen months later they gonna start, you know, and it was just
a tragic situation on my dad really, you know, he was, oh
my god, I couldn't imagine howhe was really killing and lose two sons
(57:02):
at eighteen months behind. Come onthat. You know, it hurt him
a lot. You know. Manjust came South Africa too. That that
was another thing. They was justtogether. I've got a couple of really
fond memories of interacting with Gerald.I remember the first time I interviewed him,
I had ordered some chicken wings andthey brought him to the studio.
(57:23):
While the interview was playing. Hewas like, oh, Man, you
got some chicken wings. And afterthe interview we got down, I shared
the wings together. Man, wetapped it up. Yeah, man,
it was it. It was socool. I'm like, man, I'm
eating chicken wings with Gerald of Vert. Oh my god. And so when
he performed that night, he said, hey, man, come back and
talk to me after the show.Man, we'll hang out, you know
(57:45):
what I'm saying. And so Iwas like, okay, cool, So
I go and I had met,you know, the managers and folks before,
but they wouldn't let me back.And then Gerald had walked by.
He was like, hey, man, let that brother back. Man.
He shared some chicken wings. Man. So we went back and we partied,
man, and had a good timethat night. Man. That's what
thing man, I could say.My brothers were real, and they got
(58:07):
a lot of to say because theywere real, and it was never no
phoniness, you know what I'm saying. You know a lot of these people
getting made positions and then they forgetwith how they came up or the struggle
that it was to get there.They didn't want to turn it back to
talk to people crazy that that's notwhat we do. You know what I'm
saying, weep. We had tokeep respect each other so we could.
(58:30):
You know, a lot of peopleright now in a lot of trouble,
but just because of the way theytreated people, and nobody comes to they
backing now. You know what I'msaying, I will say no names to
people. It's very true. Imean, that is very true. And
that's what I really loved about Geraldis that he was a real homeboy man,
you know. Yeah, and onthat level, you know, yeah,
(58:51):
man, And nobody, anybody thatwas around him knows that he loved
to have laughed. We love tohave fun and talk crazy and you know,
be real with everybody, you know. Eddie Lavert Junior, thank you
so much for sharing some of yourprecious memories about your father and growing up
and being part of the Ojay's legacy. We appreciate you. Brother. It's
(59:12):
Black Music Month. I'm Doug Davison The Black Perspective. Thanks Doug,
and that's our program for this week. For more on these stories, listen
to the Black Information Network on thefree iHeartRadio app or log onto Bionnews dot
com for all of the latest newsimpacting the black community. Also, be
sure to follow us on social mediaat Black Information Network and on x at
Black Info Net. I'm Mike Island, wishing everyone a great Sunday, had
(59:37):
a great Father's Day weekend. Thanksfor joining us, and be sure to
tune in next week at this timefor another edition of the Black Perspective right
here on the Black Information Network
It's Father's Day weekend, June sixteenth, and today we honor the fathers in
our lives. We'll also continue ourcelebration of black music in June with Moe
Kelly, Tia James, and singerStokely from Mint Condition discussing the Rick James
stage play. Super Freak News anchorVanessa Tyler shares her conversation with pioneering music
executive Angelo Elderb and Tyreek Win sitsdown with gospel artist Diedrich Hadden. These
(00:24):
stories and more are coming your waynext. Welcome to the Black Perspective.
I'm your host, Mike Island.Welcome to the Black Perspective, a weekly
community affairs program on the Black InformationNetwork featuring interviews and discussions on issues important
to the black community. Good Sundayto everyone, and a special welcome to
all the black fathers in our community. Happy Father's Day and thanks for joining
(00:45):
us for today's edition of The BlackPerspective on the Black Information Network. When
you think of the music greats,their success is made possible by people you
don't even see on stage. DuringBlack Music Month the Black Information Networks,
Vanessa Tyler goes behind the scenes andis a music management legend. Michael Jackson
(01:11):
is the king of pomp, butAngelo Ellerby is the king of making black
music happen. He's bad, AngeloEllerby. Welcome to the Black Perspective.
Wow, what a wonderful introduction.I have to bring you along every time
I go out. Thank you.It's my pledge of being with you.
Reopened with playing a bit of MichaelJackson, but I could have started with
(01:34):
Mary J. Blige. Babe,There's no need, sir, as far
as I include, I've been calm, My mom's in, so you don't
not worry or cooling the gang?Do you want to get out? What
you gonna? Do you want toget out? Or how about legends like
(01:57):
Dion Warwick? I am too.May The list of entertainers you've had your
hand in developing is mind blowing.Tell me which names I missed? Whitney
(02:22):
Houston, Alicia Keynes, Drew Hill, Aaron Clark, Shear, Donald,
Lawrence, Patra Cobra, Shava,Beverly Sills, Laura Brannigan, the Keith
Brothers. Sometimes I forget, butI think Laarl Paine from the Cosmy Show,
(02:43):
and then from Martin Antonio Fargus,the actor, the veteran actor.
Uh yeah, So the list goeson and on and on and on.
And I did a lot of filmstoo. I did the American gangster film
with Frank God blessing me passed away, I think about it two years ago.
Uh. Then I worked on thefive films that DMX did, which
was Exit Wounds. Here DMX starsand Exit Wounds the plot bringing down dirty
(03:08):
cops. A lot of people talkabout police corruption, but no one ever
sees it. And I worked inthe capacity other not just his manager and
his publicists, but I worked inconjunction with as a producer on a lot
of his films. I have beenvery, very blessed to stay within an
(03:28):
industry for fifty five years. Ithink we have covered every gendre of music
where you even worked with Beverly Sills. So there's no genre of music the
(03:50):
double exposure has not handled. Itake every particular artist like a pattering clean
up, pattering pie, making surethat Because my degree is in designs,
so I look at everything as apattern, and I want to make sure
that we designed something special for eachand every client. I want to make
(04:13):
sure that my see it. Mysisters are sharpening correctly. My charp paper
are there, and I have tocome up with something that is going to
be eyegadgy and all respects by eachparticular artist. Your company, double Exposure
is legendary in the industry, andwhen I ask what role did you play,
you just told me you you knowsoup, the nuts you do from
(04:33):
head to toe everything I used tolook at it. I used to tell
people my company was like a onestop kind of shops, like a supermarket.
Get your cart, go down theaisle and pick out what you want
to pick out. I'm most proudof my artist's development program because it short
and educated, stimulated, and motivatedor motivated young minds to the awareness of
(04:57):
their commitment that they have made asan artist and as a business person.
I'm more into the business of musicthan I am into the creative end of
it because I think people who looklike me have a problem of understanding what
whens, wheares and whys of themusic industry. I believe that these young
(05:18):
kids don't understand the importance of forone, das K or social Security benefits.
All of the things that they're workingfor and all the things that they're
doing now is their retirement money,and I try to get them to understand
the importance of selecting the correct team. You want to get experts at what
(05:39):
they do, because that is onlygoing to bring back revenue to you.
What do you look for in takingon a new client. Oh, what
I look for and taking on anew client is a very good conversation.
That's my first thing. It's notabout the dollars and cents at this stage
of the game. For me,it's about the commitment that I'm willing to
make to the artists. It's goingto take a conversation, and the conversation
(06:02):
is not just with the artists.Once me and the artists have re understand
each other, but then I wantto meet your mother, I want to
meet your father. If you're married, I want to meet your wife.
Because I really don't necessarily read bios. I don't believe in reading bios.
I try to get the bio,the bio from the everyday experience of that
(06:25):
artist. Bottom line, for AngeloEllerby, it is about knowing the music
business. Your long, jeffvity isgood ten years and if you're fabulous,
it could go forever. Let's justlook to say that you're not fabulous let's
just say that you got ten goodyears and then wonder that we hear so
much. That's very true, andthat's why you have to go and planning
(06:46):
your victory because you don't know ifyou're going to have another it or another
it. So it becomes a businessteaching them the importance about investments, teaching
them about mannerisms and sitting at atable and understanding and what it takes when
in a relationship at dinner table,I'm speaking in the addiction and speech and
(07:08):
the tonalities become very very important tome because that person on the other side
as a newfound respect where you whenyou're looking good and you're sounding good,
and you're speaking and making the kindof negotiations that make sense and if done
right, a music career can lasta lifetime. That's our dinorosis of the
(07:29):
day at eighty years old, stillworking. That's how Dion Worrick's and to
day, there's the novel mores,it's the Patica bills, It's it's the
Glatis Knights. And this is whatI want young people to understand. I
pour in a certain energy. I'mnot just the publicist. I know that
I'm not just the publicist, becausewhen I get involved, they may come
to me for PR. But whenI get involved, I'm doing marketing,
(07:55):
and I'm doing video shoots, andI'm setting up photo shoots, and I'm
doing all all these things because that'sthat vision that I have and I want
them to come out right. Iwant them to look exquisite. June is
Black Music Month. What is thestate of Black music today? There is,
for me, been a demise inthe music industry. I think our
(08:16):
young kids are understanding the importance ofbecoming their own young executives and starting their
own companies, and starting their ownproduction companies. Everything today seems to be
ruled by social media. In myday, in my time, it was
about the talent, about going inand sitting down talking to an A and
(08:37):
R person and them developing a soundwith you and signing you. Today it's
about your numbers in social media.Originality is so very important for me.
We don't need no more copycats.If we have a phenomenal Beyonce, we
don't need another phenomenal Beyonce. Ifwe have an incredible Mary J. Blot,
(09:00):
we need another one. Be original, be who you are well.
In addition to running your PR marketingcompany. You are also a record company
executive. I asked you about thestate of black music, what about black
music companies? You are an Islanddef JAM, but I think of institutions
like Motown and now, of course, what will happen to bad Boy Records
(09:20):
in light of Ditty's problems. Yeah, so yes, I was over at
Island Black Music as a senior vicepresident and then I went to Christmast Records.
So I went to Christmas Records firstas a senior direct up publicity.
It has changed immensely, is totallytotally changed, while it still remains the
(09:41):
same. Black people are not gettingwhat their work is and white folks are
taking with their work is I cannotget into the celebration of fifty years of
hip hop. What bothers him mostMany of the originators of hip hop didn't
get paid. Now fifty years older, as elderly Black men women, they
are left with a memory, maybesome bragging rights. All moneies are generated
(10:05):
to go through the record companies andthey're getting the dollar incent Those people who
are sitting in executive positions are gettingpoints off of their music because they signed
them. I don't have a problemwith people getting paid. But I also
have a problem with the artists andthe time of the original music, original
(10:26):
music, which was rap music.They try to shut it down fifty years
ago. Fifty years ago, theytried to shut it all down because they
did not understand it. They didn'tsee the various divisions and sounds and concept
of music. Now you're celebrated,I could not celebrate it. I don't
(10:46):
find that the people who were theoriginators of this are receiving their bonuses from
this music. Everybody wants to beboisterous to get on TV. Oh yeah,
yeah, we's money. Do youhave? How you living? How's
your mother live? What did youlearn in this? Did you grow from
(11:07):
this? Which is why Angelo Ellerbyis so passionate about telling anyone getting into
the music game to have the rightpeople, the right advice, staples of
the trade. It took him fiftyyears to acquire half a century of knowledge.
Is in his latest book, BeforeI Let You Go. I think
mentorship is really important. I thinkthat's really all about where my book is
at this point. But I thinkit's really about selecting that right mentor.
(11:31):
You have been so instrumental in guidingso many successful people, and you've mentioned
your book and you've been writing itdown for us little people. Tell me
about your latest book before I letgo, and may I ask, is
that a take from a song fromone of your legendary clients, the amazing
(11:52):
Frankie Beverly. It is not atake from Frankie Beverly. Why I adore
this man and I think you sentjust an incredible person. I went through
many health issues this year. Iwent through health issues for about maybe seven
to eight months, not understanding ifI was going to be here or not
be here. And so my thingwas, I can't all of what I've
(12:15):
worked for my own entire life.I can never ever take any of those
things with me. And so whatI wanted to leave for all of the
people who have been supportive of mefor these fifties some nine years. I
wanted to leave them jewels. Iwanted to give them a gift, and
the gifts as in the book,I wanted to give them lessons, life
lessons. And I thought that Iwould be such a great example to begin
(12:39):
the life lessons. I speak aboutcoming and growing up in the city of
Nork as a gay black male.I speak of my mother who had an
eighth grade education and was a waitress. I talk about my sisters who won.
Two are drug addicts. I talkabout many defeats, and then I
tell them, men, somewhere inthe near of the book, you can
(13:03):
you can come through this as well. You can really be who you want
to be. Angelo Ellerby has seenit all. His experience is long,
his faith is strong. I believethat God is so great and he makes
his children great. There are mirrorsof who God is. You're great,
You're greater, and then you becomethe greatest. If you stay in your
(13:24):
path, if you share, ifyou give, I think that that's These
are some of the craziest things aboutthis life that we live. We don't
understand the importance to get back.My thought is, stop being so ambitious
and be ambitious. So many timespeople don't want to have an appreciation of
(13:48):
somebody else's success. My thing is, if you're in the race, you
might as well stay in the race. Eventually you'll win. But if you
come out of the race in doubt, you come out of the race and
fear your loser. It takes thesame energy to stay in is to get
(14:09):
out, So why won't you stayin and complete your task right. I
find that to be so important.It was one of the lessons that I
learned from my mom, and Ithink growing up with my brothers and sisters,
we had to be contributors, andwe had to share, and we
had to share with one another.We got to really get into the importance
(14:30):
of giving back to each other.You know. I pray every day forty
five minutes, every single day ofmy life and ask for the majority of
my life because I believe that ifhe can give me twenty four hours,
I can give him forty five minutesof my day. I am thankful.
I am so thankful. I havenever did anything else but what I did
still to this day andrel Ellerby believesto who much is given, much is
(14:54):
expected. Part of the proceeds fromthe book before I Let You Go,
will go to pull up others behindhim. What we're doing now is we're
doing free sales of the book fromMay until July. The book is released
in August. A dollar from thebook goes to HIV and AIDS. I'm
from the city of Nork. Norkis the largest city in the state of
(15:16):
New Jersey, and there is alot of strange things that are going on
in the city of Nork as itrelates to HIV and AIDS. There are
children being let out of their ownsbecause they've chosen chosen another lifestyle. Parents
and aunts and uncles are not understandingthat. So what they do is they
(15:37):
leave their homes, no places togo, and they wind up selling their
bodies and getting in trouble. Sowhat we did is we established the Angelo
lerb Foundation, and in this foundation, we're going to take three individuals a
year. We're going to take careof them for a year, give them
housing, give them three meals aday, and find out their areas of
(16:00):
situation so that they can get ajob or go to school. What's next
for Angelo Ellerby? I am workingon and creating and developing a production company
for a film and for TV.Listen, if I go out of here
today, I can't take nothing withme, that's right, So I need
to just give it away. Giveout your knowledge, give out your experiences,
(16:21):
help someone to give be better aboutthemselves. Follow Angelo Ellerby on all
platforms at double Exposure NYC. Bythe way, use double x's in the
word exposure. Well, you havegiven us so much knowledge and so much,
and I am going to call youthe legendary Angelo Ellerb. Thank you
(16:41):
for helping bring the world so muchincredible black music and so much knowledge to
our people. You're so sweet.Thank you so very much, Vanessa.
I really really appreciate you taking yourtime sit and have a conversation with me.
God bless you, God bless you. Thanks Vanessa. As Mintioned,
(17:07):
you can follow Angelo on all socialmedia platforms at Double Exposure, NYC.
We continue our Black Music Month celebrationwith Moe Kelly and his Look at the
National stage play Super Freak, starringStokely from the music group mint Condition for
the Black Information Network. I'm MoeKelly, based on Glow by Rick James
(17:29):
and David Ritson Memoirs of a superFreak by Rick James. Let me tell
you about super Freak, the RickJames Story. The stage bursts to life
in the gritty streets of Buffalo,the backdrop for the arrival of the King
of Punk Funk, mister Rick James, standing five eleven with his iconic braids
and leather clad body. Rix flamboyantand unreally stage persona takes center stage.
Super Freak and Rick James story bringsRick James this turbulent life to the stage,
(17:53):
sensual showcase of his popular hits suchas Give It to Me, Davis,
Mary Jans with Mary James, mymains the feeling, my fu and
(18:17):
of course Super Freak Carol is prettywell joining me. Now not one,
not two, but three people instrumentalin Super Freak Rick James story. I'm
talking about Jacaris Johnson, Ty James, the daughter of Rick James, and
none other than Stokely himself who willbe embodying the Rick James spirit as Rick
(18:37):
James. So let me start withyou. Some may not know of your
long history in the business as theformer lead singer of Mint Condition. Tell
me about your track in this businessagainst the backdrop of the history of Rick
James. Well, we're listening tohis music, roll Escape to his music,
you know, just getting into mysystem. We just loved it.
You know, read his books afew years ago. All these things I
(19:02):
think I didn't know at the timewere preparing me for this role. Of
course, it's one thing to singthe songs kind of you know when you
roller skating, when you shower,but after to die with the character,
it's a totally different game, atotally different game. So it's uh,
but I think everything that that Idid before brought me to this, so
you know, but I was Iwas definitely familiar with the music and the
(19:22):
energy and the pulse of it.You know, it's just lovely. Were
a big, big change of things. Yeah, we're back. Rick James
is here. Very nice, nicemeeting, and thank you for being here,
sir. This is incredible success foryou, isn't it. Yeah?
And uh a long time coming.I mean it didn't happen overnight like they
no kind of happened overnight. Itcongratulations, it was about ten years in
(19:42):
the making. Yeah. My realname is James, right, Yeah,
Rick James. My stage names JamesJohnson. James Johnson's kind of laid back
and he likes one woman at atime. Rick James, give me,
Give me, Ty James. Peoplemay not know that you are the daughter
and president of the Rick James Estate. You probably knew this man better than
(20:04):
anyone who's still living. What isit that you see and feel when you
see stokely on stage as your fatherman? Just a big overwhelming of emotion.
I feel like he's nailing it,if I can say it he's bodying
it. I feel like I'm doingmy dad justice. I feel like he's
(20:26):
looking down, he's proud, andit's just a wonderful feeling. The crowd
is enjoying it. The story's great, well produced, well written, and
everything is magnificent. Jakaris Johnson asa producer of this show, how do
you go about blending what is inhis memoir with the memory of him that
(20:47):
you may have and time may have, and also trying to make sure that
stokely is still within the pocket,as they say, because I remember Rick
James, You remember Rick James,and the world knows Rick James sometimes through
Chappelle Show, or they may knowit through just other music. I mean,
I go back with Rick James throughthe nineteen seventies. How do you
get that all together? The objectiveis to just humanize him while still keeping
(21:11):
the nostalgia of wiz. So it'sa nostalgic experience with his music and with
the Rick James that we came toknow and love in the latter years.
But it's also kind of a reimaginingand a reintroduction of Rick James to the
consumer. Because we tell you everythingyou didn't know about him, which is
the kid with a dream to makeit in the music industry and the various
(21:32):
genres of music that he went through. I mean he was He wasn't just
in funk and soul. I meanhe was rock. He was everything.
You know. So I think we'vedone a wonderful job, and I'm very
proud of the cast and the crewin Stokely for embodying and delivering that level
of versatil's Rick James, and it'sbig something. I'm glad to see here
(21:57):
Rick be here. It would beso proud of him. Your mom is
very famous. She was. Sheused to run numbers. She did My
mother was a she was a dancerand she did run numbers and she supported
eight kids on her own and shedid a great job of it. My
brother, one of the guys whoworked with me as attorney, that's my
(22:18):
brother, was one of the bestlaw schools in the country. And I
didn't turn out too bad, notbad at all. I like to know
who's making more money, the lawyeror the singer. He works for me.
Oh, ty, let me askyou this question. If Rick James
became a star in the age ofTikTok, what might have that looked like,
who might he have become? Ohmy god, universal, like the
(22:41):
greatest space, like out of thisworld, Like, yeah, that that
is something I would have loved tosee. So maybe we can still create
that, all right, even beone of the biggest influences for sure.
Absolutely Stokely. Let me come backto you. If anyone knows anything about
(23:02):
the history of Rick James, andyou and I both know knows that there
is a complex and complicated story tobe told. It goes to dark places.
How did you go about trying togo to that dark place but not
stay there? Very carefully, veryslowly, and as I say, I
call upon the spirit of Rick Jamesevery night and I put him back,
(23:23):
you know, very carefully, soto make sure that it's not integrated with
my present life. But it isdefinitely it's it is spirits. That's a
kidding aside. It's serious, youknow, I really do take it seriously.
And it's a driving embody that andnot played on the nose because he
was he was his own person.You can't replicate that. It's just an
(23:45):
island. You know, nobody likedhim, but to embody the spirit of
it to make you feel like,okay, that I can give it,
that you make sure that you believeit. Ty, My word is complicated,
and I can only imagine that itmight be tell me if I'm wrong,
very complicated for you as his darkor seeing portions of his life being
brought to the screen which may evokevery specific memories or feelings. How do
(24:08):
you deal with the darkness, whichI know is going to be part of
this. So that's a great question, and every show it's a challenge.
There's part that I was like,Jakarius, can we just like take this
out? And then I thought aboutit. I said, you know what,
No, we have to give thepeople what it is. You know
who he is, who he wasbecause through those mistakes also became greatness.
(24:30):
So you know, we have totake the ups and the downs and literally
it's you know, it's an emotionalrollercoaster, Like I find myself in tears
every show. Honestly, stokely,I know that there are people listening right
now who don't have any firsthand memoriesof Rick James, who don't know him
beyond let's say Chappelle's show, whomay not know him beyond a sample in
(24:52):
an mc hammer song unfortunately, whatwould you hope people learn about him and
his contributions to music, Because I'mtrying to educate listeners day by day by
day. They don't know nothing aboutNo Fire and Desire, They don't know
anything about the early portions of hiscareer. What do you hope people come
away with when they see you up? They come away just knowing realizing that
(25:15):
he had about ten different lives beforethe rich change that we knew, you
know, the fact that he wassigned to Motown a couple of times,
one of them with Neil Young,you know, up in Canada. They
had a bunch of different groups,and there's so many I mean, he
was just a master, you know, he was just honing his craft,
going through his life, you know, having all these challenges, you know,
(25:37):
and learning along the way. So, I mean, there's so much
that you know in the first actthat you're going to learn before you can
get to like the Fire and Desire, You and I Mary Jane, all
of that stuff. There's so muchmore. I mean, it's it's explosive,
it's so amazing. Ty James,I was a senior in college and
an intern at Capitol Record in nineteenninety and there was this rapper by the
name of mc Hammer who was burningup the arts because he had this song
(26:00):
called you Can't Touch This, andI said, that's super freak now without
leaning into all the legal happenings behindthe scenes, and it was eventually worked
out and it was a wild wildWest as far as sampley was concerned.
I was disheartened to know that RickJameson's only Grammy was as the quote unquote
songwriter for you Can't Touch This,because it's basically it's his song with mc
(26:23):
Hammer rapping over it. When Isay that to you, what comes to
mind? Is it bittersweet? Oryou please with that? That's a very
good way to put it as totallybittersweet. You know, love EMC Hammer.
Initially it was done kind of likeunder the table, so to say,
and we had to come back andgrab it without permission. I'll say
it, yeah, under the table. I'm trying to be sweet because you
(26:47):
know, Hammer is our people.We love him. And it was funny
because my dad was kind of caughtoff guard, like wait a minute,
he literally thought his song was playinguntil you know, the first what five
seconds it is like wait, okay, hold on and you know from there
it was honestly, the genius steppedin is like, okay, well let
me handle this correctly, and youknow, ultimately it worked out for us.
(27:10):
So definitely bittersweet, great record.You know, sample multi multiple times,
so it is what it is.I would like to thank my guest
Stokely, who will be starring asRick James himself in Super Freak The Rick
James Story, Jacaris Johnson, producerof Super Freak The Rick James Story,
and Ty James, the daughter ofRick James and president of the Rick James
(27:33):
Estate. Thank you one, Thankyou all. I cannot wait to see
it myself and I appreciate how youare keeping his legacy alive and also expanding
upon it. Thank you so muchfor having us. It's been fun.
Yes, I'm Moe Kelly on theBlack Information Network. Welcome back. You're
listening to the Black Perspective on theBlack Information Network. I'm your host,
Mike Island and now it's time tocheck him with Gracie Award winning news anchor
(27:57):
Esther Dillard for this week's installment ofthe Color Between the Lines. I'm mister
Dillard on the Black Information Network,chatting with writers and authors who offer an
added perspective for our listeners. Thisis the Color between the Lines on this
(28:22):
edition of the Color between the Lines. We have a special guest Royalty in
the building. Yes, Media Royalty. We're speaking with award winning ABC journalist
Deborah Roberts. Likely you recognize heras the journalist from the news magazine twenty
twenty. She's here to talk tome about her newest book, Lessons Learned
and Cherished, The teacher who changedMy life. Welcome Deborah Roberts to the
(28:45):
BIL. Thank you, Royalty.I feel like I need to go look
for a crown in my office.I know I appreciate that. Though,
Oh my goodness, I've admired youfor years. I feel like, Wow,
I get a chance to talk toher. This is awesome. I'm
looking forward to it. I lovethis book, honestly, a lot of
great gems inside. I'm so gladyou do. I see by all the
(29:07):
interviews that the pandemic was really oneof the kind of parts of the reasons
why you pushed to write this book. But I want you to explain to
the listeners what inspired you, becauseit wasn't just this one teacher, but
a lot of other people. Correct. Yeah, you know, I started
thinking about Missus Dorothy Hardy, andI started off the book talking about her,
because I've talked about her a lotover the years. When I've given
(29:30):
talks about you know, women andempowerment, or journalists and careers, or
you know, any subject that Imight be speaking on, I often will
reflect on my you know, childhoodand my growth in small town Perry,
Georgia. And Missus Dorothy Hardy was, you know, just a teacher who
had such an impact on me becauseof the fact that she demanded excellence and
I decided I wanted to raise riseto the occasion and she raised the bar
(29:52):
and I wanted to be a partof it. And so when I think
about Missus Hardy and how you know, and I say in the book,
and I've said it when I've talkedto you people in that so the nexcent
and she said to me she thoughtI was a smart girl. I just
thought, wow, Missus Hardy seessomething in me. And that was the
one thing that I noticed with somany people when I talked to them about
their teachers. It was always thisstory about somebody who saw something in them
(30:15):
that they may not have seen,or they may not have had the courage
to really acknowledge, or you know, just you know, at a moment
when they needed it. And that'swhat good teachers do, and those who
change lives really do spark dreams andexcitement because they saw something. I mean,
don't we all want somebody to seesomething in us this special? Yes?
I really got that. Yeah.I felt that all the way through
(30:37):
the book is that being seen wasso important. Oprah Winfrey said that in
one of her pieces. In fact, I love the fact that you had
so many big names. You had, Oprah, you have Spike Lee,
you have Misty colpland Gail King,Rosie Perez, just like Robin Roberts.
Yes, and your husband even hemade an appearance too. I couldn't like
(31:00):
write the book without it, Iwould never I would never heard the end
of it. Did you have atough time convincing them to contribute? You
know what? What surprised me whenI got this idea that I wasn't going
to just I mean, I didn'thave enough of my own experiences to fuel
the book, and I thought Ican talk about some of my teachers.
But then I thought, wouldn't itbe cool to hear from other people about
their experiences, because it didn't takemuch to just like start talking to somebody
(31:22):
about a teacher and they would start, you know, going on about their
teacher. So almost anybody I raninto if I ran into Christy Turlington Burns
at Good Morning America. She waswalking out after doing a segment about maternal
health and that's her big passion.She's an activist. And I said,
Christy, I'm doing this book andI'm talking about teachers. She's like missus
Dane, Oh my gosh. AndI said, would you talk to me
about missus Dane? Absolutely absolutely letme know when there's a good time.
(31:45):
Danielle Blew, the celebrity French chefwho happens to be a friend. I
was talking to him about it andhe says, oh my gosh, my
teacher and Leo and friends. Youknow, he starts talking to me about
that teacher. Everybody got so enthused. Tom and I think people got to
kick out of stepping back and rememberingthat moment. When are those moments when
(32:06):
things changed for them? So Ihad no trouble whatsoever, and if anything,
at a certain point I had tosay, okay, I've got to
cut myself off. I've got togather the stories I've gathered and turn it
into a book, because I cankeep talking and asking all day. Viola
Davis had said yes, but wecouldn't quite find the time because she was
traveling. But you know, OctaviaSpencer said yes, and we found the
time, and so everybody just saidyes, yes, yes, I would
(32:27):
love to do this, and itwas a matter of just finding the time,
and every time I just would sitthere just, you know, just
basking in the glow of these stories. I love the fact that many of
the folks who contributed said that theyreally felt that teachers are undervalued these days.
And based on your conversations and youknow, with others, what do
you think that they think that canchange that? Well, you know what,
(32:52):
listen, I don't think anybody wouldsay that we are policy analysts and
we are not the solution to it. But I think everybody seemed to because
I would always ask at the veryend of what they would say to teachers
and what their message is. Andyou know, Spike Lee talked about that
too, about you know, showingthem the value, and we really don't
really show the teachers the value Ithink that more than anything else, we've
(33:13):
got to try to use our voicesto highlight this crisis that we're in right
now in education. Teachers are feelingundervalued. They're leaving the profession at record
rates. They've got a fifty yearkind of low in terms of job satisfaction
that they report sixty thousand teachers lefttheir jobs here in the US last year
alone, and knows what that numberis going to be like this year.
(33:34):
There was an article in Time magazinejust recently earlier that said, it's even
bleaker for teachers than you thought.You know, the teachers are feeling,
like, you know, so muchas being demanded of them, and so
little is being offered to them,and not just about pay, even though
their pay has been flat for afew decades. The landscape is really pretty
tough right now for teachers. They'reup against it. They're dealing with kids
who've come out of the pandemic distracted, many of them, you know,
(33:58):
traumatized depending on what they've been through. So they're dealing with a lot.
And I think we have got tosee this as an issue, whether it's
on a local level, a statelevel, or federal level, we all
have or so many of us dohave children in school. My kids are
graduated and I have a son incollege. But we all have some connection
to I think teachers in education,in schools, and I think we need
(34:19):
to use our voices to say thismatters. It's important. We need to
do something in our communities that prioritizeteachers, whether you've been the ear of
your state and local representatives or afederal government and write about it. But
I also mentioned in the book,and we can get to this later if
you'd liked, but I mentioned waysthat you can help teachers. Now,
you know, there's an organization calledDonors Choose where you can actually prioritize helping
(34:42):
teachers acquire the supplies that they needfor their classrooms. Because we all know
teachers go into their own pockets tosupply so much of what they need for
students and for their classes. SoI think we just need to see this
as a priority. I mean,yes, it's great for us to remember
all of these great memories of ourteachers, but we need to say,
we need to recognize that they needus right now. They yes, absolutely
(35:05):
do. And I think that also, you know, you also some of
the folks mentioned to just trying toget other people into the profession in college
is a challenge, So did youfind that as well. Well. Spike
Lee talked about going into it becausehe had relatives who had been teachers and
he just felt it was important.I mean, he's a successful director,
but he wanted to pass something onto the other students, and that's one
(35:27):
of the reasons that he teaches,and he talks about seeing that light go
off in the head of a studentwho you know, gleaned something because of
what he said. Octavia Spencer isinvolved in an organization, kind of a
grassroots organization in her community, highlightingteachers and it's all about just sort of
finding a way to give back locally. So a number of the people that
I spoke with, you know,talked about ways, small ways that they
(35:50):
have found to try to contribute atleast on some level and to try to
give something back to teachers. ButI think more than anything else, we've
all got to sort of do ourpart. And I know, you know,
it's not realistic to think we're goingto go out there and try to
volunteer and go to the school boardmeetings and make a big stink about it,
But I think that we need tofind ways to prioritize. I mean,
you know, when you read anarticle in your community about what's happening
(36:13):
with your schools, or you knowthere's a shortage of teachers this next year,
trying to get teachers to actually comeinto the profession. I think that's
an opportunity for you to reach out. I have a brother, an older
brother who's retired military, who wasa substitute teacher for a while because he
felt that, you know, blackmen needed to show up in the profession
that is largely dominated by women,and sort of show kids and particularly boys,
(36:35):
you know, a way that theycan sort of be be strong and
be held accountable. And he wantedto leave an imprint on them. He's
not doing it anymore, but hedid that for a while because he felt
that the community needed him. SoI think we all need to look for
ways to sort of reach out toour communities to show teachers that they matter.
Well, this is a lovely Jim. You've won countless awards for many,
many things over the years. You'vebeen around the world. What is
(37:00):
for you? Oh, oh,oh my gosh, what's next for me?
Well? I want to keep sellingthis book, that's one thing,
and I want to think about somethingelse, another book maybe to write.
But in the meantime, I justam enjoying being at the Helm of twenty
twenty co anchoring this program with DavidMuir. It's a program that I've been
at for, you know, morethan twenty years. Barbara Walters recruited me
to come here and to be ableto now be in this position with David
(37:22):
to co host the show has beengreat. Looking for stories and opportunities to
sort of shine a light on subjectslike this or even other subjects that are
important. I mean, that's certainlysomething that I'm going to keep focusing on.
And then outside of this, Idon't know, we'll see. I
just I can't sit still. I'vealways got all kinds of projects going.
(37:43):
So I'll be working on maybe anotherbook at some point, trying to think
about something else that interests me.But I don't know. We'll see what
the next project is. But fornow, I'm going to be working on
my report for twenty twenty this Fridaynight awesome, Well, thank you,
Deborah Robert. Too few or wonderful, and the book is wonderful. Again,
thank you for joining us on thebion. So happy to be with
you. Thank you. Yeah.That's it for this edition of The Color
(38:05):
Between the Lines. The book isLessons Learned and Cherished the tea shirt who
changed My life. I'm mister Dillardfrom the Black Information Network. Thanks Esther.
The Black Information Network has an amazingteam of commentators who bring their unique
(38:27):
perspectives to stories impacting the black community. Earlier in today's program, we heard
from news commentator Moe Kelly. NowRoland Martin joins us to discuss another topic
trending in this week's news. Americaand Black of America lost a freedom fighter
today with the passing of Reverend JamesLawson, Junior. Many people may not
(38:47):
even know who he is, andthe funny thing is that's exactly like he
wanted it. It was Reverend JimLawson who really understood and grasped the principles
of Gandhi in nonviolence. It wasReverend Jim Lawson who led the Nashville movement
that trained civil rights workers like JohnLewis, Ctvivian and Diane ash. It
(39:10):
was Reverend Jim Lawson, who isa pastor in Memphis, organized and stood
with black sanitation workers. It wasReverend Jim Lawson who was the one who
placed the call to Reverend doctor MartinLuther King, Junior for him to come
to Memphis. If you listened todoctor King's final sermon at Mason Temple on
(39:31):
April third, nineteen sixty eight,you would hear him reference Reverend Jim Lawson.
In my conversation with reverd Lawson,he said to me that my last
image of Martin was Martin and thepulpit and me sitting on the last pew
in the church. He said,I was where I was, and Martin
was where he was supposed to be. He chose not to become a civil
(39:54):
rights entertainer or a civil rights legend. He was all about the work.
He was a towering figure in avery small body. Folks, if you
want to really understand what leadership is, study the life of Reverend doctor Jim
(40:14):
Lawson. Rest in peace, mybrother. I'm Roland Martin. On the
Black Information Network, be sure tocatch Roland Martin, James T. Harris,
and Moe Kelly for exclusive daily commentaryon the Black Information Network and now
the Black Information Networks. Tyreek winnsits down with gospel artist Diedrich Haddn't to
talk about his new album One Nightin California, Reality TV, and so
(40:36):
much more. Tyrek What to do? Guys, It's Tyreek Win on your
Home for twenty four to seven News, the Black Information Network on iHeartRadio.
Appreciate y'all so much tuning in.We got an amazing guest in the studio
today. We got the bet yourHadden man, Tyreek, How you feeling,
Man, I can't call it.They'd working me down. They work
it from sun up to sundown man. Trying to get the word out.
(40:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, gotta putit in that work though, you got
to put in work. Artists don'tput in work, no more likely what
we used to. You know whatI'm saying. We hide behind social media,
but it's people that made you whoyou are. You got to remember
you got to go touch to people. Every campaign that any presidential candidate is
on, they start with people kissingbabies, hugging folks, going into the
businesses and we got to go backto that. Yeah, not as that's
(41:17):
definitely factual, especially like now sincewe out the pandemic. You know what
I'm saying, Outside, we outsidewe were. We were in scared too
behind everything asking there, but weout man, and we really out everybody's
on tour, and people learned alot of artists like all of y'all is
on going on tour. Man,we're just snatching everybody's money. Man,
take everybody. But people look atbut they're going, they're going. They
(41:40):
lets you know how powerful the musicindustry is. Uh is and people want
it. They want a good show. Yeah. I was like, why
you think every like literally everybody isgoing on tour now. It's the season,
man, it's the season because wewent through a season where nobody could
tour. All the promoters weren't makingmoney because that's how they make the money.
The promoters weren't making money, theartists weren't making the money, and
(42:00):
so now we got to make upfor lost time. So everybody's on tour
now. The problem is, whereare you going? If DJ's on tour,
ties on tour just for Fred's Kirks, the clark sists are doing double
tours with Fred. It's like,where do you go? So it's and
we're pulling from the same group ofpeople. When it comes to the gospel
music industry, it's the same group, so we got to be careful of
that, about oversaturating and overdoing it. But it's a wonderful thing because we
(42:23):
get to make that money. Youmake the most of your money to both
of your money through touring and doingshows. So that's a wonderful thing.
Yeah. Man, So let's talkabout this tour man. So this is
in partnership with McDonalds the Shaller,So they pay for all the tickets and
that's what it's free. Okay,there's no excuse. But man, they've
been standing around the building all theway down. They've been coming shout out
(42:45):
to all even okay see. Ithought okay see would be kind of light.
Yeah. Man, they packed thatthing out. You know Texas,
they will come out of Texas.But okay see, man, they don't
get a lot of gospel concerts.That's what I'm saying. Okay see,
shout out to okay see. Butthey show love and it showed us that
they want more gospel or just tocome. So yeah, it's a beautiful
thing. So talk about this newalbum. One Night in California. One
(43:07):
Night in California is my best albumperiod, and that's hard to say.
I know. I know it's astretch because I got a lot of records
out there. But I can say, is there's something different about this because
I approached it more like a mixtape, And so I'm just saying what's really
on my heart. I'm not tryingto be correct and be dance around with
these political people and religious people.I'm just I'm just saying what's really on
my heart, man, And soI'm feeling this one. You know,
(43:30):
when I make a record, Iride around for a good like three or
four months, man, just listeningto the music to make sure that I'm
getting the same feeling every time Ilisten to it. That's very important as
a part of delivering to you agreat record, man. You got to
get that feeling. And if Ican get blessed over and over again just
listening and sonically right, and youknow the vocals are there and everything.
(43:52):
I know that when it hits yourhouse and when you get it, when
you play it on the radio,it's going to be incredible. So the
problem is my family have to dealwith that. Every time I get in
the car, do I'm playing Okay, when is this song coming out?
Did you just reallysic? So wecould be done with it, you know.
But that's what they have to do. They have to listen to all
(44:12):
the music once we do it becauseI run it by my family. I
got a twelve year old, gota ten year old, got eight year
old. I run it by them, then my wife, you know,
so they got they they're the ones. They're my gauge to see if the
songs are good or not. Canyou tell me what does it take to
make a good song? Well,you got to be clear and on purpose
with what you're trying to convey andwho you're talking to and how you're going
(44:35):
to corral that audience together on yourhook. Your hook is what hooks everybody
in to pull them together to singit together. If you can get everybody
singing and dancing together. The hookcould be the beat, it could be
the melody, it could be thelyric. And once you hook them in,
you got a great song. Youknow. And I think a lot
of songs that are inspired by what'sgoing on in the culture. It works.
It works like a lot of Ithink the reason why a lot of
(44:58):
drinks and Kendrick Lamar songs are andright now because we all into the beef
the disc you know, like whogonna win? You know what I'm saying.
But in the meantime, they're hookingus in with these you know,
you know what I'm saying of yourlife. You know, kids are going
in so now we all they seewalking up there, you know, and
he got unlooked, you know.So, but it's all inspired by a
real beef that's going on between tworappers. Yeah, yeah, man,
(45:22):
I'm glad. I'm glad that youmentioned that. And so doing gospel music,
right, why did you? Obviouslyyou know, at first you decide
you wanted to be an artist,But why did you decide to do gospel?
It's a calling, man, it'sa calling. Sometimes I question myself
that asks myself the same question,why did I decide to do this to
fight with these people? The religiouspeople? Everything I do. They got
(45:42):
a problem with what I'm wearing,They got a problem with what I'm saying.
They got a problem with what I'mdoing just being a human being.
That's the toughest audience to have.When people say things like he trying to
be a rock start all this stuff. It bothers me to the core because
if I wanted to, I couldhave done it. I turned down four
major record deals. You know whatI'm saying. You get past all the
religious stuff, the drama of allthat, But lives have been touched through
my music down through the years,and so we got to give respect to
(46:06):
that. Yeah, that's good man. And hey, when you I mean,
when you sing it for the Lord, you can't go wrong. You
can't go wrong, man, becauseyour reward is in heaven exactly. You
know what I'm saying that It's biggerthan just money and stuff down here is
about touching lives. And if youcan, what's a greater reward? Man?
When I hear testimonies like this,man, I ran into a guy
who was a twenty five year vet. He was in a wheelchair for whatever
(46:27):
happened to him, and his wifewas standing there talking to me with him,
he said, But he was standingstrong. He said, man,
you don't know. I wanted tocommit suicide, and then I wanted to
commit suicide. Your song I NeedYour Help from your Revealed album played and
I decided not to kill myself.He said, no, look at me
now I'm walking. He had abig old truck full of food feeding hungry.
This is a twenty five year vetbro. Yeah, he said,
(46:49):
that's why I came to the listeningparty to meet you and tell you face
to face that your music has changedmy life. That's great. So what's
greater than that? A Grammy?Greater than that? No, no,
no, no, no no no, a record to say you got a
secular record? Deal, No,no that right there? Saving lives,
man is the most important thing,and that's why we sing gospel music.
(47:13):
Yeah. But my purpose behind allthis is to reach people, man,
reach young people, touch lives,stop them in their tracks, say something,
saying something with so much conviction thatat the moment when they need to
make a decision, it make themmake the right decision. That's the power
of the gospel. That's amazing.Man, when you hear those testimonies,
how does that make you feel personally? Like it's not been in vain and
(47:37):
like your work. You've been puttingin work and you're doing what you're called
to do. And it's not abouthow many followers you have, it's not
about how many awards you have.It's about that right there. That's the
assignment to touch lives, man,to pull people together, you know,
pull them in when the enemy istrying to tell them to do something else.
You right there, God's using yourvoice, your song to help people.
(47:59):
Yeah, and you talked about histestimony, but just imagine the ones
you ain't heard yet. You know, you're not gonna hear all of them.
And I had to be and Iwas on the road. I had
to be on the road to meetthese people to even ever hear that.
You see what I'm saying, Andso that's why I'm saying artists, get
out there, man, and meetyour people. And at the right moment,
God used your song to help somebody, but you would never meet them
if you're hiding behind social media andjust promoting on that way. You got
(48:22):
to go out and touch people.Wo Yeah, get gotta get out there.
Got to reach the community, man, that's important. That's the bottom
line. Good advice, yes,sir so. But yeah, man,
this has been great. Congratulations everythingyou got going on. Man, definitely
appreciate you so much of coming inAnd guys that where can people check out
the tour dates and get tickets goingto I gotta way toward dot com.
(48:43):
I got away toward dot com andget your free ticket for the next tour
date. But you can also followme on d Hattie Blue Check there d
Hattie d h A d d YDietrich had on Facebook on x Dietrich Hadding
got the blue check there. Youcan't miss me and all the wonderful things.
Also, you can download my brandnew album on my birthday. Your
downloading your stream will be a birthdaygift to me. So thank you so
(49:04):
much in advance. That's amazing man. Like I said, definitely appreciate it.
Appreciate you so much to coming in, and guys, appreciate y'all so
much for tuning in. Make surey'all stay tuned into the Black Information Network
on your home for twenty four toseven news. Peace out peace, Thanks
Tyreek and to listen to the fullextended interview with Ddrich Hadden, go to
bimnews dot com. Our very ownDoug Davis is back with another Black Music
(49:28):
Month interview. Remember songs like Backstabbers, I Love Music, Stairway to Heaven.
Man, I get chills just thinkingabout those incredible songs. Well,
Doug has a special guest with uswho is intimately tied to the iconic group
the OJS. Doug. Hey,Thanks Mike, this is Doug Davis and
we continue to celebrate the many contributionsBlack Americans have made to our rich musical
(49:49):
culture here in the US. Juneis Black Music Month, and I have
the pleasure to speak with Eddie LavertJunior, son of the legendary Eddie LeVert,
senior lead singer of the iconic soulgroup the OJS, here to share
some stories about growing up in afamily of entertainers. Eddie, Welcome to
the b I n H. Canyou share how your father's early experiences and
(50:09):
inspiration shape the unique sound and messageof the OJS. Well, you know,
a lot of the of the musicthat they were coming out went into
the beginning and when they signed withthe Gambling Huff in Philadelphia and National were
written by Gambling Huff about of thatthemes that they were speaking as far as
(50:32):
the the backstaders and the things thatthey did with the social conscious bone right,
because we were coming out of theCivil rights era at that time.
Yeah, so you know that alot of the messages were in the music,
as they say, right, thatwas how we did as the people
to get around. The music wasthe back in the day when the slaves.
(50:58):
That's how they community a lot throughthe music, So the same thing
with the music of the seventies,and a lot of that was communication on
how things were going for us asa people, so that the music definitely
helped shape some of the public thoughtsin America right growing up in that era.
(51:19):
You know, with your father,what are some of the memories some
of the things that you remember most, you know about being a child,
you know, seeing and witnessing oneof the greatest R and B groups that
ever ever did it? Man,man, just the fan fan and just
just going on stage and watching thembefore him, and watching the way that
(51:42):
women would actively the crowds and it'sjust you know, it's just it was
different. You know, it waslike, wow, this is what my
daddy does for a living. Youget to do this every night. Those
days were like incredible performance. Man, they capture the crowd and just have
them just crazy, man all theway into now they still got the they
(52:06):
not got the moves that they do, but they still capture the crowd.
Man. The songs, you know, the songs, you know, the
songs can't be set. So it'slike, you know, you know,
so we always great music. Yeah, yeah, for sure. How does
your dad view the Ojay's legacy rightnow and it's influenced on the music industry.
(52:28):
It's a whole different you know,today's music is it's not really no
more groups as for Safe as tothe nineties, who are really the maybe
the leather part of the earlier partof the two thousand, but then it's
really been no real groups to comelike the groups that have been around.
(52:49):
The new editions, the one twelveand those gaps can still work right now
due to people like those days,like the Whispers, you know, those
kind of groups. They keep theirfan base, you know, and the
longest and then even my kids andmy grandkids just got just because that they
rand daddy, but they enjoyed thatmusic too, because that's what they grew
(53:12):
up on. So the long laughingeffect of the music, I think it
always been around. Yeah, yeah, for sure. What was it like
for your dad to work with youand your brothers and Lavert, you know,
and how does that experience kind ofcompare to his time with the Ojason
Well, you know, he kindof let us fall on our heads a
couple of times before he really gotinvolved to see how seriously were you know
(53:36):
what I'm saying. We used tohave to do our own gigs and book
our own things set up, Igo to the show. But then when
he saw that we were serious,then he came in and he got with
Harry Coombs. So that's when LeVertgot the first deal with Tim Free and
they put out I'm still and thenwe went on eventually to get to deal
with Hank cock Well at the last, but he was definitely in rationed on
(54:00):
whipping the whip on us after that. May get sure that you know,
we were doing all the things tostay around and be successful right there because
we saw the bumps in the roadwhere things didn't go right all the time,
whether okay, and any group hastheir ups and downs, because you
(54:21):
know, in those times it wasabout today hit, you know, and
then you have to you have towork to get those spots because there was
so much competition back in the seventyand eighties. If you went over the
top twenty five tons of the jets, right, he wasn't getting to report
back right. So you know,they went through a lot of different things
(54:44):
with politically. You know, atone time they got banned from a lot
of stuff because they were one ofthe first acts to go to South Africa.
Okay, so hold on the bannedfrom doing US shows because they went
to South Africa. Yeah, noton the US shows, But like ye'll
never noticed back in the day thosedays, really never was on many award
(55:07):
shows, any the Grammys or theAmerican Music Awards. You can look back
in the history see how many timesyou ever saw them on any of those
shows or even getting those awards,and it's not been too you know,
they got banned from a lot ofthings in the in the history of UH
(55:30):
because of their going to South Africa. Wow. Yeah, yeah, man,
because you know, PARTI was stillin in the seventies. You know,
it was still you know, theystill didn't want that connected with US
and our people over there, youknow what I'm saying. So you know,
they even went as far as theplant things on the plane when they
was trying to come back, theyblew up the promoter's car and it just
(55:54):
was a lot. Yeah, theywent through a few things back in the
day. Dad asked this question,but I think it's it's an important one
regarding the tragic losses of Gerald andSeawan. Yeah, how did that affect
your father and your family personally andprofessionally, definitely personally, you know,
(56:14):
that was that was that was itwas because it was all unexpected. You
know. It wasn't like they weresick, sick and nothing like that,
you know what I'm saying. Itwas you know, Gerald passed from mixed.
You know, he had heard hisleg and he was taking team medison
and he had went and got toovercount of medison and then it didn't click
(56:35):
and he had a heart attack.You know. So that was that was
just a blow to us a lotof ways, financially mentally, and then
then eighteen months later they gonna start, you know, and it was just
a tragic situation on my dad really, you know, he was, oh
my god, I couldn't imagine howhe was really killing and lose two sons
(57:02):
at eighteen months behind. Come onthat. You know, it hurt him
a lot. You know. Manjust came South Africa too. That that
was another thing. They was justtogether. I've got a couple of really
fond memories of interacting with Gerald.I remember the first time I interviewed him,
I had ordered some chicken wings andthey brought him to the studio.
(57:23):
While the interview was playing. Hewas like, oh, Man, you
got some chicken wings. And afterthe interview we got down, I shared
the wings together. Man, wetapped it up. Yeah, man,
it was it. It was socool. I'm like, man, I'm
eating chicken wings with Gerald of Vert. Oh my god. And so when
he performed that night, he said, hey, man, come back and
talk to me after the show.Man, we'll hang out, you know
(57:45):
what I'm saying. And so Iwas like, okay, cool, So
I go and I had met,you know, the managers and folks before,
but they wouldn't let me back.And then Gerald had walked by.
He was like, hey, man, let that brother back. Man.
He shared some chicken wings. Man. So we went back and we partied,
man, and had a good timethat night. Man. That's what
thing man, I could say.My brothers were real, and they got
(58:07):
a lot of to say because theywere real, and it was never no
phoniness, you know what I'm saying. You know a lot of these people
getting made positions and then they forgetwith how they came up or the struggle
that it was to get there.They didn't want to turn it back to
talk to people crazy that that's notwhat we do. You know what I'm
saying, weep. We had tokeep respect each other so we could.
(58:30):
You know, a lot of peopleright now in a lot of trouble,
but just because of the way theytreated people, and nobody comes to they
backing now. You know what I'msaying, I will say no names to
people. It's very true. Imean, that is very true. And
that's what I really loved about Geraldis that he was a real homeboy man,
you know. Yeah, and onthat level, you know, yeah,
(58:51):
man, And nobody, anybody thatwas around him knows that he loved
to have laughed. We love tohave fun and talk crazy and you know,
be real with everybody, you know. Eddie Lavert Junior, thank you
so much for sharing some of yourprecious memories about your father and growing up
and being part of the Ojay's legacy. We appreciate you. Brother. It's
(59:12):
Black Music Month. I'm Doug Davison The Black Perspective. Thanks Doug,
and that's our program for this week. For more on these stories, listen
to the Black Information Network on thefree iHeartRadio app or log onto Bionnews dot
com for all of the latest newsimpacting the black community. Also, be
sure to follow us on social mediaat Black Information Network and on x at
Black Info Net. I'm Mike Island, wishing everyone a great Sunday, had
(59:37):
a great Father's Day weekend. Thanksfor joining us, and be sure to
tune in next week at this timefor another edition of the Black Perspective right
here on the Black Information Network
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