Conversation For Adults

Rhonda Crowder is an author and journalist, and we talk about her book, her work at Cleveland's black newspaper "The Call and Post" under its current owner, Don King, and her #MeToo moments there, sibling rivalries and her father's fidelity issues, why she cooks, and the difference between the "hood" and "down-the-way." Also, the legend of white women who prowl the ghetto stealing black men from black women.

Eric J. Brewer is the former mayor of East Cleveland and the politically-brazen black male consciousness of Cleveland's inner city who just happens to wear a dress when it suits him. We talk about Vietnam, old-school Cleveland politics, Cleveland's porn history, St. Louis, movie producer Reggie Hudlin, Hillary Clinton, his father, bowel movements, the real story of "Erica," and what his son said when he saw his father on the national news in drag. He finally tells the whole story about how those pics came out. Also, that time I danced with drag queen RuPaul all night.

In part two of this conversation, MC chill and I talk about the sound of Cleveland, Todd Samms - the Clevelander (by way of Shaker Heights) who started out dancing for Levert and ended up teaching Beyoncé - Usher and Chris Brown, how to dance, and the epic true story of the time Art McCoy of Black on Black Crime Inc. (Cleveland's answer to Al Sharpton) stole my grandmother.

Kevin Heard - aka MC Chill - was Cleveland's first rapper to get a national record deal. In many ways, MC Chill was the prototype for the nice-guy, middle-American, aspirational rapper like Philadelphia's Will Smith. We talk about the real MC Chill, his connection to Roxanne Shante, working with Melle Mel, dropping out of college to be an emcee, and why the Midwest has no distinct hip-hop sound of its own.

Scott Muscatello is a club kid turned urban planner. We talk about Cleveland club life, his foray into the gangster life (#nobody), DJ Rob Sherwood (RIP), the death of disco, why not name your daughter "Cocaine?," and also that time Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor stole his girl.

Arguably, Rhonda Saxton-Sheron - aka MC Squirt - is Cleveland's first female emcee. She was on the "OH-10," the rap compilation released in the 80s, and has done touring and the whole nine. She has the bonafides. We talk about her start in hip-hop, her life in a group home, her move into internet radio, and how she evolved into DJ Squirt.

Mekkah picks up where she left off talking about her creative evolution, men like me who have their "pick of the litter" (such that it is), why single black women have it so tough (t'yeah) and what they REALLY want, partner parenting, my perfect match, and all the people she loves.

Mekkah is one of Cleveland's best-known voices from college radio and the poetry scene of the 90s. She fell off the radar for years and then I saw her at Wal-mart and invited her in for a two-parter - a first for my show. In part one, we talk about how she made me hate poetry and my penis all in the same night, KRS-One tough-talking an infant, "I'm not Jimmy Woody," co-parenting, men and their lesbian assumptions, feminism, and the repressed sexual abuse of men.

Feminist thug and intellectual Dr. Lyz Bly returns and we talk about Oprah Winfrey's friend Gayle King's butt, black women's jealousy, women scoring other women's butts, her free-range chickens vs. the cops, and that time I had to euthanize one of her chickens. She schools me about feminism, as usual.

After Steve Presser announced he was closing Big Fun - his store full of classic toys, video games, antiques, nerdabilia, and ephemera on Cleveland Heights' storied Coventry Road - I brought him over to talk Cleveland Jews, collecting, his favorite toy, the Coventry Riots, meeting Muhammad Ali, that time his daughter moved a brother in, and how he met his wife.