It's Always Personal

No guest this episode. So, host Wood is left to his own devices. Perfect circumstances for some talk yo' ish! This episode's topics include a couple of major IAP hang ups, Soul Sonic being among the few options in "Black music" getting it right, IAP Covid-19 vax talk, looking at (well, debunking) some definitions of the simpler "strong black man" talk as seen on soc med, easing the household into investing in ETFs, fatherlessness (the guest segment mentioned for this episode just didn't fit), and neighbor relations during America's ongoing "racial conversation." Is it now new neighbors??? Sometimes we only have to look at flags, yard signs, bumper stickers, tee shirts... and red caps. Or not - as some unplanned bike maintenance with "Tim" recently taught Wood. You really have to see this freshly clean bike chain!

Starting at about the 28:00-mark, check out a dope interview (also live streamed on YouTube) with this week's special guest Mephux of the LordMobb record label. Mephux is an in-house producer for LordMobb, a co-founder of the new venture, and in 2020 he actually helmed two projects for the artist for which LordMobb is a namesake of in Far Rockaway, Queens' Flee Lord. The Boston-based producer became a fixture on the radar of It's Always Personal after Flee Lord's Pray For The Evil album dropped last February. Mephux and Lord returned in August with the sequel, PFTE2, and things only got iller with features such as Westside Gunn, Roc Marciano, 38 Spesh, Trae the Truth and frequent collaborator eto. Real heads would've taken notice of the soulful tracks all of these artists were rapping over on the follow-up. The reason for the interview was to discuss Mephux' growth as a producer, but blossomed into so much more because of his expanding role as part of LordMobb. Mephux has also crafted two projects - Progression in 2020 and recently Regressions - for the label's baritone-voiced G4 Jag.  For this week's intro topics... I guess we're just going to continue ignoring this Higher Learning/American History X stuff that's going on with so many angry young white men in this country. I didn't have the details of the shooting incident in Georgia to speak on that matter, but the social commentary steadily being published on Outkick.com is beyond concerning. Honestly, I've seen stronger or more thoughtful writing elsewhere online. In contrast, I never really saw this type of influential writing on a site such as Ambrosia For Heads. 

Look, hip hop and rap music is infused in everything I do. I could always talk about hip hop and the genre of rap. However, sometimes the conversation just hits differently when the person speaking (STARTING AT ABOUT 27:00) can say, "Aye, that thing you used to like on TV... I led the team that created that." This episode's guest, Reggie Williams, founded hip hop blog/website/network Ambrosia For Heads (AFH) at the end of the aughts, and worked tirelessly at covering hip hop until AFH became one of the culture's most substantive outlets. AFH continued its growth throughout the 2010s, while Williams played an integral part in helming hip hop's presentation on cable networks such as MTV and BET. All the way from Evansville, Ind., and after earning degrees in Philosophy and Law at Harvard, Williams held executive posts at both of those networks. Check out the interview to learn about what fueled Williams' vision to launch AFH, his commitment to intellectual coverage of hip hop, his ground-breaking contributions to the culture while at BET, as well as his thoughts on several everyday topics about hip hop culture (Top 5 MCs, all-time groups, and the resurgence of New York rap). You can also view the insightful and informative live-stream by finding the Pay Me No Mind Youtube channel. Lastly, if you dig the content on IAP, please take a second to leave a rating and/or a brief review on whichever platform you enjoy episodes of the podcast. 

This episode's guest founded his own sub-genre "fit hop" in 2011 with his solo album The Workout. On Feb. 28 multi-platinum hip hop artist and producer Stic.man, one half of Dead Prez, releases his next project under the banner of his RBG Fit Club imprint - a short film called A Beautiful Run. 

Stic dropped the sequel to The Workout around a year ago, and with his new Muhammad Ali-inspired short film he continues to live out his mantra of "Let Nothing Stop You." 

The north Florida native's been active in hip hop since him and his partner M-1 delivered an absolute anthem called "It's Bigger Than Hip Hop", the smash record from Dead Prez' debut album Let's Get Free (Feb. 2000). The interview started out with that moment in the young career of Khnum Muata Ibomu (ne Clayton Gavin) before moving into: 

Being that Dead Prez is synonymous with "revolutionary", we also opened the interview with Stic's fascinating connection to the recently released major motion picture Judas and the Black Messiah. When he casually said "Akua Njeri", I realized I'd stumbled onto the perfect icebreaker. 

In the episode's monologue, I had to talk through my struggles with grasping the divisive issue "feminism" through the lens of Black Messiah's Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback), while revisiting some lyrics from Rapsody's 2019 album Eve.   

Honestly, I don't know if the right people ever watch these types of movies - films like 12 Years... and The Birth of A Nation. May if everybody watched them, more would've been understood about the protesting and unrest of 2020. 

Director Shaka King and producer Ryan Coogler delivered something to make people truly uncomfortable in the new critically acclaimed motion picture Judas and the Black Messiah. King and Will Berson wrote the powerful screenplay on the life and December 1969 killing of 21-year old Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), the Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. 

Folks see Black Panther Party and it's a hard pass. But, it's just not a secret, for a long time now, that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) targeted and oversaw the downfall and removal of Civil Rights activists and Black leaders throughout the 1960s. Fellow Chicagoan William O'Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) was the FBI informant that helped set up the assassination of Hampton - he revealed this in a Jan. 1990 PBS documentary. 

Major salute to King and Coogler, as well as actors/actresses Dominique Fishback, Jesse Plemons, Dominique Thorne and all the other performers. 

In the intro: Stephen A. Smith shared some interesting truths for today's Black community on Larry Wilmore's Black on The Air podcast, and Michael Smith reunited with former Sports Center co-host Jemele Hill on her Unbothered podcast. 

For this episode, IAP was joined by Cleveland-built poet & emcee Rain AKA Black Widow. Rain garnered some well-deserved attention with her feature on a track entitled "Belly" that appears on the recently released double album PORTISHUS by Hus KingPin. Hus' IG post that included a snippet of "Belly" led to Wood going down this rabbit hole of mystery lady Rain... 

Turns out Rain is a veteran emcee who once exited stages receiving finger snaps as a spoken word artist, and is now writing and performing verses capable of earning fire emojis from listeners. Her first appearance as a recording artist was as one-third of a trio called The Dogon (doh-gahn) who released a well-crafted 6-song EP called Sirius Cypher in December 2017. 

The Cleveland native - a multiple degree holder and entrepreneur - made some noise with the "Belly" track, and is currently prepping a variety of solo projects for 2021. Just like Black Widow, Rain's origin story was discussed during her interview (which live streamed on the Pay Me No Mind YouTube channel). The emcee also talked about the producers and artists she's worked with, and shared her mindset towards the realities of females embarking on careers in a field long dominated by male artists. Men, don't fret - Rain's not necessarily dissuaded by the perceived hurdles.  

In this episode's intro, Wood's topics include: rappers are very similar like Silicon Valley execs with their product, accepting having to avoid some artists with limited creativity or range, and learning about Wall St.'s first black multi-millionaire (in the 1820s family) from a Black History Month moment from CNBC's Josh Brown. Listen to different ish in '21, fam!

Lastly, please support the podcast with a rating, a brief review or both. 

This episode is a "dual-cast", and was live-streamed on The Pay Me No Mind YouTube channel (feel free to become a subscriber) while also being recorded for It's Always Personal. The title says it all, Madelyne Woods was gracious enough to appear on the show/podcast to discuss a host of topics. 

Many of us were introduced to Woods in the 1990s as a BET news anchor, and later as the host of Video LP. Who knew that while watching the smile, the hair, the curves, the dresses (and "crossed legs") and the compelling interviews behind-the-scenes management had real smoke with one of its highest profile on-air personalities? We discussed some of Woods' battles while at the thriving cable network. 

She also shared a story of how her journalism background led to her asking some tough questions that made a well-known Def Jam artist feel like it was literally time for some action with the DMV. 

Woods also detailed how a monumental program she put together, featuring three of the world's most popular Mikes, or Michaels, was rejected because BET's "No. 1 news guy" couldn't be upstaged in such a way.  

The former video show host also revealed that she has a book in the works - that will go more in-depth on her BET experiences - that's slated to arrive this summer (press play for the title). Other topics include her first and favorite interviews, what transpired at the end of her stint at BET, why her meteoric rise never culminated in another TV role at another network, and her unexpected attitude and views towards today's emergent "new media" that exists online. If you like this episode, please take a few minutes to select a 5-star rating, submit a short review or do both. This will help to book other interesting guests in the future, as well as help others find It's Always Personal.  

It's Always Personal is a spinoff of the Pay Me No Mind Sports & Entertainment Podcast that surely lives on somewhere Google can find - if one chose to look. I forgot to mention, during this episode, that the Inauguration of the United States' 46th President went down this week, but it felt like a great moment to move beyond politics and the weightier issues of the world. Before moving onto this episode's guest, time had to be spent talking about the passing of 86-year old MLB legend Henry "Hank" Aaron. 

So, I invited a fellow podcaster on in The Real Deal With Damian Adams' creator/host Damian Adams. We did touch on how he deals with the constant issue of race in sports while producing his well-done podcast. But we also talked about getting started with a podcast, finding ones voice, reaching various milestones in podcasting and then closed with Adams' thoughts on some of sports' biggest current headlines. Adams' Real Deal podcast can be found wherever you found IAP, so be sure to check him out and take in his detail-oriented and thoughtful brand of sports talk.