Q: How did you get J Cole to help you write your book?
A: Well I had my people reach out to get a quote for the back of the book, and he just wrote this amazing, it wasn’t even a quote or a forward it was just his thoughts about my career, and hip hop in general. And he sent it to me, he said he don’t know what is, I just said what I felt and he said I could do whatever I want with it, so we made it the forward. It’s short for a forward it’s about a page and half, but it was perfect, he didn’t need to say anything else.
Q: How did you get started in radio?
A: Awhh man, well my mother was in radio, she worked for a jazz station in New York that doesn’t exists anymore. I was 16 and I was sent to live in Miami with my aunt, and I started working at a radio station down their. When I turned 18 I moved back to New York, and I started interning at HOT97. At the time they were playing straight up 80’s 90’s dance music, and it didn’t matter to me, I was just happy to have an internship but Hip Hop was always my passion. So lucky enough for me I was able to already to be at the station while it was becoming the number one Hip Hop station in New York, you know I was at the right place at the right time. Thank God.
Q: That’s cool, so what advice would you give to someone like me or Nyla who is interested in getting into this field?
A: That’s a great question, I think you just have to figure out what your thing is, its about being honest with your audience first of all, so you know don’t put on to much of a show.
Q: so what inspired you to write your book?
A: Well when I left HOT and moved to power it really surprised me how much it mattered to people. Not just controversy, but like I felt a lot of love, I’ve always felt a lot of love from the city, but I just really wanted to share what I learned while coming up, because the history of radio is not really well documented. There is so many lessons I learned that I had to share.
Q: I have a question about some of the lessons you learned, I saw on your Instagram you posted Chapter 5: Tupac and Biggie. Can you touch on that?
A: Awhh man can you imagine? I was about your age, starting my career, and your surrounded by greatness, and your point in a point where you can talk to both of them Big and PAC. And that is when I really realized the power of my voice. Unfortunately that situation was bigger than I was, and everyone knows what happened. But it was devastating and I’m working at a place where I know everybody around them it was awful.
nybills.wordpress.com 