The Keri Croft Show
The Keri Croft Show
SZN 4, EP-7. J Rawls talks hip hop, mixing beats, leaving a legacy & digging in the crates.
In this conversation with J Rawls, we talk about how hip hop found its way into the hallowed halls of academia. He opened up about his journey from college student to music producer, ultimately becoming a key figure in establishing a hip hop studies minor at Ohio State University. Discover how he balanced his passion for music with academic pursuits, connecting with legendary artists like High Tech, Talib Kweli, and many others along the way.
J reminisces about his musical roots, from childhood beatboxing to remixing tracks for the iconic Beastie Boys. Learn about his creative collaborations and the joy he finds in teaching hip hop at OSU. Together, we explore the profound cultural impact of the genre, drawing on early influences like EPMD and Kool & the Gang.
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Speaker 3:Yiggity gag zoops here Ragoso.
Speaker 2:A little sexual chocolate.
Speaker 3:I love it. I'll be trying to get sexual chocolate, but I don't hit the mark.
Speaker 2:You're giving sexual chocolate. Today I got to get more like Mecca Don.
Speaker 3:I got that. Yes, I'm a lawyer as well, and you know.
Speaker 2:J Rawls in the building.
Speaker 3:I'm here, you are here.
Speaker 2:We did it.
Speaker 3:We finally did it. I got you, I lured you in, you got me. I'm here, let's go.
Speaker 2:I mean we're ready to turn Keri.
Speaker 3:Croft Show let's go.
Speaker 1:Boom baby.
Speaker 2:All right, so for real, what's good?
Speaker 3:You know, life is good, I'm good, I'm busier than I've ever been and I'm loving it and it's been great. And I'm doing what I love hip hop and education so we gotta, we gotta, tee this up appropriately.
Speaker 2:Coming from, uh uh, an alum of the Ohio State University who literally skated by, I barely, I barely graduated because I oh listen, I was I was in all a pluses.
Speaker 2:oh, I was into a lot of things and school was not one of them. So the fact, the fact that I got through, but where were you? Where was a hip hop minor at the Ohio State University? And I'm going to say anybody out there who is in the realm of the Ohio State University, I want you to just good job. Like you were on the right track. The fact that there's a hip hop minor.
Speaker 3:Hip hop studies minor. We are working on it. Uh, my partner, stevie, dr view johnson, we are like excited about this because here's what you got to understand, like you said, when you were in school. When I was in school, hip hop in college wasn't even a thought. It was like what? Because many people thought hip hop was still just a fad. Right, they thought, ah, this isn't going to last, this isn't a big deal, this isn't, this isn't. All I heard was no, no, no, no, no. I wanted to do hip hop.
Speaker 3:When I came out of high school, when I graduated high school, I wanted to figure out some way of hip hop and my dad and all the other elders were like, um, no, nah, that's not going to work. You should go to school for business, you know, get a business degree and get a job and work nine to five like any other normal American. And I was like I guess that's what I got to do, because there were no options. There were no options, and so I did that. I went to the University of Cincinnati, you know, went down there.
Speaker 3:But what I was doing was I was, I was doing my work, I was doing my schoolwork, right, but at night I was producing for all the hip hop heads in Cincinnati and I was just making beats and doing music and and my name was getting out there and I started working with, you know, the five D's. I was working with a guy named Jay Sands, we was all working and then I ended up meeting a guy by the name of Dante from a group called Mood in Cincinnati and through Dante I met High Tech, who is a big producer in Cincinnati. Now, at the time we were all just having fun making music, doing beats, doing whatever, and High Tech was working with this guy that was coming from Brooklyn to Cincinnati on a Greyhound bus, like almost once a month. Like think about that for a quick second Brooklyn to Cincinnati on a Greyhound bus. I was like yo, you must really like these beats.
Speaker 2:Yes, talk about perseverance, yes.
Speaker 3:And so and that's how it happened I met, met quality, got it moving. He was like one day he came to me and said, hey, I'm going to be doing an album with most death. And you know, send me some beats, give me some, give me some stuff. And that's how it happened and that's where my career started.
Speaker 2:Can I tell you what's happening inside my body?
Speaker 3:Please tell me.
Speaker 2:First of all, I have THOs right now. First of all, I have THOs right now, like when you're like saying these names and you're getting, I'm like I mean it just brings. I don't know what's happening, but something shit is happening.
Speaker 3:We haven't even gotten started yet. We were blessed, and here's the thing I. We had no clue it was going to be what it was. We were just making music because we loved it. Love of the culture, that's all it was.
Speaker 2:And so you call it. It's called digging in the crates and so basically that, just that's, that's code for, like all these cool samples that you hear. It's like who can go in and dig and find the vinyl that's going to like?
Speaker 3:rip out the next like.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you this like straight out, straight out top a couple of all time where you heard like a hip hop artist come out with some kind of sample from like back in the day, which ones really like.
Speaker 3:There's a lot there's so many of them. One of them is uh tribe car quest electric relaxation relax yourself, girl oh, yeah, yeah yeah, that gives me goosebumps, okay, okay, um oh uh, pete rock and cl smooth.
Speaker 2:They reminisce over you oh, don't even get me started with that one, right?
Speaker 3:so there's so many that have over you, my god, oh, come on, see you, know you know, I knew I wanted to come on.
Speaker 2:No, it's. It's like I can't, like I could talk to you about this for a very long time, and that's my scholarship.
Speaker 3:That's what my research is all about. That's what I'm doing is like why did Pete Rock choose that horn? What made him have that producer's ear? What made him say you know what? This is the part, this is the one yeah Right, as opposed to one of the other licks that that Tom Scott did Right. And it's just amazing to me how hip hop producers hear music. And that's what my research and scholarship is about.
Speaker 2:So, taking it back, like hip hop culture, like the inception of hip hop culture, I read something where you said you had this aha moment in Iceland. Where you were in Iceland You're like, wait, I'm seeing more hip hop culture, and I think it kind of gave you this this moment. Do you think does hip hop transcend color in terms of like? Does somebody there's a certain color own hip hop?
Speaker 3:No, okay, so here that's a great. That's really the big debate going on right now is a lot of people were saying like hip hop started by blacks in the Bronx. My man, Kweli, says that hip hop is Bronx culture. I'll give him that, because what he's saying is hip hop was started by those young people in the Bronx. There were black people, there were brown people and there were, of course, you sprinkle in some whites. There were some whites around, but it's a predominantly black culture that was created by black people, but it's not owned by black people. It's not. It's not owned by black people. Does that make sense? It's what, what?
Speaker 3:What broke me down was when I went to iceland. I'm in reykjavik, iceland, and I'm sitting there, the whole entire audience in our, the show that we're doing and this is 2000, the year 2000, all white and they are rocking, rocking with us, us. After the show, they took us to a B-boy battle and then after that we went to a DJ competition In 2000,. I could barely find that here in the States. Do you know what I'm saying? So for me, in my mind, I was like oh okay, hip-hop transcends this color thing. Hip-hop doesn't matter if you're black, white, whatever, are you good? Do you have the skills? If you say you're an emcee, can you rap? And do you have those skills? And if you do, we accept you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was something I saw not too long ago that that hit me and it was from a white rapper. Who was it? It wasn't GEZ, was it Macklemore. It was it Macklemore. It was a white artist and he was explaining hip hop and he was saying that, basically, white people are visitors in hip hop's house, and so I was like you know what? I respect that and I'm good with that. I'll Airbnb. I'll be the Airbnb. I just want to be a part of that shit.
Speaker 2:You can have ownership of it. And then I was just it really for some reason, the way he said it, he was very articulate and I'm like all right, all mad respect, but I was just curious, for someone like you who's teaching hip-hop culture, how you felt about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I agree with that. That makes sense Because, like I I said, it's black culture. Yeah, let's keep it real, we are. We are even housed partly in um african-american and african studies department, yeah, and you know, uh, ohio state. So, yeah, yes, but what I'm saying is let's not get too caught up on that, like like you can't love hip-hop because you're white, like that, to me that's going too far, you're not allowed to dance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can't. It's like let's just You're doing too much. You know, and then you got Eminem man that comes out. I mean, is he a king or is he a king? Yeah, you can't.
Speaker 3:There's really nothing you can say to him, because M is dope, I don't care what you say. There's really say that he really did. He really did kind of like up our cool factor a little bit over here. He, we like. I met eminem in um 97 at the scribble jam.
Speaker 2:So before he signed to dr dre and we knew. Then we was like who is this guy? Like what amazing in terms of being a lyrical master forget about like beats and all that just from being a lyricist and being able to spit rhymes. Who is the best in the game that's ever been? Do you think?
Speaker 1:And if you could pick a couple you?
Speaker 2:could pick a couple.
Speaker 3:That's so hard to say. Who's ever? I'll tell you this. I'll be real honest with you. My favorite is Jay-Z. I'm a Jay-Z head, just Jay. For me is man like um, you know, just lyrically, right, um, and then like then when I go to people I know it's like um. Quality is probably one of my favorites, has been since before he was signed. So being able to work with him now is crazy, right, uh, most deaf, um, just two of my favorites and I and I've gotten to work with them, uh, I'm going to give there's a couple here in Columbus Ohio that I'm really a big fan of. My man, king Veda and Nova. Nova is like for me, one of the top lyricists. Like when he spits introspective, like I go back and listen to some of Nova's lyrics and be like, oh, that's what he meant, like that's the kind of lyricist I'm looking for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, why don't I know these people? Why have they not been in here? I'm not doing my job.
Speaker 3:You got to get on. You got to get on Nova. There's some people in the city. You know what you should do. You need to pull up. We're going to be at Roots Records I, rich Street Records, my fault, rich Street Records on February 18th. Okay, because we're bringing I'm bringing Easy Mo B, producer of Big and producer of Tupac. He's coming here to do a lecture. I'm doing a lecture series on digging in the crates at Ohio State, at the Wexner Center. So February 18th, 6 o'clock, come to the Wexner Center and then, after that we're going to be all at Rich Street Records.
Speaker 2:You get to meet everybody. Will I be able to behave myself? Is the question. Of course you're going to come in and kick it and dress just like that that's what I like. I love it did you watch the Grammys? No, I didn't did you know Kendrick won like that? Yeah, I did.
Speaker 3:I heard he won. But yo, during the grammys I was doing a show, I was performing, so okay yeah, okay, I kind of felt low-key, bad for drake.
Speaker 2:I mean it goes, it goes up on the like, everybody's listening to it. But I'm telling you something talk about spitting lyrics and like having like it was. The whole crowd started going a minor it was already.
Speaker 3:I can imagine.
Speaker 2:I'm very intrigued by so many things about you, so you're currently still doing shows and producing and spinning and doing all that stuff so this is my new album with Talib Kweli on Javoti Media Fat Beats.
Speaker 3:It's called the Confidence of Knowing look at that picture.
Speaker 2:That picture's hardcore.
Speaker 3:I'm just trying to be cool. It's in my studio too, so that was fun. We, we, we did work on this and and the thing is, because me and Kwa have known each other for such a long time, to sit right. Yeah, so because we've known each other for such a long time, it wasn't difficult to get in the studio and knock that album out. We did it in like four to five months. It didn't't take a long time, but we had fun. We had so much fun. Do you beatbox? Yeah, that's how I started. You knew that. That's how I started out in hip hop. Is beatboxing?
Speaker 2:Can we do a little something?
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, here we go. Okay, so I didn't have any water, so I'm a little dry here I'll. You want some water?
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, yo, that's what I used to do when I was like eight or nine, like I started, so I'm rusty but that was fun.
Speaker 3:Hey, do you beatbox? I know maybe beatbox on air and I know it's gonna be chopped up and put on some. It's gonna look to look real cool.
Speaker 2:It's going to look real cool, so do you do the actual rapping. Or do you? Just you, just, you're like, you're doing like the beats and the DJ, yeah, like the mastermind behind the scenes guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then after I, you know, I do shows, I perform up. I'm touring with Talib Kweli, so I do some of his dates, not all of them, because I have to teach. I'm an assistant professor of hip hop at the Ohio State University. Think, hold up, think, hold on, hold on, think about what that's saying. An assistant professor of hip hop at the Ohio State University. That in itself is crazy. It blows my mind.
Speaker 2:It's so great it's crazy. I mean it's like it makes me so happy to know that that's out there for students.
Speaker 3:Whoever thought that?
Speaker 2:hip hop would take it this far, you know, cause I rhyme tight. So okay, beastie Boys, yeah, what the fuck.
Speaker 3:Oh, the remix I did for them, oh, wow. So the Beastie Boys I mean clearly I grew up with the Beastie Boys.
Speaker 2:Me too Love the Beastie Boys. I mean, clearly, I grew up with the Beastie Boys. Me too Love the Beastie Boys. And you worked with the Beastie.
Speaker 3:Boys, punk rockers, yeah, so that came about through my man, tick, over at Grand Royal. He ran their label, their record label, and he was looking for producers to remix some songs. So he had a whole bunch of us. My man, count Basie, did one, a few others but, yeah, got to knock it out. I didn't get to really sit with him and meet him but I got to, you know, do the project. They sent me all the and at that time, like that was like 99 or 2000. At that time, you know, getting the acapella of a song that you know nobody else had that at the time. Nobody else had that at the time. So I had that acapella. So I just had fun with it and just went in. My man, storm Storm, helped me do that remix. Shout out to Storm. You know who Storm 9000 is? No, but I need to Somebody, you need to.
Speaker 2:Where's he at? He's here.
Speaker 3:He's here. He is, but he's an engineer. He pretty much everybody that I named. He does the sound for us, he mixes our albums, he masters them, and then he used to do that for Dr Dre at Aftermath, but he's from here and so he's back here. He's here sometimes, but you know, and he gives master classes on engineering. So shout out.
Speaker 2:Storm 9000. Do you remember when you were growing up, when you first kind of got the bug for music, or was there a moment or an artist or somebody in your life that lit that spark for you?
Speaker 3:That's a couple things. For me, it was primarily growing up in my father's house. He had vinyl all over the place. So from the time I was like two and three, I remember I used to like to be around the vinyl. I stayed by the records because that's where the music was coming from, and going to the record store with him was the highlight of my young life. And I remember my mom and dad bought me the Wiz soundtrack, you know know, with Diana Ross, michael Jackson, and I couldn't read yet. So they put an X on the record and they got me my own turntable. That's what I got for Christmas.
Speaker 3:At three years old I got my own turntable and I was able to look at the record and see, oh, there's the X, and I put it on there and I figured out how to put it on the song that I was looking for. That's how that was my experience. And then for me, with hip hop, it was really like when hip hop came out, I was rapping, I was doing all that. I started out beatboxing, then started rapping, I was a break dancer, I did everything. But what really did it for me was when EPMD came out with you Gots to Chill, right, and there's a part in there at the chorus when it goes dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun, it's the Jungle Boogie from Cooling the Game. I didn't know that, we just knew we liked it. So we're listening to my dad's records me and my brother DJ Buka. Rest in peace. I Me and Buka was listening to records and we heard that sample and we were like wait a minute, that's what.
Speaker 3:So they got. Wait, that's how. That's how they're making these beats. Oh, it was that, was it. So from that minute on 1987, I've been working to make beats. You've been digging in the craze. I've been digging in the craze since 1987.
Speaker 3:Now you said RIP whom, dj Buka. What happened? He passed away, man, two years ago, just suddenly. Man, that was tough but that was my best friend, who I grew up with, who, that's who I dug in the crates with. We would go out, we'd make out of town trips with Excel spreadsheets of which record stores to hit what times the record stores opened and closed. So we didn't miss anything. We would go to California for like five days and four out of the five days we would be digging and then the other day I had a show or something which kind of paid for the trip. But that's what we did. That's all we did was digging the crates.
Speaker 2:Something about when I hear a song that's sampled from something else. You know, now that you're sitting here, I have these things. There's one, is it SWV? But they're more R&B. Love will be right. Was that Michael? That was right. Right, it's human nature. Yes, which?
Speaker 3:I love that song. They put those together. Yeah, that was amazing.
Speaker 2:About the way I feel when I'm with you.
Speaker 3:What about Tom Tom Club too? Oh, Genius of Love, Genius of Love.
Speaker 2:I mean there's so many. I can see why digging in the crates is addicting.
Speaker 3:It is so addicting and it's so much fun and we got so many good record stores in Columbus. I'm in a record store every week, every week the Cut Records, spoonful, elizabeth's, used Kids, of course, without question. You know, all of these stores have so many different varieties and different things I'm looking for, so I hit all of them when I can.
Speaker 2:You know, speaking of Jay-Z, there's one song that I love that I have. I could only find it on YouTube, but Jay-Z samples Toto Africa. It's like one of my all-time Jay-Z.
Speaker 3:Wow, I can't remember off the top. You're going to have to find that.
Speaker 2:No, I got it right here. Oh, there it is back to when you were little, and then so were you like um, I'm curious to know what you were like in child form. Were you always rambunctious and real positive?
Speaker 3:I don't think I was rambunctious, but I was always positive. I was shy. I still think I'm shy, but I always try to see the positive side of things and I was when I was little. I was always like that.
Speaker 2:Who's the biggest influence that you've had in your life?
Speaker 3:Yeah, probably my dad, yeah, my dad, who also passed away a few years ago. So, yeah, just just how he moved, how he did things, his work ethic I think I get a lot of that from him. For me it's like and I'm not trying to be down or sound negative because I'm positive, but just being honest, I'm a 50 year old black man. I don't have a lot of time left here on this earth. Let's just be real, right. So thinking of it like that, to me it's about a legacy, uh, for my kids, um, you know, for my, for my family, just leaving the world with something, um, leaving it hopefully a better place, like with some good music. That I get told all the time by people like yo, your song got me through this. That's the point.
Speaker 3:That's what I want to do, you know, with my book, youth, culture, power. You know my education stuff boom that, yeah. So like leaving a little bit of something for people to be like yeah, j Ross was here. Ross was here, yeah. So like leaving a little bit of something for people to be like yeah, jay Rawls was here. Rawls was here. Yeah, that was a good dude, he did his thing.
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Speaker 2:So you brought this for me.
Speaker 3:That's yours.
Speaker 2:Let's tell the people a little bit more about this Word so that book is partly from my dissertation.
Speaker 3:Wrote it with my brother, john Robinson. Me and him also have a rap group together. We're called JR because he's John Robinson, I'm Jason Rawls, so we're both JR. But we released the album in 2009 called the 1960s Jazz Revolution Again, where we talked about the history of jazz and what jazz meant to African-American culture, and when it came time to do a second album, we were like what are we going to do? And then we started just talking. He was a teacher in Brooklyn, I was a teacher in Columbus and we just started comparing notes like, oh, your kids do this, your students you remember fidget spinners back in the day.
Speaker 3:So the students were hip to fidget spinners, were using them, were on it way before the teachers. We were lost. First thing that my school did when I was teaching they tried to ban it. Oh no, fid, if it's been banned, and we were like yo, what if you take that and use it Like use youth culture in the classroom to help connect to the students?
Speaker 1:Doesn't that make?
Speaker 3:sense. So that's what that book is about, and so we started doing that and teaching, and now we do professional developments for teachers all over the country.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now, I know you're a positive guy, but everybody has hard times.
Speaker 3:Of course.
Speaker 2:And it's okay to go there every once in a while. We don't want to be toxic positivity. So you mentioned your best friend and your dad. Yeah, both you said a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3:they passed away like within those Like within a year of each other.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you had some real moments there when you lose two, I still have them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I still haven't gotten over either of those deaths. And then you know one of my close friends, tony Commodore. He passed Like we've lost a lot of people and that's kind of why I say like, just being real, I don't know how much time I have left. So I like to like keep putting good positivity things out in the world and that's why I keep hustling, making albums, um and, and I keep doing my scholarship.
Speaker 2:Now you said kids.
Speaker 3:Yes, three sons.
Speaker 2:Okay, how old are they?
Speaker 3:Uh 26, 21, 18.
Speaker 2:What? What's the through point? What? What is like your couple things, whether it's one, two, three things that you instill in them, where it's like, no matter what we do these things?
Speaker 3:I try to teach them positivity, for first and foremost. You know, when you're in your 20s you think that, first of all, you think you're invincible and you think that doesn't matter. I can do this, do that, and I'm like, yeah, but guess what? Life is going to catch up to you, right? But I try to teach them to be positive, positivity and I want to teach them about, you know, understanding their legacy, understanding why it's important to not like take nude pictures of yourself and put them on the Internet and I just made that up. But I'm just saying like, don't do dumb stuff that is going to be there forever, like you're going to be grown one day like real grown, like a 45, you know, 50-year-old person and you're going to be mad that you did this crazy stuff when you were 20. So I try to instill that into them.
Speaker 3:I also talk to them about being a black man in America because, just being honest with you, and if you're into hip-hop the way you're into hip-hop, you get it. It is not easy being any type of minority. So, being a woman, I'm sure you've dealt with some things right. It's like people like to make it tougher and in our political climate right now it's getting even tougher and it's like why? Like? What's the point Like? Why are we like making things harder? But I think you know that's just.
Speaker 2:You actually took the next question right out of my mouth. I was going to ask you how you balance that positivity with the realities of being a young black man in America, when there are clearly safety issues just walking the streets, no doubt. So how do you then? Me trying to put myself in your shoes. I'd be trying to have conversations around when you get pulled over. Here's what we do.
Speaker 3:In black households that's a normal thing. You have to do that If you have to speak to your kids about dealing with the police or you know, if you get pulled over, you keep both hands on the wheel and you shut up. That's what I told my kid. You shut up, you answer his questions, her questions, whatever, and you say yes, sir, yes, ma'am, like at this point it's not about pride or whatever leave with your life, let's, let's leave alive, let's do that right. And that's always worked for me.
Speaker 3:I've been pulled over a lot of times. I'm in. You know, I was blessed. I had a nice car I'm 20 something pulled over on the south side of columbus like I wasn't speeding or anything. The cop told me this is a very nice car. I just I want to know is this your car? I was like wow. I was like, yes, sir, it's my car license registration, Boom. But it was just the point. You know, I can remember being in Lazarus Ooh, showing my age. I can remember being in Lazarus going through the store and getting followed and looking and asking the lady why are you following me? Oh, I'm not, I'm just. You know that kind of thing. It's like Meanwhile I'm over in the corner shoplifting.
Speaker 2:You could be doing anything. You want Panties and bras, you're good, and that's the reality. No, it's so. That's what it is. It's so effed.
Speaker 3:That's what teaching my kids about that, and teaching them you're going to have to teach your kids about that Like that has to be passed because, as I look at our climate today and yes, I'm a positive person, but I'm also a realist Racism is never going away, ever. It's not going away. It's here to stay. White men will make sure that it doesn't go anywhere, and so that's where we are, and so you have to understand that. You got to learn how to navigate it, and to me, that's what it's all about navigating. So, whether you're LGBTQ, whether you're trans, whatever, like whatever you are, if you're a minority, you have to learn how to navigate this, because it's not changing.
Speaker 2:I'm curious the cadence of how often you experience racism. Is it daily, is it weekly? Is there a time there's?
Speaker 3:really no time. It can be subtle. Most of them now are those what they call microaggressions, Especially, you know, at my age and my status. They're not really looking at me to be a thief coming out of the store, that kind of thing. It's not like that because I'm not a younger kid my kids might still get that but it's more of like little things that somebody will say, or a little comment here or you know, little things like that. It's just something you got to kind of watch out for. But I don't let it stop me. I keep moving. It's like you do what you're going to do because I'm going to do what I'm going to do.
Speaker 3:Back to hip hop. Is Kanye over? I can never say anybody's over. You can't say Kanye's over or Drake is over. It's up to them, right, it's up to them. They got to make certain moves to bring themselves back, but I don't think it's impossible for either of them.
Speaker 2:Do we like Kanye?
Speaker 3:I mean, kanye has talent. In my opinion, kanye is dope, right. You don't lose the dopeness. You might change and do whatever the heck you're doing. Coming to the Grammys with your naked wife Okay, I don't know what's going on, but I bet if we still sat him in front of that ASR 10, he could still give us some beats. That would be like, hmm, so that doesn't go away. So no, I don't think anybody could ever be over it. It's up to them Now.
Speaker 2:I don't think anybody could ever be over. If they, it's up to them.
Speaker 3:That's a good, positive, real, real answer. Realistic and positive, that's me.
Speaker 2:Outside of the, the artists that you mentioned in Columbus and when I said lyrically, just in general, the up and comers, the people who are out there now that are hot, who are you totally feeling?
Speaker 3:I like Joey H. I like his. I like his, his, his, his moves. I like the moves that he's making A young H. I like his moves. I like the moves that he's making a young boy. I like the deal breakers. They're doing some good things. And Columbus right, we're talking Columbus Worldwide. Wow, celine I'm doing an album with Celine, but I love her moves.
Speaker 3:I'm learning so much from her. It's a young lady. She does what's called cyber jazz and her name is Solene Velvet. She's based out of Las Vegas Amazing talent. But I'm learning so much from her, like just the move she makes. She's teaching me about social media because she's got a gazillion followers and I'm like, how did you do that? Right, my man, nico I'm doing an album with Nico is one of Kuali's protégés.
Speaker 3:Doing an album with Nico is um, one of Kweli's protégés. He's amazing. He is um, like just raw talent like he. They're the way he rhymes and his, his delivery, his flow just amazes me. So I'm a big fan of his. I'm uh, I'm in the, currently working on an album with my brother, john Robinson. We're doing our next album, which is probably gonna be our Like it's amazing and I'm excited that like just pumped. So I'm just doing a lot of work and that's mainly what I've been focusing on, like not really a lot of other artists. Just to be honest with you, right now I'm listening to a lot of Brazilian music, like old Brazilian music, like Georgie Ben, astro, gilberto I listen to that Gilberto Gil Javon, that's what I listen to. It's not the music you hear on your every day and it feels good. It just feels good. Brazilian music salsa, samba. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:I love that. Now do you have a studio in your house? I do. That's what this is.
Speaker 3:No shit, that's the lab, yeah that's the lab, that's the lab. It's where we get busy. That's your happy place. Yeah, one of them, definitely. I like being in my office at work too, at ohio state too, because there's a studio in there yeah, right we made it a studio in there too, and I got vinyl and I got all the stuff I need do you actually do some music and stuff?
Speaker 3:I do I, I start out, like the first few weeks I start out my class with me DJing and the students are looking like, well, this is a weird. This is my professor. This is weird, right, but I do it to let them. I mean, this is a hip hop class, so, like you're going to learn the culture. Yesterday and yesterday's class, my students learn how to write graffiti. I brought in an expert and we showed them how to create a tag and all that, and they have a newfound respect for you.
Speaker 3:It's amazing to watch because once the students actually touch the culture I bring in the turntables, they get to touch those. I bring in a B-boy. They learn the moves. Once they touch the culture, they respect it because they realize this is not easy. Like you look on TV, you watch the Paris Olympics and it's easy to laugh at the girl from Australia who did the kangaroo stuff or whatever she was doing, all the crazy stuff but it makes you miss the actual talent, the stuff that some of these other guys were doing. You're like what in the world? This is not easy and it makes you respect it. What was she doing, by the way? I have no idea. I couldn't even tell you, but there were a lot of people on there that were doing some incredible moves.
Speaker 2:All of a sudden I saw her on social media. I'm like wait, was she for real?
Speaker 3:That's a great. I don J-Lo booty is something I've always wanted.
Speaker 2:You want a J-Lo booty? Oh, I have the.
Speaker 1:I have such a white girl, but you are who you are. You're a white girl, that's okay.
Speaker 2:I would love to be who I am with a big old donkey ass booty why. Okay, because I love a big ass booty. But why though?
Speaker 3:I don't know why do booty, but why though? I don't know? Because a lot of women, and not just white, but just women. If you don't have that booty, you just don't have it, Because I want it.
Speaker 2:I want to take it and shake, I just want that. So I want that and I want to be able to dance. But I can't do either. I can card.
Speaker 1:You can learn how to dance. I tried. It doesn't go well.
Speaker 2:I'm like a giraffe, like I'm a long-ass giraffe with a flat-ass booty. But, I can like just pretend.
Speaker 3:You can pretend. I think you can learn, because I've seen some tall dancers are amazing, so you could do it.
Speaker 2:The kids that come through. I bet you their moods elevate. Being in that class, I would think.
Speaker 3:How can you be in a bad mood in hip hop? Yeah, I don't. Yeah, and plus me, I'm silly and have fun in there and I don't make it all stiff and like sit there and be quiet. I encourage conversation. You don't have to raise your hand in my class. If you got a question, just say it Like we're talking. It's a dialogue. When I'm lecturing, it's a dialogue. I'm showing them and I'm sharing the culture with them. That's what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love you. I'm having one of these moments where I'm like we have to stay friends because sometimes people come through and then I'm like I feel this emotional connection. I'm like but I'm coming to your thing. Can I bring a friend?
Speaker 3:Of course you just got to. Let me know. I got you, I am going to pull up, don't you worry, I'm coming.
Speaker 2:And then at the Roots, the roots, the roots, you said it's rich street records.
Speaker 3:It used to be called roots. Okay, so then we go there. And then what's the vibe there, like you it's a record store oh, but there'll be like we're playing, we're gonna be djing playing.
Speaker 2:You have a little. You have a little cocktail we're gonna have some drinks.
Speaker 3:We're playing vinyl uh, there'll probably be some food there. They just it's real relaxed. Rich street records is one of those places that we go to. Um, it's kind a spot, the hang spot you need to pull up. No, I'm going to.
Speaker 2:Just consider it done. Yeah, true. Well, this has been a spiritual awakening for me. Thank you, I am so excited.
Speaker 3:I'm awakened too.
Speaker 2:I am just really pumped that we finally did this. Me too, Anything else before we close for the people.
Speaker 3:The main thing. I need you guys to follow me on Instagram at jrawls82 and then that way you'll know everything that's going on. You won't miss anything like Carrie, she was going to miss the February 18th thing. You won't miss it if you're following me on Instagram. So that's the main thing. J Rawls, I'm making beats, I'm DJing and I'm at the Ohio State University and we're creating a Hip Hop Studies minor program. Let's go. Let's go.
Speaker 2:Minors, let's go minors. Thank you, j Rawls. Thank you All. Right, if you're still out there following your girl, follow me on YouTube, spotify, apple or wherever you get your podcasts and until next time, keep moving. Baby Peace, yeah, ma Peace, peace, peace, peace. 3, 2, 1.
