The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme Celebrates Black History Month Part 2

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

For Black History Month, QLS opens up the archives to look at accomplishments in the media. Questlove selects and annotates clips involving legends of stage, screen, and broadcast — while dropping some thoughts of his own. This clips, featuring Donnie Simpson, Wayne Brady, Erika Alexander, Big Lez, and others highlight the progress, impact, and accomplishments of so many. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Ellen, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian. Michael Mancini.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When a group of women. discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist.

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It's Questlove, and this is part two of QLS's Black History Month celebration. All right, this particular episode, we're focused on the media. We got pioneers and innovators from radio, television, and theater. Last season, we had two episodes that really touched on Black History, from a media perspective. In the first, you'll hear Erica Alexander speak about the Freedom Theater in my hometown of Philadelphia,

where she spent time growing up. And I miss it so much. Shout out to Dice Whirl, who's now one of the chairpeople at the Freedom Theater. All right. Here's Erica Alexander. What part of Philadelphia were you from? Mount Airy.

Oh, nice. He was in a nice part of it. Nice part of town. See, when you're from West Philly, I just think anything that's north of City Hall is just N-O-R-F, North Philly, even if it's Mount Airy. So what was your beginnings in the world of acting? Like, were you a Freedom Theater kid or was this stuff in your school? Did you not want to go to creative and performing arts?

Well, you know, I think we had a conversation in me, and I know you've had plenty of them, but you went to school with my little sister, Charlonda. Yes. He's the one who went to the school of the arts that you did. But I was discovered when I was 14 in the basement theater called New Freedom Theater. Freedom Theater. It's closed. I talked to the councilman the other day.

We got to get that back. That theater is beautiful. It is beautiful. But it's tucked in the middle of Temple University and surrounded by, I don't think, people who understand what it's significant. Gensification. What's going on with Howard University? I got you. Roger that. Roger that. So I was

discovered in the basement theater by a movie company, merchant ivory film. Independent film came to Philadelphia. They were looking for little girls back in Brown to audition for this movie and after nearly 12 to 13

auditions and for screen tests. Screen tests. Yeah. I was the one they chose when this vote cleared. Wow, okay. What happened at Freedom Theater? Like, because that was one of the places where I wanted to go,

but instead my parents put me in settlement music school and my sister went to Freedom Theater. Like, it was like, okay, we're gonna have her act and he's gonna do music, but we would only pick her up afterwards, but I never knew like what happened in there. Like, what was, what would they teach you there? Well, Johnny, Alan Jr. and his partner, they started it.

And they started in the 60s. 60s famously were starting to try to train black children, the way the Black Panthers did. They knew the schools that were primarily white weren't giving them any sense of themselves. And you had people like the great Nina Simone talking about Young Gifted and Black. So that's really what was going on there.

There was some sort of idea that if you, in, infused a child with the strong sense of themselves. And you also gave them creative outlets, got them in touch with their body, discipline, voice, sound, body, all of those things, performance, speech, communication. And you could influence the rest of their life. And they proved their point, like a lot of the schools that were going around the country at the time, and New Freedom Theater is of that kind of tradition. How old were you when you started Freedom Theater? Like at what age did you start?

14. I only went there for the six-week program. And then I also did like two summers of a play called Under Pressure, which was their resident production that they put on every year, every summer. Is the hope or I guess the goal of the school to draw people, notable people to see the kids and have them work with someone notable or or is it just like we teach you the craft of acting and then you're out there in the world like are they like this is how you get an agent or this is how you you know this this this commercial casting directors coming to our thing tonight

like is it any of those things involved no not when i was going it might have changed it really was about self-love self-reference power black power young gifted in black a sense of yourself inside of a white world. How can you move through it? How do you stand? Lifting your head, your skin, making the children go home and get undressed and look at themselves in a mirror.

All parts of themselves, the lower parts of themselves, having some kind of regard and respect for hygiene, the way you spoke, the way you stepped up, grammar, all of those things. It was really more like a boot camp for life, for black kids. Did you realize that immediately or is this like in hindsight like I hated going to okay I'm sorry I did not hate going to settlement music school but I hated the homework assignments however I now realize thank God I went to settlement music school that saved my

life but you realize that stuff like when you're way older did you realize that at the time or because even when we were doing those types of exercises at performing art school whatever like we'd be in the back laughing like you know they they'd want us to learn elizabethfin and project with your voice and you know we're just like that settlement wasn't as black as freedom in that way though that's like a different experience right right that's true i think my sister went to settlement too my baby sister how many siblings do you have i'm one of six and fourth there's two younger than me there's charlonda who you know and then there's maisha and i think she went to family. And all of you

have dabbled in the arts? Yes, in some way. Although my sister, he was a social worker there in Philadelphia. And my brother's a Philly cop. Oh, so your family really stayed in Philadelphia? Were you the only one?

Yes, they did. Both my parents were orphans, so we didn't necessarily have a place to be. Wherever we were, was where we were at. But I think you were talking about did I recognize what it was doing then? Yes, they were very overt. They kept, it was like a boot camp.

It was like an officer and a gentleman. They were going to make you understand the power of being black and blackness and more importantly, the power of self-love. And we needed that because at the time I was going in there, the streets were a battleground. It was crack, incarcerated. young women were getting pregnant. It was really like some kind of weird pathology movie. And I think they couldn't be soft about it.

They had to be overt. They didn't have the privilege to set back and not act like they were trying to do. They were trying to radicalize you. And I think that it worked. Well, when you said, all presenter, gentlemen, I'm like, wait a minute. I just remember Lewis Gossack Jr. making Richard Greer cry in the right in the rain. I'm like, wait a minute.

So yeah, a lot of people cried. But they were crying because it was like church. You got in there and had real awakenings. And you reckoned with, even though you might have thought, a lot of people had a confidence and didn't have, I guess, the fears that some children had. They all had that. We weren't allowed to be children in there.

I think that they knew they were different type of child and that they needed to break us down so we could be vulnerable. All right. Not me, though, by the way. I'm a preacher's daughter. I came in already vulnerable. I was scared of Philadelphia and students.

And I was... Wait, your dad was a preacher? Yeah, Church of God and Christ, baby. What's your... Oh, wow. It was a cogic. He was cogent. For sure.

Oh, yeah. Where was the church? Well, my parents were coming out of New Mexico. My... Carlsbad, Las Cruces. They were... Bible students. They traveled around in the car. And that's why I spent the first

11 years in my life in a hotel called Starlight off of Route 66. Wow. That was where you lived? Yeah. All right. That was Erica Alexander Part one. Next up, we're going to hear from Wayne Brady. In part two of his interview,

Wayne told the story of him getting down with Chappelle's show. But not after his feelings were heard and something that has shaped his journey. So my version of this story was when I was a staff member of the Chappelle show. Sorry to mean, sorry, Sam. Yeah.

Because I want to hear what your version in. Okay, so I was a staff member of Chappelle. I wouldn't go on location with those guys. I did all the music for season two. Right. And so the Roots just happened to be in L.A. at the time when we were shooting a lot of the L.A. Chappelle things.

And what you have to understand is that most shows are like planned weekend events. They have a writing staff. The genius of season two was the fact that Neil Brennan, Dave Chappelle were pretty much just flying off the seat of their pants, knowing that on Thursday night, they have to turn in that tape to comedy. Really, you're supposed to turn in like the Tuesday before, like days before. I mean, there would be times where, like, maybe a half hour before the show's on the air, like the Sesame Street. Oh, yeah. Q-tip thing, that Snoop thing. I happen to know that they finished the edit maybe a half hour.

Before air time? Yeah, before air time. Like, Comedy Central has to, like, approve things. We're standing. Like, we went down to the wire. So I do know that we had went out to the four seasons. because we wanted to get Arsenio to do the whole cheese things. Why don't you tell me the cheese was good?

Yeah. Right, that whole thing. And also got Anthony Anderson to do the Ashley Larry. Like the dream. You remember the dream? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. What I remember was we had met Anthony Ajai in the hotel lobby.

Anthony Ajai, the bar wash. He's also the father, Maya Rudolph, Fire, and bridesmaids. And he's legendary comic. Oh, you're talking about Franklin and John? Franklin and John. Franklin and John. I was like Franklin and Jay, yeah. We had spent so much time talking to him and Arsenio was there,

like just comedian war stories from the 70s or whatever, that I had to go so I can go to the airport. So what Neil will tell me when I landed, he says, dude, we just created a masterpiece. Like the way they were describing how the night was was like, they had made Purple Rain and Thriller at once. And I'm thinking, like, wait, from the whole, do-do-do-do-do-do from that sketch, he says, no, man. He's like, so when you were leaving and checking out at the last minute, guess who we saw in the lobby?

I was like, who? He said, dog, we saw Wayne Brady. And I said, oh, my God, what happened? Because I instantly went back to the ball, Paul. Mooney on now. Oh, my God, what I'm expecting this is going to be like beef and broccoli? I said, what went down? What went down?

He says, no, man, we shot something. And so I'm under the belief that it was off the cuff. You just happened to be in the lobby. You and Dave had a Mia Coppa kind of understanding moment thing. And then it was like, so what are you doing? Do you want to shoot something? And it was very off the cuff. And I was not prepared for any of those things.

Oh, no. No, no, no, no. It was so much different. For you? All right. So what's your version of it? Well, my version is, well, just going back to when the sketch aired, and I'll do it really fast. And this isn't me complaining because I've said this before, like on the Breakfast Club

And there's always an asshole in the comments like, like, well, you shouldn't have... The reason that the sketch bothered me, and I'll just say it in a nutshell, jokes or jokes, I do comedy, everything. Jokes or jokes, fine. I just happen to come from a very particular place, and you can't tell me what I can and can't feel.

I feel Paul Mooney, I worshipped at the shrine of Paul Mooney. I never said that Paul Mooney wasn't funny, or Paul Mooney wasn't a genius and a writer. I love Paul Mooney. I love Dave. So imagine my shock. I'm sitting at home. I'm getting my

barber came over to my spot he's doing and the Chappelle show's on I'm excited I was okay we get through the whole thing and then and then boom Negraddo I was up

Wayne Brady looked like him I went oh oh okay I didn't laugh at it not because I was like I'm above being made fun of if your joke is funny please make fun of me that's what we do

but to me and now because you me talk to my bullies. Oh, also, Kendra and Nicole. Kendra and Nicole. You know who you are. Kendra Adams. It's always in the Adams. It's always in Adams. Adams, Jones, Johnson, Wilson, Harris. Race has always been a subject that has played because what does it mean to be black? You know, the kid that grew up watching certain things, doing certain things, liking certain things that are da-da. So those things form you. So I've always had that in the back of my mind

as a thing. So when I see that, I'm like, the joke isn't funny. To me, it doesn't even scan. Because you're now making fun of Brian Gumble, who, like, say what you want to say, but Brian Gumble, this incredibly successful man in his own right doing this thing. So now you're going to use me to take down him or him to me,

and then that means that I'm not black enough. And so does that mean that one of my comedic heroes, Dave Chappelle, who I've rocked with since Robin Hood, men in tights and watching him at evenings at the improv before he blew up. This dude really knows who I am. Oh, that's awesome. But now they go shit on me. And Paul Mooney, who I love, he doesn't think I'm black enough.

That's really, wow, that shakes, which is why Wayne doesn't go out and talk to people because I don't want to deal with that shit sometimes. So I was already in my feelings about it from a race place and just from a joke point. I didn't feel that it was a good joke. I thought it was too easy. So blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, fuck those guys. Immediately.

And I'm like, I don't give second and third chances. I am a, I'm a very petty, angry person inside sometimes when it comes to certain things. So I was already like, well, I guess I can't watch a Chappelle show. Click, I can't enjoy the genius that is Dave Chappelle. Fast forward to, I forget what the show was. It was an award show. It might have been the hoodies, Steve Harvey's hoodies or something. But Donnell was in the lobby.

bar. We were in the bar. Donnell was with somebody else. And I recognize him immediately because I like the show, oh, it's Ashley Larry. But, fuck you. I'm not going to drink my drink. He comes over, so wonderful and gracious.

Wayne, hey, I'm Donnell. I play as you. I know who you are. I've seen your little playlets. Right. Just through the energy. And he was so sweet. He was like, Wayne, blah, blah, blah. I said, oh, yeah, that's great.

I love the show. Up until that whack-ass joke by Paul Mooney, blah, da, da, da, da. But thanks. He goes, oh, my God. I mean, you know we have love for you. I was like, to be honest, I don't know. And I have to preface it, I had been drinking. I had been drinking.

So I was like, really? Was that how you love me, black man? Is that really? So I'm just going about my day. Cut to the next day. This is how fast the shit did happen. So I don't know the timeline that you're talking about in terms of when you came out to L.A.,

but it happened where... Well, I was at the four-season hotel, so... Okay, so that might have been... So whenever I saw him, then the next day I was doing my talk show, I get a... My assistant comes as I'm in the writer's room. Wayne, Wayne, you got a phone call.

Who? Take Chappelle. I was like, why is they... No, you're lying. Take Chappelle. Okay. Hello? Hey, man.

Dave, oh man, just so sweet. It's like, look, I didn't write that joke. Mooney came up with it. I really didn't like the shit either, but, you know, I like the character and da-da-da. No offense was meant. Now, the fact that, and now we live in a day and age, no one's going to backtrack on a joke. Folks, like I said what I said and I said it. Like I said, Dave was one of my guy.

He's one of my heroes. So that itself, we could have just stopped it there. It couldn't have gone any further. It couldn't have gone any further. Like, thank you. And, I mean, you didn't, thanks, it's fine, it's cool. He goes, hey, would you ever want to be on the show? I said, are you kidding me?

It would be a dream of it. Well, then, what are you doing this weekend? Or if this was a Friday or something? So I flew out. I said, I'll come to New York immediately. Great, I'm going to put you in touch with Neil, and you guys decide what we're going to do and we're going to do something great with that.

Great, thanks, Dave. I was on Cloud 9, so I immediately started thinking of ideas. And this is where, it's just so cool. So I'm writing stuff on the plane. Neil had already worked out some stuff. So when I get to New York, it all happens like this. I get off the plane. We go to where you guys shot, I think in Brooklyn or someplace, whatever.

We get up as soon as I get in, I go, Neil's waiting for me. He's like, so what do you want to do? Blah, blah, blah, blah. He goes, we've got this idea of like doing this training day thing because, you know, like you do your talk show. Oh, and at this time, this is when I was leaving my talk show because I found out that because I told somebody all.

at Disney that they threatened me and said, oh, you know, if you don't do this particular thing, we always can find someone to do your show. And I said, oh, if you can find another Wayne Brady to do the Wayne Brady show, please be my guest. I come back in Tony Danza's name is in the papers. But that's cool.

So I was like, great, I'm out of this bitch. I'm asking them wrong goddamn questions. I'm having all the black people I want on the show because they had a band, not a band, because they were going to say, we never said that. Certain guests that I'd bring up, they'd go, oh, no, you can't do that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I was like, really?

I had Missy Elliott, Buster Rhymes. If you were black and my favorite rapper, you were on that show, your show at that time. So this was great. I was like, yes. So in my mind, I was like, we need to do something that will burn the house down. Fuck it, let's go.

So Neil's idea was the training day thing. And I said, well, if we're doing training day where I'm showing Dave through the neighborhood and doing shit, then we really need to lean into the fact of when folks are like, oh, Wayne, I love you because I see your talk show where you're this, you're everybody's favorite black guy. I said, I want to do a thing where a cop stops me, and he starts singing my jingle, and I wrote that, and then I'm going to go behind him, and I'm going to kill him, and that'll freak. I do that to his day.

All right, here we go, right. And that'll freak out, Dave, and I want a microphone to come down. He's going, great, well, let's do that. And then we'll do the other thing with an ATM, and you'll get your money. So, like, we'll follow the beats. I said, great. So we came up with it, so we had these two ideas and mush them together. We shot it all night. We wrapped like six in the morning because I had to get back on a plane to go back to shoot. And then I get a call like Monday. He's like, dude, this is amazing. You aren't going to be ready.

I think we've made history. Yes. And I knew it. Like not often are you in the middle of something? But I knew it as we're doing it because there was such disparate worlds, right? Of Dave and this and me, especially of that time of what folks thought of me and the gigs I was doing. It's like, well, how does that all fit together? And we weren't doing a sketch in my mind.

I was like, no, I'm really doing this shit because I'm also showing you what I do as an actor. It's like, we're really doing this. And the way that he shot it, and it was a beautiful thing that came together. And I knew that we made TV history. I knew it. And I'm telling you, like, Rick James...

Don't smoke this, nigga, we have a problem. Right. Rick James and Prince, they were excited about... But we were more excited about the scripts because we had the scripts way before they were shot. But I do remember up until that point, they were really excited about the racial draft, but the way they were talking about how quickly this thing came together

and how... And I was disappointed because I couldn't add music to it. Like I was like, all right, so what am I going to do? What am I going to do? They're like, it's done already, man. You just wait until it comes on. And literally, okay. So, I mean, that was the beginning of what we call, like, the viral phase.

How did your, how was perception of you or reaction? How did that change after that episode? It was instantaneous because at that point, you know, the Chappelle show was everywhere all the time. It was on a loop. So everywhere you went. And being on tour and going, you know, to various cities, I could see the reactions. Like if, and right after that, it was on. tour, you know, like I was in Philly and New York and Atlanta and Chicago and Detroit.

So I got to see firsthand black reaction to the sketch. Now, the thing is that I never want the narrative to be like, all black people voted unanimously that Wayne Brady was corny or whatever because that was not the case. More black people rocked with me than not. It was some. Fine, you can say what you wanted to, but I did notice as soon as that sketch hit, this is the thing that I got, which I loathe to this day, but I know where it comes from when, like, there's a particular cat comes up, yo, Wayne, nigger.

That's that dude. I'm going to slap me a hole. It's like, no, no, man, it's actually, it's actually, it's actually, it's actually, it's actually, it's actually, it's that, yeah, yeah, that's what I meant. That's what I meant. You, I got to tell you something. I got to tell you something. I didn't, I didn't fuck with you before.

I didn't, I didn't fuck with you. Oh, people get all honest. I didn't fuck with you before. I was like, well, thanks for telling me you're into thoughts. I didn't digest my, okay, fine. But now, now, now, now, now, nigga, now, now, hug me, man, now? And then I'm like, well, thank you. But the funny thing is, oh, so you love me now because I had hoes, made Dave take drugs.

And it was like, okay. Formative blackness. Yeah, I get, I get it. I get it. But the thing that I love the most about it is. is whatever your reaction and whatever you felt, and I feel it to this day. It's a classic sketch.

It's in the museum of television history. I love Dave, and I thank Dave, and I thank Neil for, and I thank Donnell for coming up to me, because I got a chance to do something that was so dope, and I see the effects of it today that people got to see because I was doing a Disney talk show. I was doing an ABC talk show. I was on a Whose Line at night.

I was doing those things. Now, the people that followed my act that saw me in the conference, comedy clubs and theaters, they knew that it's kind of like the Bob Sagget thing. Right. My act is, my acting, and I tell folks, just because you watched whose line or your kid likes Sophia the first, don't bring your kid to my show, because it's not that kind of show. So it's not that. So I felt that that began a shift where folks, to your point earlier, where folks say that

they really don't know me, they know the things that I do, I feel that was a step in people going, okay, I guess there's more to the person than I thought. and if it takes an event like that to make you open your mind, then cool. I don't care where it comes from as long as it comes. Well, then I'll ask you something. I thought, we're on our way

to being best friends. Don't ruin that, Mayor. We started with, we wanted to be friends. Your friends are so exciting. Don't ruin that. It's like, okay. I'm excited. I'll ask you, though.

Yes, sir. And this is an objective question, so I don't know if I can get a definitive answer. Of course. Is the grass greener on the other side? Well, you know, I would not know still because, and this is a larger conversation for a thing, I have issues where I still feel where now it's mostly, oddly enough, ironically, it's white Hollywood and white studio execs. And I don't even say agents that I've had in the past and people, because black is black to me, we are not a monolith. That's what whiz is about. Come see the whiz until June 10th. So until June 11th, no.

No, but you got a seed in general, but just know that's why. So black is all these beautiful things, but the problem is that when we call each other out and we go, oh, you're not black of this or your experiences in this, there are people on the other side listening, like studio execs and like other people that, they're, oh, so that's not black enough? So what is black, Jamal? Tell me, what is black? And he's like, well, I don't mess with that dude, but I think that dude. Okay, great. So my problem on the grass side isn't even with my own.

folks. I love my folks and my folks mess with me. It's how I am perceived, I think, even for roles, even in series that I know that I would kill it, I am by the gatekeeper who maybe the show creator's black, but the studio head is like, oh, no, I wouldn't consider Wayne Brady for that. Are there three roles that got away? Three rules that got away. We're not three. Is there one? What role? I almost had it. Well, I have a few that I have almost had it that I'm not going to blame on race because maybe I wasn't the dude on that day, but I was offered some, a couple things and then offers got, oh, because of it. But the one that sticks out in my head that, and I feel that we're going so long.

So I'm trying to make things quick. Oh, no, man. Okay. This is not a great movie by any stretch, but it was one of the ones, it was around the Chappelle thing that I was like, I'm going to show folks what the fuck I do. Right. It was snakes on the plane. Whoa.

snakes on a plane and here's the thing it was for the role of the rapper now the dude that got it that's my boy Flex I did a movie with Flex I love Flex so if I'm happy that Flex Alexander

yeah yeah yeah Flex yeah flex yeah she said Fleck was like I was like do I know another flex okay so if anybody got it I was happy because Flex is yes that's fam but what I did and my audition was so

genius I have to say this shit was genius it was for the rapper I looked at the script. I'm like, uh, not a great script. The concept you're saying, I'm like,

but screw it. I'm going to go in. So I hired two actors to play my bodyguards. And I hired a couple girls to be my video vixions. And I... For the audition?

For the audition. So you're like a real... I'll never forget. I drove in traffic. Like if any of you were actors back in the day in L.A., if you had to go over to Santa Monica to audition for this day.

It was horrible getting there. spent about an hour and an hour and a half in traffic. And I came up with the idea, I said, I could do this script, but what I'm going to do is, I'm going to be this dude, and then I'm going to freestyle what's in, I'm going to freestyle the story of snakes on a plane, and then I'm going to walk out. So I get there, I timed it so that my time was, I don't even know what time, my time was like 430. Now keep in mind, I'm in full, like I'm in my Adidas thing.

I've got chains, the whole nine, I've got these rings, my shit to the side. I walk in and the dude, one of the bodyguards, has a boombox with a track. I walk in the casting office, click, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, walking. There are actors waiting. I walk right through. I walk right through into the, wait, wait, you can't go, boom, click, hey, how you doing? Oh, wait a step. Yo, I'm not going to read that shit, blah, blah, blah, went on this whole thing,

about script, like that script. Look, he hit the thing, and I did a whole. I can't even remember what I said, but it was basically because you want me to explain, I got snakes on a plane, lives with no legs and the contempt, and we got this dude and want to sit next guy in the Sam. Sam said, fuck these planes, you know who I am. When I come and I

do this, and da-da-da-da-da, and when it's finished, I cleared their desk of these paid... Like flash dance? Of, like, the head shots and the scripts. I was like, because it didn't know. Clear shit, and I threw the script, because I ain't reading this shit. Let's go. walked right back out, walked out of the casting office, went to my car, and it was, oh, hey, thanks, here's 50 bucks.

Thank you so much. You guys were great. As I'm driving home, by the time I get home, I have all my next tell. I had a cease and desist. I had a restraining order. I had a message from my agent. Call 911. Oh.

They wanted to offer. offer me the role. They really liked you for this role. I was like, I did it. It actually worked. And it was that thing of, I've got a name. You see me on TV every day of these things.

I'm still begging and fighting people to get into rooms. And I'm even trying to get into this whack movie. So at least I was like, at least I know that I'm good and this thing happened. And now it pays off. Now here's where I'm going to be careful because all I know is what I was told by my reps at. this time. So they get a call. I'm not going to name who the person was, but somebody who was in a

position of power at the studio. When, of course, these names are being run up the flagpole, Wayne Brady's name comes up. And this white person says, oh, no, uh-uh. Not Wayne Brady. He's not black-black-black. No, he's not black-black. He's not black-black. Black-black. There's always the expert air quotes. Yeah, but I love how we hit it. Black, black. So I'm not black, black. So then Flex gets it, and that's cool.

And I found out this information because I guess somebody at some point in the chain felt so bad. They were like, I just want you to know. So I was like, okay. So that one stung me not because I didn't do a great job, but because I knew it would be something that I'd be facing. And I'm not going to boo who because it's something that just as black actors, black people, black lawyers. years black. We face a certain thing. The naivete that I had up until that point was, well, surely if I'm really dope and you've seen me do things and I'm a great actor, I do Broadway, I do surely I should get the job. Like, nope, because I don't think that you are based on blah, blah, blah.

I was like, oh, I'm an adult now. Fuck it. I get it. So that helped me understand. So that's one that's got a way that I was disappointed in, not because of I didn't get it, but because I was like, man, you're being judged. If I'm dealing with this, then that sucks for the actor who is coming up and doesn't have any clout or doesn't have

a thing to fall back on. So that made me very sympathetic to that. Damn, man, I'm sorry you didn't get that. And this could have been... That movie was terrible, though, right? I mean, it was a cold class. It was a commercial. Yeah, like, it's a

It was actually one of the first movies I remember that really went viral. Yeah, the virulness of the movie. The ad campaign. Yeah, the ad campaign was great. And they add that line later and post. Yeah, they added it later because they was like people with the internet tradeouts and shit. Right. I'll even say, right, am I right thinking that Sam was already doing his thing.

Of course, he was Sam Jackson. But I feel like that line in that movie kind of made the mythos of Sam Jackson, We're in every movie now. He got to say motherfucker. He got to say motherfucker. That and the Tarantin Tino joint. So those are the two that cemented Sam as that dude. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, the Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite

athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, This is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in,

Owens, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Alespian and Michael Naranini.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never. mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own

hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he just serves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, And dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent.

He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there.

Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects.

From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. You know what? I made a promise on that episode. Probably the one complaint that people have on me is sometimes my noncommittal, and not by choice. I'm not saying noncommittal, like as in I don't consciously choose to not commit. But of course, even I can acknowledge that perhaps my love of work sometimes and maybe purposely, keeps me from having to interact with people.

I know that sounds mean to say, but I don't mean it in such a blatant way. But yeah, I'll acknowledge that oftentimes when people are addicted to work and do long work hours, it's often because socially they lack in other areas. So, you know, I said I would stay in contact and start a friendship with Wayne Brady. I have sort of dropped the ball on my end.

We text occasionally. But yeah, we got to do that dinner. I just think it's important for birds of a feather to flock together. And if we take time out, I think we will all notice that we all have creative commonality, social anxiety, commonality. A lot of things in common. And if we sort of just took time out to explore those. things and and share stories with each other war stories or common stories with each other uh we'll be better off so but um yeah wayne i love that guy man you know he's beautiful cat and um

i will hold up my end of the bargain i'm saying this to the world all right so here is kathy hughes who pioneered the quiet storm format uh from her own record collection Can you imagine that? You run a radio station. You got to use your own records to keep it afloat. So part one of our interview, and this is from 2023, Kathy Yu shares her story. And this is important history. So listen.

But one of the things that I've been proud of, quite frankly, was the assistance that we did provide for the doo-wop groups and for the oldies, the goodies as they could. call them because so many of these individuals were starving. Okay. All right. I mean, they love the art. They love the music, but they couldn't work any longer. And disco just killed so many of them off.

And it was not until we during that same era came up with this concept of, you know, basically oldies, but we, you know, put more sophisticated titles to it, dealt contemporary, okay? So you help usher in like nostalgia era and... Or the urban AC category, Amir. I think she's saying that they created the urban AC category. No question. Okay. And it was to really provide platforms. We had this event for years until it became too big, quite frankly, for us to handle.

I admire the fact that Philadelphia still is able to do. There's called Stone Soul Picnic. And the Stone Soul Picnic was only these old groups that, you know, the Ohio players, okay, all the groups that had been dormant. Okay. Nobody was buying them. Nobody was sampling them. Okay. Nobody was recognizing them for their brilliance.

And we start resurrecting them. Okay. And I kind of stumbled into it after I had created the quiet storm because the quiet storm was, love music, love with ballads. And I had to really reach back, all right, to eras where lyrics told stories. You got to tell that story. You need to tell the quiet storm story. Where's the name from? Explain to us who Melvin Lindsay was and how you guys invented. You guys basically helped triple the population. And let me tell you that the main reason I want to write my book, is because when WHOR celebrated its anniversary,

there were several inaccurate accountings of the quiet storm. Number one, Melvin Lindsay was not the originator. Melvin Lindsay was my third. Whoa. He was not my first. He was my third. Okay. Whoa.

All right. My first was a kid named Don Roberts, who broke my heart because he was the most talented of my first three. but he was good looking and he said to me, I got a face for television, Ms. Liggins, okay, because I wasn't even married to doing it. He said, I don't want to be in a radio studio where no one could see me.

Sure not been on to be a big-time anchor in Baltimore, Maryland. Okay? Wow. Now I'd run my first. My second was a young man named Jack Schuller. Jack Schuller was Melvin Lindsay's best friend. Melvin Lindsay was my intern that I paid out of my pocket. He picked my son up from school.

He came because Howard said that they didn't have a budget for interns. And I needed some of the students to actually be in a position to earn some money. So Jack Schuller was vomiting literally after each show or doing the show. He was so nervous. He was trembling. He said, please don't make me do this no more, Ms. Liggins, please, please. Melvin would do it. Melvin would do it. So Melvin told me he would do the quiet storm if I didn't make him open the microphone.

So if there were any early tapes that he would say, good evening and welcome to the quiet storm. The next time you would hear Melvin Lindsay's voice, he would say, thank you for listening to the quiet storm. I'm Melvin Lindsay. There was nothing in between from Melvin. except the music. Great taste in music. It was my private music collection. And I started it out on Saturday night and then on Sunday. And then I decided that it was the conception of the quiet storm was for a senior to be chosen by the faculty. Two seniors, in fact, one for each semester to give them a commercial experience on their resume. Okay? It was never for one person to host the show. It was never supposed to be a rotation opportunity. The closest I came to it was Milton Allen, who was married to Pat Prescott in L.A.,

Sheila Eldridge and Franklin. Those were my three, okay, students that I was able to rotate, okay? Nobody else rotated. Okay, people came and got stuff, including Melbourne. Well, Melvin did so good that K-Y-S, Kiss, told him that they would give him an opportunity if he would come and be on the air at Kiss. So Melvin walks into my office. Now, this, like I told you, he said, in turn, I have literally supported him, okay? His parents would say to him, well, you need to ask Ms. Liggins first before you do so-and-so.

I had picked his classes for him the whole nine years. He tells me on a Friday that he's got an offer and he's going to work at KISS. And I'm thinking he's somebody after graduation and all this. And I said, when? He said, Monday. I was so irate. I told him to get out of my office. What?

Yes. So Dewey Hughes, who at that time had 14 Emmys for his productions at BRCNBC, 14 Emmys. Okay. He created youth news. He created music videos as quiet as it. kept. Anyway, Dewey comes to my office and he tells me that it's a setup that NBC just wanted Melvin off the air and that they had him in the mailroom. And would I please bring him back? And I said, bring him back. And he said, let me take you to dinner and talk to you about this. Well, ultimately, Dewey and I got married and Melvin came back. Okay. And years later. Okay. There, and years. later, I never will forget, we were at this big affair, and Melvin was being honored. And I was in the audience with Dewey, and Melvin didn't acknowledge the fact that I was even in the audience,

and Dewey had torn his Achilles, a attendant playing basketball. He was on crutches. He went up to the head table on crutches. He grabbed Melvin Lindsay around the neck, and he said, I'm married because of you. And you don't even... I'll return. Wow. And Melvin went back to the microphone. Well, I'm so sorry. I didn't know she was here. I didn't know.

He grabbed here right in front of the whole room. It was hilarious because that's how Dewey and I ended up getting married. The reason my name is Kathy Hughes. How did you get Melvin out of his shyness? Because I didn't know Melvin Lindsay as a radio personality. I knew him as when we first got cable. I knew Melvin Lindsay as a news personality. So he was like Brian Gumbull-ish and I'm like, wait a minute, you were a quiet storm guy.

So sexy and I was too young to even know it. So, oh, just. I was like, so how did you? And did the song come before the show? I could not take full credit for getting him out of his shell. Number one, Melvin was introduced to the gay lifestyle by I also had the distinct. of hiring the first openly gay air personality, Robin Holden. Yes, Robin?

Okay. In D.C. Robin Holden, I had to talk in code back in those days. She said the children would be meeting this Friday night and so-and-so. She was talking cold. And Howard University was up my rear end. Okay. Are you out of your mind?

Conservative. Okay. Okay, exactly. Conservative, homophobic, all of that. Okay. And at the same time, I'm getting all these rave reviews from the, because D.C. as quiet as is kept. Okay, is a big gay and lesbian city. All right.

All right. All right. Okay. For many, many decades. And so, okay, so Robin was an incredible air personality, incredible air personality. All right. And she helped Melvin come out of his shell because I think that she made him comfortable with his sexuality. She made him feel that it was okay because Melvin was very closeted at that time, which contributed to his, okay.

He was engaged. I bought the engagement ring for a young lady and she left him because she recognized that he wasn't comfortable with her. But during those times when Melvin was quiet and withdrawn and wouldn't open the microphone, his show was almost like a black music. And so it grew in popularity. We didn't have any commercials because it was a student shift. Okay. So we became number one in a matter of like 18 months. We went from no listeners to being number one in the market because Melvin wouldn't open the mic.

and I had no commercials, so it was non-stop love. Music, wow. Okay. The theme of Philly International, there's a message in our music. Okay, we believed in that, and the message was one of love and affection and attention. And so Melvin blossomed and went on to become an incredible personality, incredible. He grew into himself. He got comfortable with himself.

Deanna Williams was very much a part of his growth in development, okay, because he realized that he could be loved regardless of, okay, his sexuality, his sexual preference had no bearing on his talent. And he really, really, really blossomed and became this incredible, incredible television and radio personality and died too soon, too early. And so AIDS took him away way too soon. He was our first, right? Like, I feel like he was our first major. He was. It just hurts me to my heart to think what he could have been, what he could have done. Had he not been discriminated against, had he not been unable to be who he really was?

because talent personality galore. And once it start coming out, it was only out for a short period of time and then he was gone. He still needs to be in the Radio Hall of Fame somewhere. Absolutely. Absolutely. He became my most popular,

but the most popular of all the hosts of the Quiet Storm was Von Harper in New York. Von Harper. Let's talk about the franchising, the franchising of the Quiet Storm then. Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. Howard wouldn't let me franchise it.

They wouldn't let me license it. And at one time, there were stations they actually called themselves the Quiet Storm Station. Howard could have supported, not just a school of communications. They could have supported the entire school of just licensing. It's a trademark.

Yes, I was like with the trademark. The reason I left Howard University was I realized that they had taken a billion dollar baby that God had given me, you know, the motherhood of, okay, that I had first a billion dollar baby for Howard University, and they had thrown the baby, the bathwater, and me out of window. And so I resigned because I resigned telling Dr. Cheek that I did not want to miss the next billion dollar baby that God might impregnate me with. I would not allow anyone else to be in charge of my destiny, and that's what Radio One became. They became that, okay, that that baby that

that God once again blessed me with because before Howard, they persecuted me. They punished me for the quiet storm. Really? Why? Terribly. I was very, very, very provocative in my days at Howard University. I stood up for the students. I, you know, opened doors. And it wasn't Howard's fault. HBCUs only, you know, recently realized that education is a business. You have to make money at it. Okay. And all this to be announced books not being in, classroom not being assigned,

have to stand in line for hours to register. Okay. All of that. That's part of the experience. I'm like, wait a shit. But it's not. Okay. Howard was very good to me.

Howard sent me to Harvard University for six weeks to learn broadcast management. Because when they told me they wanted to put me in the job as general manager, at first as a sales manager, I said, I don't know how to do it. And they said, well, you know, you know some of the basics. And they paid my tuition to Harvard. For the Harvard Business School? The business school. At that time, they had a six-week course called Broadcast Management.

Wow. And then they paid my way for a two-week course at the University of Chicago called Psychographic Programming. That's when I came back and created the quiet storm. So both times. So, you know, they say that, you know, I was their best student that never matriculated at Howard University. But Howard invested in me quite seriously. I would not be, you know, professionally who I am or what I do now. were it not for high university.

And so it was easy for me when I found out that the School of Communications was on, you know, in a danger of not losing its accreditation and perhaps having to close that I was like, oh, no, that can not happen. I can't allow that to happen because I, they produced me. Okay. Even though I was never a student. Okay. Howard University produced who I am professionally.

You know, I think that over the years that some of the things that I wanted for the students and for the university have come to fruition. And for that, I'm eternally grateful. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clipper Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football,

or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my bra. brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a tree. dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity

scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in so-ins, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected.

They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Gregalespian and Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues,

news, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl.

You play stupid games. You get stupid games. prizes. And Rule 2, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target.

He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wode. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman,

Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with the morning. day and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through and I know it's a place that

come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest.

The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice Podcast. to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. So the quiet storm.

I lived in Philadelphia, and we were lucky to have the legendary Doug Henderson. Like, even when you talk about Doug Henderson, your voice goes down a couple of octaves. So we had Doug Henderson back in WDASFM 105.3. I believe he also came to, did he come to Power 99? I'm not too sure.

I think he did. But, yeah, the quiet storm format. When I was young, I didn't appreciate it. But, you know, after they got rid of the quiet storm format in 1997, then suddenly I became the quiet storm format. So many of you have heard me many times, sort of name drop and talk about all my illustrious friends that I make playlist for. this February is no different.

Once a month, I give over 400 people my mixes because music calms the soul sometimes. And so, yeah, now I'm the guy that makes quiet store mixes, but back of the day, you needed a platform that could play slow songs all the time. If not, then you had to take time out to make, like, a three-hour mixtape, so that way, when your loved one comes by the spot, you got a soundtrack.

And that's important. That's how we all got here. All right. So next up is the legendary Lady B. The first woman on a rap record. She released a single to the beat y'all back in the day. A little history for you. She spoke about the power of black radio in Philadelphia and how the legendary

Derry, Mary Mason. If you're from the tri-state area, especially Philly, you know the name Mary Mason. Mary Mason shaped Lady B, on air and off here. And there's also a great story about Nancy Reagan in there, too. All right. Enjoy. For our listeners, listening, she mentioned HAT. W.HAT was an AM radio station. I knew, as a kid, I knew it because, like, my, I mean, The way that people always listen to talk radio now, we had a woman by the name of Mary Mason in Philadelphia. Who I owe every thing. And I mean, I don't know how typical it was for a black woman to have her own platform to that of like, I mean, who's popular now? Kathy Hughes.

Just Kathy Hughes. Let me tell you. I was talking in terms of like Alex, what's his name? Like. Let me, let me just share one. Mason's story. Please, please. Yeah.

I'm 18 years old, and Nancy Reagan walks into the lobby, the Secret Serviceer with her, blah, blah, blah, she just does a pop-up. Right. To stop by to say how to marry. This is how politically strong she was. It was. And she told me, and I quote, tell that bitch, I want to. What?

I'm trying to get Carter in office or whatever. I was like that. Wow. Wow. Yeah. So here I am. So here I am, y'all. 18, like, how do I?

Oh, she told you to tell that bitch. Yes. Oh. So I got to go out here and look this lady in her face and like, ma'am, I'm so sorry, but Ms. Mason is flatter that you stop by. However, her schedule, you know, I had to go through the whole shebang, but that's what she told me. I've heard her curse at the mayor and hang up on him about her Philly's tickets.

Like she, Ms. Mason was a beat. She is the reason. I have the backbone and that my shoulders are back and I've never let anyone talk to me or try to get over at least not knowingly. I mean, they ended up a couple times anyway, but they had to sneak into it. No, I've never allowed anyone to be blatantly disrespectful in my face, if you will. I think I'll talk about that later later. To me, she was like the original Rush Limba.

Like, she's very controversial also. I know she supported like Frank Rizzo or she cried. He was a politician on the radio is what Mary was. And I will have to say that she walked her walk. She was dedicated to this community of people. She got on the air and talked about things that other people wouldn't even touch and called people on it. Like she, she made, I witnessed this woman,

change lives. Yeah. And she was something. And then you took the baton and now you do the same thing. Well, later, because I mean, I didn't take the baton from her then because I take it. I mean, she, you know,

when she passed that baton to me, I was doing hip hop. I was crazy. We was having fun. Y'all was having fun. You just said it. I was playing all that good stuff for y'all. I just came into my Mary Mason vibe. Right now. That's what I'm years.

Yes. Okay. So I remember. like discovering your show around like late 1980, early 81. You know, every Saturday afternoon, whatever. My brother and I would just record like. Everybody says I remind them of Paul's record, pause record. Whenever I see Beanie Siegel, he goes, pause record.

Oh, right. No, oh, you're world famous for that. Get your pause, press your pause button. But to have a radio show, and you were on for like two to three hours, But I'm thinking like back in 81, was there even two to three hours worth of quality hip hop to play? So I like to explain it like this. I laugh every time I hear the term digging into crates. And that's crates with an S because when I started playing hip hop on the radio, there was a crate, one crate.

Was it full? It was full to the max. I mean, not everything was, I was picky. It was good enough to play. Right. You know, when it went, when we first started, when we realized we could take what we were doing in our backyards and our neighborhoods and our courtyards and put it on wax and that, you know, this was possible. Everybody tried to do it, whether they could rap or not. But I was very, I think the thing that number one, you have to understand when hip hop started, it was, its purpose was to stop a terrible disease in the black community.

that was full of violence and gang war. And it was crazy. It was getting a little out of hand with it. So hip hop gave, I mean, I'm sure if you spoke to an Africa band body, he would co-sign this, but hip hop gave us a way to battle each other and represent our neighborhoods, not with knives and guns, but with turntables and microphones.

And it became this thing, like you had to rep your neighborhood with your rhymes. And God forbid if you bit anybody else's rhyme, you had to come with your shit, and it had to be real, it had to be, raw and it had to be authentic. And everybody couldn't do that. Some people just thought they could just get out a book of words that rhyme and put some shit together and hand it to me to get on the air. That happened a lot. But if you, if I couldn't understand number one, what you were

saying, like I, no disrespect to what people like these kids like today or whatever, but mumble rat was, it just makes my skin crawl because for me, a good MC is very articulate. You can hear everywhere. I don't care if he's saying something wrong, disrespectful. I have to hear what you're saying or why did you raise that banging ass beat? Like, why are you here? B, do you remember like your first show and the records that you had to play out of the crate? Like, all right,

this is my first show. I got to get so on so on. Well, you have to understand then we kind of got, you know, I laughed when I see Jeff and Cash and Rich McNeen and them cast and UQuest and and Biz, may be rest in peace. go deep into this this DJ thing but you have to understand

when hip hop started is when we first learned how to cut and scratch a break beat so that took up so much time not only am I going to just take the train but I'm going to take the train for about good 12, 14 damn minutes so that's a lot of time on the radio

you know what I mean? Yeah. You're going to cut that joint what? Suck a MC then you've got the flip side then you got the instrumental that you could cut in with that joint right then you got another DJ at one time on Power 99. It was so dope.

Me and Jeff Mills, may he rest in peace, had two turn. Yes, he had two turntables on his side. I had two turntables and we had a reel to reel. So we have six elements going in, I'm cutting in other songs in the middle.

It was blowing people's, it was blowing people's, my blue-due mind. He never crossed my mind. I'm going to just have a real dumb moment because I know I'm not alone in this. I don't think it ever crossed my mind as you were literally mixing records like that. I remember Ron and Daryl coming in my

studio for the first time. They're like, so you're going to mix the record and interview us? I was like, yeah. Right. You were more than just a personality. It's like, no, I'm an actual beat. I was a big girl on a radio and I still am. Yeah, I was going to say that you also, you guys would at least on like the like the midpoint or at least the last hour of the WHAT portion of your show, like you were also playing like craft work, like what would become like B-boy, you know, like it's time. Well, you have to understand breakdancing was a major element for us in the beginning of this thing. So if you couldn't break to it, it definitely didn't get played.

And they demanded it because you have to understand, I am taping the only hip-hop you're going to have for the week. And then y'all were Jones into the next week. Like, I was the only one with Pepsi. Right. You understand? I'm the only place you can get it. People were driving.

You can ask Chuck D. They would drive down to Philly to take Michelle. Yes. So it was like that. It was like this thing and everybody had to have it. And it was just so much freaking fun doing it. It was so. And Mary Mason never said she never pulled your coat on anything, not a record.

Nobody ever said, listen, you can't be playing that no more. It was never. We won't even mention discombolator or boobulator. No. I'd love discombobobobolator. No. I love that anymore. What is that song?

No. Just a matter, what is that? All right. I'll get to 1986 in a second. Hang on. We had a small controversy with MC Bree's discobobelator, blueblator,

but wait, before I go on, there's two things I've got to ask you. One, how often did you record your own shows on WHAT? He wants them. I, no.

So everybody, tap, damn money, every DJ. has asked me this question. So in my possession, I have not going through them. I do have some real to reels. But as far as cassettes, people have been giving them to me over the years. I'll meet a listener on the air and said that they used to tape me and they still have them. As a matter of fact, I've been asking people to give them back or I can make a copy of them and give them back to them. And I didn't even have a cassette player in the house, but my niece and nephews bought me one

last year. So it's fly little John. It looks like a boombox, but it's blue. Tooth compatible is so cute. But I have to sit here on my desk. But I now want to get the cassette so I can hear them. But I do have, like, I do have some of those reel-to-reels. You've got to convert those in, like, I have to, I know. I'm getting to the point.

COVID did allow me to do a lot of purging. So there is a little order to my madness. So I'm getting it all together. At least I know tapes are here. Reel-to-reels are here. And now I just got to dive into them. Okay. I got to ask a question.

There's a record you used to always play and I thought it was a Philly record. And I'm just finding out that this guy is from New York. But do you know the whereabouts of R.C. LaRocque, aka the Maikstra? Are you ready? Hold your hat. Hold your hat because you're not going to believe this is right here. Hit me.

Sunday night. My show is sold out, by the way, at the Dull Music Center. It's been sold out for three. What show would that be? It is my 40th. It's my 40th. 40th anniversary in radio

and hitting the stage for the very first time at the Dell will be everybody around the nation I'm going to give you something because I have to fulfill my obligation to set you on a little vacation but you don't need no reservation

you found R.C. LaRock the micstrote. Yo, he's so hyped about doing to show that me and Charlie Mac were like, I don't know how old he is now. And I'm like, just anybody's telling me he's going to have to put a track behind him? Because he's not going to make it through all the lyrics.

Like, there's no way. Me and Tarreek will drive down and do the lyrics for him. Yo, I was, this is not the answer. I was expecting. Sunday night at the Dell, be there or be square? Well, who else is performing at this? Oh, you don't want to know. You ain't ready.

I've never had EPMD. They will be in the building. Because I've been doing this for 10 years now. I've never had nice and smooth they will be in the building. I have my iconic Sugar Hill gang, Melly Mel and his crew. I have Roxanne Chonte, I always try to have a female every year.

She's my female this year. EPMD, nice and smooth. Kumo D will be in the building. And my headliner's Big Daddy King. Oh, man. Yo, you know where the mic's show. is where's he from? He's going to be on my state.

You got to see this video. I got a, I'm going to send me your number. I'm going to send me this video that he did. He is, he's, he's the maestro. That's all I can say. Wow. You just, you just say, he wants something like, yo lady, B, this, Shaboo, R.C.

The rock. I'm coming down here to rock the joint. That's like a big promo videos for everybody. My God. No, people were doing, oh, and you have to do one too. People are doing happy 40th anniversary. videos. We're trying to make a little hashtag. Happy 40th Lady B. Spread the word.

Get everybody to do it. Let's blow the spot up. I will do this. Hashtag, happy 40th Lady B. Let's go. Woo, woo. Wow. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be.

Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in so-ins, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case.

I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian, Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap.

Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over

until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never. mess with a country girl.

You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that, trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me?

The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Ego Wode. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers, Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo.

Woo! Woo! My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with him one day. And I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet.

Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging. your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there.

Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco,

joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. You know, now I think because we have the internet, there is a sense of community in the internet. But before the internet, black radio was the internet. It's where you learn new music. And, you know, they had a trust in the DJ. The DJ was a tastemaker. you hired someone that had good taste. That's the one thing I wish we could really, really truly grapple with.

The issue of taste. Someone discerning someone that can make informed decisions on what is good, what is not good. You know, what needs work, what needs practice, what needs to be upheld, what is getting too much on? And that's what Black Radio was. You know, it was like a community billboard. You learned about, you know, local gatherings. You learned about, like, anything from, like, local inner city farming on Saturdays, like a farmer's market type thing or an event happening at, you know, local theater or that sort of thing.

Our concerts coming up, music you should be on, especially at nighttime. Radio would get more experimental. So that lasted up until about, like, 1997. and then, you know, kind of the corporate arm of radio as money tool sort of came into play. But yeah, man, black radio was important for back in the day for it to keep you abreast of all you needed to know, all types of music you needed to know, not just hit singles. All right, so here is Donnie Simpson. if you are my age slightly older

living in America and you had cable television you know who Donnie Simpson is Donnie Simpson is such a pioneering figure in Black Radio I believe on this show he shares with us that he is the reason why you know the song Benny and the Jets

by Elton John having DJed in Detroit he premiered the song like around 7 p.m. at night on Detroit radio, instant hit, and people just kept requesting Benny and the Jets. And then suddenly Elton John got word because, you know, they heard that they're playing Benny and the Jets in Detroit. And then nearby territories like Chicago, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania. And then, of course, you know, the tri-stores.

state and DC, you know, the DMV. Suddenly this song just spread like wildfire. And Donnie Simpson is the first domino that fell. So yeah, man, Donnie Simpson, such a legend of BET in its early days with video soul, such a hero, is from back in 2017. And Donnie's going to discuss his experience as an ambassador of black culture on radio and television. How were you convinced to, well, you didn't totally abandon radio when you did video sold. Oh, no.

You did both, but did you figure that, okay, it's time for the black version of MTV to come to fruition and I want to be a part of history? No, this is not happening. I mean, it wasn't my creation. I got a call from Bob Johnson asking me, or actually, was Jeff Lee, his right-hand man. We're starting this show called Video Soul, and we'd like for you to host it. At the time, I was still doing radio, of course,

but I just started doing TV locally in D.C. For the last two years, I was a sports anchor. George Michael. Yeah, I was George Michael's backup for George Michael's sports machine. So, you know, so, yeah, it was cool. I mean, I enjoyed that, but I like, music. You know, sports is not what I do. So,

anyway. Thank you. Go ahead. I'm paying bill. I'm paying to. I was just sports ain't your thing either. That's actually how I know you. I went to school down in College Park, Maryland. Oh, really? In late 80s, early

90s. So I was watching the George Michael Sports. Oh, wow. Cool. Dream machine? Sports machine. Yeah. So him, he's sports legend, Donnie Simpson. Yeah. So anyway, they said wanted me to do this show, and I'll be very honest with you. My first answer was no.

No, I didn't want to do it. I've always been very careful about what I get involved in because all I have to sell is image. So I'm very protective of that. It's got to be right. and B.E.T. in its infancy, wasn't a pretty baby. Okay, can we talk about that? Yeah, right. It was kind of public service.

Yeah, right, exactly. Public access. Right, so I didn't want to do that. But I thought about it for two days, and then finally, the bottom line became this, that this is our first black television network. If you have something to offer it, you have to do that. Period.

Let's go. And so I'm glad I did, man. I mean, it was, you know, it was amazing. When we first started, we were in one and a half million homes. When I left, that number was like 45 million. You know, now it's like 100 or something. I mean, it's just crazy, you know. And, you know, it put me in black houses all across this country, you know.

And not just black. I didn't even know about your radio career. I just thought. Most people around the country don't. They're shocked when they find out I do radio. Yeah. But, yeah, but, you know, it was really something special, man. It was, you know, Terry Lewis, we were talking about it recently,

and he was saying how that, I was just telling him about the love and respect that I get and how it just blows me away, you know, every time. And he says, it's because you mean something to people, you know, that you represented a time when music was fun, you know, the videos were fun. and all of that, you know, it was clean, fun, you know, and you represent that time. It's like, well, I'd never thought about it like that. Absolutely. But, you know, it's, I remember one night, VH1 did a series called Black in the 80s, and they had interviewed me for it.

And so they told me it was coming on, so I watched it that night. It was an hour long. And the first 15 minutes they did, Brian Gumbull, the first black to host early morning national television show. Then they did Arsenio Hall, first black to host late night talk show.

Then they did Cosby, the Cosby show. And first black TV show were the mother and dad were doctor and a lawyer, not a plumber and a janitor or something. And then they did Donnie Simpson and video soul. And, man, I'll

never forget it. When the show ended, all I could think was, well, how the hell am I supposed to sleep tonight? seriously because I'd never had it put in perspective like that you know what I mean it's like a line that I've always always loved from Elton John rocket love not rocket love that's Stevie Wonder rocket man right when he says in all the science I don't understand it's just my job five days a week you know I mean you think this is a rocket man an astronaut it's like it's so glorious you know you're a DJ's a glorious you know you're a DJ's a glorious

You know, man, I don't care who you are or what you do. It's just what you do. So at the time you weren't thinking that you're doing a historical service for mankind. Absolutely not. That there's a bunch of 11-year-olds watching you and recording this. Because we will record the show and watch it over and over and over again. That's crazy to me. No, I never thought.

I mean, I've had three or four to ESPN anchors. come up to me and tell me, you're the reason I do TV because I used to watch you. It's like, man, that's mind-blowing to me, of course. I'm telling you, man. No, between you and probably, probably the only person that could challenge or even match your cool might be Don Cornelius. Like, you two are like the air appearance. Yeah, it was cool.

Yeah, it was cool. He was one error and then you kind of were the next. And that's the thing. You always pervade this level. of intelligence and cool and knowledge no matter who the artist was. Like if I were interviewing like Wild Animal era vanity, I would have been sweating profusely. But you gave her the same level of respect that you would have done for Sergio Men's.

or Cahida Garrett or Quincy Jones or Albi Short. Like, you know what I mean? Like, that to me was even more amazing. Like, it's one thing to interview someone that you love and that you're, you know, that you have history of. Like, I'm sure that, you know, if a Motown Luminary comes on the show, then, you know, you're just giddy about it. But how do you prepare yourself for an artist that you might not know of? Like, say, like, first year, Karen White comes on the show, and you might not know that much about her, but...

I ask her. Like you did. I asked her. Seriously, that's how I prepare. There's no preparation. But there's no preparation. I mean, every artist I've ever had on VideoSoul, he would give me a bio and a list of questions,

and I would take and sit that on the side. Seriously, I would never look at it, because I felt that there's nothing wrong with me not knowing you grew up in Tuscaloosa that I can ask you that. I mean, this is an interview. This is getting to know you. What's wrong with that being the first of where you grow up at? You know, oh, I grew up in Philly.

Oh, man, what happened to the sixes the other night? That's conversation. Okay. That's just, you know, I mean, if it's somebody I knew, I'm telling you, this may be the depth of the preparation. I'd go, all right, Luther. on the show today. I'm riding in and I go what is it you want to know about Luther? Man, why do you,

why does your weight keep going up and down? You don't think you get that under control. I say, all right, that's what I'm going to ask him. And, you know, it's, um... But you could ask him that, though. I don't think nobody else could get away with us. But, you know, and that is a blessing for you to say that. You get it. That, um, it's just like,

on... with all due respect, I'm going back to Johnny Carson, the Tonight Show, that when the conversation with Johnny was always different from any other host I ever saw because they had so much respect for him. He could ask things that others might not because they just lose. But Jimmy's like that too, because he's so cool, you know, when you cool with people like that, man, and they feel you and it's real. It's not staged questions. And, you know, when you've read the bio, the chances are I'm going to ask you a question based on that bio. It's something that you've been asked a thousand times already before.

What was your first interview on? Do you remember your very first interview on the show? Who was your first guest? Absolutely. My very first interview was with the fat boys. What year was this? It hasn't been 84? 83 or 84?

God. Something like that. Yeah, man. The fat boys. second one was with Rick James bitch Okay What was that like? Okay, we've yet to have a potential

Off the Chains Guests, we're kind of entertaining that Like all of our guests are either like Super Legend or we've worshipped them Yeah But Okay, Rick James is a perfect example If someone has the potential

to sort of be off the chains Oh, yeah. How do you reel them in? How do you maintain, how do you drive the car and not have them drive the car? Wow, that's, wow, what a great question. Because you still have to steer and navigate. Yeah, you still got a steer. And he's the 12nd acceptance in.

Right. And it was the 80s, so we know that Rick might have been on that, you know. So you don't know where the conversation was going to go. But I'd never had that problem. I never had anybody, had anybody go rogue on me, just, you know, go crazy. crazy, go, it just never happened. But a little left. You've had some people maybe go a little left. I mean, because even that

new edition interview was kind of. Everybody's left in this business. You know, shoo, we live. I was going to say for you, has an interview going a little weird and you guys had to do a lot of editing magic? Well, back in the day for like, what interview was like,

got through that? No, most of the years on video sold, we were live. Whoa. We all going back and edit it. It was live until the last three or four years. Really? I didn't know. Yeah, yeah.

I never do that. Yeah, yeah. We used to do it live, man. That was risky. Well, yeah, but that's the way I liked it because that made it like radio for me. I hate tape. I hate recording. It's just, it's a different pressure that you perform better when it's live.

For me, you know, when it's live and I know you don't get to back it up. And then it's real because for me, when you, when you, that. backing it up and editing, then you're trying to make it perfect. And like I never, ever, ever watched video soul. I don't listen to tapes of my radio show because I feel like, I'm trying to make myself perfect, and I'll never be that. All I need to be is me. That's it.

That's all I need to be. Donnie Simpson, does that mean a programmer's never pulled you in an air check meeting and said? Oh, Lord, no. Since you were a teenager, there's never been a boss, because I mean, most, I know people know this, but like in radio, usually your boss. will at some point at the end of the week pull you in a room and say, let's listen to what you did here. You know what?

For one period, when I first moved to D.C. in 77, we did have a program director, and, oh, my goodness, it was crazy for me. For a year and a half, I did live under that. I've forgotten that because it was such, you know, that's out of how many years. God, I started in 69. So, you know, one and a half years of slavery.

But, you know, where he would walk in with a stopwatch and go, that was 17 seconds. You had to come in under 15 seconds on anything you said, you know. I mean, it was just, so finally, I was gone. I was gone. I said, I can't do this. I'm leaving. And I had a job offer in L.A. And so they offered me the music directorship to keep me.

So I stayed. And then I worked under this music director. My music director was, he was a brother. brother, but he had so much... Or was he your brother? Let me be careful. Yeah, or was he really? We know wink, wink, wink, we get it.

Yeah, we need Mueller to investigate this one. But he, we would have our record meetings, or every week, you know, the music meetings, and he'd go around the room. I was the music director under him. He was the program director.

And I had two assistants, and both of them were political appointees. This is D.C. one was David Brinkley's son The other was this senator's son He'd go around the room He'd never forget this one He played Beast of Burden Rolling Stones

You know So he goes So John, what do you think of that? Oh, I love it. I think it's great. Dave, what do you think it's great? I think it's great, but we can't play that shit. Thank you.

That ain't no Benny in the Jets. Right. You know, I mean, I love it but it's got to fit. Brother's not going to be. Can I assume that that was the single after Miss You? Were you guys playing Miss You? No, that was before Miss You.

Miss You came after? As I recall it, because I played Miss You as a program director. So I wasn't programming then. Yeah, I'm pretty sure we could check the records. Okay. I always thought Missy was first. Yeah, I think that's the way it went. Okay.

Because I played Miss you. That works. Beast of Bird does not. Little River Band, Reminiscing. We can't play that, man. Really? Yeah. It's like that would work.

I love that song. Oh, wait. I love reminiscing, though. Because you also got to consider the area, right? Like, it's not just the people. It's the area you in. D.C. and Go, go, go, baby. You know, it was hard.

Yeah. That's my next question. Yeah. Okay. Now, as the top tastemaker of D.C. that had the world's ears, how is such a beautiful, subculture like GoGo, how has it met so many obstacles?

And I feel like the ripple never gets to expand more west than West Virginia or Ohio. West Virginia. Or, okay. The Potomac River. Let's just go back to Virginia. Yeah, but it's, you've lived in D.C. for decades. I assume you still do. Oh, yeah.

How is black people's jam-bam music not resonated to the rest of the United States of America, at least? I have no idea why that is. It's like, I mean, we thought it was going to break out when we've had, yeah, well. And good to go that movie came out? Chuck was the first. Yeah, Chuck Brown. Busting Loose was the first number one go-go song in the country. I mean, it was number one song in the country.

that was GoGo. And then the second was the butt by EU with the help of the movie, school days, you know. So we're thinking, man, it's going to break out now. And it never did. Those are the only two to this day that ever went number one in the country. You know, you had people like Grace Jones. Some people used it. Elements in the songs.

Yeah, he used elements, yeah. But it just never broke out for some reason. And I don't know, you know. I don't know why the rest of the world never caught on to drop the bomb on the white boy. You know, I just don't get it. Yeah, I wonder why that never got that. It's a mystery. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place.

for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in someone's, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for.

Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Alespian and Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police.

As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never.

mess with her friends either. We always say that, trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me?

The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he'd. serves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodam. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to

really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be...

Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters.

when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. All right. So that was Donnie Simpson back in 2017.

And now we are fittingly going to Big Les in 2020. So Big Les came out of time in which, you know, to see people pivot, especially hip-hop people pivot. You see the fresh prince morph into Will Smith. You see a rapper morph into an accomplished actor. That's important to see. You see Jay-Z morph into. more from back of the trunk business to real business

and real is in quotes and for me Big Les was such a pivotal figurehead and hip-hop dancing which often doesn't get celebrated as much as MCN and DJ and graffiti art so the fact that Big Les was taking street dancing

to a higher level. She became one of the most sought-after choreographers and dancers and kind of pivoted to media personality. And so, yeah, such a legend to come on our show and talk. This Big Les from 2020. What was the moment that led to you

sort of ease out of your comfort zone and go into being a personality? because I've seen you on many of red carpet doing Rap City. Like, was that your first job as they? Like, how did you know that you had a personality? Because it's, you know, even for me to ease into this zone is a little weird. Like, just because I'm a public figure, it doesn't mean that, you know, just because you could do that, doesn't mean that you can carry a conversation good or be engaging and all that stuff. You're really engaging.

Like, you are a personality. It's almost like, you know, when I saw that. you first started, like, doing red carpet stuff and starting with Rap City, I was like, oh, she's a natural. Like, she is a personality. Like, where did that come from? Wow. Thank you for saying that.

For real. It's interesting. The things that you write in your diary have so much power. When I was in high school, I was going to study journalism. And I took, like, three journalism classes. And the last one I took, I didn't like it. So I was like, I'm switching to sports medicine and athletic training and all that other stuff. But I still always kept a journal.

always still wrote short stories and always kind of like been inquisitive by nature. Rap City is the blessing that came after I did not become a fly girl. Like, that's a whole other thing. I was curious if you audition. I didn't want to ask. That's so, okay. Oh, yeah. What gigs didn't you get that you wanted?

Well, being a fly girl was the gig that I wanted more than anything. Wow. Literally did not get it. And it was already, like, set up, I had the best audition, all the local news channels are interviewing me. I did all these flips and this, that and others. Everybody knew you.

It was the New York fam, the weigh-ins and Rosie and... Yeah, but Rosie came over to me. Sidebar was like, can you lose 10 pounds? And Jennifer had already been on the show. And I'm like, but Jen at the time was bigger than I was. Like, I was really muscular, but she was thicker. And then I found out that, you know, by Josie's own words, that she had been approached well before the audition by,

I guess one of the wayans called her and said, listen, we need you to show up, but we want to know if you want the gig. So she pretty much already had it and just kind of had to look like she had to audition. And, you know, usually they do what's called typecasting. You say you want somebody light skin this tall, Latino women, black one, whatever. You're very specific. This was an open audition, but they already knew who they wanted and what they wanted.

And Rosie years later came and apologized for even asking me that question and wishing that she had fought for me because she knew that I was the baddest dance in the room at that time. but rejection is God's protection, right? After I'm licking my wounds and I don't get fly girl, I go on Madeline Wood's show, Video LP, and dance on the show. I'm talking about all these artists that I've worked with, you know, as a dancer, that you spend time with on the tour bus and in rehearsal, so you know them more than the fans do.

Sometimes even better than the family does. And so they're like, you know these people. He's been around them even before some of them had their deals, and would you like to audition for Rap City? and I auditioned and the producer Keith Pachel and Sanita Brooks and Eric Watson still had to fight with me,

had to fight for me with the producers upstairs because, one, I didn't look a certain way, right? There goes our lovely black-on-black colorism. And there wasn't a female voice really in hip-hop on that level other than Dee Barnes, who came before me. And so once they were able to give me a couple of episodes

to prove myself, I got the job. But they were gracious enough to let me do the show while I was still dancing. I think I was on tour with Heavy D. And it worked into their benefit because now as we're city to city, I could do interviews in city to city. And they didn't have to pay like any extra for it. So I could catch up with common in Chicago and so and so and so. When it became too much, they were like,

you're going to have to choose. And by that time, you know, I had already done like 15 years of gymnastics. Even though I wasn't ready to quit dancing, but I had transitioned into choreography. I was still doing more choreography. me and I couldn't tour. So I just kind of was like, let me focus on TV all together. And that's kind of how that happened. And the radio was born from that.

I think the thing I used to always like about you hosting Rap City, I would notice how a lot of times guests would change up who they were with you in a way that they wouldn't with like Dee or, you know, Chris Thomas or whoever. I remember it was a boogie monsters episode. Oh, shit. One of the guys, he was trying, yo, he was trying so hard to kick it to you. I can't remember which one it was. Yo, man, I'm sorry. We all try to kick it to the last year. But it was so obvious, though.

He was like talking about my shirt that day. I was like, you know that first day of school feeling when you staring at the outfit? I ironed my shirt, you know, iron shit. I get out bed, like, whatever. I was like, yo, we're doing RAPCity today. Let me use my good shirt.

The last thing that happened for me with that is that a lot of the labels and the artists would request me. And I think because they knew of me as a dancer or they knew me from the clubs. They knew I had been around and been in the trenches and that they could trust me with their story and then I actually knew the story. You know what I mean? Because I was there.

I was part of it. So it was easy for them to like come on the show and us just have real conversations. And, you know, if you see my first episode to my like 20th, yeah, I grew a whole lot because I had real producers who would teach me out of talking to listen and this and to that and stuff. So it made a difference. And I felt really comfortable. I think when you're a performer, and maybe it's a little different for you, Quest,

like there's certain things you're comfortable with or not. Like, I've always, as a gymnast, been comfortable on camera and performing and being a showperson. And I'm always been a talker, and I'm always inquisitive. Like, I'm nosy, and I can ask you, like, 800 questions, and without a cue card, and just because I want to hear your story and I have human interests, love. Like, I just really want to know how you got from A to Z, and I'm curious about it. So I think you kind of get that and appreciate telling their story in that way. All right.

I want to thank you all for celebrating Black History Month with Questlove Supreme. And stay tuned for more episodes coming soon. Thank you for listening to Questlove Supreme. Hosted by Amir Kwestloff Thompson. Pia St. Clair, Sugar Steve Mandel, and Unpaid Bill Sherman. Executive producers are Mayor Kestlove Thompson. Sean G and Brian Calhoun

Produced by Brittany Benjamin Cousin Jake Payne Elias St. Clair edited by Alex Convoy Produced by IHeart by

Noel Brown Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio For more podcasts from IHart Radio visit the IHart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows

A win is a win A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media.

Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Cliverts Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clivert Show on the I-Heart Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the show, scenes follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players

flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you've done. don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern.

Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Gillespie and Michael Mancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHot Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodom. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat.

Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.