Claim OwnershipAT&T Presents: An Ear 2 the Future!
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Entrepreneurs, novelists, singers, comedians, humanitarians, Oscar champs, digital gurus and more. Throughout Black History Month, AT&T brings you the most compelling conversations from 28 accomplished figures who tackle the latest trends in music, entertainment and technology, with an ear to the future of their industries and art forms. So be sure to tune in every day beginning February 1. And don't forget to share your favorite picks with friends, followers and family. AT&T: Rethink possible.
28 Episodes
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Being "all that" doesn't just mean flaunting your bod on the street or in the club. And thanks to Beverly Bond, founder of the Black Girls Rock! Awards, millions more young women of color now feel empowered to strut their intellectual stuff. "A lot of the media messages really affect our girls because it's so imbalanced. A lot of the messages tell our girls they are only worth their physical selves, that their power exists below their waist and not above their shoulders," Beverly tells The Mecca James Show host Mecca James. "This also affects our young boys, and how they relate to women."
The author of Take Control of Your Financial Destiny—who specializes in helping would-be entrepreneurs develop businesses inspired by Bibical teachings—offers no-nonsense advice on turning a profit. “Take someone who’s a stay-at-home mom, and she makes gift baskets. My questions to her would be, How much time does it take you to make that gift basket? And how much are you selling that gift basket for?” Amos Johnson Jr. tells MGN Radio host Tabatha Coffey. “Now, if you’re trying to sell it for $10, but it’s taking you six hours to make one gift basket, you have some process in place that’s not working. You need to sell that gift basket for $200—or we gotta find a faster way to make this gift basket.”
Grammy-nominated songstress Elle Varner recalls how her dad’s strict academic standards helped her achieve success. “To him, a B was not good. He told me, ‘A B is average. Are you average?’ So when I had to tell him I got a D in math, it was pretty much the worst summer of my life,” she confesses to Teen Diaries Radio host Aeshia Branch. “But I got through it and I never did that again. My advice is to really take high school seriously, especially if you want to move on professionally. And if you need help, don’t be afraid to ask your parents. That’s what they’re there for.”
Up-and-coming soul crooner Bashiri Asad reveals how he went from a mere hired musical hand to full-fledged artist. “I started off in a couple of party bands in my hometown of Indianapolis. I was at a show once and I’d just come offstage and was sitting in the bar talking to some friends when someone came up over to me and whispered in my ear, ‘You know, they’ll respect you more if you write your own music,’” he tells Jammin Jukebox Radio host Delta Dawn. “That stuck with me. I’d never written a song before, but over the next few months I wrote 10—and they all went on my first album.”
Social media guru Corvida Raven, who runs SheGeeks.net and has been touted as “The Oprah of the web,” offers nubie Twitter users do’s and don’ts. “Don’t be a spammer. Don’t constantly self-promote without giving back to the community,” she tells People You Need to Know host Spark Plug. “The Twitter community is very helpful. They’re willing to share your work if they enjoy it. And they expect you to do the same. So don’t be selfish about it. Also, take your time. Don’t ‘mass follow,’ and don’t get caught up in the hype that often plays out with the celebrities on Twitter.”
Gospel sensation Brian Courtney Wilson reflects on the true inspiration for his success. “Back when I was in Chicago, I did record R&B songs and make demos and get pictures taken and the whole pop-music thing. But I never thought about singing as a career,” he tells Getting Good at Life host Pastor Robert Johnson. “I never saw myself as the guy who had these big biceps and a hot photo to compel women to come buy my record. It didn’t really connect for me until I decided to follow hard after God. Then I had no choice but to keep singing about God.”
The star of BET’s Let’s Stay Together notes the importance of African Americans not only aspiring to the higest levels of the acting profession, but expanding the number of jobs therein. “If you look at the Oscars that are coming out, there were no African American nominees at all—actors or directors—who were nominated for anything. And I feel like, instead of saying ‘There are no roles out there for us, why don’t we create roles?” Joyful Drake tells Keeping It Reel host Tim Gordon. If you look at some of the most successful shows, like OZ, what Shonda Rhimes did with Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice—they’re all multi-ethnic. So if you have the training to write and produce, you should definitely use it.”
He may have traded in acting for anchoring—appearing on the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz since July 2012—but that doesn’t mean former Passions star one-time GQ model Charles Divins isn’t keeping his eye on the sound stage. “I’m a big fan of Don Cheadle,” he tells Spiritual Food For Thought host La Tanyha Boyd. “He really delivers every time, and he delivers in his own voice. He delivers with energy and with something that’s always watchable. Geoffrey Wright is another actor I really admire, and respect what he’s doing.”
Christmas came a little late to Nicki Minaj fan show Pink Friday Radio. Four days late, to be exact. But when it finally arrived, it was no doubt the best ever. Because Nicki herself called in during the show’s Top 3 Most Memorable Nicki Minaj Moments segment to congratulate host Latin Barb and her sidekicks on doing a bang-up job. “I just wanted to say that you guys are freakin’ hilarious and insane!” said Nicki. Then, in response to a listener question, added, “I don’t know when I’m going to get to UStream, but when I’m on, I will only call Team Minaj members because you guys do an amazing job of trying to promote my album. It’s gonna be all about you.”
Chef Darrell “DAS” Smith of Food Network Star fame found inspiration for his five-star commitment to community service in a setting that was anything but tony. “I teach culinary arts here at a school in Los Angeles. I’m really focusing on the younger generation and giving back,” he tells Callywood host Cassandra Calloway. “My first teaching job was in a detention center. It was back in Michigan, right when I graduated from culinary school there, near my home in Detroit. My mom taught cosmetology there, and she was able to give me a job teaching culinary arts. It was a juvenile detention center with kids around 13 to 20. And even though they were incarcerated, I was able to express to them that cooking as a trade could offer them a second chance.”
The daughters of hip-hop pioneer Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons—who captured America’s hearts on the MTV reality series Run’s House—weigh in on the road to professional fulfillment. “It does get hard along the way. You might have to have a day job to be able to pursue your dream,” aspiring actress Vanessa Simmons, elder sister of budding fashion designer Angela Simmons, tells Embrace Life Radio host Tiffani Walker. “But you have to never let go of what you’re stiving for, and be sure that is what brings you joy. Because as long as you’re confident and know you have the best product, the money will follow. There should never be any question in your mind as to whether pursuing your dream is worth it.”
TV hunk Brian White shares his thoughts on joining the cast of Men of a Certain Age on the heels of another hit series, The Shield. “For my whole life to go by and not have more programming like The Cosby Show—I mean, we had great stuff like The Bernie Mac Show and Everybody Hates Chris, but not affluent, aspritational family units like Cosby. And yet we have Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House,” he tells Keeping It Reel host Tim Gordon. So I wanted to be a part of that, to give people who aren’t of a certain age a reason to tune in. Plus, I get to work with Andre Braugher, Scott Bakula and Ray Romano. Come on, man, I’m like a kid in a candy store!”
Harvard-educated-attorney-turned-TV-writer Robb Chavis, whose new show, Us Versus Them, launches later this year on YouTube’s Original Content Channel, shares the secret of his stable, long-term marriage. “The biggest thing we did early on was to find a way to communicate, to develop common language. Having enough conversation where your words mean the same thing to you and your spouse, where you really understand tone and intent, that’s been so key to our relationship,” he tells The Real Men Project host Detavio Samuels. “We almost don’t have arguments anymore because the second we see ourselves shifting to that place, we have a language for identifying what that is, and calming down before it gets out of control.”
Devon Franklin, the VP of production for Columbia Pictures (who also happens to be married to Meagan Good) explains the significance of the title of his new book, Produced by Faith: Enjoy Real Success without Losing Your True Self. “I came up with it at The Oscars—who wins Best Picture, which is the biggest prize of the night, whoever produced the picture wins the award,” he tells Spiritual Food for Thought host La Tanyha Boyd. “So I thought, at the end of my life, I get the greatest reward—eternal life. OK, who do I want to get ‘screen credit’ for that? The Bible speaks of faith making us successful to God. So the idea is that at the end of my life, I want it to have been produced by faith.”
WNBA star Tamika Catchings, who has been voted one of the league’s top 15 players of all time, opines on the importance of working together. “Everybody who’s watched me knows I am definitely a team player,” she tells Hoops in the Sun host Randy Cruz. “And above all, even with the individual accolades that I’ve racked up, I want to win a WNBA championship. It’s a team commitment. It’s a team goal. It’s the WNBA. You got the best players in the whole world coming to America to play together on one stage. And to have that championship title is matter most to me.”
Actor Jay Ellis, the newest castmember on BET’s hit series The Game, dishes about co-star (and pop star) Brandy Norwood. “Brandy is hilarious. She is one of the funniest people I have ever had a conversation with,” he tells Go 4 It! host Paul Gant. “She’s a sweetheart. She’s always running her lines, getting prepared for her scene with whoever she’s working with. Plus, she’s a great mother. She talks about her baby girl. And the first thing I think about every time I see her—I actually start humming it to myself—is I Wanna Be Down. Then she starts talkin’ to you in that voice and you get lost in her eyes. It’s easy to go to work at The Game!”
Master saxophonist Ryan Kilgore, whose longtime boss is a fellow performer by the name of Stevie Wonder, still pinches himself every time he thinks about getting paid to live out his dream. “As a child, I remember seeing Stevie on The Cosby Show, when Theo and Vanessa got into a car accident and ended up meeting him in his the studio, where they sang along to I Just Called to Say I Love You,” he tells Village Creative Radio host William Herriot. “I remember that episode so well. But I never would have thought that, years later, whenever Stevie hit the stage, he’d want me to play. That has definitely been a blessing.”
Wendy Raquel Robinson, who plays Tasha Mack on BET's The Game, may have built a huge following since joining the series in 2006, but she hasn’t forgotten where her TV roots lie—The Steve Harvey Show. Nor has she forgotten those fellow cast members whose ensemble work made “Piggy” Greer a household name. “I was with Steve Harvey and his family while we were in Atlanta. Terri Vaughn is also in Atlanta, so I saw her as well. Cedric [the Entertainer] is a wonderful sponsor at my nonprofit, so he helps out tremendously. I see him and his wife at our productions,” she tells That’s Entertainment host Tammy Jones Gibbs. “That was a very special show and a special time in my life, and I think it was for them as well. So we all remain very dear to each other. And I’ll be going out to do Steve’s radio show soon.”
The teenage son of Run-DMC’s Rev Run Simmons, and nephew of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, recalls how he got started as an MC. “A lot of people think this is new to me, but I’ve been rapping since I was five years old,” First Flight singer Diggy Simmons tells host Timothy Hodge. “I was young, so people used to write my rhymes. But I kinda stopped rapping when I was 10. Then this summer I was making tracks on my laptop. No microphone, no nothing. And I put out this remix to Asher Roth’s She Don’t Want A Man, and it got really good feedback. A friend of mine, Young Jerz, was like, ‘That’s crazy! What are you gonna do next?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ He was like, ‘Are you gonna do a mixtape? You gonna show it to your dad? And I was like, ‘Yeah, a mixtape sounds amazing.’”
News anchor TJ Holmes, who spent five years on CNN’s weekend mornings before moving to BET’s Don’t Sleep in 2011, muses on the differences between working for a news network and entertainment network. “CNN could decide that they want to start a new show tomorrow, and it’ll get done. Because they have the capacity to do so, they can just put on what they want to put on,” he tells That’s Entertainment host Tammy Jones Gibbs. “At an entertainment network, even though they have all those hours to fill, it’s a matter of which advertisers have bought which slots on this show for this long and so on. It’s also been a challenge just building a show from the ground up. I had people asking me how high I needed my chair to be. Every little detail was my responsibility. But I learned so much more through that process.”
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