The Jam – Ep 17 w/ J*Davey

On this episode of The Jam we get reacquainted with Brook D’Leau and Miss Jack Davey aka J*Davey. This duo has been sorely missed from the music scene and gave us one of their first interviews as they prepare to roll out new material. They plan to take their fans back under their wings and guide them on a journey, as they themselves have been through journeys individually and as a group.

I first meet Brook and Miss Jack some years ago as they were preparing their major label debut. Brook and Jack jumped through multiple hoops getting their album done and endured countless fans and friends asking “When is the album coming out?” and each time promising “Soon.” At long last “New Designer Drug” hit the scene and quenched the thirst of their hardcore fan base. And just like that, they seemed to disappear. During that time Brook was working with Miguel helping do music direction for his tour, and Miss Jack became a mother to a baby boy. For a few years they were individuals, and people wondered with bated breath if they had broken up. Well fear not! J*Davey is back!

In this episode we ask a series of questions from getting the history clear on how they formed, being part of the “New West” movement of the late 2000’s, and navigating the music industry with mentorship from the likes of Sa-Ra and Questlove of The Roots. And of course the question, “Where’s the new album?”, as well as how ladies can catch Brook’s attention.

Other topics include: 5 layer dip, meeting J Dilla, if music were the ideal man, sliding in DMs, and events that would be in the Sex Olympics.

Contact Us:
J*Davey
Twitter: @WEareJDaVeY
Merc80:
Twitter: @Merc80
Black Is:
Twitter: @BLACKISONLINE
Email: kc@blackisonline.com
Hotline: (323) 455-4219

Find us on StitcheriTunes, TuneIn & SoundCloud!

The Jam – EP 16 w/ DJ Monalisa Murray

I am often known between my friends for having a pretty good knowledge on music and having a fairly large storage of random facts. But whenever I don’t know something, the first person I go to is Monalisa Murray. She is a walking encyclopedia of music knowledge, which makes her an even more skilled DJ. Some years ago when I first interviewed her I called her the “Patron Saint of Music”. She would be just about everywhere at every great music event, and everyone from the security guard to the headline act on stage would greet her with open arms and a smile. She has worked in various capacities in music and her genuine support for people and serious love for music is what allows others to trust her sense of taste and standards. If Monalisa digs it, you can bet others will too. I wouldn’t doubt that there are some higher-ups that look to her for direction whether she knows it or not.

In this episode Monalisa shares a wealth of stories from her lineage of native Los Angelenos, to dancing on Soul Train, doing music promo, and meeting some of the key figures that would influence music for years to come as she witnessed their growth. Whether it was Wu-Tang, J Dilla, Busta Rhymes, she has seen various levels of the game. She shares sage advice to those looking to break in, and we have a great time trying to stump each other with our jam picks!

Other topics include: “That’s my part!”, KFC vs Subway, Freestyle Fellowship, The Good Life, music video cameos, songs that should die, 90s girl fashion, and saving souls.

Contact Us:
DJ Monalisa
Twitter – @Monalisa7872
Merc80:
Twitter – @Merc80
Black Is:
Twitter: @BLACKISONLINE
Email: kc@blackisonline.com
Hotline: (323) 455-4219

Find us on StitcheriTunes, TuneIn & SoundCloud!

The Jam – Ep 15 w/ Selwyn Seyfu Hinds

It’s been a minute! But we’re back! 2015 it’s no games. And what a way to start the year!

Our first guest is Selwyn Seyfu Hinds.  I met this man through a great friend and even though my friend told me he worked at The Source, I didn’t really know that this man was there during my most formative years loving Hip Hop and especially responsible for my opinionated nature!  You have to understand that in the 90s, The Source was literally THE source for Hip Hop. It’s coverage was unmatched with epic covers, and seriously critical analysis of albums. You were in good standing to even get a 3.5 out of 5 mics for your album. Anything above that was an honor.  And if you got a 5?! Man listen…
But aside from that, Selwyn tells us of his upbringing in Guyana, Brooklyn, to Miami, to New Jersey, to New York again.  Through all his travels and culture shocking encounters, he keeps the patience of a saint. His travels and ability to code switch and embrace the unknown allows him to navigate through different territories, including being taken to Park Hill Projects with Wu-Tang Clan, basically being a roadie with them, and then narrowly escaping a beatdown during a time where The Source, Wu Tang, and Junior MAFIA had serious tension.  He only touches on a few stories from his first connection with The Wu, to the night Biggie was killed, to getting chewed out from the likes of Dame Dash and Lauryn Hill. He was also one of the people instrumental to Outkast’s Aquemini getting a 5 mic rating, which hadn’t been done since Illmatic. We clearly have to have him again, so stay tuned for his return with more stories.

Other topics include: Beat Street, The Hip Hop generation gap, The Wawa, and ATLiens vs Aquemini.
Contact Us:
Selwyn Seyfu Hinds
Twitter – @selwynhinds

Merc80:

Twitter – @Merc80
Black Is:
Twitter: @BLACKISONLINE
Email: kc@blackisonline.com
Hotline: (323) 455-4219

Find us on StitcheriTunes, TuneIn & SoundCloud!

The Jam! – Ep 14 w/ Jimetta Rose

On this episode of The Jam we have the universal homegirl, Jimetta Rose. I first met Jimetta about 5 years ago at the house of some mutual friends. From the very moment she walked in she had a great positive energy and was cracking jokes almost all night. At some point I think she told me that she was a singer. Not too long after that she dropped The Barber’s Daughter and blew up after that. She was performing at multiple spots in Los Angeles. People I had just become friends with spoke her name with with great reverie. I filmed her performance at Zanzibar in LA and had no idea it would get some thousands of views so quickly. Since then she has worked with some of the greatest artists in LA including Shafiq Husayn, House Shoes, Thundercat, Flying Lotus, and more.  She has solidified herself amongst the premiere artists in Los Angeles and exemplifies the true healer spirit that I think has been missing from music for a long time.
In this episode we get to know more about Jimetta’s background and how she came to hone her craft. We talk about growing up and surviving in Los Angeles, and most especially circle around the topic of Jazz throughout our conversation. We talk about the programming happening to people through entertainment, being confident amongst the clutter of messages, double consciousness, and ratchets in the underground scene.
Other topics include: Southern roots, maturing with music, Whitney Houston’s chin, Kanye West, and guys trying to mack on Jimetta.
Contact Us:

Jimetta Rose – jimettarose.com

Twitter – @jimettarose
Merc80:
Twitter – @Merc80
Black Is:
Twitter: @BLACKISONLINE
Email: kc@blackisonline.com
Hotline: (323) 455-4219

Find us on Stitcher & iTunes!

The Jam! – Ep 13 w/ Jesse Fairfax

Episode 13 of The Jam! and here we are again with the homie Jesse Fairfax of Go In Radio, fresh off his bachelor status and into husband territory. Jesse and Chris have good insight into what it’s like being the groom and the role of a husband in keeping a marriage in tact. From that conversation we go into a topic I wanted to discuss: Where did all the good R&B go? While many people say Hip Hop is dead, R&B might as well be a black hole. While of course there is some good R&B music out there, seemingly there is especially a lack of new R&B artists that will hold the torch for the current millennial generation. I hold that Miguel is about the last great R&B artist, especially great male R&B artist.
From there we go into ‘White Jams”, and the qualities necessary for white artists to crossover into being accepted by Black audiences. Lastly we have a quick discussion on current “guilty pleasures” in the mainstream music scene.
Other topics include: slow jams, differences in music with your wife, White people and ratchets, R&B thugs, funky white boys, Columbusing, artists with performance anxiety, J Dilla, Death Metal, and THOTS.
Contact Us:
Jesse Fairfax – Go In Radio
Twitter – @goinradiodotcom
Merc80:
Twitter – @Merc80
Black Is:
Twitter: @BLACKISONLINE
Email: kc@blackisonline.com
Hotline: (323) 455-4219

Find us on Stitcher & iTunes!

The Jam! Ep 12 w/ Val the Vandle

Whattup! We’re back with another episode of The Jam! with guest Val the Vandle. Val is really a fixture in the LA scene. I first knew of him about seven years back when he began a showcase night called The Spliff. I knew of him as a DJ and he had put out mixes. I also know that he taught at Scratch Academy, but that was about it. He was most known to me as one of the faces that put on The Spliff showcases. Around this time, the West Coast indie scene grew enormously, especially through the rise of blogs, Myspace, and YouTube as promotional outlets. Some of the best known artists that came from that period was U-N-I, Pac Div (who Val often DJed for) and Diz Gibran (another artist Val DJed for). Things were in a serious swing at this period as The Spliff became host to many new DJs and emcees, and audience members could flex their photography skills, freestyle outside (I saw Nocando rip a guy apart there once) and young people hungry for new music could chill.
Since then, Val has become one of my mentors in DJing and has shared a lot of his wisdom and skills. In the midst of all this he has also been working on a documentary about the flourishing of Hip Hop in the Internet Age called “The World Is Yours”.  While the desired amount has been raised on Kickstarter, more funds are still needed for the post-production, music licensing, marketing, etc for the doc. Please be sure to visit www.yotheworldisyours.com to watch the trailer for the film, and send in donations for the only documentary that seems to be tackling the new crop of musicians that are being especially cultivated in the Internet era. Aside from that, we talk about Val’s upbringing and how he started DJing, his work on Soundwaves Radio, and the kind of integrity and self-awareness necessary to be a good DJ.
Other topics include: tequila, high schools in LA, songs that need to die, and groupie love for DJs.
You can find Val the Vandle on Twitter at @valthevandle

Please leave your comments and feedback below, or you can contact us via:

Twitter: @BLACKISONLINE; @Merc80

Facebook: Black Is Magazine

Email: kc@blackisonline.com

Hotline: (323) 455-4219

Find us on Stitcher & iTunes!

The Jam! – Ep 11 w/ The Hip Hop Digest

KC and Chris handle the hosting duties for Merc80 in this episode as they chat with King Killa and E. Green from the Hip Hop Digest. Along with Curt G these three men host one of the most popluar hip hop podcasts out there. We discuss their history as deejays and how they came together to create the Hip Hop Digest. We also get into discovering hip hop, when the genre shifted, and the state of the music today.

Check out the Hip Hop Digest show here.

Twitter: @HipHopDigest

Please leave your comments and feedback below, or you can contact us via:

Twitter: @BLACKISONLINE

Facebook: Black Is Magazine

Email: kc@blackisonline.com

Hotline: (323) 455-4219

Find us on Stitcher & iTunes!

The Jam! – Ep 10 w/ Morgan Rhodes

Episode 10!  We have none other than Morgan Rhodes!
Morgan has gained respect for her vast musical knowledge and exceptional taste in sound as a radio host, and hypnotizes the east and west coast with a voice that will carry you away. Her voice is so smooth that it may take you a second to realize she just told a hilarious joke. You just listen to her cadence and coolness, then realize she said something funny, and you’re left in more awe!  There’s no doubt that Morgan has all the charisma it takes to be a master of her craft.
In this episode Morgan tells us how she essentially fell into radio by accident. Through various twists and turns she began hosting her own show and has ascended into the world of music supervision, most notably for the film Middle of Nowhere by Ava Duvernay. She continues to master the craft of radio and tells us the changes she has seen in the radio and music industries. From the jam she brought us to chat about we discuss the factors that make a great artist, as well as her feelings on the state of mainstream music today.
Other topics include: Jamaican sodas, terrible advice from beautiful women, S-curls, music that sets the mood, pornographic lyrics, and old BET music shows. 

The Jam – Episode 9 w/ DJ R-Tistic

On this episode we have DJ R-Tistic! A Cali native, R-Tistic has been making a name for himself spinning at all the most popular clubs in LA and even being the main stage DJ for Paid Dues 2013 and Rock the Bells 2011. Before DJing, his first passion was being a producer. R-tistic tells us how he got his start in production and becoming one of the in-house producers for Black Wall Street, which is the crew and label of rapper The Game. Florida A&M is where he first began DJing and making a name for himself. He tells us how early on he saw the importance of research in being a DJ. One of his biggest moments came recently when he won the 2014 McDonald’s Flavor Battle judged by DJ Clue, Spinderella, Just Blaze, and DJ Element. R-tistic’s claim to fame also comes from his extremely dope and highly ambitious West Coast timeline mix. That mix spans West Coast Hip Hop from 1981 to 2012. 500 songs in a little over an hour. That’s a DJ you have to take seriously!
Other topics include: Juvenile, The Thong Song, New Orleans, songs that must die, limitations in Pop music, drama from the McDonalds battle, hustling, and music technology.
Contact Us:

Twitter- @Merc80

Twitter: @BLACKISONLINE

Voicemail: (323) 455-4219

Facebook: Black Is Magazine

The Jam – Episode 8 w/ special guest Open Mike Eagle

On this episode of The Jam we have emcee Open Mike Eagle. Mike is a Chi-town native that made his way to LA after college.  What started as a short stay before graduate school turned into a permanent West Coast residency and he became affiliated with the illustrious Project Blowed. Project Blowed was a place where many emcees from all over LA gathered to hone their skills as performers. Mike had a similar space like Blowed in Chicago called The Point; but, he soon saw that the West Coast way of emceeing was very different. He’s become part of various crews in LA, most notably Swim Team and Hellfyre Club, and is set to release his next album Dark Comedy on June 10th. In this podcast we talk about his hometown of Chicago, psychology, and his style of “Art Rap”.
Other topics include: Lime-A-Ritas, categorizing Hip Hop, economic segregation in Chicago, Camp-Lo, Ski Beats, and sexy album covers.

Contact Merc80:

Website- Merc80:

Twitter- @Merc80

Soundcloud- Merc80

Contact Black Is:

Voicemail: (323) 455-4219

Twitter: @BLACKISONLINE

Facebook: Black Is Magazine