The Media Drop

Well, here’s the long awaited second half to the IM interview I had been conducting (over two sessions) with Jay Smooth of hiphopmusic.com. Thanks again to Jay for taking the time out of his schedule to answer my questions - hope you all enjoy it!

TMD: So before getting into some details about the site, give me your “desert island five” albums you’d have to have….?

JS: Ok.. man that’s though, 1. Sign ‘O’ the Times.. 2. Innervisions
.. I hate to pick both since they are similar type of music but no way I can cut either one.. uhh 3. Kind of Blue.. 4. uhh man.. 5 is not enough.. The White Album i guess, and 5. Criminal Minded

TMD: That’s why it’s five! Gotta make it tough… Good list though, thanks for putting that together so quickly…

Let’s talk about hiphopmusic.com… How did it get started, and what were the intentions when you put it up?

JS: Well, I started it in 1997 I believe, first as a geocities page then I got my own domain.. back at this time there wasn’t much hip-hop representation online, SOHH was just starting out and a site named Mr Blunt, a few others.. the most important online hip-hop presence at that time was probably the rec.music.hiphop usenet newsgroup.. so I started the site to add another hip-hop voice into the mix, mainly aiming to let people know about the radio show.. eventually I started expanding it to include content not directly related to the show, writing on different topics, posting photos etc.. and even as far back as ‘98 or ‘99 I was trying to do something similar to what I do now with the blog. I had a page named the newswire where I added links to news stories every day with a little commentary. This was probably before the word blog or blog software was invented yet - but that was the problem, doing it manually was too cumbersome and I couldnt keep it up for mroe than a week or two at a time and in general my focus on the site would ebb and flow, and it was dormant for many months at a time.

Then during the gulf war I discovered the political blogs covering it, and saw that i could install software to do this on my site, and knew right away this could take it to another level. I started that almost exactly a year ago, actually. The first one i believe was about FEMA’s website with the rap on it [ed: first post] I put in other entries and backdated them, everything before march 2003 -
cuz it looked so empty, I took things I had written elsewhere and put them in.

TMD: Do you find that your audience still contains some of the same folks that were reading the stuff from back towards 1997? Or can you not tell?

JS: Yeah, hard to say, but i think most of the regulars in the blog are fairly new to the site, which is cool.. some had been to the site at some point over the years and checked out the realaudio archives.. and are happy to come back and see the site is active again.. the coolest thing is how the site brings back people who used to listen to the radio show long ago but moved to another city or just lost track of it.. that’s what happened with Just Blaze, actually.

TMD: On the note of JB - your site has had some pretty well noted visitors - anyone else reading the site regularly that people would find novel?

JS: There are a couple of hip-hop names people would know that come by often and post under slightly disguised names, but I don’t want to blow them up.. there is Richard Pryor’s wife of course, who just sent me some lovely emails lol.. What I’m finding is that celebrities, especially minor ones like Mrs. Pryor, are quite fond of Googling themselves, so if I put their name in the header of a post there’s a pretty good chance they’ll react to it eventually.. sort of my blogging “Field of Dreams” theory, lol.. “if I blog them they will come”.

TMD: I find that, much like the discussion about the aforementioned Ms. Pryor, people can’t take criticism and feel they need to respond to anything and everything.

You obviously love what you do, love music, and love writing about it. Have you ever thought about getting involved in doing more than your WBAI show and the site? Have you ever been approached by music publications or industry people to get involved?

JS: Well, I did some writing here and there over the years, for The Source, Vibe, XXL, but had drifted away from it until I started the blog, which has renewed my interest in pursuing outlets for my writing, somewhat.. I’ve just started doing some freelance writing here and there again, and looking to do more.. ultimately I’d like to publish a book of some sort..

As for the radio show, it’s hard for me to imagine being on a commercial station, I’d be so much more limited compared to the freedom I have at WBAI. Since the station is a non profit and devoted to being anti-establishment, I have free reign to pursue paths that have “no commercial potential” as Frank Zappa would say.

I do believe I am capable of doing bigger things than the show or the site, at some point, but who knows which path will take me there.

TMD: So book wise, would you stick to the music topic, or do your interests lie elsewhere?

JS: Well, I suppose I would be best qualified for something hip-hop related, presumably tying in some larger issues and going on some tangents.. but if someone wants to offer a book deal on Shaw Brothers movies or Prince or seasons 1 through 9 of The Simpsons, I wouldn’t turn it down.

I should say, its probably obvious from the blog, that race is my other obsession, I’m sure that would find a way into whatever area i focused on.

TMD: Somewhat related to your plans and direction as discussed a few minutes back - I’ve asked a couple people what they’d like to be doing in the next few years – do you have a five year plan-type deal of what you’d like to be doing, ideally - be as specific as you can…

JS: Difficult question of course, not only for the obvious reasons but because I have an aversion to discussing plans until they are well past the planning stage.. also an aversion to self-promotion in general which is probably my biggest weakness.. I’d like to be earning enough money to be secure (assuming I’d have a family at that point or be approaching it) from something that I have a passion for….

I’d hope to have outlets for my creativity that allow me to connect with people, hopefully on a larger scale than I do now, one way or another, and have opportunities to get the fulfillment that can only come from being of service to others, doing something that you know is making your community/the world a better place, which I haven’t had enough of in my recent years dotcomming…

And if I’m not doing the radio show, I would need to have something else that allowed me to come together with others who share a passion for and knowledge of music similar to mine.. a place that to share and celebrate that love for the music is vital, and can be hard to find, it is what attracts so many great djs to our show, i think.

Like Easy Mo Bee, when we had him on the show we hung out for hours afterwards, me and my crew of Djs that do the show with me, and Mo Bee kept saying “Man, it’s so good to finally have some people i can talk to about this stuff!”

It’s a lot like the role that church plays in people’s lives i think… it really replenishes my spirit for the week, being able to come together and share an expression of that passion collectively.

TMD: And I think the interesting dynamic that you create with the site and the show is that you bring what you’ve done to the people - without blowing up the spot of the person you’re talking about…. but offering enough to the readers to get a “feel” for what happened. That’s something key.

Stepping back a second, do you see music as a helper to the “cultural divide” that makes up a lot of racial issues?

JS: Well, obviously when it comes to race and racism there are all sorts of institutional, systemic, and even psychological issues so deeply ingrained in our society, all the music in the world by itself will never solve .001% of it.. but I do think it affects things in many ways, yes.

I think as music listeners and consumers we are much less segregated than we used to be, and that’s more due to hip-hop than anything - though it may also be due to MTV’s dominance in narrowing the pop playing field for everyone. But when I was a kid, I came into 7th grade in one of the elite rich kid prvate schools - I was one of the token scholarship kids, and when I came in, in 1985, it was basically only me and the other scholarship kids who were into hip-hop.. and we gradually saw things shift more and more until by the time we graduated all the rich white kids were blasting Kool G Rap out their Saabs. What effect that has had on how those kids perceive Black people is difficult to gauge..but we have certainly become less invisible than we once were. And it’s always beautiful to me, to go to a show that has such a diverse crowd, as is always the case at Prince’s shows for example.

TMD: So the question is, can that ever translate to life as a whole….? I like to think that common, base ideas and “things” make people realize that they are just that. People.

JS: And music is especially well suited to make that happen because we connect with it on a deeper level than the part of our brain that forms concrete thoughts, whether those be loves hates, prejudices or whatever..

Well, yeah that is the guiding principle that I live my life by, and probably what I value most from any artistic expression.. anything that is driven by an awareness that we are all human beings.. that we are all full of flaws and contradictions, all constantly making mistakes, making wrong choices everyday, struggling everyday to be honest with ourselves, and trying to find our way through this crazy life. And since we are all in that same boat together, the least we could do is be kind to each other along the way, and help each other down the road.

Whether art can make people see that if they haven’t already, I can’t say.. but I hear and see that truth expressed in music and art more than anywhere else, so hopefully it can bring us all closer to it.

This is why I try really hard to be nice in my blog. Although the medium seems to lend itself to being snarky, I try to always be as respectful as possible of anyone I write about, no matter how loathsome I might find their views or actions, because I never want to reach the point where I no longer recognize another person’s humanity, and lose compassion for them, no matter who they are. I do not succeed at that 100%, obviously, if you read the blog (lol), but I strive for it.

TMD: I have one last question for this interview - What kind of advice would you give the up and coming musicians, writers, or creative folks of any regard out there…. If you had five minutes in front of them to share some wisdom….

JS: Well, taking up 5 minutes would require a heck of a lot of wisdom, I’d probably need some filler in there.. There’s a mural in the Chelsea art district that says “Any artist who talks about his work for more than 1 minute is lying,” that may also apply here… but..

TMD: (that’s really funny, actually) - didn’t know that.

JS: Well, you can’t be afraid to be bad, a crucial lesson to learn, anything that you really want to do, you need to spend at least a couple of years being really bad at it, preferably in public, in order to get good.. You need to reach a point where you realize that the failures are just as valuable as the successes, they are both steps on a path and you learn from each one.. whateer you want to do, the most important thing is to keep doing it.. Strive for completion rather than perfection, being persistent and productive is the only way to move forward.

Well, Jay certainly had some great insights and ideas on various topics, and I’m glad to have had the opportunity to get “in his head” for a while. Kudos once more to Jay for taking the time to chat, and if you’re interested in hearing more about Jay and his work, check out his site at hiphopmusic.com or listen in on Saturday nights at midnight on WBAI (that’s 99.5FM in New York City) for the “Underground Railroad” program.

As always, feel free to drop any questions or comments you have about this interview here, and if you have any suggestions for future media-related folks to interview, I’ll gladly look into them!