DeDe McGuire: A Woman With Vision

by Meaux Harrison

DeDe McGuire is often called “the hardest working woman in radio,” and for good reason. With over 15 years in the business, the award-winning nationally syndicated radio host, media personality, and philanthropist’s unabashed approach and candid conversations have defined her time on the airwaves. She’s interviewed some of the biggest names in and around hip-hop, like Jay-Z and Beyoncé, appeared on CNN, Fox, OWN and in the film The Best Man, and runs an organization that “provides scholarship to women whose higher education was interrupted or derailed because of family, personal obligations or financial distress.” That “hardest working” title makes sense.

DeDe always had a vision to become a radio host. Born in Seattle and raised in Texas–with a few years spent in Germany due to having a parent who served in the military– DeDe knew early on that she didn’t just want to be a local host but a national one. Robin Quivers, the longtime co-host of The Howard Stern Show, was her blueprint and inspiration.

McGuire landed her first radio gig  as a receptionist for KOOV 103.1, which was at the time a country music station in Killeen, Texas. 

“I went to college, majoring in Journalism with the hopes of becoming a big-time TV News Anchor. Money was tight, and my financial aid hadn’t made it to the school in time, so I was kicked out!” she told Yahoo! News in 2023. “I had to enroll in the local community college in my hometown of Killeen/Ft. Hood, Texas. While attending our local community college, awaiting financial aid help, I began working at a small Country Music radio station.”

Well-liked at the station, the owner's wife pushed for DeDe to be trained for an on-air position. She went on to make an audition tape and pitched it to the R&B/Hip Hop station 92.3 where she was hired on the spot with no experience. She worked there for a year, before connecting with radio legend Doug Banks and joining his morning show as a co-host. Around this time she took on an additional co-host role, joining the team over at the K104 morning show in Dallas. In just a few short years, The K104 morning show would become DeDe in the Morning and has remained so for the last decade. DeDe is one of the very few African American women in the country to have her own morning show in a major city market, with DeDe in the Morning being broadcast in more than 80 cities.

Her interview style is fearless, funny, and charismatic. Keeping listeners tuned in and engaged every morning she’s proven to the industry she’s the best woman for the job. She’s collected countless accolades that include top 25 women in Dallas named by Rolling Out Magazine, Most Influential Women in radio by RadioInk Magazine multiple years in a row, in the international black, broadcasters, lifetime, achievement award. She’s been featured in Essence, Ebony, Upscale Magazine, and in The Source’s Power 30.

Her impact extends beyond radio, too, with McGuire giving back to several nonprofit organizations such as Woman called Moses, whose mission is to put an end to domestic violence, and through the Achieve the Dream DeDe McGuire Scholarship that I mentioned in the first paragraph. The essence of DeDe McGuire’s career has been built from blending humor, resilience, and a commitment to using her voice as a force for positive change. 

I’ve been listening to DeDe since I was a kid. She’s a force and an important figure that everyone should celebrate, especially when we consider how often women in radio and southern women in hip-hop get pushed to the background. DeDe is truly an inspiration and role model. And a testament that anyone can go from a small-town girl to a national gem. 

How Katie Got Bandz Repped For The Ladies In Chicago's Drill Scene

by Maya Hood

While Chicago natives all over the world share a love for the music genres we’ve produced like house and drill, there’s nothing like being in high school at the rise of the latter. We went to school with the new and trending rappers, knew the neighborhoods they played basketball in, and knew that on Saturdays everyone would be downtown by the WaterTower Place. What was explicitly unique about drill music and the popularity that followed is that many of the artists at the time were genuinely starving artists with exceptional talent, telling stories about their everyday lives. Enter Katie Got Bandz.

Katie Got Bandz, born Kiara Johnson, hails from the Chicago neighborhood of Bronzeville, part of what we call “The Lowend.” For some people, she may be “the rapper that did that gun dance,” but to Chicagoans around the world, she is our Queen of Drill Music. 

Drill beats were aggressive, the lyrics were filled with raunchy storytelling and hostility, and the piano notes would ring like something out of a Michael Myers film. Between 2011 and 2013, Chicago experienced a big increase in teenage and young adult rappers from the subgenre; we had Chief Keef, Lil Durk, Lil Herb (now G Herbo) and King Louie who was Katie’s right hand man. These guys were all heavy hitters involved in making Chicago one of the “hottest hip-hop music scenes” at the time, and Katie, a woman, was right there with them. 

via Dazed

I remember being in school, listening to Katie reciting “I need a Hitta! Dreadhead Drilla” and the girls simply fell in line. Katie was only 18 years old, planning on getting her biology degree from Truman College and working at a fast-food restaurant when she decided to try rapping. Her infectious lyrics partnered with raw beats by her cousin BlockOnThaTrack– a popular Chicago producer at the time, led to Katie becoming a fan favorite with ease. Katie was beloved amongst many other women rappers, such as Shady, Sasha Go Hard, and all-girl groups like Pretty N Pink. In addition to her hit showing love to “dread heads” across the city, Katie gained even more notoriety appearing in Shady’s “Go In” video, where she performed her infamous gun dance turned meme moment that we still see people share today.

Around this time, Chicago also became a target for defamation regarding the homicides amongst Black and Brown people in the city. With so many young teenagers gaining popularity and influence and dis songs that sometimes went beyond the music and unfortunately played out in real life, it was easy to blame the crime on the media that we were consuming. We were under a microscope, with The New York Times noting that in 2013 Chicago’s homicide rates had increased by 16% and surpassed NYC and LA in 2012. In response, Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emmanuel blamed the music, and even banned artists like Chief Keef from performing in the state of Illinois. Katie was one of the artists who stood ten toes in defending the genre beyond the mainstream reputation of promoting violence, noting in an interview with Ebony that people are rapping about the conditions in their neighborhoods that existed long before they stepped in front of a mic: 

“Before drill music people already had their beef and wars going on. It's just everybody is rapping now, so people think if they make a dis' record, they'll get noticed fast and they're putting it on beats instead of leaving it in the streets. Rapping don't have nothing to do with what's going on in Chicago. This has been going on in Chicago before Chicago got noticed.”

What I loved most about Katie growing up is that she always remained transparent and authentic. I believe that’s what has kept her image so iconic today. Over the years, she would go on to release her mixtape series Drillary Clinton and even had a verse on Nicki Minaj’s Super Freaky Girl remix in 2022.

In August of 2023, we were reminded of Katie’s impact when Victoria Monet and choreographer Bankhead incorporated Katie’s famous gun dance in the choreography for her “On My Mama” video. It perfectly captured who and what Katie represented. And when The “Hood’s Hottest Princess” Sexxy Red toured to Chicago this past Halloween, while celebrating her success she invited Katie on stage to perform “Pop Out.

For so many decades, hip-hop and rap have tried to erase the influence of women artists, watering down the talent, impact, and sometimes leaving them out entirely. But the stories of women rap artists, like Katie Got Bandz, should forever be told. That way you can get them, us, and the history, too.

How Music Marketing Professional Kirsten Daniel Combines Old Atlanta With The New

by Jessica Wilkins

Millennial Black girls from Atlanta are special. We came up during the analog version of “the A,” AKA “Old Atlanta,” where Blackness was always our default. Our teachers, doctors, lawyers, business owners, and neighbors all looked like us, so we were afforded a unique confidence in our identities. Once a place that offered small-town southern charm, rich in local Black culture, history, and community, Atlanta has now become a hub for creative industries, particularly music. Prior to the digital age, Atlanta had its own musical identity–from the bass music of So So Def, Kilo Ali, and Raheem the Dream which were synonymous with the Freaknik era, to Baby D and Oomp Camp Records ushering in the crunk era. And when Outkast’s André 3000 proclaimed “The South got something to say” at the 1995 Source Awards, everyone listened. Through the advent of the Internet, small pockets of Atlanta music were opened to the world. Music Marketing Professional Kirsten Daniel embodies the spirit of “Old Atlanta'' while contemporaneously navigating an ever-changing digital-based industry.

Being born and raised on the West Side of Atlanta with an enduring passion for the arts, Kirsten Daniel landed her first role in the industry as an intern at Grand Hustle Records in 2008. Since then, she’s managed a Grammy-nominated producer, had her company ATEAELLE named one of Forbes’s Black Businesses to Watch, and has built a 14-year career bridging the gap between artists and their audiences while serving the Atlanta community.

Jessica Wilkins: Did you always know you wanted to work in music? How did you arrive here professionally?
Kirsten Daniel: The only college I had seen was on A Different World so I was a little untraditional in the sense that everybody was talking about college and I was like ‘I’m just going to go work because college? Why? What am I going to do there?’ And when I was being forced to go by my godmother, I knew I was not a math and science girl…So Mass Communications resonated the most with me. I stumbled upon music after I tried radio, and I tried studying television and film, and none of those resonated. I got out of college and had an internship and I was like “This is it!” I knew immediately.

JW: How has being an Atlanta native impacted your career?
KD: If you play some bass music right now, I’m going to think about the 90s, being in the yard, playing hand games with my friends, making up dances. Every era of music has a soundtrack for me, so I was in full alignment when I [got in the music industry] because Atlanta music was so prominent in my life...Music was what I modeled my life behind, what I resonated most with, and what I connected most to from the harmony, the melody, and the lyrics, to commemorating different events with a sound. 

JW: Do you feel fully seen as a professional?
KD: I’m really fortunate to have some solid male OGs, or mentors, or leaders in that space. For instance, Jason Geter is someone I’m very close to. And I feel very seen, heard, and understood by him. So even if there’s something I feel uncomfortable with, a stance or a perspective that I have, I respect that he always values my input. It has been tough because we see oftentimes a lot of men in this space are not as smart or efficient, but they can transcend certain levels just by being a man. That used to be very tough for me to navigate, but now that I’m an entrepreneur I move to the beat of my own drum and work with projects I feel most connected to, and it’s a lot easier for me to say “This is not in alignment, yes I want to work with this person, no I don’t want to work with this person” because I’ve had so much experience. One thing I’ve never had a problem with is setting boundaries. 

JW: Was there a moment that taught you to have stronger boundaries, or was that something that happened organically over time?
KD: I’ve always been kind of self-aware. I trust that thing inside of me that says, ‘This doesn’t feel right. I’m compromising too much of myself and I’m not getting that in return.’ I’ve always been quick to see that. Anyone, man, woman, or child will tell you that the entertainment industry is a very unforgiving place. It’s a place that’s very selfish. You give so much of yourself, especially when you work with artists, and very seldom do you receive that energy back. So when I get to the point where I feel like I don’t feel appreciated or respected, it’s not an issue for me to say “Hey, this relationship no longer serves me.”

A gallery of projects Daniel has worked on in a management or in a marketing capacity.

JW: We’ve witnessed so many advances in technology and their impact on the industry, how has your role as a marketer had to evolve with those changes?
KD: When I started, there were departments that were called ‘New Media’ and it was the format where you go to run ads on different platforms and blogs back in the day like Concrete Loop or Bossip. Beyond that we were asking, “What are the in-stores? What is the promo tour? What platforms do you go to for interviews? What is the club run?” Everything was so much more irl when I started and now we’re in a predominantly digital space, I think it’s taken away some of the connection we feel with artists and with music. It’s affected the longevity of it. We’re so focused on consuming things so quickly that we’ve lost the allure of what value really is. I love messages like Tyler the Creator who said, “Work this record, this album for 12 months, for 24 months. Because if you put out something great, then you should stand behind it.” At a certain point, we’ve gotten more into quantity over quality and I think it’s hurt a lot of artists. I’m just more of an analog girl myself anyway, so for me to do a marketing plan, I’m always trying to figure out what we can do so the artists can get out and touch and see their fans…If there is no relevance to where your consumers are given the time and space we’re in right now, then it’s hard to build a connection beyond liking photos on Instagram and liking one dope song.

JW: What are your hopes for the future of Black women in music marketing?
KD: I hope we can start to appreciate the diversification of all different types of sounds, personalities, images, upbringings, backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities. I think we have to be a lot more inclusive about what it looks and feels like. If not, we’re going to have ten rap girls all doing the same thing from a different region or small city looking and sounding just the same. One thing about the music industry is that the people at the top are always trying to make the same thing a different way over and over again…I think it’s supporting what you like, being more diligent in finding and sourcing talent that resonates with you, and being more vocal about what you’re into. Sometimes you want to be put on. I find myself listening to the same artists over and over again. I would like for us to really support new artists with our voices, our dollars, and our social platforms.

How "Jersey Anniversary" Creator Tenaja (AKA Kia BHN) Helped Reignite Jersey Club Music

by Ayanna Costley

Behind every trend is a creator who set the foundation, an innovating trailblazer, and people who participate just because it’s popular. The current state of Jersey Club music is no different. In just over 2 decades, the genre grew from a hometown sound heard at local New Jersey parties to an undeniable force felt throughout the world. People discovering the sound for the first time on social media may think it started as a trendy musical moment on TikTok, but those who grew up with the genre are a witness to the fact that this is way more than that. Jersey Club is a movement. And  Jersey-bred artist Tenaja (aka @Kia_BHN and DJ Loki) is the star-bright flame who helped reignite it. 

In 2022, Tenaja’s song “Jersey Anniversary,” a Jersey Club blend of Tony! Toni! Toné!’s 1992 classic “Anniversary” and DJ Big-O’s “Ay Bay Bay” (a club remix of Hurricane Chris’ Ay Bay Bay), experienced the viral treatment. The song was everywhere, both online and in real life, from TikTok videos to DJ sets at parties to the radio.“It had been years since we heard a Jersey Club song on the radio. So to have that, that put me even further up to where I'm even at in Jersey Club culture,” Tenaja explains. 

Tenaja grew up at the time when the aggressive, hard hitting 135 BPM club music was popping off in Jersey. The electric sound, complete with a sharp five count kick pattern, chopped samples from mainstream genres, fragmented vocals calling out dances like ‘sexy walk’ or ‘rock your hips’, and found sound like the infamous bed squeaks or gunshots, was undeniably infectious. When Tenaja’s older cousins threw basement parties she’d hear the bass knocking through the floor. And when she was finally old enough to attend parties, she started making her mark as a dancer. Jersey Club was male-dominated during this time, with almost all of the well known DJs and dancers being men. Instead of letting that stop her, Tenaja used it as motivation, admitting, “My motive every time was like, ‘Yo, I'm a girl. And I want y'all to know that I can legit do it just as hard as y'all.’ I just wanted them to see that I could do the same thing.” That motivation, coupled with the influence from the trailblazers who came before her, put Tenaja on the path to making an indelible impact. “I definitely followed in the footsteps, without knowing, of 40 Cal. From dancer to DJ to vocalist and from dancer to vocalist to DJ–he did it back and forth.” 

It’s clear now that her multi-hyphenate creative history in the club scene prepared her for her defining, star-making moment. But when she dropped the title track of her 2021 EP, Jersey Anniversary, she didn’t set out to go viral. “I had that vision. I wanted everybody to dance again because I felt like the world had just stopped,” Tenaja tells me. “Nobody was bumping good club. Nobody was bumping good music.” Everybody became hooked on her sound, and as a result, everybody wanted their own version of it. “When it went viral– when I tell you I never seen so many artists jump on one song,” she recalls as she thinks through the song’s impact on pop culture.

Controversy tried to spoil the big moment when Hurricane Chris remixed “Jersey Anniversary” without featuring Tenaja as an artist or dancer after talks to do so. Unfortunately, he’s not the first or the last artist to commit a fast-grab appropriation of the Jersey Club aesthetic for a temporary rise in streaming ears. For artists interested in creating within the Jersey Club genre, there’s a better way to go about it. “I'm definitely not okay with people just making beats and just making it seem like it's a Jersey club beat. No, it's more than just putting that beat together. It’s way more because you never know what you can get out of really coming here and really acknowledging the sound and what the community really has to offer,” Tenaja says. Lil Uzi is a prime example of that, specifically the way in which he tapped Newark producer MCVertt for his viral song “Just Wanna Rock.” During a red carpet interview at the 2023 Grammys, Uzi even proudly stated his love for the influential genre. “I got so much love for Jersey…When I was younger, I used to go to the famous Camden skating rink…and kick it with my Jersey homies and sharp bounce…so I’m a real real Jersey representer even though I’m from Philly,” he said without hesitation. 

Tenaja admits that it’s sometimes hard to talk about “Jersey Anniversary” because of the highs and lows she experienced as the song made its way around the world. In a moment of vulnerability, the Jersey artist shares, “I always have to remind myself how what I manifested really came into fruition. Remembering the process of how bad my hands were sweating because there's like four drafts of that song before it really dropped to what it was.” She also recounts working through the motions of grief after experiencing a familial loss in the midst of the creative process. That led to the creation of her song “Jersey 90s” which feels as if Jersey Club and 90s R&B had a baby. “‘Jersey 90s’ was my healing song,” Kia said. “That was my first step to healing. It was me getting back to myself like remembering who you are.”

Lately, the New Jersey DJ and dancer has been trying to answer a question that’s been racking her mind: In a world where Jersey Club’s popularity keeps growing, what specifically stands out about Jersey Club culture and how can we show that specialty? Maybe it's the fact that the very nature of Jersey Club culture is kinetic and dependent on liberating motion, both aural and physical. The one thing that is clear is that as Jersey Club music continues to dominate pop culture, it's easy to see that Tenaja aka Kia aka DJ Loki will continue to be in the mix.

Lady Crush, The Rapper From South Jersey Who Cemented Her Place In Hip-Hop History

by Nadirah Simmons

As I’m sure you already know from my and The Gumbo’s social media, my debut book First Things First: Hip-Hop Ladies Who Changed The Game is coming out on January 30, 2024. I learned about a lot of different women during the book writing process, and it struck me just how many hip-hop ladies there are that the average person doesn’t know about. Shoot, how many hip-hop ladies there are that I don’t even know about.

As a New Jerseyan, I’m constantly advocating for my state’s contributions to hip-hop culture. Ladies like Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah, and Rah Digga are indelible figures in Jersey and hip-hop history, with their music filling my playlists growing up and today. But for a long time, those were the only women rappers I knew who hailed from the Garden State.

Now, of course I knew about women musicians from New Jersey who made hip-hop music. Faith Evans was raised in Newark and started singing at the city’s Emmanuel Baptist Church as a kid. Claudette Ortiz was the sole lady in the R&B/hip-hop group City High, who saw success with tracks like “What Would You Do?” and “Caramel.” (Fun fact, Claudette is from the town right next to mine!) And then, of course, there’s Sylvia Robinson, who moved to Jersey in 1966 and would go on to be known as the “Godmother of Hip-Hop,” founding the pioneering label Sugar Hill Records.

But the extent of my knowledge on New Jersey hip-hop ladies ended there. Until…

I randomly decided to look up women rappers and literally every single city in New Jersey that I could think of! And when I typed in “Camden” and “women rappers” I got “Lady Crush.”

Hailing from Camden, New Jersey, Lady Crush-born Rochelle Ryndia Ray-would rhyme with her cousins as a kid and even won some poetry contests. She came up with her name at the age of thirteen, to signify “a Lady that would Crush an emcee’.” And when a local radio station announced that they were hosting a rap contest with the prize being a feature on an upcoming record, Lady Crush rapped on air and won. Another teenager by the name of Baby T won, as well.

Lady Crush and Baby T appeared on the 1984 Tim Greene track “The Facts of Life” and then the remix of the track called “The Dub of Life”-which appeared as the B-side on the 1985 pressing of “The Facts of Life.” The success of “The Dub of Life” led to Lady Crush recording her first solo record entitled “MC Perpetrators” on KAM Executive Records, which also featured a verse from Tim Greene. As Lady Crush wrote on her website, she didn’t just write her “MC Perpetrators” verse, she also wrote “all but a few words of Tim Greene’s feature rap verse.” But when the song was released, Tim gave two of his family members writing credits.

The next part of Lady Crush’s story is a familiar one to anyone who knows a thing or two about hip-hop deals from those early days. Here are some bullet points from Lady Crush’s website:

• Tim Greene asked then 14 year olds Lady Crush and Baby T out for pizza and then asked them to sign a “recording contract”- without parental advisory or consent. He then later circulated information about the meeting, joking that he had signed them for only pizza and a drink. 

• When the initial press of [“MC Perpetrators”] ran out, more copies were still being requested from record stores and DJs and were also needed for Lady Crush to continue to book shows- Tim Greene and Butch Kelly (KAM Executive Records) refused. 

• A heated argument then ensued between Lady Crush’s momager Joyce and Tim Greene’s team that not only did her daughter not have a valid recording contract for [“The Facts of Life” ] or [“MC Perpetrators”], since she wrote the lyrics on the record she should be given the masters anyway to do as pleased. A week later Lady Crush was mailed the [“MC Perpetrators”] masters.

Nonetheless, Lady Crush persisted, and along the way she performed on tv shows like Dancin’ USA and Dancin’ On Air and opened for acts like Heavy D & The Boyz, UTFO, and Salt-N-Pepa.

Today Lady Crush works behind the scenes, writing songs and producing for herself and others. In 2015 she released her first single in more than 30 years, entitled “F**k,” followed by the EP Fifty Shades of F**k.

She’s another lady in hip-hop that you need to know.

Clubbing in Seoul's K-Hip-Hop Scene

By Nyasha Oliver

As a Black woman, clubbing in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, can be an experience. On one hand it can feel strange, with onlookers watching your every dance move hoping to catch a real life You Got Served moment. On the other hand, it can feel familiar when the DJ transitions from a South Korean artist like DPR Live to Megan Thee Stallion, transporting you back to the States while also affirming hip-hop’s global reach. Wherever you end up if you ever visit Seoul, you’ll quickly learn why the capital has been infamous for drawing people from all walks of life to its hip-hop club scene, Black people included. But in order to understand why, we have to go back.

LA List says that spaces like Moon Night Club, a “hip-hop nightclub for Black American GIs in the heart of 1980s Seoul, South Korea” for a better understanding of this infamy.  The publication says that:

“After WWII, the U.S. military stationed itself in what is now South Korea and established its headquarters in the capital city of Seoul, specifically in a military compound located next to a neighborhood called Itaewon. From the 1950s onward, Itaewon developed into an area where American soldiers liked to hang out.”

Itaewon’s Moon Night Club was a place for Black soldiers to hear hip-hop music and new jack swing, as well as spread the sounds to the rest of Korea until it closed in the mid-1990s.

As a result of this spread, Koreans began adapting and creating hip-hop of their own, resulting in the subgenre that’s now become a mainstream phenomenon: Korean hip-hop.

“The exposure of American media led to a high rate of hip-hop fans in South Korea who have emulated Western [hip-hop]  culture which in turn has created this cycle,” says Khia Monroe, who has spent countless summers in the heart of Gangnam, one of the 25 districts in Seoul. And it’s true.

Once hip-hop was in the ears of the people in Korea a new subgenre emerged. Additionally, clubs like nb2, Owl Lounge and Octagon–known for playing everything from 1990s hip-hop music to the most recent cuts–became hot spots, while reality competition shows like Show Me The Money and Unpretty Rapstar helped push hip-hop to the general public in Korea. Which brings me to clubbing.

The neighborhoods in Seoul today can be compared to the boroughs of New York City: the underground scene of Hongdae neighborhood emulates the youthful counter-culture of Brooklyn, Itaewon’s multicultural crowd feels like Queens and the lavish district of Gangnam can be likened to the Upper East Side. There’s a space for everyone, and while the scenes themselves may be physically different, the music and atmosphere are familiar. And rest assured, you’ll be hearing hip-hop.

“My friends and I go to clubs like Octagon around 1AM,” says Khia of the popular high-end club in Gangnam. “One time, we got an invitation to a private VIP booth at Club Octagon during one of their hip-hop nights and [got to experience the lavish] lifestyle that party goers enjoy.” 

On the other side of Seoul, Sam–a London native–was club-hopping with her friends to the popular hip-hop spots Sinkhole in Hongdae and Madholic in Itaewon. The latter of the two is a popular hip-hop club with “a youthful vibe,” that Medium describes as the perfect place to “blow off steam and throw it around the dance floor until 8 am.”

The influence of hip-hop culture in Seoul has not put a stop to stereotyping, however. Incidents of cultural appropriation and blackfishing take place regularly, and Sam and Khia have experienced the effects firsthand. Sam recounts being approached by a man speaking to her in AAVE and using Black hand gestures, while Khia remembers being described as “exotic”–which we’ve learned is nowhere near a compliment. 

There have also been incidents at places like Burning Sun, a nightclub which involved several Korean celebrities in an alleged assault and prostitution scandal, as well as the Itaewon Halloween crowd crush, where severe overcrowding led to many people being killed, have rightfully had an impact on Seoul’s clubbing scene as of recently. 

Hopefully with the passage of time  and the introduction of more preventable measures the space will become more populated again and everyone can experience them safely. And if you’re a Black woman traveling to Seoul anytime soon and want some advice, here’s what Kia and Sam say: 

From Sam: “I’d advise anyone going for the first time to always go with someone, have your wits about you and have fun!”

From Khia: “My only advice is to not club on an empty stomach!” 

How to: #1800Safesexxx festival with selekta xxx

Festival season is no joke, and the work that is required to put one on is not as well. A few weeks back The Gumbo headed out to the 1800 Safe Sexxx festival in Philly, a day filled with music, art, fashion and food by some of the tri-state area’s most talented DJs, artists, brands and dancers. We talked to Selekta XXX about coordinating this year’s event, what the city of Philadelphia offers that no other place does, the importance of patience and planning and more.

The Gumbo: We’re a few days out of the 1800 Safe Sexxx festival! How are you feeling about hosting yet another successful event?

Selekta XXX: Whew 😅 it’s definitely some weight lifted off of me (Pressure) 😂😂 But overall I am extremely happy with the outcome. The most important thing to me about the festival is that the purpose of it is actually alive.

What were your favorite moments from this year’s festival?

Some of my favorite moments were of the brands that vended and the attendees. The vendors really showcased the experience of their brand versus selling something. My motto is “I want to buy something I can feel without touch” and they did that. That made me proud.

The attendees were very stylish and showed up with an open mind. They were free, fun, creative and most of all they left with some type of connection to work with others in the future. Those are very valuable moments for me!

A lot of people don’t understand the work that goes into putting on something like this. Talk to me a bit about the process of producing a festival.

The process involves a lot of patience, FAITH, a strong team that believes in the purpose and want to see things through as passionately as you do. It sounds easy but it isn’t.

That’s why I said patience is first because it takes time to find the right people that align with your vision.

Planning is most important but your Plan “A” will definitely include the rest of the alphabet when things don’t work according to your first plan. And when this does happen you have to be quick on your toes with Solutions because there isn’t any time for excuses.

There’s something so special about the community in Philly when it comes to nightlife, events and fellowship. In your words, what does Philly offer that no other city does?

Philly is a gem. What I love about our city is that it is constantly growing creatively and giving our community things to do and learn. Philly has so many dope places such as Art galleries, restaurants, Pop-Up experiences etc that I still have to visit myself and I live here lol. We’re also so much more than our cheesesteaks LOL. If you haven’t already you must experience Philadelphia at least 3 times in your life, it’s a beautiful city with beautiful people in it.

What can attendees expect from the next one?

Next year we’re gonna turn the experience up a notch. I don’t want to leak anything BUT we’re going to keep climbing up the ladder to give the best possible experience we can give to the people! Stay tuned!

Missy Elliott and the Beauty of Found Family

by Alexandra Fiorentino-Swinton

One of my earliest memories of experiencing FOMO came from listening to Brandy’s “Best Friend,” a four minute and 48 second testimony to the everlasting power of siblinghood in the face of ever-transient friendships. Only children are notoriously independent, but who wouldn’t want a seemingly built-in best friend to be by your side no matter what? Growing up is realizing that this isn’t necessarily the default relationship status for siblings, but the way our culture props up siblings as irreplaceable day-ones inevitably leaves a mark on the psyche of an only child. We frantically seek out that best friend to fortify our sense of belonging and community. Hip-hop has historically been a genre born of such found families, founded on collectives and born of communal spaces of joy and respite like block parties. In fact, it was DJ Cool Herc’s sister Cindy Campbell who planned the historic Sedgwick Avenue party that is widely considered the very birthplace of hip-hop. And despite the many forces working against them, women in hip-hop and R&B often find sisterhood and curate artistic communities.

While under the practically carceral control of then-husband Tommy Mottolla, Mariah Carey found fleeting moments of refuge by breaking out of Mottolla’s gilded prison of a mansion with Da Brat, and the two went on to create collaborative success on tracks like “Heartbreaker.” Lil’ Kim and Mary J Blige’s friendship is storied both on and off the mic, and has resulted in iconic tracks like “I Can Love You” and music video features like “No Matter What They Say” and the “Not Tonight” remix. And friend to all of the above, featured on both “Heartbreaker” and “Not Tonight,” and co-star of the “No Matter What They Say” video is musical genius, feminist icon, and only child Missy Elliott. The aforementioned collabs are mere drops in the bucket of Missy’s long history of lifting up other women in hip-hop and R&B, and at a time where the general ethos around women in hip-hop was that there could only be one. 

Having begun her career in in girl group Sista (originally named Fayze), as a member of DeVante Swing’s Swing Mob collective, and later solidifying her circle of frequent collaborators in the Supafriends spin-off group, Elliott’s entire career has been about showing—and loudly telling—the world how much love she has for her chosen family. In particular, for her chosen sisters, as the vast majority of her songwriting and producing credits are for other women. As much as Elliott’s jubilant exclamations on songs she wrote and produced—“new Monica!” on “So Gone,” “new Trina!” on “No Panties,” “new Keyshia!” on “Let It Go”—became a social media meme, it’s brought newfound recognition to Elliott’s continued reverence for her peers. And her social media accounts are full of nothing but love, light, and of posts of appreciation for her peers. While mass individualism and aloofness have become en vogue, Missy Elliott has remained a torchbearer for the value of earnestness. 

A notable Afrofuturist, Elliott’s work embodies the idea that, as Ytasha Womack claims, "Afrofuturism is a free space for women, a door ajar, arms wide open, a literal and figurative space for black women to be themselves. They can dig behind the societal reminders of blackness and womanhood to express a deeper identity and then use this discovery to define blackness, womanhood, or any other identifier in whatever form their imagination allows." The “Sock It To Me” music video is an Afrofuturist ode to Black women—co-starring Lil' Kim and Da Brat, it casts Black women as the protagonists of a technological future. It’s representative of Elliott’s own groundbreaking status as a successful Black woman in the writing and production side of music and her penchant for supporting other Black women in breaking various technological and genre barriers.

One of the most inextricable pieces of Elliott’s legacy is her hallowed friendship and musical partnership with the late Aaliyah. In 2002, Missy described Aaliyah as her little sister, stating “Our relationship went beyond the work we did together. We felt we had created a new sound, but it wasn’t like we just did records and that was it. It was more of a family vibe than just work. We could tell each other anything.” Through their shared passion for their respective crafts, their sisterhood manifested as a series of timeless, genre-defying, generation-defining collaborations. Alongside Timbaland, Elliott and Aaliyah ushered in a modernized, futuristic form of R&B production that changed the genre’s music and aesthetics indefinitely, and to this day artists follow the sonic playbook they wrote. 

In front of the mic, Elliott and Aaliyah released a few collaborations, including “Best Friends,” an ode to sisterly love in the face of said sister’s infatuation with unworthy men. But more pertinent to the depth of their friendship is “Take Away,” Missy Elliott, Tweet, and Ginuwine’s song about Aaliyah. A tearjerker of the highest caliber, the lyrical content of "Take Away" doubles as a memorial for a departed friend as well as a romantic relationship, which makes it that much more profound. Released two months after Aaliyah’s tragic death in 2001, it deeply understands the value of true kinship and of feeling known.  

You may have initially heard of Missy Elliott from hits like “Work It” or “Get Ur Freak On” or endless others, but to really know her career is to be inspired and empowered. Initially, by her well-chronicled innovation and avant-garde brain that is light years ahead of the rest of pop culture. But she’s not only an artist, not only a hype-woman on your other favorite artists’ tracks, but a curator, a conduit for creativity. There’s something about her curation of her musical family, and her eagerness to love them loudly, that always resonated with me. 

Only children often crave close connections and we indeed, as “Take Away” pleads, "wanna be the perfect match" for our close friends, and thus "we become so attached," heavily investing in platonic relationships to make our own villages and to make them last. We desperately seek out that Ray J to our Brandy, the person we think was made for us to love and to love us "from the beginning to the end." "Take Away" is a manifesto of hope for those who yearn for more out of their connections, proof that you can find your people—people who will, as the song's dedication states, "bring life to your music." 

In 2020, another hit song titled “Best Friend” emerged, featuring two non-related women rapping each other’s praises. This decade has seen women dominate rap, and the largely harmonious landscape of its participants wouldn’t have been possible without Missy Elliott's insistence that there was room for every last woman at the table.

Born without a biologically built-in cohort of peers, Elliott worked to curate a personal and professional environment founded on sisterhood, and her then-novel outlook diffused across her friends and collaborators. Missy Elliott helped turn a generation of little girls into eager consumers of hip-hop, assuring us we had a place here, and as I, now 22, enter into the adult world, her continuous exaltation of her found family makes me excited to find and love my own lifelong sisters.