Up next in 10
Chuck Johnson on Sway In The Morning.
Subscribe Here! http://bit.ly/SubscribeSU
Watch the Best of Sway In The Morning! http://bit.ly/BestOfSITM
Check out More From Sway’s Universe
http://swaysuniverse.com
http://twitter.com/swaysuniverse
http://instagram.com/swaysuniverse
http://facebook.com/swaysuniverse
#ChuckJohnson #SoulBeat #SwaysUniverse #SwayInTheMorning #SiriusXM #Shade45
About SWAY’s UNIVERSE
Exclusive interviews from Sway Calloway and the Sway In The Morning/ SwaysUniverse.com team with some of today's biggest celebrities, like Kevin Hart, Kanye West, Eminem, Usher, Jessica Alba, Steve Aoki, Torey Lanez, Julia Stiles and so much more.
Chuck Johnson of SoulBeat.TV Talks Soul Beat Day | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Sway’s Universe
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
and we definitely play hot music as
0:03
i think i played a little bit of high
0:04
music at that time
0:07
yes indeed not a little bit he played a
0:09
lot of it had to be in tracy g
0:12
like i said before the young man is a
0:14
pillar in the game anytime i see him
0:16
when i come to the town man he's
0:17
throwing a bunch of ideas of growth and
0:19
community and
0:20
and opportunities and collaborative
0:22
efforts this is what this man has stood
0:24
on for years
0:25
since he started as an intern and soaked
0:28
up the game at soul beat and
0:30
he ain't he didn't leave oakland he kept
0:32
it in oakland and kept building in
0:34
oakland and so that for that reason we
0:35
got him on the show today the one and
0:37
only
0:38
chuck johnson man give it up for chuck
0:41
jones
0:47
another another incredible introduction
0:49
what's up slade how are you doing ladies
0:51
what up chuck come on man
0:54
hey listen if you go to the town man
0:56
anytime you come to uh
0:58
come to the oakland man just mention
0:59
chuck johnson's name and you're gonna
1:01
find a connection to somebody
1:03
that's a guarantee respect respect man
1:07
absolutely man this this is it man this
1:09
is awesome
1:13
absolutely we gonna do it again in
1:15
person man but i thought it was
1:16
important for us to um
1:18
really talk about what today is and i i
1:20
sometimes when you talk about history
1:22
and folks aren't aware of it
1:23
it could be kind of kind of confusing
1:25
because you you can't really connect to
1:27
it and one way i like to talk about soul
1:29
beat is it being the first
1:31
you know black owned network in the
1:33
country so where
1:34
people gravitate or they can relate to
1:36
what
1:38
what bet has done imagine this being
1:41
done
1:42
before bet correct chuck
1:45
that's correct sway the best way i i
1:48
describe
1:48
soul b is it's been the hidden jewel
1:52
that russell simmons knew about it was
1:54
that hidden jewel that
1:56
golden mike knew about jay-z knew about
1:59
it's again the
2:00
the national but local connection to the
2:03
culture
2:04
if you knew that you had to break your
2:06
music in the west coast
2:09
you had to come to solby i could take
2:12
you back to
2:13
i'd say about 1987 1987 randy mc was out
2:17
here
2:18
rocking with with chuck johnson so the
2:21
history goes like forever i mean
2:23
shout out to easy e just all the greats
2:26
came through to so beat and then they
2:28
took the energy that they got from the
2:30
bay area
2:31
and took it back home and and twisted it
2:33
back up and
2:34
you know the rest been history so
2:36
sophie's just been a pillar in the
2:38
culture
2:39
um for those who came to came to the bay
2:42
area
2:42
on the sway tell them about the gaming
2:44
convention the gavin convention so
2:46
you know the gavin report was a a trade
2:49
magazine we speak on it a lot here chuck
2:51
we've done it before in the trade
2:52
magazine what it was imagine billboard
2:54
or
2:55
or magazines like that that kept track
2:57
of mute that music how music was being
3:00
played on radio across the country
3:02
mainstream
3:03
college radio so on and so forth and in
3:05
the early 90s the gavin report shout out
3:07
to tembisa and shakka
3:09
shout out to kelly wu brian sampson
3:12
the gavin report put on a big conference
3:15
and
3:15
everybody from all over the world came
3:18
man and then so be
3:20
what was that like for you bro what was
3:22
that like for soul beat at that time
3:25
at that time it was it was just a
3:27
perfect storm
3:28
because again we got a chance to have
3:30
great content recorded
3:32
again we built new relationships with
3:34
whether it's an independent artist or a
3:35
national artist
3:37
and even for me as a young dude you
3:39
gotta remember also this is the early
3:41
90s so that was when hip-hop was really
3:43
making his mark
3:44
you know and actually i i remember when
3:47
big and
3:47
big and uh puppy was out here at the
3:49
henry j from kaiser convention center
3:52
sway
3:52
so when they was getting they start you
3:54
know they was coming out here networking
3:56
so it was it was just a melting pot a
3:58
great times because we had a lot of
4:00
artists at the time
4:02
actually on major record labels so you
4:04
know the bay had
4:05
had a thriving point with the with the
4:07
um with the component of hip-hop
4:09
and beyond but sobe was just very unique
4:12
because
4:13
hey i was from me stoked yeah i got a
4:15
shot on your tv
4:18
so that's the sway tell them why she's
4:20
not giving them the old school swag tell
4:22
them about the hip-hop coalition
4:24
the hip-hop coalition so the
4:30
is a coalition of just um dj's
4:33
uh promoters uh
4:36
you know uh people who was pushing
4:39
culture forward
4:40
that came together um to just really
4:43
ensure
4:43
the thing with the bay is when you talk
4:45
about the hip-hop coalition
4:47
and and all the different organizations
4:48
david paul with the bomb magazine
4:51
you know uh uh david tamu
4:54
you know siddiqui you know kim collette
4:57
you know all of the cabbie kev kcsu
5:00
stanford heather you know all this stuff
5:02
kpfa
5:03
you know all these different um
5:05
community stations we
5:06
had to chuck and you could speak to this
5:09
we had to galvanize our sources because
5:12
the bay was just kind of like a
5:13
smorgasbord people would just come to
5:15
the bay and you eat up all this game you
5:17
get all this good food
5:18
and all this nourishment and you take it
5:21
somewhere else
5:22
and then you didn't get credit to debate
5:24
so beat
5:26
help trigger something you mentioned
5:28
easy e and run dmc and all these
5:30
when they came to town they had to go to
5:32
so be first to even promote their
5:33
concerts
5:35
you know that's so beat chuck i remember
5:38
and i want you to talk about chuck
5:40
johnson
5:40
the the the older chuck johnson because
5:43
um but i remember heather and tracy too
5:46
i was you know we would watch soul beat
5:49
on a local uh
5:50
tv network right and you'll see lanelle
5:54
on there doing her show
5:57
look down what up little damn y'all
6:00
you see lindell lindell was like back
6:03
there too
6:04
but the thing that may so be special
6:06
chuck and i want to talk about this and
6:08
the original chuck johnson
6:10
that a lot of platforms are missing
6:12
today is the human interaction
6:14
because say for example a lot of radio
6:16
now people pre-record they do what they
6:18
got to do to fill up their content grids
6:21
and but you're not hearing that human
6:22
interaction you you're not hearing what
6:24
the pulse of the community
6:26
has to say you know what i mean and so
6:28
beat allowed people to call in that's
6:30
what lunell was talking about
6:32
live on the air and say hey man we got a
6:35
problem or you know we got a problem in
6:37
the lower bottoms man we got a lot of
6:39
homeless people
6:40
that's sleeping under the bridge man
6:42
what are we going to do about that
6:43
right chuck and and that's what may so
6:46
be such a important platform
6:50
to the bay area and then it left
6:54
but i want to talk about chuck johnson
6:57
this chuck johnson the young chuck
6:59
johnson
7:00
came under the tutelage of the older
7:03
chuck johnson but you two
7:04
aren't related right
7:08
yeah man uh is that this is how the game
7:10
went
7:11
his name is charles edward johnson my
7:13
name is charles edward johnson you
7:18
and uh yeah so what it was is because on
7:21
the real i i just really was on the
7:23
pulse of hip-hop at a very young age you
7:26
know what i'm saying
7:27
and then i actually went to school for a
7:30
television broadcasting and on the fluke
7:33
i met chuck
7:34
and this is a trip because now it's just
7:36
a trip that he gave me his business
7:38
part i did the internship for a year
7:41
it took a year i finally got my w-2 form
7:44
thing going with him
7:45
and there it was we saw we had the same
7:47
thing and um i should be just like
7:50
anybody else
7:51
just watching so be because you got to
7:53
realize i'm going to say this
7:55
out loud to the world sobe was like i
7:58
guess you could say the first
7:59
instagram or something because it was
8:01
live it was it was no
8:02
it was like a five no five second delay
8:06
you just had to really live it with the
8:07
culture and that was what was incredible
8:10
is that they can call right up right now
8:12
they just gonna say something like they
8:14
love you or
8:15
say something opposite they had a chance
8:17
to tell you that right then in here in
8:18
real time
8:19
and you know shout out to mr johnson
8:22
because again
8:23
he decided to have a black owned network
8:25
kept it 100 percent
8:27
you know what it was it may not reach
8:29
certain heights
8:30
but it it it was definitely a stable in
8:32
the culture
8:33
because it was facing you know he got
8:35
you know people like viacom
8:37
came him and earlier time 1983 in fact
8:41
and he decided to kind of go his own
8:43
path so
8:44
it was important to
8:47
to get his legacy understood that's why
8:49
i basically i'm gonna spend some time
8:51
developing a documentary but again
8:55
chuck even had a life before he even
8:57
came to oakland
8:58
in 1978 for like 25 years
9:02
he was in the culture he was a like a
9:04
radio dj in okinawa japan in the 60s
9:07
too um he was the head of the naacp in
9:11
san diego at one time and get this way i
9:14
don't know if guys know but
9:15
he actually produced some adult in my
9:17
movies the old school
9:19
guys who
9:23
he just has a long history of of of
9:26
of interest to the industry that's not
9:28
real well known
9:29
so i just said you know what i'm gonna
9:30
take time to do this and then the
9:32
reality was
9:33
is that i was coming up in the 90s so i
9:36
was right there in the post of the
9:38
hip-hop community
9:39
and so when the opportunity came he was
9:42
like man
9:42
i'm gonna throw you on this tv show to
9:45
figure it out
9:46
in less than a week i became a hip-hop
9:48
host and my first show was with with the
9:50
fuji's
9:52
uh uh simple key she had the song called
9:54
playing my phone
9:56
and it was the uh the coupe shout out to
9:58
um dj
9:59
pam functions so so yeah man
10:02
it's just it's a it's an intertwining
10:04
story of myself and the hip-hop culture
10:06
but of course um shout out to og chuck
10:08
for 25 years
10:10
of entertainment bringing into oakland
10:12
was all deep
10:13
i love it man today is soul b day
10:15
oakland stand up
10:16
if you grew up watching soul beat
10:20
888-742-3345 we actually got flash on
10:22
the line from oakland
10:24
flash grand rises hey flash
10:30
flash
10:41
[Music]
10:43
how about that
10:49
talk about soul b flash turn your radio
10:51
down and talk on your phone but talk
10:52
about soul beating it's important though
10:54
okay yeah radio on zombies man you can
10:57
go to east my world but they weren't
10:58
inside these small malls and then they
11:00
moved outside each small mall but it was
11:01
just
11:02
on glass from oakland man those are many
11:05
major shots
11:07
especially you know i'm saying we're
11:08
doing those interviews and we used to
11:10
have you know host him at the club at uh
11:12
jimmy's in the complex back in the day
11:14
but man oh yeah
11:15
billy jam i don't give a damn but the
11:17
videos i mean
11:19
to me so be you can actually go there
11:22
you know what i'm saying
11:23
you could be there you could be a part
11:24
of it and not only that i mean it was
11:26
just something that it was really
11:27
oakland's own
11:29
music entertainment it had everything i
11:31
mean it's funny because my grandparents
11:33
would watch so deep
11:34
you know what i'm saying i mean it's a
11:37
real
11:38
major oakless culture right there live
11:40
in the flesh like how you said earlier
11:42
before b.e.t before mtv you know trying
11:45
to portray
11:46
black music i mean everybody i mean you
11:49
know man i went to fremont high you know
11:50
class of 1991 so
11:52
you know everybody somewhat always
11:55
talked about
11:56
knowing trump johnson always gave praise
11:58
to chuck johnson i remember we was
12:00
trying to
12:01
so joseph isn't there yeah you know what
12:04
i'm saying so i mean
12:06
it's kind of hard not to i mean every
12:08
day they had something that was on
12:10
you know it's funny because when i saw
12:11
uh visit my relatives in texas we
12:13
talked about uh sophie they were like
12:15
man what is that i said man honestly
12:17
just black people and open on tv for
12:20
real
12:22
exactly i like that description man
12:26
hey man everything he's saying is so on
12:29
point
12:29
and today we're talking about the first
12:31
annual soul beat day
12:33
that's happening in oakland we got chuck
12:35
johnson on here flats
12:36
chuck what can't peop are we going to be
12:38
able to watch sobe
12:42
you know that's why everybody putting
12:43
that on my back man and
12:45
again man putting it out there right now
12:47
i'm at the holla at you about some uh
12:48
production and
12:50
it's under the opportunity man you know
12:52
it's a great opportunity man to research
12:54
such a
12:55
important brand and take it beyond the
12:57
bay area you know
12:58
so absolutely we're going towards again
13:01
establishing that
13:02
network see people don't realize they
13:04
they don't they don't understand
13:06
the difference between like a youtube
13:08
page
13:09
versus the actual network see networks
13:11
you gotta buy satellites
13:12
you gotta you gotta buy buildings you
13:15
know what i mean
13:16
so the the path towards the network
13:20
is vital and we're definitely going in
13:22
that direction but in the meantime
13:24
i just want to give a culture a little
13:26
story about soul be
13:28
and kind of take it from there okay so
13:30
the documentary has been flashed by the
13:32
way you're a citizen man thank you flash
13:33
appreciate
13:34
hey i sway in the morning okay uh so
13:37
you're working on the doc
13:38
um i can't wait to see that happen today
13:43
is the first annual solby day in oakland
13:46
where is it taking place and who's going
13:47
to be there
13:50
we got it at the uh busy white located
13:53
at 44
13:54
um webster street and uh jack london
13:57
square for those who know downtown
13:59
oakland
13:59
and uh you know man i talked to a lot of
14:03
a lot of people behind the curtain
14:05
hopefully everybody show up again this
14:06
is a free event
14:07
you know um bottom line is we we talked
14:10
from the mayor to uh to shore
14:17
god damn man um
14:21
yeah yeah and and and just so many other
14:24
individuals you know
14:25
um that that's definitely supportive of
14:27
the event you know shout out to money b
14:29
and you know what they doing with the
14:31
digital underground day and
14:33
they in full support of this and you
14:35
know it's just an
14:36
array of people that i'm just hoping
14:38
it's gonna really come show out
14:40
and support the soldier movement and
14:42
again we're gonna plan to do more
14:43
because this literally
14:44
landed in my lap through a study sway in
14:47
my in my project with the documentary i
14:49
looked through
14:50
some paperwork a month ago and shout out
14:52
to um former mayor ellios
14:54
who actually gave the proclamation to
14:56
oakland um with with sobe
14:59
in 1993 um you know he was basically it
15:03
did this work
15:04
and i said man should i let this day go
15:06
by or should we do a little you know a
15:08
little something to just represent today
15:10
so that's what we doing today so it's
15:11
just something we just put together for
15:13
the community
15:14
you know hope everybody do come out who
15:16
said they would
15:18
absolutely so be day everybody also be
15:22
something man i remember hammer used to
15:23
be on so beat
15:24
you know it it took so beat swag swag
15:27
only river you know uh and uh
15:31
dame dash and kareem burst came through
15:33
each my mall and and uh i was right
15:35
before them
15:36
i just did an interview with doves he
15:38
and mac 10 in the middle of that 96
15:41
you know i'm saying between
15:42
east and west coast you know that right
15:44
they all came through the east my mall
15:46
and i'm going to talk about that in the
15:48
documentary because i got all of the
15:50
footage yeah
15:51
i got like about an hour interview with
15:52
jay i got an hour interview with them
15:55
and it was just the probably most
15:56
intense day of me even doing my show
15:59
because i i was like right there in the
16:01
middle for hip-hop
16:03
but i was really in the middle of what
16:04
was going on so
16:06
you know we're just going to show that
16:07
throughout throughout the footage
16:09
i love it man hey chuck uh what happened
16:12
tracy i want to ask him anything
16:13
yeah i'm also curious like very
16:16
specifically on where
16:18
the name soul beat came from
16:22
uh you know that was just uh basically a
16:24
derivative for
16:25
uh for for uh mr mr johnson because uh
16:29
his thing was always about keeping the
16:31
drums drums beaten
16:33
you know um you know it's kind of just
16:35
one of those inner connections to our to
16:37
our to our people
16:38
you know what i'm saying that he was
16:40
just tapping into that vibration about
16:42
the drums keep beating for us
16:44
because you know that was the way we was
16:45
able to escape you know what i mean
16:46
because we
16:47
was hitting them drums giving each other
16:49
messages you know what i mean
16:50
right right wow that's deep
16:54
yeah we it actually go there
16:59
yeah did y'all play y'all did y'all play
17:02
all glocks down
17:03
also beat you know what
17:09
what what i wanted to ask what i wanted
17:12
to ask though to you chuck
17:13
you know a lot of times we have the
17:15
opportunity to talk to artists from the
17:16
west coast in different regions of the
17:18
world and they always talk about how
17:20
they used to watch artists from the east
17:22
coast and how maybe they were influenced
17:24
or wondering why they couldn't get
17:26
things going
17:26
for them in their particular region but
17:29
the and the way that you were doing it
17:30
um
17:31
out with so be on the west coast did you
17:34
used to watch like say maybe a video
17:36
music box or empty like
17:38
did you watch video shows that were
17:40
based on the east coast
17:42
oh absolutely yeah i mean that's how i
17:44
got my roots you know shout out to
17:46
you know five five freddy to you know
17:48
what i'm saying the
17:50
rap cds to of course uh the og rob
17:53
mcdaniels i actually met
17:54
og ralph with chuck one time at a
17:56
convention in l.a so
17:58
so i was aware of him at a very early
18:00
age and realized that he was the mark so
18:03
to speak
18:03
so me you know swear tell you we was we
18:06
was true
18:07
hip-hop heads but knew all the mob
18:10
all the street
18:11
but i was a real true hip-hop purist
18:14
you know what i'm saying i really paid
18:16
attention to lyricism you know they
18:18
shout out again that's why i was talking
18:20
about the uh
18:21
the uh you know the coalition because
18:24
because i was around these guys who were
18:26
you know serious hip-hop guy so bottom
18:28
line was
18:29
i was into south music in east coast
18:32
music
18:33
and that was just our bay area flavor we
18:35
was willing to give to give the others a
18:36
try
18:37
so that's that's just was my the way i
18:39
did my show and
18:41
at the end of the day that's what i want
18:43
my show when you see this footage
18:45
because you don't see my playlist
18:46
that i had a big mixture i played local
18:50
but we definitely had our eye on on the
18:52
national viewpoint
18:54
it is man chuck johnson citizens the
18:56
round of applause for what you're doing
18:58
brother
18:58
keep that name alive keep that legacy
19:00
alive so be
19:02
day uh you know if you're in oakland
19:04
you're in
19:05
entertainment you're creative uh if
19:07
you're new to the game if you're
19:10
fresh out of high school or college and
19:12
you want to learn
19:13
and be a part of something that's just
19:14
amazing a part of an amazing legacy
19:17
tonight man from 6 00 p.m
19:20
right to 12 a.m um
19:25
yeah yep yep yep and then if you want to
19:27
learn more about us go to sophie tv on
19:29
our instagram
19:31
sobynetwork.com hey chuck love you
19:34
brother stay 10 toes down man the town
19:37
needs you
19:38
thanks chuck appreciate you appreciate
19:40
you ladies
19:41
okay happy soul b day give it up to
19:43
chuck johnson man make sure y'all follow
19:45
soul deep tv
19:46
man have a good time chuck i'll talk to
19:48
you soon brother
19:52
[Music]
20:02
[Music]
20:47
you
#Arts & Entertainment