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Danyel Smith Talks Spotify Original Podcast 'Black Girl Songbook' | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Dec 17, 2021
Former Vibe Editor-In-Chief Danyel Smith has done everything in journalism and is now paying it forward as the host of a new podcast called “Black Girl Songbook.”
Smith is giving long overdue praise to Black females and a few male vocalists like brandy and Jennifer Hudson.
Smith called into Sway In The Morning to talk about how she gives the credit due to some of the guests she will be bring on.
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0:00
in your
0:01
black girl song book
0:03
yes indeed and that voice right there
0:06
that's one of the most revered educated
0:11
committed dedicated
0:14
voices that this culture has ever seen
0:16
i've known her
0:18
for decades i watched her career rise
0:21
when she worked in san francisco at the
0:23
san francisco bay guardian she actually
0:25
worked for newspapers ladies and
0:27
gentlemen i don't know if you know where
0:29
the newspaper is the east bay express
0:32
the san francisco weekly but she really
0:35
really made ways for um
0:37
african-americans and especially women
0:39
in journalism uh when she became the
0:42
first african-american editor for
0:44
billboard and then the first african
0:46
american and woman editor for vibe
0:49
dot com
0:50
um and vibe and she's gone on to do so
0:53
much more i can't put it in words and
0:56
all in his intro but i am happy
0:58
to have her on this show today my bay
1:01
area sister and the one and only
1:03
danielle smith danielle whoa
1:07
[Music]
1:08
[Applause]
1:10
[Music]
1:14
in the morning i cannot believe that
1:16
wonderful introduction i mean all you
1:18
really had to say is this is my friend
1:20
from oakland and i would have been
1:21
totally straight thank you so much for
1:24
that yo you know what danielle let me
1:25
tell you something because it's
1:28
you know i've been around as long you
1:30
know what i mean so i've seen the
1:31
evolution of it all i've seen the
1:33
evolution of the business and i've seen
1:35
that evolution of music journalism
1:38
and there are some pillars some pioneers
1:41
some unsung heroes
1:43
that play very pivotal roles in our uh
1:46
of our growth and how we tell our
1:48
stories and even how we document our
1:50
stories that aren't mentioned
1:53
enough in my opinion you know and so i
1:57
truly believe that you are one of those
1:59
people
2:00
people like sheena lester you know
2:01
sheena lester yeah of course gina and i
2:04
work together of course okay talk about
2:07
where did y'all work together
2:09
we worked together at vibe at vibe okay
2:12
um yeah china was we were music editors
2:15
right behind each other um and then when
2:17
i was promoted to editor-in-chief she
2:18
was my music editor for a while she
2:21
served the readers of vibe beautifully
2:23
uh of course i know she know but as you
2:25
said there's so many like just a lot of
2:28
us out there that just did a lot of work
2:31
you know in the 90s and the 2000s just
2:34
trying to always represent for the
2:36
culture
2:37
can we name some of those women
2:40
well i can definitely name let's go to
2:42
mimi valdez mimi valdes
2:46
another former editor-in-chief of vibe
2:49
absolutely and mimi is is pharrell's
2:52
creative director she has moved on uh in
2:55
that direction i was just recently on a
2:58
panel with sophia chang who was so
3:01
active in
3:02
[Applause]
3:06
i can think of people in a r i can think
3:09
of people in journalism men and women i
3:12
can think of email will begin who's the
3:14
former editor-in-chief what's up
3:18
i talk to email all the time um let's
3:20
talk about dave's fun thomas who's the
3:22
current and sitting editor
3:25
right now we can talk about my husband
3:28
who was the former editor-in-chief of
3:30
xxl for eight years and maybe wilson ow
3:35
what it was yes elliot wilson is always
3:38
in the building i mean there's just so
3:40
many people that work like
3:42
at the source like the late chimo do who
3:46
took all the photos for the source
3:48
magazine and and gave the source the the
3:51
visual prominence that it had in the
3:53
1990s and 2000s there's many many of us
3:57
sasha jenkins who's uh who's a director
4:00
of um documentaries and things of that
4:03
nature at this point and
4:04
just many of us out here
4:07
still contributing and that's what feels
4:09
so great to know that we have that that
4:11
background and that foundation all of us
4:13
together
4:14
i think that background in that
4:16
foundation has been the key to our
4:17
longevity because obviously we had to
4:20
come up differently
4:22
than in this journalist space than what
4:24
you see now in the world of social media
4:26
and its digital age which is fine
4:28
because all of us uh
4:31
how heather was telling me yesterday we
4:33
have this cultural equity so what you
4:35
know the content the ip that we have is
4:38
it's invaluable you can't really be put
4:40
a price on it and i'm curious having
4:43
been transcended all of these
4:45
generations like we have
4:47
what is your perspective on the state of
4:49
the union on
4:51
hip-hop journalism right now
4:55
well that's such a good question
4:56
sway i will say this there are there are
5:00
many people
5:01
that are holding the torch i think in
5:03
some ways maybe they don't call it
5:06
hip-hop journalism as we did as we came
5:09
up but even though they're not
5:11
necessarily calling it that
5:14
it moves with that spirit
5:16
um i can think about somebody i worked
5:18
with after i left
5:20
bill i worked every place twice i worked
5:22
at vibe twice i worked at billboard
5:24
twice and after i left billboard the
5:25
last time i went to work at espn
5:28
for a site called the undefeated
5:31
it's a great site it's very specific to
5:32
the black experience
5:34
it's a platform at espn
5:36
and one of the people that i worked with
5:39
while i was there really the whole team
5:41
that i had there they practiced hip-hop
5:43
journalism because
5:45
i was team leader so that's the energy
5:47
that i gave so when you think about
5:49
somebody like justin tinsley who writes
5:52
about sports and music at the undefeated
5:55
aaron dodson and also justin has a book
5:57
about biggie coming out it's about
6:00
biggie before he got famous it's just
6:02
about his life story up until he got
6:05
signed just really talking about who
6:07
christopher wallace uh was as a boy and
6:09
as a and as a young man which i which i
6:12
know is going to be a very important
6:14
book for next uh late next spring so
6:16
it's people like justin is people like
6:18
david dennis um it's there's just all
6:21
kinds of people out there that are
6:24
learning from those of us that
6:28
came up in the school of hard knocks
6:30
pretty much journalism-wise
6:32
came up when everyone thought that
6:34
hip-hop wasn't even a real art form
6:37
uh and everyone was telling us this way
6:39
i know you remember everyone was telling
6:40
us it was a fad
6:43
when
6:44
when certain nightclubs and even
6:46
stadium stadium
6:47
sized venues refused to book um rap
6:51
because oh my god it's supposed to be so
6:53
dangerous meanwhile there was more bad
6:55
stuff happening at rock and roll shows
6:56
than what's happening at hip-hop shows
6:59
so we came up in that era and i'm just
7:01
happy that there's so many of us like
7:03
yourself play too that are here to talk
7:06
to
7:07
the younger people that are coming up
7:09
and infusing them with that energy
7:11
because we still have battles to fight
7:13
still have battles to fight danielle
7:15
smith is here danielle smith is here
7:18
888-742-3345
7:21
you can ask her anything she's been
7:24
documenting this culture for a couple of
7:26
decades so ask her anything 888-742-3333
7:30
tracy g yo i mean citizens i got to
7:33
start by saying this especially since
7:35
danielle is with us i mean this is a
7:38
woman um with such a powerful essence
7:41
who really for me represents
7:43
the very first time i think outside of
7:46
my own mother that i ever saw female
7:49
leadership up close and personal i've
7:53
mentioned this several times throughout
7:54
my years here at sway in the morning but
7:56
i interned at vibe and this was more
7:58
than an internship this was like an
8:00
apprenticeship it was a whole
8:03
program that i'm so grateful i got to be
8:06
a part of and this is when danielle was
8:08
editor-in-chief and i was so in awe of
8:11
her
8:12
demeanor her vision her visions
8:15
her work ethic like every day i'm
8:17
telling you citizens as an intern i made
8:20
sure in the morning before i arrived
8:22
through the doors of vibe that i had
8:24
some type of topic to speak to danielle
8:26
about just in case we were ever in the
8:29
elevator together
8:33
that's how much i just revered this
8:36
woman if there was any piece of like
8:38
note that got passed my way that had
8:40
three letters dsw on it i was like
8:44
this means
8:45
girl i have one of them still at my
8:47
parents home that i saved oh no
8:51
it is so good to hear your voice
8:53
honestly i always tell people that
8:55
anybody that ever worked at vibe i don't
8:58
care what era i don't care under which
9:00
editor-in-chief it's all of us are a
9:03
family
9:04
and
9:05
but those that worked with me i i
9:08
remember seeing you um cherie carroll
9:11
and the uh internship program at vibe
9:14
when i was there she was known as the
9:16
executive assistant to the
9:17
editor-in-chief but really she was
9:19
running vibe on the low quietly as you
9:21
know tracy yeah everything that was
9:24
going on at all times and she ran the
9:25
internship program and i know many
9:28
people that are grateful to sheree for
9:30
all the leadership that she uh
9:31
demonstrated in that position and i
9:33
remember seeing you i remember seeing
9:36
taj mani tanjani works with me on black
9:38
girl's songbook um that's my book
9:41
yeah she does she's the story consultant
9:44
on black girl songbook and that's
9:46
because i do believe we have something
9:47
special at bob and it really does warm
9:51
my heart when i think about you saying
9:53
that you would always want to have
9:54
something ready to say to me because i
9:56
always believed in the youngest among us
9:59
i always believed in i used to couldn't
10:02
stand and tracy you know this when i
10:03
would ask the intern well what do you
10:05
think about the covered photo well what
10:08
do you think about this story going in
10:09
and they would be like well
10:11
i don't know i'd be like oh no no no
10:13
that's not an appropriate answer
10:16
i need you to have an answer and for you
10:18
to back up your answer because it's not
10:21
always going to be me that's asking it's
10:23
going to be somebody at your next job or
10:25
your next opportunity or someone that
10:27
you're trying to get to finance your
10:30
business and you're gonna have to be
10:32
johnny on the spot with yours and so if
10:34
that's dave with you tracy i feel like i
10:36
understood the assignment you know what
10:38
i'm saying
10:40
yes you did even like the saudi you
10:42
snapping your fingers brought me all the
10:44
way back to a time
10:47
but listen
10:49
yes yes
10:51
i don't think people realized either
10:53
that all of us that were running um
10:57
magazines for the culture i think
11:01
when when it comes out and tracy you
11:03
know this because you saw it being built
11:05
every month when it comes out it looks
11:07
very shiny right it looks very pretty
11:10
um everything is spelled correctly
11:14
maybe there's going to be a party
11:16
celebrating the cover person whoever it
11:18
is is that usher is it brandy um is it
11:21
lil wayne
11:22
but
11:23
we were all
11:25
waste functioning
11:27
on spit and glue
11:29
we were always functioning on do we have
11:32
enough money to get the issue out the
11:35
way we want it to look
11:37
um do we have enough people in the right
11:40
job to get things done everybody that
11:43
worked at bob xxl the source essence
11:46
right now latina all these types of
11:49
books
11:50
everybody's doing three jobs
11:52
okay everybody's
11:54
everybody's functioning
11:56
at levels that they may never have to
11:58
again because they believe
12:00
they really do believe and i still
12:02
believe
12:03
mm-hmm
12:04
damn
12:06
that's why we have songbirds that's why
12:08
we have it yeah
12:10
you know on the on the note that sway
12:12
was making just on the state of the
12:14
union of um hip hop journalism i
12:17
remember a time
12:18
when
12:19
bloggers were first starting to come
12:22
into a space and it's so crazy how that
12:24
is um so normal you know in our culture
12:27
right now and i think personally for the
12:29
better but in the beginning there are so
12:31
many questions about like is this um
12:35
access to creating content so freely
12:38
gonna be good for us you know in terms
12:41
of like quality control because even
12:43
citizens to be
12:45
an intern at vibe at that time like that
12:48
was a rigorous interview process that i
12:50
went through and even eventually i ended
12:53
up um working at vibe under uh jermaine
12:56
hall's leadership and that was a lot
12:59
yes
13:00
shout out to jeremy and i learned so
13:02
much um under his leadership as well
13:05
but there was just a lot that you had to
13:08
um
13:09
prove
13:10
and there was just a process and that
13:12
helped me personally to
13:14
respect my job and everyone else
13:17
involved in the team as much but now
13:20
sometimes when
13:21
you can so freely just
13:23
create
13:25
you know for the sake of public
13:27
consumption a lot of people believe that
13:30
it um waters down the the final product
13:34
at any point were you worried about
13:36
anyone being able to just hit publish on
13:39
the web and what it would do to the
13:41
culture overall
13:45
i mean first of all tracy i worry about
13:47
everything you know what i mean
13:48
[Laughter]
13:53
that was accidentally in place of a
13:54
comma 15 years ago
13:58
i worry about everything all the time so
14:00
yes i worry about that i worry about
14:03
not so much like
14:05
is it gonna water it down if you press
14:07
publish
14:10
i worry that
14:12
is there a generation of what we now
14:15
call content creators
14:18
that
14:20
just don't have the training to even
14:22
know that they're doing something
14:24
that isn't traditional right
14:28
because of the way the media
14:31
both the black media and this media in
14:34
general has been so gutted over the last
14:37
20 years 10 15 years 20 years
14:42
there's not a lot of people who have
14:44
been trained
14:45
in the way that you have tracy and in
14:47
the way that i have and that was hard
14:50
and as you said we came up like this has
14:52
to be right everything has to be spelled
14:54
correctly um you have to back up your um
14:59
you know whatever your thought is about
15:00
a piece of art or a piece of music you
15:03
have to back that up with some facts you
15:04
have to put that that person that artist
15:07
or that album or whatever into
15:09
historical context um you have to pitch
15:11
it to people who know more than you and
15:14
then you have to be able to like just to
15:16
explain why you want to do this
15:18
particular story so that does worry me
15:21
but the thing is on that same coin
15:23
though is this thing of
15:26
black people and people of color have
15:28
been held back for so long with regard
15:30
to pressing publish on anything
15:33
it has been so hard since slavery if i
15:36
can go back that far for us to even
15:39
communicate
15:40
with each other that's one of the main
15:42
reasons that hip-hop is hip-hop because
15:45
at the beginning of rap
15:46
and i know sway and i could go all day
15:48
about this
15:50
it was really artists talking to each
15:52
other
15:53
if you were an artist in oakland and you
15:55
were an artist in brooklyn you didn't
15:57
even know what people were playing on
15:59
the radio
16:00
in in brooklyn or if there were problems
16:02
on a block in brooklyn and the people in
16:04
brooklyn didn't know what was going on
16:06
in houston and houston didn't know what
16:07
was going on in miami there's so much
16:10
power in that that's why
16:12
hip-hop is hip-hop so while i do worry
16:14
like oh
16:16
i don't know why he said that that don't
16:17
even make sense why is she talking about
16:19
that like that she needs to do more
16:20
reading yes sometimes that's my mode but
16:23
sometimes i'm like that listen i hope
16:26
everybody's pushing publish
16:28
because we all need to be talking to
16:29
each other and we all need to listen to
16:31
each other and take you know criticism
16:33
and say but we all need that freedom it
16:37
feels so good to me when i know that you
16:40
tracy and the people that come up under
16:42
you
16:42
are pressing publish i'm like amen to it
16:46
amen to it
16:48
danielle smith is here uh she has the
16:50
podcast black girls song book available
16:52
on uh exclusively on spotify perhaps
16:55
soon to be um
16:57
over here with pandora and our team
16:58
let's see if we could talk her into that
17:00
um
17:07
he only is having me on the show not
17:09
because i'm quote-unquote danielle smith
17:11
he's only having me on the show today i
17:14
hope his whole audience knows is because
17:16
we're both from oakland that's the only
17:18
thing
17:20
yo he waves your flag so high
17:24
yeah
17:25
yeah
17:27
yeah
17:28
you know hey that's my bay area so you
17:31
already know
17:33
you know
17:35
you already know i was like what's that
17:38
oh nah she from the town that overrides
17:40
everything
17:41
yeah but you know i got a chance to
17:43
listen in on the um episode with brandy
17:45
and i really enjoyed it because um
17:48
you know you you you you are who you are
17:51
you've done this you know you're you're
17:53
you're a master at what you do and you
17:55
were able to really create a warm
17:57
environment for her to talk about music
17:59
and who i i don't know if brandy is
18:02
appreciated enough and i think that's
18:04
why this this black girl songbook
18:06
podcast is so important
18:08
tell me um
18:11
when did you think of doing this and why
18:14
when did this happen
18:17
you know
18:19
i feel like i've been uh in training for
18:22
it probably my whole life since i first
18:24
started listening to music
18:26
but you know i just love music there's
18:28
just there's
18:30
never going to be a greater love um
18:33
for me like like if you think about film
18:35
you think about even books
18:37
music stands out as the art form that
18:39
i'm just in love with and have been in
18:41
love with since i was like a a toddler
18:44
pretty much
18:45
and then
18:46
when i think about very specifically
18:48
when i started thinking about it was i
18:51
saw how the women that we covered in
18:54
vibe
18:54
um those were the big covers man
18:58
those were the ones that the audience
19:00
really the audience pretty much always
19:02
responded to a woman on a cover no shots
19:05
to the guys but some of y'all were a
19:07
coin top tracy knows
19:13
if you put janet on the cover brandy
19:16
whitney mary j blige you pretty much
19:19
knew it was going to be a successful
19:20
month but yet the women weren't getting
19:22
the credit for that what people would
19:24
always want to talk about god bless it's
19:26
like the ti covers the wing covers um
19:30
this new covers and i love all those
19:33
guys but
19:34
the women were not getting the credit
19:36
that they deserved so then i decided to
19:39
after being at espn
19:41
to finish a project i had been working
19:43
on for a long time which was a history
19:45
of black women in pop music
19:48
and that book is coming out in april i'm
19:50
very excited about it it's called shine
19:51
bright a very personal history of black
19:53
women and pop and i have been working on
19:56
that off and on for years and i finally
19:58
finished it
20:00
and then when i realized i was done i
20:02
said to myself but wait i just have more
20:05
to say though
20:07
because there's not enough room and it's
20:09
a thick book it's like over 300 pages
20:12
wow
20:13
it is it is it is i love tracy being a
20:16
journalist they tracy no
20:19
300 pages
20:21
yeah right she know about pages she
20:22
knows the work that goes in tracy you
20:24
know i have fact checking copy editing
20:25
everything all of that
20:27
editors galore so
20:30
yes and but when i finish
20:32
because the book is very personal to my
20:34
experience
20:35
i could not
20:37
include every single woman that had ever
20:39
recorded the song in my book
20:42
and even the women that are in it
20:44
each of those women is deserving of 20
20:47
bucks
20:48
so i was like i just have more to say
20:51
and i started just looking at the
20:53
landscape and i always like to challenge
20:55
myself with regard to like platform um
20:59
you know i'm getting myself together to
21:01
be a host
21:03
i'm getting myself together to be an
21:05
author again um i even have taken some
21:08
acting classes recently
21:11
oh sure enough even to just to free my
21:14
mind and i don't have to be you know the
21:16
same person i was at 30 that i am now
21:19
that i'm in my 50s so
21:22
and i looked at the the space where
21:24
people were talking about music
21:26
audio wise
21:28
and i said let me see
21:30
if i can humble myself to this process
21:32
and learn about it
21:34
and i think i'm really on a good journey
21:37
because i want to create just like you
21:39
said to a safe space
21:41
i've known brandy since she was 14.
21:44
since she was 14 years old i went to
21:46
brandy first listening
21:48
and so brandi knows i'm blessed to have
21:50
the type of reputation
21:52
that
21:53
brandy knows that when i'm calling
21:57
i'm not calling
22:00
for craziness
22:02
i'm calling to talk about the work i'm
22:04
calling to talk about her life
22:06
um i'm calling to talk about
22:09
the things that she's done in her career
22:12
that people don't give her credit for
22:15
i cannot believe how the boy is mine
22:18
was the hit that it was the biggest
22:20
record of that year overall period
22:22
biggest record of that year
22:24
and people don't even know that brandi
22:26
is a co-writer or producer on that song
22:29
and that she was the one that was like i
22:30
really think it should be monica and it
22:32
was monica
22:34
like how do we not know
22:35
how did he not just call brandy a
22:38
singer-songwriter when that
22:40
title is bandied around
22:43
for
22:44
um white women singer-songwriters um
22:47
black males and songwriters but we don't
22:49
call brandy singers all right we just
22:51
say she's a singer and there's there's a
22:53
lot of
22:55
you know
22:56
joy and there's so much you know status
22:59
to being a singer but when you call
23:01
somebody a singer-songwriter
23:05
that just adds another element of genius
23:07
to who they are and what they do and so
23:10
why don't we call her that well we call
23:11
her that on blackwell's phone book
23:14
there you go yes
23:16
yes yes indeed i i gotta go back
23:19
so
23:20
it the vibe cover that had death roll on
23:23
it didn't
23:25
compare to
23:27
the covers that have women on it
23:30
okay so let me just say this that's an
23:32
outlier
23:33
and
23:35
that cover
23:36
i will say one it was a hugely
23:39
successful cover
23:40
uh any tupac cover
23:43
any cover
23:45
that had tupac shakur on it
23:49
i could probably speak
23:51
for the other editors of the other
23:53
magazines of that era
23:55
it was a sure shot
23:59
there was no it was never a question and
24:01
this is
24:03
this is him
24:04
dead or alive
24:07
so
24:08
that death row cover
24:11
one is probably the cover that i get
24:13
asked about the most of any cover
24:16
whenever i do things like this people
24:18
want to know about death row people will
24:20
hit me on twitter right now and say can
24:22
i get a poster of it
24:24
um
24:25
so that
24:26
issue
24:28
is just
24:30
and the stories that went along with it
24:33
it was a
24:35
it was a very crazy time in rap
24:38
yeah it was a very uh
24:41
it was a very bloody time
24:43
in our art form and in our business
24:45
and it was very
24:47
we didn't know it at the time i think
24:50
but it was very traumatic honestly
24:53
to us as hip-hop fans
24:55
to us as hip-hop journalists
24:58
um
24:59
it was very traumatic for the culture to
25:01
come back from we didn't know if we were
25:03
gonna come back from that and and that
25:06
cover i think
25:07
really does symbolize
25:10
like
25:11
a lot of
25:12
the a lot of the wildness
25:16
of that era so let me not take anything
25:19
away uh from that cover because or any
25:22
tupac cover
25:23
um because
25:25
as i said it was always a short shot it
25:27
was always a short shot i not you know
25:30
danielle i had an experience once
25:32
where
25:33
um
25:34
i did a a story on mtv
25:37
and i want to see how much of this i
25:39
wanted i'm not an oversharer
25:41
so
25:42
i kind of you know i did a story on mtv
25:46
that was a big story about a shooting
25:48
that took place
25:49
um in new york city right and
25:52
the guy who did the shooting was at
25:54
large they were trying to find them and
25:56
it was artists that were involved and i
25:59
remember reporting this story
26:01
just reporting the story
26:03
right and you know i always would take
26:05
whoever you mtv you had a lot of writers
26:07
so you would have to take what they
26:08
wrote and rewrite and put in your own
26:10
words and all these different things
26:12
we're doing 20 stories a day
26:14
i remember doing this story and um i
26:16
went outside
26:17
you know and i went to negril to get
26:19
something to eat downtown manhattan and
26:22
the story started running 10 at an hour
26:24
and the person
26:25
who was on the run brother
26:28
saw the story came somehow somebody
26:30
notified him that i was at a restaurant
26:33
and i was threatened
26:35
by these people these individuals came
26:36
into the restaurant they threatened me
26:38
they said yo you you were part of the
26:40
problem
26:42
and i said well what did i do that makes
26:43
me a part of the problem he said well
26:45
you were talking about it on air i said
26:47
they talked about it on cbs they talked
26:49
about it on nbc but you're coming to me
26:52
what did i say incorrectly isn't that
26:54
what happened he said yeah but you're
26:55
still a part of the problem
26:57
you know that i sat with that force i
26:59
wasn't worried about the threat thing
27:01
because i was young and wildly that was
27:02
my first year of coming out of the you
27:04
know california being in new york so i
27:06
was ready for it
27:08
but it made me think about our role in
27:11
journalism and what do we do because we
27:13
do got to get the big covers in order to
27:15
sell the magazine or get the metrics we
27:17
you know we do have to tell certain
27:19
stories in order to get the eyeballs and
27:21
those sort of things when that death
27:23
brought when east coast west coast was
27:24
happening
27:25
and um and that that whole era that
27:28
we're talking about right now it was a
27:30
funk yeah everywhere you went it was
27:33
just cloudy you know even when the sun
27:35
was out you know you go places it was
27:37
just funky all the time
27:39
vibe and many many people vibe people
27:43
pointed the finger at vibe
27:45
right i remember kevin was going through
27:47
this too people pointed the figure a
27:49
vibe
27:50
for kind of perpetuating this beef and
27:52
kind of flaming
27:54
fueling the flames of this beef
27:57
i wanted to know have you ever kind of
27:59
got backlash from a story that you guys
28:02
did or when that kind of commentary is
28:05
coming at vibe how how did you process
28:08
that how did you
28:09
how did you navigate to those that that
28:11
sort of situation
28:15
it's very interesting that you say that
28:17
um
28:22
i've definitely one been in that
28:23
situation
28:25
or i've been at a restaurant
28:29
and somebody has come in ready to fight
28:31
me
28:33
um
28:37
i've told this story many times and i
28:39
appreciate you not mentioning any names
28:40
and i won't either
28:42
but
28:43
as you said also
28:48
and as we joke about
28:52
there's something to be said about being
28:55
from a city like oakland
29:00
and i think a lot of us
29:02
in positions of power at that time
29:05
we were ready for it right
29:08
um as you said
29:10
i was ready for it
29:11
in the restaurant
29:15
i think you had to have a lot of
29:17
toughness about you to be in our
29:19
business
29:20
at that time
29:22
i can think of a particular time
29:26
when there's a an artist who has been
29:29
accused of
29:32
heinous crimes against young women
29:37
and
29:39
it was being discussed imbibed
29:43
and there was a guy who who ran the
29:45
label that this artist would assign to
29:48
an older man a white gentleman
29:52
and he called up to my office
29:56
and i don't know if you could curse on
29:58
this show
29:59
okay
30:00
but i would call every that it was
30:02
possible to be caught
30:06
and stupid and dumb and ruining a black
30:09
man's life and
30:11
basically i wasn't and da da da da
30:15
and then that artist got on the phone
30:20
and was basically like
30:22
i'm a survive under the table
30:25
everything that you think isn't true
30:27
it's libelous
30:29
etc and as tracy knows everything that
30:33
ran involved went by lawyers before it
30:35
was published yep
30:37
so i felt quite confident
30:40
in the reporting that was in the story
30:42
and i felt quite confident telling that
30:45
artist and that
30:47
label had
30:50
if you want to sue
30:52
sue
30:54
but i don't think that you will
30:57
because then we're gonna have to go
30:59
through discovery
31:00
and then we really all gonna have to
31:02
talk about it aren't we
31:06
and i'm not saying that it's not a tough
31:08
position
31:10
nobody likes to see
31:14
bad things about themselves in print
31:17
it's very powerful
31:19
yeah
31:20
even it's it's it's very powerful so
31:23
when that guy walked up on you in the
31:25
grill shout out to the girl also
31:29
right
31:30
when that person walks up on you i also
31:32
think it's like i was saying earlier
31:35
it has taken us as people of color as
31:38
black people so long to even
31:41
be covered
31:44
okay like it it takes some getting used
31:47
to
31:49
to to have somebody report on you
31:52
if you
31:55
mainstream culture white people have
31:56
been used to this since benjamin
31:58
franklin
32:00
wow okay so we really
32:03
aren't used to it i remember going to
32:05
see
32:06
new jack city
32:09
at a scream
32:10
is how old i am
32:12
and it was just a lot of people
32:14
you know press wise in a very small
32:17
screening room watching it and we all
32:18
thought it was you know the the black
32:21
godfather it was everything we dreamed
32:22
of come to life
32:24
and there were a lot of when that film
32:26
first came out there were a lot of
32:28
fights in the theaters
32:30
like black people were wilding out in
32:32
the theaters fighting each other there
32:33
was a problem and my thought at the time
32:35
and i wrote about it was this
32:37
this is the first time black people have
32:39
seen themselves on screen like this
32:42
they don't even know how to act
32:45
a mirror is being held up to our culture
32:47
and we're sitting there like oh my god
32:51
hearts are racing
32:52
like
32:54
hormones are surging and so that when
32:57
that guy walked up to you god bless him
32:59
i probably know him
33:02
but my thing is this he wasn't used to
33:05
it right yeah he wasn't used to it every
33:08
editor at xsl
33:10
the source and vibe
33:13
has been threatened
33:15
has been
33:16
physically assaulted
33:19
has had their office run into
33:22
violently
33:24
all of us
33:25
that's why when i say it was a traumatic
33:27
time
33:28
yeah for the culture it was and when you
33:30
say there was a fog over us there was
33:35
definitely was dang yeah we got i see we
33:37
going to do this some more hello
33:43
honestly you have tracy sway that's what
33:46
i'm saying even you have to come survive
33:48
alumni
33:51
don't do that
33:53
don't do that danielle don't do that and
33:55
also i got the queen heather b so you
33:58
know i'm surrounded by some powerful
34:01
queens danielle i love it i love it so
34:04
much
34:05
yes indeed that's heather right there
34:06
daniel
34:09
oh hey heather what's going on hey how
34:11
you doing
34:13
it's so good to hear your voice yours
34:15
too
34:16
thank you oh my goodness boy you have it
34:18
going on over there yo i'm trying to
34:20
tell you daniel i did it right this time
34:24
you know
34:26
i got these two powerful voices next to
34:28
me at all times and heather keeps me in
34:31
line and and tracy keeps me informed so
34:34
i'm all right
34:36
okay but congratulations to you
34:39
absolutely absolutely congratulations to
34:42
you danielle can't tell you how proud i
34:44
am of you um in the bay northern
34:47
california
34:48
um
34:49
we salute you uh continue with this
34:52
amazing journey you've been on and you
34:54
haven't even reached halftime so let's
34:56
keep going all these amazing projects
34:58
you have um and black girls songbook is
35:01
available on spotify you guys give it a
35:04
listen and then uh hopefully we'll get
35:05
her on pandora till i say it again and
35:07
look for her forthcoming book shine
35:09
bright a personal history of black women
35:13
and pop you are so good for the culture
35:15
thank you for being on the show daniel
35:17
we appreciate it thank you for having me
35:19
love you guys love you have a great day
35:22
okay
35:24
danielle smith man come on uh
35:27
listen check her out black girl songbook
35:44
boy
35:46
[Music]
35:56
[Music]
#Arts & Entertainment