MY HIP-HOP RIDE……………

This is the story of Colby Colb and how I was able to fight through a series of obstacles in order to live my dreams and carve out a successful career. I decided to come up with this website so I can connect with all my longtime fans and supporters. This was a long time coming. One thing you need to know about me is that I am not a bull shit artist. I like to call things like I see them. You always have to remember no one can ever take your thoughts and dreams away from you. It is your responsibility to cultivate them into something special. It is a great feeling to be free and to think on your own terms.

In 2008 I found myself unemployed during the worst financial crisis in modern history. I had been in this situation before but I bounced back fast. This time the environment is different. So I had to do something else with my creative energy so the first thing I did was go a goodbye video to my listeners in Philly. In radio you rarely get a chance to say goodbye but the internet was a game changer.

My creative energy started to flow as I started writing screenplays which was another one of my passions (more on that later). I also decided to create my own website, while coming up with ideas for this site instead of the standard bio I wanted to write out my story. When I started making notes on what I was going to write everything came back to one of my most creative achievements in radio my first show Radioactive. It is only fitting when you look at my career, Radioactive is what really set the tables for all of my success.

April 1, 1991 was one of my lowest moments in life. My brother had just died after a long battle with AIDS, I was flunking out of college and I had been at Power 99 for 5 years starting as an intern and working my way up to producer but wasn’t making any money or coming close to my dream of being on air and having my own show. I was mentally done and had decided to drop out of college, leave the station to pursue a job that paid real money. Something told me to take this idea I had floating around in my mind and present it to my Program Director Dave Allan. Looking back at that moment I truly believe it was God working things out for me on top of my brother’s spirit. So I gave it the old college try and came up with Radioactive, little did I know that this show would change my life. To get an understanding of how all this came about I have to take you back a bit more.

I am a first generation Hip Hop head from the start. I was born in New York City and lived in Crown Heights Brooklyn until my parents were divorced. They were both from Philly but lived in New York and after they separated my mom decided to move back to Philly. So during my childhood I lived in the Happy Hollow section of Germantown during school months and in my summers I lived in East Harlem, 1^st Avenue and 110th street. We lived in 1199 apartments which were brand new at the time and we lived in building C.

After a few years in East Harlem my dad moved to Spanish Harlem, 143rd and Broadway. We had the best brownstone on the block with a stoop that overlooked everything. It was on that stoop in the summers with the radio blaring that my deep love for Hip Hop grew. What was even better was that New York radio stations embraced the movement so the music was constantly evolving around me. Listening to Kurtis Blow, Whodini, Treacherous Three, Spoonie G and so many other artists at that time fueled my thirst for the culture. I would play ball down the street from the legendary Broadway International club where all the hottest groups would come to perform. I would sit outside and soak up the vibe on hot summer nights.

It was the early 80’s and Mr. Magic and Marly Marl was on 107.5 WBLS and Red Alert and Chuck Chillout was on 98.7 Kiss. Those first mix shows had me hooked on the idea of playing rap records on the radio. Philly was the second major city to embrace Hip Hop and in October of 1982 Power 99 was launched. Fred Buggs aka Bugsy was the first night show host on Power 99 and I would call him up and question him about radio and he would put me on the air then one day he was gone. What made Power special at that time was they embraced Hip Hop similar to Kiss in New York and one of the stars of the station was Lady B. She had Street Beat which was Philly’s first major Hip Hop show initially started on WHAT a small AM station until Power 99 snatched her away and put her on every Sunday afternoon. I would listen religiously every week for all the new songs. I remember LL Cool J freestyling on his 16^th birthday at the original After Midnight. When Bugs left I never got an explanation of what happened to him. That was my first understanding of how radio works and one day you can be on the air and the next day you can be on the streets regardless of how popular you were. In this case Bugsy was a New Yorker and he left for a better opportunity.

During my Christmas break in 1985 I was in New York and I heard Fred Buggs on 98.7 Kiss doing nights. I rushed to the phone and hit him up like “Yo, what happened to you?” He couldn’t believe it was me and joked that I was stalking him. He then invited me down to the station which at that time was right off Times Square. So on December 27th 1985, this 15 year old kid walked into Kiss FM air studio and I knew this is what I wanted to do. That night he introduced me to legendary DJ’s Red Alert and Chuck Chillout who had mix shows on Friday and Saturday nights. They were so cool and laid back, in later years Funkmaster Flex would carry Chuck’s crates and eventually get a chance to fill in for him and that is how Flex got started. I was already flirting with the idea of radio but that night confirmed the dream.

When I got back to Philly I told everyone that one day I was going to be on the radio. At that time I went to Northeast High and most of the kids clowned my dream but I never listened to them and stayed focused. If there was something going on in Hip Hop I was the first to know about it especially the gear. I would always get the hottest sneakers with the fat shoe laces, bomber jackets and color Lee jeans etc. My high school buddy Arnold Hawkins used to call me Beat Street and or Ramos after the movie because I was always talking that New York Hip Hop stuff. I was a Bi-racial kid going to an all white high school where the white kids thought I was Puerto Rican which was better than the kids at Pickett Middle School back in Germantown who called me white boy. It was worse in my dad’s Spanish Harlem neighborhood. The Dominicans and Puerto Ricans always had beef. When they saw me each group thought I was from the other side. In 1983 I was jumped by some Dominican kids for my brother’s basketball, they beat the crap out of me but they didn’t get the ball. Let’s just say my childhood was very interesting. When you’re bi-racial you have a unique view of the world.

In 1986 right after graduation I started my internship at Power 99 and never looked back. Mike Love was on afternoons at the time and he was playing around with my name and started calling me Cut Master Colby Colb then he just shortened it to Colby Colb. Mike was a great mentor and he taught me so much. He also worked at WPGC in DC where he was a mentor to Tigger when he was an intern. Mike Love now works with Michael Baisden on his nationally syndicated radio show. Mike Love gave me my radio name but Jojo Davis who was the most popular jock on the station gave me my radio game. I was blessed to work with brothers who were not afraid to teach me which is a rare quality in the competitive world or radio.

Jojo happened to be the little brother of the Jazz legend Miles Davis and my uncle is the Jazz legend McCoy Tyner whom I also share my birthday with. Jojo took me under his wing and taught me everything about radio and I became his producer. It was at that time that I also started dreaming of doing nights as well. The night show was the anchor of the station and the ratings were always number 1. I also had a chance to work with Lady B; she would allow me to help out on her show too. Working with Jojo and B allowed me to meet all the rappers who inspired me to do radio. The first time I met Lady B she was taping an interview with Kurtis Blow who was so cool. RunDmc came to the station to tape an interview for MTV and it was my first time meeting them. It was at that point I would develop a friendship with Jam Master Jay. He was so down to earth and we would just talk music. Whenever he came to the station he would seek me out. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince were just coming out in 1986, Will and I are the same age and had both just graduated from high school. He had the hottest record in the city and they embraced me like they knew me for years.

I was in heaven and my thirst to be on the air grew every year so you can understand that after 5 years of working non stop for $3.35 and hour I could end up so frustrated. When Jojo moved to afternoons Stanley T came in to do nights and he helped promote me more on the station and made me his official side kick. Stanley really lobbied Dave Allan on my behalf to get my own show.

Now back to my proposal, in the back of my mind I didn’t think I stood a chance. In those days in radio you had to go to a smaller market and work your way up to being on air. Getting my own show was a long shot but I had to do it or I would always regret that I didn’t. (NOTE: Always follow your dreams or you will be forever bitter that you didn’t) So I presented my idea to the boss and waited for his response. Dave Allan is a straight forward guy who doesn’t blow smoke and gets right to the point. He called me into his office and said “Hey man, I love the idea” and I could start in 2 weeks and that he was proud of me. I am a very spiritual person now however I didn’t get saved until 2001. When I started to understand God’s power and I looked back on my life before I was saved I started to realize how much he blessed me. I thank God all the time for protecting me before I recognized him. (That is what makes God amazing) I remember that moment in the hallway outside Dave’s office after he told me I was going to be doing the show, I stood in shock that my dream is actually coming true. Thank you Jesus!!!!!!!

So seven weeks after my lowest moment in life Radioactive was born. The title Radioactive came out of left field, I was so flustered trying to figure out a cool name for the show and then I saw a 12 inch record with “Radioactive” from a group on Def Jam called Downtown Science and that is how I came up with the name. I actually used their song as the first intro. The show was launched on Friday May 17th, 1991 and in the early days of the show I mixed, produced and hosted. My first interview was with Larry Larr who was down with Three Times Dope and the other interview on that show was with HanSoul who was just coming out and he put me in his video with Charles Barkley. It was through Hans that I met DJ Ran who was his DJ and I invited Ran to spin on the show from time to time. My good friend to this day Tat Money (our kids play together now, how dope is that) who had just left Steady B’s crew and connected with Kwame would also spin.

One of my early fans was this guy named Ahmir whose sister worked at the Bennetton store with one of my classmates at Temple. I was in class and she kept telling me about Ahmir and his love for the show and his group that he put together at the High School for Creative and Performing Arts. Ahmir whom you may know as Quest Love from the Roots would call and we would talk Hip Hop, later in 1992 I interviewed this local artist named “Lord Akil” and he brought along Quest Love and Black Thought whose group at the time was called “Square Roots” they had a song called “Pass the Popcorn” which I loved. Quest and I ended up being in the Boys to Men video “MotownPhilly”.

Because of my time working with Jojo and Stanley T I developed a lot of relationships with the artists and everyone wanted to come on my show. At that time of the launch there were only 3 major market Hip Hop shows on commercial radio. Red Alert was on in New York and Sway and Tech were at KMEL in the Bay Area and me in Philly. Chuck D from Public Enemy would come on several times, Queen Latifah showed love and introduced me to her new group “Naughty By Nature” who had the biggest record that summer “OPP”. There was this group from LA that came to Philly to do their album by the name of “Cypress Hill” and they came up. Jermaine Dupri was a fresh faced kid who just got his own record deal with Ruff House Records in Philly. Jermaine moved to the city and was a religious listener to the show. We went to dinner a few years ago and he told me how Radioactive was the first show he heard where DJ’s were mixing live on air and that there was nothing like that in his hometown of Atlanta. Jermaine recorded the 4x Platinum “Totally Krossed Out” album from Kriss Kross while rocking Radioactive every Friday night. We were a movement and it took off so fast.

One night when I got off the air I was listening to E.C. La Rock and Bruiser who were my competition on WDAS (God rest his soul) when I heard Ran mixing on his show. I paged him 911 like 10 times (remember pagers, WOW!!!!). Ran didn’t think it was a big deal him doing both shows. Ran is such a pimp, if my boss knew about that he would have been toast on the station. So I worked it out to make him my right hand man on the show. My producer was Rob Laid Back Black who had the deep baritone voice.

Remember when I said that I was flunking out of college? When my brother died I was depressed which probably fueled me wanting to quit. My college girlfriend told me I should go see someone, at first I was like that makes me weak but I thought maybe they could at least help me deal with flunking out of school. At Temple and ever other college they have counseling for students that was free and I am so blessed that I reached out for help. My counselor was Dr. Robin Smith; she helped me tremendously and was able to get me going in the right direction. Dr. Robin is a world renowned motivational speaker and psychologist who is also on the Oprah Winfrey show frequently. Not only did she get me incomplete marks on all my classes she also motivated me to not give up on my dreams and a year after the show started I graduated from Temple University with a B.S. in Criminal Justice. People are shocked that my major was not broadcasting; the thing about radio is that you just need talent and no degree is necessary. My degree was going to be my fall back position if radio didn’t work out. While on air Jojo Davis was able to get is Masters in Social Work from Penn and eventually receive his Law degree from Rutgers. He has his own firm in Orlando and is my Agent/Lawyer. Always have a back up plan especially in the entertainment business.

I was still underpaid at the station but things had improved with the success of Radioactive. I took my degree and was able to become a Social Worker during the day and I worked at the station at night. During the Radioactive years I never took a vacation and worked non stop for those 7 years sometimes with no days off.

In 1992 I was really coming into my own on the show; there were so many great moments. I recall a young Tupac came to the station with my friend Rob Plummer who at the time was a Law student who promoted records on the side (Rob is now a major league Baseball Agent), Pac was this skinny kid with big dreams with this hot new song called “Trapped”, you could tell there was something special about him. After we did the interview we all went to out to get something to eat and he was an attention magnet. A few months later Pac called me the night “Juice” came out and he took off after that movie.

One of the reasons for me being on the air was because of RunDmc, they were my favorite rap group coming up and Jam Master Jay was always a supporter of mine. I am still saddened over his death a few years ago. Jay had a label JMJ records and he had a new group Onyx. He brought them to my show and introduced them to Philly through me. He also introduced me to a young 50 cent years later, I remember 50 was on probation and he had to get approval to come to Philly to do an interview with me. Jam Master Jay was really good at artist development and was the glue that kept RunDmc together.

In 1992 I met Common who was not like most rappers, he reminded me of my crew from college. He was really intelligent and had a sincere love for Hip Hop, at that time he was still in college at FAMU and he was the first major rapper to get signed out of Chicago. It felt good telling the young impressionable listeners that rappers do more than just rap. One of my other favorite guests was Masta Ace because of his freestyles and wit. Ace was also a college graduate from Rhode Island University and he always kept it positive.

In February of 1993 a young Nas came on to vent his frustrations of being an up and coming artist looking for a deal. He was coming off of the classic Main Source record “Live at the Barbeque” and he had this entire buzz but no single or album. He had “Ilmatic” all worked out in his head but he didn’t record it yet, 16 months after that interview “Ilmatic” changed Hip Hop.

In November of 1993 I had my first interview with a Tribe Called Quest as they released the classic “Midnight Marauders” album. Quest had a unique swagger and they were very smart guys with two classic albums under their belt. I was a huge Quest fan before they became well known. I was all over their first song and video “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo” and would tell everyone about how dope they were. I would drive around with Stanley T rocking “Push It Along” back in 1990. Q Tip was a Jazz head and a fan of my uncle so he made Radioactive a stop on every project.

That spring was the first time I interviewed the Wutang Clan, they almost cost me my job because they trashed the station on their first visit. I was in over my head that night with 20 dudes who were restless and hungry after being on the road all day. They cleaned out our vending machines and left food and the packaging everywhere. Back then the walk from the studio to the bathroom was long and straight through the station. That hallway didn’t stand a chance. I remember Dave Allan getting at LOUD CEO Steven Rifkin’s neck at Hiram Hicks wedding the following day about the Wu Tang visit but thankfully I kept my job. They were hungry dudes at that time and destined for stardom. Ghost and Rae connected with me immediately and the GZA and the RZA were both initially solo artists and had done interviews prior to the Wu group on the show. Radioactive became a major part of their early success. Fat Joe had never been away from New York before he came to town to do a show and I put him up at the Korman Suites Hotel on the Parkway which is now a high end condo. He never stayed in a hotel before and instead of hanging out after the show he wanted to go back to the hotel with his girl. He is still a good friend and till this day if you mention Colby Colb to him I promise he will tell you that story.

Tupac was hot in July of 1993 with his song “I Get Around”, the video was the perfect soundtrack to the summer. He came to town to do a show at club Lumberjack which is now Club Pinnacle. That was the last time I saw him in person. He came over to me and we talked then he gave me a hug, I remember he had a bullet proof vest on. I asked him point black “It’s like that PAC!!!” and he looked at me and told me how hard it was out here for him. “Niggas coming for me and I got to be ready for them”. He would be involved in several gun incidents over the next few years. I guess he was right.

We used to do events at Mahorn’s in Cherry Hill New Jersey and one of the DJ’s that they would hire from time to time was a young Funkmaster Flexx. I was able to get him to spin on the show a few times. Ran introduced me to this local legendary DJ named Cosmic Kev. I remembered Kev from the Corner Boys and all the parties especially Central High. His mix tape game was sick and we were looking for another DJ for the show. Kev was insulted that I asked him for a demo of his mixing style but I didn’t care if he wanted it he would have to earn my trust. One day we got into a heated argument about this in front of the Philadelphia Hair Company in Germantown. I always respected Kev though and gave him a shot. The three of us together as a team on the show were unstoppable.

The show expanded from 2 hours to 4 hours in 1994. That year a young mc from Brooklyn named Biggy Smalls was creating a huge underground buzz. A year earlier he came out with a song on the “Who’s the Man” soundtrack called Party and Bull Shit which did well in Philly. He was also sued because there was this Latin rapper with the same name and Biggie became the Notorious B.I.G. I first met him in Atlanta at the Jack the Rapper convention when Puffy released a few of his songs and I would start playing them on my show. He came on several months before his album “Ready to Die” with a whole lot of swagga ready to take on the world. After its historic release he came back a few months later with Craig Mack in the middle of the mania over the “Flavor in Your Ear” Remix and you could see that he was a superstar.

One of my favorite shows in 1994 was The Roots coming through with Rahzel and freestyling for almost 30 minutes. There was the time when Dogg Pound member Kurrupt who happened to be from Philly came up to talk about West Coast Rap in a very candid interview at the beginning of the East Coast West Coast rap beefs. I remember Temple’s Aaron McKie and Eddie Jones who were getting ready for an NCAA Tournament game calling up to the show to request “The What” from Biggie and Method Man which was exclusive on the show from that mixtape Puffy put out a year earlier. Common came on that year to discuss “I Used to Love Her” and you could see that he was getting better with time. His career went to new heights when he had beef with Ice Cube over that song and he released a diss record at Cube.

One of the most bizarre shows I had was on the night of June 18th, 1994, that night we were doing the show and Ran had the TV on the NBA Finals it was the Knicks versus the Rockets, Game 5 from Madison Square Garden. I was giving updates when they went to a split screen and showed O.J. Simpson being chased by the Police in a White Ford Bronco. Earlier that week, Simpson’s estranged wife Nicole and the unluckiest guy in the world Ron Goldman were brutally murdered. O.J. was a suspect all week and was formerly charged with two counts of murder that Friday and was ordered to turn himself in but he ran instead with his best friend Al Cowlings. He ran just like his Hertz commercials. So I started play by play on the show letting the listeners know what was going on. Back then Radio was the medium people went to first there was no internet. At that point no one really had made a decision whether he was guilty or not but we were all shocked and it made for great radio that night as we started getting feedback from the listeners on the situation.

In 1995 the show was at its peak, we had so many memorable moments every week and between Ran and Kev with the exclusives we had so many artists coming down just to create a buzz on their projects. The record labels would use Radioactive as an example to other markets. There was this MC from Brooklyn named Sean Carter who had a few cameos and a record with this group called Original Flavor and he was finally releasing his own single. Mr. Carter aka Jay-Z would make his Radioactive debut on September 1st (10 months before Reasonable Doubt). I didn’t know much about him but the guy was confident; his partner Dame was all business. Jay did a freestyle that night but it was tough for him to edit himself. He talked about his dream of Roc-a-Fella records and this album he was working on called “Reasonable Doubt”. I have been apart of so many dope moments in Hip Hop, you just can’t make this story up.

The entire Wu-Tang crew loved coming on the show and 1995 was the best year for them. One of my craziest nights was when ODB showed up drunk at the back door. He was weeks away from his solo debut and he just took over the show. He gave me a dat for him to freestyle over and stopped in the middle of the song because he had just realized he was rapping over his own vocals. He stopped and said “Damn I was wondering why I was sounding so good”. A few minutes later he drunkenly spilled Alize all over the board. I just knew I was going to get fired for that too. That summer Ghost and Reakwon showed up with 20 minutes left in the show. This was a few days before the release of the classic “Only Built for Cuban Linx” CD, they had just gotten out of the studio with Jodeci and Puff and I played the legendary “Freak and U” remix live on air, they told me it was clean but of course it wasn’t. Got to love the WU!!!!!

My favorite Fat Joe album of all time came out in 95 “J.O.S.E.” aka Jealous Ones Envy and he came through with his new protégé Big Pun. This was 3 years before Pun came out and they did a killer freestyle. Another fun memory was Mobb Deep, Havoc and Prodigy was very young when they got into the business and they could be restless at times. I used to do shows at Club Fever and we had them booked. This was during the height of Shook Ones part 2 and there were so many fights in the club that night. I remember Jonathan Rifkin (Steven Rifkin’s little brother) was with them and they were making him go mental. The group was so wound up because of all the fights in the club that they started breaking pool sticks and smashing stuff in the waiting room. Then they fought amongst themselves, it was sheer chaos but they went on stage that night and killed it.

Dominique was Club Fever’s owner and he was done with me after the Mobb Deep fiasco but I convinced him to book Biggie. This was the summer and that place was hot, BIG wanted 50 Grand to do a show. That kind of number for a club was a major risk at that time and even high for today’s standard. That night Biggie showed up with 50 people including Puff, LiL Kim and the entire Junior Mafia. People were paying $100 to get in and they got a hell of a show. That was the first time I met Kim and she was so shy, I remember after the show she handed me the mic back and it was covered in red lipstick. I always tease her about that moment; after I saw the Biggie movie I understood her beef. They had a genuine love affair and she got the raw end of the deal. Biggie was the glue to that crew and everything that happened around that shooting with her going to jail and LiL Cease being called a snitch would never had happened if Big was around.

One of my favorite guests of 1995 was Big L; he was a great rapper and never had a chance to be a star. I was blessed to meet him and be apart of his early career. One night he freestyled with Master Ace and it was a classic Hip Hop moment. I often wonder if his song MVP would have launched his career to bigger heights if “One More Chance” never came out. Both songs had the same track and were released at the same time and it became Notorious B.I.G.’s first mega hit.

It was in 1995 that I met a young group named the Fugees. Lauren, Wyclef and Pras spent a lot of time in Philly recording with Ruff House records. Joe the Butcher and Chris Schwartz the founders of this legendary label one night pulled me aside to tell me about how great a group The Fugees were going to be. Their first singles weren’t that great and they didn’t get a good look because they were different. That was until Salaam Remi re-mixed “Vocab” and “Nappy Heads” and they took off. I was able to get early dabs on The Fugees and we were all over those remixes and Philly helped set them up. What I liked about interviewing them were that they were so witty and didn’t take themselves so serious like other rappers. I developed a good relationship with Wyclef and he would do interviews with me throughout my career. We had them perform at Club Fever one night and they brought instruments with them. Everyone thought the wild crowd would throw them off the stage. Everyone scoffed at the instruments in the club, I laugh all the time when I think of the closed minded mentality of some in Hip Hop and how groups like the Roots and Fugess had to fight through that prejudice. Needless to say they did the most amazing performance, Lauren had them in the palm of her hands while Wyclef started playing other Hip Hop songs via his guitar he shut the place down. The most thugged out crowd wanted an encore, I knew that night that they were special and when the “Score” came out in 1996 all their hard work paid off.

I have always been a vocal dude and I would use the show sometimes to vent about things that were happening not just in Hip Hop. One of my memorable shows was on March 31st, 1995 a few days after Eazy E died of AIDS. HIV/AIDS was something I was passionate about because of my brother’s death; I was with him when he took his last breath. That moment is something that I will never forget and if I could prevent any person or family from going through what my brother and my family went through then I would. I witnessed how he went from 6’5 270 pounds down to 120 pounds with bed sores and there was such ignorance in the African American community towards AIDS. When Eazy died I remember explaining the devastating effects of the disease. I brought on a HIV positive person and I did an audio obituary on Eazy. One of my favorite organizations is YOACAP which was on the front lines of this fight to educate our community about AIDS. Woody Wood from 3 times Dope was a longtime friend and he got me involved in their outreach programs. They eventually hired me in later years to spearhead an outreach program in North Philadelphia which was one of the hardest hit areas with increased HIV positive rates.

As we entered 1996 you could feel the impact of Radioactive throughout the city, I continued working as a social worker during the day to pay the bills since radio didn’t pay that much. Everywhere I would go I would get love, I realized that Philly was always going to be a place that would support me because I didn’t just talk the talk I was in the community unlike any other radio personality at that time. Grass roots connection with the people not only is the right thing to do it is a great way to stay relevant and in touch with what is really going on. One of the things I learned from Jojo back in the day was always serve your community and they will support you through thick and thin.

In 1996 Jay-Z came back with Dame several times leading up to his release of “Reasonable Doubt”, one night we decided to do a show at the last minute at this spot called New Alternatives. Doug E Fresh was on the bill and it was my first Jay-Z performance. Later that summer he was booked on a show for Greek Picnic weekend at the First District Plaza. He called me the night before and we talked about how his album was taking off. He had the hottest song of the summer “Aint No Nigga” with Foxy Brown. The promoter of the show was taking a bath that night, that wasn’t the best place to have a show during Greek Picnic. Jay and his cousin who was his road manager didn’t have a good feeling about promoter or the venue but the guy came up with their money. I remember Jay making sure I was good with my money before he would perform, that is the one and only time in my career where an artist made sure I was good first. Jay gets a lot of hate from all kinds of people and throughout my career I did as well (Must be a Sag thing). He was and is a stand up dude. Anytime people would come at his neck I would always stand up for him, they say it’s lonely at the top. In later years I remember getting into an argument with Golden Girl on the air and she called me a Jigga Jocka and the listeners would call in on either side of the argument. Jay-Z is not just a good rapper he is one of the smartest and was able to flip his career into heights never seen before. Radioactive was very instrumental in his success.

When I started the show in 1991 I was a huge Leaders of The New School fan. My favorite joint was “Sob Story” because I didn’t have a car yet. I just dug their vibe especially Busta Ryhmes. When he went solo and put out his song “Woo Hah” we were one of the early supporters. I had never met him before though, then I was in Atlanta for the Gavin convention in 96 and I heard that Busta was looking for me. The guy is always animated so he seeks me out and bear hugs me. He was very thankful for the support and promised to do my show the following week.

At this time in Hip Hop the number one bad boy was Tupac, he was the poster child for drama because of his beef with Diddy and Biggie. The East/West battle was going on and everyone took sides, Tupac had just released “Hit em Up” which was a scorching attack on everyone against him. Wendy Williams was still in New York at the time and she said he was raped in jail and that really set off Pac. He was always in the news for various infractions with the law including several shootings one was with off duty Police officers in Atlanta. A few years earlier he was shot before he went to jail so no one ever questioned Tupac’s toughness. On Saturday September 7th he was shot in Las Vegas after a Mike Tyson fight and rushed to the hospital. Everyone assumed he would survive just like he did in the past even though reports were that he was in grave condition. This was before everyone had Internet access and was given detailed information as it happened. No one thought Pac would die then on Friday September 13th a little past 9pm, I was in the studio with Golden Boy and a listener called in and asked us if it was true that Tupac had died. We denied it like it was a silly rumor but more calls came in and then it was confirmed that he had in fact died. There was such an outpouring of anger that night about this not necessarily grief. Kev and Ran were not working that night and Tat Money was the guest DJ. This was before Cerato and we were totally caught off guard musically but we made up for it with listener comments and response. The Roots were guests on the show that night as they were promoting their album “Illadelph Halflife” which was coming out a few weeks later. The emotion that night was raw and powerful, little did we know that 6 months later it would happen again.

It was in March of 1997 when Hip Hop was rocked by the murder of the Notorious BIG. He was killed in LA after the Soul Train Awards. I remember it was a Sunday morning and my pager was going off like crazy. I immediately rushed to the station, Lorraine Ballard Morril had her Sunday morning talk show and she asked me to come on and talk about Biggie. My friend Woody Wood always teased me about that show because I was so angry that I couldn’t speak. I was just grunting on air with anger. I was one of those dudes that did not like Suge Knight types in Hip Hop. You know the whole gangster approach to handling business and I mentioned this on air a lot. It’s the music business; no one is supposed to die. This was the period when all these street hustlers got into the business and brought with them street ways of handling people.

I recall meeting Suge at a Jack the Rapper convention and he was a jerk. He was on a panel called the “Young Guns versus the Old Heads” where Suge and Puffy were on a panel with some of the veterans of the music business including my good Philly friend Hiram Hicks. Puffy had an enthusiastic attitude and respect for his older peers. There was a clear divide between them but Suge was extra with the negativity and lack of respect for those that paved the way for him. I was sitting with Woody Wood and we both looked at each other and said this guy is bad news. He would handle disagreements with violence which is never good and a lot of people were physically assaulted over trivial stuff. People would die at Death Row events again it is the music business. I was a big supporter of Dre and what he was doing musically but that gangster stuff was bad for business. ABC news show 20/20 did a report on Suge Knight and Death Row violence. He caught a couple of cases and did jail time because of this. That entire convention was tense because of all the different crews that had beef.

So getting back to Biggie, for some reason that day all I could think about was the Suge Knight types in the music business and how this lifestyle we all loved had turned into a prison culture of negativity and violence. I am not saying that Suge had anything to do with Biggie’s death; we really don’t know what happened. His death on the heels of Tupac was really going to bring down Hip Hop. That moment in time changed me forever in regards to how I looked at the industry and where it was going. It was also a tough moment because Biggie was such a young vibrant talent who was no where near his peak. He was also helping to bring back East Coast Hip Hop and he was gone just like that.

I decided to do a special show on Biggie the following week. It was my first of many radio specials in my career. I was a big fan of documentaries on MTV and VH1 so I took that same approach and did the Notorious Unplugged a week later. I remember the sheer disappointment from the listeners when he died. His death inspired me to be even more involved with young people and community organizations. Several months after his death I changed jobs and was working directly with young people in the criminal justice system becoming a court ordered Youth Advocate. I especially felt that the young men needed some positive voices and that is when I really set myself apart from other radio personalities. I had some of my clients help me put together a Biggie tribute show on the first anniversary of his death which I am sure left a lasting impression. My first client was a really good kid who was growing up in my old neighborhood in Germantown. He would get into fights and had anger issues, I was able to get him focused and headed in the right direction. You could be hip and cool but you have to be inspiring and positive too and that was my new approach. Sadly a few years later while working with Mother’s in Charge which is a Philadelphia organization of mothers who lost children to violence I found out that my first client was killed after an altercation.

Power 99 was changing dramatically, up until that point you would hear Hip Hop at night with Golden Boy and on Friday with me but during the day it was Luther Vandross, Anita Baker etc. until the new competition came with Radio One’s Philly 103.9. They came in playing Hip Hop all day similar to back when Q102 played came against us in 1992. They really started hurting us in the ratings. It was at that point when I was offered a position to do nights on Philly 103.9. I was underpaid and unappreciated which is typical when you stay in one place for a long time. When Radio One reached out the first time I felt vindicated because someone else was appreciating my talent and offering me a full time salary. Deep down though I wanted to stay at Power and I knew I was valuable to them so I figured that they would pay me to stay any way. In my mind it was a win win situation for me, I had all this confidence and I went to management and asked for more money. They politely said HELL NO and if I wanted to go then the door is down the hall. Power 99 was always on top so there was certain arrogance to the station and if you ever left them locally for another station it was considered career suicide.

I debated with my future wife who also worked at the station. Should I leave? How dare they treat me like that? I was so dramatic back then. After further thought I weighed the pros and cons and I didn’t have a good feeling about Philly 103.9. I then thought about Radioactive and decided to stay at Power even though I now had an even bigger chip on my shoulder over how they treated me after all those years. I remember Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins calling me personally to ask why I didn’t want to take the job. He famously said to me “Always Bet on Black”. I was very polite and thankful to them. Who knew several years later I would end up programming their station. Do you see how God plants these little seeds that eventually grow into big opportunities? That was not the time for me to leave Power 99, I needed to work on my craft some more and if I had left then I know I wouldn’t have ended up with the career I have now. Love me some GOD!!!!!!

So with this new competition hurting us in the ratings and our new ownership also brought out WDAS naturally Power became more Hip Hop focused all day instead of just at night. I was excited because I sensed that this would mean more opportunities for me. I had the talent and I was ready after putting in 12 years to that point. My new boss Helen Little was the first manager to really recognize my talent beyond Radioactive, I am blessed that she came when she did because I was a time bomb of emotions and she gave me new hope for advancement. It wasn’t personal though; in later years as I became more involved with programming I understood my plight. When you work at a station for a long period of time as a part timer you are easily overlooked when they decide to make changes because you always want some new fresh energy to give the station a lift. I just assumed that after Golden Boy moved on to afternoons that I was next in line to do nights. I had all the experience, credentials and the audience was familiar with me to do a successful show plus I had that card in my back pocket where I stayed loyal to them instead of bolting to Philly 103.9.

When the time came to make a change they decided to bring in a new radio talent instead of promoting me. I was so devastated by that decision and wondered did I make a mistake staying. They were playing me and this so called loyalty would not pay off. It was dumb of me for assuming that I was next in line for the slot though, I learned a valuable lesson but it was just God testing and teaching me through that experience. All was not lost though.

With the new vibe of the station they I started doing a weeknight mix show called the Thunder Storm with Cosmic Kev. Radioactive then became less special musically because the songs were being played and mixed during the day and we also had less artist traffic because they could get interviews in mornings and afternoons. I would tape interviews but it wasn’t the same because of the listener interaction. I then had to reinvent the show and that is when I created the Hip Hop sets where I would feature an artist and play all of their songs back to back. I moved Kev to full time mixer on the show with DJ Sonic doing the back end. At this time I also started to do more on air shifts and fill in slots so I was really becoming a personality.

In the fall of 97 Jay-Z and Dame was in town and he was about to go on tour with Puffy. Jay wanted to grab a bite to eat. Again Jay was a regular dude and he was very appreciative of his Philly support, he didn’t want to talk music he just wanted to eat and talk Hip Hop. He was coming off of “Reasonable Doubt” which was an instant classic but at that point the media wasn’t what it is now so people didn’t recognize him like they would today. When we got to back to the station Jay was running late and there were these two exotic Philippine cuties waiting patiently at the back door. I had never seen these girls before in town, I thought they were from New York or LA but they were from Olney (LOL) and they had graduated from Cardinal Dougherty a few years ago. In the interview with Jay that night I teased him about how they were pulling girls in Philly that we had never seen before. You could truly see something special in Jay and his relationship with Dame at that time was like they were brothers.

As we moved into 1998 the ratings started to slip at night, management came to me and asked if I would join the night show as a sidekick. There was no way in my heart I could do that so I made the decision to say no to them. It was at this point where I was seriously considering leaving Power 99 and I explored several options because I knew I was too talented to be a part timer. Again this was a time in my life before I was saved and I didn’t understand having faith and relying on God to open and close doors. Little did I know that God was preparing me for a major blessing. You just have to trust on him to give you what you want, he wants to please you and all he wants from you is to have faith. THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!! I just had a momentJ.

Five months later, Helen came back to me and offered me nights, it was Wednesday May 13th and she said I would start that Friday. Radioactive was over just like that, it was time for me to move on in my career plus I could continue building that Radioactive energy on a nightly basis. God gave me what I wanted without me even knowing how to pray for it. THANK YOU JESUS AGAIN!!!!!!! So that Friday May 15^, 1998 was the last Radioactive show. It was ironic that the show ended exactly 7 years to the day it started, 7 incredible years that changed my life.

SO what happened next????

I took nights by storm, my tagline was “I got the city on lock”. That was a fun time for me; there were so many people who doubted whether I was good enough to do it. I applied the same energy from Radioactive and put together a monster of a show. Q Deezy was my sidekick and he was kind of like me when I worked with Jojo. We were the center of attention in the city with classic interviews with Will Smith, Quincy Jones, R. Kelly, Jay-Z several times. Then there was the controversial interview with Foxy Brown where she cursed me out and Philly had my back. Ratings were off the charts. After a year of doing nights my contract was up and I went to management seeking a large raise. When I got into the meeting they didn’t give me a chance to ask for more money they had a deal on the table for me to join Wendy Williams in the morning show for three times the salary I was making. Without a doubt I said “Hell Yeah” and the Dream Team dominated in mornings with me, Wendy and Dee. We were 2^nd to Howard Stern in the ratings. It was all good until Helen left and Gold took over, they named me Assistant Program Director but the station had a complacent vibe our competition wasn’t pushing us anymore then Wendy wanted her own show so she left to go to New York.

A few months later I realized that I was way too comfortable working. It was February right after the NBA All Star game which was in Philly that year. We had an astrologist on the morning show named Teno who told me that I was about to make a big change quickly which would be something I always wanted. I was then going to have a rough patch but by that fall I would be in a great position for success. I brushed the whole thing off because I wasn’t looking for anything. My dream radio job was to work in New York City but it was so tough to get a job. I thought back to all those summer nights sitting on the stoop on 145^th street listening to Kiss FM and WBLS and telling my dad one day he will be able to hear me in NYC, that was my dream opportunity and I had given up on it because of the politics of New York radio.

I thought Teno was a fraud. A few weeks after that reading I was unexpectedly offered the opportunity to do afternoons and become the music director at a brand new station launching in New York called Power 105. This was going to be a historic launch as Power 105 was going against Hot 97 the Hip Hop monster station in New York. This was a challenge I couldn’t pass up. One thing about radio jobs is timing and it just so happened that my contract was up 2 weeks later. You see how God is working when you don’t even know it. Here I am 16 years at the station, just had gotten married, very comfortable pushing a Range and a Benz breezing through life and I had this dream opportunity at my feet which was a major change for me. There was no comfortable feeling working in New York City.

So many people told me not to take the job; they said I was walking into a bad situation. It was a tough decision but as that old lady says at the end of “Coming to America” when Eddie Murphy’s character was on the train and he offered to renounce his throne to be with the girl of his dreams but she was hesitant. The old lady sitting on the side was all in their conversation and she said “Go on honey, take a chance” and so I did.

On Friday March 29th 2002 I said goodbye to Power 99. It was an emotional day for me. I had spent half my life in that building and the calls that I took on the air that day humbled me. I received so many good luck calls and people would tell me stories of how I impacted their life with something I said on the air. The most comments though were about Radioactive and how the show touched so many people. It was at that moment when I knew that I would be back in Philly because of this deep connection I had with the listeners. Sometimes you take things for granted, being on the radio is a blessing and you don’t realize how you touch lives with the things you say and do until you are reminded.

People literally watched me grow up on Power. I was at the movies earlier in 2009 with my wife and as we were coming out of the theatre this man walks up to me with his two kids. He sticks out his hand and told me thanks for steering him in the right direction. He said 15 years earlier he came to me when he was in high school with his demo and I told him that it was ok for him to follow his dream but to make sure he finished school and had something to fall back on. He then went on to say he followed my advice and received a degree in Marketing and he has a very successful career and he mentioned to his kids that I was the reason they were living the life they have right now. My wife and I were stunned, I have no recollection of that conversation but he did and that’s what makes this all worth it. Philly will always be my home.

New York was a gift and a curse but disaster may be a better description, it was nothing like I expected. A few weeks in I was miserable because my creative energy was being stifled. All the things I did on air in Philly I couldn’t do in New York plus that listener connection was missing. What was happening though was I started cultivating good industry relationships and I was working with some great programming minds. One of my favorite memories of the station was the night Nas blew off Hot 97’s Summerjam and came to Power 105 and aired out Hot 97. Tigger usually did nights but he was off that evening so Steph Lover held it down and I helped her as the entire Hip Hop world was focused on this exclusive interview. That night put Power 105 on the map a few days later I was unexpectedly fired.

Remember Teno said I was going to go through a rough patch? I had never been fired before, it was humbling. They told me I could go back to Power 99 but they didn’t want me back. I have always been an independent thinker and never worried about what people thought of me so I knew my next move would be major and I would have people talking.

Remember I said New York was a gift and a curse with the latter being let go? The gift was the intense first hand knowledge I received about programming. When I was fired and my option to return to Power 99 was denied it gave me a new goal to be a Program Director so I could make fair decisions and control my own creative destiny. I achieved that opportunity a few months later when I was named the Program Director of the Beat and I was going to do afternoons. This was another dream come true.

I applied that hard work ethic that got me to that point and was able to turn the station around gaining the highest ratings in its history. The best part was beating Power 99 and showing the world that I was a damn good Progam Director. In fact because I chose to go to the Beat I was able to recruit other people and we forced Power 99 to change a large part of their staff.

After 6 years and lots of management changes Radio One let me go, I left on good terms and they hired me back to become the Operations Manager of 4 stations in Cleveland. During the down time between jobs I focused on my other passion of being a screen writer. So I locked myself in my basement and taught myself how to write and completed two screenplays with more in the works. I also started giving motivational speeches to youth organizations and graduations.

Imagine if I didn’t take that chance and present my idea for Radioactive? So many Hip Hop memories would be different in Philadelphia if I would have quit. I think about my career and the path I was able to walk. I truly believe that single moment in my life opened the doors to everyone of my success. I would have never met my wife nor had my daughter. Life choices are really deep, what you may think is a simple decision could have long lasting effects. Again, I am blessed to be able to tell you this story.

I get stopped all the time and asked for Radioactive tapes. You can thank my wife who sent me in the basement to clean up my area where I stumbled across the tapes which haven’t been touched or listened to since the show ended. Now is your opportunity to soak up those memories and relive Radioactive as it happened. Each week I will upload a new show plus you will have others to listen too. This website is for the thousands of Radioactive fans who want to go back, way back, back into time with one of the greatest Hip Hop shows of all time.

I decided to create my own blog because I come across a lot of cool things and I always want to share with other people. That is what is great about the world we live in, sharing information. My blog will cover news, entertainment, sports, business, politics and a good word from time to time. I promise to give you compelling content and you will always get my honest opinions. Whether you agree or disagree you will also have a voice on my blog as I encourage you to comment. Make sure you log on daily and tell a friend to check me out as well. Check me out weekdays from 3p to 6pm on Z1079 in Cleveland, if you go back to my intro page and click IRS you can listen to me daily.

Thank you for being apart of my career and welcome to my media center.