ANGIE ANGE UNPLUGGED

Words and Interview by L.D.Williams Jr

As one half of the Q and A Invasion, the charismatic Angie Ange can be heard Monday through Saturday from 6pm- 10 pm on WKYS FM in Washington DC.

In an incredibly short time Angie Ange has managed to rise from college student to intern to a major component to one half of one of the hottest urban radio shows in the country.

Appropriately referred to as “Your Royal Hypeness,” Angie Ange is indeed radio royalty. In this exclusive interview Angie Ange talks about how she started in the radio business, her goals, her grind, and why college is cool.

CRED: First and foremost thank you for taking time out to talk to us at CRED Magazine.

AA: Thank you for the opportunity.

CRED: What influenced you to pursue a radio career?

AA: It’s a love of mine. It has always been a love of mine since I was a kid. It is something that I always wanted to do. I was always making radio shows even my homework assignments book reports radio shows. I was really into it. I grew up listening to Steph Lova, P-Stew, Poochman aka The Live Squad. I grew up listening to Tigger, Donnie Simpson, Russ Parr and Olivia Fox those were my major influences that made me love radio. I love the art and the craft just a huge fan of radio but back then you only had your walkman, BET, MTV, The Box and VH1. I was a big music lover but I couldn’t rap, I couldn’t sing…

CRED: That’s good that you recognized that.

AA: (laughs) Right! It is good to know what your talent is. I was always very good at talking, I was very social and it was only a matter of time before it crossed my path for me to do radio. I always had this voice which was pretty rough as a young person. Being a young girl and you sound like an adolescent boy, so I had a different voice and a different style and I had this love for radio and was very social so at some point somebody told me “you should do radio.” When I was young I never knew it was a career. When you are young you think lawyer, you think doctor but one day someone told me study journalism and become a radio personality.

I was like hmm that sounds interesting and I did such. Howard University was one of my top choices I looked at all the top journalism programs from Syracuse, to Miami, to Temple to Howard University. Then I went on the campus and it felt great. When you are from here you understand the Howard tradition from homecomings to the legacy of greatness. My mother is a Howard alum,

my aunts are Howard alum.

CRED: So you all went to Howard…

AA: It’s a legacy.

CRED: Howard people are so proud (laughs) .

AA: Yes it is a great blessing. It is a great legacy there. I was able to hone my craft and get on that grind and learn. You meet so many people from different
places and you learn so many different cultures and you realize that all black people are not the same.
I never knew go-go was local. Never!

CRED: (laughs)

AA: You could not tell me go-go music was not something that you heard worldwide because it was on the radio. Then I went to Howard and I’m playing it and they are like What the hell? Turn that off! I’m like you don’t know about Backyard Band? So that was something that I learned. I was like wow.
I went to Howard and I learned the craft and got involved with the student radio station.

CRED: What were the call letters?

AA: WHBC like Historically Black Colleges, and that is where I got to practice being a radio personality, it was like pretending to be a real radio personality. I created shows and developed the art and learned the boards. Then somebody told me to host a party, so I started hosting parties my freshman year and that is what I became known for. Which is rare because you don’t have girls that host parties; a man would, so that helped me get my name out there.

CRED: How did you get the party started?

AA: That is a natural ability.

BOTH: Laughs

AA: I didn’t learn that that is a natural ability. We would go to parties and they would be boring and I would make the party hype by myself. Then somebody gave me a mic one day and I was on it. I really got my starting point at Up Against the Wall on Georgia Avenue. His name was Al Nice, the Manager. He is still there, but I walked in and Al asked did I rap. I was like no but I’m a great talker. He was like I am about to start this Freestyle Friday thing you can host it. He said come back on Friday and we will audition you.

I came back on Friday and he was like, “well what’s your name?” I said “I don’t have one.” I was 17 about to turn 18 and he’s like oh no we got to get you a name. So he said what is your nickname? I said, I don’t have one…some people call me Ange some people call me Angie I don’t have a nickname most people just call me Angela.

And then in some kind of way we put the two together and we came up with Angie Ange which I have hated. I have always hated the name but it just kind of stuck on campus. That was what everybody called me. I would do that Freestyle Friday every Friday. When I first started I sucked. I was nervous. You’re talking about standing on the corner of Georgia Avenue on a Friday where there is the most traffic and people.

CRED: I know people are like move out of the way.

AA: Yeah I am in the middle with a microphone and some speakers and I am supposed to be getting people to rap it was so scary!It toughened me up and made me great. You are learning on the street almost. I learned from dudes. Dudes used to take my mic all the time and just do whatever and start hosting my thing. I remember the security dude Dustin; we’re still tight. Dustin used to take the mic like ‘give me her mic back’ and he used to say “don’t let nobody take your mic.” Those things were lessons that I learned to hang with the boys it all prepared me for what I am doing today. Radio is male dominated you have got to know how to hang with the boys you can’t let the boys think that
you are weak because they will take over and run the whole thing. I was never a weak person I was 17, going on 18 so eventually I got tough with it. Eventually, no one touched my mic. You wouldn’t want to because I was that good, but it took some time.

From there branding myself at Howard really helped me get on the radio because when I went and interned at the stations who didn’t know who Angie Ange was, if a Howard University student walked in they knew me more than they knew anyone else at the station. The station took notice of that and was like “ok! she’s a little celebrity.”

CRED: How did you transition into doing the street thing and branding yourself at Howard into the radio station you talked about interning…

AA: Yeah I interned but I really had to humble myself. When I was on campus I was the s**t but when I went into the radio station with Adimu, Donnie Simpson Flexx and Rane, it was like you are nobody. Not like they would treat me as such because everybody in there was very respectful, but it humbled you because it was like starting over. I didn’t mind I was like “Ok, if I am going to get where I want to be this is what I have to do.” I always feel like you have to start from the bottom and work your way up. I would have came in as a janitor and still ended up being on the radio…because I knew what I wanted. As long as you know what you want it doesn’t matter where you start, you are going to get there. I just learned; I studied them. I studied their professionalism, I studied how they handled the bosses, I studied how they handled each other, etc. They liked who I was as a person, they saw that I was hungry, started teaching me stuff, and grooming and molding me to be a better personality and that really helped me out a lot.

CRED: So you started your career at WPGC?

AA: Um Hmm, I was an intern there and I was trying to get on KISS (WKYS 93.9). I was trying to be their intern. All of the parties I hosted were downtown. PGC was never downtown in the clubs so they knew nothing about me. At least at
KYS 2 Face knew about me, P-Stew knew about me, so I thought KYS would be the best option to intern at but PGC was quicker to get back to me. I was Adimu’s intern he was on the air from 2pm to 6pm. He helped put me on with Flexx and Flexx taught me everything from the business to the technical stuff. Eventually, I was doing overnights from 2am to 6am. My grind was, from 6pm to 10pm I came in and did Flexx and Rane’s show, from ten to two I was in the club and from 2am to 6am I was on the air.

CRED: Damn

AA: That was my grind. It was cool at that point, I had just graduated. A lot of people graduate and have no job. A lot of people graduate and don’t know what they are going to do. I graduated and I was an intern and they had hired me part time which was good! I’ll take it! I am making seven bucks an hour but I was doing what I wanted to do and I was headed in the right direction. I knew I wasn’t going to be making seven dollars an hour forever. I stayed on that grind with the hope that the opportunity to be a full time on air personality would come and within a year it came.

CRED: It came at WKYS?

AA: Yes WKYS. Rane had just given birth when I graduated and when she went out on maternity leave she gave me her blessing to fill in for her. She was out for like two months and in those two months I got so much exposure via radio and that is when people got to hear Angie Ange. I started stuff up on the radio and KISS had heard me, got in contact with me and offered me a job, a contract, and my own show. I said Peace PGC, thank you for the opportunity, and I’m out. I’m so blessed for that opportunity. You got to think, I graduated May 06 and had a full-time radio job in August 07. It took me a year and some change to go from intern, college student, to full time on air in the number eight market in DC it doesn’t happen at all.

CRED: Just in conversation I can tell you developed a mental toughness; how did you develop this?

AA: I respect the grind. Everybody says it ‘I’m grindin’ but you don’t have any idea what it is to go from bottom up. Most people can’t humble themselves like that because they think they are so great and so high on themselves. I could have easily walked in PGC like “I’m it!” because I was “It,” but I was “It” in my little environment which was Howard University. If I had carried that same mentality at PGC they wouldn’t have received me the same way.
Your ability to humble yourself is so important because nobody messes with an a**-hole. People don’t like A**holes. There is nothing wrong with being confident. There is nothing wrong with knowing who you are as a person, I did that, but I never had a problem filling out listener sheets for Adimu or if he asked me to get some papers from around the corner that’s what I did. I never felt like…’I’m Angie Ange!’

The same thing with Flexx and Rane. I never felt bigger or above them because that was not my place. Did I ever feel more talented than what I was doing from time to time? Sure, of course I was better than filling out a winner sheet but it wasn’t time for me to get to that point yet.

Mental toughness wise, it’s a couple of things that helped me. Number one, that is naturally me. Maybe God blessed me with that because he knew what I was about to be doing. Two, I have always been a leader by nature. Third, hosting at Up Against the Wall and having Dustin my security guy there to stick up for me when I couldn’t, and being 17 or 18 dealing with guys that are 30 years old, dealing with those egos at such a young age that helped me out a lot too.

Flexx taught me that in this business you must have leather skin because people are going to say all type of things to tear you down. Flexx taught me to have leather skin and to let it roll off you because people can say hurtful things and most times its intentional and some times its not. People are always going to say things about you, so what? I guess I’ve got a man mentality in a girl body.

CRED: What is it like being a female in a male dominated industry? Also, how does it feel to be respected?

AA: It’s good and bad. The perks of it is that I get to learn a lot about men. Which is good because it helps me in my choice of men, you also become a little sister. I have all these big brothers they are not going to take advantage of me and they are not going to let some random come in and take advantage of me. You also stand out that much more. There are already not that many girls, but there are not that many good girls,... really talented women.

CRED: I am glad you said it because I did not want to say it.

AA: Yeah I mean there are a million women that think they can rap or model but not many really have that lyrical ability or the body or build to be a top model. I am in an elite society of women that are on the radio especially for nights. Night shows there has only been Rane, Steph Lova and now me so you are talking about three totally different generations. I can name plenty of men that have done night radio.

CRED: Do you feel pressure?

AA: No I don’t feel pressure because I’m great! If I wasn’t good then I would feel pressure but I am great. This is what I am supposed to do so I have never felt pressure. This is my best opportunity to reach out to so many young girls. When I grew up I had a balance you had your mother and if you are anything like me who watched TV and listened to the radio all day you had Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Eve, Lil Kim to Foxy Brown that’s seven women off of the top of my head that I just named.

All of those women are different you turn on the TV now or turn on the radio now there are no women. If there are women they are sluts, they are h**s, they are b*****s.

CRED: How do you feel about the overall media portrayal of women in the media? Are we at the point where the general consensus of how women shown needs to change? Do you think you represent where the change needs to go?

AA: I think there is a need for change and that there is a need for balance. Like hip hop and our culture, it is always evolving my hope is that it doesn’t get worse. I feel bad for younger girls because that is all they get to see. All you see is Flavor of Love girls, Karrine Steffans, and Lil Kim. Even with the actresses I saw everybody from Jada Pinkett to Nia Long you saw this variation of beautiful black women on television that is gone. Now it’s Kim Kardashian and Kimorra Lee living the fabulous life and that’s all they see. So now it’s like, “let me find a rich man, make babies, and we are rich.”

The best example of a renaissance woman that I see, that I love, although I make fun of her a lot is Tyra Banks. She is a self-made woman. No one made her rich except for herself. In cases like Kimorra Lee, she wouldn’t be rich if it wasn’t for Russell Simmons but she used it and pimped it. Although I respect her grind, that shouldn’t be the only grind that we see. Kim Kardashian…the only reason we know who she is, is because she had sex with Ray J on tape. If that tape did not come out would we know Kim Kardashian? Hell No! She is not the first white girl with a big butt either but that is all you see. I hope to within my little area of DC, Maryland and Virgina be that balance and bring that change.

When I go to these schools I show them a woman who is smart, who is successful, who is not half ugly who can sit and talk to them.

CRED: Yes she is cute for those who don’t know.

AA: Right, I don’t have a total radio face. They look at me and they don’t have to find a rich man to get money. I don’t have to slut myself out I am cool. If I can bring about that change it’s cool, over time I think that it will happen. Souljaboy is not going to last forever. He is an era but that era will change I do not know when but it wont last forever.

CRED: Talk about the schools and the community initiatives in which you are involved.

AA: There are so many. As you can see I got my College is Cool T-Shirt. (Writers Note: She is wearing a Black and Green T Shirt with College Is Cool emblazoned on the front) I have a non profit organization called College is Cool Inc. My whole initiative is to get kids motivated to want to go to college. I always think back to when I was their age. I had The Cosby Show, A Different World, Martin, In Living Color, Living Single, etc. If you remember back in our era, the popular thing was the hoodies with the colleges on it. You had Grambling State and Howard you saw those on TV so much, it was easy, “I am going there!” What I am noticing now is there is not as much exposure to college so it is not that important for them to go. Now it’s like I want to be a rapper I am going to be this or that so they do not see the college experience well enough to say I want to go there.

I want to expose young people so they can say this is what I want to do; let me get the grades let me do what I have to do so I can get there. That is my personal initiative. We are in the schools just about everyday. It can be getting them ready for a big test, it can be going to speak and motivate career days we do all of that it is almost like your responsibility. I use radio to do service to the community. That’s why I do it, it is a passion it gives me a chance to give a voice to someone who doesn’t have a voice.
When Angie Ange walks into a school your kids listen. I can sit and talk to them about Howard. I can influence young people and it is a blessing to be able to do that. We do health initiatives as well with HIV/AIDS testing as you know we have this terrible epidemic right now we want to do a campaign on that. You name it we are usually there. We understand that people listen to us everyday they want to see us, they want to touch us they want to hear what we have to say off the mic as well.

CRED: Where do you see College is Cool evolving into?

AA: Well I really want College is Cool to become the cool thing. I need my artists to get on it and have them rocking a T-Shirt at a concert or something. I need this message that college is cool to get out because right now it is not cool.

CRED: What can people do to get involved?

AA: Stay with me we just got incorporated. We are in our grassroots. We just got the 501c3 which is your non profit status that you have to have from the government. The next thing that I am working on is our website I will be blasting that on the radio. We are looking for people that have a passion for young people that can sit and talk to them as young people. Not like “I am an adult..you are the child!” I may be a superstar to those kids but any adult is a superstar to those kids. If I bring a guy from the Howard University basketball team he may not be anybody major, but the young boys will look up to him. It is about getting as many people from the college community involved. If I could get the football and basketball team from University of Maryland involved it would really help because we are targeting seventh graders, eighth graders and ninth graders. It is my hope that we can get them focused early. We just did the DMV battle of the high school marching bands in December. We had schools competing for some money I had schools from Southeast, Montgomery County and Prince George’s County. We had all these people from different areas and we did not have a problem.

I did that because I love the band at Howard University. If you go to a black school it is a big part of the college experience. It’s letting kids know hey guys you can have this type of fun in school. We are trying to do as many of these events as possible. We want to get kids out of their environment and on to a college campus. Do you know how many kids live in DC and have never been to Howard and they live right down the street?

CRED: I bet driving past it and going to the McDonalds…

AA: I know driving past it but they have never been on campus, never been in a classroom and never sat and saw a class being conducted. I’m like y’all live down the street. The same goes for University of Maryland, American this area has more schools than you can imagine.

CRED: Will College is Cool become a national initiative?

AA: Definitely that is my whole goal for College Is Cool. It is about creating a college going movement and culture among the young people. I need to make it the thing people talk about especially with the teens.

CRED: What is it like working with Quicksilva?

AA: He is a bum! (laughing) Nah, Well being that He is from Baltimore and where I am from everyone from Baltimore is bammas that was part one of our problem. Nah, just joking…

It seems like fate how we came together we are a great team. He is a great teammate I call him the wide receiver and I am the quarterback of the Q&A Invasion. We both have our own personal goals that we want to accomplish and we help each other get there in any way possible then we work together to become the force that is the Q&A Invasion.

We are very powerful together. We are powerful apart. He has his whole DJing thing. He is an entity in himself. I am an entity by myself. I don’t feel like we are stuck at the hip you know it’s not like we survive off of each other. We work together. He is like the best teammate that I could ever ask for. He is fun. He is very short. All of the girls love him he comes from the same thing a grind he understands the work you have to do to be successful. He is always willing to help people. He is like a big brother. He wants me to make it as a young woman..... so he does whatever he can to help me with that. He is a great guy and someone who has been doing it a lot longer than I have.

CRED: Would you ever branch out into other forms of media? If so when?

AA: That is a great question! A lot of people ask when am I going to do TV and some people ask why I didn’t do television. I wanted to at first in 2002 when I went to Howard I wanted to be Annanda Lewis TRL but when I studied television I realized it was all image driven. If you watch 106 and Park I cannot remember anything Rosci has ever said I can’t remember anything Free has ever said that is worth repeating. I can remember the days when Free’s hair looked a mess or when Rosci wore some bamma stuff. I can remember those but I cant remember what they said.

TV sometimes misses the point of who you are and what you are about versus what you look like. In radio it forces you to listen. I can be ugly but if I sound beautiful you will listen. That is what I love about radio I create a little world in your head or I bring you into my world with TV you are just looking at me. I definitely want to do television. I did a segment with BET called ‘Bring that Week Back” I was a commentator on the top five things of that week it came on Sundays. I really want to move into the television direction but not for the purposes of leaving radio. The only reason I’d want to do television is to help my radio career because it gives you national exposure. Then when I go back to radio I can get that national exposure.

CRED: So the plan is to go national?

AA: Yes syndication is the number one goal. I want to be syndicated here. So I am doing the show here but you hear it in Cali, you hear it in Detroit, you hear it in Texas, you hear it in Florida that is my goal. I know I will get there but in the meantime I am trying to make myself as big as possible in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area. I would really like to do television I do not know when it will happen or what form it will come in. I would also like to put out a party record. You do not have to be an artist to make a hit that is what I have learned.

CRED: Laughs

AA: DJ Unk and DJ Khaled you do not have to be a rapper you know the possibilities are endless.

CRED: Let’s talk about music since you brought it up. If I stole your Ipod what would I find?

AA: You would find R&B and old stuff. As much as I love hip hop I am very partial to 90s R&B you will find a lot of R.Kelly, 702, SWV. On the hip hop side I love Jay-Z old T.I., an Ok Jeezy fan I am a big fan of Lil Wayne. I am rocking The Dream and Ryan Leslie. I mean I am a Jay-Z head I love the model of Jay-Z. One of my favorite lines from him is: “When you first come in the game they try to play you, then you drop a couple of hits look how they wave to you. (taken from “Encore”, The Black Album 2003). It is true when you first come into any part of this industry they are going to play you. People are going to be like who are you?
Then you do something and they are going to wave to you. I love that line because it is reflective of my struggle. When I started Angie Ange was nothing now they wave and Angie is called to do everything.

CRED: How does it feel to get waved to?

AA: Well I get waved to and flicked off as well. You are going to have people that love you and people that hate you. The funny thing about radio is people think they know me. People think that because we are Facebook friends that we are best friends or that because we are MySpace friends that they know me people think that because they are following me on twitter that they know my life when they don’t have a clue. People think that if I don’t respond to them that I have an ego or that I am too big. People think I am a diva and they have never met me.

CRED: How do you deal with the hate?

AA: I deal with the hate with a whole lot of love. If you want to hate go ahead and hate in your hate bubble. I get so much love that the hate doesn’t effect me. Hate is there I acknowledge it but I choose to deal with it with love so if you come at me with negativity you will probably hear me say much love to you.

CRED: On the music side there are no female MCs

AA: Tell me about it.

CRED: Do you think that it will ever come around and if so is that person in the DC area?

AA: I have no idea but I hope so. It hurts me as a woman who loves hip hop not see any hip hop women doing their thing anymore. The Grammys don’t even give away best female hip hop album anymore…who are you going to nominate? lil momma? What are you going to do? Are they going to be from the DMV? I don’t care I just need them to be a great credible rapper and have some type of purpose and not be a s**t. If you are going to b the s**t make sure there is a Lauryn Hill that comes up with you so that there is a balance. Hip Hop is forever evolving what we are going to evolve into? I can’t tell you. If it is true that history repeats itself then we will go back to more conscious hip hop if history repeats itself we will go back to Public Enemy days Whatever movements that come in I hope there is a safe sex movement that comes in. Remember SWV, TLC and even LL there was a movement to wear condoms. I don’t know what the AIDS rate was then but clearly it’s worse now. Hopefully artists will go back to having a political stance I mean its great for Souljaboy and all that but it would be great for him to make a song saying “I wear a condom” just keep saying it over and over again. (laughing)

CRED: What is your stance on DMV music?

AA: In the DMV we have great singers, great spoken word artists on the rap scene there is a lot of talent and a lot more BS. The BS outweighs the talent; the BS seems to be the loudest. I think it hurts the talented people in a certain way but it helps the talented people rise above perfect example Wale. I remember Wale when I was an intern me and him are about the same age. I remember him coming up to the studio faithfully. I remember him learning the business and how to manipulate it.

This business has good, bad and ugly to it. You can’t just learn what is good for you. Just like I had to learn the business and politics of radio you have to learn the politics and business of the hip hop game and the radio game and learn how to play it. Wale did that and look at his success. I literally watch him go to every club. I watched him go to music meetings I watched him go on a grind that I have not seen to this day with the exception of Tabi Bonet. I have not seen any artist do this type of legwork and look where he ended up. Maybe I am not in the right places either but as far as local talent I just think there is too much BS and not enough valid talent that is being seen just in my opinion.

We do a segment every Tuesday called Record Deal or no Deal. We go through our email and we randomly pick a song and we check to make sure there are no curse words and it is the right quality. Maybe one in every fifteen get a record deal seal of approval 90 percent if it gets trashed. Then other local artists call in mad and hate on each other so much because they think they are better than somebody.

CRED: What does that DMV have to do to get national attention?

AA: I am no A&R so I don’t know. I think what would be cool in DC but it requires unity is DC has to create our own hip hop culture. We have always had our own culture, our own music if we could create our own culture we might be able to push out. For example if Tabi, Wale and Oye Boys, which they are trying to do, if they all stuck together all the other artists would follow it instead of tear it down because it is not them. You think of Texas there was a movement of Chopped and Screwed. It wasn’t just Slim Thug. It was Paul Wall it was Mike Jones they had a movement. It was a group that was from one town. We could unite and create a DC movement and say these are the people we are putting to the front Wale, Tabi and the Oye Boys could do it.
Do you know how many artists give me stuff and it sounds like a fake Jeezy and a fake Lil Wayne? We have to create our own movement first and it starts with not tearing each other down.

That is on the DMV. If you want to make it happen make it happen or you can sit in your yard and complain it is on you.

CRED: Short middle and long range goals for Angie Ange.

AA: Short term is keeping a job and staying afloat in a recession. Mid to long term is syndication, a syndicated show of my own. In five years I will be almost 30 so I am hoping to have a family of some sort. I can barely take care of myself because I can’t cook.

CRED: Laughs
almost 30 so I am hoping to have a family of some sort. I can barely take care of myself because I can’t cook.

CRED: Laughs

AA: I am living the life of an extreme bachelorette and I am having a blast. Hopefully I have settled myself enough to where I am successful in my career I can have a family and continue in my career. I want my career to smooth down a little bit right now I am still on the grind even though you hear me on the radio from six to ten that is just the starting point to where I want to be. I don’t know where God is going to take me next I am just riding. I am going to do the best I can at it and I am going to pray that lives are effected in a positive way because of it. To every hater out there I am going to give them as many hugs as possible.


CRED: If you could do anything over what would you do?

AA: Nothing. Actually, no, I’m lying. If I could do it over again I would enjoy the moment more. My mentality is you got that now what’s next? Even right now I am thinking what’s next instead of enjoying the moment. You know, enjoying the fact that I am 24 with a Magnum running around that has my face on it with a bunch of people who listen to me every night with a bunch of young people writing me everyday asking me questions. I apologize because I can’t answer everybody. I do read them though. I have influence and power in the community that I was raised in. I don’t live in that moment at all. I am still thinking about what I have to do to get to that next level because I’m on that grind.

I wish I sat back more and said ‘Damn I am chilling with Donnie Simpson” after my shift and I get to watch him come in and talk to him or ‘Damn I am chilling with Russ Parr and Olivia Fox’.. My mind was learn from them and let’s go. Now I’m really trying to enjoy my success more. When I walk through the Boulevard and kids want to run up and take pictures or call their mother on the phone, I appreciate it.

The time will come when no one will know who Angie Ange is. While they do I should enjoy it more than I do because right now I still feel like an intern, and I sometimes forget that I really am good at what I do! Even Stew has to remind me that I am good at what I do…while I could be better I am not half bad either. I am working on it now. (smiles)

CRED: Any advice you want to give anybody?

AA: Get like Nike and just do it. Figure what you want and do it. Speak things into existence. Sometimes when I am by myself

CRED: When is that?

AA: I don’t know(laughs) but when I am alone I interview myself like the billionaire I will become. Even when I was younger I would interview myself or I would act like I was a radio personality and I was in the fifth grade. If you tell yourself something, your mind subconsciously will be that and the universe will start working. I know I’m getting real Erikah Badu right now, but the stars will align for you. It isn’t your heart that makes you do stuff it is your mind. The heart makes you want it but it is your mind that tells your body what to do.

When I look back at what I did at PGC, I don’t know how I did it . I don’t know how for a year I came to the station from 5pm to 6am the next day, but I did it. My mind was thinking ‘we are going to get on air, we are going to have our own show but this is what I have to do to get there’. Strengthen the mind and speak it to existence because it is yours if wasn’t, you wouldn’t have said it.

CRED: Is there anything else you want to say to everybody?

AA: No I don’t like people and they don’t like me. (Laughs) Thank you to everyone who has supported me from Elementary school. There are people that have known me since Buck Lodge Middle, there are people that have known me since High Point High School, Elizabeth Seton High School, Howard University, and so on. To anybody who has been on any step of my life I just want to say thank you and I appreciate the support from anybody good and bad whatever you feel.

My lovers help me and my haters help me just in different ways so thank you. If you can, please continue to listen to 93.9 WKYS with Quick Silva and Angie Ange because we are the best. We are working toward being better than the best that is all that I could say.