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DJ Spins Tales of Parenthood and Creative Vibes

• Zachery Williams • Season 3 • Episode 8

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When the vibrant beats of creativity meet the tender chords of fatherhood, a symphony of life's most poignant lessons emerges. That's exactly what we unpack in our heart-to-heart with DJ, the Charleston native whose poetry flows as richly as his insights into balancing the joys and trials of being a parent, an artist, and a homeowner. As we sit under the broad shadow cast by a nurturing mother and the firm resolve of a father steeped in tough love, DJ and I peel back the layers on what it means to be a black man influencing through music, all the while navigating the often tricky terrain of personal and professional life.

The conversation shifts seamlessly from the weighty topics of mental health and societal expectations to the light-hearted anticipation of our musical endeavors. I recount the journey of overcoming a period of creative dormancy, celebrating the reawakening of my passion for broadcasting and poetry as we usher in the third season of our broadcast. Our narrative also finds a rhythm in the search for a keyboard player to join our soulful ensemble, raising the baton for an open invitation to musicians in the Charleston area. Join us as we share stories, laughter, and music, inviting every listener to find the beat of their own drum in the dance of life.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Just the Two of Us. It is your favorite broadcast host, mr Zach, so get comfortable with me and let's talk about it. Hey you guys, it is your boy, mr Zachary, on his 1st of 2, and welcome to Just the Two of Us. I hope you're having an amazing day, because I am having an amazing day. I am finally seeing with my friend he's a poet, he's a lyricist and, like his voice tells a story I am sitting here with my friend, dj. Dj, how you doing.

Speaker 2:

Hey, what's up my man? How you doing man Good to be here I am doing good, man, I am doing good, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for taking the time out and just come on my broadcast.

Speaker 2:

I really really do appreciate it. I appreciate you having me.

Speaker 1:

So first, off the gate, I'd like to ask you a guess how is your mental health doing?

Speaker 2:

My mental health. Oh man, it's been up and down, man, why is that. I got a 2 year old man. Oh, he's running and yeah, so it's a lot Trying to be creative. Work a day job. Yeah, be a homeowner. They glamorize being a homeowner but it's like you got maintenance Like anything else Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance.

Speaker 1:

Exactly so. Give us a background, give my lesson a background about you, how you grew up, where you from, and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 2:

I am from Charleston, south Carolina, hollywood to be exact. If you know where Hollywood is, a lot of people don't. I don't know if they knew it as a evangel, christian, but Savannah Highway. I started early school on Savannah Highway. It was a Christian school, private school, went from there to middle school in the country, went to Garrett Academy. Shout out to the Falcons and yeah, man.

Speaker 2:

That is school in the nutshell. Went to TTC, tried and tech and lived here pretty much all my life. I visit other places. I've always been other places in the US, mostly outside the Caribbean. Yeah, Okay.

Speaker 1:

So how did you grow up? And you say you're from Hollywood, so you're from my neck of the woods, you are from the country. So how did you deal with that Number one? Did you raise our both parents? A single father, single mother?

Speaker 2:

Had both parents, both parents.

Speaker 1:

Alright, so can you tell us a little about having both parents, because you know some of the listeners, especially me, we had one parent at household, so can you tell us how's that growing up, having both parents in the household?

Speaker 2:

This is very impactful, I think, especially for our community. I think balance is needed. There's a certain energy mom gives you and there's a certain energy father gives you. Your mother gives you that nurturing. Nobody loves you like your mom, man, Nobody loves you like mama. But your father is that side to get you ready for the world, because, though we can do no wrong in our mama eyes, the world can't wait to tell you oh you suck boy, Did you go? You walk out the door. So your father gets you ready for you know and yeah, it is definitely Mm-hmm balance balances. It's needed for the balance. You know the old symbol, the yin yang Mother is one and your father is another boom, and I think we definitely need that. We need the importance of both.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so how is it very important for you to have your father in your life.

Speaker 2:

Um, I think it was very important because, especially as a boy, because my mother, you know, when you little they can, then when they, they get older and when, when you get older, as a man, you want to start venturing out trying different things. Now our mothers, they do the best they can, but it also puts them in a more masculine energy having to having to wrangle a boy and that's not the way it's supposed to be.

Speaker 2:

But you got to do what you got to do. Yeah, but have my father Gave me guidelines to where I Understood this, this parameters in keeping me focused, I guess, yeah, my father didn't have this thing. They was like I had a younger brother, I have a younger brother. I'm saying, hey, I have a younger brother. So they, oh, your brother watching you. You know your brother always watching you, and that kept On a straight narrow.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Okay, so what is the meaning to you being a black man?

Speaker 2:

What it means to me. I am a part of a legacy, a Part of a community that's beautiful, strong. I Share this richness oh.

Speaker 2:

This richness, this history, such a talented people, man. Um, it's good with bad. You know I'm saying, and anything you doing this life back to the yin yang. But you take with the bad, they come together like night and day. Everything back to the yin yang. Um, but I love it. Like I heard somebody say one time, it's uh, it's lickers, is a little, it's a little dangerous. And you know I'm saying it's fun. If you focus on the negative aspects, anything you'll, you'll hang your head, but it ain't all bad.

Speaker 1:

Because in this is where that we live, in this all type Definition of how being man and there's a definition of being ought to be a black man house to raise, you know, your son or daughters. There's all different ways, you know. There's no Handbook, there's no guys. To lead you, you know you, you pick up what you see. I was growing up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that can yeah, and you pick up how society, those things that you because you know, as you said, you know your mother protects you, right, the world Gonna be be actually like yeah, you ain't, you ain't shit. Like yeah, okay, okay.

Speaker 2:

Oh Baby, you can't do no wrong. They can't wait to say why you ain't nothing. By who? Tell you something? By you? Think you something by you, think you something.

Speaker 1:

So you, you are into music, and how did you find the love into music? I?

Speaker 2:

Started music in high school. I remember my first like I was a rapper.

Speaker 2:

We would have these yeah yeah, school battles, you beat on the lunch table and and people would, people would freestyle and lunch and that was the best thing since life's bread. I remember my I don't remember verbatim but my first rap was wack. It was wack as hell. But um, yeah, that's when I think it first started. My mother Would play the old soul records that we all know and love lady Williams, ladies, we would clean, see, get that rag, and you know we wipe up stuff in my father, mm-hmm, like jazz. He had certain souls to be like, but uh, he was more of my jazz influence. And Then the hip hop came in the later years. My first rap tape was, uh, will Smith summertime. I remember that, yeah, um, but yeah, that's the beginning in a nutshell for me.

Speaker 1:

So I don't, you know, music, wax, music have different genre. You said, jazz was one of those things, one of those, one of those genres I stuck out to you. Why is that? Why did, why did jazz stick out to you then? Then the other genres.

Speaker 2:

I think jazz because it's got a classiness to it. I grew more into a jazz element as I progressed. You know, when you like, life everything has stages. What was good for you at five years old ain't good for you at 15 years old necessarily to be doing that same thing, and likewise at 25 and at 35 and at 40, 45. So the natural progression of things, I believe. I think there's a certain aesthetic to it. There's also people's buy-in to what you are doing and I think there's a certain buy-in depending on what's hot at the time. I heard somebody talk about this one time because kids, like the kids, the generations or whatever we change just about every five years there's a shift. So what was prevalent in 95, the sound is different. They dress in different. You know what I'm saying. It might be similar but there's some things different.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so do you enjoy the music that's playing now than back then?

Speaker 2:

I don't listen to a lot of the newer stuff as much. I was the baggy Jean hip hop era.

Speaker 1:

So you're the 90s.

Speaker 2:

The 90s, early 2000s. I love how the early 2000s, the aesthetic that they had on it. I think it's been a gradual progression and there's been agendas pushed as far as how our like. Back in the day it was cool to be the drug dealer. Now I seem like it's cool to be on the drug, like God damn what happened. What happened, like everybody got drugged up, why we got productive things to do, especially in my community. We have a lot of things to do. There's things we need to build. We don't have time for it, but I don't take away from the generation and because I got a son and he's in the military now, it's interesting to see. I think it's interesting to see.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so for me, so music wise, because I love music, because I start off with gospel.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

So I love all the music that comes, Even with this generation. Now a lot of people are not authentic as it used to be back then.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

And everybody's kind of saying the same things, rapping about the same things now, and it's always a hit after a hit and nobody really like I think, be authentic and I think that was music is really missing. Is authentic, like yo, like let's get back to you.

Speaker 1:

Know, I love me some J-Cos, let's get back to like I'm a big fan of J-Cos, nicky Nod, foxy Brown, and it's so much biggie Too far. Like Joe, joe, like it's a lot of singers that I love that we can be authentic and I wish that we can go back to it today. So, as you do any of your thing, do any of your children sing, just like you.

Speaker 2:

No, no, call myself too much of a singer. I'll kind of dabble where the music takes me, but I am still for the most part. I just I bear the term of the recording arts, because I think that's a blanketed term and it can encompass more than just one thing, because a lot of time people want to box you in and yeah, Now, one thing about your voice that I love so much and I think it really draws me to you your voice is like a story time.

Speaker 1:

I'm sorry, how do you have me watching you are I be hearing you?

Speaker 2:

your voice tells a story and I don't be like I'd be, so gage like, yeah, I could be listening in yeah, when I when I write, I try to think about it like the visuals of it, so I'm glad that comes across. That's the first time I'm really hearing that outside of my circle and getting you know, because I'm still in the beginning stages with this. I've been trying to see what works, what hasn't worked. It's still very much experimental. I got a five song EP that's coming this year. Yeah, I'm just trying to polish it up. It's a little. I Think it's a little. It'll be a little bit more Acceptable versus the stuff I've been doing. That's been experimental in the beginning. It's more of a Mmm Easiest sound for for people to get into, I guess so hard.

Speaker 1:

So how long are you been working on this project?

Speaker 2:

This project. You know this project was supposed to come out 2023, 2023, suck man, I don't know. But I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for every day we get and everything, but it had to do with some some, some work like choices to me. I think I got away from being creative as I wanted to be and yeah, it's just 2023 23 for me.

Speaker 1:

I feel like it was definitely a Happy problem. You say say it again 2023 for me was definitely I. I open air. I Know, okay. Yeah, I always say this and this is the first time I ever said this on our broadcast.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

So Everything I had love to do, I used to hate it. I Used to hate it because it was like a job, it was like our routine, like I have to do, like I quit something writing poetry. I Didn't want to record anything on my broadcast, I didn't want to do anything. Like people actually can't bring your broadcast, I'd be like, no, I'm not in love with it mmm. I'm like even having writers blocks and even writing, cuz I lose a lot writing poetry.

Speaker 1:

I'm like this used to be a job. Everything I used to do I love used to be a job and I had to really, really sit down Because it was hard, like coming back on here on my broadcast was very hard and I figured like, Okay, it's about to be a new year, you haven't did.

Speaker 1:

Season two has been wrapped up in. Season three Need to be coming out because you, you have a lot of people acting for this and it's been like it's coming like a job. I don't want to do it, but you know I got into it back again. You know I find myself and we hear now and I saw it at season three.

Speaker 2:

I salute you, brother, because you gotta find it to keep going. Man, it gets hard.

Speaker 2:

People think it's just oh you know, creative it ain't, it can be, it could, because it is worth and you need it. Don't matter what it is you choose to do. There's a discipline that you must apply if you will be successful because, like I tell people, we we wanted to be this big thing right out the gate and you got to work for it. But that ain't, that ain't God. God, if you see it like it's a seed, you plant the seed, take time for it to grow. Whenever we try to Cheap that, like fast food is not as good for you cook food. It takes longer but it's better for you. I Get it right now and be on my way. But yeah, what are you doing if you keep doing that? If you keep doing it? You know I'm saying it's the compound interest that adds up. So if it's bad, think about the compound of the good. If you keep eating home, cook good meals. But you got to keep going and I applaud you for keeping going, man.

Speaker 1:

I Think as as being creative thinker because I know for me. So my life language is create creativity.

Speaker 1:

Okay so, as you be creative, you know you, I feel I love certain things and you be like, why? You be like, Do you don't want to do this symbol? Was it the end of the road? Did good God give you something else to do? Was it something that you saw in someone else to do? And you find like, okay. But I feel me like I have build A thing I want to say, a fan base. I have a better audience that listens. I have built a audience. That who, who needs that voice?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, and, and this is like I said, this is why we here, and this is why I want people like you to tell your story, cuz your story it's powerful.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I can help people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so that's why I can make you own the stuff that you are doing now. Like you don't know the stuff that you are doing now it's gonna impact people. I Like you don't even know who gonna be listening or who will be like, oh, I know him, like I heard him before. You know, you never know how many people you gonna touch yeah, we live in an interconnected world.

Speaker 2:

It's not as separated as people like to believe mm-hmm, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So what advice? If you have to go back in time, what advice would you give yourself that you have learned today?

Speaker 2:

find what you want to do. Early time is a currency that you don't get more of. Be focused on your purpose, and not everything will be perfect, but a lot of things will tend to work themselves out, because, they say, time reveals all. It'll be patient. Patience is something that you got to learn, but I would tell my younger self find out what you need to be doing. Do that, because the earlier you start, the more, the earlier you get the bumps out of the way. You can work the kinks out. I heard this saying one time. It said people think the devil so smart because he's the devil. No, the devil so smart because he's a old man. You had all this time to kind of figure things out. You know all the angles and everything. People easy to manipulate cuz you've been watching them for all this time.

Speaker 1:

So start early okay, so as you, so you have all the sun that's in the military. Mm-hmm, how would your son describe you as a father and a human being?

Speaker 2:

oh man that's a good question. You know he wrote me this letter prior to going into the military, where he was kind of dithering and didn't know quite what he wanted to do. He didn't want to go to a four-year University and but he thanked me for being a part of his life and being in his life.

Speaker 1:

Um, it's hard to say okay, how did I make you feel that you wrote that letter to you?

Speaker 2:

oh, man, all the times where I was, like you know, shaking my head sometimes like made it all worth it, man. It made it so worth it that I was able to contribute to our community. Positive the, a good balance in individual coming into the world because we need more, more of these people. I think, because of certain things that happen, it has greatly impacted our community and all we can do is what we can do. But you can do something, find what you can do and do that. Let it be a positive impact you make and, yeah, so you, you keep seeing about the community.

Speaker 1:

You know how is. The community means a lot to you like. Why does it mean a lot to you?

Speaker 2:

well being that I got kids now. Um, first off, let me go back. There's a lot of old sayings, there's a lot of old knowledge in old sayings and it's been in people face going like this all the time, but people just don't know. So there's an African proverb if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

Speaker 2:

It's a team sport, it's always been a team sport, and when you don't play as a team, it's just like it's a free fall. Things don't go quite right. Understand that everybody might not be the same, like everybody, like you got people who do this, people who do that thing, like, like any team football, like nobody. The people on the football team. They play different positions and don't don't lessen this person's position because it's not the same as yours. Understand that they have a role to play. Appreciate them for what they have to contribute, and that's one part of it. Secondly, having kids and they going out into the world. There's a saying I heard one time that you got to raise kids friends as well because it's not you.

Speaker 2:

You know you do what you can inside your home. There's people who don't have falls. Maybe they don't have a fall. I ain't telling you go out there and try to save the world, but the kids in your community or whatever, be some kind of positive influence on them. You know what I'm saying. It's like you get back what you put in. You ever heard of the bell curve? It goes like this the sun, the moon, everything follows this bell curve. And they got this saying once an adult, twice a child. And if you pour that in because somebody changed your diapers on the way in, somebody had changed your diapers on the way out On the way out. Hopefully, if you're a good person and you invest in people, people will invest in you, because that time will go with everybody.

Speaker 2:

The time rise, sunset, sunrise, sunset.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I hopefully the people who take I take care of them, take care of me in a good way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man, yeah, just be there for people. There you go.

Speaker 1:

So some more questions. I think the last one is going to be powerful, because I really want you to think about that question. What advice can you give me and your listeners, me and my listeners, me and your listeners? But what advice can you give us?

Speaker 2:

Oh man For you, be true to yourself. Be true because in that that is power. Be authentically you and the people who focus on the people who need to hear you, versus trying to make yourself for everybody. Even if it's a niche, it's a niche community. Make that a strong thing and I've seen it do wonders. So not everybody needs you, won't be for everybody, and you shouldn't be, because that's where your value lies that you not for everybody.

Speaker 1:

Right, I like that. So here's the powerful question I like to answer on my guess.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

If this was your last day, you done, did everything you have done. What do you want to be a member of? To your children, to the people who care about you, to the community and to yourself?

Speaker 2:

I want to be remembered as somebody who has contributed positively more than negatively. I want my impact on the world to be something positive. Yeah, Did I answer that?

Speaker 1:

right, that's right there. That was thinking. I'm telling you that. Right there, is gonna think it. But I'd love to thank you. Thank you for taking out your time sitting with me. Let me interview you, let us have the conversation. I appreciate you. I value our friendship. I value the stuff that you are doing now. That is going to pay off in the long run. Tell me you don't know how many people you are going to touch.

Speaker 2:

Thank, you man.

Speaker 1:

And sometimes you don't even wanna know the people you touch and when you sit in the forum by yourself you think that all you have done is your best.

Speaker 2:

you have All right, thank you for that good word for the day.

Speaker 1:

You're welcome and thank you again, dj coming on. And where can people find you out on social media? You know any platform.

Speaker 2:

Graham. Mostly I would love to tell you I am all over the place. Come follow me here, follow me there, but I'm not. I'm not. That is engaged. I am the most engaged on Instagram. I look forward to having more of a larger presence this year. I will be doing more open mics and live shows. I've been piecing together a band because I believe my sound needs a live band experience and I have a good bassist and a good drummer. Shout out to Jenef Smith and Marlon Smalls Great guys, they've been coming through for me, so I look forward. If you know anybody who plays keys, man, any keyboard players out there. I need a good keyboard player in the Charleston area and Neo Soul sound is what we're going for.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'll let my platform do its job.

Speaker 2:

All right man.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much. Like I said, it is your turn. This is my friend Juan. The two of you in the distance Welcome to this show about talking. Y'all have a nice day. We'll see you next time.