(Interview with Flaimahmy, May 4, 2010)

FM:  You are a co-host of the internet radio show, The Kenny Burns Show on Beehivefm.  Where did the idea for the show come from?

WA:  Well, Kenny [Burns] and Mike Johnson started Beehive.  They called me to call in and talk about a topic.  I was just calling in to do what I do; that was the karma I had.  They asked me to call in a couple more times and eventually Kenny asked me to be a part of the show.  Originally, I was going to do my own show but because of the timing of it, the time they wanted me to do it, I couldn’t do it.  I still have a bunch of obligations and committments.  I got on Kenny’s show.  It just felt natural; it was a good fit.  It felt good.  I was having fun.  I’m still having fun.  So I just said let me go with this and see where it takes me.  That’s how it started.

FM:  Can you give our readers an idea about the format for the show?

WA:  For The Kenny Burns Show?

FM:  Yes.

WA:  Format…well let’s start here.  The Kenny Burns Show is a platform to say what the hell we want to say when we want to say it and how we want to say it.  Me, personally, I think it was eight years ago I tried to get a radio show on Hot 107 and I was working for a label so they told me it was a conflict of interest.  There were all of the rules for doing it, that you had to do it this way…and when I heard about The Kenny Burns Show, internet radio, it was like, we’re going to do what we want to do and we’re going to just talk to the people.  We’re going to bring different insights.  It started out just being a way I think for Kenny to express himself, get some things off his chest, and just to see if it would work.  The format eventually has evolved to entertainment, social commentary, sex, drugs, hip-hop and the entertainment industry.  It has evolved into this piece where it has more format now but it still is a platform for us to say what we want to say, to entertain and to give people what I call the alternative to everything else.  So, we call it alternative urban radio.  There has never been anything like this.   

FM:  Do you have a role model or mentor who advises you in the business?

WA:  I have a bunch of people.  Not on this particular business.  I just have life people.  This is the first time I’ve done radio.  I decided not to listen to the radio people pretty much because then I’d be doing exactly what I didn’t want to do.  So, in terms of life, I just have people who help me through life.  In terms of mentors, not really, not when it comes to radio.  I take everybody’s information and I kind of put it into what I think the energy of the show is and somehow it ends up working.

FM:  I was surprised to read that in 2007 there were 57 million weekly listeners to online radio.  In fact, more people listen to online radio than satellite, high-definition,  podcasts, cell-phone, all of that together.  Where do you see The Beehive in two years?

WA:  We’re already over 100,000 plus.  In two years I think it’s going to be what people look to as an example of how to do internet radio.  There is a lot of internet radio’; all is not good but people will actually start to figure out where they want to go and what they want to listen to.  I think a station like Beehive is going to be able to give a wide variety of people a place to go.  I see it being the thing that gets copied.  I see it being a template for a lot of people, if you want to start your own situation… how do you do it.  We are a small operation but in terms of  what MJ [Mike Johnson] has put into it I mean it’s incredible.  If you ever see the studio, or come see where it is, it is not just in somebody’s basement, it’s a real operation.  They are extremely serious about it and I can see it being the kind of station that attracts advertisers.  We’re in 77 countries I believe and all fifty states.  I see it being the thing that people copy.  I see it being  the template that people try to design their radio shows after the next two years, I’d say the next twelve months.

FM:  According to Arbitron, one in seven people, aged 25 to 54 listen to online radio.  Who is your target audience?

WA:  Everybody who doesn’t want to do the same sh..t.  I don’t know the radio numbers.  All I know is that right now we are designed for, I would say people 23 to right around 45.   I ran into some people this weekend.  One person was about 43 and said that they listen to the radio show all the time.  So, we have an age range from 23 to I believe, 43.  But, it’s going to be the people who can handle a little medicine in their candy if you will.  It’s going to be people who are not going to be turned off by a little bit of truth mixed in with some adult conversation.  I see it being that age range and probably above, I’m trying to get my grandmother to listen, but I’m not sure if she’s going to dig it.

FM:  When did you first become interested in entertainment and where did you get the name, the “Wild Afrikan?”

WA:  Ahhh…entertainment…well, back in the day actually I was a performer.  I was in a group.  I was a singer.  I went to Performing Arts in New York for voice.  I was in a group, I was signed.  We had a deal.  So I’ve always been entertainment oriented.  My parents were founding members of a theater called National Black Theater which is a mainstay in Harlem.  I came up in theater and creativity.  I didn’t start school until the third grade.  I was actually performing around the country up until third grade.  I had a tutor.  So it’s in my blood.  That aspect.  I’ve always enjoyed performing…singing…I’ve realized that my hosting parties is an extension of that.  My conversation, me just talking and walking into a room, is an extension of that.

The Wild Afrikan actually came about, my cousin dubbed us Wild Afrikans, it was a few of us, about eight years ago.  It was really a conversation we were having about, we’re not like everybody else, we’re not trying to do the same thing.  A lot of times when we walk into a room we feel like everybody’s kind of doing the same thing so whatever we are doing, whether we’re doctors, whether we’re lawyers, we’re going to do it in our own way.  We’re going to do it in a wild way.

The Afrikan part is really a way of paying tribute, African Americans paying tribute to where we come from.  It’s giving tribute to where we come from and our legacy.  The “k” stands for in a sense not exactly knowing where your family or your ancestors were from in Africa.  The “k” is also our version of  the unknown.  I’m not the only Wild Afrikan, I’ve just been put in the forefront to represent Plutopia right now.

FM: You just mentioned Plutopia.   You have your own segment on the show called “The Plutopian Moment.”  Can you tell us, what is Plutopia?

WA:  Plutopia is this place where all the wild things come from.  It’s this place where all the free thinkers, the revolutionaries, the super stars, the people who, for example, have changed the world, that’s where they come from.  I think what happened is when all the Plutopians traveled to the earth they just forgot who they were.  They forgot what their greatness was, they forgot what they were supposed to be doing, they forgot how they were supposed to change the world.  Little by little they are having an awakening moment.  Plutopia is this place where creative people come from, people who have that burning desire to do something that is going to change not only their situations but the people around them situations.  You never know, there are a lot of Plutopians around they just haven’t realized it yet.  Hopefully, by the different things we will be doing, people will start to wake up and realize their greatness and the fact that they are really not Earthlings, they’re just here for a moment in time.

FM:  Is that your purpose in creating “The Plutopian Moment” on The Kenny Burns Show ?

WA:  It’s wasn’t that it was my purpose.  It’s the kind of thing that it had to happen.  My one thing when I spoke to Kenny was the only way I could really do the show was if I could bring or talk about something different.  If I could bring my piece. This is what I do know.  I know that around the world people are already great, but the things that we learn, how we’re taught, the bullsh..t comes into play and a lot of times we forget about our greatness, about the fact that we are supposed to be doing something here.  So, it really wasn’t something that I intended to do to be honest with you, it just started happening.  A lot of times when I’m speaking regularly I’m not trying to be the one on the soap box, I’m not trying to be the one to talk about things, it’s just stuff that for a long time I didn’t talk about but I realized how necessary it was, not just for people to hear but for me to just say my piece.  When you cover these things up you realize that you’re not saying what’s on your mind or in your heart.  Ultimately, you end up seeing it again in some way, shape or form.  I think that’s part of the reason why people get sick.  They don’t do what their mind, what their heart is telling them to do.

FM:  I understand that you are a dad.  How many children do you have ?

WA:  I have one child and my child has been the greatest thing that I’ve ever done or probably will do.

FM:  How do you and your spouse balance career and parenting?

WA:  Through communication and conversation.  When I met her I was doing what I was doing.  She does something totally different.  She’s not interested in the entertainment industry.  We met a long time ago; we were friends and she knew who I was, what I did and how I moved.  We just balance it by talking about it and being open about it.  I haven’t asked her to change who she is and she hasn’t asked me to change who I am.  We’re good in that respect.  I realize as I’ve gotten older that  anything that is worth doing is not as hard as we make it, it just takes concerted effort.  It takes intention.  It takes setting up what your conditions of satisfactions are and being clear about that.  Then as things grow and evolve there are times when you may have to come back to the table and say, “Hey, listen, this is what’s going on with me.  Can we find some middle ground or is this going to work?”  I think pressure comes from having a lot of ego and not really thinking about the possibilities.  We always say there’s limited possibilities but I truly believe possibilities are endless.

FM:  With so much explicit and graphic information so easily accessible through the internet, Beehive, for example, is too graphic for children.  Do you and your spouse restrict access to inappropriate websites?

WA:  My child is too young to be on the internet.  But, I will say this.  The beauty about my parents was that they didn’t restrict a whole lot.  We just had conversations about what was going on.  They didn’t allow me to watch everything; I couldn’t watch The A-Team.  My father would let me watch some “murder, murder, kill” stuff but he wouldn’t let me watch The A-Team.  I didn’t get it until I got older because we stayed up together and we watched horror films that to me had more gore.  But, my father’s problem with The A-Team was that the only representation of a black man on tv was B. A. Baracus with a thousand gold chains and couldn’t speak proper English.  He said, “That’s cool and that’s ok but there is no balance to that.  So you can’t watch The A-Team.  Anything else we can discuss.”

I think the key is not so much to restrict.  I’ve noticed this.  For example, when I was in high school I knew the women who had strict, strict fathers were going to be the easy targets simply because they didn’t have any dialogue with a male.  You know what I am saying?  They couldn’t tell me what they were feeling or what they were experiencing and I think if you totally cut your children off from the world, when they get a taste of the world they’re going to go and see it just because they weren’t able to be involved in it.

As my child becomes older I will have conversations.  My father had the first conversation about sex with me at ten years old.  Going through high school I never got anybody pregnant.  I wasn’t somebody who didn’t wear condoms.  My father gave me my first pack of condoms.  My mother asked me, it was an uncomfortable conversation with my mother, but my father was there to say, “Listen, this is what it is, this is what it looks like, this is what a porno is…I want you to understand what is going on so that you won’t go out here and wild out.”  I’ve never been on drugs.  The only thing I have to drink is wine.   I’ve never been in jail…I’ve been unwillingly detained but I’ve never had any serious issues.  I credit that to the fact that everything wasn’t kept from me when I was young.

FM:  What is your favorite way to relax?

WA:  I have so many.  I have a bunch.  I’m into different things.  I’m into animals.  I’m into reading.  I’m into just driving around.  I’m into traveling.  I really would much rather spend the first part of my morning in my head.   I just started meditating.  Being from Brooklyn, if you had brought up meditating ten years ago I would have said, “Get out of here; that’s some other stuff, I don’t do that.”  Meditating has been a way, for somebody like me whose thoughts race all the time, to kind of slow my thoughts down, to get in between my thoughts and figure out some things for myself.  I love good epic movies, too.  Like I’m so excited about Robinhood and everybody thinks I’m just playing about this but I’m excited about it because one of my favorite movies was Gladiator… and Braveheart.  So, I would say a good movie, reading, oh, writing, meditation and just quiet time.  Like, if I could not talk to anybody, I’m good.  I’ll turn myself off in a minute and just not talk.

FM:  Well, we consider you to be a Fly Daddy.

WA:  Am I a Fly Daddy?  Did I make it?!

FM:  Yes, you made it.

WA:  I made it to the Fly Daddy!

FM:  Yes, you did.  So, in your own words, what makes you a Fly Daddy?

WA:  I think what makes me a Fly Daddy is the want to be a great daddy, the desire to be a great daddy.  Never before in my life have I fallen in love with a being that I had never met .  I knew my child was coming but I didn’t understand the power of falling in love with someone before you met them.  I think it is the desire to want to be the best father possible.  It’s not connected to finances, it’s not connected to what I do.  It’s just the desire to actually be able to create, develop and give to the world the finest human being that I possibly can.  That is the ultimate goal.  If I can just have a well-adjusted, intelligent, compassionate child, that’s all I ask.  I don’t care what they do.  I don’t care if they never get married.  I don’t care if they sit on an island by themselves.  If they are well-adjusted, compassionate, caring and have some kind of forward thought process, I’m good.  I’m fine.  I did my job.

[You can listen to the "Wild Afrikan" on The Kenny Burns Show 2-6pm Monday-Friday on BeeHiveFM.com. Also check out the Plutopia Facebook Page.]