When the beat of Milwaukee's streets meets the rhythm of resilience, you get a legacy like Coo Coo Cal's. Our latest chat with the hip-hop maestro Calvin Bellamy, better known as Coo Coo Cal, isn't just any conversation—it's a master class in transforming hardship into harmony. From spinning records at underground parties to climbing the charts with "My Projects, Coo Coo Cal lays down the track of his life, sharing how his early albums laid the foundation for a career that's as much about beats as it is about making a difference. His journey has been a symphony of success and struggle, echoing through the streets from Baton Rouge to Germany and back to Milwaukee, where the city's pulse beats strongest.
There's something inherently cinematic about Coo Coo Cal's story—so much so that it's sparked the creation of "The Rise and Fall of Coo Coo Cal," a documentary that lays bare his trials with addiction and his path to redemption. The idea of giving back rings loud in our conversation as Coo Coo Cal shines a spotlight on local talents and the unwavering support of the Milwaukee hip-hop community. He doesn't just make music; he makes waves that could soon crash into theaters with talks of "My Projects: The Movie." And let's not forget the props he gives to Homer Blow for uplifting the local scene, highlighting the collective crescendo of a community coming together to lift its own.
Echoing through our discussion is the timbre of thanksgiving—Dee Star's induction into the Milwaukee Hip Hop Museum by curator Antonia Anderson is not just a personal accolade but a testament to his deep-seated commitment to Milwaukee's youth. His passion for empowering the next generation reverberates with every word, stressing the importance of creative support and the potential within Milwaukee's vibrant culture. It's a rallying cry for change and a plea to recognize the untapped talents that walk the city's streets. As Dee Star's story unfolds, it's clear that his music is a vessel for progress, a beat that can't be stopped, and a message of hope for every kid looking for a way to rise above.
When the beat of Milwaukee's streets meets the rhythm of resilience, you get a legacy like Coo Coo Cal's. Our latest chat with the hip-hop maestro Calvin Bellamy, better known as Coo Coo Cal, isn't just any conversation—it's a master class in transforming hardship into harmony. From spinning records at underground parties to climbing the charts with "My Projects, Coo Coo Cal lays down the track of his life, sharing how his early albums laid the foundation for a career that's as much about beats as it is about making a difference. His journey has been a symphony of success and struggle, echoing through the streets from Baton Rouge to Germany and back to Milwaukee, where the city's pulse beats strongest.
There's something inherently cinematic about Coo Coo Cal's story—so much so that it's sparked the creation of "The Rise and Fall of Coo Coo Cal," a documentary that lays bare his trials with addiction and his path to redemption. The idea of giving back rings loud in our conversation as Coo Coo Cal shines a spotlight on local talents and the unwavering support of the Milwaukee hip-hop community. He doesn't just make music; he makes waves that could soon crash into theaters with talks of "My Projects: The Movie." And let's not forget the props he gives to Homer Blow for uplifting the local scene, highlighting the collective crescendo of a community coming together to lift its own.
Echoing through our discussion is the timbre of thanksgiving—Dee Star's induction into the Milwaukee Hip Hop Museum by curator Antonia Anderson is not just a personal accolade but a testament to his deep-seated commitment to Milwaukee's youth. His passion for empowering the next generation reverberates with every word, stressing the importance of creative support and the potential within Milwaukee's vibrant culture. It's a rallying cry for change and a plea to recognize the untapped talents that walk the city's streets. As Dee Star's story unfolds, it's clear that his music is a vessel for progress, a beat that can't be stopped, and a message of hope for every kid looking for a way to rise above.
What's up everybody. This is your host, the Star here, with Kukukal Kukukal man. All right, so check this out. I was just thinking about this. Yesterday I said Milwaukee is like Gotham City right now. Boosie said he's the mayor Right. Shout out to Boosie. Shout out to Boosie man, that's a good dude. Baby Drew said that he's the ghetto hero, the ghetto hero. Baby Drew, most definitely the ghetto hero, the ghetto hero. So would that make you the godfather?
Speaker 2:I'm just Cal man, I'm just Kukuk, running crazy all around this month.
Speaker 1:So for the people that don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2:Well, my name is Calvin Bellamy. It's my government. They call me Kukukal man. I started rapping in 1995. Before the end you know what I'm saying I was a DJ. You know what I'm saying Most of the DJs that's on the radio right now. Back in the day we was doing basement parties together. You know what I'm saying DJing. You know.
Speaker 2:I came out with a record of 2001, a hit record that went national, called my Projects. Before then I had two albums out Before then. The first album I put out was called Game and I'm standing on the checkerboard CD. I think I wish we could have photoshopped. It was out then because that cover was looking kind of crazy. Then my second album, that kind of you know what I'm saying took me to the next level, was called Walking Dead. But the Walking Dead I had a lot of features on there Mac 10, spice One, outlaws it was a few people. I'm getting old y'all, so my memory's kind of bad, forgive me, but yeah, walking Dead was the second album that kind of led to. I was in 1998. And that kind of led to the Projects deal.
Speaker 1:Take us through the journey. You started off in Germany.
Speaker 2:Yep, I started off Actually. Okay, we can go back kind of like the documentary. I was born. I was an army brat. I was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from there I moved to El Paso, texas, from there to Baumhoeder, germany, baumhoeder, germany, richmond, virginia. And then my daddy retired here in Milwaukee, wisconsin, teaching ROTC at UWL, and that's when the streets came involved in my life.
Speaker 1:A lot of the times, when people make it or when people start a music career in rap, they say certain things that's not true, right? So they'll say oh man, I had to hustle to eat, I had to do this, I had to do that. You are like one of the only people that I've ever heard really keep it real and say I didn't have to do that, I didn't have to be in the streets, I had a silver spoon, I went left but I didn't have to.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's true, because you know, like I said, I was an army brat man. You know what I'm saying. I didn't know nothing about the streets till I was like 12, 12 years old when I moved to Milwaukee and I still didn't know nothing about it then. And I stayed out in suburbs when I moved here and I just kept running to the ghetto man, because, you know, I just was curious man.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I really appreciate that, because it's like our parents work hard. You know what I mean To provide and try to put you in a good situation and for them people to turn around and be like well, I had to do this, I had to be like man, where was I? What are you talking?
Speaker 2:about yeah, my mother's, like I said, the documentary. She didn't respect none of that because she was like you you weren't from the projects, I wasn't. You know what I mean. Right by the time that song came out, I couldn't stay out the projects.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I remember you said that your mother didn't respect it until she seen Yon Soul train Yon Soul train.
Speaker 2:She was in love with Don Cornelius, I think. When I was younger I used to see my daddy frowning up every time she on TV looked like she won't make love to the TV. See, don Cornelius.
Speaker 1:With that success of that song, kind of take me through the impact that it had on the city of Milwaukee.
Speaker 2:The impact the city had on me, man. It really tripped me out. Man. It wasn't just a song. It wasn't one of my favorites, like Steve O said in the documentary. It wasn't one of his favorites. It just was a song. Like you know, steve O said I had it in my head. You know what I mean. And then Hank came along with the beat. You know what I'm saying. I had the chorus and stuff in my head for a couple of years and Hank came along with the beat. You know I'm always listening to beats and I just going through stuff that I wrote in my head but never had a track for it to go along with. And Hank came along with that beat. You know I had the opportunity to lay it and first people we pitched was Jive Records. You know what I'm saying. They flew out here a couple of times and then we flew out there and it ended up in Tommy.
Speaker 2:Boy's hands though.
Speaker 1:The song takes off, things start happening really, really fast.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about from day to night, from night to day. Man, I never thought it was. You know, I've always loved the music period. You know what I'm saying. Like I said, I was DJing first and I never thought I'd become a rapper.
Speaker 1:What was your DJ name?
Speaker 2:DJ Cool Calbee. Okay yeah, dj Cool Calbee, that was my DJ name back in the day. Man, I'm going to give a shout out to my man, hip man 2. He's going battling some cancer right now. We used to DJ side by side back in the day with Dr B, the Fresh G's, reggie Browns, all of them. He's going through some stuff right now stage 4 cancer. Big shout out to Hip man, tommy B.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. First of all, shout out to the Milwaukee Hip Hop Museum Big shout out, big, big shout out. They let us come in here, they let us record and they just do an awesome job of curating hip hop, not only just for Milwaukee but for the entire country For the entire country.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm kind of embarrassed because this is my first time here, man, but this is really nice man, really nice man. Y'all got to come check it out. If you from the mill, I don't care where you from, you come to Milwaukee, you got to come check it out, man.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You know we got some of your projects on the wall that you had an opportunity to. Can you tell us a little bit about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, she got up here all of nothing. I think that's when I was mad at the label Infinite, right there.
Speaker 1:Or they was mad at you. They came up with that title.
Speaker 2:We were mad at each other. Yep, Big shout out to Infinite recording Steve.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Steve O.
Speaker 2:Yep, Big shout out. They got the projects the Walking Dead, All or Nothing. Yeah, I think that was the last album I did with Infinite called All or Nothing. I believe that's where the title came from it's going to be All or Nothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, real time. And they said they had the official press release right here for MI Projects.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tommy Boy. Yeah, I actually wasn't signed to Tommy Boy, it was actually Infinite. You know we did a 360. I was signed with Infinite Infinite 4-5. Big shout out to Rafa Smalls and Steve O. Infinite 4-5 recordings.
Speaker 1:Absolutely City of Milwaukee right now kind of turned up. What are some of the biggest differences that you see back then from now?
Speaker 2:The hip hop scene. Man, you got a lot of. I just like music. You know what I'm saying. I believe the only type of music we can do was Country Western. I think I could make a nice Country Western song. You know what I mean. I just like music. 88 Keys, good music. But we got a lot of young cats out right now. You know what I'm saying. Shout out to Blackout Entertainment KB. The Playmaker. You know what I'm saying. It's a lot of young talent out here. Man, that's really good way. My era it was kind of it's saturated. Right now, you know what I'm saying, the game is real saturated, but it's a lot of good talent here in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1:Does anybody stand out to?
Speaker 2:you. It's so many, you know what, I don't want to just name one. I'm going to bring up this interview that me and Drew had with Homer Blow. Shout out, homer Blow.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Homer man. I've been trying to get in contact with Homer man.
Speaker 2:I like Homer and everything that he's doing Yep, and what he's done for the city. You know, in the hip hop period in Milwaukee he's done a lot. Big shout out to Homer Blow. But me and Drew was in an interview with him and so he would ask us both the same question. You know what I'm saying One at a time, and I remember he asked Drew this question first. It's the only question that he didn't ask me Both of us because he started off with Drew and yeah, it's Drew. Like what is one of your favorite songstift? You recorded and drew reply Homer, you got any children? He was like, yeah, how many kids you got? He said like three of them. He said like Like, do you, do you like one of your kids better than the other? Right, right. And he was like no, I love them all the same. Drew said that's how I feel about my music. They all my babies, right, right. So it'll be hard for me to just pick one man. I could just say we got a lot of talent right here in this era.
Speaker 1:Do you pay attention to any of the challenges that they have, because they're remixing your song in my projects and they're doing challenges for it. Do you actually pay attention to those?
Speaker 2:sometime. It usually take my kids to come wake me up. You know what I'm saying and you know like that. You know I'm saying what's going on. I'm getting a little older. Right now I'm still in the music. You know I'm staying. I still stay in the booth, still doing features, still doing shows on the road here and there, but uh, yeah, here and there. You know I pay attention man. I love the new talent. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I love this era, though anybody that that actually did the challenges that any of them stand out to you.
Speaker 2:Not, I mean, they're all good, I mean they're all good. I mean in their own way. And you know it's hard for me to put a Stamp on something, because music is for, you know it's it's it's a market. It's it's a market for you know.
Speaker 2:For any but yeah, for any and everybody. You know what I mean. So it's hard for me to say this I like that, this one better than that one. Because you know, I know it ain't just about my opinion, you know what I mean. Just like I felt like when we did, uh, I didn't think projects was the single. You know what I mean. Actually, when I first came with it, well, I knew it was one of those songs, but I had other songs too that I was. You know I'm saying you know.
Speaker 3:That I was in love with, but uh.
Speaker 2:It is what it is, you know. You know you usually got to wait and let the uh, the public decide you know right.
Speaker 1:So take us through the documentary. Uh, you, you just recently put out a documentary, not too long ago, and um, they kind of chronicles is. It's called the rise and fall of cuckoo cow, all right.
Speaker 2:Shout out to kb. You know I'm saying the playmaker. Shout out the swift motion pictures, stevo, uh, stevo, from infinite, it's just money entertainment. Uh, yeah, we came together, man. Actually, you know, uh, kb came up with the idea Swift. You know what I'm saying. I've I've been in the streets battling drug and alcohol addiction and uh, you know I'm calling swift motion pictures, talking about, uh, you know, cash at me, a hundred dollars. He said, listen, man, you don't stop calling me and telling me to cash out a hundred dollars. He said, tell the camera. And so, uh, from there, you know I'm saying I was driving trucks for amazon man Shepherd trucker here in Milwaukee. Big shout out to snoop. And then we, you know we came together, man, and uh did the documentary man and just kind of told you know I'm saying as much as we could get in. You know it's an hour five minutes long, as much as we can get in there.
Speaker 1:You know I'm saying kind of my life story like I watched it last night and I thought you guys did a great job. But me talking to the playmaker and he said it was a lot more yes, that you guys actually didn't get to, and I was like, man, they actually really did a really good job, uh, but uh, it's really interesting to know that there's still more that you guys Sorry, you guys are gonna do like a part two.
Speaker 2:We're gonna try and probably get a movie together. I really want to get uh, you know, my project's the movie, you know what I'm saying, oh wow. Take it. Take it all the way back.
Speaker 1:Were you supposed to say that? Were you supposed to tell us that?
Speaker 2:Well, uh, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's what I mean, that's what came, that's what he put on my head, I guess.
Speaker 3:Yes, I guess.
Speaker 2:I was supposed to. I guess I was supposed to. Ok so if not, if I find out I ain't supposed to, we can, always we can. Oh yeah we can edit this right.
Speaker 1:Right, ok, we could, we could, but man, that's a huge. That's huge. The in my projects movie Wow, I don't even know what to say. So is that going to be local people here from Milwaukee that's going to be playing these roles, or are you guys going to outsource with celebrities, or how are you going to do that?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm quite sure we'll try to have some people and also celebrities, but that's. That's a couple of steps ahead of me, right there.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, hey, man, you know, you just blew my mind with that, you know. Also, I wanted to ask what's up with the book man, the book.
Speaker 2:I'm too late, it's written in my head. I'm just too lazy, man, I'm lazy. I'd have been wrote it down, man, I'm just lazy. But yet a book is basically. You know what I'm saying. It's following. You know what I'm saying. I mean before the movie. You know what I'm saying. So everything that is as far as the book goes is actually the movie. Right, it's all up here and up here, you know right. Jay Z way.
Speaker 1:That part. So can you tell us a little bit about some of the advocacy that you that's been involved with in the city?
Speaker 2:It's so much stuff of you know doing out I've went and spoke into, you know, a group homes. You know schools here lately I haven't been doing enough. I've been, you know I'm saying, going through a lot just family wise. You know what I'm saying, but I try to stay. You know I'm saying keep my ear to the streets and know, what's going on with the music.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying here in Milwaukee. You know somebody's coming to town like a star. So I'm like Bootsie, just left here the other day, left my guy restaurant Just say it was said the cooking was like we was in Louisiana.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I seen that. Yeah, man that's. And shout out to Bootsie again man, he's a really cool dude and I know he's a good friend of you and Steve, oh, and you guys do a lot of good business with him, so you guys don't have a problem with him saying that he's the mayor.
Speaker 2:No, really our mayor. I got to give him a shout out to our original Milwaukee mayor, his young twine. Young twine yeah shout out young twine, that's the mayor. We call the mayor of Milwaukee man, but we love Bootsie too, man.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Come in. We have two mayors. When he didn't tell.
Speaker 1:You did a song with Twister. Well, you did a couple of songs with Twister. What's your relationship with Twister? Are you guys ever going to collaborate again?
Speaker 2:I love to collaborate with Twister. He's very, very, very talented man. That's probably like one of the first artists that had me in Like you know what I mean. Besides my little big brother, baby Drew. That really had me in awe when I watched him how he came up with his lyrics, writing and everything. Did it right in the hood on 56 in Monarchy at Big Hank House. Man, yep, twister is very talented man, very talented brother. What's your relationship with him? Now? We don't, I mean we don't like kick it like that. I mean as far as if it has anything pertaining to music or something we out of town you know, we'll connect, or something on a show or something like that.
Speaker 2:But you know it ain't like we guys and hang out or nothing like that. But I got much respect for him.
Speaker 1:And one thing I wanted to touch on is your relationship with God. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:I pray every, every. I can't lie to y'all about this. I pray every day. Sometimes I don't know so many times a day. I'm going through so much, which I don't want nobody crying feeling sorry for me, because I know everybody, you know, go through stuff in their life. But yep, I'm a very, very man-fearing God man and you know I stay prayed up man. I believe prayer really works.
Speaker 1:So is there any kind of like words of wisdom or anything that you would tell somebody that's in the yes, keep God in your life. You know that's like, you know just locked up, or you know stuff like that.
Speaker 2:You know pray man you can get. He can get us through anything. One black man opinion I believe. Yeah, god can take you through anything If you still breathe in. It's a reason why you know what I mean. He can get you through it. He's been taking me through it. I've been through something in the trenches so I know it's a God.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man. I think that's really important, man, that we do stay prayed up and we try to do as best that we can for the community and for one another. But before we get out of here, man, is anybody that you want to give a shout out to? I want to give a shout out to. Holy God's clothing, man.
Speaker 2:Holy God's clothing man, they hooked me up with this gear. Man, Y'all better get up on it. Man, Y'all have to hip hop museum. Man, Y'all check it out. 22, 22, 19th Street, man. I'm embarrassed, man, that I'm just not seeing this. Man. I'm supposed to be Everybody giving me all, showing me all this love and Milwaukee on the hip hop scene. This is my first time here, man, but it's real nice man, Y'all got to check it out, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, man. I mean it's on to you man Shout out to Steve O. Shout out to Godfilla.
Speaker 2:KB Burrell. Man, you know what I'm saying. The playmaker man, Blackout entertainment in the trunk records, it's just money entertainment. Swift, most of the pictures Got to give a shout out to my man. Swift man, I know I'm forgetting somebody. Man, big Hank, big shout out to Big Hank. Man, I almost got killed when Project K came out. I forgot to give him a shout out. Man. Man, yeah, we at 106 and I forgot them lights, them cameras and lights got on me. Man, I think it just blanked me out. Man, I couldn't see it, couldn't see it. I couldn't see it, think about nothing, man, absolutely man.
Speaker 1:But thank you, man, we really appreciate you stopping by the program. Man, I appreciate y'all having me. Man, I'm D-Star Until next time, guys. What's up everybody. This is your host D-Star here with Antonia Anderson. Hello, how you doing. Oh, I'm great. How are you? So, for the people that don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 3:I am Antonia Anderson. I'm the CEO and the founder of the Milwaukee Hip Hop Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for allowing us to come here and record and tape and you know, do our thing here. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you for coming and doing your thing here at Milwaukee Hip Hop Museum. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:So what inspired you to start the Hip Hop Museum?
Speaker 3:I currently work for the School Board in Milwaukee, wisconsin, and my previous experience has been working with juveniles that are either in the prison system or already going to you know, going to prison. The work that I do at the school is to try to keep the children in school with their attendance by like home visits and calls, but I just wanted to use Hip Hop as an outlet for the children to be able to express themselves. You know, learn a lot of different things about themselves, like how to be entrepreneurs, writing skills, critical thinking, and I believe that Hip Hop is good for that.
Speaker 1:A universal language at this point, you know being such a popular genre of music, Exactly how long have you been collecting?
Speaker 3:I actually started collecting vinyl albums. I want to say probably 2010, during COVID, about 2019. I believe that I had enough vinyl albums, so then I started getting cassettes, 45s, VHS movies, eight track tapes whatever I can get my hands on pertaining to Hip Hop.
Speaker 1:So did you always have this affinity to collect?
Speaker 3:Yes, my mom is a historian and she always collected stuff like what you see here. She probably has a lot of stuff at her house but her era you know it started like the civil rights movement, which I do have those items too. But yes, I come from my mom collecting and explaining black history and how we need to know our past to carry on to our future.
Speaker 1:So you start collecting, you got. You know, the 80s came. Hip Hop got on the scene. You fell in love with Hip Hop. When did you start collecting hip hop memorabilia?
Speaker 3:I started picking up more hip hop memorabilia in 2019, when I was at home in COVID I already had memorabilia from like Bessie Smith, marie and Anderson. You know a lot of that era. But again I wanted to reach the youth and I really felt again that hip hop would do it. So I say I started about 2019.
Speaker 1:So you said, hey, I wanna really help the youth and I'm gonna use hip hop as a vehicle to bridge that gap. What was the first piece of Milwaukee memorabilia that you collected?
Speaker 3:There were some folks that donated some things to me. Some of the names are J Bella Baby Drew King Kamarzy.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Baby Drew.
Speaker 3:All right, of course, arrested Development. So some of those folks brought in their things and then I start going on eBay and whatever I could do to collect other items. And I also have a shout out for Darryl D. He's a DJ from Milwaukee, lives in Arizona, but he has sent me a lot of items out of his collection. I have a lot more thanks to Darryl D.
Speaker 1:Are you open to people giving you donations?
Speaker 3:Definitely because Milwaukee's right now is like at its height of hip hop here and it's kind of hard to find do the streaming. It's hard to find a lot of the items that you can see, like cassettes and CDs, because, believe it or not, a lot of people didn't hold on to those. So when you go to get them from Milwaukee they're very expensive and they're like coming from Europe, overseas and everywhere. So I do definitely always take donations.
Speaker 1:Who are some of the notable people that have stopped in and visited the museum?
Speaker 3:Well, thanks to you, d-star, I have had Pimpin' Ken, I've had Baby Drew, I've had Kukukal and recently, Party at four. Exactly exactly.
Speaker 1:Shout out to party.
Speaker 3:It stinks to you, you know, because again some people have come here, I've had events and it's getting ready to pick up. But you know, if you don't have that direct connection, you know Milwaukee is kind of hard, and then we got Godzilla.
Speaker 1:Zilla yup, shout out to Godzilla.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love him. Godzilla came in and I know he's also instrumental in the background of getting people to help me as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Steve-O, Exactly.
Speaker 3:Steve-O, Steve-O, shout out to KB Playmaker and the Playmaker yup.
Speaker 1:They're great Milwaukee hip-hop figures for a very long time, Exactly exactly.
Speaker 3:And they're doing big things, you know, and they're not just doing it for themselves, they're bringing in young artists, which is incredible.
Speaker 1:What is your ultimate goal for the hip-hop museum?
Speaker 3:Well, my ultimate goal is to definitely have the museum in another building where it could be open, you know, around the clock during the weekend, on the weekends, and also this year I will start doing a travel pop-up museum where I probably will be going to different places definitely the South and just popping up with exhibits and giving information, probably at colleges, schools, you know, wherever I'm deemed necessary.
Speaker 1:If anybody hasn't said this to you let me be the first one to say thank you. This is something that really is really near and dear to my heart and the city of Milwaukee, so to have someone take the time out to actually not only embrace the older artists but the newer artists also, so we can have that history, is very important.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Ken, when you thank me. I have to thank you because you have brought a lot of folks and a lot of information. It's kind of like we're not doing the exact same thing, but we're on the mission to help these youth and even those that are incarcerated. I too have family that's incarcerated, have a son right now that's incarcerated, and you know it's a whole different picture, but we're trying to prevent that by any means necessary and right now hip hop is still universal and it's a way of getting that through. So, even what you're thanking me, I have to thank you too, because you are allowing their voices to be heard when, again, a lot of them, their voice is not heard when they're incarcerated.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate that. Thank you, you know, I do what I can. Thank you.
Speaker 3:So, because you have been so instrumental, I would like to present you D-Star with this award out of the box podcast To be in the museum is going to be on display. I'm going to go find something really nice to put it in because I appreciate your efforts. A lot of people say a lot of things but you know I go by actions and I noticed in the short amount of time your actions have kind of proceeded. Most of the people here in Milwaukee was constant, so I appreciate you and I want to induct you into the Milwaukee Hip Hop Museum with this award.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate that. Thank you so much. Thank you, so thank you to you, thank you to the to the city of Milwaukee. I really appreciate it. I was actually born in Milwaukee but I wasn't raised here, but I always felt deep connection to Milwaukee and a sense of like I want to come home and I want to affect the youth and be a part of the community. So this award means so much to me. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you, and it's going to mean a lot. It's another story that I could tell the youth when they come through and then we're going to work together and let them know that they can express themselves on your show or their family that may be incarcerated or coming back, transitioning into the community, so we can try our best to you know, we're not going to prevent anyone from going to jail, but we can make those numbers less. You know, if we reach, reach them now, while we have a chance.
Speaker 1:So what is your message to the city of Milwaukee?
Speaker 3:I also was one of those lost children back in the day and nobody came to my aid and gave me any information that I could use. It was through my experiences and hard knocks and raising children that I realized I had to do it myself. But I would just encourage them to do better with the funding that they have. Utilize the youth more, because there are future. Utilize the youth, you know. Let them bring their creative juices and just start things. You know some of the things that been going on for a while. Is it's time for change? You know just a lot of youth to come and don't do what they need to do.
Speaker 1:What are the biggest changes that you've seen from the youth in Milwaukee, from how they used to be to where they are now, because I know that you work with the youth and have been working with them for some time. What is the temperature in Milwaukee as far as the youth?
Speaker 3:working in the school district that they are kind of turning up a bit. But again, you know they have adults that need to bring in what's going to bring out their strength. You know they're still trying the same methods they did back when I was in high school. You know they need to bring something new, to get something new. So, even though I see the youth, you know, because there's a lot of dealing cars doing this and doing that but they need to put more into the community for the youth. It's really not a lot out here for the youth. I would just hope that they would see that. And, you know, just put some more things in for the youth to do.
Speaker 1:And you know it's another brand of a great brand that advocates for the youth is Holy God's clothing. Thank you so much to Holy God's clothing for all that they do, not only for our Out of the Box podcast and the Milwaukee Hip Hop Museum, but for the youth. We really appreciate you, the owner, kingston Robinson, we really appreciate that. Brother Guys, go to holy guyscom get some of the merch. It's great quality. As you see, I got it on.
Speaker 3:She got it on. I love it, I love it, I love it. Kingston and actually Kingston will be the next person that's going to get awarded here in the museum. Yes, dropping just bombs right now.
Speaker 1:So what's next for the museum? If people want to donate, if people want to come see the museum, if you they have a nonprofit and they want to have tours here with their youth groups or anything like that, how can they get in contact with you?
Speaker 3:My website is Milwaukee hip hop pop up dot com. You know, they can either go to the website, they can text me, they can call me 414-7501873. It's the Milwaukee Hip Hop Museum.
Speaker 1:Well, I really, really appreciate you and everything you do for us and for the city of Milwaukee. Thank you so much. Thank you, I'm D-Star Until next time, guys.