you
They have some amazing specials on Tuesday for Taco Tuesday.
Shout out to everyone who is driving home from work.
Hope that you all had an amazing, amazing day today.
I hope that everyone listening right now who didn't have an amazing day, I hope that the next three hours give you something to think about, something to laugh about, something to take with you, and maybe even something to challenge you.
Please do not forget to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel, 101.7 The Truth.
Follow me on social media, the Jazzy Effect, that's T-H-E-J-A-Z-Z-I-E-E-F-F-E-C-T.
Today's show is one of those shows where we are not just reading headlines, we are going underneath the headline.
We are talking about culture, we are talking about identity, and we are talking about, most importantly, Milwaukee.
We are talking about how people respond.
when black culture is celebrated, criticized, controlled, commercialized, or misunderstood.
And we are going to ask some questions today that might make some people uncomfortable, and you know what?
Quite frankly, that is okay.
That is what we are here to do, right?
Challenge the status quo.
Every good conversation does not need to make everybody comfortable.
Sometimes the point is not comfort.
Sometimes the point is clarity.
Sometimes the point is making people examine a belief they have never actually questioned before.
Before we get into anything else though, I want to give you my daily affirmation.
Shout out to my students at Howard Fuller today.
Every day we do the daily affirmations and today they have some good affirmations, baby.
Let me tell you and it inspired me so much.
So mine today is I refuse to shrink what God has placed inside of me just because my presence make somebody else uncomfortable I'm gonna say that again because somebody's driving from home right now needs to hear this we Truth nation we refuse to shrink what God has placed inside of us just because our presence makes someone else uncomfortable
We are not shrinking our voice.
We are not shrinking our personality.
We are not shrinking our culture.
We are not shrinking our purpose.
We are not shrinking our ambition or creativity.
Most definitely, we are not shrinking the truth.
And I'm definitely not changing who I am just to make somebody else feel more powerful standing next to me.
And I think that affirmation fits today's conversation perfectly because so much of what we are talking about this first hour comes down to comfort.
How comfortable are you?
What version of black culture makes people so uncomfortable?
What version of black expression makes people so uncomfortable?
What version gets celebrated?
What version gets policed?
Who decides that?
And what standard are they using?
And here's what we're getting into today.
So we're going to start off.
If you guys are on social media, I'm pretty sure you have seen all of the rhetoric about the garage, the bar titled the garage on Brady Street and the no playlist that started circulating around social media.
We are talking about that line that says no Milwaukee rap and we are not stopping at whether people are offended.
We are going to ask whether a business has the right.
to shape its atmosphere.
We are going to ask whether a content policy is different from a cultural policy.
We are going to ask whether you can reject certain parts of hip-hop without rejecting hip-hop as a culture, hip-hop culture as a whole.
And then we are moving on to the Brewer's Black Cultural Fest, because the Brewer's intentionally created an event to celebrate Black culture, but...
Underneath some of that promotion, there are some racial stereotypes that started appearing in the comments.
So the question becomes, what doesn't mean when people love the event, but disrespect the people the event is celebrating?
I have to give a huge shout out.
to the Brewers Foundation, Katina Shaw, she actually joined us a couple of months ago, and we had an amazing conversation, and she's doing some amazing work over there, and I don't want negative comments by pricks to outshine the work that her and her staff is doing, as well as Reneal Washington.
Shout out to Reneal, he also was involved in
that Black cultural fest and he gifted 25 tickets free of charge to our Howard Fuller, Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy students for them to attend and experience what it's like to attend an event like that that celebrates Black culture.
And then we are going to bring those two stories together and ask a bigger question about Milwaukee.
Does Milwaukee embrace Black culture or only the parts of Milwaukee, Black Milwaukee?
To be specific, Milwaukee feels comfortable consuming.
At five o'clock, we are going to change the tone, but we are staying in the same larger conversation about community.
I will be sitting down talking with LWSW.
I'm sorry about Milwaukee, our biggest free library.
And I really want you to stay with us for that hour because we are not just promoting a book giveaway.
We are talking about literacy.
We are going to talk about children having access to books.
We are going to talk about why some families don't necessarily have shelves full of books sitting around the house.
We are going to talk about community investment, right?
I know y'all seen.
the viral video of the teacher in, I believe it was Texas, who was expressing himself, right?
This is a black man who's a teacher and he was shedding some tears over the fact that his students did not know how to read at the grade level that they were at.
So when we're talking about literacy, we're talking about books, this isn't just something that you need to skip over.
This is something that has to be done by not just the household or the schools, but the community overall.
We're talking about what happens when nonprofits, businesses, and people doing grassroots work actually collaborate instead of waiting for a crisis.
And then at six o'clock, we are going to Las Vegas to cover the Tupac Shakur murder trial.
I purposely have not been covering it for specific reasons, but the more information that comes out, I have to do it for the culture.
If we're talking about hip hop and we're talking about black culture, there is no way we cannot talk about
about the Tupac Shakur murder trial.
We're going to talk about Idi Amin, one of the members of the outlaws taking the stand.
We're going to talk about what the jury is hearing.
We're going to talk about testimonies and we're going to talk about the prosecutor's case, the defense position and why nearly 30 years later, this case is still resonated with people all over the world.
Then before we leave, we're coming back to Wisconsin politics.
David Crowley, Tom Tiffany, the race for governor.
What both men represent.
what Milwaukee voters should be paying attention to.
So we are going from culture to literacy to legacy to politics.
That's the full of Tuesday.
Now let's start with the garage.
If you have been on social media, you've probably seen a version of this.
There's a list that circulated.
Uh, the outline music DJs were not supposed to play at this specific bar titled the garage on Brady Street.
Here's where the conversation immediately got sensitive.
This wasn't just a list saying no explicit songs This wasn't just a list saying no songs about gun violence in name the artist and then there was a phrase No Milwaukee rap and that phrase it is what made a lot of people upset Because you can say you don't like a particular song you can even say that you don't like a particular artist You can also say that a certain record doesn't fit
the type of establishment that you have.
We just had this conversation last week with Joe Tucker, the dream lounge that he has on MLK.
And we talked about the type of music he plays and the type of atmosphere that he wants, right?
And the reason why I bring that up is because there is a way to celebrate Black culture, right?
Without discriminating.
When you say no Milwaukee rap you are not talking about one song you are not even talking about one artist You are talking about an entire local music scene.
You are talking about the city overall You are talking about the culture of the city and now I do want to be fair because the garage has that that establishment has responded
Ownership says they did not authorize that list.
They say it was created by an employee.
They say the consignor was supposed to be music with references to guns and violence because the establishment wanted to maintain a more relaxed atmosphere.
And let me say this before anybody accused me of ignoring the business side.
Businesses absolutely have the right to shape their environment first and foremost.
As a business owner, I will tell you that.
If I own a jazz lounge, I can say that I want just jazz.
If I want, if I own a restaurant, I can say I don't want explicit music playing while families are eating dinner.
If I own a club, I can decide what type of crowd and atmosphere I am attempting to create.
That alone is not discrimination.
A business having a music policy is not automatically a problem, but here is where the issue lies.
If your concern is violent content, then why not write a policy about violent content?
If your concern is gun references, why not say no songs glorifying gun references, right?
Gun violence.
If your concern is aggressive music, define what you mean by aggressive music.
Why identify entire artists?
And why add no Milwaukee rap?
Because let me tell you what happens when you do that.
You take individual behavior and you turn it into a group identity and that is a problem.
And the history of this state has taught us that whenever society starts doing that, somebody gets stereotyped.
We are all too familiar with this Milwaukee.
We have been through this, uh, even back in the day when I used to go out to the clubs and they say you can't wear white t-shirts twice the size or baggy jeans and all of these things, right?
So there's just finding new ways to basically discriminate and we're going to get into this further.
But first we got to go to break brother Z. Let's go pay some bills.
Do not touch that down.
She grew up jazz
Tyler.
We are live and direct at the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth in the beautiful heart of downtown Milwaukee at the American family insurance studio and listen There's there's a business talking about no Milwaukee music.
That means no bow, right?
That means they need to bow their ass on the bottom Brady Street if they talking about no Milwaukee music, right?
Welcome back shout out to the chat Marty says a certain music
Certain crowd music dictate the crowd 90% of the time That is true, Marty for those who are joining us.
We are talking about the viral list that that's going around on social media about the garage stating that they don't want any not just Hip-hop or rap period not only did they say that but they also mentioned that they did not want any Milwaukee rap and then they had an entire list of the artists
I'm thinking legal aspects, is that even legal?
To put out a list of exact artists that you do not want, who music you do not want played inside of your establishment.
Marty also said people invest in money to make money, not to be shut down for bottom feeders.
Black people refuse to change.
The way they walk, talk, move, worship, and deliver is so sad.
Every day on social media and Instagram, our little girls are taught how to hate and fight while grown people record.
And you know what, Marty?
I agree.
However, that still does not give an establishment the right to discriminate against what type of music is played.
Now, I do understand again.
I do understand the dynamics when we're talking about an atmosphere because even myself at 38, I don't go to the club anymore, right?
I don't.
But let's be clear.
If I was the generation under me attempting to go and have a good time, I would not want to be placed in the same category as people that's out here acting a fool.
Because when you go to these festivals and you see white people they be acting a fool too.
So should we ban them from certain festivals?
Let's be fair across the board.
Every Milwaukee rapper does not have the same sound.
Every Milwaukee rapper is not talking about the same thing.
Every Milwaukee artist is not glorifying violence.
You have artists talking about survival, artists talking about relationships, artists talking about fatherhood, artists talking about mothers.
They make club records, conscious records.
They make music about poverty.
They make music about aspiration.
Artists making music because they are simply trying to entertain people for three minutes.
And let's be clear, because if we're talking about gun violence, where do we get it from?
The founding fathers of this country.
Everything that black people do is a reflection of their oppressor of our oppressor.
Let's be clear, right?
So we talking about we don't want the gun violence and all of that.
Hey, naturally by DNA, we are not violent people, right?
We are not.
All in all, it's just flat out wrong.
Again, as a business owner, you can determine whatever you want, but you cannot discriminate, right?
Are we saying Milwaukee rap itself?
is dangerous.
Are we saying the entire genre coming out of this city represent a threat to an atmosphere because that's a bigger statement than saying we don't want violent lyrics and not to mention.
Let's be clear.
I want you to understand something here because there's a lot of people that don't listen to Milwaukee rap and that is completely fine.
But as someone who has been a part of Milwaukee history as an artist, if you know, you know, I have contributed to
The music scene that you guys have seen, that you guys see here today.
So has Meach, so has Ray Nitty, so has many other people.
We have worked our asses off, including the DJs.
The Homer Blows, right?
The new styles.
Knowledge when he was back on V100.7.
There are so many people involved who have paved the way to make sure that the artist today has a voice and has a platform.
So for an organization to say, hey, no Milwaukee rap, it's like a slap in the face.
Especially at a time where our number one artist is currently locked up over allegations, right?
Somebody who has literally put the city on his back.
You have this list going viral all over social media and what that does is it forces people on the outside in the music industry to not want to entertain Milwaukee artists What that is showing is that our own city don't support our artists
They don't know that this establishment is on Brady Street.
They don't know that this establishment is not owned by black people.
Well, right now they probably do because there is an issue about discrimination.
However, the fact of the matter is we've already had a history when it comes to being discriminated against going inside of establishments downtown in one Brady Street.
We've already had a history of it being difficult for the artists that's coming out of Milwaukee to get any type of support from the city, let alone step a foot into the industry, the music industry, for one organization to say, we don't want this kind of music.
And again, you can determine what you want your establishment to feel like, right?
But how about this?
How about if we galvanize and gather
Our white allies and say hey Nobody should support the garage right black people.
We ain't going in there anyways But let's let's get our white allies and say hey you guys want to support us don't go No, but I'm saying after this situation yeah, like after this situation Especially because it's saying no Milwaukee rap
We're probably like, our people are probably like, man, we good.
It's enough places for us to go, right?
We don't have to go to your establishment, but what's gonna happen when we hit them pockets, big baby?
What's gonna happen, right?
This is a conversation that the other person of that district and that board, I actually was going to be on the Brady Street board because of reasons like this.
But I was not living in the city of Milwaukee at the time.
This is a much bigger issue than this establishment putting out a fake-ass Apology saying that hey we it wasn't us it was the employee if I was that employee I leave because at the end of the day your employee represents you and If they put that out you can't tell me that they didn't feel comfortable There was anything that make them made them uncomfortable before they decided to put that list out, right?
Here's the part I want us to be grown enough to admit.
We understand that hip-hop can be criticized.
Black culture can be criticized.
Everything black people create is not automatically beyond criticism simply because we created it.
There are records I don't like.
There are lyrics I don't agree with.
There are messages in music that I don't think are healthy for our children.
There are songs glorifying violence.
There are songs degrading women.
There are songs glorifying drugs and we should be able to talk about all of those things, honestly.
But honest criticism has to remain honest.
It can't turn into the entire culture is a problem.
Because that's where you cross into something else, right?
That's when you cross into something else.
Can you imagine not that it matters?
Because I'm sure they get booked.
I know for a fact they get booked.
far beyond Milwaukee, right?
But can you imagine being one of those artists?
And let's say it was an artist like Lil Boosie who loves Milwaukee, right?
He loves coming here.
He loves supporting Milwaukee.
He always shouts us out.
And then there's an organization that says, hey, we don't want any of his music played here and it's circulating all around social media.
That can make a person never want to step a foot back into the city of Milwaukee, right?
It's funny how you can say you don't want to include black culture or hip hop culture in your establishment, but you love to make money off of it, right?
Y'all, they love making money off the culture, culture vultures.
Love making money off of it.
But it's OK for us to come in there and pay to get in and buy drinks and buy food.
But we can't have our culture cannot be a part of it.
That is a problem.
That is a problem.
And we all know that there's going to be some black people that's like, I don't care, I'ma still go.
That's gonna happen.
But at the end of the day, my advice to you is, if you don't start now standing for something, it's going to be a ripple effect.
They're showing us that they don't care.
They've been showing us.
Again, we've been through this multiple times when it comes to the attire.
Back in the days when we used to club, I believe it was Bar Louie Brothers.
It was a few bars on a water street that did not allow us to come in and dress a certain type of way based off of the fact that we are black.
No baggy jeans, no baggy t-shirts, right?
No tennis shoes.
And they enforce these rules.
For no other reason other than the fact is they didn't want us a part of their establishment So here's my opening question to you true nation chime in a 3 3 2 1 2 1 0 1 7 Can you reject certain parts of hip-hop without rejecting the culture?
I think the answer is yes.
That's my personal opinion You can dislike violent lyrics and still respect hip-hop.
You can dislike one artist and still respect Milwaukee music scene You can dislike
certain songs and still not say, hey, I hate hip hop overall.
You can say a particular record doesn't fit your business without making the statement that Milwaukee rap itself doesn't belong there.
And I want people listening to ask themselves something.
If that list had said no Chicago house music, how would that have landed?
If it said no reggae, no Latin music, no country music, how would that have been taken?
So why is no Milwaukee rap supposed to be interpreted differently?
Again, ownership says the list wasn't authorized.
I don't believe that.
I don't believe that.
Either way, the public still has the right to ask how that list came into existence to begin with, right?
Hello.
So to put out that apology is insane.
To put out that apology saying otherwise is insane We're gonna finish this conversation when we come back.
I want to hear from you a 3 3 2 1 2 1 0 1 7 How are you truly feeling about this?
It should grow jazz Tyler do not touch that down
It's your girl, Jazz
Tyler.
I'm here, ma'am.
I was just driving home and I heard you.
talking about dress codes and how it's discriminatory or practice to suggest certain dress codes or certain music.
Listen, I've been in a lot of states and dress codes is enforced.
And guess what?
In some areas, ain't no black folks, but it's still a dress code.
You know, you get downtown Miami, you get in New York.
You know, in some places, it's a dress code, you know?
I mean, it's like going to a store, no shirt, no shoes, no service.
And I'll tell you something, you know, I look at baddies every Sunday.
That's my little entertainment deal, you know, I watch them.
I don't got to learn in the carriages after a while.
But the more I watch it, the more I see the contaminant.
the contamination that is putting on our people.
So, you know, I really hate to, but I'm going to have to counsel my subscription to Zeus.
And guess what?
If them people don't want your butt in that club, they don't want to play your music.
Oh, well, you know, and it's not going to hurt their pockets.
And let me tell you that you say hit them in the pocket.
Them people don't even want our money, babe.
They don't want our money.
They want us to stay away from that is what they want.
See, that pocket thing only works on certain deals.
But in cases like that, in restaurants, they don't want our money.
They want us to stay away from their period.
You see what just happened at the State Fair?
When I was coming up, the State Fair was an all-white affair.
No blacks hardly ever went to the State Fair.
I went to the State Fair one time, and I think it was probably four other black people on the whole grounds.
Our thing was the summer fest.
We had the midway out there.
They had the same thing at the state fair would be at the summer fest.
As a matter of fact, they had some more slicker, but you know, the state fair was more 4-H and all of that kind of stuff.
So they went out there last week and you see how they acted real ugly.
So I'm going to just tell you like this.
And I love my people.
I work for them every day.
But the thing is this right here, if they don't want you in there, stay away from there because they don't, they really don't want you in there.
to tell you the truth and to change the music and I tell anybody if you can open up a club and you don't want that young crowd please some blues man put you some blues or some jazz on in your club and they're gonna come in and look and then they're gonna hang out then they're gonna leave unless they enter over the ladies or something like that or ladies into a younger you know uh you know something like that other than that put you on some blues or some jazz and then folks ain't coming up in there man with them sagging pants man that culture that you're talking about
It's really a bad eye on us right now.
And I don't know what we're going to do to fix it.
Cosmetically, it's ugly.
So I'll sit back and listen to
Thank you so much, Winky Blue.
You know what?
I agree to a certain degree.
I agree that we don't have to spend our funds there.
We don't have to support the establishment.
We don't have to do any of that.
But it still does not give an establishment the right to target Milwaukee artists.
That's my argument.
My argument isn't.
Whether or not our like we we know that our house is not clean when it comes to the hip-hop culture, right?
We understand that it still does not give them a right to Target an entire culture in the city of Milwaukee, right?
They're targeting all of the artists who have done the work who are trying to whether or not their music is music that is appealing that's for their generation
We have these conversations all the time.
Do we want them to make better music?
Yes.
But again, when you say rap, instantly we go to thinking about violence.
Ray Nitty's song isn't rap.
Much about violence.
Much more music isn't about violence.
Right, there's so many artists here who don't make music about violence.
So we're not just talking about they're not Categorizing just the violent music.
They're not saying we don't want any violent Milwaukee rap.
They're saying we don't want Milwaukee rap period That's including people who have paved the way cuckoo cow.
They don't want in my projects They don't want baby Drew.
They don't want bow.
They don't want Any of the dance music that a lot of the artists make that is a problem
We have another caller on the line.
Security Mike, are you there?
Yes, I'm here, Jack.
Just so they don't seem like they don't want nothing from us because we do have a lot of positive rappers out here and music as well.
And it just goes to show that, like, they don't want nothing from us.
As far as it, they don't even want to vote.
They don't want our vote.
And that caller, Winky, he voted for Trump.
When Trump don't even want to vote, he don't want us to vote.
You see what I'm saying?
So it's just not right.
All I know that if we don't like the Democrats, everybody got to vote one way.
Otherwise, Trump and them don't try to take us down.
Yes, ma'am.
How you doing?
Okay, yeah, listen to your topic and it's crazy Memphis and we're going through the same thing like they don't play no push ice here
everything is going on Everything is going on in the city cuz they be know the drill scene.
They be really talking they be dissing and sending out hits to the music So they don't play.
No Shai said no stupid dude.
No money bag
And Memphis kind of went through there back in the 90s when I was coming up with 3C's Mafia.
They didn't play a hotel club, but none of
So did they do it in a way where it was like, hey, we don't want to.
So OK, what you're saying to me sounds like they're trying to avoid wars, right?
Especially when you have artists of that statue that still lives in the city.
So to a certain degree, I can understand that.
But to ban an entire culture.
From being played in the establishment and saying not just them, but what about the other types?
What about the other types of music that are being played, you know?
Yeah, because I think recently Yo Gotti restaurant his mom raised the age something like 40 40 and up
Yeah, and a lot of those guys have you know some issues in the streets So either way, I just don't agree with an establishment saying that they don't want any of
the rap music, because now you're categorizing everybody.
You're putting every artist from that area into one box, saying that they all make the same type of music.
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.
Yeah, if you're going to ban drill, I can see that, but not just put it all in one bag to like all rap is real music or gangster music or something like that.
Yeah, they shouldn't do that.
But I think a lot of cities are going towards that trend.
I know Nashville.
They have a lot of clubs now.
It's like, uh, 40, no, 15, no.
So they have a lot, a lot of cities trying to go on with their training, trying to cut out the real for L.
You know, I'm here.
Man, thank you so much for giving us the platform.
I'm so sick of black people trying to insert themselves where we are not wanted.
Instead of showing up our own and making sure that we have rules and regulations, community norms in place, as well as the consequence when you violate those community norms, we're going to continue to experience the same thing that our grandparents and great grandparents did.
And I just think it's a mentality that we have where we're itching to be accepted, to be wanted, to be wanted by white folks.
I've owned the bar before.
Guess what?
I didn't play Hunky Tunk music because it wasn't a Hunky Tunk bar.
And if that means I need to put a specific artist name on it that makes the people go crazy whenever this Hunky Tunk song come on.
Damn it.
I'll put up a name on it.
And I don't think that there's a problem with it.
I think that the problem is us.
not realizing that that's really just code for we don't want you.
But it shouldn't be a problem.
This is America.
That's what I'm saying.
We're children, so you don't want us, but we want to protest so that we can come and give you our money because you told us you don't want us.
It's a sick mentality we have.
This is my stance, right?
And I understand it at all different angles as a business owner, as someone who is an artist, as someone who has been and is a part of hip hop culture.
I don't think that this in particular, as far as us, the people, black people, I don't think that we're necessarily saying we want to be a part of it.
We're not saying that we want them to accept us.
We're saying that what you did was wrong.
Period.
Putting out that list and targeting Milwaukee artists is wrong and wrong is wrong It's not a matter of them accepting us.
It's not a matter of us wanting to be a part of whatever they have but let's be clear we should Be able to go wherever we please and have a good time We should be able to go wherever we please in this city and have a good time right end of discussion
That's just what it is to publicly come out and make a list like that.
You are you are showing us that you are discriminating against us, right?
That's what you're showing us.
Some of us don't even go there.
Some of the people that reside in Milwaukee do not go to this establishment.
However, again, they're not just talking about one song or one artist.
They are talking about an entire culture.
And with the entire culture, people have to understand that we have to defend our culture.
Yes, this is personal for me.
You know why?
Because before you see a lot of these female rappers in this city, I was out there busting my butt to make sure that they could rap on stage, to make sure that they songs could get played in the clubs before it was even allowed.
This is back when they, when they wasn't even allowing female rappers like that to perform around here.
You understand?
They was not playing our songs in the club or on the radio.
There was a lot of work and I. There was a lot of work that went into building the Milwaukee music scene.
To get us notice.
A lot of us here, that's all we have.
That's all we have.
I am a teacher who teaches music.
I teach this.
To 80 to 90 students a day And when I'm sitting with these teenagers and I'm seeing the things that they're facing outside of school This is the only outlet that they got This is all they have this maybe everybody can't play basketball everybody can't play football Everybody is not a gymnast or everybody don't want to do here
A lot of these youth, all they have is music.
That is the only way they know how to express themselves.
That is the only ticket that they see for them to feed their families.
So when we're talking about Milwaukee rap, I'm not just looking at the people who make that type of music.
I'm looking at, again, the Ray Nitties, the Mush Lawrence, the students who don't even have a chance based off of this.
All they're doing is trying to express themselves and make music and be successful and stay out of harm's way.
And then you see something like this and hey, what's the point of doing it if this is the type of slander that we are going to get overall?
So again, you cannot think in a subjective manner.
We're not talking about just, I call it serial killer music.
I don't listen to it either.
But we're not just talking about that.
When you say Milwaukee rap, that's all artists.
Hip hop, R&B rap, all of it.
We're gonna finish this conversation when we come back from break and
should grow jazz, Tyler.
One-on-one,
Yeah, we playing Milwaukee music all day.
Y'all know what time it is.
If you are just now joining us, we are talking about this list that was made by the garage and establishment located on Brady Street, who stated not only did they not want hip hop music and begin to list industry artists, they specifically targeted the hip hop rap culture.
here in Milwaukee by saying that they do not want any Milwaukee artists' music played.
We have a caller on the line, Paul, are you there?
Yeah, hi, Jazz.
How you doing?
You know, usually I'm right there with you.
I find you to be a very insightful young lady.
But I got to ask you this question.
And I'm trying to simplify this thing.
Does
this man have a right in his club to govern what goes on in that club?
Respect.
Respect got to go both ways.
Absolutely.
There are plenty of venues out there for the hip hop culture.
But if this man decides that he don't want it,
And his establishment, I try to look at it from left, right, up and down.
He has that right.
we have to respect it.
And thank you for the compliments.
And I'm not sure when you joined, but I did mention that at the beginning of the hour that people who have businesses absolutely have the right to determine how they want it, even me.
I don't even go to clubs that play rap music anymore, but that's because I'm older.
I like R&B.
I don't necessarily believe that a business owner is wrong for saying, hey, this is the environment, but it's how you go about doing it, right?
When we have black establishments and I know black club owners, if they get tired of the riffraff and the chaos and confusion, they don't go public saying, hey, we're not playing this music.
They just changed the age.
Now we're saying you have to be 30 or older to get in, right?
There are certain things that's changed, that they changed.
To publicly put a list out and target specific artists saying that we don't want their music is discrimination.
And Wright is right and Wong is wrong.
He could have went about it a different way.
You know, I think we got a lot of battles out there to fight.
And I think we got to pick them a little better.
That
is true as well.
Everybody's got a right to their opinion.
But if I was running a business, I'm going to run it my way.
Absolutely.
We've got to stop being so sensitive today.
There's so many reasons out there for us to get angry and frustrated.
Let that man run his business the way you want to run and go somewhere else.
I, you know, I agree with you, Paul, on, on what you're saying.
And again, I do believe also, thank you so much for tapping in with us.
I do believe that again, um, any a step in business owner has the right to say, Hey, I don't want this in my establishment.
And that is completely fine.
Right.
They can determine what type of atmosphere they want.
But what I do want to say.
to the generation that's not tapped in with the Milwaukee music scene.
I want you guys to understand something.
Imagine that this was the 1970s.
And they say, we don't want no, you know, Rick James playing in here, right?
Or James Brown.
We don't want any of that kind of music being played in this establishment.
Or if it was the 80s,
And they say, hey, we don't want, you know, NW, whatever the case may be, take yourself back to when you were the young people age who's a part of this music industry.
And first and foremost, you have to understand, again, that it's not about being accepted.
We absolutely have plenty of places to go throughout this entire city.
But again, when you are...
purposely blasting a specific group publicly.
There is no way that you cannot expect for us to respond, especially when we have worked so hard to try and gain some type of attention.
Once again, we're not just talking Milwaukee music.
Milwaukee rap is not just all about violence.
There are so many amazing artists.
who make great music, wave, chappelle, conscious rapper, classic.
Come on out.
We have some amazing hip hop artists here.
So when you say that, that includes them as well.
Not just the ones who make music about violence and so on and so on.
What they're doing is setting a trend.
And that's what I'm trying to get all of you to understand.
It's bigger than just.
Hey, let's not do anything because this generation, this is theirs.
This is their time.
We all have had our time.
This is their time.
So when you put something like that out there, this then starts to make other businesses and establishments feel as if they can treat us a certain type of way.
So if we don't stand up and say, hey, all right, cool, hands up.
I'm good.
I don't have to ever step a foot back into your establishment.
But at the end of the day, what you're not going to do is target our music.
You're not going to target our artists.
This is a ripple effect.
This is something that happens so many times and has happened so many times in the history of Milwaukee.
So again, it's not about the fact that, hey,
We want to be a part of your establishment.
When you go out of your way to publicly discriminate against a genre, a culture, that is a problem because we can never do that.
If we say, hey, if we create a, we have an establishment and we say, hey, we're not going to play Sabrina Carpenter.
We don't want to play certain types of music here.
That'll be a problem at a black establishment.
So all I'm saying is people can run their business how they want to but when you publicly Discriminate that's a problem.
You cannot expect us not to respond.
We have another caller on the line brother.
Love.
Are you there?
Yes, yes, are you doing today?
see they got you, I see they got you fired
know, you make good music and you very musically inclined.
So they better leave, they better bag up.
love her music.
there's,
feel?
I think, as long as the students can comprehend and understand they're teaching the music, I think that'll be beneficial.
We need more people to teach music and teach these kids the music industry and stuff like that.
I think that will help.
So we can just stay in that lane and foster and encourage that.
We look.
Thank you so much, Brother Love, for continuing to tap in with me.
Listen, this is obviously
You know, it's a big deal to some is not to some it is Again, I'll just say that for me personally I Don't look at this in a subjective manner because I understand what music has done for me in my life Right.
I am a part of Milwaukee rap music Right.
I started at the age of 12 in 12 and got into the industry at 15 and because
I was able to do that.
Homer Blow introduced me to Smalls, who just passed away, who then introduced me to someone else in the industry, took me out of Milwaukee, and gave me an opportunity.
If we did not have Milwaukee rap music, I would not be sitting here on this radio station today.
So I want y'all to understand that.
It's bigger than just a few artists that y'all thinking about or judging.
We're talking about an entire culture that we have spent hours, days, sacrificing time to put in work so that the generation that is making this music now can make the music that they make and have the opportunities that they have.
If it was not for a Milwaukee rap music, there would not be no Jazz Tyler.
I would not be sitting across from this microphone.
So I want you guys to understand how serious this is and the fact that they are targeting.
The Milwaukee rap culture.
Again, not every rapper makes negative music.
You cannot bunch us all in the same boat.
We have to go to break.
When we come back, we are switching gears, but don't go nowhere.
We are going to continue this conversation at the six o'clock hour.
It should grow, Jazz Tyler.
One on one, seven, the truth.
you
If you are not out and about or if you have time to be sure to stop down at summer 85.
They have some amazing specials on Tuesday for Taco Tuesday.
Shout out to everyone who is driving home from work.
Hope that you all had an amazing, amazing day today.
I hope that everyone listening right now who didn't have an amazing day, I hope that the next three hours give you something to think about, something to laugh about, something to take with you, and maybe even something to challenge you.
Please do not forget to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel, 101.7 The Truth.
Follow me on social media, the Jazzy Effect, that's T-H-E-J-A-Z-Z-I-E-E-F-F-E-C-T.
Today's show is one of those shows where we are not just reading headlines, we are going underneath the headline.
We are talking about culture, we are talking about identity, and we are talking about, most importantly, Milwaukee.
We are talking about how people respond.
when black culture is celebrated, criticized, controlled, commercialized, or misunderstood.
And we are going to ask some questions today that might make some people uncomfortable, and you know what?
Quite frankly, that is okay.
That is what we are here to do, right?
Challenge the status quo.
Every good conversation does not need to make everybody comfortable.
Sometimes the point is not comfort.
Sometimes the point is clarity.
Sometimes the point is making people examine a belief they have never actually questioned before.
Before we get into anything else though, I want to give you my daily affirmation.
Shout out to my students at Howard Fuller today.
Every day we do the daily affirmations and today they have some good affirmations, baby.
Let me tell you and it inspired me so much.
So mine today is I refuse to shrink what God has placed inside of me just because my presence make somebody else uncomfortable I'm going to say that again because somebody's driving from home right now needs to hear this we Truth nation we refuse to shrink what God has placed inside of us just because our presence makes someone else uncomfortable
We are not shrinking our voice.
We are not shrinking our personality.
We are not shrinking our culture.
We are not shrinking our purpose.
We are not shrinking our ambition or creativity.
Most definitely, we are not shrinking the truth.
And I'm definitely not changing who I am just to make somebody else feel more powerful standing next to me.
And I think that affirmation fits today's conversation perfectly because so much of what we are talking about this first hour comes down to comfort.
How comfortable are you?
What version of black culture makes people so uncomfortable?
What version of black expression makes people so uncomfortable?
What version gets celebrated?
What version gets policed?
Who decides that?
And what standard are they using?
And here's what we're getting into today.
So we're going to start off.
If you guys are on social media, I'm pretty sure you have seen all of the rhetoric about the garage, the bar titled the garage on Brady Street and the no playlist that started circulating around social media.
We are talking about that line that says no Milwaukee rap and we are not stopping at whether people are offended.
We are going to ask whether a business has the right.
to shape its atmosphere.
We are going to ask whether a content policy is different from a cultural policy.
We are going to ask whether you can reject certain parts of hip-hop without rejecting hip-hop as a culture, hip-hop culture as a whole.
And then we are moving on to the Brewer's Black Cultural Fest, because the Brewer's intentionally created an event to celebrate Black culture, but...
Underneath some of that promotion, there are some racial stereotypes that started appearing in the comments.
So the question becomes, what doesn't mean when people love the event but disrespect the people the event is celebrating?
I have to give a huge shout out.
to the Brewers Foundation, Katina Shaw, she actually joined us a couple of months ago, and we had an amazing conversation, and she's doing some amazing work over there, and I don't want negative comments by pricks to outshine the work that her and her staff is doing, as well as Reneal Washington.
Shout out to Reneal, he also was involved in
that Black cultural fest and he gifted 25 tickets free of charge to our Howard Fuller, Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy students for them to attend and experience what it's like to attend an event like that that celebrates Black culture.
And then we are going to bring those two stories together and ask a bigger question about Milwaukee.
Does Milwaukee embrace Black culture or only the parts of Milwaukee, Black Milwaukee?
To be specific, Milwaukee feels comfortable consuming.
At five o'clock, we are going to change the tone, but we are staying in the same larger conversation about community.
I will be sitting down talking with LWSW.
I'm sorry about Milwaukee, our biggest free library.
And I really want you to stay with us for that hour because we are not just promoting a book giveaway.
We are talking about literacy.
We are going to talk about children having access to books.
We are going to talk about why some families don't necessarily have shelves full of books sitting around the house.
We are going to talk about community investment, right?
I know y'all seen.
the viral video of the teacher in, I believe it was Texas, who was expressing himself, right?
This is a black man who's a teacher and he was shedding some tears over the fact that his students did not know how to read at the grade level that they were at.
So when we're talking about literacy, we're talking about books, this isn't just something that you need to skip over.
This is something that has to be done by not just the household or the schools, but the community overall.
We're talking about what happens when nonprofits, businesses, and people doing grassroots work actually collaborate instead of waiting for a crisis.
And then at six o'clock, we are going to Las Vegas to cover the Tupac Shakur murder trial.
I purposely have not been covering it for specific reasons, but the more information that comes out, I have to do it for the culture.
If we're talking about hip hop and we're talking about black culture, there is no way we cannot talk about
about the Tupac Shakur murder trial.
We're going to talk about Idi Amin, one of the members of the outlaws taking the stand.
We're going to talk about what the jury is hearing.
We're going to talk about testimonies and we're going to talk about the prosecutor's case, the defense position and why nearly 30 years later, this case is still resonated with people all over the world.
Then before we leave, we're coming back to Wisconsin politics.
David Crowley, Tom Tiffany, the race for governor.
What both men represent.
what Milwaukee voters should be paying attention to.
So we are going from culture to literacy to legacy to politics.
That's the full of Tuesday.
Now let's start with the garage.
If you have been on social media, you've probably seen a version of this.
There's a list that circulated.
Uh, the outline music DJs were not supposed to play at this specific bar titled the garage on Brady Street.
Here's where the conversation immediately got sensitive.
This wasn't just a list saying no explicit songs This wasn't just a list saying no songs about gun violence in name the artist and then there was a phrase No Milwaukee rap and that phrase it is what made a lot of people upset Because you can say you don't like a particular song you can even say that you don't like a particular artist You can also say that a certain record doesn't fit
the type of establishment that you have.
We just had this conversation last week with Joe Tucker, the dream lounge that he has on MLK.
And we talked about the type of music he plays and the type of atmosphere that he wants, right?
And the reason why I bring that up is because there is a way to celebrate Black culture, right?
Without discriminating.
When you say no Milwaukee rap you are not talking about one song you are not even talking about one artist You are talking about an entire local music scene.
You are talking about the city overall You are talking about the culture of the city and now I do want to be fair because the garage has that that establishment has responded
Ownership says they did not authorize that list.
They say it was created by an employee.
They say the consignor was supposed to be music with references to guns and violence because the establishment wanted to maintain a more relaxed atmosphere.
And let me say this before anybody accused me of ignoring the business side.
Businesses absolutely have the right to shape their environment first and foremost.
As a business owner, I will tell you that.
If I own a jazz lounge, I can say that I want just jazz.
If I want, if I own a restaurant, I can say I don't want explicit music playing while families are eating dinner.
If I own a club, I can decide what type of crowd and atmosphere I am attempting to create.
That alone is not discrimination.
A business having a music policy is not automatically a problem, but here is where the issue lies.
If your concern is violent content, then why not write a policy about violent content?
If your concern is gun references, why not say no songs glorifying gun references, right?
Gun violence.
If your concern is aggressive music, define what you mean by aggressive music.
Why identify entire artists?
And why add no Milwaukee rap?
Because let me tell you what happens when you do that.
You take individual behavior and you turn it into a group identity and that is a problem.
And the history of this state has taught us that whenever society starts doing that, somebody gets stereotyped.
We are all too familiar with this Milwaukee.
We have been through this, uh, even back in the day when I used to go out to the clubs and they say you can't wear white t-shirts twice the size or baggy jeans and all of these things, right?
So they're just finding new ways to basically discriminate and we're going to get into this further.
But first we got to go to break brother Z. Let's go pay some bills.
Do not touch that dow should grow a jazz Tyler.
We
are live and direct at the award-winning 1017 the truth in the beautiful heart of downtown Milwaukee.
And listen, before we went to break, we were talking about Milwaukee culture.
And that also includes the babies.
So today we are joined by a special guest, LSW.
We're going to talk about the biggest Milwaukee free library and what that all entails.
Thank you all so much for joining us today.
Thank you for having us.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
So can we start off with, can you guys just give us a little bit of background about who you are and then move us into what it is that you all are doing in your mission?
Absolutely.
I'm Holly McCoy Perez.
I'm the executive director at Literacy Services of Wisconsin.
We have eight locations throughout southeastern Wisconsin serving adult learners.
So we are an adult literacy organization.
We do primarily foundational reading, math.
We support folks who are interested in completing their GED, HSED, and then we also do English language learning.
So lots of different programming, lots of different locations.
Love the work, love the mission, and I'll pass it over to Barbara.
I am Barbara Serda, and I am the founder of Barbie the Book Fairy, and Barbie the Book Fairy provides
free books for the Milwaukee community.
We primarily started during the pandemic.
It was a, it is a passion project.
And then I also run a, run a bookstore with my sister and with my daughters and my daughters joining us today as well.
And she was really instrumental in the founding of Barbie the Book Fairy and has kind of been a face for the project.
So I'll let her introduce herself.
Hi.
Hi.
What's your name?
My name's Areli.
We just like before like we would go to like little like free libraries and then like we would like drop off like books there.
And we would just walk around and try to find them.
So obviously we work with adults and this is a family event But we truly believe that literacy is cyclical so when we educate parents we educate children and Our goal is always to be looking at ways that we can bring folks in and find joy around reading I think sometimes we talk about the heavy topics that are related to literacy
reading
education
All those things exist.
They're incredibly complex.
We like to take the complex out of reading and really just make sure access and opportunity are at the forefront of everything we
Yeah, we actually, and I'm going to pass the torch over to Barbara in a second, but that's actually how the two of us connected on this project.
Barbara really saw a need and connected that need to actual action.
Um, no one asked her to do that.
No one said like this is needed.
She just saw it and, and responded.
I think there was a big push for little free libraries, you know, maybe like a decade ago and now they all exist.
And it's one of those things where once the fad dies down, it's like people forget someone needs to actually put that into action and
fill
them.
Um, and so I'm gonna, I'm gonna pass that over to you.
Yeah, so I'll just talk a little bit about how our program started during the pandemic.
Uh, so Barbie the book fairy, um, well, I guess during the pandemic we saw a lot of those positive projects.
I remember seeing, um, the hearts on the windows and people were making masks.
And it was really an opportunity for my daughters and I to plug into the work and kind of do our part to be part of our community.
And at that time, we were all isolated.
But I have three daughters.
At that time, they were much younger.
And they're older now.
I have a 22-year-old, an 18-year-old, and then Adelie is 11.
But at the time they were smaller.
So, you know, we were doing spring cleaning and it was time to clean out our books and I've kind of built their little live their home libraries ever since they were, you know, there were babies and that's something that I got from my mom, you know, my mom, I was a teen mom and my mom worked at a school and would buy my daughter's little books.
So we were, you know, kind of cleaning those out.
And as we were walking around in the neighborhood, we noticed that there were about four or five little libraries that were always
empty yeah around my neighborhood so we kind of took it to Facebook I asked for donations and you know schools were shut down libraries were shut down like I remember just feeling very very isolated yeah so I you know we thought that it would be important to make sure we're providing that access to those books especially you know people were getting rid of their books who knows where they were taking them right
So, you know, my daughters went and picked them up and we distributed them to the Little Free Libraries.
And that's how the project started.
Then it like became a thing.
And there were a couple of grants for, you know, to provide funding for these positive projects.
And I applied and they're like, all right, name your project.
And I'm like, well, my nickname is Barbie, because my name is Barbara.
And I've always been called that since I was a young person.
And this feels like I'm like a book fairy, right?
Like nobody knows who I am.
I'm this mystical character, like no one knows who I am.
I can do this behind the scenes.
And it wasn't really behind the scenes.
But community really came together to help provide funding for books.
So I was able to buy brand new books and then support an independent locally owned bookstore.
at the same time.
So I think that solidarity is like very important, especially when it comes to educating our own cells, but then helping making sure that we all have the tools to educate our community.
So that's kind of like.
where we
Absolutely.
Well, first and foremost, I have to say, I absolutely love this.
So I am an educator by day.
I teach music at Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy High School.
And obviously a part of music is knowing how to read, right?
So oftentimes I believe our people in general, meaning like the residents here in Milwaukee, they don't understand the correlation, you know, as much like why literacy is.
important, not just so you can make it through school, but you need it, you know, throughout life overall.
I remember Otter Woman Cox doing the free little libraries on the north side and pushing for the libraries overall and things of that nature.
So that was very exciting.
And I remember growing up reading the babysitter clubs, goosebumps, you know, all of these books.
And I don't know if the school system still has
access to the school affairs as big as they used to be.
But the point of me saying that is because before you guys came on, I mentioned that it's not just the schools or the household, but it's the communities, the community responsibility to make sure that we provide these services to families as well.
And I love the fact that you all have merged to not help just the youth, but the adults also.
What impact has LSW seen from past years of Milwaukee's biggest free library?
So I love this event.
We do a lot of stuff throughout the year, but I think the biggest impact for us is just seeing what a literacy organization that where our mission is really providing direct instruction, right?
That's our role.
but taking us in something that's mission aligned, but a little bit different from the day to day.
And truly our partnership with Barbara has expanded a lot of the work that we do and how we do it in this way at
this
event.
And I think that for us, it's really about measuring our impact through...
how excited people get to just come to this event.
We have folks that come back year after year.
They get so excited.
It's interesting because, you know, Milwaukee is like a big small city,
so we all
know each other, right?
But there are folks that I really only see at this event and it's just, it's really, it's like, it's a vibe.
It's a good vibe.
So it is this Friday, August 28th from four to seven at Kaziasco Community Center.
And we were talking earlier, I know Kaziasko is pronounced differently in Polish.
I'm not even going to attempt.
But for short, Kazi
Center.
So we're at Kazi Park.
Yeah.
Do you want me to do that?
You want to do that?
OK.
So one thing I talk about often, and I don't want to take us down too deep of a dive on this, but one in four Milwaukee County adults struggles with low literacy.
So low literacy is defined as anyone reading at or below a third grade level.
It is a pervasive silent crisis in our community.
And I think often we talk about the impact on K-12, right?
We talk a lot about K-12 schools and we should.
We absolutely should.
But we also must concurrently think about what it means to be a parent who for oftentimes no fault of their own Struggle with literacy and maybe don't even realize that that's the issue And so we always approach it from a place of are you interested in getting a better job?
Are you interested in completing your high school diploma?
We don't really talk too much and on purpose about where folks are at academically because the only other thing, if anyone takes anything away from this, aside from attending our really amazing event, is that literacy and graduation rates in the city are not tied to intelligence.
They're directly tied to access and opportunity.
And again, for us, I think that's what this event is really about.
It's about bridging the gap, creating access, creating fun around literacy,
And Barbara has done an amazing job this year of lining up entertainment as well.
So it's really turned into a book festival, wouldn't you say?
I've
definitely been calling it a book festival.
Is that what we're calling it now?
Yeah, that's what it feels like.
Maybe we should change the name.
No, honestly.
No, we can't for branding.
No, it does feel like a book festival.
And we really have grown a lot in the last five years.
The first year it was my sister and I and we loaded up a pickup truck because I had a bunch of books in my garage And then I was like I have to get rid of these but also like these books need to get out You know community members donated them like we have some new stuff in here that people need to get their hands on so we like threw them
on the lawn at Cosiesco Park.
We didn't even, I'm gonna tell on myself here, but we didn't have any type of permits.
By any means necessary.
But I'm like, I'm a neighbor, I can do this, this is my park.
Um, you know, and, and, and Adelie was part of this.
So, you know, I have a picture of her, you know, on the pickup truck, like helping us with boxes.
And, you know, this is, this is very much her thing.
And I'm, I'm excited to kind of pass the torch over to her later.
Um, but we've grown so much literacy service, um, became involved with the event.
Um, our second year, they provided volunteers, but then Holly and I had these like amazing conversations on like, how are we going to.
grow our impact.
How are we going to get more books to this event?
How can we become more organized so that more people come, more people have access to literature, but then also we have this tremendous resource fair.
I think the first year we had three resource vendors.
This year we'll be expecting 28.
Yeah,
fairy.
The book
Butterfly in the sky.
I can go twice as high.
Take a look.
It's in a book.
A reading rainbow I can't go anywhere Friends to know and ways to grow A reading rainbow I can't go anywhere
We
are live with Barbie the book fairy in LSW and if you are listening, I know that just brought back so many memories.
How many of you were sitting at home with your grandmother's liberal watching reading rainbow on PBS channel 10?
Listen, I am excited about this event that you guys have.
But most importantly, I am excited about the work that you all are doing.
Before we went to break, we were talking about the event.
We were talking about the services that you guys provide.
But I also want to dig a little bit deeper into the services you provide and why.
My thought process as an educator in the parent is I know a lot of adults who may have issues with literacy are kind of embarrassed, you know, and I'm glad that earlier you said it's not their fault, right?
It's not their fault that that's the case.
But it doesn't give them an excuse not to, you know, fully participate in attempting to learn.
How important is the services you provide for the adults in correlation with them being able to assist their child with their homework?
Incredibly important.
So from our own organizational data, and we provided services to close to 1500 adults last year, we had 303 HSCDGED graduates,
for 12% of the entire state's total.
on.
I'm sorry.
One more data point, though.
And like.
So 40% of our students that enroll with us, who need to complete a high school diploma, left school in 11th grade.
And so what happens is this, a lot of times folks will come in and they'll say, well, I made it to 11th grade.
So I should just be able to take the GED and be done with this in like a week.
And, you know, our role is always to say, maybe, absolutely, maybe.
In most cases, it takes someone on average anywhere from six to nine months to earn a GED.
However, they must typically be academically at a college level.
So one of the stigmas that exists around the GED is that it's easy.
When, in fact, the new GED, since it changed in 2014,
It requires an intense amount of knowledge to be able to pass that test.
It's timed, it's stressful.
That's why we also have an HSCD program.
And Barbara and I actually know each other from Elferno.
And so our HSCD is approved by the Department of Public Instruction.
It's a competency-based high school equivalency program for adults to really look at.
how they learn.
And it really taps into brain science and the idea that everyone is smart in their own way.
So rather than doing standardized tests, folks enroll in a 16 week program, four days a week, four hours a day.
Listen, it is a commitment
and we
recognize that.
But at the end, there's such a tremendous difference in how people view their learning and that's the goal.
I think sometimes in schools, like learning can feel very
procedural, like I need to learn this because someone said I needed to.
By the time adults walk through our door, our role is to teach them a love for learning and really honor their lived experience, the things that they're going through, you know, everything else, right?
And so I think it's a very unique approach to learning and we always want to honor it with care because there is...
a lot of fear that can come with just saying, hey, I don't have this.
I think our society does so much around, again, K-12 education.
In fact, that's typically the focus.
And again, it should be.
But when we don't also think about adult literacy and the role it plays, we're creating this ongoing stigma for folks that makes them feel as if they shouldn't just say, hey, I need to do this.
and do it in a way that honors, again, just every part of their life.
And
so we see that most of our students report on their own, that they feel so much more just engaged with their own children because they're finding a love for learning.
They're then going home and telling their kids what they've learned.
We do field trips in our HSCD class.
There's a lot of folks that don't know that there's so many resources in our community museums all those things are free Yes, and so we'll take them there.
They'll have a lesson they'll say I want to take my grandbaby back here and like I want to show them you know that I did this in school and and a lot of our students too will come back and say you know my oldest child is about to graduate and they will not graduate before I do and one thing too is we still do see
individuals who are first generation high school graduates in 2026.
And I think, again, it's a very complex issue.
And I don't necessarily think it's like a simple, this is the cause, this is, you know, this.
We're talking about some of the most caring, empathetic, amazing human beings holding down like three jobs, raising children,
And like also thinking about what can I do to be better?
Yes And so I take that as a huge responsibility and so does my entire staff that works with me But yeah,
a
I mean it's a lot and it's so important because oftentimes I think we forget that the generation so I'm 38 so my mom is 68 my mom's generation What is not the golden?
generation.
I call us the golden era because we were before technology and during technology and after.
And what ended up happening was everything switched over.
So we don't have where they drive and throw the newspapers on the stairs anymore or the yellow pages or the white pages, right?
We don't have just, I mean, there's physical books, but there's more news online.
Everything is just online.
So it makes it easier for them to say, hey, I don't even want to attempt.
to try and fix whatever issues I have, I could just go online and look it up, not understanding that that doesn't fix the problem also.
So I say that to say the work that you all are doing is necessary.
I wish that...
You know we had more people who understood how necessary it is and however I can contribute to making sure that those resources are available to people that need them I will because I don't know the stats on this specifically, but if I'm not mistaken There's a lot of adults who have The percentage of adults who have issues with literacy is probably higher than students who are currently enrolled in
middle school and high school.
Yeah.
And for every year when we look at our graduation rates in the city, oftentimes that's the focus
the rate itself.
But we have to also ask ourselves what happens to the percentage that doesn't complete.
Yes.
And then again, it just becomes this like, and we all know like Barbara and I were that we picked the date for this event a year ago.
And I think we were like,
That's what we've never planned that far ahead.
And why did it come so fast?
And I only use that analogy because it does.
Life goes really fast.
Before you know it, it's like three months.
Like I still haven't sent out thank yous for my wedding.
It was like 12 months
So you can.
go on our website.
The pandemic did some wonderful things for us.
It brought us into the 21st century.
So you can sign up for a registration appointment right on our website, which is just www.literacyservices.org.
And we have all the information about how to enroll, how to sign up for classes.
And again, we have eight locations.
So we really believe that folks shouldn't have to just come to one centralized location.
We make sure that we're in as many spaces as possible, making sure that our services are accessible.
And I will also say, because folks ask me this sometimes, our services are entirely free.
Wow.
So no one has to worry about the cost.
We've had a few students who enroll in our HSCD program and then think there's a cost.
There is not.
And then we also partner directly with MATC and WCTC.
So many of our students are in that HSCD program, and they're also oftentimes concurrently enrolled in a college program.
And
our goal is to always make sure that we are driving our students towards whatever their dreams are.
Our friends at WRTP Big Step, we also do a construction and manufacturing trades, HSCD.
It's a beautiful, it's one of my favorite programs because folks are earning their HSCD at the same time that they're getting those certificates in the building trade.
So we have so many options and we're kind of like, we're like a quiet organization overall.
But I think it's more because we like to make sure that we're providing a safe space for our adult students
exactly, exactly.
I would love to connect with you outside of here and provide these resources as an option for the high school I work at for their families, for their parents, and whatever other connections I have in any other schools, because it is important.
And as an educator, I do run into parents who need assistance, but they're afraid to, or they're afraid to say, hey, I have an issue with helping them.
And that's where we can.
pass them off to an organization like you to where they don't feel, you know, the nervousness of telling us that they don't know how to read or whatever their issues are.
We have to go to break when we come back.
We are going to dig into this event that you guys are having this Friday.
I'm excited about it.
Unfortunately, I wish I could come, but it's during my segment, literally from four to seven, Monday through Friday.
But we're going to figure it out, right?
I know, right?
Do not touch that down.
It should grow just how we're going to finish this conversation when we come back one on one, seven to truth.
1017 the truth is your girl jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct and I have Barbie the book fairy and LSW sitting here with me We are talking literacy, but not just for youth also for the adults you guys have collaborated together to do your annual event and then you mentioned that there will be entertainment as well as Local authors there signing books.
Can you kind of give us more details about how people can be involved and what that actually looks like?
Absolutely.
I have little post-it notes here where I wrote down because I didn't want to forget anything.
But we do have participation from local bookstores that will be providing crafts and activities.
We have face painting lined up.
We have four face painters, including Areli.
Are you face painting this year?
Yeah, she's facing me.
The fact that she
Oh my gosh.
She's really good.
She's really good.
And we'll have face painting.
Of course, I said our vendors for our resource fair.
We have vendors really from all over Milwaukee.
Well, not vendors, we're not selling anything, but resource fair participants from all over Milwaukee.
This year when we posted, I had a...
tons of people reach out.
So I'm very excited to just see like the diversity and the people that are participating in our resource fair.
We're going to have a
um, open play soccer session with, um, Briantes MKE, which is an all girls soccer club.
Um, and they do coaching and things like that.
So they'll be there.
I
His son is
There will definitely be soccer there.
They'll have, they have different sized goals that they're going to bring depending on who, who gets involved, but.
They'll be there, and then I will talk about, oh yeah, and then we have Bambé, Drum and Dance, and they're gonna be playing Sonjarocho music, and these are students that are playing music that is specific to Veracruz, Mexico, and they've been practicing for a long time, and then they bring out something that they call a tarima, and they come, it's like a little wooden stage, and they come and they dance, and it's just a really beautiful
um celebration uh and then we have Charles Grant and the Milwaukee Flyers who will be performing that day as well.
Shout out to the Milwaukee Flyers.
Oh so entertaining.
They really are.
Uh and then we also have a story time and I think this is very important especially because we
As we look forward to the event and the future, we really want to find an opportunity to support local authors.
So this year, we have Elia Anna Hill, who is an author and illustrator.
And when she illustrates her books, she uses cut paper.
Today, she's Puerto Rican.
And she's been involved with this event for a couple of years as an attendee.
So she's come and she's going to come and do a story time.
And then she will sign her books and then give those away at the events.
So I have a question.
I've always wanted to do this.
My daughter does too, but I never knew where to start it.
So I have a 19 year old, 18 year old.
and a nine-year-old.
And my nine-year-old, her name is Callie Rain, she wants to illustrate her own book.
How do we, how do I go about doing that?
So I'm going to say talk to Elia because she's also going to be hosting a craft.
Okay.
So there'll be an opportunity to interact with her and she can talk about her process as an author, but she's also really into kids art.
She has...
I'm pretty sure it's six kids but she's gonna she's gonna correct me if I'm wrong.
She has six kids so she's been really nurturing them to you know also be artists themselves and hopefully you know they're they'll also kind of follow in her steps as far as illustrating and and writing books but she'll be on site to talk about that.
I mean I think it's
really about leaning into the work and putting yourself out there.
Like I said, we'll also have some participation from local bookstores so we can also talk and find out how we can connect with publishers.
We also have one of our resource vendors.
It's Confianza Collective and that means like Confidence Collective and Rachel.
hosts writing workshops.
For people who want to write.
Call me.
How can I reach you?
So you can go to our Facebook page.
It's Barbie the Book Fair.
Barbie is spelled B-A-R-B-Y.
You can find me on Facebook.
I'm on Instagram.
I'm pretty active and look at all the messages and respond to most of them.
But yeah, just contact me.
I think Holly and I have been pretty open as to incorporating new things each year.
And we would really love, love, love to see local authors come and showcasing their books if they want to host a table.
Everything is free.
So you can register to be a resource vendor.
You can come and participate as an author.
You know, I feel like authors should charge us or, you know, right?
Charge us.
Yeah, they charge us for their presents.
No, no, no, no.
I know she's looking at me.
Um, I mean,
we're always
looking for donations
as well.
I just really I know I just told Holly today.
I just always want to give everything out for free, but
Um, I just think it's an honor when authors and just like creatives want to interact and like be part of this event in whatever capacity.
Yeah.
So, um, if there's, you know, authors or, you know, potential, um, people that want to talk about like writing books and things like that, I think there'll be tons of connections that, you know, we can make with each other and just like really dream big for our future.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I also think too, when you talk about like the local bookstores that are there, the resources that are.
there and for folks who are interested in either being an author, they already are an author, there is nothing more powerful than a group of aligned people getting together around a
common goal.
And, you know, I don't want to, you know, get too far down like an ADHD hole that I can get down, but networking is so important.
and finding people who are aligned in your values, aligned in the things that bring you joy.
I think that's really what we see at this event.
And even for folks who are interested in getting involved, that's really what we're looking for is people who are interested in supporting Milwaukee, supporting local.
And as Barbara mentioned, all of the books, so we do purchase brand new books for this event.
We get lots of book donations.
We have close to 3,000 books this year.
But some of the new books that we, or not some, sorry, all of the new books that we get are purchased from local bookstores.
Because I do think it is important, and it can't always happen.
I was talking to Barbara about this earlier.
We can't always...
for whatever reason, support local, but when we can, we absolutely 120% do.
And I do think even as a nonprofit, it's really important that we're intentional about where we're putting our dollars.
Can we talk about some of those books you got?
Yeah, those new books.
Um, do you want to talk about the new books?
Because I feel
like you know them better.
Yes.
So, um, we had the opportunity to purchase, uh, titles that are in other languages.
So we have books in Spanish.
We have Hmong books.
We have books that are written by, um, BIPOC authors.
Uh, so we really try to focus on like the diverse, the diverse books, um, and offering those because a big part
of another part of why we launched Barbie the Book Fairy is to ensure that people have that literature that speaks to you so that when someone's picking up a book, they can see themselves in a book.
So I think that that's another piece that we really didn't touch today.
But it's super important, especially because we've been trying really hard.
to of course get books out there, but then also let's get some books that people see themselves.
Yes,
Lots of books, new friends.
a renewed sense of joy in turning pages on a tangible object.
I think you talked about
that.
We all, and I'm guilty of it too,
so
no judgment.
I love
audiobooks.
And audiobooks
are
great.
But there is nothing, and I know some people argue, there is nothing more beautiful than turning the pages on a book.
We spend a lot of time, a lot of energy making sure that the books that folks get at this event are ones that are gonna bring joy and excitement.
So I think that's, and you know, just, I don't know, it's being a cozy park on a Friday night, which is why we do it on a Friday
looking at the Basilica.
Yeah,
it's better than fireworks.
Yeah, I don't really care for fireworks as much anymore.
I don't like fireworks, but like when they're out there, I see what you're saying.
It's like, oh, you know, it's beautiful, but you know, you have the the sunset dancers and then the flyers are in the air and it really is a joyful event and I'm just really proud to have a DJ.
Yeah, I didn't mention that.
Yeah, we do have a DJ and a food truck and a food truck.
So first you're having a food truck.
I am a parent who do believe in literacy me and my daughter we have dates once a month at Barnet bars and noble where I can go and I just want to encourage parents out there Even if it's you or if it's your child who struggled with it
not just necessary literacy, but just the thought of picking up a book, trying to find something that's fun.
For me, my daughter, she was, she's a gymnast and she loves Simone Bowles.
So I was instantly able to get her attracted to books by purchasing the biography of Simone Bowles.
And then that made it easier for her to work, you know, even if it's something as simple as Stranger Things Wednesday, whatever it is that they like, just something to introduce them to reading overall.
And then you can, you know,
you know, elevate as you go on.
But again, thank you guys so much for joining us before we go.
Do you guys have any shout outs?
Shout outs.
out?
No.
No,
your friends.
Um, I have.
No.
Oh, okay.
I feel like I'm going to shout out
my kids.
Uh, y'all did a rundown of your kids.
I have five kids.
So Taylor, Tasha, Makayla.
Bentley, David, and then my husband, David.
And they all help with the event.
A
big shout out to them.
Gratitude, gratitude.
I'll shout out my kids too.
Sitlali, Natali, and Arelys here.
And I'll shout out my dog, Gucci, who's waiting for me at home.
Yeah, my other kid.
Yeah, my other kid, and my sister, Valeria, and my parents.
She said
it's
Thank you guys so much.
Please if you have time this Friday August 28th from 4 p.m.
To 7 p.m.
Pull up to Kaziasco Community Center for the Milwaukee's largest free book giveaway
Again, thank you both so much for coming.
I will be in touch outside of here as well.
We have to go to break to pay some bills.
Do not touch that down.
She girl jazz Tyler one on one seven in
truth.
This is where
we hustle Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm Every day I'm Every day I'm hustling Who you
1017 the truth that should grow jazz Tyler we are live and direct at the award-winning 1017 the truth if you are just now joining us I just wrapped up an interview with Barbie the book fairy in LSW we were talking about literacy not just with youth but adults as well they have an amazing event coming up this Friday the 28th from 4 p.m.
to 7 p.m.
at Kasiasko Community Center there will be local
authors there as well as resources.
I wanted to do a call to action before we move on to the next segment.
Just highlighting the importance of us as adults, making sure that we reach out to services provided by individuals such as themselves, even if it's something that's embarrassing no matter what it is.
Help you, help you.
especially if you have children who have homework.
If you're somebody like me, listen, I'm an educator in half of the time.
It's not due to literacy, but the homework changed so much, we just want to make sure that we are updated consistently.
So please check out this event.
If you are a local author, this is also an event that you can benefit from as well.
Prior to us going into the interview with LSW and Barbie the fairy, we were talking about the state of Milwaukee music culture and there was a specific organization, a specific venue named the garage who mentioned that.
They did not want any Milwaukee music any Milwaukee rap music played inside of their establishment And I know that we had the phone lines blowing up and people were giving their thoughts on this but I have to be biased and subjective In this moment when I first came on air and we were talking about this situation I was giving you guys the point of view objectively, right?
Yes, I do understand that as a business owner you have every right
to determine the type of atmosphere that you want.
Yes, as a business owner, you have every right to say that you want to play a certain type of music or have a certain age group inside of your establishment, but you do not have the right to discriminate against an entire group of people, right?
And what do I mean by that?
That means when you say you don't want certain music played, that's targeting a specific demographic, right?
Clear as day.
And again,
We've had calls, we've had conversations where, you know, yes, we understand that we don't need to go to that establishment as black people.
Yes, we understand that we do not have to beg for their acceptance.
We don't have to party at that establishment, all of the above.
But at the end of the day, it's not about that.
What it's about is the fact that people, okay, business owners, right, feel so comfortable to where they can do something of this nature.
I don't care who made the post.
I don't care if it was the owner.
I don't care if it was the DJ at the end of the day, whoever made that post represents that establishment.
And what they're saying is we don't want no black people in our business.
Period.
No matter how you package it up, that's exactly what they are saying.
And whether or not we choose to attend this establishment, whether or not we choose to support this establishment, right is right and wrong is wrong.
And that was wrong at the end of the day.
Now, I'm biased because I am someone who contributed to the Milwaukee rap scene.
I am someone who has played a part in making sure that the artists here today have these platforms to do whatever it is that they need to when it comes to the music.
And at the end of the day, I just want to see them win.
I want to see all the babies that I teach music to win.
When you have a situation like this again people like to minimize it as if it's not that serious Oh, we don't need to you know Participate in them.
We don't have to go there.
We have our own establishment.
What you know what we should be able to go wherever we want Without this is 2026 we should be able to go wherever we want and again if you are a business owner How unprofessional is it?
To have a list leaked
of you stating that you don't want nothing to do with the black culture.
Because hip-hop is black culture.
Although we have culture vultures, hip-hop is black culture.
How unprofessional is it to send a list out saying this is not what we want, whether it was leaked or not?
It's not professional.
I don't care what you say or how you put it.
And at the end of the day, you are targeted.
a specific demographic of people, let along an entire culture.
Y'all look at, some generations may look at Milwaukee rap and say, um, I don't want to listen to that stuff anyways.
It's violent.
It's, this is that.
Not understanding that there's so much more, so many more artists who are a part of the Milwaukee music rap scene.
who has absolutely nothing to do with making music that is negative.
And this is impacting them as well.
And again, it's a ripple effect.
Well, one organization say another organization may feel like they can play with the culture too.
Or they may begin to treat you a certain type of way every time you walk into their establishment.
We have a caller on the line.
Tay, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us.
How are you?
I'm good.
I just want to just give my thoughts and my opinions in regards to what you're speaking of.
We really can't be mad.
If they don't want to play that genre of music, that is their preference.
That's like saying you going over somebody's house and you don't like the way they house mail and you want them to change how they clean their house.
That's not fair.
I understand your point of view, Tay, and I agree, you know, and I talked about this earlier that, um, it is absolutely okay for an establishment to say that they want their business a certain type of way.
My issue is when you go public with it, right?
And you can say easily, but we know that, um, people do what they do on purpose.
When you go public with it, now I'm thinking in a business stance, how unprofessional is it to go public and say that we don't want.
this specific genre of music or demographic?
It's no different in a restaurant saying you can't come in here smelling like weed.
No different.
But it's not, it's show just your people.
You don't get mad at them.
They're running a business.
They have to pay bills.
And if that type of crowd is bringing their business in the negative, they have to do what they have to do for them.
And
that.
They're not running their business so that we can come.
They're running their business so they can make money.
If you don't like it, then go somewhere else.
Or how about if you don't like it, build your own.
Have your people, all of your people that are in rep is positive.
All of y'all come together and do something on your own.
Build
your
own.
That way you won't have to worry about.
I'm saying you can't come in here because you smell like weed or you got bonnet and pajamas on.
Come on.
Let's let's be for real.
Clean up your house first before you try to go monitor somebody else's house and whether they said it or not, they have that right.
That's their business.
And if you don't like the way people run their business, don't go and patronizing.
Absolutely.
And again, I've said it multiple times.
I agree.
However, what I don't agree with is the fact that they did it.
You don't have to go there.
But what I don't understand is why are we mad at each other for being upset about them discriminating against us?
We should be upset because we're in 2026.
We should be upset.
We should feel away.
Do we have to partake?
Absolutely not.
Can they do whatever they choose with their establishment?
Absolutely they can.
But the fact remains that they chose to go public and put this list out there, which means that evidently you want us to respond and we're going to respond, right?
It's not about them accepting us.
I think that's what a lot of people aren't understanding.
We aren't asking them to accept us.
We aren't saying that we want to participate in whatever they're offering.
We're not saying that we want to go and spend money.
We're not complaining about them not allowing us in.
What we're saying is Milwaukee is setting a standard to target a specific genre and culture.
That's what I'm saying.
Whatever, you know, we got going on as a people again to your point to her point We got to clean our own house, but this isn't a conversation about being accepted This is a conversation about right is right and wrong is wrong the same way we talk about politics the same way we bash MPS and in the school system all of that stuff I was just talking last week about MPS having over a hundred cases of students being discriminated against when it comes to suspension and expulsion
That doesn't mean all black parents are going to remove their children out of MPS But what it does mean is that we have to highlight what is happening in our city in case people forgot There are real artists here that make money off of the music that they make We're not just talking about the artists who make negative music.
There is real life artists here who make money off of their craft
touring to
I'm doing pretty good.
How are you doing today, guys?
I really, really do.
You know what, man?
I mean, I'm being totally honest.
OK, like, say if you had a club, right, it's called the yellow club, right?
And you want people to come in there wearing yellow because you just love yellow.
You love it.
And I'm like, well, hey, we're the red crew, man.
We want to come in there.
We feel really disrespected that you don't want the red people coming in there.
Dude, it's your business.
You can allow anybody in your business.
that you want to because it's your business.
Now, I understand that you feel some kind of way.
I'm black myself, but I don't care.
I don't want to go nowhere that people don't accept me anyway.
I don't want to hang out somewhere and people act as fake like, hey, welcome to our establishment, spending one year, but we hate you.
You see what I'm saying?
If they're telling you up top that they don't want us there, hey, I'm clapping.
Thank you for letting me know before I came in there and spending any of my cheese.
They let me know I mean that that's totally cool with me We don't we don't need to be places where people don't want to say anyway And as a matter of fact seriously though like you said it's time for us to clean our own house if we act better and Do better as a people and start holding each other accountable Start taking care of our own people Then I think that we can actually open up our own establishment and maybe they might be treating a little bit better But we got some straight enough to do as a people though seriously though, but
We don't need to be going nowhere where people don't accept us anyway.
And I want to feel no way about it.
This is America.
And people got their own beliefs.
It's been that way forever, forever.
There's always been racist people in there.
There will always be racist people.
So why feel disrespected?
They won't let me in because certain people with demographic don't want you to be in their clubs when you know how they are.
Or they have bars or whatever.
They don't want to be there anyway.
So that's cool.
You let me know off the top and I congratulate you.
I'll come there and shake your hand.
Thank you for letting me know.
before I spent a dollar with you.
Miami, the playboy's paradise.
Pretty girls, fast cars.
That's just facade.
The bridge separates South Beach from my Miami.
The real Miami.
The MIA.
This is where
we hustle.
Every damn hustling, every damn...
Every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm, every day I'm, every day I'm
One-on-one seven the truth this year girl jazz Tyler We are live and direct at the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth if you are just now joining us I just wrapped up an interview with Barbie the book fairy in LSW We were talking about literacy not just with youth but adults as well They have an amazing event coming up this Friday the 28th from 4 p.m.
To 7 p.m.
At Kasiasko Community Center.
There will be local
authors there as well as resources.
I wanted to do a call to action before we move on to the next segment.
Just highlighting the importance of us as adults, making sure that we reach out to services provided by individuals such as themselves, even if it's something that's embarrassing no matter what it is.
Help you, help you.
especially if you have children who have homework.
If you're somebody like me, listen, I'm an educator in half of the time.
It's not due to literacy, but the homework changed so much.
We just want to make sure that we are updated consistently.
So please check out this event.
If you are a local author, this is also an event that you can benefit from as well.
Prior to us going into the interview with LSW and Barbie the Fairy, we were talking about the state of Milwaukee music culture.
There was a specific organization, a specific venue named the garage who mentioned that they did not want any Milwaukee music, any Milwaukee rap music played inside of their establishment.
And I know that we had the phone lines blowing up and people were giving their thoughts on this, but I have to be biased and subjective.
Um, in this moment when I first came on air and we were talking about this situation, um, I was giving you guys the point of view objectively, right?
Yes.
I do understand that as a business owner, you have every right to determine the type of atmosphere that you want.
Yes.
As a business owner, you have every right to say that you want to, uh, play a certain type of music or have a certain age group inside of your establishment, but you do not have the right.
to discriminate against an entire group of people, right?
And what do I mean by that?
That means when you say you don't want certain music played, that's targeting a specific demographic, right?
Clear as day.
And again,
We've had calls.
We've had conversations where, you know, yes, we understand that we don't need to go to that establishment as Black people.
Yes, we understand that we do not have to beg for their acceptance.
We don't have to party at that establishment, all of the above.
But at the end of the day, it's not about that.
What it's about is the fact that people, okay, business owners, right, feel so comfortable to where they can do something of this nature.
I don't care who made the post.
I don't care if it was the owner.
I don't care if it was the DJ at the end of the day, whoever made that post represents that establishment.
And what they're saying is we don't want no black people in our business.
Period.
No matter how you package it up, that's exactly what they are saying.
And whether or not we choose to attend this establishment, whether or not we choose to support this establishment, right is right and wrong is wrong.
And that was wrong at the end of the day.
Now, I'm biased because I am someone who contributed to the Milwaukee rap scene.
I am someone who has played a part in making sure that the artists here today have these platforms to do whatever it is that they need to when it comes to the music.
And at the end of the day, I just want to see them win.
I want to see all the babies that I teach music to win.
When you have a situation like this again people like to minimize it as if it's not that serious Oh, we don't need to you know Participate in them.
We don't have to go there.
We have our own establishment.
What you know what we should be able to go wherever we want Without this is 2026 we should be able to go wherever we want and again if you are a business owner How unprofessional is it?
To have a list leaked of you stating that you don't want nothing to do with the black culture Because hip-hop is black culture Although we have culture vultures hip-hop is black culture.
How unprofessional is it?
To send a list out saying this is not what we want whether it was leaked or not It's not professional.
I don't care what you say or how you put it
And at the end of the day, you are targeted, a specific demographic of people, let along an entire culture.
Y'all look at, some generations may look at Milwaukee rapping and say, I don't wanna listen to that stuff anyways.
It's violent, it's this, it's that.
Not understanding that there's so much more, so many more artists who are a part of the Milwaukee music rap scene.
who has absolutely nothing to do with making music that is negative.
And this is impacting them as well.
And again, it's a ripple effect.
Well, one organization say another organization may feel like they can play with the culture too.
Or they may begin to treat you a certain type of way every time you walk into their establishment.
We have a caller on the line.
Tay, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us.
How are you?
I'm good.
I just want to just give my thoughts and my opinions in regards to what you're speaking of.
We really can't be mad.
If they don't want to play that genre of music, that is their preference.
That's like saying you going over somebody's house and you don't like the way they house mail and you want them to change how they clean their house.
That's not fair.
I understand your point of view, Tay, and I agree, you know, and I talked about this earlier that, um, it is absolutely okay for an establishment to say that they want their business a certain type of way.
My issue is when you go public with it, right?
And you can say is leak, but we know that, um, people do what they do on purpose.
When you go public with it, now I'm thinking in a business stance, how unprofessional is it to go public and say that we don't want.
this specific genre of music or demographic?
It's no different in a restaurant saying you can't come in here smelling like weed.
No different.
But it's not that it's it's just your people.
You don't get mad at them.
They're running the business.
They have to pay bills.
And if that type of crowd is bringing their business in the negative, they have to do what they have to do for them.
And
I'm not disputing that.
So they're not running their business so that we can come.
They're running their business so they can make money.
If you don't like it, then go somewhere else.
Or how about if you don't like it, build your own.
Have your people, all of your people that are in rep is positive.
All of y'all come together and do something on your own.
Build your
own.
That way you won't have to worry about.
I'm saying you can't come in here because you smell like weed or you got bonnet and pajamas on.
Come on.
Let's let's be for real.
Clean up your house first before you try to go monitor somebody else's house and whether they said it or not, they have that right.
That's their business.
And if you don't like the way people run their business, don't go and patronizing.
Thank you so much, Tay, for tapping in with us.
And again, I've said it multiple times.
I agree.
However, what I don't agree with is the fact that they did it.
You don't have to go there.
But what I don't understand is why are we mad at each other for being upset about them discriminating against us?
We should be upset because we're in 2026.
We should be upset.
We should feel away.
Do we have to partake?
Absolutely not.
Can they do whatever they choose with their establishment?
Absolutely they can.
But the fact remains that they chose to go public and put this list out there.
Which means that evidently you want us to respond and we're going to respond, right?
It's not about them accepting us.
I think that's what a lot of people are understanding.
We aren't asking them to accept us.
We aren't saying that we want to participate in whatever they're offering.
We're not saying that we want to go and spend money.
We're not complaining about them not allowing us in.
What we're saying is Milwaukee is setting a standard to target a specific genre and culture.
That's what I'm saying.
Whatever, you know, we got going on as a people again to your point to her point We got to clean our own house, but this isn't a conversation about being accepted This is a conversation about right is right and wrong is wrong the same way we talk about politics the same way we bash MPS and in the school system all of that stuff I was just talking last week about MPS having over a hundred cases of students being discriminated against when it comes to suspension and expulsion
That doesn't mean all black parents are going to remove their children out of MPS But what it does mean is that we have to highlight what is happening in our city in case people forgot There are real artists here that make money off of the music that they make We're not just talking about the artists who make negative music.
There is real life artists here who make money off of their craft
Turing to
I'm doing pretty good.
How are you doing today, guys?
I really, really do.
You know what, man?
I mean I'm being totally honest okay like say if you had a club right it's called a yellow club right and you want people to come in there wearing yellow because you just love yellow you love it and I'm like well hey we're the red crew man we would have come in there we feel really disrespected that you don't want the red people coming in there dude it's your business you can allow anybody in your business
that you want to because it's your business.
Now, I understand that you feel some kind of way.
I'm black myself, but I don't care.
I don't want to go nowhere that people don't accept me anyway.
I don't want to hang out somewhere and people act as fake like, hey, welcome to our establishment, spending one year, but we hate you.
You see what I'm saying?
If they're telling you up top that they don't want us there, hey, I'm clapping.
Thank you.
Thank you for letting me know before I came in there and spending any of my cheese.
They let me know I mean that that's totally cool with me We don't we don't need to be places where people don't want to say anyway And as a matter of fact seriously though like you said it's time for us to clean our own house if we act better and Do better as a people and start holding each other accountable Start taking care of our own people Then I think that we can actually open up our own establishment and maybe they might be treating a little bit better But we got some straight enough to do as a people though seriously though, but
We don't need to be going nowhere where people don't accept us anyway.
And I want to feel no way about it.
This is America and people got their own beliefs.
It's been that way forever, forever.
There's always been racist people in there.
There will always be racist people.
So why feel disrespected or they won't let me in because of certain people with demographic don't want you to be in their clubs when you know how they are or they're bars or whatever.
They don't want us there anyway.
So that's cool.
You let me know off top and I congratulate.
I'll come there and shake your hand.
Thank you for letting me know.
before I spent a dollar with you.
truth.
Yeah.
Can't stop now.
Won't stop.
Last time I checked.
I'm 10 toes down.
Run it up.
This is your girl, Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct.
And we are having a conversation about this establishment entitled The Garage, which is an establishment located in Milwaukee on Brady Street.
And we've heard multiple opinions about why we shouldn't care about them saying that they don't want any Milwaukee rap music in their establishment because they have the right to dictate.
the environment and who comes in and again I'm not disagreeing with that I'm telling you I am not disagreeing with that but I'm not sure if you guys are understanding what we are trying to convey first and foremost the Milwaukee music rap is not just Milwaukee music rap these are artists these are artists who get paid
And in the city and outside of the city these are artists where this is how they make their living right and if you are someone who is involved in the music industry you understand that the DJs playing your music is a big part of how you get shows is a big part of people catching on to what it is that you have going on what I am simply saying is does a
A business have the right to say that they don't want certain people there based off of behavior.
Absolutely.
Does a business have the right to say that they want a certain type of atmosphere?
Absolutely.
But no matter how many times you guys continue to say, it don't matter.
We don't need to go where we're not saying that we're saying that right is right and wrong is wrong.
And at the end of the day, they are wrong.
They are wrong on so many different levels.
And I get it.
Some of you guys just don't understand because it's either not your generation or you don't care about the Milwaukee music scene.
But let me break it down for you for a quick second.
I started making music in Milwaukee at 12 years old, right?
I started making music because it was the very thing that took me out of my environment mentally.
It was a very thing that saved my life.
Although I was more tight talented and I've done multiple things, music ultimately was what helped got me to where I am today.
By the time I was 15, I was able to enter into the music industry.
By the time I was in my 20s, I was working with industry people.
Everything that I have now has been as a result of me doing music.
You understand?
So when you guys say, oh, we shouldn't go wherever they don't want to play us, you're looking at it in a subjective way because it doesn't benefit you.
Or because you don't understand how it impacts and affects everybody else.
There are real artists in this city that need the support because this is how they feed their family.
There are people that put in work to make sure that
Artists does have the support of the city and that they're able to be artists But most importantly despite of how anybody I've never stepped a foot in the garage Ever in life.
I have never ever stepped a foot in this establishment So for me to sit back if I was to say I don't care That would be a slap in the face to everybody who does benefit from having their music played who are Milwaukee artists
It's already hard enough for us to get our name on the map, period.
And again, I'm going back to the same point.
Right is right and wrong is wrong.
I don't care if it was a black establishment.
If a black establishment said that we don't want to play any Milwaukee rap music, it's gonna be a problem there as well.
Because you are specifically targeting a certain demographic of people.
Mind you, you can't go to Los Angeles, you can't go to Atlanta, certain places, and do that.
Yes, we had a caller who called in from Memphis, right?
But his point of view was regarding some internal wars.
We understand that.
But again, for an establishment to say no Milwaukee rap music.
How are you going to combine every rap artist in the city of Milwaukee under one umbrella?
Basically, you're saying that we all make the same type of music, that all of our music is negative.
And again, what they do is a ripple effect.
I'm not saying that other establishments agree or that they would do something as reckless, but it doesn't mean that it's not going to heighten.
The discrimination Take a look at the climate of this state take a look at the climate of this country Understand that all the news stories you guys are seeing what's happening when it comes to black people period So to sit there and just say that this is oh, so yeah, they don't want us there when it's bigger than that
That's what I'm trying to get you all to understand.
It is bigger than us not showing up.
Half of us who are defending this never even went to the garage, but again, it goes back to them attacking an entire culture.
Some of y'all look at Milwaukee Rap and say, hey, it's these type of, I call it serial killer music, whatever the case may be.
You're one track minded.
All you see is just the negative.
You don't see the positive in Milwaukee rap music.
You don't see how many people are able to feed their families because DJs is playing their songs in the clubs or on the radio.
So what's my new to you isn't necessarily small to us, especially for people who have paved the way for Milwaukee music.
I get it.
Some of y'all not going to understand because you're not a part of it.
But this is how things carry on think about back in the day if you are you know 40 between the ages of 36 through 45
Think about bar Louie and brothers and all these clubs back in the day who used to Discriminate and profile us by saying that we can't dress a certain way.
There was a caller earlier who mentioned I think it was winky blue he mentioned that When you go to different states Miami, LA Atlanta Houston certain organizations and establishments have dress code Absolutely, but they don't have dress code because they're discriminating
They have dress codes because when you walk in there, they're serving business people.
They want a certain look.
They want that industry polish look, right?
When people snap photos, they are selling an experience.
When you go to a club live, any club out of state, that is a known establishment.
They're not creating a dress code because they're discriminating against a certain race.
They're setting standards because of the experience.
They are selling an experience.
When you come to Wisconsin, when you come to Milwaukee, they aren't selling an experience.
They flat out just prejudice, period.
It has nothing to do with the fact that, yes, we want to sell an experience.
No, how many bars is on Brady Street Strip?
How many bars is on Brady Strip?
Brady Street to its entirety is an experience not just one bar When when somebody says I'm about to go out they don't say hey, I'm about to go to Nashville North or I'm about to go to What is it called the garage?
No, we're going on Brady Street People that go on Water Street don't say hey, I'm about to go to this establishment where I'm about to go to know we're going on Water Street
Brady Street is an experience.
The bars that's on that strip is part of that experience.
So when an organization like that says that we don't want this type of music, they are removing themselves from that complete experience.
And they're doing it purposely.
They are telling us that no, we don't want black people there.
And black people is saying, why should we go there then if they don't want us there?
So what, we don't gotta spend our dollars.
Yeah, because y'all not the artists.
Y'all not the artists that gotta feed their family off of the music that they make.
Hello, I don't know if y'all don't understand, 2026, artists is actually getting paid for doing music now.
It is a career.
So when an establishment says that they don't want Milwaukee rap music played at their establishment, you are actually offending someone who has a career in this field.
That is business.
It's not just personal.
This is business.
Milwaukee rap music is a business.
The artist that's included in that is a business.
The artist that's included in that is a brand.
The artist that's included in that gets paid and that's how they feed their families.
Brother Z, you are a DJ.
Who actually DJs on Brady Street.
What's your take on this?
See, it's crazy.
Now, I saw this list two weeks ago, actually.
I saw this list on my friend's story and I replied to it.
I said, is this real?
This can't be real.
And sure enough, it is a real list.
And the thing that really, really got me was when this manager or whoever sent out this text said no remixes.
Now anybody that knows DJs, you know that we can make an edit.
We have other edits.
We have flips of songs.
We can make a flip on the fly.
We can pre-record it, whatever the case is.
And so now you're telling me that I can't take a sexy red lyric even if it's a clean song and put it over a Taylor Swift beat just because I'm playing sexy red or I can't take
A little baby beat and put it over a maroon 5 vocal Because it's a it's a little baby inch or a metro booming Instrumental because metro booming was on that list and he makes damn near half of the hip-hop and rap Even of even of the artists that aren't on that list And like you said jazz, there's other artists in Milwaukee that don't make music that promote
guns that promote murder that promote violence so they're saying the quiet part out loud at this point when 75% of your customers on the weekend are of people of color and of our people that you don't want their music to be played like what's going on I just saw that sexy red posted this
Said at
least y'all
at least y'all know I'm number one At least y'all know I'm number one the shade room posted this for what?
Almost a million views on tiktok
And not to mention brother Z I don't think they're understanding that this can impact this city economically meaning that
The people that come here or want to invest or want to do shows, whatever the case may be, there are actually people in the entertainment business that benefit from artists coming here, right?
And I talked about this earlier.
There are probably some artists probably are not going to one, two-step a foot back into this city.
Yeah, then they already don't come to Milwaukee
as it is.
Come
on.
They already don't come here.
Come on now.
Half
of these.
Half of these people, if not all of these people, have headlined a major festival within the last 10, 15, 20 years.
And what, Don Toliver?
I mean, he's the only one that came to Milwaukee's.
Sexy Red came to Milwaukee, I think once,
That too.
Like she has actual relationships with real artists who are doing real things raking making real money in the real industry So again if this goes above some people head we get it.
It's not your generation You don't make music, but don't tell us we're wrong for standing up You don't know the work that we put in so that people can be able to
get their music played in the club.
Let's finish this conversation when we come back from breakwanda.
I see you.
I'm going to talk about you when I get back on.
I love you dearly.
101.7 the truth that should grow jazz.
One
We are live and direct shout out to the chat.
Um THK least he said definitely 100.
Um nurse Kawanda said thank you jazz for everything you've done for me in our family, but would be proud 100 I just hate my mind when it went blank when it come to that.
So again, I want to thank you publicly Kawanda Listen, um
A couple of weeks ago, if you guys are tuning in, myself and Homer had mentioned about the loss of two very important people in our lives.
Joseph Jackson aka Smalls and Charles Duke aka Bubba.
Both actually were artists from Milwaukee.
Both have done some amazing things in the music industry in the city of Milwaukee and the outside Milwaukee as well and kawanda I want to say to you publicly as well that I'll always be here despite or whatever It's been rough It's hard some days we up some days we down but baby we gonna get through it I promise we are
We are going to get through it.
I love you dearly.
To Smalls family, I love y'all dearly.
These are two people who meant a lot to me and who contributed to the music scene in Milwaukee as well.
And I'll continue to be here for both families.
I thank you, Kiwana, for tapping in today because I know that your mind is all over the place and I know that you're in the process of planning a funeral and you still found time to tap in.
And I love you so much for that.
Thank you to those who are joining us.
We've been talking about this situation with the garage and that list that came out.
And honestly, I'm not here to battle with people who don't understand.
I'm not here to continue to go back and forth.
With you about it because those who get it get it those who don't get it either don't or they just don't want to
But at the end of the day, what I'm simply saying is, as someone who has been doing music in this city since I was 12 years old, as someone who is currently the lead producer and educator teaching students how to make music in on radio because I was a music artist, yes, I find it very offensive.
Yes, I do not support this.
Yes, I am going to speak out about it because there is so much work that has gone into making sure that artists in today's generation
have the support that is needed locally in order to be successful.
And because certain establishments, because certain elected officials, because the community, because certain people have provided the support to the music artists, we have been able to take our talents outside of Milwaukee, go and get the resources and bring it back to the crib.
Can you imagine if all of the establishments
Or a majority of the establishments in Wisconsin or Milwaukee say hey, we don't want to play any Milwaukee rap music Do you understand what that would do to not only the culture?
But the pockets and how people feed their family.
So again, please don't look at this as oh, it's just a hobby They don't want Milwaukee music.
So what this isn't a hobby
Y'all have to pay attention to the times and get outside of your own world whether you like it or not This generation of Milwaukee rap music has taken off And it has brought so much attention to the city Back to brother Z's point when he say it got a million views on tiktok sexy red reposted it mind you she is
Her and chicken PR like two two peas in a pod This really does affect people and it's a slap in the face for the people who have paved the way We fought let me tell y'all something we fought so hard Myself included we fought so hard to get our music played in establishments in Milwaukee.
We used to be one
Brady Street on Live on North.
You understand?
Performing, getting our music out there.
We used to go to Quarters, Stonefly.
We had to put in work to even get the DJs to talk to us.
Some of us had, some of y'all had to pay the DJ to play your music just so that you can get recognized.
And there was so many opportunities that came from a DJ spinning my record in the club.
I would not be where I am today had it not been for Milwaukee rap music.
So yes, it's a slap in my face.
It's a slap in Ray Needy's face.
It's a slap in Mr. Do-It-To-Deaf face.
It's a slap in Cuckoo Cow face.
It's a slap in the new generation's face.
It don't have to be serious to some of y'all.
Y'all don't have to understand it.
But it does matter and the problem I have with that with the older generation or people who don't get it is that lack of support If this was your days and they told Rick James and James Brown and Marvin Gaye and everybody else that it ain't gonna be none of that sexual stuff up here up in my establishment Y'all would have been outside with the picket fences and afro pubs and everything too
But because it's our generation and it's something y'all can't understand or don't want to understand then we're in the wrong for standing up for something We're in the wrong for saying no we don't care about going to your establishment But at the same time you're not going to disrespect our culture I Don't think y'all understand the masses of what just happened and if you don't understand
Eventually, you will.
Now, in other news, Brewer's Black Culture Fest.
Let me make something real clear before I get into this.
This is not me accusing the Brewer's organization or creating that they are racist.
Shout out to Katina Shaw.
She is the president of the Brewer's Foundation.
We had her on the show a couple of months ago, and she's doing some amazing work over there.
And they curated the Black Culture Fest intentionally to celebrate Black culture, intentionally to celebrate Black culture.
The issue is what started showing up in the comments around promotion for the celebration.
You had people making jokes connected to watermelons, you had the smoke detector stereotype, and if you know, you know.
And I'm not going to spend half the segment teaching people every racist stereotype ever created.
I don't believe in giving ignorance extra air time.
But I do think the existence of those comments deserves conversation.
So not only did we have to take a hit, a slap in the back of the head with this list that was created by the garage, we also had to deal with the rhetoric and the foolishness of people in the conversations, the comments.
about the Black culture fest with the Brewers.
Again, this is bigger than just some organization not playing Milwaukee rap music.
We are talking about Black culture in the city of Milwaukee.
Every time it's us celebrating something, first and foremost, this is all we got.
The country then took everything from us, including our lives.
They even took the damn culture from us too.
Kim and we can't have nothing y'all want us to turn over and say that's all we got We already have enough culture vultures let us have something You don't have to like it.
I don't like all of it, but goddamn it is ours We have a caller on the line east side quarry are you there?
How you doing girl?
Thank you
I love your energy, sweetheart.
I love when you get loud, girl.
Oh, she's getting loud now.
You know, what's so stupid is that I'll be driving and I'll be at the stoplight.
I'll hear some boom, boom,
boom,
boom, heavy bass.
I'll look over at some white people.
This is some good old rap.
Come on now.
I'm like, look at these children.
They look at me and they're like, hey, little black guys looking at us.
Hey, we're cool.
I'm like, girl, come on.
Come on now.
You know.
They're so desperate to be hip and cool.
This is, this is nothing new.
We've been doing this for the last hundred years since jazz came on the scene.
Come on now, Louis Armstrong.
They call that jungle music, you know, and he was, and they were like, and everybody wanted to imitate it.
Everybody wanted to dance.
And then they came up north.
You could play at the cotton club, but you had to come in the back door.
You couldn't come in the front door and have your friends come see you, only whites only.
sitting at the chairs.
Yes.
You know, it took, it took certain artists to say, like, um, like Lena Horne and, um, uh, Diana Ross and, and all, uh, uh, uh, Miss Baker, uh, uh, the French lady, you know, she went to friend to go all the way to France to get acknowledged.
And then she came back to America and they were like, you can play in the Ziggsville Follies, honey, but you can't come through the front door.
And she said, I bet I will.
Yes, because she's got she's got a dose of see the French like authentic people they like the artist they worship The art the purity of it and that's what we are.
We're pure.
Yes,
and we constantly we just do what we do naturally and they try and imitate us It's like we wouldn't have American culture if it wasn't for black It's all our culture
decided to play rap music, but that's okay.
Let's just take it back.
I think we can take a week off from America, Black folks.
And just let them let them have no black music, no soul, no hip.
Just let us all disappear for a week and see what happens.
Yes.
Thank you so much, Issa Corey.
Oh my gosh.
You just said everything that.
resonated with not just me, but the entire culture.
First and foremost, the biggest supporters and the biggest people who purchased the music are white people.
Y'all remember that scene from All Eyes on Me when a pop went to Interscope Records and the A&R, the head A&R of Interscope Records daughter came and said, hey, let me roll white girl.
Tupac, can I get your autograph?
He said, yeah, you want my autograph?
What's your favorite song?
What'd she say?
Come on.
I can't say it on air 11 year old white girl.
They always are the biggest supporters, but it's only It's only okay when it's beneficial.
We got to go to break when we come back We're gonna finish this conversation.
Shout out to Kawana.
She said I know and you are you showed me and we appreciate you and we love you more I needed it escaped today for sure.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us Make sure you double back do not touch that down should grow jazz
Tyler
One on one point seven the truth is your girl jazz Tyler We are live and direct if you are just not joining us.
We've been talking about the comments made About the garage and I also was speaking about the incident that happened with the black culture fest, right?
so There were comments not only are we dealing with black people Not only are we dealing with an ignorant
owner, staff, whoever runs the operator or whoever idea was to put this list out.
We are also dealing with racist comments being made about the black culture fest that the Milwaukee Brewers threw with, I believe, Reneal.
I'm not sure if he was a part of it, but I know that to some degree he was.
And again,
These are the things that we consistently deal with These are the things that we have to face on a day-to-day basis and somehow we are just supposed to be okay with it Why can't black people have one event without somebody doing this?
I mean damn Yardin took the country we don't got reparations Yardin took the culture Yardin redlined us from purchasing homes, right?
When we go to work, we have to face battles, not only with white people, but our people too.
Y'all take our babies from us.
Y'all have split our families up and dismantle the household with the two-parent household.
And you telling me that we can't even have something as simple as music?
Might I add, every genre of music that y'all ever created
came from us.
The blues, the country ain't nothing but blues.
Country music is nothing but blues.
Rock and roll, who started it?
The clothes y'all kids wear.
Y'all love our culture when it's beneficial.
But then when you get tired of it, you try to make it an issue.
You want to act like, oh yeah, we welcome everybody.
We want y'all to have a good time.
Now again, I'm okay with people running their business how they want to.
But what I'm not okay with is a business owner.
Being unprofessional, discriminating publicly.
Then you have the Brewer's Black Cultural Fest.
And again, my question is, why does a black cultural celebration make some people so uncomfortable?
When you have German Fest, you don't see black people comment under their talking crap.
We actually go.
When you got the Mexican Fest, the Greek Fest, the Irish Fest, all of that, we support it.
We do.
Because it's America.
That's what we do.
This is America.
That is what we do.
Why is black culture first treated differently?
Why was it treated differently?
Why does someone seeing the word black immediately feel like something is being taken away from them?
Hip hop doesn't feel foreign.
It's everywhere black athletes are everywhere black fashion is everywhere black language is everywhere black music is everywhere
But then the moment you identify the culture as black somebody suddenly says, why does it have to be about race?
That is so fascinating to me because if it wasn't a problem, it wasn't a problem when you were consuming it.
It became a problem when the source was named.
Does Milwaukee love black culture or does Milwaukee love what black culture provides?
Does Milwaukee love back black culture or does it love what we provide?
When you say remove hip-hop or Milwaukee rap music I want you to go and take a look at Steve the stoner video or big Frank when they are on college campuses up north and it ain't nothing but white kids there Okay
When you say remove Milwaukee rap music I want you to go back and look at the history of the song bow Or in my projects by cuckoo cow and what it has done for Milwaukee culture The very people who are making these comments, I'm sure their children love black culture I'm almost positive they do and It just eats them up inside The fact
I do want to say this, the comments that were made about the black culture fest for the Brewers is not a reflection of the Brewers Foundation.
How do we know this?
Because we sat down with the president, Katina Shaw.
I've personally been there and seen the work that her and the staff and the players have done when it comes to the community and black people in general.
And it's not nothing that's being, it's politically correct or anything for cameras, no.
They are genuine when they do it.
They can't help that they have racist pricks commenting under their statuses.
But again, this is Wisconsin and what if Wisconsin don't do nothing, baby, it's going to remind you that your black gas is black.
Wisconsin will remind you that you are a Negro, a colored.
I promise you.
Every chance they get.
We can't have anything.
We can't have anything.
And it is crazy to me.
It is crazy that we are living in these times and people make it their duty to go and comment on somebody's personal page to make racist remarks.
For what reasons?
We don't know.
We never will.
It makes absolutely no sense.
So I...
Jazz Tyler, I'm gonna speak for all my people when I say we's a tied.
We are tired, okay?
Let me tell you about black culture on a broader scale and what we're dealing with as black people.
Not only do we get this list put out about not playing Milwaukee rap music, but we got racist comments made on the Brewer's page about the Black culture fest.
We are currently 30 years later in the middle of one of the biggest murder trials in hip-hop culture.
Might I add the first rapper to ever be murdered?
That was a hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur.
We are dealing with the Nolan Wells case as well.
We are dealing with other cases that has happened with officers assassinating black men and women and now they're finally going to trial or being charged.
There are still unsolved cases of our babies as well throughout this entire country.
There are babies who are being hung on trees.
Then there's the Carmelo Anthony case that's happening also.
Every time you look up in the industry we're losing somebody.
Not to add on how difficult it is for Milwaukee artists specifically to make it up out of here.
Don't that sound depressing?
Don't that sound like a lot?
I want you to really think about everything you are paying attention to on a day-to-day basis.
Everything that I just mentioned.
These are things that's scrolling up and down our timelines.
24-7.
These are things that we have to deal with on a daily basis.
And for some reason, it's okay for people to call and tell us not to worry about it.
We are tired.
We've been tired.
All we want to do is is have fun and celebrate.
I'm not speaking about the fools.
Stop putting us all in one box.
We all don't look alike.
We all don't sound alike.
We all don't like the same stuff.
And most importantly, respect Milwaukee rap artists.
Respect Milwaukee music Support it if you don't like it cool But it does not mean that it doesn't exist and it does not mean that people have put in the work The black culture fest was for the babies See that that's what I don't think people understand either.
Oh, they made racist comments.
Yeah, that event was for the youth Y'all don't think that the youth is
paying attention to those comments.
And if we don't have these conversations that in their minds they may begin to think that this organization was a part of that and they had nothing to do with it and that changes their outlook on their experience.
Y'all gotta stop thinking subjectively just because something don't impact you directly.
That's like people who wait to get involved when something happened to their child.
You wait until the last minute before you want to get active because it never affected you.
All of this affected us whether you admit it or not, whether you want to accept it or not.
It does affect us overall.
If you are a citizen in Milwaukee, it is going to affect you somehow some way.
Whether it's going to be for the good or the bad, that's for you to decide.
We're going to finish this conversation when we come back.
It should grow.
Jazz
Tyler.
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If you are just now joining us, I talked about the list that the garage had put out pertaining to Milwaukee Rap Music, and we've been talking about
The last 30 minutes about the Brewers, I want to read something to you all.
I was tapping into what was going on with the Black Cultural Fest at the Brewer Stadium, which was an event for youth and families.
According to Milwaukee Journal's signal, nobody was prevented from watching the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Atlanta Braves at American Family Field on August 21st.
No one was harmed.
Let me repeat that.
No one was harmed.
As the Brewer celebrated the black culture for one night during 162 game regular season, yet judging by some of the comments posted on social media, even that was too much.
So here are some of the remarks that people were leaving on the Brewer social media pages.
What liquor the drink of choice?
Were they giving out free watermelon and crack?
Where is the fried chicken?
Those were actually some of the milder comments.
Others referred to human beings as monkeys, robbers, baby mamas, and crack smokers.
Some posted raced memes, including one titled, My First Ankle Monitor, featuring a little boy with an ankle monitor around his leg.
Think about what caused this reaction.
The Brewer simply acknowledged the contributions of black Americans.
The team partnered with groups including social ex MKE to celebrate Milwaukee's black community Fans experienced live music and local marching bands supported black owned businesses and celebrated the historical contributions of black baseball players in the Negro Leagues and somehow that alone was enough to bring the races out These are the comments that are being made
This is the type of environment that our babies are growing up in so again for those who say oh don't worry about it go somewhere else Did you forget about the kids?
Did you forget about outside of that list being made publicly in those comments being made publicly that behind those comments behind that list those are real human beings Those are human beings who view your babies like this
Those are human beings that view all of us like this.
And we all know how that can play out when they have a certain type of perception when it comes to black men and black women in this country.
That is the harsh reality.
So outside of the one situation that's happening, these are people and this is their character, right?
These are character flaws.
This is the environment that our babies have to grow up in.
And thank God they were voicers about it.
Because there are so many around here who feel the same way and their behavior reflects it and yet they don't say anything.
No matter how you put it, it's still not okay.
No matter how many times you say, so now what?
Y'all say don't go to the garage, so now what?
We can't go to the Brewer's Game to avoid racist comments too?
No, we're gonna be faced with it regardless.
And at the end of the day, we should say something about it.
Do we got to put up with it?
Do we have to support it?
No, but we should say something to tell us that we are wrong For speaking up about what's happening knowing that our babies are looking you are the problem, too If it's not your generation and if it's not nothing that you understand your entire title to your own opinion But how dare you tell us that we are wrong for speaking up about what's happening.
It's not about being accepted
It's not about spending money at their establishment.
Hell, we got plenty places to go.
We don't care about that.
But what you won't do is disrespect our culture.
Time and time again, they continue to use our culture at their benefit and then disrespect us when it's no longer beneficial.
And we supposed to be like, okay, yeah, we'll just go somewhere else.
No, you're going to hear it.
Because if it was me, I'm telling you, I'm about ready to go in front of there and put on a whole concert of just all Milwaukee rap music.
I promise you I will, because that don't make no sense.
No matter how much they don't understand, we aren't going anywhere.
Baby, this is our city.
This is our culture.
And for our people that's listening, black people, and y'all establishments, thank y'all.
Shout out to Craig and Mr. Bees.
Shout out to O at Prime Social.
Shout out to 502.
Shout out to all of the Black establishments or establishments ran by Black people that continuously support local Milwaukee rap artists.
Thank you.
You are appreciated in case nobody has told you publicly.
Because as you can see, we do have more support.
We do have more establishments who will support us, including Black establishments.
But at the end of the day,
Whether or not it's a black establishment or a white establishment, we have the responsibility to say something about it.
Point blank period.
And it's nothing that nobody can do.
And again, you are crazy if you think that we are not going to.
So, I leave you with this Milwaukee.
If you see something, say something.
Y'all see this list?
Say something.
You see those comments?
Say something.
Because it's not just us, it's these kids that's paying attention to this too.
Our youth is watching this in real time, and they're also watching how we're responding to what's happening.
Y'all don't understand that these kids are, they have something brewing up inside of them.
So when you say stuff like, ah, don't worry about it, they looking at you like you weak.
Like you just gonna lay down.
And that's gonna make them look at you differently and feel away.
in case you didn't know.
And then that's where the lack of respect comes in at, right?
Because we teach them, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
That's my time, Milwaukee.
Make sure you guys double back tomorrow for the morning show with Homer Blow and Bailey Coman followed by Sherman Hughes and the lunch break with maybe Shannon, who is feeling in for Ray Nitty.
Ray out there in Poland.
Out there in Poland getting it in.
Then Swing back for the Great Vine.
Home where Blow will be filling in and then double back with your girl Jazz Tyler from 4 p.m.
to 7 p.m.
Thank you all so much.
for tuning in.
Have a safe evening, Milwaukee.
I am headed to Mary Ryan Boys and Girls Club to kick it with the kids over there.
Man, shout out to Aziz and brother Mohammed, David Mohammed for all the work that you all are doing in the community.
Peace and love everybody.
Y'all have a safe
evening.
you
They have some amazing specials on Tuesday for Taco Tuesday.
Shout out to everyone who is driving home from work.
Hope that you all had an amazing, amazing day today.
I hope that everyone listening right now who didn't have an amazing day, I hope that the next three hours give you something to think about, something to laugh about, something to take with you, and maybe even something to challenge you.
Please do not forget to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel, 101.7 The Truth.
Follow me on social media, the Jazzy Effect, that's T-H-E-J-A-Z-Z-I-E-E-F-F-E-C-T.
Today's show is one of those shows where we are not just reading headlines, we are going underneath the headline.
We are talking about culture, we are talking about identity, and we are talking about, most importantly, Milwaukee.
We are talking about how people respond.
when black culture is celebrated, criticized, controlled, commercialized, or misunderstood.
And we are going to ask some questions today that might make some people uncomfortable, and you know what?
Quite frankly, that is okay.
That is what we are here to do, right?
Challenge the status quo.
Every good conversation does not need to make everybody comfortable.
Sometimes the point is not comfort.
Sometimes the point is clarity.
Sometimes the point is making people examine a belief they have never actually questioned before.
Before we get into anything else though, I want to give you my daily affirmation.
Shout out to my students at Howard Fuller today.
Every day we do the daily affirmations and today they have some good affirmations, baby.
Let me tell you and it inspired me so much.
So mine today is I refuse to shrink what God has placed inside of me just because my presence make somebody else uncomfortable I'm gonna say that again because somebody's driving from home right now needs to hear this we Truth nation we refuse to shrink what God has placed inside of us just because our presence makes someone else uncomfortable
We are not shrinking our voice.
We are not shrinking our personality.
We are not shrinking our culture.
We are not shrinking our purpose.
We are not shrinking our ambition or creativity.
Most definitely, we are not shrinking the truth.
And I'm definitely not changing who I am just to make somebody else feel more powerful standing next to me.
And I think that affirmation fits today's conversation perfectly because so much of what we are talking about this first hour comes down to comfort.
How comfortable are you?
What version of black culture makes people so uncomfortable?
What version of black expression makes people so uncomfortable?
What version gets celebrated?
What version gets policed?
Who decides that?
And what standard are they using?
And here's what we're getting into today.
So we're going to start off.
If you guys are on social media, I'm pretty sure you have seen all of the rhetoric about the garage, the bar titled the garage on Brady Street and the no playlist that started circulating around social media.
We are talking about that line that says no Milwaukee rap and we are not stopping at whether people are offended.
We are going to ask whether a business has the right.
to shape its atmosphere.
We are going to ask whether a content policy is different from a cultural policy.
We are going to ask whether you can reject certain parts of hip-hop without rejecting hip-hop as a culture, hip-hop culture as a whole.
And then we are moving on to the Brewer's Black Cultural Fest, because the Brewer's intentionally created an event to celebrate Black culture, but...
Underneath some of that promotion, there are some racial stereotypes that started appearing in the comments.
So the question becomes, what doesn't mean when people love the event, but disrespect the people the event is celebrating?
I have to give a huge shout out.
to the Brewers Foundation, Katina Shaw, she actually joined us a couple of months ago, and we had an amazing conversation, and she's doing some amazing work over there, and I don't want negative comments by pricks to outshine the work that her and her staff is doing, as well as Reneal Washington.
Shout out to Reneal, he also was involved in
that Black cultural fest and he gifted 25 tickets free of charge to our Howard Fuller, Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy students for them to attend and experience what it's like to attend an event like that that celebrates Black culture.
And then we are going to bring those two stories together and ask a bigger question about Milwaukee.
Does Milwaukee embrace Black culture or only the parts of Milwaukee, Black Milwaukee?
To be specific, Milwaukee feels comfortable consuming.
At five o'clock, we are going to change the tone, but we are staying in the same larger conversation about community.
I will be sitting down talking with LWSW.
I'm sorry about Milwaukee, our biggest free library.
And I really want you to stay with us for that hour because we are not just promoting a book giveaway.
We are talking about literacy.
We are going to talk about children having access to books.
We are going to talk about why some families don't necessarily have shelves full of books sitting around the house.
We are going to talk about community investment, right?
I know y'all seen.
the viral video of the teacher in, I believe it was Texas, who was expressing himself, right?
This is a black man who's a teacher and he was shedding some tears over the fact that his students did not know how to read at the grade level that they were at.
So when we're talking about literacy, we're talking about books, this isn't just something that you need to skip over.
This is something that has to be done by not just the household or the schools, but the community overall.
We're talking about what happens when nonprofits, businesses, and people doing grassroots work actually collaborate instead of waiting for a crisis.
And then at six o'clock, we are going to Las Vegas to cover the Tupac Shakur murder trial.
I purposely have not been covering it for specific reasons, but the more information that comes out, I have to do it for the culture.
If we're talking about hip hop and we're talking about black culture, there is no way we cannot talk about
about the Tupac Shakur murder trial.
We're going to talk about Idi Amin, one of the members of the outlaws taking the stand.
We're going to talk about what the jury is hearing.
We're going to talk about testimonies and we're going to talk about the prosecutor's case, the defense position and why nearly 30 years later, this case is still resonated with people all over the world.
Then before we leave, we're coming back to Wisconsin politics.
David Crowley, Tom Tiffany, the race for governor.
What both men represent.
what Milwaukee voters should be paying attention to.
So we are going from culture to literacy to legacy to politics.
That's the full of Tuesday.
Now let's start with the garage.
If you have been on social media, you've probably seen a version of this.
There's a list that circulated.
Uh, the outline music DJs were not supposed to play at this specific bar titled the garage on Brady Street.
Here's where the conversation immediately got sensitive.
This wasn't just a list saying no explicit songs This wasn't just a list saying no songs about gun violence in name the artist and then there was a phrase No Milwaukee rap and that phrase it is what made a lot of people upset Because you can say you don't like a particular song you can even say that you don't like a particular artist You can also say that a certain record doesn't fit
the type of establishment that you have.
We just had this conversation last week with Joe Tucker, the dream lounge that he has on MLK.
And we talked about the type of music he plays and the type of atmosphere that he wants, right?
And the reason why I bring that up is because there is a way to celebrate Black culture, right?
Without discriminating.
When you say no Milwaukee rap you are not talking about one song you are not even talking about one artist You are talking about an entire local music scene.
You are talking about the city overall You are talking about the culture of the city and now I do want to be fair because the garage has that that establishment has responded
Ownership says they did not authorize that list.
They say it was created by an employee.
They say the consignor was supposed to be music with references to guns and violence because the establishment wanted to maintain a more relaxed atmosphere.
And let me say this before anybody accused me of ignoring the business side.
Businesses absolutely have the right to shape their environment first and foremost.
As a business owner, I will tell you that.
If I own a jazz lounge, I can say that I want just jazz.
If I want, if I own a restaurant, I can say I don't want explicit music playing while families are eating dinner.
If I own a club, I can decide what type of crowd and atmosphere I am attempting to create.
That alone is not discrimination.
A business having a music policy is not automatically a problem, but here is where the issue lies.
If your concern is violent content, then why not write a policy about violent content?
If your concern is gun references, why not say no songs glorifying gun references, right?
Gun violence.
If your concern is aggressive music, define what you mean by aggressive music.
Why identify entire artists?
And why add no Milwaukee rap?
Because let me tell you what happens when you do that.
You take individual behavior and you turn it into a group identity and that is a problem.
And the history of this state has taught us that whenever society starts doing that, somebody gets stereotyped.
We are all too familiar with this Milwaukee.
We have been through this, uh, even back in the day when I used to go out to the clubs and they say you can't wear white t-shirts twice the size or baggy jeans and all of these things, right?
So there's just finding new ways to basically discriminate and we're going to get into this further.
But first we got to go to break brother Z. Let's go pay some bills.
Do not touch that down.
She grew up jazz
Tyler.
We are live and direct at the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth in the beautiful heart of downtown Milwaukee at the American family insurance studio and listen There's there's a business talking about no Milwaukee music.
That means no bow, right?
That means they need to bow their ass on the bottom Brady Street if they talking about no Milwaukee music, right?
Welcome back shout out to the chat Marty says a certain music
Certain crowd music dictate the crowd 90% of the time That is true, Marty for those who are joining us.
We are talking about the viral list that that's going around on social media about the garage stating that they don't want any not just Hip-hop or rap period not only did they say that but they also mentioned that they did not want any Milwaukee rap and then they had an entire list of the artists
I'm thinking legal aspects, is that even legal?
To put out a list of exact artists that you do not want, who music you do not want played inside of your establishment.
Marty also said people invest in money to make money, not to be shut down for bottom feeders.
Black people refuse to change.
The way they walk, talk, move, worship, and deliver is so sad.
Every day on social media and Instagram, our little girls are taught how to hate and fight while grown people record.
And you know what, Marty?
I agree.
However, that still does not give an establishment the right to discriminate against what type of music is played.
Now, I do understand again.
I do understand the dynamics when we're talking about an atmosphere because even myself at 38, I don't go to the club anymore, right?
I don't.
But let's be clear.
If I was the generation under me attempting to go and have a good time, I would not want to be placed in the same category as people that's out here acting a fool.
Because when you go to these festivals and you see white people they be acting a fool too.
So should we ban them from certain festivals?
Let's be fair across the board.
Every Milwaukee rapper does not have the same sound.
Every Milwaukee rapper is not talking about the same thing.
Every Milwaukee artist is not glorifying violence.
You have artists talking about survival, artists talking about relationships, artists talking about fatherhood, artists talking about mothers.
They make club records, conscious records.
They make music about poverty.
They make music about aspiration.
Artists making music because they are simply trying to entertain people for three minutes.
And let's be clear, because if we're talking about gun violence, where do we get it from?
The founding fathers of this country.
Everything that black people do is a reflection of their oppressor of our oppressor.
Let's be clear, right?
So we talking about we don't want the gun violence and all of that.
Hey, naturally by DNA, we are not violent people, right?
We are not.
All in all, it's just flat out wrong.
Again, as a business owner, you can determine whatever you want, but you cannot discriminate, right?
Are we saying Milwaukee rap itself?
is dangerous.
Are we saying the entire genre coming out of this city represent a threat to an atmosphere because that's a bigger statement than saying we don't want violent lyrics and not to mention.
Let's be clear.
I want you to understand something here because there's a lot of people that don't listen to Milwaukee rap and that is completely fine.
But as someone who has been a part of Milwaukee history as an artist, if you know, you know, I have contributed to
The music scene that you guys have seen, that you guys see here today.
So has Meach, so has Ray Nitty, so has many other people.
We have worked our asses off, including the DJs.
The Homer Blows, right?
The new styles.
Knowledge when he was back on V100.7.
There are so many people involved who have paved the way to make sure that the artist today has a voice and has a platform.
So for an organization to say, hey, no Milwaukee rap, it's like a slap in the face.
Especially at a time where our number one artist is currently locked up over allegations, right?
Somebody who has literally put the city on his back.
You have this list going viral all over social media and what that does is it forces people on the outside in the music industry to not want to entertain Milwaukee artists What that is showing is that our own city don't support our artists
They don't know that this establishment is on Brady Street.
They don't know that this establishment is not owned by black people.
Well, right now they probably do because there is an issue about discrimination.
However, the fact of the matter is we've already had a history when it comes to being discriminated against going inside of establishments downtown in one Brady Street.
We've already had a history of it being difficult for the artists that's coming out of Milwaukee to get any type of support from the city, let alone step a foot into the industry, the music industry, for one organization to say, we don't want this kind of music.
And again, you can determine what you want your establishment to feel like, right?
But how about this?
How about if we galvanize and gather
Our white allies and say hey Nobody should support the garage right black people.
We ain't going in there anyways But let's let's get our white allies and say hey you guys want to support us don't go No, but I'm saying after this situation yeah, like after this situation Especially because it's saying no Milwaukee rap
We're probably like, our people are probably like, man, we good.
It's enough places for us to go, right?
We don't have to go to your establishment, but what's gonna happen when we hit them pockets, big baby?
What's gonna happen, right?
This is a conversation that the other person of that district and that board, I actually was going to be on the Brady Street board because of reasons like this.
But I was not living in the city of Milwaukee at the time.
This is a much bigger issue than this establishment putting out a fake-ass Apology saying that hey we it wasn't us it was the employee if I was that employee I leave because at the end of the day your employee represents you and If they put that out you can't tell me that they didn't feel comfortable There was anything that make them made them uncomfortable before they decided to put that list out, right?
Here's the part I want us to be grown enough to admit.
We understand that hip-hop can be criticized.
Black culture can be criticized.
Everything black people create is not automatically beyond criticism simply because we created it.
There are records I don't like.
There are lyrics I don't agree with.
There are messages in music that I don't think are healthy for our children.
There are songs glorifying violence.
There are songs degrading women.
There are songs glorifying drugs and we should be able to talk about all of those things, honestly.
But honest criticism has to remain honest.
It can't turn into the entire culture is a problem.
Because that's where you cross into something else, right?
That's when you cross into something else.
Can you imagine not that it matters?
Because I'm sure they get booked.
I know for a fact they get booked.
far beyond Milwaukee, right?
But can you imagine being one of those artists?
And let's say it was an artist like Lil Boosie who loves Milwaukee, right?
He loves coming here.
He loves supporting Milwaukee.
He always shouts us out.
And then there's an organization that says, hey, we don't want any of his music played here and it's circulating all around social media.
That can make a person never want to step a foot back into the city of Milwaukee, right?
It's funny how you can say you don't want to include black culture or hip hop culture in your establishment, but you love to make money off of it, right?
Y'all, they love making money off the culture, culture vultures.
Love making money off of it.
But it's OK for us to come in there and pay to get in and buy drinks and buy food.
But we can't have our culture cannot be a part of it.
That is a problem.
That is a problem.
And we all know that there's going to be some black people that's like, I don't care, I'ma still go.
That's gonna happen.
But at the end of the day, my advice to you is, if you don't start now standing for something, it's going to be a ripple effect.
They're showing us that they don't care.
They've been showing us.
Again, we've been through this multiple times when it comes to the attire.
Back in the days when we used to club, I believe it was Bar Louie Brothers.
It was a few bars on a water street that did not allow us to come in and dress a certain type of way based off of the fact that we are black.
No baggy jeans, no baggy t-shirts, right?
No tennis shoes.
And they enforce these rules.
For no other reason other than the fact is they didn't want us a part of their establishment So here's my opening question to you true nation chime in a 3 3 2 1 2 1 0 1 7 Can you reject certain parts of hip-hop without rejecting the culture?
I think the answer is yes.
That's my personal opinion You can dislike violent lyrics and still respect hip-hop.
You can dislike one artist and still respect Milwaukee music scene You can dislike
certain songs and still not say, hey, I hate hip hop overall.
You can say a particular record doesn't fit your business without making the statement that Milwaukee rap itself doesn't belong there.
And I want people listening to ask themselves something.
If that list had said no Chicago house music, how would that have landed?
If it said no reggae, no Latin music, no country music, how would that have been taken?
So why is no Milwaukee rap supposed to be interpreted differently?
Again, ownership says the list wasn't authorized.
I don't believe that.
I don't believe that.
Either way, the public still has the right to ask how that list came into existence to begin with, right?
Hello.
So to put out that apology is insane.
To put out that apology saying otherwise is insane We're gonna finish this conversation when we come back.
I want to hear from you a 3 3 2 1 2 1 0 1 7 How are you truly feeling about this?
It should grow jazz Tyler do not touch that down
It's your girl, Jazz
Tyler.
I'm here, ma'am.
I was just driving home and I heard you.
talking about dress codes and how it's discriminatory or practice to suggest certain dress codes or certain music.
Listen, I've been in a lot of states and dress codes is enforced.
And guess what?
In some areas, ain't no black folks, but it's still a dress code.
You know, you get downtown Miami, you get in New York.
You know, in some places, it's a dress code, you know?
I mean, it's like going to a store, no shirt, no shoes, no service.
And I'll tell you something, you know, I look at baddies every Sunday.
That's my little entertainment deal, you know, I watch them.
I don't got to learn in the carriages after a while.
But the more I watch it, the more I see the contaminant.
the contamination that is putting on our people.
So, you know, I really hate to, but I'm going to have to counsel my subscription to Zeus.
And guess what?
If them people don't want your butt in that club, they don't want to play your music.
Oh, well, you know, and it's not going to hurt their pockets.
And let me tell you that you say hit them in the pocket.
Them people don't even want our money, babe.
They don't want our money.
They want us to stay away from that is what they want.
See, that pocket thing only works on certain deals.
But in cases like that, in restaurants, they don't want our money.
They want us to stay away from their period.
You see what just happened at the State Fair?
When I was coming up, the State Fair was an all-white affair.
No blacks hardly ever went to the State Fair.
I went to the State Fair one time, and I think it was probably four other black people on the whole grounds.
Our thing was the summer fest.
We had the midway out there.
They had the same thing at the state fair would be at the summer fest.
As a matter of fact, they had some more slicker, but you know, the state fair was more 4-H and all of that kind of stuff.
So they went out there last week and you see how they acted real ugly.
So I'm going to just tell you like this.
And I love my people.
I work for them every day.
But the thing is this right here, if they don't want you in there, stay away from there because they don't, they really don't want you in there.
to tell you the truth and to change the music and I tell anybody if you can open up a club and you don't want that young crowd please some blues man put you some blues or some jazz on in your club and they're gonna come in and look and then they're gonna hang out then they're gonna leave unless they enter over the ladies or something like that or ladies into a younger you know uh you know something like that other than that put you on some blues or some jazz and then folks ain't coming up in there man with them sagging pants man that culture that you're talking about
It's really a bad eye on us right now.
And I don't know what we're going to do to fix it.
Cosmetically, it's ugly.
So I'll sit back and listen to
Thank you so much, Winky Blue.
You know what?
I agree to a certain degree.
I agree that we don't have to spend our funds there.
We don't have to support the establishment.
We don't have to do any of that.
But it still does not give an establishment the right to target Milwaukee artists.
That's my argument.
My argument isn't.
Whether or not our like we we know that our house is not clean when it comes to the hip-hop culture, right?
We understand that it still does not give them a right to Target an entire culture in the city of Milwaukee, right?
They're targeting all of the artists who have done the work who are trying to whether or not their music is music that is appealing that's for their generation
We have these conversations all the time.
Do we want them to make better music?
Yes.
But again, when you say rap, instantly we go to thinking about violence.
Ray Nitty's song isn't rap.
Much about violence.
Much more music isn't about violence.
Right, there's so many artists here who don't make music about violence.
So we're not just talking about they're not Categorizing just the violent music.
They're not saying we don't want any violent Milwaukee rap.
They're saying we don't want Milwaukee rap period That's including people who have paved the way cuckoo cow.
They don't want in my projects They don't want baby Drew.
They don't want bow.
They don't want Any of the dance music that a lot of the artists make that is a problem
We have another caller on the line.
Security Mike, are you there?
Yes, I'm here, Jack.
Just so they don't seem like they don't want nothing from us because we do have a lot of positive rappers out here and music as well.
And it just goes to show that, like, they don't want nothing from us.
As far as it, they don't even want to vote.
They don't want our vote.
And that caller, Winky, he voted for Trump.
When Trump don't even want to vote, he don't want us to vote.
You see what I'm saying?
So it's just not right.
All I know that if we don't like the Democrats, everybody got to vote one way.
Otherwise, Trump and them don't try to take us down.
Yes, ma'am.
How you doing?
Okay, yeah, listen to your topic and it's crazy Memphis and we're going through the same thing like they don't play no push ice here
everything is going on Everything is going on in the city cuz they be know the drill scene.
They be really talking they be dissing and sending out hits to the music So they don't play.
No Shai said no stupid dude.
No money bag
And Memphis kind of went through there back in the 90s when I was coming up with 3C's Mafia.
They didn't play a hotel club, but none of
So did they do it in a way where it was like, hey, we don't want to.
So OK, what you're saying to me sounds like they're trying to avoid wars, right?
Especially when you have artists of that statue that still lives in the city.
So to a certain degree, I can understand that.
But to ban an entire culture.
From being played in the establishment and saying not just them, but what about the other types?
What about the other types of music that are being played, you know?
Yeah, because I think recently Yo Gotti restaurant his mom raised the age something like 40 40 and up
Yeah, and a lot of those guys have you know some issues in the streets So either way, I just don't agree with an establishment saying that they don't want any of
the rap music, because now you're categorizing everybody.
You're putting every artist from that area into one box, saying that they all make the same type of music.
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.
Yeah, if you're going to ban drill, I can see that, but not just put it all in one bag to like all rap is real music or gangster music or something like that.
Yeah, they shouldn't do that.
But I think a lot of cities are going towards that trend.
I know Nashville.
They have a lot of clubs now.
It's like, uh, 40, no, 15, no.
So they have a lot, a lot of cities trying to go on with their training, trying to cut out the real for L.
You know, I'm here.
Man, thank you so much for giving us the platform.
I'm so sick of black people trying to insert themselves where we are not wanted.
Instead of showing up our own and making sure that we have rules and regulations, community norms in place, as well as the consequence when you violate those community norms, we're going to continue to experience the same thing that our grandparents and great grandparents did.
And I just think it's a mentality that we have where we're itching to be accepted, to be wanted, to be wanted by white folks.
I've owned the bar before.
Guess what?
I didn't play Hunky Tunk music because it wasn't a Hunky Tunk bar.
And if that means I need to put a specific artist name on it that makes the people go crazy whenever this Hunky Tunk song come on.
Damn it.
I'll put up a name on it.
And I don't think that there's a problem with it.
I think that the problem is us.
not realizing that that's really just code for we don't want you.
But it shouldn't be a problem.
This is America.
That's what I'm saying.
We're children, so you don't want us, but we want to protest so that we can come and give you our money because you told us you don't want us.
It's a sick mentality we have.
This is my stance, right?
And I understand it at all different angles as a business owner, as someone who is an artist, as someone who has been and is a part of hip hop culture.
I don't think that this in particular, as far as us, the people, black people, I don't think that we're necessarily saying we want to be a part of it.
We're not saying that we want them to accept us.
We're saying that what you did was wrong.
Period.
Putting out that list and targeting Milwaukee artists is wrong and wrong is wrong It's not a matter of them accepting us.
It's not a matter of us wanting to be a part of whatever they have but let's be clear we should Be able to go wherever we please and have a good time We should be able to go wherever we please in this city and have a good time right end of discussion
That's just what it is to publicly come out and make a list like that.
You are you are showing us that you are discriminating against us, right?
That's what you're showing us.
Some of us don't even go there.
Some of the people that reside in Milwaukee do not go to this establishment.
However, again, they're not just talking about one song or one artist.
They are talking about an entire culture.
And with the entire culture, people have to understand that we have to defend our culture.
Yes, this is personal for me.
You know why?
Because before you see a lot of these female rappers in this city, I was out there busting my butt to make sure that they could rap on stage, to make sure that they songs could get played in the clubs before it was even allowed.
This is back when they, when they wasn't even allowing female rappers like that to perform around here.
You understand?
They was not playing our songs in the club or on the radio.
There was a lot of work and I. There was a lot of work that went into building the Milwaukee music scene.
To get us notice.
A lot of us here, that's all we have.
That's all we have.
I am a teacher who teaches music.
I teach this.
To 80 to 90 students a day And when I'm sitting with these teenagers and I'm seeing the things that they're facing outside of school This is the only outlet that they got This is all they have this maybe everybody can't play basketball everybody can't play football Everybody is not a gymnast or everybody don't want to do here
A lot of these youth, all they have is music.
That is the only way they know how to express themselves.
That is the only ticket that they see for them to feed their families.
So when we're talking about Milwaukee rap, I'm not just looking at the people who make that type of music.
I'm looking at, again, the Ray Nitties, the Mush Lawrence, the students who don't even have a chance based off of this.
All they're doing is trying to express themselves and make music and be successful and stay out of harm's way.
And then you see something like this and hey, what's the point of doing it if this is the type of slander that we are going to get overall?
So again, you cannot think in a subjective manner.
We're not talking about just, I call it serial killer music.
I don't listen to it either.
But we're not just talking about that.
When you say Milwaukee rap, that's all artists.
Hip hop, R&B rap, all of it.
We're gonna finish this conversation when we come back from break and
should grow jazz, Tyler.
One-on-one,
Yeah, we playing Milwaukee music all day.
Y'all know what time it is.
If you are just now joining us, we are talking about this list that was made by the garage and establishment located on Brady Street, who stated not only did they not want hip hop music and begin to list industry artists, they specifically targeted the hip hop rap culture.
here in Milwaukee by saying that they do not want any Milwaukee artists' music played.
We have a caller on the line, Paul, are you there?
Yeah, hi, Jazz.
How you doing?
You know, usually I'm right there with you.
I find you to be a very insightful young lady.
But I got to ask you this question.
And I'm trying to simplify this thing.
Does
this man have a right in his club to govern what goes on in that club?
Respect.
Respect got to go both ways.
Absolutely.
There are plenty of venues out there for the hip hop culture.
But if this man decides that he don't want it,
And his establishment, I try to look at it from left, right, up and down.
He has that right.
we have to respect it.
And thank you for the compliments.
And I'm not sure when you joined, but I did mention that at the beginning of the hour that people who have businesses absolutely have the right to determine how they want it, even me.
I don't even go to clubs that play rap music anymore, but that's because I'm older.
I like R&B.
I don't necessarily believe that a business owner is wrong for saying, hey, this is the environment, but it's how you go about doing it, right?
When we have black establishments and I know black club owners, if they get tired of the riffraff and the chaos and confusion, they don't go public saying, hey, we're not playing this music.
They just changed the age.
Now we're saying you have to be 30 or older to get in, right?
There are certain things that's changed, that they changed.
To publicly put a list out and target specific artists saying that we don't want their music is discrimination.
And Wright is right and Wong is wrong.
He could have went about it a different way.
You know, I think we got a lot of battles out there to fight.
And I think we got to pick them a little better.
That
is true as well.
Everybody's got a right to their opinion.
But if I was running a business, I'm going to run it my way.
Absolutely.
We've got to stop being so sensitive today.
There's so many reasons out there for us to get angry and frustrated.
Let that man run his business the way you want to run and go somewhere else.
I, you know, I agree with you, Paul, on, on what you're saying.
And again, I do believe also, thank you so much for tapping in with us.
I do believe that again, um, any a step in business owner has the right to say, Hey, I don't want this in my establishment.
And that is completely fine.
Right.
They can determine what type of atmosphere they want.
But what I do want to say.
to the generation that's not tapped in with the Milwaukee music scene.
I want you guys to understand something.
Imagine that this was the 1970s.
And they say, we don't want no, you know, Rick James playing in here, right?
Or James Brown.
We don't want any of that kind of music being played in this establishment.
Or if it was the 80s,
And they say, hey, we don't want, you know, NW, whatever the case may be, take yourself back to when you were the young people age who's a part of this music industry.
And first and foremost, you have to understand, again, that it's not about being accepted.
We absolutely have plenty of places to go throughout this entire city.
But again, when you are...
purposely blasting a specific group publicly.
There is no way that you cannot expect for us to respond, especially when we have worked so hard to try and gain some type of attention.
Once again, we're not just talking Milwaukee music.
Milwaukee rap is not just all about violence.
There are so many amazing artists.
who make great music, wave, chappelle, conscious rapper, classic.
Come on out.
We have some amazing hip hop artists here.
So when you say that, that includes them as well.
Not just the ones who make music about violence and so on and so on.
What they're doing is setting a trend.
And that's what I'm trying to get all of you to understand.
It's bigger than just.
Hey, let's not do anything because this generation, this is theirs.
This is their time.
We all have had our time.
This is their time.
So when you put something like that out there, this then starts to make other businesses and establishments feel as if they can treat us a certain type of way.
So if we don't stand up and say, hey, all right, cool, hands up.
I'm good.
I don't have to ever step a foot back into your establishment.
But at the end of the day, what you're not going to do is target our music.
You're not going to target our artists.
This is a ripple effect.
This is something that happens so many times and has happened so many times in the history of Milwaukee.
So again, it's not about the fact that, hey,
We want to be a part of your establishment.
When you go out of your way to publicly discriminate against a genre, a culture, that is a problem because we can never do that.
If we say, hey, if we create a, we have an establishment and we say, hey, we're not going to play Sabrina Carpenter.
We don't want to play certain types of music here.
That'll be a problem at a black establishment.
So all I'm saying is people can run their business how they want to but when you publicly Discriminate that's a problem.
You cannot expect us not to respond.
We have another caller on the line brother.
Love.
Are you there?
Yes, yes, are you doing today?
see they got you, I see they got you fired
know, you make good music and you very musically inclined.
So they better leave, they better bag up.
love her music.
there's,
feel?
I think, as long as the students can comprehend and understand they're teaching the music, I think that'll be beneficial.
We need more people to teach music and teach these kids the music industry and stuff like that.
I think that will help.
So we can just stay in that lane and foster and encourage that.
We look.
Thank you so much, Brother Love, for continuing to tap in with me.
Listen, this is obviously
You know, it's a big deal to some is not to some it is Again, I'll just say that for me personally I Don't look at this in a subjective manner because I understand what music has done for me in my life Right.
I am a part of Milwaukee rap music Right.
I started at the age of 12 in 12 and got into the industry at 15 and because
I was able to do that.
Homer Blow introduced me to Smalls, who just passed away, who then introduced me to someone else in the industry, took me out of Milwaukee, and gave me an opportunity.
If we did not have Milwaukee rap music, I would not be sitting here on this radio station today.
So I want y'all to understand that.
It's bigger than just a few artists that y'all thinking about or judging.
We're talking about an entire culture that we have spent hours, days, sacrificing time to put in work so that the generation that is making this music now can make the music that they make and have the opportunities that they have.
If it was not for a Milwaukee rap music, there would not be no Jazz Tyler.
I would not be sitting across from this microphone.
So I want you guys to understand how serious this is and the fact that they are targeting.
The Milwaukee rap culture.
Again, not every rapper makes negative music.
You cannot bunch us all in the same boat.
We have to go to break.
When we come back, we are switching gears, but don't go nowhere.
We are going to continue this conversation at the six o'clock hour.
It should grow, Jazz Tyler.
One on one, seven, the truth.
You should go jack Tyler.
We are live and direct at the award-winning one on one seven the truth in the beautiful heart of downtown Milwaukee at the American family insurance studio and listen There's there's a business talking about no Milwaukee music.
That means no bow, right?
That means they need to bow their ass on the bottom Brady Street if they talking about no Milwaukee music, right?
Welcome back shout out to the chat Marty says a certain music
Certain crowd music dictate the crowd 90% of the time That is true, Marty for those who are joining us.
We are talking about the viral list that that's going around on social media about the garage stating that they don't want any not just Hip-hop or rap period not only did they say that but they also mentioned that they did not want any Milwaukee rap and then they had an entire list of the artists
Right?
I'm thinking legal aspects.
Is that even legal?
Right?
To put out a list of exact artists that you do not want, who music you do not want played inside of your establishment.
Mahdi also said people invest in money to make money, not to be shut down for bottom feeders.
Black people refuse to change.
The way they walk, talk, move, worship, and deliver is so sad.
Every day on social media and Instagram, our little girls are taught how to hate and fight while grown people record.
And you know what, Marty?
I agree.
However, that still does not give an establishment the right to discriminate against what type of music is played.
Now, I do understand again.
I do understand the dynamics when we're talking about an atmosphere because even myself at 38, I don't go to the club anymore, right?
I don't.
But let's be clear.
If I was the generation under me attempting to go and have a good time, I would not want to be placed in the same category as people that's out here acting a fool.
Because when you go to these festivals and you see white people, they be acting a fool too.
So should we ban them from certain festivals?
Let's be fair across the board.
Every Milwaukee rapper does not have the same sound.
Every Milwaukee rapper is not talking about the same thing.
Every Milwaukee artist is not glorifying violence.
You have artists talking about survival, artists talking about relationships, artists talking about fatherhood, artists talking about mothers.
They make club records, conscious records.
They make music about poverty.
They make music about aspiration.
Artists making music because they are simply trying to entertain people for three minutes and let's be clear, because if we're talking about gun violence, where do we get it from?
The founding fathers of this country.
Everything that black people do is a reflection of their oppressor of our oppressor.
Let's be clear, right?
So we talking about we don't want the gun violence and all of that.
Hey, naturally by DNA, we are not violent people, right?
We are not.
All in all, it's just flat out wrong.
Again, as a business owner, you can determine whatever you want, but you cannot discriminate, right?
Are we saying a Milwaukee rap itself?
is dangerous.
Are we saying the entire genre coming out of this city represent a threat to an atmosphere because that's a bigger statement than saying we don't want violent lyrics and not to mention.
Let's be clear.
I want you to understand something here because there's a lot of people that don't listen to Milwaukee rap and that is completely fine.
But as someone who has been a part of Milwaukee history as an artist, if you know, you know, I have contributed to
The music scene that you guys have seen, that you guys see here today.
So has Meach, so has Ray Nitty, so has many other people.
We have worked our asses off, including the DJs.
The Homer Blows, right?
The New Styles.
Knowledge when he was back on V100.7.
There are so many people involved who have paved the way to make sure that the artist today has a voice and has a platform.
So for an organization to say, hey, no Milwaukee rap, it's like a slap in the face.
Especially at a time where our number one artist is currently locked up over allegations, right?
Somebody who has literally put the city on his back.
You have this list going viral all over social media and what that does is it forces people on the outside in the music industry to not want to entertain Milwaukee artists.
What that is showing is that our own city don't support our artists.
They don't know that this establishment is on Brady Street.
They don't know that this establishment is not owned by black people.
Well, right now they probably do because there is an issue about discrimination.
However, the fact of the matter is we've already had a history when it comes to being discriminated against going inside of establishments downtown in on Brady Street.
We've already had a history of it being difficult for the artists that's coming out of Milwaukee to get any type of support from the city, let alone step a foot into the industry, the music industry.
For one organization to say, we don't want this kind of music.
And again, you can determine what you want your establishment to feel like, right?
But how about this?
How about if we galvanize?
and gather our white allies and say, hey, nobody should support the garage, right?
Black people, we ain't going in there anyways.
But let's get our white allies and say, hey, you guys want to support us?
Don't go.
No, but I'm saying after this situation, yeah, like after this situation, especially because it's saying no Milwaukee rap.
We're probably like, our people are probably like, man, we good.
It's enough places for us to go, right?
We don't have to go to your establishment, but what's gonna happen when we hit them pockets, big baby?
What's gonna happen, right?
This is a conversation that the older person of that district and that board, I actually was going to be on the Brady Street board because of reasons like this.
But I was not living in the city of Milwaukee at the time.
This is a much bigger issue than this establishment putting out a fake as Apology saying that hey we it wasn't us it was the employee if I was that employee I leave because at the end of the day your employee represents you and If they put that out you can't tell me that they didn't feel comfortable There was anything that make them made them uncomfortable before they decided to put that list out, right?
Here's the part I want us to be grown enough to admit.
We understand that hip-hop can be criticized.
Black culture can be criticized.
Everything black people create is not automatically beyond criticism simply because we created it.
There are records I don't like.
There are lyrics I don't agree with.
There are messages in music that I don't think are healthy for our children.
There are songs glorifying violence.
There are songs degrading women.
There are songs glorifying drugs and we should be able to talk about all of those things honestly.
But honest criticism has to remain honest.
It can't turn into the entire culture is a problem because that's where you cross into something else, right?
That's when you cross into something else.
Can you imagine not that it matters?
Because I'm sure they get booked.
I know for a fact they get booked far beyond Milwaukee, right?
But can you imagine being one of those artists and let's say?
It was an artist like little boo see who loves Milwaukee, right?
He loves coming here.
He loves supporting Milwaukee He always shouts us out and then there's an organization that says hey We don't want any of his music played here and it's circulating all around social media That can make a person never want to step a foot back into the city of Milwaukee
Right, it's funny how you can say you don't want to include Black culture or hip-hop culture in your establishment, but you you love to make money off of it, right?
Y'all they love making money off the culture culture vultures Love making money off of it But it's okay for us to come in there and pay to get in and buy drinks and buy food
But we can't have our our culture cannot be a part of it.
That is a problem That is a problem and we all know That there's going to be some black people that's like I don't care I'ma still go that's that's gonna happen But at the end of the day my advice to you is if you don't start now standing for something It's going to be a ripple effect.
They're showing us that they don't care They've been showing us again.
We've been through this multiple times when it comes to the attire
Back in the days when we used to club, I believe it was Bar Louie Brothers.
It was a few bars on a water street that did not allow us to come in and dress a certain type of way based off of the fact that we are black.
No baggy jeans, no baggy t-shirts, right?
No tennis shoes.
And they enforce these rules.
For no other reason other than the fact is they didn't want us a part of their establishment So here's my opening question to you true nation chime in a 3 3 2 1 2 1 0 1 7 Can you reject certain parts of hip-hop without rejecting the culture?
I think the answer is yes.
That's my personal opinion You can dislike violent lyrics and still respect hip-hop.
You can dislike one artist and still respect Milwaukee music scene You can dislike
certain songs and still not say, hey, I hate hip hop overall.
You can say a particular record doesn't fit your business without making the statement that Milwaukee rap itself doesn't belong there.
And I want people listening to ask themselves something.
If that list had said no Chicago house music, how would that have landed?
If it said no reggae, no Latin music, no country music, how would that have been taken?
So why is no Milwaukee rap supposed to be interpreted differently?
Again, ownership says the list wasn't authorized.
I don't believe that.
I don't believe that.
Either way, the public still has the right to ask how that list came into existence to begin with, right?
Hello.
So to put out that apology is insane.
To put out that apology saying otherwise is insane We're gonna finish this conversation when we come back.
I want to hear from you a 3 3 2 1 2 1 0 1 7 How are you truly feeling about this?
This should grow jazz Tyler do not touch that down
It's your girl Jaz Tyler, y'all know what time it is man.
We going crazy with the Milwaukee music today since there are establishments in the city of Milwaukee.
Who are disagreeing, saying that they don't want any Milwaukee rap played inside of their establishment?
We have a caller on the line.
Wiki Blue, are you there?
Yes, I'm here, ma'am.
I was just driving home and I heard you talking about dress codes and how it's a discriminatory practice to suggest certain dress codes or certain music.
Listen, I've been in a lot of states.
and dress codes is enforced.
And guess what?
In some areas, ain't no black folks, but it's still a dress code.
You know, you get downtown Miami, you get in New York.
You know, in some places, it's just dress codes, you know?
I mean, it's like going to a store, no shirt, no shoes, no service.
And I'll tell you something, you know, I look at baddies every Sunday, that's my little entertainment deal, you know, I watch them.
I haven't got to learn any characters after a while.
But the more I watch it, the more I see the contamination that is putting on our people.
So I really hate to, but I'm going to have to counsel my subscription to Zeus.
And guess what?
If them people don't want your butt in that club, they don't want to play your music.
Oh, well.
And it's not going to hurt their pockets.
And let me tell you that.
You said hit them in the pocket.
Them people don't even want our money, babe.
They don't want our money.
They want us to stay away from there is what they want.
See, that pocket thing only works on certain deals.
But in cases like that, in restaurants, they don't want our money.
They want us to stay away from their period.
You see what just happened at the State Fair?
When I was coming up, the State Fair was an all-white affair.
No blacks hardly ever went to the State Fair.
I went to the State Fair one time, and I think it was probably
for other black people on the whole grounds.
Our thing was the summer fest.
We had the midway out there.
They had the same thing at the state fair would be at the summer fest.
As a matter of fact, they had some more slicker, but you know, the state fair was more 4-H and all of that kind of stuff.
So they went out there last week and you see how they acted real ugly.
So I'm going to just tell you like this, and I love my people.
I work for them every day.
But the thing is this right here, if they don't want you in there, stay away from there.
because they don't they really don't want you in there to tell you the truth and to change the music and I tell anybody if you can open up a club and you don't want that young crowd please some blues man put you some blues or some jazz on in your club and they're gonna come in and look and then they're gonna hang out then they're gonna leave and let's stay into older ladies or something like that or ladies into a younger you know uh you know something like that other than that put you on some blues or some jazz and then folks ain't coming up in your man with them sagging pants man that culture that you're talking about
It's really a bad eye on us right now.
And I don't know what we're going to do to fix it.
Cosmetically, it's ugly.
So I'll sit back and listen to
Thank you so much, Winky Blue.
You know what?
I agree to a certain degree.
I agree that we don't have to spend our funds there.
We don't have to support the establishment.
We don't have to do any of that.
But it still does not give an establishment the right to target Milwaukee artists.
That's my argument.
My argument isn't.
Whether or not our like we we know that our house is not clean when it comes to the hip-hop culture, right?
We understand that it still does not give them a right to Target an entire culture in the city of Milwaukee, right?
They're targeting all of the artists who have done the work who are trying to whether or not their music is music that is appealing that's for their generation
We have these conversations all the time.
Do we want them to make better music?
Yes.
But again, when you say rap, instantly we go to thinking about violence.
Ray Nitty's song isn't rap.
Much about violence.
Much more music isn't about violence.
Right, there's so many artists here who don't make music about violence so we're not just talking about they're not Categorizing just the violent music.
They're not saying we don't want any violent Milwaukee rap.
They're saying we don't want Milwaukee rap period That's including people who have paved the way cuckoo cow.
They don't want in my projects They don't want baby Drew.
They don't want bow.
They don't want Any of the dance music that a lot of the artists make that is a problem
We have another caller on the line.
Security Mike, are you there?
Yes, I'm here, Jack.
much for tapping in.
Just so they don't seem like they don't want nothing from us because we do have a lot of positive rappers out here and music as well.
And it just goes to show that like they don't want nothing from us.
As far as it, they don't even want to vote.
They don't want our vote.
And that caller, Winky, he voted for Trump.
When Trump don't even want to vote, he don't want us to vote.
You see what I'm saying?
So it's just not right and we got, all I know that if we don't like the Democrats, everybody gotta vote one way.
Otherwise, Trump and I'm gonna try to take us down.
Yes, ma'am.
How you doing?
Okay, yeah, listen to your topic and it's crazy Memphis and we're going through the same thing like they don't play no push ice here.
Yeah, because everything is going on Everything is going on in the city because they be know the drill scene.
They be really talking They be dissing and sending out hits to the music.
So
they don't play
no shice it no stupid do no money bag
And Memphis kind of went through there back in the 90s when I was coming up with 3C's Mafia.
They didn't play a hotel club, but none of it.
So OK, what you're saying to me sounds like they're trying to avoid wars, right?
Especially when you have artists of that statue that still lives in the city.
So to a certain degree, I can understand that.
But to ban an entire culture.
From being played in the establishment and saying not just them, but what about the other types?
What about the other types of music that are being played, you know?
Yeah, because I think recently, Yo Gotti restaurant, his mom raised the age something like 40, 40 and up.
And a lot of those guys have, you know, some issues in the street.
So either way, I just don't agree with an establishment saying that they don't want any of.
the rap music, because now you're categorizing everybody.
You're putting every artist from that area into one box, saying that they all make the same type of music.
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.
Yeah, if you're going to ban Drill, I can see that, but not just put it all in one bag to like, all rap is Drill music or gangsta music or something like that.
Yeah, they shouldn't do that.
But I think a lot of cities are going towards that trend.
I know Nashville.
They have a lot of clubs now.
It's like, uh, 40, no, 15, no.
So they, they, uh, a lot, a lot of cities trying to go on with their trend, trying to cut out the real forever.
You know I'm here.
Man, thank you so much for giving us the platform.
I'm so sick of black people trying to insert themselves where we are not wanted.
Instead of showing up our own and making sure that we have rules and regulations, community norms in place, as well as the consequence when you violate those community norms, we're going to continue to experience the same thing that our grandparents and great grandparents did.
And I just think it's a mentality that we have where we're itching to be accepted, to be wanted, to be wanted by white folks.
I've owned the bar before.
Guess what?
I didn't play Hunky Tunk music because it wasn't a Hunky Tunk bar.
And if that means I need to put a specific artist name on it that makes the people go crazy whenever this Hunky Tunk song come on.
Damn it.
I'll put up a name on it.
And I don't think that there's a problem with it.
I think that the problem is us.
not realizing that that's really just code for we don't want you.
But it shouldn't be a problem.
This is America.
That's what I'm saying.
We're children, so you don't want us, but we want to protest so that we can come and give you our money because you told us you don't want us.
It's a sick mentality we have.
This is my stance, right?
And I understand it at all different angles as a business owner, as someone who is an artist, as someone who has been and is a part of hip hop culture.
I don't think that this in particular, as far as us, the people, black people, I don't think that we're necessarily saying we want to be a part of it.
We're not saying that we want them to accept us.
We're saying that what you did was wrong.
Period.
Putting out that list and targeting Milwaukee artists is wrong and wrong is wrong It's not a matter of them accepting us.
It's not a matter of us wanting to be a part of whatever they have But let's be clear.
We should Be able to go wherever we please and have a good time We should be able to go wherever we please in this city and have a good time right end of discussion
That's just what it is to publicly come out and make a list like that.
You are you are showing us that you are discriminating against us, right?
That's what you're showing us.
Some of us don't even go there.
Some of the people that reside in Milwaukee do not go to this establishment.
However, again, they're not just talking about one song or one artist.
They are talking about an entire culture.
And with the entire culture, people have to understand that we have to defend our culture.
Yes, this is personal for me.
You know why?
Because before you see a lot of these female rappers in this city, I was out there busting my butt to make sure that they could rap on stage, to make sure that they songs could get played in the clubs before it was even allowed.
This is back when they, when they wasn't even allowing female rappers like that to perform around here.
You understand?
They was not playing our songs in the club or on the radio.
There was a lot of work and I. There was a lot of work that went into building the Milwaukee music scene.
To get us notice.
A lot of us here, that's all we have.
That's all we have.
I am a teacher who teaches music.
I teach this.
to 80 to 90 students a day.
And when I'm sitting with these teenagers and I'm seeing the things that they're facing outside of school, this is the only outlet that they got.
This is all they have.
This may be everybody can't play basketball.
Everybody can't play football.
Everybody is not a gymnast or everybody don't want to do hair.
A lot of these youth, all they have is music.
That is the only way they know how to express themselves.
That is the only ticket that they see for them to feed their families.
So when we're talking about Milwaukee rap, I'm not just looking at the people who make that type of music.
I'm looking at, again, the Ray Nitties, the Mush Lawrence, the students who don't even have a chance based off of this.
All they're doing is trying to express themselves and make music and be successful and stay out of harm's way.
And then you see something like this and hey, what's the point of doing it if this is the type of slander that we are going to get overall?
So again, you cannot think in a subjective manner.
We're not talking about just, I call it serial killer music.
I don't listen to it either.
But we're not just talking about that.
When you say Milwaukee rap, that's all artists.
Hip hop, R&B rap, all of it.
We're gonna finish this conversation when we come back from break and should grow jazz,
Tyler.
One-on-one,
Yeah, we playing Milwaukee music all day.
Y'all know what time it is.
If you are just now joining us, we are talking about this list that was made by the garage and establishment located on Brady Street, who stated not only did they not want hip-hop music and begin to list industry artists, they specifically targeted the hip-hop rap culture.
here in Milwaukee by saying that they do not want any Milwaukee artist music played.
We have a caller on the line.
Paul, are you there?
Yeah, hi, Jazz.
How you doing?
You know, usually I'm right there with you.
I find you to be a very insightful young lady.
But I got to ask you this question.
And I'm trying to simplify this thing.
Does this man have a right in his club to govern what goes on in that club?
you asked
did.
Because it comes down to respect.
Respect got to go both ways.
Absolutely.
There are plenty of venues out there for the hip hop culture.
But if this man decides that he don't want it,
And his establishment, I try to look at it from left, right, up and down.
He has that right.
And we have to respect it.
And thank you for the compliments.
And I'm not sure when you joined, but I did mention that at the beginning of the hour that people who have businesses absolutely have the right to determine how they want it, even me.
I don't even go to clubs that play rap music anymore, but that's because I'm older.
I like R&B.
I don't necessarily believe that a business owner is wrong for saying, hey, this is the environment, but it's how you go about doing it, right?
When we have black establishments and I know black club owners, if they get tired of the riffraff and the chaos and confusion, they don't go public saying, hey, we're not playing this music.
They just changed the age.
Now we're saying you have to be 30 or older to get in, right?
There are certain things that's changed, that they changed.
To publicly put a list out and target specific artists saying that we don't want their music is discrimination.
And Wright is right and Wong is wrong.
He could have went about it a different way.
You know, I think we got a lot of battles out there to fight.
And I think we got to pick them a little better.
is true as well.
Everybody's got a right to their opinion.
If I was running a business, I'm going to run it my way.
Absolutely.
We've got to stop being so sensitive today.
There's so many reasons out there for us to get angry and frustrated.
Let that man run his business the way you want to run and go somewhere else.
I, you know, I agree with you, Paul, on, on what you're saying.
And again, I do believe also, thank you so much for tapping in with us.
I do believe that again, um, any a step in business owner has the right to say, Hey, I don't want this in my establishment.
And that is completely fine.
Right.
They can determine what type of atmosphere they want.
But what I do want to say.
to the generation that's not tapped in with the Milwaukee music scene.
I want you guys to understand something.
Imagine that this was the 1970s.
And they say, we don't want no, you know, Rick James playing in here, right?
Or James Brown.
We don't want any of that kind of music being played in this establishment.
Or if it was the 80s,
And they say, hey, we don't want, you know, NW, whatever the case may be, take yourself back to when you were the young people age who's a part of this music industry.
And first and foremost, you have to understand, again, that it's not about being accepted.
We absolutely have plenty of places to go throughout this entire city.
But again, when you are...
purposely blasting a specific group publicly.
There is no way that you cannot expect for us to respond, especially when we have worked so hard to try and gain some type of attention.
Once again, we're not just talking Milwaukee music.
Milwaukee rap is not just all about violence.
There are so many amazing artists who make great music wave chappelle Conscious rapper classic come on out We have some amazing hip-hop artists here So when you say that that includes them as well Not just the ones who make music about violence and so on and so on what they're doing is setting a trend and that's what I'm trying to get
all of you to understand is bigger than just, hey, let's not do anything because this generation, this is theirs.
This is their time.
We all have had our time.
This is their time.
So when you put something like that out there, this then starts to make other businesses and establishments feel as if they can treat us a certain type of way.
So if we don't stand up and say, hey,
All right, cool.
Hands up.
I'm good.
I don't have to ever step a foot back into your establishment.
But at the end of the day, what you're not going to do is target our music.
You're not going to target our artists.
This is a ripple effect.
This is something that happens so many times and has happened so many times in the history of Milwaukee.
So again, it's not about the fact that hey We want to be a part of your establishment when you go out of your way to publicly discriminate against a genre a culture That is a problem because we can never do that If we say hey if we going if we create a we have an establishment and we say hey We're not going to play Sabrina Carpenter Carpenter
We don't want to play you know certain types of music here That'll be a problem at a black establishment.
So all I'm saying is people can run their business how they want to but when you publicly Discriminate that's a problem.
You cannot expect us not to respond.
We have another caller on the line, brother.
Love.
Are you there?
Yes, yes, are you doing today?
me.
I see they got you, I see they got you fired up.
You know, you make good music and you very musically inclined.
So they better leave, they better bag up.
And also working
of these.
I love her music.
we're
if my
that would
feel?
I think, as long as the students can comprehend and understand their teacher that teaching the music, I think that'll be beneficial.
We need more people to teach music and teach these kids the music industry and stuff like that.
I think that will help.
So we can just stay in that lane and foster and encourage that.
Thank you so much, Brother Love, for continuing to tap in with me.
Listen, this is obviously
You know, it's a big deal to some is not to some it is Again, I'll just say that for me personally I Don't look at this in a subjective manner because I understand what music has done for me in my life Right.
I am a part of Milwaukee rap music Right.
I started at the age of 12 in 12 and got into the industry at 15 and because
I was able to do that.
Homer Blow introduced me to Smalls, who just passed away, who then introduced me to someone else in the industry, took me out of Milwaukee, and gave me an opportunity.
If we did not have Milwaukee rap music, I would not be sitting here on this radio station today.
So I want y'all to understand that.
It's bigger than just a few artists.
We
are live and direct at the award-winning 1017 the truth in the beautiful heart of downtown Milwaukee.
And listen, before we went to break, we were talking about Milwaukee culture.
And that also includes the babies.
So today we are joined by a special guest, LSW.
We're going to talk about the biggest Milwaukee free library and what that all entails.
Thank you all so much for joining us today.
Thank you for having us.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
So can we start off with, can you guys just give us a little bit of background about who you are and then move us into what it is that you all are doing in your mission?
Absolutely.
I'm Holly McCoy Perez.
I'm the executive director at Literacy Services of Wisconsin.
We have eight locations throughout southeastern Wisconsin serving adult learners.
So we are an adult literacy organization.
We do primarily foundational reading, math.
We support folks who are interested in completing their GED, HSED, and then we also do English language learning.
So lots of different programming, lots of different locations.
Love the work, love the mission, and I'll pass it over to Barbara.
I am Barbara Serda, and I am the founder of Barbie the Book Fairy, and Barbie the Book Fairy provides
free books for the Milwaukee community.
We primarily started during the pandemic.
It was a, it is a passion project.
And then I also run a, run a bookstore with my sister and with my daughters and my daughters joining us today as well.
And she was really instrumental in the founding of Barbie the Book Fairy and has kind of been a face for the project.
So I'll let her introduce herself.
Hi.
Hi.
What's your name?
My name's Areli.
We just like before like we would go to like little like free libraries and then like we would like drop off like books there.
And we would just walk around and try to find them.
So obviously we work with adults and this is a family event But we truly believe that literacy is cyclical so when we educate parents we educate children and Our goal is always to be looking at ways that we can bring folks in and find joy around reading I think sometimes we talk about the heavy topics that are related to literacy
reading
education
All those things exist.
They're incredibly complex.
We like to take the complex out of reading and really just make sure access and opportunity are at the forefront of everything we
Yeah, we actually, and I'm going to pass the torch over to Barbara in a second, but that's actually how the two of us connected on this project.
Barbara really saw a need and connected that need to actual action.
Um, no one asked her to do that.
No one said like this is needed.
She just saw it and, and responded.
I think there was a big push for little free libraries, you know, maybe like a decade ago and now they all exist.
And it's one of those things where once the fad dies down, it's like people forget someone needs to actually put that into action and
fill
them.
Um, and so I'm gonna, I'm gonna pass that over to you.
Yeah, so I'll just talk a little bit about how our program started during the pandemic.
Uh, so Barbie the book fairy, um, well, I guess during the pandemic we saw a lot of those positive projects.
I remember seeing, um, the hearts on the windows and people were making masks.
And it was really an opportunity for my daughters and I to plug into the work and kind of do our part to be part of our community.
And at that time, we were all isolated.
But I have three daughters.
At that time, they were much younger.
And they're older now.
I have a 22-year-old, an 18-year-old, and then Adelie is 11.
But at the time they were smaller.
So, you know, we were doing spring cleaning and it was time to clean out our books and I've kind of built their little live their home libraries ever since they were, you know, there were babies and that's something that I got from my mom, you know, my mom, I was a teen mom and my mom worked at a school and would buy my daughter's little books.
So we were, you know, kind of cleaning those out.
And as we were walking around in the neighborhood, we noticed that there were about four or five little libraries that were always
empty yeah around my neighborhood so we kind of took it to Facebook I asked for donations and you know schools were shut down libraries were shut down like I remember just feeling very very isolated yeah so I you know we thought that it would be important to make sure we're providing that access to those books especially you know people were getting rid of their books who knows where they were taking them right
So, you know, my daughters went and picked them up and we distributed them to the Little Free Libraries.
And that's how the project started.
Then it like became a thing.
And there were a couple of grants for, you know, to provide funding for these positive projects.
And I applied and they're like, all right, name your project.
And I'm like, well, my nickname is Barbie, because my name is Barbara.
And I've always been called that since I was a young person.
And this feels like I'm like a book fairy, right?
Like nobody knows who I am.
I'm this mystical character, like no one knows who I am.
I can do this behind the scenes.
And it wasn't really behind the scenes.
But community really came together to help provide funding for books.
So I was able to buy brand new books and then support an independent locally owned bookstore.
at the same time.
So I think that solidarity is like very important, especially when it comes to educating our own cells, but then helping making sure that we all have the tools to educate our community.
So that's kind of like.
where we
Absolutely.
Well, first and foremost, I have to say, I absolutely love this.
So I am an educator by day.
I teach music at Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy High School.
And obviously a part of music is knowing how to read, right?
So oftentimes I believe our people in general, meaning like the residents here in Milwaukee, they don't understand the correlation, you know, as much like why literacy is.
important, not just so you can make it through school, but you need it, you know, throughout life overall.
I remember Otter Woman Cox doing the free little libraries on the north side and pushing for the libraries overall and things of that nature.
So that was very exciting.
And I remember growing up reading the babysitter clubs, goosebumps, you know, all of these books.
And I don't know if the school system still has
access to the school affairs as big as they used to be.
But the point of me saying that is because before you guys came on, I mentioned that it's not just the schools or the household, but it's the communities, the community responsibility to make sure that we provide these services to families as well.
And I love the fact that you all have merged to not help just the youth, but the adults also.
What impact has LSW seen from past years of Milwaukee's biggest free library?
So I love this event.
We do a lot of stuff throughout the year, but I think the biggest impact for us is just seeing what a literacy organization that where our mission is really providing direct instruction, right?
That's our role.
but taking us in something that's mission aligned, but a little bit different from the day to day.
And truly our partnership with Barbara has expanded a lot of the work that we do and how we do it in this way at
this
event.
And I think that for us, it's really about measuring our impact through...
how excited people get to just come to this event.
We have folks that come back year after year.
They get so excited.
It's interesting because, you know, Milwaukee is like a big small city,
so we all
know each other, right?
But there are folks that I really only see at this event and it's just, it's really, it's like, it's a vibe.
It's a good vibe.
So it is this Friday, August 28th from four to seven at Kaziasco Community Center.
And we were talking earlier, I know Kaziasko is pronounced differently in Polish.
I'm not even going to attempt.
But for short, Kazi
Center.
So we're at Kazi Park.
Yeah.
Do you want me to do that?
You want to do that?
OK.
So one thing I talk about often, and I don't want to take us down too deep of a dive on this, but one in four Milwaukee County adults struggles with low literacy.
So low literacy is defined as anyone reading at or below a third grade level.
It is a pervasive silent crisis in our community.
And I think often we talk about the impact on K-12, right?
We talk a lot about K-12 schools and we should.
We absolutely should.
But we also must concurrently think about what it means to be a parent who for oftentimes no fault of their own Struggle with literacy and maybe don't even realize that that's the issue And so we always approach it from a place of are you interested in getting a better job?
Are you interested in completing your high school diploma?
We don't really talk too much and on purpose about where folks are at academically because the only other thing, if anyone takes anything away from this, aside from attending our really amazing event, is that literacy and graduation rates in the city are not tied to intelligence.
They're directly tied to access and opportunity.
And again, for us, I think that's what this event is really about.
It's about bridging the gap, creating access, creating fun around literacy,
And Barbara has done an amazing job this year of lining up entertainment as well.
So it's really turned into a book festival, wouldn't you say?
I've
definitely been calling it a book festival.
Is that what we're calling it now?
Yeah, that's what it feels like.
Maybe we should change the name.
No, honestly.
No, we can't for branding.
No, it does feel like a book festival.
And we really have grown a lot in the last five years.
The first year it was my sister and I and we loaded up a pickup truck because I had a bunch of books in my garage And then I was like I have to get rid of these but also like these books need to get out You know community members donated them like we have some new stuff in here that people need to get their hands on so we like threw them
on the lawn at Cosiesco Park.
We didn't even, I'm gonna tell on myself here, but we didn't have any type of permits.
By any means necessary.
But I'm like, I'm a neighbor, I can do this, this is my park.
Um, you know, and, and, and Adelie was part of this.
So, you know, I have a picture of her, you know, on the pickup truck, like helping us with boxes.
And, you know, this is, this is very much her thing.
And I'm, I'm excited to kind of pass the torch over to her later.
Um, but we've grown so much literacy service, um, became involved with the event.
Um, our second year, they provided volunteers, but then Holly and I had these like amazing conversations on like, how are we going to.
grow our impact.
How are we going to get more books to this event?
How can we become more organized so that more people come, more people have access to literature, but then also we have this tremendous resource fair.
I think the first year we had three resource vendors.
This year we'll be expecting 28.
Yeah,
fairy.
The book
Butterfly in the sky.
I can go twice as high.
Take a look.
It's in a book.
A reading rainbow I can't go anywhere Friends to know and ways to grow A reading rainbow I can't go anywhere
We
are live with Barbie the book fairy in LSW and if you are listening, I know that just brought back so many memories.
How many of you were sitting at home with your grandmother's liberal watching reading rainbow on PBS channel 10?
Listen, I am excited about this event that you guys have.
But most importantly, I am excited about the work that you all are doing.
Before we went to break, we were talking about the event.
We were talking about the services that you guys provide.
But I also want to dig a little bit deeper into the services you provide and why.
My thought process as an educator in the parent is I know a lot of adults who may have issues with literacy are kind of embarrassed, you know, and I'm glad that earlier you said it's not their fault, right?
It's not their fault that that's the case.
But it doesn't give them an excuse not to, you know, fully participate in attempting to learn.
How important is the services you provide for the adults in correlation with them being able to assist their child with their homework?
Incredibly important.
So from our own organizational data, and we provided services to close to 1500 adults last year, we had 303 HSCDGED graduates,
for 12% of the entire state's total.
on.
I'm sorry.
One more data point, though.
And like.
So 40% of our students that enroll with us, who need to complete a high school diploma, left school in 11th grade.
And so what happens is this, a lot of times folks will come in and they'll say, well, I made it to 11th grade.
So I should just be able to take the GED and be done with this in like a week.
And, you know, our role is always to say, maybe, absolutely, maybe.
In most cases, it takes someone on average anywhere from six to nine months to earn a GED.
However, they must typically be academically at a college level.
So one of the stigmas that exists around the GED is that it's easy.
When, in fact, the new GED, since it changed in 2014,
It requires an intense amount of knowledge to be able to pass that test.
It's timed, it's stressful.
That's why we also have an HSCD program.
And Barbara and I actually know each other from Elferno.
And so our HSCD is approved by the Department of Public Instruction.
It's a competency-based high school equivalency program for adults to really look at.
how they learn.
And it really taps into brain science and the idea that everyone is smart in their own way.
So rather than doing standardized tests, folks enroll in a 16 week program, four days a week, four hours a day.
Listen, it is a commitment
and we
recognize that.
But at the end, there's such a tremendous difference in how people view their learning and that's the goal.
I think sometimes in schools, like learning can feel very
procedural, like I need to learn this because someone said I needed to.
By the time adults walk through our door, our role is to teach them a love for learning and really honor their lived experience, the things that they're going through, you know, everything else, right?
And so I think it's a very unique approach to learning and we always want to honor it with care because there is...
a lot of fear that can come with just saying, hey, I don't have this.
I think our society does so much around, again, K-12 education.
In fact, that's typically the focus.
And again, it should be.
But when we don't also think about adult literacy and the role it plays, we're creating this ongoing stigma for folks that makes them feel as if they shouldn't just say, hey, I need to do this.
and do it in a way that honors, again, just every part of their life.
And
so we see that most of our students report on their own, that they feel so much more just engaged with their own children because they're finding a love for learning.
They're then going home and telling their kids what they've learned.
We do field trips in our HSCD class.
There's a lot of folks that don't know that there's so many resources in our community museums all those things are free Yes, and so we'll take them there.
They'll have a lesson they'll say I want to take my grandbaby back here and like I want to show them you know that I did this in school and and a lot of our students too will come back and say you know my oldest child is about to graduate and they will not graduate before I do and one thing too is we still do see
individuals who are first generation high school graduates in 2026.
And I think, again, it's a very complex issue.
And I don't necessarily think it's like a simple, this is the cause, this is, you know, this.
We're talking about some of the most caring, empathetic, amazing human beings holding down like three jobs, raising children,
And like also thinking about what can I do to be better?
Yes And so I take that as a huge responsibility and so does my entire staff that works with me But yeah,
a
I mean it's a lot and it's so important because oftentimes I think we forget that the generation so I'm 38 so my mom is 68 my mom's generation What is not the golden?
generation.
I call us the golden era because we were before technology and during technology and after.
And what ended up happening was everything switched over.
So we don't have where they drive and throw the newspapers on the stairs anymore or the yellow pages or the white pages, right?
We don't have just, I mean, there's physical books, but there's more news online.
Everything is just online.
So it makes it easier for them to say, hey, I don't even want to attempt.
to try and fix whatever issues I have, I could just go online and look it up, not understanding that that doesn't fix the problem also.
So I say that to say the work that you all are doing is necessary.
I wish that...
You know we had more people who understood how necessary it is and however I can contribute to making sure that those resources are available to people that need them I will because I don't know the stats on this specifically, but if I'm not mistaken There's a lot of adults who have The percentage of adults who have issues with literacy is probably higher than students who are currently enrolled in
middle school and high school.
Yeah.
And for every year when we look at our graduation rates in the city, oftentimes that's the focus
the rate itself.
But we have to also ask ourselves what happens to the percentage that doesn't complete.
Yes.
And then again, it just becomes this like, and we all know like Barbara and I were that we picked the date for this event a year ago.
And I think we were like,
That's what we've never planned that far ahead.
And why did it come so fast?
And I only use that analogy because it does.
Life goes really fast.
Before you know it, it's like three months.
Like I still haven't sent out thank yous for my wedding.
It was like 12 months
So you can.
go on our website.
The pandemic did some wonderful things for us.
It brought us into the 21st century.
So you can sign up for a registration appointment right on our website, which is just www.literacyservices.org.
And we have all the information about how to enroll, how to sign up for classes.
And again, we have eight locations.
So we really believe that folks shouldn't have to just come to one centralized location.
We make sure that we're in as many spaces as possible, making sure that our services are accessible.
And I will also say, because folks ask me this sometimes, our services are entirely free.
Wow.
So no one has to worry about the cost.
We've had a few students who enroll in our HSCD program and then think there's a cost.
There is not.
And then we also partner directly with MATC and WCTC.
So many of our students are in that HSCD program, and they're also oftentimes concurrently enrolled in a college program.
And
our goal is to always make sure that we are driving our students towards whatever their dreams are.
Our friends at WRTP Big Step, we also do a construction and manufacturing trades, HSCD.
It's a beautiful, it's one of my favorite programs because folks are earning their HSCD at the same time that they're getting those certificates in the building trade.
So we have so many options and we're kind of like, we're like a quiet organization overall.
But I think it's more because we like to make sure that we're providing a safe space for our adult students
exactly, exactly.
I would love to connect with you outside of here and provide these resources as an option for the high school I work at for their families, for their parents, and whatever other connections I have in any other schools, because it is important.
And as an educator, I do run into parents who need assistance, but they're afraid to, or they're afraid to say, hey, I have an issue with helping them.
And that's where we can.
pass them off to an organization like you to where they don't feel, you know, the nervousness of telling us that they don't know how to read or whatever their issues are.
We have to go to break when we come back.
We are going to dig into this event that you guys are having this Friday.
I'm excited about it.
Unfortunately, I wish I could come, but it's during my segment, literally from four to seven, Monday through Friday.
But we're going to figure it out, right?
I know, right?
Do not touch that down.
It should grow just how we're going to finish this conversation when we come back one on one, seven to truth.
1017 the truth is your girl jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct and I have Barbie the book fairy and LSW sitting here with me We are talking literacy, but not just for youth also for the adults you guys have collaborated together to do your annual event and then you mentioned that there will be entertainment as well as Local authors there signing books.
Can you kind of give us more details about how people can be involved and what that actually looks like?
Absolutely.
I have little post-it notes here where I wrote down because I didn't want to forget anything.
But we do have participation from local bookstores that will be providing crafts and activities.
We have face painting lined up.
We have four face painters, including Areli.
Are you face painting this year?
Yeah, she's facing me.
The fact that she
Oh my gosh.
She's really good.
She's really good.
And we'll have face painting.
Of course, I said our vendors for our resource fair.
We have vendors really from all over Milwaukee.
Well, not vendors, we're not selling anything, but resource fair participants from all over Milwaukee.
This year when we posted, I had a...
tons of people reach out.
So I'm very excited to just see like the diversity and the people that are participating in our resource fair.
We're going to have a
um, open play soccer session with, um, Briantes MKE, which is an all girls soccer club.
Um, and they do coaching and things like that.
So they'll be there.
I
His son is
There will definitely be soccer there.
They'll have, they have different sized goals that they're going to bring depending on who, who gets involved, but.
They'll be there, and then I will talk about, oh yeah, and then we have Bambé, Drum and Dance, and they're gonna be playing Sonjarocho music, and these are students that are playing music that is specific to Veracruz, Mexico, and they've been practicing for a long time, and then they bring out something that they call a tarima, and they come, it's like a little wooden stage, and they come and they dance, and it's just a really beautiful
um celebration uh and then we have Charles Grant and the Milwaukee Flyers who will be performing that day as well.
Shout out to the Milwaukee Flyers.
Oh so entertaining.
They really are.
Uh and then we also have a story time and I think this is very important especially because we
As we look forward to the event and the future, we really want to find an opportunity to support local authors.
So this year, we have Elia Anna Hill, who is an author and illustrator.
And when she illustrates her books, she uses cut paper.
Today, she's Puerto Rican.
And she's been involved with this event for a couple of years as an attendee.
So she's come and she's going to come and do a story time.
And then she will sign her books and then give those away at the events.
So I have a question.
I've always wanted to do this.
My daughter does too, but I never knew where to start it.
So I have a 19 year old, 18 year old.
and a nine-year-old.
And my nine-year-old, her name is Callie Rain, she wants to illustrate her own book.
How do we, how do I go about doing that?
So I'm going to say talk to Elia because she's also going to be hosting a craft.
Okay.
So there'll be an opportunity to interact with her and she can talk about her process as an author, but she's also really into kids art.
She has...
I'm pretty sure it's six kids but she's gonna she's gonna correct me if I'm wrong.
She has six kids so she's been really nurturing them to you know also be artists themselves and hopefully you know they're they'll also kind of follow in her steps as far as illustrating and and writing books but she'll be on site to talk about that.
I mean I think it's
really about leaning into the work and putting yourself out there.
Like I said, we'll also have some participation from local bookstores so we can also talk and find out how we can connect with publishers.
We also have one of our resource vendors.
It's Confianza Collective and that means like Confidence Collective and Rachel.
hosts writing workshops.
For people who want to write.
Call me.
How can I reach you?
So you can go to our Facebook page.
It's Barbie the Book Fair.
Barbie is spelled B-A-R-B-Y.
You can find me on Facebook.
I'm on Instagram.
I'm pretty active and look at all the messages and respond to most of them.
But yeah, just contact me.
I think Holly and I have been pretty open as to incorporating new things each year.
And we would really love, love, love to see local authors come and showcasing their books if they want to host a table.
Everything is free.
So you can register to be a resource vendor.
You can come and participate as an author.
You know, I feel like authors should charge us or, you know, right?
Charge us.
Yeah, they charge us for their presents.
No, no, no, no.
I know she's looking at me.
Um, I mean,
we're always
looking for donations
as well.
I just really I know I just told Holly today.
I just always want to give everything out for free, but
Um, I just think it's an honor when authors and just like creatives want to interact and like be part of this event in whatever capacity.
Yeah.
So, um, if there's, you know, authors or, you know, potential, um, people that want to talk about like writing books and things like that, I think there'll be tons of connections that, you know, we can make with each other and just like really dream big for our future.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I also think too, when you talk about like the local bookstores that are there, the resources that are.
there and for folks who are interested in either being an author, they already are an author, there is nothing more powerful than a group of aligned people getting together around a
common goal.
And, you know, I don't want to, you know, get too far down like an ADHD hole that I can get down, but networking is so important.
and finding people who are aligned in your values, aligned in the things that bring you joy.
I think that's really what we see at this event.
And even for folks who are interested in getting involved, that's really what we're looking for is people who are interested in supporting Milwaukee, supporting local.
And as Barbara mentioned, all of the books, so we do purchase brand new books for this event.
We get lots of book donations.
We have close to 3,000 books this year.
But some of the new books that we, or not some, sorry, all of the new books that we get are purchased from local bookstores.
Because I do think it is important, and it can't always happen.
I was talking to Barbara about this earlier.
We can't always...
for whatever reason, support local, but when we can, we absolutely 120% do.
And I do think even as a nonprofit, it's really important that we're intentional about where we're putting our dollars.
Can we talk about some of those books you got?
Yeah, those new books.
Um, do you want to talk about the new books?
Because I feel
like you know them better.
Yes.
So, um, we had the opportunity to purchase, uh, titles that are in other languages.
So we have books in Spanish.
We have Hmong books.
We have books that are written by, um, BIPOC authors.
Uh, so we really try to focus on like the diverse, the diverse books, um, and offering those because a big part
of another part of why we launched Barbie the Book Fairy is to ensure that people have that literature that speaks to you so that when someone's picking up a book, they can see themselves in a book.
So I think that that's another piece that we really didn't touch today.
But it's super important, especially because we've been trying really hard.
to of course get books out there, but then also let's get some books that people see themselves.
Yes,
Lots of books, new friends.
a renewed sense of joy in turning pages on a tangible object.
I think you talked about
that.
We all, and I'm guilty of it too,
so
no judgment.
I love
audiobooks.
And audiobooks
are
great.
But there is nothing, and I know some people argue, there is nothing more beautiful than turning the pages on a book.
We spend a lot of time, a lot of energy making sure that the books that folks get at this event are ones that are gonna bring joy and excitement.
So I think that's, and you know, just, I don't know, it's being a cozy park on a Friday night, which is why we do it on a Friday
looking at the Basilica.
Yeah,
it's better than fireworks.
Yeah, I don't really care for fireworks as much anymore.
I don't like fireworks, but like when they're out there, I see what you're saying.
It's like, oh, you know, it's beautiful, but you know, you have the the sunset dancers and then the flyers are in the air and it really is a joyful event and I'm just really proud to have a DJ.
Yeah, I didn't mention that.
Yeah, we do have a DJ and a food truck and a food truck.
So first you're having a food truck.
I am a parent who do believe in literacy me and my daughter we have dates once a month at Barnet bars and noble where I can go and I just want to encourage parents out there Even if it's you or if it's your child who struggled with it
not just necessary literacy, but just the thought of picking up a book, trying to find something that's fun.
For me, my daughter, she was, she's a gymnast and she loves Simone Bowles.
So I was instantly able to get her attracted to books by purchasing the biography of Simone Bowles.
And then that made it easier for her to work, you know, even if it's something as simple as Stranger Things Wednesday, whatever it is that they like, just something to introduce them to reading overall.
And then you can, you know,
you know, elevate as you go on.
But again, thank you guys so much for joining us before we go.
Do you guys have any shout outs?
Shout outs.
out?
No.
No,
your friends.
Um, I have.
No.
Oh, okay.
I feel like I'm going to shout out
my kids.
Uh, y'all did a rundown of your kids.
I have five kids.
So Taylor, Tasha, Makayla.
Bentley, David, and then my husband, David.
And they all help with the event.
A
big shout out to them.
Gratitude, gratitude.
I'll shout out my kids too.
Sitlali, Natali, and Arelys here.
And I'll shout out my dog, Gucci, who's waiting for me at home.
Yeah, my other kid.
Yeah, my other kid, and my sister, Valeria, and my parents.
She said
it's
Thank you guys so much.
Please if you have time this Friday August 28th from 4 p.m.
To 7 p.m.
Pull up to Kaziasco Community Center for the Milwaukee's largest free book giveaway
Again, thank you both so much for coming.
I will be in touch outside of here as well.
We have to go to break to pay some bills.
Do not touch that down.
She girl jazz Tyler one on one seven in
truth.
This is where
we hustle Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm hustling Every day I'm Every day I'm Every day I'm hustling Who you
1017 the truth that should grow jazz Tyler we are live and direct at the award-winning 1017 the truth if you are just now joining us I just wrapped up an interview with Barbie the book fairy in LSW we were talking about literacy not just with youth but adults as well they have an amazing event coming up this Friday the 28th from 4 p.m.
to 7 p.m.
at Kasiasko Community Center there will be local
authors there as well as resources.
I wanted to do a call to action before we move on to the next segment.
Just highlighting the importance of us as adults, making sure that we reach out to services provided by individuals such as themselves, even if it's something that's embarrassing no matter what it is.
Help you, help you.
especially if you have children who have homework.
If you're somebody like me, listen, I'm an educator in half of the time.
It's not due to literacy, but the homework changed so much, we just want to make sure that we are updated consistently.
So please check out this event.
If you are a local author, this is also an event that you can benefit from as well.
Prior to us going into the interview with LSW and Barbie the fairy, we were talking about the state of Milwaukee music culture and there was a specific organization, a specific venue named the garage who mentioned that.
They did not want any Milwaukee music any Milwaukee rap music played inside of their establishment And I know that we had the phone lines blowing up and people were giving their thoughts on this but I have to be biased and subjective In this moment when I first came on air and we were talking about this situation I was giving you guys the point of view objectively, right?
Yes, I do understand that as a business owner you have every right
to determine the type of atmosphere that you want.
Yes, as a business owner, you have every right to say that you want to play a certain type of music or have a certain age group inside of your establishment, but you do not have the right to discriminate against an entire group of people, right?
And what do I mean by that?
That means when you say you don't want certain music played, that's targeting a specific demographic, right?
Clear as day.
And again,
We've had calls, we've had conversations where, you know, yes, we understand that we don't need to go to that establishment as black people.
Yes, we understand that we do not have to beg for their acceptance.
We don't have to party at that establishment, all of the above.
But at the end of the day, it's not about that.
What it's about is the fact that people, okay, business owners, right, feel so comfortable to where they can do something of this nature.
I don't care who made the post.
I don't care if it was the owner.
I don't care if it was the DJ at the end of the day, whoever made that post represents that establishment.
And what they're saying is we don't want no black people in our business.
Period.
No matter how you package it up, that's exactly what they are saying.
And whether or not we choose to attend this establishment, whether or not we choose to support this establishment, right is right and wrong is wrong.
And that was wrong at the end of the day.
Now, I'm biased because I am someone who contributed to the Milwaukee rap scene.
I am someone who has played a part in making sure that the artists here today have these platforms to do whatever it is that they need to when it comes to the music.
And at the end of the day, I just want to see them win.
I want to see all the babies that I teach music to win.
When you have a situation like this again people like to minimize it as if it's not that serious Oh, we don't need to you know Participate in them.
We don't have to go there.
We have our own establishment.
What you know what we should be able to go wherever we want Without this is 2026 we should be able to go wherever we want and again if you are a business owner How unprofessional is it?
To have a list leaked
of you stating that you don't want nothing to do with the black culture.
Because hip-hop is black culture.
Although we have culture vultures, hip-hop is black culture.
How unprofessional is it to send a list out saying this is not what we want, whether it was leaked or not?
It's not professional.
I don't care what you say or how you put it.
And at the end of the day, you are targeted.
a specific demographic of people, let along an entire culture.
Y'all look at, some generations may look at Milwaukee rap and say, um, I don't want to listen to that stuff anyways.
It's violent.
It's, this is that.
Not understanding that there's so much more, so many more artists who are a part of the Milwaukee music rap scene.
who has absolutely nothing to do with making music that is negative.
And this is impacting them as well.
And again, it's a ripple effect.
Well, one organization say another organization may feel like they can play with the culture too.
Or they may begin to treat you a certain type of way every time you walk into their establishment.
We have a caller on the line.
Tay, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us.
How are you?
I'm good.
I just want to just give my thoughts and my opinions in regards to what you're speaking of.
We really can't be mad.
If they don't want to play that genre of music, that is their preference.
That's like saying you going over somebody's house and you don't like the way they house mail and you want them to change how they clean their house.
That's not fair.
I understand your point of view, Tay, and I agree, you know, and I talked about this earlier that, um, it is absolutely okay for an establishment to say that they want their business a certain type of way.
My issue is when you go public with it, right?
And you can say easily, but we know that, um, people do what they do on purpose.
When you go public with it, now I'm thinking in a business stance, how unprofessional is it to go public and say that we don't want.
this specific genre of music or demographic?
It's no different in a restaurant saying you can't come in here smelling like weed.
No different.
But it's not, it's show just your people.
You don't get mad at them.
They're running a business.
They have to pay bills.
And if that type of crowd is bringing their business in the negative, they have to do what they have to do for them.
And
that.
They're not running their business so that we can come.
They're running their business so they can make money.
If you don't like it, then go somewhere else.
Or how about if you don't like it, build your own.
Have your people, all of your people that are in rep is positive.
All of y'all come together and do something on your own.
Build
your
own.
That way you won't have to worry about.
I'm saying you can't come in here because you smell like weed or you got bonnet and pajamas on.
Come on.
Let's let's be for real.
Clean up your house first before you try to go monitor somebody else's house and whether they said it or not, they have that right.
That's their business.
And if you don't like the way people run their business, don't go and patronizing.
Absolutely.
And again, I've said it multiple times.
I agree.
However, what I don't agree with is the fact that they did it.
You don't have to go there.
But what I don't understand is why are we mad at each other for being upset about them discriminating against us?
We should be upset because we're in 2026.
We should be upset.
We should feel away.
Do we have to partake?
Absolutely not.
Can they do whatever they choose with their establishment?
Absolutely they can.
But the fact remains that they chose to go public and put this list out there, which means that evidently you want us to respond and we're going to respond, right?
It's not about them accepting us.
I think that's what a lot of people aren't understanding.
We aren't asking them to accept us.
We aren't saying that we want to participate in whatever they're offering.
We're not saying that we want to go and spend money.
We're not complaining about them not allowing us in.
What we're saying is Milwaukee is setting a standard to target a specific genre and culture.
That's what I'm saying.
Whatever, you know, we got going on as a people again to your point to her point We got to clean our own house, but this isn't a conversation about being accepted This is a conversation about right is right and wrong is wrong the same way we talk about politics the same way we bash MPS and in the school system all of that stuff I was just talking last week about MPS having over a hundred cases of students being discriminated against when it comes to suspension and expulsion
That doesn't mean all black parents are going to remove their children out of MPS But what it does mean is that we have to highlight what is happening in our city in case people forgot There are real artists here that make money off of the music that they make We're not just talking about the artists who make negative music.
There is real life artists here who make money off of their craft
touring to
I'm doing pretty good.
How are you doing today, guys?
I really, really do.
You know what, man?
I mean, I'm being totally honest.
OK, like, say if you had a club, right, it's called the yellow club, right?
And you want people to come in there wearing yellow because you just love yellow.
You love it.
And I'm like, well, hey, we're the red crew, man.
We want to come in there.
We feel really disrespected that you don't want the red people coming in there.
Dude, it's your business.
You can allow anybody in your business.
that you want to because it's your business.
Now, I understand that you feel some kind of way.
I'm black myself, but I don't care.
I don't want to go nowhere that people don't accept me anyway.
I don't want to hang out somewhere and people act as fake like, hey, welcome to our establishment, spending one year, but we hate you.
You see what I'm saying?
If they're telling you up top that they don't want us there, hey, I'm clapping.
Thank you for letting me know before I came in there and spending any of my cheese.
They let me know I mean that that's totally cool with me We don't we don't need to be places where people don't want to say anyway And as a matter of fact seriously though like you said it's time for us to clean our own house if we act better and Do better as a people and start holding each other accountable Start taking care of our own people Then I think that we can actually open up our own establishment and maybe they might be treating a little bit better But we got some straight enough to do as a people though seriously though, but
We don't need to be going nowhere where people don't accept us anyway.
And I want to feel no way about it.
This is America.
And people got their own beliefs.
It's been that way forever, forever.
There's always been racist people in there.
There will always be racist people.
So why feel disrespected?
They won't let me in because certain people with demographic don't want you to be in their clubs when you know how they are.
Or they have bars or whatever.
They don't want to be there anyway.
So that's cool.
You let me know off the top and I congratulate you.
I'll come there and shake your hand.
Thank you for letting me know.
before I spent a dollar with you.
Thank you so much, Charles, for tapping in with us.
We got to go to break when we come back.
Let's finish this conversation.
It should grow.
Jazz Tyler 101 stepping to truth.
We are live and direct at the award-winning 1017 the truth in the beautiful heart of downtown Milwaukee.
And listen, before we went to break, we were talking about Milwaukee culture.
And that also includes the babies.
So today we are joined by a special guest, LSW.
We're going to talk about the biggest Milwaukee free library and what that all entails.
Thank you all so much for joining us today.
Thank you
for having us.
Absolutely.
I'm Holly McCoy Perez.
I'm the executive director at Literacy Services of Wisconsin.
We have eight locations throughout southeastern Wisconsin serving adult learners.
So we are an adult literacy organization.
We do primarily foundational reading, math.
We support folks who are interested in completing their GED, HSED, and then we also do English language learning.
So lots of different programming, lots of different locations.
Love the work, love the mission, and I'll pass it over to Barbara.
I am Barbara Serda, and I am the founder of Barbie the Book Fairy, and Barbie the Book Fairy provides
free books for the Milwaukee community.
We primarily started during the pandemic.
It was a, it is a passion project.
And then I also run a, run a bookstore with my sister and with my daughters and my daughters joining us today as well.
And she was really instrumental in the founding of Barbie the Book Fairy and has kind of been a face for the project.
So I'll let her introduce herself.
name's Areli.
We just like before like we would go to like little like free libraries and then like we would like drop off like books there.
And we would just walk around and try to find them.
So obviously we work with adults and this is a family event But we truly believe that literacy is cyclical so when we educate parents we educate children and Our goal is always to be looking at ways that we can bring folks in and find joy around reading I think sometimes we talk about the heavy topics that are related to literacy
reading
education
All those things exist.
They're incredibly complex.
We like to take the complex out of reading and really just make sure access and opportunity are at the forefront of everything we
Yeah, we actually, and I'm going to pass the torch over to Barbara in a second, but that's actually how the two of us connected on this project.
Barbara really saw a need and connected that need to actual action.
Um, no one asked her to do that.
No one said like this is needed.
She just saw it and, and responded.
I think there was a big push for little free libraries, you know, maybe like a decade ago and now they all exist.
And it's one of those things where once the fad dies down, it's like people forget someone needs to actually put that into action and
fill
them.
And so I'm gonna pass that over to you.
Yeah, so I'll just talk a little bit about how our program started during the pandemic.
So Barbie the Book Fairy, well, I guess during the pandemic we saw a lot of those positive projects.
I remember seeing the hearts on the windows and people were making masks.
And it was really an opportunity for my daughters and I to plug into the work and kind of do our part to be part of our community.
And at that time, we were all isolated.
But I have three daughters.
At that time, they were much younger.
And they're older now.
I have a 22-year-old, an 18-year-old, and then Adelie is 11.
But at the time they were smaller.
So, you know, we were doing spring cleaning and it was time to clean out our books and I've kind of built their little live their home libraries ever since they were, you know, there were babies and that's something that I got from my mom, you know, my mom, I was a teen mom and my mom worked at a school and would buy my daughter's little books.
Yeah.
So we were, you know, kind of cleaning those out.
And as we were walking around in the neighborhood, we noticed that there were about four or five little libraries that were always
empty yeah around my neighborhood so we kind of took it to Facebook I asked for donations and you know schools were shut down libraries were shut down like I remember just feeling very very isolated yeah so I you know we thought that it would be important to make sure we're providing that access to those books especially you know people were getting rid of their books who knows where they were taking them right
So, you know, my daughters went and picked them up and we distributed them to the Little Free Libraries.
And that's how the project started.
Then it like became a thing.
And there were a couple of grants for, you know, to provide funding for these positive projects.
And I applied and they're like, all right, name your project.
And I'm like, well, my nickname is Barbie, because my name is Barbara.
And I've always been called that since I was a young person.
And this feels like I'm like a book fairy, right?
Like nobody knows who I am.
I'm this mystical character, like no one knows who I am.
I can do this behind the scenes.
And it wasn't really behind the scenes.
But community really came together to help provide funding for books.
So I was able to buy brand new books and then support an independent locally owned bookstore.
at the same time.
So I think that solidarity is like very important, especially when it comes to educating our own cells, but then helping making sure that we all have the tools to educate our community.
So that's kind of like.
where we
Absolutely.
Well, first and foremost, I have to say, I absolutely love this.
So I am an educator by day.
I teach music at Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy High School.
And obviously a part of music is knowing how to read, right?
So oftentimes I believe our people in general, meaning like the residents here in Milwaukee, they don't understand the correlation, you know, as much like why literacy is.
important, not just so you can make it through school, but you need it, you know, throughout life overall.
I remember Otter Woman Cox doing the free little libraries on the north side and pushing for the libraries overall and things of that nature.
So that was very exciting.
And I remember growing up reading the babysitter clubs, goosebumps, you know, all of these books.
And I don't know if the school system still has
access to the school affairs as big as they used to be.
But the point of me saying that is because before you guys came on, I mentioned that it's not just the schools or the household, but it's the communities, the community responsibility to make sure that we provide these services to families as well.
And I love the fact that you all have merged to not help just the youth, but the adults also.
What impact has LSW seen from past years of Milwaukee's biggest free library?
So I love this event.
We do a lot of stuff throughout the year, but I think the biggest impact for us is just seeing what a literacy organization that where our mission is really providing direct instruction, right?
That's our role.
but taking us in something that's mission aligned, but a little bit different from the day to day.
And truly our partnership with Barbara has expanded a lot of the work that we do and how we do it in this way at
this
event.
And I think that for us, it's really about measuring our impact through...
how excited people get to just come to this event.
We have folks that come back year after year, they get so excited.
It's interesting because Milwaukee is like a big small city,
so we all
know each other, right?
But there are folks that I really only see at this event and it's just, it's like, it's a vibe.
It's a good vibe.
So it is this Friday, August 28th from four to seven at Kasiasko Community Center.
And we were talking earlier, I know Kaziasko is pronounced differently in Polish.
I'm not even going to attempt.
But for short, Kazi Community Center.
So we're at Kazi Park.
Yeah.
Do you want me to do that?
You want to do that?
OK.
So one thing I talk about often, and I don't want to take us down too deep of a dive on this, but one in four Milwaukee County adults struggles with low literacy.
So low literacy is defined as anyone reading at or below a third grade level.
It is a pervasive silent crisis in our community.
And I think often we talk about the impact on K-12, right?
We talk a lot about K-12 schools and we should.
We absolutely should.
But we also must concurrently think about what it means to be a parent who for oftentimes no fault of their own Struggle with literacy and maybe don't even realize that that's the issue And so we always approach it from a place of are you interested in getting a better job?
Are you interested in completing your high school diploma?
We don't really talk too much and on purpose about where folks are at academically because the only other thing, if anyone takes anything away from this, aside from attending our really amazing event, is that literacy and graduation rates in the city are not tied to intelligence.
They're directly tied to access and opportunity.
And again, for us, I think that's what this event is really about.
It's about bridging the gap, creating access, creating fun around literacy,
And Barbara has done an amazing job this year of lining up entertainment as well.
So it's really turned into a book festival, wouldn't you say?
I've
definitely been calling it a book festival.
Is that what we're calling it now?
Yeah, that's what it feels like.
Maybe we should change the name.
No, honestly.
No, we can't for branding.
No, it does feel like a book festival.
And we really have grown a lot in the last five years.
The first year it was my sister and I and we loaded up a pickup truck because I had a bunch of books in my garage And then I was like I have to get rid of these but also like these books need to get out You know community members donated them like we have some new stuff in here that people need to get their hands on so we like threw them
on the lawn at Cosiesco Park.
We didn't even, I'm gonna tell on myself here, but we didn't have any type of permits.
By any means necessary.
But I'm like, I'm a neighbor, I can do this, this is my park.
Um, you know, and, and, and Adelie was part of this.
So, you know, I have a picture of her, you know, on the pickup truck, like helping us with boxes.
And, you know, this is, this is very much her thing.
And I'm, I'm excited to kind of pass the torch over to her later.
Um, but we've grown so much literacy service, um, became involved with the event.
Um, our second year, they provided volunteers, but then Holly and I had these like amazing conversations on like, how are we going to.
grow our impact.
How are we going to get more books to this event?
How can we become more organized so that more people come, more people have access to literature?
But then also we have this tremendous resource fair.
Yeah.
I think the first year we had three resource vendors this year will be expecting 28.
Yeah,
fairy.
The book
The book
grow, Jazz Tyler.
We
are live with Barbie the book fairy in LSW and if you are listening, I know that just brought back so many memories.
How many of you were sitting at home with your grandmother's liberal watching reading rainbow on PBS channel 10?
Listen, I am excited about this event that you guys have.
But most importantly, I am excited about the work that you all are doing.
Before we went to break, we were talking about the event.
We were talking about the services that you guys provide.
But I also want to dig a little bit deeper into the services you provide and why.
My thought process as an educator in the parent is I know a lot of adults who may have issues with literacy are kind of embarrassed, you know, and I'm glad that earlier you said it's not their fault, right?
It's not their fault that that's the case.
But it doesn't give them an excuse not to, you know, fully participate in attempting to learn.
How important is the services you provide for the adults in correlation with them being able to assist their child with their homework?
Incredibly important.
So, from our own organizational data, and we provided services to close to 1,500 adults last year, we had 303 HSCDGED graduates, which accounts for 12% of the entire state's total.
Come on, come on.
I'm sorry, one more data point, though.
No, that's not...
so, and like...
So 40% of our students that enroll with us, who need to complete a high school diploma, left school in 11th grade.
And so what happens is this, a lot of times folks will come in and they'll say, well, I made it to 11th grade.
So I should just be able to take the GED and be done with this in like a week.
And, you know, our role is always to say, maybe, absolutely, maybe.
In most cases, it takes someone on average anywhere from six to nine months to earn a GED.
However, they must typically be academically at a college level.
So one of the stigmas that exists around the GED is that it's easy.
When, in fact, the new GED, since it changed in 2014,
It requires an intense amount of knowledge to be able to pass that test.
It's timed, it's stressful.
That's why we also have an HSCD program.
And Barbara and I actually know each other from Elferno.
And so our HSCD is approved by the Department of Public Instruction.
It's a competency-based high school equivalency program for adults to really look at.
how they learn.
And it really taps into brain science and the idea that everyone is smart in their own way.
So rather than doing standardized tests, folks enroll in a 16 week program, four days a week, four hours a day.
Listen, it is a commitment and we recognize that.
But at the end, there's such a tremendous difference in how people view their learning and that's the goal.
I think sometimes in schools, like learning can feel very
procedural, like I need to learn this because someone said I needed to.
By the time adults walk through our door, our role is to teach them a love for learning and really honor their lived experience, the things that they're going through, you know, everything else, right?
And so I think it's a very unique approach to learning and we always want to honor it with care because there is...
a lot of fear that can come with just saying, hey, I don't have this.
I think our society does so much around, again, K-12 education.
In fact, that's typically the focus.
And again, it should be.
But when we don't also think about adult literacy and the role it plays, we're creating this ongoing stigma for folks that makes them feel as if they shouldn't just say, hey, I need to do this.
and do it in a way that honors, you know, again, just every part of their life.
And so we see that most of our students report on their own, that they feel so much more just engaged with their own children because they're finding a love for learning.
They're then going home and telling their kids what they've learned.
We do field trips in our HSCD class.
There's a lot of folks that don't know that there's so many resources in our community museums all those things are free Yes, and so we'll take them there.
They'll have a lesson they'll say I want to take my grandbaby back here and like I want to show them you know that I did this in school and and a lot of our students too will come back and say you know my oldest child is about to graduate and they will not graduate before I do and one thing too is we still do see
individuals who are first generation high school graduates in 2026.
And I think, again, it's a very complex issue.
And I don't necessarily think it's like a simple, this is the cause, this is, you know, this.
We're talking about some of the most caring, empathetic, amazing human beings holding down like three jobs, raising children,
And like also thinking about what can I do to be better?
Yes And so I take that as a huge responsibility and so does my entire staff that works with me But yeah, it's a I mean it's
a lot and it's so important because oftentimes I think we forget that the generation so I'm 38 so my mom is 68 my mom's generation What is not the golden?
generation.
I call us the golden era because we were before technology and during technology and after.
And what ended up happening was everything switched over.
So we don't have where they drive and throw the newspapers on the stairs anymore or the yellow pages or the white pages, right?
We don't have just, I mean, there's physical books, but there's more news online.
Everything is just online.
So it makes it easier for them to say, hey, I don't even want to attempt.
to try and fix whatever issues I have, I could just go online and look it up, not understanding that that doesn't fix the problem also.
So I say that to say the work that you all are doing is necessary.
I wish that...
You know we had more people who understood how necessary it is and however I can contribute to making sure that those resources are available to people that need them I will because I don't know the stats on this specifically, but if I'm not mistaken There's a lot of adults who have The percentage of adults who have issues with literacy is probably higher than students who are currently enrolled in
middle school and high school.
Yeah.
And for every year when we look at our graduation rates in the city, oftentimes that's the focus is on the rate itself.
But we have to also ask ourselves what happens to the percentage that doesn't complete.
Yes.
And then again, it just becomes this like, and we all know like Barbara and I were that we picked the date for this event a year ago.
And I think we were like,
That's what we've never planned that far ahead.
And why did it come so fast?
And I only use that analogy because it does.
Life goes really fast.
Before you know it, it's like three months.
Like I still haven't sent out thank yous for my wedding.
It was like 12 months
So you can.
go on our website.
The pandemic did some wonderful things for us.
It brought us into the 21st century.
So you can sign up for a registration appointment right on our website, which is just www.literacyservices.org.
And we have all the information about how to enroll, how to sign up for classes.
And again, we have eight locations.
So we really believe that folks shouldn't have to just come to one centralized location.
We make sure that we're in as many spaces as possible, making sure that our services are accessible.
And I will also say, because folks ask me this sometimes, our services are entirely free.
Wow.
So no one has to worry about the cost.
We've had a few students who enroll in our HSCD program and then think there's a cost.
There is not.
And then we also partner directly with MATC and WCTC.
So many of our students are in that HSCD program, and they're also oftentimes concurrently enrolled in a college program.
And our goal is to always make sure that we are driving our students towards whatever their dreams are.
Our friends at WRTP Big Step, we also do a construction and manufacturing trades, HSCD.
It's a beautiful, it's one of my favorite programs because folks are earning their HSCD at the same time that they're getting those certificates in the building trade.
So we have so many options and we're kind of like, we're like a quiet organization overall.
But I think it's more because we like to make sure that we're providing a safe space for our adult students to come to.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
I would love to connect with you outside of here and provide these resources as an option for the high school I work at for their families, for their parents, and whatever other connections I have in any other schools, because it is important.
And as an educator, I do run into parents who need assistance, but they're afraid to, or they're afraid to say, hey, I have an issue with helping them.
And that's where we can.
pass them off to an organization like you to where they don't feel, you know, the nervousness of telling us that they don't know how to read or whatever their issues are.
We have to go to break.
When we come back, we are going to dig into this event that you guys are having this Friday.
I'm excited about it.
Unfortunately.
I wish I could come, but it's during my segment.
Literally from four to seven, Monday through Friday.
Bring my mic.
We're gonna figure it out right.
I know, right?
Do not touch that down.
Shagrull Jazz Tyler, we're gonna finish this conversation when we come back.
One on one, seven of truth.
One on one, seven of truth.
It's Shagrull Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct and I
I have Barbie, the book fairy, and LSW sitting here with me.
We are talking literacy, but not just for youth, also for the adults.
You guys have collaborated together to do your annual event.
And then you mentioned that there will be entertainment as well as local authors there signing books.
Can you kind of give us more details about how people can be involved and what that actually looks like?
Absolutely.
I have...
little post-it notes here where I wrote down because I didn't want to forget anything.
But we do have participation from local bookstores that'll be providing crafts and activities.
We have face painting lined up.
We have four face painters, including Areli.
Are you face painting this year?
Yeah, she's facing
gosh.
She's really good.
She's really good.
Um, and we'll have a free face painting.
Um, of course, I said, our, our, our vendors for resource fair and we have vendors really from all over Milwaukee.
Well, not vendors.
We're not selling anything,
resource fair participants, um, from all over Milwaukee.
Uh, this year when we posted, like I had a.
tons of people reach out.
So I'm very excited to just see like the diversity and the people that are participating in our resource fair.
We're going to have a open play soccer session with Briantes MKE, which is an all girls soccer club.
Um, and they do coaching and things like that.
So they'll be there.
I
There will definitely be soccer there.
They'll have, they have different sized goals that they're going to bring.
on who, who gets involved, but, um, they'll be there.
And then I will talk about, oh yeah.
And then we have, um, Ben Bay drum and dance.
And they're going to be playing Son Harocho music.
And these are.
students that are playing music that is specific to Veracruz, Mexico and they've been practicing for a long time and then they bring out something that they call a tarima and they come it's like a little wooden stage and they come and they dance and it's just a really beautiful celebration and then we have
Charles Grant and the Milwaukee Flyers who will be performing that day as
Milwaukee Flyers.
so entertaining.
They really are.
And then we also have a story time and I think this is very important especially because we
As we look forward to the event and the future, we really want to find an opportunity to support local authors.
So this year, we have Elia Anna Hill, who is an author and illustrator.
And when she illustrates her books, she uses cut paper.
Today, she's Puerto Rican.
And she's been involved with this event for a couple of years as an attendee.
So she's, she's come and she's going to come and do a story time.
And then she will sign her books and then give those away at the events.
So I have a question.
I've always wanted to do this.
My daughter does too, but I never knew where to start it.
So I have a 19 year old, 18 year old.
and a nine year old.
And my nine year old, her name is Callie Rain.
She wants to illustrate her own book.
How do we, how do I go about doing that?
So I'm going to say talk to Elia because she's also going to be hosting a craft.
Okay.
So there'll be an opportunity to interact with her and she can talk about her process as an author, but she's also really into kids art.
She has
I'm pretty sure it's six kids but she's gonna she's gonna correct me if I'm wrong.
She has six kids so she's been really nurturing them to you know also be artists themselves
hopefully you know they'll also kind of follow in her steps as far as illustrating and and writing books but she'll be on site to talk about that.
I mean I think it's
really about leaning into the work and putting yourself out there.
Like I said, we'll also have some participation from local bookstores so we can also talk and find out how we can connect with publishers.
We also have one of our resource vendors.
It's Confianza Collective and that means Confidence Collective
Rachel.
hosts writing workshops.
For people who want to write.
Call me.
you?
So you can go to our Facebook page.
It's Barbie the Book Fair.
Barbie is spelled B-A-R-B-Y.
You can find me on Facebook.
I'm on Instagram.
I'm pretty active and look at all the messages and respond to most of them.
But yeah, just contact me.
I think Holly and I have been pretty open as to incorporating new things each year, and we would really love, love, love to see.
local authors come and showcasing their books.
If they want to host a table, everything is free.
So you can register to be a resource vendor.
You can come and participate as an author.
You know, I feel like authors should charge us, right?
Charge us.
Yeah, they charge us.
For their presence.
No, no, no, no.
I know she's looking at me.
Um,
I mean we're always looking for donations as well
I just really I know I just told Holly today.
I just always want to give everything out for free, but
Um, I just think it's an honor when authors and just like creatives want to interact and like be part of this event in whatever capacity.
Yeah.
So, um, if there's, you know, authors or, you know, potential, um, people that want to talk about like writing books and things like that, I think there'll be tons of connections that, you know, we can make with each other and just like really dream big for our future.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I also think too, when you talk about like the local bookstores that are there, the resources that are.
And for folks who are interested in either being an author, they already are an author, there is nothing more powerful than a group of aligned people getting together around a
And, you know, I don't want to, you know, get too far down like an ADHD hole that I can get down, but networking is so important.
and finding people who are aligned in your values, aligned in the things that bring you joy.
I think that's really what we see at this event.
And even for folks who are interested in getting involved, that's really what we're looking for is people who are interested in supporting Milwaukee, supporting local.
And as Barbara mentioned, all of the books, so we do purchase brand new books for this event.
We get lots of book donations.
We have close to 3,000 books this year.
But some of the new books that we, or not some, sorry, all of the new books that we get are purchased from local bookstores.
Because I do think it is important, and it can't always happen.
I was talking to Barbara about this earlier.
We can't always...
for whatever reason, support local, but when we can,
absolutely 120% do.
And I do think even as a nonprofit, it's really important that we're intentional about where we're putting our dollars.
Can we
talk about some of those books you got, those new books?
Um, do you want to talk about the new books?
Uh, because I feel like you know them better.
Yeah.
So, um, we had the opportunity to purchase, uh, titles that are in other languages.
So we have books in Spanish.
We have Hmong books.
We have books that are written by, um, BIPOC authors.
Uh, so we really try to focus on like the diverse, the diverse books, um, and offering those because a big part of.
another part of you know why we launched Barbie the Book Fairy is to ensure that people have that literature that speaks to you so
someone's picking up a book they can see themselves in a book.
So I think that that's another piece that we kind of really didn't touch today but it's super important especially because we've been trying really hard to of course get books out there but then also let's get some books that people see themselves
Lots of books, new friends, a renewed sense of joy in turning pages on a tangible object.
that.
We all, and I'm guilty of it too,
no judgment.
audiobooks.
And audiobooks
great.
fill in the books.
There is nothing, and I know some people argue, there is nothing more beautiful than turning the pages on a book.
And we spend a lot of time, a lot of energy making sure that the books that folks get at this event are ones that are gonna bring joy and excitement.
So I think that's, and you know, just, I don't know, it's being a cozy park on a Friday night, which is why we do it on a Friday
looking at the Basilica.
better
than fireworks.
Yeah, I don't really care
like fireworks, but like when they're out there.
like, oh, you know, it's beautiful.
But, you know, you have the sunset dancers and then the flyers
air and it really is a joyful event.
And I'm just really proud to
have a
DJ.
Yeah,
mention that.
Yeah, we do have a DJ and
food truck.
and a food truck.
food
I want to first of all thank you both so much for coming today and providing this information.
I am a parent who do believe in literacy.
Me and my daughter we have dates once a month at Barnes and Noble.
where I can go.
And I just want to encourage parents out there, even if it's you or if it's your child who struggled with it, not just necessary literacy, but just the thought of picking up a book, try and find something that's fun.
For me, my daughter, she was, she's a gymnast and she loves Simone Bowles.
So I was instantly able to get her attracted to books by buying, purchasing the biography of Simone Bowles.
And then that made it easier for her to work, you know, even if it's something as simple as stranger things wins.
They, whatever it is that they like, just something to introduce them to reading overall.
And then you can, you know, elevate as you go on.
But again, thank you guys so much for joining us before we go.
Do you guys have any shout
outs?
Okay,
my kids.
Y'all did a rundown of your kids, I have five kids.
So, Taylor, Tasha, Makayla.
Bentley, David, and then my husband, David.
And they all help with the event.
So, gratitude,
gratitude.
I'll shout out my kids too.
Sitlali, Natali, and Arelys here.
And I'll shout out my dog, Gucci, who's waiting for me at home.
Yeah, my other kid.
Yeah, my other kid, and my sister, Valeria, and my parents.
She said
Thank you guys so much.
Please if you have time this Friday August 28th from 4 p.m.
To 7 p.m.
Pull up to Kaziasco Community Center for the Milwaukee's largest free book giveaway
Again, thank you both so much for coming.
I will be in touch outside of here as well.
We have to go to break to pay some bills.
Do not touch that dial.
Shigarajas Tyler, one on one, seven in
truth.
This is
where we hustle.
This is your girl, Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct at the award-winning One-on-one, 7 in Truth.
If you are just now joining us, I just wrapped up an interview with Barbie the Book Fairy in LSW.
We were talking about literacy, not just with youth, but adults as well.
They have an amazing event coming up this Friday, the 28th from 4 p.m.
to 7 p.m.
at Cosiesco Community Center.
There will be local...
authors there as well as resources.
I wanted to do a call to action before we move on to the next segment.
Just highlighting the importance of us as adults, making sure that we reach out to services provided by individuals such as themselves, even if it's something that's embarrassing no matter what it is.
Help you, help you.
especially if you have children who have homework.
If you're somebody like me, listen, I'm an educator in half of the time.
It's not due to literacy, but the homework changed so much, we just want to make sure that we are updated consistently.
So please check out this event.
If you are a local author, this is also an event that you can benefit from as well.
Prior to us going into the interview with LSW and Barbie the fairy, we were talking about the state of Milwaukee music culture and there was a specific organization, a specific venue named the garage who mentioned that they did not want any Milwaukee music, any Milwaukee rap music played inside of their establishment.
And I know that we had the phone lines blowing up and people were giving their thoughts on this, but I have to be biased and subjective in this moment.
When I first came on air and we were talking about this situation, I was giving you guys the point of view objectively, right?
Yes, I do understand that as a business owner, you have every right.
to determine the type of atmosphere that you want.
Yes, as a business owner, you have every right to say that you want to play a certain type of music or have a certain age group inside of your establishment, but you do not have the right to discriminate against an entire group of people, right?
And what do I mean by that?
That means when you say you don't want certain music played, that's targeting a specific demographic, right?
Clear as day.
And again,
We've had calls, we've had conversations where, you know, yes, we understand that we don't need to go to that establishment as black people.
Yes, we understand that we do not have to beg for their acceptance.
We don't have to party at that establishment, all of the above.
But at the end of the day, it's not about that.
What it's about is the fact that people, okay, business owners, right, feel so comfortable to where they can do something of this nature.
I don't care who made the post.
I don't care if it was the owner.
I don't care if it was the DJ at the end of the day, whoever made that post represents that establishment.
And what they're saying is we don't want no black people in our business.
Period.
No matter how you package it up, that's exactly what they are saying.
And whether or not we choose to attend this establishment, whether or not we choose to support this establishment, right is right and wrong is wrong.
And that was wrong at the end of the day.
Now, I'm biased because I am someone who contributed to the Milwaukee rap scene.
I am someone who has played a part in making sure that the artists here today have these platforms to do whatever it is that they need to when it comes to the music.
And at the end of the day, I just want to see them win.
I want to see all the babies that I teach music to win.
When you have a situation like this again people like to minimize it as if it's not that serious Oh, we don't need to you know Participate in them.
We don't have to go there.
We have our own establishment.
What you know what we should be able to go wherever we want Without this is 2026 we should be able to go wherever we want and again if you are a business owner How unprofessional is it to have a list
leaked of you stating that you don't want nothing to do with the black culture because hip-hop is black culture.
Although we have culture vultures, hip-hop is black culture.
How unprofessional is it to send a list out saying this is not what we want, whether it was leaked or not?
It's not professional.
I don't care what you say or how you put it.
And at the end of the day, you are targeted.
a specific demographic of people, let along an entire culture.
Y'all look at, some generations may look at Milwaukee rap and say, um, I don't want to listen to that stuff anyways.
It's violent.
It's, this is that.
Not understanding that there's so much more, so many more artists who are a part of the Milwaukee music rap scene, who has
Absolutely nothing to do with making music that is negative.
And this is impacting them as well.
And again, it's a ripple effect.
Well, one organization say another organization may feel like they can play with the culture too.
Or they may begin to treat you a certain type of way every time you walk into their establishment.
We have a caller on the line.
Tay, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us.
How are you?
I'm good.
I just want to just give my thoughts and my opinions in regards to what you're speaking of.
We really can't be mad.
If they don't want to play that genre of music, that is their preference.
That's like saying you going over somebody's house and you don't like the way they house mail and you want them to change how they clean their house.
That's not fair.
I understand your point of view, Tay, and I agree, you know, and I talked about this earlier that, um, it is absolutely okay for an establishment to say that they want their business a certain type of way.
My issue is when you go public with it, right?
And you can say easily, but we know that, um, people do what they do on purpose.
When you go public with it, now I'm thinking in a business stance, how unprofessional is it to go public and say that we don't want.
this specific genre of music or demographic?
It's no different in a restaurant saying you can't come in here smelling like weed.
No different.
But it's not that it's it's just your people.
You don't get mad at them.
They're running the business.
They have to pay bills.
And if that type of crowd is bringing their business in the negative, they have to do what they have to do for them.
And
So they're not running their business so that we can come.
They're running their business so they can make money.
If you don't like it, then go somewhere else.
Or how about if you don't like it, build your own.
Have your people, all of your people that are in rep is positive.
All of y'all come together and do something on your own.
Build
own.
That way you won't have to worry about.
I'm saying you can't come in here because you smell like weed or you got bonnet and pajamas on.
Come on.
Let's let's be for real.
Clean up your house first before you try to go monitor somebody else's house and whether they said it or not, they have that light.
That's their business.
And if you don't like the way people run their business, don't go and patronizing.
Thank you so much, Tay, for tapping in with us.
And again, I've said it multiple times.
I agree.
However, what I don't agree with is the fact that they did it.
You don't have to go there.
But what I don't understand is why are we mad at each other for being upset about them discriminating against us?
We should be upset because we're in 2026.
We should be upset.
We should feel away.
Do we have to partake?
Absolutely not.
Can they do whatever they choose with their establishment?
Absolutely, they can.
But the fact remains that they chose to go public and put this list out there, which means that evidently, you want us to respond and we're going to respond, right?
It's not about them accepting us.
I think that's what a lot of people are understanding.
We aren't asking them to accept us.
We aren't saying that we want to participate in whatever they're offering.
We're not saying that we want to go and spend money.
We're not complaining about them not allowing us in.
What we're saying is Milwaukee is setting a standard to target a specific genre and culture.
That's what I'm saying.
Whatever, you know, we got going on as a people again to your point to her point We got to clean our own house, but this isn't a conversation about being accepted This is a conversation about right is right and wrong is wrong the same way we talk about politics the same way we bash MPS and in the school system all of that stuff I was just talking last week about MPS having over a hundred cases of students being discriminated against when it comes to suspension and expulsion
That doesn't mean all black parents are going to remove their children out of MPS But what it does mean is that we have to highlight what is happening in our city in case people forgot There are real artists here that make money off of the music that they make We're not just talking about the artists who make negative music.
There is real life artists here who make money off of their craft
touring to
I'm doing pretty good.
How are you doing today, guys?
I really, really do.
You know what, man?
I mean I'm being totally honest okay like say if you had a club right it's called a yellow club right and you want people to come in there wearing yellow because you just love yellow you love it and I'm like well hey we're the red crew man we would have come in there we feel really disrespected that you don't want the red people coming in there dude it's your business you can allow anybody in your business that you want to because it's your business now I understand that you feel some kind of way
I'm Black myself, but I don't care.
I don't want to go nowhere that people don't accept me anyway.
I don't want to hang out somewhere and people act as fake like, hey, welcome to our establishment, spending one year, but we hate you.
You see what I'm saying?
If they're telling you up top that they don't want us there, hey, I'm clapping.
Thank you.
Thank you for letting me know before I came in there and spending any of my cheese.
They let me know I mean that that's totally cool with me We don't we don't need to be places where people don't want to say anyway And as a matter of fact seriously though like you said it's time for us to clean our own house if we act better and Do better as a people and start holding each other accountable Start taking care of our own people Then I think that we can actually open up our own establishment and maybe they might be treating a little bit better But we got some straight enough to do as a people though seriously though, but
We don't need to be going nowhere where people don't accept us anyway.
And I wouldn't feel no way about it.
This is America and people got their own beliefs.
It's been that way forever, forever.
There's always been racist people in there.
There will always be racist people.
So why feel disrespected or they won't let me in because certain people with demographic don't want you to be in their clubs when you know how they are or they're bars or whatever.
They don't want us there anyway.
So that's cool.
You let me know off top and I can.
Miami, the playboy's paradise.
Pretty girls, fast cars.
That's just facade.
The bridge separates South Beach from my Miami.
The real Miami.
The MIA.
This is where
we hustle.
Every damn hustling, every damn...
Every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm, every day I'm, every day I'm
One-on-one seven the truth this year girl jazz Tyler We are live and direct at the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth if you are just now joining us I just wrapped up an interview with Barbie the book fairy in LSW We were talking about literacy not just with youth but adults as well They have an amazing event coming up this Friday the 28th from 4 p.m.
To 7 p.m.
At Kasiasko Community Center.
There will be local
authors there as well as resources.
I wanted to do a call to action before we move on to the next segment.
Just highlighting the importance of us as adults, making sure that we reach out to services provided by individuals such as themselves, even if it's something that's embarrassing no matter what it is.
Help you, help you.
especially if you have children who have homework.
If you're somebody like me, listen, I'm an educator in half of the time.
It's not due to literacy, but the homework changed so much.
We just want to make sure that we are updated consistently.
So please check out this event.
If you are a local author, this is also an event that you can benefit from as well.
Prior to us going into the interview with LSW and Barbie the Fairy, we were talking about the state of Milwaukee music culture.
There was a specific organization, a specific venue named the garage who mentioned that they did not want any Milwaukee music, any Milwaukee rap music played inside of their establishment.
And I know that we had the phone lines blowing up and people were giving their thoughts on this, but I have to be biased and subjective.
Um, in this moment when I first came on air and we were talking about this situation, um, I was giving you guys the point of view objectively, right?
Yes.
I do understand that as a business owner, you have every right to determine the type of atmosphere that you want.
Yes.
As a business owner, you have every right to say that you want to, uh, play a certain type of music or have a certain age group inside of your establishment, but you do not have the right.
to discriminate against an entire group of people, right?
And what do I mean by that?
That means when you say you don't want certain music played, that's targeting a specific demographic, right?
Clear as day.
And again,
We've had calls.
We've had conversations where, you know, yes, we understand that we don't need to go to that establishment as Black people.
Yes, we understand that we do not have to beg for their acceptance.
We don't have to party at that establishment, all of the above.
But at the end of the day, it's not about that.
What it's about is the fact that people, okay, business owners, right, feel so comfortable to where they can do something of this nature.
I don't care who made the post.
I don't care if it was the owner.
I don't care if it was the DJ at the end of the day, whoever made that post represents that establishment.
And what they're saying is we don't want no black people in our business.
Period.
No matter how you package it up, that's exactly what they are saying.
And whether or not we choose to attend this establishment, whether or not we choose to support this establishment, right is right and wrong is wrong.
And that was wrong at the end of the day.
Now, I'm biased because I am someone who contributed to the Milwaukee rap scene.
I am someone who has played a part in making sure that the artists here today have these platforms to do whatever it is that they need to when it comes to the music.
And at the end of the day, I just want to see them win.
I want to see all the babies that I teach music to win.
When you have a situation like this again people like to minimize it as if it's not that serious Oh, we don't need to you know Participate in them.
We don't have to go there.
We have our own establishment.
What you know what we should be able to go wherever we want Without this is 2026 we should be able to go wherever we want and again if you are a business owner How unprofessional is it?
To have a list leaked of you stating that you don't want nothing to do with the black culture Because hip-hop is black culture Although we have culture vultures hip-hop is black culture.
How unprofessional is it?
To send a list out saying this is not what we want whether it was leaked or not It's not professional.
I don't care what you say or how you put it
And at the end of the day, you are targeted, a specific demographic of people, let along an entire culture.
Y'all look at, some generations may look at Milwaukee rapping and say, I don't wanna listen to that stuff anyways.
It's violent, it's this, it's that.
Not understanding that there's so much more, so many more artists who are a part of the Milwaukee music rap scene.
who has absolutely nothing to do with making music that is negative.
And this is impacting them as well.
And again, it's a ripple effect.
Well, one organization say another organization may feel like they can play with the culture too.
Or they may begin to treat you a certain type of way every time you walk into their establishment.
We have a caller on the line.
Tay, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us.
How are you?
I'm good.
I just want to just give my thoughts and my opinions in regards to what you're speaking of.
We really can't be mad.
If they don't want to play that genre of music, that is their preference.
That's like saying you going over somebody's house and you don't like the way they house mail and you want them to change how they clean their house.
That's not fair.
I understand your point of view, Tay, and I agree, you know, and I talked about this earlier that, um, it is absolutely okay for an establishment to say that they want their business a certain type of way.
My issue is when you go public with it, right?
And you can say is leak, but we know that, um, people do what they do on purpose.
When you go public with it, now I'm thinking in a business stance, how unprofessional is it to go public and say that we don't want.
this specific genre of music or demographic?
It's no different in a restaurant saying you can't come in here smelling like weed.
No different.
But it's not that it's it's just your people.
You don't get mad at them.
They're running the business.
They have to pay bills.
And if that type of crowd is bringing their business in the negative, they have to do what they have to do for them.
And
I'm not disputing that.
So they're not running their business so that we can come.
They're running their business so they can make money.
If you don't like it, then go somewhere else.
Or how about if you don't like it, build your own.
Have your people, all of your people that are in rep is positive.
All of y'all come together and do something on your own.
Build your
own.
That way you won't have to worry about.
I'm saying you can't come in here because you smell like weed or you got bonnet and pajamas on.
Come on.
Let's let's be for real.
Clean up your house first before you try to go monitor somebody else's house and whether they said it or not, they have that right.
That's their business.
And if you don't like the way people run their business, don't go and patronizing.
Thank you so much, Tay, for tapping in with us.
And again, I've said it multiple times.
I agree.
However, what I don't agree with is the fact that they did it.
You don't have to go there.
But what I don't understand is why are we mad at each other for being upset about them discriminating against us?
We should be upset because we're in 2026.
We should be upset.
We should feel away.
Do we have to partake?
Absolutely not.
Can they do whatever they choose with their establishment?
Absolutely they can.
But the fact remains that they chose to go public and put this list out there.
Which means that evidently you want us to respond and we're going to respond, right?
It's not about them accepting us.
I think that's what a lot of people are understanding.
We aren't asking them to accept us.
We aren't saying that we want to participate in whatever they're offering.
We're not saying that we want to go and spend money.
We're not complaining about them not allowing us in.
What we're saying is Milwaukee is setting a standard to target a specific genre and culture.
That's what I'm saying.
Whatever, you know, we got going on as a people again to your point to her point We got to clean our own house, but this isn't a conversation about being accepted This is a conversation about right is right and wrong is wrong the same way we talk about politics the same way we bash MPS and in the school system all of that stuff I was just talking last week about MPS having over a hundred cases of students being discriminated against when it comes to suspension and expulsion
That doesn't mean all black parents are going to remove their children out of MPS But what it does mean is that we have to highlight what is happening in our city in case people forgot There are real artists here that make money off of the music that they make We're not just talking about the artists who make negative music.
There is real life artists here who make money off of their craft
Turing to
I'm doing pretty good.
How are you doing today, guys?
I really, really do.
You know what, man?
I mean I'm being totally honest okay like say if you had a club right it's called a yellow club right and you want people to come in there wearing yellow because you just love yellow you love it and I'm like well hey we're the red crew man we would have come in there we feel really disrespected that you don't want the red people coming in there dude it's your business you can allow anybody in your business
that you want to because it's your business.
Now, I understand that you feel some kind of way.
I'm black myself, but I don't care.
I don't want to go nowhere that people don't accept me anyway.
I don't want to hang out somewhere and people act as fake like, hey, welcome to our establishment, spending one year, but we hate you.
You see what I'm saying?
If they're telling you up top that they don't want us there, hey, I'm clapping.
Thank you.
Thank you for letting me know before I came in there and spending any of my cheese.
They let me know I mean that that's totally cool with me We don't we don't need to be places where people don't want to say anyway And as a matter of fact seriously though like you said it's time for us to clean our own house if we act better and Do better as a people and start holding each other accountable Start taking care of our own people Then I think that we can actually open up our own establishment and maybe they might be treating a little bit better But we got some straight enough to do as a people though seriously though, but
We don't need to be going nowhere where people don't accept us anyway.
And I want to feel no way about it.
This is America and people got their own beliefs.
It's been that way forever, forever.
There's always been racist people in there.
There will always be racist people.
So why feel disrespected or they won't let me in because of certain people with demographic don't want you to be in their clubs when you know how they are or they're bars or whatever.
They don't want us there anyway.
So that's cool.
You let me know off top and I congratulate.
I'll come there and shake your hand.
Thank you for letting me know.
before I spent a dollar with you.
truth.
Yeah.
Can't stop now.
Won't stop.
Last time I checked.
I'm 10 toes down.
Run it up.
This is your girl, Jazz Tyler.
We are live and direct.
And we are having a conversation about this establishment entitled The Garage, which is an establishment located in Milwaukee on Brady Street.
And we've heard multiple opinions about why we shouldn't care about them saying that they don't want any Milwaukee rap music in their establishment because they have the right to dictate.
the environment and who comes in and again I'm not disagreeing with that I'm telling you I am not disagreeing with that but I'm not sure if you guys are understanding what we are trying to convey first and foremost the Milwaukee music rap is not just Milwaukee music rap these are artists these are artists who get paid
And in the city and outside of the city these are artists where this is how they make their living right and if you are someone who is involved in the music industry you understand that the DJs playing your music is a big part of how you get shows is a big part of people catching on to what it is that you have going on what I am simply saying is does a
A business have the right to say that they don't want certain people there based off of behavior.
Absolutely.
Does a business have the right to say that they want a certain type of atmosphere?
Absolutely.
But no matter how many times you guys continue to say, it don't matter.
We don't need to go where we're not saying that we're saying that right is right and wrong is wrong.
And at the end of the day, they are wrong.
They are wrong on so many different levels.
And I get it.
Some of you guys just don't understand because it's either not your generation or you don't care about the Milwaukee music scene.
But let me break it down for you for a quick second.
I started making music in Milwaukee at 12 years old, right?
I started making music because it was the very thing that took me out of my environment mentally.
It was a very thing that saved my life.
Although I was more tight talented and I've done multiple things, music ultimately was what helped got me to where I am today.
By the time I was 15, I was able to enter into the music industry.
By the time I was in my 20s, I was working with industry people.
Everything that I have now has been as a result of me doing music.
You understand?
So when you guys say, oh, we shouldn't go wherever they don't want to play us, you're looking at it in a subjective way because it doesn't benefit you.
Or because you don't understand how it impacts and affects everybody else.
There are real artists in this city that need the support because this is how they feed their family.
There are people that put in work to make sure that
Artists does have the support of the city and that they're able to be artists But most importantly despite of how anybody I've never stepped a foot in the garage Ever in life.
I have never ever stepped a foot in this establishment So for me to sit back if I was to say I don't care That would be a slap in the face to everybody who does benefit from having their music played who are Milwaukee artists
It's already hard enough for us to get our name on the map, period.
And again, I'm going back to the same point.
Right is right and wrong is wrong.
I don't care if it was a black establishment.
If a black establishment said that we don't want to play any Milwaukee rap music, it's gonna be a problem there as well.
Because you are specifically targeting a certain demographic of people.
Mind you, you can't go to Los Angeles, you can't go to Atlanta, certain places, and do that.
Yes, we had a caller who called in from Memphis, right?
But his point of view was regarding some internal wars.
We understand that.
But again, for an establishment to say no Milwaukee rap music.
How are you going to combine every rap artist in the city of Milwaukee under one umbrella?
Basically, you're saying that we all make the same type of music, that all of our music is negative.
And again, what they do is a ripple effect.
I'm not saying that other establishments agree or that they would do something as reckless, but it doesn't mean that it's not going to heighten.
The discrimination Take a look at the climate of this state take a look at the climate of this country Understand that all the news stories you guys are seeing what's happening when it comes to black people period So to sit there and just say that this is oh, so yeah, they don't want us there when it's bigger than that
That's what I'm trying to get you all to understand.
It is bigger than us not showing up.
Half of us who are defending this never even went to the garage, but again, it goes back to them attacking an entire culture.
Some of y'all look at Milwaukee Rap and say, hey, it's these type of, I call it serial killer music, whatever the case may be.
You're one track minded.
All you see is just the negative.
You don't see the positive in Milwaukee rap music.
You don't see how many people are able to feed their families because DJs is playing their songs in the clubs or on the radio.
So what's my new to you isn't necessarily small to us, especially for people who have paved the way for Milwaukee music.
I get it.
Some of y'all not going to understand because you're not a part of it.
But this is how things carry on think about back in the day if you are you know 40 between the ages of 36 through 45
Think about bar Louie and brothers and all these clubs back in the day who used to Discriminate and profile us by saying that we can't dress a certain way.
There was a caller earlier who mentioned I think it was winky blue he mentioned that When you go to different states Miami, LA Atlanta Houston certain organizations and establishments have dress code Absolutely, but they don't have dress code because they're discriminating
They have dress codes because when you walk in there, they're serving business people.
They want a certain look.
They want that industry polish look, right?
When people snap photos, they are selling an experience.
When you go to a club live, any club out of state, that is a known establishment.
They're not creating a dress code because they're discriminating against a certain race.
They're setting standards because of the experience.
They are selling an experience.
When you come to Wisconsin, when you come to Milwaukee, they aren't selling an experience.
They flat out just prejudice, period.
It has nothing to do with the fact that, yes, we want to sell an experience.
No, how many bars is on Brady Street Strip?
How many bars is on Brady Strip?
Brady Street to its entirety is an experience not just one bar When when somebody says I'm about to go out they don't say hey, I'm about to go to Nashville North or I'm about to go to What is it called the garage?
No, we're going on Brady Street People that go on Water Street don't say hey, I'm about to go to this establishment where I'm about to go to know we're going on Water Street
Brady Street is an experience.
The bars that's on that strip is part of that experience.
So when an organization like that says that we don't want this type of music, they are removing themselves from that complete experience.
And they're doing it purposely.
They are telling us that no, we don't want black people there.
And black people is saying, why should we go there then if they don't want us there?
So what, we don't gotta spend our dollars.
Yeah, because y'all not the artists.
Y'all not the artists that gotta feed their family off of the music that they make.
Hello, I don't know if y'all don't understand, 2026, artists is actually getting paid for doing music now.
It is a career.
So when an establishment says that they don't want Milwaukee rap music played at their establishment, you are actually offending someone who has a career in this field.
That is business.
It's not just personal.
This is business.
Milwaukee rap music is a business.
The artist that's included in that is a business.
The artist that's included in that is a brand.
The artist that's included in that gets paid and that's how they feed their families.
Brother Z, you are a DJ.
Who actually DJs on Brady Street.
What's your take on this?
See, it's crazy.
Now, I saw this list two weeks ago, actually.
I saw this list on my friend's story and I replied to it.
I said, is this real?
This can't be real.
And sure enough, it is a real list.
And the thing that really, really got me was when this manager or whoever sent out this text said no remixes.
Now anybody that knows DJs, you know that we can make an edit.
We have other edits.
We have flips of songs.
We can make a flip on the fly.
We can pre-record it, whatever the case is.
And so now you're telling me that I can't take a sexy red lyric even if it's a clean song and put it over a Taylor Swift beat just because I'm playing sexy red or I can't take
A little baby beat and put it over a maroon 5 vocal Because it's a it's a little baby inch or a metro booming Instrumental because metro booming was on that list and he makes damn near half of the hip-hop and rap Even of even of the artists that aren't on that list And like you said jazz, there's other artists in Milwaukee that don't make music that promote
guns that promote murder that promote violence so they're saying the quiet part out loud at this point when 75% of your customers on the weekend are of people of color and of our people that you don't want their music to be played like what's going on I just saw that sexy red posted this
Said at
least y'all
at least y'all know I'm number one At least y'all know I'm number one the shade room posted this for what?
Almost a million views on tiktok
And not to mention brother Z I don't think they're understanding that this can impact this city economically meaning that
The people that come here or want to invest or want to do shows, whatever the case may be, there are actually people in the entertainment business that benefit from artists coming here, right?
And I talked about this earlier.
There are probably some artists probably are not going to one, two-step a foot back into this city.
Yeah, then they already don't come to Milwaukee
as it is.
Come
on.
They already don't come here.
Come on now.
Half
of these.
Half of these people, if not all of these people, have headlined a major festival within the last 10, 15, 20 years.
And what, Don Toliver?
I mean, he's the only one that came to Milwaukee's.
Sexy Red came to Milwaukee, I think once,
That too.
Like she has actual relationships with real artists who are doing real things raking making real money in the real industry So again if this goes above some people head we get it.
It's not your generation You don't make music, but don't tell us we're wrong for standing up You don't know the work that we put in so that people can be able to
get their music played in the club.
Let's finish this conversation when we come back from breakwanda.
I see you.
I'm going to talk about you when I get back on.
I love you dearly.
101.7 the truth that should grow jazz.
One
We are live and direct shout out to the chat.
Um THK least he said definitely 100.
Um nurse Kawanda said thank you jazz for everything you've done for me in our family, but would be proud 100 I just hate my mind when it went blank when it come to that.
So again, I want to thank you publicly Kawanda Listen, um
A couple of weeks ago, if you guys are tuning in, myself and Homer had mentioned about the loss of two very important people in our lives.
Joseph Jackson aka Smalls and Charles Duke aka Bubba.
Both actually were artists from Milwaukee.
Both have done some amazing things in the music industry in the city of Milwaukee and the outside Milwaukee as well and kawanda I want to say to you publicly as well that I'll always be here despite or whatever It's been rough It's hard some days we up some days we down but baby we gonna get through it I promise we are
We are going to get through it.
I love you dearly.
To Smalls family, I love y'all dearly.
These are two people who meant a lot to me and who contributed to the music scene in Milwaukee as well.
And I'll continue to be here for both families.
I thank you, Kiwana, for tapping in today because I know that your mind is all over the place and I know that you're in the process of planning a funeral and you still found time to tap in.
And I love you so much for that.
Thank you to those who are joining us.
We've been talking about this situation with the garage and that list that came out.
And honestly, I'm not here to battle with people who don't understand.
I'm not here to continue to go back and forth.
With you about it because those who get it get it those who don't get it either don't or they just don't want to
But at the end of the day, what I'm simply saying is, as someone who has been doing music in this city since I was 12 years old, as someone who is currently the lead producer and educator teaching students how to make music in on radio because I was a music artist, yes, I find it very offensive.
Yes, I do not support this.
Yes, I am going to speak out about it because there is so much work that has gone into making sure that artists in today's generation
have the support that is needed locally in order to be successful.
And because certain establishments, because certain elected officials, because the community, because certain people have provided the support to the music artists, we have been able to take our talents outside of Milwaukee, go and get the resources and bring it back to the crib.
Can you imagine if all of the establishments
Or a majority of the establishments in Wisconsin or Milwaukee say hey, we don't want to play any Milwaukee rap music Do you understand what that would do to not only the culture?
But the pockets and how people feed their family.
So again, please don't look at this as oh, it's just a hobby They don't want Milwaukee music.
So what this isn't a hobby
Y'all have to pay attention to the times and get outside of your own world whether you like it or not This generation of Milwaukee rap music has taken off And it has brought so much attention to the city Back to brother Z's point when he say it got a million views on tiktok sexy red reposted it mind you she is
Her and chicken PR like two two peas in a pod This really does affect people and it's a slap in the face for the people who have paved the way We fought let me tell y'all something we fought so hard Myself included we fought so hard to get our music played in establishments in Milwaukee.
We used to be one
Brady Street on Live on North.
You understand?
Performing, getting our music out there.
We used to go to Quarters, Stonefly.
We had to put in work to even get the DJs to talk to us.
Some of us had, some of y'all had to pay the DJ to play your music just so that you can get recognized.
And there was so many opportunities that came from a DJ spinning my record in the club.
I would not be where I am today had it not been for Milwaukee rap music.
So yes, it's a slap in my face.
It's a slap in Ray Needy's face.
It's a slap in Mr. Do-It-To-Deaf face.
It's a slap in Cuckoo Cow face.
It's a slap in the new generation's face.
It don't have to be serious to some of y'all.
Y'all don't have to understand it.
But it does matter and the problem I have with that with the older generation or people who don't get it is that lack of support If this was your days and they told Rick James and James Brown and Marvin Gaye and everybody else that it ain't gonna be none of that sexual stuff up here up in my establishment Y'all would have been outside with the picket fences and afro pubs and everything too
But because it's our generation and it's something y'all can't understand or don't want to understand then we're in the wrong for standing up for something We're in the wrong for saying no we don't care about going to your establishment But at the same time you're not going to disrespect our culture I Don't think y'all understand the masses of what just happened and if you don't understand
Eventually, you will.
Now, in other news, Brewer's Black Culture Fest.
Let me make something real clear before I get into this.
This is not me accusing the Brewer's organization or creating that they are racist.
Shout out to Katina Shaw.
She is the president of the Brewer's Foundation.
We had her on the show a couple of months ago, and she's doing some amazing work over there.
And they curated the Black Culture Fest intentionally to celebrate Black culture, intentionally to celebrate Black culture.
The issue is what started showing up in the comments around promotion for the celebration.
You had people making jokes connected to watermelons, you had the smoke detector stereotype, and if you know, you know.
And I'm not going to spend half the segment teaching people every racist stereotype ever created.
I don't believe in giving ignorance extra air time.
But I do think the existence of those comments deserves conversation.
So not only did we have to take a hit, a slap in the back of the head with this list that was created by the garage, we also had to deal with the rhetoric and the foolishness of people in the conversations, the comments.
about the Black culture fest with the Brewers.
Again, this is bigger than just some organization not playing Milwaukee rap music.
We are talking about Black culture in the city of Milwaukee.
Every time it's us celebrating something, first and foremost, this is all we got.
The country then took everything from us, including our lives.
They even took the damn culture from us too.
Kim and we can't have nothing y'all want us to turn over and say that's all we got We already have enough culture vultures let us have something You don't have to like it.
I don't like all of it, but goddamn it is ours We have a caller on the line east side quarry are you there?
How you doing girl?
Thank you
I love your energy, sweetheart.
I love when you get loud, girl.
Oh, she's getting loud now.
You know, what's so stupid is that I'll be driving and I'll be at the stoplight.
I'll hear some boom, boom,
boom,
boom, heavy bass.
I'll look over at some white people.
This is some good old rap.
Come on now.
I'm like, look at these children.
They look at me and they're like, hey, little black guys looking at us.
Hey, we're cool.
I'm like, girl, come on.
Come on now.
You know.
They're so desperate to be hip and cool.
This is, this is nothing new.
We've been doing this for the last hundred years since jazz came on the scene.
Come on now, Louis Armstrong.
They call that jungle music, you know, and he was, and they were like, and everybody wanted to imitate it.
Everybody wanted to dance.
And then they came up north.
You could play at the cotton club, but you had to come in the back door.
You couldn't come in the front door and have your friends come see you, only whites only.
sitting at the chairs.
Yes.
You know, it took, it took certain artists to say, like, um, like Lena Horne and, um, uh, Diana Ross and, and all, uh, uh, uh, Miss Baker, uh, uh, the French lady, you know, she went to friend to go all the way to France to get acknowledged.
And then she came back to America and they were like, you can play in the Ziggsville Follies, honey, but you can't come through the front door.
And she said, I bet I will.
Yes, because she's got she's got a dose of see the French like authentic people they like the artist they worship The art the purity of it and that's what we are.
We're pure.
Yes,
and we constantly we just do what we do naturally and they try and imitate us It's like we wouldn't have American culture if it wasn't for black It's all our culture
decided to play rap music, but that's okay.
Let's just take it back.
I think we can take a week off from America, Black folks.
And just let them let them have no black music, no soul, no hip.
Just let us all disappear for a week and see what happens.
Yes.
Thank you so much, Issa Corey.
Oh my gosh.
You just said everything that.
resonated with not just me, but the entire culture.
First and foremost, the biggest supporters and the biggest people who purchased the music are white people.
Y'all remember that scene from All Eyes on Me when a pop went to Interscope Records and the A&R, the head A&R of Interscope Records daughter came and said, hey, let me roll white girl.
Tupac, can I get your autograph?
He said, yeah, you want my autograph?
What's your favorite song?
What'd she say?
Come on.
I can't say it on air 11 year old white girl.
They always are the biggest supporters, but it's only It's only okay when it's beneficial.
We got to go to break when we come back We're gonna finish this conversation.
Shout out to Kawana.
She said I know and you are you showed me and we appreciate you and we love you more I needed it escaped today for sure.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us Make sure you double back do not touch that down should grow jazz
Tyler
One on one point seven the truth is your girl jazz Tyler We are live and direct if you are just not joining us.
We've been talking about the comments made About the garage and I also was speaking about the incident that happened with the black culture fest, right?
so There were comments not only are we dealing with black people Not only are we dealing with an ignorant
owner, staff, whoever runs the operator or whoever idea was to put this list out.
We are also dealing with racist comments being made about the black culture fest that the Milwaukee Brewers threw with, I believe, Reneal.
I'm not sure if he was a part of it, but I know that to some degree he was.
And again,
These are the things that we consistently deal with These are the things that we have to face on a day-to-day basis and somehow we are just supposed to be okay with it Why can't black people have one event without somebody doing this?
I mean damn Yardin took the country we don't got reparations Yardin took the culture Yardin redlined us from purchasing homes, right?
When we go to work, we have to face battles, not only with white people, but our people too.
Y'all take our babies from us.
Y'all have split our families up and dismantle the household with the two-parent household.
And you telling me that we can't even have something as simple as music?
Might I add, every genre of music that y'all ever created
came from us.
The blues, the country ain't nothing but blues.
Country music is nothing but blues.
Rock and roll, who started it?
The clothes y'all kids wear.
Y'all love our culture when it's beneficial.
But then when you get tired of it, you try to make it an issue.
You want to act like, oh yeah, we welcome everybody.
We want y'all to have a good time.
Now again, I'm okay with people running their business how they want to.
But what I'm not okay with is a business owner.
Being unprofessional, discriminating publicly.
Then you have the Brewer's Black Cultural Fest.
And again, my question is, why does a black cultural celebration make some people so uncomfortable?
When you have German Fest, you don't see black people comment under their talking crap.
We actually go.
When you got the Mexican Fest, the Greek Fest, the Irish Fest, all of that, we support it.
We do.
Because it's America.
That's what we do.
This is America.
That is what we do.
Why is black culture first treated differently?
Why was it treated differently?
Why does someone seeing the word black immediately feel like something is being taken away from them?
Hip hop doesn't feel foreign.
It's everywhere black athletes are everywhere black fashion is everywhere black language is everywhere black music is everywhere
But then the moment you identify the culture as black somebody suddenly says, why does it have to be about race?
That is so fascinating to me because if it wasn't a problem, it wasn't a problem when you were consuming it.
It became a problem when the source was named.
Does Milwaukee love black culture or does Milwaukee love what black culture provides?
Does Milwaukee love back black culture or does it love what we provide?
When you say remove hip-hop or Milwaukee rap music I want you to go and take a look at Steve the stoner video or big Frank when they are on college campuses up north and it ain't nothing but white kids there Okay
When you say remove Milwaukee rap music I want you to go back and look at the history of the song bow Or in my projects by cuckoo cow and what it has done for Milwaukee culture The very people who are making these comments, I'm sure their children love black culture I'm almost positive they do and It just eats them up inside The fact
I do want to say this, the comments that were made about the black culture fest for the Brewers is not a reflection of the Brewers Foundation.
How do we know this?
Because we sat down with the president, Katina Shaw.
I've personally been there and seen the work that her and the staff and the players have done when it comes to the community and black people in general.
And it's not nothing that's being, it's politically correct or anything for cameras, no.
They are genuine when they do it.
They can't help that they have racist pricks commenting under their statuses.
But again, this is Wisconsin and what if Wisconsin don't do nothing, baby, it's going to remind you that your black gas is black.
Wisconsin will remind you that you are a Negro, a colored.
I promise you.
Every chance they get.
We can't have anything.
We can't have anything.
And it is crazy to me.
It is crazy that we are living in these times and people make it their duty to go and comment on somebody's personal page to make racist remarks.
For what reasons?
We don't know.
We never will.
It makes absolutely no sense.
So I...
Jazz Tyler, I'm gonna speak for all my people when I say we's a tied.
We are tired, okay?
Let me tell you about black culture on a broader scale and what we're dealing with as black people.
Not only do we get this list put out about not playing Milwaukee rap music, but we got racist comments made on the Brewer's page about the Black culture fest.
We are currently 30 years later in the middle of one of the biggest murder trials in hip-hop culture.
Might I add the first rapper to ever be murdered?
That was a hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur.
We are dealing with the Nolan Wells case as well.
We are dealing with other cases that has happened with officers assassinating black men and women and now they're finally going to trial or being charged.
There are still unsolved cases of our babies as well throughout this entire country.
There are babies who are being hung on trees.
Then there's the Carmelo Anthony case that's happening also.
Every time you look up in the industry we're losing somebody.
Not to add on how difficult it is for Milwaukee artists specifically to make it up out of here.
Don't that sound depressing?
Don't that sound like a lot?
I want you to really think about everything you are paying attention to on a day-to-day basis.
Everything that I just mentioned.
These are things that's scrolling up and down our timelines.
24-7.
These are things that we have to deal with on a daily basis.
And for some reason, it's okay for people to call and tell us not to worry about it.
We are tired.
We've been tired.
All we want to do is is have fun and celebrate.
I'm not speaking about the fools.
Stop putting us all in one box.
We all don't look alike.
We all don't sound alike.
We all don't like the same stuff.
And most importantly, respect Milwaukee rap artists.
Respect Milwaukee music Support it if you don't like it cool But it does not mean that it doesn't exist and it does not mean that people have put in the work The black culture fest was for the babies See that that's what I don't think people understand either.
Oh, they made racist comments.
Yeah, that event was for the youth Y'all don't think that the youth is
paying attention to those comments.
And if we don't have these conversations that in their minds they may begin to think that this organization was a part of that and they had nothing to do with it and that changes their outlook on their experience.
Y'all gotta stop thinking subjectively just because something don't impact you directly.
That's like people who wait to get involved when something happened to their child.
You wait until the last minute before you want to get active because it never affected you.
All of this affected us whether you admit it or not, whether you want to accept it or not.
It does affect us overall.
If you are a citizen in Milwaukee, it is going to affect you somehow some way.
Whether it's going to be for the good or the bad, that's for you to decide.
We're going to finish this conversation when we come back.
It should grow.
Jazz
Tyler.
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If you are just now joining us, I talked about the list that the garage had put out pertaining to Milwaukee Rap Music, and we've been talking about
The last 30 minutes about the Brewers, I want to read something to you all.
I was tapping into what was going on with the Black Cultural Fest at the Brewer Stadium, which was an event for youth and families.
According to Milwaukee Journal's signal, nobody was prevented from watching the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Atlanta Braves at American Family Field on August 21st.
No one was harmed.
Let me repeat that.
No one was harmed.
As the Brewer celebrated the black culture for one night during 162 game regular season, yet judging by some of the comments posted on social media, even that was too much.
So here are some of the remarks that people were leaving on the Brewer social media pages.
What liquor the drink of choice?
Were they giving out free watermelon and crack?
Where is the fried chicken?
Those were actually some of the milder comments.
Others referred to human beings as monkeys, robbers, baby mamas, and crack smokers.
Some posted raced memes, including one titled, My First Ankle Monitor, featuring a little boy with an ankle monitor around his leg.
Think about what caused this reaction.
The Brewer simply acknowledged the contributions of black Americans.
The team partnered with groups including social ex MKE to celebrate Milwaukee's black community Fans experienced live music and local marching bands supported black owned businesses and celebrated the historical contributions of black baseball players in the Negro Leagues and somehow that alone was enough to bring the races out These are the comments that are being made
This is the type of environment that our babies are growing up in so again for those who say oh don't worry about it go somewhere else Did you forget about the kids?
Did you forget about outside of that list being made publicly in those comments being made publicly that behind those comments behind that list those are real human beings Those are human beings who view your babies like this
Those are human beings that view all of us like this.
And we all know how that can play out when they have a certain type of perception when it comes to black men and black women in this country.
That is the harsh reality.
So outside of the one situation that's happening, these are people and this is their character, right?
These are character flaws.
This is the environment that our babies have to grow up in.
And thank God they were voicers about it.
Because there are so many around here who feel the same way and their behavior reflects it and yet they don't say anything.
No matter how you put it, it's still not okay.
No matter how many times you say, so now what?
Y'all say don't go to the garage, so now what?
We can't go to the Brewer's Game to avoid racist comments too?
No, we're gonna be faced with it regardless.
And at the end of the day, we should say something about it.
Do we got to put up with it?
Do we have to support it?
No, but we should say something to tell us that we are wrong For speaking up about what's happening knowing that our babies are looking you are the problem, too If it's not your generation and if it's not nothing that you understand your entire title to your own opinion But how dare you tell us that we are wrong for speaking up about what's happening.
It's not about being accepted
It's not about spending money at their establishment.
Hell, we got plenty places to go.
We don't care about that.
But what you won't do is disrespect our culture.
Time and time again, they continue to use our culture at their benefit and then disrespect us when it's no longer beneficial.
And we supposed to be like, okay, yeah, we'll just go somewhere else.
No, you're going to hear it.
Because if it was me, I'm telling you, I'm about ready to go in front of there and put on a whole concert of just all Milwaukee rap music.
I promise you I will, because that don't make no sense.
No matter how much they don't understand, we aren't going anywhere.
Baby, this is our city.
This is our culture.
And for our people that's listening, black people, and y'all establishments, thank y'all.
Shout out to Craig and Mr. Bees.
Shout out to O at Prime Social.
Shout out to 502.
Shout out to all of the Black establishments or establishments ran by Black people that continuously support local Milwaukee rap artists.
Thank you.
You are appreciated in case nobody has told you publicly.
Because as you can see, we do have more support.
We do have more establishments who will support us, including Black establishments.
But at the end of the day,
Whether or not it's a black establishment or a white establishment, we have the responsibility to say something about it.
Point blank period.
And it's nothing that nobody can do.
And again, you are crazy if you think that we are not going to.
So, I leave you with this Milwaukee.
If you see something, say something.
Y'all see this list?
Say something.
You see those comments?
Say something.
Because it's not just us, it's these kids that's paying attention to this too.
Our youth is watching this in real time, and they're also watching how we're responding to what's happening.
Y'all don't understand that these kids are, they have something brewing up inside of them.
So when you say stuff like, ah, don't worry about it, they looking at you like you weak.
Like you just gonna lay down.
And that's gonna make them look at you differently and feel away.
in case you didn't know.
And then that's where the lack of respect comes in at, right?
Because we teach them, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
That's my time, Milwaukee.
Make sure you guys double back tomorrow for the morning show with Homer Blow and Bailey Coman followed by Sherman Hughes and the lunch break with maybe Shannon, who is feeling in for Ray Nitty.
Ray out there in Poland.
Out there in Poland getting it in.
Then Swing back for the Great Vine.
Home where Blow will be filling in and then double back with your girl Jazz Tyler from 4 p.m.
to 7 p.m.
Thank you all so much.
for tuning in.
Have a safe evening, Milwaukee.
I am headed to Mary Ryan Boys and Girls Club to kick it with the kids over there.
Man, shout out to Aziz and brother Mohammed, David Mohammed for all the work that you all are doing in the community.
Peace and love everybody.
Y'all have a safe
evening.
Miami, the playboy's paradise.
Pretty girls, fast cars.
That's just facade.
The bridge separates South Beach from my Miami.
The real Miami.
The MIA.
This is where
we hustle.
Every damn hustling, every damn...
Hustlin' every day of hustlin' every day of hustlin' every day of hustlin' every day of every day of every day of every day of every day of every day of every day of every day of
One-on-one seven the truth this year girl jazz Tyler We are live and direct at the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth if you are just now joining us I just wrapped up an interview with Barbie the book fairy in LSW We were talking about literacy not just with youth but adults as well They have an amazing event coming up this Friday the 28th from 4 p.m.
To 7 p.m.
At Kasiasko Community Center.
There will be local
authors there as well as resources.
I wanted to do a call to action before we move on to the next segment.
Just highlighting the importance of us as adults, making sure that we reach out to services provided by individuals such as themselves, even if it's something that's embarrassing no matter what it is.
Help you, help you.
especially if you have children who have homework.
If you're somebody like me, listen, I'm an educator in half of the time.
It's not due to literacy, but the homework changed so much, we just want to make sure that we are updated consistently.
So please check out this event.
If you are a local author, this is also an event that you can benefit from as well.
Prior to us going into the interview with LSW and Barbie the Fairy, we were talking about the state of Milwaukee music culture.
There was a specific organization, a specific venue named the garage who mentioned that they did not want any Milwaukee music, any Milwaukee rap music played inside of their establishment.
And I know that we had the phone lines blowing up and people were giving their thoughts on this, but I have to be biased and subjective.
Um, in this moment when I first came on air and we were talking about this situation, um, I was giving you guys the point of view objectively, right?
Yes.
I do understand that as a business owner, you have every right to determine the type of atmosphere that you want.
Yes.
As a business owner, you have every right to say that you want to, uh, play a certain type of music or have a certain age group inside of your establishment, but you do not have the right.
to discriminate against an entire group of people, right?
And what do I mean by that?
That means when you say you don't want certain music played, that's targeting a specific demographic, right?
Clear as day.
And again,
We've had calls, we've had conversations where, you know, yes, we understand that we don't need to go to that establishment as Black people.
Yes, we understand that we do not have to beg for their acceptance.
We don't have to party at that establishment, all of the above.
But at the end of the day, it's not about that.
What it's about is the fact that people, okay, business owners, right, feel so comfortable to where they can do something of this nature.
I don't care who made the post.
I don't care if it was the owner.
I don't care if it was the DJ at the end of the day, whoever made that post represents that establishment.
And what they're saying is we don't want no black people in our business.
Period.
No matter how you package it up, that's exactly what they are saying.
And whether or not we choose to attend this establishment, whether or not we choose to support this establishment, right is right and wrong is wrong.
And that was wrong at the end of the day.
Now, I'm biased because I am someone who contributed to the Milwaukee rap scene.
I am someone who has played a part in making sure that the artists here today have these platforms to do whatever it is that they need to when it comes to the music.
And at the end of the day, I just want to see them win.
I want to see all the babies that I teach music to win.
When you have a situation like this again people like to minimize it as if it's not that serious Oh, we don't need to you know Participate in them.
We don't have to go there.
We have our own establishment.
What you know what we should be able to go wherever we want Without this is 2026 we should be able to go wherever we want and again if you are a business owner How unprofessional is it?
To have a list leaked of you stating that you don't want nothing to do with the black culture Because hip-hop is black culture Although we have culture vultures hip-hop is black culture.
How unprofessional is it?
To send a list out saying this is not what we want whether it was leaked or not It's not professional.
I don't care what you say or how you put it
And at the end of the day, you are targeted, a specific demographic of people, let along an entire culture.
Y'all look at, some generations may look at Milwaukee rapping and say, I don't wanna listen to that stuff anyways.
It's violent, it's this, it's that.
Not understanding that there's so much more, so many more artists who are a part of the Milwaukee music rap scene.
who has absolutely nothing to do with making music that is negative.
And this is impacting them as well.
And again, it's a ripple effect.
Well, one organization say another organization may feel like they can play with the culture too.
Or they may begin to treat you a certain type of way every time you walk into their establishment.
We have a caller on the line.
Tay, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us.
How are you?
I'm good.
I just want to just give my thoughts and my opinions in regards to what you're speaking of.
We really can't be mad.
If they don't want to play that genre of music, that is their preference.
That's like saying you going over to somebody's house and you don't like the way they house mail and you want them to change how they clean their house.
That's not fair.
I understand your point of view, Tay, and I agree, you know, and I talked about this earlier that, um, it is absolutely okay for an establishment to say that they want their business a certain type of way.
My issue is when you go public with it, right?
And you can say is leak, but we know that, um, people do what they do on purpose.
When you go public with it, now I'm thinking in a business stance, how unprofessional is it to go public and say that we don't want.
this specific genre of music or demographic?
It's no different in a restaurant saying you can't come in here smelling like weed.
No different.
But it's not that it's it's just your people.
You don't get mad at them.
They're running the business.
They have to pay bills.
And if that type of crowd is bringing their business in the negative, they have to do what they have to do for them.
And
So they're not running their business so that we can come.
They're running their business so they can make money.
If you don't like it, then go somewhere else.
Or how about if you don't like it, build your own.
Have your people, all of your people that are in rep is positive.
All of y'all come together and do something on your own.
Build your
own.
That way you won't have to worry about.
I'm saying you can't come in here because you smell like weed or you got bonnet and pajamas on.
Come on.
Let's let's be for real.
Clean up your house first before you try to go monitor somebody else's house and whether they said it or not, they have that right.
That's their business.
And if you don't like the way people run their business, don't go and patronizing.
Thank you so much, Tay, for tapping in with us.
And again, I've said it multiple times.
I agree.
However, what I don't agree with is the fact that they did it.
You don't have to go there.
But what I don't understand is why are we mad at each other for being upset about them discriminating against us?
We should be upset because we're in 2026.
We should be upset.
We should feel away.
Do we have to partake?
Absolutely not.
Can they do whatever they choose with their establishment?
Absolutely, they can.
But the fact remains that they chose to go public and put this list out there, which means that evidently, you want us to respond and we're going to respond, right?
It's not about them accepting us.
I think that's what a lot of people are understanding.
We aren't asking them to accept us.
We aren't saying that we want to participate in whatever they're offering.
We're not saying that we want to go and spend money.
We're not complaining about them not allowing us in.
What we're saying is Milwaukee is setting a standard to target a specific genre and culture.
That's what I'm saying.
Whatever, you know, we got going on as a people again to your point to her point We got to clean our own house, but this isn't a conversation about being accepted This is a conversation about right is right and wrong is wrong the same way we talk about politics the same way we bash MPS and in the school system all of that stuff I was just talking last week about MPS having over a hundred cases of students being discriminated against when it comes to suspension and expulsion
That doesn't mean all black parents are going to remove their children out of MPS.
But what it does mean is that we have to highlight what is happening in our city.
In case people forgot, there are real artists here that make money off of the music that they make.
We're not just talking about the artists who make negative music.
There is real life artists here who make money off of their craft.
Turing too.
I'm doing pretty good.
How are you doing today, guys?
I really, really do.
You know what, man?
I mean I'm being totally honest okay like say if you had a club right it's called a yellow club right and you want people to come in there wearing yellow because you just love yellow you love it and I'm like well hey we're the red crew man we would have come in there we feel really disrespected that you don't want the red people coming in there dude it's your business you can allow anybody in your business
that you want to because it's your business.
Now, I understand that you feel some kind of way.
I'm black myself, but I don't care.
I don't want to go nowhere that people don't accept me anyway.
I don't want to hang out somewhere and people act as fake like, hey, welcome to our establishment, spending one year, but we hate you.
You see what I'm saying?
If they're telling you up top that they don't want us there, hey, I'm clapping.
Thank you.
Thank you for letting me know before I came in there and spending any of my cheese.
They let me know I mean that that's totally cool with me We don't we don't need to be places where people don't want to say anyway And as a matter of fact seriously though like you said it's time for us to clean our own house if we act better and Do better as a people and start holding each other accountable Start taking care of our own people Then I think that we can actually open up our own establishment and maybe they might be treating a little bit better But we got some straight enough to do as a people though seriously though, but
We don't need to be going nowhere where people don't accept us anyway.
And I want to feel no way about it.
This is America and people got their own beliefs.
It's been that way forever, forever.
There's always been racist people in there.
There will always be racist people.
So why feel disrespected or they won't let me in because of certain people with demographic don't want you to be in their clubs when you know how they are or they're bars or whatever.
They don't want us there anyway.
So that's cool.
You let me know off top and I congratulate.
I'll come there and shake your hand.
Thank you for letting me know.
before I spent a dollar with you.
truth.
Yeah, can't stop now.
Won't stop.
Last time I checked, I'm ten toes down.
Run it up.
One on
This is your girl, Jazz Tyler.
We are Live and Direct.
And we are having a conversation about this establishment entitled The Garage, which is an establishment located in Milwaukee on Brady Street.
And we've heard multiple opinions about why we shouldn't care about them saying that they don't want any Milwaukee rap music in their establishment because they have the right to dictate.
the environment and who comes in and again I'm not disagreeing with that I'm telling you I am not disagreeing with that but I'm not sure if you guys are understanding what we are trying to convey first and foremost the Milwaukee music rap is not just Milwaukee music rap these are artists these are artists who get paid
And in the city and outside of the city these are artists where this is how they make their living Right, and if you are someone who is involved in the music industry You understand that the DJs playing your music is a big part of how you get shows Is a big part of people catching on to what it is that you have going on what I am simply saying is does a
A business have the right to say that they don't want certain people there based off of behavior.
Absolutely.
Does a business have the right to say that they want a certain type of atmosphere?
Absolutely.
But no matter how many times you guys continue to say, it don't matter, we don't need to go where we're not saying that we're saying that right is right and wrong is wrong.
And at the end of the day, they are wrong.
They are wonk on so many different levels.
And I get it.
Some of you guys just don't understand because it's either not your generation or you don't care about the Milwaukee music scene.
But let me break it down for you for a quick second.
I started making music in Milwaukee at 12 years old, right?
I started making music because it was the very thing that took me out of my environment mentally.
It was the very thing that saved my life.
Although I was more tight talented and I've done multiple things, music ultimately was what helped got me to where I am today.
By the time I was 15, I was able to enter into the music industry.
By the time I was in my 20s, I was working with industry people.
Everything that I have now has been as a result of me doing music.
You understand?
So when you guys say, oh, we shouldn't go wherever they don't want to play us, you're looking at it in a subjective way because it doesn't benefit you.
Or because you don't understand how it impacts and affects everybody else.
There are real artists in this city that need the support because this is how they feed their family.
There are people that put in work to make sure that
Artists does have the support of the city and that they're able to be artists But most importantly despite of how anybody I've never stepped a foot in the garage Ever in life.
I have never ever stepped a foot in this establishment So for me to sit back if I was to say I don't care That would be a slap in the face to everybody who does benefit from having their music played who are a Milwaukee artist
It's already hard enough for us to get our name on the map, period.
And again, I'm going back to the same point.
Right is right and wrong is wrong.
I don't care if it was a black establishment.
If a black establishment said that we don't want to play any Milwaukee rap music, it's gonna be a problem there as well.
Because you are specifically targeting a certain demographic of people.
Mind you, you can't go to Los Angeles, you can't go to Atlanta, certain places and do that.
Yes, we had a caller who called in from Memphis, right?
But his point of view was regarding some internal wars.
We understand that.
But again, for an establishment to say no Milwaukee rap music, how are you going to...
Combine every rap artist in the city of Milwaukee under one umbrella.
Basically you're saying that we all make the same type of music, that all of our music is negative.
And again, what they do is a ripple effect.
I'm not saying that other establishments agree or that they would do something as reckless, but it doesn't mean that it's not going to heighten the discrimination.
Take a look at the climate of this state take a look at the climate of this country Understand that all the news stories you guys are seeing what's happening when it comes to black people period So to sit there and just say that this is oh, so yeah, they don't want us there when it's bigger than that That's what I'm trying to get you all to understand
It is bigger than us not showing up.
Half of us who are defendin' this never even went to the garage, but again, it goes back to them attacking an entire culture.
Some of y'all look at Milwaukee Rap and say, hey, it's these type of, I call it serial killer music, whatever the case may be.
You're one track minded.
All you see is just the negative.
You don't see the positive in Milwaukee Rap music.
You don't see how many people are able to feed their families because DJs is playing their songs in the clubs or on the radio.
So what's minute to you isn't necessarily small to us, especially for people who have paved the way for Milwaukee music.
I get it.
Some of y'all not going to understand because you're not a part of it.
But this is how.
things carry on.
Think about back in the day, if you are, you know, 40, between the ages of 36 through 45.
Think about bar Louie and brothers and all these clubs back in the day who used to Discriminate and profile us by saying that we can't dress a certain way.
There was a caller earlier who mentioned I think it was winky blue he mentioned that When you go to different states Miami, LA Atlanta Houston certain organizations and establishments have dress code Absolutely, but they don't have dress code because they're discriminating
They have dress codes because when you walk in there, they're serving business people.
They want a certain look.
They want that industry polish look, right?
When people snap photos, they are selling an experience.
When you go to a club live, any club out of state, that is a known establishment.
They're not creating a dress code because they're discriminating against a certain race.
They're setting standards because of the experience.
They are selling an experience.
When you come to Wisconsin, when you come to Milwaukee, they aren't selling an experience.
They flat out just prejudice, period.
It has nothing to do with the fact that, yes, we want to sell an experience.
No, how many bars is on Brady Street Strip?
How many bars is on Brady Street Strip?
Brady Street to its entirety is an experience, not just one bar.
When somebody says I'm about to go out, they don't say, hey, I'm about to go to Nashville North, or I'm about to go to, what is it called, the garage.
No, we're going on Brady Street.
People that go on Water Street don't say, hey, I'm about to go to this establishment or I'm about to go to, no, we're going on Water Street.
Brady Street is an experience.
The bars that's on that strip is part of that experience.
So when an organization like that says that we don't want this type of music, they are removing themselves from that complete experience.
And they're doing it purposely.
They are telling us that no, we don't want black people there.
And black people is saying, why should we go there then if they don't want us there?
So what, we don't gotta spend our dollars.
Yeah, because y'all not the artists.
Y'all not the artists that gotta feed their family off of the music that they make.
Hello, I don't know if y'all don't understand, 2026, artists is actually getting paid for doing music now.
It is a career.
So when an establishment says that they don't want Milwaukee rap music played at their establishment, you are actually offending someone who has a career in this field.
That is business.
It's not just personal.
This is business.
Milwaukee rap music is a business.
The artist that's included in that is a business.
The artist that's included in that is a brand.
The artist that's included in that gets paid and that's how they feed their families.
Brother Z, you are a DJ who actually DJs on Brady Street.
What's your take on this?
See, it's crazy.
Now, I saw this list two weeks ago, actually.
I saw this list on my friend's story and I replied to it.
I said, is this real?
This can't be real.
And sure enough, it is a real list.
And the thing that really, really got me was when this manager or whoever sent out this text said no remixes.
Now anybody that knows DJs, you know that we can make an edit.
We have other edits.
We have flips of songs.
We can make a flip on the fly.
We can pre-record it, whatever the case is.
And so now you're telling me that I can't take a sexy red lyric even if it's a clean song and put it over a Taylor Swift beat just because I'm playing sexy red or I can't take
A little baby beat and put it over a maroon five vocal Because it's a it's a little baby inch or a metro booming Instrumental because metro booming was on that list and he makes damn near half of the hip-hop and rap Even of even of the artists that aren't on that list And like you said jazz, there's other artists in Milwaukee that don't make music that promote
guns that promote murder that promote violence so they're saying the quiet part out loud at this point when 75% of your customers on the weekend are of people of color and of our people that you don't want their music to be played like what's going on I just saw that sexy red posted this
Said at least y'all at least y'all know I'm number one At least y'all know I'm number one the shade room posted this For what?
Almost a million views on tiktok
And not to mention brother Z I don't think they're understanding that this can impact this city economically meaning that
The people that come here or want to invest or want to do shows, whatever the case may be, there are actually people in the entertainment business that benefit from artists coming here, right?
And I talked about this earlier.
There are probably some artists probably are not going to one, two-step a foot back into this city.
Yeah, then they already don't come to Milwaukee as it is.
on.
They already don't come here.
Come on now.
Half of these people, if not all of these people, have headlined a major festival within the last 10, 15, 20 years.
And what, Don Toliver?
I mean, he's the only one that came to Milwaukee's.
Sexy Red came to Milwaukee, I think once, right?
But not to mention
That too.
Like she has actual relationships with real artists who are doing real things raking making real money in the real industry So again if this goes above some people head we get it.
It's not your generation You don't make music, but don't tell us we're wrong for standing up You don't know the work that we put in so that people can be able to
get their music played in the club.
Let's finish this conversation when we come back from breakwanda.
I see you.
I'm going to talk about you when I get back on.
I love you dearly.
101.7 the truth that should grow jazz.
1017
We are live and direct shout out to the chat.
Um, THK least he said definitely 100.
Um,
Nurse Kawanda said, thank you, Jazz, for everything you've done for me and our family.
But would be proud, 100.
I just hate my mind when it went blank, when it comes to that.
So again, I want to thank you publicly.
Kawanda, listen.
A couple of weeks ago, if you guys are tuning in, myself and Homer had mentioned about the loss of two very important people in our lives.
Smalls aka Joseph Jackson aka Smalls and Charles Duke aka Bubba Both actually were artists from Milwaukee both have done some amazing things in the music industry in the city of Milwaukee in the outside Milwaukee as well in Kauanda.
I want to say to you publicly as well that I'll always be here despite or whatever
It's been rough.
It's hard.
Some days we up, some days we down, but baby we gonna get through it.
I promise we are.
We are gonna get through it.
I love you dearly to Smalls family.
I love y'all dearly.
These are two people who meant a lot to me and who contributed to the music scene in Milwaukee as well.
And I'll continue to be here for both families.
And I thank you, Kawana, for tapping in today because I know that your mind is all over the place.
And I know that you're in the process of planning a funeral and you still found time to tap in.
And I love you so much for that.
Thank you to those who are joining us.
We've been talking about this situation with the garage and that list that came out.
And honestly, I'm not here to battle with people who don't understand.
I'm not here to continue to go back and forth.
With you about it because those who get it get it those who don't get it either don't or they just don't want to But at the end of the day what I'm simply saying is ask someone who has been doing music in this city since I was 12 years old
As someone who is currently the lead producer and educator teaching students how to make music in on radio because I was a music artist, yes, I find it very offensive.
Yes, I do not support this.
Yes, I am going to speak out about it because there is so much work that has gone into making sure that artists in today's generation have.
the support that is needed locally in order to be successful.
And because certain establishments, because certain elected officials, because the community, because certain people have provided the support to the music artists, we have been able to take our talents outside of Milwaukee, go and get the resources and bring it back to the crib.
Can you imagine if all of the establishments
Or a majority of the establishments in Wisconsin or Milwaukee say hey, we don't want to play any Milwaukee rap music Do you understand what that would do to not only the culture?
But the pockets and how people feed their family.
So again, please don't look at this as oh, it's just a hobby They don't want Milwaukee music.
So what this isn't a hobby
Y'all have to pay attention to the times and get outside of your own world whether you like it or not This generation of Milwaukee rap music has taken off And it has brought so much attention to the city Back to brother Z's point when he say it got a million views on tiktok sexy red reposted it mind you she is
Her and chicken pee are like two two peas in a pod This really does affect people and it's a slap in the face for the people who have paved the way We fought let me tell y'all something we fought so hard Myself included we fought so hard to get our music played in establishments in Milwaukee
We used to be on Brady Street on Live on North.
You understand?
Performing, getting our music out there.
We used to go to Quarters, Stonefly.
We had to put in work to even get the DJs to talk to us.
Some of us had, some of y'all had to pay the DJ to play your music just so that you can get recognized.
And there was so many opportunities.
That came from a DJ spinning my record in the club.
I would not be where I am today had it not been for Milwaukee rap music.
So yes, it's a slap in my face.
It's a slap in Ray Needy's face.
It's a slap in Mr. Do-It-To-Death face.
It's a slap in Coo-Coo Cow face.
It's a slap in the new generation's face.
It don't have to be serious to some of y'all y'all don't have to understand it But it does matter and the problem I have with that with the older generation or people who don't get it is that lack of support If this was your days and they told Rick James and James Brown
and Marvin Gaye and everybody else that it ain't gonna be none of that sexual stuff up here up in my establishment, y'all would have been outside with the picket fences and afro, pups and everything too.
But because it's our generation and it's something y'all can't understand or don't want to understand, then we're in the wrong for standing up for something.
We're in the wrong for saying, no, we don't care about going to your establishment, but at the same time, you're not going to disrespect our culture.
I don't think y'all understand the masses of what just happened.
And if you don't understand, eventually you will.
Now in other news, Brewer's Black Culture Fest.
Let me make something real clear before I get into this.
This is not me accusing the Brewer's organization or creating that they are racist.
Shout out to Katina Shaw.
She is the president of the Brewer's Foundation.
We had her on the show a couple of months ago and she's doing some amazing work over there.
And they curated the Black Culture Fest intentionally to celebrate Black culture, intentionally to celebrate Black culture.
The issue is what started showing up in the comments around promotion for the celebration.
You had people making jokes connected to watermelons, you had the smoke detector stereotype, and if you know, you know.
And I'm not going to spend half the segment teaching people every racist stereotype ever created.
I don't believe in giving ignorance extra air time.
But I do think the existence of those comments deserves conversation.
So not only did we have to take a hit, a slap in the back of the head with this list that was created by the garage, we also had to deal with the rhetoric and the foolishness of people in the conversations, the comments.
about the Black culture fest with the Brewers.
Again, this is bigger than just some organization not playing Milwaukee rap music.
We are talking about Black culture in the city of Milwaukee.
Every time it's us celebrating something, first and foremost, this is all we got.
The country then took everything from us, including our lives.
They even took the damn culture from us too.
Kim and we can't have nothing y'all want us to turn over and say that's all we got We already have enough culture vultures, let us have something You don't have to like it.
I don't like all of it, but goddamn it is ours We have a caller on the line east side quarry are you there?
How you doing girl?
Thank
you
I love your energy, sweetheart.
I love when you get loud, girl.
You go, oh, she's getting loud now.
You know, what's so stupid is that I'll be driving, and I'll be at the stoplight.
I'll hear some boom, get it, boom,
boom, boom.
Heavy bass.
I'll look over at some white people.
Listen to some good old rap.
Come on now.
I'm like, look at these children.
They look at me, and they're like, hey, little black guys looking at us.
Hey, we're cool.
I'm like, girl, come on.
Come on now.
You know.
They're so desperate to be hip and cool.
This is, this is nothing new.
We've been doing this for the last hundred years since jazz came on the scene.
Come on now, Louis Armstrong, they call that jungle music,
you
know, and he was, and they were like, and everybody wanted to imitate it.
Everybody wanted to dance.
And then they came up north.
You could play at the cotton club, but you had to come in the back door.
You couldn't come in the front door and have your friends come see you, only white only.
sitting at the chairs.
You know, it took, it took certain artists to say, like, um, like Lena Horne and, um, uh, Diana Ross and, and all, uh, uh, uh, Miss Baker, uh, uh, the French lady, you know, she went to Fred to go all the way to France to get acknowledged.
And then she came back to America and they were like, you can play in the Ziegfeld Follies, honey, but you can't come through the front door.
And she said, I bet I will.
Yes, because she's got she's got a dose of see the French like authentic people.
They like the artist They worship the art the purity of it and that's what we are.
We're pure
Yes,
and we constantly we just do what we do naturally and they try and imitate us And it's like if we wouldn't have American culture if it wasn't for black our culture
decide to play rap music.
But that's okay.
Let's just take it back.
I think we can take a week off from America black folks and just let them let them have no black music, no soul, no hips.
Yes.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
East Side Corey.
Oh my gosh.
You just said everything that resonated with not just me, but the entire culture.
First and foremost, the biggest supporters and the biggest people who purchased the music.
are white people.
Y'all remember that scene from All Eyes on Me when a pop went to Innscope Records and the A&R, the head A&R of Innscope Records daughter came and said, hey, let me roll white girl.
Tupac, can I get your autograph?
He said, yeah, you want my autograph?
What's your favorite song?
What'd she say?
Come on, I can't say it on air.
11-year-old white girl.
They always are the biggest supporters.
But it's only okay when it's beneficial.
We gotta go to break.
When we come back, we're gonna finish this conversation.
Shout out to Kawana.
She said, I know, and you are, you showed me, and we appreciate you, and we love you more.
I needed to escape today for sure.
Thank you so much for tapping in with us.
Make sure you double back.
Do not touch that dial.
It should grow.
Jazz Tyler.
One on one point seven the truth is your girl jazz Tyler We are live and direct if you are just not joining us.
We've been talking about the comments made About the garage and I also was speaking about the incident that happened with the black culture fest, right?
so There were comments not only are we dealing with black people Not only are we dealing with a ignorant owner staff?
whoever runs the operator or whoever idea was to put this list out.
We are also dealing with racist comments being made about the Black culture fest that the Milwaukee Brewers threw with, I believe, Reneal.
I'm not sure if he was a part of it, but I know that to some degree he was.
And again, these are the things that we consistently deal with.
These are the things that we have to face on a day-to-day basis and somehow we are just supposed to be okay with it.
Why can't black people have one event without somebody doing this?
I mean damn, Yardin took the country.
We don't got reparations.
Yardin took the culture.
Yardin redlined us from purchasing homes, right?
When we go to work, we have to face battles.
Not only with white people, but our people too.
Y'all take our babies from us.
Y'all have split our families up and dismantled the household with the two-parent household.
And you telling me that we can't even have something as simple as music?
Might I add, every genre of music that y'all ever created came from us.
The blues.
The country ain't nothing but blues.
Country music is nothing but blues.
Rock and roll.
Who started it?
The clothes y'all kids wear.
Y'all love our culture when it's beneficial.
But then when you get tired of it, you try to make it an issue.
You want to act like, oh yeah, we welcome everybody.
We want y'all to have a good time.
Now again.
I'm okay with people running their business how they want to.
But what I'm not okay with is a business owner.
Being unprofessional, discriminating publicly.
Then you have the Brewer's Black Cultural Fest.
And again, my question is why does a Black cultural celebration make some people so uncomfortable?
When you have German fast, you don't see black people comment under their talking crap We actually go when you got the Mexican fast the Greek fast the Irish fast all of that we support it We do because it's America.
That's what we do This is America that is what we do Why is black culture fast
uh treated differently why was it treated differently why does someone seeing the word black immediately feel like something is being taken away from them hip hop doesn't feel foreign it's everywhere black athletes are everywhere black fashion is everywhere black language is everywhere black music is everywhere
But then the moment you identify the culture as black, somebody suddenly says, why does it have to be about race?
That is so fascinating to me because if it wasn't a problem, it wasn't a problem when you were consuming it.
It became a problem when the source was named.
Does Milwaukee love black culture or does Milwaukee love what black culture provides?
Does Milwaukee love back black culture or does it love what we provide?
When you say remove hip-hop or Milwaukee rap music I want you to go and take a look at Steve the stoner video or big Frank when they are on college campuses up north and it ain't nothing but white kids there Okay
When you say remove Milwaukee rap music I want you to go back and look at the history of the song bow Or in my projects by cuckoo cow and what it has done for Milwaukee culture The very people who are making these comments, I'm sure their children love black culture I'm almost positive they do and It just eats them up inside The fact
I do want to say this, the comments that were made about the Black cultural fest for the Brewers is not a reflection of the Brewers Foundation.
How do we know this?
Because we sat down with the president, Katina Shaw.
I've personally been there and seen the work that her and the staff and the players have done when it comes to the community and Black people in general.
And it's not nothing that's being, it's politically correct or anything for cameras, no.
They are genuine when they do it.
They can't help that they have racist pricks commenting under their statuses.
But again, this is Wisconsin and what if Wisconsin don't do nothing, baby, it's going to remind you that your black gas is black.
Wisconsin will remind you that you are a Negro, a colored.
I promise you.
Every chance they get.
We can't have anything we can have anything And it is crazy to me It is crazy that we are living in these times and people make it their duty to go and comment on Somebody's personal page to make races remarks for what reasons we don't know we never will it makes absolutely no sense so I
Jazz Tyler ain't gonna speak for all my people when I say we's a tied.
We are tired, okay?
Let me tell you about black culture on a broader scale and what we're dealing with as black people.
Not only do we get this list put out about not playing Milwaukee rap music, but we got racist comments made on the Brewer's page about the Black culture fest.
We are currently 30 years later in the middle of one of the biggest murder trials in hip-hop culture.
Might I add the first rapper to ever be murdered?
That was a hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur.
We are dealing with the Nolan Wells case as well.
We are dealing with other cases that has happened with officers assassinating black men and women and now they're finally going to trial or being charged.
There are still unsolved cases of our babies as well throughout this entire country.
There are babies who are being hung on trees.
Then there's the Carmelo Anthony case that's happening also.