It's Always Personal

Brooklyn emcee SKYZOO took his fandom for FX's drama series Snowfall to a whole new level. Sky teamed up with D.C. production duo The Other Guys - Mighty Joe and Isaiah - and crafted a 10-track album entitled The Mind Of A Saint where the veteran emcee portrays lead character Franklin Saint (Damson Idris). I did a reaction/review of TMOAS on my YouTube channel Pay Me No Mind, and it led to a chanc...

I finally got unified junior welterweight champion Kali "K.O." Reis cornered, almost literally, to be a guest on It's Always Personal. Reis, a former middleweight champion, became unified champion in 2021, but she's long been a champion of her Indigenous heritage - or the many troubling issues that the community faces. At the top of 2022, Reis made her acting debut in an award-winning drama called...

You may have heard a couple of things about the National Football League this week, right? The founder/creator of Strike 7 Sports, Derrick Branch, stopped through for this week's episode to discuss the season's highlights, the post-season and the fallout from former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. Flores has filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL and its hiring practices concerning m...

Chicago's Donnie Seals Sr., 69 years old, joins the show to talk about overcoming three open heart surgeries - he underwent starting from the mid 90s up to the final procedure in 2008 - to picking up cycling in 2015. Seals was taking 20 pills per day until he bought his Cannondale after an embarrassing visit to a tennis court where he struggled to return balls to his daughter. In September 2021 Se...

Had to drive home a couple of "Black Monday"-related talking points, and the harsh realities of ANY career in professional sports. While doing so, I just had to acknowledge the brothers doing the work and achieving the progress. IAP welcomes guest Phil Greene (at ~35:00), one third of a trio of Philadelphia entrepreneurs who recently launched Bikes By Design . IAP host Wood and Greene ( @phillscor...

"Race hustling" is a great small home business. People adamantly talking about major businesses they can't compete in, and have never been involved in, is an interesting way to spend one's precious time. Happy New Year! At a minimum, it’s 2022 now, any person out here pushing that pro athletes’ careers are analogous to slavery has to voice their criticism while presenting detailed solutions or alt...

I guess as a content creator I'm just supposed to ignore the constant attacks from most of the black men I interact with online. I didn't realize expressing an idea could routinely draw the ire of brothers so easily. So, we discuss this on the episode. However, let's talk about supporting one another - shout to Coach Prime (Deion Sanders) for doing unprecedented things at Jackson St. Univ. I also...

This episode is not about politics, but an observation of how dangerous they're becoming. This episode's been on the shelf for a few weeks while I mulled over a few things. The topics I felt comfortable leaving in include the verdicts of the Rittenhouse and Arbery cases, and then where I am with all of the entertainment I swamped with currently. I know diehard Insecure fans think the series is rea...

I've long been amazed at Snoop Dogg's staying power and reinvention game. Admittedly, the last Snoop joint that I spent a lot of time with was "Deep Cover" in 1992. He returned to the music game last week as a part of West Coast royalty super group Mount Westmore. I clicked on the video to support Ice Cube, but for four brothers at or above 50 years old, the lyrics to "Big Subwoofer" had me having...

Let's leave the headlines of the week alone for change... I got pretty excited with the announcement of a forthcoming collaboration album between Dufflebag Ransom, currently one of the game's illest album makers, and rising lyricist Rome Streetz a couple of months back. As the album's release date neared, Ransom started attaching AOTY - Album of the Year - to his IG posts promoting and mentioning...

Speaking on some biblical details in the previous episode, admittedly, was me getting out over my skis. Let me stick to entertainment references and analogies. There was a great scene in the film A Few Good Men we can learn from with respect to masculinity, misogyny and diversity/inclusion in the workplace. I’m not talking about Col. Jessup’s tale about conquering female superior officers! Or, I c...

I really, really hate to revisit a couple of topics so soon, but since I'm speaking on masculinity and Jason Whitlock's ongoing evangelical work (which resulted in Jalen Rose eagerly trying to answer his call) again, I also decided to do quite a bit of personal sharing this episode. Let's also tackle Lynae Vanee's "In The Comments" video with a trans woman guest, Hope, where they reacted to respon...

Had to give the IAP treatment to former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden's email problems, the LGBTQ community and others fallout after the release of Dave Chappelle's "final" Netflix special The Closer , and the inherent dangers of talking negatively about now twice beaten heavyweight Deontay Wilder following his third and final fight versus undefeated WBC champion Tyson Fury. Oh, in the intro,...

Big fight weekend in boxing!!! Admittedly, Bite Down Boxing is a little "on the ropes", for the time being, but after sharing a recent Fury-Wilder 3 panel (search Urban Sports Scene) with The Quarter-Lee Report's Armon Lee et al, it felt refreshing to work those "sweet science" muscles again. Lee, a fellow indie podcaster, has hosted over 200 episodes of his TQLR podcast, and after checking out so...

This is NOT a discussion about why anyone should or should not get vaccinated. I just couldn't help but weigh in on some of the hypocrisy that I've noticed about vaccination - more specifically on behalf of the anti-vax (or hesitant) side. For example, and this is perfect timing, but there appears to be a correlation between anti-vax folks and die hard fans of former heavyweight champion Deontay W...

I just don't know if men in any other ethnicity have to face the daily Upside Down-ness like a black man. A series of recent "headlines" in pop black culture, or Black Culture, just drove me into a state of paralysis - "This can't be life stuff." From Drink Champs beef, Verzuz conflict, 50 Cent's ever-growing content on STARZ Network, and the views expressed in new music like a record on Westside...

Stephen A. Smith's ESPN takeover is historic stuff. The recent First Take shake-up reassigned Max Kellerman to some new ventures, and it's simply amazing what Smith has been able to accomplish as the face of sports personalities. Speaking of brothers making history, let's take a look at how the forthcoming motion picture King Richard will solidify the father of Venus and Serena Williams as one thi...

I tried to give the horror genre a shot, and broke down to actually pay to see a slasher at the cinema. I’m just going to have to root for Jordan Peele from a distance.

Normally I would say, "Good grief!" But if one word summarized the topics of this week's episode it would be, "Wow!" IAP is late to the party on current phrases like "race hustler", "race baiter" or "race grifter" but after some wild commentary this week from Jemele Hill and, yes once again, Jason Whitlock there's just nowhere to run from what's truly afoot in this country. This episode IAP's Wood...

Album reviews on It's Always Personal... WHY??? There may not be anything more personal for me - outside of my marriage and small fam/friends circle - than my lifelong relationship with music. As a single parent child, a middle son, when my mom was working third shift throughout my teenage years, my ecosystem included three elements: myself, music and movies. Some music fans and artists are going...

What can I say, it's IAP again! Look, soc med COVID/coronavirus and vaccine talk is something to be avoided at all costs. IAP was supposed to eliminate Jason Whitlock mentions altogether, but COVID rocked the Fearless podcast this week. I'm not going with Malcolm's "chickens coming home to roost", but I do continue to ask why individuals keep running out here with strong stances on the coronavirus...

It's Always Personal rolls along with another week of great entertainment topics. What's more personal than what you include in your leisure time? The major headliner is the unexpected post-GRAMMY win return of Nas, who re-teamed with producer Hit-Boy to deliver a sequel to last year's King's Disease. We'll jump into a high-level review with a little commentary on where the QB legends is with his...

Team USA’s Simone Biles resumed competing at Tokyo 2020 Games, and won a bronze medal on the balance beam. I presume she’ll never receive the credit for her perseverance after her highly publicized withdrawals the first week of the Olympics. A pair of MLB players’ misfortune on the diamond permanently altered their careers, so the “twisties” are very plausible to me. After the fact… my Rick Ankiel...

It doesn't get anymore personal than what's become Simone Biles' Tokyo 2020 campaign. Of course we have Hater No. 1 Jason Whitlock "The Flag Bearing Christian", and then we have some interesting displays of sisterhood and/or solidarity by the NFL Network's, and current On Her Turf host, MJ Acosta-Ruiz and rising Instagram/creative Lynae Vanee. I know I'm a man and therefore can't speak on matters...

I mean the title says it all... Whether I look at Jay-Z and Dame Dash, NWA and Ice Cube, Nino and G Money, Avon and Stringer, KD and Russell Westbrook, Teddy P and Harold Melvin, or Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith when it comes to unity, I just can't call it. When it comes to unity, leadership and (business) relationships in the Black community I just don't see Black Matriarchy as the sole dividing...