Let’s focus on 80’s ROCK RADIO. The 1980’s were owned by Rock Radio & music videos, and MTV was an incredible boarding house. MTV cut its teeth on ROCK N ROLL and adopted a baby named HIP HOP whose growth has yet to stop.

The Black community migrated to MTV long before the baby-of-the-family, Hip Hop was broadcasted and invoked messaging music evolution. 

Remember Casey Kasem? Not quite a Black man (Lebanese-American and Arab-American), but definitely my Uncle. He was the host that I looked to broadcast the latest pop song and (the occasional) hot Hip Hop song on the weekend and certainly within his end-of-the-year music reviews.

Rock n’ Roll raised me, kinfolk. It’s true and yes, I know I’m a little quirky, (a family told me). Also,  GUNS N ROSES delivered me to to… idk, my coming of age?  My best girlfriend and I had a crush on Axle Rose. The mane was our thang’ yesterday, today I prefer a more tapered mane for my man. As-Griot-as-my-soul is I am still a hard Rock n’ Roll Ms. 

Change for what? 

Yeah, WhiteSnake provided me inspiration at the many times when I felt betrayed by friends, boyfriends, siblings, and whomever/whatever else plagues a teen-creative. Courtney Love taught me the importance of volume pitching & ditching my formal etiquette training while creative reigning.  Tracy Bonham befriended me when Mom and I weren’t seeing eye-to-eye:

So much for “Mother-Daughter-discord” being a unique thing in any family. It’s not. Tracy reminded me of that. I didn’t have time to take to the streets and participate in mayhem, I was too busy watching Rock music videos, listening to the radio and cleaning the house; it was therapeutic. On top of that, I learned the importance of communication and how to arrange my words to embolden points without offense and in fact, strike a chord of general relativity.

Good Black History 411, born right here in the good ol’ US of A. 

By the mid to late ’80’s Michael Jackson, Prince, and Rap music consumed the airwaves broadcast time of most stations that were ISO a ratings boost. I continued to listen, I became a battle rapper, inspired by SALT-N-PEPA, and I even had all-girl group. We battled rapped with the boys, because most female rappers wouldn’t touch their counterpart-chauvinist noise. I, “Dutchess Qui,” Vonda V and Royal C [my female DJ] killed them.

Inspired-and-on-fire, I composed crazy bars in my late teens and early 20’s thanks to Queen Latifah & Monie Love, MC LYTE, YoYo, Patra’s fearlessness, and the dimensions of Chyna Whyte: 

The last paragraph and video isn’t at all in the genre of Rock n’ Roll, still, please believe RnR delivered me to lyric comprehension and I do love a well crafted verse. Chyna Whyte messages well. Music messaging rocks so I roll with it.

I’m sure a great deal of raps have been inspired by a little bit of Rock n’ Roll; Run DMC showed you.  Inference via inspiration is real. Artists pull from inference much like your blood pulls minerals from the food you eat; automatically and very selectively.

Good Black History 411, born right here in the good ol’ US of A.

I am a Writer, I am Black, and I make published history everyday. I am a descendent of slaves who was raised on Raves; it’s an American pass-through phase.  Regardless of race, scores of nationalities crammed into a space to dance. Love so thick — that a virus stood not a chance. America’s youth ditched a prejudiced  reality to dance. 

And we did. The shame of hate and prejudices were not gone, just hid. That is how we have arrived here at this point, kid.

Though a new day is dawning; we are in a new bid. The music is rising and carried by the winds. Out of chaos, beauty is born; let us heal-up as new friends —

over music. Let music be a suture. Let’s use it.

What music genre are you into? I know that we are not all the same, 

I’m Qui

About AMERICAN BLACK HISTORY because it as KEY as my name. 

MUSIC is as American as apple pie, Chuck Taylors, afros, Sports, and denim.

I play my music loud, and still, I stand out from the crowd, like BLIND MELON and BLIND LEMON :