questions

Tell us about teaching; what are you teaching various folks around town?

lol…Well I’ve been a teacher since 2015 and have had the amazing pleasure of teaching multiple generations. When I graduated from the Ohio Center for Broadcasting in 2014, I had a difficult time deciding where I’d fit into media (excluding music). I worked at Ohio State cleaning classrooms 3rd shift and on my 26th birthday, I got a call from my friend Nardos Endale (formerly known as Diggy Dulche) asking, “...didn’t you learn cameras and shit at the broadcast school? Do you think you could teach that to high school kids?” I accepted because I was displaced physically (I don’t like to use the word homeless) and really needed a break. I think that was the beginning of incorporating media into learning… like teaching students how to make videos or write scripts, with the exception of Career Center. I had no blueprint to model and I had to trust myself to teach lol. I took a year off of teaching once I started working at the radio in 2016 but returned to teach Computer Technology, k-8, at Imagine Great Western Academy. I taught there for 5 years and now I’m an adjunct professor at the Ohio Media School teaching Digital Media Production. In this iteration of my teaching, I teach full on broadcast/marketing. I run my class like the actual industry…all my students have a brand that they’re building and they….build it! They create digital campaigns, websites, any thing you’d need to run a small business or brand and the information is applicable to multiple areas. My favorite part about teaching at Ohio Media is that I’m watching adults reach goals and grow confidence daily….its sooo rewarding. 

Tells us about this line "Misrepresentation of a generation"...what are you speaking about, and to who?

Specifically in context, at the time, Millennials were the youngest generation and I felt like people older had this idea of millennials. “They’re entitled and don’t know shit”... This line comes from a song that I wrote probably in 2014 and didn’t record until after 2018 called, Your Relief. This song talks about how I’m the savior of hip hop and how I’m going to revive it…but more so, me and the generation with/behind me are the ‘misrepresented’ because we’re the last generations to play outside….literally. I think we get looked over and labeled negative things when in reality, we’re not that bad. Shoutout to Gen Z though… I have mad respect for them as a whole. They are unapologetically themselves and aren’t afraid to say how they feel. They’re really free and I’m inspired by that. I’m ready to be an old person while I watch them run the world and make it a better place with the help of the generations kicking in doors before them (Millennials and Gen-X).

Give us some of your insights into the Hip Hop scene in Columbus. What's it look like these days, who are the folks you are excited about?

I think the hip hop scene in Columbus is thriving in a way that it hasn’t before. There’s more artists on the brink of national attention than ever before but I think that our city is bubbling and all it’ll take is one artist to pop and the flood gate is going to open. There’s an artist really making strides for us, he’s not a hip hop artist…Lekan. He just came off an international tour with Tems and is buzzing all around the country. DJ Hylyte just came off the road with Jelly Roll hosting the tour and countless other people on the national level that often reach back. I’m proud to be a product of the Columbus music scene as well as being a staple in the city’s hip hop. Most of the people who know me these days only know me for the radio and djing lol….they have no clue I have music out. I’m excited about what this new era of “Jae Esquire” is going to look like….most people haven’t seen her so she’s my most anticipated artist of the year.