Episode 02: Ambush
Ambush(Kayode E. Balogun): Executive Director & Music Curator at The Numberz FM| Interviewed by Rashad Floyd
Black music for our culture is representation. Especially after decades of it being co-opted and stolen from us. For us to have control over our music, is the pinnacle of representation. For me, my love for music and hip hop culture specifically, it didn't open doors for me. Where I came from, you had to open the doors yourself. Coming up as a DJ in Philadelphia, it was to get busy. It was to get to work. It was to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to make sure the crowd has a good time. My role's changed a lot now. I'm actively playing a part in elevating other creators and making sure they sound as good as they possibly can. So sky's the limit. I'm getting out there and branching out, and just tryin' to share my love for music with other people.
When I first came out to Portland, if you were to ask me if I was going to be involved in radio, I would say “absolutely not.” Nah! Radio was always like the dead end for DJs. You end up at a radio station, you don't really get to do what you want. At the time I was relying primarily on chasing down club gigs, chasing down lounge gigs, and it was working great. But I ended up running into a brick wall. I had a health issue. Undiagnosed congestive heart failure. So everything that I thought was important, stopped. And then this opportunity with The Numberz popped up. It made me slow all the way down and look at things from a different perspective.
The station was started by Jefferson Smith and Anthony Deloney. And the idea was, you know, to create a platform for Black businesses. I started seeing the value of that station. You're talking about Black music curated by Black Portland. That's unheard of. This is definitely where The Numberz started. XRAY FM at the time was our sister station, our parent station, that really helped us with the back end, and helped us understand how to get on the air. So XRAY will always have a very special place in our heart.
Currently we are operating out of the Portland Art Museum, through a series of fortunate events. They were like, we don't have any events going on right now and the museum is pretty much shut down. They said if we wanted to come through and work out of there, they would give us a residency. So we gave it a try. The ability to be surrounded by all this art and open space is just really, really inspiring. The Numberz started out as a radio station. The idea, for me right now, is for it to be a complete media entity. We have a couple of shows that go live broadcast to Twitch, and on the air simultaneously. The technology exists. There's no reason why we should be limiting ourselves to just what's on the FM dial.
My daughters and two youngest kids go by the name DJ Major and DJ Tempo. Having kids that are interested in the industry, is special. I never initially was like, you guys are going to be DJs. But they've been backstage. They've been at the rehearsals. They've been at all the things that I've been involved in. If you don't create a place for younger artists to thrive, then the culture overall is going to suffer.
The mission for me is to unite all the different people here in Portland that want to make their community better and stronger. And The Numberz is the best way for me to do that. Our people have always been capable. So whatever we can do to uplift voices of color, let's just get it done.
