The Flava Lab

I have been a college dj for 15 plus years now and a fan of music my whole life. Music has really grown over the years, some for the better and worse. A buddy of mine Rookie Thompson suggested near the end of 1st semester our freshman year at Guilford that I should try out to be a dj at the radio station next semester cause he was a dj for first semester. People had told me over the years that I had a radio voice so I figured, heck, why not. Spring semester 1993 rolls around and my buddy Rookie didn't even come back to school. I trained, I tested, and received my first show; it is on Tuesdays from 12pm-1pm. The rap section at the station was quite small in the vinyl as well as the cds. Your typical known rap artists were there and some unknowns that probably shouldn't have been there. At this point in my life, I didn't own a single cd to my name. I had a few records back home but I had cassette tapes for days and days and days. I would pre-cue songs on my cassette tapes and play those tracks on the show and some of the random unknown artist that would arrive in the mail to the station. Those were the days. This love of radio made me decide that being a travelling benchwarmer on the Men's basketball team wasn't as important as my new found hobby and love. Since there really wasn't a strong rap presence/direction at the station, I basically self appointed myself the Urban Music/Program Director in the fall of 1993. I have made label contacts, trade magazine contacts, and artist contacts over the many years. I came up with the name of the show from a random encounter with my man Cliff in the cafe asking me if one of his boys that also had a radio show was up in the lab...I had to process what he was talking about and when it did, I knew then that was going to be the name of the show. Since I wanted to play tracks with musical flavor, I slanged the word and The Flava Lab was born. Interned at Power 97 WQMG from 1994-1995, running the board and other random tasks as needed while still doing my show at Guilford. Became a part-time dj at Power 97 in the Spring of 1996 coming on 2am-6am right after my fella Durham native DJ Polo on the weekend mix shows. I was suspended a time or two because I didn't want to stick to the commercial radio play list, I was hearing some really good artists through the college station and was playing tracks on my show without permission. I don't feel bad for that, I would do it again. That stint ended with Entercom, which owned WJHM, bought the two WQMG stations; rap music on commercial in Greensboro hasn't been the same since the fall of 1996. I've been grinding through the music ever since. Building the library of music at the station; building the reputation of the diverse rap music played at the college; building the number of shows on the air by recruiting other like minded rap music fans. It is 2007 and the Flava Lab is here to provide all that listen with good quality music; to let them know that there are still artists that create music that you can play around your parents, around your kids and not worry about what is said. Artists that create music for the love of music and not for the money. I am yet a vessel for the artists and their material that crosses my path. The Flava Lab is all about hitting you with a throwback track or the latest flava that you need to feed your soul; step into the Lab.