Issue #90 - Digital Cover

Published on July 12th, 2015 | by Jameelah "Just Jay" Wilkerson

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Comedian Buttahman “Embracing his truth”

By Jerry Doby

Buttahman is a walking icon of Urban Music, giving Hip-Hop an advocate within the MTV network. Buttahman’s hosted MTV Jams’ popular segment “Hood Fab” which was live game show. He later went on to become Music Director for the impactful BET property “106 & Park.” As the music business began to change, Buttahman, the consummate entertainer, began to emerge as a live host and standup comedian.

Buttahman was a longtime host of a monthly showcase at BET called “Music Matters.” Music Matters is a platform which showcases emerging artists and has played a huge role in the elevating the careers of the likes of K Michelle.

Recently, Buttah took his show on the road, creating a west coast hub for his comedy career, once again embarking on an adventure, sure to spark something greatly creative.

How did it all start for this amazing funny man? He started in radio became a Music Director and got recruited by MTV…then 7 years later, BET came calling to bring his expertise to the 106 & Park platform as what else…Music Director. Here’s how he tells it:

Yeah so basically my job at the radio station was to oversee the overall music flow of the station. To I identify our music that we wanted to play as well some sort of be the tastemaker for the station as far as making sure that we’re playing all the new artists. Making sure that we’re playing the established stars, making sure that if there’s anybody locally in that market who has any kind of buzz, that we’re supporting.

What happened with me was I was doing the music director stuff in radio for a minute, and then I got recruited by MTV to come to New York and work with them. Basically it was the same kind of a job really, but now you’re dealing with more of music videos. Instead of music, now you’re dealing with visuals and you’re kind of looking at the videos, the quality and trying to see if this is an artist that people will get behind and now you’re working in television and that’s kind of like where I got my experience.

After seven years of MTV, BET had a position over here and they were looking for someone to work primarily with 106 and Park and so that’s when I interviewed and they were like, “Yeah, you should come over here and work with us.” I’ve been working at 106 for the last four years, basically deciding what music videos, we’re got a new joint, what music videos we are going to try to world premier and basically working with the labels to try and get their product on the show.

There was a time when in transition from MTV to BET, that a nasty truth met Buttahman squarely at his front door…entertainment is a fickle business:

Let me just say in the entertainment business you have to be very thick-skinned and you have to really want it because at the end of the day, let’s keep it funky, it’s a very superficial business. It’s a very glamorous business. It’s a very rewarding business if you work in it very hard and hustle and this is what your passion and your dream is about. It’s very rewarding but it does come with a dark side.

It comes with dealing with folks who, again, are only interested in you when you can do something for them and that’s the reality of this business. Like I said in the interview, if I was nurse or a teacher and I lost my job, other nurses and teachers would talk to me, there would be resources for me as a nurse or as a teacher to find another job. In the entertainment business it doesn’t work like that.

The minute you’re not in that position to do something for someone, then it’s like you don’t exist. It’s nothing personal, it’s just the way the business is and so if you’re not the kind of person that’s already thick-skinned and expecting it, then when it happens it can really mess you up. There’s a lot of people in this business who are bitter because when they were at such and such position with such and such a job, they had all these friends and they were invited to all the parties, they were doing all this stuff and then when that stuff stops, all the invitations stopped, then the phone calls stopped and you couldn’t get into this club and all of a sudden what you were doing stopped.

If you’re not the type of person who is already kind of grounded and have your friends and your people who you know are going to support you no matter what, then that’s going to be a problem for you and that’s something that I tell younger people all the time when they get into this business. You’ve got to understand something; you’re working your way through this business and navigating your way through this business, what you don’t want to lose yourself. You really have to stay grounded, you have to stay humble.

You have to understand that if this goes away tomorrow, people are going to remember the good that you did, you hope, and you hope that you’ll make some real genuine relationships because those are things that are going to carry you through.

How did this effect his daily outlook on life?

For me, I learned that all the people who went away once I didn’t have my job anymore …All I really needed was like the four or five real friends in my life who I happened to meet through the industry and there are good people in the industry too. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made some good friends, some life-long friends in this game, but you have to understand that those are the people that at the end of the day you’re going to count on, and you may not need everybody else.

They may need you but you don’t need them, so for me it was very much a learning experience. It wasn’t anything that I wasn’t expecting because at that point I had a very lengthy career. I hadn’t lost my job until 2008, but I had started interning at radio in 1994 and I had kept working. I was very young when I started and so I was prepared mentally for that to happen. It’s always like, when you’re in the moment you’re like, “Wow, these people aren’t really returning my phone calls.” “Snap, I can’t get invited to this joint, but wait, I used to be on the list for all of this stuff. I used to get free music in the mail. Now all of a sudden all that stopped.”

Ultimately understand that’s what it is, but I accept it as part of the game and I think once you embrace change and you don’t become bitter and you have a positive attitude, eventually you will get another job. The funny thing about it is when you land the other job, the same people who were ignoring you will come right back and be like, “Hey, what’s going …” and that’s why it’s a funny thing. That’s why I love Drake, because he made that song; worst behavior because it’s like, “Motherfuckers never loved us! Remember? Motherfucker? Remember?” Because you’re literally like, “you don’t remember?’ It’s fun, it’s cute. It’s the game; it’s all part of the game.

Speaking of truth, there came a time in his life when Buttahman broke out of the yoke of denying his own truth and announced that he is gay. A huge voice and name in the culture of Hip-Hop which is inarguably the most homophobic segment of the world. Concerned about being ostracized by the community and culture that he loves so dearly, Hip-Hop, Buttah hid his personal life from his super tough acting contemporaries and went through the motions.

In 2014, Buttah took that deep breath and buckled up for whatever might come and bravely made the public announcement that he’s gay. Did it change his life within the industry?

Well I mean here’s the situation; I wouldn’t say my life has changed. I would definitely say relationships have changed, the dynamic has changed because one of the things was, when I was in my denial phase or when I wasn’t really accepting of myself, I did enjoy being an industry dude and being one of the guys and going to the strip clubs with the dudes and talking about girls and all that kind of stuff … There was that acceptance because it’s a boy’s club at the end of the day.

As far as the industry and men and women complaining about it being very sexist and misogynistic or whatever. It’s like that. Once you’re one of the boys and you’ve been accepted, you don’t have any problems because all your homies are like, “Hey, what’s going on? You want to come over here with this? I have some girls at the crib; we’re having a barbecue …”

I knew that once I came out with that, I wasn’t going to be one of the boys anymore but it’s one of those situations where I was willing to accept that because I saw at that point, I had just got so tired of pretending. I just got so tired of being like, “Okay, I’m really going out with Bob but I’m calling her Barbara or something like that. The pretense. Hold on a second. Hallo, well everybody wants to walk into the office today.

Yeah, so ultimately that was it. I knew my life was going to change in that way, but as far as … The benefits outweigh anything that I may have lost because I get to be myself and I don’t have to lie about my life anymore and I think once you get to that point where you can be open and honest about yourself, your quality of life, your integrity, it just changes because you just feel like that weight is lifted off of you. I don’t live in fear.

Fear doesn’t rule my life anymore because my biggest fear was people finding out I was gay and I faced it and I’ve conquered it and I’m moving forward and as I start to share my story with people more, I’m finding out that people are actually kind of like, “Wow. You’re in a position to really help other people to not have to go through the same thing because of what I’ve been through. For me it was very much like, it takes the energy that you have to put into faking it, is like to be used in so many other positive ways. I didn’t want to be the guy who married the girl and had a dude on the side.

It’s just … There’s a level of integrity … There’s a level of deception and energy that it takes to do that and the people who do that … It’s like you can’t live yourself at the end of the day because your spirit is just with the weight of the pretending and the weight of the … Okay, the fact that you’re using this person because you’re not really into them and you’re feeling some way about this person over here, it’s just a lot of energy that it takes to live in that deception, that weighs on your spirit and I don’t think you can ever become anything, who you want to be in life, if you’re not 100% honest about who you are.

For me, and I never wanted to be in a position where people kind of knew but then they’d talk about it behind your back, but then they smile in your face. You know that kind of thing? I was more like, I would much rather take control of it and own it and be like, “Whatever. It is what it is.” Then I can go about the business of living my life and if I wanted to have a family or get married or do whatever, it’s ultimately about having a life of integrity.

I can’t possibly imagine the inner turmoil and the pain over the years once actual self-realization and acceptance set in but the thought is, “But I can’t let this out.” I think that’s totally unfair, but who am I? I’m just a human being who loves human beings, so … In the larger scope of things, it’s not going to make Jesus come tomorrow whether you’re gay or straight, it’s just going to be what it is …

Well the thing is there’s no book; there’s no manual for this. Ultimately, at the end of the day, everybody in this life has their journey and I have to respect everybody’s journey. There might be somebody reading this who is not ready to be out or who is not ready because they don’t feel the time is right. I respect that. I respect people’s rights to say, “Okay, this is when you feel comfortable, this is when you figure out how to live your truth.

I went through a period where I was… I mean even though I was attracted to men, I was more like, “I don’t think I’m going to marry a man, I don’t think I’m going to have a family with a man. I just think I’m going to … Maybe this is a phase.” You go through all those things, and so to me, I respect people’s journeys. It’s more like, “Okay, if you’re at this level where you’re not comfortable with yourself, I respect that but I’m not going to try and get into a relationship with you if you’re not comfortable with who you are.” At least if you’re honest on that level then you can have those conversations as far as what it is you want to do because not everybody is ready.

I think kids today have it a lot easier because, it’s a lot more accepted so you see these kids at 14, 15 doing things that I would have never dreamed of at their age. I’m like, “What? Really?” but times have changed. It’s more accepting. I think I definitely feel like it’s about the life you live and having the integrity to be able to live a truthful life. I think in life we have enough things on our plate. As much trauma as you can get out of your plate to make room for real life stuff, the better. I don’t have the drama anymore of worrying about people finding out, does this person know? If I meet a gay person I can’t look them in the eye because maybe they can tell; just crazy inner stuff that you do to yourself. It’s all internal BS but at the end of the day …

How did you feel inside once you made the announcement?

I just felt like “I have been delivered.” that’s the prime example of the hypocrisy that exists in the gay community as far as the church and thinking that you can pray it away and that if you pray hard enough it will go away and it’s so crazy to me because I’m looking at this guy like, “Nope. I don’t believe you. I know because I walked that walk.” I’m saying I did that because I grew up in the Catholic church and my mother my mother took me to church every Sunday and one of my biggest resistance of accepting who I was is I just did not want to disappoint my mom, I didn’t want to disappoint my family and then you realize, okay wait a minute, who am I living for right now?

The whole ‘I have been delivered’ thing I think it’s just like, “He’s saying this stuff and he’s out there making a spectacle of himself and I’m like, “No one believes you.” I don’t believe him. I don’t believe for one minute that he’s going to be … Now because he prayed on it, he’s not going to, for the rest of his life, look at an attractive man and say wow or if a temptation presents itself, that he will be able to go for the rest of his life … Again, this is who you are. This isn’t like being addicted to cigarettes. It doesn’t work like that. This is who you are. This is how you’re going to be for the rest of your life.

This is how you were born. If you weren’t, but for your circumstances, you would be able to accept who you are, you know what I mean? Everybody’s circumstances are different. I grew up in West Indies where people are very homophobic and it’s very culturally, the things that are unacceptable there. Even when I go home, I don’t have any problems, people know I’m out, but at the same time it’s still very much like that atmosphere of homophobia is there because that’s culturally how it is.

They’re still very articulated in their belief system about the morality and all of this stuff and to me, it’s funny because I’ll get into an argument with somebody who says, “Well, being a homo is an abomination and this and that.” And they start throwing all this stuff at you and I’m like, “Okay, but you were eating ham yesterday and according to the Bible that is an offense or the shellfish that you eat, so if I’m a fornicator, I’m a fornicator. Whether you are heterosexual or homosexual or whatever.

Why is there a special place in hell reserved for that type of fornication? It’s very much like, pray for everybody, pray for all the sinners. Don’t just single out one particular group and say they’re the worst, because that to me is very un-Christian-like.

Do you have another iteration of your life and that is as a funny man and your stand-up comedian. Comedy is your first love?

Comedy is my passion man. It’s definitely something I’ve been doing for a minute. I started actually when I was in radio. People always told me I was funny and so I did a couple of open MCs when I was back living in Baltimore and I did it a lot. I pursued it and up until when I moved to New York my goal when I moved to New York was like, yeah I’m going to be in New York, I’m going to start doing comedy and this and that and eventually I kind of got side tracked and I got into television and then I got the TV show Hood Fab and I was kind of doing my thing, but I always missed the performance aspect of comedy.

There’s nothing like being in front of a stage, performing in front of a crowd and making them laugh. I love doing that and so I decided like two and a half, three years ago to get back into it. It just so happened at that time I had went through my whole acceptance thing about my sexuality and I realized that as uncomfortable as it may be for me, I’m still getting used to it but as a comedian I have to be able to tell my truth and so that’s when I kind of like started shaping my routine around the things that I had been through as far as being in the closet and coming out and not being a stereotypical gay dude and everything else. I just found that people responded to that.

People respond to when you’re being honest and so now I have an act. I have been performing pretty regularly around New York City, LA, other areas. I really enjoy doing it and I think that I’m able to take a lot of the pain that I experienced and make people laugh. I that’s always an amazing thing to do when you can take something that was otherwise hurtful and painful and flip it and make people laugh and have a career. I think that’s to me … I think a lot of people have a lot of issues and hurt and to understand that sometimes those bad things happen to you for a reason, and those are learning experiences that you can share with other people in another way. You can touch them; you know what I’m saying?

That is sort of where it’s no even more about comedy for me, it’s more about sharing my truth with people and making people laugh. I think I encourage people to be tolerant by making them laugh. I perform this material in front straight crowds. I don’t just gay shows. I’ve probably just done one gay show since I’ve been doing comedy so it’s always interesting to me when I get in front of a crowd of straight people and I start telling these jokes.

At first they’re like, “What? Would he just say that?” and once I break through and start making them laugh, then it’s kind of like you win them over and so I think I’m helping to change people’s perception of what gay is and the same time pointing out just a lot of the funny, hysterical stuff that we think about homophobia and all that kind of stuff. Some of this shit is just hysterical to me and it’s funny to other people too. I think I’m a good vehicle as far as making them feel comfortable about it.

I would love to be a speck on the wall to watch the crowd, because once they get over their … They’ve already got this pre-conceived notion that they don’t know your history. You walk out, you’ve got a beard, you’ve got locks, you’re a big guy, a striking guy and you break out with your routine, and I can just imagine jaws drop and people not knowing whether to clap or …

Yeah, no I’ll tell you because it’s funny. It’s two responses. It’s either silent or applause. People either applaud or it’s like dead silence because, “Okay, I get it. I understand it’s a little bit of a shock.” It’s very funny to me again, because people have this … Because of reality TV and Real Housewives, they have all this idea of what a gay person is supposed to be because there is a stereotype, you know? Of course the guy who is the person who tells you what to wear and “Hey girl, hey honey” but no, there’s a whole population of brothers who are gay who are regular dudes.

They just live their lives, they go to work, they do their thing, they wear Air Force Ones. It’s funny because I did a comedy show in LA and afterwards one of the comedians came up to me and said, “You know what? Your comedy is interesting because you’re a straight –acting gay dude.” I’m like, “Straight-acting? This is an act? This takes work? I have to go home and rehearse this? What do you mean by straight –acting?” It’s interesting man. You’ve definitely have to come and see the show.

Buttah addresses a stereotype that gay men are lesser men…yeah that BS!

This is one of the things that I kind of talk to especially like other gay men is that there is this misconception that when you’re gay that makes less than a man. That makes you soft and all that other stuff and I’m like … The people who think that only knew actually is the opposite, it’s more difficult, it’s harder to be gay, to live in your truth because of all the BS that’s going to get thrown at you constantly and you have to deal with people picking on your and name calling and all this stuff and you’re not accepted and the stuff you have deal with.

If you have family members that don’t accept you, if you have friends with all this difficulty and that’s when it’s so funny to me when I say … When people say being gay is a choice. I’m like no, what do you mean it’s a choice. You think I would choose this. You think to go through all of this if this wasn’t something that was place inside of me from the moment that I came out of the womb. You think I would choose if I had a choice to be like, okay, I can just have a regular life and get married and have kids and do whatever and leave all this alone. All the craziness that comes with it.

That’s a choice, you know what I mean? I just think that for me it’s more like, I’ll take my experiences and share them with other people and make people understand if I can make somebody who is gay understand you know what, at the end of the day you can be who you are and understand that the people who love you are going to love you and there are people out there who will support you and the people who really love you in your life are going to want you to be happy. The people who want you to live up to their expectations are going to be disappointed but then again if they … They would be disappointed in you for being something else that you didn’t want you them … That they didn’t want didn’t want you to be.

They would have been like, oh, yeah, you’re not a doctor or you’re this or you’re fat. You’re not fit enough … Like those people are always never going to be satisfied because they always going to want … Because at the end of the day, people who do want other people to be happy are the people who are miserable themselves. I found myself, trying to please other people who weren’t happy with themselves and it is easier for somebody to say, you’re fucked up, you’re a fug, you’re gay, you’re this and that.

I’m like, okay you know what by the end of the day I’m happy, I’m living my life, I’m good. Like what’s up with your *ish. More like don’t worry about me I’m good.

The new iteration of 106 & Park will be in the internet space. I heard you explain that the digitization of the entertainment industry dictated that this would be a smart move. Can you just walk us through that real quick?

In the last ten years music on television has changed immensely. It was already kind of the situation when I got to MTV in 2003 and there was already the whole like … MTV doesn’t play music videos, they don’t play music videos anymore and that was because ten years ago television networks realized that you cannot bring in the kind of ratings and revenue just playing music videos that you could if had a show like the Real World or the Osborne’s or something else.

That stuff in terms the profitability of a network, from a business point of view videos as content was already kind of like on the way out. Then when the internet boom happened and they improved the ability to view and stream videos on computers, that was the other kind of like … That’s when kind of like what happened to the music business, like radio and records like five or six years ago happened to music video, television business because now people can premier videos online and you can stream it and you don’t have to run home to watch a music show and just see a top ten countdown.

At the end of the day, in this business, the entertainment business you have to evolve with the time. If you stay in one place that you don’t kind of stay in an island and don’t evolve your format or your show, eventually you’re the kids are not … They’re going to check out. A decision was made to move the show to where the kids are living which is online. Ultimately they’re being an online edition of 106&Park. There still be some special here and there like around the BET experience and around major events and award shows, However as far as a daily show on TV, it’s kind of like where most of the entertainment stuff live anyway. On the blogs, online, like this is a culture shift. You know what I mean so you either going to accept or you’re going to stay in your cave with the rest of the cavemen.

You have to evolve in this business.

What about the new role of media and where it’s going to go?

We’re now in a world where you can carry that Chrome device around and plug it into your laptop and watch television. We’re in a world where there is a whole generation of like 20 something, who don’t have cable. They just watch movies online and they don’t … Cable is something that you have at home. Cable is something when you know you’re 30 plus but a lot of people don’t have cable. For me if it wasn’t for HBO, I might not have cable. Now that HBO is about to be all [inaudible 00:41:33], that’s going to be a problem.

I mean like a lot of people are going to be like, because cable is your most expensive bill, so for me as an executive working cable television, to me it’s more about creating content. It’s always about creating content. To me it’s like, okay, regardless whatever network you work for, whatever you’re affiliated, if you’re somebody who can create the next Orange is the New Black or the next Empire or whatever. If you’re somebody who is going to write, who will come with great ideas, I think you always have a job in a business.

Because a lot of times your idea are your assets. Your ideas are why you get hired. The way you think. People hire for, I mean yeah, who you know and all the other stuff is great but at the end of the day, once you get into a company, if you’re not coming up with really killer ideas to get stuff popping then you’re going to get run over. I know for me, I have a great lengthy career. I work for some amazing companies because I can say at the end of the day, I’m very proud with the fact that I can say I worked on 106&Park and I worked on TRL.

I came from radio in Baltimore. Before Baltimore, the Virgin Islands. To work and to push myself to get to this level of the game, it has to be because I’m a creative individual and I think of creativity whether or not you have a job and you’re sitting behind a desk, I think whatever you do should be your art. Even if your job is do tax returns then your art is doing tax returns and doing it to the best of your ability. Everything you do isn’t just like … If you’re sitting behind a desk and just taking up space and turning oxygen into carbon dioxide then you’re not contributing anything. If you don’t look at what you do as art and appreciate the art of whatever it is.

To be a great teacher, there is an art, to being a great hairdresser … When you look at what you do as art then it becomes a whole other level of you being able to perform and really take it to the next level.

You have been interviewed by everything by everybody their cat uncle and dog … is there a question that a journalist has not asked you that you wonder why they never?

I would say no. I mean I don’t think I want to be asked those questions. [laughs]

The content of my interview has changed over the years and now that I’m focused more on comedy and stuff like that so it will be interesting to see when people ask me my opinions on different events and stuff like that, things that are happening in the world. Already we test our religion a little bit but I think; I feel like that’s a process that evolves. I don’t really get bothered with that stuff. I’m more like … I’m just trying to make sure that … I’m conveying what it is that I need to convey at the said time, giving the journalist of the interview what they need to have a good piece and to have good content at the end of the day.

What can we do as media people to uphold rather traditional or journalistic integrity that seems to be so lacking?

We live in different times, if things have changed and at the end of the day I think that you have to decide what type of journalist, what type of blogger, what type of whatever you’re going to be and you have to kind of like stick to your guns as far as it is what you want to do. I think that we live in a society now where it’s even about what the content is, is more about, how can I get people to put likes on it, how can I get people to share this, how can I get this hits.

Once it became about that then … The journalist stuff of it goes out of the window because that’s boring. When you look at who is really successful at the game in terms of the blog and that kind of stuff and you think about the stories that people read and what people click on and all that kind of stuff. Is a lot of negativity. I think because is very weird, I think the internet is a great thing because of like Netflix and because of GPS and … You know like a lot of ways the internet has changed our lives in a lot of positive ways, but I think one of the negative things is that it gave a platform to people who otherwise opinions would be ignored.

To me it’s like, I always make jokes all the time because I think that as an artist, as an executive, I think that yes, social media is important but I also feel in my gut and my instincts as someone who has years of experience, it is also important and I’m not going to let that allow one thing to out weigh the other because at the end of the day, everybody who has access to the internet can put their opinions out but what qualifies you to have that opinion.

Have you gone to school, have you worked at any of these entities or do you just decided today I’m a celebrity blogger? That’s my new favorite term. I’m a celebrity blogger. What do you mean you’re celebrity blogger? You mean you blog on celebrity or you’re a celebrity? Well guess what, when you have to tell someone you’re a celebrity, you’re not a celebrity. How about that? Hey, I am a celebrity blogger.

I’m like what? No, I don’t know who you are. You’re telling me you’re a celebrity, that’s like hastag that you’re not a celebrity because if you walk in a room and you say your name then I know who you are.

People use that like people use sugar free. People use low fat. I’m just like okay, all right, you are a celebrity blogger, I get it, I know, 300 hits a day wow, okay. This is the culture that we live in, these are the times that we’re in and you kind of like do your thing but I just feel every time I have had an artiste say, I can’t do this because they’re going to kill me on the blogs. I’m like, so what? Fuck a blog, like you’re an artiste, do your shit. Stop basing everything you do on whether …. Because at the end of the day to me I have learned already the internet is not the place you go to feel good about yourself.

If you’re one of those people who feel like the internet is the place to go to feel good about yourself, you’re going to be in some world of disappointment because you can’t base what you do on what other people think and I think what it is, is that we’ve, unfortunately created one big high school where everybody is worried about other people’s opinions and … Even like the story that I did with Sway as much as I appreciated the fact people have watched it, I haven’t read the comments. I haven’t actually looked down and read the comments because I know if I did, it would be some crazy *ish.

I tweet and do stuff and you know; people are going to hate. Even if you do whatever, but I don’t live by that. I’m more like, regardless of whatever like … I’m out here not hiding my opinion. If I have an opinion on something, I’m putting out there. My name is behind it. I think a lot of times what the internet allows is for a lot of people kind of like hide and say whatever the hell the negative stuff they want to say but you don’t have to stand behind because you’re not using your real name, you don’t know who you are. It’s like; it creates this opinion where people always have this crazy stuff to say.

I’m already 17 years in this game so I have developed very thick skin and it doesn’t matter to me what people say about me. Because I’ve got family, I got friends, its whatever. Like I know my cycle, I know people who keep me grounded and that’s what it is. I think unfortunately to go back to your original question, you just kind of decide what kind of journalist, what kind of publication, what kind of stuff you’re going to do and just do it because I feel like … Because people may want to read so and so for the negative, there is also a culture of people out there who are just tired of it.

It is exhausting. Like I don’t care what the real house wives are doing today, I don’t want to know who got fake breast. I just don’t care.

As a business person outside of the entertainment industry do you have any aspirations?

Well for me comedy is like my business and my business is marketing myself as a comedian and booking shows and working and getting to the point where eventually I can transition into doing this as a career. I mean I’m working as a comic but I’m still in that phase where people are kind of getting to know me, learn about who I am and everything else. My ultimate goal is to work on … IS to get more into writing, writing for shows, doing more comedy. Over time I’m looking into expand my act and just to continue to work at my craft and have faith as long as you’re pushing forward and doing the work and putting in the hours.

The opportunities are going to present themselves when you feel like you’re doing something that you’re put on this earth to do then you need to stop and figure it out and stop wasting your time. Because you’re never going to be successful unless you’re doing something you leave that like God put you on this earth to do.

There aren’t do overs in this life. You only get one shot.

That’s real.

Keep up with “All Things Buttah” on his social media outlets @allthingsbuttah on Twitter and Instagram and stay tuned because during our conversation I think I tempted him to create a comedy album!!!


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About the Author

Publisher and CEO of The Hype Magazine. Follow me on Twitter @HypeJustJay


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