Interview with MTV
Host, Writer, Journalist and Reality Star
By Monica Davis and
Beatrice Davis
Touré is a correspondent for BET and the author of Soul
City, a novel. He’s also the author of the Portable Promised Land, a collection
of short stories, and Never Drank the Kool-Aid, a collection of his magazine
work. He’s been a Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone for over ten years and
was CNN’s first Pop Culture Correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N
Heard. He has appeared on many TV shows including the Today show, the O’Reilly
Factor, Paula Zahn Now, Anderson Cooper 360°, and Topic A with Tina Brown where
Brown called him, “a one-man media conglomerate.” His writing has appeared in
the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Best American Essays of 1999, the Best
American Sports writing of 2001, the Da Capo Best Music Writing of 2004, and
the Best American Erotica of 2004. He studied at
Q:
How did it feel to be rejected by a major publisher [The New Yorker] and how
did it affect your career and attitude towards journalism?
A: When that story was rejected it
inspired me to dig deeper into how to write because I didn't want to be
rejected like that ever again. It spurred me to apply to graduate
creative writing school and that taught me how to read better, how to write
fiction, and made me a more complete writer.
Q: What challenges did you encounter when you started out as a
writer, particularly as a black journalist and writer? How did you
overcome them?
A: Early on there was an assumption
from editors that I could write about hip-hop and black music but not about
white music. Once an editor suggested I'd be lost writing about Eric
Clapton, which is strange because he's steeped in black music. I just
kept fighting and I found white subjects who others didn't want to cover and
did them well. In time my editors realized I could write about anything.
Q: Do you regret dropping out of college?
A: Not at all. I didn't need any
more from them. I'm just lucky I've gone into fields where the degree
doesn't matter.
Q: How has marriage and fatherhood changed your life?
A: They've made me have to be more
serious, more conscientious about money and career, as well as more judicious
about my time. It's hard to write when my son's there because he's five
months old and needs attention every few seconds, which makes it hard to
concentrate. I'm still figuring out how to balance it all.
Q: At what point in your life did you become involved in hip-hop?
A: I was captivated by hip-hop from the
first time I heard it. I remember riding in the car with my mom and
sister when Rapper's Delight came on the radio and being blown away.
There'd been songs with little rhymes in them before but never an entirely
rhymed song. That blew me away. I began buying tapes, cassette
tapes of rap as often as I could. Most months in the early 80s I had
every rap tape they had in the store but back then the rap section was pretty
small, always smaller than even the dancehall station. (Back then we
hardly ever called it hip-hop, always rap.)
Q: What was it about hip-hop that captured your attention versus other
styles of music?
A: Hip-hop was bold, stylish, cool,
countercultural, and it was the essence of badass black maleness. And it
spoke of the street. And it spoke with such cool poise, such smooth flow
and flavor.
Q: You believed many writers were failing to understand the full
depth of the heroes of hip-hop so you decided to discuss it in-depth. Who
are some of your heroes of hip-hop and why?
A: My hip-hop heroes include Rakim,
Jay-Z, Nas, KRS, and a few others. I love their example of strong black
maleness and their linguistic virtuosity.
Q: You are working on your own reality show called “I’ll Try
Anything Once”. Did you develop and create the show or was it a joint
venture with ElectricSky Productions?
A: I didn't develop the show they came
to me with it. They asked me if wanted to do an intellectual version of
Jackass and because my wife was pregnant I said sure.
Q: Are the episode ideas your suggestions because you want to try
specific experiences or do you team with the production company on all show
ideas?
A: The challenges are their ideas. The
point is for me to be put out of my comfort zone and it's hard for someone to
suggest what's truly out of their comfort zone.
Q: You have put your life at risk in some episodes. Have you ever
regretted taping those shows?
A: Most of the shows are really
stressful for me for one reason or another and I'm dealing with lots of anxiety
as we go through it but afterwards I'm always glad I went through that
crucible.
Q: Do you believe that with the popularity of the internet MTV is
still a powerful tool for the music industry? What do you think MTV
has to change in order to maintain its viewers?
A: MTV is doing fine in terms of
viewers but that's because they've learned that videos aren't the path to
ratings. They show fewer videos now than ever and that works well for
them. Not so good for the music industry which needs videos. But
the future for music is the Internet-blogs, Myspace, iTunes, sites not yet created
will be the way to introduce and market music to people.
Q: In your opinion, what makes a person a good writer?
A: Curiosity, courage, drive, good
linguistic skills, and the ability to communicate, to understand how to put
words into people's minds in a way that they'll understand.
Q: What advice can you give other African-American writers who want
to pursue a writing career?
A: Read a ton, read everything, read
black and white writers, read novels and read books about writing, too.
Keeping a journal doesn't hurt either.
