The past several years have seen Hip Hop face its own homophobia in ways that could be described as equally bizarre, enlightening and everything else in between. Whether it be controversies involving Frank Ocean or Mister Cee, some could attribute those attitudes toward societal changes. Someone who managed to dodge the issue for the duration of his time as an executive at BET and MTV was Darren “Buttahman” Brin. Some may recognize the Virgin Island-native from MTV2 Jams gameshow Hood Fab. However, despite being a closeted homosexual, he managed to contribute to Hip Hop in groundbreaking ways. First was the creation one of Baltimore’s first radio shows solely dedicated to Hip Hop dubbed the Rap Attack hour.
Evolving past terrestrial radio to an television executive position, Buttahman spearheaded the launch of MTV Jams and Fight Klub for MTV2. To this day, MTV Jams is still one of the last major programs dedicated to music videos centered around Hip Hop. Though only lasting one season season, Fight Klub became mainstreams first real look into battle rap culture outside of Eminem vehicle 8 Mile. The biggest moment of his career would be running one of the last video countdown shows, 106 & Park, before airing its last episode late 2014. That year would also be the year Buttahman decided to come out as a gay man and find comfort in his new life as a comedian. Looking back on his career, his story is one of perseverance and overcoming his fear within a culture that can sometimes be exceedingly cruel to those who defy traditional notions.
Taking a time to speak with DX, Buttahman talks the significance of the Rap Attack, Fight Klub and homophobia within Hip Hop.
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Buttahman Explains Storied Career In Radio With The “Rap Attack”
DX: Your first big break came in the form of the Rap Attack during your time at WERQ in Baltimore. For something that’s been on going for ten years, did you ever think you’d make that much of an impact on the area’s Hip Hop scene?
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ButtahMan: Actually, when I got out of college my worse nightmare was that I wasn’t going to get a job in my major, so I interned. When interned at a radio station, that kind of changed my life because I was like, “Yo, I could go drive the van, give out bumper stickers, go to parties and make some money. I can do this.” So eventually, I got into doing on-air stuff. That’s where the name “ButtahMan” came from. That was my on-air name. My sexy on-air name. I actually got to host a Hip Hop show called Rap Attack. That was basically an all Hip Hop show. We go to do whatever we wanted to do. It came on at 8 o’clock in the morning so nobody really cared. But that was the opportunity to take a time slot that otherwise had nothing there and just do whatever we wanted to do. We got the opportunity where we found that there was an audience in Baltimore that was totally underserved with Hip Hop and we were able to do a lot of stuff and help break a lot of acts. This was like in ‘96 and I was on that show until about 2001 before I moved to New York. The show is still on, there’s still Rap Attack on WERQ in Baltimore which is kind of crazy. They’ve gone through three generations of hosts and it still exists today. It’s funny because also, that was the genesis of the Hood Fab Show because I used to do trivia on that show and later on when I got to MTV, we just kind of turned it into a television property. But all of my roots in Hip Hop goes back to Baltimore and working for that Hip Hop show, Rap Attack.
DX: Anyone notable that you discovered or premiered? What was the most exciting part about “Rap Attack”?
ButtahMan: The most exciting thing was that we got Jay Z, Damon Dash and Organized Konfusion to come on our show one morning at the same time. This was like oh shit, Jay and Dame. I got photos on my throwbacks, this has really happened. We had Foxy Brown. 50 Cent when he was wearing the actual quarters…that 50 Cent. Russell, I interviewed him. I had some really memorable moments with Junior Mafia. I remember asking Lil Kim if she was responsible for breaking up Biggies marriage and she cut me off before I could finish the question. Lots of stuff, like when Foxy Brown one time got pissed at me. You just don’t care. You hit that phase in your life when you’re just into the music and you’re such a head that it was always a good experience. I also got my first taste of meeting an artist you respect and you’re like, “Mmm, not so much.” The pinnacle for me was when I interviewed A Tribe Called Quest. I am such a big, huge, super-groupie fan of Tribe so the fact that I got to do all that was just great on this show, in Baltimore.
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DX: From your perspective, what was the greatest thing about being on radio in the 90s and when did things start to change?
ButtahMan: The thing about radio is that I feel like it will always serve a purpose. If you have community of people that wants to know what’s going on. There’s still that locality of it. It’s important. The audience has definitely dwindled because of all the other mediums out there now. I just think that it’ll be interesting to see where it is five, ten years from now. You got XM, iHeartRadio…it still lives but it lives in other forms. But obviously, it’s the same way how technology changes, things change. If you want to have a long career in this business you have to accept change when it happens and you can’t say, “Oh, I’m going to hang on to radio and the way it was.” It will never be. The industry will never be the way it was. There’s still money to be made, there’s still careers to be had but, the traditional ways of doing things have changed. You have to accept that, reinvent and move forward.
Buttah Man Talks Launching “MTV Jams” & “Fight Klub”
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DX: You moved to MTV and played a major role in launching MTV Jams. What was MTV’s goal with creating the program and how exactly did you fit in?
ButtahMan: Jams is interesting because I feel like that was what the MTV network basically understanding that, “Yo, we have an audience that loves urban, Hip Hop music and they are underserved right now.” MTV Jams was originally MTV X, which was an all hard rock, metal station that they just had among their digital offerings. They were like, “We are launching these digital channels, we’re doing MTV Hits, MTV U.” It was all supposed be the fact that MTV had already gone into the reality and the long form programing. They weren’t playing that much music outside of TRL[Total Request Live]. They were just like, “We can still be in the music business and play music videos if we launch these digital channels.” I was placed in charge of launching it from day one. What went into it was really launching a network. It was going to be all music videos so it was acquiring a library. We didn’t have anything but music videos. We were like, “We’re going to play these new videos but we can go into MTV’s library which goes back to ‘84.” We were able to pull out videos like Grandmaster Flash and Big Daddy Kane and it was just so much classic stuff that had just been sitting there and we noticed that every time we did it and we would throw it in with some of the new videos people would just be like, “What!? I haven’t seen it.” That was pre-Twitter so we basically were going based on instincts. We didn’t know who was watching, what was going on…so it was really just a fun time in it’s inception. What happened later on was each market…not every market has an urban radio station but you might have cable and you got Jams so you actually are seeing what’s happening. Then it organically became into this thing. Artists started watching it, labels started watching it, it was big on the West Coast because we didn’t have a lot of distribution in New York, but West Coast, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, a lot of those major urban markets had the channel and was loving it. We just couldn’t get anyone from New York to give a shit because they couldn’t see it. It was definitely some of my best work and some of my proudest work. Again, when I see how people love and respond to Jams even today, people are like, “Yo, that’s all I watch. It’s the only channel I watch.” I’m really glad to have been a part of that. We were able to break a lot of artists like, Khaled, Sean Paul was coming out in that time, we definitely did a lot for him. Akon. We even had created this initiative called Fab Five and every summer we would pick five artists and we would run their videos all summer. We started off with Khaled and Kanye West and eventually every summer we would start out with five new artists. What’s really great about Jams for me was that we actually really got an opportunity to break artists and artists loved the channel. They would do things for Jams that they would not do for MTV because of their affinity that they had for it.
DX: You also launched Fight Klub. Until that point, battle rapping never had such a national platform. Was is difficulty transitioning something so niche within Hip Hop to television?
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ButtahMan: Oh my God! It was crazy! The thing was I went to Music Power Summit in Puerto Rico and Fight Klub actually had a battle as part of the whole weekend. I go there and it was incredible. The audience, everything was insane and I was like, “Yo, this could be a television show. This could totally be a television show.” We started talking to the Fight Klub guys and these are street guys. These are guys from the hood that’s doing their matches in this little room and there would be a pool table on either side. Everybody would be smoking weed and everybody’s crowded in this little space. I went to a couple of battles and I was like, “Yo, this could be a TV show.” Going back to the MTV executives and they were like, “Okay, let’s try it.” We did an acquisition deal because they already had stuff shot and we were just going to use their footage. However, it was just a little crazy, some of the characters that were involved and people were being indicted. It was just a lot going on. We were trying to get those six episodes and we got to go to this dude’s house and so and so is holding him hostage…the footage hostage. I’m working with International P who was great dude he and was such a charismatic host for that series. It was just perfect. It was great that we were able to get that off the ground. Things happen. I don’t know what those guys are doing today but it really helped to kind of see that there was an element for that on television. The shows rated well. They did decent. We got a lot of buzz off of them. It was something that had never been seen on any MTV network at all. I just remember those shows and watching like these muthafuckas are smoking blunts! They didn’t cut that out! They’re battling and this is some raw shit! That was great to be a part of that. I love when you’re able to sneak things past the man for a little bit so it was cool.
DX: Did you have a favorite matchup?
ButtahMan: My favorite battle of the Fight Klub folks was always with Serius Jones. He was the man. He was really great at shutting people down. Really clever with his shit. I just remember he would make people feel really bad about themselves. He took them out. He was kind of like the star of the series because a lot of the battles featured him. If there was a champion, he pretty much was the guy.
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ButtahMan Talks Coming Out As Homosexual & Says There’s No Gay Agenda In Hip Hop
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DX: One of the things I noticed was noticeably how homophobic some of the back and forth became during rounds. Considering at that time you were in the closet, that had to be hard to witness or even be apart of right?
ButtahMan: Honestly, I think this…it’s part of my job. I love working in Hip Hop music. I love Hip Hop music. I love the fact that I have been able to work with the music that I love and influence other folks. You got to take the good with the bad. A lot of that stuff, it still exists today. I don’t really think it’s going to go anywhere because of the attitude of a lot of…some rappers. I think things have evolved since then. You have to have thick skin in this business in general. It don’t matter what your background is. If you’re not the type of person that can be called something or be screamed at or have some disrespectful shit happen to you and you fall apart every time, then you don’t need to be in the music business. I don’t know anyone in this music business that hasn’t been disrespected, yelled at, shitted on and if you don’t know deal with that stuff? I always think it’s interesting because associate being gay with being soft and whatever but honestly the shit that you have to put up with as a gay, black man…that shit makes you tough as hell. Really. The shit that you have to put up with in general. I always thinks it’s interesting how people play that but at the end of the day I think that there’s a lot more level of acceptance now than there was from when I started. I think now people actually would think about, “Okay, if I’m going to say this, I’m going to think about this because I may have some people on my door step. I may get people protesting at the Grammys.” I think it’s to the point that people will think twice about it but I think it still happens. I always tell people I think reggae is a harder offender when it comes to homophobia than Hip Hop is. Reggae is like, “Boom! Find a gay guy, shoot him in the head!” If we’re really going to target a genre of music for homophobia I think Reggae is the biggest offender. Hip Hop is getting there.
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DX: How difficult was it to even witness the level of homophobia that takes place in Hip Hop firsthand and eventually come out?
ButtahMan: I’ll just say this. I think respectfully, everybody has their journey in this. My journey is different from anybody else’s. My thing was, I was in the closet, I was working in Hip Hop and I didn’t really have an issue with the music. My issue was personal. I decided that I had to live my life in an honest way, in a truthful way and I couldn’t become who I was meant to be if I was hiding that big of a secret about my life. That’s pretty much why I did it. I did it on my time when I was ready. Some people may not be able to face that part of themselves. There was a time when I wasn’t ready to face that part of myself. But I respect everybody’s journey and how they go through it. My thing was when I started to get on national television and I knew that I had been in relationships with dudes, I wanted to have a conversation with my family and the people that I knew because if anything got out…that was the beginning of the Twitter and you couldn’t go anywhere without possibly getting caught. It was important for me to understand that a secret only has power if you keep it. Once a secret is out, it loses its power and I never wanted anybody to have that kind of power over me to be like, “Oh, I know this about Buttah. I heard such and such and such,” it’s like, “No muthafucka, you heard it because I said it.” That way you don’t even have to deal with a lot of the bullshit that people go through. People out here getting blackmailed…extorted. There are a lot of people that will take advantage of something like that if you’re not the person that’s going to take charge of it. Also the other thing is that I feel like a lot of times we talk about Hip Hop and people being manly and what’s the definition of being a man. I hear this a lot in Hip Hop especially from Hip Hop artists and they say, “Oh, so and so isn’t a real man because he wears a pink shirt,” or “These dudes coming up aren’t real Hip Hop because they don’t carry themselves in a particular way.” At the end of the day a man is a man is somebody who doesn’t let fear control their life. I feel like if you let fear control your life, if you’re afraid of somebody finding out this about you then you really don’t have the right to say what’s a man and what’s not a man because at the end of the day I don’t live my life in fear. I released that part of my life and I feel better for it. I feel more of a man for having done that.
DX: Final question on the subject. From your perspective of being someone on an executive level, is there a gay agenda in Hip Hop?
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ButtahMan: Yes there is. We meet on Thursdays. We sit around and talk about how we’re going to turn every rapper, we’re going to make every rapper wear a purse. We’ve already got our chosen one who is coming up through the ranks, it’s great. We got a whole thing. It’s beautiful. That’s why I’m out in LA because we are having our conference. No. That is so crazy to me when people say that to me. That’s like Illuminati. If there was a gay agenda that would be hysterical. If you are so paranoid about this music…it’s like when somebody says, “So and so is turning gay.” There’s no such thing as turning gay. You’re either gay or not. I love when my brothers use “no homo” like it’s Febreze for gay shit. It’s like, “No homo,” [makes spray sound]. No! The fact that you’re actually saying that something might make you gay is where the homophobia comes from because you’re afraid of that. Me hanging out with you is not going to make you gay by association. That’s not what it is. It’s not something you can catch like Ebola. It’s just funny to me to see how people’s conception of that is. Because honestly, I was on the other side of that. Because when you’re in denial, you don’t want to go or look at anything that can be conceived as that. A lot of times it’s the ones that want to protest the most, those are the ones that be in the closet. Those are the ones that be the biggest hypocrites and are the ones that are always out saying the most loud, offensive things about people who are gay is because they are basically in the closet themselves a lot of the times. So to answer your question, no, I don’t think there is one.
Buttahman Talks “106 & Park”s End & Move Into Stand Up Comedy
DX: Late last year, 106 & Park held its final episode. Considering what you’ve said about music videos in the digital age, why wasn’t BET or even the likes of MTV prepared for the transition?
ButtahMan: I’m very blessed in my career to say that I have worked on TRL and I’ve worked on 106 & Park which are two of the premiere music shows in their time. I think the lack of 106 & Park’s presence is being felt. It’s being felt right now because that was an outlet for artists to showcase their videos or plug their films in primetime. Once TRL and a lot of those show went away, this was the last one. They made a decision to move it into the digital space which is where the kids are living so the TV element of it went away. But for the last five years of it I basically was responsible for the curation of music videos, the premieres, getting artists to premiere their videos with us versus all the other elements that are out there. The Worldstar, the MTV Jams. It’s funny because now that I am at BET and I am like, “Okay, so we need to premiere this video.” and they’re like wait, “We need Jam of the Week,” I’m like “What!? I started this gangsta shit! What the fuck are you talking about?” But it’s interesting to see the evolution of video is pretty much all about online and the immediacy. I think culturally, kids today don’t want to wait to go home and watch a countdown. They want to watch videos that they are in. They want to be the star of their own lives. That’s a generation shift. Ultimately, I accept that and BET is evolving with that. It was a great job to have when you’re working everyday and Denzel Washington is coming through on Friday and T.I. is here on Thursday. A lot of people, especially for me coming from the Virgin Islands, growing up watching cable, aspiring to do this and I’m on the set of TRL everyday or I’m the set of MTV, BET, 106. I’m blessed. I don’t take anything for granted because I could be in Baltimore right now on at two o’clock in the morning. Or having to do some other stuff. But I’ve gone on to do some really cool things despite my gayness. I was able to do some really cool stuff and I don’t take anything for granted.
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DX: Did you have a favorite artist that came by?
ButtahMan: The person is just going to sound really weird because this isn’t a Hip Hop artist but Janelle Monae, she came by and she premiered the “Queen” video with Erykah Badu and just ripped it. She just had the whole place turned up. She basically took over the whole show. She was just coming in to do a video and next thing you know she’s taking five or six breaks, she’s dancing in the audience, just that kind of energy is always great. My favorite thing was when artist who grew up watching the show would get that chance to be on it and be like, “Hey, I dreamed of being on this show and I am here.” I think what’s really been cool about the job I have is that you’re able to facilitate people’s dreams. You literally make people’s dreams come true when you play their videos, air their music, give an opportunity. I remember when Kanye West walked into my office at MTV with a backpack on and was like, “Yo, I freestyle and I’m going to change the game.” Then a year later, six months to a year later, we’re playing “Through The Wire.” I remember when B.O.B. first came up to the station and I met him…Khaled. I remember meeting Trey Songz and telling him, “Dude, the worse thing you can do for your career is to become a VJ,” because he was auditioning to be on-air talent and I was like, “Dude, don’t do it.” For some reason being on a video network as a host kind of dampens your credibility as an artists and there was a little bit of a pattern of that.
DX: So you made your transition from being an executive to a comedian. Where did the sense of you wanting to become a comedian come from and what were some of your comedic influences?
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ButtahMan: As a radio personality you’re always telling jokes and you’re trying to maintain the audience and entertain. What I did was say, “Imma try it,” people always told me I was funny and I think anytime people tell you over and over again that you’re good at something that’s a message that maybe you need to do that. When people told me I was funny, I was like I’m going to go to this open mic. So I went to this open mic in Baltimore, did it…I wasn’t entirely horrible so I went back, and then I just got into the whole element of doing it. The thing was when I got to New York to work for MTV, I was just going to go comedy clubs and perform at night on the side and then still do my day job. The New York scene was so brutal as far as trying to get on mics and trying to perform places and if they didn’t know you they didn’t want to put you up. It got really discouraging. I thought about being a comic and my influences were the Wayans Bros., Robert Townsend and I realized that all these cats could write. They wrote their own vehicles. They created In Living Color. They created Hollywood Shuffle. I need to get into writing. So I decided to just start doing comedy writing, screen writing and then when Hood Fab came about that was more like I get to combine two things that I love, Hip Hop and comedy and do it together and that would be the vehicle. But, I always missed the live performance aspect of it so three years ago I decided I was going to go back into telling jokes. It kind of became it’s own thing. I would go to work at BET, leave the office at seven then go to the comedy club and perform. I just started getting better at it the more you practice it, the more you do it with consistency and so now I am out performing. I already had shows booked even before I got laid off. Now it’s the opportunity to really kind of do something that I’ve always wanted to persue. Now I’m out performing. I did Comedy Store last week, I’m doing charity events, I did J Spot, I’ve actually done Inside Jokes. It’s been going good. No one is throwing tomatoes at me, people are asking me to come back to their club so I think it’s going alright so I’m just going to continue to do it.
