The Hilltop Glove Podcast | Andre McCullough

[00:00:00] DJ And?: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today we have the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Andre McCullough. Andre is a filmmaker and host of New. The State of Us podcast where he talks about the progression of the black community in the United States of America. Andre believes we must advance past our current state by solving problems and creating opportunities for the betterment of the Black American future.

[00:00:24] DJ And?: He is also the owner of Article Media, film and Media Production, a media production company that focuses on telling stories that resonate. They produce commercials and web series. How you doing today, Mr. 

[00:00:37] Andre McCullough: McCullough? I'm doing good. I'm doing great. Excellent introduction. Sounds. But it comes from somebody else.

[00:00:42] Andre McCullough: Really? Everybody 

[00:00:42] Ta-Myia: always says that now. 

[00:00:44] Andre McCullough: Tamaya is the kids. You killed it. Yo, she dangerous. 

[00:00:47] Ta-Myia: Yeah, I, we stalk people I stalk people for a living and yeah, find all things about you and write up a little quick bio and, make you sound important. 

[00:00:54] Andre McCullough: Yeah. Yeah. Cause everybody is, 

[00:00:56] DJ And?: yeah. Everybody we speak to is important.

[00:00:58] DJ And?: Yeah. I always like to think that, because I [00:01:00] know when we first began this, we were worried about whether or not people would even speak with us. Because we didn't feel important. I used to always tell Kevin this, yo, these people, they 

[00:01:08] Andre McCullough: really gonna talk with us over the thing. They don't 

[00:01:10] DJ And?: know us like that.

[00:01:11] DJ And?: And it was like, nah, just be normal. And I was like, okay, I'll be normal. I'm gonna talk to 'em, treat 'em like they're humans. Because at the end of the. We all have something that we can bring to this place that we live on called Earth, and especially when it comes to our community, I think everybody that is out here doing something positive for us that we're important.

[00:01:27] DJ And?: Yeah. I know we had a really cool episode with Dr. Napoleon Wells and he kept beating us into our head. You are the best. You are. What's gonna make the change? You're the mover, you're the shaker. And I was just like, God darn it. Again, another New Yorker. I was like, good Lord, y'alls God damn hustle.

[00:01:43] DJ And?: I was like, this is real. It's real. Yeah. Yeah man, I'll always like to have that feeling. I think now I'm starting to understand why that's so important, but just starting off, we always ask our. Our interviewees this question so our audience can understand a little bit more about you. If you just tell us some more about yourself and some [00:02:00] of your upbringing, that'd be 

[00:02:01] Andre McCullough: excellent.

[00:02:01] Andre McCullough: I am Greenville, South Carolina native. Woo. Woo. I'm the son of Elaine. That's very important. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Miss Elaine. She was a minister. She's a past thump now. She raised me to be a. Community service, sir. Ah visiting nursing homes. Feeding the homeless dope.

[00:02:19] Andre McCullough: Visiting the sick and my whole family background is, known for church services and playing instruments. Ah, singing. So I come from that type of background. Wow. 91. I Started a career in music, taking the stage, wow. Performer. It takes a lot of moxie. Yeah. Yeah. I started producing music in 92.

[00:02:40] Andre McCullough: Dropped some CDs, produced some artists, hip hop artists, gospel artists. We did a lot of things. Hit my ceiling here in Greenville. Moved to Atlanta in 2001. Wow. Stayed there about eight years in Atlanta is where everything changed. I saw the success of black people. Yeah. That's [00:03:00] important. Yeah.

[00:03:00] Andre McCullough: Ooh, I I learned about stocks in Atlanta. I learned how, if you are successful, how you can get back. I think the biggest thing was. Or either Ludacris, one of 'em had a big Thanksgiving giveaway, Christmas giveaway, and I felt if we can be successful like that here, we can also do those type of things here.

[00:03:18] Andre McCullough: So even though the music career didn't take off, like I would love, loved it to I got out of that a very valuable thing that when we are success, As a black people, we have now the opportunity to raise up another people right behind us. Ah, so one of my biggest things when I came back from Atlanta is that how do I reach an audience?

[00:03:39] Andre McCullough: How do I duplicate that here in South Carolina? And then I came up with a podcast I thought long, hard. It's the state of us, not the state of us at time. It was the fan club project podcast, which still exists. Ah, okay. So I don't know if you saw that or not. And it's focused on entertainment and but I have.

[00:03:57] Andre McCullough: High political views, [00:04:00] and I had 'em both together and one time, one day somebody said, is your podcast political or is it entertainment? Because they was confused, so I had to separate that. Yeah, I gotcha. Gotcha. That stalled me out for the longest because now I'm in a. Where I want, cuz I'm a born entertainer.

[00:04:19] Andre McCullough: Yeah. But I also love the community. And I want to grow the community. It's obviously but I didn't want to, it didn't seem like it missed all together at the time. Okay. So I had to separate that out. But Covid hit and when Covid hit, everybody had to take a seat. Nobody could come to a podcast.

[00:04:35] Andre McCullough: And I wasn't advanced enough to do an online web podcast. Coming outta. The state of us t S O U the progression of the black community. What is the state of us where are we at today? And how can we strive for a better future? So I wanna bring up put a highlight on that and I want us to progress, get past any propaganda that held us down in the.

[00:04:54] Andre McCullough: Any stigmas we have. I wanna bring education and I want us to learn and grow and [00:05:00] reach back and grow the next generation. Yes. And that's the whole purpose of the ts o u, the State of Us podcast, that goes back to 

[00:05:06] Ta-Myia: being a service. Yes. Yes. 

[00:05:09] DJ And?: You are a true service. 

[00:05:10] Andre McCullough: Yeah, that's 

[00:05:11] Ta-Myia: right. I don't make people understand the importance of being of service.

[00:05:14] Ta-Myia: Yeah. And what it really entails. Yeah. Like you said, you went to the nursing homes. You were in the community, like you're reaching back I'm trying to help you. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. Get on this bandwagon. Literally, 

[00:05:24] DJ And?: and in a service you had some. Some training in that though, of course.

[00:05:27] Andre McCullough: Yeah. And I've never been a person, a upfront person. I like to be the background. I'm a, I feel like I'm a machine and not the product itself. Yeah. My, my motivation and drive is to be a machine for whoever needs it. And going back to the fan club project, that's, that purpose was to put people on the level of site where people can see you.

[00:05:45] Andre McCullough: Thus if you get enough interest built in what you. People become a fan, and if somebody becomes a fan, they're there for life. True. Yeah, 

[00:05:52] Ta-Myia: it's true. That goes right into the next question, producing quality content. How important is it to produce high quality content that excites [00:06:00] viewers?

[00:06:00] Ta-Myia: How do you get their excitement like, oh yeah, let me tune in, and he's dropping this today I'm pretty sure your topics are interesting yeah, 

[00:06:07] Andre McCullough: but that is, that's a good question. I don't know if I think about how I think about the quality part before, yeah. 

[00:06:12] Ta-Myia: Quantity quality over quantity.

[00:06:13] Andre McCullough: Yeah. Yeah. Because one thing that I feel may hinder me more than advance me is that I don't like to be messy. A lot of messy stuff goes fast and hard, preach, and you spread it, preach. I wanna uplift. Yes. And a lot of times when you do the uplifting, not a lot of people gonna and share because, it's, you gotta go the world 

[00:06:32] DJ And?: we live in, go to that part that touches that soul, right? 

[00:06:34] Andre McCullough: But people don't mind being educated and they do like the positive stuff. But it is not, it's not mo moving. But quality is the biggest thing. Because, when people see that it's quality, they're more likely to tune in.

[00:06:47] Andre McCullough: Yeah. I respect you. Yeah. Yeah. Respect the work. Yeah. And there And with quality, I think quality has a fur, a further reach. And with that, it's a slow moving machine. When it comes to quality, but it's a sustaining [00:07:00] machine. It will always outlast, messiness, or things are not built with quality.

[00:07:05] DJ And?: I think that's important for our audience to hear. Cuz a lot of them, of course, entrepreneurs, they run their own businesses or the content creators, et cetera. Yeah. That time, that effort and just to build proper quantity, not quantity, but quality of production. So that when you do have, like we're trying to do, when you do have a lot of qu quantity, everything has hit certain levels and it is 

[00:07:27] Ta-Myia: proper.

[00:07:27] Ta-Myia: I just read that the other day. I heard something about that. It was like yeah, being an entrepreneur is hard, but they don't understand like how hard you work to make it look easy. Yeah. Preach. Yeah. Nothing is easy, but you work so hard that you built a quality. Stance Yes. Of your brand, of yourself, that people respect that.

[00:07:44] DJ And?: Now, my question for you is, when was that quality? An idea that you've always had, or did you learn that as you went and got more professional in the ranks and went to Atlanta and et cetera, and then returned back? 

[00:07:59] Andre McCullough: It's [00:08:00] probably, I'm probably born with it because, when you hard on yourself ah, okay, gotcha. You try to be perfect. Yep. Perfect. Can do one thing. He can hold you back and keep you moving slow because you're trying to be perfect. Perfect. But quality. It's in the how would I say this spirit. Because you want things to be the best. And you give your best.

[00:08:17] Andre McCullough: You give your best. That's a good point. You give your all. That's a good point. Like doing commercials for businesses. I, one of the biggest things I wanna do is bring in and that, and I'll do it for anyone, any. But my focus is on black marketing. Because I feel like we have a lot of great businesses.

[00:08:32] Andre McCullough: Services, restaurants, product, but we never advertise. And when we do, it's really on a bad quality, on a quality level. Smaller scale. Smaller scale. But we can be. At a bigger scale. We can be clean looking. And I hate to say it, but the clean look is the look that's going to get you more customers.

[00:08:50] Andre McCullough: That's where the quality comes in at. Yeah. And that's what I wanna do. I want to bring us to up to a level where we're matching these big corporations. Yes. Even though we're not spending corporate dollars, but we still look [00:09:00] like corporate dollars being spent.

[00:09:01] Andre McCullough: Yeah. 

[00:09:01] Ta-Myia: You got me. That was his pitch right there. He 

[00:09:04] DJ And?: got me. Seriously. So funny about that. Our culture is the top marketing culture. It is, 

[00:09:11] Andre McCullough: but we don't use it. We don't leverage it. Yeah, we don't leverage. We don't leverage, and I think that's an education thing. I think. Even when I was doing music, we would spend a lot of money in the production studio.

[00:09:23] Andre McCullough: But not the marketing part, which the, is the most important part. That'd be mind 

[00:09:27] DJ And?: boggling. had 

[00:09:27] Andre McCullough: to, so you spend all this money in the studio, but when it comes to printing the CDs at the time, CDs it's not CD and site now. Seating in sight now, but that marketing part, even now with downloads, marketing matters.

[00:09:38] Andre McCullough: Yeah. And if we are not spending money on market or we're spending it, but we're not spending to get the higher quality. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you'll get passed by people will see your commercial or see your promo video, and if it looks like it's shady people will associate that with untrust.

[00:09:55] Andre McCullough: They're not gonna trust something that doesn't look clean. And that's why I want to bring us [00:10:00] a. 

[00:10:00] DJ And?: So that in turn brings that trustworthiness to the business. That allows you, your business, then be able to move to different markets, for people to actually take your work seriously. Like a referral, like a easy referral.

[00:10:10] DJ And?: No, seriously, real time. Yeah. That's a great referral and darn it. That's smart. Yeah. It's so simple. Yeah. That's why I think the issue is, it's so simple, right? It's hard for us to 

[00:10:19] Andre McCullough: get Yeah. But also, Give opportunity. Opportunity to those who feel like they don't have enough money Yeah. To market.

[00:10:25] Andre McCullough: Gotcha. Small, no businesses. I'm the connecting one now that cheap creates beads. But feels if I don't have enough money to spend on marketing there's two types of incomes. There's the black income and there's everybody else. Wait, you break that down. There's the black incom as everybody else.

[00:10:42] Andre McCullough: We know that research shows. We were paid less. And all we do, I think I say all we do for the most part, black families struggle and every day is a survival, right? You want to eat, you wanna have clothes on your back. Your money gonna go there first.

[00:10:56] Andre McCullough: The last thing you're gonna spend money on is promoting yourself. [00:11:00] I get you. But it's the most important thing if you got a service. So the level, you gotta think about the level of income somebody's bringing in. Yes, we do spend money on shoes, high dollar shoes, Yeezys and things like that. Yeah.

[00:11:13] Andre McCullough: But that's just the outlier for the most part. People with businesses, people with families think responsibilities. They have a great product, a great service. But man, how do I get it out? A lot of people that I approach about shooting vi promo videos, they're afraid of the. Really you're afraid of the cost of, if you ain't got money or even people I know that has money.

[00:11:33] Andre McCullough: Yeah. Still afraid of the cost, because they're not, they don't know what to expect. Never been approached before about promoting their self from outsource, that 

[00:11:39] Ta-Myia: goes to self-confidence or what is that? What do you think the root of that is? 

[00:11:42] Andre McCullough: I think it's it could be just the routine of not spending your.

[00:11:47] Andre McCullough: In a certain way. We're not accustomed to spending our money in promotion. We're not accustomed of Cause if you're hungry, you're gonna spend money to eat. Yeah. Very true. Very true. So it's almost like it's really not a need because if I can just post it [00:12:00] anywhere, this is social media platform, somebody, it's free.

[00:12:02] Andre McCullough: Social 

[00:12:02] Ta-Myia: media's free advertisement. 

[00:12:05] Andre McCullough: But people gotta understand that if what you if you are a beat maker, there's a thousand more beat makers. Yeah. So what sets you apart? Yeah. And it's gonna be. Suck. But also promotion. So if you're doing marketing alongside of quality, you're not just getting the black dollars as a black business, you're getting the white dollars.

[00:12:22] Andre McCullough: The Hispanic dollars. The Asian dollars. We go spend money with other people because we feel like they're qual, they're product of quality's 

[00:12:28] DJ And?: quality. Yeah. Where they say, the white man's ice is colder. Yeah, that's right. We know it. Shaking my head, 

[00:12:34] Andre McCullough: nah, that's 

[00:12:34] DJ And?: the show.

[00:12:35] DJ And?: That's the, that's where it comes from. Yeah. That's a 

[00:12:38] Andre McCullough: real thing. Yeah. Yeah, so my my, my genuine. Goal is to elevate us. If we can be elevated, we can pull ourself out of poverty. We can pull our families out of poverty, friends out of poverty, and teach the next generation on how to stay that way.

[00:12:52] Andre McCullough: Yeah. Teach 'em how to fish, see. Yeah. And we don't depend on programs, We make our own 

[00:12:56] Ta-Myia: programs. Mm-hmm. That's what I like about being the filmmaker and capturing [00:13:00] everything. Cuz it's like you can create your own anything like documentation, anything like Exactly. You can pass it down to anyone.

[00:13:06] Andre McCullough: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the article media, the slogan is Document Life. Yes. I love that. Oh and that's the whole point of art, the filmmaking part of it. Yes. Shoot promo commercial, but I do, I love filmmaking. I love the creation part of it. People should document life. I like shooting documents, documentaries.

[00:13:24] Andre McCullough: Docu. Every death should be a legacy. Every family should be able to reach back and watch a family about that. Family member. When my mother passed You, I learned things that I learned that she was just more than just a mom. She was a really big advocate to other families.

[00:13:37] Andre McCullough: Wow. A real legacy that, when you look at your parents, you just think, that's my parent. Yeah. But you really don't understand high in depth how fur, how far as they reach their reach Yeah. To other people. Yeah. And 

[00:13:47] Ta-Myia: did people come back and tell you that, or, 

[00:13:49] Andre McCullough: yeah. When. When we was at a grave site, a lot of people, had their testimonial about my mom. I'm like, man, my mama should have had a documentary. Everybody should see this and know that her life mattered. Anything you do in life [00:14:00] of positive importance should be documented. Just like this podcast, just document everything.

[00:14:04] Andre McCullough: It's a educational tool for the next person who's gonna watch it. That's deep. Yeah. 

[00:14:08] Ta-Myia: That's it. No matter what you're gonna say. That's why I feel like everybody should have a podcast. I'm like, if you know how to talk, you don't even have to know how to talk. Yeah. You just have need to have a podcast cuz you're going to say something that's gonna gravitate towards somebody.

[00:14:20] Ta-Myia: I agree. And it's free. Yeah. This is free and you telling 'em you're not gonna take advantage of free resources. Yeah. I agree to brand and market yourself, or I agree. Speak your knowledge or speak your truth. That's 

[00:14:30] Andre McCullough: crazy to me. Yep. 

[00:14:32] DJ And?: Because no, no one person or entity has a market has a, has cornered the market on, on, on information.

[00:14:38] DJ And?: And things that are necessary. You can get even outta somebody, quote unquote, the drunkard man on the side of the road. He can get, drop you some wisdom. You just gotta listen to it. Yeah. And I just, from listening to you talk, I could tell you have a very poignant and measured way of speak.

[00:14:52] DJ And?: Yeah, I like that. Because that means you're, your words, you're thinking. Yes, precisely. I like that. Yes. You aren't just throwing stuff out there, so you [00:15:00] really believe in quality. 

[00:15:01] Ta-Myia: It's 

[00:15:01] DJ And?: a quality man. Man. Oh man. I'm looking at him like, yeah, 

[00:15:04] Andre McCullough: he's I have a nine to five and I am a quality analyst there oh, so stop.

[00:15:09] Andre McCullough: So I'm deep into quality. Okay. 

[00:15:10] DJ And?: Understood. Understood. Yeah. I guess moving on into more of the content ideas, what challenges did you face when starting your own company? Something that you could express to our listeners so they can see how these things are universal. 

[00:15:25] Andre McCullough: All right, so my biggest challenge building this company is me.

[00:15:30] DJ And?: We don't get to hear that 

[00:15:31] Andre McCullough: often, right? I'm the biggest obstacle because. Honestly I walk in faith. And even though some things I don't want to do, my feet continues to move. I don't know what's behind the next door. When I open that door, things happen because I'm supposed to be there.

[00:15:47] Andre McCullough: But this, my biggest obstacle is me because I may overthink things as I want things to be perfect. And I may stall and I May 2nd guess myself and I. And I'm still working [00:16:00] to get through that phase. It took me a lot to sit down at this podcast. I appreciate you, 

[00:16:05] Ta-Myia: man. I appreciate you.

[00:16:06] Ta-Myia: I'm glad we saved you for last. Yeah. You can't go nowhere. 

[00:16:09] Andre McCullough: Yeah. Wasn't, yeah I want everything to be good. You, you, here's the thing. I learned all of my imperfections. All of my imperfections are, A book of knowledge. And I teach my children the same thing. Everything. You ma all pray for mistakes.

[00:16:23] Andre McCullough: Actually, I say that because you want all your mistakes now, and you want to continue with mistakes because mistakes keep you focused. Every mistake you make is a book of knowledge that knowledge is now can be shared with everybody else to prevent the inform. That specific mistake cuz everybody's gonna make their own mistakes.

[00:16:41] Andre McCullough: But yeah, that's, those are my obstacles is getting past my own head. Get it outta my own head. second guessing myself and everybody I come in contact with say, hey, You're overthinking it. I don't know if anybody have heard anybody tell me that you're overthinking it. And it goes with my personality.

[00:16:56] Andre McCullough: I want to not, I'm not, I don't necessarily, the [00:17:00] best. I never say I don't wanna be the best, I want to be the most qualified, if that makes sense. Man, I like having 

[00:17:06] Ta-Myia: thing. I like that usually. I like that. Your brain working different. Yeah. Wait. Where's your zodiac time? When your birthday?

[00:17:11] Ta-Myia: Scorpio. Oh, wow. 

[00:17:13] Andre McCullough: Brain working. No, 

[00:17:14] DJ And?: I'm enjoying this. I'm just listening to you talk right now, because we don't have, especially as a black man, yeah, we don't usually have the ability to sit and hear somebody wrestle with themselves, honestly. You know what I mean by that? Yeah. Like literally wrestle with ego and the id.

[00:17:30] DJ And?: Yeah. And understanding what's propelling you forward because. That allows you to, and I like how you were putting making those mistakes so you can like man, because he's right. No, he's very right. Like a lot of issues that we deal with in our community deals with the fact that we don't get a chance to understand those mistakes Yeah.

[00:17:46] DJ And?: And correct them or processes and process. Yeah. We don't get a process. It just moves fast. We don't get the process so slowing it. Being mindful of yourself and your decision making words you're using, how you're moving your behaviors and actions. Yeah, [00:18:00] man, that's so important, man. I don't even think, we ain't really talking about nothing else right now, but important.

[00:18:05] DJ And?: No, cause like you said, yeah, it comes down to what you do and how you do it. And I, and again, I'm gonna bring Claude Anderson back into this because. His whole thing was quality. Our businesses need to be quality. Yeah. The stuff we produce, our actions should be quality. There should be nobody to be able to tell us that what we do is not quality.

[00:18:24] DJ And?: And as a black community, and I know you know this from doing the state of us well, there was a point where we were the moral high ground. Our actions and our behaviors and how we moved were the moral high ground. When other countries would look into the US and see how they were treating us, they knew that the government was.

[00:18:38] DJ And?: Now you can't do that anymore. They look at our community and they see what we promote and what we push out and they're like, ah, those people, they aren't good people. That we didn't have our women shaking ass. We didn't have all our men dealing drugs. Like in the sense of promoting it as a successful way of living life.

[00:18:55] DJ And?: Entertainment, we knew like poor game best existed. We knew that there was drug. They weren't [00:19:00] seen as what you want it to be. Right now we have descended to a area where we are quantity over quality. We don't have a lot of quality men. Yeah. This is something I always see black women always talk about.

[00:19:10] DJ And?: I can't find a good man, I can't find, but they mean it. They can't find a quality man. They're men out there, right? There's good ones. Yeah. But quality, yes. We got future. There's only one. Russell Wilson. We, and we need more. We need more of that. That's why, this is a breath of fresh air to hear somebody talk like this.

[00:19:26] DJ And?: And I know for our audience, a lot of us who are dealing with transitioning into adulthood or furthering their adulthood and running families now, which technically as a business, You want it to have quality Yeah. In your work. Not the quantity. You want the quality. Man, I'm telling you man, this I guess my question for you, of course you have those, like you said, you explained those challenges in like getting over yourself so that you can make those moves forward.

[00:19:53] DJ And?: Yeah. While still bringing with you that idea of quality as you're facing those challenges now, [00:20:00] have you begun to make better inroads? Progressing forward on it, or at least, and this is what I would like to say, cuz sometimes it's not just about you conquering those things. Do you feel like you're good doing a good job of mentoring and teaching to others how to take this step or this approach?

[00:20:16] DJ And?: Cause I think that approach, like what you're talking about, this approach, it's like gold right now, what you're talking about. Yeah. I think this is something that, especially as our, we need to hear this more 

[00:20:23] Andre McCullough: often. Yeah. So your question do I feel like I'm. Making any roads. Yeah.

[00:20:28] DJ And?: Every day. 

[00:20:29] Andre McCullough: That's great. Every person I talk to I have good practice. I have children. And I'm teaching every, they're teaching me and I'm teaching them. Yeah. But my mother instilled in me that, that thing as a child. When I was born, my mama gave a life to God the year I was born.

[00:20:42] Andre McCullough: Oh, wow. Yeah. At the same time, I had a stepdad who. Was an addict. And I would he would take me on runs with him, and I would stand in the alleys with him. So I have the experience of both worlds. I can understand people. In a way they might not be able 

[00:20:58] Ta-Myia: to understand themselves.

[00:20:59] Andre McCullough: [00:21:00] And I'll say this I feel like I'm gifted with the gift of the sermon. I can read people. Yeah. Pretty. I'm pretty sure you guys can too, doing a podcast. 

[00:21:07] Ta-Myia: I could tell why when we walked in the room, he was already reading us. 

[00:21:10] DJ And?: Nah, I can tell. Huh? Nah, he different brand. I said, it's a different breed right 

[00:21:13] Ta-Myia: there.

[00:21:14] Ta-Myia: You said we should get you on a podcast. Yeah, 

[00:21:16] Andre McCullough: I, yeah. So I can, yeah. Yeah. I'm making inroads because everybody, every person I meet is a learning session. It gives me insight on who I am because you understand who you are by the way. You accept somebody. Shit, George, Jim's, if you accept the way you accept someone, you understand who you are. What you like, what you don't like. Who you can be around, who you can't be around. And I have had challenges. There's just some people you can't work with because the, you just can't vibe with them. Yeah. Yeah. But that makes you better because if you find a way to work with them, you just you grew.

[00:21:48] Andre McCullough: Just, you just move the obstacle. So every time I talk to even, meeting the people here at Upstate I had some challenges naturally. And, but the challenges was me being stubborn. Okay. Because I'm [00:22:00] being pushed past my comfort zone. Ah, sitting right here is pushing me past my comfort zone because you're usually behind the scenes. I'm usually behind the scenes. Yeah. I'm thankful for that because it's where I'm supposed to be. Yes. 

[00:22:10] Ta-Myia: You deserve to be 

[00:22:11] Andre McCullough: in the room. Yes. I don't know if I deserve it, but I'll be in the room.

[00:22:15] DJ And?: Yes. 

[00:22:15] Andre McCullough: So yeah, and I'm humble person. I don't like, like I said, I don't like being upfront, but I'm making roles because even when video work. If you, the whole point of mistakes is you have a library of mistakes. Yeah. And you have something to reflect back on to see where you've been and where you're going.

[00:22:29] Andre McCullough: So it's easy for me to say, yes, I'm making inroads. Nice. I like to hear that 

[00:22:32] DJ And?: because I want our audience to hear that too. Because somebody who's had your experience, and especially in the world that we're talking about, You don't get to hear people speak honest and candidly like that. And so I want our audience to know, Hey, you don't have to be perfect, ready to rock and roll right now. Like that. It's gonna take time. There's gonna be certain bumps and bruises. A lot of the content that we produce, we always ask people. About how they get to certain levels or [00:23:00] how they operate certain parts of their business.

[00:23:02] DJ And?: Because we've seen catastrophes, we've seen people make mistakes. We've seen errors and judgment. We've had errors and judgment. Things we've create created ain't last. So we gotta start back over from the beginning and from scratch. And so I want people to know that's not a weird thing.

[00:23:17] DJ And?: It's not a oddity. Keep going back to the drawing board, get back to the drilling bit, knock it back out again. And I think especially for our culture, it's something, like I said, we've actually got knocked off our pedestal. Yeah. We were on a pedestal, y'all, I always tell black folk this, please realize we used to be on a pedestal.

[00:23:34] DJ And?: Whatever came outta our mouth, it was taken as gospel. Right now, eh, our words not that good. But I think we can get back to that point as long as we take it seriously. And I know, moving on to this next question, I think this works well with this is just what are some valuable tips that I guess you would be able to share with our audience in your mindset?

[00:23:54] DJ And?: For the next generation of creatives who are out here trying to make podcasts, film who are [00:24:00] into visual arts, even into doing, and I like how you said servicing. Yeah. The community. 

[00:24:06] Andre McCullough: My biggest tip is be genuine with you and everyone that you deal with. Genuine being genuine is just key. Just if if you genuine, you love it and you're not uncomfortable.

[00:24:17] Andre McCullough: Even if people may not like you because the way you are, who, because you're being who you are. People will work to accept you if you're genuine. People will say, oh, I don't like his attitude, but I see what he doing. Versus somebody being fake. Yeah. And somebody say, ah, oh, they fake.

[00:24:33] Andre McCullough: I'm not dealing with that person. And they're gonna, you're gonna always have your guard up for a fake person. You have to. But to be genuine. Is to be in a, at peace. Yep. Yep. Dang, that's a good point. Yeah man, we gotta keep you up here for next week, right? 

[00:24:46] DJ And?: Alright. Alright. We're gonna go back again.

[00:24:49] DJ And?: Audience yet to be genuine is to 

[00:24:51] Andre McCullough: be at peace. To be at peace cuz you're not fighting to be somebody else. 

[00:24:54] Ta-Myia: Do your authentic stuff. That's why I like Toby. Toby new wig way. I know you do. I love Toby cuz he is. [00:25:00] So genuine with his words, what his mission won't, he wasn't, doesn't curse the type of content he puts out.

[00:25:07] Ta-Myia: His quality. Yeah. He creates it all by himself. Independent artists. He brings his kids with him. If my kids can't come in the room, I'm not gonna be there. 

[00:25:14] DJ And?: I've been learning that. From the podcast as well. Yeah. A lot of things that we like, right? The people that we speak with, they bring their children wherever they go.

[00:25:22] DJ And?: If they can't bring their children, we ain't coming. So they ask us for the podcast, so are y'all gonna be smoking or drinking, et cetera. And they're like, no, we don't do nothing. They're like, oh, okay, cool. Bring, because they can't have that around them. And I start trying to put that together.

[00:25:32] DJ And?: I'm like, no, this is common thread for everyone we're talking to. Maybe we're on the right path. Do you know what I mean? We're running into the right people, right at the right 

[00:25:40] Andre McCullough: times. Yeah. Yeah. I don. I don't like dealing that way too because it's, it is a form of being messy because at the end of the day, good point.

[00:25:48] Andre McCullough: Good point. Even in the studio file out that there's a loss of respect. People are coming here I've had a hip hop artist, the, Hey, can I, cus no, be yourself, because, but the fact that he asked me lets me know he respected the [00:26:00] atmosphere. Oh, I see what you're saying.

[00:26:00] Andre McCullough: Yeah. Yeah. You set the tone. Set the tone. Yeah. Yeah. This is me. The, my atmosphere is who I am. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:26:06] Ta-Myia: So do you have any hope for the younger generat? 

[00:26:09] Andre McCullough: Oh yeah. You have to please, please what's happen more. They're the next generation of the are the ones who are gonna make policy for us as we get older.

[00:26:16] Andre McCullough: Yeah. They're gonna be the ones to take care of us and set the tone, the atmosphere we'll have to live in. Yeah. So yeah, I do have hope for 'em. And I know we'll be somewhere. We'll get somewhere and I'll say this too, and 

[00:26:26] DJ And?: I like, all right. Cause I like that you answer that question because I always pose this question immediately after I like to pose this question.

[00:26:32] DJ And?: We run, we're about to run things. I e that older generation, the folks who are born in that baby boomer generation, they're about to hand over the keys Yeah. To us. Yeah. Do we have hope? Do you feel with we mean ourselves? Yeah. Cause we're drive the car. Yeah. And I know there's a Native American adage that we, this is not what we're doing right now.

[00:26:55] DJ And?: We're just borrow. What the next generation's about to have. So what the [00:27:00] generation before us did, they borrowed what we had and however they use it, we deal with the effects of it. Mind you, cause I like politics, right? And I like watching policy and I know how money moves and et cetera. And I know right now some of the issues that we're dealing with because the generation before us, they took the monies and et cetera that came from my grandmother's generation, that they saved up and did so well to make sure that we had surplus and they blew it.

[00:27:21] DJ And?: That's what we're dealing with right now. There's nothing because they blew it. So we're dealing with their mistakes and after effects, and now we have to rebuild the surplus so that our generation doesn't have to lack. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So how do you feel with us grabbing the keys? Do you have and I didn't really ever get to ask this of any of our guests before.

[00:27:39] DJ And?: But do you have faith and trust in our generation to steer the car 

[00:27:42] Andre McCullough: properly?

[00:27:42] Andre McCullough: Because you have to. You're so hopeful, man. I like it. This guy. Think about it. Hope is the if everything left the room, all you have left is hope. True hope and faith. Yeah. Yeah. That because we're doing the work now, even with this podcast, you're doing the work now. That should give you hope.

[00:27:58] Andre McCullough: That's true for what we are [00:28:00] gonna do for the generation behind us. I think my mom's generation was the generation that came out of the civil rights movement. Yep. And it was just basically, it felt free, it felt like freedom to them at that point in time because you, you imagine going from not being able to enter the front door, eat at the lunch counter to all of a sudden you can go into the same schools and eat at the same lunch counter.

[00:28:20] Andre McCullough: And that's freedom. We're good. We made it. Yeah. But the after effects hits hit us. Yeah. We don't know how to save. We don't know how to earn. Yeah. All we know is the factories, yeah. And so for our generation, it's a, is a, is the survival generation after Yeah. A good way to put it.

[00:28:37] Andre McCullough: The struggle generation. That's a great way to put that. Yeah. So we basically have to, keep our head above water. We have to beat back the demonn or the devil that, that plagued our fam, our parents. So we're constantly fighting curses. Yeah, I was just about to say that.

[00:28:50] Andre McCullough: Yeah. So we're constantly fighting. So that's why I have hope for our generation, because we're fighters. We never gave up. Yeah. Yeah. We were actually the maintainers, we've been sustaining. Now the [00:29:00] generation have to put us over the edge. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:29:02] DJ And?: And another name for God is 

[00:29:03] Andre McCullough: The sustainer.

[00:29:05] Andre McCullough: So we sustained. Our parents fought the good fight they did. We are here to sustain it, that the generations that come after us have to get us back over the ledge. 

[00:29:13] DJ And?: We gotta gain our moral. Compass. Yeah. We 

[00:29:16] Ta-Myia: gotta have that discernment. 

[00:29:17] Andre McCullough: Yes. 

[00:29:18] DJ And?: It's something that has to be taught just the same way as you teach critical thinking skills.

[00:29:22] DJ And?: Yeah. And the importance of it. And I know it had disappeared for a while, but it's going back like they're having to teach that again. Yeah. I really think discernment should be something that is taught to our communities. 

[00:29:32] Andre McCullough: I did think about this. If there was a, if there was one race, who has the real strength of the sermon, it would be the black.

[00:29:37] Andre McCullough: Race. I wanna take race out the Black Americans. Because if you think about the way our, his, our history started in slavery. We had to understand security. What was at risk. We had to know who we were talking to. I feel like that's ingrained in our DNA now.

[00:29:53] Andre McCullough: Yeah. Discernment to know things. Now some have more power than others. Yeah. We all get ourselves, and [00:30:00] I'm, I feel and this might be controversial to say we all, we may have to split. what ways? 

[00:30:05] DJ And?: Yeah. What, what's, what 

[00:30:06] Andre McCullough: do you mean by that? There's the line is the I care.

[00:30:09] Andre McCullough: I call it I care line. There's those who care and there's those who don't care. And we, right now, we've been taught that we have to take care. Everybody has to take care of each other. All of us in the same, but all black people. But there's just some that just don't care. have to come back for them later. We have to care about, work with the people who care now. Yeah. The voters, those who want a healthy community. Those who want a safe community. Those who want high education. And greed. Yeah. We have. Consider them first. And come back for those who just don't care.

[00:30:35] Andre McCullough: Yeah. 

[00:30:35] DJ And?: Do you believe in the, I know this story in the Bible about the wheat and the tear, and you separate, the shaft, so you separate the wheat from the shaft, the part of the wheat that you can't use. And you have to keep 'em separate. Yeah. Because if you don't, you can't make proper grain.

[00:30:52] DJ And?: You can't store it. You can't actually make bread from it. You can come back to that stuff later. Yeah. Use it for whatever you need to use it for it. Usually maybe be feed or something. It has some kind of use. Yeah. [00:31:00] But for the time being, you have to separate 'em. Yeah. You feel the same situation.

[00:31:03] DJ And?: You just have to separate '

[00:31:03] Andre McCullough: em. I would say, I would just say it this way. We care about those who don't care. Yeah. We still have to care about those to care. We have to take care of them. Yeah. But we have to build In a place to take care of them. And for those who care now and those who want, want things, but everybody want a better life.

[00:31:18] Andre McCullough: Yeah. But there's those who are working towards a better life. And those who don't care if we work towards or not, they're just surviving. We have to collect the people who care and build something strong and reach. So you believe, 

[00:31:30] DJ And?: And this is what I'm getting from what you're saying right now, you don't believe that those who are not say that like without care, but who are not in the active role of caring.

[00:31:39] DJ And?: They aren't doing it maliciously? No, they're just stuck 

[00:31:41] Andre McCullough: in survival. It's stuck in survival and it's a educational gap. It's a learning it and some of it's part of its empathy. Cuz I would feel like also there's a empathy line where you understand and open to understanding.

[00:31:52] Andre McCullough: And there's also mental issues. Thank you. Like that mental blockage. Thank you. Mental blockers and everything. We have to love them too. Even if in this community here, [00:32:00] those, we have a lot of those who would destroy the community Yeah. For financial gain.

[00:32:05] Andre McCullough: And we celebrate those people. Yeah. We celebrate those people. We have to, we, we do missions and then we try to reach out to 'em and you should do that. But we gotta look at, we can't forget those like you and I. Who may be voters, right? Who may care about the arts who may go out and buy and purchase. Black owned who wants to see everybody else succeed. Yeah. We have to put our energy on in that porch. That's all I'm saying. We just put our energy for those who want more. Not that 

[00:32:30] DJ And?: you're disliking, disliking, or trying to. But we need to make sure that we're funneling energy to those right who are in 

[00:32:37] Andre McCullough: the right space.

[00:32:38] Andre McCullough: In the right space. Because once we're the, those people are strong, right? Then guess what? They can build something for those important, bring the others up. 

[00:32:46] DJ And?: Yeah. And they can drop those ways of life, right? That were once dysfunctional. And they'll have something else alternatively, that will allow 

[00:32:54] Andre McCullough: them to succeed.

[00:32:54] Andre McCullough: you gotta think of this. You can't tell people what to do, but you can show 'em an option if they see a [00:33:00] stronger people. What do you think They now they have an option. Yeah. To walk in the door of the stronger. I love 

[00:33:06] Ta-Myia: having options, yeah. That's what money give. Money gives you options.

[00:33:09] DJ And?: Yeah. And you can create your own options. 

[00:33:11] Andre McCullough: Dang. That's a good point. Everybody wants safety. Everybody want, yeah. Wanna feel important. Everybody either wants the better things in life, but all the, all of us don't go by it the same way. 

[00:33:19] Ta-Myia: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Can you talk about your podcast, the State of Us podcast, yeah. The state of, I'm not really politic into politics 

[00:33:25] Andre McCullough: so do you debate the state of us is, Politically driven. Yeah, but also current event. Not just only politics. Yeah. But I feel like this is what, as a people, we all understand politics drive everything you do. Thank 

[00:33:37] DJ And?: you.

[00:33:37] DJ And?: Thank you. That's how I went to, cause I understood it's the science of 

[00:33:40] Andre McCullough: everything. Everything from the, from what you, for how much you charge. Yep. Economics what you pay for. How you eat when you eat. How much you get paid on the job. Yep. You know the price. The price 

[00:33:49] DJ And?: of Tea of China.

[00:33:50] DJ And?: Yeah. That's politics. Politics. I remember my dad saying that. No, what the heck he was talking about. You mean by that? Yeah. 

[00:33:55] Andre McCullough: I get it. Politics. And I feel like it, and that's what a lot of us through [00:34:00] just being in survival mode black. That understanding on how, cuz I feel like if we understood it more we'd all.

[00:34:08] Andre McCullough: In a more, in our 

[00:34:09] DJ And?: interest. You don't have to say anything else about that. Yeah. Moving silence. Just Yeah. You don't have to telegraph your move. Yeah. No. Just vote your interests. Yeah. So 

[00:34:17] Andre McCullough: I, the purpose of my podcast is also to change the image of the black community. We just talked about how, we went the, did a downgrade because what's coming outta community.

[00:34:25] Andre McCullough: Yeah. Through propaganda, through the hundreds of years we. They, black Americans have been, been look showed to be, buffoons. It took a long time though. Yeah. It over hundred. That's how over tell her time wrong. We must have been. Exactly. Yeah. But now we're at a point and through that we've had to do whatever we could to survive.

[00:34:43] Andre McCullough: Yeah. And that's why, that's how you got everything it is today. Everybody's just doing what they can to survive. The other day I was in the store and A lady said to her child, her child asked for something, he said, and she's boy, a bee ain't got no money. And she said that loud. And she said it in front of a white clerk, which shook her head, and my [00:35:00] first thing is, this is how that will affect this is how, what her actions did can affect another black person. If another black person came in that looks like her. And applied for a job, a position that was open.

[00:35:11] Andre McCullough: Do you think that person's gonna think about that experience in that. It's true. Our image is everything. We have to call back and reclaim our own, our image for ourselves. And we put out what we know who we are versus what they have been taught. So part of my podcast is to rebuild our in image, educate us and just, and keep us informed and hopefully people will want to be in.

[00:35:34] Andre McCullough: And be in participation, o other activities that would bring us to a level of more successful people. Yeah, that's the point. That's the point of it. I 

[00:35:42] Ta-Myia: like that man. I like that image is everything. Yes. Because you only get one time. 

[00:35:45] DJ And?: What is it? What was the, I know everybody learn, learns this from their guidance counselor before they move on up at a high school.

[00:35:52] DJ And?: If you make it that far, that first impression is everything. Everything you, that there's a taste that you leave in [00:36:00] somebody's. After they see you the first time, they don't have to ever see you again. And there's another thing too that goes along with it is the last contact that somebody has with you is what they're gonna remember of you most.

[00:36:13] DJ And?: The last thing, it doesn't matter how much you change. Yeah. Lasting. Yeah. So you have to make sure if you have changed, that you then bring that back. And this is what I, going back to the black community in general, the changes that we're making current. To better ourselves and try to reclaim some of that moral high ground that we once had.

[00:36:31] DJ And?: That's gonna involve us, and this is going back, this dialoguing, going back to what we were saying earlier about taking those who care. And putting our energy into them. Yeah. Because I want them to see those people. I don't need you to see the people who don't care. That's not the image that we need to promote, right?

[00:36:48] DJ And?: We gotta make sure that we're on brand when it comes to that, and I think of all the conversation that we had today, this is the real dialogue, right? Because we started the morning one way and we're. With a, everything's full circle. Yeah, [00:37:00] everything's full circle. So there must be some reason for this.

[00:37:02] DJ And?: I always say serendipity. Yeah. It is serendipity. You have to be prepared for it. And I think this is something that is very important. I think this makes so much sense. You were here for a reason. Yeah, we were supposed to talk to you today. Yeah, it came at the right time. I'm happy we didn't speak to you at the beginning.

[00:37:16] DJ And?: Oh yeah. It was necessary to speak to you at the end. So I think this is excellent. I think this is something that our podcast audience listeners, anybody, even if you am, first time you ever hear it and you hear this episode, go back and listen to the other episodes and you're gonna see, oh, this actually makes sense.

[00:37:30] DJ And?: I see where they're going now. Yeah. It rounds out perfectly on that topic, and. I guess moving forward it behooves us to be more mindful of our actions, our behaviors, what we're promot. And who we put our energies 

[00:37:43] Ta-Myia: into, right? Yes. Energy is everything. Yep. So what current projects are you working on?

[00:37:47] Ta-Myia: Can we be on your podcast? 

[00:37:49] Andre McCullough: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I be You need to set that up so you you talk to me. We can talk about the community and how we gonna, how we continue to build Yeah. What's on my plate now? I do, I am, I will be working on a few documentaries [00:38:00] for some. Some upstate heroes. Nice.

[00:38:02] Andre McCullough: And I got a few commercials lined up. Nice. I'm also working on a YouTube series. Okay. You need an actor? Let's move. Yeah, let me know. And yeah, that, that series gonna be if you don't take that, which I feel like you, your guys are, there's a battle between the traditional man and the modern.

[00:38:18] Andre McCullough: I heard 

[00:38:19] DJ And?: about this battle. 

[00:38:20] Ta-Myia: Tell me more. I haven't, you haven't heard it yet? No, I'm not on TikTok like that. Okay. All right. I got one, but I don't 

[00:38:25] Andre McCullough: be on it. On Instagram. Instagram. And how about it? You know that, There's the traditional male, which is the man who has, hold onto those traditions and would like the woman to be in the house and pregnant and cook and have thing.

[00:38:39] Andre McCullough: The women today, hey, yeah, we not with it. 

[00:38:41] DJ And?: I ain't doing that. I'm out here working bare barefooted in the, up in the kitchen. Yeah. But 

[00:38:45] Andre McCullough: the conflict is that women would like their man to lead. Oh 

[00:38:49] DJ And?: my lord. Jesus 

[00:38:50] Andre McCullough: hit it. And when they lead, hit it, it's a. Yeah, I'm like that.

[00:38:53] Andre McCullough: Okay. So there we love 

[00:38:54] DJ And?: that. Is you ready? I like that thing. I like it because it brings in a good, it brings in a good [00:39:00] dichotomy of understanding. Yeah. It's okay. What was the name of that show they had back in the day? I'm gonna be wrong with it. No. Look. With Al Bundy, Loving marriage and love.

[00:39:10] Andre McCullough: Yeah. 

[00:39:10] DJ And?: Yeah. We used to watch that. Yeah. So the song at the beginning, it goes together like Horse and Carrot and it says like you can't have one without the other. So you want your man, especially as black women, to be strong. And bit and have the ability to lead out front.

[00:39:24] DJ And?: At least that's what you want. Cuz do you want a weak black man out in front of all these white people 

[00:39:28] Andre McCullough: on paper? So we just, we contradict 

[00:39:30] Ta-Myia: ourselves. Yeah. Contradict, I'm 

[00:39:31] DJ And?: a walkin contradiction. That's what you're telling me. No, it, but it's not but it's not your, it's not, it is your fault.

[00:39:37] DJ And?: Again, you gotta realize they've been working on us for the last 400 years. Yeah. Yeah. It took a lot of time to get it to the point where the black woman will finally. No, I'm gonna be the lead. The man will step to the background. You know how long they had to beat us. Yeah. And tar and feather us and rip us apart.

[00:39:51] DJ And?: Like to get that to happen. How much influx they had to put, they had to work with welfare to do this. Yeah. They had to like, they had to do so many things to get this to happen. So it [00:40:00] finally made it to the point where we're looking at it and it's all right, this is strange. How did it get here?

[00:40:03] DJ And?: And I know a lot of folks like to deal with. Effects. Sometimes you gotta ask about the journey. Yeah. Like how did we get from point A to point B? I know we're at point B now. The process. Yeah. What's the process? How did we get here? And once we can actually look at those things. And I know you're a process oriented person, especially when it comes to quality.

[00:40:20] DJ And?: Yeah. I know you have a good conversation on your podcast about this, so we definitely would love to 

[00:40:24] Andre McCullough: join me. Oh yeah. 

[00:40:25] Ta-Myia: You would love Mike. Our person that's not here today, he, y'all would have a great conversation. Pod man. Have to meet 

[00:40:31] Andre McCullough: Mike. 

[00:40:32] DJ And?: Man. With that being said I must ask if there's any social media, shameless plugs you wanna make, and then also if anybody's interested in working with you, how do they get 

[00:40:42] Andre McCullough: in contact?

[00:40:43] Andre McCullough: My article media@gmail.com. I am on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. And for the ts u State of Us podcast on Facebook is put in ts o. Podcast and you'll find me excellent. Yeah. Excellent. Yes, man, this 

[00:40:57] Ta-Myia: is a great episode. Excellent episode. All the episodes was great today, [00:41:00] but 

[00:41:00] DJ And?: no dope today. It was dope.

[00:41:01] DJ And?: It was like 

[00:41:01] Ta-Myia: in the right place. I'm on home with all this knowledge rebuild. I'm back. 

[00:41:04] DJ And?: No, seriously, man. We created a nice little energy vortex right here for some good energy to go and hit the rest of the world. So we hope it does that. We hope we accomplish that goal. And I know just signing out for the Hilltop Glove podcast.

[00:41:15] DJ And?: I'm DJ Ann. Tamaya Allen. What up though? Skip in the background. And of course, our same guest. Mr. McCullough, I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Peace.