A Word from the Euke' Joint

He’s a first year student with his own radio show, and he knows how to have fun both on and off the airwaves.

Euclyn Williams is a Radio/Television production major whose ambition to succeed has taken off very well for his first year as a college student. Back in September, Williams was seen running from building to building posting up fliers about his radio show. The Euke’ Joint which aired from 2-3pm on Thursdays.

“I love radio,” Williams said. “Aside from it being fun and interactive, I get a platform where no one else can tell me to be quiet. The whole purpose is for me to talk…my specialty.” Williams knew how to start off a conversation and get a crowd going with his jokes, but after hearing an episode from radio personality, Wendy Williams, he was captivated by Radio Arts. Williams likes to keep the show real, interactive, and fun for his listeners.

“I try to plan my shows, but the topics vary based on my mood. However no topic is too overbearing,” he said. He also has an eclectic taste in music. He grew up listening to gospel, loves his R&B and likes to have his pop music and a little bit of country here and there. While Williams would love to pursue a career as a radio host, he spoke of a challenge that the radio industry is currently going through.

“As we now see, the radio is losing its edge,” he said. “The radio industry is slowly depleting, and a lot of radio personalities find themselves being replaced by computers unless their show pulls in the proper audience.” He also feels any unknown person who is attempting to become a known figure in the industry will find him/herself struggling quite a bit.

“It’s easy to predict that if [one] wants to venture in radio, [they would] pursue something else and compliment the two.” With that being said, Williams next is involving a television show.

“I find radio easier to do, but I also find myself making gestures to emphasize my points and my audience can’t see me,” he said. “Television is the future.” Williams has been receiving positive feedback from those who listen to his radio show.

Shancia Jarrett, a senior communications disorders major, finds his show interesting and funny. Jarrett stated that she has classes around the time of show, but she heard one of his episodes and was really impressed. Senior education major Jessica Walker was recently a guest on his radio show and plans on being a guest again.

“The show isn’t practiced or rehearsed and it’s not refined,” she said. “People were being themselves and it was a fun time.” Walker joined Williams on his show on November 18th about relationships and the media.

“We started talking about relationships, but it branched off into relationships as portrayed in the media and how some couples try to emulate what the media defines as a relationship.” If anyone is interested in expressing themselves on the Euke’ Joint, talk to Williams and you will certainly have a ball. Keep tuning into the Euke’ Joint and be on the lookout next semester for any changes in the time slot.

Fahari Libertad Magazine, December 2008

Looking for Fame?

"We Want Fame!" By Marcus Scott
The 80s' dance-pop new-wave scene is back and better than ever in The Fame, a tour de force by vogue princess Gaga

New dance-pop princess and velvet mafia diva Lady Gaga is making it hard to choose between favorites in the Viacom/radio pop music royalty. 2008 gave us some of the best new acts like Katy Perry, who rocked the airwaves with her album One of the Boys, and upped the ante for up-and-comers Rihanna who made cameos in T.I.’s number-one “Live your Life” and then had her own chart topper with “Disturbia.” Most importantly, it gave us Lady Gaga via The Fame. The Fame is a go-go black light paradise, filled with contagious, plastic boogie and funky verse-chorus grooves one would expect in today’s music. The thing that wasn’t expected really, was its amazing track listing which is few and far between with today’s artists. Packed with glitter techno dance-fluff that will hypnotize every nightlife lover to the dance floor, transforming the masses into club zombies, this album is pop at its apex. Not bad for a new-comer, right?

Let’s start with the over-addictive smash-hit, “Just Dance” written by Alianue “Akon” Thiam, RedOne and Lady Gaga herself. With the slick haired Colby O’Donis making his cameo, it’s a stand alone from the album that only pop genius music executives could create. It works. With its disco ball automation fidgets and Gaga’s speak-singing ladytron glamour, the sexy musical triumph sores to new levels in pop. Interesting for a song that’s quite different from other Fame songs, which are more of piano rock/baroque-pop quality. Its hard-hitting, juiced-up speaker box bass during its magic chorus comes from the same polished craft that made “Distubia” and “American Boy” famed classics. Expect this song to make several best of Y2K dance mix play lists.

“LoveGame” is another catchy tune, but the club inspired dance-pop lyrics are very stereotypical of the rudimentary window-shopping schoolgirl tween genre. With lyrics like “Let’s have some fun, this beat is sick/ I wanna take a ride on your disco stick,” the song is all quirky beat and melody backbeat. Nevertheless, it’s a grand song and deserves a place as one of the stand-out tracks on this dance album. But then there are songs that sound recycled and unoriginal.

Ever get the sneaky suspicion what Gwen Stefani may have sounded like without the boys of No Doubt, had No Doubt not existed? Well, you’re in luck. When her 2005 hit album titled Love. Angel. Music. Baby. smashed American airwaves with the ever-popular “HollaBack Girl,” people knew Stefani was up to something big, with her 80’s dance-pop, electro-synth rock, psychedelic hip-hop and roller-disco tunes. Now, imagine her at 22 years old. The third track “Paparazzi,” on Lady Gaga’s debut is very much like a great homage to Stefani, with its easy-breezy-beautiful girly-girl harmony and party-it-up glamazon delivery. The clash of synths and piano are a nice effort on Gaga’s part and Stefani would be smitten (and at the same time, outraged) that Gaga found the missing piece between L.A.M.B. songs “The Real Thing” and “Serious.” Other songs like “Eh, Eh (There is nothing I can say)” and “Summer Boy” are obvious efforts of Gaga’s inspiration as well. The sassy bubblegum pop “Eh, Eh (There is nothing I can say)” sounds like a remixed 90s Ace of Base island pop machine that made “The Sign” an instantly recognizable club sensation. The same can be said about the beach bum fun-in-the-sun discotheque rocker “Summer Boy,” which sounds like the great Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” sequel with Gaga’s soft coos and sassy come-ons.

The album is definitely a refreshing turn by today’s standards, where smash hit music seems to have shot out of a haywire bubblegum machine that shoots and scores at its own discretion. But, the lyrics are what make and break the album. While its clear that Gaga and the boys are very talented at making great pop songs, there are no standout choruses or memorable lyrics, just creative story telling and computerization wizardry. Just listen to “Poker Face,” another catchy and in-your-face too-cool-for-school dance song. The metaphor in comparing relationships to card games is very clever, and the RedOne collaboration is golden, but with lyrics like “’Cause I’m bluffin’ with my muffin” it seems Gaga is just desperate for lyrical inspiration. “Brown eyes” is another favorite, with a grungy piano sound that resembles pop tart Katy Rose or Vanessa Carlton at their prime.

However, the album is one the best pop records of 2008 and with Lady Gaga’s impressive spirit; Gaga is another popular music icon in the making. But, what concerns this critic is, how will she top this record?

If you want to see the link in its complete form and in its published form, please go to:
http://blog.nu-soulmag.com/?p=987

Black Thomas (Krave Magazine)

"Black on Black" by Marcus Scott

Few fresh faces in the industry can say they were in big box-office hits, Oscar winning films and award winning music videos, nonetheless in a span of three years. Young Hollywood luminary Black Thomas, star of the 2008 dance film “Step Up 2 The Streets,” has. Now the young star is looking to launch an A-list career in upcoming films “Detention,” “The Jump Off” starring Wayne Brady and Cedric The Entertainer and “Pastor Brown,” a directorial debut by former Krave cover boy Rockmond Dunbar. The 25-year-old actor says he’s just a kid looking to make a dollar and happens to love what he does.

Last summer’s smash hit “Step Up 2 The Streets” showed Thomas, then an unknown to the industry, as the floor-cutting 410 desperado Tuck, easily outshining some of the leads. A few years prior to his performance as Tuck, he played a Bad Side Dancer in the award-winning “Dreamgirls” and moved on to a role in another dance film, “Stomp the Yard,” which he says was his favorite on-set experience. Garnering screen time, Tuck belted a few bars during the Theta Nu Theta and Mu Gamma Xi show-off, where he played alongside former another Krave cover boy, Brian J. White.

The film’s portrayl of a historically black university in the south spoke to Thomas and gave him an experience he never experienced in his Floridan college, “There was so much footage that wasn’t on the DVD, that I was so mad about, but it’s just the business,” Thomas explained. “Working on that film alone, “Stomp The Yard” was a historical film being that it promoted black universities and fraternities. I wasn’t in a social fraternity, but it was great feeling to be able to feel that in a movie; it was a positive wonderful experience.”

But Black was not unknown to historically black universities. Born Alfred Nolan Thomas, Thomas, a Miami native earned his bachelor’s in theatre with a minor in journalism from the pretigious Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University where perfected dancing, before moving to pursue a career in The City of Angels. “It was the only thing I was kind of good at growing up,” Thomas proclaimed. “I tried football, and I even did it in high school. But you know how you get those athletes who are just stars and then you have people who just play hard? That’s how I was for football, but when it came to entertaining and acting, I was always the star and it was easy.”

Before his life in the glam land of Hollywood, Thomas said his life in Florida was mostly school. Not gaining much exposure to the type of dancing that was present in California at the time, and had to re-learn because the “dancing in California is at another level, because its made for TV. In college, there was a group called the FAMU Strikers which was a hip-hop group on campus—it was more like a southern style of dancing.” But maybe it helped that he didn’t find his love for the art until high school after his initial exposure as a child. Thomas was awestruck, “It’s funny because I actually got into hip hop dancing by going to the skating rink with my cousin and there were men in middle of the skating rink that would dance to impress the girls.”

Since his Hollywood arrival, the star’s resume has matured and Thomas has had a few spots on television sitcoms and music videos from some of today’s hottest personalities. Rather dancing alongside Solange in Beyoncé’s “Get me bodied”, appearing in Rihanna’s “S.O.S”, as Danity Kane and The Cheetah Girls’ eye candy or performing live with Chris Brown and The Pussycat Dolls, Thomas has build a rather extensive dancing portfolio. However, he insists that acting is his first love,“My love has always been acting, but dancing, which was a hobby that fun, but it came to me and gave me everything I want out of life,” Thomas explained.

But life was not a crystal stair in landing the roles he is now gaining recognition for. Thomas said he learned a thing or two about the film business transitioning from his Florida homeland, a lesson some may learn and never recover from. “Nothing’s guaranteed in this business, no matter what, even when you got it,” Thomas said. “I remember my biggest lesson was when I was booked on the Mary J. Blige tour. I was looking forward to that $30,000 that I was going to make on that tour or whatever and just randomly, she decided to she wanted to do an Aretha Franklin vibe, so she ended up cutting her dancers. Then, I got into a car accident and my car was taken away from me.” Devastated, Thomas re-evaluated his life in California. “It was a key moment for me because you never know when you’re going to go through hardships out here in California.”

Acknowledging this, Thomas anted up his acting and his dancing techniques and pushed on. He also took those skills and created a small philosophy for himself that has helped him take on challenging roles because of his fusion of dance and theater. “Dancing is all expression; it’s the purest form of expression [because] you’re showing a character through your body,” Thomas remarked candid but rather clandestinely. “Now I’m more expressive where I know more so I know how to use it compared to someone who’s just acting, who’s just used to expressing their emotions through their voice and face. I can embody my character through every inch of me because I know my body and how to use it because I know myself and how I move.”

This allowed the young movie star to be work alongside choreographers Hi-Hat of “Bring It On” and Dave Scott of “Stomp The Yard” in “Step Up 2 The Streets.” “Playing Tuck was kind of cool because he was the villain, and I got to express that angry black man in me,” Thomas laughed. “I thought it was a great opportunity to have me play a character in a leadership position; I was the head of the 410. Playing the evil role compared to a good character like the role I have in “The Jump Off,” it’s just the beginning of my range.”

He’s right. Since his role as Tuck, he could be said that this paved the way for him in many respects to his next film where Thomas co-stars alongside Kings of Comedy Wayne Brady and Cedric The Entertainer. “The Jump Off,” a film now in the process of being filmed, shows Thomas playing the role of a young man whose father’s has abandoned him, who releases his frustration through performing underground battles with a team. Eventually his hang-ups end with dire consequences. Wayne Brady, a coach, takes him in and ultimately his rival, Cedric The Entertainer decides to limit the competition by squaring off against Brady and his newest prodigy, Thomas.

“I’m really excited to working with Wayne Brady and to be working with a legend like Cedric The Entertainer,” Thomas shined. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be exposed to them from a kid up until now, so being able to work with them, I know [there’s] so much they can give me as an actor, entertainer and businessman in this field.”

But that’s not all from Thomas. You’ve probably seen in a few places sprinkled in, “I just did a Lil Wayne video where I play a bank teller,” said about his work in the music video Lil Wayne’s” Got Money” featuring T Pain.

Thomas has also been hard at work in the meantime with other projects such as the highly anticipated “Pastor Brown” where he plays the part of JC, a friend of the main character. The first directorial effort by Rockmond Dunbar tells the story of young adventurous woman estranged from her family for many years, asked to operate the Mt. Olive Baptist Church by her ailing by her ailing father on his deathbed.

In addition there’s the teen horror film, “Detention” to which Thomas described as “The Breakfast Club” where you have a horror film where you have these students in detention.” The film depicts a small town where a student was killed and decides to take vengeance of the kids left in the school. “What happens is one of the student’s parents kills one of the kids, and he comes back and seeks vengeance on the students,” Thomas said psyched. “I play one of the parents during the time when they were younger.”

He’s living large. At one time the face of various commercials and Thomas makes a transition few stars have the opportunity to bigger roles, including work with kids. “I’m about to assist Chuck Maldonado (a choreographer for “Stomp The Yard”) this Nickelodeon TV show. It’s originally called “Beacon,” but I think they’re changing the name. Its like “High School Musical”, but it involves real kids with real problems. No love stories, none of that crap,” Thomas expressed. “I’m [also] in discussions with Wayne Brady to help him with his album and there’s an international workshop where I taught stepping and hip hop out in Australia. I like to definitely reach out to the kids and try to help as much as I can.”

At the moment, the young star just says he’s looking to upgrade his fashion sense and in the process, he’s slowing turning out his swagger.

“I’m just getting into fashion etiquette [and] how to look extra snazzy on camera. It’s hard for me because I was a college student, so it was mostly sweats,” said Thomas. “I’m not one who likes to even shop. It’s still on the college student transitioning to Hollywood star. Right now, I’m rocking Obama.”

Its funny that a star with so much promise hasn’t made his hajj to Broadway to take up theatre, his major at Florida A&M University.

“I like movies more; I think live theatre is more strenuous on actors because you have to memorize the whole script and you have to have it ready [because] you’re performing it for X amount of people,” Thomas clarified. “I like movies because you’re breaking down scenes, you’re reaching greater audiences and people use them as references. It’s something timeless. I’d rather work on a scene over and over again, shoot it a couple of times, have it perfect and have it to where I want to watch it in its perfect form.”

Working on his perfect form as an actor and as a thespian, Thomas looks to the future with open eyes and an open mind, “I’m fulfilling my dreams and kind of opened myself up to whatever God had for me.”