Troi “Star” Torain: Star and Bucwild Continue to Shine in Entertainment

In the world of music radio, the words “radio personality” are mostly an oxymoron. The soundscape is loaded with generic sounding DJs who rarely provide an original perspective on anything. The medium consists of individuals with great announcers’ voices who don’t offer much more than a bit of banter before the main attraction- popular music. Few broadcasters who shine on radio are rarely able to parlay their success onto other mediums. Troi Torrain is a shining example of the rare exception.

The former magazine publisher, television host, and radio star known to millions as Star (mastermind of The Star and Bucwild entertainment brand), has successfully delivered his distinct angle on entertainment from the mass media platform of the 20th Century to that of the 21st.

He’s done this by analyzing the playing field and entering the world of Internet video by delivering short-form, brilliantly executed segments that have captured the attention of a new audience, whose media consumption can be best described as attention deficit viewing. Taking into consideration that the Internet is thousands of times more cluttered than radio, it is no small feat to capture a significant audience in this space, especially one consisting of a different demographic than that of most of his radio listeners. In a matter of months, Star and his longtime partner Timothy Joseph aka Bucwild have already built a substantial following online by producing compelling videos consisting of social commentary, comedy, and pop culture rants that are distinctly Star and Bucwild.

In an environment where the barriers for posting potentially viral video content are as low as possible, one must first understand that Star has already overcome many obstacles present in media—the biggest being that of building significant awareness for his brand in an amazingly competitive environment. Star’s foray into media started with Around the Way Connections, a magazine that he published during the early to mid 1990s. Shortly after that, he began to write a column for the nationally distributed Source magazine. During the later ‘90s he appeared on his own public access television program in the New York tri state area. This visibility provided a significant opportunity for the duo. In 1999, MTV signed Star and Bucwild on to host the Beat Suite show. That set the stage for Emmis Communications to offer the duo a show on their New York flagship station, Hot 97. During his time on the station he won over the morning-drive mind-share of millions of New Yorkers and others who tuned in to get a dose of Star’s brash, sarcastic, and compelling brand of radio. Star further proved his significance as a broadcaster by beating radio veteran Howard Stern’s iron clad hold on ratings. After three years of prominence, he left over a disagreement with radio management. That’s the powerful thing about a one of a kind personality, Star couldn’t be kept away for long. Within a year, broadcasting giant Clear Channel presented him with an offer to host the morning show on New York’s Power 105.9. The deal included syndication in many major markets around the country. According to an article in The New York Times, he signed “a reported four-year $17 million deal” (Ogunnaike, 2006). During his time on 105.9, Star continued to solidify his career and the brand by becoming the favorite show of millions in cities around the country. Within a couple of years he found himself at odds with management and law enforcement over an on-air feud with a rival radio host that turned into a blown out war of words fueled by threats, criminal accusations, and political correctness. He was subsequently let go by Clear Channel, the same company that previously touted their support of Star’s unique yet abrasive approach to radio. Regardless, he wasn’t without a radio home for long. In 2008, an upstart station in New York, The Pulse, hired Star and Bucwild to help launch the station by hosting the morning show. That station’s parent company, Mega Media Group, Inc., also hired the duo to be their co-VP’s of the company’s radio division. (BusinessWeek.com, 2009) Due to health issues including a liver transplant, which he has now recovered from, Star’s stint on the air at The Pulse was less than a year. However, he’s still involved on the business side with the station.

This brings us to Star’s decision to focus the power of his brand onto the medium of Internet video. This medium has liberated him from the constraints the radio dial. In regards to on-air ratings- radio’s version of traffic is communicated by a short list of gatekeepers of this information. In our conversation, Star states, “I don’t know this for a fact, but if you look at the reports and you look at the adjustments that are constantly, constantly being made, data that was so called overlooked, it’s very sketchy…” Despite his issues with traditional radio, including a pending lawsuit with Clear Channel, he states that he will soon be on the radio again— there is no doubt that he will dominate the medium once more. In regards to satellite radio, once thought by some to be a big part of the future of radio, Star explains the logic of using the Internet as a medium, “I have the Internet which is what everybody has. There’s certain things that are considered luxuries in life and we’re still in a recession. …the Internet, across the board, is what’s really popping, what’s very much important to our daily lives.” His move to the Internet is also a sign of keeping up with times, technology, and trends. He states that he enjoys producing video content for the net because his audience online is “younger.” This is a brilliant move that allows him to appeal to different generations and those who don’t tune in to radio. It may be difficult to predict the future of radio, however, to concur with Star, it’s clear that many of the trends that we are seeing in media are happening online. Major media such as TV, newspapers, and radio regularly refer and rely to outlets such as Twitter, YouTube, TMZ, Perez Hilton and the Huffington Post as their sources for information.

Star’s foray onto the world of online video allows him to reach a younger audience and continue to build his brand as he monetizes the viewership of his content. He’s currently in talks with motion picture studios to expand Star and Bucwild into film. This move seems like a logical extension for the brand. However, regardless of Hollywood’s big screen, the reality is that he’s already on the biggest screen of all, our computer. It’s clear that Star will continue to be a part of it. And, if he also returns to the mass media of old, he would have already garnered a larger audience from the Internet that will now follow his off-line activities. Regardless of what the future holds for media, it appears that this star will continue to shine.

The Interview

You seem to be having a lot of fun on the Internet. How does the Internet affect your creativity?

You’re absolutely right. I am having a lot of fun. It’s been a long time in the making. I was down for the count. As most people who pay attention to the Star & Buc Wild brand know, I had a liver transplant January of last year. So it’s getting back into the groove of things and looking at things from a much more clairvoyant perspective. So it is fun, the process of re-introducing the brand and also enforcing what we’ve done over the years.

But in terms of creativity, it’s just regurgitating things that I think about throughout the course of the week. The clips or the segments are a result of conversations that I have with my nucleus, my producer Pablo, DJ Vlad and DX21 and sometimes Buc Wild.

I would imagine you’ve been through a life-changing experience. How did that change your perspective on what you do for a living?

Well, what I do for a living is just business, many different types of business. I’m not just in the entertainment field. I have some things that I’m very passionate about, outside of the entertainment world. So if you’re talking about my surgery, I’m able to now just function a lot better because I’ve done some damage to my body over the years– partying in the ‘80s too hard, shall we say, and some of the ‘90s as well.

After dominating New York radio for years, how does it feel to be away from the New York radio scene?

My radio run was actually very short. I’m very appreciative when people say, “oh, I used to listen to you for years” or back in the day. But in reality, I started doing radio, commercial radio, in 2000. And I was only on Shot 97 for about two-and-a-half years. Then there was a year that I wasn’t on radio, that I was actually sitting out on suspension while being paid. Then I went up to Connecticut for a year and then came back to New York for over a year. I don’t mean to sound boisterous. I think that the brand made such an impact that it was perceived that we were on the air longer than we were.

But we’ve done what we’ve done and when I say we, I’m talking about my team, myself, Buc Wild and my former producer and some employees that assisted the journey. It was very exciting. But it’s not the apex of what I have set out to do in terms of entertainment. It’s still putting the work in right now that’s fun, exciting and something that I really feel passionate about.

It seems almost as though radio’s upon collapse. Do you think radio’s going to be around, as far as the way we’ve known it?

That’s a very complex question. I don’t claim to be a radio professional, to be honest with you. I follow certain aspects of the radio industry. Again, not to sound too cocky but there’s more things in life that I’m passionate about, aside from radio. I guess to some degree I don’t want to just be dismissive about what I’ve done, because I do want acknowledgement for how I came into the game and how I changed the game.

But in terms of traditional radio and what we will know radio to be in the future, I think it’s evolving right now. I think that the country itself is shifting and changing and things are literally just in the hands of technology right now.

So what it’s going to ultimately become as far as the Star & Buc Wild brand is concerned, we’re always going to be players. That’s what I pride myself on, doing great business within the market. I don’t know the answer to that question technically.

And obviously, with the Vlad TV, you’re able to reach more people than you were on the other medium?

Sure, sure. Not only more people, but a younger demographic and that’s what’s important to me. Terrestrial radio and satellite radio, they have a formula that they use. They have a very contrived approach. They have research and perceptuals. They have business that won’t allow you to actually get proper credit, shall we say. Years ago you had the old diary system of ratings, where people would fill out forms and mail them back in. To some degree, that was very skewed because it was based upon what the market was interpreted to be.

Now you have the PPM system, Personal People Meter, that supposedly reacts to people’s behavior, behavioral patterns. The Internet allows anyone at a certain age or diverse ethnicity to not only tune in, turn on, and drop out, also there’s no contrived analysis of who’s actually paying attention or who’s reacting or who’s appreciating what it is that you’re doing.

(In regards to ratings) there’s been a lot of controversy. Some say that a lot of demographics are not being truly represented. What’s your take on that?

Well, I do believe that the powers that be that are on the board of advisors for Arbitron by way of the PPM system, I do believe that those are the big radio conglomerates. So to some degree things are going to be manipulated, in my mind. I don’t know this for a fact but if you look at the reports and you look at the adjustments that are constantly, constantly being made, data that was so called overlooked, it’s very sketchy, shall we say. It’s very odd that entire research was overlooked and things have to be reissued a year later. And that’s what we’re seeing going on right now. It’s almost a slap in the face of Hispanic radio that you know is thriving. But to be told that your audience is not paying attention the way that you thought they were a few years back, it’s almost calling people stupid right in their faces.

If we could talk a little bit about your current endeavor; Vlad TV’s been outrageously entertaining. I’m wondering about your business decision to go in that direction, is it as simple as it seems– basically monetizing content with ads that we see stripped at the bottom of the video?

Well, it’s very much a Star & Buc Wild formula to do what it is that we do. So in that sense, it’s easy for us, my brand. Hooking up with DJ Vlad, who’s a very, very creative and intelligent person within his own right, it was just a mesh, a total fit, a shoe in, shall we say. I was very excited to chop it up and talk with him because since bouncing back from the liver transplant I had to realize that I didn’t have the technical team that I needed for the next journey of Star & Buc Wild.

So rather than try and focus on rebuilding Star&Buc Wild.com or some other type of website, I was smart enough to know that someone such as DJ Vlad, who had what my brand needed, that would be the way to go. Getting into the flow of things and putting in the work and watching the end result and opening up your doors for scrutiny and criticism and cynicism, these are the things that are bringing us the results that we’re getting.

We’re also getting a lot of support from other Internet properties such as ThisIs50.com and NowRight.com. WorldStarHipHop.com supported us out of the gate. RapRadar.com and many, many other sites. CraveOnline.com and so on and so forth. So the end result is a combined effort of people supporting us, but also at the same time, the original Star & Buc Wild formula.

We used to do a public access show years ago, 1999 to be exact, on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. I used to pay $120 a week just so Star & Buc Wild could sit on television on Monday nights at 12:00 midnight for half an hour and just chop it up as we did on the street corner of St. Johns and Nostrand in Brooklyn.

So the formula is very much what we’ve been doing over the years. When we were on MTV in 2000 and we did a show called the Beat Suite, which was a daily show, Monday through Friday at 11:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon, I wrote those episodes as well. It was just the camera being on with Star & Buc Wild just doing what it is that we do. Just two guys, just chopping it up.

Obviously the talent is there, the formula is down pat, you have the audience. Is this business approach basically the same as radio– receiving revenue from the sale of advertising– except it’s not as intrusive because you’re not taking breaks? Is that the formula for monetizing content online?

Well, there’s many different ways to reap the benefits of your efforts on the Internet and by way of the Internet. And there are sales models that are working. There are some that are being explored now. There’s a patient factor that you have to work with. And there’s a hope, to a certain degree, that the thrust of your efforts will be received and that you can actually know where it is that you’re going with what you’re putting forth.

So there is a way to monetize what it is that you’re doing and this is why we open up our channels to other Internet properties. I’ve done something that has been I guess somewhat considered to be out of character of the Star & Buc Wild brand. I’ve never done shout outs in the past and I still don’t consider anything to be a shout out. We do acknowledge people. We always have from time to time. But I actually pushed a little harder in that arena when we did two clips. One was called Knights at the DJ Table and the other one was called The Hip-Hop Matrix. Where we clearly just went down the list of people who were supportive and people who had been a part of the impact of the hip-hop culture over the years.

Mobile right now is pretty big and there’s a lot of money in the mobile arena, especially with iPhone and all that hoopla. Do you guys have a mobile strategy?

We have a few strategies that we’re exploring together. When I say we, I’m talking about the Star & Buc Wild brand and DJ Vlad. But at the same time, you have to be confident about your product and that’s where the patient factor comes in. You have a lot of people that are positioning themselves like bird shit. They’re just all over the place. They’re trying to execute what they think the next hottest thing is going to be, just like a couple of years back it was ring tones.

There’s a strategy, yes, but there’s also a respect for what we do and there’s a weeding out process. You have to see how some things are going to be received by people. The technology that’s at our fingertips right now, it can make something burn out real fast. So the mobile strategy that clearly, clearly everybody wants to be a part of, I think that we’re still trying to see just exactly how it’s going to either financially benefit certain efforts or whether it’s going to just allow things to burn out real fast.

We’re just now getting Internet access in a lot of vehicles, so that’s something that’s going to be very, very important as well in determining who has the creative flow that is worth paying attention to.

In regards to satellite radio, it seems to be almost a dying medium because the Internet has become so accessible. What’s your prognosis for satellite radio? Do you think it’s going to be around for the long haul?

I don’t have anything to do with satellite radio. I don’t claim to know their business strategy. I don’t mean any disrespect toward satellite radio but I don’t have satellite radio. I never have. I have the Internet which is what everybody has. There’s certain things that are considered luxuries in life and we’re still in a recession. So I’m looking at things that… I’m looking for ways and vehicles that Star & Buc Wild brand can be utilized in the easiest fashion and form. I don’t know anything about satellite radio. I have some associates and there are some people that I respect that have shows on satellite radio, but there’s nothing there that I know about in a genuine sense.

I think the Internet, across the board, is what’s really popping, what’s very much important to our daily lives. So, again, I don’t know about the destiny of satellite radio.

When it comes to Pulse 87, what was your experience like and why did you leave?

A great experience. I actually helped build that station so I’m very proud of getting it up off the ground. I became very ill during that particular journey. And some business deals are meant to happen for a certain amount of time and you have to go into certain business deals knowing that. Knowing that something is going to…or hoping that something is going to get up off the ground the way we did it and those are some great people still behind that machine. I’m proud to say that I have friends over there still. To some degree, I’m still involved in the process over there.

Just like with any other particular radio journey of mine, I don’t look down upon anything that I’ve done on radio. Every business move has been a Star & Buc Wild manifestation. So it’s a station that when I think of, a smile comes across my face.

Can you talk about some of your other upcoming activities or ways that your fans could reach or access your brand of entertainment?

Sure. I don’t like the word fan. Fan is a fanatic. I like to keep a certain amount of distance between myself and some people. So I prefer the word supporter or listener. And what it is that we do is constantly try to stay current. There are people who… This is just from watching history. There are certain people who only want you to present yourself in a certain way after feeling that they know you to a certain degree.

So what we do is, again, to try and stay as current as possible and by saying that, we’re looking for people who are current, people who are of the times. We’re looking for people who are not only in tune with what Star & Buc Wild are doing but people who are in tune with the technology and the landscape. This is where we always want to position ourselves.

By saying that, then you have to be able to know that Star & Buc Wild will always be in the next setting that is on and popping. Again, that’s the Internet. So if you can push the keys and use Google or you can type in Star & Buc Wild, you’ll always know where we are.

Now, what’s the story behind the smashing of platinum plaques?

Platinum and gold plaques. I’ve collected hundreds and hundreds of platinum and gold plaques throughout my journey. Most were given to me. Some were actually stolen. And it’s just my suburban, I guess… My suburban way of being a wise guy, that I don’t take everything seriously in terms of materialistic value. Growing up in the suburbs, most kids are just mischievous by way of being bored.

So these gold and platinum plaques that many people strive for and that they’ve put up on their walls in their homes and in their offices and so on and so forth, someone has to destroy them in front of the world so that people can see that it’s not that great of an achievement. We started doing this back in the early days of our MTV show in 2000. We destroyed Wyclef Jean’s platinum plaque. We destroyed ‘N Sync’s platinum plaque once upon a time and a few others on MTV.

It’s showing young people that this game is not so serious in terms of what you’re striving for. And I keep saying in the same way that Jimi Hendrix destroyed his guitars and Keith Moon from The Who destroyed his drum sets. There has to be a certain rebellion against the establishment. So in a way we’re destroying something that most artists and record execs and people who play the game, we’re destroying what they are putting out in the marketplace as this big formula of how you’re supposed to react and what you’re supposed to subscribe to.

We will always destroy plaques. It’s not just to bug out. It’s not even to have people laugh. It’s for a select few to say, “yeah, man, tear that shit apart. Set it on fire.” Show these people that everything is not just some big commercially driven machine.

Are there going to be any more platinum plaques to destroy in the music industry?

Sure, sure, sure. The CD is slowly being phased out but there’s other ways to give someone a trophy to represent what it is they have achieved. There will always be some type of trophy. If it’s not a plaque, it might be some type of digital award. Who knows? Maybe we might be destroying laptops one day.

Right. When we look at the sale of music, we see that significant decline continuing to happen.

But also, we’re at a point in human existence where… This is a very unique period right now. This literally is the day of the… Well, I don’t want to say the machines in the Terminator sense. I’m not trying to spook anybody out. But technology has advanced so quickly that there literally is a separation of the older generation and the newer generation. So a lot of things are being flushed out in my opinion. There are a lot of things that are just not surefire bets right now. So there’s a weeding out process that has to take place and within that process certain things have to be redefined, redeveloped, reintroduced and just pushed by the wayside.

That’s a beautiful period in my mind because where some people would think that, oh, we all have to be of the same thinking to sustain, I don’t think so. I think this is the time now for people to be very, very creative, to see who deserves to still be on that playing field by way of the entertainment business.

I was looking at another one of the videos you said, “Russell Simmons will not cut a check.” Can you explain that further?

I support Russell Simmons. I like him as a person. He’s always been very respectful to me. I didn’t say that to be disrespectful to his legacy or his way of doing business. To some degree, Star & Buc Wild won’t cut a check unless you can bring something to the table. There’s always a mentality of people who think that just because I hang around you that not only am I entitled to what you have, but that I deserve a portion of what you’re achieving. There’s always that mentality of losers among us.

So it wasn’t so much, again, to be disrespectful to his way of doing business. But just, in a sense, saying, get in where you fit in.

I recently heard you talk about Michael Eric Dyson. Was there something beyond the fact that he had complained about not being invited to the Obama White House that prompted your comments?

Let me just address him in the proper context. Professor Michael Eric Dyson. A man who I met once upon a time and it was a quick meeting but we shook hands. I don’t know if he would recall this particular meeting. I don’t have any gripes against him, where some would think that I do, in the personal sense. I’m an objective thinker. So I question not only his efforts but others like him who wave the tribalism card. People who swing the flag of religion and who assume for all under that umbrella to be part of a certain form of thinking.

We’ve experienced a very historical happening by way of Barack Obama becoming president along with his beautiful wife Michelle Obama. I just felt it was him rearing his head in terms of the crab in the barrel syndrome, a little too early. A little too early. That’s why I addressed him in this particular clip. Dyson Joins the Dark Side. Not to humiliate him, but to somewhat slow him down in his tracks and say, “hey, man, hold on buddy. I don’t know what you’ve done on the front lines. I’ve heard you speak. You speak well. That’s nice. You’ve written some books. Anybody can write a book.” At the time I wanted him to just stop and think about what he was doing. He reared his head on the Internet. And he reared his head with someone who I respect highly, Davey D.

Now, he didn’t go on the O’Reilly Factor and say these things. He didn’t go on MSNBC or CNBC and say these things. He said these things on a, I guess, hip-hop level, shall we say. I took offense to that. It was almost like saying, “I’m going to go chop it up and talk shop with the homies, but I really don’t want to say this on a high brow level.” So that’s where that came from, my questioning his motives of saying what he said and when he said what he said.

It’s clear that you love what you do. Is it difficult, however, to be branded as someone who is constantly hating on people? Is it difficult when you go out? Do you find resistance in business and that kind of thing?

No. No. There’s a way to position your brand, our constituents, your peers. I think I’ve done a very, very good job over the years in terms of establishing contacts, nurturing contacts and relationships. And the word hate has taken on many, many different meanings over the years. I’m an objective hater and that’s something that will always be a part of me. I’m not trying to hide nor run from my philosophy. My philosophy is objective hate, so much to the point where I wrote a book about it and I released the first chapter of that book into the marketplace. The second chapter will be introduced in about two years, give or take a year or so.

So, no, there’s no resistance that I find that prevents me from being who I am and also at the same time earning a living. This is where the Internet plays a part right now. When you mentioned satellite radio earlier, satellite radio is going through its changes and it clearly dances to the tune of pressure to some degree. It may claim it’s a haven for freedom of speech but if you pay attention to some of the things on there, from what I’ve heard—again, I haven’t listened to it—you’ll find that it needs to be compliant to a certain degree.

Now, the Star & Buc Wild brand can get in where it fits in at any given point. It doesn’t have to be overly aggressive. It doesn’t have to be shocking to any degree. But at the same time, I do want to stimulate the minds of people that we are able to reach. So by stimulating their minds, there’s certain things that you have to address and everything cannot be cookie cutter. So I think in a sense that’s where the misunderstanding comes from about whether we perceive walls or certain boundaries in terms of doing business with people.

I’m actually motivated to do business with people who have this myth in regards to my brand. It allows me to not only get in and show what we’re made of, but to also hit a grand slam most of the time.

And you definitely have been doing that. I don’t know if I read a quote or maybe heard a clip of a comparison between you and Lenny Bruce.

Well, Lenny Bruce clearly was an innovator, pioneer. He met his unfortunate end by way of drugs and depression. I’m not necessarily critical of the powers that be by any position of being bitter. Let me just say that first of all. I was born in 1964 and I was raised in the 70s. Caught the tail end of the Civil Rights movement. And there are not many people like myself, at my age, who possess the knowledge and the wisdom and the experience that are still here and able to stand erect and say what needs to be said.

I’m not married. I have no children. I’ve got a crazy girlfriend, but I don’t have the baggage that most people at my age have. So where some people might be on a family trip with the kids or at the in-laws or just doing something that middle aged people do, Star here, who has OCD, is still grinding the ax. He’s still remembering things from his childhood and from his pre-teen and teen years and his 20s and his 30s.

So that’s the difference in terms of why I still put the work in and how I put the work in. But I made a reference to Lenny Bruce once upon a time, to show that what it is that I’m doing might not be appreciated until after I’m gone.

Your old crew, DX 21 and Buc Wild…

I’m sorry to cut you short, but that is the crew. That’s the crew. That’s the original crew, Star, Buc Wild, and DX 21. There’s no one else. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to anyone else, but the brand of Star & Buc Wild is a dictatorship. It’s not a democracy. It all comes from my mind. And DX 21 is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, assistants to the journey, but he’s also a general within his own right. So that’s the crew.

We have allowed other people to benefit off of our name. We have worked with other people but at all times, let’s be clear, Star has always been the boss. To mention a few people without mentioning all of the people… And when I say all the people, I’m talking about the goons in the streets, I wouldn’t want to give anyone else any more shine over someone else. There have been people who have literally helped drive the Star & Buc Wild promotional van in 1997, 1998. There are people who helped us when we were going back and forth to the public access show. These people are the important ones. There may have been other people that you’ve heard on the radio over the years, but they weren’t part of the original crew, nor the crew that’s always going to be able to say, “I was a part of that machine from the inside.”

That’s phenomenal, to have a brand that transcends mediums because, as you mentioned earlier, so many people perceive that radio personalities are to be radio people, and that’s pretty much where they live and die. It is interesting to see your brand, your image, your entertainment transcend perfectly to streaming on the computer. It’s still accepted, and obviously people are responding positively to it. That’s pretty amazing.

Well, they’re responding and I must say that myself, Buc Wild, DX 21, my new producer and friend Pablo, DJ Vlad, we are excited about the results thus far. People are responding. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are liking or loving what Star & Buc Wild brand brings, but they never will love Star & Buc Wild. I don’t say that to be funny. My thing is to always be respected. So we’re very excited to be back into the swing of things.

I just want to, again, acknowledge DJ Vlad who’s a great guy. Within a short period of time, I think we’ve formed not just a good business relationship but a friendship. When I look at the Star & Buc Wild channel on VladTV.com, what I see is over 30 clips and segments that, in my mind, allow me to reflect on the 30-plus films that Abbott & Costello have done. So to a large extent, I’ve already achieved my goal in terms of the Internet process here. I’m very excited about that. That was one of my biggest goals coming up in the 70s and in the 80s, was to position myself like Abbott & Costello.

Now, the next step is doing films in Hollywood. Or if not in Hollywood, filming them in New York or Canada. Wherever the film industry is thriving, that’s where Star & Buc Wild are going to be. Making these feature films. That’s the next stop for us. We’ll do some other things along the way. You’ll see us on Pay-Per-View, On-Demand. You’ll see Star & Buc Wild back on radio. I’ve got two solid offers on the table right now.

But, again, the Vlad TV work that we’re putting in right now, it puts a smile on my face when I power up the laptops in my office here and I look at it. I say, “yeah, this is what it is.” This is what it is and this is where I’m going to continue to put the work in.

If I can just finish up by saying, it’s a challenge to me to outdo each week the prior clips that we’ve done. So just know that we strive to be different every time we film those episodes. We don’t want to necessarily duplicate things. That’s why you see certain clips start out different and you’ll see that I constantly try to use different motions, gestures, and sayings to show the dedication to what it is that we’re doing.

We can see the passion and of course at times there’s a lot of comedy as well. So it’s definitely thoroughly entertaining.

Thank you.

Absolutely. Speaking of smiling faces, I’ve got to say every time I look at the clips, they put a smile on my face. So I want to definitely say thank you. I know you don’t give shout outs, but I want to give a shout out to DX 21 and Buc Wild. They’ve been with you for a long time.

Well, Buc Wild, I can’t get rid of. He knows too much.

You’re awesome and I definitely concur with Tony. Every time I see them, not only do I laugh, but I end up sending it to everyone that I know.

Thank you guys. And if I can just say that you guys have been a very integral part of the Hip Hop movement and its continued presence in the marketplace. I honor and I salute you guys as well for what you’ve done over the years.

Thank you.

Introduction by I. Vasquetelle
Interview conducted by Tony Samuel and I. Vasquetelle

Images courtesy of Star and Buc Wild

References:

Business Week: Mega Media Group, Inc., from Business Week Web site: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=28706678

Ogunnaike, Lola (2006, May 13). Radio show host says he’s no shock jock. The New York Times, from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/nyregion/13dj.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=troi%20torain&st=cse