A Conversation With Taye Uhuru: From Cleveland To Africa (Motivational Speech)

Inspiring stories with Taye Uhuru, a world traveler, author, historian, teacher, musician and host of "Taye Speaks Celebrity Podcast."   

Taye discusses his humble beginnings and how those experiences shaped him and shares insights from his world travels, humanitarian work and his podcast, featuring a mix of unsung heroes and well-known celebrities like Tommy Davidson and DJ Yella.

YouTube Podcast page: (253) Taye Uhuru - YouTube

Taye Uhuru:  Facebook page Link

00:00:02 - Introduction to the Show and Guest
00:00:31 - Taye Uhuru's Background and Travels
00:01:03 - Childhood Memories
00:01:28 - Overcoming Adversity
00:01:49 - Taye Speaks Podcast
00:02:35 - Inspiration for World Travel
00:04:41 - Studying Abroad and Cultural Experiences
00:05:38 - Importance of Helping Others
00:06:29 - The Power of Giving Back
00:07:15 - Taye's Music and Hip-Hop Influence
00:08:58 - Performing Hip-Hop Internationally
00:09:57 - Volunteer Work and Outreach
00:12:34 - Organizing Tours to Africa
00:14:50 - Taye's Book: "The Afro Set"
00:15:31 - Impact of Volunteering on Life
00:16:38 - Podcast Availability and Formats
00:16:59 - Closing Remarks and Inspiration

Transcript

Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. On today's episode, I have Taye Uhuru. He's an author, historian, teacher, and host of Taye Speaks Celebrity Podcast. Welcome to the show, Taye.

Peace and blessings. Thank you for the invite. It's definitely an honor.

Oh, man, it's an honor having you on the show, man. I was reading about you and things like that, and it's truly a blessing. It's truly a blessing. So tell the people a little bit about yourself.

I mean, you kind of covered it for the most part. I'm a world traveler. I've been to 70 countries. I'm in Ghana right now. Been to about 20 African countries. I write books. I've substituted teaching. You know, I've been doing that for a couple of years. Musician, historian. I do a lot of research. I'm a genealogist, so I help a lot of people trace their ancestry, find out who their great-great-grandparents were and what type of lifestyle that they were living.

Okay. So you grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. So what was your childhood like growing up in Cleveland?

And it was cool. It was fun for the most part. I really enjoyed my childhood. And I know some people, they have like horror stories, but that's definitely, you know, some of the best times I ever had. We grew up, we were struggling. We was poor, you know what I'm saying? We was on the system, but you know, having the right mom and having older brothers, we had cousins that lived with us. So we always had a house full of young men, athletic, masculine, you know, man.

Yeah, because I can relate to that, man. I grew up for myself, food stamps and things like that. But like I say, man, it takes a village sometimes to raise us. And then we also have to overcome our situations in life. You know, sometimes I think it's good that we actually experience those things or that way of life, because it makes you more humble and makes you more grateful as you grow in life and you start achieving things in life. Definitely. Now you have a podcast called Taiye Speaks, which is a celebrity podcast. Who are some of the celebrities you had on your podcast?

Man, I don't have over a hundred celebrities, but you know, sometimes I get more unsung people that's behind the scenes. Some people that produced or wrote some of your favorite songs, but then I have some celebrities that everybody know, like Tommy Davidson from a living color and Marie Johnson from a living color. DJ Yella, NWA, Michael Keith, 112, Keith Parent, co-founder of FUBU, $300 million in one year grossing. A lot of people like that.

Man, that's awesome. Now, you're a world traveler. You've been to 70 countries. What made you become a world traveler? What inspired you? What made you want to take on that part of your life?

For me, it started with my mom. My mom used to drive a greyhound, but So she would take us to different cities, you know, by me living in Cleveland. We'll go to like Detroit or Chicago or Cincinnati or New York. She'll take us on the bus, me and my younger sister and my brothers. She'll let us ride. And we didn't spend a lot of time in those places, but the few hours we did, it would seem like it was always something fun and exciting being in a new place. Then my mom would try to put together tours with her brothers and sisters. I wanted to travel on my own. I started traveling with my friends. We were 18, 19. We were grown now, but we would drive to Indiana or Chicago or Kentucky. We'd do our little music things, do some shows, pass out some CDs. Then as I got older, I got my passport, and then I just started venturing to different countries. Each time, like I said, when we was going to different places or I would go by myself, I was learning a lot. I was making new friends.

That's awesome, man. I bet you saw a lot of stuff. I bet you learned a lot by traveling the world like you've been doing. I bet it was very good.

Yeah, it's life changing. I mean, I don't know how to say it. It just opened up a whole another galaxy to whatever you think the world really is. I'm from Cleveland. I've still got friends that never left Cleveland, never left the east side of town. They don't even go to the west side or to another part of the state.

So, yeah, can't be explained on the experience, right?

Yeah, yeah, I think so. But I think for the most part, it's a good experience. I mean, I know some people, they may like go through the military or they may go like do like a mission trip. So sometimes they may not get to really explore the more positive side. A lot of people have that fear. You're watching the news and you're watching movies like Taken and Hostile and Human Centipede. You know, you don't want to go too many places outside of the state.

Right. So you studied abroad. What were some of the places you studied?

Yeah, I got a chance to study in different countries. The first time I went to Dominican Republic, I did a semester there and I stayed with a Dominican family. So I was studying like the language, you know, the Spanish language. I learned how to speak Spanish. I took a little Spanish like in high school, but I never got a chance to get immersed in a Spanish speaking society, you know, ordering food, catching the cab, going to the mall, meeting women, talking to them, having real conversations and stuff like that. Learning about the history, learning about the culture, Dominican is real big on baseball. We got to go to some of the major league baseball offices and meet some of the great. We met Ozzy Virgil. He was the first Dominican player to ever play baseball in the United States. I got to volunteer at an orphanage. You know, I did a lot of volunteering in like community centers and doing different things like that.

So you work with people with disabilities and tutoring children. What was that like? What made you want to do that?

And I mean, like a lot of it I get from my mom. She always helping people and giving people. So it was like it rubbed off on us. And I just would think it's a part of the human experience to want to help other people. I've never been. a person like that where I didn't want to help people, but something like my mom, she overdo it. She has helped people to her own fault or whatever, but it's a great experience. You know what I'm saying? Mentally, physically, spiritually, whatever religion you practice or whatever spirituality you have, I'm sure that it would incorporate you helping another human, especially if you've got it, if you can do it, but don't take a lot. You know what I'm saying? Even if you don't have the money, you can give your time or you might could donate old clothes or old books or you can teach, you can educate, you can spend some time one-on-one tutoring and or even mentor, you know, so.

And that's what makes us great. I think as human beings, when we actually get back and reach out to people who need our help, I think that's the way the human being is built. Like you said, no matter what kind of religion or whatever faith you practice or whatever, giving back to somebody is the most powerful thing you can do. And a lot of people don't understand, like you said, it doesn't have to be a whole bunch of money. It doesn't have to be a whole bunch of money, man. I've done it so many times with homeless, with, you know, fathering young men that didn't have a father in their life and things like that. They just want to go hang out at the basketball court and have somebody shoot hoops with them or something like that. And I'll go to the football games just to support them and things like that. So that's really a great thing. That's a great thing. Now, what instruments you play? You say you perform with musicians and things like that. I'm interested in hearing that.

Right, right. I ain't mean to offend nobody. I do hip hop, so I don't play no instrument. I write rap. I write rhymes. I write poetry. You know what I'm saying? Oh, gosh. I don't know how to play like the saxophone. I would like to learn, though.

Yeah, so how's that with writing songs in hip-hop? I think people who write hip-hop songs or rap or whatever the case may be, you have to have a certain level of talent or gift that's, and I'll tell you, I think it's from God. People might look at the music and be like, hey, you know, this and that and the other, but Songs I hear, if you listen to most of them, a lot of them, there's a message in the music that, man, it's like coming from the heart. It's coming from experiences and things like that. So is that where you get your drive from in doing that?

Well, I mean, it started off from a young back in the day. My dad, he used to play records. He had got a record collection. So he was a young man. He had a lot of hip hop records. And then I had my older brothers and cousins. They would, you know, all contribute to different artists and stuff like that. So. I was raised on hip hop my whole life. A lot of my friends, they couldn't listen to rap because sometimes people kind of paint one picture of hip hop, but it's so diverse. So I got a chance to hear the good and the bad. And as I got older and matured and traveled and educated myself, I was able to utilize that in writing my music. recorded music videos and performed with artists all over the world, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Senegal, South Africa, Amsterdam. So it is a very empowering experience for me because it's something that I love to do. I don't have a record deal. I don't make millions of dollars making music, but I could do it my way just like any other artist.

Yes. So you traveled all around the world. doing hip hop and being on stage and things like that. So, man, how did that make you feel? I mean, come on, man. You grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. You went to South Africa, Netherlands, and all these places. Man, how did that make you feel? You up on stage, you're like, what?

Yeah, it don't seem real, you know, just being honest with you. So I'm just taking it one day at a time, make sure I say thank you to the almighty every day. Because we humans, it's easy for us to, you know, forget, you know, how blessed we are. How good at it, you know, when you actually in the midst of doing something sometimes. So I just try to appreciate it. Like I say, I give back this to cover myself, even if I don't show appreciation or I might not be. as adamant about doing my music like I should, I do try to give back. And that keeps me going. That gives me balance. I might get to go to the show. I might get to perform. People tell me they like the music. But when I have some free time, I try to contribute that back into the community.

That's awesome, man. So you've done volunteer work in Haiti, the Philippines, Cape Verde, and Cleve, Ohio. What kind of volunteer work did you do in those places?

Yeah, man, I try to volunteer everywhere I go, but it just depends on what's available. Like Haiti, I didn't actually go to Haiti. I was living in the Dominican Republic, but it was a lot of Haitians living there because it was like different things was going on. It might be like a hurricane and earthquakes. So a lot of the people was displaced. So during that time, I met some Haitians and became friends with them. And I think around that time, a lot of people were giving money to the Red Cross, but it was some discrepancy about whether or not the people in Haiti was actually getting the money or not. So I would raise money to try to send the money directly to Haitian people like, what's your cousin's name or what's your neighbor's name? And they would give us the information and we can like Western Union the money actually to that person with that ID. It wasn't a lot of money, but at that time it was people that was living in like a tent. You know what I'm saying? Like we can't imagine that. So $50, especially in Haiti, $50 American dollars We go a long way for one person, one family. And you mentioned some other places. I mean, in Cleveland, for sure, we give away coats and hats for the winter for the homeless. We go outside the shelters and, you know, just try to help people. We give away bikes, you know, and that's because I was one of them kids that I didn't get nothing on Christmas. I know how that feels. So we'll give bikes away. We do back to school. I started an urban garden. I bought some parcels of land in the hood. You know, it's a lot of abandoned houses, so they knock them down. or they'll leave them standing. So I use that opportunity to buy those spaces. We started a beehive. We started a chicken coop. We're growing fruits and vegetables, inviting kids out. Just to show them the basics of gardening, and then we'll use that space. put back food supply.

Man, that's awesome, man. That is awesome, man. We got a lot in common, man. I did a lot of outreach with giving Coats and bicycles away at Christmas time and feeding families that didn't have food and things like that, man. We got a lot in common, man. But I'll tell you what, man, it brings me so much joy, and I know it do you the same way, where you can give back to somebody like that, and they get a smile on their face, man, because sometimes they don't even know where next meal coming from. You know what I'm saying? That's crazy, man. You know, that's a rough life to live, not knowing where your next meal is going to come from. So kudos to you and all your efforts on that. Let's talk about your educational African tools.

What was that like? So, yeah. So basically, every year I organize like group tours to Africa. So I take groups from America and then I take them to different countries. The last tour we did was in January. It was a group of six people. And then we went to South Africa, and it was six women. So I would take them to the museums, take them to the historic sites. So Africa is. like the most diverse continent, so depending on which country we go to, it would be a curriculum in line with, you know, the places that we're going to. Last December, it was a group of like three people. We went to Egypt. Before that, we did a group of five to Ghana. So we just try to go to different places and just reconnect our brothers and sisters with that lost information.

Yeah. Cause I always say Africa is a country that if you hadn't been there, you need to go because it does something to the spirit, man, that no other country, no other place does. It's a humbling experience. It's a powerful experience too.

Yeah, definitely a life changing experience. I mean, that's my ultimate goal is to live in Africa. So that's why I'm going to different African countries, not only to get the knowledge and the information and reconnect, with the culture, but to find a place, find a home. And then that way I can open up the doors for the next generation. If I have nieces and nephews and cousins, because we didn't have nobody to say, oh, we got an uncle over there and I got an acre of land. You can go visit him or you can stay with him.

So what part of Africa do you want to live in?

And it's kind of hard because Africa has so much to offer. So like I said, I've been to 20 different African countries, so I wouldn't pick one over all of them. But I'm in Ghana, Ghana. Cape Verde is nice, Botswana, Madagascar, and these are places that are traditionally peaceful places. They're not at war. They don't have a high violent crime rate. They don't have a lot of gun violence. They don't have like a lot of mass shootings and things like that. So a lot of the places that I am able to go to, they're fairly safe places, even two or three times safer than the places where we live in comparison to like a Cleveland or Detroit or New Orleans or Compton or Brooklyn. You know what I'm saying?

Got you. So you wrote a book. What's the name of your book and how can people purchase it?

The name of the book is called The Afro Set. It's available online, Black History Month. If you want to tap in and learn about something new, I have a website, TayeUhuru.com. My social media is TayeUhuru.com. I'm on Instagram and YouTube.

So Taye, you definitely live the life I think that you are called to do, and it's got to be a great thing. So what would you say the impact will be on one's life when they volunteer or do outreach in their community? Because so many people are so wrapped up in making money and careers and stuff like that, and don't think about the volunteer portion of their life and the things they are actually, I say, called to do.

I mean, it's beneficial all the way around. I mean, like I say, spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, because if you're spending time in the community, you get in and know everybody, you know what I'm saying? You're making friends, you're learning about people, you're talking to the elders in your community. They can teach you so much. Then you're talking to the children in the community. It might be the ones that have to come cut your grass or take your trash out. You know what I'm saying? So at least if you put some time into them, some may go astray, but they may look at it like, well, that's Mr.  I remember he used to feed me, so leave him alone. You know what I'm saying? Where I made it, let me come back to you. You know, if you're looking at it from that perspective, but I think the most important thing, like I say, spiritually, just being able to help people, that's empowering. At least for me, it is. It make me feel better. It helped me sleep better at night. You know what I'm saying? And it's something I enjoy doing. It's not like it's a chore or a duty. Man, I don't want to do this. I enjoy giving bikes away to kids.

Yeah. Giving back to somebody is the most powerful thing you can do. Where can people watch your video podcast?

OK, the podcast is on YouTube. That's the main channel. That's the full clip, the full version. But we in a society where everybody is fast paced and fast moving. And you just got a little bit of time. You just want to see a couple of short, quick clips. You can catch it on social media, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Taye.

Taye, I thank you for your time, man, and everything like that. I mean, you are definitely an amazing brother that's out there doing great things, and I'm very inspired by you.

I appreciate that, King. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Thanks for listening to Real Talk with Reginald D. If you enjoyed the show, please share with anyone you feel the need to take this journey with us on being a better youth. See you next time.