Frank Ski’s Exclusive Interview
The words icon and legend are often thrown around and are synonymous with his name. From his number one radio shows to his new deal with Sony/ATV, Frank Ski is still and will always be the standard by which talent and grace is measured. In this conversation with fellow media maven, Jasmine Sanders, they unpack the many layers of Frank Ski. From his new music endeavors, politics, his kid’s foundation, radio expertise, to giving us an exclusive, Frank Ski sipped his wine and gave Jasmine all the proverbial tea.
Jasmine: Well, well, well look, who’s here. It’s Frank ski. What’s happening?
Frank: Thank you. How are you?
Jasmine: I’m doing fantastic. Look at you, got your wine. I feel so unprepared. Somebody bring me some tequila, anything.
Frank: Well, you ought to know, when you talk to me how I do, somebody should have told you.
Jasmine: I know that’s right. I was checking out your Instagram and you had all these different wines and all these wine tastings, I’m like, how come I never got invited?
Frank: Well, you are on the list now for sure.
Jasmine: I certainly appreciate it. You know, what’s interesting, first of all, everybody knows who you are. You’re like radio royalty and as far as I can remember, not just radio, but all kinds of other things, you just get involved in so many different things. And when someone asked me to speak with you, I was like, ‘oh my God, I’m going to be talking to Frank Ski, the one and only are you serious?’ You know it’s true, and I’m sure you get that all the time. Don’t you?
Frank: Sometimes, but you know, I’m humble, I don’t really see it that way.
Jasmine: Yeah. You can be humble, but I mean, there’s also a bit of honesty in that I think it’s okay to say that you’ve done a lot. I’ve read a ton of articles about you. Look at them and bringing in my tequila so I can be like you, hey now, hey, cheers. So first of all, let me say congratulations on the new deal.
Frank: Thank you.
Jasmine: Huge. How did that even come about? I mean, I know you’ve been around hip-hop and in the game for a long time on the other side of radio, how did this deal come about?
Frank: You know, it was very interesting. I first got to tell you that I try to be as best I can, I try to really follow, like God’s plan for my life And I know we can get sidetracked and get put off track. And like something in my spirit told me at the end of last year to like rebuild my studio and I haven’t done music in a long time. I’ve done a lot of features for people like the wobble and things like that and hadn’t really worked on any independent music myself and so I went ahead and built the studio. Then I got the idea that I should put out 25 years of Frank Ski, just like go back and get a lot of my old music and just put it out there because that music is kind of popular again.
So I went ahead and did that and during the pandemic, it really gave me the time to be able to do it, like sitting in the house, being quarantined, gave me all the time in the world to, you know, go back and put all the music together and get it and pick the songs and, you know, just reminisce about actually how much bodies of work I had done. And so it’s funny because I fini Jasmine: Yes Frank: Now I had been told that
So I didn’t know the song was going to make it and so I saw her post when
Jasmine: And when we played at every cookout, every backyard, barbecue, everything. Frank: There’s a difference. It’s a difference between taking a sample and using your soul in a song and those songs where the soul of those artists. I mean, from the drummer to the keyboard player, that was their soul going into that music, and that’s, that’s what makes us so great as music people. Jasmine: So what do you think happened? Because I always think that there is a bit of a disconnect, for instance, I have a son who’s in his thirties and when I asked him what his favorite music, you know, artists are and the things that he looks forward to inspiration, because he’s in a music too. He always references old school music and I’m like, well, what about the music that you came up with? And he doesn’t knock it, you know, and neither do I. But I often find that people who are really into music, they always go back to the time where you did pour your soul into it. Where you were in live sessions or where, you know, you had people who came in and actually played the music. You had the drummer, you had the guy on the horn, you had the guy on the bass, you had those people in the studio and for him, and those are his greatest inspirations. And I often wonder like what happened that made us, or made the next generation kind of steer away from that and go into something that was a little faster? Was it the music industry that was requesting and demanding music faster? Or was it the lack of patients from some of the artists? Frank: I think a lot of our artists have to realize that they have to do what they love. Right. So I see my son in the studio working with these new people and I see him flipping music, like the other day he sent me something that they did and they actually flipped like Luther Vandross. ‘The way you do, do, do to do,’ you know, the duet And I’m like looking at my son, like, boy, you are 20 years old. What the hell do you know about some Luther Vandross? Like in my mind, the way they did it was so dope that I’m like, okay, okay, cool. I hear what you guys are doing. But here’s the interesting thing is that really, there’s another side of my son, musically, that is totally out of that genre he’s onto some stuff more like what the weekend does, you know what I mean? And if you look at somebody like The Weeknd who has one of the top songs in the country, right, but right now black radio is not playing that song. You know? And I think a lot of black artists, they’re afraid to really be who they are. Like a Prince, Prince didn’t care if the song was on the radio or not that wasn’t his motivation. Now, once they caught on and he became a superstar, they begged for his stuff to be on the radio, right, from the beginning Prince wasn’t motivated by that. I think the younger generation is motivated by the attention and not the art. So at the end of the day, when you find those people that are out there that are true musicians, and they really start getting back to the original. Because this thing now of them sampling nineties music is, they’re going to come to an end. They’re going to go through as much as they can and then there’s going to be somebody that’s going to say, you know what, why sample and give it up. Let’s just play it ourselves. And I think that there is going to be a generation that’s going to come out and do that. Unfortunately, like I said, in the beginning, it’s tough when you take music out of schools and kids, can’t read music and instruments are so expensive, then they can’t afford to have one. I mean, you know, a guitar’s too expensive. You know, a horn is very expensive. A trumpet is expensive and some of these families, they just can’t afford it. Jasmine: When it comes down to budgets, it’s the first program they cut is the music program, that’s ridiculous. Let me ask you this, you talked a little bit about how black radio would not play the kind of music that, I guess your son would do, or like the weekend because I know it took a long time for urban radio to really warm up to that. What do you see in the future in terms of how a lot of the younger generation Z and even the millennials, to some extent the way that they even view music is different? I remember a time where music was probably one of the most segregated areas around. You know, you got black radio, you got country radio, you got pop, you got all of these different things, but now, you know, just as you said, even with your son, you have people who really just love the art of music. And it sounds good whether it’s rock, whether it’s country, whether it’s pop. And I look at how, you know, even in country music, how it used to be like super, super, super country, like the Waylon Jennings and the Travis Tritz and, you know, it was people that was, the Backwoods Country. And then all of a sudden Shania Twain came along and from that point on everything kind of shifted. And then you saw black artists now getting into country music, you know, and that shift of things being kind of gave a whole new look to crossover music to what we’re used to. So with that in mind, how do you see the future of music? Will it always have a label? Will we always have the urban charts and the pop charts? Or do you ever see a time that even that kind of thing will go away and people will just do music? Frank: No, no, it won’t. I mean, music will continue to evolve and the thing about it is that kids nowadays, my sons don’t even listen to the radio, isn’t that crazy, like their dads you know, is a big radio person and they don’t listen to the radio, but they know all the songs that are out. So they have their ways of getting them, they know what’s out there. You know but they know what they like and they like what they like and they go, what they like and that’s it. Jasmine: With that in mind though? What does that mean for people like you and I, I mean, you’re going to be fine because you have your big deal with Sony, I don’t have that. But I am not oblivious to the fact that Generation Z probably may not ever listen to a radio station. And I actually saw that coming some years ago, but I was happy to see that radio has still survived. I still see that it does very well with ad sales although a lot of that money is now going to streaming and online and the whole digital industry. But what do you think that means for radio, even when you add in syndication as a factor? Frank: You know, I think that, what’s happening in radio, interestingly enough, the argument is still happening, but the predominant factor is radio is way over leveraged. Many years ago at the end of the 90s, these companies paid way too much money for their radio stations. The internet came in and took a big chunk of the advertising, now the internet is taking most of the advertising. So there’s really no way these radio stations can make a profit enough to even pay back the debt so they all become like zombie companies, right? They make enough money to stay alive, but they’re not making enough money to turn a profit. So what they’ve decided to do is there’s been a big consolidation now where a company has come in and bought XM, and a big chunk of radio. And what they’ve been using on XM by having one station for format, you know, like right now on XM, there’s two hip-hop stations, one old school, R and B station one mainstream RB station for the whole country. Jasmine: Right. Frank: Right. Instead of be thousands of each there’s one for each set, right and what they’re going to do with radio is the same thing. So they’ve already started. And basically they’re going to have a few DJs who are going to be on a whole bunch of radio stations, and it’s going to be programmed nationally. That’s what’s going to happen. Now, the mom and pop stations are going to be the savior of radio because people still want to have conversation. People still want to talk, you know, I did my show right before I got on with you and I’m on my show in DC and I said something real controversial just to get people heated up. Jasmine: Not you Frank Ski, not you, you wouldn’t do that. Frank: Oh yeah. So basically, you know, we were talking about now that Joe Biden is going to be the President. And by the time people see this interview, he probably is going to be the president, but he owes Black people. Jasmine: Yes he does. Frank: And Black people this time around are woke and conscious and they want what they want and if they don’t get it, you know, Black people are going to go a different way, You know? And Trump almost had a lot of Black people going, because he had people like Ice Cube and everybody else, you know, jumping on that balance, Jasmine: Well he ended up with 20% of black man’s votes, what happened there, Frank Ski? Frank: Right, exactly. So my point in saying this is that, that conversation, people still won’t want to have that conversation and satellite radio with one job per the whole country is not going to be able to have that conversation. It’s still going to be a radio type of conversation that people still want to talk. People want to talk and listen to the consciousness of what’s happening all around so radio is going to be that again. And that’s what radio always was. The reason why Joe Biden has won this election, and I said it, and I’m not afraid to say it is black radio gave him this election, black radio band together. They were, you know, not partisan to whatever they, every radio station in the city was talking about Voting. Every radio station was registering people to vote. They were giving people information and black radio came through like heroes. You know what I mean? Jasmine: Yeah, well Black radio has always done that from the very beginning. When you think about that’s how, you know, black community is got their news. Frank: Not to this level. Jasmine: No, I would agree with that. I think that there was a falling off, because I think years ago, when, you know, back in the day of black radio, that’s where the information came for the community, that’s how you galvanize the people around a certain cause. And then I think we took a dip and I think like everything that goes in a circle, we came back around and I certainly agree with you 100% because of black radio and, and really rallying behind Kamala Harris. And just basically trying to get Trump out of town as quickly as possible because what he was doing to black and brown communities, you’re absolutely right. But I’ve always said, yes, they’re going to owe us, but we got to know what we’re asking for. I think everybody asking for individual pockets, you got your platinum plan over here, you got to gold plan over here. We need to figure out collectively as best as we can, exactly what it is that we’re asking for so we have a clear ask so that whenever, you know, they get in position of power, we can hold their feet to the fire. Frank: You know, it’s interesting in San Francisco and California, which is very, you know, progressive. San Francisco, they pass the reparation, you get what I’m saying? So it’s available. So if Kamala Harris and Joe Biden keep their promise, then no Black child, if they want to go to college should ever have to pay again. You know what I mean? That’s the kind of preparation I’m looking for. Jasmine: I totally agree. But I think that makes sense. I think we have to figure out a way to make sure we’re setting ourselves up for generational wealth and not, you know, a quick check that you might spend in a month or two. I think it has to be long-term but again, I think we have to figure out a way that we can articulate that, that we all agree instead of, you know, you have, some people are saying, well, we just want a fat check. Some people are saying, well, we should have education, some people are saying we should have more footing in the tech industry. And I think all of these things are great, but collectively I think we’ve, again, we’ve got to be clear about what it is we’re asking for. And hopefully, we’re smart enough to say not just for me, but for my children and their children and so on and so forth. Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves after that money is spent right back where we are. Frank: Yeah, exactly. And that’s the truth but I think what we have to start doing as a people is right now, I’ll give you an example. You take a community like the Jewish community, right? They are about raising up their leaders, right? So they have their kids go to special schools a lot of times that are ripen for their children to learn certain things, to become leaders in their community. It’s no accident that Jewish people own the music industry, they own the legal field, I could keep going, you know what I’m saying? They own some of the best lawyers in the world, they own access to so much right now. How did that happen? It was an effort to make that happen over the long-term. And I think black people now, I will tell you, I think we’re in a position now where we are looking for somebody to come forward and help lead this charge. Now, who was that person going to be? We need the street soldiers that are out there now. we need that, but there’s going to be somebody that’s got to step up and say, okay, I’m going to take this charge and start to get this ball rolling in that direction. So that by the time 2024 comes, you know, we have a bigger voice. We have a bigger footprint and we have different options. You know, not just the option of saying this is what we’re going to do. Because even at the end of the day, right now, the democratic party still gets to decide who they’re putting their money behind. You know what I mean? Jasmine: I will tell you this. I’m highly disappointed with the Democratic Party, I want the Democrats to be a little more aggressive. I get it, you know, they go low, we go high thing, But I think at some point I think we really got our, got to put our foot down and say, okay, listen, we’re not going to stand for this I understand what you’re doing over here. And I believe some of that 20% of black men that went Republican, a lot of them were already there in the first place, but I think some of them kind of felt like Democrats were being a little bit of a pushover and we’ve got to change that. Frank: Yeah, absolutely. So we’re going to change that 100%, yeah. Jasmine: So let me ask you something. Tell me about this new project that you have, that your son is a part of. I saw on your Instagram, I guess, that he was working on a new song called climate change or something like that? Frank: Yeah. It’s a new album. So I have a kids foundation and my kid’s foundation, we’ve gone to some incredible places around the world. One of the many things that we do is we, we’ve been very strong over 15 years, dealing with me, teaching children and young people about climate change. Again, I believe if you want to make change, you can’t get somebody who’s 50 to change, right. It’s not going to happen. You got to get people in high school and younger people to make the change so that when they get to be 50, they’re already into that change. And that they understand what we’re talking about. So we’ve been teaching these kids about climate change, but not just teaching them Jasmine but, I took the first us student group to the Galapagos Islands to study and follow the footsteps of Charles Darwin and his studies in the Galapagos. We’ve been to the Amazon rainforest. We’ve been, we’ve been scuba diving in Belize in the barrier reef. And we’ve been up to the outskirts up in the outback of Alaska and everything studying in this climate change. And every time I go, I’m always looking for the soundtrack that I’m going to have in my ear when I’m going, when I’m walking, like when I’m in these places and I said, you know what I’m going to make that soundtrack, right? So the climate change album represents all the places we’ve been around the world studying climate change and the places that are being affected by climate change. Jasmine: Let me tell you something, I think that’s so dope, first of all, because you have so many kids who sometimes never get the opportunity to even leave their zip code, you know. So to really be able to get out there and really understand, especially in the midst of all this foolishness of people who were saying that climate change is not real and, you know that the earth is not getting warmer when the science is there. And I do believe 100% that if we don’t get in on this area of it, we will really do ourselves a tremendous disservice because I do believe climate change is real. You can see it And again, just read a little bit and you can see exactly what’s going on and if nothing else just look at how much the world has changed in the past five years. When you think about the number of catastrophic events, the fact that it’s been snowing in places that it’s never snowed before, it’s, it’s cold in places are hot places that it’s never been before. And the glaciers that are melting, like there is no other explanation to this other than climate change. And I feel as an urban community, we don’t talk about it enough and our carbon footprint, we don’t talk about those things enough either. Frank: And the worst areas that are being affected the most by climate change of black areas. Jasmine: Absolutely. Frank: Yeah. Jasmine: And you saw the Trump administration rolled back a lot of those policies on some of those industrial companies that are located in the hood and in our neighborhoods, right, That are affecting our kids and you think about it long-term. Frank: Long-Term. Yeah. So that album is called climate change. Before the climate change album comes up I am doing the twenty-five years of Frank Ski and it’s going to have two versions of it. One version is going to be the old songs and then the deluxe version of it is going to have some of my new projects on there. And then the climate change album will come after the New Year. Jasmine: So I feel like I’m not busy enough. You out here just scraping up everything, leave something for a Sister, I got to work on something that I got an album I want to do. Now I can’t sing, I can’t do any of that, but I feel like I should be working on an album or something or take some kids to the Galapagos Islands or something. What am I, dam Frank. You get too busy. You got the radio show, you’re doing films and movies and all this other stuff. Is there anything you don’t do? Frank: No, but I will give you a hint about something else that’s coming. Jasmine: Make it juicy. What is it? Frank: Are you ready? Jasmine: I’m ready. Oh, wait, wait. Don’t tell me yet. Let me take a sip of tequila. Frank: Okay. I’ll take a sip of wine too. Jasmine: Then tell me and go. Frank: So, by the beginning of the year, you’re going to hear me on the radio two different times a day in two different cities. Jasmine: Ooh. Do tell. Frank: That’s all I can say. Jasmine: I was leaning in for more, damn. I heard it first. Ooh, I can’t wait, I’m excited Frank: Tom Joyner did it. He said the footprint, I’m going to follow it. Jasmine: Yeah. And you’re the person to do it. I’ll tell you this. I know at the beginning I said that you’re royalty, you really are. first of all, I grew up in Ottawa, Tennessee, which is right outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is right down the street from Atlanta. And I’ve worked in Nashville, I’ve worked in Chattanooga, I’ve come to Atlanta to work And I thought, why is it I’ve never met Frank ski? Never. I’d heard your name. I’d read it all over every article that going way back to, I don’t know when. And I was like, if I ever got the opportunity, I would want to tell him that I think you will always be one of those people that will be listed as the architects of how radio is done. Frank: Thank you. Jasmine: Just the truth. Just the truth. Absolutely. Frank: Thank you, I appreciate that. Jasmine: So I wish you continued success on your musical endeavors, on your foundation, which I know is going really well and you do wonderful things for the kids. And I would also like to say that in your upcoming projects, should you need, you know, I don’t do background I’m lead, you let me know what you need on a song coming up or a nice little sample. I don’t want to give it away right now because I’d have to charge you for this, I’m not going to sing it for you, but I know you could find a place for me on an album, a song or something, right? Frank: Yes, absolutely. You got a great voice Jasmine: I do, right. You should hear me sing, it’s amazing, I’ve been told. a lot of people wanted me on their projects, but I’ve been saving it and I think now that you have this coming out, I think this might be the time for me to just let my guard down and let everybody hear what I got. Frank: There you go. Thank you so much. Jasmine: Frank, I thank you so much for spending some time with me. Again, I consider it a privilege and I know you’re going to do great things and I can’t wait to get more information about the hint that you gave me. I know it’s coming soon. Frank: Absolutely. Jasmine: All right. Well, take care. We’ll talk to you soon, bye, bye. Frank: Bye-Bye.
