Today we’d like to introduce you to Roderick Taylor & Jacari Gentry.
Hi Roderick & Jacari, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Roderick: I’m Roderick Taylor, from Fort Worth, Texas. I got my start in the podcast game in September 2018. I was studying Radio/Television at Texas A&M University-Commerce from 2015-17, but I wanted a platform discussing solely Hip-Hop, that everyone could listen to & learn more about the rap game, inside & out. So, in early 2018 I left college to form The Rise & Grind Podcast with Jacari Gentry, & the show has now been airing for almost four years.
Jacari: I’m Jacari from Fort Worth, TX. My podcast journey started with our 6th episode in October 2018. After listening to the first five episodes, I text Roderick and asked if I could join the team. My exact words to him were, “I see areas where I can contribute.” We both shared the same love for the hip-hop and rap culture, so I knew that it would be a natural fit. Almost 4 years later, we have currently recorded 141 episodes.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Roderick: It definitely hasn’t been easy or smooth. The road here’s been just about everything EXCEPT smooth. We have a solid listenership now, but there were a lot of days and nights it felt like it was just us listening to ourselves. A lot of nights with little to no listeners, no views, no support. We just had to keep our heads up and stay hungry. We knew if we just didn’t give up, we’d pull through and see results. And we were right. The biggest lesson is to just focus on your craft, & persevere.
Jacari: It’s definitely been an uphill battle. With a podcast, you’re bound to run into many issues along the way. Small things such as computer crashes, losing audio files, or equipment malfunctioning, has happened many times. But our biggest challenge was due to Covid. When Covid first hit, we could no longer record our episodes at our original location. Because of this, we did not record any episodes from March-December 2020. This was the first time we had taken a break since we started. It would’ve been easy for us to quit right there and never pick the mics back up. But we couldn’t allow that happen. We got our focus back and returned December 8th, with episode 66, and haven’t looked back since. It’s all about being consistent. Trusting the process. Knowing your goals and having a burning desire to achieve them. We’ve always believed that our podcast would give us everything we’ve ever wanted in life.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Well, of course, Together we host a podcast entitled The Rise & Grind Podcast
As far as our focus these days, we’re locked in on providing the most content we can for our listeners, at the highest level. So be sure to stay tuned in, because we have so much more in store coming soon.
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
During our developmental stage in early 2018, our primary focus was reporting rap news via a blog on Instagram. The blog page soon turned into the landing page for our podcast.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theriseandgrindpodcast.podbean.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/riseandgrindpod
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riseandgrindpodcast
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/risegrindpod
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCySI9ubq5SEHT1L7aI_YxMw
Image Credits
Ked Smith
