[upbeat R&B music] - Welcome to Fatherhood, where we aim to uplift voices and redefine legacy by highlighting the strength, sacrifice, and stories of Black fathers shaping our communities every day.

Today, we're shining a spotlight on fathers whose creativity helps shape culture and inspire generations, from music and theater, to the arts and entertainment industries.

These men use their talents to tell stories, express emotions, and bring communities together.

But behind the stage lights, the studio sessions, and creative spaces, they also carry one of life's most important roles, being a father.

Today's conversation explores the intersection of creativity and fatherhood.

Joining us today are four incredible fathers.

making their mark in the arts.

We have Devereau Williams, Jamond Bullock, JS Tate, and Tyke T. How y'all doing today?

- Still alive.

- Blessing to be here, how you doing.

- It is a blessing to be here.

Thank y'all for being here.

I think this show's gonna be very important.

Talking about the creativity that y'all do in the workspace and different things that y'all do in the arts, I definitely want to hear your journey from where you started, if that's from childhood, from the teenager years, from wherever you started, I think is important for people to hear what inspires you to get into your work.

Let's start from Devereau.

- All right, try to keep it short.

[Devereau laughs] - Nah, just be comfortable, be open.

- Okay, started as a youngin'.

- How young?

- Three, four, five, somewhere up in there from what my mama tell me.

- Okay.

- Started, my mama plays piano, my auntie plays piano, my dad played bass.

- Okay.

- So it started from there.

My mama taught me my scales and everything and basically introduced me to Stevie Wonder.

You know what I'm saying?

So that's like my top, you know?

And it just grew from there.

And God blessed me to be able to attach myself to other friends who were doing the same thing and went to school in LeMoyne, and it just grew from there.

I was able to meet other professionals and then like, God just orchestrated it so I was able to attach myself to people, and it grew, and it was just built from there.

- So music was always around, even at a young age for you.

- Absolutely.

- So it's almost like you were destined to be in the music.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- And JS, how you started?

- Well, I'm an actor, so I was at U of M actually to be a physical therapist.

- Okay.

- And it was the last semester.

- Bit of a career change.

- Right, it was in my last semester of my senior year and took an acting non-majors class.

Changed my life.

- Wow.

- Changed my life, discovered myself, and I was blessed enough to have some remarkable teachers that poured into me and that showed me how to pour in myself.

- This is the senior year of college?

- Senior year of college.

- And what was the class?

- It was an acting non-majors.

- Non-majors.

- It was was an actors non-majors class.

- Wow, and that was enough from the Professor, or?

- Yes, it was the professor, Robert Barry Fleming.

- Okay.

- Yes, Robert Berry Fleming.

- Shout out to, what was it, Dr.

Fleming or just?

- Robert Barry Fleming.

- Just Robert Barry Fleming, okay.

- Well he did some doctoring on me, so, yeah.

[group laughs] So yeah, so yeah.

- Okay, and then you got into acting, and then from that it's just.

- Yep, got into acting from there, man.

Got trained, been doing a lot of theater and film.

I've been doing theater and film in Memphis maybe been the past 20 plus years.

- Okay, good.

All right, Tyke T?

- Yeah, man.

- I want to hear the journey from, is it from childhood?

Is it from, has music always been your life like Devereau, or how did that work out?

- It's been around, you know as you get older, you start like talking to like your elders and your family, they be like, "Boy, you remind me of such and such and da, da da."

So like, you realize, oh, this has just been in us.

Like my grandma and my great aunts, they all were in like gospel groups in Middle Tennessee going around singing in churches and stuff like that.

And so my uncle, he, they like, he was a baby Kirk Franklin back in the day doing that.

You know, like writing songs, like doing that.

So like, apparently I get a lot of my stage presence from him.

So like my mom, she was in choirs back in Symrna, Tennessee.

I'm a transplant, I've been in Memphis for the last 15-plus years, but I'm originally from Smyrna, Tennessee.

And so, yeah, and then as I got older, my brother, he's a DJ, and so what I would do is, when he would go to MTSU, 'cause he'd have classes, what I would be in there doing is messing with his equipment, making my own beats, making my own mixes, writing my own songs.

And then I try to put everything back like I ain't touch nothing, 'cause I don't want to get swung on, you know, I love you, but that's my brother, I don't want no issues.

- Shout out to brother.

- Shout to my brother, you know?

And so then just fast forward and now like to see like my son picking it up, the music, it's like amazing, because I don't know if he's destined for it, but I do know he getting it right.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

His mom, she's on the praise team.

So he sees nothing but performing.

So it's just something that's been in me, and it is been fun on this ride that I've been doing for the last 20-plus years.

- And we're gonna talk more even about the fatherhood piece and how your kids are inspired about your creativity, but Jamond, tell us about your journey.

- Man, I came out the womb with a paintbrush.

- Out the womb!

[group laughs] - Paintbrush in one hand, had a little paint mixer on another.

No.

[group laughs] I wanna say I was the kid that didn't have art in elementary school, but I was drawing on all of my assignments.

- Okay.

- And so, like, when I was finished my assignment, I'd draw on the back.

Even if I didn't finish my assignment, I'm drawing on the paper.

And so, like, to be honest, my brother was like my first art teacher, my older brother, he's like a year ahead of me.

And my granddad on my mom's side was a commercial artist.

So it's like in the bloodline, like for real.

And so it's just one of those things where like, as I grew into drawing, by the time I got in like 12th grade in high school, I was like, okay, I can draw anything.

- Yeah.

- I can draw anything.

And my brother, when he graduated, he decided to go major in art, and I was like, oh, I ain't know you can major in art.

I get straight A's in this.

So for me, I got a scholarship at LeMoyne-Owen College and it was an art scholarship.

So that was my superpower I decided to use, actually.

- Let's get to the fatherhood piece.

And I wanna start with you, JS.

Talk about how you have three boys, how they have inspired you to even maybe transition, motivate you or inspire you to even do more work in your space.

- Well, once I knew I was having a son, from that moment that I knew I was having a boy, that has been my driving force in everything I do.

- How old are your sons?

- My oldest son, I got an 18, 14, and a 5-year-old.

All boys.

- Gotcha.

- And my oldest son has been my compass since then.

You know, he's 18, so I'd already discovered I had a gift of acting and obeying.

I've always believed in obeying your craft, right, and respecting your craft, or obeying your gift, respecting your craft.

Right?

So all my boys have dictated every role that I've taken on, you know what I mean?

But I'm my father's son and my grandfather's grandson first, and I come from a great line of men.

So that has always been my driving force, man.

And how am I gonna inspire my boys, right?

So that's not just taking on any role.

- Correct.

- You know what I mean?

You know, they gonna see this.

So that has been my motivating factor for everything, my boys, man.

And haven't pushed them into the arts, letting them find it themselves, my two oldest boys, after I got divorced, they were like five and one.

So the shows that I took on, I didn't take on any shows, I do a lot of theater.

So I didn't take on anything that I couldn't have them at rehearsals with me.

That's why a lot of theater community here know my boys, 'cause they had to be with me.

Right, but I didn't push it on them.

They've grown up in the theater, they've grown up behind the camera or whatnot, but they have to discover those things themselves.

- I think that's important that you add, there's certain shows and certain projects that, if you can't bring your sons to it, I don't even want to be a part of it.

- Right.

- That's huge, that's real.

- I can't do nothing.

My father in heaven, God rest his soul, saying, nah, I can't do nothing on film he can't look at me and be proud of.

- That's right.

Devereau, you have one girl, right?

- Yeah.

- One daughter.

- Yeah.

- Talk about how your daughter has inspired you or things that your daughter motivates you to do, or even not to do.

Talk about that space in your fatherhood.

- So for me, I probably have the youngest here, two-year-old.

- Two-year-old.

- She'll be three in a couple weeks.

- You don't have the youngest here, we got two twins that's nine months.

- Oh, congratulations.

- Bless you brother.

Bless you brother.

[group laughs] - Might take a nap after this.

[group laughs] - So for me, with her being so young, just two years, it pushed me like into overdrive, superdrive mode where I'm honing in on, even to go back to your earlier question, I didn't know that I could get paid to arrange music for people, or I didn't know I could get paid to be a music director of certain things.

So it's like now all of that encompasses into one.

So I'm like super driving, pushing it into the the next thing.

And to piggyback off JS, I don't want to necessarily push her into the entertainment industry or music.

I want to show her the things that have value so she can have that tool in her belt, so she can know what's going on.

But also she is with this by osmosis, I guess.

She's picking it up.

She's singing.

- Music is all around.

- We do, we actually do this thing.

My partners, they get on me all the time if I don't post, we do this thing on social media, I call it Morning Jams with Bella.

And it just happened organically, because I'm taking her to daycare in the morning, and I just put on some Stevie Wonder or something, and I know that she's clapping and singing, and I'm like, wait a minute, she's singing on pitch.

You know what I'm saying, she clapping on beat.

And so I started recording it.

And so I started just organically, man, just every day just start playing random music.

Like it could be opera, classical or whatever, and she respond to it.

And I was like, hmm, that's cool.

And like, so that motivates me a lot to do it, and even if I play some of my music or something, she'll ask, "Dad, is it you?"

I'm like, "Yeah, that's me baby."

She's like, "Well turn it up."

You know what I'm saying?

- That's inspiring.. - That blows my mind.

- So we talk about the the nature of your boys and then your daughter.

But let's talk about the scheduling.

I know y'all on the road, I know you're gone.

I mean, I know you have to have a partner that's gonna be there to watch over your child when you're not there.

- Right.

- Tyke, tell me about how, when you go out of town and different things like that, how does it affect your son, or how does it affect you as a father?

- It's something that I take very seriously.

'Cause I think being a good dad, or being a great father, like people gonna have so many definitions on it.

But like, the one way that I always try to define it is just being present, and not just being present, like in the house, 'cause I could be in the house and not know what he's done all day.

- That's a fact.

- And so like now, like making sure that I take the time to ensure that I have asked this young man, how was your day?

What have you done?

What happened at the daycare?

You learned a lot was going on at the daycare if you ask.

Little things like, they'd be like, dang, for real.

Well that's crazy, I might need to check in on that.

[group laughs] - Roll the footage back.

[group laughs] - But I want to be, now shout out to the daycare, it's family owned, I love y'all too.

So, but nah, I really just wanna make sure that I'm present with 'em.

But to your question, like a lot of things do come up.

So like I just did the halftime at the Grizzlies game February the second.

It was the start of Black History Month, and it was a huge moment for me, because I had been with the house band for years, shout out to Garry Goins and everybody, this was my first time actually being on the floor performing as me, Tyke T the artist.

And one thing I wanted to make sure that Abe was there for was to be a part of it as much as he could.

So like a lot of the pre stuff, like the filming at the Forum where we were like getting promotional videos and stuff.

He was a part of it.

And like, yeah, it was cool for him to be there in terms of like getting the stuff, but I wanted him to like see this and be around.

So to JS' point, I try to do as much as I can that he can come, but not 'cause I want him to pick it up, 'cause I don't care what he do.

He might not care about music in 10 years.

I don't care.

- It's about being present.

- But just be present, right?

'Cause it is hard.

We all artists, there's gonna be times where I'm gonna be at a show 'til 2:30.

It just is what it is.

Ain't nothing I can do about it.

But if I can bring him there, I'm going to make sure he can be there so he can be with me, see it, and not only see it, but like, man, my dad had me, 'cause that's important.

Like I didn't have my dad in my life.

And I think that's a big reason why I want to make sure that I'm in his, to ensure that he's locked in.

'Cause like no matter what, life gonna come, you gonna have these ups and downs, blah, blah, blah.

But if he know that his dad got him, - Yeah.

- That's gonna mean a lot.

You know what I'm saying?

Because I had two powerful, I know it's a fatherhood show.

I had two powerful Black women in my life.

My dad's mom, my grandma, and my mom, and then my grandma, my mom's mom.

Like, those women are like really, really powerful, and like showed me what love is, man.

Like money comes and goes, but like those people showed me what it is, and I wanna make sure that I instill that in him like, bro, I got you.

So like, presence is a really important thing.

- I love what you said, where I'm trying to do shows where I can bring him to it.

- Yeah, same thing like JS, man, trying, that's my goal.

Like I ain't finna pull up, 'cause you know, there's music, there's some music in the city.

You know what I'm saying?

And I like it too.

I be jamming it.

But I wanna make sure that where we're going, like, because Abe does his own music, and I don't want him to be picking up stuff that he don't need to pick up.

So we try our best to bring him around as much as he can to this stuff.

My stuff, Amber's stuff, too.

Like she's on the praise team, so she got videos where he up there on the praise team bopping and dancing.

And I'm like, all right.

- He's involved.

- He's involved, he's involved, to sum it up.

- Jamond talk about how your son, right?

- Yeah, my son.

- Your son influences your creativity when it comes to your space.

- Man, my son, here's the thing about kids, man, their imagination is so broad.

So they'll ask you questions about things that are inspired on a different level.

Like, my son will ask, "So dad, what did God's mom look like?"

And I'm just like, huh, I've never thought of that.

Like I could do a painting of that, you know what I mean?

But it's just one of those things where like, man, my son, he almost made it to the show today, to be honest.

- How old is your son?

- He's seven, his name is Hendricks.

- Okay.

- And so I had a guy hit me to do a mural in Atlanta and we were actually gonna leave Monday, but I guess the weather's kind of funny.

So it's just one of those things where I'm just like, oh, I almost took him with me for spring break to do this mural.

But you know, the last project hit, he helped me sketch it out.

So my son's got the art bug as well.

My wife, she's an artist.

So it's one of those things where like, it's helpful that she is very understanding when I have to work late or go out of town, 'cause look, she has to go outta town with her art as well.

So, but yeah, it is just, it's one of those things where, I look at how we get to do this and share these opportunities together, 'cause I curate art shows.

Like what Tyke T said, hey, I want my son at the event, I wanna be able to say, hey, this is a family friendly gathering.

- Right, right.

- This is a family friendly art gallery show.

And this is one of those things where, you know, hey, if my son here, feel comfortable to bring your kids as well.

You know, try to keep it PG.

[group laughs] - Right, right.

- And I think, because you say that, your seven-year-old son being there, it allows you to do work to keep it family friendly.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Because it could definitely go the other route and be an adult space.

- Yeah, because it's one of those things where, we in a city, they calling it the most dangerous city in America.

- They call it that.

- Yeah, but the thing is, it's all in what you make of it.

We gotta see the beauty in our own backyard, and so the last show that I curated, my son was on the side with his sketchbook, filling his sketchbook out, and I'm just like, man, this is crazy.

Like we really living this lifestyle right now.

- Yeah, yeah, it's important.

I wanna talk about the legacy, the legacy part of your creative space and being a father.

So when it talks about you being in theater, the music space, being a painter, what legacy do you want to leave for your child, your sons, your daughters?

Devereau, talk about that part about being a father.

- For me, honestly, it's putting the phones down, closing the computer, cutting the TV off, and actually sitting there talking to her, being silly, whatever she wants to do.

And then actually teaching her stuff, learning, like just being active with her, and not just existing.

Like what Tyke said, it's being active and being intentional, and reading books or whatever, putting on crazy hats.

I ain't wearing no tutus or nothing like that.

[group laughs] - Not yet.

[group laughs] - But you know, just spending that time, because she doesn't understand that the entertainment industry doesn't care about important dates and holidays and stuff.

She don't know that.

She just knows that's my daddy, I want my daddy now.

So I have, when I'm there, I have to make that work.

And I gotta give a huge shout out to my wife, Bianca, because when I am away she makes everything work.

- Yeah.

- No problems, you know what I'm saying?

It is, man, huge shout out to her.

- Yeah, I mean I think a support system is definitely key.

- Absolutely.

- There's no way you all can do what you're doing without somebody supporting your kids at home.

- Exactly.

- Absolutely.

- I mean, from the three boys, to your daughter, to your son, to your son, I mean, there has to be somebody, when you're on the road and when you're gone that's watching them, and then doing the things that you value and that you care for.

- True.

- That way when you're gone, you're not missing that piece.

But JS talk about like, I think you wanted to say something.

- Well, first of all, fatherhood, there's nothing more important than fatherhood.

Nothing, nothing.

I think in all we do, being a father has been the most important thing to me.

You know what I mean?

That's the greatest gift, I think, man, is being a father.

- It is.

- And given my circumstances, God saw to give me boys.

And far as legacy, your question, for me, man, my father and grandfather were gentlemen.

I think far as raising boys to be young men is to be gentlemen.

You know what I mean?

And there's a lot that goes in the word gentleman.

Be a gentle man.

- Say that again, that's important.

- It's very important.

- To be a what?

- A gentle man.

- A gentle man.

- And when you're being a gentle man, you never given nothing, so you damn sure shouldn't be taking nothing either though.

Right?

You know what I mean?

You're supposed to be a gentleman to your fellow brothers, women, all those.

And being a father, I'm supposed to be a father to y'all boys, y'all daughters when I see 'em, and previously shout out to my lady, Jasmine, too, and with my five-year-old, 'cause before, there was a period of time that it was just me, you know what I mean?

I had to get into to producing as far as scheduling.

Right, so I had to get into producing, 'cause I couldn't commit to certain theaters and doing those long rehearsals, four or five week rehearsal.

So I got into that myself, but it was right at that age my boys were little, five and one.

So they saw me, they were with me, and like you said, like to be just present.

You know what I mean?

Like, now they don't, they not in the arts.

They may find it later on.

They may find it 10 years from now, but just leaving a legacy, brother, of being a gentleman.

- Okay, Tyke T, I wanted to ask you one question about how does your music, how does it represent, when we talked about the culture and the community that we live in, how do you show that in our community in terms of your music and then even just being who you are as a person?

- Yeah, I think, you know Tyke T, my whole brand is about being driven.

Because where I came from, everything that I'm getting right now is just like icing on the cake.

Like I love, I don't know how many people have been to Smyrna, but like the goal for a lot of folks.

- I passed through a couple times.

- Yeah, you pass through it to get to MTSU.

And so I could have never envisioned that I would ever get to perform at a Memphis Grizzlies game, 'cause that's not like a thing.

You don't do that.

You try to go get the work at the Nissan plant.

If you can get that, you locked in, brother.

So like for this, all this is, so what I try to do in my music is just talk about like never giving up, and like the brand is driven, and that's what I want my son to have.

Like the persistence.

I told my wife, I was gonna say stick-to-it-iveness.

She told me not to say it, I still said it though.

[group laughs] Yeah.

- You said it on TV.

[group laughs] - I'm apologizing to your wife for you.

[group laughs] - I really, that's what I want, then, because like all of us have said this, and I think it's true, like our kids, they just love us.

They don't really care about all the other stuff.

And I see it so much when it's like, when you run upstairs and it's like, "Dad!"

It don't matter if we got a Grammy coming tomorrow or a this or that, they just happy to see us.

And so in the music, like, 'cause me and him created an album together, we got "Brush Your Teeth" and "Dry and Clean," these are potty training songs, you know what I'm saying?

Like I want to give back in that way as well.

Maybe the next generation of people ain't gotta go through poop everywhere.

[group laughs] Disgusting.

You know what I'm saying?

- He can pass that.

- He can pass that down forever.

So like what I try to do in my music is like be who I am.

I'm not finna go outside and shoot nobody.

That's not me.

But what Tyke is is somebody who's just never going to give up.

And I'm only here on this stage right now talking to y'all 'cause I just didn't quit.

It's a lot easier to quit, man.

I'm gonna tell you that.

There's been a couple times I done looked in that mirror like, bro, like really, it'd be a lot easier for you to stop right now.

But then how I'm gonna pass that on to my son?

He gonna look at me like a quitter, bro.

I can't do that.

That's disrespectful.

Now he ain't finna listen to me.

I wouldn't listen to no quitter.

I mean, so like, I gotta keep going.

You gotta keep going for it.

And that's what I hope that I can like, in my music, through my son's music, and people, like I can instill in him, like just never stop going for it.

Because, it's gonna be real Tyler Perry-ish, right, but like, I used to watch those plays, which what you say, you going to either be in a storm, you coming through a storm, or you about to go through one.

I might have said that wrong.

- Man, that's real.

- But the truth of it is, as long as you do not stop, there's a lesson that you gonna learn from it.

And you can pass that on.

- Right.

- And one more thing you said, I love what you said, just like back in like community, sorry.

Like I do want us to get back to like where you could get fathered by the people in your neighborhood.

- That's true.

- Because like in Smyrna we live in Cotton Square apartment, so it's government housing, but like them folk on the side had the right to tell me shut up and get in the house.

- Mm-hmm.

- That's true.

- And that's just what it was.

- I've heard that.

- And you don't really get that no more.

- I've heard that where the whole community neighborhood.

- They got to say something to you.

- Is responsible for, yep.

- Yeah.

- It's not just your parents, it's the whole community.

- Everybody, or if it's too late outside, and they know we outside too late on that bike, "I am finna tell your mama on you."

Man, let me hurry up, get back here, because I don't want no problem.

- Streetlighting.

- Yeah, the streetlight was a thing.

Like you can see the difference, though, like when we had that.

I hope we can actually get back to those days.

- Well, it's on us, man.

- I do.

- We gotta love each other kids, man.

- And I love how you said that gentleman part.

- Gotta love each other kids, I'll see y'all kids in the street, in the store with y'all wives, y'all women, man, I'm supposed to be there if y'all not present regardless.

- Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's real.

- I mean that's important, it's on us.

This is what the show is about, to give the viewers to what fatherhood looks like.

So Jamond even talked about how you'd be successful as a painter and still be present in your child's life.

What piece of advice could you give our audience today about what does that look like, and how do you make it work?

- I think for me it's the involvement of it all.

But I think with my son just carrying on like, okay.

It is a challenge because he sees what I'm doing is something that's creative.

And so he's a creative too, he's an artist too.

So he's like, "Well dad, I wanna draw on this one too now."

You know?

But it is just one of those things where like, I have to let him know the difference between this deadline that I have.

- Yeah.

- Which has a lot of pressure on it versus, okay, I have an open deadline.

You can come and work on this.

You can work on this, and it's creating a memory.

That's the thing that I enjoy.

- You can't get those back.

- Yeah, so it's one of those things where he's like, he's excited to see what my next project is.

And the beauty of that is like, okay man, I done created like a best friend.

You know?

I done created this unconditional love best friend situation where I'm a superhero.

But I think that's the beauty of God creating us as fathers, because it's one of those things where like I think about manhood, and I think my son teaches me more about being a man than anything.

- Amen, brother.

- Wow.

- Yeah, so it's like.

- That's really good, yeah, brother.

- Because he's holding me accountable on all these things.

- Every day, man.

- Today's conversation reminds us that creativity isn't just about performance, it's about purpose.

For these fathers, their art is more than expression.

It's a way to inspire, uplift, and build a legacy their children can be proud of.

To our guests, thank you for sharing your stories and showing us how passion and fatherhood can exist side by side.

I'm Chima Onwuka, and this has been Fatherhood, where we uplift voices and redefine legacy.

Thank you for joining us.

[upbeat R&B music] [R&B music continues] [R&B music continues] [acoustic guitar chords]