April 18, 2024

Benjamin Better

Better Get Computer

‘Focus on the task’ – Podcast nears 100th epidosde

ALTON — What a big difference a year will make, pandemic aside, for Aaron Rigid who’s generally experienced his eyes on his mission.

Stiff, a musician also acknowledged as Lil Duces, is a producer, specialized engineer, director, videographer and photographer acknowledged as AE Media Co. He opened his have focused studio house, AE Media Studios, at 200 N. Heart Push in Alton on April 1 and has a photographer, Cecil Martin, functioning for the studio.

Stiff is also the lead articles creator and videographer for a well-liked Alton-primarily based podcast, “Reason 2 Question,” owned and made by Justin “J. Sims” Sims.

Cause 2 Question started off about two yrs ago with 3 guys, all of whom went to Alton Superior School and grew up alongside one another. Now there’s 4 to five guys regularly building up the cast of Motive 2 Doubt, together with Sims, who graduated from AHS in 2007.

“When I first started persons were being asking what I was carrying out,” Stiff mentioned. “That form of question is the purpose to emphasis on the job.

“Everything you do is a motive to doubt — not simply because they do not consider in you, but simply because they couldn’t do it,” he mentioned. “Focus on what you want to focus on, and that is the sort of concept I try to deliver.”

The podcast will debut its 100th episode on June 30 major sponsors are Manscaped and Goli Nourishment. Cause 2 Doubt’s admirer followers are dubbed “The Doubted.”

“This is a thing to give our communities, when we grew up,” said Sims, an AHS basketball star whose group broke the college history for most wins 3 many years in a row and an All-American shooter and scorer at Lewis and Clark Local community School, a Most Valuable Participant at both equally educational facilities He afterwards performed ball at the College of Illinois Springfield.

“It’s one thing you can have exciting carrying out,” he mentioned of podcasts, “be artistic, get compensated and attempt to help regional organizations out.”

Sims often needed to get into podcasting.

“I required to do one thing in that place,” he recalled. “I’m into hip hop music pretty closely, and it begun with tunes. But with mates it improved for the reason that there’s 3 other personalities with me, and four distinct perspectives on existence and latest topics. We give our sincere view on every little thing, on the globe as we see it.”

The topical podcast goes from analyzing significant challenges, such as the murder of George Floyd, to the most foolish, such as dissing or lauding a fact exhibit minute.

Motive 2 Doubt prolonged its scope from hip hop to involve athletics, the most current headlines and interviews with a neighborhood artist each week.

“Before we even did a podcast, we did a podcast, not even understanding what we ended up undertaking,” Sims said. “We joke with each other. No a single actually has an ego every person jokes on every person. But at the end of the working day it’s just speaking on items, an outlet to communicate about stuff.

“It’s served all of us, just like remedy,” he pointed out. “More young Black men and women conversing to people actually can help.

“You can relate to a great podcast when you hear to it,” he reported. “You communicate back again to it. People see me out and say either, ‘You ended up trippin’ when speaking about this or that,’ or they agree. That is what I love — the suggestions men and women give us.”

Together with Sims, 32, and Stiff, 29, Explanation 2 Doubt’s crew consists of Kenny “KD” Douglas, 34 — identified as “the tough critic of the team — and Joe “Joe Jack” Jackson, 34, “the sneaker guy” with his own YouTube content called Website link and a selection of a lot more than 250 pairs of sneakers.

“If you want to know about the most current shoe release, he’s the male,” Rigid said of Joe Jack. “KD has opinions that are not well-liked and delivers arguments to the discussions.”

The podcast crew also incorporates Josh “Juice” Lovings, 24, a money advisor with JBL Ventures, his possess enterprise. He’s closely involved guiding the scenes, creating positive the analytics are developing, and he provides a standpoint of the younger crowd. Also on the crew is John “Dee Jay Steeno” Steen, 33, a further former Alton Superior and LCCC standout baller who owns apparel strains “Get That Water” and “Be By yourself.”

Rigid gets included with the cast’s antics, like, when Jay-Z’s friend/foe Beanie Sigel was interviewed.

“I’m the only a single in the group who doesn’t like Jay-Z, so I parodied Jay-Z, creating reviews to amp them up,” Rigid defined, “because I know they really like Jay-Z.”

In actuality, Explanation 2 Doubt’s title is a engage in on Jay-Z’s debut studio album, “Reasonable Question.”

In March the forged traveled to Atlanta to interview St. Lunatics’ Ali, capturing seven to 8 episodes in excess of a five-day span. They’ve also interviewed Kyjuan, a founding member of St. Lunatics. Equally artists are from St. Louis.

Reason 2 Doubt can be identified @cause2question on YouTube and Instagram and at https://www.facebook.com/look at/ReasonToDoubtPodcast/ with an normal of 100,000 downloads and sights just about every week and a new episode every single Wednesday. The podcast also can be followed at Apple, Spotify, or everywhere podcasts are located.

“You’ll see a great deal of material,” Sims mentioned. “Joe Jack does a ‘sneaker talk’ beneath the Explanation 2 Doubt umbrella. He has hundreds of Jordans.”

A new skit segment, Satisfy the Doubted — a a person-on-just one confessional and parody alongside the traces of “The Office” — dropped final 7 days.

“This 7 days will be a spotlight of past episodes,” Sims stated of the June 30th podcast. “You’ll get a excellent gist of everybody’s personalities, how we started off and all the things we’ve been carrying out.”

Stiff began shooting the podcast close to the 40th episode.

“They ended up employing an Apple iphone and a single digital camera,” he explained. “They necessary to broaden and get it to the following stage. So the operator contacted me. I have been capturing it ever due to the fact.”

Stiff graduated from AHS in 2011 and formed AE Media Co. LLC in January 2019.

“I preferred a place the place clients could come in and shoot the exact same factors you see in New York, L.A., Atlanta, like you see in Wakanda, deliver all all those issues right here,” he said. “You don’t need to go wherever else. Customers can arrive to AE Media Studios for those identical resources and effects.”

He moved to Indianapolis following substantial university and graduated from Ivy Tech with a visual communications diploma. He moved again to Alton 3 decades back and shaped his company focused on Alton’s thriving audio scene. His hottest Lil Duces’ album, “From Me To You,” came out previous summer months.

Stiff mentioned he has been producing songs and accomplishing considering that he was a child. His résumé involves headlining a sold-out show attended by 5,000 with multi-platinum and gold Atlanta rapper Prosperous Homie Quan in Indiana.

“I continue to have a music following, but I’m having the ‘Kanye West strategy,’” Stiff described, “as a want to grow my organization to assistance far more persons with the means they have to have to make their music and get it out there. Kanye related to a great deal of folks first by developing. At the time he had connections and in a position to do it, he was able to do it himself.”

For his AE Media Co. shoppers, Stiff does it all. He’s the cameraman, cinematographer, set builder, director, producer and editor.

“I really like operating with area artist,” he mentioned. “I know what it’s like on the lookout for a studio, a video clip man, and I’m seeking to fill that void.”

Sims has a stating at the finish of every single Reason 2 Question episode: “Just since they could not do it, does not indicate you just can’t.”

Sims usually is questioned how to aid the podcast. He said by “liking” Cause 2 Doubt on social media, subscribing and leaving a score, as properly as buying goods at r2dshop.bigcartel.com or by way of the podcast’s social medias.

“We will get merch to you,” Sims explained.

AE Media Studios is reserving new purchasers now. Get in touch with Rigid at aemediaco@gmail.com. Comply with on Instagram @aemediaco. Adhere to Lil Duces on Instagram @lilduces and Twitter @lilducesdaboss.