Listen to Scratching the Record's Debut Episode | Culture Journalist Kailyn Brown
Welcome to the debut episode of Scratching the Record!
My guest is the incredible culture journalist and DJ, Kailyn Brown. I first met Kailyn when she was a college student at UNLV. At that time, she co-hosted a radio show, Ill Vibe Theory, with her friends Christian and Jocelyn (who are also incredibly talented). I would run into Kailyn as she and her co-hosts covered hip-hop shows around Las Vegas. They had tapped into the community in a way that no other outlet was doing. Now, Kailyn is carving out her own lane as a features writer at the Los Angeles Times.
Through her writing, Kailyn connects with and advocates for communities, like in this story about the owner and family of 90220, the Historic South Central District art gallery, or this one about L.A. Girls Who Walk and the magic of moving together. She has also Kailyn has interviewed stars the likes of Anna Kendrick and Sheryl Lee Ralph, (including cover stories on actor John Boyega and comedian Ziwe). When we’re really lucky, we get to learn more about Kailyn’s own story in her writing, like in this vulnerable piece about a breakup bootcamp.
I’m excited for you to hear my conversation with Kailyn. She shares what it was like like leaving her hometown of Las Vegas to pursue journalism in Los Angeles, what held her back at first from DJing and how she got over her fears, and how she’s learning to balance work and life.
Read an excerpt from our conversation below and listen to the entire episode here:
Where did your interest in writing begin?
It started pretty young. I distinctly remember a writing competition. I don’t remember exactly what the topic was but we had to write a history paper in my fifth-grade class. I came out in the top three of all the fifth graders and I remember feeling like, “Oh, we got some skill!” Humblebrag [laughs]. As I got older, I was a very ambitious kid. I’m a Virgo, so, there you go.
I remember having a conversation with my dad one time about what I could do with writing when I get older. I had all these ideas but I didn’t really know about careers in writing. I think I was a preteen at the time. He threw out a bunch of different ideas and music journalism came up eventually. I thought “That sounds really cool.” At that time I was learning about underground hip-hop and digging on my own. I was 12 or 13 like, “You can find music beyond the radio?!” It was remarkable to me. My parents were letting me go to concerts without them at this point. It was amazing. So I decided that I was going to write about music.
It kind of started from there. My dad helped me make a website. it was called WetheHype.com. That’s where the “Hype” comes from—I never got rid of it since I was 14.
I love hearing about how that interest was cultivated at such a young age. What were some of your early assignments as a writer?
I’m trying to think back to some of those stories that I would probably never read again. Or that I’d be embarrassed by [laughs]. I was on the high school newspaper. I went to Legacy High School in North Las Vegas. I remember some of my early articles were about student life and music and things that I was interested in.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal had a high school publication called “Our Generation.” It was for high school journalists to get some experience. We would go there for several weeks at a time. We have mentors who would teach us. I did that during my junior and senior life and wrote about student life. There would also be some pop culture stuff. The show “Sixteen and Pregnant” was really popular at that time. I remember writing an opinion piece on that. Like why? [Laughs] But I did.
There was also a guy named Andrea Hale—shoutout to him, I know you know him—I reached out to him. He was a friend of my dad’s, or an acquaintance at least—I reached out to him like “Hey, I love your website.” He had a site at the time called the Well Versed. “I love everything that you’re doing. I’m in high school and I just want to get my feet wet.” And he was like “Sure, what do you have for me.” I remember that weekend, there was a local hip-hop show happening. “Let me write about this local hip-hop show where my friends are performing.” That was my first music clip.
I love the energy that young you had to just go after it. How did you feel at the time? Were there moments when you could see your work connecting with an audience?
That’s a really interesting question because I feel like historically, you might look at a newspaper writer at a high school and think “That’s where all the nerds are.” But there were a lot of cool kids and I felt like I was cool too and we wrote about cool stuff.
If you were there, it was the cool kids. I know that.
I appreciate that. Maybe it was just my high school but I felt like we took a lot of risks. My teacher was just so open. I was editor-in-chief in my junior and senior years. We would just come up with the craziest ideas. We went against all the rules. A lot of rules you probably shouldn’t break. I got a lot of critiques from “Our Generation.” But you know, I said, “We do what we want and students read our papers. That’s all that matters.” A few things stood out to me.
My good friend Christian Astorga, who I lived really close to, he and I would beg my mom to drive us to music festivals to write for the Well Versed. That would be my weekend. I kind of felt like Hannah Montana or something.
The best of both worlds. The double life!
Exactly! You know, at night I would go to concerts. I wasn’t 21 yet so I couldn’t do a ton of things. I remember a distinct time that I interviewed Macy Gray for the Well Versed. My teacher was like, “Yeah, it’s cool—You can go ahead and do your thing and come back to class. I got you.” I remember doing that interview in my high school parking lot. Being on the phone with this woman who I grew up listening to. It was so humbling.
I have the visual now of you in your high school parking lot interviewing Macy Gray.
And then going back to class to learn math. Like what? I don’t care about math right now. [Laughs]
That’s very Hannah Montana!
Hear more from my interview with Kailyn on this episode of Scratching the Record.