THE EVERYDAY SUPERSTAR
Fuzionz Magazine stopped by for
an interview with Rome Madison.
We were fortunate, because this
Everyday Superstar is always on
the move. Rome travels from state
to state, growing his brand
“Everyday Superstar,” gracing
others with his words of wisdom
and encouragement through
motivational speaking. We’ve have
the opportunity to hear him speak
and his words speak volumes. It
doesn’t stop there. Not only is
Rome a motivational speaker, he is
also the Executive Producer for
Neo Soul Café. Check out our
interview…
Fuzionz Magazine: Tell us who
Rome Madison is?
Rome: At the core of me, I’m
Rome Madison from Dennison,
Texas who grew up on a farm with
his grandfather raising pigs. I
learned a lot about hard work, the
values of an individual and having
integrity as a person, all of which
brings us to Neo Soul Café. Music
has always been the core of who
we are as a culture and a people in
the African American community.
It’s really the last platform of what
I feel belongs to us. In the ‘60’s,
soul music or black music, which it
was called before the 60’s, any
song by a black artist was music
and was thrown in the same
category, but in the 60’s, the music
became personal. It became for
us, by us, so to speak, so it got the
name soul music. As Aretha
Franklin said, “You feel it in your
soul.” The music is something you
feel in your soul, with Nina Simone
singing “Young, Gifted and Black”
from Sam Cooke singing “A Change
Gone Come,” Aretha Franklin
singing “Respect” and James
Brown singing “Say It Loud, I’m
Black and I’m Proud.” It was a
revolutionary time for black people
because we were coming to the
realization that we had life. We
had a life of our own. Dr. Martin
Luther King’s dream was that you
and I could have a dream to do
what we’re doing today. We didn’t
listen to the news to get what was
going on in the neighborhood, we
listened to the local DJ, the local
radio station because that was our
voice. So, in essence, the Neo Soul
Café is a ministry. It’s a way to
bring soul music; the true soul
music that’s meant to build a vision
of one’s self to bring a better
picture of what life is suppose to
be as we have with Gospel music
and obviously Soul music is based
on that premise. That’s why we’re
called the brand of music that gets
your head right.
Fuzionz: When was Neo Soul Café
started?
Rome: It was created by DJ
Frances J. She is another
phenomenal story. She had this
concept back in 1996 before we
had the capability of putting up
websites. She was dedicated to
bringing out music that was still
cool, hip, funky and dope, but
didn’t portray a lot of violence or a
glorification of money and lust.
What if you don’t want to hear all
of those messages, but still want to
hear really good music?
That became her quest; to find and
highlight those independent artists,
that if you played their music on
your typical top forty radio
stations, everybody would still nod
their heads, everybody would still
say, “Hey, this is really great
music!” So she started Neo Soul
Café in 1996 and created the
website in 2003. The television
show is where I hooked up with
Frances J. She was looking to do a
creative television show and she
needed a host and producer; we
connected. I loved the vision of
what she had for the brand and we
did the show. We did a pilot and
sent it to several networks. We
were picked up by the Black Family
Channel, which aired on Urban
America Network. Robert
Townsend was the CEO/Station
Director. He saw our show and
knew it had something special;
henceforth, we were picked up and
we aired for three years.
Fuzionz: Can you give our youth
some words of encouragement to
take with them for the future?
Rome: My brand is the Everyday
Superstar and what I say is, “You’re
not a star because of who knows
you, who you know, what you do
for a living or the money that you
make, you’re an Everyday
Superstar when you’re connected