Host intro: Swaggy Sie has been in the ears of New Yorkers since 2015 on Sirius XM Radio. Alongside the likes of Sway Calloway, Torae, and more, she has been a staple in New York Radio and Hip Hop, not only as a DJ but for her Interviews with some of the biggest artists in the game. Swaggy is rapidly growing on a national scale, with her interviews being featured on prominent social media sites like The Shade Room, even having clips of her interviews shown on Access Hollywood. Michael Grullon has the story.
AMBI- Intro to Swaggy shows- 7 secs
Track- I’m on a Zoom call with Swaggy Sie, who is speaking from her home in Harlem. To her, her recent success in radio is something she didn’t plan from the jump.
Act- When I was in college, I never really put so much emphasis on the fact that I had this secret desire and love for radio until I went to Long Island University, CW Post. I originally wanted to do sports, because I was always a sports-person.
Track- She also loved basketball and when she first got to college she wanted to play in the WNBA. While unfortunately, we don’t get to see her lace up her shoes for the New York Liberty Basketball Team, she realized that radio helped her combine her love for music, sports, and showing her outgoing personality.
Act- I saw the radio station, and I said “Yo this is crazy!” I could do anything I wanted to do, talk about everything I wanna talk about, and I could also play the music that I love. So (the radio station) for me in a sense was like how I was able to put together my melting pot, of all the things I was passionate about.
Track- Over the years she has interviewed rising stars from the ever prominent Cardi B to Blac Chyna and the late great Pop Smoke. When asked how she has been able to stay composed during these interviews in the presence of such star power, she said that it isn’t as nerve-racking as you’d think.
Act- “There’s nothing wrong with giving somebody their flowers while they can still smell them, but it’s also about still remaining professional. So like you said, sitting down with Cardi B, I’m a fan, I loved Invasion of Privacy.
TRACK: Still, she says we’re all human in the end.
“It sinks in sometimes, but then you snap back to reality and you’re like “Yo, this person is bleeding the same blood as me: you know? They might be on TV every day, they might be on the radio every day, but at the end of the day when you make those connections that make us human, and you find out what you guys relate on, that’s where it gets back to reality.”
Track- The past year, of course, has been drastically changed for all of us, and Swaggy isn’t any different. With the Sirius XM studio just down the block from Radio City Music Hall, she had to transition everything to working and hosting from home.
Act- Once the radio station is shut down now, that creates a barrier of how we meet people, how we interact. So I have completely transitioned to doing everything 100% at home. Everything you hear from me, from my interviews whether it be Cardi B or Lil Durk or whoever, that’s literally from my living room. Which is crazy to say, you know I’ve had some big interviews, even Blac Chyna, technically in my living room. Those things have been a transition and it’s weird because we don’t know when we’re gonna go back right now, that’s just where we stand right now.
Track- Being one of her interns the last two months has been great, but I wanted to give another unique perspective on working with Swaggy Sie. So I also sat down with Niesha, one of my partners who interns with SwaggySie, and asked what this internship has been like compared to previous internship positions she’s held.
Act- It’s definitely been a different experience, that’s for sure. My last internship wasn’t fully mobile, and we had an office we would go to weekly to meet up, this has definitely been a transition. But Swag has made what would’ve been a difficult transition nearly seamless.
Track- She went on to explain how understanding, kind, and experienced Swaggy has been in their few Zoom interactions.
Act- Obviously zoom University has become very demanding being a stay at home college student, but she’s been very understanding. The internship has taught me nearly as much as my last one without the same immersion, and to me that says a lot about her and my teammates. It has been very fun and I’ve become a better writer and publisher in the last few months working under Swaggy.
Track- Obviously this has been a rough year of change for all of us. But Swaggy prides herself on uplifting the youth and others around her and remaining optimistic. So she shared her advice on staying motivated and maintaining the hustle of life through the pandemic.
Act- You have to find those things, they may be very very small things that keep you sane at the end of the day. Maybe it’s cooking, maybe it’s reading, maybe it’s just unwinding and watching an episode of Stranger Things on Netflix. You don’t know what it might be, but whatever it is, make sure you’re doing that, however often as you can, whenever your schedule permits.
Track- If you want to hear more from Swaggy you can catch her on Hip Hop Nation’s The Heat weekday mornings and weeknights on Sirius XM radio. For Baruch College, I’m Michael Grullon, in Brooklyn.