https://theadna.libsyn.com/the-adna-presents-rampd-with-lachi-and-precious
Transcript follows
Roy:
Welcome to the Ana presents today. We’re very happy to have two representatives from ramped and not only representatives, but we’ve got precious, a membership share of Ram. She’s a singer songwriter and music educator, and also the founder of Ram Laci. I’m so proud to have both of you here. Thank you for joining us
Lachi:
AA. Thank you so much for having us, Roy. And this has been a long time coming.
Roy:
I can’t wait. I’m so excited. Let’s start with, uh, our usual question is what you love about audio description in this context, let’s ask what you love about ramps, which is spelled R a M P D.
Precious:
Yeah. Awesome. I’m precious Hispanic woman, dark curly hair, happy to be here. So I think the thing that I love about ramped is that there are so many talented people at our core. Everyone is driven to uplift this movement of making sure that the music industry is accessible and we come together and bring our different talents and our different skills. We’re pioneering something that isn’t being done. And it’s just amazing to see the work that we’ve already been able to accomplish in such a short time.
Lachi:
Yeah. Amen. Amen. So I’m Lachy, SheHer black girl, corn roses today. I’m wearing a Gibson t-shirt and some Coca-Cola pants. And I apologize for just being draped in ads. I really love this movement ramp to recording artists, music professionals with disabilities, not just because of the fact that we’re a bunch of talents coming together. And I’m really glad that precious touched on that. You know, we’re a bunch of established folks that are really trying to make things happen in the industry. But I think that one of the things that I love love, love, love about what we’re doing at ramped is we’re not actually focusing on things like compliance. We’re not actually focusing on ADA. We’re not actually focusing on what you have to do. And honestly, to quote my good friend, Roy Samuelson, we focus, you get to do, um, we focus on disability, culture, uplifting representation, uplifting inclusion, and wanting to really be a part of it. Like a really great example is when we go into these meetings with these other organizations, we really try to encourage folks self to, and we tell them why we let them know the significance and we do it ourselves to let folks know that it’s actually a really fun part of our culture.
Roy:
One of the cool things that I remember vividly in one of the recent ramped meetings related to that opportunity, in the sense of you get to do this, Laia used you talk specific about all text and social media, the way that you did it, it was this brushstroke of not going into the, the minute details. I always get stuck for the trees instead of the forest, you just get kind of like, Hey, here’s something that you can do. And it was offered like, here’s this other bonus offer that you can do? And it wasn’t manipulative. It wasn’t expected it in the sense of obligation obligatory. It was just like, here’s this other thing that you get to do? And you’re gonna love it. That’s the impression that I got. If you could talk a little bit about that. That’s one aspect of, of hundreds that, that I’d love to, to ask you about. And I won’t ask all a hundred, I promise.
Lachi:
Okay. Um, I’m gonna start it off, but I also, I’m gonna toss it to precious as well because we both share this quality. And so do a lot of folks at rep it’s that we’re not here to pick it fence. There are other folks that do the real deep dive dirt in the trenches activism. What we do here at ramped is we’re here to have conversations. I like to say, I’m here to tell, not to yell. We just wanna sit folks down and say, Hey, look, it’s not that hard. And once you include it right at the front, it just becomes second nature. And honestly, it’s good for your SEO. So you may wanna include it when letting folks know in a fun, playful, positive manner, how this can not only benefit them, how it can not only benefit the disability community, but even really folks’ bottom line and just present it in a way that encourages folks to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Then it really does help folks wanna walk in that light and go that extra line, go that extra mile. The reason I wanna pass it to you precious is cuz I love the way precious approaches as well. She’s got similar to me, but definitely different for me. She, you have like sort of an upbeat vibe that I, I want for myself.
Lachi:
So I wanna toss it to you about, you know, the more sort of playful energy when it, or just the more, you know, encouraging energy when it comes to advocacy.
Precious:
Absolutely. You know, there’s something to be said for advocating can be intense having these conversations, but when you’re an approachable person, when you approach it from a positive, a you’re not saying like, oh, you’re not doing this. So we’re gonna do X, Y, Z. It’s more of, we can help you make sure that this happens. How would you like to proceed? Really making them understand through your personal journey, through your story of, you know, Hey, this is what we’re doing. This is why it benefits me personally, but this is why it also benefits or people that I’m involved with. And that I’m not in the disabled community. This is why we need to do this because everybody deserves access to all of the things that we’re asking for. It’s really about how you approach the situation and how you come to the table. If your energy is positive, approachable, and open, and then people are more likely to listen as opposed to if you’re too stern or too anything, it’s definitely a balance, you know, because obviously we are professionals and we want to be professional, but you can be professional without being too professional.
Precious:
If that makes any sense.
Roy:
What are the themes that I’m hearing in, in both of your responses, from the way you LAE approach conversations, to the way you precious talk about the story, the approach of the story, there’s an authenticity to, to those meetings, regardless of, of what’s happening. You don’t allow things to gloss by with that positivity. I, I feel like there’s something that’s really special that that ramped brings. And I think there’s some real models of, of what the music industry is, how you approach the music industry to, to other areas. Maybe this is a good time Lachy to talk of about approaching the Grammy’s. And, and could we tell, uh, some moments from that story?
Lachi:
Yeah. So, you know, ramp deals, not only with the Grammy’s, but with many different musical, uh, event spaces or music firms or non-profits labels publishing agencies is to talk about not only embracing disability culture, making disability visible, but also working with staff, working within your staff to make sure that if some folks have accommodations, they aren’t afraid to advocate for themselves. Um, something that I heard when we were talking to universal a while back, was they, I, uh, wouldn’t know that folks had any kind of mental health problems until the exit interview. And that’s a problem. Uh, this is one of the things that ramp does from top to bottom, from again, from within and without the actual agency. Now within the Grammys. One of the things that I saw was an issue is that every time I spoke to folks, cuz I myself am a member and I now co-chair the advocacy committee and am slowly working my way up the chain here.
Lachi:
I kept running into folks and going, hello, my name is Lachy and they go, wow, you’re the first person with a disability that I’ve ever met, the first musician with a disability. And what I started saying, we need to talk about disability as a diversity. The response was, well, it would just be a panel with just you on it. Wow. So what are we gonna do? And so I had to say, that’s not the case. And that’s how things started with the Grammy’s last year, April 21st, when we had that big meeting where I brought together a few folks to speak to the recording academy about disability inclusion and from then on ramped was born. Now I am in a good position because I am, I would like to consider myself successful as a musician awards, touring all the nine yards major features. And so it helped allow folks to sit down and listen.
Lachi:
And I thought, okay, let’s bring on other people that folks will have to sit down and listen to because I wanna make sure that when we walk into the room, they sit down, they listen. And when they say you and what army, we have an army of professionals to point to and say, all of us. And that’s how that whole thing went myself, being a black female. And I’m gonna try to shorten this, cuz there’s just so much to the story, but myself being a, a black female and the new leadership of the recording academy, taking a very different look than it had just a couple of years ago. I have to say that I was able to speak on level with some of the new leadership and that helped a lot. And so we got ourselves in the room. I said, I want to make sure as Lachy, who is obviously, um, a well respected recording academy member, that my Grammy’s reflects not only racial inclusion and uh, LGBTQ inclusion and gender inclusion, but disability inclusion.
Lachi:
And they said, sure. So we brought in ramped and we brought in a few of our, uh, friends and associates that special is in audio description or specialize in ASL. That’s how Roy widled his way into the room. We had a few conversations and they, you know, they went well. They were very respectful, very respectable. And, uh, we, we had different talks. We spoke with the VP over there of DEI even before, uh, he became VP of DEI. So before that, we were speaking to the previous VP of DEI, which happened to be Felicia. And then we spoke with Ryan and you know, the, again, the conversations were great. Uh, we can get more into it, but that’s basically the origins of how the talks came underway. One thing that I will share a little bit of the sausage is that a lot of times when we go go into these different meetings, for the most part, depending on how high powered they are, we’ll come together beforehand and make sure we have our marching orders in order and make sure we have, you know, what everyone’s gonna say and how we’re gonna present.
Lachi:
And we get in there and we just kill it. The whole point of ramped is to showcase that we are professionals we’re competitive and we can sit at table and kill it. And we did that consistently every time we met with, uh, the recording academy. I think the only last thing that I will say is that while there was a lot of haziness as to what actually was, or wasn’t going to get done until the very last second, you know, ramped and its associates, we donated our time to all of that discussion. So all of that was, um, volunteer. And so again, we’re professionals, we do this for a living, we consult for a living. And so, you know, obviously this was us trying to do something very big to make sure that we can start getting some and some ourselves on the map here. But there is something to be said about, give us the courtesy and respect, uh, that other consultancies would receive. I’m gonna leave that there for now. So I’m gonna toss it back to you, Roy.
Roy:
Maybe I could ask, uh, precious for some, some follow up to that. That Laie what I’m hearing is the, the confidence that you had at the table came from the strategy of working with professionals that, that resulted in the respect. And what I’m also hearing is that you made it very clear that this was a donation and a volunteering of your time, that that decision to volunteer your time was a decision you weren’t put in that position. What I’m hearing is that ramped works decisively to DEC to say, this is worth the value of our investment. And we are bringing top quality to what we bring to the table. Could you talk a little bit about that? Precious?
Precious:
Yeah, so like our name says we are music professionals. And so with that comes the expectation that we get respected and treated as such. And when we decide to do something, whether it’s volunteer and we know that it’s something that is, that will be using our time as individuals. It is a decision that we come to, you know, Laci will say, Hey, this is what what’s happening. If you’re interested in doing this, you know, let us know and we move forward, we’ll talk through it in our meetings and these different things and come to a consent together before anything happens as far as big meetings and, and different opportunities come up. So it’s definitely something that we decide to do as a collective. We don’t allow ourselves to be put in a position where that’s the only option that we have, unless it’s something that we decide we want to do and want to pursue in order to further the movement. So yeah, I would say that it’s definitely something that we choose, um, whatever we do, because we decide if it’s worth it because we are established and we deserve that respect. We don’t just want things for exposure. We want things to actually make things happen.
Lachi:
Yeah. And I wanna actually underscore that because while we do things volunteer, just de depending on how much we believe it’ll push the needle forward. We are a collective of musicians and artists, and we have disabilities at the end of the day. We need to, you utilize our time creating our art and we’re spending time advocating to be able to spend time creating our art, to be able to make money creating our art. And so it’s this, you know, round Robin catch 22, where it gets to a point where the, these major organizations that we speak to these multi dollar organizations have the ability to either, uh, hire a, uh, a disability consultant or staff, a disability advisor. That’s always something that we wanna make sure that folks understand. A lot of times, these bigger companies feel that they’re doing us a favor, oh, we’re giving the poor disabled person a chance, oh, we’re giving the poor disabled coalition a chance.
Lachi:
And you know, that’s when Lachy comes out, am I allowed to say that that’s when that’s when Laie comes out and you know, I gotta, I gotta go to bed and lay my head on the pillow and get up the next morning and, you know, do what I gotta do again. But I can’t have folks coming to ramped expecting that they’re giving us some sort of opportunity, a visibility and you know, oh, who are ramped, let’s help them out. So by no means, are our folks getting that impression? And that’s our whole vibe is to make sure folks do not have that impression, whether it’s via our, our, our, the way we, um, the way we brand ourselves, the way we promote ourselves, the way we speak, if you, if any one on ramp came to this podcast, you would get the high quality that you’re getting right now.
Lachi:
And that’s what ramped is about. Anyone that you bring, anyone that we give to the table is gonna give you what you need. And if you didn’t offer that person, monetary re recompense for what they gave you, you will walk away feeling like, wow, why? I can’t believe. I just, you know, I got way bang for my buck, way over the value. And if I ever bring that person back, I absolutely have to pay them, which has happened. And so that’s why we wanna make sure folks understand that we are professionals we deserve, uh, to be paid for our time and for our consulting. And if you want someone to do a long game consultation, go, you better hire you a disabled consultant, or you better staff yourself, a disabled advisor on staff on salary that sticks around day in, day out because disability doesn’t disappear after your programming’s over.
Roy:
Uh, you brought up value with the word, and you’ve been talking about value this entire conversation, uh, Lachy, I think you had said be comfortable with uncomfortable that when, when, uh, these conversations do happen, there’s a lot that’s you had said being invited to the table, you put it all on the table and it’s very clear. There’s no up, there’s no favor asking. It’s just here is where it’s at. And thank you for sharing. So specifically about the importance of hiring professionals and making sure that they’re utilized and respected for their time, that that respect has come out throughout this conversation. I’d love to wrap things up a little bit and ask if there’s anything else you’d like to share that we haven’t covered, uh, particularly with the, the parallels to this podcast, primarily focused on quality and excellence in audio description and how professionals who are blind in low vision, who are in this business are, are being a part of this. I, you can see the parallels are here. Is there anything else knowing that audience that you’d like to share
Precious:
This kind of a, as you said, audio description, my mind went back to self-describe because with that you have the opportunity to see someone’s personality. And, you know, it’s, it’s a similar thing when you know, are watching a movie. And for me personally, when I’m watching like a music video or a movie or something that, you know, is just visual, I’m sitting there going, oh, wow, this, this might be cool, but I don’t know what’s happening versus when there is a D you get to see, oh, wow, this is the outfit this person is wearing. This is, you know, the emotion on their face. Um, and it’s always interesting to see how different, you know, a sided person watching with me will say like, well, that’s not how I think, you know, it looks, or it’s always a very interesting conversation, but basically to tie it all together, I think that, um, I’ll do a description is definit. You know, one of the things that ramped works towards and pushes for as far as making award shows and different things accessible fully, um, it’s one of the many things we push for, um, you know, ramps, ASL just covering all of the basis for everyone with a disability that deserves access to these things and deserves to be a part of these things as disabled musicians and disabled music professionals. So it all kind of ties together, which is amazing to see.
Lachi:
Yeah. Awesome. And I think precious hit on a really great point sort of a road that I was gonna go down for. My closing statement is the, the beauty of ramped is that we don’t just focus on one disability. You know, a lot of disabilities either get siloed in sort of a negative way where folks have no idea what’s going on outside of their own disability or folks who are advocating for all disabilities, only focus on their own disability, unknowingly by accident, which is fine. But what we do at ramped is we not only advocate for these different things, ASL for deaf culture ramps for wheelchair users, captioning for not only the deaf and art of hearing, but also folks with neurodiversity and a D H D that prefer having captioning audio description for the blind and low vision self description for not only the blind and low vision, but again, folks with neurodiversity also benefit from self description.
Lachi:
As I’ve heard, time and time, again, sense sensitivity disabilities when it comes to loud sounds and loud lights and fidgeting and things like that, to help folks around the, what I would call, I guess, the disability spectrum. I think one of the most important things that I’ve received through ramped was hanging out. And I mean, this was just this weekend. We’ve been working together throughout this whole Grammy process, but hanging out this weekend with Amber Amber Galloway’s production crew, and they are a crew of heart of him and deaf singers, rappers, and signers, they were saying that it’s just the first time that they’re interacting with the blind side of things, blind folks and deaf folks and folks in wheelchairs and folks with neuro diversities are coming together to do something together. And it makes it just so much stronger. It keeps the silos from happening, and it keeps a blind kid that feels like, oh, I’m blind, or, oh, I just keep running into the same folks to have this whole new world and become open-minded of all of the different disabilities that do exist.
Lachi:
And it turns it away from disability and just into, just into, Hey, we’re all just different folks trying to say, we’re all just different folks trying to say, Hey, we deserve to have society give us those same opportunities that we don’t have. And so I really love that ramped brings all the disabilities together in the name of music. And one last thing, Roy, the beauty of ramp is this just like hip hop has really helped elevate black culture to mainstream discussion and country music has really helped elevate, uh, rural culture to mainstream discussion ramp is really trying to help bring disability culture to mainstream discussion through music as well. And so that’s really our sort of byline music is what really helps folks find, understand and appreciate culture. And so through music for musicians and creators and creative staff with disabilities, we hope to amplify disability culture. And thank you for this space, right? Oh,
Roy:
Beautiful. Every single word is a pleasure. This has been a absolute pleasure. And the parallels as you’ve both identified are breaking through all the silos and bringing that humanity that you talk about. Thank you for establishing and creating and moving ramped forward for, for the good of all culture. This is so exciting. Can we follow you social media? Could you, uh, either of you give some shout outs for, uh, uh, the main spaces,
Lachi:
First of all, join our mailing list, please, please, please. You are gonna get a lot of really great stuff there. You can join it by going to ramp.org, which is R a M pd.org. Join our mailing list. Share the donation link, cuz we could totally use a couple of dollars. Everybody can, you can follow us at Twitter at ramped up. That’s R a M P D U P. You can follow us on Instagram at ramped underscore up that’s R a M P D underscore up we’re on Facebook, just search ramped. We’re on LinkedIn, just search ramped. We’re all over Google. If you Google a ramp, you’re gonna see all of the amazing coverage that we are blessed to have gotten from places like billboard and Hollywood reporter and, and whatnot. So we’re your friends. You don’t have to have a disability to join our mailing list. You don’t have to be a musician. You just have to be awesome. Hope to see you there.