There is nothing like getting to the bag with your friends, and the Gen Z trio of Raymonte Cole, DeAndre Brown and Malik McIntyre have officially secured another bag with their new podcast that brings important topics to light.
If We’re Being Honest was curated out of the necessity for the group to have open and honest conversations from the lens of three queer men. It is much more than a show; it’s a safe place for people who look like them.
“It feels like three friends just having honest banter,” McIntyre told Blavity’s Sharronda Williams in a recent interview. “There are certain things that you would say, like, in front of people, and there are certain things that you would say with your friend, somebody you are comfortable with. I think it’s cool for people to be able to see us have an intimate friendship on camera. I think there’s an absolute need for the podcast, and after we did it, we saw how authentic and organic the conversations flow. It only made sense for us to continue it in something bigger. We’ve all grown individually and collectively as a group.”
What is ‘If We’re Being Honest’ about?
According to the trio, with If We’re Being Honest, listeners can look forward to hearing their favorite Black queer influencers engage and share their expertise on trending topics around corporate and pop culture, community and fashion. Their mission for the podcast is to change the narrative of how Black queer men are viewed in the media.
For them, it’s all about elevating together and minimizing the outside noise from people on the internet who are determined to pit the threesome against one another. Their differences drew them in as a friend group in the first place and are the glue that keeps them together.
“As everyone knows in the media now, we are all known for different things specifically,” Brown shared. “And I think that when we come together, there are certain parts of ourselves that we show online that people don’t necessarily get to see, like specifically speaking for me, people are always so shocked that I’m friends with Raymonte, and it’s like if you really knew me and really knew the person I was, being friends with Raymonte isn’t really shocking at all.”
“With the podcast, it’s an opportunity for us all to show different aspects of ourselves, but also in the same token, be able to continue to expand upon our personal brands as well,” he added. “For example, this week’s episode was about Gen Z in the workforce, which is very typical with my style of content. Next week’s episode is about fashion, which is very typical of Malik’s platform, and then after that week’s episode, we have Raymonte’s episode where we all alternate topics, and his topic is in regards to our relationship with food, which is something that he discusses a lot online. I think that we’re still keeping our personal brands, but we’re also showing different aspects of ourselves through our conversation and friendship.”
How do they maintain ignoring the noise from the naysayers?
While negativity on the internet is inevitable, the trio manages to lighten the outside noise by maintaining their admiration and appreciation for one another. They also don’t play when it comes to holding each other down against the people who come up with anything and everything under the sun to attempt to tear them apart.
“When we see that type of stuff on the internet, we send it to each other because it’s not like we’re just reading them comments and harboring and feeling a way; we’re like, ‘Girl, look at what they said. This is crazy.’ I saw a comment that said, ‘Dre and Malik need to get away from me, or somebody’s using someone…’ When we started this friendship, all of us were established, and all of us were already getting money and well off. Dre had his Birkins and Chanels when we met; we gained nothing monetarily,” Cole explained. “Malik was doing his campaigns, all of those things; no one gained anything. We had money together.”
He added, “My girls, we get our coin, but nothing was life-changing before we entered each other’s lives besides feeling the love from one another. Someone said, ‘DeAndre and Malik keep me elevated, and I keep them grounded,’ and I feel like that is true. I feel like when we get around each other, they always let their shoulders down; they’re not giving me anything; they’re not putting on a persona or putting on a show, and it’s like that. I know that they show me in a different light, and they help me grow. I do take notes from them and how they handle things and their approach, and it’s nothing wrong for me that if a friendship can’t be beneficial and it can’t help you and you can’t learn from things from each other and it can’t put you in a better position, what is the friendship for?”
If We’re Being Honest is now available to stream via Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
