May 18, 2026 • 60 mins
Today Ashlyn is joined by the amazing Selema Masekela. You know him from his time hosting ESPN's X Games for 13 years, but he is also an activist and musician. In this conversation, they discuss visibility, representation, and identity within the action sports world and beyond.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Wide Open.
I am your host, Ashlyn Harris, and ah another week
you guys, we survived, so it's so good to have
everyone back. I hope everyone is doing well. I hope
everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day weekend. I sure did.
(00:23):
I spent time, uh you know, just here in the
city doing a real little reset and went to the spa,
had a nice massage, got to spend time with my
partner and some friends, all while being at the upfront.
So I'm here in the in the city supporting Sophia.
(00:46):
She has a new release with Fox on TB that's
coming out this summer, so that was super fun to
be a part of it, especially someone who is in advertising,
media marketing advertising. It was good to see like all
the media hubs here and kind of figure out the
inner workings of the entertainment business because I usually go
(01:10):
to ken con Con every year in France, which is
kind of very similar, but more so my avenue and lane.
So to get to see all of the new shows,
how they pitch to get commercial investment and brand investment,
and all the networks and shows. It was really cool
to see all the inner workings. But most importantly, it's
(01:32):
awesome to see all the new shows that are coming
out that I can't talk about unfortunately. That's the fun
part of going. You get to see what's new, what
no one actually knows about, what got picked up, pilots
that got picked up. So it was super fun, I
gotta be honest. One of one of my favorite things
I am excited for everyone to watch. I got to
(01:54):
see the first trailer of Baywatch, and I am a
sucker for Watch. I've been watching and listening uh to
the theme song and old replays. I was raised watching Baywatch,
so it's so cool to see it being remade. And
it's really cool too because Shay Mitchell is a friend
(02:15):
of mine, and to know the work that she's put
in as a mother of two into her body and
to see, like what we're capable of when we you know,
when we have discipline and we execute it and we
do the hard work. It's really cool to see what
your body does. And I'm I'm really proud of her
because I know it wasn't easy, and I know she
(02:37):
put a ton of work in and she looks banging.
And I got to meet Noah who's also this new
teen heart throb who played soccer, and we had this
whole we just yucked it up the whole time, and
I guess he's this this freaking rock star coming hot
on the screen and all the girlies love him. Who
started on TikTok. But what people don't know is he
(02:59):
was and he was on the hunt to be a
pro soccer player and potentially could have had a contract
with La the La Galaxy, and he decided to bet
on himself in the entertainment business and it's paying off. Okay.
So I just had such a special, a special few days,
and I'm really excited for everyone to see Sophia's new
(03:20):
movie coming out. And yeah, that's that's really been it.
I hope everyone's doing well. I hope everyone's off to
a good start of the week. And I'm really really
excited for this episode. Soe Lemma is one of my very,
very dear friends, and he lights up a room when
he walks into it. I imagine you'll be able to
(03:42):
feel that type of energy, empathy, and just loveliness through
this episode. So excited. Here you go, you guys, here's
another episode of Wide Open Los.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Everyone and Welcome back to another episode of Wide Open.
I'm your host, Ashlyn Harris, and today's guest is someone
I've wanted to sit down with for some time, because honestly,
there really isn't anyone like him. He's helped shape the
culture around action sports for decades, from the X Games
(04:23):
to Red Bull Media to MTV. But what's always stood
out for me is he never just talked about sports.
He talked about people, identity, culture, belonging, representation, what it
means to take up space and rooms where maybe they
weren't always expected, And when you really look at his story,
(04:46):
it makes sense. Welcome Salima Masekela, a man who grew
up around activism, music and art and resistance. He's the
son of a legendary South African musicsician who you can
feel his influence in the way he moves through the world.
This conversation goes way beyond surfing, skating, snowboarding or biking.
(05:11):
It's about legacy, it's about identity, it's about being human
while also carrying the weight of visibility and leadership. Selimma,
thank you for coming on Wide Open. Let's get into it, Hi, everyone,
and welcome back to another episode. Of Wide Open. I'm
your host, Ashlan Harris, and today we have a very
(05:31):
special guest, a dear friend, someone I admire greatly and
look up to so much. Selima. Welcome to this show.
It's so lovely to have you.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Thank you, Ashland Harris. It is my high honor to
be on your show. And as usual, you are accessorized.
Oh never, not with the trinkets.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
You're right, I love me some trinkets. I you're gonna
appreciate this. Actually. So, I was in LA and I
was in like not on the time zone. Clearly. I
woke up at like five thirty. I go into the
living room and you might not know this about me,
but you do now. My favorite all time movie is
Point Break, No Way the Og Point Break. It is
(06:17):
like yes on repeat. It is my favorite favorite favorite
and Dirty Dancing. So the common denominator here is Patrick Swayze.
So I like, I literally made a phone call within
fifteen minutes of the movie and I called Rihanna at
nine zero one. I was like, can you cut my
hair now? I need this s Wayzy. She was like, girl,
(06:44):
I'm on a plane. I'll be there, and I was
like wow, yeah, So we did it.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah you are, Yeah, you are. You are giving an
anticipation of the fifty year storm.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I love it. I love it. Well, I'm so happy
to have you on the show today. And I got
the privilege because it is such a privilege because you
are such a layered human in all the most incredible
ways to hear so much and read so much about
your background and your identity and your father and where
you're originally from, and it just now it all clicks
(07:18):
to me. I'm like, how is this man so good
at his job, so incredibly talented and educated, such a
great activist in a way that makes it safe for people.
And then I'm like, oh, the apple doesn't fall too
far from the tree. I'm like, oh, I'm getting it now,
I'm getting it.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, I have a cheek code in that. My father
was very much that person, that dude who I was
talking about it this morning with someone. My father used
to have a saying when he was a musician, which
we'll get into, but on stage he would always dedicate
(07:59):
his show to the people around the world who were
catching Hell's. That is how he taught me to see
others anybody who was catching hell or being stepped on
or experiencing unnecessary oppression from the top down. It's your
(08:22):
responsibility to be there for, to shed a light on,
to hold space for, to do whatever you can, big
or small. And that my father embodied that because he
grew up as a political exile of apartheid and had
to flee his country because of the evil machinations of
(08:44):
a brilliantly orchestrated type of oppression in apartheid. And so
during his exile as a musician, as he was fighting,
you know, for apartheid to end for thirty years not
being home, he also use that he just he was
filled with an incredible amount of righteous empathy that meant, like,
(09:09):
you know, where do we need to go? Who we
up against? I will stand with you and for you.
And I'm really really lucky that he imbuwed that in me.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I love that. And you grew up around so much
culture and music and activism and movement, and when you
look back now, what stands out the most in your
childhood because you went on a totally different path. So
I'm just curious of how those how that ended up
(09:42):
coming into your childhood and giving you your voice and
permission to just go after such an incredible life career
that you've accomplished.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, you know, I I had. I had the benefit
of the time that I spent with my father, mostly
being with him at work, you know, while other kids
were going to the park, I was going to the
jazz club.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Oh my gosh, you.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Know, five six years old, seven years old in New
York City. I'm in places like the Village Gate and
the Blue Note and Michel's, and I would be there
with you know, in those days, they played two sets,
you know, for the squares at around nine, and then
(10:32):
there would be the midnight set, you know, for the
people who really wanted to sit and marinate in the funk.
And so that eat that night would generally end around
three in the morning, four in the morning. And I
spent many many a night falling asleep in the leather
cubicles of New York's finest jazz clubs. But what I
(10:55):
got to be witnessed to was as a performer as
a storyteller, as someone who knew how to really captivate
an audience and kidnap their souls with what he's with
(11:16):
his performance in his storytelling. And so I it that
just seemed normal to me. In in storytelling. My father
was also relentlessly curious and really used that curiosity as
he went out into the world to inform how he
(11:37):
showed up. And I think that, you know, I started
off in music as a kid. I grew up in
New York City in a way where like, you know,
I remember the second grade, they just threw all of
us kids into a room and there was a pile
of instruments in the floor and they just said go
and you're opening up the cases trying to make choice,
(11:57):
and then we all chose, and then you're now you're
in a band and you're learning how to play. And
I played in the Philharmonic all the way through junior
high school, in high school in the marching band, and
I sang in the choir, and I was very much
a child of the arts. But then my mother and
stepfather moved to southern California, to Carlbad, the north County
(12:21):
of San Diego, and they didn't have it like that.
It was different, you know, music was you know, there
was a marching band in at my high school, but
it was not it was not popb not.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
It was not New York City.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I was like, y'all are playing shit that I was
playing in fifth grade, like what is this? I can't,
I can't, I can't do this. But there were punk
rockets playing music in their garages, and there were skateboarding
and they were surfing, and it was I figured out
very early on a very much wrapped around music and
(13:01):
art and it was self expressive in a way that
was like I grew up. I was breakdancing in New
York City because it was during the birth of hip hop. Oh,
you guys are breakdancing on water and on board, so
I can get with this. And the first time that
I stood up on a wave in Carlsbad at this
(13:22):
place called Hemlock Beach, like that was it. I caught
a frequency that I hadn't ever felt before. At sixteen.
I had gone to church my whole life with my
mother and stepfather, but I had never felt anything spiritual before.
And then I felt it that in that moment, and
(13:44):
that just kind of changed the trajectory of my existence.
And I didn't know, I didn't even know what I
was chasing. I just knew that I needed to stay
in this feeling and to build community in it. And
it was this thing that the rest of the world
didn't care about, which made it even cooler, and I
(14:04):
just chased it, you know, I chased it all the
way to answering the telephones at a magazine called Transport
Skateboarding and Snowboarding, yep, and that that like opened me
into a portal of like, oh wait, no, there's a
whole world here, and maybe I can find my way
through it.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Stay tuned. I'll be back in just a moment after
this brief message from our sponsors. Well, you're talking about
the feeling that it gave you, and I'm curious what
about the culture of it that consumed you and pulled
you in, Because there is a really, really rich culture
(14:49):
in extreme sports like surfing, skating, snowboarding, you know VMX writing.
It's so rebellious, it's so free. It's this you know,
this reality of like almost like we'll build it as
we go, fuck it mentality for the kids who maybe
didn't fit in to organize sports. So I'm curious about
(15:12):
the culture around it because I imagine you didn't necessarily
look like the rest of the people in Carlsbad, California
catching your first wave on yeah, you know, the sunny
West coast.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, I definitely did not look of ninety nine point percent.
I think they were in my high school. I think
there were around eighteen hundred kids. Four of them, including myself,
were black. Two of them came from neighboring towns for
(15:48):
the athletic skill set, if you know what I mean.
And yeah, I mean I remember the first kid that
I told I was going to learn to serve that
I was excited to learn how to surf. He looked
at me and he's like, but you people don't even swim?
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Are you serious?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
What do you mean you're gonna learn to surf? And
he delivered it to me like it was a public
service announcement. And that's when I was like, oh, oh, oh, okay.
I get a sense of where I am. And I
dealt with everything under the sun, you know, hard rs,
in the water, you name it. But that while that
(16:30):
was something that I had to deal with on a
regular basis, it wasn't the theme. The theme was this
connection to continued creativity, Like every time you went surfing, right,
it's with the the the idea of what else can
I do on this wave? What's the next maneuver that
(16:54):
I can achieve? What's something that hasn't been done before,
and so you're all always starting from this fresh place.
Skateboarding is very much open sourced. Right, someone did a
kick clip this way, Okay, who's going to add the
grab to that? And now what can you do that
same trick off of that someone didn't know you could
(17:15):
do before. And you're doing that with your friends in
a way where it's individual, it's you against yourself, but
you're also as a collective like pushing this thing forward
as you go and practice it in concert with each other.
And then we're going to go to a show, right,
we're going to go We're gonna go see some ska shit,
(17:36):
or we're going to go to a punk show, or
we're gonna go to a hip hop show. And the
fact that there were these concentric circles of what you
could be into musically, artistically, how you dressed. There were
emo kids, there were punk kids. They were like we
call them the Yoh's, like, you know, really hip hop kids,
but we all you all sort of connected around skateboarding.
(18:00):
Surfing was a little bit more bland. I think, yeah,
I think I don't think that, especially being as someone
who really came up as a teenager in the late
eighties early nineties. I don't. We definitely didn't know that
we were building something. We just loved that most people
(18:24):
weren't into our shit, you know. It was definitely counterculture.
When my friends were coming home from college, you know,
dressed like squares and getting jobs and getting married like
in their early twenties, and they would see me getting
out of the water and they're like, you still do that,
and I was like, you don't.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You know, such a sense of freedom, and.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
That's what it was for me. It was it was freedom.
It was a way to leave whatever I was dealing
with on land behind or whatever I was dealing with
life behind, falling a lot and needing to do it scared,
you know, though you don't you don't realize it at
the time, but like, this is shit is preparing you
(19:11):
prepared me, I think, for the world ten times better
than any four year situation or institution would have would
have given me. But it was very much that, like
I see you and you're wearing your clothes in a
certain way, there's a strong chance that we do the
same thing, and now we're homies. You couldn't you couldn't
(19:36):
get on Instagram or TikTok and you know down download
the latest cool, Like you had to live the ship, yep.
And if you wore your ship in a way, if
you wore the stuff in a way that we didn't,
then we knew that you had just went and bought
it in the store, but you weren't really about that life. Yep.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Exactly, exactly. Did you ever think that that sense of
freedom and love for surfing and extreme sports in general
wouldever pave the way for you becoming one of the
most defining voices in action sports period, Like there is
(20:18):
no one like you out there who has lived this
life and shattered everything like you are it. Like when
people think think of X games, they think of you
when they think about when it's on ESPN, Like your
voice is everywhere, your face is everywhere. When it comes
to the visibility and the breakthrough of extreme in action sports.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
There's no world in which I ever thought that was
going to happen.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
There's like so freaking cool.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
It's impossible. All I was doing was trying not to
end up in a cubicle. You know, I literally was
just trying to feed the habit, and I worked a
thousand different jobs along the way. You know, from construction
(21:13):
to bank teller to I was cleaning offices at night,
and I thought it was the best job in the
world because I could work till six in the morning
and then go straight to the beach and be out
before anyone else, serve before it got crowded, and then
go home and go to sleep. And my friends thought
I was crazy. I was like, I was like, I've
(21:34):
hacked the system. Yeah, Like I'm joyfully scrubbing toilets because
I know that I'm going to have the lineup to myself.
You know. That's how I'm just being able to go
out and continue to pursue my joy and see what
else I can get into from a possibility aspect with
(21:54):
in relationship to myself. That's what I think these sports
are really about. And so when I got the job
of the magazine and then sort of navigating my way
through the industry over time, I people helped me to
see that I had a voice and that I had
a a unique perspective on it that the legacy kids
(22:18):
did not. I was late to the party. I didn't.
I didn't I didn't grow up with it. My parents
didn't do it. It wasn't generational. There was no sense of
like this is artur for any of that shit for
me like I was. I was. I didn't. I started
this ship like two years before my seventeenth birth to
two months before my seventeenth birthday. Wow, but I and
(22:38):
I felt like I had to catch up and I
felt like I had caught something that I was like,
do you do you not know what it is that
y'all have? Yeah, like this is this is this is gold,
this is how to live. And so when I did
find get get a chance, you know, to start announcing
(22:58):
at events or at skating demos long before television, where
you know they'd be able. They'd be a skate demo
at a shop and we'd be taking turns on the mic.
I would just really channel everything that I talked about
earlier that my dad taught me, everything that I grew
up with as an arts kid in New York, and
then apply it to shred talk and have fun with
(23:24):
it and do improv and like make up bios about
people and people were like, Yo, who's this guy? Can
you come to our demo next week? Like we'll give
you one hundred dollars store credit, But yeah, I'm there Hey,
we're doing a contest at the mountain. It's no summit.
We'll give you free lift tickets for the weekend, what
and a hotel room. Just come and get on the
mic and talk shit. I'll be there, yeap. And it
(23:46):
just so happened to be at the same time that
Madison Avenue was realizing like, wait a minute, there's a
whole subculture of kids who are dictating taste to the
masses and we're not talking to them, and this could
be a thing. What are we going to call them?
(24:07):
You know what? They're extreme? Like what? And next thing,
you know, Extreme sports is born and we're like, who's extreme?
Not us? But that was the choice that they made
Extreme Games launch. We vilify and roast ESPN for calling
it extreme, and two years later they showed it to
(24:29):
the X Games. There was no world in which I
ever wanted to be on the X Games. I thought that.
I thought it was kooky as shit.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
These guys are you know we you'd watch it because
you were stoked to see your friends in the contest,
But you're listening to the commentators and they don't know anything,
and they're butchering the tricks and they're butchering the culture
and you're just like, make it stop, because now you're
realizing the thing that you were talking about earlier.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Like that, there's a sense of preciousness, like wait, we
built this, We've been curating this and building this, and
you just come along and now you're going to take it.
Absolutely not. And as a bunch of weird events would
have it, I would get a chance, first through MTV
and then through this documentary called snow Taxi that I
(25:21):
was in a snowboarding documentary. Someone from ESPN was like,
that guy looks like you can't shut up.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yep, we like him.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
We should go and talk to him. And I, you know,
I started off at ESPN as a sideline reporter for
snowboarding Wow in nineteen ninety nine. Nineteen ninety nine say
that and you're like, what, Yeah, at the X Games
(25:55):
in Colorado and I didn't know what I was doing,
but I was enthusiastic. I knew what I was talking about,
and the athletes responded to me. The writers responded to
me in a way that they didn't anyone else.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Wow. There was a guy at ESPN named Jamie Reynolds
and was like, I can work with that, and he
took me under his wing with a couple of others,
and I got a thirteen year paid television broadcasting education
master you know, associates masters, PhD in play by play,
(26:36):
hosting Sideline. I'd have to, you know, go to two
seminars with all of the people that you see on
ESPN every day, with an ombudsman and journalistic integrity and
all these things. And I learned how to take my
passion and my performance that presence right that I learned
from my dad, and then learn the actual journalism side
(26:58):
of it and fuse those together specifically in who I
am as like, don't become like any of these other people.
And over time, yeah, I was somehow another. I got
a whole I got a whole life out out of it.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Well, you make it seem like it was so easy,
and I imagine that's just the sweet, humble side of you.
I imagine it was really hard. I think what people
probably don't understand about being the first or the only
in a room is something you experienced early on. And
what I know, as someone who grew up in Cocoa Beach, Florida,
(27:35):
around surf and s gate culture, like it's just not
a very diverse, inclusive space to be So, I'm curious
what that felt like stepping in in such a visible way.
Did you understand the weight of the moment or you
were just young, naive, bullish you just wanted to go
(27:57):
for it.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I was young, naive and bullish, and I wanted it
more than anything because I needed that what I had
to give no one else had to give. Like I
would watch people on TV. I would watch these events.
I would watch MTV, and it'd be like, let give
me a chance. And I had the pedigree. I had
(28:26):
worked in the industry. I worked at magazines, I'd worked
at the brands. I had been a team manager like
athlete manager for various brands, like I had paid the
hard yards. I had started brands in the sport, and
so I had all the relationships. I had the credibility.
But then when you do show up and you get
your your shot and you're really good, you get like, huh,
(28:52):
well you speak so well? Where'd you learn how to
speak so well? Excuse me? People being like, so it's
really genius that ESPN was Like I was like, oh,
look at that guy with the dreadlocks. He'd be cool
for X games because people won't expect it, and then
(29:13):
they taught you all this stuff because you don't do
these sports right. I would have executives walk up to
me and be like, tell us how you know the things,
and they'd bring someone this is the one I was
telling you about. He's so eloquent. He just listened to
him in my presence and you're like, I'm I can
hear you. Yeah, And that was regular, you know, people
(29:36):
questioning just how on earth could some magical negro fall
out of the sky and be And I really it
took me a while a couple of years to realize this,
but I remember one day I was watching a rerun
of the show and I was like, oh shit, you're
literally the only person of this hue through the entire
(30:06):
five days, four days of this broadcast that you just
hosted and commentated, and that you are the definitive expert.
No one else looks like you. And it was it
was a trip. It was a trip coming into that
(30:27):
realization and being like, oh, yeah, I understand why they
wouldn't understand, And also like, you've think of all the
shit that you had to deal with to get here,
did you think it was suddenly going to stop when
you gain visibility. If anything, it just went up exponentially.
(30:49):
But I don't think I was ready to be like
nationally questioned. I remember when social media came along and
people just being like the main big question and on
Twitter like who is this guy? How bro? I don't understand?
Why is it me? I could do a better job.
(31:09):
I get that all the time, and then you just learn,
you learn how to take it and move. I didn't
start speaking on it though. I really didn't start speaking
up loudly. I'd say until like around twenty eleven, twenty twelve,
when I was like, I can't be silent anymore. And
(31:31):
there was a time I was walking up the street
and way way uptown in New York. I was going
to a friend's house that worked at Supreme before Supreme
became Supreme, and I'm up in like the one seventies
and I'm walking through the hood. There's a bunch of
people like on a stoop, sitting drinking tall boys, you know,
(31:53):
brown bagging it. When you walk through a neighborhood like that,
you make sure that you're not too small and you're
not too big, right, just sue respect and so I'm walking.
I got my headphones on and I hear, hey, yo,
hey yo, come over here, come over here. Oh ship, yea,
take my headphones up, walk up the steps. Nah, come here,
(32:14):
come up here. Dude says, hey, you see them kids
over there. And there's two kids, black kid a and
a Dominican kid on a skateboard in a BMX, just
walking around on the street. So you see that. You
see those kids over there. Them kids wouldn't be doing
(32:35):
that ship if it wasn't for you.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
So when you walk through through this hood or anywhere
through here, you walk with your head high because we
see you, and we don't even fuck with X Games
or any of that ship except because of you. You're
the one who's putting us on and telling these stories.
So hold your head high. I don't think we don't
know you here. We know you keep doing your thing. Wow.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
That gave me. That gave me goosebumps.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I walk down the street in tears after that. And
that was the moment to answer your question in what
it was like, Oh yeah, you you're sitting in responsibility
and people can see you and them You're just being
(33:28):
there is having an effect. Has an effect because for me,
my responsibility is telling the athlete story. That's my job.
My job is if Ashlon Harris is moving the ball
down the field, whether she scores a goal or not,
you need to you want to know more about Ashlon
(33:49):
Harris because of how I put in the context what
you're doing. That's that's what's always given me life, Like
I'm just the conduit for high perform doing their thing,
and if I can make it digestible for an average
person or a person who's watching for the first time.
My goal was always like, Okay, I can take care
(34:10):
of the core all day, but if you're watching this
for the first time, I need you to be moved
by the show that we put on and my contribution
to it that from here on out you're like, oh,
I want to know more. I'm a fan. Now I'm curious.
That was a woman that changed my whole life.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Wow, stay tuned. I'll be back in just a moment.
After this brief message from our sponsors. I imagine you
have to carry that pressure of representation on your shoulders
quite a bit. In that space. You are giving permission.
(34:46):
You know, you are giving these young boys permission. I mean,
my son, I got a fucking skateboard right here behind me.
You know, we're watching the reruns on AX. That kid
is on a skateboard all the time because you get
a lot of coverage and he can see himself in you.
But that's also a lot of pressure to carry, you.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Know, there is some pressure. There's more pressure now because
of the massive pushback that whiteness is endeavoring to make
to say, hey, enough is enough of you guys and
(35:30):
your progress and you're the fantastic way in which you
show up in everything, and that you had to work
ten times harder to do what you're doing. And so
then so that when you show up, you show up
and like make an impact. We're going to figure out
(35:51):
ways to to rig the system like we did back
in the olden days, so that we don't have to
be made to feel insecure by the gifts that you
have to share. Right, you know, no one ever accused
me of being a DEI higher And you're like, are
you crazy? Do you want to see my resume? But
(36:13):
that's still not enough for them because they're like, I
still can't compute why it gets to be you. I'm
glad that the numbers are up, I'm not the only
visible black man or black person or person of color
(36:34):
in along the action sports train as well as with
my queer folk as well, like out here loud and proud,
like there was a very long time in which like
you said, nothing about who you were in this landscape.
And so yeah, I think especially in the wake of
(36:54):
twenty twenty two, when everyone started seeing each other and
really fighting for visibility and having logic conversations about what
we've all experienced in this industry and then building community
digitally and meetups and events, and now that you know
there's people like zeb Powell incredible. You know, one of
the most prolific snowboarders on Earth is a black kid
(37:16):
from North Carolina with dreadlocks named Zebulon Powell, who's on
Jordan Brand and who's like transcending the sport. Mikey February
Mikey February from South Africa, perhaps the best surfer on
Earth who people start surfing because they see him, They
see him riding away like I want, I want to
(37:36):
do that. I want to know what that feels like
and that he gets. He does it in a in
a very black body is powerful and I think yeah,
I'm just happy to not I can go down. There's
so many more names. Now there's not enough, but there's
a lot more names. And it's not all on my
(37:59):
on my shoulders more.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
I feel that. And if we're going to really dive
into the names of it all, I know, you know
the history of everyone trying to put you in a
box and making you digestible when you became a sideline
reporter for the fucking NBA or whatever it was, and
(38:21):
they were like, oh, people can't people can't say your name,
so we need to like make it catchy. And what
they're what they're saying is we need to make it
white and digestible for Central America. And we don't have
to go too much into that. But what I love
is the story of you taking back your power and
(38:44):
just being like, no, this is my fucking name and
I'm taking back my power and my identity. I'd love
for you to tell that story because it is so
powerful and it shows how fucking Jada is we are,
and how ridiculous racism is and everything, and this is
(39:08):
not like that long ago that they wanted you to
fucking shape shift and like, let's call him William at
this point, it's like, what are we doing?
Speaker 4 (39:19):
You know?
Speaker 1 (39:20):
And it's crazy that high up executives and these branches
have the audacity to even think that that's.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Okay, it's not crazy, though.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
It makes me crazy. It's America.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
It's not crazy. It's it's not crazy. It's America.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
It's America.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
You know, you could see the commercial now, it's not crazy.
It's America. And none of it really nothing surprises me anymore.
I remember one time when I was I first signed
at CIA, big agency, and they're talking about really boosted
my career up. They have all the networks up for
(40:03):
where they think I could have a show, and at
a certain point it was like, oh well, what about
here doing something at Comedy Central, et cetera. And another
agent in the room goes they already have a black
eye in prime time and the rest of the room
like ah okay, yeah, and literally in the in the
comedy I'm in the room and it's like, where can
(40:25):
we go where they don't already have a negro so
that you can be their negro? Like that's that's the
mentality of how not just black people but all others
are viewed box check, Why are there more than two
in this thing. We have one already. What are we
(40:46):
doing here? Let's not lose the plot? And you could
you could apply that to all of the groups. And
I remember when, you know, when I when I when
I moved to California, kids started calling me Sal because
Celemma for some reason. Was I remember them being like, oh,
that's hard, bro, we got to figure out a name
(41:07):
for you. And one three days after I moved to California,
a kid walked up to me and then the hallway
went past me like what's up, Sal? And I was
like what, And then the next person, Hey, Sal, Yeah, Sal,
And next thing you know, Sal is born as a
(41:27):
kid you're trying to like fit in, so you're like,
oh okay. But also it just never felt good. I
would always introduce myself as Selemma and people would just
someone would be like, yeah, but we call them sal
as they put their arm around you, and you're like yeah.
So when I got on television, I insisted that I'd
(41:50):
be fonted as Celema. It's my grandfather's name. It's the
name that my father gave me, like it has real
meaning and root Selema Masekela. And when I got to
the NBA, which was a huge deal. Right within three
years of starting at X Games, I was sideline reporting
the Western Conference of the NBA. These sports regular, real
(42:16):
regular sports, stick and ball. Sports reporters could not believe,
how dare you let this dread luck they he doesn't
even come from real sports, you know, like, how dare
they let me on the side. But the players, the
players were like, yo, talk with you. We love like
my relationship with Kobe and I could go down the
(42:38):
long list like they all Kobe wanted to talk about
was was was skateboarding all the time, and he would
come and see like come, come with his family to
the X Games, come through the tunnel, like do his thing.
We had a great relationship that way. And I had
that with a bunch of players. And because skateboarding and
basketball like sort of are there, they're they're they're they're real,
(43:00):
and how they come from the streets, it was just
a natural synergy culturally, but they didn't understand that. At
the top, I remember Rashid Wallace like coming up to
me and just like throwing all these X Game stats
at me. It's like and in the locker room being like, Yo,
this is this is our dude. We fox with him
anything he needs, the beat reporters being like what Gary Payton,
(43:21):
et cetera. Anyway, So it's like two weeks into the
season and I'm just starting to build my train and
the then president of ESPN takes me aside before this
really big game and says, hey, you know, we're really
excited about you. What you're doing, the energy you're bringing.
It's a great buzz that people love you, and I
(43:43):
think we're ready to make you a star. Do you
want to be a star, don't you? Like yeah, absolutely
said here's the thing. We got to do something about
this name. Oh my god, Like do you what do
you mean? Well, you know, people will refer to you
as as South and but you know they're seeing this
sudden this thing on the screen and they're confused and
(44:05):
you gotta think it. Literally said you gotta think about
you know, Johnny and Susie and in the Midwest in
Minnesota there they're confused. And then he literally I can't
make it up ashing and he just goessh, sal masekela.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
It just.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
That's the rist that's got the ring to it, right,
Like yeah, I mean, it just it makes sense. Let's
make you a star, all right, So we're gonna we're
gonna do this, right, and I this is I'm about
to go on air. This is literally like fifteen minutes
before game time. And I just remember being like okay,
And from then on I was faunted as Sow and
(44:51):
it was such an interesting thing. People might think like, well,
what's the big deal. It made me feel so small,
It made me feel like a puppet, and it made
me feel like, well, what are they going to get
me to do next? Next? And then and that's exactly
what it would be. Like, Hey, the little innu windows
(45:13):
or whatever, like you know, the hip hop references. You
gotta remember, like I'm I'm a child of Stuart Scott.
So I would watch too, and I would be like, yo,
if I ever get on TV, I'm going to get
this level. I'm going to be the Stuart Scott for
(45:35):
my for my ship. And they start just coming through
with the alcohol swabs and just be like, you know,
cat me, just just just clean it up, just clean
it up. It It never felt good, and it never
felt good. I would And then as my career progressed, right,
(45:58):
I get a show on the entertainment. This show called
Daily ten becomes a kid cute, which was crazy, you know,
five days a week, you know, with with Ryan Secrets
as my lead, and you're in one hundred and ninety
million homes worldwide. Suddenly you're like you were like, oh,
I think I might be I think I'm not famous.
(46:19):
I think I might be fad weird. I wasn't trying
to be famous. By the paparazzi pointing cameras out me
as I'm leaving the club, I'm obsession with you very
small window of famous. But I would always go back
to my team and be like, hey, guys, I think
it's a really good time for me to drop syl
(46:41):
and just really stand in Selemma. And you get lawyer, manager, agent,
full concert call telling you all the reasons why you
choosing to do this is going to fuck up the bag.
And I'm not realizing at the time that the bag
they're talking about is their bag. Yep, ye to fuck
up our money? Why you want to fuck up our
(47:01):
money like this? And so I would always relent, but
every few years I would make a case for it,
and you get bullied by your team, and in twenty
twenty after George Floyd and that whole summer and all
amad Arbery, Sandra Bland, et cetera, et cetera, and the
(47:23):
level of indifference that America was trying to sit in
and justify after what we were watching and people being like,
you guys need to stop. It's not I was like,
you know what, Nope, if they're going to continue to
indiscriminately kill black people, we're gonna watch it happen. And
(47:45):
people tell us that we're going to take it, then
I think today is the day in which I no
longer give any fucks when it comes to digestibility. And
I'm not asking for permission. I'm just going to be Celemma.
I went on Instagram. I did a post. I was like,
I remember everyone, Celemma Mobna Mesekella, say it with me again, slowly,
(48:10):
Celemma Mobna Masekella. And the team calls off, what do
you do? And I said, if they can't take me
as me, I will go teach surf lessons somewhere in
Costa Rica. I will figure it out. But if you're
telling me that this industry can't contain the entirety of me,
(48:32):
then I've never been meant to be here, and clearly
I've been in the wrong business this whole time. And
I would argue that since I'm since I stood in
the in my name, I've gotten taller, I've gotten better
at what I do because the shackles are off, and
(48:55):
I actually now can continue to grow because I'm growing
in the entirety of me and my gifts, and I
don't feel attached to some character that everyone's like, No,
we need you to be this guy from twenty years ago. No,
what did jay Z say? You like my old music,
by my old albums? And that freedom has allowed me
(49:19):
to flourish and the phone is still ringing. I'm still
getting getting work. I'm very, very grateful for it. I
don't take it for granted, but I wouldn't change it.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Yeah, you've spent like so much of your life being
visible publicly, Like how do you how do you stay
grounded privately?
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Like?
Speaker 1 (49:39):
How do you figure it all out? Babe?
Speaker 2 (49:44):
I don't know absolutely? How do we have how do you?
Speaker 1 (49:53):
We both of us work out a lot. We work
out a lot.
Speaker 4 (49:57):
We're a giant impat we go to Mexican dinners, we
have a drink, We're fucking figuring it out just like
everyone else.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
Yeah, you know, visibility is a small price to pay
for being able to chase your passions for a living.
It's a small price to go. Public. Scrutiny is and
can be a very very very dark, malicious, evil ass
(50:32):
place right where people are just rubbing their fingers for
you to fall, to have a misstep, whatever it is,
to go through something public. And I think that in
those times in my life and just in general, it's
(50:53):
I get my ass straight into the ocean, I get
myself straight out to the top of of a remote mountain.
I go into my gym and challenge the possibility of
what this middle aged vessel is still capable of, and
(51:14):
I try to do my best as I can to
make those around me feel really good. That's not always
easy to do when you find yourself, you know, battling
an extended depression because of something you're going through personally.
(51:36):
Like I'd say the last few years, I had a
couple of years there where I was real touch and go,
but being able to go back to those places that
have only ever given me joy and be still in
them and having great people me like knowing who it
(52:01):
is who's my actual family and the people who care
for me will always give me buoyancy. And it's a
reminder that like listen, at the end of the day,
your who and your do are separated. They're separate entities. You.
Your do is fueled by ingredients from who, but your
(52:22):
DO is not who you are. Yep. And if you
can if you can split those wires and and and
realize that yes, they might be shrouded in the same casing,
but they are separate wires, and split them apart and
understand what what current is running through each that's where
(52:42):
you're able to have balance. And and remember that like
the container that the ship you do exists in, it's
all made up. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
Yeah. And I it's it's interesting to Selima because you
and I have experienced that type of grief and public
scrutiny almost at the same exact time. And when we
when our wires actually when we when we crossed each
(53:14):
other and met at rampage in a real way, I
remember hugging you and feeling so safe and seen and
it was like such a beautiful like you're so wise,
you're such an EmPATH, you're such a man of service,
and it's just who you are. It's not a front.
(53:38):
It's in your gesture, it's in your touch, it's in
your hug, it's in the way you speak, it's in
the way you light a fucking room up the second
you walk into it. And it is such a gift,
it really is. But what people don't realize is that,
like there's such a sensitive soul deep inside that both
(54:02):
of us have and being able to share space, like
I just remember hugging you and not wanting to let go,
and I remember having like such a beautiful moment where,
you know, we were done working and we went to
dinner and there was just this beautiful sunset over the
red rocks, and that was the difference in that moment.
(54:24):
It was just the beauty of life and being with
someone who really like made space for you and your
joy and your grief all in the same moment. And
I it's such a it's a privilege and a pleasure
to know you and be able to share space with you.
Because people do not move like you, Selimma, they don't.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
Oh awesome, thank you so much. You know, people do
not move like you. You know, it takes one to
know one. And I think you know when we met
for the first When we met for the first time
France three years ago, three and a half years ago,
(55:06):
we were in very different places in our life, but
we were both we were both quietly going through it
right then. We don't physically see until we both have.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Walk through some fire, walk through some shit, yep.
Speaker 2 (55:27):
And so I just I remember when we saw each
other being like, oh, yeah, I liked you then, but
I love you now because I've watched the way you've
walked through and held your head and you said the
same thing to me. And now we're getting to sit
in like in commonality, in reflection and hold space for
(55:53):
each other in a way that like I didn't know
that I was good. That's what I was going to
get out of that week. And yeah, we left, We
left Thicke as thieves from from that experience. But I
got that sense of you.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
When we met in con I was like, the real one,
the real one, This is.
Speaker 2 (56:15):
My people right here. We had a great that was
such a great week with Sue.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
Yes, I love Sue. She's she's same, she is same, same, same.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Type of people. Yeah, same ten thousand percent. I remember
we had a conversation that afternoon in front of that
hotel where we sat and had maybe one or two drinks,
and Sophia was there too, and I just remember being like, here,
(56:47):
I loved Sue Bird when she was at Connecticut, Like
I would have killed somebody for Superman. I was like,
this girl right here could out ball. I would argue
with my friends about how if she came to our court,
we would all get tor Like no, I'm like, just
this girl's a killer. She's a she's a killer. And
I was the biggest fan of her entire like professional career.
(57:11):
And I remember getting onto the plane to go and
walk on and just doing a double take and there's
superb just looking up. I think you you were sitting
with her, and I was like I didn't even know
where to put my eyes. Oh God, that shots super
super Bird. Holy fuck, you know. And then next thing,
(57:32):
you know, we end up all hanging out and becoming
homies on that special. Well, same shit happened to me
with Diana Trassi.
Speaker 1 (57:41):
It's just great people and people who've been through some ship, right,
and it's like exactly, we've had to live it in
the public eye, and like it's it's not you know,
it's not for the week, and it takes something from
you that people don't know it really does.
Speaker 2 (57:59):
That's that's that's the part it does. But I think,
like like you, you just keep showing up like this
as as best as as you can. And yeah, you
just you sit in the grace of it. You realize
it'll take something from you, but there's a lot more
to be gained from if you exactly, if you dance,
(58:21):
if you learn the steps. So true.
Speaker 1 (58:24):
Well, Slimma, thank you so much for being on the show.
You are such a delight and I really, really just
I love sharing oxygen with you, even if it's you know,
across the coast on a computer. You've made You've you've
ignited my day. You've already made it better. And that's
just like you is what you do, man, It's just
(58:45):
who you are.
Speaker 2 (58:46):
Back at you. I'm in New York a bunch this summer,
so I expect hangs, plenty.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
Of dinner dates. I would love that. We shall do
it and we'll get the kids too. It'll be fun.
Speaker 2 (58:58):
That'll be great. The the body, by the way, you're
killing it. Ah And when you when you get a chance,
I know you're devoted to the first movie. Yeah, watch
the second one, okay, because yours truly come on is
in the second point, Breck, I love you. Watch it
(59:20):
only for that once you get to that seam and
you can delete it because it's a terrible movie.
Speaker 1 (59:25):
Well, proud to be your friend. Thank you for coming on,
and thanks for being so vulnerable and wide open, and
uh I'll see you soon.
Speaker 2 (59:35):
To be continued.
Speaker 1 (59:36):
To be continued. All right, everyone, thanks so much for
joining us for another episode of Wide Open. We'll see
you next week. Selimma, thank you so much for coming on.
This was such a special episode. And what I appreciate
most about you is you've never just existed inside one world.
You've always moved between culture, sport, storytelling, activism, identity, and
(01:00:02):
somehow made all of it feel so human and honestly,
I think a lot of people listening are going to
see pieces of themselves in this conversation too, So thank
you all for listening. Make sure you subscribe, follow share,
and we'll see you next week on another episode of
Wide Open.
Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Wide Open.
I am your host, Ashlyn Harris, and ah another week
you guys, we survived, so it's so good to have
everyone back. I hope everyone is doing well. I hope
everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day weekend. I sure did.
(00:23):
I spent time, uh you know, just here in the
city doing a real little reset and went to the spa,
had a nice massage, got to spend time with my
partner and some friends, all while being at the upfront.
So I'm here in the in the city supporting Sophia.
(00:46):
She has a new release with Fox on TB that's
coming out this summer, so that was super fun to
be a part of it, especially someone who is in advertising,
media marketing advertising. It was good to see like all
the media hubs here and kind of figure out the
inner workings of the entertainment business because I usually go
(01:10):
to ken con Con every year in France, which is
kind of very similar, but more so my avenue and lane.
So to get to see all of the new shows,
how they pitch to get commercial investment and brand investment,
and all the networks and shows. It was really cool
to see all the inner workings. But most importantly, it's
(01:32):
awesome to see all the new shows that are coming
out that I can't talk about unfortunately. That's the fun
part of going. You get to see what's new, what
no one actually knows about, what got picked up, pilots
that got picked up. So it was super fun, I
gotta be honest. One of one of my favorite things
I am excited for everyone to watch. I got to
(01:54):
see the first trailer of Baywatch, and I am a
sucker for Watch. I've been watching and listening uh to
the theme song and old replays. I was raised watching Baywatch,
so it's so cool to see it being remade. And
it's really cool too because Shay Mitchell is a friend
(02:15):
of mine, and to know the work that she's put
in as a mother of two into her body and
to see, like what we're capable of when we you know,
when we have discipline and we execute it and we
do the hard work. It's really cool to see what
your body does. And I'm I'm really proud of her
because I know it wasn't easy, and I know she
(02:37):
put a ton of work in and she looks banging.
And I got to meet Noah who's also this new
teen heart throb who played soccer, and we had this
whole we just yucked it up the whole time, and
I guess he's this this freaking rock star coming hot
on the screen and all the girlies love him. Who
started on TikTok. But what people don't know is he
(02:59):
was and he was on the hunt to be a
pro soccer player and potentially could have had a contract
with La the La Galaxy, and he decided to bet
on himself in the entertainment business and it's paying off. Okay.
So I just had such a special, a special few days,
and I'm really excited for everyone to see Sophia's new
(03:20):
movie coming out. And yeah, that's that's really been it.
I hope everyone's doing well. I hope everyone's off to
a good start of the week. And I'm really really
excited for this episode. Soe Lemma is one of my very,
very dear friends, and he lights up a room when
he walks into it. I imagine you'll be able to
(03:42):
feel that type of energy, empathy, and just loveliness through
this episode. So excited. Here you go, you guys, here's
another episode of Wide Open Los.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Everyone and Welcome back to another episode of Wide Open.
I'm your host, Ashlyn Harris, and today's guest is someone
I've wanted to sit down with for some time, because honestly,
there really isn't anyone like him. He's helped shape the
culture around action sports for decades, from the X Games
(04:23):
to Red Bull Media to MTV. But what's always stood
out for me is he never just talked about sports.
He talked about people, identity, culture, belonging, representation, what it
means to take up space and rooms where maybe they
weren't always expected, And when you really look at his story,
(04:46):
it makes sense. Welcome Salima Masekela, a man who grew
up around activism, music and art and resistance. He's the
son of a legendary South African musicsician who you can
feel his influence in the way he moves through the world.
This conversation goes way beyond surfing, skating, snowboarding or biking.
(05:11):
It's about legacy, it's about identity, it's about being human
while also carrying the weight of visibility and leadership. Selimma,
thank you for coming on Wide Open. Let's get into it, Hi, everyone,
and welcome back to another episode. Of Wide Open. I'm
your host, Ashlan Harris, and today we have a very
(05:31):
special guest, a dear friend, someone I admire greatly and
look up to so much. Selima. Welcome to this show.
It's so lovely to have you.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Thank you, Ashland Harris. It is my high honor to
be on your show. And as usual, you are accessorized.
Oh never, not with the trinkets.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
You're right, I love me some trinkets. I you're gonna
appreciate this. Actually. So, I was in LA and I
was in like not on the time zone. Clearly. I
woke up at like five thirty. I go into the
living room and you might not know this about me,
but you do now. My favorite all time movie is
Point Break, No Way the Og Point Break. It is
(06:17):
like yes on repeat. It is my favorite favorite favorite
and Dirty Dancing. So the common denominator here is Patrick Swayze.
So I like, I literally made a phone call within
fifteen minutes of the movie and I called Rihanna at
nine zero one. I was like, can you cut my
hair now? I need this s Wayzy. She was like, girl,
(06:44):
I'm on a plane. I'll be there, and I was
like wow, yeah, So we did it.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah you are, Yeah, you are. You are giving an
anticipation of the fifty year storm.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I love it. I love it. Well, I'm so happy
to have you on the show today. And I got
the privilege because it is such a privilege because you
are such a layered human in all the most incredible
ways to hear so much and read so much about
your background and your identity and your father and where
you're originally from, and it just now it all clicks
(07:18):
to me. I'm like, how is this man so good
at his job, so incredibly talented and educated, such a
great activist in a way that makes it safe for people.
And then I'm like, oh, the apple doesn't fall too
far from the tree. I'm like, oh, I'm getting it now,
I'm getting it.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, I have a cheek code in that. My father
was very much that person, that dude who I was
talking about it this morning with someone. My father used
to have a saying when he was a musician, which
we'll get into, but on stage he would always dedicate
(07:59):
his show to the people around the world who were
catching Hell's. That is how he taught me to see
others anybody who was catching hell or being stepped on
or experiencing unnecessary oppression from the top down. It's your
(08:22):
responsibility to be there for, to shed a light on,
to hold space for, to do whatever you can, big
or small. And that my father embodied that because he
grew up as a political exile of apartheid and had
to flee his country because of the evil machinations of
(08:44):
a brilliantly orchestrated type of oppression in apartheid. And so
during his exile as a musician, as he was fighting,
you know, for apartheid to end for thirty years not
being home, he also use that he just he was
filled with an incredible amount of righteous empathy that meant, like,
(09:09):
you know, where do we need to go? Who we
up against? I will stand with you and for you.
And I'm really really lucky that he imbuwed that in me.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I love that. And you grew up around so much
culture and music and activism and movement, and when you
look back now, what stands out the most in your
childhood because you went on a totally different path. So
I'm just curious of how those how that ended up
(09:42):
coming into your childhood and giving you your voice and
permission to just go after such an incredible life career
that you've accomplished.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, you know, I I had. I had the benefit
of the time that I spent with my father, mostly
being with him at work, you know, while other kids
were going to the park, I was going to the
jazz club.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Oh my gosh, you.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Know, five six years old, seven years old in New
York City. I'm in places like the Village Gate and
the Blue Note and Michel's, and I would be there
with you know, in those days, they played two sets,
you know, for the squares at around nine, and then
(10:32):
there would be the midnight set, you know, for the
people who really wanted to sit and marinate in the funk.
And so that eat that night would generally end around
three in the morning, four in the morning. And I
spent many many a night falling asleep in the leather
cubicles of New York's finest jazz clubs. But what I
(10:55):
got to be witnessed to was as a performer as
a storyteller, as someone who knew how to really captivate
an audience and kidnap their souls with what he's with
(11:16):
his performance in his storytelling. And so I it that
just seemed normal to me. In in storytelling. My father
was also relentlessly curious and really used that curiosity as
he went out into the world to inform how he
(11:37):
showed up. And I think that, you know, I started
off in music as a kid. I grew up in
New York City in a way where like, you know,
I remember the second grade, they just threw all of
us kids into a room and there was a pile
of instruments in the floor and they just said go
and you're opening up the cases trying to make choice,
(11:57):
and then we all chose, and then you're now you're
in a band and you're learning how to play. And
I played in the Philharmonic all the way through junior
high school, in high school in the marching band, and
I sang in the choir, and I was very much
a child of the arts. But then my mother and
stepfather moved to southern California, to Carlbad, the north County
(12:21):
of San Diego, and they didn't have it like that.
It was different, you know, music was you know, there
was a marching band in at my high school, but
it was not it was not popb not.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
It was not New York City.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I was like, y'all are playing shit that I was
playing in fifth grade, like what is this? I can't,
I can't, I can't do this. But there were punk
rockets playing music in their garages, and there were skateboarding
and they were surfing, and it was I figured out
very early on a very much wrapped around music and
(13:01):
art and it was self expressive in a way that
was like I grew up. I was breakdancing in New
York City because it was during the birth of hip hop. Oh,
you guys are breakdancing on water and on board, so
I can get with this. And the first time that
I stood up on a wave in Carlsbad at this
(13:22):
place called Hemlock Beach, like that was it. I caught
a frequency that I hadn't ever felt before. At sixteen.
I had gone to church my whole life with my
mother and stepfather, but I had never felt anything spiritual before.
And then I felt it that in that moment, and
(13:44):
that just kind of changed the trajectory of my existence.
And I didn't know, I didn't even know what I
was chasing. I just knew that I needed to stay
in this feeling and to build community in it. And
it was this thing that the rest of the world
didn't care about, which made it even cooler, and I
(14:04):
just chased it, you know, I chased it all the
way to answering the telephones at a magazine called Transport
Skateboarding and Snowboarding, yep, and that that like opened me
into a portal of like, oh wait, no, there's a
whole world here, and maybe I can find my way
through it.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Stay tuned. I'll be back in just a moment after
this brief message from our sponsors. Well, you're talking about
the feeling that it gave you, and I'm curious what
about the culture of it that consumed you and pulled
you in, Because there is a really, really rich culture
(14:49):
in extreme sports like surfing, skating, snowboarding, you know VMX writing.
It's so rebellious, it's so free. It's this you know,
this reality of like almost like we'll build it as
we go, fuck it mentality for the kids who maybe
didn't fit in to organize sports. So I'm curious about
(15:12):
the culture around it because I imagine you didn't necessarily
look like the rest of the people in Carlsbad, California
catching your first wave on yeah, you know, the sunny
West coast.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, I definitely did not look of ninety nine point percent.
I think they were in my high school. I think
there were around eighteen hundred kids. Four of them, including myself,
were black. Two of them came from neighboring towns for
(15:48):
the athletic skill set, if you know what I mean.
And yeah, I mean I remember the first kid that
I told I was going to learn to serve that
I was excited to learn how to surf. He looked
at me and he's like, but you people don't even swim?
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Are you serious?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
What do you mean you're gonna learn to surf? And
he delivered it to me like it was a public
service announcement. And that's when I was like, oh, oh, oh, okay.
I get a sense of where I am. And I
dealt with everything under the sun, you know, hard rs,
in the water, you name it. But that while that
(16:30):
was something that I had to deal with on a
regular basis, it wasn't the theme. The theme was this
connection to continued creativity, Like every time you went surfing, right,
it's with the the the idea of what else can
I do on this wave? What's the next maneuver that
(16:54):
I can achieve? What's something that hasn't been done before,
and so you're all always starting from this fresh place.
Skateboarding is very much open sourced. Right, someone did a
kick clip this way, Okay, who's going to add the
grab to that? And now what can you do that
same trick off of that someone didn't know you could
(17:15):
do before. And you're doing that with your friends in
a way where it's individual, it's you against yourself, but
you're also as a collective like pushing this thing forward
as you go and practice it in concert with each other.
And then we're going to go to a show, right,
we're going to go We're gonna go see some ska shit,
(17:36):
or we're going to go to a punk show, or
we're gonna go to a hip hop show. And the
fact that there were these concentric circles of what you
could be into musically, artistically, how you dressed. There were
emo kids, there were punk kids. They were like we
call them the Yoh's, like, you know, really hip hop kids,
but we all you all sort of connected around skateboarding.
(18:00):
Surfing was a little bit more bland. I think, yeah,
I think I don't think that, especially being as someone
who really came up as a teenager in the late
eighties early nineties. I don't. We definitely didn't know that
we were building something. We just loved that most people
(18:24):
weren't into our shit, you know. It was definitely counterculture.
When my friends were coming home from college, you know,
dressed like squares and getting jobs and getting married like
in their early twenties, and they would see me getting
out of the water and they're like, you still do that,
and I was like, you don't.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You know, such a sense of freedom, and.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
That's what it was for me. It was it was freedom.
It was a way to leave whatever I was dealing
with on land behind or whatever I was dealing with
life behind, falling a lot and needing to do it scared,
you know, though you don't you don't realize it at
the time, but like, this is shit is preparing you
(19:11):
prepared me, I think, for the world ten times better
than any four year situation or institution would have would
have given me. But it was very much that, like
I see you and you're wearing your clothes in a
certain way, there's a strong chance that we do the
same thing, and now we're homies. You couldn't you couldn't
(19:36):
get on Instagram or TikTok and you know down download
the latest cool, Like you had to live the ship, yep.
And if you wore your ship in a way, if
you wore the stuff in a way that we didn't,
then we knew that you had just went and bought
it in the store, but you weren't really about that life. Yep.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Exactly, exactly. Did you ever think that that sense of
freedom and love for surfing and extreme sports in general
wouldever pave the way for you becoming one of the
most defining voices in action sports period, Like there is
(20:18):
no one like you out there who has lived this
life and shattered everything like you are it. Like when
people think think of X games, they think of you
when they think about when it's on ESPN, Like your
voice is everywhere, your face is everywhere. When it comes
to the visibility and the breakthrough of extreme in action sports.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
There's no world in which I ever thought that was
going to happen.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
There's like so freaking cool.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
It's impossible. All I was doing was trying not to
end up in a cubicle. You know, I literally was
just trying to feed the habit, and I worked a
thousand different jobs along the way. You know, from construction
(21:13):
to bank teller to I was cleaning offices at night,
and I thought it was the best job in the
world because I could work till six in the morning
and then go straight to the beach and be out
before anyone else, serve before it got crowded, and then
go home and go to sleep. And my friends thought
I was crazy. I was like, I was like, I've
(21:34):
hacked the system. Yeah, Like I'm joyfully scrubbing toilets because
I know that I'm going to have the lineup to myself.
You know. That's how I'm just being able to go
out and continue to pursue my joy and see what
else I can get into from a possibility aspect with
(21:54):
in relationship to myself. That's what I think these sports
are really about. And so when I got the job
of the magazine and then sort of navigating my way
through the industry over time, I people helped me to
see that I had a voice and that I had
a a unique perspective on it that the legacy kids
(22:18):
did not. I was late to the party. I didn't.
I didn't I didn't grow up with it. My parents
didn't do it. It wasn't generational. There was no sense of
like this is artur for any of that shit for
me like I was. I was. I didn't. I started
this ship like two years before my seventeenth birth to
two months before my seventeenth birthday. Wow, but I and
(22:38):
I felt like I had to catch up and I
felt like I had caught something that I was like,
do you do you not know what it is that
y'all have? Yeah, like this is this is this is gold,
this is how to live. And so when I did
find get get a chance, you know, to start announcing
(22:58):
at events or at skating demos long before television, where
you know they'd be able. They'd be a skate demo
at a shop and we'd be taking turns on the mic.
I would just really channel everything that I talked about
earlier that my dad taught me, everything that I grew
up with as an arts kid in New York, and
then apply it to shred talk and have fun with
(23:24):
it and do improv and like make up bios about
people and people were like, Yo, who's this guy? Can
you come to our demo next week? Like we'll give
you one hundred dollars store credit, But yeah, I'm there Hey,
we're doing a contest at the mountain. It's no summit.
We'll give you free lift tickets for the weekend, what
and a hotel room. Just come and get on the
mic and talk shit. I'll be there, yeap. And it
(23:46):
just so happened to be at the same time that
Madison Avenue was realizing like, wait a minute, there's a
whole subculture of kids who are dictating taste to the
masses and we're not talking to them, and this could
be a thing. What are we going to call them?
(24:07):
You know what? They're extreme? Like what? And next thing,
you know, Extreme sports is born and we're like, who's extreme?
Not us? But that was the choice that they made
Extreme Games launch. We vilify and roast ESPN for calling
it extreme, and two years later they showed it to
(24:29):
the X Games. There was no world in which I
ever wanted to be on the X Games. I thought that.
I thought it was kooky as shit.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
These guys are you know we you'd watch it because
you were stoked to see your friends in the contest,
But you're listening to the commentators and they don't know anything,
and they're butchering the tricks and they're butchering the culture
and you're just like, make it stop, because now you're
realizing the thing that you were talking about earlier.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Like that, there's a sense of preciousness, like wait, we
built this, We've been curating this and building this, and
you just come along and now you're going to take it.
Absolutely not. And as a bunch of weird events would
have it, I would get a chance, first through MTV
and then through this documentary called snow Taxi that I
(25:21):
was in a snowboarding documentary. Someone from ESPN was like,
that guy looks like you can't shut up.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yep, we like him.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
We should go and talk to him. And I, you know,
I started off at ESPN as a sideline reporter for
snowboarding Wow in nineteen ninety nine. Nineteen ninety nine say
that and you're like, what, Yeah, at the X Games
(25:55):
in Colorado and I didn't know what I was doing,
but I was enthusiastic. I knew what I was talking about,
and the athletes responded to me. The writers responded to
me in a way that they didn't anyone else.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Wow. There was a guy at ESPN named Jamie Reynolds
and was like, I can work with that, and he
took me under his wing with a couple of others,
and I got a thirteen year paid television broadcasting education
master you know, associates masters, PhD in play by play,
(26:36):
hosting Sideline. I'd have to, you know, go to two
seminars with all of the people that you see on
ESPN every day, with an ombudsman and journalistic integrity and
all these things. And I learned how to take my
passion and my performance that presence right that I learned
from my dad, and then learn the actual journalism side
(26:58):
of it and fuse those together specifically in who I
am as like, don't become like any of these other people.
And over time, yeah, I was somehow another. I got
a whole I got a whole life out out of it.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Well, you make it seem like it was so easy,
and I imagine that's just the sweet, humble side of you.
I imagine it was really hard. I think what people
probably don't understand about being the first or the only
in a room is something you experienced early on. And
what I know, as someone who grew up in Cocoa Beach, Florida,
(27:35):
around surf and s gate culture, like it's just not
a very diverse, inclusive space to be So, I'm curious
what that felt like stepping in in such a visible way.
Did you understand the weight of the moment or you
were just young, naive, bullish you just wanted to go
(27:57):
for it.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I was young, naive and bullish, and I wanted it
more than anything because I needed that what I had
to give no one else had to give. Like I
would watch people on TV. I would watch these events.
I would watch MTV, and it'd be like, let give
me a chance. And I had the pedigree. I had
(28:26):
worked in the industry. I worked at magazines, I'd worked
at the brands. I had been a team manager like
athlete manager for various brands, like I had paid the
hard yards. I had started brands in the sport, and
so I had all the relationships. I had the credibility.
But then when you do show up and you get
your your shot and you're really good, you get like, huh,
(28:52):
well you speak so well? Where'd you learn how to
speak so well? Excuse me? People being like, so it's
really genius that ESPN was Like I was like, oh,
look at that guy with the dreadlocks. He'd be cool
for X games because people won't expect it, and then
(29:13):
they taught you all this stuff because you don't do
these sports right. I would have executives walk up to
me and be like, tell us how you know the things,
and they'd bring someone this is the one I was
telling you about. He's so eloquent. He just listened to
him in my presence and you're like, I'm I can
hear you. Yeah, And that was regular, you know, people
(29:36):
questioning just how on earth could some magical negro fall
out of the sky and be And I really it
took me a while a couple of years to realize this,
but I remember one day I was watching a rerun
of the show and I was like, oh shit, you're
literally the only person of this hue through the entire
(30:06):
five days, four days of this broadcast that you just
hosted and commentated, and that you are the definitive expert.
No one else looks like you. And it was it
was a trip. It was a trip coming into that
(30:27):
realization and being like, oh, yeah, I understand why they
wouldn't understand, And also like, you've think of all the
shit that you had to deal with to get here,
did you think it was suddenly going to stop when
you gain visibility. If anything, it just went up exponentially.
(30:49):
But I don't think I was ready to be like
nationally questioned. I remember when social media came along and
people just being like the main big question and on
Twitter like who is this guy? How bro? I don't understand?
Why is it me? I could do a better job.
(31:09):
I get that all the time, and then you just learn,
you learn how to take it and move. I didn't
start speaking on it though. I really didn't start speaking
up loudly. I'd say until like around twenty eleven, twenty twelve,
when I was like, I can't be silent anymore. And
(31:31):
there was a time I was walking up the street
and way way uptown in New York. I was going
to a friend's house that worked at Supreme before Supreme
became Supreme, and I'm up in like the one seventies
and I'm walking through the hood. There's a bunch of
people like on a stoop, sitting drinking tall boys, you know,
(31:53):
brown bagging it. When you walk through a neighborhood like that,
you make sure that you're not too small and you're
not too big, right, just sue respect and so I'm walking.
I got my headphones on and I hear, hey, yo,
hey yo, come over here, come over here. Oh ship, yea,
take my headphones up, walk up the steps. Nah, come here,
(32:14):
come up here. Dude says, hey, you see them kids
over there. And there's two kids, black kid a and
a Dominican kid on a skateboard in a BMX, just
walking around on the street. So you see that. You
see those kids over there. Them kids wouldn't be doing
(32:35):
that ship if it wasn't for you.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
So when you walk through through this hood or anywhere
through here, you walk with your head high because we
see you, and we don't even fuck with X Games
or any of that ship except because of you. You're
the one who's putting us on and telling these stories.
So hold your head high. I don't think we don't
know you here. We know you keep doing your thing. Wow.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
That gave me. That gave me goosebumps.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I walk down the street in tears after that. And
that was the moment to answer your question in what
it was like, Oh yeah, you you're sitting in responsibility
and people can see you and them You're just being
(33:28):
there is having an effect. Has an effect because for me,
my responsibility is telling the athlete story. That's my job.
My job is if Ashlon Harris is moving the ball
down the field, whether she scores a goal or not,
you need to you want to know more about Ashlon
(33:49):
Harris because of how I put in the context what
you're doing. That's that's what's always given me life, Like
I'm just the conduit for high perform doing their thing,
and if I can make it digestible for an average
person or a person who's watching for the first time.
My goal was always like, Okay, I can take care
(34:10):
of the core all day, but if you're watching this
for the first time, I need you to be moved
by the show that we put on and my contribution
to it that from here on out you're like, oh,
I want to know more. I'm a fan. Now I'm curious.
That was a woman that changed my whole life.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Wow, stay tuned. I'll be back in just a moment.
After this brief message from our sponsors. I imagine you
have to carry that pressure of representation on your shoulders
quite a bit. In that space. You are giving permission.
(34:46):
You know, you are giving these young boys permission. I mean,
my son, I got a fucking skateboard right here behind me.
You know, we're watching the reruns on AX. That kid
is on a skateboard all the time because you get
a lot of coverage and he can see himself in you.
But that's also a lot of pressure to carry, you.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Know, there is some pressure. There's more pressure now because
of the massive pushback that whiteness is endeavoring to make
to say, hey, enough is enough of you guys and
(35:30):
your progress and you're the fantastic way in which you
show up in everything, and that you had to work
ten times harder to do what you're doing. And so
then so that when you show up, you show up
and like make an impact. We're going to figure out
(35:51):
ways to to rig the system like we did back
in the olden days, so that we don't have to
be made to feel insecure by the gifts that you
have to share. Right, you know, no one ever accused
me of being a DEI higher And you're like, are
you crazy? Do you want to see my resume? But
(36:13):
that's still not enough for them because they're like, I
still can't compute why it gets to be you. I'm
glad that the numbers are up, I'm not the only
visible black man or black person or person of color
(36:34):
in along the action sports train as well as with
my queer folk as well, like out here loud and proud,
like there was a very long time in which like
you said, nothing about who you were in this landscape.
And so yeah, I think especially in the wake of
(36:54):
twenty twenty two, when everyone started seeing each other and
really fighting for visibility and having logic conversations about what
we've all experienced in this industry and then building community
digitally and meetups and events, and now that you know
there's people like zeb Powell incredible. You know, one of
the most prolific snowboarders on Earth is a black kid
(37:16):
from North Carolina with dreadlocks named Zebulon Powell, who's on
Jordan Brand and who's like transcending the sport. Mikey February
Mikey February from South Africa, perhaps the best surfer on
Earth who people start surfing because they see him, They
see him riding away like I want, I want to
(37:36):
do that. I want to know what that feels like
and that he gets. He does it in a in
a very black body is powerful and I think yeah,
I'm just happy to not I can go down. There's
so many more names. Now there's not enough, but there's
a lot more names. And it's not all on my
(37:59):
on my shoulders more.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
I feel that. And if we're going to really dive
into the names of it all, I know, you know
the history of everyone trying to put you in a
box and making you digestible when you became a sideline
reporter for the fucking NBA or whatever it was, and
(38:21):
they were like, oh, people can't people can't say your name,
so we need to like make it catchy. And what
they're what they're saying is we need to make it
white and digestible for Central America. And we don't have
to go too much into that. But what I love
is the story of you taking back your power and
(38:44):
just being like, no, this is my fucking name and
I'm taking back my power and my identity. I'd love
for you to tell that story because it is so
powerful and it shows how fucking Jada is we are,
and how ridiculous racism is and everything, and this is
(39:08):
not like that long ago that they wanted you to
fucking shape shift and like, let's call him William at
this point, it's like, what are we doing?
Speaker 4 (39:19):
You know?
Speaker 1 (39:20):
And it's crazy that high up executives and these branches
have the audacity to even think that that's.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Okay, it's not crazy, though.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
It makes me crazy. It's America.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
It's not crazy. It's it's not crazy. It's America.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
It's America.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
You know, you could see the commercial now, it's not crazy.
It's America. And none of it really nothing surprises me anymore.
I remember one time when I was I first signed
at CIA, big agency, and they're talking about really boosted
my career up. They have all the networks up for
(40:03):
where they think I could have a show, and at
a certain point it was like, oh well, what about
here doing something at Comedy Central, et cetera. And another
agent in the room goes they already have a black
eye in prime time and the rest of the room
like ah okay, yeah, and literally in the in the
comedy I'm in the room and it's like, where can
(40:25):
we go where they don't already have a negro so
that you can be their negro? Like that's that's the
mentality of how not just black people but all others
are viewed box check, Why are there more than two
in this thing. We have one already. What are we
(40:46):
doing here? Let's not lose the plot? And you could
you could apply that to all of the groups. And
I remember when, you know, when I when I when
I moved to California, kids started calling me Sal because
Celemma for some reason. Was I remember them being like, oh,
that's hard, bro, we got to figure out a name
(41:07):
for you. And one three days after I moved to California,
a kid walked up to me and then the hallway
went past me like what's up, Sal? And I was
like what, And then the next person, Hey, Sal, Yeah, Sal,
And next thing you know, Sal is born as a
(41:27):
kid you're trying to like fit in, so you're like,
oh okay. But also it just never felt good. I
would always introduce myself as Selemma and people would just
someone would be like, yeah, but we call them sal
as they put their arm around you, and you're like yeah.
So when I got on television, I insisted that I'd
(41:50):
be fonted as Celema. It's my grandfather's name. It's the
name that my father gave me, like it has real
meaning and root Selema Masekela. And when I got to
the NBA, which was a huge deal. Right within three
years of starting at X Games, I was sideline reporting
the Western Conference of the NBA. These sports regular, real
(42:16):
regular sports, stick and ball. Sports reporters could not believe,
how dare you let this dread luck they he doesn't
even come from real sports, you know, like, how dare
they let me on the side. But the players, the
players were like, yo, talk with you. We love like
my relationship with Kobe and I could go down the
(42:38):
long list like they all Kobe wanted to talk about
was was was skateboarding all the time, and he would
come and see like come, come with his family to
the X Games, come through the tunnel, like do his thing.
We had a great relationship that way. And I had
that with a bunch of players. And because skateboarding and
basketball like sort of are there, they're they're they're they're real,
(43:00):
and how they come from the streets, it was just
a natural synergy culturally, but they didn't understand that. At
the top, I remember Rashid Wallace like coming up to
me and just like throwing all these X Game stats
at me. It's like and in the locker room being like, Yo,
this is this is our dude. We fox with him
anything he needs, the beat reporters being like what Gary Payton,
(43:21):
et cetera. Anyway, So it's like two weeks into the
season and I'm just starting to build my train and
the then president of ESPN takes me aside before this
really big game and says, hey, you know, we're really
excited about you. What you're doing, the energy you're bringing.
It's a great buzz that people love you, and I
(43:43):
think we're ready to make you a star. Do you
want to be a star, don't you? Like yeah, absolutely
said here's the thing. We got to do something about
this name. Oh my god, Like do you what do
you mean? Well, you know, people will refer to you
as as South and but you know they're seeing this
sudden this thing on the screen and they're confused and
(44:05):
you gotta think it. Literally said you gotta think about
you know, Johnny and Susie and in the Midwest in
Minnesota there they're confused. And then he literally I can't
make it up ashing and he just goessh, sal masekela.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
It just.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
That's the rist that's got the ring to it, right,
Like yeah, I mean, it just it makes sense. Let's
make you a star, all right, So we're gonna we're
gonna do this, right, and I this is I'm about
to go on air. This is literally like fifteen minutes
before game time. And I just remember being like okay,
And from then on I was faunted as Sow and
(44:51):
it was such an interesting thing. People might think like, well,
what's the big deal. It made me feel so small,
It made me feel like a puppet, and it made
me feel like, well, what are they going to get
me to do next? Next? And then and that's exactly
what it would be. Like, Hey, the little innu windows
(45:13):
or whatever, like you know, the hip hop references. You
gotta remember, like I'm I'm a child of Stuart Scott.
So I would watch too, and I would be like, yo,
if I ever get on TV, I'm going to get
this level. I'm going to be the Stuart Scott for
(45:35):
my for my ship. And they start just coming through
with the alcohol swabs and just be like, you know,
cat me, just just just clean it up, just clean
it up. It It never felt good, and it never
felt good. I would And then as my career progressed, right,
(45:58):
I get a show on the entertainment. This show called
Daily ten becomes a kid cute, which was crazy, you know,
five days a week, you know, with with Ryan Secrets
as my lead, and you're in one hundred and ninety
million homes worldwide. Suddenly you're like you were like, oh,
I think I might be I think I'm not famous.
(46:19):
I think I might be fad weird. I wasn't trying
to be famous. By the paparazzi pointing cameras out me
as I'm leaving the club, I'm obsession with you very
small window of famous. But I would always go back
to my team and be like, hey, guys, I think
it's a really good time for me to drop syl
(46:41):
and just really stand in Selemma. And you get lawyer, manager, agent,
full concert call telling you all the reasons why you
choosing to do this is going to fuck up the bag.
And I'm not realizing at the time that the bag
they're talking about is their bag. Yep, ye to fuck
up our money? Why you want to fuck up our
(47:01):
money like this? And so I would always relent, but
every few years I would make a case for it,
and you get bullied by your team, and in twenty
twenty after George Floyd and that whole summer and all
amad Arbery, Sandra Bland, et cetera, et cetera, and the
(47:23):
level of indifference that America was trying to sit in
and justify after what we were watching and people being like,
you guys need to stop. It's not I was like,
you know what, Nope, if they're going to continue to
indiscriminately kill black people, we're gonna watch it happen. And
(47:45):
people tell us that we're going to take it, then
I think today is the day in which I no
longer give any fucks when it comes to digestibility. And
I'm not asking for permission. I'm just going to be Celemma.
I went on Instagram. I did a post. I was like,
I remember everyone, Celemma Mobna Mesekella, say it with me again, slowly,
(48:10):
Celemma Mobna Masekella. And the team calls off, what do
you do? And I said, if they can't take me
as me, I will go teach surf lessons somewhere in
Costa Rica. I will figure it out. But if you're
telling me that this industry can't contain the entirety of me,
(48:32):
then I've never been meant to be here, and clearly
I've been in the wrong business this whole time. And
I would argue that since I'm since I stood in
the in my name, I've gotten taller, I've gotten better
at what I do because the shackles are off, and
(48:55):
I actually now can continue to grow because I'm growing
in the entirety of me and my gifts, and I
don't feel attached to some character that everyone's like, No,
we need you to be this guy from twenty years ago. No,
what did jay Z say? You like my old music,
by my old albums? And that freedom has allowed me
(49:19):
to flourish and the phone is still ringing. I'm still
getting getting work. I'm very, very grateful for it. I
don't take it for granted, but I wouldn't change it.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Yeah, you've spent like so much of your life being
visible publicly, Like how do you how do you stay
grounded privately?
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Like?
Speaker 1 (49:39):
How do you figure it all out? Babe?
Speaker 2 (49:44):
I don't know absolutely? How do we have how do you?
Speaker 1 (49:53):
We both of us work out a lot. We work
out a lot.
Speaker 4 (49:57):
We're a giant impat we go to Mexican dinners, we
have a drink, We're fucking figuring it out just like
everyone else.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
Yeah, you know, visibility is a small price to pay
for being able to chase your passions for a living.
It's a small price to go. Public. Scrutiny is and
can be a very very very dark, malicious, evil ass
(50:32):
place right where people are just rubbing their fingers for
you to fall, to have a misstep, whatever it is,
to go through something public. And I think that in
those times in my life and just in general, it's
(50:53):
I get my ass straight into the ocean, I get
myself straight out to the top of of a remote mountain.
I go into my gym and challenge the possibility of
what this middle aged vessel is still capable of, and
(51:14):
I try to do my best as I can to
make those around me feel really good. That's not always
easy to do when you find yourself, you know, battling
an extended depression because of something you're going through personally.
(51:36):
Like I'd say the last few years, I had a
couple of years there where I was real touch and go,
but being able to go back to those places that
have only ever given me joy and be still in
them and having great people me like knowing who it
(52:01):
is who's my actual family and the people who care
for me will always give me buoyancy. And it's a
reminder that like listen, at the end of the day,
your who and your do are separated. They're separate entities. You.
Your do is fueled by ingredients from who, but your
(52:22):
DO is not who you are. Yep. And if you
can if you can split those wires and and and
realize that yes, they might be shrouded in the same casing,
but they are separate wires, and split them apart and
understand what what current is running through each that's where
(52:42):
you're able to have balance. And and remember that like
the container that the ship you do exists in, it's
all made up. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
Yeah. And I it's it's interesting to Selima because you
and I have experienced that type of grief and public
scrutiny almost at the same exact time. And when we
when our wires actually when we when we crossed each
(53:14):
other and met at rampage in a real way, I
remember hugging you and feeling so safe and seen and
it was like such a beautiful like you're so wise,
you're such an EmPATH, you're such a man of service,
and it's just who you are. It's not a front.
(53:38):
It's in your gesture, it's in your touch, it's in
your hug, it's in the way you speak, it's in
the way you light a fucking room up the second
you walk into it. And it is such a gift,
it really is. But what people don't realize is that,
like there's such a sensitive soul deep inside that both
(54:02):
of us have and being able to share space, like
I just remember hugging you and not wanting to let go,
and I remember having like such a beautiful moment where,
you know, we were done working and we went to
dinner and there was just this beautiful sunset over the
red rocks, and that was the difference in that moment.
(54:24):
It was just the beauty of life and being with
someone who really like made space for you and your
joy and your grief all in the same moment. And
I it's such a it's a privilege and a pleasure
to know you and be able to share space with you.
Because people do not move like you, Selimma, they don't.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
Oh awesome, thank you so much. You know, people do
not move like you. You know, it takes one to
know one. And I think you know when we met
for the first When we met for the first time
France three years ago, three and a half years ago,
(55:06):
we were in very different places in our life, but
we were both we were both quietly going through it
right then. We don't physically see until we both have.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Walk through some fire, walk through some shit, yep.
Speaker 2 (55:27):
And so I just I remember when we saw each
other being like, oh, yeah, I liked you then, but
I love you now because I've watched the way you've
walked through and held your head and you said the
same thing to me. And now we're getting to sit
in like in commonality, in reflection and hold space for
(55:53):
each other in a way that like I didn't know
that I was good. That's what I was going to
get out of that week. And yeah, we left, We
left Thicke as thieves from from that experience. But I
got that sense of you.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
When we met in con I was like, the real one,
the real one, This is.
Speaker 2 (56:15):
My people right here. We had a great that was
such a great week with Sue.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
Yes, I love Sue. She's she's same, she is same, same, same.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Type of people. Yeah, same ten thousand percent. I remember
we had a conversation that afternoon in front of that
hotel where we sat and had maybe one or two drinks,
and Sophia was there too, and I just remember being like, here,
(56:47):
I loved Sue Bird when she was at Connecticut, Like
I would have killed somebody for Superman. I was like,
this girl right here could out ball. I would argue
with my friends about how if she came to our court,
we would all get tor Like no, I'm like, just
this girl's a killer. She's a she's a killer. And
I was the biggest fan of her entire like professional career.
(57:11):
And I remember getting onto the plane to go and
walk on and just doing a double take and there's
superb just looking up. I think you you were sitting
with her, and I was like I didn't even know
where to put my eyes. Oh God, that shots super
super Bird. Holy fuck, you know. And then next thing,
(57:32):
you know, we end up all hanging out and becoming
homies on that special. Well, same shit happened to me
with Diana Trassi.
Speaker 1 (57:41):
It's just great people and people who've been through some ship, right,
and it's like exactly, we've had to live it in
the public eye, and like it's it's not you know,
it's not for the week, and it takes something from
you that people don't know it really does.
Speaker 2 (57:59):
That's that's that's the part it does. But I think,
like like you, you just keep showing up like this
as as best as as you can. And yeah, you
just you sit in the grace of it. You realize
it'll take something from you, but there's a lot more
to be gained from if you exactly, if you dance,
(58:21):
if you learn the steps. So true.
Speaker 1 (58:24):
Well, Slimma, thank you so much for being on the show.
You are such a delight and I really, really just
I love sharing oxygen with you, even if it's you know,
across the coast on a computer. You've made You've you've
ignited my day. You've already made it better. And that's
just like you is what you do, man, It's just
(58:45):
who you are.
Speaker 2 (58:46):
Back at you. I'm in New York a bunch this summer,
so I expect hangs, plenty.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
Of dinner dates. I would love that. We shall do
it and we'll get the kids too. It'll be fun.
Speaker 2 (58:58):
That'll be great. The the body, by the way, you're
killing it. Ah And when you when you get a chance,
I know you're devoted to the first movie. Yeah, watch
the second one, okay, because yours truly come on is
in the second point, Breck, I love you. Watch it
(59:20):
only for that once you get to that seam and
you can delete it because it's a terrible movie.
Speaker 1 (59:25):
Well, proud to be your friend. Thank you for coming on,
and thanks for being so vulnerable and wide open, and
uh I'll see you soon.
Speaker 2 (59:35):
To be continued.
Speaker 1 (59:36):
To be continued. All right, everyone, thanks so much for
joining us for another episode of Wide Open. We'll see
you next week. Selimma, thank you so much for coming on.
This was such a special episode. And what I appreciate
most about you is you've never just existed inside one world.
You've always moved between culture, sport, storytelling, activism, identity, and
(01:00:02):
somehow made all of it feel so human and honestly,
I think a lot of people listening are going to
see pieces of themselves in this conversation too, So thank
you all for listening. Make sure you subscribe, follow share,
and we'll see you next week on another episode of
Wide Open.
Host
Ashlyn Harris
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