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November 16, 2025 18 mins

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Flint, Michigan, has given the world legendary athletes—now meet one of its rising musical icons.
 Joe Ryan III is a producer, songwriter, composer, engineer, and DJ whose creative reach spans television, film, and the global music scene. At just 30, he’s worked with FOX, ABC, NBC, MTV, VH1, ESPN, and BET, crafting scores for Lethal Weapon, The Voice, Teen Titans Go!, Ellen DeGeneres, Dancing with the Stars, and more.

In this Radio Free Michigan interview, Arthur Busch revisits Joe’s early days in Flint and his viral song Flint, Michigan — recorded with his 90-year-old grandmother — to trace his path from local talent to Hollywood composer.
Ryan reflects on evolving recording tech, creative independence, and what it means to represent Flint’s spirit in a global industry.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Arthur Busch (00:32):
Joe Ryan is an exciting and inspiring young man
who was born and raised inFlint.
You wrote a song about Flint,Michigan.
Your grandmother is actuallysinging with you on this song.

Joe Ryan III (00:53):
Wait.

Radio Announcer (01:02):
If you were to put something in a population to
keep them down for generationand generation, it would be
left.
It is a well-known potenttoxin.
There's tons of evidence onwhat light does to a child.
And it is one of the mostdamning things that you can do
to a population.
It drops your IQ, it affectsyour behavior, it still makes
your criminality, it hasmulti-generational impacts.

Joe Ryan III (02:26):
In this timing, this era.
I was still in Hollywood when Idid it.
So I actually called her.
When you see that in the bit inthe actual music video, that's
real.
There's nothing fake or youknow produced about that.
She sang the song over thephone.
When I started making musicwith my grandma in the church, I
never ever thought I'd see mycity in a hurts.
My city, so it hurts when theplace that I was birthed can't

(02:49):
get clean water, cause theyliving in the dirt.
And even worse, they knew aboutit.
So why they actin' brand newabout it?
Tell me what we gon' do aboutit.
Lord help us, what we gon' doabout it.
Cause it's coming, finished, todo this to pick a side.
No, they rather run it high,tell it, televised lies, baby
pictures to the public like theytryna save lives.

(03:09):
No, I ain't buying that.

Arthur Busch (03:19):
What inspired your song was the Flintwater crisis.

Joe Ryan III (03:23):
One hundred percent.

Arthur Busch (03:24):
And what was it about that uh situation that you
learned about the crisis?
I take it you wrote this songfairly quickly thereafter.

Joe Ryan III (03:32):
Oh, yeah.
Right right away, I knew that Iwanted my grandmother to sing
that hook and to to really bringthe spirit and the soul of what
the city was experiencing.
That's real.
There's nothing fake or youknow, produced about that.
She sang the song over thephone.
Gotta go make it all good.

(04:03):
Gotta go make it all good.
And I pulled it into the ProTools and EQ'd it to where it

(04:28):
could be audible enough, and shesang it.
I didn't put any tempo on it atfirst because I wanted to get
her vibe and her feel, and she,with no metronome, no anything,
sang that thing.
I brought it in, started tobuild around it, and then you
know, made the song because youknow, me being able to call her
while she's still in Flint,right?
That's the most authentic youcould be.

(04:48):
Like it's authentic that I'mfrom the city and I spent my
first 15 years there and thewhole nine yards, but she spent
over 90 years over there andshe's still over there.
So it's like I had to have anauthentic piece to tell the
story that look, this thing isjust wait, right?
I don't believe in that notionof just sitting in it and just
waiting for things to getbetter.

(05:09):
It's like, no, we need to speakup about it and do it in a way
that's commercial enough forpeople to experience it and hear
it over and over again.
So that song, you know, Wade inthe Water, instantly, I'm like,
they want they want the peopleof Flint to just wait in the
water.
So we we adjusted it to, youknow, I told her to just sing
Wait because that's what theywant the citizens to do, is

(05:29):
just, you know, I I would hearso many reports and watch so
many different news castings ofpeople speaking and saying, hey,
we gotta be patient, thingstake time, you know, all the
pipes have to be redone, yadayada, yada, yada.
Cool, but we we don't have thattype of time to wait to tell
the truth, though.
We can wait for the process ofthings to get better, but let's
not wait to tell the facts andthe truth and bring awareness to

(05:51):
to what's really going on inthe city.
Unbelievable, unbelievable.
How can we be called the unitthe the number one thing I don't
understand about this wholesituation is how can we be
called the United States?
That's our literal name, UnitedStates, and we can let my city,

(06:11):
our city, go through somethinglike this that is similar to a
third world country situation,and we not j not jump in all
hands on deck to bring this cityup out of the dirt.
There is no excuse.
There is no lack of resourcesin this country.
It's a responsibility for usall to make sure people know

(06:32):
that this is not okay, and ifyou wouldn't let yourself live
like this and you wouldn'taccept it for you, you can't
accept it for Flynn.

Arthur Busch (06:39):
Period.
And uh Joe, when you talk abouttruth, when you talk about
truth, you're really talkingabout justice, aren't you?

Joe Ryan III (06:48):
100%.
Yes.

Arthur Busch (06:50):
Your song, when I listened to it, I walked away
with the impression that youwere you're really uh in fact
you used the word justice in theyou're talking about justice in
the song.
My question is, what what doyou see as justice?
What do you what are you whatwhen you wrote the song, what
were you thinking?

Joe Ryan III (07:08):
Honestly, the the emotions that made me write the
song, if I can be candid, wereum guilt and anger made me start
to write the song.
I felt guilty that I wasn't inthe city and I had a I had a
moment where I was wrestlingwith myself of like like just
looking at myself in in adifferent light where I felt
like oh well I should have beenthere or you know, like why did

(07:29):
I get to get out, or why do yougo through that when you really
have a love and a passion for aplace.
Then the anger of like, wait aminute, even though I'm not
there, I'm connected, I'm fromthere.
I have family members that arethere, I've been there, that
shaped me.
So you know, the just side ofit, we cannot just allow things
to be fixed on at a pace, andthen having those who created

(07:53):
this situation be heldaccountable, and then not just
held accountable, but heldaccountable for the rights that
should be respected of thepeople that had to endure this.

Arthur Busch (08:07):
You make reference in the song to genocide, and
you make reference in there alsoto the governor of the state of
Michigan, the former governoruh Rick Snyder.

Joe Ryan III (08:17):
I mean, that line when I say uh how is Kwame
locked up, but Snyder's stillfree.
It's like I need to understandhow we can let, you know,
homicide, genocide, uh, thesethings go down, and we're we're
always talking about justice,and we're always, for me, I'm a
black man.
I know how much they take thosethat look like me and put them

(08:41):
behind bars for doing wrong.
Snyder running free, but theygot Kwame locked up.
Another way to see that theyjust load of my guts.
I guess black wrongs from whitelies.
We just want the truth in thislifetime, cause there's plenty
of proof between them whitelines.
The me males off spell crime.
But you telling us to give ittime?
You want us to wait while thepeople dine?
Men that's comic side,genocide, the truth is to pick a

(09:04):
side.
Any size, not them.
No, they rather run it high,telling televised lies, paint
pictures to the public like theytryna save lives.
No, back to the basics.
My city's a mate.

Arthur Busch (09:13):
So I asked Joe Ryan III, why was it he felt
that there was no justice inAmerica?
And this was his response.

Joe Ryan III (09:23):
In some instances, you know, not doing any wrong,
but for the most part, we arethe majority for those that are
jailed for doing wrong.
And then this can be done onthis scale with the with the
with this evidence and with thisclear understanding of what
happened, and then everyone'squiet about the usual
precautions and procedures thatare taken to put my same people

(09:46):
behind bars for doing wrong.

Arthur Busch (09:48):
We have to be even across the board after they're
talking about the lack ofjustice.
Show love while you show hate.
Where does that come from?
And why'd you put it in thesong?

Joe Ryan III (10:06):
And that was that was a line in this where it
really comes from is the factthat God is love, right?
Like the solution to theproblem you know, has to be love
because otherwise, if it'sanything outside of love, then
God's not at the center of it.
So we have to find a waythrough the anger and
frustration to find that plateauof like, okay, so what is the

(10:26):
solution towards permanentprogress?
And it's not going to be hatebecause hate is what got us here
in this situation.
So we can't use what got usinto this to get us out of it.
So love is you know at thecore.
And I mean unconditional,authentic agape love is the only
thing that really well first ofall, that's a great question.
I love that you picked out thatline that challenges hate in a

(10:49):
way that um produces permanentprogress.

Arthur Busch (10:52):
When you say show love while you show hate, you
were making reference, I thoughtto those who seem to carry on
this ugly legacy of ours in thiscountry and which seemed
directed at uh the blackcommunity.

Joe Ryan III (11:11):
No, it was when I say we would show love while
y'all show hate, it's like whyyou continue to hate us and and
and set up these things to pullus down, right?
You know, something like lead,right?
Like, I mean, come on, we weall know like the longevity of
how long this impacts andeffects.
So it's like while you guysshow us the hate, we're still

(11:32):
gonna show love.
You know, the the Obamas aregreat at, you know, being coin
coining that phrase.
We we're gonna go high.
When they go low, we'll gohigh.
That's what that that sentimentmeans, is that no matter what,
we still have to keep showinglove to get through this.
Like we can't, I can't I Istill have to be able to sit
down with someone who is maybeeven involved in the planning

(11:55):
for this situation and still beable to get to a point of
conversation with them and showthem love so that they can
understand why I'm desperatelyrequesting love for my city, you
know, based on what I'm showingyou.
But if I come to you with hateand hate and hate is boxing each
other, it's just a bunch ofhate.

Arthur Busch (12:12):
We appreciate the time here without saying your
own philosophy of life.
And uh you're you're theepitome of life and produce.

Joe Ryan III (12:27):
I really appreciate that.
Thank you for having me andcreating a platform for uh
voices to be heard, especiallyvoices that come from you know
this beautiful, this beautifulstate of Michigan, born and
raised.
Thank you for you know allowingus to to continue to help, you
know, shed light on uh lifethrough music.
So we appreciate you very much.

(12:47):
The vehicle city, so you cannever replace us.
We will show love while y'allshow hate, and we will keep
marching, but we will not wait.

Radio Announcer (13:26):
Wait, lead pipes began to corrode, reaching
into the water.
If you were to put something ina population to keep them down
for a generation and generationsto come, it would be lead.
It is a well-known potentneurotoxin.
There's tons of evidence onwhat lead does to a child.

(13:48):
And it is one of the mostdamning things that you can do
to a population.
It drops your IQ, it affectsyour behavior, stimulates your
criminality, it hasmulti-generational impacts.

Arthur Busch (14:52):
Uh Joe Ryan the Third and Flem Michigan's story
about poisoned water.
Just an update on the FlintWater case.
There has been a settlementreached.
Although not everybody has beenable to collect on the
settlement, there are lawsuitsstill pending.
Governor Rick Snyder has nowclaimed that he's going to

(15:16):
assert his Fifth Amendmentprivilege not to testify in the
civil cases because histestimony might incriminate
himself in criminal wrongdoing.
As a lawyer for 40 years, I'venever seen a case in Michigan,

(15:36):
in Genesee County, in whichcriminal defendants, in this
case, Mr.
Snyder, who is amultimillionaire, is able to
milk the state of Michigan fordefense funds.
What Joe Ryan says has morethan a kernel of truth.
We have an unequal justicesystem that provides virtually a

(15:58):
squat for those who are accusedblacks who are accused of
crimes.
And Mr.
Snyder, of course.
He gets a full-paid lawyer,even though he's a
multi-millionaire to defend himin all these cases.
With that said, let's say ourprayers for those who are
affected by that forever,forever chemical led.

(16:22):
Those children that will beaffected for the rest of their
lives.
This is Radio Free Flint.
I appreciate the fact that youtook time to listen to this
podcast.
Thank you.
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