On Aug. 17, social media influencer QRI – just in time for her 27th birthday hosted – a panel discussion on fatherhood during Questions With Qri episode. The show featured four Black men in the music industry: Euro Gotit, a rapper-turned-family YouTuber; Rueben Wood, president of Quality Control DJs; Rico Cash, an Atlanta rapper; and Cortez Bryant, co-CEO of Blueprint Group/Maverick who is also best known for managing Young Money acts Lil Wayne, Drake and Nicki Minaj.
The discussion expanded when Domani Harris showed up to support and discuss his relationship with his father T.I. Euro Gotit’s father also showed up and discussed the three generation-fatherhood dynamics within their family. Cash shared a story about meeting his father at 29, shortly before becoming a father himself. One of the issues addressed discussed was the contrast between the absent Black father narrative versus the present Black father involved in raising and providing for their children. In Cash’s case his father wasn’t even aware of his son until months before they met. All of the passionate panelists agreed that legacy is critical for Black families.
After the event, Qri spoke to rolling out about the discussion and her own media path.
What was tonight’s event like?
An overall synopsis was that the night went well. In short, we talked about finding fatherhood and what balancing your children in the culture looks like. We had four completely different fathers come and just share their expertise, how they handle things, how they balance things, and just what they are looking forward to regarding passing the torch.
What’s your biggest takeaway from hosting an event of this stature before your 27th birthday?
I honestly took away the fact that men are people. Aside from the title of being a father, right? I realized that fathers are just people. They’re just people with the title of fathers. Like, “Wow, they have feelings. Wow. They have intellectual thoughts. Wow, they have reactions. So my biggest takeaway was just “wow.”
What advice do you have for young creatives who want to do what you’re doing right now?
The cliche thing to say is to not give up, but I would say give up. When you give up, if you still are thinking about what it is you gave up on, then start back.
So many times, we just keep going, just keep going and we just burn ourselves out somewhere. So we give up mentally and then the physical follows, but I will just encourage you to give up and sit with that absence of whatever the dream is. Then if in fact, you still cannot get sleep, because that dream is still on your mind, just start again.
