Blueprint is an influential underground hip-hop artist known for his introspective and uplifting music.
Safe Money is a dynamic hip-hop duo from Dayton, Ohio, consisting of rappers K.Carter and TINO, and known for their energetic performances and clever lyrics.
In this WYSO Weekend excerpt, WYSO Music Director Juliet Fromholt tells us both groups will perform at the station's Listener Appreciation Concert taking place Friday, Aug. 1. Check out the interview and visit www.WYSO.org/events for more information.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Jerry Kenney: Thanks so much for sharing your weekend with WYSO, and we've got some idea of how you can spend time this upcoming weekend. We've got WYSO Music Director, Juliet Fromholt to tell us all about it.
Juliet Fromholt: Hi Jerry, thanks for having me. Sure. So next Friday, August 1st, 2025, is WYSO's annual Listener Appreciation Concert. We will be once again at Levitt Pavilion in downtown Dayton for a great night of free and open to the community music on the lawn in the heart of Downtown Dayton.
Kenney: That's such a great venue.
Fromholt: I love it. We are so grateful to partner with Levitt Pavilion Dayton. They're always bringing really interesting artists, some that we know and love, some that we're discovering for the first time, and the fact that anyone in the community can come and participate and partake of that music is just really something special to have in our community.
Kenney: Yeah, I can't believe it's it's been a year already, but it's great, a nice place to chill, sit back and relax and listen to some great music. So what is on hand for listeners this year?
Fromholt: Yeah, this year is a celebration of Ohio hip-hop. Blueprint is going to be headlining. He is a rapper and producer out of Columbus, very well known and loved in the underground hip-hop scene. He's on Rhymesayers. He's worked with RJD2. He is also an author and a mentor to a lot of emerging hip-hop artists. He really cares not only about the artistry of music, but about really making sure that independent artists have what they need to thrive in a really competitive space.
He'll be joined on stage by Dayton's own Safe Money. That is the duo of K.Carter and TINO, who are both great emcees on their own. They combine their forces as Safe Money, they released their second album last summer called Safe Money 2. It has a great song on it called First in Funk, celebrating Dayton's funk legacy. Those guys are so much fun on stage. We've had them individually at a couple of WYSO events, but this is our first time really presenting them together.
Kenney: I'll bet there might be one or two listeners out there who would say, what is WYSO doing featuring hip-hop? But we've got a Tuesday night hip-hop music program.
Fromholt: We do. Yeah. Tables of Content has been on the air since 2016, I believe. Yeah. Don't quote me on that. Celebrating golden and classic era hip-hop. But I will also say that we have been very intentional over the past five or so years to really acknowledge that hip hop is a very important part of American music in general. It's a genre that celebrated its 50th anniversary just a couple of years ago, and so we've been trying to incorporate more hip-hop into our regular mix on Mid-day music, on Kaleidoscope, on Novophonic.FM.
"Dayton's hip-hop scene is thriving right now. That's one of the reasons why we're so interested in highlighting this genre is there's so much of it happening right here, right now."
And really, it's a testament to the fact that Dayton's hip-hop scene is thriving right now. That's one of the reasons why we're so interested in highlighting this genre is there's so much of it happening right here, right now, really special, really multi-generational. Tino and K.Carter, as Safe Money, are part of that scene. Blueprint being our neighbor in Columbus, certainly adjacent to that as well.
Kenney: Great. What else do we have in the way of listener appreciation?
Fromholt: Well, come and enjoy with us. We will be there. A lot of our hosts will be there, so please meet us, talk to us. We'll have some swag as always, some goodies, branded WYSO and Novaphonic. So please come out. This night of music is just a small way that we can say thank you to you for being a part of our music community.
Kenney: So you guys are actually hip-hopping in the music department from event to event. What else do we have on hand coming up?
Fromholt: Coming up, we have a lot of things. August is a very busy month for our team. Just a couple of places that you can see us and you can always follow us on social media for more. On August 10th, 2025, which is a Sunday, we'll be in Kettering for Art at the Commons. We love curating the stage there.
We'll be joined by five local acts who we absolutely love. They will be familiar to our listeners, really excited to share them. We have another Tiny Stacks concert coming up on the 21st. And a couple of our staff will be DJing around town at a couple events. A couple those sort of community-sourced fundraisers for the station right now. And you can follow us on Instagram at Novophonic.fm to learn more about that.
Kenney: Awesome. So Juliet, let's wrap up with some music that people might get to hear next Friday.
Fromholt: Yeah, we're going to wrap up with a Safe Money, First in Funk. Thank you so much, Jerry.
