Dig Magazine

Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: Music

"I must be the flyest 24-going-on-25-year-old on campus." All at once, everyone's focus in the KBeach office turned to the young man, he shrugged his shoulders, "I didn't say it, the mirror told me. I didn't even ask."

At six feet and four inches with smooth dark chocolate skin, his cockiness is not entirely unwarranted. "G.I.A.N.N.I. Danger" is a good looking kid with stand out style. Think the usual hip-hop head with baggy pants falling off the behind, sneakers and oversized shirts, only with more sparkle and eye-catching accessories. Today, it's brown and gold, his frat colors, under a sand-colored combat vest left over from his days in the Navy.

Gianni Blake Harris is the hip-hop director at Cal State Long Beach's KBeach Global Radio. He boasts that he is the golden boy of the station's general manager, John Trapper.

"He comes in early, is great on the mic and is always involved." Trapper says. "He's a really great DJ."

The swagger Gianni dances through his life with does all hail from his good looks and being beautiful on the mic. Some of his confidence was inherited from his mother, Bridgette. She boasts her proud position as the mother of an up-and-coming hip-hop artist.

At his condo, the miniature pincher mix he just got for his mother begins to bark as he turns the key. His mother sat on the couch in a purple sweater. She is a strong presence, even sitting.

"Now, Q," she called to the little canine, "you were sitting here all this time. Come here."
"Who's Q?" he asked his mother, "the dogs name is Kwali."
"Now, son, I can't say that."
"K-wall-ee." He joked.
"Blake, did you get the dog for me?"
"I don't want no problems." They agreed on Q.

She calls Gianni by his middle name and gives up the secret that when she gave birth she named him Daniel, after his father. The man has been largely absent from their lives, so two years ago Harris changed his name to his great-great grandfather's.

"It goes better with the art," he said, "I don't feel like a Daniel."

His mother loves that her son has grown so confident, but thinks it could be toned down a bit. She feels that she gave him all the tools he needs to be a successful man and live out his dreams.

"Blake has hit a few rough spots from being involved with the wrong people," she confessed, "but he's a good kid. I taught him to let people show him who they are and to believe it when they do."
The rough spots Bridgette referred to are the two short stints he did in jail. Both times were drug related, and unrelated, he said.

Continued...

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