About

My intimate relationship with journalism began as a teen in Maricopa County under the combined shadows of sheriff Joe Arpaio and SB 1070. As a community, my neighborhood struggled to live normal lives under the constant racial profiling and targeted assault on our humanity. As the housing market crashed while the sheriffs made their rounds around our area, we felt the helplessness most marginalized communities default to in these situations. While this all unfolded, we watched the news tell a story that seemed to be about us. Although the nation could not fully cover our perspective, we only saw semblances of ourselves in the coverage. This was my Master class in covering marginalized communities and representation in media.

By this point in my life my professional goals were already geared toward a career in media. I was looking for a career covering music and music culture. This journey, however, started long before my teen years. I fell in love with Hip Hop the moment I heard my father rap along to 50 Cent’s “Many Men” as he picked me up from school the day after my mom destroyed my bootleg version of that same album. I quickly realized this meant my father secretly bought his own copy to keep in his car hidden from my mom. As his heavy Spanish accent pushed out the legendary verses through his mustached face, I thought about how devastated I was to see my copy of Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ snapped in half at the bottom of our trash can the day before. The chorus came and together, we howled, “Many men… wish death upon me!” ‘Many Men’ was my favorite song and it was largely due to the story of endurance and perseverance I associated with it. In Phoenix, Arizona, I grew up under the shadows cast by a housing market crash and an immigration bill which lead to widespread racial profiling from police in my neighborhood. As I triumphed over each issue, I’d rap along with Fifty, “I’m trying to be what I’m destined to be…”

I didn’t know it at the time but I was learning about the relationships we build through the media around us. Either through representation or cultural context, we look for ourselves in the media that’s supposed to represent us. After five years of experience, I learned that media production is about more than just content; it’s about telling stories and building communities around common human experiences. Those relationships help us bridge the gap between a consumer base and an internal community.

Since graduating from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, I’ve gone on to cover everything from politics to culture for organizations like NBC News and HipHopDX.com. As I continue to amplify the stories of our time I aim to do so in a clear and transparent way so that my story is known as well. Please feel free to take a look at my work and reach out to me on my various platforms.

Thank you,

Osej Serratos