For this week’s Deep Dive Series, we are interviewing @MontrellSeahawk, an OG Clapper creator.
Montrell creates a variety of content on his channel, but he’s best known for his reactions to viral news. He always shares his thoughts and opinions, keeping his audience informed, encouraging discussion, and helping us get to know him along the way. Viewers can also find comedy skits and motivational videos among his content, which give his account a lighthearted twist! In this interview, we talked about his Clapper journey, his motivations, what Black History Month means to him, and more.
Keep reading this Deep Dive Series to find out more about this creator’s fantastic story. Make sure to tune in every Thursday at 5pm CT on our @ClapperCreator account to listen to the bonus questions that will only be available on our live radio show: Clapper Talks.
February is Black History Month, so we’ll be talking to Black Creators all month long to hear and share their stories. Montrell is the first in this special series, and there’s truly no better start. Deep Dive into this amazing creator’s story!
Tell us a little bit about yourself. What does a day look like in your life?
A day in my life is about motivating people in different ways. Whether just talking about news, doing funny skits, motivational speeches, things like that. And doing daily vlogs and showing people how it looks in North Carolina and going to other states. Some people might not have the money to, so if I can do that, why not? The way that I am when y’all see me talk about news articles, that’s the way that I am when I talk to my friends. Whether its just like BS or I believe it, it’s something to talk about and have debates about.
You have such amazing insight. Our favorite piece of content from you are your news highlights. What made you want to do this type of content?
I think one of the reasons is that I was attracting a big audience from it. And I know that we’re dealing with a lot of stuff in this world, and some older people think young people don’t know anything that’s going on. But when they see somebody like me…like, I know a lot of stuff because I talked to a lot of people that served in the military and I learned so much. So when I started seeing I was getting an audience, that’s when I was like “now its time for me to stop talking and listen to other peoples’ opinions and sometimes give people my opinions”, you know?
We noticed that you also add your own comments and opinions about the news that you’re sharing – which we love! Has your style changed over time? Or have you kept it very similar from the beginning?
Well, the thing is, I’m always trying to be on more than one platform. I’m on Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, you name it, and I just like to do different stuff. I feel like if I’m just doing the exact same stuff on other platforms, people are going to be like “what’s the point of following you other places?” And I always try to figure out new ways to do things, like on Christmas I ended up getting a cold and I couldn’t really talk. That’s why I started doing more of the funny skits. It wasn’t me talking, but it was still me entertaining my fans instead of me taking three weeks to start posting videos. I’m just addicted to social media.
Can you give us a sneak peek of some of the other apps you’re on and what kind of content your audience can find there?
I was on this platform called Rizzle, and I had a lot of things going on. I had daily vlogs, videos, fitness videos, and motivational videos. With that other platform I was showing more things I enjoyed doing outside of social media. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see a lot of daily vlogs, funny skits, videos, things like that.
As we were scrolling through your profile, we saw you posted a few comedic videos. We were wondering if this was something you wanted to include more in your daily content on Clapper.
That is something I’m looking forward to. I’ve always been a comedy guy where I watch a lot of comedians. And I always been a type that, if a person is having a bad day I could make them laugh, no matter what a person is going through. I found out after my high school graduation that my grandma only had 6 months to live. She was always a positive person, but I knew if I just kept her up and laughing and motivated, at least when she passed away she wouldn’t have to worry about being sad. And I didn’t have to see her sad or anything – I could just see her happy. So when I see people going through stuff, I just make people laugh and try to understand them. Kind of like listen to their world.
I go to Give Kids the World in Kissimmee, FL and it’s basically like Make A Wish. You see these kids having a great time and it’s hard to be strong, you know? When I see stuff like that it motivates me to be very grateful and to just make sure these kids have fun. Even with TikTok, I’ve started to see a lot of people that have issues but are enjoying themselves. That’s what it’s all about! Because most of the time a person might have something wrong with their face or something wrong with them, they don’t put themselves out there on social media. But to see that motivates me.
This interview is part of our Black History Month interview series, and we’re so excited for you to be our first interview of the month! As you may know, every Black History Month has a theme and this year is Black Resistance. So we wanted to ask, what does this Black History Month mean to you?
It’s just love, peace, and happiness. And I just feel like we’ve got to walk with our heads up and just be proud and know that we have a lot of legends that did so much. A lot of people outside of this race that don’t have a basketball player like Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan, working hard to get that respect and to be like “this is mine, I’m a legend”. We just got to start supporting each other up, lifting each other up, instead of just trying to compete and kill each other.
To our surprise, there are a lot of people that don’t even know Black History Month happens every year. What would be the best ways for non-Black people and creators to support the Black community on Clapper?
Understand that at the end of the day, we’re all the same, and we’ve just got to start supporting each other. That’s the most important thing. I feel like once the ones that create all these problems see that, they will really just fear a lot of us. They’ll see we got so many people outside of this race supporting us and looking out for each other. Because like even with certain things that happen, people did a lot of stuff just trying to prevent things and show we’re not scared anymore.
So, when did you join Clapper? How did your journey as a creator begin?
I know that it was in 2020 and that there weren’t too many people on the platform. @IntelligentBrother was on Rizzle just like I was and he said “man, you need to try this app out, it’s gonna blow up, you can build a big audience”. Then one of y’all reached out to me and said “we love your content, we’d really love to bring you on this platform”. Once I got on Clapper, it was time to make things happen.
As we’re starting the year, what can we expect from your content in 2023?
I don’t like to tell people everything because I like to surprise people! One thing I can say is that y’all are going to see more collabs with Clapper content creators. Y’all will probably see more of some stuff I enjoy doing outside of just news and motivation stuff. I’m a gamer too and I had a challenge last year some time where you had to verse me and I sent the winner gifts.
And I always try to work on things I’m not very good at. Even on a Live, it’s different than just posting videos. You’ve got people up there, you’ve got to know what you’re talking about, and keep people entertained. One thing about me is I can easily throw stuff out there and keep the conversation going.
What is your favorite feature of the app?
I haven’t even tried them because I really like to go Live and see people’s face, but I have to say the Radios! It’s cool to have so many people in here. The other feature where you can set up stuff on your Shop and you can sell things, that’s amazing too. And features like sending Gifts on videos, that was new to me. It was something different I hadn’t ever seen before.
What do you enjoy most about Clapper? In what ways do you feel like Clapper needs improvement
What I love most about Clapper is, anybody can get on this platform and it’s just different. Other platforms it’s hard because you’ve got to work up towards things. But with Clapper, everybody’s equal. You can come on here, you can go Live, you can make money, and there’s been some people that grow quick. You don’t normally see that. I’ve turned people that weren’t even content creators into content creators just with telling them “whatever you’re telling me on the phone, go ahead and talk about it on this app”.
Now what I kind of hate about Clapper? The fact that there’s not a lot of people on this platform and I feel like we don’t have too many people that talk about the same topics, it’s all different. Sometimes there’s glitches, too. There’s been times that I’ve put videos in my drafts and try to upload them later and there’s some kind of error. When I react to peoples’ videos, sometimes the volume might be up real loud and there’s not another way where I can make the video big or small. Right now I use another editing app just to upload, but other platforms that have the same issue. That’s really it. I hope I didn’t break y’all’s heart, I’m just being honest!
How can Clapper better support their Black creators this year?
I feel like, at the end of the day, if people work hard for something, they deserve it. But I feel like some people get opportunities they don’t really deserve because they don’t really care, you know? And its sad. I feel like people need to work hard as far as Black History Month in order to be talked about. Now if a person is trying and under the hashtags and you see that, then yeah they deserve it. And I feel like even with just a month, always walk around proud and be glad you’re Black. One thing I like about social media is a lot of people are mixed and having mixed kids and everything, and that is kind of bringing people together.
We hope you enjoyed getting to know @MontrellSeahawk. For our latest deep dive on @ShazTheSwordQueen read here.