Feb. 6, 2026

Joe Ryan III: From Flint to Hollywood — The Sound of a New Generation

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Flint, Michigan, has given the world legendary athletes—now meet one of its rising musical icons.
Joe Ryan III is a producer, songwriter, composer, engineer, and DJ whose creative reach spans television, film, and the global music scene. At just 30, he’s worked with FOX, ABC, NBC, MTV, VH1, ESPN, and BET, crafting scores for Lethal Weapon, The Voice, Teen Titans Go!, Ellen DeGeneres, Dancing with the Stars, and more.

In this Radio Free Michigan interview, Arthur Busch revisits Joe’s early days in Flint and his viral song Flint, Michigan — recorded with his 90-year-old grandmother — to trace his path from local talent to Hollywood composer.
Ryan reflects on evolving recording tech, creative independence, and what it means to represent Flint’s spirit in a global industry.

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Learn more about Joe Ryan III and his musical career at his website Joe Ryan III
Read a profile article of Joe Ryan III, Telepix Composer Joe Ryan III: A Multi-Talented Music Wizard
Read an interview with Joe Ryan III, "Meet Joe Ryan III" by LA Voyage Magazine
YouTube video of Joe Ryan III and his 90-year-old- grandmother, Odessa Houston as they perform the song "Flint, Michigan"

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Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.320
Joe Ryan is an exciting and inspiring young man who was born and raised in Flint.

00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:06.879
You wrote a song about Flint, Michigan.

00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:10.320
Your grandmother is actually singing with you on this song.

00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:21.760
Wait.

00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:36.479
If you were to put something in a population to keep them down for generation and generation, it would be left.

00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:39.840
It is a well-known potent toxin.

00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:43.920
There's tons of evidence on what light does to a child.

00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:47.600
And it is one of the most damning things that you can do to a population.

00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:54.000
It drops your IQ, it affects your behavior, it still makes your criminality, it has multi-generational impacts.

00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:56.319
In this timing, this era.

00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:58.239
I was still in Hollywood when I did it.

00:01:58.239 --> 00:01:59.439
So I actually called her.

00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:03.120
When you see that in the bit in the actual music video, that's real.

00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:05.680
There's nothing fake or you know produced about that.

00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:08.560
She sang the song over the phone.

00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:14.639
When I started making music with my grandma in the church, I never ever thought I'd see my city in a hurts.

00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:19.520
My city, so it hurts when the place that I was birthed can't get clean water, cause they living in the dirt.

00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:21.599
And even worse, they knew about it.

00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:23.919
So why they actin' brand new about it?

00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:25.840
Tell me what we gon' do about it.

00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:28.080
Lord help us, what we gon' do about it.

00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:31.439
Cause it's coming, finished, to do this to pick a side.

00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:37.520
No, they rather run it high, tell it, televised lies, baby pictures to the public like they tryna save lives.

00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:38.800
No, I ain't buying that.

00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:51.120
What inspired your song was the Flintwater crisis.

00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:52.240
One hundred percent.

00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:57.759
And what was it about that uh situation that you learned about the crisis?

00:02:57.759 --> 00:03:00.560
I take it you wrote this song fairly quickly thereafter.

00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:01.280
Oh, yeah.

00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:11.280
Right right away, I knew that I wanted my grandmother to sing that hook and to to really bring the spirit and the soul of what the city was experiencing.

00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:12.240
That's real.

00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:14.800
There's nothing fake or you know, produced about that.

00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:17.280
She sang the song over the phone.

00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:31.120
Gotta go make it all good.

00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:49.280
Gotta go make it all good.

00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:59.199
And I pulled it into the Pro Tools and EQ'd it to where it could be audible enough, and she sang it.

00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:06.719
I didn't put any tempo on it at first because I wanted to get her vibe and her feel, and she, with no metronome, no anything, sang that thing.

00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:15.120
I brought it in, started to build around it, and then you know, made the song because you know, me being able to call her while she's still in Flint, right?

00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:16.959
That's the most authentic you could be.

00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:26.000
Like it's authentic that I'm from the city and I spent my first 15 years there and the whole nine yards, but she spent over 90 years over there and she's still over there.

00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:32.879
So it's like I had to have an authentic piece to tell the story that look, this thing is just wait, right?

00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:37.279
I don't believe in that notion of just sitting in it and just waiting for things to get better.

00:04:37.279 --> 00:04:45.120
It's like, no, we need to speak up about it and do it in a way that's commercial enough for people to experience it and hear it over and over again.

00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:51.759
So that song, you know, Wade in the Water, instantly, I'm like, they want they want the people of Flint to just wait in the water.

00:04:51.759 --> 00:05:09.759
So we we adjusted it to, you know, I told her to just sing Wait because that's what they want the citizens to do, is just, you know, I I would hear so many reports and watch so many different news castings of people speaking and saying, hey, we gotta be patient, things take time, you know, all the pipes have to be redone, yada yada, yada, yada.

00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:13.600
Cool, but we we don't have that type of time to wait to tell the truth, though.

00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:21.600
We can wait for the process of things to get better, but let's not wait to tell the facts and the truth and bring awareness to to what's really going on in the city.

00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:25.519
Unbelievable, unbelievable.

00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:34.000
How can we be called the unit the the number one thing I don't understand about this whole situation is how can we be called the United States?

00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:51.759
That's our literal name, United States, and we can let my city, our city, go through something like this that is similar to a third world country situation, and we not j not jump in all hands on deck to bring this city up out of the dirt.

00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:53.199
There is no excuse.

00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:56.319
There is no lack of resources in this country.

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It's a responsibility for us all to make sure people know that this is not okay, and if you wouldn't let yourself live like this and you wouldn't accept it for you, you can't accept it for Flynn.

00:06:07.839 --> 00:06:08.319
Period.

00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:15.920
And uh Joe, when you talk about truth, when you talk about truth, you're really talking about justice, aren't you?

00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:16.720
100%.

00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:17.759
Yes.

00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:28.720
Your song, when I listened to it, I walked away with the impression that you were you're really uh in fact you used the word justice in the you're talking about justice in the song.

00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:31.920
My question is, what what do you see as justice?

00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:35.839
What do you what are you what when you wrote the song, what were you thinking?

00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:44.480
Honestly, the the emotions that made me write the song, if I can be candid, were um guilt and anger made me start to write the song.

00:06:44.480 --> 00:07:02.800
I felt guilty that I wasn't in the city and I had a I had a moment where I was wrestling with myself of like like just looking at myself in in a different light where I felt like oh well I should have been there or you know, like why did I get to get out, or why do you go through that when you really have a love and a passion for a place.

00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:08.079
Then the anger of like, wait a minute, even though I'm not there, I'm connected, I'm from there.

00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:11.839
I have family members that are there, I've been there, that shaped me.

00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:33.680
So you know, the just side of it, we cannot just allow things to be fixed on at a pace, and then having those who created this situation be held accountable, and then not just held accountable, but held accountable for the rights that should be respected of the people that had to endure this.

00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:45.439
You make reference in the song to genocide, and you make reference in there also to the governor of the state of Michigan, the former governor uh Rick Snyder.

00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:51.120
I mean, that line when I say uh how is Kwame locked up, but Snyder's still free.

00:07:51.120 --> 00:08:04.399
It's like I need to understand how we can let, you know, homicide, genocide, uh, these things go down, and we're we're always talking about justice, and we're always, for me, I'm a black man.

00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:11.040
I know how much they take those that look like me and put them behind bars for doing wrong.

00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:13.680
Snyder running free, but they got Kwame locked up.

00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:16.000
Another way to see that they just load of my guts.

00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:18.160
I guess black wrongs from white lies.

00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:22.639
We just want the truth in this lifetime, cause there's plenty of proof between them white lines.

00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:25.040
The me males off spell crime.

00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:27.040
But you telling us to give it time?

00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:29.120
You want us to wait while the people dine?

00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:32.639
Men that's comic side, genocide, the truth is to pick a side.

00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:33.840
Any size, not them.

00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:38.559
No, they rather run it high, telling televised lies, paint pictures to the public like they tryna save lives.

00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:40.000
No, back to the basics.

00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:41.039
My city's a mate.

00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:49.360
So I asked Joe Ryan III, why was it he felt that there was no justice in America?

00:08:49.360 --> 00:08:51.039
And this was his response.

00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:59.840
In some instances, you know, not doing any wrong, but for the most part, we are the majority for those that are jailed for doing wrong.

00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:16.480
And then this can be done on this scale with the with the with this evidence and with this clear understanding of what happened, and then everyone's quiet about the usual precautions and procedures that are taken to put my same people behind bars for doing wrong.

00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:22.399
We have to be even across the board after they're talking about the lack of justice.

00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:27.759
Show love while you show hate.

00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:32.080
Where does that come from?

00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:33.840
And why'd you put it in the song?

00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:39.519
And that was that was a line in this where it really comes from is the fact that God is love, right?

00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:48.399
Like the solution to the problem you know, has to be love because otherwise, if it's anything outside of love, then God's not at the center of it.

00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:56.720
So we have to find a way through the anger and frustration to find that plateau of like, okay, so what is the solution towards permanent progress?

00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:00.399
And it's not going to be hate because hate is what got us here in this situation.

00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:03.919
So we can't use what got us into this to get us out of it.

00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:06.080
So love is you know at the core.

00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:13.279
And I mean unconditional, authentic agape love is the only thing that really well first of all, that's a great question.

00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:20.159
I love that you picked out that line that challenges hate in a way that um produces permanent progress.

00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:38.320
When you say show love while you show hate, you were making reference, I thought to those who seem to carry on this ugly legacy of ours in this country and which seemed directed at uh the black community.

00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:48.720
No, it was when I say we would show love while y'all show hate, it's like why you continue to hate us and and and set up these things to pull us down, right?

00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:50.879
You know, something like lead, right?

00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:57.120
Like, I mean, come on, we we all know like the longevity of how long this impacts and effects.

00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:01.120
So it's like while you guys show us the hate, we're still gonna show love.

00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:05.360
You know, the the Obamas are great at, you know, being coin coining that phrase.

00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:06.559
We we're gonna go high.

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When they go low, we'll go high.

00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:16.080
That's what that that sentiment means, is that no matter what, we still have to keep showing love to get through this.

00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:35.519
Like we can't, I can't I I still have to be able to sit down with someone who is maybe even involved in the planning for this situation and still be able to get to a point of conversation with them and show them love so that they can understand why I'm desperately requesting love for my city, you know, based on what I'm showing you.

00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:39.919
But if I come to you with hate and hate and hate is boxing each other, it's just a bunch of hate.

00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:47.120
We appreciate the time here without saying your own philosophy of life.

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And uh you're you're the epitome of life and produce.

00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:56.639
I really appreciate that.

00:11:56.639 --> 00:12:07.519
Thank you for having me and creating a platform for uh voices to be heard, especially voices that come from you know this beautiful, this beautiful state of Michigan, born and raised.

00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:14.399
Thank you for you know allowing us to to continue to help, you know, shed light on uh life through music.

00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:16.080
So we appreciate you very much.

00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:18.799
The vehicle city, so you can never replace us.

00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:23.120
We will show love while y'all show hate, and we will keep marching, but we will not wait.

00:12:54.240 --> 00:13:03.600
Wait, lead pipes began to corrode, reaching into the water.

00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:09.600
If you were to put something in a population to keep them down for a generation and generations to come, it would be lead.

00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:13.120
It is a well-known potent neurotoxin.

00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:17.039
There's tons of evidence on what lead does to a child.

00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:20.720
And it is one of the most damning things that you can do to a population.

00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:27.279
It drops your IQ, it affects your behavior, stimulates your criminality, it has multi-generational impacts.

00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:26.240
Uh Joe Ryan the Third and Flem Michigan's story about poisoned water.

00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:29.519
Just an update on the Flint Water case.

00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:32.320
There has been a settlement reached.

00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:38.480
Although not everybody has been able to collect on the settlement, there are lawsuits still pending.

00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:57.120
Governor Rick Snyder has now claimed that he's going to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify in the civil cases because his testimony might incriminate himself in criminal wrongdoing.

00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:10.960
As a lawyer for 40 years, I've never seen a case in Michigan, in Genesee County, in which criminal defendants, in this case, Mr.

00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:18.000
Snyder, who is a multimillionaire, is able to milk the state of Michigan for defense funds.

00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:22.159
What Joe Ryan says has more than a kernel of truth.

00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:31.759
We have an unequal justice system that provides virtually a squat for those who are accused blacks who are accused of crimes.

00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:33.200
And Mr.

00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:34.559
Snyder, of course.

00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:41.600
He gets a full-paid lawyer, even though he's a multi-millionaire to defend him in all these cases.

00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:50.240
With that said, let's say our prayers for those who are affected by that forever, forever chemical led.

00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:54.000
Those children that will be affected for the rest of their lives.

00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.000
This is Radio Free Flint.

00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.919
I appreciate the fact that you took time to listen to this podcast.

00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:00.879
Thank you.

Joe Ryan III: From Flint to Hollywood — The Sound of a New Generation

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