Daily Inspiration: Meet Wyann Vaughn

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wyann Vaughn.

Hi Wyann, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My story starts before me: I’m the legacy of the Grammy award winning group The Emotions, most famously known for its work with Earth Wind & Fire for songs like “Best of My Love,” “Don’t Ask My Neighbors,” and “Boogie Wonderland.” My father co-wrote “Let’s Groove” for Earth Wind & Fire alongside my mother. I come from a lineage of music and love.

I grew up in Glendale, CA; fun fact: The Vaughns are the longest living Black family in Glendale’s history. When I graduated from Glendale High, the Glendale News Press wrote a story up on me and my family; that’s when I discovered that fun fact. I had educators that genuinely saw me in Glendale Unified. My 5th grade teacher, Ms. Geib, gifted me not only my first pet—a cockatiel named Freckles—but also a biography of Sojourner Truth with specific instruction for me to learn her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. Ms. Holly Linam encouraged me to write about my heroine at the time, Rosa Parks, and—because of that essay—I spent Ms. Parks’s 81st birthday with her; that’s was my first time being in the Glendale News Press. My 11th grade AP English teacher, Ms. Stephanie Sajjadieh, affirmed the poet in me at 16 that I am today. Her belief in me is one of the hallmarks of my educational career that gave way to my professional career in music as well.

My first musical placement mixed poetry and singing on Terrace Martin’s 2013 debut release, 3 Chord Fold. I narrated the album with poetry while featuring as a singer and songwriter on the project. Our collaboration would eventually lead to me participating in the making of Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, Maad City (GKMC) and the groundbreaking To Pimp A Butterfly (TPAB). My contributions to GKMC failed to make the album; however, my sonic fingerprints peppered the latter songs of TPAB: The final 90 seconds of the album feature Terrace on saxophone, Kendrick reciting a poem and my somber vocals sealing the story Lamar tells in his sophomore masterpiece.

In addition to work with Terrace Martin and Kendrick Lamar, I would be featured on YG’s 2014 “My Krazy Life” album, Dr. Dre’s “Compton” soundtrack that accompanied the NWA biopic (2015) and eventually lead to my songwriting Grammy nomination for songwriting work on Rapsody’s inaugural release on RocNation, “Laila’s Wisdom,” in 2017. From the work of 3 Chord Fold, one of my poems went on a song by another legacy baby, Focus… or Bernard Edwards Jr., son on Bernard Edwards: Bass player for the 70’s hit group Chic. Because of the legacy of music and love from which I herald, I see Focus, Terrace and many others in the industry like family. I learned Focus was in town at the end of 2014’s summer and asked to visit him in celebration of how amazingly we sounded on Terrace’s project a year prior: Little did I know that I would leave that same studio as a co-host of Dr. Dre’s podcast/radio show run on Apple Music.

The Pharmacy ran from 2015-2018 and were the best years of my life. I met and became friends with my hip hop heroes including Xzibit, DJ Premier, DJ Pooh (Friday’s co-writer/director, Grand Theft Auto co-producer) and a host of others. During all the advancement of my entertainment career, I continued my love for education by earning my Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) from Long Beach State University, earning several teaching credentials with the state of California, and fostering an eventual 20+ year teaching career including professing at Pasadena City College and currently teaching Hip Hop Music & Culture at the University of Southern California (USC). Because of this meshing of worlds, I proudly refer to myself as an Edutainer.

I therpeutically edutain on my podcast, Raise It Up, Wy! ®, where I highlight the positive sides of hip hop culture as well as teach members of the hip hop community about self-worth. My podcast supporters, Luv Culture™, meet weekly via social media on my livestreams called Luv Lounges and since July 13, 2023; we meet once a year at LuvLoungeLiveLA, live podcast events that have been held everywhere from South Bay to Glendale. I consider my platforms to be safe spaces, not comfort zones: We have real, honest conversations that foster connection and build community as a practical answer to the worldwide epidemic of loneliness by helping build a sense of belonging within hip hop culture.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Ooo…the struggles along the way have been deeply personal. I graduated with my master’s degree at age 30. Simultaneously, the nearly 10 year teaching position as a parent educator and math instructor for Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD’s) Adult Education program laid a quarter of a million employees off; both my sister and I were caught up in that abrupt ending. Eventually I found Pasadena City College and the work with Dr. Dre made life feel like a dream. After The Pharmacy with Dr. Dre on Apple Music ended, though, I experienced that familiar mixture of depression and imposter syndrome I had when I was laid off from LAUSD. Still professing at Pasadena City College, I always looped in lessons from hip hop culture and lyrics into my classes on personal growth and self-development. Eventually, my student athletes encouraged me to start my own podcast and I would, again, have to face my fears of self-worth and believing I was “good enough” to carry a show of my own ON my own.

What I love about my relationship to fear is that I respect it as information; however, I never allow it to dictate my moves. I began promoting my podcast December 2018 and aired its first show January 31, 2019. Only eight weeks later would West Coast entrepreneur and rapper Nipsey Hussle meet his demise and take his victory lap (pun intended, IYKYK) around this great city. I recall the episode my baby brother, Waren Vaughn (owner and founder of WaVa probiotic foods and drinks) and I had where we discussed what legacy, music and following your dreams as “the marathon continues” looks like in the wake of unanticipated calamity. Something about Nipsey’s Victory Lap being his first studio album in his partnership with Atlantic Records unlocked the inspiration for me to drop my first music single on my podcast.

Sometimes it takes heartbreak to break your heart open to allow a depth of self-love in that you never knew was possible. I had self-published poetry books and released music—had even become my own Grammy nominated artist/songwriter and, still, something inside continued to tell me it wasn’t enough—no, that I wasn’t enough. Following a failed engagement in 2025, I took to exploring where that critic was within. I learned that believing I was not enough was not my own thought but lessons I internalized from a set of parents who believed their best days were behind them and who dealt with a great deal of heartbreak they never processed. Overcoming the regrets, fears, mistakes, and resentments of heartbroken lovers would be the final lesson in letting go that I would need in order to grab God’s purpose for my life with both hands.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Wyann Vaughn is a therapeutic edutainer: I live in the overlap of therapeutic training, education and entertainment. I specialize in connecting people, helping folks foster a sense of belonging in social environments and being a beacon of joy. I am known for my singing work in Hip Hop, being a 20+ year member of my mother’s legendary group The Emotions, and going baby viral for my Instagram lifestyle and podcast content.

I feel most proud of Luv Culture ™ and Raise It Up, Wy! ® the podcast: It’s one thing to have a platform; it’s a whole OTHER thing when people find it so meaningful they show up, remain present, and support kind activities within the Luv Culture Community that keep it a self funded social group on and off the World Wide Web. I also feel highly proud of my poetry books, 13 and Write Out, as well as my e-book, “A Woman Winnin’ in the West: 13 lessons on how to have legacy as a woman in the music industry” (2025). My podcast and books are all forms of media that are unique to me, a way to begin my own legacy within a family of legacy.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I’d like to leave readers with one last word of encouragement:

Sometimes, you’ll be the lone creative in your family or social environment. You will undergo a journey that looks unlike anyone’s around you. You will feel scared, discouraged, highly doubtful and—at times—outright crazy. In those times, I encourage two practical remedies. One, know that while you are a creative, you are also an adult or becoming one. Self-sufficiency is a requirement to enjoy self-reliance which gives way to self-confidence. There is absolutely no shame in taking on a practical job while you wade in the pond of your dreams. It’s how you get to call your own shots and create authentically. When you find your footing in your dream, you’ll know when to let go of your practical gig. You’ll feel it. Trust yourself.

The second piece of encouragement I have for you is to insulate yourself in a group of like-minded folks who care to see your vision. Prayerfully, these are folks you’ll even call “friends.” There is nothing more important than being around people who at least try to “get” you. Your first album sale will probably come from a stranger; the first naysayer you’ll experience will likely share your DNA. There is absolutely no problem with any of this; radically accept what is and keep going. Keep creating. Keep learning, loving and living. Be WITH yourself when you’re BY yourself; your community and you will resonate that way. Y’all will find one another.

Let absolutely nothing be your excuse. Let absolutely everything be your reason.

You are love. And you are loved.

That’s the absolute truth. I’m rooting for you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wyannvaughn.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raiseitupwy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wyannvaughn
• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@wyanna
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@wyannvaughnchannel
• Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/wyann-vaughn/359342439
• Other: https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-woman-winnin-in-the-west/id6740836934

Image Credits
Ewnet Zeleke, Samantha J, Janoc Vance, Chris Cadenhead