The Progress Report is a female-led media platform that consists of hosts, Lalaa Shepard, Boss Britt, and DJ Exel.
With their media segments “Skipping Class,” “Blast or Trash Car Rides,” and “Lunch Table Talk,” the hosts strive to educate and entertain through music and culture.
The media group shared their thoughts on the current state of media.
What made you want to start The Progress Report?
Lalaa Shepard: The Progress Report came about at a dark place in my life, and was the thing that just happened. It was God’s calling … it was just the thing that made sense. It was a need because I didn’t hear too many people with this type of background, Black females telling a journalist’s perspective. It was just a need and it was just God. It just made sense and it just all came together.
What do you all think about the media industry right now?
Boss Britt: There’s a ton of info out there, and it’s kind of scary because we live in an age where you can put up a 30-second clip, and people just run with it and not even show what happened before or what happened after, and now everybody is just stuck on this one narrative. It’s a little scary how the narrative gets kind of twisted and turned.
I think a lot of platforms are mostly clickbait types of platforms that just want to talk about a lot of messy stuff, which is why I like that we focus on progressive things. You’re not going to see that on our page. It’s a lot of information out there, but people have to be cautious of what they’re taking in and make sure they’re doing their research.
Who is your audience?
DJ Exel: First of all, we are in one of the major cities that everybody comes through, so that’s a niche within itself. Outside of that, Lala does PR. Britt and I are out in these clubs, booking these artists, and we have relationships with them. We’re not just on YouTube and doing interviews, but we’re outside. We pull up to these events. A lot of topics we talk about, we kind of know it personally or feel the energy. Even with Thug’s stuff, we feel the energy in Atlanta. I would say one of the biggest things is we’re doing this. I’m a DJ, Britt is a host, and Lalaa does PR so this music thing is real to us. We lived this for over a decade each, so that’s big for us.
