Randal Wyatt is a Portland native who grew up in both southeast and northeast Portland, OR where he witnessed gentrification transpire firsthand and was directly impacted by it. As a biracial Black man, he struggled with identity until he discovered a love for hip hop and a talent for emceeing and songwriting.

He continues to use hip hop as a platform to voice his experiences and world views and has gained quite a following in the Pacific Northwest over the last 20 plus years, performing around the Northwest and West coast with his band Speaker Minds and as a solo artist. Early in his adulthood he learned that it is not enough to talk about injustices and that one must be active in their community to try and combat these issues.

He has organized several programs over the course of 20 years ranging from workshops that teach youth about hip hop culture while giving them access to studios and venues, to coordinating a measure 11 education curriculum and reform/repeal effort. His philanthropic efforts through hip hop also landed him a 10-year career as a counselor, mentor, advocate, and community engagement specialist for youth from marginalized communities.

Taking Ownership and PDX Housing Solidarity Project are his latest projects to aid the Black community in a city that has historically and continually displaced and ignored their needs. Taking Ownership provides reparations in the form or free repairs and financial assistance for Black homeowners and small business owners. PDX Housing Solidarity Project was born from a reparations-based homebuying transaction involving him and an ally that resulted in him acquiring a large sum of equity.

Him and the seller organized a platform for privileged allies to donate funds and resources to aspiring Black and Indigenous first-time homebuyers. He received his bachelor’s degree in social science with a double minor in Black Studies and Sociology from Portland State University, graduating summa cum laud in 2021, stating that the knowledge he gained in those studies helped him create the reparation and community-based platforms that serve the Black community he loves in Portland.

His work has got him recognized as a Hometown Hero by the Portland Trail Blazers, Excellences Award from Living Room Realty, he received the Community Builders and Trailblazer Award from Portland Hip-Hop Week for setting the bar and being an example for Hip Hop to thrive, and his organization’s work is being highlighted in an expansion exhibit at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN.