EXCLUSIVE: Duke Grad Mike Posner Recorded 'Cooler Than Me' On A Dell Laptop

Turns out new artists Mike Posner and Iyaz have a couple things in common. Both attended four-year schools here in the States. And both used Dell laptops to record vocals and launch their respective careers.

“But it sounds crispy, doesn’t it?” Posner asked on Tuesday, referring to the track “Cooler Than Me.’ Oh yeah, both artists have also joined “The Ralphie Radio Show” as a guest. And yes, “crispy, “clean”, “clear”, you could insert a number of adjectives to describe how good it sounds all considering. Posner wrote and recorded the track in his Duke University dorm room, inspired by the women he encountered at the school.

“I can’t tell you like after the song came out like how many girls from my past came out of the woodwork and were like ‘I know this song is about me,’” recalled the emcee. “It’s like, ‘Ugh, you’re so vain. It’s not about you. But, now that you’re saying that, it kinda is.’”

Despite his disdain for some of the women on campus, Posner credits the Blue Devil student body’s support in launching his career to its current point. And although he wouldn’t divulge on the existence of any form of hazing, the artist even admits that his fraternity, Sigma Nu, also played a big role.
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Download the interview

Mike Posner is poised to explode on to the scene with his mixtape anthem, "Cooler Than Me" - an ode to the types of women he typically encountered on the campus of Duke University. The Duke graduate also spoke on the school's basketball championship and his forthcoming appearance on this year's Vans Warped Tour.

Download Posner's mixtapes for free at mikeposner.com.
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“I told my brothers to help me spread (my music),” he said. “Within’ a matter of months, the people in my fraternity had helped me create a nationwide fan base and now, I’m living my dreams because of them.”

Matter of fact, Posner is so busy that he can’t even find the time to collaborate with the likes of Flo-Rida and T.I. for the rappers’ respective forthcoming albums. The Michigan-born artist is currently working on his debut LP. He wouldn’t release the title to “The RRS” but did reveal that he's looking at a September release and that there would be no features with other artists.

“All Posner, all hits!” he joked. “I don’t need to trick people in to liking my stuff.”

Certainly a unique perspective, but then again – how many emcees do you know entering the game with a degree from Duke?

DAILY DOWNLOAD: Asher Roth!

02.24.09 : Asher Roth - I Love College
Roth Calls The Ralphie Radio Show!
PA/NY Winters, Inspiration For The Song

Forthcoming LP, Asleep In The Bread Aisle

EXCLUSIVE: T.I. INTERVIEW

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T.I. discusses "Entourage" - "Paper Trail" - plans for Christmas and 2009 on 97 BHT - A Ralphie Radio Show Exclusive.


Click Here To Purchase Tickets To The Show.

My weekend jaunt to The Cuse...

Yes, the Facebook album is here.

Donovan McNabb does Syracuse wrong...

This guy is the QB for the Eagles - a Syracuse University alum (and Board of Trustees member) - and he doesn't know a NFL regular season football game can end in a tie?

BTW, in a playoff or Super Bowl game, the teams play as many OTs as it takes to decide a winner. C'mon man...

EXCLUSIVE: boys like girls...

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97 BHT's Ralphie Aversa chats with Boys Like Girls inside The Woodlands about "Thunder", hair-straightening, partying, and touring! The event was powered by All About Singles & Columbia Records!

Or Watch The Interview Below!

travis mccoy of gym class heroes interview...

Travis McCoy opens up to 97 BHT's Ralphie about - everything! Hear Travie talk about everything from his girlfriend (Katy Perry), to tattoos, the new LP, and kicking his substance abuse problem.

uneventful end to eventful weekend.

oh the irony - after two drama-less weekends with dramatic finishes, i pour in the action this weekend, only to look into the work week with possibly a full night's sleep, and no tasks to complete on monday.

at least nothing related to my job. i do have that hair appt. at 1.

a couple sundays ago, i hailed cabs and hopped on trains headed uptown, downtown - met friends, drank beverages, and enjoyed an unexpected galavant throughout most of new york city. i spent the night/early morning writing the ralphie report from the second floor of mcdonald's in times square and sending it out from the starbucks inside penn station - a walk from times square to madison square garden sandwiched in between the events.

last week i drove from lake geo... err... bolton landing, ny to wilkes-barre, with a pitstop turned day long jaunt in syracuse. visited family, former coworkers, and friends on the su hill. i also devoured my first chocolate milkshake of the season, ordered and later enjoyed some real chicken wings from my favorite college bar, and drowned myself in caffeine.

and today? attended church, cooked homemade sauce/pasta, cleaned my apartment, and watched my yankees lose in boston.

if only the weekend mirrored the previous two. and it almost did - until last night just after 1a.

kev the rev and i held down the woods on friday. the next night, i found myself inside colosseum night club. the fact that in a weekend i am paid to host parties in both of the aforementioned venues still reminds me to be thankful for my occupation.

anywho - saturday night could not have gone better - until. it's 1a, and i head to the bar to grab drinks for friends. on my way back, i fell victim to a lack of traction on my chuck taylor's and a slippery dance floor. i took a spill in the middle of denny tsettos's set, saving the drinks in the process.

this is where my night hits the apex and begins to end.

as i regain posture, i feel a tug to my right. suddenly - a flash and an unfamiliar burst of pressure flushes my face.

a girl i accidently ran in to decided that i deserved a knuckle sandwich for my innocent tumble. she landed a roundhouse square on my cheek bone.

thankfully, rob dale of colosseum night club witnessed the entire course of events. before i could even think of responding, the overzealous dancer found her night finished, on outside looking in from adams. big big thank you to the security staff at colosseum - true professionals - and i'd expect nothing less from that place. have you been? not only does everyone RAVE about it - but i have yet to hear a complaint.

i think nothing of it, a mix of a beer and adrenline preventing any feeling from entering my body. let's not forget, i still had drinks to distribute.

after handing out the last beer, tony from the street team informs me that all is not over. apparently, i'm gushing blood from my cheek.

a half roll of paper towels and 20 minutes later, the blood ceases and i move about my way, to my car, and back to wilkes barre.

after all, i had a busy sunday to prepare for.

so i went to syracuse two weekends ago...

every year, a number of radio geeks decend upon the SU hill for the annual wjpz alumni banquet. it's an all around great time - you catch up with old friends, network, catch an orange basketball game, and drink.

yes, and you drink... did i mention drink?

seriously though, this year would be my fifth banquet, and the one looked forward to since sophomore year, as this is the first time i would attend banquet as both a z89 and su alum. my second through fourth banquets were filled with a minimal amount of awkwardness because i had only completed one year of Z, with hot 107-9 stealing me away at the beginning of my second year at syracuse.

in addition, this would be the first alumni event that a date would accompany me for - of course, my girlfriend angela.

the day started on a down note. ang and i were slow to arrive at the carrier dome for the orange's noon-time start against pitt. and then, well we all know how that ended.

but things started to improve before i even left the dome. i ran into my uber-mentor, dr. wright, as well as good friend, popular newhouse alum, and espn broadcaster sean mcdonough.

after a quick walk back to the sheraton, the gf hit the sheets to catch up on shuteye. i met up with my friend julie from atlantic records and her friend ty, and walked over to the z89 studios, located in the comfortable confines of watson hall.

i thought i had it good as a freshman... these kids have the most high-tech equipment out there. the z89 studios are much more advanced than the bht world headquarters, from the digital boards and software to the three sony video cameras, complete with remote controls and an lcd monitoring board.

just sounds sick, right?

after hopping on the air for literally, a hot second, julie and i walked over to chuck's, where i was greeted with a number of familiar employee faces, a number of fellow disappointed orange fans, and thankfully, a number of draft beers available via pitchers.

of course, i can't forget former college roommate sam, now living in washington d-sizzle. seriously, this story would be way cooler without that game that just happened an hour ago.

after a three-hour frosted beverage marathon, with a halftime appearance by the notorious hawaiian ryan, we headed back to the sheraton. afterall, i did have a 7pm alumni banquet to attend.

more drinking, catching up with friends, awful food... i mean, GREAT food.... a little more drinking... a right-on-key keynote address from z alum and new york sports talk show host craig carton (despite his blatent diss of buffalo women, while i sat there with my girlfriend).

don't say i didn't take full advantage of the fact that i had returned to my old stomping grounds, with no where to drive and a hotel room.

okay, the rest of the night entailed a trip to senior-bar faegans, a return to chuck's, and a final stop, via limo, to an afterparty that had more or less emptied out. so, let's just fast forward to 11a on sunday, when i woke up, sans the hangover.

ang and i met patrice (now a sophomore, responsible for those msnbc segments) downstairs at rachel's for brunch. of course, i'd be remiss if i traveled to central new york and didn't visit with my aunt and cousins in liverpool. finally, almost everything we set out for accomplished, we hit the road.

as you may or may not be able to tell, i enjoyed my trip back to syracuse. i carried more good than bad memories away from the three-one-five after four years on the grind there. when you invest so much - monetarily, physically, emotionally - in one place, it's hard to forget and easy to look back and reminisce on the times that were.

that is of course, those times that you can remember.

holy crazy 24 hours hillary clinton!

well let me tell you - i've learned so much about presidential elections, how our country works, the media, and northeast pa in the past day.

and technically, my day is far from over.

i'll proceed to update the blog with some missing photos/stories from the past two weekends, spent in syracuse and harrisburg respectively. then, i'll flood you with a copious amount of content from yesterday's rally inside scranton high school with senator and presidential hopeful hillary clinton.

hang tight.

kickin' it old school...

dr. roosevelt "rick" wright is a mentor of mine.

i met the professor of television, radio, and film in the beginning of my freshman year at syracuse university. after attending the newhouse school of public communications convocation, i soon realized that if you wanted to learn radio, you wanted to befriend dr. wright. after all, he's the only professor currently working in commercial radio, hosting a sunday afternoon show on WPHR-FM - Power 106.9.

he helped me get my foot in the door, literally, at clear channel radio in syracuse, ny. the advice and insight he's shared with me, both on a personal and professional level, are priceless.

i couldn't have asked for a better person to lead me through the successes and failures, as well as the trials and tribulations of starting a career in broadcasting.

on sunday, dr. wright uncharacteristically did not arrive at the clear channel syracuse studios on time for his 1PM show. coworkers, friends, and family tried to contact him, but to no avail, no one knew where the doc was.

turns out, dr. wright had enlisted the help of medical doctors. after slipping and falling on a brick walkway outside of the building, doc suffered an asthma attack. he crawled to his car, climbed inside, and drove himself to a hospital.

after being released from the medical center, dr. wright drove back to clear channel. expecting many guests during his show, as well as questions from a worried staff, the good doctor wanted to make sure all loose ends were tied up, as if expected to tie those ends immediately after his release.

although shocking and unfortunate, this story isn't surprising to those who are close with dr. wright. he loves radio, and he loves people. furthermore, doc's will and fortitude have been tried and tested on many occasions. he's a retired navy captain, and was the first african-american professor hired to the newhouse staff.

thankfully, dr. wright is okay and now resting comfortably. i'm gratefulness to God that no further physical harm was caused by the accident. and i'm reminded how strong the person i leaned on the most during college is, both figuratively and literally.

(below are two segments i hosted with dr. wright since leaving syracuse for nepa).

fat tuesday proves rather skinny...

why dance around it - northeast pa simply didn't live up to my expectations on mardi gras.

i thought about it last night towards the conclusion of my show - many colleges, nice weather, no midterms/exams... this should shape up to be an intriguing night.

the show ended just shy of midnight. i jetted home, grabbed a bud light from the fridge, gathered up beads from a club gig in syracuse, and waited for marino to swing through. due to the proximity of our first destination from my apartment, he became the night's driver by default.

and the beads were just for show - these things were two years old. our first and back-up plans consisted of bars, and i'm taken. so clearly, even if i did part with any plastic necklaces, i wouldn't have made any girls "work" for them (typing that made me feel dirty).

marino though... well, why would i speak for him?

beer boys it was. best college bar for two years straight in the weekender. right by king's. your classic beer-serving establishment.

my introduction to the dive wasn't flattering. we were one and done from bb.

although, the staircase to the immediate left of the entrance and the trap door inside the small, enclosed bar were quite amusing.


i think a bunch of rowdy college drunks could turn the spot into a fun time - and i look forward to a possible return on a friday or saturday. but fat supa dupa tuesday night just wasn't meant for beer boys.

next stop: friday's. the back-up plan. the go-to-bar in the wilkes-burr. and it was dese. made it in time for half price apps - and after a couple order of boneless buffalo wings, extra crispy - paired with a game of beer pong on the video touchscreen - we deemed the night a "non-failure."

but eventful? far from it. maybe i should've taken advantage of those fat tuesdays i spent on the su hill...

espn's chris berman: uncensored.

i am a chris berman fan. his brother, len, is a fellow syracuse university/waer alum.

still, this is hilarious.

alma mater debauchery

headed to syracuse university saturday night to meet up with fellow alumni of the college station - wjpz - as well as visit a few of my favorite drinking establishments and catch up with other old friends. check out the pics below - big shoutouts to jag, bosse, s-1, and jus mic!

new beginnings and a fresh start.

at syracuse university, it took me a while.

the first two years, i would travel home for it, sometimes it being the only reason i sped down i-90 in my maroon '99 ford contour. no change, just a little extra driving. nothing i couldn't handle.

but as my time away from niagara falls increased, so did my need to move on. so i did - and was happy for about a year.

but then the style changed, and so i began experimenting.

i'll pause the story and quickly fill you in on the context of "it"... a haircut.

okay play. as i grew my "fohawk" - all was well at the shoppingtown barbershop, the closest thing i had to ross and joe c. back in the falls, on and just off of pine ave. respectively. the whole set-up certainly was a sight to be had... just imagine eight italian barbers of three generations, all wearing matching shirts with their name embroidered above the pocket sleve. tony, vinny, anthony jr., sal, frank... you get the idea. the walls plastered in sports memorabilia - commemorating everything from the yankees 26 world championships to the lemoyne dolphins dII national lacrosse titles.

i called this shop mine from the end of my sophomore year to the beginning of the senior campaign.

the "fohawk" broke new ground for me, uncharted territories if you will. never had i ever invested more time and thought into my thick, black, curly hair. things were cool for a while - some of you liked it, some of you did not.

but then it got out of control. looking back on pictures - i should've realized sooner that it was time for a change. the curls were unmanageable. the hawk turned into a pile of onion curls. for a lack of a better term - it became ridiculous.

and you can't have ridiculous hair on your national tv debut.

so i head to shoppingtown in search of a trim that will take my "do" back to a respectable level. with my vast experience in receiving haircuts, i account for the time it will take for my hair to grow back to normal after the cut, as well as my itinerary and the schedule of the shop.

a week in advance it was. for once in my life, i planned something ahead of time and executed. and in a round-about way, it paid off - although not in the fashion i anticipated.

see, vinny, sal... whichever barber's number i drew that day... he did not understand how a fohawk works. or atleast how mine shaped. for example, even though i spike the top, all the sides are cut close-to-even, so that when the hawk "erects" - it doesn't look disproportional to the rest of my head.

yeah i just typed that.

furthermore, there is no "fade" on a fohawk. again, steady and even all the way around. including the back.

as i walked out of the mall, i feared for the worst, because the past twenty minutes had not once touched on steady or even. my hair was a mess, and i needed to look my sharpest for the biggest career moment to that date.

but thankfully my hair dilemna was a blessing in disguise. it forced me to buzz off my hair - which certainly made me more presentable as i reported on a student matricide case with rita cosby during a msnbc news block.

furthermore, it led me to find renee, who up until i left for wilkes-barre, was my stylist. reasonably priced, nice person, knew how to cut my hair - AND introduced me to the paste i now use, which helps to guard against the "ridiculous" and "onion curls" that my hair once encompassed.

there is a third reason why this all worked for the better. it involves mtv and an interview i had with them. but as my old professor dr. rick wright would say, "that's another story."

now on to the rest of this one - once again i'm in a new town, and once again i have to find someone who can cut the fohawk. unfortunately attempt number one ended up a disaster. so, now via self-portrait, please welcome the ralphie you will see for the next 45 to 60 days...