Trying to nail down ,Quincy Harris, aka Qdeezy, for an interview is pretty much like herding cats, as this Philly born (Germantown) media personality doesn’t stay in one spot for long. Harris, now on the board of directors for Legacy of Hope, is a man on the move; and in addition to being a sponsored athlete for the 2022 Love Run Half Marathon, he has a lot of irons in the fire, thanks to parlaying his Temple University education into a career that branches into not only radio, television, and movies, but also into production, marketing, podcasting, community empowerment and youth mentoring.
Over the past two decades Harris has had radio and tv shows from coast to coast; he even juggled the two for awhile. His current efforts are more focused on his production company, Germantown Entertainment, and his podcast (FAQ Podcast with co-host Fuzzy). When he’s not busy interviewing JayZ, Kevin Hart, M. Night Shyamalan, Killer Mike, Young Guru, or Quest Love (among countless others) one thing he’s all-in on is mentoring young people in the African-American community. One way he does that is through Legacy of Hope’s mentorship program. Quincy has been instrumental in helping Mike Rowe develop this program, which is now in three schools: West OakLane Charter School and Global Leadership Academy Southwest & West. The program exposes students to workshops in entrepreneurship, leadership, finance, communication, and coding.
“A lot of things have happened for me because I’m in media, so as an older African-American male I have these connections that allow me the space to play in any area I can think of. When Mike approached me about starting the mentorship program I told him: the thing that young African-Americans need is a chance; they need to be exposed to things other than ‘Hey I wanna be an athlete or a rapper.’ You know? They need the tools, which most of the time is about relationships.”
Quincy’s desire to give back isn’t limited to community building. He has participated in in various Legacy of Hope events over the past few years. His connection to Legacy of Hope actually stems from the Love Run. In March of 2019, late in the afternoon the day before the Love Run, he got a call from Christian Crosby, the Philadelphia 76ers’ in-arena host: “Hey Q we’re doing a run tomorrow, it’s the Love Run; it’s like a 5k.….”
I said, “Oh, you’re running the 5k?!?”
“Actually…we’re running the half marathon.”
I said “Oh, okay………and then Christian, whose company (,Live Life Nice) had collaborated with Legacy of Hope, gave me the details about all the ways Legacy helps cancer patients. That cause is near and dear to me because my mom died of lung cancer in March 2017. In fact, she died almost two years to the day that Christian called. So when he asked, I was like Anything that supports cancer patients, I’m in. If you guys are doing a half marathon, I’m doing a half marathon—to be able to honor my mom, and honor people who go through cancer because they’re such warriors.”
The thing is: neither Christian nor Quincy had trained for a half marathon! Be sure to note: running 13.1 miles in one shot (with no training) has a funny way of letting you know that you should have prepared. Fortunately for Harris, he wasn’t starting from zero, as he typically runs about 15-18 miles a week; apparently that was enough, because he bested both Christian and Mike on race day. And thus was born a rivalry of [almost] epic proportions. Fast forward to March 2022; the gloves are off and the [good, clean] trash talking has commenced.
Quincy explains “What Mike doesn’t want to admit is that I beat him and Christian in the half marathon with less than a day of preparation!” Mike sees things slightly differently, stating “I let Q win that day. We’ll sort out the real champ this year.”
Ever since 2019, whenever these two get together, neither misses an opportunity to throw a little shade about the other’s lack of running abilities. So this year’s Love Run holds a little bonus excitement as Quincy and Mike duke it out for bragging rights.
Quincy elaborates further about his “competition” with Mike “It’s almost like the rivalry between a little brother and a big brother. Like, the big brother doesn’t even know there’s a rivalry because he always wins. He doesn’t know the little brother is practicing all the time, has his picture up on the wall with a target on it; I see him out there on social media with the running groups and taking pictures. ‘Oooh look, I ran 15 miles’ I’m just like “Okay.” But Mike wants to push; so I would just say that if he does win he probably would be sleeping, because it’s a dream!”
Support Quincy in the Love Run at ,Quincy’s fundraiser page. For a “front row seat” to Mike and Quincy’s banter you can register to run alongside them in the Love Run at Philly Runs Free; you run for free if you raise $250 for Legacy of Hope.
If you’d like to up the ante—and stir up the rivalry pot—you can buy a $10 prediction on whether Mike or Quincy will win, including their finish times. This is a 50/50 raffle, so if you’d like, you can purchase multiple $10 predictions on the winner/finish time. Be sure to include the name and time (including hours:minutes:seconds), in the notes section of each submission, e.g., Quincy Harris/1:45:36. The person who correctly predicts the winner, and is closest to the actual finish time will take home 50% of the funds generated by this trash-talking duo’s rivalry. Purchase your predictions via PayPal: admin@legacyofhope.life or Venmo: @LegacyofHope