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Lamenuel Scales has always been up in everybody’s business.
“My nickname as a kid was Johnny the Newsboy, so what’s the f**ing chances of me being Hood News now?” Scales told CityBeat.
Long before his viral success skyrocketed him into social media influencer status with his Hood News 75 Instagram account and his Hilarious Scales Facebook page (it has a combined following of more than 310,000 fans), Scales was a boy with a big dream, growing up on the streets of downtown Cincinnati.
“Originally, I wanted to be a firefighter,” he said.
At age 12, Scales started hanging around Cincinnati Fire Department Company 3 across from the Hamilton County Justice Center. One day, a firefighter gave him his first scanner, which allowed him to listen to emergency radio traffic between first responders and dispatchers — it was a day that changed everything.
“I got a bike, and I was f***ing trying to beat them to scenes,” he said. “I was amazed … years later, here we are.”
And with that, Hood News 75 was born.
In the early days, Scales’ content focused around where he lived with his family in Clermont County, but he ventured back to his original stomping grounds in downtown Cincinnati.
Last year, he posted a video of himself reporting while literally standing in the Ohio River, which went “f***ing crazy.”
(Scales says “f**k” a lot.)
Now he’s always looking to top himself.
From wandering around in the woods in his underwear to splashing around a puddle outside of his home in the middle of a thunderstorm to hanging out with Afroman while he smokes a blunt, Scales’ raunchy comedy is designed to be crazy, yet relatable.
“The world is so stressful and crazy,” Scales said. “I don’t want to hear about somebody dying every day … I want to hear about the fun things,” he said. “I want to see the dude in his underwear or wearing a boot… down at the Bengals stadium talking about Lord knows what.”
Scales doesn’t shy away from getting serious when he needs to be. He’ll cover shootings, house fires and other incidents around the region. He said this balance has helped set himself apart from traditional media and even other content creators.
“It makes you nervous when you see people that are supposed to be so calm when crazy shit is going on,” he said. “If you’re freaking out, I’m freaking out. I think people just appreciate the realness.”
Scales prides himself on providing his fans an “unfiltered news source.”
“Content creators is the move,” he said. “(We’re) reaching more people than actual media companies.”
He said that’s the key to his success. At the end of the day, everyone is human and having normal human reactions to events (good or bad) resonates with people.
“I got suburban people, country people, trailer park, people in the hood … all this,” Scales said. “They want to hear straight from the truth. Straight in the streets.”
His fans adore him and he gives that love right back.
“The people are good to me, so I’m good to the people,” he said. “That’s why I’m here, 100%, I love my city.”
After filming content with a Reds player, he’s just as likely to show up at your weekend barbecue. All you have to do is ask.
“I’ll pop up on you,” he said. “That’s what it’s about for me. Just enjoying the people because at the end of the day, that’s where it starts.”
His realness has also helped him gain the respect of local first responders. In the beginning, they didn’t take him seriously, but now, he’s getting more facetime with law enforcement than even TV news reporters, he said.
“That’s huge,” he added.
Scales doesn’t have a team of producers running around trying to make things happen. Hood News 75 is DIY. Sometimes his family helps out, but usually it’s him, his $20 tripod from Walmart and whatever crazy shit happens at any given moment on the streets of Cincinnati.
“If I’m not doing it, somebody else gonna be doing it,” he said. “And I ain’t gonna let nobody outdo me.”
As he’s grown, he also has had to learn how to handle the business side of the influencer industry.
“I send out my own emails, I do my own invoices, I communicate with companies and hold my ground,” he said.
He’s his own boss and that’s never going to change.
“I go out when I want to go out,” Scales said. “I didn’t think that just being myself with a microphone would open up so many doors and have so many opportunities.”
Despite not being able to go grocery shopping without someone asking for his picture, Scales said he’s just getting started with his unique brand of comedic journalism.
He wants to turn Hood News into a nationally recognizable brand.
“It can be way bigger than I imagined,” he said. “We’re gonna take Hood News to a different level.”
If there’s a hurricane in Florida or a wildfire in California, he wants to be there.
To make this happen, he’s putting his business hat on to start identifying how he can financially take things to the next level. Whether it’s a brand deal or a corporate sponsorship, he’s open to negotiating.
“A big misconception is they think that it’s about the clicks and likes,” he said. “It’s just being about a good person.”
In the meantime, he plans on hanging his 2026 Best of Cincinnati award in his man cave as a reminder to keep hustling, even when it’s hard.
“It’s been a blessing,” he said.
This article appears in Best of Cincinnati 2026.
