Raysean and Rich Autry of Ohio were born one minute apart in 1987 and they were nearly inseparable over the next 35 years. They roomed together in college, founded a media company, and launched the hip-hop website Kollege Kidd. They produced films and TV pilots and marketed music artists. And they had bigger than big plans for ever more projects.
“I believe we’re here to stay,” Raysean said in a video he made with Rich when they were starting out in 2009.
But something the co-founders of this fledgling empire did not do was get vaccinated for COVID. And their grand ambitions were then challenged by a microscopic virus when they both tested positive in early December.
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Both brothers experienced symptoms. The folks at urgent care told Rich just to quarantine and he tried to weather it just as he would a touch of the flu.
“I thought it was something I could sleep off,” he later told The Daily Beast. “I was drinking like smoothies with ginger and garlic… and I was sleeping all day.”
But after three days, his usual homemade remedy was not working.
“I knew it was serious because I was getting weaker by the day,” he said.
On Dec. 12, the twins’ mother, Sandra, convinced Rich to go to the emergency room of a Toledo Hospital. Rich did not yet know his twin was sick when their mother persuaded Raysean to go to the ER two days later.
“I was already admitted,” Rich recalled. “I was in the hospital bed with an oxygen mask.”
Raysean was also admitted, but the twins were unable to see each other due to COVID protocols. Raysean has always been the stronger, more stoic twin. He remained calm as the twins texted each other.
“I was panic-texting,” Rich recalled. “I was like, ‘Ray, they going to stick a tube down my neck, they going to sedate me…They said my condition’s getting worse by the minute.’”
Raysean remained Raysean.
“Ray was like, ‘For real?’” Rich recalled. “I said, ‘What are you doing?’ Ray said, ‘I’m just chilling with an oxygen mask.’”
He added, “If Ray was panicking too, that would’ve made me panic more. He remained calm so as not to panic me more.”
“I had a trach in my neck,” he recalled “I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk. I could barely lift my hands… I felt like I woke up in hell.”
He berated himself for being what seems proof he was the weak twin.
“I was like beating myself that I couldn't barely handle COVID,’” he remembered.
He figured that Raysean, as the tough twin, must have already been discharged.
“I said, Ray’s at home working on KK (Kollege Kidd) with his daughter,” he recalled. “I’m here with a tube down my throat.’”
Rich was unaware that Raysean had also been intubated in the ICU. Their mother had fallen ill with the virus, but had managed to fight it off and she further demonstrated her uncommon strength as she did all she could for her twins.
“She said it was hell,” Rich recalled. “She said it was the most traumatic experience she ever witnessed in her life. Just having to go from room to room to where my brother was at and going to my room just to check on us.”
Raysean died the same day Rich regained consciousness. The family decided to keep the terrible news from Rich until he became stronger and better oriented. They made sure he did not have access to social media, where there was talk that one of the founders of Kollege Kidd had died.
On Jan. 7, Rich had what he later called ”wild dreams” through the whole night.
“Just different childhood memories of Ray,” Rich recalled. “I was thinking of my times with Ray…I didn’t know Ray was gone. But I did miss him. I was like, ‘Damn, I hope I hear from Ray, soon.’”
The next day, the family broke the terrible news to him.
“They had to restrain me,” he recalled. “When they first told me, I didn't want to believe it. I thought they were playing with me.”
Rich later spoke to The Daily Beast of all he and his twin had been through together growing up on the rough-and-tumble northside of Toledo. Rich was the book-smart one. Raysean was an outgoing star athlete who knew how to carry himself and defend himself and was “that guy.”
“I was older by a minute, but I always felt Ray was the older brother,” Rich said, “Ray was just this tough guy…Ray was just different. Growing up, Ray was knocking out bullies and all.”
They went on to Bowling Green State University, where Raysean began to develop his video skills, making films and founding CNYv, shooting such college events as step shows and fashion shows and then promos that he posted online just as social media was coming into its own. Rich edited a school multicultural newspaper and interned at The Wall Street Journal. Ray worked at PBS and interned at CNN and CBS.
On Nov. 11, 2011—what they call 11/11/11—they founded Kollege Kidd, calling themselves the Write Brothers. They fused Rich’s writing talent with Raysean’s video and marketing wizardry. They focused on hip-hop culture in the Midwest while everyone else was focused on the East and West coasts. The twins introduced much of the country to Chief Keef and Chicago drill music.
On some days, there was so much traffic that the KK site crashed. They branched out onto Facebook and YouTube and Instagram, where they soon had 1.2 million followers. They made films and TV pilots. They talked about capitalizing on streaming and about publishing books.
When the pandemic hit, they both wore a mask. And they had less trouble than many people with observing social distancing and avoiding large groups. They just kept on building their company online and refining their complementary skills with the discipline that their factory-worker parents—Sarah and Patrick—had imparted to them by example.
“For people that go out every day and go to clubs and stuff, that was probably tough for them, but it was easy for me and Ray,” Rich said. “So it didn’t affect us quarantining. We were already home.”
But they had not been ready to get a COVID vaccine even though it had been proven to be safe despite the misinformation and conspiracy theories flying. Their father, Patrick, got the Johson & Johnson jab, but they were skeptical about it, And they were not yet persuaded by a scientific consensus regarding the others. Rich says they were not unwilling to get a vaccine; they just wanted to know know more before they did.
“We weren’t anti-vax,” Rich said. “Me and Ray were very thorough when it comes to things. We wanted to see how effective all the vaccines were in its first year of being released.”
As quick as they were to anticipate the latest in hip-hop culture, they remained cautious about getting the jab despite a scientific consensus that the unvaccinated are far more likely to get severely ill and die if infected. Rich was in the hospital when he discussed it with a nurse. She said that she thought Moderna was the best option.
“I wish we would have gotten Moderna or something,” Rich told The Daily Beast.
Without the vaccine, even someone as tough as Raysean had been felled by the virus. Rich was still in the hospital on Jan. 23, when he celebrated what should have also been Raysean’s 35th birthday.
Rich was finally discharged from the hospital on Jan. 27. And after briefly suspending operations, the media company is continuing on with just one of its founders because of a virus that obeys no logic as to who it claims among the unvaccinated.
“Me and Ray been through a lot, survived a lot,” Rich said. “I was just shocked that that took him out. A germ? Like seriously?”
