Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to West Love Supreme.
Speaker 3: Your host, Quest Love and with Me is the award
Speaker 3: winning team inst of all the teams.
Speaker 2: How else it going?
Speaker 4: Like you?
Speaker 2: You look awfully glowy tod that.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I'm on I'm on the new fancy camera
Speaker 5: excuse so I'm feeling I might be feeling myself quite
Speaker 5: a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was about to say, you got that Lenny Kravitz
Speaker 3: on the show, A little bit about yourself today?
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 5: I knew Fatima was gonna come on here looking correct,
Speaker 5: so I had to make sure I was, you know,
Speaker 5: far with my sense?
Speaker 2: Okay? And what are you wearing this evening, Steve?
Speaker 6: I'm wearing pretty much the same thing as Fatima the time,
Speaker 6: but you have to.
Speaker 4: Take it off the shoulders, oh God, like the surface
Speaker 4: of the shoulder.
Speaker 2: Thanks for tim yea.
Speaker 3: By the way, Steve, my older family members you can
Speaker 3: tell they're older because of what they told me.
Speaker 2: They was like, Yo, how come that boy always smokes? Reefer?
Speaker 2: Wait what was your response?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: I was laughing at.
Speaker 7: Them because I was like, you didn't tell was good? Once?
Speaker 3: Some Yeah, I was like, wait to hear about me.
Speaker 3: Good to see you in your uh your old spot, Bill.
Speaker 8: Yep, I'm back in the studio. I'm I'm wearing Stitch fixed.
Speaker 8: Thank you very much, little proud from stitch Ficks. I
Speaker 8: don't look like Fatima, but that's okay.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 8: I'm happy to be home.
Speaker 2: I was waiting for how you doing. I'm great, you.
Speaker 7: Know, happy anniversary? And Mirror have you anniversary?
Speaker 5: You and Fante and all the okay players have you anniversary?
Speaker 3: That's right, big twenty five. We are twenty five years old.
Speaker 3: Font Tikolo, okay, you got your try sweater on? I
Speaker 3: see yeah, man, yeah, I have to for the tribe. Man,
Speaker 3: we in the present sorority tonight.
Speaker 2: Right, I see? So, speaking of which, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3: Similar to the LL cool J episode in which I
Speaker 3: admit it that maybe I purposely slowed down the pursuit
Speaker 3: of real camaraderie because I knew I wanted my first
Speaker 3: real conversation to be on this platform, you know, And
Speaker 3: that's just not for self serving purposes. I just I
Speaker 3: know that the first month and a half of a
Speaker 3: friendship with me with a fellow industry, peer person is
Speaker 3: kind of going a result to a lot of weird,
Speaker 3: nerdy questions, and I've been told it's rather annoying. So
Speaker 3: that's why this platform exists, and today our guest is
Speaker 3: no exception to that.
Speaker 2: I will say that there's.
Speaker 3: Literally no human being in this industry that I personally
Speaker 3: am curious about the path of their.
Speaker 2: Journey from soup to nuts that they've taken. Tactically.
Speaker 3: Every iconic video worth its grain of salt that has
Speaker 3: been on MTV or BT or you know, now YouTube
Speaker 3: is how we get it has either been you know,
Speaker 3: blessed by her presence. If we're telling back in the
Speaker 3: day later with her expertise in choreography. Later as she
Speaker 3: pivots into directing not to mention any wild moment that
Speaker 3: we've seen with dancing, nine times out of ten you're
Speaker 3: either watching her personal blueprint or I'm almost certain that
Speaker 3: her disciples have you know, have carried the baton.
Speaker 2: I would be remiss if I didn't say.
Speaker 3: That a lot of the praise and the credit that
Speaker 3: I've personally been getting for the Hip Hop fifty celebration,
Speaker 3: things that happened, that the Grammys, and that happened again
Speaker 3: with the special in December. I'm telling you right now,
Speaker 3: our guest today was show enough the anchor or a
Speaker 3: lot of that, Like I got the glory of just like, hey,
Speaker 3: this song and that song and call this guy up
Speaker 3: and clear that sample.
Speaker 2: But in terms of just like dealing with the headaches
Speaker 2: not only.
Speaker 3: As a creator and running her own squad, but you know,
Speaker 3: she damn near had to be a life coach just
Speaker 3: to keep certain group members from corn at each other's throats,
Speaker 3: because you got to understand, like, you know, a lot
Speaker 3: of these group members broke up. You know, most groups
Speaker 3: don't last forty years. So I have so many questions
Speaker 3: to ask our guest today. Please welcome to quest of
Speaker 3: Supreme Fatima Robinson.
Speaker 9: Finally, Oh yes, exactly, all right, I'm gonna ask you
Speaker 9: the question now without giving it all away.
Speaker 2: Yes, I've been kind of open on this platform.
Speaker 3: You know, I mean, nothing I say winds up being
Speaker 3: headlines in any of the blocking sphere whatever. So we're
Speaker 3: even though we're award winning, like we're not gotcha journalism.
Speaker 3: But I've talked about how stressful these situations can be,
Speaker 3: and I've only had to deal with two of them,
Speaker 3: which you know, of course the Hip Hop fifty things,
Speaker 3: But you, on the other hand, have to deal with
Speaker 3: you know. I meant, Lord knows how many Super Bowl
Speaker 3: halftimes you've been involved in every award show that we've seen,
Speaker 3: and walking away from Hip Hop fifty, in which I
Speaker 3: will say that watching it on television, I said to
Speaker 3: myself like, oh.
Speaker 2: But being there that night, it's intense. There was look,
Speaker 2: I'm about full transparency.
Speaker 3: I personally was sort of a block away from depression
Speaker 3: really well, because the thing was, it was like I
Speaker 3: vowed to never subject myself to that level of stress
Speaker 3: ever again in this lifetime. The first time doing the
Speaker 3: fifteen minute Grammy thing, when I landed it in New York,
Speaker 3: I lost a tooth fell out. I went straight to
Speaker 3: the dentist, and part of my resistance to coming back
Speaker 3: to it for a two hour version was no, like,
Speaker 3: why would I ever want to do that to myself?
Speaker 3: But the thing is is that I only have to
Speaker 3: experience that twice. I'm almost certain you have to deal
Speaker 3: with that eight to nine times a year. Yeah, Ward
Speaker 3: show every So my first question to you why even bother, like,
Speaker 3: why why do you do this?
Speaker 4: Why my gosh, no, it's the best. I love finding
Speaker 4: the solution to the problem. I get off on that.
Speaker 4: So because I get off on that, I'm like, bring
Speaker 4: it to me, Like I love when it's like a
Speaker 4: fire and I'm like, oh, put that fire out, fire
Speaker 4: another fire, put it out, put it out. I love it.
Speaker 4: I live for that.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, And I've shared the story
Speaker 3: about us having an emergency some six minutes oh yeah,
Speaker 3: six minutes before we're live on the air and everything's
Speaker 3: falling apart, and I looked at you and you just
Speaker 3: you did the zen thing that I've never seen before,
Speaker 3: and I was just like, I gotta know what Fatima
Speaker 3: is doing in her life because I was having a
Speaker 3: pan even after it was over. I had a minor
Speaker 3: panic attack at the end of the first Grammys thing.
Speaker 2: Because I was unaware that Uzzi came on and saved us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so well he didn't, Yeah he.
Speaker 3: That was I mean not he put a nice cherry
Speaker 3: at the end of the But you really.
Speaker 4: Fought for that moment to happen, which was really great,
Speaker 4: And you know the other moments I had ever experienced
Speaker 4: something like that, someone dropping out on live TV while
Speaker 4: we were actually in the moment of it that was
Speaker 4: new to me. But at a certain point it just
Speaker 4: with hip hop, nothing is surprising. And I have to
Speaker 4: tell a lot of these executives, like, you know, they'll be,
Speaker 4: oh my god, this is happening, and this is happening,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, it's hip hop. It's gonna be okay,
Speaker 4: just give it a moment. We're gonna figure it out,
Speaker 4: you know. And it's just I grew up with hip hop.
Speaker 4: It's what I know. It's how I've been trained, and
Speaker 4: you know, we always figure it out.
Speaker 5: Can I just ask out on a number sense? We're
Speaker 5: talking about how many artists and how many dancers for
Speaker 5: the Hip Hop fifty fifth the Grammy.
Speaker 2: I only had to deal with the artists. She has
Speaker 2: to deal with the artists and the dancers.
Speaker 4: That's why I'm asking artists, dancers, managers, wardrobe, lighting, production design.
Speaker 4: I gotta answer all the questions.
Speaker 7: Oh so that's hundreds of people, Okay, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Started at the beginning. Where are you from? Where were
Speaker 2: you born?
Speaker 4: I was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and I moved
Speaker 4: to LA when I was five years old. Oh wow,
Speaker 4: yeah wow, Little Rock, Arkansas. And every summer I go
Speaker 4: back to Little Rock and be with my family there.
Speaker 7: What part of LA did you move to?
Speaker 4: I lived everywhere we first landed in Compton. I lived
Speaker 4: in Inglewood, in Harthorn and El Segondo and San Pedro,
Speaker 4: and I lived all over the place in La.
Speaker 2: See, I thought you straight up Brooklyn.
Speaker 4: Everybody. Everybody thinks I'm from New York, but no, and
Speaker 4: I really not. Until like five years ago, I really
Speaker 4: rode for LA. But now I just ride for California
Speaker 4: because I love Ohi and I'm just out of city.
Speaker 2: Can you sell me on that?
Speaker 3: Because a lot of my friends are moving to Ohi
Speaker 3: and I want to know what's up there before.
Speaker 7: It's light over there? Is that what you're about to say?
Speaker 7: That's what it looks like.
Speaker 4: I was going to take you guys out to look
Speaker 4: at the mountains, and I was checking to see if
Speaker 4: the sunset, But the clouds are really low right now,
Speaker 4: they're covering the mountains. It's beautiful here, and it's just
Speaker 4: a wonderful war text of good energy.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: It's called the Valley of the Moon, and the moon
Speaker 4: hits really beautiful here. It's not that far from La
Speaker 4: only an hour and a half, but it's in nature
Speaker 4: and it's just gorgeous.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 3: My only concern is that as a person who insisted
Speaker 3: on getting on the first flight, and most of my
Speaker 3: flights are.
Speaker 2: Five am flights.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that basically means that I would have to
Speaker 3: leave your house at like one in the morning just
Speaker 3: to get the Lax by three.
Speaker 7: Is that your airport?
Speaker 2: That's not right?
Speaker 4: Well, there's Santa Barber Airport, but there's not as many
Speaker 4: flights out, a lot of more connections, you know, so
Speaker 4: it's easier to just go out of.
Speaker 7: Lax sacrifice the peace.
Speaker 4: We in the peace time of life.
Speaker 2: All right, you're selling me on it. Yeah.
Speaker 3: A lot of my friends just up and left New York,
Speaker 3: LA and they all went to OHI, And I'm like,
Speaker 3: what the hell is that OHI that I don't know about?
Speaker 2: Is it like more like a hippie commune or no?
Speaker 4: I mean there were a lot of hippies that came
Speaker 4: here back in the day. It's really changing over there's
Speaker 4: really great restaurants and stuff. It's just you know, you
Speaker 4: it's it's just being in the country. But there's also
Speaker 4: really amazing people here. So you have really great dinner
Speaker 4: parties at friends' houses and you know, you can you know,
Speaker 4: see horses walking down the street and go on hikes,
Speaker 4: and it's just a better quality of life, you know.
Speaker 3: I would like to know if you can remember this, like,
Speaker 3: what is the first creative thing that you remember putting together?
Speaker 4: The first creative thing I remember putting together. It would
Speaker 4: probably be I have two younger sisters, and so when
Speaker 4: my mom would have guests over, we were the entertainment.
Speaker 4: So I would put together dance moves on my sisters.
Speaker 4: And that was probably the first creative because I would
Speaker 4: you know, I would dress us and we would put
Speaker 4: towels on our head because I thought I was Darsel
Speaker 4: from Solid.
Speaker 2: Gold Away day.
Speaker 4: You couldn't tell me nothing, you know, so we get
Speaker 4: in her heels and we were the you know, the
Speaker 4: whole performance. And that when I did Dream Girls, it
Speaker 4: was such a trip because I felt like I was
Speaker 4: doing the poses that I used to do with my
Speaker 4: two younger sisters.
Speaker 5: Yoh, that's so interesting. You just gave me a whole
Speaker 5: memory of like little Girls. We used to choreograph things
Speaker 5: on the playground, like I remember steps doing things to
Speaker 5: like Lisa Lisa and colch Jam and that was like
Speaker 5: the thing that just hit me with a memory.
Speaker 4: That's yeah, totally that that was it.
Speaker 3: This this is the third time that someone's randomly dropped
Speaker 3: Darcel Wayne's name.
Speaker 2: You gotta find this woman.
Speaker 4: Because I'm in contact with her.
Speaker 7: What of course you are?
Speaker 5: Oh, I can't wait to get to this list of
Speaker 5: dancers she's still in contact with.
Speaker 2: Yes, I know that.
Speaker 3: You know, we we hold Sheryl's song of Soul train
Speaker 3: up in high honor, but you know we we also
Speaker 3: had Darcel Wayne too, And she doesn't get enough props
Speaker 3: because she definitely carried all of solid gold on her
Speaker 3: back for a number of years.
Speaker 2: Yes, they even got a second black dancer, so they.
Speaker 4: Actually created the in sag they created the principal dancer
Speaker 4: because of her. Oh, and principal dancers get paid different
Speaker 4: than the and so because she was so amazing and
Speaker 4: such an individual, and they kept giving her solo, they said,
Speaker 4: we have to figure this out, and she's she created
Speaker 4: the principal dancer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, not knowing that you're from California, I want to
Speaker 3: know what your life and dance was before you became
Speaker 3: a professional dancer. So yeah, you basically just walk us through,
Speaker 3: like where would you hang in California, Like, were you
Speaker 3: an Uncle Jam person?
Speaker 2: Where you like?
Speaker 4: Definitely I was too young for Uncle Jam's army, but
Speaker 4: I listened to all that Egyptian lover and all of that.
Speaker 4: I would go to, you know, at every high school
Speaker 4: they had dance competition, so I would enter the dance
Speaker 4: competitions and win there. But what really did it for
Speaker 4: me is I graduated high school at sixteen and I
Speaker 4: started going to this club Paradise twenty four where they
Speaker 4: would have dance contests and one year, girls from who
Speaker 4: danced for BBD straight Ahead they won. It was a
Speaker 4: five thousand dollars damce, so everybody would enter the next
Speaker 4: year it was it was they were called gt I
Speaker 4: at the time, and that was far side. Later on
Speaker 4: we won, We won my dance tree called a Feminine Touch.
Speaker 4: We won that year and that's where John John Singleton
Speaker 4: saw us when that year and came backstage and was like,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna put you all in my movie. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: put you all the movie. We were like, yeah, whatever,
Speaker 4: and he ended up putting us in Boys in the
Speaker 4: Hood Is Extras.
Speaker 2: What scene?
Speaker 4: What was it?
Speaker 2: What's scene?
Speaker 4: The barbecue scene?
Speaker 3: Ah, Okay, yeah, okay, So the relationship with John obviously
Speaker 3: let you remember the time later on correct, correct.
Speaker 4: When he kept asking for choreographer. He kept coming up
Speaker 4: with my name and he's like, I know that girl
Speaker 4: and call for that.
Speaker 10: Yeah, And had you ever choreographed anything prior to that?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah. So when back in the day, when you hooked
Speaker 4: up with the hip hop artists, you naturally just made
Speaker 4: up their steps. We didn't know that there was an
Speaker 4: actual job called choreographer. We you got with Big Daddy Kane,
Speaker 4: like I used to dance with him with Scooba and scrap,
Speaker 4: you know, we and we would we would kind of
Speaker 4: we had the market locked down because it was Big
Speaker 4: Les and Josie in New York and it was me
Speaker 4: and Titi in l A. And so they would call
Speaker 4: us be like, oh heavy d you looking for dancers.
Speaker 4: So we would fly out on fake tickets and then
Speaker 4: land in New York and then dance for he Fake
Speaker 4: tickets is when you didn't have to have and show
Speaker 4: an ID and you can just be you can that,
Speaker 4: said John Moses, and you give them the ticket. Oh,
Speaker 4: back in the day, you guys didn't know that.
Speaker 3: Forget Huey Lewis once told us about just like sneaking
Speaker 3: on the plane and like, well.
Speaker 5: I mean everything was hand written back then too.
Speaker 4: So everything. Yeah, we you know somebody there was a
Speaker 4: guy who had a credit card scheme and we'd pay him,
Speaker 4: you know, one hundred dollars, he'd get us a ticket.
Speaker 4: It was just a whole It was the wild wild
Speaker 4: West back in the day. But we would land there
Speaker 4: and then we'd dance for heavy and then we call them,
Speaker 4: you know, hey, so and so is looking for dancers
Speaker 4: in LA, and then they do the same thing and
Speaker 4: come to La.
Speaker 5: So wait, so let me was this no conversation You
Speaker 5: said you guys didn't know you were doing choreography, but
Speaker 5: like even for like the R and B videos with
Speaker 5: some of those choreographers, there was no conversation about in
Speaker 5: between the No.
Speaker 4: They would literally I remember, like you know, when I
Speaker 4: danced the big Daddy came, we'd stay at his house
Speaker 4: and the bodyguard would come and come on. It's rehearsal.
Speaker 4: We rehearsed his basement and you know, and we'd make
Speaker 4: up the routine and we'd go on stage and you know,
Speaker 4: we would do our number and we were happy, and
Speaker 4: no one questioned where the dance was supposed to come from,
Speaker 4: because there was no place for it to come from
Speaker 4: other than us, Because there was no unless you were
Speaker 4: in the clubs. You didn't know how to dance hip
Speaker 4: hop unless you were watching MTV or video jukebox and
Speaker 4: recording the steps and like learning at home. Like there
Speaker 4: was no place there was. All the choreographers were jazz.
Speaker 4: That was Michael Peters and Debbie. They weren't mess That's
Speaker 4: what I was wondering. They were not messing with us. Okay, No,
Speaker 4: it was just two different worlds. So by the time
Speaker 4: I got to Michael, he was so excited about this
Speaker 4: hip hop dance he had been seeing and hearing about.
Speaker 4: He was like, I want to learn it all.
Speaker 2: So dope.
Speaker 3: I sort of correlated with video directors. I mean, I
Speaker 3: would say that maybe Lionel Martin was the kind of
Speaker 3: the first generation of hip hop directors that would feature
Speaker 3: dancers and whatnot. So like we take it for granted
Speaker 3: now where I mean, it's not that I see dancers
Speaker 3: all that much in this environment, but who, in your
Speaker 3: opinion like really kickstarted the concept of like, okay, I
Speaker 3: need two dances in order to make my package complete, Like,
Speaker 3: as far as you're concerned, Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4: Know who who first did it. You know, it was dance.
Speaker 4: Was just part of the culture, like everybody had two
Speaker 4: dances with them. And let me tell you my Lionel
Speaker 4: Martin story. I auditioned for him and it was here
Speaker 4: in La and it was at his hotel. And when
Speaker 4: I got there, there were two girls there. One's mother
Speaker 4: had talked her and to being the choreographer, and you know,
Speaker 4: he explained the treatment to us. He then went, she said, well,
Speaker 4: let me see you guys dance, and one girl kind
Speaker 4: of complained about the carpet and stuff, and another girl
Speaker 4: complained about the tape. Player was like, sped the song
Speaker 4: up and she said, oh, it won't be so fast.
Speaker 4: And I got up and just bust whatever I knew,
Speaker 4: and he stopped the music and he pointed at me
Speaker 4: and said, you're going to be the choreographer and you
Speaker 4: two are going to be the dances because you adapted
Speaker 4: to the situation the best. And I was like okay.
Speaker 4: And literally Rosie Perez had to tell me how she poked.
Speaker 4: She called me out the blue and was like, you
Speaker 4: have to call your sofa a choreographer and you have
Speaker 4: to charge for that, and I'm just like ah, So
Speaker 4: I went and looked up how to spell the words.
Speaker 4: I didn't even know how to spell it.
Speaker 7: Did she helped me figure out how much to charge.
Speaker 4: Well, then I got an agent to help me.
Speaker 3: How hard was it to navigate toxicity treatment in the
Speaker 3: late eighties and early shit, if I really want to
Speaker 3: keep it a butt, maybe up until until twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: now twenty three, yesterday, yesterday, tomorrow and tomorrow.
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, I mean it was tougher when I was younger.
Speaker 4: You know, I got my shirt snatched off from a
Speaker 4: rapper while I was on tour with Big Daddy Kane
Speaker 4: and jay Z at the time was his hype man,
Speaker 4: and he had to calm me down and you know,
Speaker 4: make sure I was okay. So it was wild, but
Speaker 4: most guys, you know, most guys were respectful. I think
Speaker 4: when alcohol too much, alcohol and drugs kind of got involved,
Speaker 4: and that's where you just had to watch the room.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: It was all fun and games until you know, someone
Speaker 4: drank a little too much and then you had to
Speaker 4: be like, okay, I think it's time to exit. I
Speaker 4: think I'm you know, so it was really just about
Speaker 4: being aware of your surroundings and not just not doing
Speaker 4: dumb stuff.
Speaker 7: You know, how does that translate as the mother hitting it?
Speaker 5: Because as a choreographer from the outside, it always it
Speaker 5: also feels like you're somewhat of a mother hen to
Speaker 5: all the other dancers. So how do you deal with
Speaker 5: I guess I want say, mentoring them in that way
Speaker 5: or protecting them in that way.
Speaker 3: I mean, the only way to describe it is like
Speaker 3: a Beth hand partisan, like someone a figurehead to make
Speaker 3: sure that you guys are okay.
Speaker 4: No, no, we've been looking out for ourselves, looking out
Speaker 4: for ourselves.
Speaker 5: Did you have to become that person? That's what I
Speaker 5: was asking, like, did you have to become that person
Speaker 5: for dancers at a certain point in your career?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I think I think we all look out for
Speaker 4: each other. And yeah, I mean there's times where the
Speaker 4: dance just do need someone to speak up for them.
Speaker 4: So I do you know, I often do that, But
Speaker 4: I think now it's such a well doiled machine. I
Speaker 4: kind of already have preempting the things that could happen,
Speaker 4: and I you know, we we have writers, we have
Speaker 4: things that you know, to make sure that they're comfortable
Speaker 4: in the room and all that kind of stuff. So yeah,
Speaker 4: but in the beginning, in the beginning, in the beginning
Speaker 4: of it, you know, we didn't have nothing. We were
Speaker 4: just figuring it out.
Speaker 2: Uh, were dancers unionized back then?
Speaker 4: No, they were. You were in SAG, but you had
Speaker 4: to do a certain amount of TV work to get
Speaker 4: into SAG, and eventually we all did because of great
Speaker 4: shows like the Arsenio Hall Show and in Living Color
Speaker 4: and stuff like that, we would, you know, we would
Speaker 4: get put into the union, which was awesome. Yeah, but
Speaker 4: see music videos and stuff, none of those were unionized,
Speaker 4: so that was like a slide scale of a rate.
Speaker 4: You only got that union work whenever you did TV
Speaker 4: and things like that. But if you were on tour,
Speaker 4: you know, it was kind of you were fighting for
Speaker 4: what your weekly rate was going to be.
Speaker 2: I see.
Speaker 3: So again, like if you're with a I don't know
Speaker 3: who in the late eighties and early nineties was Jankie
Speaker 3: in terms of like did we get our checks yet?
Speaker 2: Did we get Yeah?
Speaker 4: Brown?
Speaker 2: What this sort I'm asking though?
Speaker 3: Would you have to deal with Lou Silas or would
Speaker 3: you have to deal with Bobby Brown or his managers
Speaker 3: or yeah.
Speaker 4: We would have to deal with managers. I'd have to
Speaker 4: deal with I remember we he flew us out because
Speaker 4: he was really territorial with his dancers. And so we
Speaker 4: were in Atlanta and we were living in a wing
Speaker 4: of the house and you know, he was dating Whitney
Speaker 4: and I just remember like he gave us a three
Speaker 4: hundred z to drive. So it went off to all
Speaker 4: the clubs and it was great. But I was like,
Speaker 4: you know, cool, we'll come down, but we have bills,
Speaker 4: so you have the pair like our carnos and stuff.
Speaker 4: And he's like yeah, yeah, yeah. And so the cards
Speaker 4: came around and he didn't pay, and I was like,
Speaker 4: we gotta go packed up those bags. And I was like,
Speaker 4: there's a certain mixed a lot of video we got
Speaker 4: audition for late we did missed. We missed the audition,
Speaker 4: but it was baby got back.
Speaker 11: What no, yeah, yeah, but yeah, it's it's all kinds
Speaker 11: of stories.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, quick dancer check in. You said Bobby Brown,
Speaker 5: remember that.
Speaker 7: They had the faid.
Speaker 12: So that was that was That's who that way, that
Speaker 12: was who that was there was his dances.
Speaker 7: I was just curious about I was.
Speaker 2: Gonna say with the Bobby album.
Speaker 3: Though, you guys said that Soultray in episode where it
Speaker 3: was like twenty.
Speaker 2: On stage, correct, I'm one of those.
Speaker 3: I just I can't even imagine the time period in
Speaker 3: which no one thought about budget or everything was just
Speaker 3: load and giant and big and all those things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, what would.
Speaker 3: You what would you say is your first real professional
Speaker 3: for ray into music videos?
Speaker 4: Definitely remember the time. I mean I was twenty one
Speaker 4: when I did that.
Speaker 2: One, So that was your first video?
Speaker 4: No, that was my first, Like that was what put
Speaker 4: my name into a lot of people's mouths. You know,
Speaker 4: I was choreographing beforehand, but when I did that, because
Speaker 4: that was a event that people sat down with their
Speaker 4: families and watched together, you know, it was definitely something
Speaker 4: that was I didn't even I don't think going into it.
Speaker 4: I was so excited to work with Michael. I loved
Speaker 4: him growing up. Our birthdays were the same day. I
Speaker 4: wanted to send them flowers when his hair cut on fire,
Speaker 4: begging my mom please. You know, I was in love
Speaker 4: with him like that, and so to do this video
Speaker 4: was really I had to kind of, you know, grow
Speaker 4: up really quickly in that moment and but it was
Speaker 4: really when it came out, was just like wow. But
Speaker 4: the wild part about it is I had to go
Speaker 4: back to dancing, you know, for the Mary J. Bliges
Speaker 4: and the R and B and hip hop artists that
Speaker 4: I knew of the past. I could have like had
Speaker 4: ego and then like, oh, I'm at the top, where
Speaker 4: do I go now? And I went right back to
Speaker 4: hip hop.
Speaker 3: He described the whole process, like how long did it
Speaker 3: take the phone call?
Speaker 2: And how how did you map out what? What was
Speaker 2: it going to be?
Speaker 4: Well? John called me and you know, he was describing
Speaker 4: the video and how it's going to be Egyptian and
Speaker 4: he has a mom and Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson
Speaker 4: and I'm like hmmm, and he's going through the whole concept.
Speaker 4: I'm like mm hmm, okay, wow, it sounds great. And
Speaker 4: we go to get off the phone. I was like, wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 4: who's the artist? And he says, I guess he thought
Speaker 4: I read the trades or something or just happened, you know,
Speaker 4: I knew, and he said it's Michael Jackson, and I
Speaker 4: went okay, okay, and then I got off the phone.
Speaker 7: I was like.
Speaker 4: I was running around my house.
Speaker 5: Now when he ran it down to you, did he
Speaker 5: say that it was going to start with like the
Speaker 5: recreation of the Coming to America situation? Because I really
Speaker 5: want to know from the nitty to the gritty about
Speaker 5: this video that was.
Speaker 4: Already in there, and it's funny. I was cleaning out
Speaker 4: my storage and it was scripted and it had storyboards
Speaker 4: to it. You know, I have the original script of
Speaker 4: the Remember the Time video that I kept all these years.
Speaker 7: Did the John Singleton thing you see?
Speaker 5: That would have been so dope to see? So okay, okay,
Speaker 5: go Ahea'm sorry. I have major questions about remember that?
Speaker 2: So, like how many days did you have to prepare?
Speaker 3: Like how do you even figure out like what Egyptian
Speaker 3: moves to do?
Speaker 2: And the offer story.
Speaker 4: Well, because at the time I had been going back
Speaker 4: and forth working in New York, going to the clubs
Speaker 4: in New York, clubs in La I really I loved
Speaker 4: do to Stretch and Henry and like all those dancers,
Speaker 4: and I knew I wanted them to be a part
Speaker 4: of it because they brought a whole nother flavor to it.
Speaker 4: And so you know, we had auditions.
Speaker 2: By the way, they're from the Latin Quarter yes.
Speaker 4: We had auditions and it was hundreds of dancers down
Speaker 4: the street, and I just I couldn't believe it. I
Speaker 4: had never been involved in something so big. It was
Speaker 4: the first time I had hired so many dancers. I
Speaker 4: think we hired fifty dancers, and you know, you do
Speaker 4: the auditions from there, you whittle it down.
Speaker 7: Hold on, let me pause you.
Speaker 5: Right before you talked about the dancers, however, you made
Speaker 5: sure that there were specific dancers in the building for sure.
Speaker 4: Can you talk about it? Well, I definitely wanted all
Speaker 4: the hip hop dancers who were doing things at the time,
Speaker 4: you know, Josie and Leslie and Hitch, my dance partner,
Speaker 4: and then some of the girls who danced for Bobby
Speaker 4: was in there with us, and then Stretch brought his
Speaker 4: whole crew with loose joints and all the all the
Speaker 4: dancers you know, came because we wanted it to feel
Speaker 4: authentic to our our vibe, you know, and we just
Speaker 4: had fun. You know, Michael doesn't like to count when
Speaker 4: you dance. He likes to emulate the beat. He brings
Speaker 4: in this big speaker, so you really feel the music
Speaker 4: in your chest and so you know, you instead of
Speaker 4: counting like one, two, three, four, five and six seven.
Speaker 4: You have to like you have to, you know, emulate
Speaker 4: the beat. And I love that. And he really set
Speaker 4: the tone for my professionalism.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: He was just such a perfectionist, and you know we
Speaker 4: were urgos. You know how virgos are guys, Michael Beyonce like,
Speaker 4: we're all we're like perfectionist freaks. So it was wonderful.
Speaker 3: I watched Michael work out with Casper and Jeffrey Daniels,
Speaker 3: Casper and I forget the third person that's in that
Speaker 3: that trilogy when they were working on the Bad Video,
Speaker 3: Like they all worked together.
Speaker 2: They were trying out ideas.
Speaker 3: Mich was set up with the tripod and they were
Speaker 3: just basically dance battle and piecemeal what was going to happen? Yeah, One,
Speaker 3: how are you putting that together? Two, the dancers that
Speaker 3: you're choosing, Like, if I'm assuming what I call the
Speaker 3: five six, seven eighths, like anyone from like the Lester
Speaker 3: Wilson School of dancing, the previous Michael generation, Lester Wilson,
Speaker 3: Michael Peters, like professional Broadway choreographers. If you're dealing with
Speaker 3: dancers who are more in street oriented, how does the
Speaker 3: memory work because even when I'm giving songs, like I
Speaker 3: gotta listen to that shit like at least twenty times before,
Speaker 3: Like are you videotaping it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Way, yeah.
Speaker 4: We didn't really have that back in the day. No,
Speaker 4: we we used to have. Gosh how many we may
Speaker 4: have had, like a whole week of rehearsal with that,
Speaker 4: whereas now I maybe get a week of rehearsal to
Speaker 4: do a whole damn show, you know. Oh yeah, I know,
Speaker 4: things move slower. Back then we were working with we
Speaker 4: were working with cassette tapes. You have to rewind the
Speaker 4: music play.
Speaker 2: Know.
Speaker 4: I laugh at dancers now because everything is so digital fast,
Speaker 4: like you have to everything is quit like this instant,
Speaker 4: and so it was just a different pace. And what
Speaker 4: I loved is Michael was just down to learn, Like
Speaker 4: he wasn't trying to like do what he's done in
Speaker 4: the past. He wanted to get all of because he
Speaker 4: couldn't go to clubs to see where this dance was
Speaker 4: all being done. We turned the dance studio into a
Speaker 4: club so that he can experience that. You know, we
Speaker 4: put on other music and hang out and just have
Speaker 4: fun and dance.
Speaker 2: Well, y'all like dance, circle, battle and all that stuff, just.
Speaker 4: Dance yet all of it. He loved it.
Speaker 10: I wanted to ask for team, what your comment earlier about,
Speaker 10: you know, how now everything moves faster. What effect do
Speaker 10: you see like took and social media having on a dance.
Speaker 4: I actually love it because it keeps dance alive. You know,
Speaker 4: it used to be, you know, dance steps were getting
Speaker 4: shared in the clubs, or dance steps were getting shared
Speaker 4: at barbecues, you know, as we were younger. But now
Speaker 4: I love that dance steps are getting shared on platforms
Speaker 4: like TikTok. It's definitely easier for me in my life.
Speaker 4: Like I can literally sit with my team and we
Speaker 4: can laugh and learn all life. It is so much
Speaker 4: fun to go through all the dances and what's happening
Speaker 4: right now, what the kids are doing. Like the fact
Speaker 4: that I have an insight to that through my phone
Speaker 4: is so amazing. So I feel like it allows me
Speaker 4: to stay current. No, and I love it.
Speaker 10: Do you have any in your personal life free time?
Speaker 10: Is there any particular style of dance that you like,
Speaker 10: you know, if it's salsa or you know, anything like ballroom,
Speaker 10: anything like that.
Speaker 4: You know, I used to take different styles of dances
Speaker 4: to go with my natural movement. Like for the Aliya video,
Speaker 4: I took flamenco classes to go with that. I felt
Speaker 4: like argue that somebody. I felt like Timberland's beats had
Speaker 4: that flamenco sound to it. I did a tangle with
Speaker 4: doctor Dre before. So I've used to take classes right right, So,
Speaker 4: but now I'm not doing all that. I got assistance,
Speaker 4: I got, you know, people I lean on for I'm
Speaker 4: you know, it's like an athlete, Like my body is sore,
Speaker 4: you know, I like, I'm just too stepping. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm telling people, I'm gonna do this once.
Speaker 4: You better watch.
Speaker 2: Two steps.
Speaker 4: My sister's drill it and drill it and drilling. I'm
Speaker 4: not doing all that. But every now and then I
Speaker 4: get to go to clubs or especially if i'm if
Speaker 4: I'm outside of l A, I definitely still love to
Speaker 4: feel what's going on, what people are responding to musically,
Speaker 4: and how they're moving in the clubs and stuff. So
Speaker 4: I still go out every now and then just to
Speaker 4: check it out.
Speaker 3: Like once you jump into that pool and the only
Speaker 3: compare it to is DJing like I'm now realizing that
Speaker 3: I'm now three generations removed from the music that I'm
Speaker 3: used to. So it's almost like now I'm just studying,
Speaker 3: like I'm now the DJ I hate, where like I
Speaker 3: will go to a night club and shazam everything and
Speaker 3: study what the kids are listening to. That sort of thing.
Speaker 3: For you, though, how are you able to know what's
Speaker 3: ahead of the curve, Because I'm also certain that you're
Speaker 3: dealing with looking in your rearview mirror at like, oh,
Speaker 3: who's behind me? Like who might get that job or
Speaker 3: that sort of thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I'm not worried about what nobody else is doing.
Speaker 4: And I actually train them and then they I train
Speaker 4: them and let them go. And so all my proteges
Speaker 4: are like, you know, AJ came from my camp, who
Speaker 4: did usher? Charm came from my camp? Who did you know?
Speaker 4: Does do on weekend? And all the folks and so
Speaker 4: Sean Bankhead came up under me, and so it's it's
Speaker 4: I love doing that, I love being a mentor and
Speaker 4: all that and go. But really, for me, that's the
Speaker 4: I think that a mirror is like you're tapped in
Speaker 4: and you stay curious, and so am I you know,
Speaker 4: I'm tapped in. I know when things are shifting, when
Speaker 4: culture is shifting. When like I see it, I can
Speaker 4: sniff it out, you know, and I'm like, ooh, what's that?
Speaker 4: Oh what are they doing? You know? And so for
Speaker 4: me even and I also I also hire specialty people
Speaker 4: in that, Like I just did Burner Boys, so I
Speaker 4: made sure they brought somebody in from Nigeria with them.
Speaker 4: And then I brought this girl in from New York
Speaker 4: who she's a young girl who's she's African American, but
Speaker 4: she came in and just knew all the afrobeat dances.
Speaker 4: So that was our warm up. Our warm up was
Speaker 4: all the afrobeat steps and I let her lead the
Speaker 4: warm up. And so really I kind of bring the
Speaker 4: club to me. And then that way all the dancers
Speaker 4: like show me what's new, and they, you know, keep me,
Speaker 4: they keep me fresh.
Speaker 5: When did you really become the fan of dance to
Speaker 5: where you started exploring in your journey. I watched the
Speaker 5: interview where you were talking about doing one of the
Speaker 5: Black Eyed Peas videos and you look into the Indian
Speaker 5: and Thai dance. But I'm curious because you mentioned that,
Speaker 5: like you didn't study it and you just went to work.
Speaker 5: So at some point you started opening your mind too.
Speaker 4: Yeah. One thing that I wanted to do from the
Speaker 4: very beginning is I went to an event. It's so funny,
Speaker 4: this is so wild. I just gave mister Copeland an
Speaker 4: award the other night, and when she came out into
Speaker 4: the stage, she did a bow to me, and I
Speaker 4: almost lost it because when I was younger, I would
Speaker 4: go to events like that and people would introduce me
Speaker 4: as a choreographer and someone would say, oh, where did
Speaker 4: you Where did you study? And I'm like, oh, I'm
Speaker 4: self taught. I'm a hip hop choreographer, and they're like oh,
Speaker 4: and they walk away from me. And they just didn't
Speaker 4: see hip hop as a true art form of dance.
Speaker 4: And so I was on a mission of how that
Speaker 4: was my goal, Like people were gonna appreciate hip hop
Speaker 4: the same way they appreciate all these other dances styles
Speaker 4: that have been here forever. Because once I the minute
Speaker 4: I entered into the and minute I decided I was
Speaker 4: going to be a choreographer, I started going to African
Speaker 4: dance class and that's when I realized how close hip
Speaker 4: hop was to our lineage of African dance that actually
Speaker 4: we would do moves and I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: it's the same thing, but it had meaning to it
Speaker 4: and all the things. So for me, exploring other styles
Speaker 4: of dance, other styles of street dance to me as well,
Speaker 4: just to mix with my version of street dance. And
Speaker 4: one of the reasons too, why I'm a choreographer is
Speaker 4: because I wasn't I'm self taught. I did not come
Speaker 4: up trained, so it was harder for me to catch
Speaker 4: on to routines. Tony Basil gave me my first audition
Speaker 4: for Young MC when I was seventeen years old, and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, was it bust the whole.
Speaker 4: It was. I believe I was auditioning for the tour.
Speaker 4: I did bust the move Yeah, but she was and
Speaker 4: all the hip hop clubs back in the day strong
Speaker 4: and so so I just really I wanted to venture
Speaker 4: out and learn new things, like I took belly dancing
Speaker 4: because hip hop is so you know, it's so hard
Speaker 4: and you know and tough, and you know the movement.
Speaker 4: I wanted to soften my movement up and learn how
Speaker 4: to teach a female artist how to be pretty and soft.
Speaker 4: So I took belly dancing classes where the arms and
Speaker 4: the hands were so elegant and beautiful. You know, I
Speaker 4: wanted to offset it with hip hop. So that was
Speaker 4: just something that I decided to do because I wanted to,
Speaker 4: you know, explore different ways of movement.
Speaker 3: Were you able to form any sort of bonding with
Speaker 3: like the Bill T. Joneses, or the Paul Kelly's, or
Speaker 3: the Charlie Atkins or the Jameson like.
Speaker 5: James When did they bow down and say you even
Speaker 5: Jeffrey Holder, like Jeffree.
Speaker 4: Older, Jeffree Holder.
Speaker 7: Jeffree Holder, Were you ever?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: Is it hard to penetrate that that club?
Speaker 4: It was a it was a club, and they were
Speaker 4: not feeling they weren't thinking about me.
Speaker 7: This is but you know, this is strange.
Speaker 4: No, I was gonna say, I see Michael Peters driving
Speaker 4: every now and then.
Speaker 12: I'd be like, you're taking their jobs away from the
Speaker 12: But did you know, like Michael Peters whole like hip
Speaker 12: hop connection and then for sure in the whole Prodigy.
Speaker 7: Thing and Ben Veren and the things, I didn't even
Speaker 7: be Yeah, okay, So that's just it's just interesting that.
Speaker 5: They didn't connect me, even with Debbie Allen in a
Speaker 5: different world and Jasmine Gott and all the things you
Speaker 5: would have.
Speaker 4: Jasmine was a friend of mine, Jasmin connected with me,
Speaker 4: Jasmine connected with me.
Speaker 2: You directed that Try May video. That's try.
Speaker 3: All right, We know you the smartest motherfucker filler cut
Speaker 3: man that that was the one.
Speaker 4: Let go. No. I was young, and it wasn't even
Speaker 4: like I was taking their jobs. They just weren't in
Speaker 4: the world of hip hop. I was going to jack
Speaker 4: the rappers and and making a real with my There
Speaker 4: was the host of this show called Putting on the Hits,
Speaker 4: Yes back. He used to make reels for actors and
Speaker 4: I found him and I had n't make a Corey
Speaker 4: a Dancer reel for me. And I would go to
Speaker 4: jack the rappers and hand it out to the executives
Speaker 4: and stuff. These people weren't in this world at all.
Speaker 4: They do They didn't know anything about.
Speaker 5: So could you talk about then your relationship with Rosie then,
Speaker 5: because you did mention her.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So Rosie was right before me, and you know Rosie.
Speaker 4: She before Paradise, there was a club funk what was
Speaker 4: it called reggae funk or funky reggae some So that's
Speaker 4: where Spike Lee saw her dancing in the club and
Speaker 4: put her in you know, do the right thing. So
Speaker 4: we kind of had a little bit of the same
Speaker 4: journey in a way. And because she did in Living Color,
Speaker 4: like she was on the posts of hip hop and
Speaker 4: she was in it. So she was the one person
Speaker 4: that would you know, call me out of the blue
Speaker 4: or that person that I can you know, ask questions two.
Speaker 4: So it was Rosie for me.
Speaker 3: Have you ever been in this situation in which you're
Speaker 3: finding out oh maybe maybe like an hour before that
Speaker 3: your client might have two left feet?
Speaker 4: No, you have rehearsals, So you find that out in rehearsal,
Speaker 4: and then you just know how to build it all
Speaker 4: around them. But what I do best is pull out
Speaker 4: things that they just didn't even realize that they had
Speaker 4: in them. And I I'm really good at designing things
Speaker 4: around people. But some people don't you know, don't want
Speaker 4: to dance and don't feel it, you know, And so
Speaker 4: I don't push and make people dance. I kind of
Speaker 4: I'm focused on the entire show and not like trying
Speaker 4: to force you to do something you don't.
Speaker 2: Want to do. All right, my last remember the time question?
Speaker 3: Because I always wanted to know how much leeway does
Speaker 3: the artist have to go freestyle because they also have
Speaker 3: to be the artist and stand out front.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so you know, when.
Speaker 3: I watch remember the time, I'll see him do it
Speaker 3: for half a second, and then I'll see him going
Speaker 3: to his regular Michael Jackson stick. And occasionally I remember
Speaker 3: specifically that point it was like half a second way
Speaker 3: Michael started doing the yeah, when he was doing like
Speaker 3: the prep or something, and I was like, oh, he
Speaker 3: knows modern dancing, because you know, again, like Michael Jackson
Speaker 3: is such a unique dancer. All of his moves are
Speaker 3: his own. Yeah, to be shocked that he knows how
Speaker 3: to do the rebok or the prep or.
Speaker 2: Him right, but he's there for half a second.
Speaker 3: I always wanted to know, is it a thing where
Speaker 3: you're just like, look, you stand in the center, do
Speaker 3: what you do and we'll dance around you.
Speaker 2: Or is he like, no, I want to do the
Speaker 2: dances that you guys are doing.
Speaker 4: Yeah. No, Michael wanted to do what we were doing,
Speaker 4: so he was pretty fully choreographed. He had a moment
Speaker 4: of we broke out into his thing, but he was
Speaker 4: pretty choreographed the whole video.
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's him. So how do you get
Speaker 3: over just the inhale exhale.
Speaker 4: He's normal because you just know you have a job
Speaker 4: to do, and you know this is like a pivotal
Speaker 4: point in your growth and in everything. You just put
Speaker 4: all that aside, at least for me, that's what I did.
Speaker 4: And you go in and you do the job you
Speaker 4: were hired for.
Speaker 3: You know, there's going to be a hell of a
Speaker 3: pivot question that asked. But I have to know the
Speaker 3: answer to this question. Tell me, how were you not
Speaker 3: on airplane after Rock the Boat was finished?
Speaker 4: That is a really good question because we were pretty
Speaker 4: inseparable and I hung out with her a lot. It's
Speaker 4: funny there was a record label guy had the only
Speaker 4: phone that worked there. This was early, early on with
Speaker 4: cell phone, so when you were out of the country
Speaker 4: they didn't work. And I called my family this video
Speaker 4: had come up, so last minute Rocked the Boat that
Speaker 4: I was missing my grandparents' fiftieth wedding anniversary, and so
Speaker 4: I everyone was in Arkansas and I was going to
Speaker 4: go back to Atlanta, where I had a home, and
Speaker 4: I used his phone to call my family and they
Speaker 4: were all still in Arkansas. No one had gone back
Speaker 4: to Atlanta, and we had had such a good time
Speaker 4: on the beach the night before the bonfire and all
Speaker 4: that that I just decided to stay.
Speaker 2: Wow. Wow.
Speaker 3: And but in normal circumstances, you would have been on
Speaker 3: that flight back.
Speaker 4: I was supposed to be on the plane.
Speaker 7: How long did it take you to answer this question
Speaker 7: with such ease?
Speaker 4: I mean, it's been so long's yeah, I don't, I don't.
Speaker 4: I haven't gotten asked some of Leah's stuff in a
Speaker 4: long time. But I'm I'm healed over that. It was
Speaker 4: a tough thing to go through, especially because I took
Speaker 4: the phone call of it all happening and I had
Speaker 4: to call her mother, which was really and I had
Speaker 4: my son was one years old, and to have to
Speaker 4: call a mother and tell her something like that was
Speaker 4: just it was a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I hype had to stop for a good period
Speaker 3: of time just to process.
Speaker 2: Like, how long did it take you to process.
Speaker 4: Just to yeah? I think I kind of went heading
Speaker 4: to work and tried to like just suppress it. And
Speaker 4: I think it was later in life, but I also
Speaker 4: I started to realize how I responded to death. I
Speaker 4: was very I would shut down when it came to death.
Speaker 4: And I didn't want to go to funerals ever, and
Speaker 4: I would just have this very cold, shutdown thing when
Speaker 4: it came to people dying. And so at a certain
Speaker 4: point I had to deal with that because I knew
Speaker 4: it was surrounded that situation. Is I like, I shut
Speaker 4: off something inside of myself in order to like keep
Speaker 4: moving forward, because you know, a lot of times, even too,
Speaker 4: people would come up to the street and want to
Speaker 4: give me a hug, and like I would see it
Speaker 4: in the eyes of so many people that I was
Speaker 4: around because I was, you know, just so close to her.
Speaker 4: They just they just wanted a hug. And I understood it,
Speaker 4: but it was really tough.
Speaker 10: You know, what was the working relationship like with the
Speaker 10: Lee when you said we mentioned Billy dance, and that's
Speaker 10: what made me think, Yeah, so like yeah, what was
Speaker 10: that creative kind of partnership?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Lely was we were like synchronized swimming. If I
Speaker 4: could be an artist, I would have been her. Like
Speaker 4: I gave her everything, all of me, because it was
Speaker 4: she was just so wonderful. Her voice was so incredible.
Speaker 4: She was such an amazing dancer, but such an amazing person,
Speaker 4: you know, And that's what was so hard about it.
Speaker 4: It's just she was really really great and just so
Speaker 4: young and had so much ahead of her, like we were.
Speaker 4: I said goodbye to her and I was like, I'll
Speaker 4: see you in La because we were taking our meeting
Speaker 4: on the movie Sparkle that she was about to do.
Speaker 2: And wow, oh wow, Yeah, I didn't know she was
Speaker 2: going to start in Sparkle.
Speaker 4: Yeah wow, No, it's just things lined up, and so
Speaker 4: it was. It was. She was truly a special being.
Speaker 5: What was your most favorite thing that y'all created together?
Speaker 4: I mean I liked it all. I really did like
Speaker 4: it all. Are you got somebody? It's so great? You know,
Speaker 4: try again?
Speaker 2: Like it just resolution was actually my favorite videos.
Speaker 4: Really you need a resolution, You.
Speaker 2: Need a Yeah.
Speaker 3: It was a new herd, not like your kid's sister,
Speaker 3: and like it was like a sophisticated snake and the whole.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I loved performing one in
Speaker 4: a million. I love those beats, like Timberland made you
Speaker 4: just dance in a different way, you know when he
Speaker 4: when he produced Aliyah and came on the scene. It
Speaker 4: was like that's when Dan shifted.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 4: The beats were so incredible and you have to figure
Speaker 4: out how to hit all those beats and you know,
Speaker 4: so fly, But yeah, I was. I have all this
Speaker 4: old footage because I've digitized now some of my stuff,
Speaker 4: so I've been looking through and I have like rehearsal
Speaker 4: footage and audition footage. I have footage just no one's
Speaker 4: ever seen before of us back in the day. I know,
Speaker 4: a mirror.
Speaker 2: I had documented every choreographed, no.
Speaker 4: Not everything, the earlier stuff. I had this video camera
Speaker 4: everywhere I went, and then I kind of dropped off
Speaker 4: and then you know, now my assistance and I we
Speaker 4: kind of try and document it as much as.
Speaker 2: But document everything.
Speaker 3: Yes, no, I know I'm assuming that your first pivot
Speaker 3: was directing. But is there a stop in between choreographing
Speaker 3: and directing.
Speaker 4: Yes, definitely. So for me, I always dance with the
Speaker 4: artists that I worked with, So when Alia's videos, I'm dancing,
Speaker 4: and a certain point I had to step out of
Speaker 4: being a dancer and just be the choreographer so I
Speaker 4: could see the bigger picture of everything. And that was
Speaker 4: hard for me because I love to dance, but also
Speaker 4: it was it was just a transition, and but once
Speaker 4: I did it and stepped out, it really allowed me
Speaker 4: to start understanding how so many other things make the
Speaker 4: choreography so much better, wardrobe and lighting and props and
Speaker 4: all of that. So I stepped out of there first.
Speaker 4: And then when I was twenty five, I you know,
Speaker 4: John would always try and get me in front of
Speaker 4: the camera. A lot a lot of people were trying
Speaker 4: to get me in front of the camera, and I
Speaker 4: just wasn't. I go on auditions and I just wasn't
Speaker 4: comfortable acting. It just didn't come from the heart like
Speaker 4: dance did. And but I loved being behind the scenes.
Speaker 4: So I went and took this course at New York's
Speaker 4: Film Academy, and that's when I decided doing that course.
Speaker 4: It was just an eight week, like ten hour a
Speaker 4: day course. I was the one in class who had
Speaker 4: been on so many sets and was like, Oh, that's
Speaker 4: what that means, and that oh I understand now, Oh
Speaker 4: that's why that takes so long.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: It was such like, Oh, I get it. And from
Speaker 4: there I just went, Ah, that's what I want to do.
Speaker 4: I want to do. I want to be behind the camera.
Speaker 4: And my first video was mister Vegas Headtime. That's the
Speaker 4: first video I directed.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 10: Wow, Yeah, So about one thing you talked about. You know,
Speaker 10: when you turn twenty five, what is the average life span?
Speaker 4: Good question. Yeah, girls go to around thirty six, thirty seven.
Speaker 4: You know, some push it a little longer, but they
Speaker 4: have to really do a lot of repair on their
Speaker 4: bodies after sports. Yeah, it's the same way. And then
Speaker 4: guys can go to like forty to forty you know,
Speaker 4: up in there in their forties. You know, there's something
Speaker 4: that go longer. But yeah, I definitely around thirty six.
Speaker 4: I was like, yeah, I'm good on this.
Speaker 10: Other question about one of your uh Mary J Blige,
Speaker 10: because you whatever, are you responsible for the Mary J
Speaker 10: bo the Mary?
Speaker 2: Yes? Awesome question.
Speaker 4: Awesome, No, that's Mary. That's that's all Mary.
Speaker 3: That's the greatest question to ask of this damn podcast,
Speaker 3: one hundred years of podcast. I wouldn't I wouldn't even
Speaker 3: thought to ask that question. Maybe two or three weeks ago,
Speaker 3: did you happen to see the Saturday Night Live clip
Speaker 3: in which Julius Styles came on Weekend Update to recreate
Speaker 3: or save the last dance?
Speaker 7: Oh my god?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah it was well, I know you choreographed that, yeah, but.
Speaker 4: I didn't even know that.
Speaker 2: Dude. Every thing. She's done everything president.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did that one year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they know, they like it's it's It was a
Speaker 3: thing in which one of the cast members, you know,
Speaker 3: was was doing an ode to it, and then suddenly
Speaker 3: Julia walked so next to her, and then they started
Speaker 3: doing it, dance together and on that stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can't wait to see that. I'm
Speaker 4: gonna look that up.
Speaker 3: Was that was that the first movie you've done? Your
Speaker 3: first feature film?
Speaker 4: What's that my first feature? I think so, other than
Speaker 4: like dancing for stuff, uh, to choreograph, I think maybe
Speaker 4: that was my first feature choreographing. I was responsible for
Speaker 4: her having a little head wrap on.
Speaker 5: So we blame you for that that. Okay, you're lucky,
Speaker 5: it's twenty five I don't know, Okay, twenty five years.
Speaker 2: Don't even act like you weren't. You weren't watching.
Speaker 5: Watch you know, I didn't watch that video. I was
Speaker 5: way too militant back then.
Speaker 7: I was the word you were mmmmmm.
Speaker 5: But I appreciated it for what it was. That was
Speaker 5: okay washing fatima, There.
Speaker 4: We go, There we go. It also gave permission to
Speaker 4: a lot of young kids who were loving hip hop
Speaker 4: in their homes. To like actually get out and pursue
Speaker 4: hip hop dance. You know, it was one of the
Speaker 4: steps that I had to take to get hip hop
Speaker 4: dance to be seen as a true art form of dance.
Speaker 4: And that movie was huge and made.
Speaker 5: For the reason to Hit the Suburbs. You're the reason
Speaker 5: hit the Suburbs.
Speaker 4: Suburb between that and the Bakshi Boys, I take you know,
Speaker 4: full responsibility. Oh, you did right, I did all that
Speaker 4: boys stuff.
Speaker 2: YEH, don't don't know, dude.
Speaker 3: She also see I thought the first video she directed
Speaker 3: was My Humps.
Speaker 2: I thought that was the first video you directed.
Speaker 3: But no, I know that basically you're the go to
Speaker 3: You're the first step with anyone with a with a budget.
Speaker 3: Can you tell me three videos that you had to
Speaker 3: say no to that later became like sort of iconic level,
Speaker 3: like have you said notice something that.
Speaker 2: That you regretted saying no to? Well, she missed the
Speaker 2: audition for Baby Got Back. That was tough.
Speaker 4: But I remember I was not too long ago looking
Speaker 4: through for an email and saw something in my or
Speaker 4: from my agent, and I clicked on it and it
Speaker 4: said there's a movie that they want you to come
Speaker 4: take a meeting for something like La La Land and
Speaker 4: my res fond Maris response was I'm way too busy.
Speaker 4: I can't do that right now. And I forwarded back
Speaker 4: to my agent like can you believe I said that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, can we talk about musicals for a second, but
Speaker 8: just can we parlay into the Color Purple show? I
Speaker 8: was just I was thinking, like the average music videos
Speaker 8: like three and a half minutes long, Like the Color
Speaker 8: Purple is three and a half hours long, Like what
Speaker 8: is the what is your mindset choreographically and or storytelling
Speaker 8: wise to make a complete arc of that whole thing.
Speaker 8: I'm always amazed at how choreographers and or composers under
Speaker 8: whoever just sort of make all of that sort of
Speaker 8: happen and conceive of it like one thing. You know,
Speaker 8: there's so many different numbers and so many different moves
Speaker 8: and so many different things, but it does feel like
Speaker 8: a canon in itself anyway.
Speaker 4: Speak to that, Yeah, I mean you start with the script,
Speaker 4: you know, and with Color Purple, because they had done
Speaker 4: it as a Broadway play, there was music, but Blitz
Speaker 4: really went in there and you know, worked with a
Speaker 4: lot of incredible artists and elevated the music so that
Speaker 4: it you know, it had a little more modern feeling
Speaker 4: to it, and because in particular color Purple is a
Speaker 4: period piece, there's not a lot of dance out there
Speaker 4: to even emulate like what would be done then. But
Speaker 4: I kind of took the creative liberty to say, you know,
Speaker 4: it all comes from African dance, and if we you know,
Speaker 4: you can look back and find bits of every modern
Speaker 4: dance that we do now in African dance. And so
Speaker 4: I just kind of gave each number, you know, a feeling,
Speaker 4: a mood, a joy of a kindred brotherhood for like
Speaker 4: uh huh, you know when they were building the house
Speaker 4: and all the working together and that was nice. That's
Speaker 4: going back to you know, step in when men are
Speaker 4: all stepping other and fraternity. I just kind of went
Speaker 4: through a bunch of different, you know, styles of Black dance.
Speaker 4: But then also I kind of we're so expressive as people,
Speaker 4: and you know, like when you get into hell No
Speaker 4: with Danielle Brooks and at the end when the ladies
Speaker 4: all kind of gang up on her and then they
Speaker 4: all roll ay neck. You know, when a black woman
Speaker 4: starts rolling her neck and she has had it up
Speaker 4: to here with your ass. So it was kind of
Speaker 4: you know, I took just our even natural movements that
Speaker 4: we do, you know, and made them into dances. And
Speaker 4: so it's a it's a journey when you're doing musical
Speaker 4: like that because it's a lot of hard work and
Speaker 4: each number needs its own special attention. And you know,
Speaker 4: our goal for that movie, and I think we really
Speaker 4: accomplished it is like how do you get out? How
Speaker 4: do you start the music and start the dance so
Speaker 4: it's not jarring and it's not taking you out of library.
Speaker 4: So that that was the important for me. It was
Speaker 4: when I walked into the room, story led first, and
Speaker 4: then the dance had to support the story and a
Speaker 4: lot of times, you know, people were just dancing to
Speaker 4: be dancing, and that's not what I was trying to do.
Speaker 4: The story it had to all make sense, you know,
Speaker 4: if we were it should was coming to town and
Speaker 4: what is that town gonna look like back in the
Speaker 4: day where that town should have a shoe shop and
Speaker 4: then it's gonna have a barber shop and then they're
Speaker 4: you know, they got the groceries stand outside like and
Speaker 4: I create all that stuff in the rehearsal studio with
Speaker 4: the skeleton crew of dancers and give them something, but
Speaker 4: where I am now in my career, even with this one,
Speaker 4: in particular for color purple. We choreographed it and then
Speaker 4: shot it way I wanted to look, with close ups
Speaker 4: of the feet and overheads and you know, all the
Speaker 4: things and editor and then I gave it to the
Speaker 4: directors like here's russall. But you know, that's what choreographers,
Speaker 4: the good choreographers, that's what we do when we get hired.
Speaker 4: We're just natural directors, really, and I love that I
Speaker 4: had a director who trust in that vision. But I
Speaker 4: have this great story to say. You know, Blitz told
Speaker 4: me and Ghana when he was in high school, they
Speaker 4: had a talent show and eighty percent of the people
Speaker 4: did for their talent Aliyah's are you? That's somebody him
Speaker 4: and I know, and so he just vowed to work
Speaker 4: with me one day. And I just feel like Aliyah
Speaker 4: put us together, and it's so wonderful.
Speaker 5: It was wonderful to see your touch on that movie,
Speaker 5: because no matter what the dance was, you also still
Speaker 5: felt hip hop always, always, always.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna play a rapid fire around with you, Okay,
Speaker 3: which client of yours is the fastest learner?
Speaker 4: Aliyah was the fastest learner.
Speaker 3: Which client of yours is the most I won't say
Speaker 3: anal retentive perfectionist?
Speaker 2: Which kind of yours wants to rehearse their spontaneity?
Speaker 4: Beyonce is perfectionist, meaning.
Speaker 3: You have to go through over and over and over
Speaker 3: again to muscle memory or no, she catches.
Speaker 4: On quick too, but she's just perfectionist. Like she goes
Speaker 4: back and like we go back and work on it
Speaker 4: and work on it, and you know she's still working
Speaker 4: on the show. Is renaissance was going on and she
Speaker 4: still had rehearsals. Wow like that?
Speaker 2: Wow, okay, superstar? Yeah all that I see?
Speaker 3: Which client who's not no dancing is so, you like,
Speaker 3: is really under selling their talent of dancing?
Speaker 4: Buster Rhymes can dance his ass off?
Speaker 2: He can't, Yep, I don't.
Speaker 4: Eyes can see the last that last when they're in
Speaker 4: the black lights. See he's dancing and he came to
Speaker 4: rehearsal and he learned steps and he was like he
Speaker 4: threw his his two way across the room. Was like,
Speaker 4: I'm Michael Jackson up in here, dances ass off. And
Speaker 4: you know who else can dance good?
Speaker 7: Yes she can?
Speaker 2: She can.
Speaker 7: We just wrapped these things down and we get to
Speaker 7: going well.
Speaker 3: I was going to ask, who is your shyest client,
Speaker 3: because dancing is a that's that's a form of vulnerability
Speaker 3: that you know, because you're always worrying on like people
Speaker 3: watching me.
Speaker 2: And I mean, that's what got to give it up
Speaker 2: is about I'm afraid to dance in public. Client.
Speaker 4: I don't know. Shy is really.
Speaker 2: So no one ever held back.
Speaker 4: No, I feel like people, if you could dance, you
Speaker 4: kind of get shy. Isn't the word I don't know, shy, reluctant.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't even call it reluctant. Like I love working
Speaker 4: with Kendrick because he loves movement and dance and respects it.
Speaker 4: But he's not necessarily out there trying to do steps
Speaker 4: with the dancers. He's going to bring his own energy
Speaker 4: and vibe to it, and then I build around it,
Speaker 4: and then we sit and look at it, and then
Speaker 4: we build together. You know. I love giving him a
Speaker 4: little template to go off for him to respond to
Speaker 4: and then you know, do something great.
Speaker 7: He can give us an example, super Bowld.
Speaker 4: They gave me an image of all those boxes and
Speaker 4: it was then overhead shot of the boxes and it
Speaker 4: was like, that's kind of what we want to create.
Speaker 4: And so then from there I got to use my
Speaker 4: imagination or how do these boxes come to life? How
Speaker 4: do we get the boxes off the stage? Do we
Speaker 4: stay with the boxes? And we do it? Like where
Speaker 4: does he live inside of the boxes? And you know
Speaker 4: all of that, and so I love I love how
Speaker 4: his mind works and things, but I wouldn't call all right.
Speaker 3: So I always think of this the next time you
Speaker 3: watch jay Z's Can I Get a I was absolutely
Speaker 3: amazed that he basically just stands in place in the
Speaker 3: middle and only moves his arms in his shoulders. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean the entire world is dancing around him. And
Speaker 3: I always wanted to know what happens when you're giving
Speaker 3: a client that, like do you have to figure out
Speaker 3: the math formula? Like how much the supplement? Like okay,
Speaker 3: they're not given me much in terms of because the
Speaker 3: thing is, we do tend to think of jay Z
Speaker 3: as a charismatic, but it's almost like in that DeNiro
Speaker 3: level where he holds back from that charisma.
Speaker 4: Yeah no, yeah, some people I respect that. Some people
Speaker 4: just don't want to dance. You know, I'm not here
Speaker 4: to make everybody dance.
Speaker 2: You know, So what's your favorite medium? Then?
Speaker 3: Because you've done commercials, on videos, you've done half times,
Speaker 3: you've done award shows.
Speaker 2: Yes, what is your favorite medium?
Speaker 4: Age performances like concerts and why concerts are my favorite? Like,
Speaker 4: you know, when I the Renaissance was was amazing And
Speaker 4: I love the way you can manipulate the arena, stadium,
Speaker 4: whatever you're in theater, with the new with the dance,
Speaker 4: with the way the songs are laid out. Like I
Speaker 4: just love watching people have such a wonderful time live
Speaker 4: and it always takes me back to my childhood of Jackson.
Speaker 4: Five was my first tour, and I remember like laying
Speaker 4: out my clothes a week in advance and like just
Speaker 4: the preparation to it. And I remember having the seat
Speaker 4: way up, way up there, and that was my seat
Speaker 4: and they were super small, but I was up there
Speaker 4: screaming and jamming and dancing and my heart out and
Speaker 4: it was just the best experience for me. And so
Speaker 4: I just always whenever I do live shows, I think
Speaker 4: about those people that are way up there, and it's
Speaker 4: something that I do with every concert that I work on.
Speaker 4: I look up to see and if those people are
Speaker 4: jumping and screaming and dancing the same way the people
Speaker 4: who have front row seats are. Then to me, I've
Speaker 4: done my job right. And I just love live. It's
Speaker 4: unpredictable and it's amazing and people cry. I cry, and
Speaker 4: it's just you go through the gamut of emotions at
Speaker 4: a at a really good live show, and I just
Speaker 4: love it.
Speaker 10: I wanted to ask when you're casting and stuff, like
Speaker 10: you know, what separates a good dancer from a great dancer?
Speaker 2: Like what are you looking for?
Speaker 4: I'm really we dancers have to learn a combination really quickly,
Speaker 4: so we teach it, they learn it, we break them
Speaker 4: up and pieces. You know, a lot of times it's
Speaker 4: it's it's their danceability, but it's also like their height
Speaker 4: and their their size, and if they fit with the
Speaker 4: other dancers and they create like it's a whole you know,
Speaker 4: Tetris game of things we're playing around with, and but
Speaker 4: what really makes I think a great dancer? And I
Speaker 4: always even though they learn the choreography and they have
Speaker 4: to do the combination, I always ask them to freestyle afterwards,
Speaker 4: because to me, there's where the gold is when they
Speaker 4: start freestyling and they move their body in a way
Speaker 4: no one else moves. They dance with such joy on
Speaker 4: their faces. You know, we look for that, and that's
Speaker 4: what really makes a great dancer, when you can just
Speaker 4: tell their love of dance, but also they've worked and
Speaker 4: found the things in their body that's so unique and
Speaker 4: that they're going to inspire me when I'm in the
Speaker 4: room working.
Speaker 3: You know, for me, your best gift is de escalating
Speaker 3: any potential disasters.
Speaker 2: And the way that I've seen you.
Speaker 3: Literally with like I'm telling you my stomach, was it
Speaker 3: not because I'm waiting for this fight to set off?
Speaker 3: And you know, because a lot of my questions in
Speaker 3: our group chat was like, Yo, what happens when blah
Speaker 3: blah blah s he's blah blah blah blah. And you
Speaker 3: were like, Okay, don't worry, mirror, I'm gonna bring out.
Speaker 2: Coach Coach Robinson.
Speaker 3: And so what what is your You've always seemed like
Speaker 3: a zen person to me, but you you are extra
Speaker 3: zen in the last four years that I've seen you,
Speaker 3: So yes, what is your more?
Speaker 2: What's your morning routine?
Speaker 3: How did you get to this zen place where you
Speaker 3: can handle a renasce you were handling renaissance and hip
Speaker 3: hop fifty at the same time.
Speaker 2: And this is coming from a guy that has.
Speaker 3: Ten jobs making meditation an editor movie right now, So like,
Speaker 3: what is it?
Speaker 2: What is your secret?
Speaker 4: I think I've always been a pretty calm person. You know,
Speaker 4: when I wake up in the morning, sometimes I do
Speaker 4: this tea serum as a meditation. Sometimes I do that.
Speaker 4: I mean, living in Ohi, I live down a road
Speaker 4: where there's no other houses and there's no power lines
Speaker 4: and there's no neighbors, and so I get to wake
Speaker 4: up without like the home and noise of the city.
Speaker 4: And definitely moving to Ohi, I've kind of re wired
Speaker 4: my nervous system to just I There's there's places that
Speaker 4: I go and holidays that I take where I remember
Speaker 4: that that piece that I find there, and I just
Speaker 4: kind of like take it and and so I release
Speaker 4: little peace like that I've captured. And in those moments,
Speaker 4: it's because I've seen it so many times. Everything is
Speaker 4: gonna work out. It's just the process. And everyone has
Speaker 4: a process of how they get to point A to
Speaker 4: point B. Really everyone, you know, it's like Shakira's processes
Speaker 4: like like this, and the Kanye's processes like you know,
Speaker 4: you know like that, and some people's process is just
Speaker 4: a little easier and you're like, okay, but it's like
Speaker 4: knowing there is a goal and that finish line what
Speaker 4: we're trying to achieve. And I always kind of try
Speaker 4: and make too, like what am I try and achieve here?
Speaker 4: Like what's the goal? So that I always give myself
Speaker 4: like something to you know, to thrive to, you know,
Speaker 4: and achieve. That really helps me. And yeah, but I
Speaker 4: just I mean, it's all gonna work out. And the
Speaker 4: beauty about even you know, doing live TV and stuff.
Speaker 4: I just love the unexpected and what could happen. I
Speaker 4: don't love an artist dropping out, you know, an hour
Speaker 4: performance and the show. No, I do not like that.
Speaker 4: I think it's highly disrespectful to their peers and everything.
Speaker 4: But you know, I've seen it all with hip hop,
Speaker 4: and you know, we accept that hip hop is is
Speaker 4: unique and and I just know how to deal with
Speaker 4: all the temperatures of the attitudes and stuff. I'm like,
Speaker 4: somebody in the room has to be calm about it.
Speaker 7: And so that's why I classroom scene was like perfection.
Speaker 7: That's why I was just perfection.
Speaker 5: It was organized, beautiful, chaos yeah, you're showing me I
Speaker 5: was talking about.
Speaker 2: I was like, wait, what classrooms?
Speaker 4: I mean, that was really that classroom scene. I'm like,
Speaker 4: that's my you know that, that's my tribe. And so
Speaker 4: I wanted to see them as much as possible, and
Speaker 4: I didn't want to do the traditional like you come
Speaker 4: out your song, you go away, you come out like
Speaker 4: let's support each other and and you know a lot
Speaker 4: of I do a lot of work on myself as
Speaker 4: well a mirror, and it just in that work on myself,
Speaker 4: I'm able to bring you know, that zen and peace
Speaker 4: and all that to the performances. I mean, I love
Speaker 4: Rick Rubin's book The Creative Act. Did you listen to
Speaker 4: that one?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I got it.
Speaker 4: It's so amazing. I find myself I listen to a
Speaker 4: lot of audio books because I have that hour and
Speaker 4: a half drive, But I find myself kind of going
Speaker 4: back to that book quite as if I don't have
Speaker 4: anything to listen to. He's just he just drops some
Speaker 4: gems about where how the creative comes about and how
Speaker 4: you find it and all the things. And so you know,
Speaker 4: I listened to a lot of books that actually helped
Speaker 4: me in how I communicate with people. Too.
Speaker 2: I can learn from that. Look.
Speaker 3: I started with the question, and I guess you gave
Speaker 3: me the answer.
Speaker 2: And I'm glad you care.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you you have such a thankless, highly stressful,
Speaker 3: a very risky job where you have to be a
Speaker 3: people person and manage expectations and egos and not now
Speaker 3: but right now, like you have walked through the fire
Speaker 3: man and.
Speaker 2: More and more power to you know.
Speaker 3: I'm glad we finally have this conversation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do we ask everything about that? We go to
Speaker 2: talk about the director directorial debut that's coming. What can
Speaker 2: you share about it?
Speaker 4: Yes, Oh, well, it's a film and universal. You know,
Speaker 4: it's still my deal is done, but you know it's
Speaker 4: going through its little rewrites and this and that. But
Speaker 4: that'll be my first feature film and I'm ready. That's
Speaker 4: the hopefully the next step for my career. And still producing.
Speaker 4: I actually, you know, Jesse and them got me into
Speaker 4: this producing world and executive producing.
Speaker 2: And I love it.
Speaker 5: Yes, Mom and Dad, Yes, tell us a couple of
Speaker 5: projects we should look out for that you executive produce.
Speaker 4: Oh well, I was one of the executive producers along
Speaker 4: with the Mirror for Hip Hop fifty. I've produced the
Speaker 4: Grammys before with them, I produced this taking and taking
Speaker 4: the stage, the Obama performance that it was a while back.
Speaker 4: And so I'm enjoying it and I'm stepping more into
Speaker 4: it and I think more and more opportunities. But you know,
Speaker 4: I want to do my story. I want to do
Speaker 4: my life like I'm the new thing. It's like everyone was.
Speaker 7: Thinking you was too young. I didn't know I was.
Speaker 7: It was interesting because I was thinking story, but I
Speaker 7: was like, she's so young.
Speaker 4: I haven't done the story yet, and I think it's
Speaker 4: like someone needs to do the I grew up in
Speaker 4: the clubs, clubs with my classroom. That's why I learned,
Speaker 4: like all that the story of hip hop dance.
Speaker 3: He's gotta we gotta find you a movie producer that
Speaker 3: can actually make that happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, somebody out here.
Speaker 5: He's got to add to Honey out there. Honey was
Speaker 5: the last one.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, make it happen. Fatima, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for joining us.
Speaker 3: And and I'm not even like acting like it's good
Speaker 3: to see someone that works harder than me, Like i
Speaker 3: feel like I'm lazy compared to to you.
Speaker 5: So she she knows how to relax though too looks yes,
Speaker 5: she knows how to do that.
Speaker 2: I don't know what that is anyway.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much on behalf of a Sugar Steven
Speaker 3: New Bill brand New Billon You Steve and like you,
Speaker 3: and of course our guest Fatima Robinson is Quest Love,
Speaker 3: quest Love Supreme and we'll see you on the next GOGRAMD.
Speaker 2: Thank y'all, This is Sugar Steve.
Speaker 6: Thank you for listening to Questlove Supreme. This podcast is
Speaker 6: hosted by a Mere Quest Love Thompson, Liah Saint Clair,
Speaker 6: Fonte Coleman, Sugar Steve Mandel, and unpaid Bill Sherman. The
Speaker 6: executive producers are a Mere Quest Love Thompson, Sean g
Speaker 6: and Brian Calhoun. Produced by Britney Benjamin, Jake Pain and
Speaker 6: Liah Saint Clair, Edited by Alex Conroy. Produced for iHeart
Speaker 6: by Noel Brown.
Speaker 1: We'st Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.