Speaker 1: Welcome back All the Smoke season five. Jack. I think
Speaker 1: we're here about a year ago and we get to
Speaker 1: finish off the job today. Yep with one of one
Speaker 1: of the most talented people, uh, a woman of many hats, actress, producer, director,
Speaker 1: business woman. I learned that you used to want to
Speaker 1: direct videos.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, all that.
Speaker 1: Don't get into all that. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Thanks Jada, Thank you for coming, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: And again, happy belated birthday.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: So you hung out with the family just kind of
Speaker 1: cheer for your birthday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we could. You know, we got to kick it.
Speaker 2: I mean that's the best. You know, keep as simple
Speaker 2: and spend quality time with the people you love. It
Speaker 2: just gets real simple as you get older.
Speaker 1: What it's about? Yes, everything slows down a little bit.
Speaker 1: How is life? How is the family? How is everything
Speaker 1: going right now?
Speaker 2: Life is great? Good, family is fantastic. So you know
Speaker 2: when you catch those waves you just ride, did you
Speaker 2: know how that goes?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: You know, up and down.
Speaker 1: You mentioned in your book something that you're looking for
Speaker 1: that industry structible love for yourself. Yeah, what is that?
Speaker 1: Talk to us about what that journey has been like
Speaker 1: and the ups and downs that kind of had you
Speaker 1: struggling with that.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, that was the whole purpose of me
Speaker 2: writing the book was really to talk about my journey
Speaker 2: from feeling unworthy to worthy, right, And so as I
Speaker 2: talk about in the book, I kind of go back
Speaker 2: into my childhood, you know, being the blessed child of
Speaker 2: two addicts, right, and so that kind of set up
Speaker 2: a false concept in my formative years of not feeling
Speaker 2: worthy because I wasn't a priority to either of my parents,
Speaker 2: you know, their addictions came before me, right, And so
Speaker 2: that kind I kind of carried that with me through
Speaker 2: my adulthood and then on top of it to talk
Speaker 2: about in the book all the different traumas that came
Speaker 2: and all of that stuff. And so I really wrestled
Speaker 2: in my adult life just trying to figure out what
Speaker 2: love was, how to feel loved, you know, and when
Speaker 2: you don't you don't know. When you don't feel loved
Speaker 2: and you don't feel that that place of feeling cherished, understood, seen,
Speaker 2: and you don't know how to do it for yourself,
Speaker 2: then you just left with a lot of voids. And
Speaker 2: you think that success, marriage, children, you name it all
Speaker 2: the out, but you know all of the things. So yeah,
Speaker 2: all the stuff that looks good is gonna make it right,
Speaker 2: you know, and you think that there's no substitute for it,
Speaker 2: and you think success is going to Like I remember
Speaker 2: coming to Hollywood and like, you know, being young and
Speaker 2: being hungry and then coming to Hollywood and starting a climb,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, why do I still feel bad? This
Speaker 2: is supposed to cure everything.
Speaker 1: That's what they say.
Speaker 2: That's what they say, you know. And so once that
Speaker 2: didn't happen, I was like, well, then what the hell
Speaker 2: does all this mean? And then I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: Will came along and I was like, oh, well, maybe
Speaker 2: it's that maybe I need a man, maybe I need
Speaker 2: to get married, maybe I need to have family. And
Speaker 2: when that didn't do it, it's like and then finally,
Speaker 2: you know, forty years old, just had a complete utter,
Speaker 2: you know, just hit a wall and had the most
Speaker 2: just one of the darkest times in my life. Suicide
Speaker 2: suicidal thoughts wasn't the first time, but I struggled with
Speaker 2: that for a long time and I hit that wall
Speaker 2: and that's when I really had to start going on
Speaker 2: a serious journey.
Speaker 1: Addiction is prevalent in both of our backgrounds. You know,
Speaker 1: both my parents were addicts, but I felt like they
Speaker 1: were functioning. We still never went without, We still were
Speaker 1: clothed and took care of got our homework done. But
Speaker 1: growing up in the early eighties, I saw everything, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And now at forty three, I'm
Speaker 1: in two different kinds of counseling. Not that I really
Speaker 1: knew thought I needed because in our community it's not
Speaker 1: really talked about it cool or anything, but kind of
Speaker 1: really just unpacking understanding the person I am today is
Speaker 1: because of the traumas or you know, some of my
Speaker 1: defaults today or some of the traumas that I dealt
Speaker 1: with as a four or five, six, seven, you know,
Speaker 1: early teen, and kind of unpacking that you guys have
Speaker 1: always been kind of on the main stage. Everything is
Speaker 1: always out there, good times, bad times, going back and
Speaker 1: just kind of writing all that and really opening up
Speaker 1: and obviously taking control of your own narrative, but really
Speaker 1: kind of going back and writing about that stuff. What
Speaker 1: kind of memories good and bad did that kind of
Speaker 1: bring up along the process.
Speaker 2: Which part, like, you know, it's like man like having
Speaker 2: to go through my entire life on this line of
Speaker 2: worthy it was you know, it was probably one of
Speaker 2: the hardest things I've ever done, having to really you
Speaker 2: got to look at your life on paper. That's daunting,
Speaker 2: that's daunting, and I had to really look at some
Speaker 2: really painful stuff. And you think, I was like, I
Speaker 2: thought I'd dealt with this, you know, I thought I've
Speaker 2: reconciled this, and you feel all the intense feelings coming
Speaker 2: up again. It's just like, damn, all right, well you
Speaker 2: go here we go.
Speaker 1: Was there a weight lifted? Was there any one kind
Speaker 1: of like was there? First of all? Was there weightlifted?
Speaker 1: But then also at the same time, like I'm really
Speaker 1: revealing myself, I'm a little was there a little like
Speaker 1: hesitation or scared of that at the same time, you.
Speaker 2: Know, the only part that I felt hesitation around was
Speaker 2: talking about POC. That's always been something I kept close
Speaker 2: to the chest.
Speaker 1: And I.
Speaker 2: Because he left here, he left without saying so much,
Speaker 2: and I, you know, I was just like I really
Speaker 2: struggled with that. I was like, how much? How how
Speaker 2: are you going to tell this story that has occurred
Speaker 2: between the two of you? And what Because I mean,
Speaker 2: Pack has shared a lot of his life story, but
Speaker 2: he didn't really share a lot about our story, and
Speaker 2: I understand why at the time, but that was the
Speaker 2: only part that I was really like, and I felt
Speaker 2: like I had his blessing, and I felt like so
Speaker 2: much time has passed and so many other people in
Speaker 2: his life have had some healing time. So I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I think I think if I just venture and tell
Speaker 2: our story, I think people will have a better understanding
Speaker 2: also of what our friendship was about, you know, because
Speaker 2: people have this concept that you know, he and I
Speaker 2: were like romantic and that wasn't the case at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, reclaiming your narrative is big. I mean, you've had
Speaker 1: Red Table and obviously the tabloids have always been in
Speaker 1: your business. But but but why is that so important now?
Speaker 2: As far as reclaiming, Yeah, I think it's had more
Speaker 2: to do with you know, women aren't really given the
Speaker 2: permission or the luxury to share their the depth of
Speaker 2: their journeys. I think that a woman's journey is still
Speaker 2: very taboo, meaning like a woman's journey should be neat, nice,
Speaker 2: not messy. Uh fall in line of what is supported
Speaker 2: of how do you say it? Like patriarchal construct and understanding? Right,
Speaker 2: And so I feel like, but it's so important that
Speaker 2: women are allowed, that women allow themselves to talk about
Speaker 2: their journeys, embrace every bit of it, and learn to
Speaker 2: love every bit of it. That's part of the healing
Speaker 2: of being whole. Time may there you go, right, And
Speaker 2: so I felt like everything I've been through, I've been
Speaker 2: through the gauntlet. There's not much else anybody can really say,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, And so I felt like
Speaker 2: I've earned being able to put it all on the table.
Speaker 2: For women out there who are really in a struggle,
Speaker 2: who need to be seen in a certain manner, not
Speaker 2: to just say, hey, pray on it, go home and meditate,
Speaker 2: right to see it in real time, it's like no, no, no,
Speaker 2: this happened. You saw when that happened to me. This
Speaker 2: is what was going on, this is what I was doing, right,
Speaker 2: So you get to see like a beginning, a middle,
Speaker 2: and an end right of just like the journey, like
Speaker 2: just little pieces of my journey. Right. So really, for
Speaker 2: women out there to just go it's okay, and guess what,
Speaker 2: it's all part of getting to your self worth, you know,
Speaker 2: and it's not easy and it's not going to be pretty,
Speaker 2: and that's okay.
Speaker 1: Too, that's okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And for you and for you to be saying that,
Speaker 3: like to have a book called worthy and for you
Speaker 3: to try to find your worth and you mean so
Speaker 3: much to us and our customs. It's so many people.
Speaker 3: I was telling them yesterday. I was like, what pac
Speaker 3: is to the females. You've been there to us since
Speaker 3: I was since I was in high school, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. So so to say for you to
Speaker 3: write a book about being worthy, it's hard to touch
Speaker 3: a lot of people to start. I think that, especially
Speaker 3: the way I feel about you, you know, but it is. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we'll be fans, be fans. Yeah, but it's gonna touch
Speaker 3: a lot of women because even though you was going
Speaker 3: through so much, you didn't didn't didn't look.
Speaker 1: Like it at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm hoping it do't touch
Speaker 2: a lot of women. I'm hoping it'll touch some men too,
Speaker 2: in regards to like specifically, when I talk about what
Speaker 2: I've survived, when I talk about the kind of dope
Speaker 2: male support I've had in my life, like I don't think,
Speaker 2: like I'm so, we don't we don't really celebrate when
Speaker 2: men come into our lives with that masculine, just container
Speaker 2: like I'm here, I got you, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: and like to really show what that looks like for
Speaker 2: a woman, right. And there have been so many men
Speaker 2: in my life that have showed up in real time,
Speaker 2: in real time and really helped me along on my journey.
Speaker 2: So it's not just you know, we need our we
Speaker 2: need our men, We need our brothers, we need our uncles,
Speaker 2: we need our cousins, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 2: so also to just be able to have a moment
Speaker 2: to celebrate those men who came into my life and
Speaker 2: those little moments, whether it was Keenan Ivory WANs, you
Speaker 2: know who was like, no, you will not perjure yourself
Speaker 2: going to life for this food in court, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. I was about to do it. I
Speaker 2: was about to do it. He sent me some pictures
Speaker 2: like I'm gonna send you these pictures, changed the date
Speaker 2: on them. Sad was out there with you. I was like,
Speaker 2: not a problem. I'm gonna figure this out. And Keenan
Speaker 2: just happened to overhear me and he was like absolutely not.
Speaker 2: I was like, what what you mean? You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. So like at certain pivotal moments in my
Speaker 2: life where those father figures, those brother figures came in.
Speaker 2: You know, it's been, it's been imperative.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's move to Baltimore. Okay, raised my mother and
Speaker 3: grandma and grandmother. I wasn't growing up. I know a
Speaker 3: lot about Baltimore. Like we all talk, we just said,
Speaker 3: let's go the upbringings. We are from those areas where
Speaker 3: it ain't no playbook. You're gonna you're gonna make a
Speaker 3: lot of mistakes and you're gonna figure out, you're gonna
Speaker 3: learn the hard way a lot, but a lot, especially
Speaker 3: me and him, I know, we wouldn't change that for
Speaker 3: nothing because it made us who we are.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: A lot of people love me because of the way
Speaker 3: I stand and how solid I am, and I got
Speaker 3: all that.
Speaker 4: From my upbringing. Right, So, Baltimore to you, what does
Speaker 4: it mean?
Speaker 2: I have a chapter in my book called University or
Speaker 2: to be more Streets.
Speaker 3: It's funny you say that because we say ust University
Speaker 3: of Show Texas.
Speaker 1: That's what we are.
Speaker 2: Oh god it But I mean that was an imperative
Speaker 2: university for me, right, I don't think without that university
Speaker 2: I would have been able to come out to LA
Speaker 2: at eighteen years old on my own and figure it
Speaker 2: out right. It was like those streets taught me, like
Speaker 2: what real wolves look like, not the fake ones. You know,
Speaker 2: the Hollywood flex is Like, I'm cool on that, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. So I could really hold my
Speaker 2: own from the gate in regards to really being able
Speaker 2: to navigate that world, you know, I have, So I
Speaker 2: really I appreciate. I tell my mother all the time,
Speaker 2: never feel guilty about any of it. You were the
Speaker 2: perfect mother. You were the mother I was supposed to
Speaker 2: have for what is what my fate, how my fate
Speaker 2: has been designed right, and what that prepared me for.
Speaker 2: But I love Baltimore. Baltimore me who I am. You know,
Speaker 2: made me scrappy, made me smart, made me a fool
Speaker 2: in some cases, you know what I mean. But I
Speaker 2: love Baltimore, you know, and I have much gratitude for
Speaker 2: what Baltimore has given me.
Speaker 4: The quote you got to be more careful.
Speaker 2: You've got to be more careful. It's murderers.
Speaker 1: A lot of people know about a.
Speaker 2: Lot of people know about that now, yeah they do.
Speaker 1: Before you telling your story.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And so I learned I learned a lot
Speaker 2: of that the hard way, you know, just like I
Speaker 2: talk about it a lot in the book, just about
Speaker 2: you know, how I used to hustle and.
Speaker 1: How did they come into play.
Speaker 3: I mean, we all know trying to survive and trying
Speaker 3: to make a better way for yourself. But it's always
Speaker 3: that one person that kind of puts you in the game,
Speaker 3: that kind of ushered you into the game.
Speaker 2: Yep, I know. I talk about it a lot in
Speaker 2: the book.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, there was a young dude name
Speaker 2: check Prichardo who uh really put me on on like
Speaker 2: when I started to get more serious about it, if
Speaker 2: that's even what you want to call it, you know,
Speaker 2: if that's what you want to call it, I don't
Speaker 2: know if you call it serious. I mean, but it
Speaker 2: was like when I really thought I was on my
Speaker 2: way to become a queen, you know, and a lot
Speaker 2: of it just you know, I you know, we talk
Speaker 2: about it all the time. It was it was just
Speaker 2: I've always been one that wanted my own I didn't
Speaker 2: want to be just the hustler's girlfriend, Like I'm not
Speaker 2: doing that, nah. I got to figure this out, Like
Speaker 2: I want my own power. I want my own situation
Speaker 2: and at the time to being really concerned about man,
Speaker 2: is my mom going like what am I going to
Speaker 2: do if this doesn't if she don't make it, you know.
Speaker 2: And so I went to the streets and it's okay,
Speaker 2: for a minute, I can't picture I'm trying to, right,
Speaker 2: I can't picture it either. But that's what happened. It
Speaker 2: was like I was posted up this spot called Cherry Hill.
Speaker 2: Cherry Hill is like in Baltimore. It is it's a peninsula,
Speaker 2: so it's one way in and it's one way out,
Speaker 2: but it's the projects, right, And so I was able
Speaker 2: to find a spot at the bottom of a hill.
Speaker 2: Everybody was at the top, so everybody had to go
Speaker 2: to the top to be served. And I was like, well,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna just gone, Yeah, I'm gonna just go to
Speaker 2: the bottom. Down here in an apartment, I had my homeboy,
Speaker 2: who I call him BP I believe in the in
Speaker 2: the book I had. I was under his wing, his protection.
Speaker 2: He also worked for chet right, but he was my homeboy.
Speaker 2: And so I posted up an apartment down there and
Speaker 2: then I got set up one day two MENTI meters
Speaker 2: to the head. It was like, oh, are you really
Speaker 2: built for this? You know?
Speaker 1: And was it a sexy hustle like a tom Boy hustle?
Speaker 1: Like what was your vibe back to.
Speaker 2: Tom Boy hustle for sure, because.
Speaker 1: She looked more like the dope boy's girl. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to picture it.
Speaker 2: It was at that time, believe it or not, like
Speaker 2: I was really you know, I coutite. Look, I was
Speaker 2: going to Baltimore School for the Yards. Nobody would ever
Speaker 2: that was the whole thing. Nobody would ever imagine. I
Speaker 2: think that I would do something like that, you know,
Speaker 2: and so but I was, and you know, I definitely
Speaker 2: got into some sticky situations. You know that I feel
Speaker 2: grateful to have survived. And that's when I knew there
Speaker 2: was a God for sure. That's part of it.
Speaker 1: Wake up between the hustle, where did you find the
Speaker 1: love for dance and theater that came?
Speaker 2: See that was already established, that was established, like started
Speaker 2: at three years old, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 2: I got to be practically raised by my grandmother who
Speaker 2: made sure I had tennis classes, tap dance, ballet, piano lessons.
Speaker 2: Like the first part of my life was really in
Speaker 2: the midst of my grandmother who you know, she was
Speaker 2: like a black social like, you know. And then once
Speaker 2: she passed and my mother got a divorce and it
Speaker 2: was just she and I and she went deep into
Speaker 2: her addiction. That's where my life flipped. And I was
Speaker 2: about thirteen.
Speaker 1: Then, yeah, take us back to your first international pop
Speaker 1: Baltimore School of Arts. He said his charisma was infectious.
Speaker 1: What was his Who was he when you first met him?
Speaker 2: He was he was just such a charismatic. He was
Speaker 2: just so charismatic. And I remember walking in, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm coming in fashionably late. I'm Jada. I'm just mobbing
Speaker 2: in there, you know, and he's over in the corner,
Speaker 2: you know, just entertaining a group of people. And this
Speaker 2: was his first year. This was my throde second year.
Speaker 2: And I walked in and as soon as I walked in,
Speaker 2: he zoned in on me. And I was like, who
Speaker 2: was that peanut head over there? And he came right
Speaker 2: towards me and he was like, Hi, I'm Tupac, and
Speaker 2: I was like, too, ba. The first thing I thought
Speaker 2: was Tupac. Kind of wow, that is a powerful name, Tupac.
Speaker 2: And I was like, Hey, I'm Jada, Nice to meet you.
Speaker 2: And we were inseparable from that moment on.
Speaker 1: I think something that's overlooked now because everything is so
Speaker 1: dramatized of just how intelligent he was, how smart he was,
Speaker 1: and early on, how he had you reading books and
Speaker 1: learning about people he knewn Angela Davis to name a few. Uh,
Speaker 1: he was very passionate in the end of that obviously,
Speaker 1: but what did that kind of No one could really
Speaker 1: talk me into reading back in the day, still barely
Speaker 1: to myself.
Speaker 2: But oh he was an avid reader, huh. Like he
Speaker 2: was like Pac was a sponge. He was brilliant. He
Speaker 2: really was brilliant, right, and from day one, and that's
Speaker 2: that was the aspect of him that I loved most,
Speaker 2: you know, and he really put me on game because
Speaker 2: I grew up more my grandmother was more of a
Speaker 2: civil rights activist, right, I didn't really know much about
Speaker 2: the black power movement.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: Pac just talked about the conditions of black people all
Speaker 2: the time in regards to like systemically right, and he
Speaker 2: would have these long like I mean literally just these
Speaker 2: lectures that I got to sit and just listen to
Speaker 2: Pac and all of you know his knowledge, you have
Speaker 2: to remember, I mean a thing he was his mother,
Speaker 2: who was a brilliant woman, brilliant. She was brilliant, strong
Speaker 2: and highly intelligent, you know, And so that was why
Speaker 2: he was such an avid reader. That's why he was
Speaker 2: up on so much material in books. And we loved
Speaker 2: kind of going back and forth with each other, going
Speaker 2: toe to toe, you know, because we both had sharp minds,
Speaker 2: you know, we both loved to learn, both passionate, and
Speaker 2: so that was really just having a friend to just
Speaker 2: kind of bounce off in that way and bounce off
Speaker 2: with and about so many different things from you know,
Speaker 2: Angela Davis to Shakespeare to Van Gold to like, he
Speaker 2: had such a so many interests in so many different areas.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Welly to represent herself in the major court case, she
Speaker 3: had to be intelligence.
Speaker 2: Yeah she was bad in that time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she had to be intelligent.
Speaker 2: She was bad. She was bad.
Speaker 1: Before jumping into acting, share with us mentioned at the
Speaker 1: top your passion for directing music videos and any truth
Speaker 1: to you were thought of the concept and theme and
Speaker 1: I supposed to direct California Love who talked to us about.
Speaker 2: That, Yeah, I talk about it in the book. So
Speaker 2: Dre Drey and I had a meeting and I came
Speaker 2: up with the concept for California Love, just kind of
Speaker 2: like you know, that Mad Max Black Mad Max version,
Speaker 2: and we were ready to go. I got a call
Speaker 2: from Easy. Easy, at this particular point in time, was
Speaker 2: hospitalized and I hadn't talked to him in a minute,
Speaker 2: and he hit me up and he was like, I
Speaker 2: heard you're supposed to be doing this video with Dre.
Speaker 2: He said, I don't think you should be on that
Speaker 2: set because should go be there? And I was like,
Speaker 2: I didn't even think about that, you know. I was
Speaker 2: so excited to work with Dre, and I totally forgot
Speaker 2: about the affiliation that he had with Sugar at that time.
Speaker 2: And he was like, you know, Easy was like, please
Speaker 2: don't you don't you don't want to be in the
Speaker 2: mix of that Jada, you know. And I was like,
Speaker 2: all right, all right, cool, because you know me and
Speaker 2: e were we were. That was that was my dude.
Speaker 2: I talk about our friendship in the book as well.
Speaker 2: And so I had to tell Dre. You know, I
Speaker 2: came up with some diplomatic excuse of what to the video. Now.
Speaker 2: What's interesting, I wouldn't have been able to do the
Speaker 2: video anyway, because they decided This was before Pac, and
Speaker 2: remind you, this was before Pak was on California Love.
Speaker 2: It was just Drey, So they decided to pause and
Speaker 2: put POC on the track. Now, there's no way in
Speaker 2: the world Park was gonna let me be in the video,
Speaker 2: said directing nothing that he was in anyway. So once
Speaker 2: Pac found out, once he was on the track, found
Speaker 2: out I was supposed to be directed the video, he
Speaker 2: would have cut that anyway. So it wasn't meant for
Speaker 2: me to do period, you know, but I did it.
Speaker 2: William said he killed it. I wouldn't have been able
Speaker 2: to do what he did.
Speaker 1: That's interesting it all worked out video hip Hop Revolution.
Speaker 3: We always say that hip hop and music is like
Speaker 3: the soundtrack to our life, especially when we came up.
Speaker 1: What does hip hop mean to you?
Speaker 2: I have a really interesting relationship with hip hop now specifically,
Speaker 2: I had a lot of reconciling to do that I'm
Speaker 2: still in the process of because and I talk about
Speaker 2: this extensively in the book. Once Pac was murdered and
Speaker 2: just how it all went down, I really I really lost.
Speaker 2: Like I didn't want anything to do with hip hop.
Speaker 2: I'll just put it like that. I don't want nothing
Speaker 2: to do with it. I just felt like I just
Speaker 2: felt like it was all so unfair. And I go
Speaker 2: into detail in the book just about all of it,
Speaker 2: and I was really pissed. I was like, fuck all this,
Speaker 2: fuck the streets, fuck all these fake ass gangsters, fuck everybody.
Speaker 2: I was mad. I was really mad, and I really
Speaker 2: just decided, like I'm not with none of that, you know,
Speaker 2: but I still have so much love for like how
Speaker 2: hip hop's how hip hop really helped formed, helped form me.
Speaker 2: You know, when I think about rock Him, I think
Speaker 2: about Eric Ba rock Him. When I think about Salt
Speaker 2: and Pepper, when I think about MC light, but I
Speaker 2: think about rock Sane Chante, She's a runaway. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, like the Z three MC's. I mean, we
Speaker 2: could go on and on and on. It's like I
Speaker 2: grew up on hip hop substances, yeah right, and it's
Speaker 2: like it helped form me. It helped form my whole,
Speaker 2: like my whole get down. So when I think about
Speaker 2: the hip hop that raised me, that's a whole different story.
Speaker 2: Much love, much respect, so important, you know.
Speaker 1: Fingers hell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's I talk about that in the book.
Speaker 2: It's like when you got to hear all, you know,
Speaker 2: just booming out the systems in the in the neighborhood,
Speaker 2: you know, or going to Druide Hill Park and all
Speaker 2: the cars, you know, just seeing all the dope cars
Speaker 2: in the city, you know what I mean, Like it's
Speaker 2: a big block party. It was definitely a middle finger
Speaker 2: to like, we are going to make it out of here.
Speaker 2: We deserve the best of life as well, and fuck you,
Speaker 2: it's gonna happen, right, And it was a constant reminder
Speaker 2: of our worthiness, you know what I mean. So the
Speaker 2: hip hop of that era for me kept me strong.
Speaker 1: Foundation, yeahs, destruction, all that.
Speaker 2: I love it. So it kept me strong, It kept
Speaker 2: me fiery, kept me motivated.
Speaker 3: Did Tupac influence you musically? Like did he try to
Speaker 3: get you to Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: I talk about that in the book. He tried to
Speaker 2: Oh man, Pac tried to put me in this this
Speaker 2: female you know, this battle rap group. Now mind you
Speaker 2: I you know this is Pac. He's like trying to
Speaker 2: coach me. He's right in my rhymes, but I don't,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't have the cadence, Like I'm not
Speaker 2: a rapper, Like that's one thing I can't do right.
Speaker 2: And he used to get on me. He was like,
Speaker 2: you are not on beat, Like what is wrong with you?
Speaker 2: But imagine Pak trying to teach me to rap like him?
Speaker 2: Crazy possible, right, I'm like, come on, but I did
Speaker 2: one rap battle. We got through it, we won, saying
Speaker 2: and I was like, that's it, Park, I'm done right.
Speaker 2: Don't like we didn't have, you know, the cell phones
Speaker 2: and all that. Ain't no footage of that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: Coming to Hollywood from Baltimore, I thought your shot. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: talk about coming here to Hollywood, arriving here from Baltimore
Speaker 3: and how you know, the ups and downs, how different
Speaker 3: it was. You already got a chip on your shoulder
Speaker 3: because you're coming from Baltimore. This shark Q chick young
Speaker 3: don't know what's going on? You know, the wolves see you.
Speaker 3: It's food.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's crazy, it's you know, but it was the
Speaker 5: beast time, so you know, coming out to Hollywood, it
Speaker 5: was just like that.
Speaker 2: That was that was a culture shock for real. It
Speaker 2: was just like what is going on out here?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: And I wasn't used to having to play like coming
Speaker 2: from Baltimore. I never played the game of like oh
Speaker 2: I'm gonna snuggle up to you. Be nice, smile, be
Speaker 2: you know, cute. You know, I don't know, like the
Speaker 2: whole the whole idea was be pleasant. Let let's let
Speaker 2: the men around you think that you you know, you're available, right,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I get you killed on the street.
Speaker 2: I don't do that, like no, like I like, if
Speaker 2: I'm going to do that, that's that's who gets that.
Speaker 1: That's understood.
Speaker 2: You don't he gets that you and me were here
Speaker 2: to do business. So you want me to read these
Speaker 2: lines because I'm just with, okay, cool, I'm gonna read
Speaker 2: these lines, and I'm up out of here right. I
Speaker 2: didn't know how to just like nice or just be nice, like,
Speaker 2: you know, I walk in there, like what's up? What
Speaker 2: this is it? Okay? Cool? You already great?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? So I had to learn
Speaker 2: how to like just kind of like, you know, get more,
Speaker 2: get the edges off, you know. And that took me
Speaker 2: a minute because I didn't understand. I didn't understand, like, no,
Speaker 2: that's I don't know what that's about. Like nah, I
Speaker 2: ain't trying to do all that. Plus, ain't none of
Speaker 2: y'all in here of any interest to me? So try
Speaker 2: to learn how to play the game. And then La
Speaker 2: was so different. You know, you got all these palm
Speaker 2: trees and I'm over there on like Venice and Losienaga
Speaker 2: up the street from World on Wheels. To me, we cool.
Speaker 2: I didn't know. You know what I'm saying, It's like, oh,
Speaker 2: you can get got.
Speaker 1: All around there, all around there.
Speaker 2: I was like, what So I had to learn learn that.
Speaker 2: It's like just because it looks nice doesn't mean it
Speaker 2: ain't sweet. It's sweet.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So but that was, you know, it was definitely a
Speaker 2: learning curve coming out here.
Speaker 3: Is it ever a picture or a picture that you
Speaker 3: have with you Nia and Holly Berry in the same photo.
Speaker 1: I don't like the copy me.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, I got some pictures like me and Nia
Speaker 2: and then me and Halle and not the three of
Speaker 2: us together. You talk about your friendship, you know, it's
Speaker 2: like it's an era where it was like you had
Speaker 2: you had the Regina Kings, the Nia and lngs Ali Berry.
Speaker 2: It was bohmen boom man, right. It was. It was
Speaker 2: a booming time and it just felt like we all
Speaker 2: had so much love and support for one another. We
Speaker 2: understood at that time a door that opened up for
Speaker 2: me was a door that was opening up for everybody
Speaker 2: else as well. The door that was opening up for Halle,
Speaker 2: a door that was opening up for Nia. Right, that
Speaker 2: was a door for all of us. We all innately
Speaker 2: understood that, you know. So it was an era in
Speaker 2: which it was like, I really felt like there was
Speaker 2: really strong camaraderie amongst black talent as.
Speaker 1: A whole, which is dope.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it was just it was a special time.
Speaker 1: What do you think of Hollywood right now?
Speaker 4: Just stay in Hollywood right now.
Speaker 2: It's in the you know where it's a lot of
Speaker 2: change happening. Yeah, a lot of change happening. A lot
Speaker 2: of change happening.
Speaker 4: But is it good change?
Speaker 2: Well, I think industry wise, we'll see. As far as
Speaker 2: change in regards to what's happening amongst black talent, people
Speaker 2: of color, you know, there's still room for lots of
Speaker 2: improvement on both sides.
Speaker 1: It seems like there's a lot of box checking right
Speaker 1: now for you know, big big projects to Okay, she's that,
Speaker 1: let's get her for this and see.
Speaker 2: How that works exactly. Yeah, And so you know, I
Speaker 2: feel like, but I do feel like we got to
Speaker 2: kind of there's a really there's a bigger shift in
Speaker 2: the construct of Hollywood that's happening that we got to
Speaker 2: see where that's gonna land.
Speaker 1: Ninety three.
Speaker 3: Yeah, uh, you were in a epic movie directed by
Speaker 3: the Hughes brothers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how was that? And how was it getting that role? Well?
Speaker 2: I got the role.
Speaker 1: I could have played it, by the way, even though
Speaker 1: you're fifteenth, Yeah, fifteen, but I had a down pack.
Speaker 2: All right, let me see I Pac Pac brought that
Speaker 2: role to me. Mmm, Pac brought that role to me.
Speaker 2: He's like, Yo, you gotta meet these these uh, these
Speaker 2: directors about to do this project. It's gonna be like
Speaker 2: the one John Singleton did, but it's you know, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be more real. It's gonna be you know. And
Speaker 2: I was like, well, you know, what is it? So
Speaker 2: he explained to me the role. He was like, he
Speaker 2: was telling me the role he's gonna play. And he's
Speaker 2: like I already told him you're my homegirl, so you
Speaker 2: need to be up in this. And I'm like all right. Well,
Speaker 2: he's like, no, I want you to meet him. And
Speaker 2: I was like, like, you know, I'm doing different world,
Speaker 2: and you know, I need the audition. You don't need
Speaker 2: an audition they already know. So I'm like, okay, Pa,
Speaker 2: so right exactly. So you know, he got the he
Speaker 2: got me in there with him, and you know, we
Speaker 2: all got along. And then next thing I know is
Speaker 2: calling me telling me he's not doing the movie because
Speaker 2: he didn't got Tad with the brothers. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: what you know? And what's crazy is that I didn't want.
Speaker 2: I was like, I can't do the movie if you're
Speaker 2: not doing the movie. I came in with you. You brought
Speaker 2: me in. If you leaving, I'm leaving. And he was
Speaker 2: like no, He's like, no, you gotta do this movie.
Speaker 2: I remember us getting into this like fierce argument. Now
Speaker 2: mind you, Debbie Allen had already gone and you know,
Speaker 2: to the producers of a Different World and really convinced
Speaker 2: them to let me do this movie because I'm still
Speaker 2: shooting a Different World. She got my schedule all changed,
Speaker 2: you know, and working it out, and I remember going freak.
Speaker 2: But I didn't want to be on that set without
Speaker 2: pac you know, Glad, And he was like he he
Speaker 2: won the argument. And he's lucky because I couldn't go
Speaker 2: back to Debbie and be like, I'm not gonna do
Speaker 2: the movie now, you know. So I did it and
Speaker 2: he was right because he told me, he said, you
Speaker 2: need this. He's like, you need this for your career,
Speaker 2: you know, because I really didn't see what he saw.
Speaker 2: I was doing it because we were going to be
Speaker 2: in a movie together, and I was just trusting his instincts.
Speaker 2: I didn't see what PAK saw. But he was like, no,
Speaker 2: you're gonna do this movie. You need this movie, blah
Speaker 2: blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Ooh, did that make you feel worthy?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I see it always?
Speaker 1: I see what you talk about it always.
Speaker 2: Now he could have his moment like we definitely. Here's
Speaker 2: the thing about POC. I could get in the worst
Speaker 2: arguments with him, but if I'm in trouble, he's gonna
Speaker 2: be there. He's coming. You know, he was coming. And
Speaker 2: I always could depend on that with him, you know,
Speaker 2: and he would pull my coattails. That's the thing. We
Speaker 2: both could just pull each other's coattails in a way
Speaker 2: that nobody else could.
Speaker 1: We can fight, but nobody else can.
Speaker 2: Yeah, He's like, I'm gonna say some shit to you,
Speaker 2: but I better not.
Speaker 1: Hear nobody else say it.
Speaker 2: I'm about to get in your ass.
Speaker 1: You know. So Park's final year obviously goes to prison,
Speaker 1: gets involved with Sugar, and you had a kind of
Speaker 1: inclination from the jump. Just the vibe wasn't right with
Speaker 1: that situation. And as who you are, and like you said,
Speaker 1: you guys could say anything to each other. How was
Speaker 1: those conversations between you guys? And I heard he kind
Speaker 1: of tried to keep you away from it while he
Speaker 1: was in it. Speak to that a little well, Pack and.
Speaker 2: I talk about that a lot in the book.
Speaker 1: Poc.
Speaker 2: Really he really kept me separate from all of it
Speaker 2: from the from the gate. I think people be surprised
Speaker 2: to know I never saw Tupac perform live.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: He never The thing about POC stuff was always jumping off,
Speaker 2: was always popping. So Pac was cool with I'm coming
Speaker 2: to your spot you can or you can meet me
Speaker 2: at my spot over here. But it wasn't any like
Speaker 2: We're going come to the club with me, go to
Speaker 2: the That was a no no because he was always
Speaker 2: like no, because I can't. I can't do both.
Speaker 1: I gotta worry about myself, man, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: He's like no, So yeah, I was really concerned about shit.
Speaker 2: I was really concerned now, mind you, he was still
Speaker 2: in jail when he told me. I remember we were
Speaker 2: in Dani Mora. I talk about it in a book,
Speaker 2: and I was with Light and Neph for TD. We
Speaker 2: went up there to see Pac and Dana Mora and
Speaker 2: he said that he was going to sign with should
Speaker 2: and I remember saying, you know, all three of us
Speaker 2: were just kind of like, okay, you sure, you know,
Speaker 2: and he's like yeah, because he's he's willing to get
Speaker 2: me out of here. And you know, because Pac had
Speaker 2: been waiting because of the nature of his charges, he
Speaker 2: refused to He was like, these these men need to come,
Speaker 2: need to come get me, specifically, these men who are
Speaker 2: making money off of me. That was his thing because
Speaker 2: a bunch of us had a bunch of us had
Speaker 2: just kind of you know, we we we flanked him.
Speaker 2: We were like, we'll get you out of here. We'll
Speaker 2: raise the money, you know, because it was a bunch
Speaker 2: of us kind of starlits. He knew a lot of starlts,
Speaker 2: and we were like, we're here, we'll get you out.
Speaker 2: And he was like he was like no, no, no,
Speaker 2: he was like no, no. And so with Sure he
Speaker 2: felt like, look, this is I owe him three albums
Speaker 2: and I'm done, and I was like, so I said,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna come back tomorrow, so neph and like they left,
Speaker 2: and I drove back to Dana Moore the next day
Speaker 2: to just talk to him one on one.
Speaker 3: And.
Speaker 2: I knew I wasn't gonna be able to That wasn't
Speaker 2: my place to try to convince it me. He was
Speaker 2: locked up, he wanted out, so I knew I wasn't
Speaker 2: gonna win that battle. But it was once he got
Speaker 2: out and everything that transpired after that that I was
Speaker 2: just like, Hey, you don't have to be of this.
Speaker 2: Don't let people pray on your resentment and your anger.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people might not know, but he
Speaker 1: proposed to he while he was in jail.
Speaker 2: I talk about this in the book when I go
Speaker 2: to see him and Wrikers. When I wrote about that
Speaker 2: in the book, and when I had to talk about
Speaker 2: it speak my words for the audible version of the book,
Speaker 2: that was probably one of the more painful parts. Seeing
Speaker 2: him there, the condition that he was in, and having
Speaker 2: to leave him there, and he was in, he was,
Speaker 2: he was in, he was he was, he was in
Speaker 2: bad shape. And so when he asked me to get married.
Speaker 2: He was at Rikers, and I knew at that time
Speaker 2: that A he needed somebody to do time with him,
Speaker 2: which I was gonna do anyway, and you have to
Speaker 2: marry me, right, I'm here, We love you and then too,
Speaker 2: but he needed a rock. He needed uh because of
Speaker 2: our friendship and because of everything we had been through together.
Speaker 2: He just wanted to feel that solidified foundation, you know,
Speaker 2: because I promise you he would have married me and
Speaker 2: divorced me as soon as.
Speaker 3: Right, because so many people in that position don't have support, right,
Speaker 3: none at.
Speaker 2: All, none, you know, and right he was just like,
Speaker 2: look and I just think it was the mind state
Speaker 2: that he was in, you know. He wrote me this
Speaker 2: long letter, and I think even before Park went to jail,
Speaker 2: he was starting to trent. He was starting to shift
Speaker 2: in a certain manner really good. And I think that
Speaker 2: for him, he just felt like, Okay, if I can
Speaker 2: tether myself, it'll keep me on a trajectory. But trust me,
Speaker 2: he would have. He would have divorced me as soon
Speaker 2: is he One thing he ain't want me as is
Speaker 2: a wife. I know that for a fact, you know.
Speaker 2: But I think just being at Wrikers, it just.
Speaker 1: Kind of shook them. You and park weren't on speaking
Speaker 1: terms of last year of his life. Can you tell
Speaker 1: us why and what that taught you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, when I was talking about how we could
Speaker 2: pull each other's coat tails, I I just felt like
Speaker 2: he was off track a little bit, you know, and
Speaker 2: I'm I spoke on that and we got into a
Speaker 2: heated probably one of the most heated arguments we've ever had.
Speaker 2: And that was not Parka. Not getting into heated confrontations
Speaker 2: was not unusual, right, this was this happened to be
Speaker 2: a very heated one, and I didn't speak to him
Speaker 2: for a year. I was so, I was hurt. I
Speaker 2: was pissed, and I really kind of dug my heels
Speaker 2: in the ground. I was just like, he went too
Speaker 2: far and he's gonna have to call me. Both that
Speaker 2: he's gonna he's gonna have to call me, and I'm
Speaker 2: standing in my ground on it, you know. And I
Speaker 2: learned that don't waste time like that. You know. It's
Speaker 2: like a whole year out of my you know, pride.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. It's just both of us
Speaker 2: very prideful, just hard headed prideful, you know, And because
Speaker 2: none of it mattered the day that I the when
Speaker 2: a Fanny called me, you know, when I found out
Speaker 2: he'd been shot again, I didn't give like and that
Speaker 2: whole converse and whatever was going on with Sugar and
Speaker 2: all that. It didn't matter. So why should it have mattered?
Speaker 2: For a whole year, it didn't matter. And surely once
Speaker 2: he was gone, you know. So I just learned, like, man,
Speaker 2: don't hold on the bullshit. It's not worth it because
Speaker 2: you just never know.
Speaker 1: And it's heavy too. Hold on this shit is just heavy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's heavy on your spirit. Red Table talk, you guys
Speaker 1: created the space, your mom, your daughter, and captivated the world.
Speaker 1: Talk to us about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that table has been a powerful healer.
Speaker 2: I'm so grateful for that table and so grateful to
Speaker 2: you know, I was able to experience that table with
Speaker 2: my daughter and my mother, you know, and that table
Speaker 2: has taught me so much and it's shown me so much,
Speaker 2: you know, And yeah, so I'm grateful for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's deep. I love Jane. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the episodes that shook the world, the Entanglement episode.
Speaker 1: Did anyone try to say, hey, don't do this or
Speaker 1: this is something that you felt obviously had to be done.
Speaker 1: Where were you? Where was you leading up to that episode?
Speaker 2: You know, I felt like I had to go to
Speaker 2: the table. Now, what I clear up in the book
Speaker 2: is that Will wasn't supposed to be at the table. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Will was not supposed to be at the table. And
Speaker 2: I didn't ask Will to come to the table. Will
Speaker 2: wanted to come to the table. He didn't want me
Speaker 2: to have to go through that by myself. And at
Speaker 2: that particular time, which I talk about in the book extensively,
Speaker 2: Will and I were not together and we came to
Speaker 2: the table, and what happened is that you really got
Speaker 2: to see a dynamic between us, you know, kind of
Speaker 2: like my codependency of like I will do anything at
Speaker 2: this time to make sure you're okay, even if it
Speaker 2: meant yeah, you know. But two things with that, So
Speaker 2: I'm like, this is your mess, So you got to
Speaker 2: take you got to do the time on this, You
Speaker 2: got to take the heat on this. This is your mess, right,
Speaker 2: And then another like oh and then also, this is
Speaker 2: going to be an opportunity to see your dysfunction, m
Speaker 2: that you're about to see through the dynamic that's being
Speaker 2: exhibited at this table right now, right and so, But
Speaker 2: I also just wanted to shut the noise, own up
Speaker 2: to my part, even if it meant taking on a
Speaker 2: whole lot that wasn't mine, and move on and make
Speaker 2: sure everybody else was okay in it. No matter what,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be straight. But the biggest part of that
Speaker 2: table is that it showed me a part of myself
Speaker 2: that needed healing and a part of a dynamic within
Speaker 2: my relationship with Will that needed healing. And even though
Speaker 2: people told me, Jada, do not put this out, they
Speaker 2: begged me, Ellen included begged me everybody. They were like,
Speaker 2: this isn't true. You're throwing yourself under the table. Why
Speaker 2: would you do this? And I needed that because I
Speaker 2: wouldn't have been able to see that dynamic. Now, you
Speaker 2: can make any choice you want to make, or to
Speaker 2: be unconscious any unconscious part in which why you're making
Speaker 2: the choice. I had to make that choice so that
Speaker 2: I could see the unconscious part. And I'm grateful, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying straight up for so many reasons.
Speaker 4: Part of journey.
Speaker 2: It's part of my journey, you know. And what I
Speaker 2: was able to strip, what I was able to learn
Speaker 2: and also with all of the shit that came my
Speaker 2: way and being able to be ten toes down just
Speaker 2: in my skin and be okay with it all.
Speaker 4: Ugh.
Speaker 2: But that's where it's at. That's where the true freedom is.
Speaker 1: There, you go, We've never heard your perspective on the
Speaker 1: Oscar moment.
Speaker 2: Hmm. Let me tell you that Oscar moment. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of perspective, which I talk about it in the book,
Speaker 2: The Holy Joke, the Holy Slap, and the Holy Lessons.
Speaker 2: You know, I look at it all. It's like this
Speaker 2: is just big one, one big university, and I don't
Speaker 2: have any judgment on any of it. I'm supposed to.
Speaker 2: It did what it did, it happened, you know. I
Speaker 2: don't have any judgment on any of it. You know,
Speaker 2: and and have a lot of thoughts about it. You know,
Speaker 2: I have no judgment on any of it.
Speaker 1: We live in an era now with social media, and
Speaker 1: you know you've chose to with the Red Table kind
Speaker 1: of open up a deeper side and show another side.
Speaker 1: Obviously with your book you're showing another side. How do
Speaker 1: you and your family, particularly your kids, deal with all
Speaker 1: the noise?
Speaker 2: My kids are so gangster like if they you want
Speaker 2: to talk about some writers like they really and I
Speaker 2: think also they'd be like, that's y'all stuff, Like their
Speaker 2: generation is not thinking about what's happening over here, you know,
Speaker 2: it's just not so they just have They just kind
Speaker 2: of have a real They kind of glide above it all.
Speaker 1: In their own world.
Speaker 2: And they're in their own world and on top of it,
Speaker 2: they know who their parents are. They know they love
Speaker 2: us for what we are. They know we're not perfect.
Speaker 2: They've been living in the house with us, in the
Speaker 2: ship with us, you know what I mean, and they
Speaker 2: love us both deeply and so because of the experience
Speaker 2: that they have with us one on one, they don't
Speaker 2: all of that is just noise. They don't really pay
Speaker 2: it any mind because they know what's happening. They know
Speaker 2: what's going on.
Speaker 1: It's it's real.
Speaker 3: With being the icon and the legend and the queen
Speaker 3: you are, now, is it anything else you want to achieve,
Speaker 3: like personal goals?
Speaker 1: Anything on the bucket lists?
Speaker 2: I think just on the bucket list to like keep
Speaker 2: seeing the code, you know, as far as keep seeing
Speaker 2: what is true and what's real within and without meaning
Speaker 2: like dough everything that I've been through when you get
Speaker 2: to see what's really going on. It just frees you up,
Speaker 2: you know when you realize, like, oh, there's people out
Speaker 2: here talking crazy about you, but it ain't stealing your
Speaker 2: oxygen and your heart is still beating you straight. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, It's like, all right, that's on you,
Speaker 2: like you know, it's like and just keep curing, like
Speaker 2: deepening that level of self worth, keep curing that self
Speaker 2: judgment because at the end of the day, there is
Speaker 2: no weapon of judgment that can be forced against you
Speaker 2: if your self judgment is in check.
Speaker 4: Love your first.
Speaker 2: You gotta love yourself first, and you can't expect everybody
Speaker 2: like who's going to love He's gonna love you. This
Speaker 2: world is fickle. So if we're looking for people out
Speaker 2: here to give us something we can't give ourselves were
Speaker 2: all the time, you know what I mean. You gotta
Speaker 2: be good with you people out here struggling trying to
Speaker 2: figure out how to be good with themselves, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, And just deepening that knowledge and having
Speaker 2: that compassion and having that love because the deeply, the
Speaker 2: more deeply I can love myself, the more deeply I
Speaker 2: can love others. And I find the utmost, the utmost
Speaker 2: joy in that.
Speaker 3: But you know, when you when you doing service to
Speaker 3: others genuinely, that's the highest act that you can give anybody.
Speaker 1: There it is that's in the Bible.
Speaker 3: So that's the highest act of charity. It's caring about
Speaker 3: it doing something with somebody else that don't.
Speaker 2: Benefit you straight up.
Speaker 4: So what would you tell your younger self if you
Speaker 4: go back?
Speaker 2: I would tell her so many things. I think the
Speaker 2: first thing I would tell her is that God is real.
Speaker 2: Please know that. That'd be number one. It took me
Speaker 2: so long. I think I was freaking forty before I
Speaker 2: realized how real God is.
Speaker 1: Super real.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when people think of Jada Pikett Smith, what do
Speaker 3: you want them to think of for me? Like I said,
Speaker 3: We've been worshiping you and having you on a pedestal
Speaker 3: for so long because of your work, because of who
Speaker 3: you are, because you're a beautiful person.
Speaker 4: We just admired you for so long.
Speaker 3: So what Like, I know what I think when I say,
Speaker 3: but when you want when people see you and think
Speaker 3: of you and your name come up, what you want
Speaker 3: to think or say?
Speaker 4: What would you think would be the worst come?
Speaker 2: I think you know what? Whatever is real for them.
Speaker 1: Whatever they feel, whatever.
Speaker 2: They feel, it's all good. It's like I can have
Speaker 2: it all, you know what I mean. It's like I
Speaker 2: can have the honor, I can have the disrespect, i
Speaker 2: can have the consideration, I can have the lack of consideration.
Speaker 2: I can have it all. And I'm gonna love you anyway.
Speaker 2: It's all good. I'm gonna be all right. It's all good.
Speaker 2: So I'm just grateful when someone has those beautiful words,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be grateful. I'm gonna put that in my pocket,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna say thank you, you know. And I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be grateful when somebody doesn't have such beautiful words.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: It's to give and take. It's all good, all right.
Speaker 1: We're coming down to the quick hitters. Now, first thing
Speaker 1: that pops up in your mind, let us know. Top
Speaker 1: five most impactful women.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, top five most in your life, even
Speaker 2: in my life. Grandmother number one, my grandmother, my mother.
Speaker 2: Your twin got to be like my mother, my mother,
Speaker 2: Debbie Allen. Five my mother, my grandmother, Debbie Allen. Pack
Speaker 2: for women, my daughter Willow. It's another one. There's an
Speaker 2: Indian Saint Ananda mighty. She's impacted my life greatly too.
Speaker 1: I forgot to ask earlier, you uh done something I've
Speaker 1: always wanted done? And how? Well?
Speaker 2: Not?
Speaker 1: How was ayahuasca? I'm scared?
Speaker 4: I want to do it.
Speaker 1: I want to do it. I forgot to ask how
Speaker 1: was it? Well?
Speaker 2: You know, if you want, how long has it been
Speaker 2: calling you?
Speaker 1: Like? Three? Four years? Five years old?
Speaker 2: You've been calling you that? Okay, I talk about my journey.
Speaker 2: I've been doing ayahuasca now since I was forty. That's
Speaker 2: been it's twelve years, right. I wouldn't say that it's
Speaker 2: a plant for everybody. I'll start there and how I
Speaker 2: got introduced to ayahuasca, And I would not say that
Speaker 2: this is a remedy for depression. But when I hit
Speaker 2: that wall at forty, that was my first journey and
Speaker 2: it was brutal. It was brutal, but I never had
Speaker 2: a suicidal thought ever again. After that was four nights? Wow, wow,
Speaker 2: four nights.
Speaker 1: Did you go out to like the jungles or somewhere else?
Speaker 2: I went. I went to OHI. I didn't go to
Speaker 2: the jungle. I went up to OHI. Yeah, I went
Speaker 2: to this jungle. It is right, but yeah, I went.
Speaker 4: To old is good enough for me on the tree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean, and that's true. It's like that
Speaker 2: really know us for you know, when it calls you,
Speaker 2: it calls you when it doesn't. It's not that it's
Speaker 2: not for everybody.
Speaker 3: Number changed, it changed, okay, Yeah, good for you.
Speaker 4: One actor roll you wish you could have, You could
Speaker 4: have had, probably.
Speaker 2: Not supposed to get you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, what's for you?
Speaker 4: It's for you anyway.
Speaker 1: Ain't nobody getting away of that one hobby or interest
Speaker 1: people wouldn't know about.
Speaker 2: You that people wouldn't wouldn't know. I love to bake.
Speaker 1: Oh, really should go to seven upcake okay, okay, hold up? Okay,
Speaker 1: yeah we call it upside down cake.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love seven upcake and I can throw down
Speaker 2: on a seven upcake.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's the Baltimore that's that thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Oh this question laying on there, who your so your
Speaker 3: best friend? Like who knows all your tea?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Who knows all my tea that you guys would know?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Okay, who would know all my tea that you guys know?
Speaker 1: It's like your homegirl, you have a glass of.
Speaker 2: Wine with Lauren London.
Speaker 1: Lauren London. Yeah, I just seen it not too long ago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sneak ahead, favorite sneak of all time.
Speaker 2: Favorite sneak of all time. Okay, hold up, that's a.
Speaker 1: Hard one.
Speaker 2: Colored rebox Princess cut.
Speaker 4: Colored Rebox Princess cut.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because we used to in Baltimore. So what we
Speaker 2: used to do. We used to get Russell sweatsuits. Okay,
Speaker 2: so you get mustard yellow, red, purple, and you could
Speaker 2: get rebox that mats.
Speaker 1: Otherwise the soldiers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah right there. Yeah, that's like like a rebox classic
Speaker 2: rebox for me is where's that?
Speaker 4: That?
Speaker 3: Ain't nothing but early? Take a bot, take a shoe,
Speaker 3: and what's the other shoes? They had to strap with
Speaker 3: the strap on Giuseppe shoes. That's the early version of
Speaker 3: everything is recycled.
Speaker 1: Your dream red table, your team plus five people that
Speaker 1: are alive. Who's at your table?
Speaker 2: My dream red table? So you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Guest wise, Yeah, just people you just want to sit
Speaker 1: up and have a good conversation with, have a glass
Speaker 1: of wine, to have a great conversation with. Smoke woman. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we got a lot of the If we
Speaker 1: make the table, we might be able to bring something
Speaker 1: to it.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think my train red table. That's a
Speaker 2: let me let me flip this, Okay, flip it.
Speaker 1: Five dinner guests dead are alive. So you plus five
Speaker 1: at dinner that are alive dead or.
Speaker 2: Alive dead or a live pock. Some one would love
Speaker 2: to sit pack down. He'd have to be there. Damn,
Speaker 2: you got me stumped. Hold up, hmm, that might be yeah,
Speaker 2: have Marian, have Marian come through my grandmother? Maybe also
Speaker 2: Karen Armstrong. Karen Armstrong is oh yeah, bring Karen Armstrong
Speaker 2: and talk to Pak and my grandmother who's been on
Speaker 2: the other side. Karen Armstrong is one of my favorite authors.
Speaker 2: She used to be a Catholic nun and she writes.
Speaker 2: She studies and writes about all different religions. She wrote
Speaker 2: this brilliant book called The History of God. So I'd
Speaker 2: have Karen Armstrong pac Marion.
Speaker 1: Two more seats, two more seats.
Speaker 2: Damn who else will wrote a nath Swamy wrote a swammy,
Speaker 2: So it would be it would definitely be a table
Speaker 2: on some hot like spiritual just that's the tablettle though
Speaker 2: you stuck me with that one. But I'm always interested
Speaker 2: in the mysteries of God. So that is like, I
Speaker 2: could talk about that all day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 3: If you could see one guest on our show, who
Speaker 3: would be? But you have to help us get them
Speaker 3: on the show.
Speaker 2: One guest like who do you want?
Speaker 1: You mentioned your friend you share all the tea with?
Speaker 1: She'd be dope. You guys have had lawd Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we you know, we know her waiting till maybe your
Speaker 1: push give us that extra Lauren.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's interesting. Lauren hasn't been on the show.
Speaker 1: She's already family.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you just I think the time just hasn't permitted itself.
Speaker 1: That's all it is.
Speaker 2: That's all it is with Lauren. It's timing. It's timing
Speaker 2: with Lauren. She needs a reason and we respect it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, Jada, thank you best the luck by the time
Speaker 1: this air is telling them where they can get your.
Speaker 2: Book at everywhere you can get at Barns and Nobles, Amazon, Target,
Speaker 2: you know, you go, you know, anywhere you buy your books.
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations on that. Again, we've been fans of yours
Speaker 1: for a long time. And then we're happy that you're
Speaker 1: on that journey to finding the hire you and to
Speaker 1: see you smile today and and and open up and
Speaker 1: share with us was truly honest, So thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you to us. He's held itself long enough. It's only
Speaker 1: a matter of time. It's only amount of time. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a wrap, Jada Pickett Smith all the smoke. You
Speaker 1: can catch us on Showtime Basketball, YouTube and the iHeart
Speaker 1: platform Black Effects. We'll see y'all next week.