WEBVTT - Lady Wray 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:20.040 Request Left Show is a production of iHeart Radio, Ladies 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:20.560 and Gentlemen. 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:24.600 I will say that James Todd Smith famously yelled in 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:28.560 nineteen ninety don't call it a comeback. Our guest today 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:33.040 has probably been hearing that term for at least the 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:35.919 last ten years, which means it really isn't a comeback. 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:39.760 She's had quite the journey in her music career. She 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:43.920 rose to fame in the late nineties under her birth 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.440 name Nicole Ray. Of course we all remember make It 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.559 Hot top five hit with Missy Elliott's gold Mine imprint. 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:57.640 She experienced the challenges of navigating the music industry, including 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:02.800 shifts and label support and evolving musical landscapes. We are 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.840 definitely gonna get into that, and after a period of 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.279 personal reflection and growth, she basically returned to her roots, 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:17.360 embracing her authentic, soulful self and redefining her sound, starting 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:22.040 with twenty sixteen's mind blowing Queen alone album. There's also 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.440 Piece of Me in twenty twenty two, and now her 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.080 new album entitled Cover Girl, which is on Big Crown Records. 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:36.480 I can personally attest that her discography might be the 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:43.080 unofficial roots background Dressing Room soundtrack. I've been a longtime 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:48.000 fan and I would like to welcome Lady Ray to QLs. 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:48.480 How are you. 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.480 Today, I'm great, Thanks Ques for having me. I'm a 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:54.080 longtime fan of you guys and of you as well. 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:56.200 This is just a pleasure today. 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:56.720 Yeah. 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:59.000 I was gonna say, there's a difference between the two 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:03.040 dressing rooms of the Roots and usually before a show, 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:07.120 I wanted real quiet and zen and in the opposite 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:08.960 room where the rest of the guys are, you know, 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:11.760 they gotta it's almost like a football atmosphere where they 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.160 got to get each other hype. And I remember sometime 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:19.880 like maybe two or three years ago, I popped my 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:24.120 head in but there was something different about this was soulful, 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:25.920 but it was almost like this one sounded young. I 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:27.320 was like, yo, who the hell is that? And they 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:29.680 were like Lady rayn. I was like I never heard 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.160 of her. He's like, oh, you remember Nicole Ray from 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.320 Da Da Da Da Dad, And I was like, no, 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:39.200 there's no way that. Like I was flabbergasted and shocked 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:43.080 that I wasn't up on your your pivot, get your 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.360 information or like what I feel is like really your 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.800 your true arrival. And so yeah, I will say that 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.520 Tariq pretty much keeps you in rotation for like the 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:54.560 last two years, like. 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.600 Just kind of love to love to reak. 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.600 Yeah, so it's an honor to talk to you. Okay, 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.760 So my first question to you, in the first twenty 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.480 minutes of your day, what is your routine? 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.160 Wow, first twenty minutes of my day routine? 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:12.720 Well, specifically this. 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.880 Morning, well this morning it does not include my daughter 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.040 because she's at home with family and I'm here in 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:20.720 La getting ready, gearing up for my tour. So this 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.720 morning I kind of slept in late because I was 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.120 out a little late last night in a writing session 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:28.919 which I had a great time worked with Raymond Nominee 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.600 Josh Grant, and I think I slept a little late 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.400 this morning. I skipped breakfast, and when I did wake up, 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.000 I immediately reached out to my husband and told them, 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:40.640 you know, I'm getting ready to get myself together, you know, 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:43.280 and did my makeup of my hair because I knew 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:45.080 I was going to see you today. So I was like, 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:46.920 I can't go in there looking busted. I gotta get 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.160 myself together. And it always takes me a minute to 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.360 get the eyebrows. I'm not like a professional makeup artist, 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.080 but I mean, you know, doing makeup for myself on 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.040 tour for the last two years, I kind of like 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.280 perfected the eyelashes and the eye brows. So that takes 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:03.480 me a good little minute to get that perfected, because 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:05.960 without that, my day is not It's going to be off, 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:07.920 especially if I have to do it like interviews and 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.520 to actually be seen. Got myself together. Listen back to 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:13.360 the song that I created last night, which is a 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.479 Monster A Beast. Kind of got hyped for the day 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:19.440 and got some lunch and got my room cleaned and 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:21.280 kind of got ready to get all t minutes. 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.080 I was like, you did all that in twenty minutes. Okay, 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:25.320 I get it now. 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:27.279 That was your day, Yeah, that was my day. 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.919 If I were to ask you pre tend like, what 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:35.640 is a typical memory of your childhood? I never know 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.080 that you were born in California but later moved to Virginia. 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.560 Give me a picture when I ask you, like, just 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.720 give me a random memory of your childhood. It doesn't 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.120 have to be something like monumental, like the time that 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:51.039 you know they took us to see the Victory tour 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.680 or something like that. But right no, give me a 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:55.120 happy moment of your childhood. 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:59.360 Happy happy moments are church, church, church, church, church, birds, 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.119 a lot of doll I had a lot of dogs 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.080 growing up. My three my two siblings, my oldest brother 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.280 and my youngest sister, us just hanging out outside all 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:09.640 day and toil. My mom would yell our names to 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:11.800 come in. We would ride our bikes, we would go 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.440 to church. We had like an apple tree. We had 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.280 a great tree. My brother would flip learn he was 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.360 learning how to do backflips in the yard, and we 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.719 just we had each other. So those were my best 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.599 memories as a kid growing up. Would be church. Baptist 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:26.600 church with my grandmother. 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.360 What's your denomination, Well, it was. 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.839 Pentecostal and Baptist. My grandmother, she was devoted to the 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:34.880 Baptist church. And then my mother and father, you know, 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.400 kind of grew out of that and we went we 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:41.320 started the Pentecostal church. Yeah. Yeah, So it felt like 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.159 every day we were in church, and we did vacation 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.479 Bible school, like the summer, being in a choir, and 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:48.520 just growing up in the church background. 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:49.080 Roots for me. 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:52.120 It's always been something that I can look back and 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.680 smile and I could be anywhere, and I will hear 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.480 these lyrics from so many years ago that I didn't 0:05:57.480 --> 0:05:59.839 even think that I was listening to as a child, 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:01.960 like these old like gospel lyrics which just come in 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:03.919 my head. I could be like cleaning up. I'm like, 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:05.360 oh my god, I did a lot of church, so 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:06.000 it's there. 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:06.280 Got it. 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.280 The song that first brought you to my attention, it 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.320 was your twist on Sunshine. 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:15.359 Yeah. 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.760 Everyone always asks you about this, right yeah. 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.400 Yeah, So I was explaining to my friends when I 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:23.720 was playing it for them. You know the story behind 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:27.200 that was even an artist loved this. Stevie Wonder wasn't 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:31.440 allowed in the Clark household because it was secular mm hmm, 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:36.040 devil's music. So thus they would have to disguise their 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:40.839 fandom for you know, regular songs and put a twist 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:43.320 on it. But I want to know for you, was 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:48.120 outside music allowed in your everyday week life or was 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:51.480 it also a strict Christian music only household. 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:57.080 It was not only strict Christian music household. My father 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:01.200 welcomed Jackson, Five, Whitney, Houston, Aretha Franklin, Marvel, Gay, Sam Cooke. 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.360 The list goes on. But my pastor in the Pentecostal 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:09.240 church would not have agreed. I remember being fourteen years old, 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:11.680 after my mom and dad got a divorce, we still 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.240 would go to the family church, and I remember my 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:16.840 mom asked for prayer. You know, the lady with the 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:18.760 big flower hat. You put your name in the thing 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:20.560 and she gets up there and say, sister. 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.320 Every report card Monday, I'd ask for prayer and get 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:23.920 born again. 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:28.560 Yeah before yeah, yeah, but my pastor was not having it. 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:30.840 He was not having it. My pastor, he had these 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.960 like gazelles and he got up. All he heard was Jimmy, 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:36.040 Jame and Terry Lewis, and he stood up. He says, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.880 disregard the prayer. They're serving the devil. And I was 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.680 like fourteen, about to be fifteen, and I was shattered. 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:45.800 I think right there was a pivotal moment for me 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:48.960 in my career. That's probably why I never went gospel. 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:51.600 I didn't feel welcome as a teen, and I really 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.400 wanted to be a gospel singer and my pastor was 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.600 not having it, and it just pushed me into secular music. 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.800 So yeah, but yeah, it was not a thing to 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:02.960 not listen to second music in my house. 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:05.800 The elders once asked me once we got a record 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.320 deal in a kind of backwards way. 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:10.920 They were like, so are you uplifting the Lord in 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.200 your music or are you uh. 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:16.120 Yeah, yeah. 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:20.800 I never went back after that after twenty. 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:24.520 Years, right, what three songs would you say is the 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.200 soundtrack to your first ten years of life? 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:33.040 Tony Braxton for sure, Baby Breathe Again. Mary J Blige 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.600 was the four to one one okay, and Wu Tang 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:40.400 Clan for sure. That's in the whole, like mixture of 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.400 you got some hip hop, you got some and probably 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.280 a little bit of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. But 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:47.840 I know you asked me for three bus. 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.880 Everyone who would you say your north star was? As 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:52.520 far as your craft. 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:55.480 Is concerned, I'm gonna tear up my idol has and 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.600 always will be married j Blige. She was the soundtrack 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.480 to my my ten their youth, me being inspired, me 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.880 learning things for the first time, me having boyfriends for 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:08.320 the first time, getting yelled at by my mom, running 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:11.040 into my room with my radio that she would sometimes 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.560 pawd for to pay a light bill, and I would 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.200 come home like, where's my radio? She said, don't worry 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.640 about it, We're gonna get it back, and I was like, 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.280 I have my Mary J. Blige cassette in there. But 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:23.400 we did get my radio player back. But it was 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:25.960 always Mary J. Blige in my life and my world 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.080 as a young girl growing up in Portsmouth, Virginia, it 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.960 was always Mary. And I had an opportunity to meet her, 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:34.920 and nobody believed me because when I met Missy Elliott, 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.000 you know, she was hanging out with Mary, and I 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.600 met Mary at a young age. I was still a 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:42.480 young teen when I met Mary. So I was like 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.560 sitting there like shaking inside, like I couldn't believe it. 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.080 And she said, oh my god, I love you. She 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:50.520 told me she loved me. She had heard my music, 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.240 she knew who I was, and I almost like fainted, 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.240 like I was like, oh my god. So it's always 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:57.480 going to be Mary J. Blige for me. 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:01.160 Okay, So my life was like your ear. 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:02.520 That was my soundtrack. 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.640 Yes, and you were open, like one of the percent open. 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:09.400 And one open. I think the drink back then was 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.920 gin and juice because I think Snoop Dogg and we 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:13.480 were young and we were like trying to, you know, 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.520 sneak around and you know, but it was always my 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:18.840 life listening to those songs. I was young, and I 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.720 just some of those lyrics when I was young, and 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:23.959 I didn't understand, but I think it hit different for 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:27.120 me because my mom was a single mom and my 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.640 brother was holding down the household, and just those lyrics 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.440 just resonated in my soul as a young girl. 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.880 I specifically remember the day that that album came out. 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.160 You know, it's like ninety four and we're in DC 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:45.320 and we were like doing promotion around the Howard area 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:51.040 and our label rep haded and started playing it, and 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:51.840 it's so weird. 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:57.400 We sat there frozen in the car. Now, had he said, yo. 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:00.599 Like I got the new NAS album, or here's the 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.959 new Brand Nubian album, or here's the you know, yeah right, 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:06.920 I mean, it would have just been like, oh, we're 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:10.480 open for business. But I remember by the time we 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:12.959 got to the title track, when we got to My Life, 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:15.600 I noticed that we were all looking at each other 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.880 the way that our parents looked at us listen to 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.559 hip hop, because we said. 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.440 She's a singer, like she's not allowed to sing over samples? 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:26.520 Like it was hard. 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:27.800 It was so hard. 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:32.320 Well, I will say that I was maybe for like 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.080 four months, like I didn't realize that this new movement, 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.600 this this bad boy movement was coming in kind of 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.440 a lot of the traditional unspoken rules of what we thought, 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:48.000 like singers should never sing over a sample, like you 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.520 can sing anything, make up your own melody like rappers 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:50.920 gotta have. 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:53.280 So for me at. 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:57.480 Least, like I was arms crossed only because I was like, well, 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.360 if singer is gonna make me music like rappers, dude, 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.440 then who's going to make the music that we're going 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.160 to sample in the year two thousand or two thousand 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:10.840 and five or two Yeah. But you know, also as 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.240 a DJ, I'm seeing the effect that this this new 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.280 style of music's coming, and so I gave in. 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:18.679 I mean, of course now it's classic. 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:20.320 We just you welcomed it. 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:21.640 We played with her a. 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.439 Week ago and it was where her band like one 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.800 show a year where she'll join us and we're her 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:28.600 band for that show. 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:29.920 And it's like, oh my god. 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.640 I love that you you guys and Mary, Oh my, 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:34.800 I gotta get a ticket. I gotta get there to 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:36.080 see that. 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:38.200 So wait, we're in California. Were you born? 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.400 I was born in Selinas, California, on an army base. 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:45.280 My dad was an army so they traveled a lot, 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.600 and I was born here and then raised Enforcemouth. 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:49.640 How old were you when you came to Virginia. 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.320 I was a baby. Yeah, I was still a baby. Yeah, 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:52.760 I was a. 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:54.960 Baby from Virginia. Okay, yeah, I'm from Virginia. 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:55.480 Yeah. 0:12:55.840 --> 0:13:04.120 Now where does Portsmouth fall into the proximity of you know, 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:08.440 I know di'angelo like his Richmond and Virginia Beach and well, 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:09.760 it is. 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.720 Definitely part of the d MV. It's like right near 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.800 like Norfolk. It's like right under the water. It's under 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:19.160 the bridge like as a tunnel that always for years 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.040 it's like how do they build this? It's like under 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.360 it's water under there, it's it's it's so wild. But 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.040 it's like it's right like next door to to Norfolk, 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.600 Newport News, bad News where Alan Iverson is from. So 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.000 we're kind of like right next door. And Portsmouth is 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:39.000 has always been known for its a lot of talent 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.800 that gets unseen, got it? Like they say something's in 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.600 the water that's everywhere in like kind of like Norfolk, Hampton, 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.720 Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Newport News. 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.320 So okay, I know for like a New Yorker. 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:54.360 Mm hmmm. 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:58.280 Anything south of Philadelphia and their eyes is down south. 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:00.560 Like I know people that actually think that DC and 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:04.079 Maryland are that's down south even though southern. 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:09.319 No, are you more northeast or north of North Carolina? 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.360 Yeah, I feel like growing up when I say Wu tang, 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.720 we will always like connect ourselves to New York. Like 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.280 we would go to New York when the Timberlands would 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:21.320 come out and the music would come out, we would 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.720 always go. I mean I have family members that would 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:25.760 just go and drive to New York and say, I'm 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.000 in Brooklyn, I'm going to get some jewelry. I'm going 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:32.320 to get the front somewhere in Brooklyn at this big mall. 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.840 And we will always like just go back and forth 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.160 to New York. So I feel like we're close more 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:39.760 close to you know, a lot of people say that 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.600 I sound like I'm New York. I sound kind of 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.600 like country. My accent is all over the place. I 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:46.320 will tell you that. 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.560 So when you first came out, of course you've been 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.520 on Missy's label. I was like, Oh, she must be 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:05.080 from VA. 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:06.920 I know. 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.800 The irony of this story is that the second album 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:13.000 didn't come out but I will say that the street 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:18.760 promoters when you signed to Rockefeller were like heavy on 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.120 me as far as like spinning you. 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.680 So then I thought, well, well, damn, maybe she's. 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:27.160 From Philadelphia like I right, right, no, because I was like, 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:28.640 wait a minute, I thought she was down with them. 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.040 So first of all, I want to know for you, 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:36.520 what were the first steps and you wanting to pursue 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.160 music as a career, Like was there another option? Did 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.640 you have another passion or desire when you were younger. 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:49.560 My story for wanting to embark in this crazy music 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.720 business has always pointed at my dad. My dad was 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.920 a singer in the church. You had inspirations to be 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.000 an R and B singer, Like my dad's voice was 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:01.920 similar to my Gay and Sam Cook. He had a 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.320 strong voice. And then his life kind of took a 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:06.960 turn and he kind of he was homeless for about 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.600 twenty years and he had a drug addiction. And I 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:12.680 think as a young child when my mom and dad 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:14.840 got a divorce, I think for me it was like 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:16.920 this hunger to find my dad. And when I did 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.040 find my dad, I wanted him to hear me sing, 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.920 and so I was always singing loud and until he 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.200 came home, and he didn't come home to like maybe 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:29.080 like over twenty years, he didn't come home and get 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:33.480 himself cleaned and off drugs and homeless. It felt like 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.200 two lifetimes. And I think that was the goal for me, 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.680 is to sing as loud as I could and so 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.480 my dad would hear me and come back into my life. 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.720 And it didn't work right away because he was out 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:48.760 there in the streets and I was trying to focus 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:50.800 on my career. When I met Missy Elliott, I kind 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.320 of started young in the music business. I got my 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.560 deal when I was I think just turning like seventeen 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:58.960 years old, and my dad was out there and I 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.480 was trying to focus on my career. Helped my dad 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:03.920 get his life back together. And I think for me, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.720 initially in the beginning, it was me calling out to 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.280 my dad and for him to, you know, come back 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:12.800 into my life and to know that I'm pursuing the 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.920 same dreams that he had. So that was my ultimate goal. 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.399 What would you say your first creative project was, and 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.280 this way before the record deal, but like when did 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:24.480 you discover that you were at creative Like what was 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:28.560 the first real creative project that you put together. 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:30.840 I had quite a few. My mom was like my 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:34.479 manager many years ago. She was the momager. And I 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:37.639 had like a few, like producers that are no longer 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.760 living that I worked with when I was young, anywhere 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.320 from twelve to fourteen, and I would go in the 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.760 studio and make records and sing, but I wasn't writing. 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.520 I think the beginning creative thing for me was when 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:53.879 I was eight and I had to learn lyrics to 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.840 a song. I was eight years old, one year older 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.840 than my daughter is now, and I could imagine her, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:01.840 you know, the age that I was in the room 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.240 listening to a gospel song and write. I wrote them 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.040 down and nobody helped me. And that Sunday I got 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:10.320 up there and I sung that song by myself because 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:11.280 I had been practicing. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:16.480 That was lyrics. When you performance eight, Walk me through that? 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:17.119 What was it like? 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:21.199 I remember getting to choir rehearsal early Saturday, maybe like 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:25.400 we got there maybe like around eleven. I think rehearsal 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.080 started about twelve, And I remember it was a group 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.000 of all of us little kids. We were all little, 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.080 and my brother was in the choir with us as well, 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.120 and I remember the choir director was like, anybody want 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.639 to lead a song, raise their hand. And I was 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:39.879 standing there like I knew I could sing, but I 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.760 didn't have the nerves too, And my friend just raised 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.040 my hand up. She was like, Nicole wants to sing, 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:48.680 and she's like Nicole and she says, come over here. 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.320 And I remember the name of the song was titled 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.000 I might as well Think Big, and I remember, like, 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.199 I have to sing this song in front of the 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.280 whole congregation. But the lyrics of that song, it hits 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.600 crazy today because I've been thinking big ever since I 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.240 was like eight years old. And that was the moment 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.760 that I knew I was gonna be a singer, that 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:09.960 this is gonna be the love of my life and 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.200 I would be doing this for a while. 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:17.960 So kind of without knowing it, you subconsciously manifested where 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:20.760 you are right now. Correct, There is no trepidation or 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:22.000 nervousness about it at all. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:24.520 I still get nervous today, Like when I was eight 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.160 years old. My dad used to tell me, I still 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.760 get nervous, and everybody like why they come to see 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:31.560 you do what you do? And I just feel like 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:34.919 I am a ball of nerves, like I can be 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.080 backstage and I'm like, I'll ask the band, I'm like, 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:40.520 how's it looking out there, and they're like, they're out there, 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:42.800 they're rated for you. And then my stomach will just 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:46.240 get it still like I'm eight years old. Like my 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:48.640 dad will say this. When I was younger, he would say, 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:50.879 look up at the clock, just don't look at the crowd. 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:53.320 But I can't do that now. I'm gonna grown up, 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:55.119 and you know, you gotta engage with the crowd. But 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.520 sometimes I get so nervous. I just kind of look 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.080 above the crowd until I get in my zone and 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:02.840