Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of West Love Supreme.
Speaker 3: I'm your host Quest Love with Me his Team Supreme. Today.
Speaker 3: We have Fine tick Alo in the house. We have
Speaker 3: Sugar Steve. Hey, everybody ranged into the Sugars and laya.
Speaker 4: Vote, motherfuckers. Okay, how I'm feeling.
Speaker 3: Some curios this morning.
Speaker 2: I believe on paid Bill is either on Sesame Street
Speaker 2: right now or dealing with the first day of school,
Speaker 2: so he's not with us right now. All right, I
Speaker 2: will try to make this as brief as possible. Hey, man,
Speaker 2: we by the numbers. I think this is the most
Speaker 2: accomplished guest that we've had on the show. Our guest
Speaker 2: today clearly needs no introduction. This awesome aquarium is a
Speaker 2: fifteen time Grammy Award winner, seven time BT Award winner,
Speaker 2: eleven time Soul Train Award winner, Combination Ladies Soul Soul Trained,
Speaker 2: seventeen times NAACP Award winner, eight time MTV Award winner, twelve.
Speaker 3: Time as Cap, eight time bm My.
Speaker 2: I don't even know you can be on both sides
Speaker 2: of the fence with that, six time Billboard Award winner,
Speaker 2: Time Oh none time Billboarder winner, get it Right, a mirror,
Speaker 2: five time American Music Award winner. I think I mentioned
Speaker 2: all of her accomplishments. She's probably still the record holding
Speaker 2: Brooklyn Huxtable household bucking Horse champion, not to mention philanthropist, actress, producer,
Speaker 2: activist mom. She'll probably own this podcast by the end
Speaker 2: of the episode. I'm talking about no other than the
Speaker 2: incomparable Alicia Keys. Welcome to QLs.
Speaker 3: Hello Hell.
Speaker 5: That might be my top intro of all time.
Speaker 3: That's my side hustle. I'm selling.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to be like, who's Danny Ray James Brown's
Speaker 2: intro person.
Speaker 5: That's the vibe. Thank you for all that. I'm so
Speaker 5: glad to be here with y'all. How you doing, We're good.
Speaker 3: I actually want to know, how are you? You know?
Speaker 2: Usually the format of the show is kind of like
Speaker 2: in the Actors Studio, where we like break down the
Speaker 2: science of the creative process with the artists, but being
Speaker 2: as though we are living through what you know, the
Speaker 2: history books will probably show as a crucial milestone and
Speaker 2: or at least on Earth, things are a little different now.
Speaker 2: So I want to know as a creative or just
Speaker 2: as a person like, how are you adjusting to this
Speaker 2: road called twenty twenty right now?
Speaker 3: Like, how is your day this morning?
Speaker 5: My day was pretty good? Okay, well I think I
Speaker 5: have I think I need to back up and then
Speaker 5: I can come to today because I think that's how
Speaker 5: you take it time.
Speaker 3: So it's like what kind of cereal did you have
Speaker 3: this morning?
Speaker 5: But it's like, right, I had a macro bar? Okay,
Speaker 5: so you hume, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm starving too, right, okay, So what so a macro
Speaker 3: bar is what? What does that entail?
Speaker 5: It's like, you know, it's like one of those kind
Speaker 5: of bars that fill you up enough and give you
Speaker 5: a little bit of protein and then if you have
Speaker 5: to run out of the house and didn't really have
Speaker 5: anything to eat, you good for like a good couple
Speaker 5: of hours and you have some tea and some water
Speaker 5: in you straight and then hopefully you can eat soon.
Speaker 3: That I'm on that time one right now, I get you,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? So both of that home,
Speaker 3: I'm doing my one meal.
Speaker 5: I can't wait for wow, oh my gosh, word. But
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. Through this road called twenty twenty,
Speaker 5: it's definitely been some ebbs and some flows. You know,
Speaker 5: at first, I was like so confused. I just didn't know.
Speaker 5: We all didn't know what to expect or where it
Speaker 5: was leading or what was going to happen, or like
Speaker 5: were we even safe or was anybody safe or you know,
Speaker 5: it was like a paranoia. And then you know, I
Speaker 5: think as a as a parent, it became really ill
Speaker 5: because you know, suddenly it was like, well, okay, we're
Speaker 5: going to do that part of the thing. And then
Speaker 5: as a as a mother and a human and a
Speaker 5: woman and a businesswoman and a human being, I truly
Speaker 5: lost the plot of how to find my own space
Speaker 5: in the world. I just I just didn't I didn't
Speaker 5: even know. I was like, I don't even know how
Speaker 5: to carve out any time at all.
Speaker 2: I was going to ask, does that now mean that
Speaker 2: you as a creative is now in third place? Because
Speaker 2: it's almost like, yeah, you you have to be a
Speaker 2: person to your your kids, but then you have to
Speaker 2: be a person to yourself. And then and I know,
Speaker 2: you have people that you have to care for and
Speaker 2: make sure they're cool and all that stuff, and then
Speaker 2: like do you still get fits of inspiration where like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'll carve out four am to seven am to write
Speaker 2: these lyrics down or that.
Speaker 3: Sort of thing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I again, at the beginning, nothing nothing,
Speaker 5: literally nothing. I didn't feel even the desire to create.
Speaker 5: And I think that's almost because it was all such
Speaker 5: a shock and I had completed the whole Alicia project already,
Speaker 5: so I kind of put I put all this creative
Speaker 5: energy into something already, and then everything just kind of ceased,
Speaker 5: so right, I was just like, wait, wait, now what now?
Speaker 3: What? So?
Speaker 5: I think I think it gave me some space to
Speaker 5: not feel the pressure of having to create, because as
Speaker 5: a creative you do tend to want to enjoy creating,
Speaker 5: but also know that that's like that's your wheel.
Speaker 3: You got to.
Speaker 5: Oil it, you know. So I think that it gave
Speaker 5: me the energy to not feel the pressure of it
Speaker 5: and be able to kind of lean into the unknown
Speaker 5: of everything. But then I did start heavy meditating, which
Speaker 5: I've always done, and I would do that heavy meditation
Speaker 5: probably about five and then five point thirty, and then
Speaker 5: I would do a workout, and then i'd get the
Speaker 5: kids up for school and then I'd have a good day.
Speaker 5: But anytime I didn't do that and that I would
Speaker 5: feel like off all the way off off off. So
Speaker 5: that's kind of what happened for the first bit.
Speaker 3: There's one thing that I forgot.
Speaker 2: I forgot that my Spotify playlist is public is public,
Speaker 2: And so Frante kind of out of me last week
Speaker 2: because he noticed that I've been putting a lot of
Speaker 2: hours into like my my binarrow beats and my my meditation.
Speaker 3: At I'm checking it out though. Yeah, it's it's heavy stuff, right,
Speaker 3: and so help I got paranoid so changed it before. No,
Speaker 3: but I put my on like n graces, f.
Speaker 5: Like, let me get my mess So hold on, I
Speaker 5: need that. I need that playlist whatever, that playlist, as
Speaker 5: you said, I didn't, Yeah, no, no.
Speaker 3: I freely share it with everyone like that that literally.
Speaker 4: Has Thompson page on Spotify.
Speaker 3: Leah, I'll send it to her. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But the thing is is that I think what we
Speaker 2: all have in common is that, you know, this forced
Speaker 2: us all to take arrest or pause at least from
Speaker 2: what our lives were, you know, like sort of worldwide,
Speaker 2: at least for a period it was like that. And
Speaker 2: in the beginning, I think I felt guilty for like
Speaker 2: not picking up a drum set like for these four
Speaker 2: months I didn't do anything right, Yeah, no music, no nothing,
Speaker 2: And you know I could. I mean, I DJ because
Speaker 2: that relaxes me.
Speaker 3: But it's not the same. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I felt hella guilty for like having not sat
Speaker 2: at a drum set for like five months and all
Speaker 2: that stuff, and I feel you. Then I started to
Speaker 2: find out that everyone was kind of doing that, like
Speaker 2: I haven't been on my piano yet or that sort
Speaker 2: of thing.
Speaker 5: So no, honestly, my piano funal so so neglected. I
Speaker 5: was like, what's the matter with you? Why don't you
Speaker 5: just go sit me and while I be there, Like
Speaker 5: my son has to practice, I sit there with him.
Speaker 5: We're playing duets. I'm like, read these notes, make sure
Speaker 5: you practice this, all this tyff of stuff. But I
Speaker 5: would not sit down you're teacher. No, But I practiced
Speaker 5: with him. I practiced with him. He has a teacher,
Speaker 5: and then I practiced with him during the week, and
Speaker 5: then he has a class, you know, he has a
Speaker 5: lesson with the teacher once a week.
Speaker 6: So so yeah, so you still actively practice, Like do
Speaker 6: you still practice, you know and daily weekly, you know,
Speaker 6: even though you've been playing.
Speaker 3: For so long.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I do, And but I do find I going seasons,
Speaker 5: like you know, I have. I have moments where I'm
Speaker 5: like fully invested because i really want to learn this
Speaker 5: new classical piece, and I'm like, I'm doing it and
Speaker 5: I'm gonna and I'm gonna make sure I'm learning it.
Speaker 5: And then there's moments where I'm like, Okay, I got
Speaker 5: a show in you know, a month, so i want
Speaker 5: to put together this thing for it, and I'm going
Speaker 5: to be practicing all the time for it, or or
Speaker 5: I'm like alright, I'm carving out the time just to
Speaker 5: do whatever, or I'm just like I just don't do
Speaker 5: anything at all. So it kind of goes in the seasons.
Speaker 5: There's moments from when I'm more and then moments where
Speaker 5: I'm less.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe you already said this and I missed it,
Speaker 2: but where were you on this album when when March happened?
Speaker 5: Or you know, actually when March when March happened, I
Speaker 5: remember the last thing was I was I was creating
Speaker 5: the so Done video with Khalad and we were actually
Speaker 5: shooting the video. Oh my gosh, you thank you so much.
Speaker 5: I love it too, and we were shooting the thing
Speaker 5: and we were looking at each other like is this
Speaker 5: happening because we were getting you know, remember at the
Speaker 5: very beginning of getting all these crazy updates like this
Speaker 5: sports person is positive, Tom Hanks is and we were like, wait, is.
Speaker 3: The world right now? Yeah?
Speaker 5: It was totally crazy. So so I remember we were
Speaker 5: looking at each other like is this really happening? And
Speaker 5: we were singing and were doing a video and we're like,
Speaker 5: I think it's gonna be cool. And literally that next
Speaker 5: day it was all like no one's going anywhere and
Speaker 5: no one's doing anything. And that was the last thing
Speaker 5: in that March moment. So at that point, I was
Speaker 5: definitely mostly finished with the project. I knew that the
Speaker 5: majority was already completed. Maybe there was one or two
Speaker 5: things to finish or like a couple mixes or things
Speaker 5: like that, but I wasn't a place where I knew
Speaker 5: what it felt like, you know.
Speaker 2: So you and your team were able to finish it
Speaker 2: up over the quarantine, Yeah, I.
Speaker 5: Mean we mostly you know, we mostly didn't do anything
Speaker 5: because we were trying to figure out like, wait, what
Speaker 5: are we doing and how do we even do it?
Speaker 5: And then where do we go and how do we
Speaker 5: get there? And so we kind of figured some stuff
Speaker 5: out finally to make things at least fluid and to
Speaker 5: be able to create and be able to have a
Speaker 5: place to like get content and just just create, just
Speaker 5: have some a little bit of a hub. But at
Speaker 5: the very beginning nothing, And then finally, maybe a month ago,
Speaker 5: at the end of the summer, I put the last
Speaker 5: finishing touches on the project and just said, Okay, this
Speaker 5: is it. Everything's done. And that was kind of the flow.
Speaker 5: But it was a moment where it was just nothing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you're planning.
Speaker 7: You're planning a tour for twenty twenty one, right, so man, I'm.
Speaker 5: Just going out right, But what was twenty twenty? Obviously
Speaker 5: everything was twenty twenty. That's the that's like the theme
Speaker 5: of twenty twenty. It was twenty twenty, right, Alicia had
Speaker 5: to drive in right, Oh yeah, I'll be there. Everybody's
Speaker 5: at the drive in now. Hey it's okay.
Speaker 2: Oh mind, So, Alitia, I want to know. I believe
Speaker 2: that you were born in Hell's Kitchen, correct, in Manhattan?
Speaker 5: That's right, that was going and raised.
Speaker 2: I want to know what was the first album that
Speaker 2: you purchased?
Speaker 5: Okay, the true story is that my first album. True
Speaker 5: story is that my first album I purchased was Bell
Speaker 5: Bivdevaux Poison, and it was Poison, and I remember that
Speaker 5: it was definitely the cassette, like it was officially a cassette.
Speaker 5: And then I don't know what happened, but somehow I
Speaker 5: must have loved the song but missed the lyrics. And
Speaker 5: then I got home and put the song in, and
Speaker 5: then I actually heard that that They were like, never
Speaker 5: trust a big button a smile, and I was pissed.
Speaker 5: I was like, she mean, never trust a big button
Speaker 5: a smile. That's that's messed up. I don't like that,
Speaker 5: and I brought the tape back, brought the tape back.
Speaker 8: Wait why, I don't know why I felt like that.
Speaker 5: I don't know why I felt so strongly like that,
Speaker 5: but for whatever reason, since they said never trust a
Speaker 5: big but smile, I was offended.
Speaker 4: I don't know why, Mom, and listen to it.
Speaker 5: They don't do that even send the thing back. I
Speaker 5: don't even know how you can send a concept that
Speaker 5: doesn't even make no sense, how you can send a
Speaker 5: concept back or maybe that's I don't know if I
Speaker 5: made that up in my head or what, but I
Speaker 5: really remember that clearly.
Speaker 3: Wow, So you were the kid and the parent at
Speaker 3: the same time.
Speaker 5: You know what that is a that is a true
Speaker 5: fact of my childhood because.
Speaker 7: Question, I've had the pleasure of hanging out with your
Speaker 7: mom before. I remember the first time you came to
Speaker 7: Philly and we took you guys to the Black Lily,
Speaker 7: and it seems like, yes she did, and while your
Speaker 7: mom was partying, you was kind of chilling. So in
Speaker 7: my mind, I was like, she wasn't as much of
Speaker 7: a police on stuff like that as you were for yourself.
Speaker 5: No, she is the party and everybody be like, you know,
Speaker 5: if we go because if we go to wherever we go,
Speaker 5: so people be like always that Alicia Mama Key, like
Speaker 5: they always have Alia, like they love her so much.
Speaker 5: She is definitely the life of the party. She's she's wilding,
Speaker 5: she's having a ball, she's dancing, she's no holding back,
Speaker 5: So they everybody loves Mama Keys.
Speaker 4: She was like, why are you taking that tape back?
Speaker 5: That's a jam right exactly? What's worm with you?
Speaker 3: After Poison?
Speaker 6: What was probably the next album I guess that you
Speaker 6: didn't take back because something.
Speaker 3: That you remember that you like, really enjoyed and it
Speaker 3: stuck with you.
Speaker 5: Oh. Then the next the next I didn't buy this one,
Speaker 5: but this was like a treasure was the cassette okay,
Speaker 5: which was a double cassette of What's going On Marvin Gaye? Wow,
Speaker 5: that was crazy. I mean, I never I'll never forget.
Speaker 5: It was white. It was a white cassette. I'll never
Speaker 5: forget it, and I will never forget how that music
Speaker 5: landed on me. I never heard anything like that in
Speaker 5: my life. I was never exposed to that. Of course
Speaker 5: I've heard tons of music, but listening to that blow
Speaker 5: where everything connected to each other, and even with the cassette,
Speaker 5: like you had to flip it over, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean. But it was so crazy. It changed everything
Speaker 5: for me that that, particularly.
Speaker 3: At that young of an age.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because I guess I was like maybe eleven or twelve.
Speaker 3: That's crazy.
Speaker 2: Growing up, well, no, just growing up, I always saw
Speaker 2: Marvin Gaye's like my aunt's music. So it really wasn't
Speaker 2: until I mean he died on April Fools when I
Speaker 2: was thirteen. So then kind of the aftermath of his
Speaker 2: death and how it affected all my aunts.
Speaker 3: Like they were crying like saying I remember, and so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like they took it hard, and I
Speaker 2: think I heard his like you listen to people's music
Speaker 2: differently when they die, like when Prince died, and suddenly
Speaker 2: everything felt different to me. So but unfortunately it took
Speaker 2: his passing for me to like really absorb it in
Speaker 2: a way that I didn't. You know, this is way
Speaker 2: before I mean, eighty four was way before you know,
Speaker 2: sampling technology came in, whereas like you know, once sampling
Speaker 2: came in to play, then it's like, oh, your your
Speaker 2: your parents or your grandparents' record collection comes to life.
Speaker 2: Then you recognize like, oh that's where I know they're from.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 2: But you know, just straight up like it took me
Speaker 2: so long to get into Marvin.
Speaker 5: Gaye that did it, Like you mean because you just
Speaker 5: didn't have an access point or you heard like all
Speaker 5: the Singly ones and it was like not as interesting
Speaker 5: or you know why.
Speaker 3: It's just I mean, you know the thing is is
Speaker 3: that me growing up.
Speaker 2: See my thing was I grew up in that don't
Speaker 2: touch my stereo household. So all the education I got
Speaker 2: was education, but it was like under durest of if
Speaker 2: you touch our stereo, then you're in trouble, like that
Speaker 2: sort of thing. So I had to listen to stuff
Speaker 2: that I thought was boring then right, and then once
Speaker 2: hip hop started sampling it in nineteen eighty eight, then
Speaker 2: I became the smartest kid in school.
Speaker 3: Like, right, I know where that came from. You know
Speaker 3: know what it is?
Speaker 5: So are you are you that person? Now? Are you
Speaker 5: like the don't touch my stereo person, like don't touch.
Speaker 3: My Oh no, no, not at all, Like I don't ask.
Speaker 5: For no request though, right, okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm the.
Speaker 2: I'm the new request guy, like I'm the you know,
Speaker 2: I prepare my meals. I see it as preparing, like cooking.
Speaker 2: That's how I see it. And then it's almost give
Speaker 2: me a cheeseburger, like that sort of thing. You remember
Speaker 2: your first concert that you went to? Yep, who did
Speaker 2: you see?
Speaker 5: My first? I don't remember. My first concert was I
Speaker 5: can't even believe this. Michael Jackson and I had to
Speaker 5: be like five, oh not bad, and and all the
Speaker 5: brothers were out, oh lucky, and they did like the routine,
Speaker 5: and and and on my way into the whatever stadium arena,
Speaker 5: I don't I was little. I don't know where I
Speaker 5: was going. There was like a hundred ambulances and I
Speaker 5: was like mommy, who's sick? And who's who's sick? Why
Speaker 5: they's sick? What's the matter? And I didn't understand what
Speaker 5: those were for. And that's what I remember. I remember
Speaker 5: that was that was my first concert.
Speaker 3: That's crazy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's crazy. That's a crazy one. That's a very
Speaker 5: good first concert. Somebody did me right.
Speaker 2: Assuming that you didn't grow up in a well, I
Speaker 2: don't know, like did your introduction to music?
Speaker 3: Was it via church? Via school?
Speaker 2: Like how what was the moment where you know, the
Speaker 2: sort of the epiphany hits you that hey, wait, I'm
Speaker 2: interested in this, Like how how is it introduced to you?
Speaker 5: It was I was four, four years old and I
Speaker 5: was in you know, whatever, kindergarten or whatever, and I
Speaker 5: had this crazy teacher who was so eccentric and like
Speaker 5: so like she just wanted to do everything for the kids.
Speaker 5: And she was like this little powerhouse woman, beautiful brown skin,
Speaker 5: and her name was Miss Hazel, and she was going
Speaker 5: to get everything done and she was going to move
Speaker 5: out her way and she decided to do a version
Speaker 5: of Wizard of Oz.
Speaker 3: It's always a Wizard of I know, right.
Speaker 5: It's always so anyway, everybody had to go home and
Speaker 5: practice a song and this and that. So of course
Speaker 5: I go home and I practiced some of the rainbow
Speaker 5: and I come back in and she's like, you know,
Speaker 5: someone was playing the piano. It was like this little room,
Speaker 5: this little piano. And then I sang it for her
Speaker 5: because she you know, so I sang it for her
Speaker 5: and everybody had the audition. I sang somewhere over the rainbow,
Speaker 5: and she ended up making me Dorothy and I sang
Speaker 5: had to sing that somewheer of a rainbow song, you
Speaker 5: know whatever. The two times we performed it, however it goes.
Speaker 5: You're like a kid, you know. And I remember that
Speaker 5: I was so nervous, so terrified, so scared. I hated
Speaker 5: that all these people I knew were right there in
Speaker 5: the audience. I never wanted to sing in front of them.
Speaker 5: And when I opened my mouth to sing the song,
Speaker 5: I remember feeling like, Okay, I like this, and then
Speaker 5: I went back to being terrified. And that was the
Speaker 5: first time that it hit me that I like this.
Speaker 3: And that's when it hit you.
Speaker 5: That was the moment I knew it. I felt it.
Speaker 5: I just it felt like comfortable, felt good.
Speaker 2: So how does that lead to this as a career choice,
Speaker 2: like do you how o were you you wrote your
Speaker 2: first song.
Speaker 5: I was eleven years old when I wrote my first song.
Speaker 5: My my grandfather had just passed away. My mother raised me,
Speaker 5: you know, and so in the building that we lived in,
Speaker 5: it was some weird situation that if you had a girl,
Speaker 5: like if the parent had a girl, you could only
Speaker 5: get a one bedroom, but if you had a if
Speaker 5: you were a mother with a son, you could get
Speaker 5: two bedrooms.
Speaker 3: Wait what.
Speaker 5: It don't sound right at all too now, but whatever
Speaker 5: the case, we had one bedroom as they figured.
Speaker 3: The girls and what the mom and the daughter could
Speaker 3: sleep together. Wow, that's like.
Speaker 4: Before they were gay people.
Speaker 5: So we had this one bedroom and sometimes the bedroom
Speaker 5: was hers. Most time it was her, sometimes it was mine.
Speaker 5: So I don't remember if it was my bedroom or
Speaker 5: her bedroom at the time, but I do not. I
Speaker 5: was sitting on the bed and she came in and
Speaker 5: she had to tell me that my grandfather had passed away,
Speaker 5: you know, and it was it was terrible. I never
Speaker 5: experienced that type of news before. And you know, that
Speaker 5: was like the love of my life. I loved him
Speaker 5: so much. He was like my biggest fan. He would
Speaker 5: come to every piano recital. And he was like my
Speaker 5: little Italian mafia.
Speaker 4: I was just about to ask where was he from?
Speaker 5: What do you know? Like he was just like he
Speaker 5: always wroted for Dora. He was a detective. He was
Speaker 5: x NYPD. He had the he had the trench coat
Speaker 5: all the time. He always carried every time I gave
Speaker 5: him my hug. It was like the gun. I mean,
Speaker 5: it was just this was this was he was like detective,
Speaker 5: old school Italian.
Speaker 3: Yes, that was.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's kind of dope because especially your grandfather who's Italian,
Speaker 7: who based on because my dad's from Hell's Kitchen too,
Speaker 7: and based on and he's eighty one, so based on
Speaker 7: what he told me about what Hell's Kitchen used to
Speaker 7: be in the d D and stuff, the fact that
Speaker 7: he got his little his favorite person is his little
Speaker 7: brown granddaughter.
Speaker 5: That's like yes, yes, no, it was deep. It's very deep,
Speaker 5: you know. And and but he was. He would drive
Speaker 5: from Long Island, and my grandmother lives in Long Island.
Speaker 5: He would drive from Long Island every weekend to help
Speaker 5: my mother. He'd be the first one there. He'd lean
Speaker 5: up against the car, put his hat on and his
Speaker 5: trench and his arms fold and he'd be waiting for
Speaker 5: me to come out of the building, and every time
Speaker 5: I came out the door, he'd be like, that's my girl,
Speaker 5: Like every time, that's my girl. And so so anyway,
Speaker 5: I can't even remember what the question was because I'm
Speaker 5: so wrapped.
Speaker 4: Up in my grave ad.
Speaker 5: You literally don't know what you even asked me? What
Speaker 5: did you ask me? Again?
Speaker 4: The song?
Speaker 2: Oh, the first song you ever wrote, and you said
Speaker 2: that the passing of your grandfather inspired it.
Speaker 5: So that was my that was my heart. And she
Speaker 5: had to go on his bed and tell me this news.
Speaker 5: And I was just so devastating. I never felt like
Speaker 5: that before. I never felt that raw, unstoppable, like torrential
Speaker 5: emotion before. Like I just never felt that. And so
Speaker 5: somehow I was so sad. We went to see a
Speaker 5: late night movie. We went to see a late night
Speaker 5: movie of Philadelphia. Oh watch ever, I'm not sure, Like
Speaker 5: I don't know when don't we want to go see
Speaker 5: something funny? I don't know what happened. I'm in there
Speaker 5: crying in my eyes out. I mean, it was like
Speaker 5: literally just the most emotional day of my little life.
Speaker 5: And I came home and we went to a late movie.
Speaker 5: Had to be nine pm or something, and by the
Speaker 5: time we get home, it was like eleven o'clock. And
Speaker 5: I came home and it's the first time I just
Speaker 5: immediately sat at the piano and I played, and I sang,
Speaker 5: and I sang everything I felt, and I wrote it
Speaker 5: down and she just left me alone. I was just
Speaker 5: in that you know, the apartments super small, so she
Speaker 5: did not much places go, but she was just she
Speaker 5: just left me alone. And I wrote this song. And
Speaker 5: that was my first time I wrote. And that was
Speaker 5: like the beginning of me recognizing how you could turn
Speaker 5: like a pain or an emotion into something.
Speaker 3: It's funny you say that.
Speaker 2: Someone Someone asked me this summer if there's a song
Speaker 2: that you hear and it could trigger like near tears
Speaker 2: emotion and I don't know why, but for some reason,
Speaker 2: and you can't find it streaming nowhere because you know,
Speaker 2: Neil Young is is hella against UH streaming service as well,
Speaker 2: and I tried to start his own Yeah, yeah, the ponent.
Speaker 3: But wait, see if you still have your pono.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but the Philadelphia song that Neil Young sings on
Speaker 2: the closing credits of that thing song, Yo man, I
Speaker 2: don't know what it is.
Speaker 4: It Is it because of the movie?
Speaker 5: Is it before?
Speaker 3: After this?
Speaker 2: This is literally why I'm obsessed with sort of the
Speaker 2: the at least the scientific study of synesthesia and how
Speaker 2: I believe that scientifically. And this is why I think,
Speaker 2: uh uh, you know, the idea of your chakra, like
Speaker 2: certain tones affect parts of I don't know what it is.
Speaker 3: I don't know it's the tone.
Speaker 2: Of his voice or the or like it's a regular
Speaker 2: ass song, but for some reason, there's something in that
Speaker 2: song that.
Speaker 3: Just a I can't get through it without filling up.
Speaker 2: And usually if I feel sad about some shit, okay,
Speaker 2: example when okay, when Dyla died, I found it hard
Speaker 2: to cry and I was struggling with that, Like it
Speaker 2: took me like three weeks to really process that ship
Speaker 2: and I couldn't cry. And then I didn't want to
Speaker 2: create no more. And you know the time, the girls
Speaker 2: days like, well, you need to cry, you need to
Speaker 2: do it. And I was trying everything and I was
Speaker 2: nothing was coming, and then I put that ship on
Speaker 2: and then boom it happened. Yes, not the Springsteen song, but.
Speaker 3: Young John.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's just I don't know, it's just something scientifically
Speaker 2: sonically in that song that I don't know that's the
Speaker 2: breaker for.
Speaker 5: Some reason, I love that and I'm going to listen
Speaker 5: to that now.
Speaker 3: Well then you'll be boohooing.
Speaker 2: I don't know so this at this point, Well, I
Speaker 2: also wanted to know what was the first song you
Speaker 2: ever learned to play, Like, what was your go to
Speaker 2: your go to karaoke mover, the song that you like
Speaker 2: committed to learn.
Speaker 5: The first song I ever learned to play, you know,
Speaker 5: outside of like the basic classical piano things like, you know,
Speaker 5: because because I did this with Zuki methods, so it
Speaker 5: all it progresses, and so you start with the super
Speaker 5: simple ones and then you keep going and it progresses
Speaker 5: and progresses, and so the first ones are like roll
Speaker 5: your bolt and married a little lamb and London Bridge
Speaker 5: is falling down and they're teaching me to think. Besides
Speaker 5: all those, my first song that I learned to play
Speaker 5: was called this One's for the Children by New Kids
Speaker 5: on the Block.
Speaker 7: Wow, am stand up?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 5: And that was my first one that really that was
Speaker 5: the first song that I learned that I actually figured
Speaker 5: out how to put my hands and my voice together
Speaker 5: at the same time. Because Prior to that, I had
Speaker 5: played and I played cool and then I had sang,
Speaker 5: but I never did them together. And that was the
Speaker 5: very first time that I kind of figured out what
Speaker 5: did that feel like? And it was hard.
Speaker 7: I was gonna say, how long does that process take?
Speaker 7: Because people take that for granted.
Speaker 5: It was hard. I felt like I would never get it.
Speaker 5: I felt like I would never get this rhythm of
Speaker 5: like how to play one thing and how to sing
Speaker 5: another thing. And I but once I got it, which
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't know how long it takes, but
Speaker 5: it was considerable. It took time. I you know it
Speaker 5: really like that was that started the thing, amir?
Speaker 4: How long did it take for you?
Speaker 7: Because you know you'll be up there doing fifty dozen
Speaker 7: things and drumming and singing and talking and giving cues.
Speaker 4: How long did it take you to master that?
Speaker 3: What to learn a song or to.
Speaker 4: Learn how to do multiple things at one time like that?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: Again, similar similar to Alicia coming into knowledge of meditating
Speaker 2: and whatnot.
Speaker 3: Well, we learned early.
Speaker 2: Remember when Quincy Jones taught us about the alpha state
Speaker 2: and whatever I learned, Well, I'd studied that and realized
Speaker 2: that there's four parts of the brain, the alpha, the beta,
Speaker 2: the data, and the theta. And the reason why you're
Speaker 2: supposed to practice ten thousand hours is that you know,
Speaker 2: you do it so much that it becomes when they say,
Speaker 2: it's second nature, you do without thinking. So I too,
Speaker 2: that's my alpha state. So when you see me on stage,
Speaker 2: like on my phone, eating a sandwich, talking to somebody whatever,
Speaker 2: that's the equivalent of Greg fill and Gains doing a
Speaker 2: silhouette two in the morning Quincy Jones. Basically he makes
Speaker 2: them eat, get the itis, get tipsy, and then start
Speaker 2: recording them at one two in the morning. Yeah, because
Speaker 2: they don't debate with them, they don't argue with them,
Speaker 2: they don't overthink it.
Speaker 3: They just do it naturally and so a fire.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, because again the second I start thinking
Speaker 2: of left, right, left, and then I start messing up
Speaker 2: right right even to this day, like I can't. I'm
Speaker 2: not aware of what I'm doing. I'm thinking of like
Speaker 2: cereal or I love some cereal.
Speaker 5: That's the second cereal mentioned. It's only been like twenty minutes.
Speaker 5: What kind of sery you have?
Speaker 3: Missing cereal? That's what.
Speaker 5: My favorite cereals, honey and cheerios. What's your yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: team Captain Crunch, Oh, crunch peries.
Speaker 3: Oh crunchberries is good. The things they tear up the roof, all.
Speaker 7: Of them, Captain Crunch tear it all up, so it
Speaker 7: no matter the crunch berries in there, y'all.
Speaker 4: I know y'all asked me.
Speaker 7: But I've spent a lot of time with pops lately,
Speaker 7: Like I circle back to them and let me just
Speaker 7: tell you, milk or not pops.
Speaker 3: Will oh the cereal, yeah, sad good.
Speaker 5: And the other one that I used to love sentimentals
Speaker 5: crunch Oh.
Speaker 6: Yeah, automatically apple and the best thing with the milk
Speaker 6: after the cinnamon to c that was like the.
Speaker 4: So good the bowl drinker, Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: Sell that at at a milk part.
Speaker 2: Now milk, oh they put they do the fruity pebbles them.
Speaker 2: They put the milk in it, drain it and then
Speaker 2: resell the milk like there's milk cereal.
Speaker 3: But that was my old life.
Speaker 5: So you look great, really, you are shining?
Speaker 3: Do that?
Speaker 7: No, no, no, no, take this compliment, stating in a last
Speaker 7: he will act like he didn't hear you.
Speaker 2: I said, enough life, coaches, I'm good, Thank you.
Speaker 5: Your moment never taught you to say thank you.
Speaker 3: All right. Yeah, I'm learning to I'm still.
Speaker 5: Get it together. You're welcome.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they are get on taking compliments.
Speaker 4: Take longer to this the compliment.
Speaker 5: Just say we.
Speaker 3: Have somebody accomplished on the show. It's not about me.
Speaker 3: Let's get to it. When when do you decide.
Speaker 2: That you would like to do this as a profession
Speaker 2: Because I met you what I assume is the first
Speaker 2: stage of your career when I believe that you were
Speaker 2: still an artist on Columbia. I believe so I met you.
Speaker 5: What do you do you remember that?
Speaker 3: What we do? It's the funny, all right.
Speaker 2: So the story of me first meeting you is the
Speaker 2: roots are working on our fourth album, Things fall Apart, Steve. Actually,
Speaker 2: you're connected to the story.
Speaker 3: I'm connected to the story. Yes, yes, all right.
Speaker 2: So the preface is, do you remember when Foxy Brown
Speaker 2: threw a tantrum at Electric Lady and she sent that
Speaker 2: poor intern.
Speaker 3: Wait were you the intern? Yeah? I was the Wait
Speaker 3: a minute, she sent you to the Bronx to go
Speaker 3: get those those Krispy kremes. No, No, that was a
Speaker 3: different she was. I was the assistant.
Speaker 2: She was screaming at me because she couldn't find her headphones,
Speaker 2: and she excuse me stealing them at the live rooms.
Speaker 3: Okay, well yeah, all right.
Speaker 2: So just during the during the whole Electric Lady period
Speaker 2: of voodoo and like water for Chocolate and all the
Speaker 2: stuff that we recorded, Foxy Brown came in for like
Speaker 2: a month to work on her second record. She threw
Speaker 2: like a temper tantrum because they didn't get back.
Speaker 3: Then.
Speaker 2: You know, everyone was catching Krispy Kreme fever in New
Speaker 2: York City. I remember where like the red light comes
Speaker 2: on and you get you know, hot at right, everyone
Speaker 2: knows the deal. So Foxy sent this poor intern who
Speaker 2: was clearly not from New York City, like all the
Speaker 2: way up to the Bronx to the twenty to the
Speaker 2: twenty four hour Krispy kremespot.
Speaker 3: I don't know, did he get mugged or anything like
Speaker 3: that or no, he got the donuts, well he got.
Speaker 2: The donuts, but like within the ench of his life
Speaker 2: because he had to take the subway up there or whatever.
Speaker 2: And so I was kind of angry that she put
Speaker 2: him that position. So to be an asshole, I went
Speaker 2: and ordered Foxy like what was it?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: I ordered like seventy five dozen. I ordered seventy five
Speaker 2: boxes of Krispy Free donuts and there were a dozen each.
Speaker 2: So basically when she went in the room, there was
Speaker 2: nothing but amountain of donuts and she.
Speaker 3: Was actually flattered, like, oh my god, you kid me.
Speaker 5: And I was like, oh, she missed the whole point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, shave fire backfire, right. So now we're BFFs.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I still have to work
Speaker 2: on the Roots record at Battery Studios, and so I
Speaker 2: was there to record Most Deaf on our album and
Speaker 2: Most be and Most was like twelve hours late, so
Speaker 2: I was chill, and I went in the hallway and
Speaker 2: I saw Jerry Brown, who worked on Who's raepha elsa
Speaker 2: DIEKX engineer for our last album, and Jerry Brown's, uh,
Speaker 2: kind of his trademark is that it's Christmas anytime he's
Speaker 2: in the studio, and so Jerry always sets up Christmas
Speaker 2: lights in the studio like he wants it to look
Speaker 2: like it's Christmas inside the studio. And I'm like, that's weird,
Speaker 2: Like what if your artist doesn't want this? Like he's like, well,
Speaker 2: that's mine. I got to make it look like Christmas.
Speaker 2: So then I came in and you were sitting in
Speaker 2: the back, and I realized that, oh, this is the
Speaker 2: same person that I saw on I think either So
Speaker 2: So Deaf or definitely that Columbia had a like a
Speaker 2: BT Christmas Special or something like that, right, And I
Speaker 2: remember at the time, you were the probably the only
Speaker 2: figurehead that I knew that had her hair and corn rolls.
Speaker 2: So I instantly recognized you as, oh, that's a girl
Speaker 2: from the pt Joint. And then, you know, just out
Speaker 2: of boredom, I was probably in your breakroom more than
Speaker 2: my own breakroom, because you know, most would be like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll be there in a second and then be like
Speaker 2: nine hours later, I'm still waiting.
Speaker 5: No no, no, Notorious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So basically that yeah, that's that's how I first
Speaker 2: met me. So, I mean at that time it was nice.
Speaker 2: Well it was nineteen ninety nine though, so I guess
Speaker 2: you're working on songs in a minor at.
Speaker 5: That point or because it came out in two thousand.
Speaker 3: So how what was that first period?
Speaker 2: Like I never knew the story behind that, like because
Speaker 2: I would figure that between Jermaine and his dad, who
Speaker 2: you know, was Notorious at Columbia. Yeah, yeah, Michael Maldon
Speaker 2: Modon that they would, you know, roll out this rare
Speaker 2: diamond of a moment and take advantage of it. Like, so,
Speaker 2: what was that experience in getting the record deal and
Speaker 2: recording that first record?
Speaker 3: Uh? Oh, I'm getting quasi I roll nah.
Speaker 5: No, I'm just trying to I'm trying to, like.
Speaker 3: Come you try to remember what it was.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to come back, all right. So I was
Speaker 5: about fifteen, and my manager at the time, Jeff Robinson,
Speaker 5: he was like, you played piano, you sing, you know,
Speaker 5: you have to show people the whole thing. Some set
Speaker 5: up these showcases. We're going to bring a couple of
Speaker 5: labels down blah blah blah. So we did that probably
Speaker 5: at like I don't know what that was at the time,
Speaker 5: some like little rehearsal studio for forty whatever street. And
Speaker 5: so I did these kind of small showcases and many
Speaker 5: different labels came and it was just me on my little,
Speaker 5: you know, not that fancy keyboard, and I wrote my
Speaker 5: few songs that I'd written at the time. I had butterflies.
Speaker 5: I had a song from that first album called The
Speaker 5: Life I Had, and I sang that Brian McKnight song.
Speaker 5: Never felt this way, well Brian McKnight at the time,
Speaker 5: and and so I sang my few little songs and
Speaker 5: all the and and so he created this bidding war
Speaker 5: and and so then Columbia was the one that, uh
Speaker 5: that that that that did the first piece. But then
Speaker 5: so I created a I created a lot of the
Speaker 5: music with Colombia while I was at Columbia, and that's
Speaker 5: when I was with Michael and and that's when Michael
Speaker 5: set me up with the opportunity to have that, to
Speaker 5: be on that Social Deaf Christmas thing. That was like
Speaker 5: my first you know moment, my first performance, all of
Speaker 5: that stuff. I remember my homegirl Nisia dressed me. She
Speaker 5: brings herse up to this day. Remember when I tressed
Speaker 5: you for bet you remember how cute you look. I
Speaker 5: was so good at that which she was. She was cute.
Speaker 5: She had me in like I don't know what, but hey,
Speaker 5: whatever I was wearing, Tanisiha got that for me. So
Speaker 5: so so yeah, so that's when I So, that's when
Speaker 5: I performed there, and that was like a big deal.
Speaker 5: It was my first time I was in a recording
Speaker 5: studio really, you know, it was my first time really.
Speaker 5: I remember sitting at home playing those kind of chords
Speaker 5: because I wanted to flip the Christmas song which was
Speaker 5: Little Drummer Joy, which I changed to Little Drummer Girl,
Speaker 5: and I played those kind of jazzy chords on it.
Speaker 5: And as the first time I went to the studio
Speaker 5: and really you know, produced the thing, like created it
Speaker 5: said this is what I hear, this is the piano,
Speaker 5: this is the this is the drums. I want all
Speaker 5: that type of stuff, and and so and so that
Speaker 5: was the That was the beginning of that. But after that,
Speaker 5: Jermaine wasn't really a part of my project that you know.
Speaker 5: That was kind of a one time thing that him
Speaker 5: and Michael put together for the Christmas thing, and outside
Speaker 5: of that, he wasn't really a part of my project
Speaker 5: until the end. That's when we wrote the song Girlfriend together.
Speaker 5: He was a part of that. But other than that,
Speaker 5: it was myself and my my music partner, Crucial, who
Speaker 5: did all of my first album with me and my
Speaker 5: second album exactly, and and we were really were We
Speaker 5: recorded everything out of a Harlem apartment on one Hunt
Speaker 5: thirty seventh Street. Wow, it was like straight, I mean,
Speaker 5: we had like the straight little you know comforters on
Speaker 5: the wall straight raw. We used the We used the
Speaker 5: closet as the vocal booth, which was a terrible idea
Speaker 5: because it made everything sound like super small obviously what
Speaker 5: I know now and never do that, But we did that.
Speaker 3: We swore that was what it was.
Speaker 5: Bathroom would have been bad. Ever, we didn't then do that.
Speaker 5: We we recorded on on d A eighty eight. I
Speaker 5: remember we got d we had the first The bed
Speaker 5: was in the like it was the bedroom, So the
Speaker 5: bed was in the room and we were like recording
Speaker 5: around it and if we get a bass player to come,
Speaker 5: they'd be sitting on the bed and I'd be standing
Speaker 5: in the closet and he'd be chill. I mean, it
Speaker 5: was like so tight. I remember. We used to sit
Speaker 5: there and and and and research all the favorite records,
Speaker 5: Like we listened to Smokey Robinson and we listened to
Speaker 5: Isaac Hayes, and we'd be listening to ROBERTA. Flack and
Speaker 5: Donnie Hathaway and we'd be like, what makes the record
Speaker 5: sound so full? Like why does their music sound so full?
Speaker 5: And like when I just put a piano and a
Speaker 5: drum and a thing, what am I missing? And we
Speaker 5: scoured it and was like, oh, there's roads in there.
Speaker 5: Oh there's you know, there's like pads in there. And
Speaker 5: it really started to teach me the process of production
Speaker 5: and what creates like those those sonics and how they
Speaker 5: go together, and especially Isaac Hayes, especially Isaac Hayes, because
Speaker 5: he was just such a unique producer, you know, one
Speaker 5: of my favorite favorite favorites. And so we did all
Speaker 5: that in the crib and then probably towards the end
Speaker 5: we would bring a few things to the studio, but barely.
Speaker 5: I remember I did the intro the Young Moonlight Sonata
Speaker 5: that I played as the intro. I did that at
Speaker 5: the studio, and other than that, everything came from thirty
Speaker 5: seventh Street. And there was a kid out on the
Speaker 5: block because I've we've been recording all types of night
Speaker 5: and they'd be a kid on the block that every
Speaker 5: time I walk down the street, he'd be like, there
Speaker 5: go hit a high note, because I know he was
Speaker 5: outside on the block every night, and I was recorded
Speaker 5: and he heard me reaching and trying to find my way,
Speaker 5: reverberating through thirty seven between Fifth and Lenox. So that
Speaker 5: is how songs in a minor came to life.
Speaker 2: What is what is your relationship with songs? I noticed
Speaker 2: that you're probably one of a handful of artists that
Speaker 2: still creates songs that are are in twelve.
Speaker 3: Eight meter.
Speaker 5: Yees six eight three four.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know that's that's traditionally like fifties sixties
Speaker 2: ballot mode, which is you know, original, old school. But
Speaker 2: yet you still keep that that tradition alive and that
Speaker 2: that torch alive. What is your relationship and love for that,
Speaker 2: because that's that's something that you've kept consistently on most
Speaker 2: of your albums.
Speaker 5: That's true on this one. I have one called Gramercy
Speaker 5: Park and it has continued the vibe. But it's my
Speaker 5: favorite time signature, my favorite you can play I can
Speaker 5: play right now, luck you're on piano right now. I
Speaker 5: could play anything, anything in sixth eight, and it makes
Speaker 5: me want to sing. I don't know what happened. I
Speaker 5: don't know what time. I know I was alive in
Speaker 5: the sixties and the seventies for sure, anyway, and it
Speaker 5: just sparks me. It will spark me every time. I
Speaker 5: don't have to try, I don't have to think about it.
Speaker 5: I know what to do, I know where it belongs.
Speaker 5: I don't know, it's just my perfect time signature.
Speaker 2: Also, in the beginning, when you first got your deal,
Speaker 2: at least with with with both Sony and with Jay Records,
Speaker 2: they didn't try they didn't try to sign a producer
Speaker 2: to you first, or at least like someone that they
Speaker 2: felt like, are.
Speaker 5: You kidding me? They assigned me so many damn producers.
Speaker 5: I was in the studio with so many ridiculous idiots
Speaker 5: that just you know, they had no respect for me
Speaker 5: as a young woman. You know, I was, I was,
Speaker 5: you know what, I was sixteen, what you know, sixteen.
Speaker 5: They didn't They didn't think I could play anything. They
Speaker 5: didn't think I could write anything. They you know, they
Speaker 5: figured they could do it all. They didn't even care
Speaker 5: what I thought. I didn't care what I brought, They
Speaker 5: didn't care what my you know, it was like they
Speaker 5: were whack. I remember, it was super trash. And I
Speaker 5: felt so disheartened because I would go home and I'd
Speaker 5: be like, is this what is going to be like?
Speaker 5: Because I don't feel good, you know, And I would
Speaker 5: go travel and I remember we used to go to
Speaker 5: Maryland to work with this one guy, and I used
Speaker 5: to dread it. I would be in the car, like
Speaker 5: my stomach would just be like that feeling when you
Speaker 5: just don't feel good, that stomach would always be there
Speaker 5: because I was just terrified. It didn't feel comfortable. I
Speaker 5: felt like, I don't know, I just did not feel comfortable.
Speaker 5: And so at the time, Crucial and I had been
Speaker 5: connecting and he was doing music and we you know,
Speaker 5: we we would connect about different songs and we'd always
Speaker 5: meet and have ciphers in the village and it was
Speaker 5: like a vibe and and I remember one time I
Speaker 5: was like, well, wow, we just like work on some
Speaker 5: stuff together. And and that was the time that it
Speaker 5: finally we tried some stuff and that was the first
Speaker 5: time that I actually felt like comfortable.
Speaker 3: Collaborsten to you and work for you.
Speaker 4: So was Girlfriend the first song that you and him
Speaker 4: work on?
Speaker 7: And if not, could you just tell us the story
Speaker 7: behind that song and how it came to fruition because
Speaker 7: for me, that's the most like, that's one of my
Speaker 7: top ten. Alicia Banger is consistent. You can play it
Speaker 7: and it always sounds fresh.
Speaker 5: I love that you asked me that, you know, Girlfriend
Speaker 5: hmmm is one of my favorites too, because I am
Speaker 5: a super wul tang fanatic.
Speaker 2: Yes you are wait story, yo, I nothing will describe
Speaker 2: the in a good way. The anger I felt when
Speaker 2: I heard the opening chords to the Sands song on
Speaker 2: On Here, Yo was Yo, you know, like but this
Speaker 2: this is actually a compliment for the artists, Like when
Speaker 2: when j tells the story when he first heard Who
Speaker 2: Shot You for the first time, he sitting in the
Speaker 2: car and Harlem outside the Apollo and big a placement
Speaker 2: who Shot You?
Speaker 3: And it just lit it fire.
Speaker 2: Him just asked, like, my favorite who joint that's not
Speaker 2: a hit single is the sane ods Uhang John. I thought,
Speaker 2: no one's ever going to think to bring this John back,
Speaker 2: so me and to me always talked like one now
Speaker 2: we're going to bring.
Speaker 5: Back it's so hard and you.
Speaker 2: Open man, And I heard your record the night before
Speaker 2: we did that thing in Times Square.
Speaker 3: Yes, yo, I was that whole night man.
Speaker 2: I was just it was I can't the last time
Speaker 2: I felt that, seeving jealous rage that someone got to
Speaker 2: an idea before I did. It was probably spotioly dope
Speaker 2: alicious where I wanted to do with Joran when Tarik
Speaker 2: just talked and didn't rhyme, and I was like so yes,
Speaker 2: I know you're a wu tang head.
Speaker 5: The fact that you even can pull that out and
Speaker 5: even understand that and speak on that right now is
Speaker 5: why record is that. It's on the here album, right
Speaker 5: and it's called the Gospel.
Speaker 7: Okay, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it.
Speaker 3: You're actually spitting hot fire.
Speaker 2: But even was like, oh ship, she's spitting like huh,
Speaker 2: that's probably all time Alicia Key's favorite song. Like you
Speaker 2: listen to it maybe probably five times a we're high
Speaker 2: five leaders.
Speaker 4: Fifteen year old okay, but with girlfriends.
Speaker 5: Yes, right, So you know you're right though, And so
Speaker 5: you know, at the time, I'm trying to flash back
Speaker 5: there because at the time, writing was such a beautiful
Speaker 5: new experience for me. It was like a real discovery
Speaker 5: for me, and I and and and you know, I
Speaker 5: was I was learning at light speed how to tap
Speaker 5: into these emotions. And I remember, you know, listening heavy
Speaker 5: to Mary J. Blige, heavy to Mary. I used to
Speaker 5: rip Mary melodies so frequently just so that I could
Speaker 5: like feel what it felt like to feel like her,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Because she was so she
Speaker 5: was so New York for me. She was my own
Speaker 5: the only girl that I could actually relate to the
Speaker 5: best Merry album right now, at least I keeps saying one. Actually,
Speaker 5: my favorite is what's the full one one remix album?
Speaker 3: The remix album not My Life.
Speaker 5: New York Life. My life is definitely my favorite. It
Speaker 5: is because it's but what's the full one remix album?
Speaker 5: Is it? You got to ride out to that tomorrow
Speaker 5: or tonight on your way home. Guess you're already home
Speaker 5: or whatever? You know? You will remember.
Speaker 6: The thing was before one one remix album was basically
Speaker 6: the dress rehearsal for My life because exactly was that
Speaker 6: just them her singing over the loops?
Speaker 3: I mean, that was That's.
Speaker 5: Pretty much what it was. Hold on, let me tell
Speaker 5: her what the girlfriend thinking is. We keep trying to
Speaker 5: say it and all right, so so I'm gonna be
Speaker 5: fast fat. So anyway, I was figuring out how to
Speaker 5: write these songs, and I did stuff like Troubles, and
Speaker 5: that was the first time that I like felt this
Speaker 5: lost emotion, and so I was starting to learn how
Speaker 5: to craft. I was starting to I worked with one
Speaker 5: guy who he's please forgive me that I can't remember
Speaker 5: the name off the top of my head, but he's
Speaker 5: the other writer on girlfriend, and he was like a
Speaker 5: really awesome songwriter. And it was the first time that
Speaker 5: I worked with because I had started getting my own
Speaker 5: skills together, and so I was starting to get more
Speaker 5: comfortable collaborating once in a while with other people, whereas
Speaker 5: originally it was just I didn't like it because they
Speaker 5: didn't understand, they didn't care.
Speaker 3: And so I collaborated, not Brian michael Cox.
Speaker 5: Not Brian michael Cox. His name was something Thompson or
Speaker 5: he was. I co wrote with him, and I really
Speaker 5: started to understand. And I had this concept of being
Speaker 5: this idea of being jealous of your girlfriend even though
Speaker 5: she's just a girl that is your friend, and it's
Speaker 5: like this feeling that you know, you know, you know,
Speaker 5: you notice she don't like you.
Speaker 4: But close.
Speaker 5: It's just so so and I remember trying to put
Speaker 5: that together. Sorry, I was just she filmed MS Thompson.
Speaker 3: By the way, sim again Joshua Thompson.
Speaker 5: Joshua Thompson, Yes, big up to Joshua Thompson. Excellent.
Speaker 3: Might be my relative and I don't know it, of course.
Speaker 2: Okay, I gotta ask you, like I've heard, I've heard
Speaker 2: stories before that you know when you're when someone's.
Speaker 3: The apple of Clive Davis's eye.
Speaker 2: You know, all the stars aligned, everything works and everything's perfect.
Speaker 3: What's it like to be in the whirlwind?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, and I don't know the story
Speaker 2: of the beginning development at Jay Records, but you know,
Speaker 2: looking throughout history where his work with Janis Joplin, even
Speaker 2: Phil Simon, Whitney Houston.
Speaker 3: Of course it didn't work, Jimmy cozyer.
Speaker 4: I was just.
Speaker 3: Let's see.
Speaker 8: No, no, no, you know, for every for every Whitney,
Speaker 8: there's there's gqu and there's Dom Blackman, there's other artist
Speaker 8: or an Arista Records that didn't fare as well.
Speaker 3: But what is it like? Or at least were you
Speaker 3: aware of.
Speaker 2: This is a major lottery ticket for you, like the
Speaker 2: fact that probably the most powerful set of ears and
Speaker 2: businessman in the music business is now at the Helm
Speaker 2: and I'm certain he came out the gate like We're
Speaker 2: gonna make you a star overnight, Like how do you.
Speaker 3: What is what is that like?
Speaker 5: This is so de Thank you for asking me that
Speaker 5: question because I've definitely never been asked that question before.
Speaker 3: So we're not this is the stuff we.
Speaker 5: Love, right, this is why I'm loving this so basically,
Speaker 5: you know. Right. So, so I was at I was
Speaker 5: at Columbia and Michael Malden and that was my guy,
Speaker 5: and he was the head of music and it was
Speaker 5: a thing, and we started this whole project. And then
Speaker 5: as time happened, they you know, he ended up moving on.
Speaker 5: And I remember they brought the track masters in after
Speaker 5: Michael Maldon, and the track masters like totally didn't get me.
Speaker 5: They did not They was not trying to get me.
Speaker 5: And I remember like I was just like looking at them,
Speaker 5: like what what do you want me to do? I
Speaker 5: just I couldn't understand. And they just, you know, they
Speaker 5: just didn't they didn't get it. And it's all good,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. And Donyina and all all
Speaker 5: them folks over at Columbia, they just they just missed
Speaker 5: the plot. And and so, you know, I looked at
Speaker 5: I looked at Jeff, and I was like, man, what
Speaker 5: are we going to do? Like I've been working so
Speaker 5: much on this music, and like, what are we going
Speaker 5: to do? And he was like, I got to try
Speaker 5: to get us out of here. And of course they
Speaker 5: you know, they're in the business of buying, not selling,
Speaker 5: so they weren't trying to sell me back anything, no music,
Speaker 5: no nothing, other but you don't like the shit, Why
Speaker 5: do you want it? You don't even what do you
Speaker 5: want it for? You don't like it. So that took forever.
Speaker 5: And the only reason why I got out of that
Speaker 5: was because we went to Clive. Clive, you know, got
Speaker 5: the vision and and he brought me out of my contract.
Speaker 5: You know, he really did. And I would have never
Speaker 5: been able to leave Columbia, not with my masters.
Speaker 3: They would have just left you sitting like me.
Speaker 5: They would have shoved me straight upright, called Frank maccombeer.
Speaker 4: That's what they would have done. Oh sorry, more names, right.
Speaker 5: So I was forever. I had a certain love for
Speaker 5: Clive that I could never ever express because I you know,
Speaker 5: as a young artist, I just was like he you know,
Speaker 5: he gave me this opportunity. And not only that, he
Speaker 5: was like the guy that was like, well what do
Speaker 5: you see for yourself? And how do you see your
Speaker 5: career going? And you know your your I see you
Speaker 5: as a Joni Mitchell. When he compared me to Joni Mitchell,
Speaker 5: that was it.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 5: I was finished. I was like, did he just call
Speaker 5: me Jonnie Mitchell? Like this? Is. So his point was
Speaker 5: he never had to be you know, he didn't have
Speaker 5: to He didn't have to hover over me. He knew
Speaker 5: that I was an artist, you know, I created my
Speaker 5: own music. He was, He knew I was a producer,
Speaker 5: he knew I was a writer. He knew I did
Speaker 5: it all. I was a one package thing, and he
Speaker 5: was he loved it. So when times happened, and obviously
Speaker 5: he was at Arista, and then things shifted and they
Speaker 5: moved Clive out and moved la Read in. There was
Speaker 5: like a whole thing where Clive could choose like five
Speaker 5: five he could choose a certain amount of established artists
Speaker 5: and a certain amount of up and cooming artists. And
Speaker 5: I was one of the up and coming artists that
Speaker 5: he chose. But he couldn't offer any more money. La
Speaker 5: Read could ask me to, could have me stay, and
Speaker 5: he could offer me anything he wanted to offer me.
Speaker 5: So he did. And at the time, my man, it
Speaker 5: was just like, what's the thing to talk. We're not
Speaker 5: talking about nothing. Let's stay with la We good, Let's
Speaker 5: get a little extra paper, we straight what we're doing.
Speaker 5: And I was like I can't because Clive, like is
Speaker 5: the reason why I'm even able to be anywhere, you know, right,
Speaker 5: and so I was. I was so so I went
Speaker 5: with Clive, not even realizing that straight out of loyalty,
Speaker 5: not even realizing that because of the circumstance of the
Speaker 5: situation and him starting this, you know, this instant major
Speaker 5: which you remember he did with Jay, that he by
Speaker 5: me going with him, he had to win because he
Speaker 5: had to prove not knowing his story. I was a kid,
Speaker 5: I was freaking you know whatever, seventeen years old. He
Speaker 5: had to win. He had to win because they tried
Speaker 5: to doubt him. And because he had to win, he
Speaker 5: had to win with somebody, and that somebody happened to
Speaker 5: be me. But I didn't know that. I just went
Speaker 5: off of like ethics, like you know, you know, just
Speaker 5: because it's the right thing to do, and so and
Speaker 5: so I never knew how hard he went for me,
Speaker 5: which not was not only because he's one thousand percent
Speaker 5: believed in me, and he really did, but because he
Speaker 5: had It was like when he when I won one,
Speaker 5: and that's what that was, and it was a whole
Speaker 5: other animal. And nobody is like Clive. When he's focused,
Speaker 5: nobody can do what he does.
Speaker 2: So then let me ask you a year later, February
Speaker 2: of two thousand and two, when you win your your
Speaker 2: five Grammy Awards. Jesse Jeff has a similar story where
Speaker 2: you know, they had a situation with Jive Records and
Speaker 2: thought that okay, well you know, y'all, y'all washed up,
Speaker 2: y'all done, And then of course Will comes back like
Speaker 2: a monster. They let him go because they thought like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, after summertime, there's nothing left, so you're good,
Speaker 2: and then we'll be you know, And so they kind
Speaker 2: of had their their revenge moment in the elevator with.
Speaker 3: The staff of Jive Records. As you know, Will and.
Speaker 2: Jeff are are, you know, like they had words with
Speaker 2: the president and oh no hard feelings Will and everything.
Speaker 2: You know, it was like the great is feeling of revenge.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that you know, there were any sights
Speaker 2: on Tommy or Donnie or anyone at the label, but
Speaker 2: surely they had to know shit they found up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we done fucked up.
Speaker 5: I remember when I found out that Aretha Franklin was
Speaker 5: on Columbia Records. Remember she made all those jazz records.
Speaker 3: In Columbia, and then she had to go to Atlanta
Speaker 3: and they got.
Speaker 5: It right and they didn't get her on Columbia and
Speaker 5: I remember feeling like, see, then never get the good ship,
Speaker 5: you see? And I remember that actually felt validating to me.
Speaker 5: When I discovered that, I was like, I felt like
Speaker 5: I just it covered over any type of like feeling
Speaker 5: I might have held on to for them not understanding me.
Speaker 5: And you know, I'm like, man, because if you don't
Speaker 5: get Roretha, then you you you. I don't know what
Speaker 5: to tell you. I just don't know what.
Speaker 7: On the flip side, did you feel like you had
Speaker 7: started an amazing trend with Clive? Because I us after
Speaker 7: that and you know, we all watch what goes on
Speaker 7: at the Dinners. It's like every year there was another
Speaker 7: powerhouse female. It felt wait, I felt like it was
Speaker 7: females being announced right from like Fantasia or I feel like,
Speaker 7: was it Jennifer Hudson.
Speaker 4: It's just been consistent.
Speaker 3: It was the other girl.
Speaker 5: What was her name, Leona Lewis Lewis she was a
Speaker 5: voice too. Yeah, there's a lot of strong, strong voices
Speaker 5: for sure.
Speaker 4: Right, but you were the first the jay, first Jay
Speaker 4: records strong.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was like.
Speaker 2: The thing is from from my from my observation, because
Speaker 2: the first album sold so much, it was still gargantuan.
Speaker 2: You did something that a lot of your contemporaries in
Speaker 2: your particular field because of course, you know, I mean
Speaker 2: it's hard to categorize an artists or whatever, but you know,
Speaker 2: you were pretty much the pinnacle of commercial success for
Speaker 2: quote unquote leftist center artists. It wasn't it wasn't like
Speaker 2: you were in you know how the bad Boy Stable
Speaker 2: or whatever. It was considered super mainstream. And you did
Speaker 2: something that no other artists in your field did, which
Speaker 2: was you had your sophomore record kind of ready and
Speaker 2: timely within a two year period, whereas this type of
Speaker 2: success could have easily been crippling. You know, everyone else
Speaker 2: takes five years, maybe a decade. One particular person is
Speaker 2: still waiting twenty two years him.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Right, exactly. So what in making a diary like for you?
Speaker 2: Is it even a thought of shit, what do I
Speaker 2: do now? How can I top this?
Speaker 5: You know, you know I was so yeah, I was
Speaker 5: just so itching to do new music. I remember, like,
Speaker 5: because I mean, who would have expected you know, songs
Speaker 5: in a minor to have that that that vibe. I
Speaker 5: went on my first tour. I did all these things
Speaker 5: for the first time, and and I was you know,
Speaker 5: I remember I had to sing so many cover songs
Speaker 5: because you know, I only had what the ten and so,
Speaker 5: and so I was just so ready to do new music.
Speaker 5: And it was quite a long time I didn't. I'd
Speaker 5: never been on tour before and and I've always been
Speaker 5: blessed to be a touring artist like I can. I mean,
Speaker 5: I can tour for two years. I can tour so
Speaker 5: long just because of how it flows. So it took
Speaker 5: so long to be off the road and that was
Speaker 5: totally worldwide, and that was a whole new experience for me.
Speaker 5: And so when I came back, I was just dying
Speaker 5: to be in this. I just wanted to sing new songs.
Speaker 5: I was like, please, I need to sing new songs.
Speaker 5: So I didn't. I didn't. I remember we camped out
Speaker 5: at this one place and and called Campo down downtown,
Speaker 5: and I had the little there's like a little bedroom upstairs,
Speaker 5: and we we pretty much, you know, slept there every
Speaker 5: night and just woke up. And at that that was
Speaker 5: at the beginning where you know, we we'd done the
Speaker 5: we did you know, we did you don't know my
Speaker 5: we did you know my name? Kanye came in and
Speaker 5: we created that whole thing. And you know, I remember
Speaker 5: Easy Mob came in and racked in me and I
Speaker 5: was like a dream. I was like, ooh, Easy and
Speaker 5: I was I had the soul vision of doing the
Speaker 5: warning sample over if I was your woman. It's like
Speaker 5: it was a whole thing. And and so it was
Speaker 5: Dranva Dow.
Speaker 4: Did they get is this just the album that Dranva Dow?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, Dry and Verda And that was what It
Speaker 5: was so cool because they did so simple. They did
Speaker 5: another one too, that's kind of I forget about and
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh yeah, but so simple as the one.
Speaker 5: We had such a ball that time. So I just
Speaker 5: couldn't wait. And so I definitely didn't recall being conscious
Speaker 5: about the time span. I just knew that I had to.
Speaker 5: I definitely knew It's like it'd been a minute, and
Speaker 5: I knew I was ready to sing new songs. And
Speaker 5: I knew that they were pushing me because they always
Speaker 5: pushed me to release Fourth Quarter, which I never understood
Speaker 5: until way later.
Speaker 4: It's important. It's the most important quarter, is it not.
Speaker 5: It's Christmas they would push me and push me and
Speaker 5: push me at a fourth quarter and it would drive me.
Speaker 5: I was like why. And I remember we finished the
Speaker 5: whole the whole album in France because we were touring
Speaker 5: and we were we were doing international promo before I
Speaker 5: even finished the record. And I would they were, they were,
Speaker 5: they knew when I needed to release. They were pushing it.
Speaker 5: They were like, this is when we're coming out. Good
Speaker 5: luck finished the record. You're promoing while you're finishing. And
Speaker 5: I would, I would, I was. It was the worst
Speaker 5: experience of my life, the end of the end of
Speaker 5: Diary album. I was never more tired, exhausted. I remember,
Speaker 5: I I remember I you know, I would do get
Speaker 5: up and do interviews, you know, getting ready at six,
Speaker 5: first interview at at eight, interviews from like eight to six,
Speaker 5: one hour break, jump to the studio, be at the
Speaker 5: studio from seven to one, get back home, sleep until
Speaker 5: like five. And that was like it. And I had
Speaker 5: to finish the whole record and all the stuff, and
Speaker 5: and and be promoting you don't know my name at
Speaker 5: the same time in French tune on Nick Palmer Jon
Speaker 5: or something like that. That's the way I remembered it.
Speaker 5: They taught me it in French, and remember it is tuna,
Speaker 5: corn and parmisan, which is the French translation of you
Speaker 5: don't know my name.
Speaker 4: Yo can? I don't mean a backdrive.
Speaker 7: But I always said if I got a chance to
Speaker 7: talk to you, I wanted to ask you this, especially
Speaker 7: now that a lot of time has passed. I was
Speaker 7: always curious that first album, those Grammys that are mere mentioned.
Speaker 7: I remember that time also being kind of I assumed
Speaker 7: it was a little emotional for you because I remember
Speaker 7: a kind of pit against with India.
Speaker 4: I read, right, and.
Speaker 7: I remember you know that whole right. But it's interesting
Speaker 7: because like twelve fifteen, let's act like it's ten twelve
Speaker 7: years later, right.
Speaker 3: Later?
Speaker 4: No, please, I know, but I'm like, we young, know,
Speaker 4: we're young, No, right, I just wonder if you ever
Speaker 4: think about that?
Speaker 7: Did do you think differently about how that happened and
Speaker 7: how y'all were pitted against each other like that?
Speaker 4: Like, what do do you ever think about that?
Speaker 3: You know what?
Speaker 5: You know what? That's super deep that you asked me this,
Speaker 5: and now that I am an awakened, you know, adult woman,
Speaker 5: That's why I'm asking you, know, I think that's I
Speaker 5: think thank you actually for asking me that, because I
Speaker 5: really didn't understand what was happening at the time. I
Speaker 5: was so excited for both of us. First of all,
Speaker 5: you know, Indy IRI's music is so dope, and I
Speaker 5: was I continue to be a huge fan of her
Speaker 5: energy and her style, and she always had such a
Speaker 5: presence and we crossed past all the time, all the time,
Speaker 5: and even on that Oprah show. Right, she was on
Speaker 5: that Oprah show.
Speaker 4: I forgot about that.
Speaker 2: That's right, the Oprah there was you, Jill, because I
Speaker 2: remember Jill was on that show as.
Speaker 5: Well, India Mary Mary, Oh.
Speaker 4: This is the brunch? Is this the brunch?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 2: No, I had a big episode and it was Alicia
Speaker 2: Jill Scott, like she just had the black women of
Speaker 2: the moment and that like that was a very crucial
Speaker 2: moment for everyone. Like Jill's record started selling triple and.
Speaker 5: Its huge for us. It was so big for us,
Speaker 5: and I loved I loved her so much, and when
Speaker 5: we were both nominated for so many records and the Grammys,
Speaker 5: it was like, shit was amazing. I was like, yo,
Speaker 5: this is crazy, Like look, I couldn't believe it. Whoever
Speaker 5: thought ever? And I know she was super excited, and
Speaker 5: I think in a way, you know, everything is such
Speaker 5: a blur and it's all so emotional, and it's all
Speaker 5: so like you you literally feel like you're on planet
Speaker 5: Mars when you the first time you're doing something like that.
Speaker 5: I mean, there's no way to explain it, there's no
Speaker 5: way to rationalize it. It's not normal, totally crazy, and.
Speaker 4: There's a little colorism in there too, like right fast forward.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think, you know, so what I was
Speaker 5: saying was I think that the night was so unbelievable
Speaker 5: that I when I ended up walking away with five Grammys,
Speaker 5: and I think, you know, she walked away with none.
Speaker 5: It was a shock. And I never even thought about
Speaker 5: what that would feel like for her, because you know
Speaker 5: she did, I don't. I mean, I know that she
Speaker 5: definitely verbalized her her feelings, but I think mostly she
Speaker 5: was brand new, you know, you you that's you don't
Speaker 5: even know how to internalize that when that happens, especially
Speaker 5: when you've worked so hard at what you're doing. And
Speaker 5: then this this this this idea of there being colorism
Speaker 5: involved with the reason why, and and that's so much
Speaker 5: that's so layered and deep and deep. Who controls that
Speaker 5: shit and like who can It's it's like so and
Speaker 5: I think that as time has passed, you know, I
Speaker 5: often actually hear her reference that experience for her, and
Speaker 5: it was it was hard for her. It was like
Speaker 5: a real you know, it was like an emotional, difficult moment.
Speaker 5: And I really now clearly understand what she means by that.
Speaker 5: I don't think I understood the depth of that during
Speaker 5: that time. And I actually would love to connect with
Speaker 5: her just on some like I mean, whenever I see
Speaker 5: her as super love. I love all her posts. We
Speaker 5: definitely have beautiful energy and connection. It's never been like
Speaker 5: anything she's held against me personally, but I would love
Speaker 5: to just like one hundred percent, like let her know
Speaker 5: a billion percent how amazing it has been to be
Speaker 5: able to grow up in this world with her incredible music,
Speaker 5: you know, because it's been a soundtrack for me. So
Speaker 5: I would actually love to connect with her on that.
Speaker 5: I just saw some woman a woman shit. So I'm
Speaker 5: really glad that you are super good. Go you says,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Thanks, babe.
Speaker 2: You know something this tour, I think with this record also,
Speaker 2: I got to see the I believe you Beyonce and
Speaker 2: Missy did a tour together or whatever? What was was
Speaker 2: that your first like major stadium tour? Like did you
Speaker 2: were you doing stadiums in during the the a minor
Speaker 2: period or was this the first time? Like I want
Speaker 2: to know the difference between doing mid level theaters versus
Speaker 2: stadiums and how because I feel like the piano is
Speaker 2: such a personal kind of intimate instrument.
Speaker 3: What was it like adjusting to bigger venues?
Speaker 5: Oh man, I remember, like, wow, what an amazing tour
Speaker 5: that was, Like wow, me be and Missy like come on,
Speaker 5: what is that? Like what is that? And I remember,
Speaker 5: you know it was. It felt so good and equally
Speaker 5: terrifying because every night was kind of like whoa, what
Speaker 5: what am I supposed to do with this? And like
Speaker 5: what happens? And why are all these people here? What
Speaker 5: are all these people doing here? But it was it
Speaker 5: was way way because I am I'm truly like you
Speaker 5: see me in a theater and I will blow your
Speaker 5: brains out. Nobody can touch me when I'm in a
Speaker 5: theater space period, I saw that, I saw that tour.
Speaker 5: It is my strength. It is something that is just
Speaker 5: a place that it works for me. The piano, the
Speaker 5: conversation and intimacy.
Speaker 4: It's just dancing.
Speaker 5: It's just my world, you know. And in transitioning into
Speaker 5: transitioning into the arenas and stadiums was a huge difference
Speaker 5: because it just was way different way. So I remember
Speaker 5: it took me a while to kind of understand, and
Speaker 5: I didn't. I never had like a bunch of stuff,
Speaker 5: you know, like things falling from the.
Speaker 3: Sky, technics and stuff.
Speaker 5: Who I just I was like, here, go to the
Speaker 5: piano and hit go my band, and I'm like that
Speaker 5: was always my thing, which was totally good. But I
Speaker 5: didn't even have like killer lighting. It was like just
Speaker 5: early you don't you start now. Obviously I know how
Speaker 5: to kill a thing in my style, but it was
Speaker 5: a whole new world and I probably felt like I
Speaker 5: was drowning a little bit.
Speaker 7: Meanwhile, I'm still mad we didn't get service that Beyonce
Speaker 7: record that y'all did together the way we should have.
Speaker 4: I feel like it was like you're.
Speaker 5: Right, you know, you know you're right, and it's just
Speaker 5: I just wanted just form of those things. I know.
Speaker 5: It was so sick. It was so I actually wish
Speaker 5: I could just find it so I could show her
Speaker 5: now and be like, why don't we just put this
Speaker 5: out now? Because it's like who cares?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 4: It goes with you know, black.
Speaker 5: Is coming, like who cares? Now, let's just do it?
Speaker 5: So I might need to try it, honestly, I have
Speaker 5: to actually see if I can find that thing's crazy?
Speaker 5: That was a vibe though, that was that was the something.
Speaker 2: I can go through your entire discography, but I do
Speaker 2: want to jump to your newest album.
Speaker 3: What are you still learning?
Speaker 2: Things like what while you're making records now? Are you
Speaker 2: at a place where it's now just not coasting? And
Speaker 2: I know that coasting sounds like a lazy term or whatever,
Speaker 2: but you know, I also believe that, well, if something works,
Speaker 2: and don't mess with it too much, But like, what
Speaker 2: else can you What else can you learn that you're
Speaker 2: going to bring to the Alisha record that you haven't
Speaker 2: done before, or you one of these artists that you know,
Speaker 2: get out of my comfort zone and try something I
Speaker 2: never tried before, or just an evolution.
Speaker 5: I am always always learning, like always, I am always
Speaker 5: uncertain of what I'm going to create always, and I
Speaker 5: never want to know. I never I never want to
Speaker 5: get to that place where I say, oh, I know
Speaker 5: what I do. I add this thing, and you know,
Speaker 5: then if I put this and I add a hook,
Speaker 5: like this is gonna be us, It's gonna be normal's
Speaker 5: gonna be then let's go. I don't want it to
Speaker 5: be formulaic. Ever. I never want to feel like I
Speaker 5: know how to write. Every time I get in the studio,
Speaker 5: I'm like, how do I write a song? Again, like,
Speaker 5: how do I write a song? And what kind of
Speaker 5: song am I gonna actally? Every time? And I love
Speaker 5: that feeling because I always want the magic, and that's
Speaker 5: what we're chasing, right, That's what we're chasing, that like
Speaker 5: thing that we never knew would come. And I always
Speaker 5: want to feel that. So for me, I'm always learning.
Speaker 5: I never exactly have a formula. I never know exactly
Speaker 5: what I'm gonna do. I'm always trying something new in
Speaker 5: this particular album for Lesia, I'm always learning something new
Speaker 5: about myself. It's been a very deep self discovery for
Speaker 5: me in these past two three years and really like
Speaker 5: getting to know and be comfortable purely clearly in my skin,
Speaker 5: in the different sides of me, not trying to be
Speaker 5: something and no, here's me. This is what that sounds like,
Speaker 5: Here's me, that's that side of me. Here's vulnerable. I'm
Speaker 5: cool being vulnerable. Here's angry, pissed off heated, I'm cool
Speaker 5: being angry, pissed off, E said the press down blue.
Speaker 5: I'm cool being that. It's like I finally feel comfortable
Speaker 5: just being how I am without trying to fix it
Speaker 5: and change it or whatever. So for the first time,
Speaker 5: you're getting the officially uncut real me because I'm able
Speaker 5: to be that. And if there's one thing that I
Speaker 5: learned this time that I'm actually gonna take them to
Speaker 5: my next project, which is already three quarters of the
Speaker 5: way done, and you're gonna go bananas. I can't wait
Speaker 5: for you to. This next one is bananas. Is never
Speaker 5: to forget to be alone with myself. Because on my
Speaker 5: very very first Alisha of songs in a Minor, I
Speaker 5: was a lot alone, very much alone. I rolled alone
Speaker 5: all the time. Besides crucial, that was kind of it.
Speaker 5: It was my thing, my world. And over time I've
Speaker 5: gotten used to collaborating with people and it's been fun
Speaker 5: because I can create different sonics and places and sounds,
Speaker 5: and it's like feels less lonely and it's just a world.
Speaker 5: But when I'm by myself, and I reminded that when
Speaker 5: I wrap this Alisha album, when I'm by myself, it
Speaker 5: brings out something that I have to always cultivate. And
Speaker 5: that was my most most recent reminder slash lesson and
Speaker 5: what I will you know, be taken forth through this
Speaker 5: next project that I can't wait to be on the
Speaker 5: show again talking to you.
Speaker 7: About promise because we got more to talk about.
Speaker 3: Can I ask one last question before we were out?
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, So I gotta say, probably one of the
Speaker 2: most impressive things that I've seen you do.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: So I was there this year at the at the
Speaker 2: Grammy Awards, and because we were playing with Garrett Clark Junior,
Speaker 2: so you know, I was pretty much there throughout the
Speaker 2: duration of the rehearsals and sit in the background and
Speaker 2: you know, watching you camera block and all these things
Speaker 2: and prepare for it, and then of course, uh uh
Speaker 2: Kobe passes away, which totally changes uh every absolutely the
Speaker 2: entire just it's a paradigm shift like no other. And
Speaker 2: you know, the the last time I saw them in
Speaker 2: a moment of panic was kind of I guess in
Speaker 2: what two thousand and seven, two thousand and six, when
Speaker 2: the quote unquote Rihanna situation happened and they had to
Speaker 2: readjust with like three hours left and they had to
Speaker 2: really readjust the show. I gotta say, man, that was
Speaker 2: like I wouldn't have been able to pull that off
Speaker 2: how you handled it, And it was a thing where
Speaker 2: you kind of had to wing it a little bit
Speaker 2: and readjust it for the show. And I you know,
Speaker 2: some people are good under like come to your head
Speaker 2: pressure and that Jordan game six, this shot better go
Speaker 2: in the basket moment. But I've like I was out
Speaker 2: of everything at night. I was really impressed with.
Speaker 3: How you.
Speaker 2: Hosted the show and how you handled the words for
Speaker 2: Kobe and didn't let it rattle you or whatever.
Speaker 3: Like you did it with a very very smooth with the.
Speaker 4: Strength of fifty black women on your shoulders. That's how
Speaker 4: you did it. You know, woman doing what she does.
Speaker 5: Come on.
Speaker 2: So yeah, like what when you got the news that
Speaker 2: that happened and I'm certain that you know there was
Speaker 2: five hours left before showtime, Like what what was running
Speaker 2: through your like what pressure was running through your mind
Speaker 2: that we now have to readjust the show? Like you
Speaker 2: did something with boised men with a quick that's so funny.
Speaker 2: Boys to Men was also used for the quote Rihanna period,
Speaker 2: Oh my god, no literally literally they were kN kN
Speaker 2: was running in the audit because they that was the
Speaker 2: year they decided to like double up on performances. So
Speaker 2: between Rihanna and Chris, there were like five performances that
Speaker 2: no longer existed and they needed to fill time, and
Speaker 2: so they were just running in the audience like.
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, no, Al Green, Steve, like Stevie, one of the.
Speaker 2: Jonas brothers, can Y'll do super And they were just
Speaker 2: running in the audience, grabbing people, learning songs with like
Speaker 2: hours left, which was really like seconds left. So I
Speaker 2: know that, like what was going through your mind that
Speaker 2: I now have to rise to the moment and be
Speaker 2: the words of comfort for grieving nation.
Speaker 5: I can't even tell you how crazy the whole experience
Speaker 5: was before it even became the gravitized that it did
Speaker 5: when with Kobe's and gig and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so like that on top of what I was
Speaker 2: seeing you go through already.
Speaker 5: No, So what I mean is, and I'm bringing that
Speaker 5: up because the crazy thing is, you know, planning for
Speaker 5: that particular thing and this was my se and time back,
Speaker 5: and you know, I was extra in my head, like
Speaker 5: I kind of killed it the first time. I'm going
Speaker 5: to really have to figure out like what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 5: And I was like, am I crazy for saying yes?
Speaker 5: Who would say yes and compete against themselves? Dude? What
Speaker 5: type of idiot move was that? So by the time
Speaker 5: it was close to actually doing it, way before this news,
Speaker 5: I was already like just trying to crack the code
Speaker 5: because everything that I had planned for for my performance
Speaker 5: and for hosting nothing came through. Every artist that I
Speaker 5: reached out to, every particular big idea that I had,
Speaker 5: even those that said yes, slowly dropped out, and I
Speaker 5: could not figure what was happening. I was like, please, Universe,
Speaker 5: what do you want from me? What is happening? I'm
Speaker 5: you asking me to step into this moment, you asking
Speaker 5: me to be great, but I can't lock anything in.
Speaker 5: Why what is the matter? And so I finally had
Speaker 5: to this moment with myself and I was like, Okay, Alicia, look,
Speaker 5: it's it's you. You. You don't have to depend on
Speaker 5: anybody else. You you don't need this and that and
Speaker 5: that person that person to be great. You are you
Speaker 5: are you, and you can do it by yourself. Your Yeah,
Speaker 5: you're enough, So go out there and just be great
Speaker 5: and stop. And so I was like, okay, all right.
Speaker 5: I tried to get the things, and the things okay, boom.
Speaker 5: So we're working through everything, got all the pieces, put
Speaker 5: it all together, had on the thing, had an entrance,
Speaker 5: how the whole thing. And I was already dressed because
Speaker 5: we planned to be dressed for run through, because I
Speaker 5: had maybe an hour an hour before the show starts,
Speaker 5: so that I could be dressed quick, touch up, meditate, cool,
Speaker 5: get myself together, be ready to kill. It had to
Speaker 5: be it had to be thirty minutes before the end
Speaker 5: of the show, which gave me one hour and a
Speaker 5: half max. Before showtime. Truly, I mean it was like
Speaker 5: that close and Ken I remember I saw them shuffling
Speaker 5: in the corner and I was like, what's going on
Speaker 5: And he was like, a Lisha, I really have to
Speaker 5: talk to you. And I said, what's going on?
Speaker 3: Oh, you didn't even know?
Speaker 5: And it was backstage that I was like halfway between
Speaker 5: one thing and the other and he was like Kobe,
Speaker 5: and I was like what and he was like and
Speaker 5: I was.
Speaker 4: Like what how much time before show time?
Speaker 5: An hour and a half and I was and I
Speaker 5: wasn't like what because it was an hour and a half.
Speaker 5: I was like what because what Kobe No Way? Never
Speaker 5: not Kobe no Way, of course, And I remember causin
Speaker 5: Swiss called me and he's like, Babe, what's going on?
Speaker 5: And I was like, oh my god, I just got
Speaker 5: the news. He was like, I need to know what's happening.
Speaker 5: And I was like I don't. I don't know. I
Speaker 5: need to know what you're doing. I was like I
Speaker 5: don't know what I'm doing. He was like, you don't understand, babe.
Speaker 5: People are out here hurting. You can't be up there
Speaker 5: at some fucking Grammys like this is Kobe. And I
Speaker 5: was like I know, I don't. I was like I
Speaker 5: don't know. He was like I need us talk about
Speaker 5: this and this has to be right, and I was
Speaker 5: like I know, and I was just like whoa. I
Speaker 5: was just trying to catch the But it dawned on
Speaker 5: me in that moment. That's why nothing worked, because I
Speaker 5: was supposed to be ready for that, and so when
Speaker 5: that landed on me, I was like oh, and I
Speaker 5: felt like a different type of calm that I didn't
Speaker 5: even know that I had, because I realized all this anxiety,
Speaker 5: all this pressure, all of this feeling like I wasn't enough,
Speaker 5: all of this whatever it meant nothing. All I needed
Speaker 5: to do was show up for us because I needed
Speaker 5: it just as bad as everyone else needed I didn't
Speaker 5: know what. I just like, shit, what do we do
Speaker 5: with this? And what if it was me and my son?
Speaker 5: And what happens with House Vanessa? And what must I feel?
Speaker 5: I was like I couldn't even fathom. And so I
Speaker 5: remember the whole team came backstage and was like, I
Speaker 5: was like, what are we going to do? And they
Speaker 5: were like, and A call Swiss and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 5: we could maybe. He was like, you gotta sing something.
Speaker 5: I was like, I gotta sing something. What could I h?
Speaker 5: Can I sing? Maybe I could sing Eyes on a Sparrow?
Speaker 5: I was like, what could I sing? Let me think?
Speaker 5: Let me think? And then I remember seeing Boys to
Speaker 5: Men with Tyler the Creator and I remember Omar one
Speaker 5: of my MD's. He was like, it's so hard to
Speaker 5: say goodbye. I said, Oh, Boys to Men is here.
Speaker 5: I was like, can we can they come? Would they
Speaker 5: be willing to do it, we should do it. And
Speaker 5: they came to my room and we were like on
Speaker 5: the piano, and I was like, key key key, or
Speaker 5: should we do key key? And I and I started
Speaker 5: to think about what the words were. And I had
Speaker 5: been working on the scripts of what I was saying anyway,
Speaker 5: so we, you know, we quickly pivoted about like what
Speaker 5: did it feel like in that moment? And that was
Speaker 5: it and we had to go. And I just remember
Speaker 5: that I walked it that stage and I felt so clear,
Speaker 5: I mean so clear about what I was there for
Speaker 5: and and that and then that was that was that.
Speaker 5: But honestly, it's you know, it was divinity, and it
Speaker 5: was God and it was you know, God holding me
Speaker 5: and protecting and just the way that it was however
Speaker 5: it is supposed to be that I never would have
Speaker 5: imagined in my life. But whoa, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, yeah, I recognized that moment and was really beyond
Speaker 2: impressed with how you handled.
Speaker 7: That because so the people at home, we knew nobody
Speaker 7: could do it better than you. I don't know who
Speaker 7: else to have done it like that and made it
Speaker 7: seem since here and not scripted, to be honest.
Speaker 5: So no, I mean, we all meant it. We were
Speaker 5: all like still mourning man, So thank you for so
Speaker 5: thank you for that. And and I loved this interview, guys.
Speaker 5: I love it. I know everybody probably come on tell
Speaker 5: them tell you how much they love you. But this
Speaker 5: is so good. I love it.
Speaker 2: This, This is nerd paradise like our Jimmy jam episode
Speaker 2: is damnling near seven hours.
Speaker 4: So yeah, that's believe. If it wasn't nobody on the line,
Speaker 4: we be holding you all along.
Speaker 3: Thank you for doing this.
Speaker 2: And of course you know we'll have you on the
Speaker 2: show again so we can nerd out some more.
Speaker 5: I can't wait. Man, y'all, thank you. You're so blessed,
Speaker 5: You're so beautiful, you're so amazing all of y'all quests.
Speaker 5: I'm a super fan. Man. You are very very very
Speaker 5: very important to us and to me.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: And I will I will text you guys, row Yes,
Speaker 2: I will. I'll text it to you after meditation playlist.
Speaker 2: I will meditation please.
Speaker 5: All right, thank you, Steve. I wish you talked more
Speaker 5: because I'm interested in.
Speaker 2: Alisa Keys, ladies and gentlemen. My name is quest Love
Speaker 2: be after Team Supreme. Like fan take a little sugar
Speaker 2: Steve and I Hate Phil. We will see you on
Speaker 2: the next proround.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For
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