Speaker 1: What's up? Can we is your girl to make a
Speaker 1: d Mallory and it's your boy my son in general.
Speaker 1: And we are your host of street politicians, the place
Speaker 1: where the streets and politics meet. What's up? What's going on? Man?
Speaker 1: We have a good show today. Women's History Month is
Speaker 1: so big, big, big, big, big yeah. And there's you know,
Speaker 1: there's great things about celebrating women that I love, but
Speaker 1: also we cannot forget to make sure we talk about
Speaker 1: the challenges that women face as well, because people, you know,
Speaker 1: love the celebration, but they don't always like to look
Speaker 1: at some of the like critical issues that's happening in
Speaker 1: our society. And there's one thing that's happening right now
Speaker 1: that I'm happy to be a supporter of, which is
Speaker 1: this finding to maka Um documentary that Kevin hard Lamina. God,
Speaker 1: you were doing. A woman who went missing in South
Speaker 1: Carolina many years ago didn't get enough attention. UM. And
Speaker 1: they're you know, basically breaking down the story about what
Speaker 1: happened to her. Erica Alexander, who we love, UH, narrates
Speaker 1: the entire show. UM. And you know, black girls and
Speaker 1: women going missing is a real serious problem in this country. UM.
Speaker 1: And so you know the fact that it's this show
Speaker 1: is being launched during Black History Month. I was about
Speaker 1: to say Christmas, you see where my head is at,
Speaker 1: but any of the Women's History Month, right it's just
Speaker 1: you know, this is when it's happening right now. And um,
Speaker 1: I think that is a testament to the point that
Speaker 1: we can focus on the celebration International Women's Day, everyone
Speaker 1: was celebrating how amids and women are but there are
Speaker 1: still really really serious challenges that particularly Black women and
Speaker 1: girls face, and one of them is this abduction, trafficking,
Speaker 1: and just people going missing in general. So I just
Speaker 1: want to make sure the onset that people watch Finding Tamika,
Speaker 1: that they go and they listen, because I think it's
Speaker 1: on audible, so you're not watching, you're listening, um to
Speaker 1: Erica narrate a story about what happened to this young lady. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I just want to make sure that people go
Speaker 1: and listen to it. In fact, some folks have already
Speaker 1: been telling me, including our partner Angelo Pinto, attorney Angelo Pinto,
Speaker 1: that it's really really heavy and powerful. I gotta listen
Speaker 1: to it. I've seen I've seen you posted, I've seen
Speaker 1: a few people posted, and I didn't really know what
Speaker 1: it was. I was dealing with a lot of different things.
Speaker 1: But I'm definitely gon gonna listen to Yeah. Well, I
Speaker 1: know now you can't be you can't be left out.
Speaker 1: You always want to be in. Then, so let's see
Speaker 1: what else is happening, man. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 1: today we're we're going to be changing sort of the
Speaker 1: format of our show as we start to sit down
Speaker 1: with incredible people. Right now focusing on women, but there
Speaker 1: will be many other folks to come along that we
Speaker 1: want to sit down with and and really do more
Speaker 1: of a sort of full form interview. You know, we
Speaker 1: often talk to people in these twenty thirty minutes and
Speaker 1: it never feels like we got enough, Like we gotta
Speaker 1: bring shine back. You know. There's so many people that
Speaker 1: I want to sit with and talk more about, you know,
Speaker 1: their full journey, and today we're doing it with an
Speaker 1: incredible woman that I'm excited to talk to. Controversial, she is, um,
Speaker 1: but yet she is a friend. She's legendary for sure. Um.
Speaker 1: But there's other stuff happening in the world and we
Speaker 1: can never, unfortunately, just enjoy one thing without having to
Speaker 1: be backslaped by other stuff that's happening. And one one
Speaker 1: thing for me is just watching the terra that is
Speaker 1: associated with people calling the police on black folks. It's trauma.
Speaker 1: It's it's so traumaful, just you know, and I know
Speaker 1: what you're getting into. Especially I think it's traumatizing, traumatized.
Speaker 1: But maybe I could invent trauma for because it's full
Speaker 1: of trauma. You know, Jackson invented words. It's trauma forul
Speaker 1: because you know. But you know, I'm glad we could laugh.
Speaker 1: But in the reality of the situation, when I was
Speaker 1: listening to the whole Ryan Coogler fiasco, you know, and
Speaker 1: him walking into what is the Bank of America, I
Speaker 1: don't even know what. I think it's Bank of America
Speaker 1: and requesting, like giving a letter of requesting that he
Speaker 1: we have to withdraw twelve thousand dollars of his own
Speaker 1: money right discreetly, because you know, he's Atlanta. He doesn't
Speaker 1: know somebody will knock him over his head, like he
Speaker 1: don't want people to see it. So he hands the
Speaker 1: letter and when you read it, they showed a letter
Speaker 1: when you read it and said, hey, I'm like, that's
Speaker 1: the keyword my account. Discreetly she said, gave him the idea.
Speaker 1: He did all the necessary things, and she still felt
Speaker 1: that there was something, you know, that that was weird
Speaker 1: or sketchy about him. He didn't it didn't match up.
Speaker 1: Rather than just going through the process, that said, let
Speaker 1: me run his account and see that's the identification matched.
Speaker 1: The name was doing the necessary things that you're supposed
Speaker 1: to do as a bank teller, you know. Unfortunately, she
Speaker 1: was scared and decided to quote the police. And then
Speaker 1: when you listen to the conversation, I heard the officers said, well,
Speaker 1: the dispatch basically said, well, he could just want to
Speaker 1: be discreet, but you know, the officers because basically she
Speaker 1: she was letting her know that I don't really know
Speaker 1: if he did anything that there was no way like
Speaker 1: he could just want to be discreet, but if you want,
Speaker 1: we have dispatch, we have officers there. And unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 1: when he approached him, he was dealing with levels of
Speaker 1: trauma to where he had a panic attack. And yes,
Speaker 1: he said he he asked him, please could remove my glasses.
Speaker 1: I'm having a panic attack, and I know that, so
Speaker 1: I remember the first time that I was ever arrested,
Speaker 1: I had a panic It I literally fainted, like fainting.
Speaker 1: They grabbed me, put handcuffed on, like, oh, so what
Speaker 1: don't I being arrested for it? Like you know, when
Speaker 1: they're throwing me and everything just started getting My heads
Speaker 1: got light. I feending in the back of the car.
Speaker 1: Woke up probably about two minutes later. I really had
Speaker 1: a panic attack. So I was really I put myself
Speaker 1: in his position. I realized what he was going through.
Speaker 1: You know. Fortunate enough he didn't fall out, but I
Speaker 1: know he was dealing with this anxiety that show was happening.
Speaker 1: You know, you suck sweating, Everything starts getting blurry to you.
Speaker 1: It's a harsh feeling. But here's the part that really
Speaker 1: troubles me. Right, these are the people that they don't
Speaker 1: want us to defund. They wanted to give more money
Speaker 1: to the post lease and whatever. So now you show
Speaker 1: up and you're an officer, right, and and someone is
Speaker 1: telling you this man gave me a note. Do you
Speaker 1: read the note? Do you say, man, did you check
Speaker 1: his account? Or you just arrest somebody just because it's
Speaker 1: a black person, Because I have in my life and
Speaker 1: I know you have as well. Then places where white
Speaker 1: folks are screaming yelling, fighting, hollering, acting, cutting up, acting
Speaker 1: a complete fool. And yet when the police show up,
Speaker 1: they will try to deescalate and figure out what's going
Speaker 1: on before they just arrest white people. I'm telling you
Speaker 1: that's what they do. But it comes to a black man,
Speaker 1: nobody takes the time to say, hole on a second,
Speaker 1: is the money in his account? Does the bank card
Speaker 1: and the identification match? At some point? I wonder like
Speaker 1: at one point it sounds like this woman was a
Speaker 1: black girl, Okay, So I didn't know that that's verified, okay,
Speaker 1: And so it's not really a racism thing. Although we
Speaker 1: as even people of color, even black, we uphope we
Speaker 1: can uphold racist white right, white supremacy, and so that's
Speaker 1: one thing. But maybe it's just that people are stupid
Speaker 1: even But the thing is this, why don't we give
Speaker 1: our people grace and due diligence right? Why why we
Speaker 1: look at why didn't she do that necessarily? Then this
Speaker 1: is another black man I don't want to call. Let
Speaker 1: me make sure before I call the police, because I'm
Speaker 1: behind this this wall. He can't get to me, has
Speaker 1: a show me any weapon, He hasn't done anything to
Speaker 1: threaten me. Maybe the way that he's addressing me, maybe
Speaker 1: a little different. You might, I might feel a little
Speaker 1: a little bit. But let me make sure before I
Speaker 1: put the authorities on this man. Let me run his account,
Speaker 1: Let me do the due diligence, Let me do that.
Speaker 1: Why why don't we feel like that? Why because unfortunately
Speaker 1: every ethnic group outside of us feels like that they're
Speaker 1: gonna do things to protect. They're gonna go above and beyond.
Speaker 1: Even if it would have been somebody, a white person
Speaker 1: be like, come on, man, get out here for you
Speaker 1: go to jail. But sometimes, but more more often than not,
Speaker 1: I watched them protect each other. We just like, why
Speaker 1: wouldn't you say to yourself, then this is this is
Speaker 1: a black man. Let me just let me give him
Speaker 1: a little grace. Let me say okay, let me run
Speaker 1: this account, let me just go get my man, Just
Speaker 1: say hey, let me run it. Why would the authorities
Speaker 1: be the first line that you like? Sitting here cracking
Speaker 1: up because I'm thinking about the video that was just
Speaker 1: on social media a few days of like maybe a
Speaker 1: week or so ago, where the person went to the
Speaker 1: bank and I think she asked or they asked for
Speaker 1: something and maybe gave a check or whatever, and then
Speaker 1: the perse and tell her whatever to tell her said
Speaker 1: it was's gonna work, and you jumped over the flexiglass
Speaker 1: or when you say that she couldn't get over. I
Speaker 1: don't know because this person's going to you jumped over
Speaker 1: the coundar and that was it and was back there like,
Speaker 1: no today, y'all what I need? I think you try
Speaker 1: to put the check in and they said she right,
Speaker 1: so then money, and yo, I'm not gonna lie. While
Speaker 1: I would never jump over the plexiglass and no one
Speaker 1: else ever ever should do that. I've been in those
Speaker 1: situations where I deposit a check and I need everything
Speaker 1: actually need, and when they tell you that they're taking
Speaker 1: an overdraft fee and this and that, and you're like what.
Speaker 1: So I'm just laughing about that. The Ryan Coogler situation
Speaker 1: is not funny. That trauma of being arrested, even when
Speaker 1: I have been arrested, knowing that I'm about to be
Speaker 1: you know, I will have all kinds of issues and
Speaker 1: panic attacks and anxiety and all of that. So that's
Speaker 1: that's not cool here. This man is trying to be discreet.
Speaker 1: First of all. Unfortunately he's outside in the street in Atlanta. Okay,
Speaker 1: he is like, yo, don't come over here with your money,
Speaker 1: like with my money. Don't be don't win all of this.
Speaker 1: Go over there, get it together, and then give my
Speaker 1: money so I can put it right here and go
Speaker 1: by my business because these people will help me to
Speaker 1: knock me over my head and I'm trying not to
Speaker 1: get killed. But it's twelve thou dollars. And what makes
Speaker 1: me so mad is the black people on the internet
Speaker 1: that I see talking about. Oh well, why was he
Speaker 1: taking twelve thousand. I was like, he might want to
Speaker 1: go home and put it over his bed and lay
Speaker 1: on it and eat yogurt. That's his money. He used
Speaker 1: to do that. The next thing they said was, well,
Speaker 1: if you give a note to a teller, the note
Speaker 1: is very clear, specific, very clear, specific my money. I
Speaker 1: would like to withdraw twelve thou dollars of my money
Speaker 1: out of my account. This is not hard. And she
Speaker 1: didn't say that, just that. She never said out of
Speaker 1: my account, never said that when she's speaking to the
Speaker 1: dispatch it and you know, so we just got to
Speaker 1: do better, man, we gotta do better. Shout out, you know,
Speaker 1: my apologies for to cool. You know you should never
Speaker 1: have had to go through that. But unfortunately, as black men,
Speaker 1: we go through things that we should never have had
Speaker 1: to go on through every day. Yeah, well, you know,
Speaker 1: and it also keeps us understanding what the world is like. Right,
Speaker 1: So no matter how high you get, you gotta always
Speaker 1: know that when you black, you just black. And what
Speaker 1: jay Z saying, still niggat Still you know what I
Speaker 1: really want to ask you, why do you talk to
Speaker 1: people on the internet? I just don't understand it. Now.
Speaker 1: I know I have to ask myself the same question,
Speaker 1: but I could just ask you today and put it
Speaker 1: on you. Why do you talk to people on internet? You?
Speaker 1: I saw you post that the immage till bill passed
Speaker 1: unanimously through the Senate and the whole Congress, right, and
Speaker 1: you posted it and then the people on your page
Speaker 1: said you work for the Democrats and something because doesn't
Speaker 1: mean anything, blah blah, and you going back and forth
Speaker 1: with the troll because for me, right, it's just so
Speaker 1: contradicted and it's stupid, right because for the last year
Speaker 1: since Biden has been in office two years, right, I
Speaker 1: think it's a little overd okay my brain, yeah, lit,
Speaker 1: But um, I've been hearing everything about what he's not
Speaker 1: doing this and that you told us to vote for him,
Speaker 1: this and all of this, and one of the main
Speaker 1: things they were saying that there was an Asian hate
Speaker 1: bill that was passed and then nobody passed the MUTIL.
Speaker 1: I had a million meals in my d M. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they won't give us this. We can't get the mutil,
Speaker 1: but your president did this, and it's like this, ain't
Speaker 1: this is the president man that we got. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, keeping did you keep talking about my president?
Speaker 1: This ain't None of these people is my president. My
Speaker 1: president is somebody completely different, you understand saying. But the
Speaker 1: reality situation is everybody kept putting this mean you got
Speaker 1: the Asian hate bill nobody passed in Matil. They don't
Speaker 1: want to say that Lenchion is a there's a hate crime.
Speaker 1: You know, I've seen a thousand times. So when it
Speaker 1: was passed, I thought it made sense to inform the
Speaker 1: people was past. Oh you were planned you noticed, don't
Speaker 1: mean nothing. Well, what y'all keep trying to compare it
Speaker 1: to something if it don't mean nothing, But why y'all
Speaker 1: keep saying it ain't passed? Telling me why they won't
Speaker 1: pass it, and then when they passed it, it don't
Speaker 1: mean nothing. You don't get it, I don't get it.
Speaker 1: Say something about I just want them to get that
Speaker 1: I know it. You just say I knew that. I
Speaker 1: knew that. Don't matter what happened, you ain't gonna be
Speaker 1: satisfied because you're looking for a problem for me. I
Speaker 1: do get how it is, because like one of the
Speaker 1: people said, listen, they're gonna say that there wasn't lynching
Speaker 1: and they hung themselves. They're gonna always figure that way.
Speaker 1: So what I'm trying to say is we have to
Speaker 1: understand the realities of what we live in, right And
Speaker 1: when you said it before that you can't just pass
Speaker 1: one lord to stop black people if you want to.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm trying to say. And when you
Speaker 1: say things like that, they said, oh but they passed this.
Speaker 1: So when you say what they passed this, and you
Speaker 1: said he passed this, and then you say it don't
Speaker 1: mean nothing, then you know exactly what we say. That's
Speaker 1: exactly what we were trying to You were trying to
Speaker 1: say when you said it, like I know that, okay,
Speaker 1: pass that. Now they're gonna they're gonna find a way
Speaker 1: to sircumvented. So the reality and situation is that we
Speaker 1: have to acknowledge the full scope of what we're dealing
Speaker 1: with in America, right, But at the same time, when
Speaker 1: we see things that we can utilize, that we can
Speaker 1: leverage to our manage, we have to figure out how
Speaker 1: do we leverage and we have to call them out
Speaker 1: every time, Like when somebody is hung and we know
Speaker 1: there was a lynching, we gotta and they try to
Speaker 1: tell us somebody hung themselves. We gotta say, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: that was lynching, and we gotta Now we have the
Speaker 1: back end to be able to say we're gonna prove
Speaker 1: it was mentioned, and then once we prove it, we
Speaker 1: want you to che somebody exactly. So that's what it is.
Speaker 1: It's not saying that this is gonna stop them from
Speaker 1: doing anything. We ain't nothing gonna they're gonna. They've been
Speaker 1: doing the same ship to us for years, no matter
Speaker 1: how many laws we passed. But now what we know
Speaker 1: is that we have legal backing, that we have foundation,
Speaker 1: that we understand the games they play, We understand the
Speaker 1: jargon that they keep running on us. So if we
Speaker 1: understand that and we utilize our brains along with the
Speaker 1: laws that they pass them, then we can get further
Speaker 1: and further. It's a process, and that's what it is
Speaker 1: for me. It's like, I don't think none of this
Speaker 1: ship is gonna cha. I don't think the president gonna
Speaker 1: change me. I don't think none of these politicians. I
Speaker 1: don't think the laws that govern us was ever set
Speaker 1: up to govern us properly. They're set up to make
Speaker 1: sure that we stayed at a lower class. I understand that,
Speaker 1: and I'm not trying to tell you that no politician
Speaker 1: or no law they passed is gonna change that reality.
Speaker 1: But what I am saying is I'm going to hold
Speaker 1: you accountable to the laws that you passed. I'm going
Speaker 1: to hold you accountable, make sure that laws have passed
Speaker 1: that that say that we're equal, even if we know
Speaker 1: that you don't think we're equal, even though we're gonna're
Speaker 1: gonna try to circumvent that, I'm going to make sure
Speaker 1: that you are held accountable. So now, I'm always fighting
Speaker 1: for what's right, just whether it's a law or not,
Speaker 1: because to me just doesn't have to do with laws.
Speaker 1: It's right or wrong. I'm a fight for what's right.
Speaker 1: But now what I know is right, is backed by law. Now,
Speaker 1: we got all the things on our side, So we
Speaker 1: just gotta stop fighting against each other and understand that
Speaker 1: we all fight in the same wall. And sometimes you've
Speaker 1: got a different strategy and you gotta go through the
Speaker 1: back door and I gotta go through this way. But
Speaker 1: we're all trying to get to the same place. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: and you know where. I haven't had um an opportunity
Speaker 1: to read everything about the MTIL bill and like what
Speaker 1: was the final version that actually passed. But what I
Speaker 1: will say is one, people have been working on that
Speaker 1: bill for a long, long, long long time, and so
Speaker 1: making having it passed is historic in nature. It took
Speaker 1: way too long, but it did happen. Um. I also
Speaker 1: think that what we have to sort of keep in mind,
Speaker 1: and this goes for those people who are saying it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean much. Again, I haven't read the final version,
Speaker 1: but what I do know is that the Asian Hate
Speaker 1: Bill came with a lot of resources. There was a
Speaker 1: lot behind it, money to protect the Asian community, uh,
Speaker 1: mental health support for them and things like that. And
Speaker 1: so I would assume that people who don't see all
Speaker 1: of that about the Emmett till Bill may feel like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not the same, and that is a
Speaker 1: very very important statement, and we should absolutely continue, to
Speaker 1: your point, to fight to make sure that these things
Speaker 1: are equitable across the board. And so I get it.
Speaker 1: But you know, at the end of the day, it
Speaker 1: is important to note that there have been some of us,
Speaker 1: we marched UM from from Staten Island, New York all
Speaker 1: the way to why Washington, d C. Talking about racial equity,
Speaker 1: trying to get um you know, racial justice bills passed
Speaker 1: and I guess that was two thousand and fourteen. And
Speaker 1: so for these things to happen now, it does mean
Speaker 1: something because there have been people putting their lives on
Speaker 1: the line for a long time to try to make
Speaker 1: these things actually come to fruition in some way, shape
Speaker 1: or form. Knowing that there again, it's still so much
Speaker 1: work to be done. There's so much work to be done.
Speaker 1: So we just got to keep on work, that's right.
Speaker 1: But we're talking about working today. We're talking to a
Speaker 1: woman is an absolute boss. She is um. She comes
Speaker 1: from Haitian parents. So you know, I think it is
Speaker 1: a very true statement that people who come to this
Speaker 1: country from other places really take advantage of what America
Speaker 1: has to offer. And you know, this woman is an
Speaker 1: example of that, coming from parents who who's started here
Speaker 1: and then raised her. She was born in Manhattan. Some
Speaker 1: people somewhere online it keeps saying queens, but she actually
Speaker 1: was born in Manhattan, and so her parents, you know,
Speaker 1: found the way, made sure that she um was successful.
Speaker 1: And look at it. First of all, I didn't even
Speaker 1: know she is not a college graduate. Many times I've
Speaker 1: sat in rooms, I'm thinking, this is a Harvard educated woman.
Speaker 1: So that just goes to show you that that path
Speaker 1: is not for everyone. But it doesn't mean that because
Speaker 1: you didn't go to Harvard you can't be a major businesswoman.
Speaker 1: She started her own and she has her own entertainment
Speaker 1: company now that's doing big things. But was the co
Speaker 1: founder of Violator Management with artists that she helped to
Speaker 1: launch their careers, from nas to Missy Elliott, too jar
Speaker 1: Rule to so many people that you know, just bust
Speaker 1: the rhyns um. And I'm really excited about this interview
Speaker 1: today with the great your friend you have my friend
Speaker 1: man I was. I had the pleasure of being signed
Speaker 1: the violated records, you know, in which her and Chris
Speaker 1: Lady had worked together on and just watch him owner
Speaker 1: just evolved into what she is today, and just always
Speaker 1: knowing that she had that ability, like you know, the
Speaker 1: way she was able to manage a case slow, just
Speaker 1: seeing artists walk into offices every five minutes and her
Speaker 1: just having the same face. And I'm just sitting down
Speaker 1: and her giving that energy and working so hard for
Speaker 1: artists and then you know, unfortunately being incarcerated and then
Speaker 1: coming home to watch her transform into the next level
Speaker 1: of phase of her career as a producer, and you know,
Speaker 1: just watching him, man, I am just honored to be
Speaker 1: able to interview the great, great um, you know. And
Speaker 1: I guess the last thing that I would say what
Speaker 1: makes Mona so special to me even though we now
Speaker 1: have our own relationship, but watching her, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: give Andy a platform and knowing that Yandy worked for
Speaker 1: her at a time when she was just like, you know,
Speaker 1: being an assistant in the office and now Yandy is
Speaker 1: running multimillion dollar projects and campaigns and businesses. That's pretty
Speaker 1: powerful as a legacy for any black woman to be
Speaker 1: able to say, look around at the fruit of my labor.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited about talking to moment, Let's get to it.
Speaker 1: Monas got young. I have to say, you are my sister,
Speaker 1: um and I am just so happy to have you here.
Speaker 1: And I know that you and my son have history
Speaker 1: that go we go wait wait wait wait wait wait
Speaker 1: wait wait back to travel back through memory lane if
Speaker 1: you will. But I'm just so happy you came to
Speaker 1: sit down and talk with us today. I keep saying
Speaker 1: when to calls and you just show up. You don't
Speaker 1: question it, and same for you. What Bonas says, do
Speaker 1: we you know? So my son, I don't know. Maybe
Speaker 1: we start with you and talk with me. Start with
Speaker 1: y man. I've had the pleasure of knowing this lady
Speaker 1: for over two decades and just watching her evolution from
Speaker 1: being a manager managing top artists in the world, just
Speaker 1: and actually not making them become top artists, not just
Speaker 1: managing winning with top artists having so much instrumental you know,
Speaker 1: influence in their careers, and just watching her mature this
Speaker 1: and what I because you know, people don't know exactly
Speaker 1: so I definitely because most people think Mona Scott just
Speaker 1: started with love and hip hop, and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, Mona. I've been doing this in the trenches
Speaker 1: and violated building on Barrackstreet, like you don't know, the
Speaker 1: little the little building, and that we was all in
Speaker 1: the office and every artist was coming up there complaining,
Speaker 1: and Mona had to put out fires and I don't
Speaker 1: know that moment. Give them, give them the history. I
Speaker 1: think it started like what ninety five right probably I
Speaker 1: was doing artists development. I met Chris Lydy. He was
Speaker 1: still over at dev Jam, like you said, on Verick Street,
Speaker 1: managing what Russell and Leo at Rush and when he
Speaker 1: got his deal over at dev Jam to do Violator records. Um,
Speaker 1: I was working at the time of the track masters,
Speaker 1: the producers, and they decided that they were going to
Speaker 1: go their separate ways. And Chris was like, Yo, why
Speaker 1: don't you just come over here and help me figure
Speaker 1: this out because I'm transitioning this entire company, and all
Speaker 1: of those artists that were under Rush were open and
Speaker 1: looking for management. I feel like I've told this story,
Speaker 1: but you know, we built a management company and over
Speaker 1: the course of the years was so blessed to like
Speaker 1: touch so many incredible careers missing. You know, I'm still
Speaker 1: with job Rule, Foxy Brown, Warren Gy and I'm throwing
Speaker 1: in the management with the record label because it was
Speaker 1: one big entity exactly. Um, of course we worked a
Speaker 1: little exactly, we worked with NAS And it's so funny
Speaker 1: because Violator was like not so much a revolving door,
Speaker 1: but almost like this incubator, this place that whether it
Speaker 1: was for you know, a one off renegotiation, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: branding opportunity, we touched people that we didn't even manage
Speaker 1: on a day to day right, in some way, shape
Speaker 1: or form, there was a deal to be made. If
Speaker 1: there was, you know, a renegotiation to be had, we
Speaker 1: somehow were involved. So it was just an amazing time.
Speaker 1: It was a different time, and you're still doing that
Speaker 1: now because even I call you and I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: like what do I say? How I in this room?
Speaker 1: I always say it's part of who I am. I
Speaker 1: just can't take that, you know off, that had never
Speaker 1: comes off. It's just I say, it's in my DNA. Right.
Speaker 1: Being a manager is almost like the primary directive. So
Speaker 1: even as I moved into producing, I always say that
Speaker 1: that's the skill set I brought to the table, write
Speaker 1: my ability to connect with not And when I say talent,
Speaker 1: I don't just mean like celebrity talent, right, because the
Speaker 1: creators that I work with, the producers, the directors, the cameraman,
Speaker 1: those are all talent in their own way. The buyers
Speaker 1: that I deal with our talent. So the ability to
Speaker 1: connect with people and to understand what makes them take
Speaker 1: and sometimes to get them to you know, step into
Speaker 1: their own gifts. Right, that's all at the core of
Speaker 1: being a manager, and it's what I bring to producing.
Speaker 1: It's like that special sauces, that special sauce. So, like
Speaker 1: you said, you and Chris had created this, But how
Speaker 1: did the affect the death of Chris affect you? Jesus?
Speaker 1: You know, it's so crazy because that came at a
Speaker 1: time where we had pretty much gone our separate ways, right.
Speaker 1: And I think I've talked about this too, you know,
Speaker 1: you you grow apart, and not necessarily that there's any
Speaker 1: kind of be if you just kind of move on
Speaker 1: with life and every once in a while we'd see
Speaker 1: each other. But I remember the week leading up to
Speaker 1: his death, all of a sudden, he was on the brain,
Speaker 1: like in a way that black woman. I've learned since,
Speaker 1: do not underestimate, do not ignore, do not quiet that
Speaker 1: voice when it's just inside you because and I'm getting goosebump,
Speaker 1: says I'm talking about it. All of a sudden, it
Speaker 1: was like Chris, Chris, Chris on the brain to the
Speaker 1: point where my husband will say two nights in a row.
Speaker 1: In the middle of the night, I shot up out
Speaker 1: of bed and was like Chris. And he was like,
Speaker 1: you're gonna stop young and Chris's name in the night,
Speaker 1: and I was like, the hell was that? Because I'm
Speaker 1: one of those people that when I go to sleep,
Speaker 1: I'm knocked out right don't really dream or actually don't
Speaker 1: remember them the next day, and it was this very
Speaker 1: vivid presence, and I called Lorie right out of the blue.
Speaker 1: I like, dug her number, I'm sorry, yeah, We're like
Speaker 1: Blie was Chris's like right hand for a very very
Speaker 1: long time. And I was like, you know, Lorie House
Speaker 1: Chris and she was like, oh, Mona, I haven't talked
Speaker 1: to you forever. Why don't you just call him? I
Speaker 1: was like, no, I just want to know is he okay?
Speaker 1: And he was actually on vacation. She was like, he's
Speaker 1: on vacation. But it was just the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: hadn't thought about him reached that I said, okay, well,
Speaker 1: you know when you talk to him, just I'm I
Speaker 1: called and I was checking him. I will always regret
Speaker 1: never picking up the phone and calling him. Almost a
Speaker 1: couple of days later, she calls me the phone, you know, rings,
Speaker 1: it's LORI. I pick up. It's a long story. I
Speaker 1: don't even if you have time, you guys can add it.
Speaker 1: This long story because I haven't told it in some time.
Speaker 1: But I hadn't been going out into the field anymore
Speaker 1: at that point. Right show had been up and running,
Speaker 1: got a whole team. Very rarely I've go out into
Speaker 1: the field for a big scene. Yandy had just moved.
Speaker 1: I believe it was still the Bronx or something right Riverdale.
Speaker 1: So I said, oh, I'm going. I'm gonna go because
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the new crib yet. Get in my car.
Speaker 1: We're headed out to Riverdale. Phone Rings, it's Lori. I
Speaker 1: picked up the phone. She's crying hysterically right and she's screaming.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what is it? What is it? What is it?
Speaker 1: She says, Chris, you know was that was the first
Speaker 1: thing she said. Chris was killed. So I was like,
Speaker 1: what what do you mean. She's like, he got shot.
Speaker 1: He got shot. I'm like, wait, was he killed or
Speaker 1: was he shot? And she's hysterical and I'm trying to
Speaker 1: make heads or tails. But long story short, Literally, when
Speaker 1: I said where where did this happen? And she told
Speaker 1: me where it was, I was five minutes away, five
Speaker 1: minutes away, somebody who never even goes into the field,
Speaker 1: so was one of the first people who arrived at
Speaker 1: that house. So there's a whole you know thing there.
Speaker 1: But the point is when you asked me, how did
Speaker 1: it affect me? Interestingly enough, it's strengthened my sense of intuition,
Speaker 1: do you know what I'm saying? And that is when
Speaker 1: you think about what is the gift that I took
Speaker 1: away from this tragedy, It's like it almost and you know,
Speaker 1: allowed me to trust myself more. We're in that moment
Speaker 1: feeling that, having that connection, you know, my gut screaming
Speaker 1: at me and me quelling it. That's what I've taken
Speaker 1: away from that. That's how it's a you know this
Speaker 1: And I don't want to get too far off topic
Speaker 1: because we really do have so much we want to cover,
Speaker 1: but that intuition question is something that I challenge myself
Speaker 1: with all the time, how do you lean into your
Speaker 1: intuition as a woman, especially right in any industry, because
Speaker 1: oftentimes after I have talked myself out of something exactly
Speaker 1: what I was, it happens. What is that like? So this,
Speaker 1: this experience you think, was one of the things that
Speaker 1: set you on like a firm path. It set me
Speaker 1: on the path of trusting myself more, trusting my gut,
Speaker 1: listening to my gut, listening to myself. And that's been
Speaker 1: a process, right because if I think about, you know,
Speaker 1: my life, there were so many things along the way
Speaker 1: that um led me to second guess myself, led me
Speaker 1: to not trust myself. Never having gone to college, never
Speaker 1: having felt like I belonged in the room, like I
Speaker 1: had anything to say that anybody wanted to hear. Right,
Speaker 1: those things always led me to um second guess myself,
Speaker 1: quiet my voice, not speak up when I knew I
Speaker 1: should have right, not demanded things for myself that I
Speaker 1: knew I had earned. Because again, that sense of should
Speaker 1: I do I you know, am I worthy of was
Speaker 1: always something that plagued me, And it took a while
Speaker 1: for me to get to the point where I started
Speaker 1: listening to myself and listening to my own voice, and
Speaker 1: a big part of that was accepting my gifts and
Speaker 1: who I was, right, Like, there's this period you go
Speaker 1: through in life where either you you know, accept like
Speaker 1: this is who I am, this is why I'm here,
Speaker 1: These are the gifts that I've been given, and is
Speaker 1: my responsibility to use these gifts, not be scared of them,
Speaker 1: not shy away from them, not dismiss them, step into them. Right.
Speaker 1: So that that was an evolution for me of getting
Speaker 1: to that point where I recognized that, accepted that, exercise
Speaker 1: that right and so you know, to to really get
Speaker 1: to a place where part of that was also understanding that,
Speaker 1: you know, everything works together. So when your gut is
Speaker 1: telling you something, when that voice in the back of
Speaker 1: your head is telling you something, when your entire being
Speaker 1: is propelling you, stop resisting it. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: pay attention, listen. And whether it's your your subconscious god, whatever,
Speaker 1: that power is, right, it exists for a reason, and
Speaker 1: us fighting it a lot, I think alters the course
Speaker 1: of our destiny. You know, that's really do so tell
Speaker 1: us the transition right from being this management to be
Speaker 1: in this producer, Like, what was that process like, how
Speaker 1: did you just say, you know what, I don't want
Speaker 1: to do this. I'm evolving into the name. It came
Speaker 1: at a point in my life where I was unhappy. Right.
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of years building everyone else up
Speaker 1: and helping them do you know, what they wanted to do.
Speaker 1: But I didn't feel like I was fully utilizing my
Speaker 1: own gifts. Right. It was always in service of which
Speaker 1: is great and which I know is you know, part
Speaker 1: of what I bring to everything I do. But I
Speaker 1: didn't feel like I was servicing myself. I didn't feel
Speaker 1: like I was you know, really allowing my creativity, my
Speaker 1: gifts to flourish, because I was so busy thinking about
Speaker 1: and taking care of and being there for everybody else.
Speaker 1: And I was miserable, right, But I wasn't serving myself.
Speaker 1: I was you know, unhappy and just getting up every
Speaker 1: day and doing this thing. And it was there was
Speaker 1: this duality to it, because like I loved seeing my
Speaker 1: clients you know, prosper and I was so happy with
Speaker 1: every win, but I wasn't doing it for myself. And
Speaker 1: I started thinking about, you know, what life could look
Speaker 1: like if I just said, let's just do something completely different,
Speaker 1: and um, I thought about what I wanted to do,
Speaker 1: had no idea, and then I had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: do a show with missy uh back in two thousand five,
Speaker 1: and that was kind of the start of you know what,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm not going to take the plunge for me,
Speaker 1: but let's take the company, let's take the clients. Let's
Speaker 1: do something that allows me to exercise a different muscle,
Speaker 1: which was moving them into like TV and films, because
Speaker 1: prior to that it was squarely in music, and you know,
Speaker 1: I felt like here was an opportunity to do something different.
Speaker 1: I decided in two thousand and eight that I was
Speaker 1: going to make the move right and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: that's it. I like this thing. I've found my way
Speaker 1: around this industry. I'm making the move. And then you know,
Speaker 1: I left. I left by later and started moaning me.
Speaker 1: So it was, you know, it wasn't an abrupt thing,
Speaker 1: but it started with me realizing that I was not
Speaker 1: happy anymore. I'm just not happy with you, so tell me,
Speaker 1: tell me as you know, so many people who are
Speaker 1: listening our folks that had trying to figure it out,
Speaker 1: and in fact, in the last week there's been this
Speaker 1: big uproar because Kim Kardashian made a statement that if
Speaker 1: people want to be successful, get the funk up me,
Speaker 1: say curse words. If I do the work, people get
Speaker 1: mad about Well, they're mad at her. I feel like
Speaker 1: what she's saying, it's true because there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who don't necessarily want to work for what
Speaker 1: it is that they claim they want. Now there's one
Speaker 1: side of it, because then there have been others who
Speaker 1: have said, well, people do work every day, they go
Speaker 1: to work every day. I think it wasn't the message.
Speaker 1: I think it was the message. It's the message right exactly,
Speaker 1: because I don't think there's anybody who would say, don't
Speaker 1: work hard for what you want and is just gonna
Speaker 1: come to you magically. I think the idea. But you know,
Speaker 1: the one thing I will say, and I don't disagree
Speaker 1: with you because I was just like, Okay, I get it,
Speaker 1: but oh, Kim, they don't want to hear it from right.
Speaker 1: They've worked to some extent, Yes, they've had certain things
Speaker 1: that allowed their path to, you know, maybe be a
Speaker 1: lot easier than some of you know, some other folks
Speaker 1: have experienced. But I cannot look at that family and
Speaker 1: say they don't work on the ultimate grind ever the
Speaker 1: right all the time, all the time. Because you think
Speaker 1: about it, they could have sat back at multiple points
Speaker 1: in their journeys and been like, Okay, we're good. We
Speaker 1: did the Kardashian show, we good, we did you know
Speaker 1: whatever the first venture was, we good. But there's always
Speaker 1: something and there's always, you know, a different venture that
Speaker 1: they're embarking on. I think people just don't want to
Speaker 1: hear it from them because there's a lot that comes
Speaker 1: with being in their position. Right. People want to see
Speaker 1: you win and they build you up, and then the
Speaker 1: minute that you're where you hope they expired for you
Speaker 1: to be, they're like, okay, time to tear you down.
Speaker 1: You bring back the time to bring you back down.
Speaker 1: So what does that? What does the day of being
Speaker 1: Mona look like like? What does that for people who
Speaker 1: are like, Okay, get the funk up and work. So, now,
Speaker 1: want to tell me what your day looks like so
Speaker 1: people can figure out what's missing in their work day
Speaker 1: that may not be helping them get to their goal.
Speaker 1: That's an interesting question because what my day looks like
Speaker 1: now right post pandemic is very different than what it
Speaker 1: looked like before because there was a lot more balanced,
Speaker 1: there was a lot more interaction with the outside world.
Speaker 1: Like literally, it's been a blessing and a curse the
Speaker 1: ability to kind of run a business from your home,
Speaker 1: because it, you know, takes away the necessity for getting
Speaker 1: out and moving about. So for me now it's probably unhealthy,
Speaker 1: right I get up in the morning and from sun
Speaker 1: up to sundown. And this is something that I've really
Speaker 1: had to stop and check myself on because I've lost
Speaker 1: perspective on, you know, that balance because now I'm in
Speaker 1: the home. Before I used to leave I come home,
Speaker 1: I used to talk about there was this period of
Speaker 1: declining as I drove home, you know, so by the
Speaker 1: time I walked through the door, there was a clear separation.
Speaker 1: Right for a lot of people, that separation is gone now,
Speaker 1: And um, it's something that I've got to get a
Speaker 1: lot better at because I don't want to find myself
Speaker 1: back in that place where I'm unhappy. I love what
Speaker 1: I do now. I enjoy you know, the creative process.
Speaker 1: I enjoy the business. I enjoyed building you know, um,
Speaker 1: what we're building with the company, and I have to
Speaker 1: pay more attention to the fact that I've lost the
Speaker 1: perspective and the balance that you know, you need to
Speaker 1: be whole. So my day, now I get up, I'm
Speaker 1: in front of that computer, I'm getting on those phones
Speaker 1: because whether it's a day full of calls or a
Speaker 1: day full of development, right, which is part of the
Speaker 1: process that I really enjoy. It's work from minute I
Speaker 1: get up to the minute I go to bed. Not
Speaker 1: healthy people's day. So and you're married and I'm married
Speaker 1: with Listen, those children are grown as people now, Okay,
Speaker 1: no girl, No, my son, you know, he graduated. He's
Speaker 1: been working for the last couple of years. Thank God
Speaker 1: for the pandemic because it brought my baby home. So
Speaker 1: he lives in the house, but he's constantly looking for
Speaker 1: a place. Um my daughter is now at you know,
Speaker 1: Clark Atlanta, and so she's out of the house and
Speaker 1: staying in the dorms. But you know, we're quasi mt Nesters,
Speaker 1: which which is what makes it bad as well, because
Speaker 1: this should be grab sometimes sometimes he does, he does,
Speaker 1: you know, but he also understands that I'm also singularly focused.
Speaker 1: Right when I set my mind to getting something done,
Speaker 1: is happening today, you know, And that's to be successful,
Speaker 1: you have to understand your partner. You have to who
Speaker 1: they are, and you have to you have to push
Speaker 1: them in there. You have to support them within who
Speaker 1: they are' my guy, I do because you know, we
Speaker 1: have fun together. You know, we laugh about the same things.
Speaker 1: Like he again, like you said, knows when it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, put that phone down in the middle of
Speaker 1: the day, He'll send me some stupid meme that I
Speaker 1: have me cracking up in the middle of a zoom call.
Speaker 1: You know, because so we he knows me, and he
Speaker 1: knows how to work with me. When I say work
Speaker 1: with me, I mean work with who I am in totality,
Speaker 1: the crazy, the driven. You know everything about me. Do
Speaker 1: you think you're controlling especially for your kids? Like do
Speaker 1: you think you like um interestingly enough? And I controlling? Yes,
Speaker 1: with my kids, not so much. You know, what we
Speaker 1: have is a very open relationship. Was as good, right,
Speaker 1: So I'm very upfront about yes, Like they have this
Speaker 1: text chain where he's sending my son apartments and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I hate it here, why am I even? I'm like
Speaker 1: leaving the chat. So they know the things about me,
Speaker 1: but not overbearing because especially yeah, especially for my daughter.
Speaker 1: It was important that I be responsible for an independent, thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, open minded, assertive, confident woman. I knew the
Speaker 1: world that I was sending her out into right. So
Speaker 1: we had a great evolution with our relationship because I'll
Speaker 1: tell you, we went through that whole phase where it
Speaker 1: was like, oh, I should have took a broomstick to
Speaker 1: you a long time ago. But now you know, we've
Speaker 1: worked through that in a very open way. But no,
Speaker 1: my son. You know, I was always like my mama's boy,
Speaker 1: but not over there. But we do that too. We've
Speaker 1: we've been talking about this to our girls and boys.
Speaker 1: We have raised the hell out of our girls and
Speaker 1: love up on our boys. And then in the end
Speaker 1: it's kind of like is it good or not? Eanla
Speaker 1: van Zan told me one day that I needed to
Speaker 1: stop mothering my son. She was like, you are doing
Speaker 1: way too much. And she said at one point her
Speaker 1: son went to prison and he told her that that
Speaker 1: was the most important time in his life because he
Speaker 1: got away from her and grew up. She had been
Speaker 1: all onto and I'm thinking this, this is crazy, but
Speaker 1: I posted her conversation with me online and there was
Speaker 1: so many black women to come and say, I think
Speaker 1: I'm doing it too. Yeah, you know what it is.
Speaker 1: I was blessed fortunate that you know, Sean very present, right,
Speaker 1: So yes, there were times where he'd be like, you're
Speaker 1: being ridiculous, leave a malay, you know. So I had
Speaker 1: that system of checks and balances. But yes, I could
Speaker 1: see how that could have very easily happened if there
Speaker 1: wasn't that counterbalance, that presence that you know, balanced it out.
Speaker 1: So it was okay for me to be the smothering
Speaker 1: mom because he had the balance of Sean being like,
Speaker 1: I don't care what your mother just said. You're gonna
Speaker 1: go out on these streets and figure this out, you know,
Speaker 1: because she ain't gonna be around, absolutely absolutely, so let's
Speaker 1: move into loving him. Okay, okay, so loving hip What
Speaker 1: was the initie goal direction when you started it? Like,
Speaker 1: what was the goal in direction? I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is that wasn't a goal in direction
Speaker 1: for love and hip hop per se in the beginning,
Speaker 1: because it didn't start it as love and hip hop?
Speaker 1: Right Yandy, you guys know well you know was our sister, Yes,
Speaker 1: well your sister, my daughter was with me for a
Speaker 1: very long time coming right out of college and then
Speaker 1: she'd gone off to you know, do her own thing
Speaker 1: and connected with Jim Jones. And when I started moaning me,
Speaker 1: Yandy came back into the full brought Jim as a
Speaker 1: client and was like, there's this show that I've had
Speaker 1: at Vicom that we've been trying to figure out a
Speaker 1: v H one at the time, that we've been trying
Speaker 1: to figure out for the last couple of years. I
Speaker 1: had met Jim Jim Ackerman, the executive, as I was
Speaker 1: navigating getting the company up and running, and when I
Speaker 1: went to him and I was like, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he mentioned this show. He's like, yeah, we've been trying
Speaker 1: to figure this thing out, but you know, would love
Speaker 1: your involvement. Um. And there were also these two guys
Speaker 1: who were just creatives. I believe Stephan and Toby were
Speaker 1: like cameraman and and sound die respectively, that were already
Speaker 1: connected to the project. And um, when I came in,
Speaker 1: there were several iterations. Right, first it was Jim and
Speaker 1: the Family Jones or Christie and the Family Jones. You know,
Speaker 1: it was first the show about Jim Jones. Then it
Speaker 1: was the show about Jim and his family, right, MoMA
Speaker 1: Jones and Chrissie before it became Love and hip Hop,
Speaker 1: And that was a result of first Jim didn't want
Speaker 1: to do a reality show. Then okay, it's great. His
Speaker 1: mother's funny. The dynamic were Chrissie and and Mama Jones
Speaker 1: is funny. But we need to expand the cast, especially
Speaker 1: because when you know you were watching TV, youre seeing
Speaker 1: Housewives of Atlanta and some of these other shows that
Speaker 1: were ensemble female casts. So the love and hip hop
Speaker 1: we know today was an evolution, right that started with
Speaker 1: the Jim Jones show. Um, but what I did bring
Speaker 1: to that evolution was this concept that you know, Jim
Speaker 1: is great and he's one faction of a world that
Speaker 1: and I one day may talk about who was their
Speaker 1: true inspiration in my head because there were so many
Speaker 1: of the girlfriends and stuff that I got to know
Speaker 1: through management, Right, I was the person like they'd be calling, like, yo,
Speaker 1: she wilding out, she can't come out of the road, mona,
Speaker 1: give her an excuse to go home? Oh damn, that
Speaker 1: voice gave it away almost. But you know, there was
Speaker 1: a lot that I witnessed and a lot that I
Speaker 1: you know, I had a lot, uh, a lot of
Speaker 1: show a lot. That's it right there. That was like, damn,
Speaker 1: you know this world people would not believe the stuff
Speaker 1: that goes on, and getting to know these women and
Speaker 1: then going like, because you know half the time, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be like, girl, it's never gonna happen. Um, it
Speaker 1: was like, here's an opportunity to not only let their
Speaker 1: voices be heard, but always from the very beginning for me,
Speaker 1: it was give them an opportunity to take these lives
Speaker 1: that they're living anyway, that are crazy, larger than life, fascinating, right,
Speaker 1: and then get something out of it because a lot
Speaker 1: of times those relationships lasted for a long time and
Speaker 1: when they were over, they were done. They were done,
Speaker 1: and all you got is a bunch of pictures and
Speaker 1: you know, ticket stubs like all access passes. So let's
Speaker 1: go to that. You help them make money. It was
Speaker 1: about help you make money, help you figure out whatever
Speaker 1: it is. At the time, it wasn't the brand, but
Speaker 1: now it's what is your brand? What do you want
Speaker 1: to represent? What do you want to do with your life? Right,
Speaker 1: whether it's you have this aspiration of being an artist
Speaker 1: yourself or and I'll say it honestly, you really cannot
Speaker 1: see the life that you're living objectively and may need
Speaker 1: to take a step back and watch it and then
Speaker 1: decide what you want to do from there, Right, because
Speaker 1: it was always important for me that would be of
Speaker 1: judgment free zone. Nobody's here to tell you what you're doing,
Speaker 1: the life you're living is right or wrong, which I'm
Speaker 1: sure we'll take us to. What I know is inevitable
Speaker 1: in this conversation, right, what people have to say about it,
Speaker 1: But I'll preface that by saying that it's always rubbed
Speaker 1: me the wrong way. That there are people who want
Speaker 1: to look at someone else's life, a life you've never lived, right,
Speaker 1: choose you have never been in, and sit from where
Speaker 1: you're sitting, and make past judgment. Well, but there is
Speaker 1: this thought that our dirty laundry should not be aired out,
Speaker 1: especially sent Black folks on in life in general already
Speaker 1: have enough that's out there in the world that has
Speaker 1: created sort of negative ideas about who we are. And
Speaker 1: so now to have a brand that is actually exposing
Speaker 1: some of that negativity, I think that might be what
Speaker 1: some folks felt like, let's just hide it or put
Speaker 1: it in Well, the purpose of the brand was not
Speaker 1: to expose negativity. Right, that's taking an entire sum of
Speaker 1: a group of people, the lives that they were actually living,
Speaker 1: the experiences that they actually had that led them to
Speaker 1: these lives, and to sum it up and say, you're
Speaker 1: are this entire racist, dirty laundry, and we do not
Speaker 1: want to give you exposure. We do not You are
Speaker 1: the faction of this larger group that we are ashamed of,
Speaker 1: and we want to sweep you under the rug. Right.
Speaker 1: It's to me that was never you know, what the
Speaker 1: show was intended to be. This show was like all
Speaker 1: of these um different shows are showing different subcultures, different
Speaker 1: areas of people's lives, different groups of people somewhere familiar
Speaker 1: with some we've never seen before who knew they were
Speaker 1: ice truckers, who knew they were. But there's there is
Speaker 1: an industry that exists, and within that industry there are
Speaker 1: you know, the celebrities that we all know and love,
Speaker 1: and then the people that surround them. We're focusing on
Speaker 1: the women who love these men, Dave, These men make
Speaker 1: sacrifices for this you know world, this genre are pursuing
Speaker 1: their dreams. Very specific group of people. So if the
Speaker 1: idea is you know what because we have not had
Speaker 1: an opportunity. We get it, these people exist, but let's
Speaker 1: do a few more other kinds of shows about black people.
Speaker 1: And you all, wait, we don't want to shine a
Speaker 1: light on your lives yet, right, If that was the
Speaker 1: thinking that I didn't get that memo right? My goal
Speaker 1: was to tell stories. I was a storyteller, a producer,
Speaker 1: content creator. I'm gonna tell stories I want to find.
Speaker 1: I want to tell them from a place that I
Speaker 1: know first of all, Right, and here is a world
Speaker 1: that I navigated for twenties something years. I've seen these relationships,
Speaker 1: I've seen these women, I've seen you know what this
Speaker 1: world is behind the glitz and clamor, and people would
Speaker 1: be surprised, they'd have no idea. Were you in the
Speaker 1: editing room all throughout this or were other people are
Speaker 1: kind of responsible for that? It was. There's a collective, right,
Speaker 1: and the thing is that then there's the network. They
Speaker 1: are the ultimate you know, and all be all because
Speaker 1: unfortunately it wasn't a situation where I was shooting the
Speaker 1: show myself, editing it myself, and then going to the network.
Speaker 1: That show was a million, you know, millions of dollars
Speaker 1: per season. Um So there was a network and once
Speaker 1: you give them your cut, they have their edits and
Speaker 1: they come back and there's a process. Um So. No,
Speaker 1: I wasn't the end all be all, But I also
Speaker 1: um tried as much as I could, know, I tried
Speaker 1: as much as I could to talk to the talent
Speaker 1: about being mindful about what they put on screen, right,
Speaker 1: because at that point there's a body of work here
Speaker 1: that is going to be edited, right. So if there's
Speaker 1: anything that you don't want it all right, then don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know this information until they give it to me. Right.
Speaker 1: Half the stuff that ends up on the screen is
Speaker 1: because they said it right. So it was always it
Speaker 1: was always um funny to me when they'd be like,
Speaker 1: well you made me say I'm like, I didn't even
Speaker 1: know this thing until you said it. Um So they're there.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, when I look at it in totality, right,
Speaker 1: there's always the positives and the negatives of every situation.
Speaker 1: You weigh it, you take a look at it as
Speaker 1: a whole. You know, when I look at the experience
Speaker 1: of love and hip hop and what it's represented, you know,
Speaker 1: for the talent that has gone through the show and
Speaker 1: for you know, myself, of course, and for the opportunity
Speaker 1: to open doors for other Black television, for there to
Speaker 1: be you know, a willingness by executives to allow other
Speaker 1: shows to exist because there was such a massive audience.
Speaker 1: I would say that it was worth it. It was
Speaker 1: worth it, and that was about the act the exact
Speaker 1: same question, and you gave the answer before the answer,
Speaker 1: I knew where you were gone. So ultimately you feel
Speaker 1: like it benefited the culture. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: people who would say that it wasn't, but ultimately, when
Speaker 1: you look at ultimately with it accomplished based on opening
Speaker 1: doors and exposing and giving people opportunities that it basically help,
Speaker 1: I would say that it definitely helped bring awareness, It
Speaker 1: helped open doors, It helped provide a platform. It helped
Speaker 1: UH with financial empowerment, right because when I look at
Speaker 1: our cast and I look at the things that they've
Speaker 1: been able to accomplish. I remember the first conversation with Rashida,
Speaker 1: who was like, you know, I've been on my grind
Speaker 1: trying to get my career up and running. Missy was
Speaker 1: the one who called me. It was like, yo, that
Speaker 1: little show you got my girl Rashida. You know, I'd
Speaker 1: love for you to meet with her and give her
Speaker 1: a shot. And now I look at restaurants and you know,
Speaker 1: clothing stores. I love, you know, going through social media
Speaker 1: and page and I tell her all the time, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: we see so you got that dress, those shoes. And
Speaker 1: when I go to Atlanta sometimes I don't even pack stuff.
Speaker 1: I just like run to her get a couple of things.
Speaker 1: I texted her like where do you keep all? This
Speaker 1: is what I want to know. That's a whole another story,
Speaker 1: but it's you know Yandy. Of course, remember Yandy coming
Speaker 1: to me with the gaping er to talking about I
Speaker 1: can't do television? What are you? I'm like, trust me,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying this, there's something here you
Speaker 1: and seeing her now so even man DC, watching him
Speaker 1: blossom and the way that he is, he was never
Speaker 1: like the error and the way we come from in
Speaker 1: the stream, you just don't get on TV, right, So
Speaker 1: you watch him the first season like he probably didn't
Speaker 1: want to say a word. He barely. Now I'm watching
Speaker 1: him absolutely A would do different differently. Well, let me
Speaker 1: put this question in this context first, because you mentioned
Speaker 1: already and you know, this idea of people judging judgment.
Speaker 1: So at one point, I remember even me coming into
Speaker 1: the space. I was pretty young, but I had this
Speaker 1: idea of what women empowerment looked like in Loving hip
Speaker 1: hop totally rubbed me the wrong way, right, the fighting
Speaker 1: and all that I didn't know, Yandy, Now that I
Speaker 1: have met these women and not just folks from love
Speaker 1: and hip hop, also excuse me, Jennifer Williams basketball wise,
Speaker 1: like these are my friends. They're such amazing people. Um,
Speaker 1: and so it changed my perspective. But at one point
Speaker 1: I was with the naysayers and you know, Mona Scott
Speaker 1: Young is doing wrong right? How did it feel to
Speaker 1: go through knowing that people didn't know you, but in
Speaker 1: some spaces they were shunning you, like she shouldn't be
Speaker 1: here because she's not empowering women. I mean, you know, shunning.
Speaker 1: It's more in my opinion, Judge, I think it's people who,
Speaker 1: like you said, had no idea, don't know me. And
Speaker 1: I'm human. So of course there was a period where
Speaker 1: it bothered me because I knew the truth, and I
Speaker 1: knew that that was not my intention. I knew, you know,
Speaker 1: the conversations that I had with the cast, and I
Speaker 1: knew what the real, you know, intention was behind it.
Speaker 1: But part of that process for me of understanding who
Speaker 1: I am and what my mission was and trusting myself
Speaker 1: and trusting what my true intentions were, was about letting
Speaker 1: that go. Letting go this notion that I could change
Speaker 1: people's opinions or that it was my job to get
Speaker 1: them to understand and get them to see, because I
Speaker 1: realized very quickly that they're don't think what they want
Speaker 1: to think, and nothing that I do or say is
Speaker 1: going to change that. And if they don't care enough
Speaker 1: about getting to the truth to even reach out, want
Speaker 1: to have a conversation, you know, open up a dialogue,
Speaker 1: then it's not my job to change It's not my responsibility. Um.
Speaker 1: And so I let that go. I let that go
Speaker 1: very very early on to the point where it didn't
Speaker 1: bother me that people were judging me, because they were
Speaker 1: even judging the cast just as harshly. And I knew
Speaker 1: these people as well, and that's not who they were. UM.
Speaker 1: And once I, you know, recognize that my husband just
Speaker 1: talking about the support used to do this funny thing where,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody would say something mean on social media,
Speaker 1: he'd go to their page and he'd be like, look,
Speaker 1: this is the person. First of all, they n egg.
Speaker 1: Second of all, you know what I'm saying, this is
Speaker 1: not even a real profile. And and you know, I
Speaker 1: had to trust myself, trust who I know I was,
Speaker 1: and not allow myself to be defined by what people thought.
Speaker 1: And that's why, you know, it's a process mainly because
Speaker 1: we're human and we have feelings and to deny that
Speaker 1: is to be unrealistic with yourself, right. So that's why
Speaker 1: my profile page, I'm like, if they don't know you personally,
Speaker 1: you can't take it personally. I can't be, you know,
Speaker 1: concerned with what somebody's sitting at home with an opinion
Speaker 1: you know, has to say about what I know are
Speaker 1: being tensions with everything that I do, because the reality
Speaker 1: situation is most times none of those people would ever
Speaker 1: have a conversation exactly and they never said there like
Speaker 1: I'm never me personally. I've watched a lot of different
Speaker 1: people say different things, and other people who had opinion
Speaker 1: actually sat down and talk to you or or voice
Speaker 1: their opinion to you, and they had platforms and they
Speaker 1: will lot hip hop is this and that, and the
Speaker 1: reality for me is when you look at loving hip
Speaker 1: hop in its totality, it gives you different perspectives in
Speaker 1: different spaces in everyone's life. And it might be a
Speaker 1: fight here and tomorrow it might be hugging. We make up,
Speaker 1: and then tomorrow we might start a business like this
Speaker 1: is reality specially because even us, like with our work
Speaker 1: sometimes and not just a work a lot, sometimes there's
Speaker 1: a fight, there are relationship problems, they are new people
Speaker 1: that get together. There is me and Linda mad at
Speaker 1: each other, and then my son and I arguing. This
Speaker 1: is real life. This is real life, and it's real
Speaker 1: life for this group of people who live in this
Speaker 1: space and world where that is how they resolve conflict,
Speaker 1: that is how they expressed themselves very passionately, not the
Speaker 1: way I do, right, But I also didn't grow up
Speaker 1: in the same way. I didn't have those same experiences
Speaker 1: that shaped me to be that person. So it's and
Speaker 1: and then when I look at social media and I
Speaker 1: see some of the things that are happening, I'm like,
Speaker 1: my cameras aren't even here now, so blame me for
Speaker 1: this one? People? Do you know what I'm saying? How
Speaker 1: did this happen? If it's all you know, made up
Speaker 1: for television. But again I will stand tentoes down that
Speaker 1: when I look at it in totality, right, how do
Speaker 1: you things that was birthed out of hip hop? So
Speaker 1: different individuals who become um entrepreneurs, who become big stars,
Speaker 1: found their own space, like you know, for me, I
Speaker 1: see it as a plus to the culture. A lot
Speaker 1: of things that I didn't like. There was things that
Speaker 1: I wish didn't happen, but there was a lot more
Speaker 1: things that I see to where people were able a
Speaker 1: lot of I've had conversations with Scrappy and and I'm saying, yo,
Speaker 1: my career. You know what, Blue sent me a message
Speaker 1: of the day. I just want to say, thank you.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. And here's a genuine dude
Speaker 1: who you told this is a genuine individual. This is
Speaker 1: somebody that I could I talked to you, and I
Speaker 1: got a lot of love for us. So just watching
Speaker 1: those brothers being able to regenerate and recreate a career
Speaker 1: from somebody just showing themselves being natural, finding love and
Speaker 1: being aren't you like? It's something different. So I just
Speaker 1: want to say I appreciate what if you've done. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I know it's a lot of backlash.
Speaker 1: People don't always have something to say, and I had
Speaker 1: to accept that they with the territory. I have to
Speaker 1: accept that that camp I mean, very different from your
Speaker 1: journey to make about I know you've had to deal with,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, daggers and swords, but you
Speaker 1: accept that as part of you. It is what it is.
Speaker 1: In fact, I was out dinner with a girlfriend, uh
Speaker 1: the other night, and she said, oh man, she's like,
Speaker 1: I'm fighting every day for you. She was like the
Speaker 1: things that people say checked out of a hotel the
Speaker 1: other day and the man behind the count that says
Speaker 1: to me, man, you know that I've been fighting all
Speaker 1: over I don't let people talk crazy about you. That
Speaker 1: this person is in Alabama, my girlfriends, your we're talking
Speaker 1: about all across the country. People telling me that they're
Speaker 1: standing up for me. And what I had, what I
Speaker 1: always try to hone in on, is that at least
Speaker 1: you're standing up for me. So I'm a focus on
Speaker 1: this interaction rather than the six people that you've had
Speaker 1: to tell I didn't steal money. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: working for the Democrats. But think about what that would
Speaker 1: do to you if you weren't sure and secure and
Speaker 1: stuff and who you are. You know, if you spent
Speaker 1: your time wondering about those six other people and allowed
Speaker 1: yourself to get I've been there. I've been there. I
Speaker 1: have stressed myself, especially during the Women's March, by worrying
Speaker 1: about particularly what white folks we're saying about me, because
Speaker 1: they had, in some ways the influence to be able
Speaker 1: to impact my money because of how they felt, yes,
Speaker 1: and what they thought of. So let's talk about new projects,
Speaker 1: because you've got new stuff going on. I got a
Speaker 1: lot of new stuff going on. I mean, the pandemic,
Speaker 1: I keep saying, what has been a double edged sword
Speaker 1: right as much as it you know, changed our lives completely,
Speaker 1: that focus that I'm talking about that has me waking
Speaker 1: up and focusing all day long has led to me
Speaker 1: being able to expand the company, to move into areas
Speaker 1: that I've been wanting to move into but may not
Speaker 1: have stopped and paid attention to. You know, we've sold
Speaker 1: a number of scripted projects, so I'm excited that we're
Speaker 1: finally you know, moving into the scripted space um format
Speaker 1: as well, you know, hopefully wanting to land a big,
Speaker 1: shiny floor show that will go on for twenty years,
Speaker 1: so I can retire. But you know, so it's been
Speaker 1: a good time for me for growth within the company.
Speaker 1: And what I need to figure out now and balance
Speaker 1: out is how to continue to grow personally, how to
Speaker 1: you know, get back into the world. Because when I
Speaker 1: tell you I have been a hermit, what's the biggest
Speaker 1: project you're working on right now? Do you have something
Speaker 1: we do? As as a matter of fact, we are
Speaker 1: just starting production on Hip Hop Homicides, which you know,
Speaker 1: was a project that we developed for a couple of
Speaker 1: years and it started with you know, we were both
Speaker 1: at lines Get at the time and we were having
Speaker 1: a meeting. I love when they say, oh, we want
Speaker 1: to introduce you one of our clients and it's fifty cent.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay. You know, so fifty was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we should do a show by Debt Rammers, and that
Speaker 1: was kind of the evolution of how Hip Hop Homicides
Speaker 1: came about. But the whole goal was again to you know,
Speaker 1: continue to give us space for our stories to live
Speaker 1: and and to get attention. And it's just really going
Speaker 1: out there from a different perspective and examining, you know,
Speaker 1: all of those debts that we've all you know, experienced,
Speaker 1: and seeing if there's any leads that have been left unturned,
Speaker 1: you know, debunking stuff because I always thinking about the
Speaker 1: people who get fingers pointed at them and then people
Speaker 1: just move on and nobody ever goes back and clears
Speaker 1: this ship up. So now you've ever tainted, you know,
Speaker 1: and and really diving into there's a whole community of
Speaker 1: web salutes, right, people who day and day out are
Speaker 1: just communicating. There's a lot of leads that have come
Speaker 1: from social media and and from what the social media
Speaker 1: community is saying. So you know, if we can bring closure,
Speaker 1: if we can a lot like you want to do,
Speaker 1: like call attention, shine a spotlight on it, right, So
Speaker 1: that's the goal there. We've got Van Leathan, who is
Speaker 1: our man on the street, you know, and Van is
Speaker 1: great because he's so invested and so passionate on the subject.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we're you know, getting out of the gate
Speaker 1: on that show. So we're excited about that. Yeah, that's great,
Speaker 1: you know, brilliant when it comes together because fifty you know,
Speaker 1: and his product I've challenged. We get into big debates
Speaker 1: about my feelings very similar to love and hip hop stuff.
Speaker 1: I've said, well, why we need a show that is
Speaker 1: not about people being drug deal is killing and all
Speaker 1: of that, Like, can we figure out what fifty can
Speaker 1: be involved in? This is? What is the other show?
Speaker 1: This is um which one he has? The show about
Speaker 1: the man but again still the man he's got out
Speaker 1: of jail. Yeah. I mean about the bottom line is
Speaker 1: whenever we have these projectives, progressive shows and about positive
Speaker 1: things we do, people people are not going. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the thing right and I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: this is the definitive reason why. But when people are
Speaker 1: watching television or content of any kind, they want to
Speaker 1: connect with the material. They want to see something that
Speaker 1: they can connect with. Unfortunately, the plight of who we
Speaker 1: are has led us to a place where we connect
Speaker 1: with the hardships, We connect with those stories of violence
Speaker 1: and trauma and you know what I'm saying. So it's
Speaker 1: like what we're talking about is an evolution that, yes,
Speaker 1: needs to happen, but there's so many things that need
Speaker 1: to happen for us as people right as a collective
Speaker 1: that will change our perspective. We are all just a
Speaker 1: product of where we come from what we know our environments.
Speaker 1: Do you think the marketing budgets that these major networks
Speaker 1: are investing in projects is enough and you know, sort
Speaker 1: of focused enough to really make a not a good show.
Speaker 1: I don't. We don't gonna do that. It's not good
Speaker 1: versus bad. But these other type of shows that might
Speaker 1: be more inspirational, do we have the type of budgets
Speaker 1: be important. Well, then now it's gone, but that's because
Speaker 1: it's time has run out, and there will be other
Speaker 1: shows that you know, come in its place. There's Abbott Elementary,
Speaker 1: There's do you know what I'm saying? There are other
Speaker 1: shows that are out there as well. That's how a
Speaker 1: different experience. And we can't say. What I will say
Speaker 1: about the shows that resonate for the audience and that
Speaker 1: get the eyeballs is they opened the door, They paved
Speaker 1: the way, because what they do is prove that there's
Speaker 1: an audience for it. Right Without those shows that people
Speaker 1: are tuning into because they connect with the material, you're
Speaker 1: never gonna get to those other shows. Those individuals and
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs who who bring those shows, now they in them
Speaker 1: give you something different. They were like, well, I can
Speaker 1: have a conversation now about a different type of shows
Speaker 1: because of the metrics that I can show for a
Speaker 1: Love and HIPOs, right, I can have a seat at
Speaker 1: the table to even have the conversation because of the
Speaker 1: success of that show. Seat at the table. Black woman
Speaker 1: out here been hustling and grinding and moving and shaking
Speaker 1: for a long time. Now. Know with Love and Hip Hop,
Speaker 1: there was there were partners that you had white men.
Speaker 1: I think it was too them. Of course, you've got
Speaker 1: the Viacom folks, lots of white people. What's it been
Speaker 1: like navigating as a black woman in the space with
Speaker 1: a lot of white people trying to change your vision
Speaker 1: or tugging and pulling for the challenging You know what
Speaker 1: I know or what I think I know. I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: I I'd like to say, oh, I don't pay attention,
Speaker 1: because that is something that I do try to apply
Speaker 1: every day, right, Because I'm like, if I stopped to
Speaker 1: be worried about this until then it starts to internalize,
Speaker 1: I start to second guess and it takes me back
Speaker 1: to that place. So I try to be very sure
Speaker 1: and secure about what I know. But I would be
Speaker 1: naive to say that it doesn't exist and that it
Speaker 1: isn't there, and that I don't encounter it. I don't
Speaker 1: know that that will change for us. It is the
Speaker 1: landscape that we have to navigate. But the way that
Speaker 1: I try to navigate that landscape is by showing up
Speaker 1: by And when I say showing up, I mean like
Speaker 1: knowing my ship right, having my ship together, making sure
Speaker 1: that I present in a way that is competitive so
Speaker 1: that I can't can't and I con curse, right, But
Speaker 1: I say it all the time like I can hold
Speaker 1: my dick so that I can say I know that
Speaker 1: I did the work and I put it in and
Speaker 1: there is nothing about what I can deliver, what I
Speaker 1: can execute that is less than that is subpar, that
Speaker 1: isn't on the same level. Right, So that's the work
Speaker 1: that I put in every day. But do I encounter
Speaker 1: that still? Sure? Absolutely? I know that even in the
Speaker 1: interaction with you know, my partners, right, there is a
Speaker 1: natural tendency to gravitate to them that you know, to
Speaker 1: think that they are the ones running the show. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: My husband says that all the time, the white man's
Speaker 1: eyes is colder. Right, But um, do I think I've
Speaker 1: made stride? Sure? Because I'd like to say that my name,
Speaker 1: you know, resonates in a different way now that I've
Speaker 1: spent all of these years proving not myself, but proving
Speaker 1: that I can get the job done, showing that I,
Speaker 1: you know, have what it takes. So we did. We
Speaker 1: got to end the show because no, I got a
Speaker 1: lot more ships were not over. But I just want
Speaker 1: to know what somebody, a young Scott's before she became
Speaker 1: on the Scott what would you say to her? You
Speaker 1: see the commercial? Yes, yes, yes, commercially yes, what would
Speaker 1: you say to you right right now? And it's sounds corny,
Speaker 1: it sounds cliche, But when I talk about those years,
Speaker 1: I don't live with regret. You asked me a question earlier,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I ever answered it right. I
Speaker 1: try not to live with regret. I try to think, like, okay,
Speaker 1: what can I and from this thing so that I
Speaker 1: don't do this thing again. I don't like the result.
Speaker 1: How do I, you know, affect a different end results?
Speaker 1: So I try not to live with regret because then
Speaker 1: that means, like, you know, I did something wrong. What
Speaker 1: I would say to her is trust yourself, right, Because
Speaker 1: it took a very long time for me to get
Speaker 1: to that point. That's not cliche, that's real yourself, because
Speaker 1: we we're not afforded the opportunity to see things play
Speaker 1: out in you know, so that we had a roadmap
Speaker 1: to follow where we see the mistakes that were made
Speaker 1: and we see, you know, a lot of our lives
Speaker 1: is figuring the ship out as we go along, right,
Speaker 1: and not beating yourself up when something doesn't turn out
Speaker 1: exactly as you intended, because that's waste of time. You
Speaker 1: can't change that ship. And I spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time like I should have could have I should have done,
Speaker 1: you know, So I've tried to eradicate that from the
Speaker 1: way that I think, because that's waste of time. Do
Speaker 1: you have you call tend people in the morning about
Speaker 1: all your ideas or you like only need to talk
Speaker 1: to myself, maybe a husband. And when you say people
Speaker 1: to some some folks that don't trust themselves, and yeah,
Speaker 1: they know. You want to have a team, You want
Speaker 1: to have a brain trust because you want to surround
Speaker 1: yourself with people who will keep you honest right about
Speaker 1: whether your ship is right or whether it sucks, because
Speaker 1: you don't I don't need a bunch of yes man.
Speaker 1: I always say that like, like, challenge me right, poke
Speaker 1: holes in my ship because I do it to myself
Speaker 1: all day long, and and I want that system of
Speaker 1: checks and balances in place at all times. But I
Speaker 1: try to think things through in a way that I
Speaker 1: can also lead my team right, so they don't feel
Speaker 1: like I'm unsure, I'm faltering. I want their input. I
Speaker 1: want to absorb it. I want to make it part
Speaker 1: of my thought process. But I try to move in
Speaker 1: a very sure footed way because anything less takes me
Speaker 1: back to that place of second yessing myself and not
Speaker 1: being clear. There's so many external factors that will have
Speaker 1: you wondering if you know who the funk you are
Speaker 1: every single day. I don't need to contribute to that,
Speaker 1: do you know what I'm saying? Questions awesome, let's go.
Speaker 1: Last question been debated. Sugar, Yeah, ye exactly, Salt and
Speaker 1: be incmparable the amazing Mona Scott Young, thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you so much much. That was great than I enjoyed that.
Speaker 1: That was really good. I mean, you know, she's got
Speaker 1: a lot like we probably again, let me not say.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say we could have talked for two hours,
Speaker 1: but but we have evolved from twenty minute interviews to
Speaker 1: being able to really sit down with somebody like Mona.
Speaker 1: You can't cover twenty minutes of her life, simple, right,
Speaker 1: you can't cover Yeah, you can't cover her life in
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. I thought it was really good. I love
Speaker 1: I always love watching your interaction with people. You know.
Speaker 1: You know, I talked about Shine all the time because
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite interviews of watching you with
Speaker 1: somebody that you grew up around, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: just it's just great to see that, you know. So
Speaker 1: I just think that Mona as a woman, none of
Speaker 1: us like there will always be something that people will
Speaker 1: say it's controversial, and certainly, as I listened to her
Speaker 1: about the Love and Hip Hop brand, I still challenge
Speaker 1: certain points of how the show evolved in what unfolded
Speaker 1: as a result of Love and hip Hop. But when again,
Speaker 1: the whole thing you guys were talking about, looking at
Speaker 1: it in totality of what has happened with people's careers
Speaker 1: and you know, what opportunities for other individuals have been
Speaker 1: sort of developed, I do see how I see what
Speaker 1: she was trying to build and where there have been
Speaker 1: benefits from it, And so I guess that's the same
Speaker 1: for all of us. I feel the same way about myself.
Speaker 1: We go out, we tell people, you know, vote for
Speaker 1: vote against this this madman, Donald Trump, and they end
Speaker 1: up voting for Joe Biden, which again and if it
Speaker 1: was us, it would have been Bernie or Elizabeth Warren
Speaker 1: for me. But nonetheless, we had what we had and
Speaker 1: Joe Biden was there, and then they don't. The administration
Speaker 1: doesn't really do what we need, and so it always
Speaker 1: there's always a level of controversy built baked into anything
Speaker 1: you do. I think, you know, just the interview, for me,
Speaker 1: it was just amazing, you know, just seeing to be
Speaker 1: transparent and be able to explain certain things and and
Speaker 1: dispel certain myths about who she is because I know
Speaker 1: she is. She the beautiful person, and you know, and
Speaker 1: just looking at the culture right. A lot of times
Speaker 1: we have to look at what the culture is for me.
Speaker 1: If if if I'm giving you a platform to be
Speaker 1: who you are, you can't blame me for who you are.
Speaker 1: Right if I'm forcing you, I'm trying to push something
Speaker 1: upon you, it's a different thing. Those are the people
Speaker 1: that I feel a culture votres right for me. If
Speaker 1: there's a there's a complete dynamic of to me commerical
Speaker 1: just like it there's a complete dynamic of my song.
Speaker 1: So if you if you get the my song that
Speaker 1: is the Gangster and it woke right. Sometimes you might
Speaker 1: see the gamester and somebody might think that shouldn't be shown,
Speaker 1: but that's me in reality, right. So when you actually
Speaker 1: see that part and you're shocked thinking that that part
Speaker 1: doesn't exist, that you can come up to me and
Speaker 1: you can put your hand on my face and I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna beat you up and then say, oh, I
Speaker 1: thought you's about peace. I am, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: protect me. So I don't want you to be confused
Speaker 1: and think that this the conscious my song is the
Speaker 1: only my song. So what happens with love and hip
Speaker 1: hop is it gives you a you know, the full
Speaker 1: picture of who these individuals are, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't want to see a full picture. They want
Speaker 1: to believe that you're this perfect person, right. They want
Speaker 1: you to believe that most of the artists and people
Speaker 1: you follow they don't have anything wrong with them, so
Speaker 1: they don't never want you to see that part. And
Speaker 1: unfortunately that really exists. And I think and I think
Speaker 1: and I think what the reality is what happened with
Speaker 1: Love and Hip Hop is this show that those people
Speaker 1: in full you know, in full context of who they were,
Speaker 1: and people were mad. That why we got to see
Speaker 1: because these people fight sometu But you do bring people,
Speaker 1: They do bring people together knowing that there is tension
Speaker 1: in certain situations so that they can get certain things
Speaker 1: to keep the audience going. And I will say being
Speaker 1: friends with a number of women who are on these
Speaker 1: different shows, their perspective on whether or not not so
Speaker 1: much that they were forced, but whether situations were created
Speaker 1: is different from the way they moanent feels about it,
Speaker 1: and also what you are saying. But but I have
Speaker 1: never seen Pat poos and Remy right, So that's not
Speaker 1: true because Remy has had some moments, is not to you,
Speaker 1: but has had hermony. They've had moments to where you've
Speaker 1: probably seen them arguing with people when there was disagreements
Speaker 1: were everybody doesn't agree with things. I'm gonna say me
Speaker 1: and you might have an argument, and that's part of life.
Speaker 1: Right of course, we know that that it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be people swinging and whatever and right, and you
Speaker 1: are right in real life. There are instances that happened
Speaker 1: like that, They've happened to me, happened in my family,
Speaker 1: have it could be tomorrow. They're all kinds of situations.
Speaker 1: So I'm not trying to take that away. But what
Speaker 1: I am saying though, is that with reality TV in general,
Speaker 1: not just Loving hip Hop, but every single brand, there
Speaker 1: is a way that you can create a dynamic that
Speaker 1: you know already something's going to happen. So that's like me,
Speaker 1: I have issues with a particular set of a group
Speaker 1: of people in my family. I don't really go places
Speaker 1: that they're gonna be at, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And everybody kind of knows unless it's probably a funeral
Speaker 1: or something like that. I'm not really gonna show up
Speaker 1: at certain things where those individuals are. But if you're
Speaker 1: looking for some drama, you put us in the same place.
Speaker 1: You understand what I'm saying. So I'm not saying it's
Speaker 1: it's forced because the situation existed before the camera's got there,
Speaker 1: which is Mona's point. It's just revealing whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But the revelation of it can be harmful to people
Speaker 1: just as much as it makes Because I think about yeah,
Speaker 1: I think about how people will say things like you know, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, well, I'll give you portion. For example, because
Speaker 1: of the fact that they have now had this reality show,
Speaker 1: you have people. And of course there was the moment
Speaker 1: when her her aunt sat down and they had a conversation.
Speaker 1: Aunt told her, with all of what you've got going on,
Speaker 1: you're not ready to I read the legacy of their
Speaker 1: her Josea Williams, which is her I guess her uncle.
Speaker 1: I think, um, oh yeah, sorry, your grandfather. I don't
Speaker 1: know what I'm thinking about the aunt and whatever, so yeah,
Speaker 1: her grandfather. Um, And I don't know if I agree
Speaker 1: with that, because I understand that real life is real life.
Speaker 1: And by the way, just because we didn't have cameras
Speaker 1: around to show you the fights that Josea Williams and
Speaker 1: Dr King and all these other people conversations, arguments and
Speaker 1: beefing that went on, it doesn't mean it wasn't there. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's be clear. Let's also be clear that infidelity and
Speaker 1: all of those issues the same way that ship happens today,
Speaker 1: it was happening at that time as well. It's well
Speaker 1: documented people know, so let's let's just be clear. Okay,
Speaker 1: people marriages, all types of issues. Always has been the case,
Speaker 1: but the cameras are there now. And so the question
Speaker 1: I asked Mona is like, does she understand people who
Speaker 1: feel like we don't need to expose war or of
Speaker 1: the negative aspects of the black experience because it's already
Speaker 1: all of this stuff out there. But nonetheless, I think
Speaker 1: it's good and bad with everything, and I'll take that.
Speaker 1: Like we said, I think it did more for the
Speaker 1: coach when you look at all of the people who
Speaker 1: evolved from it, and you look at they've moved past
Speaker 1: some of those situations that you've seen, those fights, whatever,
Speaker 1: They way past that. Their business owners, they're inspirational, they're motivational.
Speaker 1: You know you you've seen one part and you watch
Speaker 1: them evolved, And I think that's what it is in
Speaker 1: real life. The worst You're not judged by the worst
Speaker 1: moment that they see if you want absolutely, And just
Speaker 1: because I bought up Porsche, I will say that I
Speaker 1: know her and her fiance and they are very happy. Yes,
Speaker 1: So there we have it. And with that said, that
Speaker 1: brings us to the end of our show. Shout out
Speaker 1: to Mona Scott Young for that candid and real and
Speaker 1: raw interview that she gave us. Shout out to everybody
Speaker 1: tunes into our show. We appreciate you. We are number
Speaker 1: one number. We're moving on up in the ring. We're
Speaker 1: not get number one yet, so don't think that you
Speaker 1: don't have to download and share and support, but we
Speaker 1: are moving up in the rings. And this is a
Speaker 1: slow rhyme, but I'm proud of what we've done because
Speaker 1: it's real. Yeah, you know I'm saying it's real. So
Speaker 1: once again, I'm not gonna always be right. Samika, Mary
Speaker 1: is not gonna always be wrong, but we will both
Speaker 1: always and I mean always, be more than it. Ye,
Speaker 1: that's how we own