Speaker 1: My next guest is pretty incredible. He is a Grammy
Speaker 1: Award winning singer, songwriter, y'all, fashion model. He is absolutely
Speaker 1: brilliant his writing. He has written for everybody new solo
Speaker 1: album out that's shaking tables, honey, and I'm excited. I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to this conversation with don Tebom. Y'all. I'm
Speaker 1: excited because I've got a Grammy Award winning singer all
Speaker 1: things fashion, which I'm excited to talk to you about. Songwriter, musician.
Speaker 1: Please welcome. Come on, y'all, stand on your feet. Everybody rise.
Speaker 1: The bishop has walked in. Everyone standing to your feet
Speaker 1: for Dante bosh Man.
Speaker 2: It's an honor to be talking to you. You're leging yourself,
Speaker 2: so thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I have to say that I have been absolutely rooting
Speaker 1: for you. Oh thank you, excited for you, wanting to
Speaker 1: scream from the mountaintops for people to shut up. I
Speaker 1: see parts of my journey and your journey musically and
Speaker 1: the bridge that I believe you are being, the bridge
Speaker 1: that you are wanting to be. So congratulations on everything.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you seeing me, and you know seeing yourself
Speaker 2: in me. For sure. It's not easy, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, But somebody has to do it.
Speaker 1: Somebody has to do it. Now. I went from R
Speaker 1: and B pop to gospel back to R and B.
Speaker 1: People you know might call me you're the flip the
Speaker 1: flip bopper. You went from Destiny shot to gospel, then
Speaker 1: you did more Destiny shod. Then y'all keep popping up
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah blah. But it's rare to see
Speaker 1: someone from gospel making a transition, not y'all. Before y'all
Speaker 1: start rumors. I'm not saying Dante has left gospel and
Speaker 1: it's just straight to R and B unless that's an
Speaker 1: announcement he gonna make one day. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't see it. I don't know. I just find someone.
Speaker 1: All things music as far as sonically, the words that
Speaker 1: you say don't have to be necessarily always with a
Speaker 1: washboard and an organ.
Speaker 3: Right right, right right, yeah.
Speaker 2: Like I'm just trying to do what I feel like
Speaker 2: God has put on my life.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It's not like something that me and my team sat
Speaker 2: around and contemplated, like whether I was gonna leave gospel
Speaker 2: music and do R and B music. It kind of
Speaker 2: happened organically as I started working on my project, and
Speaker 2: I've been wanting to do more ARM because I started
Speaker 2: off doing R and B and kind of started doing
Speaker 2: gospel a little bit later. Just the gospel stuff is
Speaker 2: what I kind of took serious at the time, so
Speaker 2: it blew up.
Speaker 3: But I feel like now I have a.
Speaker 2: Yes to do R and B you know, and try
Speaker 2: to like see you know who I am in that space,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I believe in influence and like God.
Speaker 2: Is gonna give me influence in that in that arena,
Speaker 2: and I just want to, you know, take my fans.
Speaker 3: Along that journey.
Speaker 2: But I don't know if it's working or not as
Speaker 2: far as that's concerned, but I definitely see that it's
Speaker 2: doing well. It's the record is doing actually better than
Speaker 2: my last album, which was which was only gospel music.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, yeah really not okay? So but did you
Speaker 1: say like gospel music? You're not said?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, no, I haven't left gospel music. I'm still
Speaker 2: I'm gonna still do like gospel stuff. I feel like
Speaker 2: I am more focused now on this new style, you know, this,
Speaker 2: this R and B. I'm more focused here right now.
Speaker 2: I want to see it through. I want to see
Speaker 2: it be successful and make some significant moves in that arena.
Speaker 3: So I'm focused there. Yeah right now.
Speaker 1: Well, y'all, if you look way back to Dante's discography, well, I.
Speaker 3: Like that word. That's a word.
Speaker 1: It's pretty pretty, pretty long as far as how long
Speaker 1: you were in the gospel CCM space. So for me
Speaker 1: looking at that, it would almost make sense say, hey,
Speaker 1: I am going to sonically try something else.
Speaker 3: Right exactly evolved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it definitely makes sense. So definitely congrats on the
Speaker 1: new self titled album Thank You. I was anticipating it,
Speaker 1: could not wait for it to drop. I love your voice,
Speaker 1: I love your style. Again, there was so much anticipation
Speaker 1: for the album and the energy of wind Me Up. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: where did that vibe come from? Was it, like I
Speaker 1: think you said, it kind of happened later on in
Speaker 1: the process or yeah hear that correctly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: Me and me and Victoria Monnagt we have the same
Speaker 2: credit director, and so they were playing like her record somewhere.
Speaker 2: I think they were trying to figure out the video
Speaker 2: or something, and I'm like, this is crazy because I
Speaker 2: was doing this Island sound for my record, and I
Speaker 2: heard her song party Girls, So I started just dreaming
Speaker 2: of one more song.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I need one more song. I'm like that
Speaker 3: can like get the party.
Speaker 2: Lid or just something that me and my mama like
Speaker 2: when were chilling, like you know, my mom is like
Speaker 2: she a party girl, like you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: She loved to dance and stuff like that. So a
Speaker 2: lot of my fast records my mom inspires. So anyway,
Speaker 2: I went to the studio started making this Jamaican sound
Speaker 2: and it kind of came naturally, but it was definitely
Speaker 2: inspired by Victoria Monnette's last single for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it just.
Speaker 2: Came out, like, in my opinion, it came out of
Speaker 2: hit and so I wanted to explore it. We took
Speaker 2: it to Radio one and they fell in love with it,
Speaker 2: and so we.
Speaker 3: Knew right then that we need to do a video
Speaker 3: and see it through.
Speaker 1: M H. Well, so we can blame your mom for
Speaker 1: the fast music, right, My mom is.
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, she's still you know, they call it twerky.
Speaker 2: I guess what they sitting under my comment, But my
Speaker 2: mom likes to wind it up, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: And so I like, I want to make music that
Speaker 2: she feels you know, my mom's not super churchy, so
Speaker 2: I wanted to make music that she feels comfortable listening
Speaker 2: to when she in her car or shown flash, she
Speaker 2: got to listen to it just because I'm her son,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But it's actually something that she would listen to in
Speaker 3: her day to day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you grew up in North Carolina and there
Speaker 1: were some situations going on and your mother. You said,
Speaker 1: she's not churchy, but she did come to around the
Speaker 1: age of sixteen. Yeah, and so, but I'm assuming she
Speaker 1: has developed her own relationship with God since then.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, she's very My mom is very confident and
Speaker 2: comfortable with who she is and who God is her life.
Speaker 2: You know, I definitely hope one day that I can
Speaker 2: get there. You know, she doesn't really live her life
Speaker 2: for people. You know, she would say, she would say
Speaker 2: she's one hundred percent of Christian, but she definitely is
Speaker 2: still Vicky.
Speaker 3: From North Carolina, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: She's definitely stay true to her roots and game. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but yeah, like she's definitely a Christian, but you know,
Speaker 2: my mama's she refused to just be stale, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: In tradition, yeah, absolutely, absolutely, all right. So there are
Speaker 1: some folks, even one of my Samantha you know, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: we've got to get down table on his album just
Speaker 1: came on and she was like, I love Maverick Music.
Speaker 1: Now again, people don't know you were on the scene
Speaker 1: even before Maverick Music. And yes, we are going to
Speaker 1: talk about your debut album, but I need people to
Speaker 1: kind of know your journey a little bit so they
Speaker 1: can even see Oh okay, So this made his evolution
Speaker 1: make sense right.
Speaker 3: Right for sure? For sure?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, yeah, I was doing contemporary. I was the
Speaker 2: first black contemporary artist signed to Bethel Music, which was
Speaker 2: one of the biggest you had He'll song you had Bethel,
Speaker 2: And so I signed that deal and I was a
Speaker 2: part of that group, and I started making significant moves
Speaker 2: in the contemporary Christian space, which is hard to do
Speaker 2: as a black man, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 2: sometimes I do feel like that it's overlooked, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. Me charting on CCM like all that,
Speaker 2: like it was my normal thing. And then I linked
Speaker 2: up with some of the execs of Maverick at the time,
Speaker 2: we were just good friends and we started doing that
Speaker 2: and we had Nay come on, and then we had
Speaker 2: Chandler and then like.
Speaker 3: We just created this group.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't like this curated group, you know, like
Speaker 2: like labels would do today. It was definitely natural kind
Speaker 2: of how we came together and created that sound. And
Speaker 2: but yeah, I had been working for maybe like four years,
Speaker 2: four or five years before that and actually really making
Speaker 2: some significant, you know, moves on the radio, whatever the
Speaker 2: case may be. And so Maverick was just an extension.
Speaker 2: And I guess just the evolution of you know, me
Speaker 2: being in that industry and what we did was revolutionary,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean as far as contemporary and
Speaker 2: gospel music is concerned.
Speaker 1: Who have been your inspirations musically?
Speaker 2: I mean, Destiny's Child was obviously one for sure. You
Speaker 2: know What's crazy though, Like I used to I was
Speaker 2: one of those. I was a video geek, like music
Speaker 2: video geek growing up, Like you know, it.
Speaker 1: Makes sense, it makes sense you're creative.
Speaker 2: And so what really pained me is when I got
Speaker 2: into Christian music, I was like these videos.
Speaker 3: I knew I couldn't be as creative as I wanted.
Speaker 2: To be. But yeah, like you guys were super influential
Speaker 2: in my life, and you had Lawrence Hill and Ty
Speaker 2: Trivia and Kirk and I mean I was really about
Speaker 2: the theatrics growing up. So anybody that was doing something
Speaker 2: that that felt inspiring a little bit out of the box,
Speaker 2: I probably was watching them and being inspired by them,
Speaker 2: like Usher in the list goes on and on and on. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: these are the people that inspired me. Superstars really honestly.
Speaker 1: And it's so funny that you named people in whom
Speaker 1: your sound is nothing like right right exactly, So how
Speaker 1: were you able to keep your own sound while yet
Speaker 1: being inspired by the folks you just named.
Speaker 2: I used to hate the way my voice sounded like.
Speaker 2: I used to hate the sound of my voice for real,
Speaker 2: because it was just always even if though it was
Speaker 2: more clear when I was younger, it was still raspy.
Speaker 3: You know, you could tell where I was.
Speaker 1: Going smoking Newport right, right exactly.
Speaker 2: Like my little my little nephew right now has a
Speaker 2: little raspy voice. It's definitely brighter, but he has a
Speaker 2: raspy voice. So anyway, I was insecure about it. But
Speaker 2: then you had people like Kimbarell that came along in
Speaker 2: Jazzmine Cullivant and Mali music.
Speaker 3: You had John Legend, who I used to listen to
Speaker 3: a lot growing up.
Speaker 2: And then I found, you know, this kind of confidence
Speaker 2: in it all. I knew what I could do and
Speaker 2: know what I couldn't do, and I stopped trying to
Speaker 2: be everybody else around me and just kind of, you know,
Speaker 2: owned my own voice, like this is what I'm gonna,
Speaker 2: you know, have for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3: So I need to start owning it, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean.
Speaker 2: And I feel like up until now, you know, maybe
Speaker 2: maybe the last few years, but definitely now, I'm more
Speaker 2: confident in doing this R and B stuff. I didn't
Speaker 2: know if I could sound cool or are like do
Speaker 2: it make sense?
Speaker 3: Is it warm enough? You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: So, and you know what I'm talking about because you
Speaker 2: have like you have that soul in your voice.
Speaker 3: You have that like grit, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So anytime you would sing on those records, like I'm
Speaker 2: sure people know what I'm talking about, Like you came
Speaker 2: with the grid, like you had the grit.
Speaker 1: Can I say something to that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Now I feel like I'm thankful for the love and
Speaker 1: the praise that folks are giving me. I felt like
Speaker 1: I've been hazed for twenty one years. I've been in
Speaker 1: this game twenty three now, but you know the revelation
Speaker 1: I got. But I see comments like, yo, her voice
Speaker 1: and tone is so rich and blah blah blah. Then
Speaker 1: I was like, but when Destiny's Child came out, y'all
Speaker 1: was like four. Not y'all as you, but the people.
Speaker 1: But I'm seeing that maybe when people get older, they
Speaker 1: have much more of an appreciation for the tones that
Speaker 1: they can this For me, I feel like, but now
Speaker 1: you there is a younger demographic than I have that
Speaker 1: listened to you, right, and who are opening up the
Speaker 1: door for voices that are considered very unique. I didn't
Speaker 1: feel that I had the commercially acceptable, commercial friendly voice
Speaker 1: that's on the radio station right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I don't think it was normal.
Speaker 2: I do think it was something that was different out
Speaker 2: of the box. I think for people that have music appreciation,
Speaker 2: I feel like we always understood. You know. I was
Speaker 2: raised in church, so and I also loved Aretha Franklin
Speaker 2: and just soul like Glad It's Night. So I when
Speaker 2: I heard somebody that could sing you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I just equated it to like, oh, their tone is different.
Speaker 2: You know, we use words like tone or like ooh,
Speaker 2: like you know.
Speaker 1: What I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like we're church kids, so we understood that. Honestly.
Speaker 2: What was more difficult for me was hearing a pop
Speaker 2: voice like that was out of my comfort zone.
Speaker 3: That was and something that I was raised around.
Speaker 2: My family can sing, and so hearing you know, a
Speaker 2: traditional pop voice to me was just like WHOA, Like,
Speaker 2: I don't know if I could.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: When I would get my demos, you know, even for
Speaker 2: this album, when I would get demos and people sending
Speaker 2: me songs, I'm like, how am I going to make
Speaker 2: sense of that?
Speaker 3: You know, especially with my voyage.
Speaker 2: I always heard you, and I always I always understood
Speaker 2: your tone, And I think now not only is it
Speaker 2: just people understood when they're older, I think now it's
Speaker 2: just a lot more acceptance in general. Like I feel
Speaker 2: like even a younger crowd understands more vocal ability because
Speaker 2: of Jazmine.
Speaker 3: So just the different people that are out right now.
Speaker 2: Any wine House came out and all these different you know,
Speaker 2: so now it's like it's cool when you sound different now,
Speaker 2: like people trying to make their voice sound different in.
Speaker 1: The studio, people are like, smoke eight cigars before that.
Speaker 2: No, real, Like people want to sound cool on the
Speaker 2: on the you know nowadays you.
Speaker 1: Know, yeah, yep, folks got that natural squall or people
Speaker 1: are doing things like you said to make your voice
Speaker 1: be that. I' about one or two more questions before
Speaker 1: before I get into the meat of the debut album.
Speaker 1: You got a new album coming out already, Like you
Speaker 1: just put out your debut album. Now you've got something
Speaker 1: else coming out. But again, y'all, when I look at
Speaker 1: his discography, it always seems to have been a month
Speaker 1: or two after this comes out something else he drops.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm doing I have this collective a Man
Speaker 2: Music that we're dropping the worship album Friday, and so
Speaker 2: I want to do something special for the fans that
Speaker 2: I've been following my journey the whole time, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. And that's what I wanted to say,
Speaker 2: Like people try to make you choose this or that,
Speaker 2: and I personally believe it's all going to be successful.
Speaker 2: And I think if I just stay true to who
Speaker 2: I am, you know what I mean, I ain't trying
Speaker 2: to be nothing I'm not already, you know.
Speaker 3: That's the other thing.
Speaker 2: People think I'm trying to chase something that I've never
Speaker 2: done before, whatever the case may be. I've never done
Speaker 2: it publicly, but this is not something that's new to me.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, next week, I'm doing something with my collective.
Speaker 2: I got a few songs on there, but it's not
Speaker 2: a Dante bo album.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, Now, because you're able to drop new music. Fact,
Speaker 1: is it because you have your own label.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm my own label, functioning infrastructure. Like it's like
Speaker 2: God has been so good to me. Like we started
Speaker 2: maybe like eight months ago, and it's already a multimillion
Speaker 2: dollar label.
Speaker 3: It's doing well.
Speaker 2: We've worked our tails off to like make sure they
Speaker 2: did well.
Speaker 3: And my release was successful. It theme that came around me.
Speaker 1: It certainly was successful. Y'all. He was on a very
Speaker 1: very very top rated morning show. Okay, his face was everywhere.
Speaker 1: There were so many I don't know in our game,
Speaker 1: call them activations and partnership.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, yeah, we did.
Speaker 2: We had we did the Today's Show the morning it
Speaker 2: came out. We you know, had deals with BT, Billboards, BT, Amazon, Spotify,
Speaker 2: Apple Music, ads, I mean it was, it was. And
Speaker 2: I don't say it's no shade because if my last
Speaker 2: label Bethel was great, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 2: I definitely think this was a better rollout. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: was definitely better rollout than I've ever done before.
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations because it feels good where Okay, how do
Speaker 1: I say this? When you have a good roll out
Speaker 1: that means you had a budget are Yeah, you took
Speaker 1: great care and steward at the relationships that you've built
Speaker 1: along the way, very very well. So it takes a budget,
Speaker 1: But for people to if you don't know, if you
Speaker 1: don't have a budget, sometimes it's just nice to be
Speaker 1: nice to people because you never know. If you know
Speaker 1: a producer at the Today Show that can say, hey, up,
Speaker 1: can you have dandee. I'm not saying that's what happened,
Speaker 1: but what I'm saying is I don't want anybody to
Speaker 1: get discouraged when I set the word budget. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: is relationships. This world runs on relationships. It is so important.
Speaker 1: I feel like we're at a time where lines are
Speaker 1: being redefined in so many areas, especially in what it
Speaker 1: means to be Christian. Yeah, how are you feeling that?
Speaker 1: In your life especially and also the evolution of your music.
Speaker 3: Definitely, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I feel like I've always been looked at as someone
Speaker 2: that breaks the rules in a way.
Speaker 1: Are you a trouble makers? What you're saying?
Speaker 2: And that's one of the songs on the album's called
Speaker 2: trouble But it's like, I don't try to. I think
Speaker 2: I'm a lot more honest than my peers sometimes, so
Speaker 2: it makes me stand out. It's not that I am
Speaker 2: doing something different than my friends. Do you know I'm
Speaker 2: not like super edgy. You know what I mean to
Speaker 2: my friends, I'm not edgy. But I think because I
Speaker 2: will be on the on the sprinter dancing the Bad
Speaker 2: Bunny publicly, you know, it gives people to rate the
Speaker 2: rights to just tied me like, oh he's doing this.
Speaker 1: It's not like now you brought it up. I didn't
Speaker 1: when it happened. When it happened and you posted it,
Speaker 1: were you shocked about the backlash and the fallout of
Speaker 1: what happened?
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean here's the deal too, Like I've never
Speaker 2: been exposed. I'm only I the one that posted every
Speaker 2: everything that's happened to me is because I posted. It's
Speaker 2: not like I've never really been exposed, but I I
Speaker 2: posted it because it was such a good moment. We
Speaker 2: weren't on a party bus, first of all, we just
Speaker 2: not our own party buses. We're on a sprinter leaving
Speaker 2: our friends birthday party, and like any other you know,
Speaker 2: friend group, we just dancing whatever the DJ, like whatever the.
Speaker 3: Person controlling the ox.
Speaker 2: It's like playing like we're having a good time thinking
Speaker 2: about it, and to the pure, all things are pure,
Speaker 2: like we weren't trying to. I don't know, they're like
Speaker 2: you're leading children down the wrong pad. I'm like, I
Speaker 2: wasn't even thinking about all that, Like I don't even
Speaker 2: think about that, you know what I mean? As far
Speaker 2: as like listening to a bad bunny song in the car,
Speaker 2: and I was shocked that people would use like kissing
Speaker 2: the guy beside me and like making it like a
Speaker 2: whole thing like that was clickbait. That was not even real,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. It's like we're just seeing
Speaker 2: people just listening to a good song. And so I
Speaker 2: was shocked, you know what I mean. I don't know
Speaker 2: why I was shocked.
Speaker 3: I think I was naive, Okay, I think I've been
Speaker 3: very naive in this in this industry in general. You
Speaker 3: know what I mean.
Speaker 2: When I do my interviews are when I talk because
Speaker 2: I feel like what I'm saying is not wrong because
Speaker 2: it's truth, and okay, sometimes discretion is better than the truth.
Speaker 1: Well, it makes you want to not post certain things.
Speaker 1: It makes you only want to post stuff about your album.
Speaker 1: It don't if you're at a concert out to eat.
Speaker 1: If you post the burger that you had, the comments
Speaker 1: are going to be isn't beyond burger?
Speaker 3: Yeah, no facts.
Speaker 1: It almost makes you just not want to say anything.
Speaker 1: And I want to encourage you.
Speaker 2: That anxiety about I have mad anxiety, like after all
Speaker 2: this stuff, like like crazy anxiety, Like I don't even
Speaker 2: like posting and saying anything on the internet.
Speaker 3: I'm just now getting to.
Speaker 2: The point where I where I can explain stuff on
Speaker 2: the internet or like be my normal self, Like I
Speaker 2: didn't go live for forever, which I used to love
Speaker 2: to do that, like.
Speaker 3: Yeah it was a lie.
Speaker 1: And listen and listen. You even took a break off
Speaker 1: of social media, which sometimes that digital detox, you know,
Speaker 1: is warranted. But I just want I don't know you,
Speaker 1: I just want to encourage you, and I'm glad you were.
Speaker 1: You're talking about this on my podcast because this is
Speaker 1: a safe space and you know, and people should be
Speaker 1: able to share, to share things. Don't explain yourself. Let
Speaker 1: your work speak for you, because the news cycle is
Speaker 1: what twenty four hours, somebody else gonna do something tomorrow
Speaker 1: and they have, you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 1: as someone would say, I mean, they'll be like, well,
Speaker 1: welcome to the club. You know you've made it.
Speaker 3: When yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And I know that this is not something that you purposed,
Speaker 1: it's not something that you purposely did for even marketing
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But it's like, well it's here.
Speaker 1: His album is out, and a lot of people have
Speaker 1: everything to say about what you've been doing, you know,
Speaker 1: the past few months. So I've seen it. I've been
Speaker 1: praying and I understand. I promise you. Michelle understands. You've
Speaker 1: been known to fans as a gospel singer, but unfairly
Speaker 1: you've also been pigeonholed into one way of singing buy
Speaker 1: some I'm going to use the word bridge. Are you
Speaker 1: trying to find that bridge between secular and popper? Are
Speaker 1: you focusing on your personal journey as an artist?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Like I think it's both.
Speaker 2: And you know, I get dms from young artists or
Speaker 2: they're not artists yet maybe, but they're in their local
Speaker 2: church and they're just like, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: you know, doing this, because this is something that I've
Speaker 2: struggled with. You know, I do love singing about love,
Speaker 2: but sometimes I feel bad because you know, I'm in
Speaker 2: the church in case maybe and I could tell that
Speaker 2: they feel freedom, you know, watching me actually go through
Speaker 2: it and do it, because I feel like we've had
Speaker 2: a lot of gospel artists make gospel songs that crossover,
Speaker 2: but for somebody to make a straight up R and
Speaker 2: B record and make an R and B video visual
Speaker 2: and like to really believe it, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: it's kind of fresh think.
Speaker 3: And so I think it's both.
Speaker 2: And I could see the bridge happening with just different
Speaker 2: ideas and mindsets are being changed. And I think also
Speaker 2: I'm focused on my personal journey as an artist. You know,
Speaker 2: I really do think R and B looks good on me,
Speaker 2: and I think it sounds good on my voice, and
Speaker 2: so I'm just going with kind of the flow. I'm
Speaker 2: doing whatever I feel like God is allowing me to do.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, what do you have to say to
Speaker 1: people who feel like you've left them for secular music.
Speaker 1: You've abandoned us Dante, this is not true.
Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, have I evolved?
Speaker 2: Yes, I'll be reading comments like I missed, go back
Speaker 2: to the Dante that did, Wait on you go back
Speaker 2: to the Dante did I Thank god. I'm never going
Speaker 2: back to any Dante like that. I'm only moving forward.
Speaker 2: I don't want to go back to that guy. First
Speaker 2: of all, it's music, and then it has nothing to
Speaker 2: do with your personal life.
Speaker 3: I was super depressed.
Speaker 2: I had a lot of like anxieties, you know, getting
Speaker 2: big so quick in Christian music on the same things
Speaker 2: that are accessible when you're a secular artist are the
Speaker 2: same things that are accessible when you're a Christian artist,
Speaker 2: like girls, money, sex, like all like you know, lies,
Speaker 2: you know, backstabbing, all the stuff. It's still it's still
Speaker 2: the same thing. You still just have to have a
Speaker 2: personal relationship with God. At the end of the day,
Speaker 2: It's bigger than a genre of music. And so I'm
Speaker 2: not going back to a younger version of me, Like
Speaker 2: you know, how much I've learned since then, And so
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people don't like the evolution,
Speaker 2: you know, But I think over over time, you know,
Speaker 2: time tells everything. I think over time, people will see
Speaker 2: that this was better for me. You know, the path
Speaker 2: that I'm taking right now is a lot better for
Speaker 2: my mentor.
Speaker 1: Do you feel free?
Speaker 2: I feel free? I'm being free. Actually, you know. The
Speaker 2: more I do this and why I talked to the
Speaker 2: Insider today, I talk to you today, and the more
Speaker 2: I just talk about it and I hang out, I'm
Speaker 2: finally hanging with the people I choose to hang out with,
Speaker 2: Like I finally learned how to say no and protect
Speaker 2: my space. And because I realize I'm a people pleaser,
Speaker 2: so if I could, if I put myself around people
Speaker 2: that like to be pleased, sometimes I can overwork and overdo.
Speaker 2: But I'm so grateful for my team and how they
Speaker 2: have kept these boundaries in place between us and also
Speaker 2: me and some of the world. And yeah, I think
Speaker 2: I think I'm in a good place for sure.
Speaker 1: All right, what's been your goal to for dealing with
Speaker 1: all the anxiety and stress that's been in response to
Speaker 1: what's been going on.
Speaker 2: I take naps. Now, you know what's crazy. I'm a workaholic,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a workaholic, you know. I enjoy working.
Speaker 2: It makes me feel valued, makes me feel like I'm
Speaker 2: doing something, And so naps to me, it's like all
Speaker 2: my friends know that's crazy. It's like whoa like do naps? Now,
Speaker 2: It's like, I'm gonna take it every day. And I
Speaker 2: also fill myself back up with affirmation. You know.
Speaker 3: I used to never talk good about myself.
Speaker 2: I was super critical, not just of others, but it
Speaker 2: was very critical of myself.
Speaker 3: And I don't really do that anymore. I do give
Speaker 3: myself flowers.
Speaker 2: I do, you know, talk about my success more and
Speaker 2: what I think God is doing in my life. And
Speaker 2: I've noticed that that's helped me with my confidence and
Speaker 2: just believing in myself, because sometimes you can just read
Speaker 2: what people are saying about you, and it's like, man,
Speaker 2: y'all love me, like like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: even like you've probably been through this, Like I know
Speaker 2: what you're saying, but like, you know, look at my crew,
Speaker 2: look at my life, look at what I'm about to do.
Speaker 2: And I have to speak those truths over my life
Speaker 2: instead of always listening to what you know, the naysayers
Speaker 2: are saying.
Speaker 3: For short, but you know, and I pray more.
Speaker 2: Yes, I pray more than I read the Bible when
Speaker 2: i've been you know, people get mad when I say that.
Speaker 3: It's not I'm not proud of it.
Speaker 2: It's just something that I've learned that it's immediate help.
Speaker 2: Like when I pray, it's like immediately I feel better, Immediately,
Speaker 2: I feel more encouraged, you know.
Speaker 3: And it is it's very convenient.
Speaker 2: To pray, you know, it's you know, to read the Bible,
Speaker 2: you got to be sitting down doing you know whatever.
Speaker 2: But I could be in my car when I'm praying,
Speaker 2: I could be about to go on in an interview
Speaker 2: and pray.
Speaker 3: And it's just it's very convenient and it's been helping me.
Speaker 1: And you have probably already found that your relationship with
Speaker 1: God is going to be cultivated probably more outside of
Speaker 1: a church than it is going to be inside. We
Speaker 1: put so much pressure on the four walls with the church.
Speaker 1: Sunday and should not be the only day that you're
Speaker 1: praying and reading your Bible.
Speaker 3: Right, right? Is yeah, I think I think it's all personal.
Speaker 3: I do enjoy doing it corporately, right, Yes, I.
Speaker 1: Love charge that. Okay, I've got a couple more minutes
Speaker 1: with you. But y'all, I'm guilty of just sitting on
Speaker 1: YouTube searching praise breaks and putting it on my surround
Speaker 1: speakers and letting that base and I be shouting right
Speaker 1: with the people. Please, and especially if it's like a
Speaker 1: fifteen minute praise break. I can run through my house.
Speaker 1: I can annoy my dog. I don't care if the
Speaker 1: I don't care if the praise break happened in the funeral.
Speaker 1: If I'm going to press play. So I get you.
Speaker 1: We are not saying I gotta go to church at you.
Speaker 3: I gotta go to church with you.
Speaker 1: You are welcome. Listen. I think for me where I
Speaker 1: say where I say that, I'm singing parts of my
Speaker 1: journey and your journey, your journey and my journey. I
Speaker 1: just remember, my relationship with Christ was not fortified until
Speaker 1: I got on the road in nineteen ninety nine because
Speaker 1: we couldn't be in church all the time. We could not,
Speaker 1: and people don't leave it. But Beyonce's mom is Tina.
Speaker 1: She did not play about Sundays if we couldn't go
Speaker 1: to church. We were reading our Bibles. Our vocal coach
Speaker 1: actually was actually our intercessor. So there are times. It
Speaker 1: was a flip phone at the time, but it had
Speaker 1: a speakerphone. We didn't. It wouldn't what do we have today.
Speaker 1: It wasn't iPhones today, but it wasn't raised. We did
Speaker 1: have raiser and we did. Yeah, it sure was Motorola
Speaker 1: boom so yes, and and then the Two Ways did
Speaker 1: eventually come out. But I'm just saying, like, sometimes I
Speaker 1: think your relationship with christ gets stronger, and it also
Speaker 1: and it's telling about what you Dante decided to go
Speaker 1: to when stress comes your way because they couldn't we
Speaker 1: could go somewhere else to release it. You absolutely could,
Speaker 1: And I just I'm thankful your album is absolutely amazing, y'all.
Speaker 1: Y'all can play it all the way from track one
Speaker 1: all the way to fourteen. I wish there were ten
Speaker 1: more tracks on here. That's how much you like it.
Speaker 3: You like the record.
Speaker 1: I love the record. I'm telling you, every single every
Speaker 1: single song, I'm different because I understand. I understand the journey,
Speaker 1: I understand the R and B I love. And then
Speaker 1: you bring in majesty. You bring you bring in the
Speaker 1: worship songs. You bring in the songs that people can
Speaker 1: still sing on a Sunday, and then you bring in
Speaker 1: the song where. Okay, if you're in love, there is
Speaker 1: a song on here for you. If you if you're
Speaker 1: contemplating hope, if you're contemplating, should you even be alive? Wow,
Speaker 1: Like I'm looking at the lyrics.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 1: I feel like also y'all listen to the lyrics to
Speaker 1: see if what you think was said was said.
Speaker 3: Come on, that's a word. That's a word.
Speaker 1: That's a word. That's a word. And I have I have,
Speaker 1: I have many other thoughts, but I know you've got
Speaker 1: to go just the thing with your fashion. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: really like the shirt you got on now.
Speaker 3: Kids super addressed me come.
Speaker 1: On, kid, super kid super If that shirt comes in
Speaker 1: a small let me know. If not, I'll belted and
Speaker 1: maybe put put some boots on and and senshit. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but kid super DM me. So I can
Speaker 1: see where he got it, where he got it? How
Speaker 1: did that happen for you professionally, because you're not only
Speaker 1: in music, but you're in fashion. You've been modeling the pictures, Eve,
Speaker 1: The textures and the tones on the photos are.
Speaker 3: Beautiful, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I mean maybe a few years ago I got into
Speaker 2: fashion and now you know, my stylist is the men's
Speaker 2: editor above. Shout out to Michael and so he you know,
Speaker 2: has opened a lot of doors for me. In Vogue,
Speaker 2: I walk for Tommy, He'll figure I've been, you know,
Speaker 2: dressed by Dorcha Kavana and uh if the list goes
Speaker 2: on and on. Now, really, at this point, it's been
Speaker 2: three years of consistency. Next week I will go to
Speaker 2: raff Laren do raf Loren and not next week, sorry,
Speaker 2: in two weeks I would do Reffloren in.
Speaker 3: London and Vogue World And it's just been a world.
Speaker 2: When I truly do feel like God is being super
Speaker 2: nice and gracious to me because I've always loved fashion,
Speaker 2: but didn't expect it to happen on this scale until
Speaker 2: a lot later in my career because a lot of
Speaker 2: gospel artists aren't allowed to even attend certain shows, let
Speaker 2: alone walk or do anything like that. You know, they
Speaker 2: don't usually think about us when they're dressing people for carpets.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and sort and.
Speaker 2: Because but you've I mean, you've been there, done that,
Speaker 2: You've done all of it. So but I just I
Speaker 2: feel grateful that that I am allowed to do it
Speaker 2: and also show my Christian my fellow Christian brothers and
Speaker 2: sisters too that like yo, like this is accessible to us,
Speaker 2: but you have to dream. Sometimes a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't want to dream big because of fear and anxiety
Speaker 2: and what people might say or do.
Speaker 3: But you know, I think I want to be the
Speaker 3: post of yall for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Dante, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 1: We're excited about the collective, the music that you've got
Speaker 1: that's coming out, and just excited about what it is
Speaker 1: that you do in music, fashion acting like do it all.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Michelle, this is awesome.
Speaker 1: All do it all. I don't know if you've got
Speaker 1: a fashion line coming out, but do it all. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, love you so much. Hey, y'all, listen. You know,
Speaker 1: it's so good to talk to people for yourself. You know.
Speaker 1: I truly enjoyed my conversation with Dante, certainly too because
Speaker 1: I enjoy his music. I enjoy his writing style, his
Speaker 1: arranging and as you heard, we were even talking about
Speaker 1: the tone of his voice. It's so unique. When you
Speaker 1: hear him, you'll know, Okay, that's that's don Tebo. So
Speaker 1: I'm so excited and I think the encouraging thing to
Speaker 1: in this episode is to don't let anybody put you
Speaker 1: in a box. You know, right now. You might be
Speaker 1: in school now excelling that finish and complete, but you
Speaker 1: might be a dancer who can do great things in
Speaker 1: the art space. You might be a baker, you know,
Speaker 1: but you can also sing. So don't let anybody put
Speaker 1: you in a box. Utilize all of your God given gifts.
Speaker 1: All right. Heck, y'all might see me with a commercial
Speaker 1: claim company one day. I love to clean. I love
Speaker 1: to clean my toilet, scrub money, I sc I scrub
Speaker 1: all the evilness out of the toilet. You just never know.
Speaker 1: So don't put anybody in a box. Give people room
Speaker 1: to evolve, give people room to explore, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So I love y'all so much, and thank
Speaker 1: you so much for checking out. I hope this episode truly, truly,
Speaker 1: truly inspires you. Checking in with Michelle Williams is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.