WEBVTT - JoJo 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:14.280 And money. We are we are the authority on all 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:21.320 things R and B and money. Ladies and gentlemen, what's 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.479 going on? I am Tank, I'm Jay Valentine, and this 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.840 is the R and B Money Podcast, the authority on 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:34.560 all things, all things R and B. Oh my god, 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:40.080 oh my god, y'all have been requested this. You know, me, 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.159 me and this young lady go back like a six 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:46.360 pack of scoleosis. Yet, that's what I'm saying. We were 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:51.360 in the same place at the same day time, trying 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:55.440 to figure R and B lies out. Without further ado, 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:58.240 I'm gonna stop talking about it and introduce you being 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:09.880 her Hio. What a warm welcome. Thank you for Cheers 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:14.560 to you, Cheers and money. Thank you so much. This 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.440 man has me drinking at eleven a m. Here we go. 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.440 Do you offer me a beverage? I said, yes, we 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.959 are having a morning refresher. Okay, we're starting the morning 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:29.240 off right. UM. You you chose to dive into the tequila. 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:32.480 That's pretty dangerous. But I'm gonna let you rock understand 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.560 what I'm saying. UM, I want to start off with this. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:37.399 You Normally we like to start off at the very beginning, 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.160 which we're going to get to UM. So first, it's 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:44.520 thank you for coming. It's my pleasure anytime this conversation 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:49.280 is super important and super needed. Your your our favorite UM. 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:50.800 But then I want to go I want to go here, 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:54.200 and then we'll go backwards. Okay. I remember us being 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:56.800 in the studio when you were when you were younger, 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:01.560 much younger, And I remember I had this song, this 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:07.680 four on the floor song around the world. Yes, taking 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.400 his around the world, taking his glowstick. Listen. I always have, 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.120 always have glow stick ambitions always. That's that's just me. 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.920 And I remember going back and forth with you about 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.360 this song, and and it got to the point to 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:28.920 where you were in tears because because in transparency, I'm 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:33.800 saying this white girl can really sing. Let's take advantage 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.320 of of all of this, the crossover, the all of 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.200 this and all of that. And you were saying to me, 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:46.079 I'm a so singer, I can sing. I'm not anything 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.680 but a singer. Don't box me in here, don't box 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.239 me in there. I just want to sing from my heart. 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.200 And you cried about that. That sounds very unbrand for me, 0:02:56.480 --> 0:03:03.239 and you fought, you fought to be authentically you period, 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:08.720 point blank, and we were at odds. Then I understood 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:12.639 it later, and I'm proud of you for taking that 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:19.839 stance and continuing to just be yourself authentically and unapologetically. Well, 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:24.040 thank you for um saying that. I really appreciate that, 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:28.280 and I want to throw it right back to you, 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.600 and thank you for just being an example to me, 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:37.440 being a safe male figure in my life who was 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:44.160 so encouraging you. You pushed me lovingly and and I 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:46.840 always looked up to you and I still do. And 0:03:47.280 --> 0:04:01.360 I am very emotional these days. I think, man, and 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:08.600 this is what I come back to. But really you 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.040 you you taught me so much in the studio and 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.440 just through living your life and the classiness in which 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:16.840 you navigated the situation that we were both in with 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.159 our former label and everything. So I just had the 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.320 utmost respect. And I'm sorry if I gave you a 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:23.280 hard time with that record, because now looking back on it, 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.080 I love that song. I love that sample. But of 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.000 course hindsight wouldn't have changed my life. We don't we 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.839 don't know, but you make dope ship across the board, 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.800 regardless of genre. It's really really cool. Well, thank you, 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:41.920 and yeah, it's a little to you and he still 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.120 still um. So, as we like to do on the 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.120 R and B Money Podcast, we like to go all 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.080 the way back to the Kenning. Okay, we want to 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:58.800 go yeah, yeah, let's go back when the first person said, 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:06.599 or you first realize, oh I got something, or or 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:12.960 they say to you, you can really sign. So apparently 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.599 I started singing when I was two. That's what my mom. 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.880 That's the story. You know. I don't remember. I can 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:23.360 barely remember what I did yesterday. So but I've been 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.040 singing for as long as I can remember. And my 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.360 mom and dad were both singers in their own right. 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.200 So my dad was like a Blues Brothers type singer, 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:36.440 like the Blue Sheet, you know, I mean that was 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.120 his like aspiration. He would play the harmonica, the guitar, 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.680 and he loved getting more of a soulful bluesy expression. 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:50.400 And then my mom was more operatic church soprano. And 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.599 so both of them I think recognized in me, oh, 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.640 like she she has what what we have? And then 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.440 maybe as I got a little bit older, maybe three four, 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.159 I would start bringing family. If they would come over, 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.920 um or if anybody would come visit, I would like 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:08.640 take their hands and and like sit them down and 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:11.400 be like and sing. You know. So I got a 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.919 good reaction from that. And I don't ever remember a 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.960 time that I wasn't singing, that I wasn't performing. It 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:23.240 was like a very precocious, slash annoying thing that I 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:25.120 was constantly doing. So it wasn't an It wasn't like 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:28.960 the parents saying coming I watched my kids. That's not 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.560 how I remember it. As soon as you walk in 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:39.960 the door, yes, hey, hey guys. Yes, I just wanted 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.239 to gather people around. What were some of the first 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.640 songs you were singing as a kid, Winnie the Pooh, 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.080 you know, the Barney theme song. But then a little later, 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.280 I really did love I was drawn to seul So, 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.640 Aretha Franklin and Edda James like I loved her Matriarch 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:59.920 of the Blues album, and George Benson was on Broadway 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:01.880 by the top pot. By the time I was like 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:04.520 five years old. I think I was singing. They said, 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:11.160 neon lights up right, oh bro Way. I believe it 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:17.840 was about five. I mean I sounded insane. I sounded 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:20.240 so crazy. When I look back to videos, I'm like, 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.120 why did you let me pursue this. I was so bad, 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:27.280 but I had so much. You know, you wanted it, 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:29.880 you really wanted it. I really loved it, and I 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.280 felt like it was something that made me special. And 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.000 I think that as an only child and someone whose 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.640 whose parents are fighting, there's a lot of tension in 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.520 the house, I think I needed something that was an 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.440 escape and that made me feel like people could focus 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:51.040 their attention on me. So is your is your discovery moment, 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:56.560 like your moment of hey, this can go somewhere, you know, 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.200 further than where you know, this can go past Massachutes? 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:04.000 Is that? Does that moment happen in Massachusetts? Yes? Actually 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:09.520 so that. I saw a newspaper like on the table 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:11.360 and it was like the Boston Globe and there was 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.200 audition section in the back, and I saw the kids 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:16.680 say that darnedest things was auditioning again. I was like 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:22.360 scouting my own what is that that? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:24.760 And it was like just like a kid saying like 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:27.400 something so random that makes you laugh and you know 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.840 what I mean? And she's like, it's really the ship 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.839 that kids say when cameras ain't on, you catched him 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:34.600 put them over. That's what I remember that that's that's 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.160 a perfect description of it. So me and my mom 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:39.320 loved the show, and I saw that they were going 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:41.440 to becoming da Faniel Hall in Boston. I'm like, Ma, 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:50.600 can we go to Faniel Hall? But it was very 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:57.920 president today, so she was able to take me. You know, 0:08:57.920 --> 0:08:59.560 she was cleaning houses for a living and she was 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:01.480 a single a mom, and we were, you know, just 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.640 really getting by. But she she did allow somehow to 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.640 take me there and and I got to be on 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:13.840 the show. So that changed my life because then they 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.199 invited me back on a second time and flew me 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.200 and my mom and dad, who were like divorced at 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.280 the time, like not working with each other, but it 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:26.080 was so meaningful to me that they could be uh 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:28.520 okay with each other for just a few moments to 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.080 come support me in California. We all came together for 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.199 the first time and and then I did kids say 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.760 that Darna's things again when I was about seven, singing, Yeah, 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.400 I was doing impersonations. I was doing like Share and 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:45.040 Elvis and Aretha Franklin and um other people who I 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.800 can't think of. So it was like a combination of 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:52.360 impersonation and just being the little little weird little ship 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:58.040 that I was. That's crazy. You flew to l A 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.640 at seven. Yes, so that was my my first time 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.600 seeing this, this place that that I that we all 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.680 now reside in. Did that make you say, hey, I 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:11.600 have to be in this place or did I just say, 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:16.200 you know, I know that there's opportunity. I know that star. 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:21.520 It felt like, Okay, I'm supposed to be acting on television. 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:23.520 I should be on a Nickelodeon show. I should do 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:25.880 the thing that like kids stars do. Because I was 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.840 already in theater as well. I had done like I 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.320 got my first check from a professional musical in Boston, 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.240 and so coming to l A, I was like, oh, 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.640 this is where the kids who really work are. And 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:44.040 I really wanted to work. Um now through therapy and stuff. 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.560 Maybe it's because I felt the financial insecurity in my house, 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:49.120 and I'm like, maybe this is something I can do 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:53.120 to help. So now through obviously looking at things from 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:54.760 a different lens, I'm like, why did I want to 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.360 work so bad? So you weren't being pushed by your 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.160 parents at all. It wasn't so no like mamajer stage parents. 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.840 That's not how I remember it. Uh, And she if anything, 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.960 was apprehensive and scared of this this assuredness that I had. 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.560 I was so focused. I was like, yeah, I like animals. 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:16.040 Maybe I could be a vet, but like I want 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.920 to be a singer. So she was just like, where 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:23.520 did this come from? And what do I do with this? So, 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:28.600 so you get your check? When is the break? When 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:34.400 is it? Like you are absolutely discovered and someone is 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:38.959 putting paperwork in front of you and your parents and 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.360 you guys are trying to figure all of this newness out. 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:48.640 Will I ever go to school again? Getting real? Exactly? 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.320 Strangely enough, I'll just give you the cliff notes of this. 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.200 But when I was like ten, I went to one 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.280 of those summer concerts like that the radio stations put 0:11:58.360 --> 0:11:59.839 on so Kiss when I wait is the pop station 0:11:59.880 --> 0:12:02.480 of Boston. I met Britney Spears that day. I sang 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.880 my way through the security guards like I was like, hey, 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.400 I want to meet Brittany um, you know, with my 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:09.880 mom obviously and another person I had called in to 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.920 win the tickets. I was very like enterprising in that way. 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.680 So met Britney Spears. Long story short, she and Larry 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:18.719 Rudolph tried to sign me to her production deal. She 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:20.360 was going to start her own thing. That was when 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:21.960 I was ten. My mom said, no, you're too young. 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:23.960 I was like, you're trying to ruin my life clearly. 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.480 So at eleven, I was being bullied. So did you 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:32.840 say that you're not gonna let me sign this is 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:34.880 what you're telling me about to say? You probably got 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:42.719 said mom, you're just trying to ruin well white kids. 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:52.360 I could not say that. I could not be like. 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.240 She'd like, you're gonna get what you guess. You're lucky. 0:12:55.640 --> 0:13:05.360 I never know she's doing it back there, you drugs. 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.040 So so that happened. She said I'm too young. I 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.920 was being bullied really badly in school and I was 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.199 in the guidance counselors all the time just crying surprise. 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:19.160 But at eleven, we moved to California, stayed with a 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.360 cousin that my mom had for pilot season because we 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.079 were going to like pursue that that whole thing. Give them, 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:28.680 give them, give them some context of pilot season so 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.880 people know pilot sees. Everybody that don't come to l A, 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.640 they don't know what that means. Pilot season is when 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:39.400 all the different shows, whether they're new or they're coming 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.559 back for another Oh, yeah, that the pilot. So new 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:46.199 shows are casting and it happens during a certain period 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.480 of time. I don't know when, but I think it 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.920 might be like January, and there's like an exodus of 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.120 of of kids, people who are coming to l A, 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:57.720 staying at a place like the oak Wood or wherever. 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.520 But we were fortunate to have a cousin who lived 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.880 in Lahabre, so I did musical theater while I was there. 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.480 I was enrolled in the school, and I also got 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.640 a pilot called ned To Classified School Survival Guide, which 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:12.520 was the show on Nickelodeon that I ended up not 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.240 I know, And so I got that pilot, but then 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.240 did a show called America's Most Talented Kids at the 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.680 same time, lost to a violinist. Mario Lopez was hosting 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.400 the show. I think unless that was another talent thing 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:32.960 I did. But UM lost and ended up meeting James Womack, 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:35.680 who was a manager at the time. He was in 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:40.040 the audience and he was like, I know you, you know, 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.160 I know you lost this one, but that means nothing 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:44.560 in the scheme of your life. Like I see a 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.040 feat I see the potential in you and I want 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.640 to take you around to some people. So I'm like, okay, 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.520 I mean my life. As soon as you get stage 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:56.160 for him, He's like, you're you really got something. So 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.160 he took me and my mom kind of under his 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.480 wing and ended up introducing a Stevens and Herbert who 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.200 ended up being my executive producer of my first two 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:10.760 albums and Yes, so and when is this what? Years 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.880 two thousand three, So I was twelve, yes, or or 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.640 at the end of my eleventh year. So we we 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.520 went around to a lot of different labels. More so, 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:22.800 I think it was Vincent who was taken a surround 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:26.240 of different labels and he had a UM, he had 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:30.640 a production company, m hmm, so he was also making 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:32.080 the decision of where would he want to bring his 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:34.640 production company that I would be signed to. So met 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:38.040 with a lot of different labels, got flewed out to like, 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.880 you know, different like to Vegas to meet with the 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:45.080 maloofs and two Alabama to meet with like another business 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.000 person who was starting something UM and then we ended 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:52.200 up going with Blackground, which was so signed with them 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.160 when I was twelve years old, and then ended up 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.000 moving to New Jersey to start working on my first album. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.760 You were in l A when you got signed, exactly, 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:04.360 and then you moved to Jersey. Where do you move 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.800 to Jersey? That's a great question. That's where That's where 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.800 their offices were. We were, we were, we were year 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.360 So it's very much in New York. And another thing 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.320 that I do think is that the child labor laws 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.520 are are less on the on the East Coast, so 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.480 I think it would have been really particularly hard for 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:27.560 me to even stay at the studio late in l A. 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.640 Things like that. It's just a little more lenient. Remember 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:33.720 at that time. I remember that time. I remember because 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:38.240 I've known Evince for a really long time and in 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.720 the music business we all crossed paths multiple ways in 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.960 different times of our our careers. And I remember him 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:53.920 telling me verbatio, I'm putting everything I had behind this 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.480 little girl. What are you talking about? What a thing 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.400 to say. I think I think I might have met 0:16:59.880 --> 0:17:03.320 the studio because this was yeah, it was yeah, two 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:07.359 thousand three whatever. Yeah you said under dog days. Yeah, 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:09.480 it's under dog days. And I want to say he 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.520 brought you by um And he was like yeah, because 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:14.879 I think I said I had known him, you know, 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.640 for a while, He's like, yeah, yeah, everything I said, 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:26.680 everything that risk. But that's what in this business. If 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:31.800 you're not willing to risk everything you have behind something, 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.360 you should not be in business with it. Are them 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:37.399 or you know, I mean whatever whatever it this is, 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.840 whatever the thing is that you're attaching to, if it's 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:45.560 if it's a person, place or whatever. If you're not 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:51.600 willing to invest everything that you have into somebody, let 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:56.159 them go to someone who will. That's good, yeah, because 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.560 there are so many ups and downs in this business, 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.119 and all we have is our time. All we have 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:05.440 is our time. I get I guess your money. You 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:06.919 can go throw some money at something, you can throw 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:10.240 it out the wall. But like giving somebody your life 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:15.640 to to further their career, you have to really see something. 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:18.720 And he saw it. I remember, he don't know what 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:20.600 he played me, but I was like, I've never heard 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.280 a little girl saying like that in my time. This 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:25.920 is what I'm this is what I'm saying. He believed 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:29.600 in me, changed my life, changed me, gave me a 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:34.359 sense of purpose, direction, and it really helped to crystallize 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:42.200 what Jojo, who Jojo was, and who Jojo is, because 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:45.439 before that I'd been Joanna. He's the one who you 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:48.560 know called me Jojo and that's where that came from. 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:54.720 So he Yeah, I mean I definitely felt that belief, 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:59.880 and that belief moves mountains that really can, and it did. Yeah, 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:06.280 was right there on the verge of getting benched. Yeah, 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.760 I was getting benched at the time. Put Joe Joe in. 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.840 Jo Joe came in through a touchdown and they were like, 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:25.399 you're never getting back. So you're who's the guy that 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:40.800 the Tom breestre not Drew Brees, but you god sitting 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.560 outside the labor look at any like, I'm not injured anymore, 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:51.200 not hurt. I can still play. You want me to play, 0:19:52.000 --> 0:20:07.080 That's okay. I got benched later to um, you know 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:12.679 It's what I can say about that is that, you know, 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:19.560 I think we have some some maybe dark memories of 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:24.760 that place we were in. But you know, always, you know, 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:26.960 I'm always a glass half full kind of guy, and 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.439 I'm always like, let's find the light in this dark situation. 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:36.920 Let's find the thing. Um, I'll be ready shoot everybody, everybody. 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:38.800 And he'd be like, he'd be like, no, no, Chief, 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:42.679 I'm telling who's gonna be all right? Yeah, Yeah, that's 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:55.560 that's the office, right. I'm what I'm trying to like, 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:04.040 what I'm trying to before went to shoot um is 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:07.720 that I just what what I always go back to, 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.000 what I always try to stay focused on and pull 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:12.199 from that moment, is that there would have been no me. 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:14.359 I feel the same without black Ground. I feel the 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:18.240 same way. That's that's just how I live in that space. 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:22.000 I remember when when we put out Freaking and it 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:27.080 just it wasn't doing. It wasn't giving. It just wasn't 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:30.720 giving back. In two thousand, it wasn't giving. You could 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:33.439 have had that turn back in no, no, we need 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:40.359 let's get rid of that, and it translates tru and 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:46.000 Joe Joe and didn't work. I'm saying that too. And 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:48.600 we shot this, you know, five thousand on a video 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:55.800 and cooking. We were cooking and Barry Hankerson, in the 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:58.480 midst of this not working, walked over to me and 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:03.440 said and said, I'm taken over from here. We gotta 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:05.800 you gotta hit record. I'm gonna make sure you have 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.080 a hit record. I'll take care of you from now. 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:14.320 And sure enough, sure enough that maybe I deserved drop 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:18.960 and he did not let nothing fall by the wayside, 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.040 all of it, all of it, all of it. So 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:30.359 that as a powerful man, honestly the self like you 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:34.359 alluded to, there were dark times and you know, things 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:36.600 that didn't go the way that we wanted them to. 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:40.200 But I can't help but look fondly at him for 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:44.920 for how I saw him, particularly as a preteen teenager. 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:47.240 He was an uncle figure to me. I looked up 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:49.960 to him absolutely absolutely, you know, I was like, Oh, 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:55.000 everything's gonna be okay, So I I have I have 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:57.760 a lot of love for him. Still it's in a 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:00.960 weird way, do you know what I mean. I understand 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:03.560 what you're saying. I'm in the same boat. And it's like, 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:07.920 you know, even like even being you know, I kinda 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:10.840 I kind of got beside myself and went into a 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.879 space to where it created a different kind of friction. 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:17.159 But you know, I was old money, you know what 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:19.760 I'm saying. I was. I was hungry, My family was hungry, 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:23.280 and so you know, I with someplace that I shouldn't 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:25.800 have gone, but I didn't know what else to do. 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:29.560 So even in that space of two thousand to to 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:32.119 two thousand seven, where you know, like I said, I 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:35.600 was sitting on that bench, you know, out of whatever 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:40.560 situations that he heard or or or you know, whatever 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:44.760 made him want to tap back in to be a 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:48.520 part of sex, loving, pain and and and make sure 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:52.680 that we had a hit record. I'm saying, I'm saying 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:55.520 I watched that. I watched him make watching. I watched 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:57.800 him built that record. Shout out to Eli McCoy as well, 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:02.399 from from three spins to three thousand plus. I watched it. 0:24:02.480 --> 0:24:04.719 Go into that office over there off a loyal canyon. 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:06.679 We'll go there every other day and just say how 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:08.800 we're doing, what we're doing. We need to make these calls. 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:10.960 Don't worry about a Texter. We're gonna get it, Eli 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:13.639 saying that very safe. Yeah, Elis sit in the room 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:16.879 by herself. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna figure this out. 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:19.920 Don't worry about Texter. We don't get that was very 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:22.160 his name from Texter. Don't worry about Texter. But so 0:24:22.440 --> 0:24:28.080 all that to say is, um, what a place right? 0:24:27.680 --> 0:24:31.600 What a what a what a way to I guess 0:24:32.160 --> 0:24:35.639 be tried by the fire that I love that phrase 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:40.800 and I think that's the perfect representation of that. Yeah, 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:44.040 so I'll ask you guys as someone from the outside 0:24:44.080 --> 0:24:47.560 of that because I never I never worked with Black Ground. 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:49.320 I don't, I didn't. The only thing I know is, 0:24:49.840 --> 0:24:53.520 you know, third person, but I asked from the business 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:59.719 side and time. So because from the outside, it's like, Okay, 0:25:02.280 --> 0:25:05.960 the success comes, the music is great, like your first album, 0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:08.960 we're planting them out the gate right, your first album, 0:25:08.960 --> 0:25:13.760 second like double triple, like you're doing numbers. And obviously 0:25:13.800 --> 0:25:16.679 then you run into the label conflicts. But now a 0:25:16.760 --> 0:25:18.720 new artist may look at that it's like, oh, well, 0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:20.920 if they hold up my music, I'm gonna just stay 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:23.439 on the road or i'mna. Just at that point in 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:27.560 those years, there's no social media, so I'm sure that 0:25:27.600 --> 0:25:30.760 time is different and what you can do and how 0:25:30.840 --> 0:25:34.720 you can move around. But you know, I think it's 0:25:34.760 --> 0:25:36.800 always like it's great to hear both of you guys, 0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:39.560 story of of of how you like you said, just 0:25:39.760 --> 0:25:44.000 what you went through at that time, but how you're 0:25:44.040 --> 0:25:48.080 so appreciative of the opportunity because you hear so many 0:25:48.200 --> 0:25:51.119 artists that are just purely on some they sucked me 0:25:51.200 --> 0:25:53.800 over and this that now there and nobody did this 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:57.240