Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Quest Love Supreme. Neil's Quest five. We have
Speaker 1: Teams Supreme with us. This is a morning episode of
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme. So it would be very interesting to
Speaker 1: see how the energy is this morning, because you know
Speaker 1: how you doing.
Speaker 2: Tries you ready to go?
Speaker 3: That's an instant Jiff right there.
Speaker 1: I think it's Kiff. It's not Jif. Steve is Jip.
Speaker 1: Jip is a peanut butter bro yo man before Money died.
Speaker 3: Before he passed, he told me it was Jiff.
Speaker 4: Hey man, it's just like the thing.
Speaker 2: Come on, man, draw draws.
Speaker 1: I get it all right, all right, I'll roll with
Speaker 1: the mob.
Speaker 5: Call the creator of the gift.
Speaker 1: The creator of the gift, like he was one of
Speaker 1: the early people to die in the pandemic. But the
Speaker 1: last thing we did together some awards thing, and I
Speaker 1: asked him.
Speaker 3: I didn't even ask him, he says Jim.
Speaker 1: I was like, how do you know? I was going
Speaker 1: to ask you? Like I get asked this one hundred
Speaker 1: times a day. But then he also said I should
Speaker 1: have said.
Speaker 3: Gift, but yeah, or used a jay if he wanted it.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 3: It's above him now, so you know he's not here,
Speaker 3: so he's.
Speaker 2: Above us now.
Speaker 1: He's oh god, all right, So Bill, how you doing? Man?
Speaker 6: I just I just googled it said. He called it
Speaker 6: a gift with a soft g. Choosy developers, he said,
Speaker 6: choose Jiff. This was, of course, a play on the
Speaker 6: peanut butter brand Jeff's line.
Speaker 2: Choosy mothers, choose Jeff. That's all.
Speaker 6: And the Internet never lies, So I'm going gift. I'm fine,
Speaker 6: by the way, thank you very much for asking.
Speaker 3: Well, and thank you and Steve. Yes, I'm good, Fante.
Speaker 4: I'm good, Man, I'm good. Been working. Men just did something,
Speaker 4: but it said, yeah, what are you working on? I
Speaker 4: don't know how much I'm a livinged to say, so
Speaker 4: I let William Bill.
Speaker 1: I'll explain what it happened once. Tell us.
Speaker 6: What it happened was Sponte and his producing partner Zoe
Speaker 6: have created a jam for the children that will air
Speaker 6: sometime in September by very famous, fantastic artist on this
Speaker 6: films today. But we're not allowed to say who that
Speaker 6: person is other than it's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 1: Wait, Fante wrote an Elmo jam.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been right, I've been writing.
Speaker 1: Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, I will say that our guests today,
Speaker 1: what's an understatement to say that she is a monster talent,
Speaker 1: as talented as they come. Uh, she's an unworldly singer,
Speaker 1: one of the you know, there's there's people that ooze
Speaker 1: with charisma, and I mean I've probably have been. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we're our careers are borderline neck and neck.
Speaker 1: So since the Roots have been.
Speaker 7: Years older, but that's okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but like I just started late.
Speaker 1: Okay, so our guest started when she was two years old, Okay, anyway, Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I'll say that, even if my memory serves me correct,
Speaker 1: whenever the Roots would come to the Bay Area, I
Speaker 1: believe that this person has been kind of a presence
Speaker 1: in the entirety of my career. And even from the
Speaker 1: first moment we've laid eyes on her, like just absolute charisma,
Speaker 1: Like she owned the stage and that's that's something that
Speaker 1: you can't find anywhere pretty much in entertainment.
Speaker 3: Like that's a special gift.
Speaker 1: As of now, as we speak, her eleventh album, entitled
Speaker 1: Good Life, has just been released. By the time it
Speaker 1: gets on the air, it should have been out by then.
Speaker 1: So in addition to a Grammy Award winning music career
Speaker 1: in multiple genres, he's also an actress of stage screen,
Speaker 1: don't forget, an author, an educator, and an advocate for others.
Speaker 1: And this is a long time coming. So welcome to
Speaker 1: q LS today we have let usy welcome to question.
Speaker 7: Thank you so much. What that means a lot just
Speaker 7: hearing you talk about me because I see you DJing
Speaker 7: all the time. You know, I would always go to
Speaker 7: your shows. That's like one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1: I know. This is the thing. As long as we've
Speaker 1: known each other, like, we've never had a moment to
Speaker 1: really just chop it up like in every real way.
Speaker 1: So this is almost like our first real in depth conversation,
Speaker 1: even though you know, again it's it's been several decades
Speaker 1: and you know this is a long time coming. Uh well,
Speaker 1: I'll ask you because you know today's is the what
Speaker 1: I say, the birth day of your new album. Do
Speaker 1: you still get excited about these things as if it
Speaker 1: were like your children out in the world, or like
Speaker 1: you still get like butterflies and anticipation and excitement of
Speaker 1: presenting it to the world.
Speaker 7: I am so nervous right now, but I really every
Speaker 7: single time, but I think this one even more so
Speaker 7: because of the growth. I never chase relevancy. It's not
Speaker 7: my thing. I love growth and perseverance in history more
Speaker 7: than anything, and so me, I'm always adding colors to
Speaker 7: my version of whoever I am in that era and
Speaker 7: hoping for people to see another side of myself that
Speaker 7: I never get to show. So this is another side
Speaker 7: and kind of full circle, coming back to the root
Speaker 7: of feel good music, like when I started, you know,
Speaker 7: so this one, I'm kind of grown and I don't
Speaker 7: care what people think anymore. I just want to put
Speaker 7: feel good out there. I think we needed it. I
Speaker 7: needed it, And what I'm nervous about is, after three
Speaker 7: years of work, is it enough? You know?
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm so glad you said that, because right now
Speaker 1: we're going through a cycle. I mean, you'll be maybe
Speaker 1: the fourth or fifth artist that we've interviewed in which
Speaker 1: their product is kind of a direct result of whatever
Speaker 1: they learned from the pandemic. This restart thing, like it
Speaker 1: happened with Brittany, with Brittany Howard and also with Green
Speaker 1: Bailey Ray.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like you're seeing these artists who kind of had
Speaker 1: either a pivot or a transformation, or they got to
Speaker 1: know themselves better. They have a lot of self work
Speaker 1: and the creativity that normally went on their product before
Speaker 1: twenty twenty is not the same way as it is now.
Speaker 3: So would you say that for you? That's also the case.
Speaker 7: I think I'm a chameleon every album, though I've always
Speaker 7: been different every project. I think I did a complete
Speaker 7: pivot by doing Lettucey sings Nina when I'm an R
Speaker 7: and B. You know me as an R and B artist,
Speaker 7: but I've seen classical and opera and in French and Italian,
Speaker 7: but I never get to show that in R and B.
Speaker 7: So to me, it's like for me, it's how I feel,
Speaker 7: And a lot of it has to do with ownership,
Speaker 7: being my own under my own label and doing my
Speaker 7: own thing, so I've never had that. The pandemic only
Speaker 7: pushed me forward to be more active in socially active
Speaker 7: online and talking to people. Before I was more like
Speaker 7: just putting stuff out and going away. This is new
Speaker 7: for me, actually talking to people more.
Speaker 1: Wait, so you're not an engager, No, I try to be.
Speaker 7: I've gotten better. Twenty twenty taught me that I have
Speaker 7: my own podcasts. I started talking more to my friends privately,
Speaker 7: but then I'm like, I might as well put this
Speaker 7: out and show people that I'm talking. You know, no
Speaker 7: one knows and knew anything much about me, but you
Speaker 7: seeing me around, you know what I mean. I'm like
Speaker 7: the the oh let Usy said the show, what is
Speaker 7: she doing here?
Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Well, you know what, I would have thought the opposite,
Speaker 3: because when you're on.
Speaker 7: Stage, that's another thing you do.
Speaker 1: But when you're on stage, you do this like zero
Speaker 1: to one hundred in two seconds. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not even trying to blow smoke up your ass or anything,
Speaker 1: but literally like charisma, connecting with the audience, talking to
Speaker 1: the audience, engaging them, telling jokes, yeah, talking about your life.
Speaker 1: Like that's a hard thing to do. Like I avoided
Speaker 1: it all costs, you know what I mean. I hide
Speaker 1: behind a drum set. I hide behind turntables and the
Speaker 1: internet and all these things like where you have to
Speaker 1: be out there. And I just naturally thought there was
Speaker 1: one show I saw where I was like, I will
Speaker 1: be none surprised if you know, you get an OPRAH
Speaker 1: platform just the way that you were doing one on
Speaker 1: one with your your audience. But that's weird to hear
Speaker 1: that in your personal off stage life that you're you're
Speaker 1: saying you're an introvert sort of or worth I'm a little.
Speaker 7: Bit of both, but more so introverted, really shy stage though.
Speaker 7: It's I think of the audience more so. I don't
Speaker 7: think of myself. I think of them and making time
Speaker 7: and moments to come to the show and entertain them
Speaker 7: and be honest and authentic because I wouldn't want to
Speaker 7: pay for that and then put myself in their position.
Speaker 7: But what would I if I'm sitting out there watching
Speaker 7: you guys? I want to be like this, you know
Speaker 7: what I mean. I want feel something. So if I'm
Speaker 7: standing there like glue, just letting it dry, just boring.
Speaker 7: So I always think of put myself in the audience's position.
Speaker 1: Well, look, so if you are shy in your personal life.
Speaker 1: And this is something I'm just discovering maybe in the
Speaker 1: last two or three years and talking to artists like
Speaker 1: on this platform and also just interviewing them in general.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the general public is rather
Speaker 1: shocked that some artists might have anxiety, social anxiety, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. And so I'm often finding out that
Speaker 1: they have to sort of psyche themselves up, like a
Speaker 1: half hour before going on stage or like transform into
Speaker 1: a new character, that sort of thing like so what
Speaker 1: is your process to get out of your social shyness
Speaker 1: of non stage life into like what is your process
Speaker 1: like an hour before the before showtime?
Speaker 7: A lot of breathing High Hills does it for me.
Speaker 1: I love wearing, so you become a new character that
Speaker 1: I love.
Speaker 7: High heels, I love makeup. I just love this becoming
Speaker 7: grown woman like energy. It's so good for me. It
Speaker 7: says I belong, It says I'm worthy, it says power,
Speaker 7: and inside my heart is racing. I'm still afraid. But
Speaker 7: I recycle the fear into win and gather tell them
Speaker 7: about who you are, where you come from, the music,
Speaker 7: the root, everything, it's not it's bigger than me. But
Speaker 7: all of that gives me power to just execute the stories.
Speaker 7: We're storytellers, we're creative, so we gotta It's not about us,
Speaker 7: It's about what we're trying to ignite and inspire other people.
Speaker 7: They want to feel something. So I go back to that,
Speaker 7: and but the high Hills six it ashow hold. I
Speaker 7: can get it off even one.
Speaker 6: Keeping clothes again the first the first guest to go
Speaker 6: and grab their shoes.
Speaker 7: I will fight you.
Speaker 5: That is not a way.
Speaker 8: What that is my uncles, all your ankles, so much fun.
Speaker 7: That's a whole performance and notes. Yeah, yes, ma'am ninety's
Speaker 7: Warrior ninety minutes. I love a good hell. It makes
Speaker 7: me taller. I'm five five. I need some y'all are
Speaker 7: tall short, all.
Speaker 1: Right, so noted, I will be writing crocks for.
Speaker 7: I have some nice make her some nice high crocks.
Speaker 2: Me.
Speaker 7: You have some heels with cracks.
Speaker 1: They actually have platform crocks.
Speaker 5: But yeah, have some, but they don't.
Speaker 3: They don't go beyond size fourteen.
Speaker 7: So you know, I don't know. I need.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 3: It's happening, but I'll produce it.
Speaker 7: Down in two years as well. Do it as long
Speaker 7: as I can watch those hips.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let to see.
Speaker 1: I thought you were born in the Bay Area, but
Speaker 1: I found out I was wrong. He tell us where
Speaker 1: you were born.
Speaker 7: I'm originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, and my family comes
Speaker 7: from the Holly Grove area. I don't have an accent
Speaker 7: because I moved when I was twelve years old to
Speaker 7: the Bay Area. So it's raised in Oakland, East Oakland.
Speaker 7: But when I get mad, my accent comes out really
Speaker 7: nicely bit bad. It gets round.
Speaker 5: A new Ornan's accent.
Speaker 8: Wait, can I ask the question of mirror that I
Speaker 8: feel like we might have to skip because I.
Speaker 5: Need to know where lettu see ane by Day came from.
Speaker 7: It's a year, but where my mom named me. It
Speaker 7: comes from a o'chosea song a year, but word god,
Speaker 7: my mom loves year of a music and would sing it.
Speaker 7: And that's where the name. It means to bring forth
Speaker 7: is let us see and aniba day means to bring luck,
Speaker 7: so bring forth, bring luck. And so that's my real name.
Speaker 7: My mom and dad named me. They were kind of
Speaker 7: hippies and uh that was their thing, you know. So
Speaker 7: that's where my name comes from.
Speaker 1: Do you remember what was your first musical memory.
Speaker 7: My mom would sing at this park across the street
Speaker 7: with her band, and she had this big afro and
Speaker 7: bell bottoms, blue jeans, bell bottoms in a green shirt
Speaker 7: and some big hoops, and she had this tambourine but
Speaker 7: she would hit it with her hip all the time,
Speaker 7: and I just love every time her hip would move
Speaker 7: her she'd sing the audience would just I just saw
Speaker 7: them go crazy. I didn't know what that meant, but
Speaker 7: the sound of her voice always would do something here.
Speaker 7: So that memory always, I always remember that before I
Speaker 7: go on stage. But that was my one of my
Speaker 7: first memories of music. The other one is the A track.
Speaker 7: The band would record to the A track and it
Speaker 7: would sit in our room. We had a shotgun house
Speaker 7: to just go straight ahead and in the living room.
Speaker 7: The band would record in the living room and my
Speaker 7: mom would record her vocal part with the A track
Speaker 7: in our bedroom, which was the next room. So I
Speaker 7: would stare at the A track and watch my mom
Speaker 7: record on the edge of the bed, and then when
Speaker 7: they pressed play and her voice came out of it,
Speaker 7: I was just blown away. And that's when I like
Speaker 7: those two memories. That's when I wanted to sing.
Speaker 2: Did your mother does she like make records of you're
Speaker 2: recording artists? Or did she just sing?
Speaker 7: And she was a recording artist. She had her own
Speaker 7: band called car Nova in New Orleans. They had their
Speaker 7: own band. It was interracial race bass player guitar. My
Speaker 7: stepdad played drums. That's why I started on the drums.
Speaker 7: That's why I love watching drummers. That's why I became
Speaker 7: a fan of me. And I would watch the way
Speaker 7: drummers set up their snares. It slanted, is it low?
Speaker 7: Is it below their knees? Like every little technical thing.
Speaker 7: So I started on the drums and I would watch
Speaker 7: them perform rehearse in our bedroom. But we were too
Speaker 7: young to go in the club, so they would have
Speaker 7: the car close to the side door so that my
Speaker 7: mom can babysit while performing, so she would do double duty.
Speaker 7: So I'm a kid from that kind of era where
Speaker 7: they did a lot of performing and recording at the
Speaker 7: same time. But she had her own band lead singer,
Speaker 7: and her and the bass player would write songs together
Speaker 7: all the time.
Speaker 1: Wow, I know you're probably obsessed with Darry Jones if
Speaker 1: you're trying to figure out drummer angles, because I'm still
Speaker 1: trying to figure that out out right.
Speaker 7: That's set up.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, Okay, are you still drumming now?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 7: Do you can paradiddles on a pad when I get
Speaker 7: nervous or things like that? But not Nah. The band
Speaker 7: always trying to make me play, but I won't play it.
Speaker 7: I told you, I get a little nerdy on certain times.
Speaker 7: And that's one of them. I don't want to play
Speaker 7: in front of it. I know, like an African beat
Speaker 7: and a James Brown beat. That's all I know right now.
Speaker 3: You don't think your audience would go crazy if you
Speaker 3: just suddenly started.
Speaker 5: It was a little especially for afrobeats.
Speaker 7: Let's go. You think I can do it?
Speaker 1: I mean I know you can do it. You know
Speaker 1: you can do it.
Speaker 7: I'm in practice. If you're there, definitely not doing it.
Speaker 1: Do you own a drum set?
Speaker 7: No, I think when we get a bigger house, i'll
Speaker 7: get one. But right now, I'll wait, I have a
Speaker 7: I have a road. It's right there.
Speaker 1: I'm sending you a drum set.
Speaker 7: Really what?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, you're also helping me because you know I'm
Speaker 1: a hoarder. And yeah, the less less boxes I have.
Speaker 7: Well, if you send it, I'll practice and then i'll
Speaker 7: play and record.
Speaker 1: I'm not bullstitting you. I'm trying to get rid of
Speaker 1: these boxes. I'm giving you a drum set.
Speaker 7: So well, thank you. I appreciate it. I love the doms,
Speaker 7: you know what, My monitor's mirror, the rim shot, the
Speaker 7: snare and the kick and my vocal. That's it. That's
Speaker 7: all I have in my my monitor ears. Everyone's like,
Speaker 7: you're crazy. I'm like I need to beat Yeah.
Speaker 3: I know this, no, this, this is great. I encourage
Speaker 3: this highly. I encourage What was the first album that
Speaker 3: you owned?
Speaker 7: First album? My own Thriller, Purple Rain was there? Those
Speaker 7: two was what I had, But.
Speaker 1: Thriller was allowed to listen to Purple Rain.
Speaker 7: I snuck it in, Okay, I'm just gonna say, sneak
Speaker 7: it in.
Speaker 1: I think I think we've had one guest on the
Speaker 1: show that was like freely allowed to listen to Prince
Speaker 1: in their childhood, Like Prince wasn't contraband after the.
Speaker 7: Movie, they let it go because we had saw the movie.
Speaker 7: It's a rap, you know. The Thriller was the one
Speaker 7: that was the that.
Speaker 3: Was okay, what about your first content?
Speaker 7: I didn't you know my during my time, we couldn't go.
Speaker 7: It was run DMC, a fresh vest. It was, yes,
Speaker 7: we couldn't go. I couldn't go. My parents wouldn't let
Speaker 7: us go. So I have my little General Electric radio
Speaker 7: and I would just play the cassette on the porch
Speaker 7: and just listen like that and pretend like we were there.
Speaker 7: But I didn't go to a concert until I was
Speaker 7: in college and the first concert, yes did never had
Speaker 7: never been a concert. My first concert was Dian Reeves
Speaker 7: opening for George Benson in Sonoma somewhere. It was a date.
Speaker 7: This guy took me on a date. That's I got
Speaker 7: to go to a concert. Crazy, right.
Speaker 1: It's funny you said that because for some reason three
Speaker 1: days ago, what was the song about Grandma Better Days? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I had this need to hear
Speaker 1: that song, like it was always on radio when I
Speaker 1: was in high school.
Speaker 5: Really, oh god.
Speaker 1: That was like I forgot there was a time in which,
Speaker 1: like Diane Reeves had like the number one song on
Speaker 1: Power ninety nine, like and that was the thing that also.
Speaker 4: Likely record and also kind of a Piano in the
Speaker 4: Dark by.
Speaker 7: Brenda Ronda Russell.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, e well that still gets played on like
Speaker 1: Piano the Dark has this travel to well I don't
Speaker 1: call it yacht rock radio, but whatever, like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: wherever when you're in CVS at three in the morning.
Speaker 8: That's one of the best albums of all time, the
Speaker 8: Russell album.
Speaker 1: It is tell us about your your musical development, Like
Speaker 1: do you have any siblings or is it just you?
Speaker 7: I have an older sister, a younger sister, and on
Speaker 7: my dad's side, I have I have eleven and I
Speaker 7: think I'm twelve. I'm twelve in there in that mix.
Speaker 7: I know you're interviewing, but I wanted to ask you
Speaker 7: about when we did the VH one Anita.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get to that. I'm gone, I'm sorry. That
Speaker 1: is all right, all right, let's just have it now,
Speaker 1: all right. I'm trying to rap up to this. You know,
Speaker 1: the thing for me is, as an artist, the two
Speaker 1: things that I look forward to most in life is
Speaker 1: when someone puts me onto an album that will later
Speaker 1: like change my life and all that stuff. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've had that a few times, you know, like Jill
Speaker 1: handing me her record, Oh shit, Fonte handed me his
Speaker 1: you know, the the Little Brother album or record blow
Speaker 1: or whatever. But the only thing that tops that for
Speaker 1: me is when I witnessed a star is born moment
Speaker 1: and to see what transpired that day. Now we're doing
Speaker 1: VH on'es uh, it's not women who rockets, it's is
Speaker 1: a divas. Was it Divas?
Speaker 7: I think I can't remember. Yeah, I think it was
Speaker 7: Divas R and B Divs.
Speaker 1: And I've told many stories of whenever I'm put in
Speaker 1: those situations in which you got to curate a bunch
Speaker 1: of artists.
Speaker 3: That's the first.
Speaker 1: Time, like, but even before Hip Hop fifty, that's the
Speaker 1: first time I had to learn that it's not just
Speaker 1: about music, but you also have to manage artists in
Speaker 1: general personalities, personalities which I didn't know. Now the first
Speaker 1: half of the story kind of isn't mine to tell
Speaker 1: all the pieces of the jinga fell down with seconds
Speaker 1: left on the clock and or when I say seconds
Speaker 1: left on the clock, I mean, you know, in TV world,
Speaker 1: one should at least thoroughly kind of you know, at
Speaker 1: least have three a minimum of three hours of working
Speaker 1: out kinks and whatnot. I mean, we probably had all
Speaker 1: of twenty seven minutes before we started taping, and you know,
Speaker 1: we have a giant, gaping hole of space left that
Speaker 1: needed to be filled, which is who's gonna now sing
Speaker 1: sweet Love? You know you did it in such Now
Speaker 1: I realize that, Yeah, you're telling the truth about your
Speaker 1: shyness because you kind of very don't. Was Sondra there
Speaker 1: as well or was it just you?
Speaker 7: No, it was me and Sindra, Yeah, because I had
Speaker 7: done a tribute ever on television.
Speaker 1: That was like, right, first, first, correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: What were you initially there for Aaron Jones, Karen Jones. Yes,
Speaker 1: what I do remember was I didn't go to you first.
Speaker 1: I think I went to Sundra.
Speaker 7: No, Marcia, right, Oh, you went to Sundra to talk
Speaker 7: to her?
Speaker 1: Yes, right, I mean, well she was there in proximity
Speaker 1: because she was also like, were you there to watch
Speaker 1: the rehearsal?
Speaker 7: Yeah, we were trying to watch rehearsal, and then we
Speaker 7: got kicked out of a room and we went back
Speaker 7: to our dressing room and stayed out of the way,
Speaker 7: which is what I love to do.
Speaker 3: Because I'll wait all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1: The only thing I'm going to say, I don't know
Speaker 1: if I ever shared this part of the story. So again, yes,
Speaker 1: the initial plan for that moment was in motion, like
Speaker 1: both artists were on stage and verse and the parts
Speaker 1: and whatnot.
Speaker 3: And then this is the craziest.
Speaker 1: Real moment of all time I've ever witnessed an artist
Speaker 1: due and.
Speaker 3: I'm respectfully recapitulating the story.
Speaker 8: So you are so respectful right now, I can't even
Speaker 8: understand the story.
Speaker 1: Look after I'm losing my mind.
Speaker 5: I'm like, I need to get a less respectful remix.
Speaker 1: Yes, story, I know that we're about that, but I've
Speaker 1: already been roasted by another artist, by her other group members,
Speaker 1: I was the wicked boy, and I had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with it. You know.
Speaker 3: Again it's it's above me.
Speaker 1: But anyway, the whole point was that there was a
Speaker 1: moment right after the bridge in which the song started
Speaker 1: to go rogue, and Anita Baker decided that this moment's
Speaker 1: not going to go down. She literally like, so go
Speaker 1: after the bridge of Sweet Love, like, and she's walking
Speaker 1: down the stairs. She's singing. Then she puts her cote
Speaker 1: on and she's still singing the song, and then we
Speaker 1: get to the chorus and she's putting a pocketbook on
Speaker 1: and then she's like walking down to the audience. You know,
Speaker 1: we're camera blocking and all that stuff. Yo, She sang
Speaker 1: the last of those ad libs, walked out the door,
Speaker 1: hailed the cab and it went straight to the airport.
Speaker 1: Like but that was rehearsal though, right, that was I mean,
Speaker 1: it was it was camera blocking for a show we
Speaker 1: were gonna shoot in two hours. Like the average person
Speaker 1: would have been like, hey, stop the song. Guys, I
Speaker 1: appreciate this, but I cannot do this. I'm leaving goodbye.
Speaker 1: She didn't do that, like she literally sang the song
Speaker 1: and then like the way mister Rogers like puts a
Speaker 1: sweater on, and she put her coat on.
Speaker 5: You see, did you see?
Speaker 7: No, I wasn't in the room. We were kicked We
Speaker 7: were kicked out way before the song even started.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a lot of drama.
Speaker 1: And but seriously, when I think at what point she
Speaker 1: ye had govern her mouth like this, like she put
Speaker 1: her pocketbook on and all that stuff, and but still
Speaker 1: doing it for Bata swing and and she was like
Speaker 1: in the vest of you. She left the theater still
Speaker 1: singing with the microphone in the rest of you. And
Speaker 1: then she walked out of the hammersteam Ballroom, and I'm
Speaker 1: looking at Nelson George like, wait, what's going on here?
Speaker 1: But the way she left, I've never seen a person
Speaker 1: with a cordless microphone.
Speaker 2: Walk out the building, start on.
Speaker 3: The stage, walk in the audience, then walked the rest
Speaker 3: of you.
Speaker 2: Like that's wow.
Speaker 7: It sounds accurate though, Yeah, m.
Speaker 1: H James James James Boys and hang on, hang on,
Speaker 1: wait wait, Dame Steak James Yes, were you with us
Speaker 1: for VH one Divas Anita shut up?
Speaker 2: Uh, I think I do something from old man brain.
Speaker 1: I think you know, James that you're just afraid to
Speaker 1: I think I remember hearing about this.
Speaker 5: Was that.
Speaker 3: Not playing keyboards? Who else would play keyboards?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 7: I don't know either. I can't.
Speaker 3: He wasn't in the loop like that. It was you
Speaker 3: were definitely there.
Speaker 5: It was a long time ago.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was Omar.
Speaker 2: Yes, Oh yeah, I do remember that.
Speaker 1: Wait what I feel like I'm having. I'm feeling like
Speaker 1: I'm having a little boy that cried wolf moment. I'm
Speaker 1: king him the way that you would need.
Speaker 3: A baker left the stage.
Speaker 1: I've never seen someone walk off the stage still singing.
Speaker 3: Grap her coat, still singing her pocket book.
Speaker 1: She WoT a stick of gum and literally ad libbed
Speaker 1: herself into a cab. Went to the airport, and I
Speaker 1: asked Nelson George, I'm like, wait, what happened?
Speaker 3: And he was like, she went home? And I'm like,
Speaker 3: she was a luggage like.
Speaker 2: She literally I do remember that. I do. I do
Speaker 2: remember that when you.
Speaker 7: Asked when they said, the room started buzzing around that
Speaker 7: she left. Yes, and we were backstage, going what's going on?
Speaker 7: And they were like, no, Anita Baker left. I was like, what,
Speaker 7: I wanted to meet her? Why did she leave? She
Speaker 7: coming back though?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 7: They were like, no, she's not coming back. They're trying
Speaker 7: to call her. So I and when you came to
Speaker 7: my room to ask me about singing it. When you
Speaker 7: finally showed up, I was like, why is chues Love
Speaker 7: coming to my room? What I do?
Speaker 1: And I thought it was trouble. I was.
Speaker 7: I didn't do anything, and then you came in and explained,
Speaker 7: we need But this is the thing I didn't tell
Speaker 7: you is that after you asked me, I called ab
Speaker 7: Queen Anita Baker and said, can you police come back?
Speaker 1: We would love it.
Speaker 7: Even after you asked me, because I felt, you know,
Speaker 7: I love honoring our grades no matter what. And if
Speaker 7: you asked me to do their song, I always call
Speaker 7: them and say, hey, I'm gonna be performing your song.
Speaker 7: That's just something I do. But I felt weird a
Speaker 7: little bit, so I called her and said, hey, are
Speaker 7: you all right? Just checking on you. She was like,
Speaker 7: I'm fine, going home? I was. She didn't she didn't
Speaker 7: tell me what went on. She didn't say anything. She
Speaker 7: just said, baby, I said, well, they're asking me to
Speaker 7: sing your song and I was hoping you would sing it,
Speaker 7: and I thought you were singing it with another artist.
Speaker 7: I would love for you to she and I hope
Speaker 7: she wasn't thinking that you put me up to that.
Speaker 7: That was just saying please come back because it's VH
Speaker 7: one and it was you know, and she was like,
Speaker 7: do a great job, honey, You're gonna be great.
Speaker 1: But I do.
Speaker 7: And that's all I heard. And I didn't ask her
Speaker 7: what went on. It was none of my business to know.
Speaker 7: My job was trying to get her to come come back.
Speaker 7: And because I knew a whole nother generation wanted to
Speaker 7: see that because she hadn't been on television along and
Speaker 7: it was a big event to see that.
Speaker 8: So hey, ps, just real quick because I know he's
Speaker 8: going to try to get out of here like Peter
Speaker 8: on The Family, Guy, James Poyser, can we get your
Speaker 8: commitment to being a guest on Quest left the premium
Speaker 8: the next two months?
Speaker 1: Please she meet Homer Simpson.
Speaker 8: Homer Simpson, I'm sorry, you're right wrong, guy.
Speaker 1: How much your pain? James do an episode already?
Speaker 2: Fred Havin, he was he was in his sam ash basement.
Speaker 2: Remember I love you? Let us.
Speaker 1: Wait?
Speaker 2: Can I ask a question about the needed Baker thing?
Speaker 6: Were James at any point did the band look at
Speaker 6: each other and be like, where the need a go?
Speaker 2: Was that? Or it is just like it didn't matter.
Speaker 2: It was just she was gone.
Speaker 3: No, I'm gonna tell you why.
Speaker 1: Because the thing is the way that the stage was
Speaker 1: built kind of like a pyramid thing, and I'm at
Speaker 1: the top, and what was supposed to happen is these two,
Speaker 1: these two were supposed to saunter down these long ass
Speaker 1: stairs left and right, singing together. There's this sort of
Speaker 1: rosy ending to this thing. And the whole thing was that.
Speaker 1: When I think Sondra was next to me and I asked,
Speaker 1: I see Sondra, I think she said, or someone from
Speaker 1: your team was like, oh, let's you knows that song
Speaker 1: like the back of her hand. She will kill that
Speaker 1: Baker fan.
Speaker 7: She's also one of my greatest mentors and friends. I
Speaker 7: love it. Maybe there might be things, you know to me,
Speaker 7: every artist has a thing, they had, their cork and
Speaker 7: what they need and require to be comfortable. I don't
Speaker 7: know what the situation was. I'm just saying and everybody
Speaker 7: got a thing, they got quirks.
Speaker 5: You know, you wasn't even going there with this conversation.
Speaker 5: What was your I.
Speaker 7: Wanted to know for Emir doing that kind of show,
Speaker 7: the mass it was so massive with so many women,
Speaker 7: like it was R and B and soul that night,
Speaker 7: you know what I mean. It was huge for me
Speaker 7: and I wanted to ask him, having that control over
Speaker 7: that kind of playlist and all these artists in one room,
Speaker 7: what was that like for you? Well, you answered it,
Speaker 7: But that's why I wanted to bring it up, like,
Speaker 7: because that was the first time I said, come out
Speaker 7: of being the drummer to being like a conductor, run
Speaker 7: whipping bag.
Speaker 3: You want to know something funny though, Well, to know
Speaker 3: something funny.
Speaker 1: That was the second most stressful moment of a night
Speaker 1: because I had another situation backstage with a Mota legend whom,
Speaker 1: like drummers will all always get no pun intended the
Speaker 1: short end of the stick, mainly from singers who now
Speaker 1: I understand that if there's certain insecurities lying under, usually
Speaker 1: when a person wants to micromanage tempo or that's not right,
Speaker 1: there's another issue at hand. You know that that's not
Speaker 1: about the song's too fast or you're playing it too slow.
Speaker 1: So you know, I was dealing with another drama with
Speaker 1: a motown legend that she browbeat me, and she did
Speaker 1: it something so smooth, like I'm drumming behind her and
Speaker 1: at one point she's so on. She sings something, sings
Speaker 1: the chorus and turns around says kill you.
Speaker 7: Oh no, a mirror R and B is a whole
Speaker 7: nother beast. It has you know this samir is so different, right.
Speaker 1: So no, just to let you know that, like that
Speaker 1: situation with the needle was sort of like that was
Speaker 1: in second place. There's something else I was dealing with.
Speaker 1: It taught me to be careful what you asked for.
Speaker 1: And also I'll say that surviving that prepared me for
Speaker 1: hip hop fifty.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know I've told our listeners that, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I've lost the body part uh because of the stress
Speaker 1: of that. But that's also that's also me not you know,
Speaker 1: advocating for myself and volunteering to be a whipping boy.
Speaker 1: But I.
Speaker 5: Said, that's what I said.
Speaker 3: The main one I told you all my tooth fell out.
Speaker 5: We all smoke and drink, so we'd be forgetting the
Speaker 5: camera you know, with our brother. But you know, we
Speaker 5: just still.
Speaker 1: And we can put this to bed. Let me put
Speaker 1: the cheery on top and say that you came out
Speaker 1: with twenty seven minutes left.
Speaker 3: You ran through that song.
Speaker 1: And it was the most beautiful thing ever, even to
Speaker 1: the detriment of not seeing that magic moment happen. What
Speaker 1: that taught me was one I said to myself, like, wow,
Speaker 1: like I rarely see an artist that's like ready for
Speaker 1: their close up, And for me, that was the stars
Speaker 1: born moment, because like you were trending number one when
Speaker 1: that aired, and it was a whole nother comment. It
Speaker 1: was as if people just discovered you for real, and
Speaker 1: it was such a moment where I was like, that's
Speaker 1: that's the way it was meant to be.
Speaker 7: Honestly, I was scared to death, and I because I
Speaker 7: didn't have time to do what I normally do, prepare, overthink,
Speaker 7: I know, overthink, and I just did it. Marcia Ambrosius
Speaker 7: did it too, and I was happy to have her
Speaker 7: there as well to help sing part of the other part.
Speaker 7: But you were like so happy. I was honored to
Speaker 7: finish out what you had started and do my best,
Speaker 7: but I was freaked out, but I did try.
Speaker 5: To get a B back.
Speaker 7: I did. I didn't know what was going on. I
Speaker 7: was out the dark, out of the room. Still don't
Speaker 7: know what happened, but I'm just.
Speaker 3: Having euros up here.
Speaker 7: Your face though that night, well that's why I wanted
Speaker 7: to ask why it was. So how was it for you?
Speaker 7: Because your face was you wore out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't know about meditation.
Speaker 2: Job.
Speaker 7: You did a wonderful job. I have to.
Speaker 5: Say, y'all, is this the BT Award twenty eighteen?
Speaker 7: Oh it was VH one.
Speaker 5: So you didn't say Anita Baker sweet love?
Speaker 7: A couple of times I did, but I didn't do
Speaker 7: I did it first with a mirror.
Speaker 8: That was making sure because I know people are listening,
Speaker 8: They're like, how which one is?
Speaker 5: I want to find it?
Speaker 7: Not that So that was the first tribute I had
Speaker 7: ever done. I do a lot of tributes, but that
Speaker 7: was the first one on a big platform like that.
Speaker 7: It was all R and B people, soul, R and B.
Speaker 7: The lineup was incredible. I couldn't believe I was there.
Speaker 5: I was still RMB Davis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So did you notice a paradigm shift after that moment?
Speaker 7: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Tell me about it because I still maintained that, you know,
Speaker 1: one you trended the entire night it was on and
Speaker 1: just reading all the comments, like people were really engaged
Speaker 1: with how you handled it, and they loved it.
Speaker 3: So what happened after that moment?
Speaker 7: They were my shows got bigger, more people started wanting
Speaker 7: to know more about me. But I wasn't really social,
Speaker 7: like I said earlier, we didn't have enough of that.
Speaker 7: I didn't even know what trending was. I was too
Speaker 7: busy surviving as independent artists, you know. But I noticed
Speaker 7: in the club environment more people were coming out to
Speaker 7: my shows after that, and there was a level of respect.
Speaker 7: But I also got called to do more tributes, so
Speaker 7: it kind of opened the door for that, which I
Speaker 7: was like, what is going on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, You've done a lot besides Anita Baker, Who are
Speaker 1: your north stars in terms of you know, who you
Speaker 1: look to as far as like your your vocal idols.
Speaker 7: Or like I wanted to be an opera singer. So
Speaker 7: Leontine was one of the biggest uh Dinah Washington because
Speaker 7: there would be no Aretha without Dinah. She was a
Speaker 7: big influence for Aretha and then of course Aretha Franklin
Speaker 7: because she could sing. She sunk sung everything, and I
Speaker 7: love uh. My mother was a huge influence. It starts
Speaker 7: at home for me. She had the most beautiful soprano voice.
Speaker 7: And when she had cancer in the throat, and she
Speaker 7: survived and and won, but she her voice got lower.
Speaker 7: She was worried and said, Mama, you gonna sing. You
Speaker 7: could sing an out good old alto and tenna. You'll
Speaker 7: be fine, you know so. But she's one of my
Speaker 7: biggest inspirations is my mother, because without her, I wouldn't
Speaker 7: have been introduced to all these other vocalists. And I
Speaker 7: love Patsy Kaine. She's another big voice, storyteller. We forget
Speaker 7: country is like not that everybody's having that country talk.
Speaker 7: I've been on it. My mom listened to Willie Nelson
Speaker 7: and Bob Dylan. I was like, Mom, why they can't
Speaker 7: really sing. She's like, it's the stories, you know. She's like,
Speaker 7: the stories are the thing. So I was the nerdy,
Speaker 7: weird kid that liked all the opposite. I didn't start
Speaker 7: at the church. I got the church stuff later when
Speaker 7: we moved to Oakland and I met the Hawkins and
Speaker 7: Darryl Coley and.
Speaker 3: Learned that church.
Speaker 7: My mom did. She was in their choir, so we would.
Speaker 7: I would visit here and there. But I wasn't a
Speaker 7: church I'm not a church girl. I loved the nerdy.
Speaker 7: We were raised Catholics, so we were Mama me more.
Speaker 7: You know, we didn't do all the squalling. I learned
Speaker 7: all of that because Tremaine said, come on, baby squall.
Speaker 7: And my mom grew up Baptist, so I heard her voice.
Speaker 7: That's where I got it from. Do you know what
Speaker 7: I mean? I'm the Yeah, she taught me how to
Speaker 7: do my first squaw She was in the studio. You
Speaker 7: go like this a squaw all that you asking? And
Speaker 7: I ain't doing that now.
Speaker 3: But wait, if you know what, Jamaine, have you ever
Speaker 3: met Lynette Stephen Hawkins?
Speaker 7: Oh, absolutely met her as well.
Speaker 1: She like, man, like, just listen to all that records,
Speaker 1: like you never see pressed on any of them.
Speaker 7: So she had her own church. So they're really quiet,
Speaker 7: you know, they're nerds like well, I can't say like us,
Speaker 7: but yeah, I guess they like us, right you can, yeah,
Speaker 7: I can't, okay, but yeah, they're really quiet. But you know,
Speaker 7: people who were love the music and they keep it there.
Speaker 7: They love being private as well, not all of us
Speaker 7: like to be in the front.
Speaker 1: I'll say that the number one scene that I really
Speaker 1: regret that I had to drop what in Summer Soul was?
Speaker 1: I mean, yes, they taught me off the ledgend I
Speaker 1: put O Happy Day in, but really there was there
Speaker 1: There was a solo between uh Tremaine Walter and Lynette
Speaker 1: when they were teenagers, when they were you know, like.
Speaker 3: Nineteen years old. So that's one of the scenes I
Speaker 3: had to drop.
Speaker 7: You know what I wanted to say about someone's soul,
Speaker 7: Luther Vandross is a huge influence. Why didn't you put
Speaker 7: Luther such a good question?
Speaker 1: Because Luther was ace an eighteen year old.
Speaker 8: Nobody air quotes, nobody taped it, didn't it a little.
Speaker 1: Singer And they were like, well, we're running out of tape.
Speaker 1: So you know that that local Harlem band with Luther
Speaker 1: Vanros and Phonsie Thornton and practically Luther's whole entire crew
Speaker 1: from listening to my brother oops, they yeah. They also
Speaker 1: the weird thing was the same the same people that
Speaker 1: shot A Summer of Soul, we're also the same people
Speaker 1: that shot the pilot of Sesame Street. And so to them,
Speaker 1: Luthor was just like Luther was the first musical guest
Speaker 1: on Sesame Street because of the band he was in
Speaker 1: singing about the number twenty. I searched Tying Low. There
Speaker 1: was no good footage of Luther at all. The last
Speaker 1: time we had a singer of your caliber or your
Speaker 1: vocal prowess, I'll say that's one of the unfortunate episodes
Speaker 1: in which the audio didn't work. Are that you're talking about, Well,
Speaker 1: you're saying it. I was just finally, So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask again. I want you to not not to spell
Speaker 1: a myth, but the way that singers have these very
Speaker 1: specific requirements for their their vocal to be open. I'm
Speaker 1: very cynical, and I believe that's psychosomatic. But I've heard
Speaker 1: like Fante clap back every now and then by saying like, no,
Speaker 1: that's real.
Speaker 3: But he explains me what is the deal.
Speaker 1: With like with the artists that are you know, they
Speaker 1: can't have air conditioning on because they're voice up.
Speaker 7: This is real it Your vocal cords will clam up
Speaker 7: from the cold air. I have gotten sick. I remember
Speaker 7: singing what was it called Biscuits and Blues in New
Speaker 7: York whatever that is where.
Speaker 1: I want some biscuits and blues, but it's closed now.
Speaker 7: I literally the air conditioning was right here, blowing into
Speaker 7: my face as I'm opening my mouth. It just dried
Speaker 7: my vocals out, and you can hear as I'm singing
Speaker 7: the show my voice slowly go away cracks. Everything I said,
Speaker 7: can you turn the air off? They wouldn't turn it
Speaker 7: off because it was too It was underground. It was
Speaker 7: a club in New York on Broadway, but I can't
Speaker 7: remember the name of it. But it's gone now. It
Speaker 7: just took my vocals out and we had to stop
Speaker 7: the show. It's better when it's warm, it keeps it fluid.
Speaker 7: I don't want to sound gross, but you need it
Speaker 7: to be in there. You need water, you need moisture,
Speaker 7: you need you need your vocal courts. They're really thin
Speaker 7: and they have to flap. You should know that.
Speaker 3: Come on with the I don't sing.
Speaker 7: You yell yeah, I've heard you many times.
Speaker 3: No, but it's just I don't know.
Speaker 1: There's certain I'll look at the writers of singers and
Speaker 1: you know some things I'll know like, okay, well they
Speaker 1: need lemon and honey and da whatever.
Speaker 7: But yeah, I get it too.
Speaker 1: So do you have a warm up process before you
Speaker 1: get on stage or yeah.
Speaker 7: I don't talk it all. I do the Celine Dion thing.
Speaker 7: My room is at eighty eighty degrees like Luther and.
Speaker 5: The sweat stole.
Speaker 7: Yeah, the sweat is good. I sing all the high notes. Knows,
Speaker 7: he knows. It just feels good. It makes you ready
Speaker 7: to go.
Speaker 8: It's funny, funny they do be sweating, and it'll be
Speaker 8: hot when I go see him sing on stage, that
Speaker 8: might be.
Speaker 7: And then I have a steamer. I steam my vocal cords.
Speaker 7: See that's heat, and it's making it loose and everything opens,
Speaker 7: all your chests. It's kind of like when you put
Speaker 7: vapor rub all over and it goes. That's how you
Speaker 7: want your vocal cords to stay open. So it is
Speaker 7: a real thing for me. The good ones, the real
Speaker 7: singers do that kind of stuff. The one that sing
Speaker 7: like classical, they don't like all that because by the
Speaker 7: time you're on the stage too, it's freezing cold, so
Speaker 7: you might as well stay warm. So that's what I do, okay,
Speaker 7: And I don't drink a lot of liquids, and I yeah,
Speaker 7: the steaming is incredible. I also opera singer turned me
Speaker 7: onto the CITRONTI that's really good. But I love that.
Speaker 6: You transitioned to theater like all your theatrical work, both
Speaker 6: in solo shows and kyliner change and.
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah blah. What was the impetus behind that? Why?
Speaker 2: So why go there?
Speaker 7: To survive? To pay bills? In the Bay Area, Before
Speaker 7: I became an artist, that you know is let us see,
Speaker 7: I was waiting tables and working at a place called
Speaker 7: Beach Blanka, Babylon where you wear these big hats. I
Speaker 7: auditioned when I was eighteen years old, right out of
Speaker 7: high school, and I was going to college at the
Speaker 7: same time working in theater. And luckily with theater, I
Speaker 7: learned how to reach past four rows and not just
Speaker 7: perform right here. Now I can fill the whole room
Speaker 7: with my voice and all that because of theater. But
Speaker 7: I had to do it to pay bills, to survive.
Speaker 7: I was waiting tables at the same time. After my
Speaker 7: thea gig, I leave at eleven thirty and go rush
Speaker 7: to my gig. That everybody would go see me underground
Speaker 7: at Cafe Denor with one hundred people in the room,
Speaker 7: so they would wait for me for two hours, and
Speaker 7: I would rush there after doing the theater gig with
Speaker 7: full makeup on, so that I can pay bills, do
Speaker 7: what I love and do what I need to do
Speaker 7: at the same time.
Speaker 5: So did you finish school?
Speaker 7: Huh?
Speaker 5: Did you finish school?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 7: I did not.
Speaker 5: Where'd you go?
Speaker 7: I went to cal State Heyward and I studied at
Speaker 7: UC Berkeley in the summers during high school. So because
Speaker 7: like I said, I'm a nerd, loved all that classical
Speaker 7: music there. That's where I studied. But yeah, I never
Speaker 7: finished because I had to survive, had to pay bills
Speaker 7: and be I left home at eighteen. Like I said,
Speaker 7: I left home at eighteen and took care of myself
Speaker 7: and school and waiting tables. But theater was I love
Speaker 7: acting because I did it in high school and to
Speaker 7: be able to do cabaret shows. And then I was
Speaker 7: going to quit the music industry because I had been
Speaker 7: in it for as independent artist for two years and nothing.
Speaker 7: I just kept spending all my money and when I
Speaker 7: was quitting, I only had two suitcases in a house
Speaker 7: that I got a commercial off of doing a Sprint commercial.
Speaker 7: At the time when Sprint existed all Sprint it hasn't
Speaker 7: Sprint back in the day. But I the same time,
Speaker 7: I miss on my side and I got you, Hello,
Speaker 7: what year was this? It was like around two thousand
Speaker 7: and man, was it two thousand and two?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, thousand and.
Speaker 7: Two or three after two thousand and three. Yeah, because
Speaker 7: Feeling Orange had came out after that.
Speaker 8: You didn't have to audition for that. They found they
Speaker 8: just knew you, they knew your voice, and they were like,
Speaker 8: I was.
Speaker 7: Still I was teaching during the day sometime middle schools
Speaker 7: and going carrying instruments around. I mean, I was trying
Speaker 7: to make money. You're on your own. But I would
Speaker 7: also audition for voiceovers to do children's books and children things,
Speaker 7: and I ended up getting that Sprint commercial that way
Speaker 7: through someone who, hey, what a friend of mine needs
Speaker 7: a voice for this. I didn't know what it was for.
Speaker 7: I just sang it, and then the little check start
Speaker 7: rolling in. I was like, oh, I know there, you
Speaker 7: know that's that's that's how I mean. My living was
Speaker 7: teaching and waiting tables and it's crazy and doing gigs
Speaker 7: late at night and cabaret shows.
Speaker 8: People act like the first time they saw you on
Speaker 8: screen acting was the I want to say the Nina
Speaker 8: short that you did the women, Oh yeah, yeah right,
Speaker 8: with a shout out to Lisa Cortez and Gaby Sabe.
Speaker 5: Right who were behind it before years Yeah, talk about that.
Speaker 8: I wanted you to talk about that because I was like,
Speaker 8: did that come first? And then the Nina album? Like
Speaker 8: you and Nina got some things going on?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 7: The first uh, Gabby was inspired by my Nina Simone
Speaker 7: tribute that I did with Black Girls Rock. So that
Speaker 7: was the second time I ever been on television, was
Speaker 7: doing another tribute and I came in saying I want
Speaker 7: to be Peaches. I was like, I gotta do the
Speaker 7: Peaches part. And they could have kicked me out, you
Speaker 7: know what I mean, But I was like, I knew
Speaker 7: what part I wanted to sing, and it was me,
Speaker 7: Jill Scott, Marsha Ambrosius, and Kelly Price. So I sang
Speaker 7: Peaches and then Gabby said the writer and Gabby and
Speaker 7: a couple of producers they were saying they were inspired
Speaker 7: by that and they wrote me into that short and
Speaker 7: they always wanted me to play that role. Later and
Speaker 7: years later, I would meet Gabby just in passing with
Speaker 7: Lee Daniels hanging out and she said, I got a
Speaker 7: part for you, and that was the role in the
Speaker 7: four Women short that we did. It was amazing. Gabby's
Speaker 7: the great director.
Speaker 5: That debut too at a black Star shout out to
Speaker 5: me or too Dope.
Speaker 7: I loved it.
Speaker 1: So, speaking of which, can you talk about the moments
Speaker 1: that led up to you playing Maheleia Jackson and remember
Speaker 1: me and what that was like?
Speaker 7: By the way, thank you. I said no to that
Speaker 7: role a couple of times, but the I.
Speaker 3: Love Why did you say no?
Speaker 7: Initially because I had did it in Selma, you know,
Speaker 7: the little snippet I did, and I wanted to so
Speaker 7: many other people were doing it, so I didn't want
Speaker 7: to be a part of that, you know, the Mahela thing,
Speaker 7: because I already did it, and uh, I wanted there's
Speaker 7: another role I wanted to do one day. So I
Speaker 7: was just waiting for a bigger debut, you know. But
Speaker 7: I love the director so much, Erica, Erica, the producer
Speaker 7: to I mean, the whole team, Erica is amazing. I
Speaker 7: just wanted to be a part of it. After I
Speaker 7: met them, we met on a zoom and I said,
Speaker 7: that's it. I got do it, and ended up doing it.
Speaker 7: It was amazing to dive into Mahelia. We had so
Speaker 7: much in common, like being from New Orleans but transported
Speaker 7: into another city and then coming trying to come back
Speaker 7: to pour into New Orleans. And it was just amazing
Speaker 7: role to sing, but it was it was enormous because
Speaker 7: you have you have to sing gospel music and they
Speaker 7: don't play at all, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 7: it wore me out. And then I had to gain
Speaker 7: a little weight because the director wanted me a little
Speaker 7: you know. She said, Mahellya, it was bigger. And when
Speaker 7: I saw Summer and Soul, I said, oh wow, I
Speaker 7: had never seen her like you know that you gave
Speaker 7: us her. And I was and I was so happy
Speaker 7: my heart. I was like, there she is. And I
Speaker 7: before I did even sell my visitor a grave, like
Speaker 7: I said, I told you I honored ancestors. I was
Speaker 7: in New Orleans. I said, I want to know more
Speaker 7: about her, was researching and I went to a grave
Speaker 7: and visitor and thanked her. And then that's when I
Speaker 7: got Selma and here she is again. Like the answers
Speaker 7: is to me, they call I, let stuff happen to me.
Speaker 7: I just do the work and get out the way.
Speaker 7: That's why I got Nina. That's why I got all
Speaker 7: these tributes. They just happened, and I don't ask for them.
Speaker 7: I say no to all the time. I say no, no, no,
Speaker 7: and then you have to do the work. Finish, finish.
Speaker 5: The work is their favorite experience.
Speaker 8: I just wanted to know, because you did mention a
Speaker 8: couple of times that you've been called to honor a
Speaker 8: few times. But I just got to know, like, was
Speaker 8: there a favorite experience and why.
Speaker 7: My two favorite tributes I've ever done is Shaka and
Speaker 7: it It. It's still Shaka, that Shaka tribute. People are
Speaker 7: still talking about it. You can go online now.
Speaker 5: No, I've seen it live. I just forgot because I smoke,
Speaker 5: but I.
Speaker 7: Got it that that was years ago and it's still amazing.
Speaker 7: That was my favorite only because she was the first
Speaker 7: person to bring me back out of quitting the business,
Speaker 7: meaning she was the first, one of the first artists,
Speaker 7: her and Rachelle Farrell. But Shaka let me open for
Speaker 7: her and gave me a gig, and that's what made
Speaker 7: me want to come back after meeting her, cause she's like,
Speaker 7: you can't quit, there's no quitting you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Just pussy talk about that real quick, Like, what was
Speaker 1: the decision that led up to that?
Speaker 7: Well, the industry kept saying, you're not pretty enough, you're
Speaker 7: not good enough, You'll never make it. Then I went
Speaker 7: ahead and did it myself. But I was spending so
Speaker 7: much money and didn't have the knowledge that I needed
Speaker 7: and we didn't have internet.
Speaker 4: Then, to elaborate more on that, like being an independent
Speaker 4: R and B artist, like speak about because R and
Speaker 4: B generally, I mean, anybody you know R and B
Speaker 4: is a money game, you know what I mean? Talk
Speaker 4: more about just independently, Like what was it like being
Speaker 4: an R and B artist.
Speaker 7: I came out at a time where you know, it's
Speaker 7: about who you know and who's going to give you
Speaker 7: the leg up. I didn't have a leg up. I
Speaker 7: would do Black Lily here and there. People would come
Speaker 7: out and see me, and they didn't like the way
Speaker 7: I look. Industry people. Yes, I did back Lily and
Speaker 7: invited a couple of industry people. They said, well's just
Speaker 7: the start.
Speaker 8: I remember when you came to those phrenology sessions too.
Speaker 7: I went, I hung out with a mirror in the
Speaker 7: studio that was so much fun. You know what I
Speaker 7: learned from you a mirror. I learned from you about
Speaker 7: simplicity and more about what hip hop does, why the
Speaker 7: space is so important. And I never forget it. I said,
Speaker 7: Amir said less do less, just more, this is more
Speaker 7: And when that was my first time hearing that, and
Speaker 7: uh and I carried it. I still carry it with
Speaker 7: me today. But anyway, those things, I would hope to
Speaker 7: meet people and they would help me or do a
Speaker 7: gig with me, or for me, or endorse me. But
Speaker 7: really I just had to keep endorsing myself. I had
Speaker 7: to spend my own money to get a publicist, and
Speaker 7: my own money to word of mouth. I would chop
Speaker 7: up flyers back in the day when we had Kinko's,
Speaker 7: I would do programs and make up my own flyers
Speaker 7: and pass them out. Because we didn't have internet. I
Speaker 7: would go to the flea markets. I would go to
Speaker 7: the record stores when they had record stores, Please take
Speaker 7: my CD on consignment. That's what I was doing. Me
Speaker 7: and Sundra we would call and beg people, Hey, give
Speaker 7: us a leg up, help us out. That's what I
Speaker 7: had to do. Now you get to go online sing
Speaker 7: a song if they like you and you have enough followers,
Speaker 7: then boom, you're relevant. That's why I stopped chasing that game.
Speaker 7: The long term for me is if I can get
Speaker 7: five people, I'm happy. If I get ten people, I'm
Speaker 7: happy more and more or artists, I got all the legends,
Speaker 7: they're on my side. I gracefully. I did it in
Speaker 7: God's timing and not trying to push things to happen,
Speaker 7: because every time I pushed it wouldn't happen. But I
Speaker 7: always had to honor them first and say thank you.
Speaker 7: Here's let me sing the song and honor you, and
Speaker 7: then it brought more people in. That's the only way.
Speaker 7: And all the things you saw me on is because
Speaker 7: somebody believed in me. It'd be one person in the room.
Speaker 5: In a should be here.
Speaker 7: The only person knew me on Black Girls Rock For
Speaker 7: That for Women was Faverly Bond and Kim Verse all
Speaker 7: the other people. They didn't have a clue of who
Speaker 7: I was, but they knew me from being an independent artist.
Speaker 7: And I know a lot of artists I'm gonna be
Speaker 7: honest here that saw me and could have helped me,
Speaker 7: and they didn't.
Speaker 8: I was about to ask you how you do How
Speaker 8: did you maintain your not being angry? Now these people
Speaker 8: are singing your praises and they're like, yeah, I've been
Speaker 8: known that it was great?
Speaker 5: How do you do that?
Speaker 3: Is this also why you advocate?
Speaker 1: Because I know that you work with Naris and the
Speaker 1: Grammys or artists and you play a major role into that.
Speaker 1: You've had a hand in these new categories. People don't
Speaker 1: know like you're behind that. Is this why you also
Speaker 1: into that area?
Speaker 7: Because the Recording Academy came out saw my independent show,
Speaker 7: said why aren't you a member? Come be on a
Speaker 7: panel for Grammy You the Youth. I saw that they
Speaker 7: were helping the elders with advocacy with a Grammy museum,
Speaker 7: and I was blown away because I didn't want to
Speaker 7: be the industry thing. I didn't even want to be
Speaker 7: signed to a label. I did it to survive because
Speaker 7: I was gonna quit. But when I did, it opened
Speaker 7: another kind of door. So when I went in the
Speaker 7: Recording Academy, all I focused on, not the Grammy. I
Speaker 7: focused on the youth. I went to Grammy Youth, did
Speaker 7: all the panels and talked about my journey rejection, recycling,
Speaker 7: rejection and fear into winning just complete your work and
Speaker 7: do your best work. And if you get five people
Speaker 7: loving you, those five will talk about you and it'll
Speaker 7: bring more people. And I told them about focusing on
Speaker 7: their craft and all that. I love advocating because that
Speaker 7: was me. That's how I got to study classical music.
Speaker 7: My mom couldn't afford the violin or the piano lessons
Speaker 7: or the classical lessons. She had to Someone came to
Speaker 7: our school said we have free programs, and that's why
Speaker 7: I joined. So I'm that person now, you know.
Speaker 8: Let me go back to my question originally, So have
Speaker 8: you always been that person? Or did that take some
Speaker 8: self work because that moment and knowing that you've done
Speaker 8: all this work and now, like I said, people are
Speaker 8: now like.
Speaker 5: Let us see, I've been known, I've seen you. I say,
Speaker 5: you there like you know, like.
Speaker 3: Being hose didn't want me.
Speaker 2: Now I'm hot holes all on me.
Speaker 5: There we go tell me about that.
Speaker 7: See, this is the part why I love being from
Speaker 7: New Orleans because we are prideful people. We know we're dope,
Speaker 7: but we don't have to brag about it. We remember
Speaker 7: what happened, but we don't have to bring it up
Speaker 7: because what we do is just take the energy and
Speaker 7: refeel it. It's a faith thing. It's a honor your
Speaker 7: parents thing.
Speaker 8: Don't cut up embarrass them exactly.
Speaker 7: Come on, Miror you know I, me and your sister
Speaker 7: are good friends. So it's like we we just do
Speaker 7: our classy work. I just follow the lead of the ancestors.
Speaker 7: But on the side, yeah, we talking, but I don't
Speaker 7: want to talk about it in here.
Speaker 5: With human in that way. I'm sorry.
Speaker 7: I am very human you too, But a lot of
Speaker 7: people could have helped, but they didn't. But it wasn't
Speaker 7: for them to help. That's how I look at it
Speaker 7: every now that I to see it unfolding. It's supposed
Speaker 7: to happen this way. I'm supposed. I have so many
Speaker 7: strong relationships advocating than I do in my own industry,
Speaker 7: just being an artist, from artists to artists, when you
Speaker 7: do be of service, it's the best gift for your
Speaker 7: career ever.
Speaker 2: Ever, So it comes back to you.
Speaker 5: Mm hmmm mm hmm.
Speaker 7: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: I was as you about one of your you know,
Speaker 4: people that haven't helped, but just one of the people
Speaker 4: that has a rex rideout, Yes, one of your on
Speaker 4: all your albums. I just see him as like, you
Speaker 4: know someone you've always worked with, and I just want
Speaker 4: to talk about you guys creative partnership and how it
Speaker 4: was developed over the years.
Speaker 7: Well, when I was gonna quit, we were outside his
Speaker 7: garage talking and I said, that's it. You know. We
Speaker 7: met on doing My Sensitivity with Bonnie James. Verve had
Speaker 7: a tribute for Luther Vandross they were doing and that
Speaker 7: was the one song that Bonnie James had agreed to
Speaker 7: have me sing on and he was actually telling me
Speaker 7: how to sing, which was trippy, but I did whatever
Speaker 7: he asked because that was the session. And when they
Speaker 7: found out they came to when Rex came to a
Speaker 7: live show, He's like, oh my god, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 7: We were telling you how to say. But then we started.
Speaker 7: I told him, you know, in private, I'm quitting. This
Speaker 7: industry is too hard and I don't think I fit
Speaker 7: in with everybody. I'm gonna go teach and be comfortable there,
Speaker 7: get a freaking health insurance, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Chill out. And he was like, don't quit. You know,
Speaker 7: I'll help you with better signing with a label, just
Speaker 7: to get in and start somewhere because they are interested
Speaker 7: in you. Verb was and here's a jazz label at
Speaker 7: the time interested in the R and B singer. I said,
Speaker 7: I'll only do it because I'm like anti be entrepreneur,
Speaker 7: you know, own your stuff. But I was like, well,
Speaker 7: I gotta survive. Okay, I'll try it. He said, just record,
Speaker 7: just record, So we started recording together. We did a
Speaker 7: whole bunch of songs, and verb went crazy and wanted them.
Speaker 7: And the first song that I wrote was all Right.
Speaker 7: When I was on doing Carolina Change. I wrote it
Speaker 7: and I was recording in this box on my bed
Speaker 7: with my microphone because I didn't have anything to cover
Speaker 7: the mic. So it was singing this life get mad,
Speaker 7: you know what I mean, trying to brit on the bed.
Speaker 7: I was such a techy because I interned there's a yeah,
Speaker 7: exactly techy. So I was trying to record it right
Speaker 7: for Rex, so I would send him my vocals and
Speaker 7: all that, you know, back in the day, and all Right,
Speaker 7: blew up. Just it was the first song that came
Speaker 7: out that people got it. I told the truth. I
Speaker 7: don't know if I this is rough out here, you know.
Speaker 8: I was wondering that if people walk up on you
Speaker 8: and ask you because you you talk about relationships and
Speaker 8: self love and strengthen so much.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, do people walk up on you a lot?
Speaker 5: And is that?
Speaker 8: Is that a lot of pressure to how do you?
Speaker 8: I just I didn't need them advice quick girl, because
Speaker 8: I'm in a situation.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: No, they don't do that.
Speaker 7: But they do tell me how a song has gotten
Speaker 7: gotten them through.
Speaker 5: Okay, that's a little easier, all right.
Speaker 7: It is the one they love those songs the women.
Speaker 7: I gravitate towards women a lot. That's just what it is.
Speaker 7: But yeah, that's I don't get the therapy questions.
Speaker 4: Okay, good speaking of therapy. Nice segue.
Speaker 2: What was she like in real life?
Speaker 4: Because I watched y'all Love Fixed My Life and well,
Speaker 4: I mean it used to come home.
Speaker 7: He is who she is on that show in person
Speaker 7: direct and I met her. She was the first time
Speaker 7: I met her, she said, oh, you have daddy issues.
Speaker 7: You need to fix that.
Speaker 5: Hello. I just said hello, I.
Speaker 2: Just said he.
Speaker 7: But in front of a whole group of people. That's
Speaker 7: just how she is. She's direct, you know, and she's like,
Speaker 7: you got to fix this and that.
Speaker 4: I love her, and also I want to ask you
Speaker 4: as well, doing Black Love with your husband? What was
Speaker 4: Oh no, yo, yeah, what was the experience like?
Speaker 5: What was the aftermath y'all did Black Love?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Man, that was We did it during the pandemic. I
Speaker 7: always been a fan of the show. They've always asked
Speaker 7: me to be on it, and I didn't respond because
Speaker 7: I feel like, you know, those parts of my life,
Speaker 7: like I said, I'm private, I love, I want to
Speaker 7: stay married. I don't know about y'all.
Speaker 8: You know, Coston, Philly though he is from Philip He's
Speaker 8: amazing too. But I'm glad we did Black Love because
Speaker 8: you know, people got to see another side of me,
Speaker 8: you know, and uh and see who I'm with and
Speaker 8: it was great.
Speaker 7: But there I love Tommy. Tommy is incredibly good people,
Speaker 7: good people. So yeah, we did that show. And that's
Speaker 7: all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: Tell us to the plans for the Good Life Tour
Speaker 1: that's coming up that you're about to do.
Speaker 7: Yes, I'm going on the twenty seventh city tour with
Speaker 7: the great Raheem Devine is coming with me the Good
Speaker 7: Life Tour BJ the Chicago do it a couple of
Speaker 7: dates when Raheem can't do it, And I'm just looking
Speaker 7: forward to it the band. We did our final rehearsal
Speaker 7: last night and it just sounds so good and it
Speaker 7: feels good. So I'm excited about it. I hope. I'm
Speaker 7: trying to see if these hills gonna work, but we
Speaker 7: that's the ones.
Speaker 2: I want to.
Speaker 7: See what happens. But I'm looking forward to it. I'm
Speaker 7: gonna do a lot of a mixture of the old
Speaker 7: and the new, the well my classics and the new,
Speaker 7: a lot from the new album, so I'm really looking
Speaker 7: forward to that.
Speaker 8: I feel the thing I was gonna say the single
Speaker 8: delt too oh you like Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 5: Good Life.
Speaker 7: That was a great project to work on.
Speaker 8: It was hard, but I'm happy it's out and uh
Speaker 8: again with Rex.
Speaker 7: I got DJ Camper on it again. I'm working with
Speaker 7: Camper and the sell You No Dreams new producers No
Speaker 7: Dreams God and Joshi. I've never worked with them before
Speaker 7: that I think one of them is from London.
Speaker 2: And also w Brown Butcher Brown.
Speaker 7: We did a song called quality Time that I wrote with.
Speaker 8: Corey there that's what I was thinking.
Speaker 7: To and I wrote quality Time together on the Butcher
Speaker 7: Brownton I've been always wanted to work with her We've
Speaker 7: known each other for about five six years, but we
Speaker 7: never could find a song. So I got one. I
Speaker 7: think this is the one we should get together. I
Speaker 7: love writing with songwriters. I love sharing on this show too.
Speaker 7: I love our little Quest Love Supreme Extensions. I know
Speaker 7: we got to go on here.
Speaker 3: Thank you for doing this with us, Thanks.
Speaker 7: For having me. Thank you, I finally get to talk
Speaker 7: to you.
Speaker 1: I know a right longtime company on behalf of Aya
Speaker 1: and I'm Baby Bill, Chudie, Steve and Froon, Tigelow and
Speaker 1: the Great Letter see Quest Love. We're signing off and
Speaker 1: we'll see you on the next go round of Quest
Speaker 1: Love Supreme. Thank you for your support.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 6: This podcast is hosted by a Mere Quest Love, Thompson,
Speaker 6: Liyah Saint Clair, Fante Coleman, Sugar, Steve Van Dell, and
Speaker 6: myself unpaid Bill Sherman. The executive producers are Meir just
Speaker 6: walked into the Goddamn Room, Thompson, Sean g and Brian Calhoun.
Speaker 1: Produced by Brittany.
Speaker 6: Benjamin, Jake Payne and Liah Sainclair. Edited by Alex Conroy.
Speaker 6: I know Alice Conrad, producer for iHeart by Noel Brown.
Speaker 1: West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.