Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: This is kind of weird.
Speaker 3: Well it's gonna be great. Welcome you mean the weirdness
Speaker 3: of those those two guys in the corner.
Speaker 4: No, everyone, we're good.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go kids. Here we go.
Speaker 5: Supprimo sub primo, roll sup Primo, Sun sub Premo, roll
Speaker 5: sub dream Primo, roll sub cream Supremo.
Speaker 1: My name is quest Love. Shut up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, ladies and gentlemen, uh, this is another episode
Speaker 3: of Quest Love Supreme. I'm your host, Quest Love. I
Speaker 3: hope you are doing fine. We have a fan Takeolo
Speaker 3: and Laya and and Sugar Steve and on pay Bill.
Speaker 3: And our guest today is the Emmy winning director in film.
Speaker 3: Why y'all looking at me like there's a far tell
Speaker 3: you alright, knows what time it is. My name is Spante,
Speaker 3: so nice to meet you. Don't got the coat jam
Speaker 3: but it's Lisa, Lisa.
Speaker 1: My name is Sugar Glad. We're not on zoom Yeah,
Speaker 1: wop out of lubob Yeah, wop.
Speaker 6: Him on.
Speaker 7: My mom?
Speaker 1: Pay Bill and what the what? Let's talk to the
Speaker 1: fruity and take it in the butt.
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, and I'm losing my mind. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: am everything. That's music doc of my time. My name
Speaker 2: is and I can't rap, but I'm a director and
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you about some little ripe.
Speaker 1: I know why you left the rap label.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry I was I didn't know.
Speaker 3: Actually, I agree with you. It's one of the most
Speaker 3: important Yo. No for a ladies and gentlemen. Walking to
Speaker 3: another Quest Love Supreme episode. All right, how are you
Speaker 3: guys doing doing?
Speaker 6: Good?
Speaker 1: Man? Yo, we had a field trip. I got to
Speaker 1: make a butt tex rhyme.
Speaker 3: I'm good, Hey, yo, man shot yo unpaid building doing
Speaker 3: some amazing ship.
Speaker 1: Come on, yeah, straight up?
Speaker 3: Man, Even though he got You're definitely gonna e got
Speaker 3: all right? Right, No, first jam Band had showed us
Speaker 3: on YouTube.
Speaker 7: Kids.
Speaker 3: It's like my favorite kids show since Yo Gabba Gabba.
Speaker 3: It is perfectly made for people that like to get
Speaker 3: high and watch television shows.
Speaker 4: Also featuring Fonte and like, yeah, yeah, yeah, she's.
Speaker 7: Killing as the book Yeah I meant to give you.
Speaker 1: So yeah.
Speaker 3: So jam Van is great, and then his show and Juliette,
Speaker 3: which is on Broadway. We saw it last night at
Speaker 3: the Stephen Sun Theater. I'm not a musical person at all.
Speaker 3: Like ever, I was worried.
Speaker 7: That was my first Broadway show ever, first Broadway show,
Speaker 7: not my first play.
Speaker 3: I mean I've been to play. I got Culture and Ship,
Speaker 3: but like I sain't never been on Broadway. You've seen
Speaker 3: some Sunday plays, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: Come on, I seen Mama and the Burning Up the Chicken,
Speaker 8: and y'all see Short the Box with whatever. But no,
Speaker 8: a Juliette bro we had a wonderful time, man, great time.
Speaker 8: It's the music of Max Martin.
Speaker 3: So it's like all like the Backstreet Boys Ship and
Speaker 3: Weekend and brit Britney Britney.
Speaker 1: That way and the way they used it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was like, yo, that was that was clever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and everybody the Backstreets Back, that sh it was funny.
Speaker 3: There's gonna be well. I don't want to spoil it, but.
Speaker 1: But no, man, wait, can I ask a question though?
Speaker 1: When you hear Backstreets Back? My prerogative? Oh not even damn.
Speaker 1: I didn't even give to that.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, are there any other thoughts
Speaker 3: in your mind when you hear Backstreets Back?
Speaker 7: Nah?
Speaker 3: Okay, it's only me only because that song is literally
Speaker 3: the reason why Kel's got a guilty plea because you
Speaker 3: know his whole thing of saying that you know.
Speaker 1: C G I or you know whatever, like that was
Speaker 1: make me or whatever.
Speaker 3: But apparently someone has t r L on in the
Speaker 3: other room and it was a Halloween episode.
Speaker 1: I guess that that song debuted on as a.
Speaker 6: Halloween costumes and the videos and stuff, right, and.
Speaker 1: So I guess you can hear in the background like
Speaker 1: special Halloween. There's a world premiere of Backstreets Back but no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no.
Speaker 3: So it's almost like every time I hear that song,
Speaker 3: I think like, wow, this is the song that finally,
Speaker 3: after years and years, is what got call.
Speaker 7: I did not know that. Yeah, that was a deep dive.
Speaker 7: I won't be thinking of that when I hear that song. Sorry,
Speaker 7: I'll just be doing that. Man, Like great job man
Speaker 7: the music show. Like we had a wonderful time.
Speaker 4: Man, glad you guys got to go.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: It was amazing, cool and that was your experience last night. Fantastic.
Speaker 4: I went to see New York New York just Open
Speaker 4: on Broadway, uh with John Deeler and Linn Miranda, and
Speaker 4: it was wonderful. He's in it No, he just wrote
Speaker 4: some additional lyrics.
Speaker 1: Okay, I got it.
Speaker 4: I got I saw Vanessa Williams though, who I believe
Speaker 4: worked with our guest here, and that was quite a night.
Speaker 2: Vanessa L. Williams Sure, okay, right?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah, and I got to rhyme about a butt.
Speaker 4: So I'm happy.
Speaker 1: It's a good day. I feel you, beatiful, yo.
Speaker 3: Our guest today is I mean winning director, film producer,
Speaker 3: and she's part of the team that brought us Oh Precious.
Speaker 1: Wait, can I ask, how's life are you?
Speaker 2: I was just messing with you. Go ahead, ask your question, boy, whose.
Speaker 1: Idea was it to make?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 3: Why it wasn't just simply called Precious and not Precious
Speaker 3: a film adaptation?
Speaker 1: Yes, I asked that was your idea? Yes?
Speaker 6: Why?
Speaker 1: Why was that?
Speaker 2: Precious was the character? But the source material was so
Speaker 2: important and I wanted to make certain that that connection
Speaker 2: was there at the end of the day. Shorten it,
Speaker 2: yeah if you want, But I wanted people to connect
Speaker 2: to the book that you know, back in the nineties
Speaker 2: on the subway going to Brooklyn, everybody was reading Push.
Speaker 2: So based on the novel Bye Push.
Speaker 3: At thirty Rock, that's always been like an inside joke
Speaker 3: where people will never say Precious. They'll be like, oh,
Speaker 3: you're talking about Precious based on the novel, by push
Speaker 3: and by like literally, they'll give the whole biography or
Speaker 3: description of the book.
Speaker 1: And I was like, why do you guys keep saying that?
Speaker 1: And I guess it's them.
Speaker 2: Like also, because if it was just going to be Precious,
Speaker 2: I didn't think that gave enough. We worked on that
Speaker 2: film for so long to get Sapphire to give us
Speaker 2: the rights option it, to develop it, to write the script,
Speaker 2: to have one director, to then have Lee step in,
Speaker 2: to have cast the main character, and four weeks before
Speaker 2: we're gonna start shooting, Lee's like, we have the wrong person.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, no, we have the right person, because
Speaker 2: we're gonna start shooting in four weeks. And then we
Speaker 2: went out and we found Gabby Sidibe. So there's such
Speaker 2: a deep, deep history. We worked on it forever as
Speaker 2: she was she was the right person, but they let
Speaker 2: me introduce our guests first.
Speaker 1: Wait, I know that anyway.
Speaker 3: There's also the Apollo Theater documentary, which she was part
Speaker 3: of the production team. She also directed Remixed Hip Hop Times, Fashion,
Speaker 3: All Right, Got It, and Before her Life in film.
Speaker 3: She was an exec at Mercury and Deaf Jam. Very
Speaker 3: interesting story of how we're connected. Well, we'll talk about
Speaker 3: that later, but I will say that her newest film,
Speaker 3: which I will go ahead and say an instant classic,
Speaker 3: and that's not Questlove, hypercole or over exaggeration, which of
Speaker 3: course world famous for it.
Speaker 1: But I will say that it is an immensely what
Speaker 1: you just called yourself world famous for exaggerating, which was.
Speaker 3: I will say that it's an immensely powerful and important film,
Speaker 3: especially where we are today in terms of erasure, in
Speaker 3: terms of understanding that all people are in a monolith,
Speaker 3: that we're we have different spectrums and different cultures and
Speaker 3: different aspects of our lives, and you know, and basically
Speaker 3: the freedom, the fight.
Speaker 1: For the freedom to be free.
Speaker 3: And I guess we had quest of supreme want to
Speaker 3: do everything in our power to amplify this very powerful documentary.
Speaker 3: Of course I'm speaking of Little Richard the well the
Speaker 3: full title, because of course.
Speaker 1: No it's called Little Richard. I am everything. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: welcome Lisa Cortel.
Speaker 2: I just want to say it's so good to see
Speaker 2: you all. I listen and I thought these are my
Speaker 2: imaginary friends, and they're real. There's no going.
Speaker 3: So before I get to your story, I have to
Speaker 3: say that you are very, very very key and instrumental
Speaker 3: in my career.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Do you remember a conversation that you had with Richard
Speaker 3: Nichols right when? So assuming that your years at Mercury
Speaker 3: you were part of the Kenyata Bell ed Eckstein Dave gossip, Yeah,
Speaker 3: rejection demos, that's my favorite line.
Speaker 1: So do you remember the story of our the connection
Speaker 1: with the roots of Mercury Records?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: All right, Well one I want to ask what happened
Speaker 1: the day after?
Speaker 3: So I've told this story millions of times, but the
Speaker 3: shortest version is, you know, we started busking on the
Speaker 3: streets in nineteen ninety two of the actually all of
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety three, we start fishing for a deal, winds
Speaker 3: up into I won't say it, bidding more, but we
Speaker 3: damn near went to every label, and then at the
Speaker 3: last minute Mercury was going to be that label. And
Speaker 3: then the way that I believe the story was when
Speaker 3: either Kenyada Bell's assistant sent us the contracts because of
Speaker 3: our intricate spelling of our names. Three of the group members'
Speaker 3: names was misspelled, and our lawyer was like, well, instead
Speaker 3: of you guys initially it, tear this up and have
Speaker 3: them send back new contracts with your name spelled correctly.
Speaker 3: And Kenyata Bell's assistant, I was supposed to send new
Speaker 3: contracts the next day and she forgot to do it,
Speaker 3: but not to worry. Look, I'll send it on Friday
Speaker 3: and then you guys will get it, you know, Monday
Speaker 3: and sign. But that Saturday and Sunday is when Wendy
Speaker 3: Goldstein decided to throw a hat in a ring. Now,
Speaker 3: we had no intentions on signing with Get From Record
Speaker 3: because we're like this rock label.
Speaker 1: They don't off of staff.
Speaker 3: We're good, but we wanted the free dinner, like we
Speaker 3: liked the whole whining and dining courting part of getting
Speaker 3: a record deal.
Speaker 1: So thus, you know, we did the steak and lobster thing,
Speaker 1: We're three to go and all that ghetto shit.
Speaker 3: And then just to mess with her Rich and I
Speaker 3: decided to call her Bruff and we just literally like
Speaker 3: just started naming everything like you know, we want you know,
Speaker 3: pathminder and three apartments and da da da da da
Speaker 3: da da da da da long story short or longer Sunday.
Speaker 3: Our lawyers like, uh, she agreed to everything you guys
Speaker 3: asked for and more. And then we're like, but we
Speaker 3: told Kenyata Bell we're going to sign the Mercury Records,
Speaker 3: and you know, the price was way different because you
Speaker 3: know how much rap labels were paying back then, and
Speaker 3: Rich basically had to break the news to you guys.
Speaker 3: Kenyada was severely depressed about this, and I believe he
Speaker 3: also spoke to you. He said, Lisa Cortez told us, Hm,
Speaker 3: get from records. I hope y'all take racial sensitivity training
Speaker 3: over there. And I was like, wait, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: Rich? And we found later found out in the longest
Speaker 1: twenty year lesson.
Speaker 7: Of the longest fuck around and found out ever.
Speaker 3: Literally and so whenever the bullshit happens, we always used
Speaker 3: to joke.
Speaker 1: Lisa Cortez told us this is going to happen.
Speaker 3: So do you know, like what was the aftermath of that,
Speaker 3: because you know, we should have signed to that label,
Speaker 3: Like you guys took us to the Legion.
Speaker 1: I think the Legion was shooting a jingle jingle, jangle wow.
Speaker 7: Everything literally, like we.
Speaker 3: Went to the jingle jingle said, we met dress and everything,
Speaker 3: We're like, oh shit, we're going to be stars, you know.
Speaker 2: And then you know, so I remember when you guys
Speaker 2: did a showcase for us. Yeah at s R, Yes,
Speaker 2: like on fifty something something kind of proxidity and it
Speaker 2: was fantastic. I was the VP and I had hired
Speaker 2: all those guys like Dave Gossip had gotten fired a
Speaker 2: deaf jam and I was like, come over and work
Speaker 2: with me. And you know, Kenyatta came in and I
Speaker 2: didn't know this thing about the spelling stuff. See that's
Speaker 2: the thing when you give the keys to the car
Speaker 2: to the kids, Like sometimes they don't tell you stuff that.
Speaker 1: You know. Our parents were naming us like you know,
Speaker 1: it's like I.
Speaker 2: Don't do that.
Speaker 1: Twelve names. So yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: I do remember though, telling Kenyatta that because you know,
Speaker 2: I wanted to do the deal and I wanted to
Speaker 2: support my team because if somebody came to me and
Speaker 2: like Lisa, we have to sign, we have to and
Speaker 2: they had so much passion, they had a vision. I
Speaker 2: saw you guys. I knew the long tail that we
Speaker 2: could make an investment in. And when I heard you know,
Speaker 2: and it's like, I just always blame it on the managers.
Speaker 2: I'm like, who's the manager who like the ship go down?
Speaker 2: But with grace, you know, I was Connecticut.
Speaker 1: He said, you did it very Claire Huxtables, like the
Speaker 1: very stern.
Speaker 2: Hmm, motherfucker. But I love you, bless you and so.
Speaker 2: But I was just like, I also as an executive,
Speaker 2: saw different spaces, and I knew Wendy Goldstein had a
Speaker 2: great heart and she was there. But the ecosystem, the
Speaker 2: bigger ecosystem you were going into. It was like, you know,
Speaker 2: when working for Ed Eckstein, and the Ed story is
Speaker 2: really interesting how we connected. But you know, he was
Speaker 2: the president. A black man was the president. He let
Speaker 2: all of us do our thing, you know. Like I
Speaker 2: got a tape from Red Alert. It was the Black Sheep.
Speaker 2: I was like, I want to sign them. It was
Speaker 2: a real jankie tape too. But I was just like,
Speaker 2: I really like these kids from North Carolina, let's do it.
Speaker 1: He was all.
Speaker 7: I was like, I didn't know why Stanford.
Speaker 2: I did not know that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I got a tape on a spoken word artist, Reggie Gaines.
Speaker 2: I was like, I want to do a spoken word record.
Speaker 2: He's like sure I would produce, didn't sign Regie Gaines.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, no, We're always.
Speaker 2: Kind and gentle. So when all of this happened, I
Speaker 2: just was like, yes, they should be here. But more importantly,
Speaker 2: I'm a prayerful person, so I was like, I'm just
Speaker 2: praying that the right people besides the one A n
Speaker 2: R person who loves this group, is going to come
Speaker 2: on board, because I know how that happened, like I
Speaker 2: would love things and I could not get the rest
Speaker 2: of the company on board. And then and you know,
Speaker 2: like Buju, I worked with Boujious for so many years,
Speaker 2: from signing him to finally getting to tell Shiloh, and
Speaker 2: there was a lot of resistance. You know, when you're
Speaker 2: the sole A and R person in the woods going
Speaker 2: they're the best, they're the greatest, come to the show,
Speaker 2: Let's do this at retail. Come on, let's get him
Speaker 2: on this tour. And everybody's going, you know, when's the
Speaker 2: new X record gonna drop? It's it's very disheartening.
Speaker 8: Were you did you sign el Al Scratch as well?
Speaker 8: M okay, yeah, how did that come about?
Speaker 2: I think that might have been someone might have been
Speaker 2: Bernadette Williams who's my assistant? And then she became an
Speaker 2: A and R person. You know, I did a record
Speaker 2: a label deal with DJ Pooh because I had known
Speaker 2: Pooh from you know, back in my days before. And
Speaker 2: I think, if we're going to Mercury, the most interesting
Speaker 2: thing talking about Vanessa Williams is when I was at Rush,
Speaker 2: I started a company there called Rush Producer Man RPM,
Speaker 2: and I represented you know, the Bomb Squad, Eric Vietnam, Sadler,
Speaker 2: Larry Smith, Sam Sever.
Speaker 1: The jam Master, Jason Williams, and so.
Speaker 2: The late great Gary Harris.
Speaker 1: Ah. Gary.
Speaker 3: You know, every conversation I ever had with Gary was
Speaker 3: always like I don't even know how to visually describe,
Speaker 3: but he'd just be like one of those cats that
Speaker 3: would always cover his mouth like uh, like it's it's
Speaker 3: a casino, like yeah, like the is watching the right
Speaker 3: right right, But he'd be like, yo, this kid named
Speaker 3: DiAngelo like whatever.
Speaker 1: It was part of the D'Angelo team at Emi. But
Speaker 1: he was at Mercury first.
Speaker 2: Well, he was friends with Ed. He never went there.
Speaker 2: So Ed had Wing records, and he had Tony Tony Tony.
Speaker 2: He had Vanessa. They were trying to blow her up
Speaker 2: and Gary said Joe, you need to meet Cortez. She's
Speaker 2: working with all the hot hip hop producers. So Hank
Speaker 2: Shockley Bomb Squad did a remix of the Right Stuff, right,
Speaker 2: and then I Edward was in California. He would come
Speaker 2: to New York. You know, we'd take him to Nels,
Speaker 2: we take them to the Fever, you know. And so
Speaker 2: I knew all the people out there, the producers, you know.
Speaker 2: I would sleep in the studio at Green Street, like
Speaker 2: when we did Ice Cubes first album, the Bomb Squad.
Speaker 1: You were there to witness that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Jesus, I'm a hip hop zelig.
Speaker 1: All right. You were born in Connecticut, Yes, all right,
Speaker 1: So what was your first musical memory?
Speaker 2: Okay, I was born in Connecticut, but I grew up
Speaker 2: between Connecticut and Harlem. So I always liked to put
Speaker 2: that on the map because I'm you know, I'm kind
Speaker 2: of like Green Acres. I'm like the city and the country.
Speaker 3: I can tell already this is gonna be my favorite
Speaker 3: interview of this whole entire series, Like, oh, she just
Speaker 3: has an energy first memory.
Speaker 2: I'm down on my knees. I'm begging you please, cause
Speaker 2: I'm busted. Ray Charles, Yes, Ingredients and a recipe for soul.
Speaker 2: My mother would play that like three times and the
Speaker 2: house would be She had these records she would play
Speaker 2: to clean the house and she'd be like, I buy
Speaker 2: him three times and the house will be clean. So
Speaker 2: that was one, and then Dinah Washington this Bit of Earth,
Speaker 2: and then there'd be an occasional show too. So I
Speaker 2: love musicals. I don't, said the man on his way
Speaker 2: to it Eco.
Speaker 3: I mean, can I ask a question, speaking of Busted,
Speaker 3: have you ever heard this version of Ray Charles doing Busted?
Speaker 3: And then someone walks on the stage to suck a
Speaker 3: punch Ray, because I guess Ray.
Speaker 1: Slept with this woman.
Speaker 3: Like literally, they're going and he's going through the verse
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden, you know the the bands,
Speaker 3: you know, like on television when they messed up, like
Speaker 3: literally that moment and someone's.
Speaker 1: Like you a dog. You're a motherfucking dog and racist,
Speaker 1: like bless your hearts, someone, someone come and get this
Speaker 1: gentleman off.
Speaker 2: Fuck you dog.
Speaker 1: Why'd you do that to her? You dog? You dirty,
Speaker 1: disgusting dog.
Speaker 3: And then something did you hear like dog dog, someone
Speaker 3: please come get him off me? And my part was like, wait,
Speaker 3: why is the band letting Rachel's get beat up like
Speaker 3: that speaks more than because they knew, right, And so
Speaker 3: you hear them dragging him to him off like fuck you, Raychel,
Speaker 3: and you hear him like out the door, and I blessed,
Speaker 3: blessed this kind of hard all right, two three?
Speaker 1: And then literally you never heard that, never never.
Speaker 3: That's like my favorite thing, next to like Freddie Ubbert
Speaker 3: cursing out the band and Buddy Rich Germany.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, sorry, Well, you know it's funny when
Speaker 2: you were vamping there. I think for a kid, they're the.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: Even though I didn't know the lyrics, I love the melody.
Speaker 2: So I think that's why I always remember that so
Speaker 2: strongly as at musical memory, and just how it motivated
Speaker 2: my mother to get the house together.
Speaker 1: You know, that's called I learned that. I learned this
Speaker 1: this morning. Okay, I'm doing the slide movie.
Speaker 3: It's called Counterpoint, where oh damn, Bill just literally came
Speaker 3: alive like rum hello, I know you have to get
Speaker 3: music nerdy.
Speaker 7: I like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Counterpoint, I guess.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: Sly also took advantage of this well where Ray has
Speaker 3: a gospel bass, but the melody is more like a
Speaker 3: nursery rhyme, So it's sort of like, you know, the
Speaker 3: the Rece's theory of mixing chocolate and your peanut butter
Speaker 3: and that sort of thing. So sometimes people intentionally write
Speaker 3: songs where, you know, some super funk like Slide will
Speaker 3: do something super funky with the drums and the bass,
Speaker 3: but the horns and the melody will be like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: like play schoolyard ship mixed with funk and knowing that
Speaker 3: that's how you get the kids and the music heads together.
Speaker 2: So can I ask you a question? Yes, did he
Speaker 2: sleep with Doris Day?
Speaker 1: All right, so that's one of the most asked questions
Speaker 1: of this thing so far.
Speaker 2: He was like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 6: So far?
Speaker 1: I have four no's and two yes's, and the nose
Speaker 1: might have it.
Speaker 3: However, dars Day's son, who was like Slies engineer doing
Speaker 3: that there's a ride going on, was also his Well, no,
Speaker 3: they Sly live across the street from the Beverly Hill
Speaker 3: Billy's house.
Speaker 1: This is when they went to bel Air. But turn
Speaker 1: it real like hood.
Speaker 3: Dars gave Sly her BMW and I guess that's how
Speaker 3: that rumor came.
Speaker 1: But Sly every every interview sly sort of.
Speaker 3: Sinuated like, yeah, you know, dars Day gave me this BMW,
Speaker 3: so you know, they're like, wait, are you dating dars Day?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Am I dating dars Day? So I
Speaker 1: don't think you know.
Speaker 2: You know Sarah everybody you know I'd be in the
Speaker 2: Beauty Paul with my mother and then people be like, okay,
Speaker 2: Sarah cy Doris Day.
Speaker 3: But the thing was, I looked in seventy three and
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, so slies twenty nine, Dars's forty four,
Speaker 3: and I looked at her in seventy three, and I'd
Speaker 3: be like, all right, that motherfucker hit.
Speaker 1: So like, would you give anyone your BMW just for that?
Speaker 4: So hello talk.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So there's one person that can put their life on
Speaker 3: the fact that they believe they slept together, But the
Speaker 3: rest of the band's like, nah, I think he was
Speaker 3: just lying. Right If that's and that was this day
Speaker 3: after the song you want Me to Stay, that's never
Speaker 3: that fus. Yeah, I told you she knows how a
Speaker 3: rabbit hole just like the best of us. What was
Speaker 3: the first concert you went.
Speaker 2: To Stevie Wonder opening for The Supreme.
Speaker 1: I thought you said the Rolling Stones, because I was like,
Speaker 1: what were you doing there?
Speaker 2: They couldn't find a babysitter.
Speaker 1: Come on, come on, how old old were you? I
Speaker 1: was like, four, man, do you have memories of it?
Speaker 1: Or is it fit?
Speaker 2: Here's It was at the Bowl, the Bowl in New Haven.
Speaker 2: It was it was outdoors, it was the summer, and
Speaker 2: Stevie kept he did like fifteen encores and I just
Speaker 2: remember my mother going, you know, I really came to
Speaker 2: see Diana Ross and the Supremes and I was like,
Speaker 2: I was like, I like this man.
Speaker 1: I like him. So your mom was just like I
Speaker 1: was a little opening at kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she grew to love him, she could love him.
Speaker 2: And then I had a very memorable concert with the
Speaker 2: Jackson five with my mother and father, and that famous
Speaker 2: memory is it was at Madison Square Garden and my
Speaker 2: father at like all these screaming kids and my father's like,
Speaker 2: that's when the Horn and Hearted Automatic restaurant was right
Speaker 2: across the street. There wasn't you know the train station
Speaker 2: all that. My father's like, I'll be in the Horn
Speaker 2: and Heart it having some tapioca pudding because you.
Speaker 1: Want to come.
Speaker 2: He couldn't take it. It was just like all these
Speaker 2: you know, prepubescent girls screaming be like.
Speaker 3: A parent today at a BTS concert, Like, I don't
Speaker 3: want to see that, so let me I'll be across
Speaker 3: the Harry restaurant right.
Speaker 1: Exactly what did your parents do for starting?
Speaker 2: My mom was an aircraft engineer, and my dad, who's
Speaker 2: an immigrant. He's from Columbia, South America.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: He was a rebel, radical and a businessman.
Speaker 1: In in my back of my mind, I was trying
Speaker 1: to Okay, let me figure out where.
Speaker 2: Okay, so the whole Pacific coast Afro Colombian. Are you fluent, Lisa?
Speaker 2: Do you speak of Spanish when I need to cust
Speaker 2: somebody out? And where's the bathroom? I mean, I think
Speaker 2: those are the most important language.
Speaker 3: Skills to have, but not busting people, because my favorite
Speaker 3: thing is when I've hung with people that people might
Speaker 3: think like, oh, they're black or some whatever, and they'll
Speaker 3: talk shit and then.
Speaker 2: Right and then and then you go uh and then
Speaker 2: they go right.
Speaker 3: Exactly, we everywhere, baby, So when when was the moment
Speaker 3: that you were like, I want to get in the industry.
Speaker 2: Nine years old, I convinced my mother to let me
Speaker 2: go to the children's Theater Workshop, which was a dance
Speaker 2: school run by Miss Connie, and they put on many musicals.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get on your next show, and so
Speaker 2: we did Gypsy. So you can imagine, you know, from
Speaker 2: three year old kids to teenagers doing once. I was
Speaker 2: a Schleppa, now a miss Mazeppa, you know, like, because
Speaker 2: Gypsy is a musical about a stripper, and I had
Speaker 2: been very it.
Speaker 1: Was you want to be in that musical?
Speaker 2: I was, I do it all the time?
Speaker 1: Wait, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Stephen Sondheim. And it's the story of Gypsy Rosalie
Speaker 2: and how her sister was going to be the star
Speaker 2: and their mother pushed the sister forward and then the
Speaker 2: sister ran off with one of the dancers because it
Speaker 2: takes place in the vaudeville time, and then Gypsy they
Speaker 2: end up in a shitty show and the mother's like,
Speaker 2: you're going to be an exotic dancer, and Gypsy goes
Speaker 2: on to become one of the famous vaudeville strippers.
Speaker 1: Time. I was in this play in like fifth grade
Speaker 1: and didn't realize how many kids.
Speaker 6: In these plays.
Speaker 2: I don't understand what we'll doing this play.
Speaker 1: This kid's a performing art.
Speaker 3: Well, at my school, it was like from first grade
Speaker 3: to twelfth grade, so it was the older kids, but
Speaker 3: they found like roles for like the elementary kids to
Speaker 3: play in.
Speaker 2: So I didn't really did show Boat. We did Mame,
Speaker 2: we did Gypsyme.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was Vied Charles's assistant. Well, my sister played
Speaker 3: via Charles and I had to. They made a role
Speaker 3: for me Bullet Cherry.
Speaker 7: I did hair in high school. I was hood.
Speaker 1: Were you naked? Fuck? Okay? Then you didn't do hair?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean it was a very a very tame down,
Speaker 7: Republican version of air.
Speaker 1: But I did it.
Speaker 2: You were here, you were bald.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I grew my hair out. But like they wouldn't let
Speaker 7: us do all the new all that, we wasn't doing
Speaker 7: that shit plays.
Speaker 2: So I found my voice. I went my mother, get
Speaker 2: your grades up. I got my a's, and I auditioned
Speaker 2: and discovered that I could sing, and then I loved
Speaker 2: movement and performance and connecting. Fast forward this summer I
Speaker 2: was fourteen, when everybody rebels, I locked myself in my
Speaker 2: room and I just listened to Ella's Gershwin songbook Cole
Speaker 2: Porter songbook.
Speaker 1: I just not heat waved, not.
Speaker 2: Of course Evelyn Champagne King, you know, I mean my
Speaker 2: father's playing Celia Cruise. I mean there was a lot,
Speaker 2: a lot of music. And I also read the back
Speaker 2: of albums and I was like, who is this mixer?
Speaker 2: I just I you know, I would bathe myself in music.
Speaker 3: You found bath you said rebelling, So in my mind,
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, okay, this is when like she discovers
Speaker 3: bad brains or sex pistols or the ramos, and I'm like, GIRs,
Speaker 3: when your parents dream but your.
Speaker 2: Pears are like, what the And then I discovered hip hop?
Speaker 1: What was your first hip hop record?
Speaker 2: I'd say it's it's rappers Delight?
Speaker 1: How are you when rappers the like came out? I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't talk about age younger than springtime?
Speaker 1: I got it? Okay, So how do you nuance your
Speaker 1: way into was Maroon era? Depth jam? You're a deaf
Speaker 1: jam or black label def jam?
Speaker 2: You're Jenia, No, I'm Maroon, I'm nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1: Tell me everything about it.
Speaker 2: Okay. This is one of my favorite How do you
Speaker 2: get in the music business when you have no connections?
Speaker 2: So I went to Yale and when I was there,
Speaker 2: I had this incredible group of friends. One of them's
Speaker 2: sister named Lisa Jones Mary baraka Starter.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We were just these young, feisty kids and we were
Speaker 2: working on a magazine that Lisa was putting together. She
Speaker 2: was part of that great crew at the Village Voice
Speaker 2: at that time, and she wanted to do a magazine
Speaker 2: called Diva d'cooning. I was into hip hop, and I
Speaker 2: was like, I want to write about women in rap.
Speaker 2: So I talked to her stepsister, Dominique diu Prima, you know,
Speaker 2: in the in the Bay. I talked to the sister
Speaker 2: Tequila Mockingbird, who was kind of in the punk scene
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles. And I really loved this article. And
Speaker 2: a friend of mine who worked at Spencer Beck worked
Speaker 2: in Interview magazine, and I told him about this article
Speaker 2: and I was like, I'm really excited about because nobody
Speaker 2: knew there was women in rap. And so he said,
Speaker 2: you should go talk to Bill Adler. He is the
Speaker 2: publicist at def Jam. So I just called and Bill said,
Speaker 2: come on in. So I'm just chatting with Bill. He's
Speaker 2: the most amazing, giving, knowledgeable person. And a guy across
Speaker 2: the room said, who did you talk to in LA
Speaker 2: And I said, oh, tequila, Mockingbird. That guy was Lee
Speaker 2: or Cohen. So two weeks later, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: So Tequila shows up in New York and I bring
Speaker 2: tequila to the office. I'm a good baker. I made
Speaker 2: this ginger cake and I brought my resume and we
Speaker 2: all hang out body ba and Jimmy Spicer was the receptionist.
Speaker 2: What Jimmy Spiser never picked up the phone with the
Speaker 2: different calls because he'd be chatting some woman up, So
Speaker 2: I didn't get the job.
Speaker 1: Wait you stop.
Speaker 3: This is the second time that we've heard the story
Speaker 3: of someone charming the deaf GM staff to nuance a
Speaker 3: job via pastries. Because you also remember Kevin Lyles with
Speaker 3: his girl, you know, his chew money. Every morning at
Speaker 3: six a m. Would buy everyone orange juice, and le
Speaker 3: Yor was like impressed, Like this guy's clean up the
Speaker 3: office and buying us donuts and that's how he got
Speaker 3: Like Russell was like, get away from you, kid, But
Speaker 3: pastries timeout, Jimmy.
Speaker 1: Spicer's dollar bill.
Speaker 2: What So I'm this kid.
Speaker 1: Love when he does voices. I have to say that.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, So I keep trying to, you know, roll
Speaker 2: up in there and you know press them, and you know,
Speaker 2: it was pretty chaotic, but it was also very small.
Speaker 2: There was not that many people there. And I've went
Speaker 2: to a Luther Vandro show. I conned my way into
Speaker 2: the party backstage because you know, you just got you
Speaker 2: got to get in, or actually you just need to
Speaker 2: make a whole. You don't even fit in, you make
Speaker 2: a space. And I run into Leor, who was friends
Speaker 2: with Shep Gordon, who was Luther's manager and ll Cool J.
Speaker 2: And I walk up to Leor and I go, hey,
Speaker 2: you remember me. I gave you my resume on the
Speaker 2: good paper. It was like the heavy weighted paper. It
Speaker 2: was cream color, that matter. And he said, well, you
Speaker 2: know what I actually need someone, I need an assistant.
Speaker 1: Call me.
Speaker 2: So I keep calling, calling, calling, and then I got
Speaker 2: him on the phone one day and I said he
Speaker 2: picked up because Jimmy Spicer was talking to some woman
Speaker 2: and did not pick up the phone. And I said
Speaker 2: to Or, you know, I don't really know if you
Speaker 2: know you'll like me or I'll like you, but I'll
Speaker 2: come and work for you for half a day for free.
Speaker 2: And then half a day turned into five years a lifetime.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 3: So from eighty six to ninety one. Wow, okay, so
Speaker 3: licens Bill was about to start to come out.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: I was there when original concept is definitely yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I was there when we mentioned to ninety
Speaker 2: eight Elizabeth Street, right when Chuck came in and met
Speaker 2: with mister Bill Bill Stephanie and uh, you know they
Speaker 2: signed the Public Enemy. What is leear like then?
Speaker 6: Because the lear are we like, no, now, it's such
Speaker 6: a big personality and he was.
Speaker 9: He was he was big, yeah, and look you know
Speaker 9: what he so he was always that person like the
Speaker 9: way that people a flower, Yeah, the way people imitate Laurens.
Speaker 9: That like Lauren and Leo are the two most imitated
Speaker 9: execs that I know, But they always have a sort
Speaker 9: of disapproving father and untouchable.
Speaker 6: They're untouchable, like it feels like in ways right they
Speaker 6: sit and glad like you can touch Lauren, but Leon
Speaker 6: and laurna in that way kind.
Speaker 1: Of I know, softer in leor now like Leo.
Speaker 2: Is like he's more right right, right, So it's that
Speaker 2: Bali effect from Russell.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you at the time, because I know
Speaker 3: that it's hard, like I'm such a history buff, but
Speaker 3: you know, I think people don't appreciate something until like
Speaker 3: time has passed, like five years later or ten years later,
Speaker 3: you're like, wow, I was really part of the team
Speaker 3: that brought one of the biggest hip hop records selling
Speaker 3: records to the world, like Licensed.
Speaker 1: To Ill or you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: But like for you though, is are you recognizing that
Speaker 3: history is being made on the spot or was it
Speaker 3: just like man whatever?
Speaker 2: They became my family because the crazy thing is the
Speaker 2: first week my dad died when I was fifteen, and
Speaker 2: the first week that I went to work there, my
Speaker 2: mom died. Oh and you know this small group from
Speaker 2: Russell le Or, Heidi Smith, Bill Adler, Simone who was
Speaker 2: our receptionist, Bill Stephanie. They you know, they took care
Speaker 2: of me. They loved me. I remember one day I
Speaker 2: got mugged and Eric b and Rock him. They came
Speaker 2: to the office and they heard like I was like, Lisa,
Speaker 2: I got a black eyes, Like god, you got got
Speaker 2: mugged and ju York I lived in the real deal
Speaker 2: and they were like, well, if you'd like, we could
Speaker 2: find somebody who could get for you a nice little
Speaker 2: ladylike gun with a with a mother of pearl inlay.
Speaker 2: I was like, nice style, and that's what lovely.
Speaker 3: In a nice voice, too pretty gun a very nerdy voice.
Speaker 3: Nothing scares me more than nerdy thugs.
Speaker 2: You know that's rare.
Speaker 6: I just want to tell you, as a woman, especially
Speaker 6: in hip hop, it's rare to hear this level of
Speaker 6: feeling protected and loved and all of that.
Speaker 2: So I'm just get it because I also fought for them.
Speaker 2: You know, people will tell you we because this is
Speaker 2: right before everything blows up. I worked very closely with
Speaker 2: Leor putting together that Adida Steel because I actually wrote
Speaker 2: a letter to Fila because Houdini had a song called
Speaker 2: do the Fela, and I wrote him a letter and
Speaker 2: I was like, you guys need to do a deal
Speaker 2: with Houdini because they're speaking to this market. Because I
Speaker 2: was an American studies major, I like popular culture. I
Speaker 2: like seeing, you know, how we as black people start
Speaker 2: stuff that is then going to take over the world.
Speaker 2: But Fela is like, oh no, thank you. But so
Speaker 2: then when the Adidas time came, there was a lot
Speaker 2: that had to be translated about why this group was
Speaker 2: so important and.
Speaker 1: How much did they need though they needed some.
Speaker 2: There was a guy named Angelo Anastasio who saw it,
Speaker 2: and he was the advocate for it. But you know
Speaker 2: he was communicating with people in Germany. They did the
Speaker 2: music had not spread there yet. And what I learned
Speaker 2: in those days it still helps me now, is about
Speaker 2: the power of community to cross over this music. You know,
Speaker 2: we had Dave Funkinklin who later came to work there,
Speaker 2: who was in Colorado playing this music. I don't know,
Speaker 2: two o'clock in the morning. We had the car dealer
Speaker 2: drug dealer in Houston who would play our records and
Speaker 2: bring our artists there. You know, we had Paul Oakenfeld
Speaker 2: and Pete Tong were with London Records which put out
Speaker 2: run DMC in the UK. Yes, and they were hip
Speaker 2: hop heads and they would the first stop Oki yes
Speaker 2: Oki Doki damn.
Speaker 3: He never most people on the other side of the
Speaker 3: fence will go over time to like explain their hip
Speaker 3: hop petigree. Like we toured with Oakenfell during the area
Speaker 3: one tour and talked a lot. He never once gave
Speaker 3: a like hip hop pedigree and da da da da
Speaker 3: da da da really yeah, damn Hall When they would.
Speaker 2: Come over, the first stop is they'd come to to
Speaker 2: ninety eight Elizabeth Street like that.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 2: You know, everybody would come through there. And then when
Speaker 2: him and Pete Tong become these Dan Selectro people, I
Speaker 2: was like, wow, interesting. So there was this community. There
Speaker 2: was the people from Japan there, you know, who ultimately
Speaker 2: become a part of the groundswell of the music crossing
Speaker 2: over and the ripple effect culturally. So these you know.
Speaker 2: I remember we went to London and I, you know,
Speaker 2: would make myself the European tour manager so I could
Speaker 2: get a little holiday, and you know, we would they
Speaker 2: we got kicked out of a hotel or people didn't
Speaker 2: the food they wanted, and I would just like be like, no,
Speaker 2: you cannot treat these guys this way. So you love them.
Speaker 2: I love them then. I love them now because I
Speaker 2: recognized how ground I didn't maybe knew what I was in,
Speaker 2: but I knew it was something exciting and groundbreaking and
Speaker 2: necessary and a part of how our narrative as black people,
Speaker 2: we were taking it to something new now, how it
Speaker 2: was going to become. I didn't know that I was
Speaker 2: young and dumb, but I knew in my heart that
Speaker 2: they had to be treasured and that it wasn't okay
Speaker 2: to be like, oh, the rappers there, No, these are
Speaker 2: the artists.
Speaker 7: Yo, yo, what's up y'all?
Speaker 8: This is Fante Fontigelo. I hate the interrupt this beautiful
Speaker 8: discussion we had with the Great Relice of Cortez. But listen,
Speaker 8: come back to part two.
Speaker 7: We would discuss her new.
Speaker 8: Documentary Little Richard I Am Everything, while also talking about
Speaker 8: her incredible contributions to music and film.
Speaker 1: We love this interview and we hope you enjoyed it too.
Speaker 7: It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 8: Oh and also in time, go stream that new Little
Speaker 8: Richard dot available everywhere.
Speaker 4: It's a beautiful film.
Speaker 7: I think y'all would really like it.
Speaker 1: Appreciate y'all. Hi Payson. What's Love Supreme is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.