Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have a
Speaker 1: West Coast legend in the building. Writer recording artists creator
Speaker 1: Silky Fine is in the building. Most of us know
Speaker 1: her from her single Romeo and Juliet. But you also
Speaker 1: did a track on Easy Eas record. It was called
Speaker 1: what was it called straight Straight off the Streets of Compton.
Speaker 2: And the single was called old School Shit, Old School Shit.
Speaker 1: So this is cool because it's very It's not very
Speaker 1: often we get a legend, but it's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: I'm from the East Coast, here from the West Coast
Speaker 1: to have a legend from the West Coast, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure we're gonna hear a lot of juicy stories involving
Speaker 1: hopefully pocking Easy E. But in the interim for right now,
Speaker 1: can you tell me what you ate while you were broke?
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you right now. I was eating tuna.
Speaker 4: Matt tuna mac.
Speaker 1: It's funny because this is a dish that I actually make.
Speaker 1: But go ahead and tell us what the ingredients are.
Speaker 3: Okay, So the ingredients is simple. It's simply a box
Speaker 3: of Kraft. It has to be Kraft. You can get
Speaker 3: it for about ninety nine cents on sale dollar twenty
Speaker 3: five Kraft macaroni and cheese. Your standard can of tunas.
Speaker 3: I like to use two cans of tuna. Drink very
Speaker 3: well so that you can get your protein, half a
Speaker 3: cup of milk butter, and then throw some has to
Speaker 3: be the real cheese, not the imitation cheese. But put
Speaker 3: a couple of sliced cheeses and you'll be set.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is a dish. I've done it before.
Speaker 1: I've never was smart enough to add the Craft single
Speaker 1: cheeses in it, but now I'm going to add that.
Speaker 1: And then just for our listeners, this dish is literally
Speaker 1: a couple bucks. I'm pretty sure it feeds two people.
Speaker 1: Full right, I would say, you know, if you're a
Speaker 1: good heavy eater, this dish will make you. But definitely
Speaker 1: in today's market, this is like a three dollars dish.
Speaker 4: So let's go ahead and have you cooked for me.
Speaker 3: No problem, I'm honored to be here and wow broke. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I'm gonna get started.
Speaker 1: We did preheat the water, so you may have to
Speaker 1: bring it back up to a boil.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're gonna cause I've been watching. I was like,
Speaker 3: how can you cook? Somebody go burn itself up such
Speaker 3: a mess. But anyway, we're gonna start with the craft
Speaker 3: macaroni and cheese, which your water has to boil. Do
Speaker 3: not over boil the noodles because you may as well
Speaker 3: make a pot of top raamen or something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you may have to bring it up
Speaker 4: a little bit. Is always I was boiling.
Speaker 1: Okay, listen, guys, just so you know, I have a
Speaker 1: track record of destroying everyone's dish on the show. I
Speaker 1: can't help it. I'm like the passenger that's telling you
Speaker 1: how to drive. I need to stay alone.
Speaker 2: I'm really a fan of eating while broke.
Speaker 3: So I've watched some of the guests and I'm like,
Speaker 3: you never cooked the thing in your life?
Speaker 4: You know who I think never cooked? Believe it or not.
Speaker 4: I think it's Mario.
Speaker 1: Sorry Mario, right, even though he was the one that
Speaker 1: caught it was burning. But can you take me back
Speaker 1: to what was going on in the time of Tuna Mac.
Speaker 3: Well, see, I came from a middle class family, so
Speaker 3: I really didn't experience broke until I became an adult
Speaker 3: and I wanted to chase my dream and I became
Speaker 3: an artist. So tuna mac for me really happened at
Speaker 3: about the age of nineteen twenty because my mom she
Speaker 3: would cook the real deal, homemade of tuna casseroles. She
Speaker 3: would make rich beans and rice and hotstails. And you know,
Speaker 3: no be a creole, but you know our family. It's
Speaker 3: from Baton Rouge. But I'm a California girl born and raised. However,
Speaker 3: I don't have the typical personality of a typical La girl.
Speaker 4: But when did you start falling in love with hip hop?
Speaker 3: Well, growing up on the West Coast, you have choices,
Speaker 3: and in my teenage youthful years, it was like, either.
Speaker 2: You gonna be a gang member?
Speaker 3: Are you gonna be a entertainer, because I've always had
Speaker 3: the gift to freestyle.
Speaker 2: That was my gift.
Speaker 3: And then going back to elementary school, I was labeled
Speaker 3: gifted because I would write terrific poems and journalism.
Speaker 2: I can read, and I would win spelling bees.
Speaker 3: So Century Park Elementary shots out ice killed. We all
Speaker 3: went to elementary school together. So I was just like
Speaker 3: middle class raised on the West side of Los Angeles,
Speaker 3: and I didn't experience this until I thought I was
Speaker 3: grown on my own.
Speaker 4: What did your parents do well?
Speaker 3: My mom she was a nurse, which she remained the
Speaker 3: nurse at General Hospital for like until they really closed
Speaker 3: the building down. She was like a top nurse RIN.
Speaker 3: So she dealt with healthcare for since I was a
Speaker 3: little girl. She started out driving school buses and then
Speaker 3: she became an RIN.
Speaker 4: So what about your father really.
Speaker 2: Into the healthcare?
Speaker 3: My dad, he was a pharmacist at General Hospital.
Speaker 4: Well, so both parents are doing really good.
Speaker 3: So my dad he retired from General Hospital, but unfortunately
Speaker 3: he passed away in two thousand. Oh my goodness, two
Speaker 3: thousand and twenty nineteen. So I lost my dad. But
Speaker 3: then my stepdad, which was my mom's husband because she
Speaker 3: had separated from my dad.
Speaker 4: You know, oh okay, they weren't together business.
Speaker 3: But then my stepdad stepped in and he's awesome. He
Speaker 3: is a he owns his own construction company. So his
Speaker 3: company is called Lakeview Enterprise black Old. He has been
Speaker 3: in the business for over fifty seven years.
Speaker 2: He gets awards, he's top rating.
Speaker 3: So we were like going on camping trips and fishing trips. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we had a boat parked in our yard and we
Speaker 3: had a Mercedes.
Speaker 2: Some of my friends growing.
Speaker 3: Up, was like, oh, they used to call me peaches
Speaker 3: before I had.
Speaker 1: Gotten Now you started pursuing rap music before the age
Speaker 1: of nineteen or is nineteen and you said, okay, that's it.
Speaker 2: No, actually I started at fourteen.
Speaker 3: I went to Henry Clay Junior High School in Gardena, California.
Speaker 3: You gotta be careful with electric stoves because see, when
Speaker 3: I was broke, I had guess though and hope that
Speaker 3: I paid the gas bill, but you know it to'll.
Speaker 2: Overcook your stuff.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, you have to be careful with the
Speaker 3: electric stalls. But I'm gonna give it about another two minutes.
Speaker 3: I'm like mush, So anyway, yeah, definitely. I went to
Speaker 3: Henry Clay Junior High School.
Speaker 2: M yeah, a couple of women.
Speaker 3: So I actually, you know in the yearbook they have
Speaker 3: a theme called best Dressed, Cutest Couple. Well, I was
Speaker 3: a creator since I was born, so I started the
Speaker 3: thing called the best Rapper.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, and what year is this?
Speaker 2: This was nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 4: Okay, my.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry ninety seven? Are you serious? All? Yeah, nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty seven.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was gonna say what year did hip hop's come out?
Speaker 2: Because I know we're this when my record.
Speaker 4: Came home, and uh, we're coming up on the fifty
Speaker 4: year anniversary of hip hop, So do you refresh my
Speaker 4: memory on what year hip hop's started? One year? Was
Speaker 4: that nineteen eight? I want to say nineteen eighty nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3: My age when I got familiar with hip hop, it
Speaker 3: was definitely nineteen eighty, yeah, but then it might even
Speaker 3: went back to seventy nine because it might have been
Speaker 3: in Africa, been Bottles and the people before Curtis Blow.
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
Speaker 1: It may be seventy five, because if you do the math,
Speaker 1: it's twenty twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4: It would be fifty yeah, right, it would be in
Speaker 4: the seventies.
Speaker 3: And then they did have Shirl with the Pearl ringding
Speaker 3: Dom ding Ding Dom. That might have been seventy seventy
Speaker 3: eight or seventy nine.
Speaker 4: So you strike out on your own.
Speaker 1: Your mom is she in support of this pursuance of music?
Speaker 2: Not really? Not really?
Speaker 4: So what was?
Speaker 2: What was?
Speaker 4: What did you originally want you to do?
Speaker 3: She wanted me to be a lawyer, she wanted me
Speaker 3: to continue to be in school, but she also knows
Speaker 3: that my passion is writing. My passion is communicating. So
Speaker 3: then I always had a nick a knack for that.
Speaker 3: And like I said, ninth grade, boom, I won the
Speaker 3: best rapper of the year.
Speaker 2: Can't go had on?
Speaker 1: And what did she say about all this? Was she
Speaker 1: embracing in which she embraced.
Speaker 3: It and she was a little shock because she didn't
Speaker 3: have that type of background.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so never.
Speaker 3: Did she even like get involved with music. She'd listened
Speaker 3: to it, but my mom wasn't really a fan of music.
Speaker 3: He's like a movie person, a lifetime based on the truth.
Speaker 4: So you're going rogue? Is there? Is there? Do you
Speaker 4: have siblings?
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm from my mom, I have one brother, a
Speaker 3: little brother, and a little sister. I'm thirteen years older
Speaker 3: than my little sister. And then I'm twenty one years
Speaker 3: older than my little brother because my mother couldn't stop nothing.
Speaker 3: But and then from my dad, I have a big sister.
Speaker 3: She's two years older than me. So I have one
Speaker 3: sister with the same dad, and then I have a
Speaker 3: brother and sister with the same mom.
Speaker 4: Nice.
Speaker 1: Now, so take me take me back to nineteen year
Speaker 1: old you. You're pursuing music. What's going on? You didn't
Speaker 1: you don't have a record deal.
Speaker 3: Yet No, I don't have a record deal. So I
Speaker 3: got in the Best of the West Rap contest to
Speaker 3: Iced Tea was the judge.
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3: I was fresh in high school, so I was going
Speaker 3: out and getting in talent shows, and you know, I
Speaker 3: got with a small independent label that was called Neighborhood Records,
Speaker 3: and nothing ever happened. I did perform with C. C.
Speaker 3: Penn Easton when I was like eighteen years old at
Speaker 3: the Hollywood House of Blues, So I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: I was like striving to do this thing called rap.
Speaker 2: That little label shouts out to Neighborhood Records. It really
Speaker 2: didn't well.
Speaker 4: So what happened when you were on the record, Did
Speaker 4: you get to release an album or no.
Speaker 3: I started with that little independent company they were trying.
Speaker 3: So then you know, I would get in the student
Speaker 3: with different producers, and I was working with this one producer.
Speaker 3: Shout out to my guy, the real Richie rich out
Speaker 3: here on the West Coast. So once you guys, drain
Speaker 3: your noodles. I'm gonna give you a little instruction. It's
Speaker 3: pretty simple poor man's meal, So you let your noodles drain.
Speaker 3: So once I was working with Richie Rich up in
Speaker 3: this studio in Hollywood, and I'm like, Richie Rich, like,
Speaker 3: I'm thankful that you're getting me in the studio, but
Speaker 3: you just don't you you can't do anything.
Speaker 4: So what do you mean you can't do anything?
Speaker 2: You can't get me where I need to go.
Speaker 3: Like we're just like in these beautiful studios, but you're
Speaker 3: not connected.
Speaker 4: Okay, but you're talented, okay.
Speaker 2: So he did know a couple of.
Speaker 3: People, and he was in the good areas, but he
Speaker 3: just wasn't persistent. So one day we're at the studio.
Speaker 3: I'm the type that right on the spot, I laid
Speaker 3: my lyrics in one hour, we have a whole song,
Speaker 3: lives everything. So he's in there mixing and I'm like
Speaker 3: looking at his phone. For some reason, I grabbed his phone.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, huh, Easy Now, I always told my
Speaker 3: grandmother I'm gonna get with Ruthless Records. That's the label
Speaker 3: for me. Like I'm gonna get with them. And I'm like, Grandma,
Speaker 3: I promise you.
Speaker 1: She lived closer to Compton and where you guys all
Speaker 1: the same age group.
Speaker 3: No Easy was much older. But I mean everybody only
Speaker 3: thought he was like a teenager.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he looked so young.
Speaker 2: He looked so.
Speaker 3: Young, but he was like, yeah, like they're probably sixty.
Speaker 3: He would have been sixty, so.
Speaker 1: He would have been like thirty back then, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: He's like yeah back then. He was like, yeah, so
Speaker 1: you see this number in his phone?
Speaker 4: What do you do?
Speaker 3: So instantly I see the phone number and I'm like,
Speaker 3: easy E. I'm like, I take the number down.
Speaker 2: Awesome, I get home smart, I blow the number up.
Speaker 3: It actually was his assistant shouts out to miss Sharlie
Speaker 3: Henry because she saved all all the messages, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: you know, I done left fifteen messages and I guess
Speaker 3: I'm whack because I never.
Speaker 2: Heard from EASYE.
Speaker 3: So come to find out it was his assistant, Sharie
Speaker 3: Henry's phone number, and she said she was like, oh god,
Speaker 3: this girl's so dope.
Speaker 2: She's dope.
Speaker 3: But she saved the voicemails. And then there was one
Speaker 3: message the day that we buried my grandmother because I'm like,
Speaker 3: I always told my grandma was gonna make it, and
Speaker 3: oh my god, and I just really want to make
Speaker 3: it for grandma because she lived on one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty ath in Sam Pedro that was the closest to
Speaker 3: Compton that if the family lived too so.
Speaker 2: As to say, don't worry Grandma, I'm a meat.
Speaker 3: Easy So anyway, I left several messages so I wake
Speaker 3: up for my grandmother funeral. I got that number before
Speaker 3: I left. Instead of me doing the lyrical miracle trying
Speaker 3: to show my skills, I went off, fuck you nigga,
Speaker 3: you ain't shit. I'm a gangst the bitch and you
Speaker 3: the type of nigga I ain't fucking with. We were
Speaker 3: our I just don't. That was the message that got
Speaker 3: me a record deal with Easy E. So Charlie was like,
Speaker 3: y'all you gotta hear this. Yeah, she's dope.
Speaker 1: So you you you did a disrap on his voicemail
Speaker 1: and that's what caught his attention.
Speaker 4: Shout out to you.
Speaker 2: Because I was trying to do all this miracle work.
Speaker 4: You were trying to be nice and you were like,
Speaker 4: we gonna really go.
Speaker 3: To that beautiful service for my grandmother. I get home
Speaker 3: from the funeral, I checked my voicemails. I'll never forget yo.
Speaker 3: This is Eric. Yeah you know Rhythm D. I'm a
Speaker 3: said rhythm to come get you text Rhythm D.
Speaker 2: Your address, and I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, oh, grandma, I know you went to heaven. I said,
Speaker 3: thank you Guardian and your grandma. I'm gonna make it
Speaker 3: and we're still gonna live right here.
Speaker 4: How old are you at this time?
Speaker 2: At this time, I was seventeen, you were only seventeen.
Speaker 2: I was seventeen.
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, I'm forty eight now, okay, okay, so you
Speaker 1: are seventeen.
Speaker 4: Easy returns your car. You're in nice.
Speaker 2: I finished.
Speaker 3: It was like summer, I'm going to junior college.
Speaker 4: Now you tell your mama, she says, she like child like.
Speaker 3: Girl who is easy, because you know we were West
Speaker 3: l A.
Speaker 2: You better not be going to competent.
Speaker 3: I'm like, mama, he live in Norwalk. They're about to
Speaker 3: come get me. So I was at home. We lived
Speaker 3: off one hundred and tenth in Western So I was
Speaker 3: at home and I was so excited. So once you
Speaker 3: drain your noodles, guys, you're gonna put them back cause
Speaker 3: you know craft you don't need to rinse them. You're
Speaker 3: gonna rinse off some flavor. So you put your noodles
Speaker 3: right back in there. Guys, you add your butter, your
Speaker 3: milk before you do the tune okay.
Speaker 1: So after easy E picks you up or he sends
Speaker 1: for the rhymese and what's the first interaction with easy
Speaker 1: what's that?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness. So I walked in and I'm nervous.
Speaker 3: But then I've never been the shy type. So he's
Speaker 3: sitting there and I'm just like, oh my god, it's
Speaker 3: really easy E. And then what I like, okay? So
Speaker 3: then boom when I see him, I'm just like he like, yeah,
Speaker 3: what's up. I'm like shit, He said, yeah, you want
Speaker 3: to be with Ruthless? I said hell yeah. I said yo, yeah,
Speaker 3: why do you think I've been? I said, you're calling
Speaker 3: me back? He was like, yeah, so you you kicking
Speaker 3: that gangster ship? I said I sure am. So he
Speaker 3: was like, let me hear you rap. So I just
Speaker 3: I'm like off the top of the head, so I'm
Speaker 3: more melodic. I never wanted to be the dopest and
Speaker 3: the best, so I just kicked the freestyle. He was
Speaker 3: like when you signing, and I was like, we're that bread.
Speaker 1: Did he say anything? Did he talk smack about your
Speaker 1: disc tand no?
Speaker 3: He said he liked it. He was like, that took
Speaker 3: some guts, that took balls. So I didn't know that
Speaker 3: he was forming.
Speaker 2: A four girl group.
Speaker 3: Okay, had your buddy, let it MIXU.
Speaker 1: By the way, I put the right amount of butter,
Speaker 1: so you can use all that.
Speaker 4: Butter if you. I'm a butter person, me too, I
Speaker 4: can girl.
Speaker 2: And then when I was poor off using more.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I actually didn't know the difference between butter and fake
Speaker 1: butter until Eating Wall broke. I think now Evans on
Speaker 1: the show was the one that taught.
Speaker 3: Me it.
Speaker 2: Is nothing like the butter.
Speaker 3: So you add your butter and your your little bit
Speaker 3: of milk, you know what I mean. You add that
Speaker 3: all in there, and of course you put that sliced cheese.
Speaker 4: Do I give it t you right now?
Speaker 3: Okay, you add the sliced cheese while your noodles are hot.
Speaker 2: Okay. So I was just related again.
Speaker 1: So he tells you, okay, you're gonna sign. What happens next?
Speaker 3: So then he explained to me that he was hand
Speaker 3: picking a four girl female group. He wanted us to
Speaker 3: be like the female in Wa. So I went out.
Speaker 3: I auditioned. He said, hey, you got the part. He
Speaker 3: had another female shots out to t Ski. She ended
Speaker 3: up moving up to Atlanta. So t Ski was an
Speaker 3: original member, which she knew him before, and then another Homegirl.
Speaker 3: We were all like raised in La, so we kind
Speaker 3: of knew each other. Big Chan, which later went on
Speaker 3: to be in the Doggies Angels, she was in our group.
Speaker 3: And then the Homegirl Diamond that corrupt always referenced down
Speaker 3: with a Nigga demnil, but before I was rhyming, the
Speaker 3: Homegirl Diamond ended up getting in our group. So we
Speaker 3: were like a female in wa.
Speaker 1: Now are you guys, you guys start the recording process.
Speaker 1: What's your pockets looking like during this journey?
Speaker 3: Oh, it's looking great, like everyone is like easy. The
Speaker 3: moment he signed us, he broke bread.
Speaker 4: How much bread did he break?
Speaker 2: You?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Then?
Speaker 3: What was that nineteen ninety three, cause it took a little,
Speaker 3: you know, year two the Marinate. I want to say,
Speaker 3: right before like ninety four we signed, but before we signed,
Speaker 3: we would get per dims, so like we would get
Speaker 3: one hundred dollars a day just to go record the album,
Speaker 3: and then we'd get our eating expenses. And then when
Speaker 3: we signed, I want to say each Okay, it was
Speaker 3: four girls in the group you talking about. By now
Speaker 3: I'm nineteen twenty years old.
Speaker 2: So each girl got thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: And back then that was a lot of money.
Speaker 2: Right because it was four of us, So I.
Speaker 4: Think each twenty k each.
Speaker 1: But that's still back then, that's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: I mean, especially to a nineteen year old. So but
Speaker 1: now if we bring you back to this, this you
Speaker 1: said at nineteen, this is when you were cooking it.
Speaker 1: So tell me what's going on. How did you end
Speaker 1: up on Tuna Mac?
Speaker 3: I ended up on Tuna Mac because I mean the
Speaker 3: music game is good. But so basically, maybe I was
Speaker 3: twenty one when I made the tuna mac, okay, because
Speaker 3: I mean I had a good teenage year. I didn't
Speaker 3: start eating tuna mac. I had to be about twenty
Speaker 3: one because Easy was.
Speaker 4: Dead, Okay.
Speaker 2: I started going a little bit. Thought I was grown.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to go back home like my mom,
Speaker 3: like I told you that, yeah, yusic stuff. So I
Speaker 3: was really being on my own. And what happened is
Speaker 3: like we had a great deal, Easy E. We were traveling,
Speaker 3: we recorded with Bone Thugs in.
Speaker 4: Harmony, and you're not living with your mom at this point.
Speaker 4: Where are you living? Are you on your Yeah? Are
Speaker 4: you roommating with the four girls.
Speaker 3: No, we were I had my own little single, okay,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: I lived in a little single in Hollywood.
Speaker 4: And oh you didn't end up staying in Compton, No.
Speaker 2: Because my grandma passed away.
Speaker 3: I never lived in Compton in my life, and she
Speaker 3: lived actually in South Central, but it was the closest
Speaker 3: place to Compton that I can know.
Speaker 4: But you said you moved to Hollywood.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I moved to Hobhood. I was raised on the
Speaker 3: west side of Alwall.
Speaker 1: Did you choose Hollywood because you were blowing up and
Speaker 1: you wanted to feel Hollywood?
Speaker 3: Because, like I said, it was a choice be a
Speaker 3: gang banger or be an entertainer, So most people lived
Speaker 3: near Hollywood. I lived in a rinky denk roach infested
Speaker 3: single apartment, okay, you know.
Speaker 2: And this was like.
Speaker 3: At the age of nineteen and so then when I
Speaker 3: met Eaze, I still lived in my rinky deank apartment.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: So by the time this I met him in nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety two, that was like a transition to him no
Speaker 3: longer being with Nwa, which was a very trying time
Speaker 3: for Eric. It was easy, was like really, but did
Speaker 3: you know it was a lot of emotional things back then,
Speaker 3: so being that we were just producing this album and
Speaker 3: he appeared on a lot of our records and everything. However,
Speaker 3: the album never came out because he passed away.
Speaker 4: So what did they end up doing with the record?
Speaker 4: They just ended up holding a hostage.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a big story behind Ruthless Records. That's
Speaker 3: why the success of such a hard work company.
Speaker 2: You like it.
Speaker 3: You don't even hear about Ruthless Records. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 3: like fifty of years of hip hop? Where's easy East Star?
Speaker 3: Where's his tribute?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Put the West Coast on the map. Not only did
Speaker 3: he just put Compton on the map, but here's our
Speaker 3: dish whila.
Speaker 1: Okay, guys, we are back okay. And I can't even
Speaker 1: tell you how excited I am to be with you.
Speaker 1: I think the more you tell your story, I'm more hypes.
Speaker 1: But you did service up this tuna, Mac And I've
Speaker 1: had this before, but I've never had it done like this,
Speaker 1: And you are inspiring me just based on looks and
Speaker 1: smell right that this is the correct way.
Speaker 4: I think it's the single cheese that make it more cheese.
Speaker 4: But let's try it for our listening again. And you
Speaker 4: had it salt and pepper too, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just a little bit. I'm gonna start eating this.
Speaker 4: Ag ain't gonnat this.
Speaker 2: There, it's awesome. I can't. I can't just toot my
Speaker 2: own horn. Trying to figure out if.
Speaker 4: Or the Cheddar slices that are bringing out the flavors
Speaker 4: so well.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking it's the slices because I put I'm not
Speaker 3: a salty person because it'll ruin a meal.
Speaker 1: But yo, this is the only way to eat Raft
Speaker 1: mac and cheese for the rest of your life, y'all.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: And the secret ingredient for this dish is definitely the
Speaker 1: Craft cheese and that's nothing, but.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it adds valume because you get your pack of
Speaker 3: cheese on sale and it goes a long way when
Speaker 3: you were single living in a single.
Speaker 1: And people have used Belvida cheese on the show, and
Speaker 1: I just have to say, Belvita cheese has so much
Speaker 1: salt in it. If you're not used to eating bad
Speaker 1: quality food, switch to Kraft Mac slices.
Speaker 2: Yeah that was brilliant.
Speaker 1: Okay, now back to the story. Okay, now we know
Speaker 1: we and always say this on the show. The broker
Speaker 1: the dish, the better, the story. This has proven my
Speaker 1: theory again. So we're now that we you know, you've
Speaker 1: been signed, walk us closer to easy eas passing what's
Speaker 1: going on during that time?
Speaker 3: Okay, so life instantly changed once we received that money.
Speaker 3: I took that twenty thousand our went and bought me
Speaker 3: a new Ford Festiva, no card, no paid my rent
Speaker 3: up for a year. We're matt, we're jamming, we're recording
Speaker 3: Bone Thugs and Harmony come out here. So females, we
Speaker 3: were a little caddy. We would argue we couldn't get
Speaker 3: along and just the girl thing. So Bone Thug came.
Speaker 3: They were starving. They was from Cleveland, so they were ready.
Speaker 3: So we got pushed back because Bone Thugs definitely came
Speaker 3: out here and got busy.
Speaker 1: And at the time, girl rappers, you know, it had
Speaker 1: to been still kind of new so versus like male
Speaker 1: rappers were I'm assuming we're more acceptable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and like we were literally like a first four
Speaker 3: girl group.
Speaker 4: And you guys were doing gangster rappers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because we did have Salt and Pepper Spinderella. You know,
Speaker 3: we admired quein Latifa live.
Speaker 4: But you guys are doing gangster You're doing a little
Speaker 4: different we.
Speaker 3: Were doing straight hardcore, like we had a song called
Speaker 3: coming Out the Woodworks and like we had shoot them
Speaker 3: on a Sunday, like we had at like faul Deep.
Speaker 4: Is there a way to look up this record?
Speaker 2: Yes, they're on YouTube.
Speaker 1: They're on YouTube, and can people download it on like Spotify.
Speaker 2: Or any day.
Speaker 3: We really didn't do a release because it was so
Speaker 3: old when we received it. It was like on Ada's
Speaker 3: and Big real tracks. H oh goodness. It was yeah
Speaker 3: back in the early nineties.
Speaker 4: So where are you at when you get the call
Speaker 4: about Easy?
Speaker 3: Who where was I at when Easy?
Speaker 4: Or when you found what was going on when you
Speaker 4: found out?
Speaker 1: Like did you hear rumors first or did you hear
Speaker 1: directly from Okay?
Speaker 3: So the thing is boom? So we're we're working on
Speaker 3: our album Bones is out here. We were doing records
Speaker 3: with Bone Thugs. We're opening up Easy got us in Oakland.
Speaker 3: We're doing all the San Francisco, Oakland, all these West
Speaker 3: Coast shows. But we're traveling, so Easy went to New York.
Speaker 3: I was the only group member that ended up pregnant
Speaker 3: with my only child. I have one son, twenty nine
Speaker 3: years old. How old were you I was twenty two
Speaker 3: when I got pregnant.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, oh wow, So were you scared to tell him?
Speaker 3: And actually he's my son's godfather and he was really
Speaker 3: supportive because he had a gang of kids. But my
Speaker 3: group members, on the other hand, they were like, you're
Speaker 3: gonna mess up our career. Why are you doing this?
Speaker 3: You're pregnant, and I'm like, me and my baby daddy.
Speaker 3: We rolled like Bonnie and Clyde, and I'm keeping my
Speaker 3: baby like the first and only time that I got pregnant.
Speaker 3: So I'm very glad that I kept my child. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so easy embraced it. I got so many great memories.
Speaker 3: He embraced it. He was like, that's my godson because.
Speaker 2: It was a big old deal.
Speaker 3: The girls wasn't talking to me, and he was still alive. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he was still alive.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: I got so many great moments of how he just
Speaker 3: embraced me and my child had my baby daddy that
Speaker 3: I didn't end up staying with. But so Eric was
Speaker 3: in New York and we were like, you know, he'd
Speaker 3: answer every call.
Speaker 2: We always talked to he. He loved our group.
Speaker 3: Our group was his female in wa so there was
Speaker 3: no question or doubt that we weren't on He's in
Speaker 3: New York. When we spoke to Eric, he was real excited,
Speaker 3: like he ran into Cube.
Speaker 2: So we were in hopes that like, oh, my god, Ren.
Speaker 3: Is still here, yell us here. If he gets with Cube,
Speaker 3: you know, Drake gonna come back.
Speaker 4: And Cube was a beast back then. So we're like,
Speaker 4: so was really popping at that time?
Speaker 2: Yeah, cause Cube had already dropped his up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, so we're talking ninety four now, maybe
Speaker 3: it was ninety five because my son was already born,
Speaker 3: so right, yeah, it was after the birth of my son.
Speaker 3: My son was born in November, so I was basically
Speaker 3: pregnant like the whole nine months when Bone Thugs came.
Speaker 3: I wasn't one of the group members that was with
Speaker 3: Bone Thugs and Harvey. I was very pregnant with my
Speaker 3: baby father. That had nothing to do with the industry.
Speaker 3: He was not an industry cat. So we get the call,
Speaker 3: He's like, yeah, I feel good. I do have a
Speaker 3: little cold, but I'll be back in two days. Like
Speaker 3: he's like, I ran in the ice Cube. When we
Speaker 3: get him on y'all record GBMS pumped up, We're like.
Speaker 1: Oh, but at the time he said he had a cold. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's something he started to realize something.
Speaker 3: He's always had bronchias, Like we would go to Jerry's Deli.
Speaker 3: Eric Easye would never eat dairy foods. He would never
Speaker 3: do milkshakes. He would never So we always knew, but
Speaker 3: it wasn't to where.
Speaker 2: But he was like, oh.
Speaker 3: Within the second day of him being in New York,
Speaker 3: he like, oh, it's the weather change, cause you know.
Speaker 2: I just wore my car, but it's snowing.
Speaker 3: And so we were thinking, like, Okay, he just caught
Speaker 3: a cold because of the change of weather. So then
Speaker 3: when he get back home and I'm like, what was
Speaker 3: I doing? And I was probably because I moved out
Speaker 3: once I had my son, I had my money, I
Speaker 3: was with Ruthless. Back then, the city of Rialto was
Speaker 3: really nice. It wasn't a lot of people. So I
Speaker 3: moved out to Rialto and I remember I'm with my
Speaker 3: son and I'm like, I'm about to cook dinner. And
Speaker 3: one of the girls in the group was like, easy
Speaker 3: is in the hospital. Matter of fact, let me go back,
Speaker 3: let me keep it solid, let me tell the truth,
Speaker 3: because when you're cut up in stories just so much.
Speaker 3: So we had a friend, Hershanna, that worked at the hospital.
Speaker 3: That's how we initially found out. She worked at Cedar
Speaker 3: Sinai and she was like, oh my god, y'all, guess
Speaker 3: who in here?
Speaker 2: Easy?
Speaker 3: But he under a alias, So we found out. We
Speaker 3: started calling Big Ron, all the security, the Samoe and Twins.
Speaker 3: We're calling these guys, like, what's up, what's up with there?
Speaker 3: They like, Oh, he'll be okay, he'll be okay. We
Speaker 3: rushed to the hospital because then the new start announcing,
Speaker 3: like we rushed up to the hospital.
Speaker 2: They were already saying like, he has full blown.
Speaker 3: AIDS and I'm like, never heard of it, never heard
Speaker 3: of it, don't know what that is.
Speaker 4: So oh at the time, nobody really knew what it was.
Speaker 3: Nobody knew what it was because we didn't know it
Speaker 3: was AIDS when we got there. It was pneumonia okay,
Speaker 3: you know, so it ended up being full blown AIDS.
Speaker 2: That we were like, how did that happen?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like we never saw anybody deteriorate. So all the
Speaker 3: artists was there, menaja twy it was one eighty seven.
Speaker 2: Above the law. It was bone.
Speaker 3: Thug gbm hwa. I mean, like all the artists, so
Speaker 3: We're at the hospital. They're letting, like, group by group
Speaker 3: go in and we walk in the room.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh, I don't even want to I.
Speaker 3: Walked out because Eric was as black as this. Wow,
Speaker 3: he was so dark and it looked like he was
Speaker 3: like how you just be dead for three days?
Speaker 2: But he was in a komba. He was just out
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, wow, slimmer or did he look from
Speaker 1: the exterior outside of his skin color he.
Speaker 3: Didn't look then, or he looked blacker than he's like,
Speaker 3: he was not that color.
Speaker 2: He looked terrible.
Speaker 4: But they said for sure he had full blown as well.
Speaker 3: They were like, yeah, it was pneumonia, Da da da da.
Speaker 3: The first day it wasn't. Then I think, okay, So
Speaker 3: we visited him and I'm like.
Speaker 2: Why is he so dark? Why is he in a coma?
Speaker 3: Like isn't this a transsexually transmitted disease?
Speaker 2: Like what's going on?
Speaker 3: So I'm like, okay, this is not pneumonia. Like I
Speaker 3: have a cousin living with HIV and he was. He
Speaker 3: was detected as having HIV at nineteen and he's like
Speaker 3: fifty three.
Speaker 4: Okay, Magic Johnson.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's so many references before blown, so instantly
Speaker 3: it was like we went to visit Eric. He didn't
Speaker 3: look good and we never saw him again.
Speaker 1: But now, somewhere along this story and correct me if
Speaker 1: I'm wrong. Before Easy's passing, do you end up working
Speaker 1: with Tupac?
Speaker 4: Can you? Can you talk about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well what happened.
Speaker 3: I met Tupac way before I even had a record
Speaker 3: deal with Easy, because, like I said, rap was my
Speaker 3: passion and I knew that I could freestyle, and it
Speaker 3: was like, I gotta, I gotta do this. But it
Speaker 3: was funny because when I met Pac, he didn't know
Speaker 3: that I knew.
Speaker 2: How to rap.
Speaker 4: Tell me about that encounter.
Speaker 3: We went to a club downtown used to be oh Ship,
Speaker 3: the Jamaican Club. They called it the Jamaican Club, so
Speaker 3: it would it would crack downtown. So I never really
Speaker 3: liked the rappers or I never had a bewild.
Speaker 2: But I never was like that.
Speaker 3: I was like, you know, I really wasn't into like
Speaker 3: I won't be a man that rapped because I rapped.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, but you said that like you you had, maybe.
Speaker 3: We could touch it a basis because I'm really really
Speaker 3: honest with this, So I meet Tupac and his boy Mouseman.
Speaker 3: So I met him at the club and everything, and
Speaker 3: you know, we was just partying in the club and
Speaker 3: vibing and just dancing, smoking weed. So Mouseman and his
Speaker 3: brother mokaream. They used to call them Mouseman and the Wicked,
Speaker 3: but it was Mopream And this was before like, was
Speaker 3: it Brenda's Got a Baby?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was during that time.
Speaker 3: It was during before he shot the video for Brenda's
Speaker 3: Got a Baby. So I ended up like a Mouseman.
Speaker 3: His name is Dana and.
Speaker 4: He I think his name was Dana.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Dana, but we called a Mouseman. Really talented, and
Speaker 3: so he knew I rapped, but I was always like,
Speaker 3: I don't want pop to know because I was like,
Speaker 3: I gotta get a little tighter.
Speaker 2: I gotta okay, okay.
Speaker 4: So I can't respect that because you didn't want him.
Speaker 3: To Yeah, yeah, because I was like, I gotta get tighter.
Speaker 3: So we kept that under the radar. But I had
Speaker 3: a crush on Mouseman, and I'm like, yeah, you like
Speaker 3: Tupac hyke dude, so I'll like you. I'm not trying
Speaker 3: to get with Pac. I want to work with Pac,
Speaker 3: like with Eazye I was pregnant. He was really like
Speaker 3: I say, Eric is my god brother because I met
Speaker 3: him through God the day I buried my grandmother. It
Speaker 3: was just all just real, real, spiritual for me. So
Speaker 3: I met Mouseman, and me and mouse Man would talk
Speaker 3: on the phone, me and my homegirl Diamond. So once
Speaker 3: I met Mouseman, I always knew how to cook good.
Speaker 3: So matter of fact, wait, I don't want to get cold,
Speaker 3: but I knew how to cook good. So they would
Speaker 3: always stay at the Mandrion and all these places because
Speaker 3: Pac had just dropped Brenda's got a baby, and he
Speaker 3: was working with a tron and like we was just
Speaker 3: regular like homegirls. And then I lived in La so
Speaker 3: I knew where to get all the good weed, you know. Then,
Speaker 3: So this is really when my nineteen year old days
Speaker 3: these is like fresh out of high school, eighteen nineteen rolling.
Speaker 3: But by the time I was nineteen, I met Easye.
Speaker 3: So the personal friendships I wasn't.
Speaker 2: I was focused on.
Speaker 3: Being an artist with a record deal. But when I
Speaker 3: met Mouseman, and I'm like, I remember he wrote me
Speaker 3: my first little rap that I ever let any guy write,
Speaker 3: because I wasn't. But I'm like, man, I know I'm
Speaker 3: gonna get next to Tupac. What is y'all style? Because
Speaker 3: he was from Philly, I believe, But he was from
Speaker 3: the East.
Speaker 4: Coast, Oh, I thought, for I thought Tupac was from
Speaker 4: No Mouse Mousemaid.
Speaker 3: He was from the East Coast, no doubt. And that's
Speaker 3: where he met I believe, Baltimore.
Speaker 4: But did you end up working with Tupac later on
Speaker 4: down the line?
Speaker 3: So I met him then he never really knew I rapped.
Speaker 3: I would take them weed because I lived in La
Speaker 3: So I was just like the homegirl girl and me
Speaker 3: and Diamond would go and I would cook at home
Speaker 3: and just bring them enchiladas in tuna castle ROAs the
Speaker 3: right way and you know.
Speaker 2: So you would just like to cook.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So then speed me up to where you guys
Speaker 1: actually end up getting to work together.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, Eric really wanted to sign Tupac too.
Speaker 3: He was like, I'm gonna get Poc. But then Pac
Speaker 3: went to death Row. So I wouldn't say that it
Speaker 3: was beef, but I mean we was with Ruthless Records.
Speaker 3: Even though I knew snoop and corrupting everybody. I wasn't
Speaker 3: gonna hang with death Row because I'm.
Speaker 4: With Ruthless course, so it was just.
Speaker 3: Like okay, so he never you know, made that connection
Speaker 3: with POC. So then after Pop died, after Easy died,
Speaker 3: another good our good friend Shari. She's like a mentor,
Speaker 3: Shari Henry, which worked with Pac a lot, and Pac
Speaker 3: knew about us, he knew about GBM, everybody knew about
Speaker 3: Gangst the Bitch mentality first Girl Gangst the group on
Speaker 3: the West Coast. So Shari was also like a manager,
Speaker 3: and you know, she worked with a lot of different artists,
Speaker 3: so she's like yo. You know, Pak was asking like
Speaker 3: what's up with Silk. I'm like, oh, yeah, they're in GBL.
Speaker 3: So he was like, have her come down to the studio.
Speaker 3: So me and my group went to the studio and
Speaker 3: we met Pop and we did a song which was
Speaker 3: released last Motherfucker's Breathing, But when Tupac died, we got
Speaker 3: taken off the record, so I have yeah, the original
Speaker 3: is on YouTube, so all my references are facts.
Speaker 1: No, No, I'm be like, look get up baby, but
Speaker 1: like yeah, it's like I have so many emotional moments
Speaker 1: with this industry because I went through eating and then
Speaker 1: I'm broke. I'm gonna bring this closer to you, and
Speaker 1: then I'm eating and then I'm hungry again.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm Then I was eating.
Speaker 3: And then I was hungry again. So my story is
Speaker 3: more like up down, weighing, you know, learning my spirituality,
Speaker 3: knowing that I am a woman of God. And I
Speaker 3: did intimidate a lot of people. Because when you're out
Speaker 3: to rip somebody off or you're out to use somebody,
Speaker 3: you know, God fearing people are gonna stand the storm.
Speaker 3: We are gonna survive. So I think we're so motivating
Speaker 3: and inspirational For me today at forty eight years old,
Speaker 3: I still chair tears up the microphone. I still will
Speaker 3: rap at the spur of a moment, heartbeat, and my
Speaker 3: vocals are still strong.
Speaker 2: So I heard you.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you saw me.
Speaker 1: But first of all, there's a huge jay Z painting
Speaker 1: in my lobby.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know. I brag about it all the time.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to speak jay Z into existence.
Speaker 2: Right, come on to the show, Jay.
Speaker 1: But when you wrapped I lit up like a little
Speaker 1: kid on Christmas. I was like, oh snap, so and
Speaker 1: I was like three lines yeah.
Speaker 2: So then went up.
Speaker 3: We did still you know, still Breathing, which is called
Speaker 3: Last Motherfucker's Breathing season. The season and the means be
Speaker 3: my reason I be the last Motherfucker's breathing. So the
Speaker 3: session went like this.
Speaker 2: We walked in.
Speaker 3: He was like, get on the mic. Whoever ain't got
Speaker 3: their part, We're going like this. That's one thing I
Speaker 3: learned from POC. Be persistent, do not overstudy, overthink your lyrics, or.
Speaker 2: You won't be on this record.
Speaker 3: It was like, so it was Kadafi, it was all
Speaker 3: of the Outlaws and my four girls, So you put
Speaker 3: nine rappers on the record with Tupac. It was like,
Speaker 3: so soon as he did his part, I ran in there,
Speaker 3: I ran to the mic. My group members were still writing.
Speaker 3: They came at the end of the song. They started
Speaker 3: bumping some people off. And then when the final initial
Speaker 3: record came out, like half the Outlaws and half of well,
Speaker 3: Kadafi I believe had got murdered too. So it was
Speaker 3: like half of them came off the record and half
Speaker 3: of us came off the record.
Speaker 4: Did you end up staying on the.
Speaker 3: Newe None of the GBM members were on that, but
Speaker 3: we have the original, yes, well, which means so much
Speaker 3: more to me.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So then boom we lose eze Bam. I'm like, I
Speaker 3: don't want to rap no more. I'm like, uh so
Speaker 3: then Tupac he used to he was like silk you dope.
Speaker 2: He worked with Storm and he worked with me.
Speaker 3: So after Eazy E died or deal folded, Ruthless Records
Speaker 3: didn't do right by Eric at all. I don't know
Speaker 3: what happened to Ruthless Records, but it shouldn't have folded.
Speaker 3: You had the first girl gangster group coming out, which
Speaker 3: we were known. One of the members shout out to
Speaker 3: Ice Girl, Diamond Diamond. Ice Girl used to go with
Speaker 3: Tretch like. We used to really hang out and we were.
Speaker 4: Did you see the NWA movie?
Speaker 2: Yes? I did I movie. Yes.
Speaker 1: Do you think that when you watch that movie you
Speaker 1: get a little backstorand why Ruthless crumbles?
Speaker 3: No, I don't get anything out of why Ruthless crumbled
Speaker 3: because Ruthless was booming. See I was with Ruthless Records,
Speaker 3: and I can recall when Eric and Jerry Heller didn't
Speaker 3: see either eye. Eric would not come to the office.
Speaker 3: If Jerry Heller was in the office, we would meet
Speaker 3: him at Jerry's Delhi. We would meet him at the galleria,
Speaker 3: the mall right there, like he would not come in
Speaker 3: the office, So I can recall that being weird. It
Speaker 3: was like we'd go there to get our checks. Mike
Speaker 3: Klein would be there, all these different people, Gary Ballan,
Speaker 3: you know, and it was like family. We were like
Speaker 3: a real Ruthless family. But when Easy and Jerry fell out,
Speaker 3: that's when things were different. But it was still ruthless.
Speaker 3: It was like he was excited. He had HWA, he
Speaker 3: had will i Am, which was in the act band Clan,
Speaker 3: So will i Am was with Ruthless.
Speaker 2: That was my label mate.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: We had great. We had a roster that was just untouchable.
Speaker 1: So now I'm just for time. I'm gonna skip you
Speaker 1: up to twoenty and twenty three. Yeah, we're in the
Speaker 1: arena of We got the Nicki Minajas, we have the
Speaker 1: Cardi B's, yeah, obviously before them, the Little Kid Brown,
Speaker 1: all these guys.
Speaker 4: What's your opinion on today's rap music with the women?
Speaker 2: I love like today?
Speaker 3: When I watched Lola Brooks new little video Gotta Get
Speaker 3: You Home, she remade the Foxy Brown and I was
Speaker 3: looking at her like, this is what I brought on
Speaker 3: my solo project when I did my solo stuff, because
Speaker 3: I'm on the host of records. Like, but I think,
Speaker 3: like the females are winning. I love them. I love Nikki,
Speaker 3: I love Cardi, I love Lola Brooks, I love Megan A. Stallion,
Speaker 3: I love Doja cat Like.
Speaker 4: I'm to be honest.
Speaker 1: The only person I'm not really feeling it, and it
Speaker 1: could be just because I haven't given her a time
Speaker 1: of day is Sexy Red.
Speaker 2: I'm not feeling that message.
Speaker 3: I'm not feeling that raunchiness something because like when we
Speaker 3: were going to be a gangster girl group, it was
Speaker 3: clearly early nineties, it was in It was really creative
Speaker 3: at that time. But to me, there's too much promoting
Speaker 3: these little girls to be strippers when they grow up.
Speaker 3: You know, our music had substance, our music had a message.
Speaker 3: In the nineties, you were going to get a message
Speaker 3: out of something, and today music is like a lot
Speaker 3: of the female artists is not being great role models
Speaker 3: for our little girls who love to look up to rappers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1: I think Nicki and Cardi I give them a past
Speaker 1: because a lot of their actual albums are really good
Speaker 1: and inspiring and they both fall.
Speaker 3: I don't put Cardy or Nikki in that category because
Speaker 3: they were always class. They were like a branch off
Speaker 3: of Little Kim, Foxy Bro. You know, it was always class.
Speaker 1: But I do wish that the women rappers would move
Speaker 1: away from selling sex because I feel like now we
Speaker 1: as women, we're almost we're now it's becoming. It's sad
Speaker 1: to say, but men are now the prize and women
Speaker 1: because we keep degrading ourselves to just sex, now we
Speaker 1: are no longer the prize.
Speaker 2: No more so. It's so risky.
Speaker 3: That's why a lot of time I just say, I
Speaker 3: can't speak on the world, but on the West Coast,
Speaker 3: it's so hard for people to push women out here
Speaker 3: unless you're from somewhere else and you just moved and
Speaker 3: came to California.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's an.
Speaker 3: Ego thing, what's going on with these men, because we
Speaker 3: been our own Oprah Winfrey's, we been the sloop dogs,
Speaker 3: we've been the you know, so many talented things, and
Speaker 3: it's like they just don't want to give you that
Speaker 3: extra push. And it can be happening in a lot
Speaker 3: of different states as well, because when you get into
Speaker 3: the egos of a man, and then like, I don't
Speaker 3: have BBLS. I'm not knocking nobody. But when you're natural
Speaker 3: and you're real, and you're confident and you didn't have
Speaker 3: to go get your stomach cut off because it didn't
Speaker 3: make you talented or it didn't give you the gift
Speaker 3: to So if they know that you're a strong person
Speaker 3: and you're not weak and you're not gonna do drugs
Speaker 3: because they want you to be weak minded, or you're
Speaker 3: not gonna sleep with them. And so we missed out
Speaker 3: on that era because they start flooding it with the
Speaker 3: be a hoe, take his money, shake it. And I'm
Speaker 3: not knocking the strippers shots out.
Speaker 2: I'm not.
Speaker 4: I'm not knocking the strippers.
Speaker 1: But when I see someone like and I really hate
Speaker 1: to use her as an example, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: based on very little that I know about her. So
Speaker 1: this is coming from more of an ignorant perspective. But
Speaker 1: when I see like a sexy Red, I start to think, Okay,
Speaker 1: is this now just the industry, the people behind whoever's
Speaker 1: running the record labels just packaging black girls to look
Speaker 1: completely like just strippers, like that's all we're worth or
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm disappointed because I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: right now, there's rumors, you know, we are coming up
Speaker 1: on the fiftieth anniversary, but there are rumors that rap
Speaker 1: sales are declining. Yeah, and I'm starting to think that
Speaker 1: the reason why rap sales are client are reclining is because,
Speaker 1: and I want to hear your opinion, is because the
Speaker 1: music industry said, okay, rap women are doing good, let's
Speaker 1: make little rap prototypes that sell this particular image. And
Speaker 1: it's you know, And so now I'm like, and is
Speaker 1: that why you think the rap sales are starting to decline,
Speaker 1: because like the authenticity des dropping.
Speaker 3: And then that's what it is. It's like, don't sell
Speaker 3: your soul, Like, don't let a label say here go uh,
Speaker 3: here go half a meal and we're gonna do this this,
Speaker 3: And you talk about all that because everybody is a
Speaker 3: role model, whether you're in the hood, being at the
Speaker 3: bus stop, going to work every day, Like we all
Speaker 3: are role models to some children out there, and we're
Speaker 3: losing it. And then, especially because I live here in
Speaker 3: Los Angeles, it's like I don't watch the news anymore.
Speaker 3: It's just just upsetting it because they only glamorize the
Speaker 3: shootings are then they don't glamorize enough of the shootings
Speaker 3: because if you have like citizens app or you watch
Speaker 3: a million hits out here on the YouTube and on Instagram,
Speaker 3: there's like five shootings a day. We don't know about
Speaker 3: it because they don't come to our community unless hits
Speaker 3: somebody that just you know, hurt each other. We need
Speaker 3: to be more aware of what's going on in our communities.
Speaker 3: And then music is a big influence. And I'm not like,
Speaker 3: I don't care what you talk about, what you rap about,
Speaker 3: but just know that it's overrated right now. We used
Speaker 3: to have rated or talk about the police, but this
Speaker 3: is set.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think one of the things you touched on
Speaker 4: was like selling your soul.
Speaker 1: I feel like almost all the interviews that I've done
Speaker 1: with recording artists their first album specific really kind.
Speaker 4: Of was like, Yo, that isn't me.
Speaker 1: I remember Neil telling me that's not me my first record,
Speaker 1: I gotta walk and Neil Neil had the courage to
Speaker 1: just be like I ain't doing it and riskying blackballed
Speaker 1: for a couple of years, I was, but God, but God,
Speaker 1: you know, had his back because he still came out shining.
Speaker 4: But that was a risk, risky move on him.
Speaker 1: But when you see some of these new rappers, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this label just put this out. This label's packaging this
Speaker 1: girl like this and it.
Speaker 3: It's so what happened with me after Easy I was
Speaker 3: eating he died? I was hungry, broke again being Tupac.
Speaker 3: So I connected Tupac and Busy Bone because Easy E
Speaker 3: had died. So I get in touch with pop again
Speaker 3: and I'm like, yo, because you gotta do a song
Speaker 3: with Busy Bone. He's like, oh yeah, that's the thug niggas.
Speaker 3: We was gonna hook up and do that, but you
Speaker 3: gotta be on the record. So I'm like, okay, you
Speaker 3: hear that. I said, Bee, Tupac gonna come. He gotta
Speaker 3: go do a Vasia She runway model show. He's flying out.
Speaker 3: He said, he gonna come before you go to the airport,
Speaker 3: so you get ready. So it wasn't the Bone thugs
Speaker 3: in harmony. It was Tupac, Busy Bone. Me and Tupac
Speaker 3: walked in dressed in all white, looking like whoo macavella.
Speaker 2: So he came in. He laid his part.
Speaker 3: I'll probably be punished for whoor living blind to the
Speaker 3: fact that Thugs is convicts in God's prison and am
Speaker 3: strip praying so Foca please forgive me. So I was
Speaker 3: on the original Thug Love, which that one was released
Speaker 3: and it's out on all the platforms.
Speaker 1: Now, is there something that most people don't know about? Like,
Speaker 1: is there a fun fact that I can I can
Speaker 1: get from this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, two fun facts for the new generation and for
Speaker 3: those that don't go to Google and look up wikipedias
Speaker 3: and stuff. A lot of people don't know my name
Speaker 3: is Lamar, Like I've never met a lady named Lamar,
Speaker 3: So I think that's kind of unique. And then a
Speaker 3: lot of people because I don't just say hey, I'm Lamar,
Speaker 3: but I get those writer credits and I'm like, yes,
Speaker 3: I miss Lamar. But a lot of people don't know
Speaker 3: that Omari, Well, his name is Omari, but you guys
Speaker 3: call him omar on Like a lot of people don't
Speaker 3: know that's my nephew omphew. Now everybody call me on tea.
Speaker 3: I am the West Coast favorite auntie. But bio logically,
Speaker 3: like a lot of people don't know.
Speaker 1: Have you ever has omarion and you ever talked about collaborating?
Speaker 3: We were like this close to collaborating. I want to
Speaker 3: say about five years ago, because you know I made
Speaker 3: it before my nephew.
Speaker 4: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3: And I remember, you know, my sister I was iront
Speaker 3: at thirteen. She had him when she was fifteen. So
Speaker 3: like when I made it, I could recall I have
Speaker 3: some touch and stuff too, because when I made it,
Speaker 3: I could recall getting my sister on payroll because she
Speaker 3: was doing the hairstyling.
Speaker 2: She was working the video straps. She can do braids.
Speaker 3: My sister was a bad She did my little hair
Speaker 3: pieces like she can weave, she can braid. So you
Speaker 3: know me, I'm little sis. My sister has four kids.
Speaker 2: Da da da da da.
Speaker 3: I'm like, yo, I'm gonna get you on payroll.
Speaker 2: You need to be a stylust. So I did that
Speaker 2: for my sister.
Speaker 3: And then this was with my first solo record deal
Speaker 3: where I wrote the hit record Romeo and Juliet. So
Speaker 3: it was my first album under RCA Records, which was
Speaker 3: entitled Raw Silk. And then the funny thing about this
Speaker 3: album is that I never signed a contract.
Speaker 4: So what does that mean.
Speaker 2: I never signed a contract all of it.
Speaker 3: So what happened is I got with Michael CONCEPTIONI on,
Speaker 3: Hey Mike, so, yeah, you know, I'm young. I didn't
Speaker 3: want to rap anymore. I'm like, fuck that Easy is dead.
Speaker 3: Tupac is dead. They believed in me. They didn't try
Speaker 3: to sexual harass me. It was like my brother said,
Speaker 3: by God. So I was really discouraged. So I went
Speaker 3: in as a writer for this Grand Jury Entertainment, which
Speaker 3: was a well known man in a wheelchair, Michael conception On.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, I don't want to be an artist,
Speaker 3: but I'm a hell of a writer. So they gave
Speaker 3: me the track and some girl Ain't Misbehave was rapping
Speaker 3: on it. But RCA wasn't buying the record. They were like,
Speaker 3: oh god, it's really corny. So the hook was already there,
Speaker 3: shouts out to McKinley, av that was black chill. So
Speaker 3: I get the track and it's like it's like Romeo
Speaker 3: with Juliet hot sex. So I'm like, oh, this is all.
Speaker 3: So I wrote the record. I'm telling him I don't
Speaker 3: want to be with grand Jerry. I know you're like
Speaker 3: big uncle Mike. So I wrote the record. They let
Speaker 3: I did the dummy vocals since the first time I
Speaker 3: saw you, so they gave it to the artists, ain't misbehave.
Speaker 3: So she went in to do the lyrics and it
Speaker 3: just didn't.
Speaker 1: So they end up releasing it under your Man. But
Speaker 1: how what did the money look like after that?
Speaker 3: Okay, so boom they I just wanted to be a writer. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they sent the girl in the studio to do it.
Speaker 3: She couldn't match.
Speaker 4: She couldn't do it, so they.
Speaker 3: Used my dummy vocals and they sent it to RCA.
Speaker 3: RCA's like, oh my god, her voice is so authentic.
Speaker 3: We want to meet her. They flew me to New York.
Speaker 3: I went in the RCA office New York. They were like, yeah,
Speaker 3: we can see it now. We want to do your
Speaker 3: silky fine album, and you know, blah blah this and that.
Speaker 2: So I'm kind of excited and I'm like okay.
Speaker 3: So we get back to Cali. Mind you, I never
Speaker 3: get a contract. Why because the production company signed a
Speaker 3: deal with RCA. Okay, so me as an artist, I
Speaker 3: never signed any contract. However, the you know, they do
Speaker 3: the meeting with RCA, we come back to California. They
Speaker 3: give me a check for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: Nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 4: And you didn't ask any questions.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I was like, they was like, this is your you know,
Speaker 3: bonus money. This is what we give you up front.
Speaker 3: Da da da da da, And I'm still questioning it,
Speaker 3: like you know, I never signed any paperwork, So okay,
Speaker 3: cool a day. So I did this album Ross Silk,
Speaker 3: Romeo and Juliet turned out to be a number one record.
Speaker 3: I was working with mattland Smith, which I worked with
Speaker 3: her from She was a publisher administrator. So I was
Speaker 3: working with Mattlinz Smith, which was the wife of Donovan Smith,
Speaker 3: which was the engineer of Easy. So I received all
Speaker 3: my royalties and all my money off the straight off
Speaker 3: the Street of Compton album.
Speaker 2: But when I get over here with.
Speaker 3: Grand Jury, mister conception ends up working with Madeline and
Speaker 3: then I don't get no fucking publishing.
Speaker 4: So you didn't get publishing on that.
Speaker 2: I didn't get on the hit record publishing.
Speaker 4: I don't know eye contact an entertainment attorney.
Speaker 2: I didn't get no fucking pusish.
Speaker 1: And this is how craft Tuna, mac and Cheese it
Speaker 1: comes about.
Speaker 3: Yo.
Speaker 4: We're gonna have to know a finished episode, man, so.
Speaker 2: So real quick.
Speaker 3: So I got that one hundred and fifty thousand up front. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I went and bought me at Mercedes. I paid my
Speaker 3: rent up for a year. I'm like, this is the beginning.
Speaker 3: I'm Stanley asking about the paperwork, like, how does it go. Oh,
Speaker 3: we're going to get the contract to you. Well, six
Speaker 3: months go by, no contract, My record hits number six.
Speaker 4: And the people that you're talking to white. I'm just curious.
Speaker 3: Michael can is supposed to be one of the guys
Speaker 3: who was the founder of the Crips along with Tookie Williams.
Speaker 3: He did We're All in the Same Gang, which was
Speaker 3: a nonprofit album, a compilation where none of the artists
Speaker 3: got paid, you know, so that sort of thing. So
Speaker 3: I clearly wanted to get paid for being a writer. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and get all my publishing. So then nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety nine, after the record sales and it's number one,
Speaker 3: and at the time, Rome was my label mate. Every
Speaker 3: time I see you face it makes me I love
Speaker 3: that record, Like Rome was an excellent artist. So you
Speaker 3: have Silki, fine, you have Rome top charting billboards, but
Speaker 3: you're not getting publishing.
Speaker 2: No publishing.
Speaker 4: Is there the end of the story where you can
Speaker 4: get the publishing.
Speaker 3: So then so then like we're dealing with nineteen ninety
Speaker 3: ninety eight. So I'm like, okay, my record, I went
Speaker 3: to New York because I got the Writer of the
Speaker 3: Year award. So now we're in nineteen ninety nine year
Speaker 3: and I got the writer It's hanging up in my
Speaker 3: room till this day, my easy e plaques all my work.
Speaker 3: So I get the Writer of the Year award to
Speaker 3: Lamar Sukie Fine Johnson. So I'm like, all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: that guy had got another artist named Lamar, which was
Speaker 3: a boy. So I'm like, okay, did he like give
Speaker 3: the publishing to that Lamar? It wouldn't add up. So
Speaker 3: he was like a very h People were afraid of.
Speaker 4: Him, so he said he was a founder of the crips. Yeah,
Speaker 4: people are afraid of him too.
Speaker 3: But he was in a wheelchair. So I'm like, I'm
Speaker 3: not afraid of him. But he had connections.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I get what you say.
Speaker 2: So boom.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, all of a sudden, the production company folds.
Speaker 3: We don't even there's no more Grand Jury Entertainment. He
Speaker 3: goes to mi Con Music, he switches the company name.
Speaker 3: I'm going off on ass cap like, I've been a
Speaker 3: writer with you guys for so many years. How do
Speaker 3: I have an asscap Writer of the Year. I'm registered
Speaker 3: Lorraine Lyrics under publishing. I'm telling you this is my voice.
Speaker 3: This is written by Lamar Johnson. Oh well, yeah, they
Speaker 3: never gave me a penny.
Speaker 1: So for all y'all entertainment attorneys reach out, there's gotta be.
Speaker 3: A Well that's why I say, you women don't know
Speaker 3: what it is to be up and down and hungry
Speaker 3: and broke and eating and broke and eating and broke
Speaker 3: and eating. So my worth I am a millionaire. Just
Speaker 3: to let you know my net worth. You know, they
Speaker 3: keep up with my network. So twenty years go by,
Speaker 3: I'm begging. They're lucky that I didn't become a drug addict.
Speaker 3: They're lucky that I didn't go crazy like the humiliation,
Speaker 3: but I am so strong. No lady could have their
Speaker 3: picture all over the billboards and the bus stop number
Speaker 3: one on the billboard, and about two years later you
Speaker 3: back at the bus stop.
Speaker 4: Oh and that's twenty years later.
Speaker 3: Twenty years later. I mean, yeah, thank goodness. I always
Speaker 3: went to school, so I do. I didn't go far,
Speaker 3: but I was almost to my bachelor's but I learned
Speaker 3: that when you study they start doing things online. You
Speaker 3: could just research get your own information. So I did
Speaker 3: receive my AA and journalism, and if I go take
Speaker 3: a couple of courses, I'll have my BA and broadcast.
Speaker 4: I never got the money, but.
Speaker 3: I didn't so I didn't get the physical money. So
Speaker 3: after twenty years, I'm like, now somebody gonna do something.
Speaker 3: So I wrote ASCAP a letter. I said, you know
Speaker 3: what an email I'm about to sue you guys. I've
Speaker 3: been a member of you guys. I have approved writer
Speaker 3: of the Year. You gave us man my credit because
Speaker 3: he claimed it ASCAP Publishing under Mike's rap, and then
Speaker 3: he went to BMI and claimed MI con music.
Speaker 4: So what did ascaps say to your email?
Speaker 3: So they got in touch with that company. They said, okay,
Speaker 3: we need a con track. Where's her signature?
Speaker 2: After twenty fucking years and the record then sold.
Speaker 4: All of this is really good h and they didn't
Speaker 4: have a contract, so.
Speaker 3: They were like, oh, it's in storage, we're gonna you know,
Speaker 3: like it was so far back. You never transferred your data.
Speaker 4: To files like so then what happened?
Speaker 2: So they never presented. They said, you have ninety days.
Speaker 3: If you do not come up with Lamar Johnson's signature,
Speaker 3: then we're gonna put everything back to her.
Speaker 1: Oh everything, Cause I was gonna say if it was me,
Speaker 1: I started drafting up my own fake contract two.
Speaker 3: Thousand and No, they couldn't prove any signature.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying I would have tried.
Speaker 2: You tell me.
Speaker 3: About heartbreak twenty years. I had to go back to work.
Speaker 1: So did they so, but they said it will go
Speaker 1: go to you if they can't find approved.
Speaker 3: Finally, in two thoy nineteen, they gave me back all
Speaker 3: my publishing.
Speaker 2: So I mean I could pull it up on my
Speaker 2: phone with me.
Speaker 1: Now, that is the best story I've ever heard.
Speaker 3: I wanted to fight. I wanted to go to his
Speaker 3: door five and just I wanted to.
Speaker 2: Blow his head off.
Speaker 4: Did you end up getting it in?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm still dealing with Sony Music because some type
Speaker 3: of way they had licenseeing and I didn't get paid
Speaker 3: out of that. So Sony Music, yeah, they know who
Speaker 3: I am. But how do you how do you like?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So have you considered just and this is my last
Speaker 1: question because we're over on time.
Speaker 2: I got a lot to say, but my MACARONI.
Speaker 4: Yo, I finished that whole magazine.
Speaker 2: It's good.
Speaker 4: It's soda, ain't good. My last question is ghostwriting.
Speaker 1: Are you have you considered ghost writing for some of
Speaker 1: the greats, the ghosts, because I mean you're very talented,
Speaker 1: or have you ghosts written?
Speaker 3: I used to write for Easy on his last album.
Speaker 3: I wrote a couple of songs on that album, so
Speaker 3: I would love I try to get the girls younger
Speaker 3: than me, Like if you use my flavor, you blow up.
Speaker 3: So then, like I don't know, I start saying there's
Speaker 3: no age limit, there's no time limit on greatness. So
Speaker 3: if Aretha Franklin want to come out after fifty years
Speaker 3: and do her a new song, she's gonna do it.
Speaker 3: If Patti LaBelle, she's gonna do it. So I'm like
Speaker 3: the Aretha Franklin a rap. So what I did was
Speaker 3: a Taylor Swift. Once they start giving me all my publishing,
Speaker 3: I re released Romeo and Juliet, and I want to
Speaker 3: thank all the youth, the younger people, the audience. Because
Speaker 3: I re released the same record. I didn't shoot a
Speaker 3: new video. That's why I'm like, who's coming? Nobody came
Speaker 3: for me? So evidently, Sony, you owe me some money
Speaker 3: for all these licenses with this record.
Speaker 2: So I'm getting down to that.
Speaker 3: But like I said, I have a rich spirit, so
Speaker 3: money could never make or break me because I am
Speaker 3: what I said, a creator. So it's like my spirit
Speaker 3: is so rich it always guided me to those physicians.
Speaker 3: And so I re released Romeo and Juliet. I'm at
Speaker 3: what five hundred eighty six thousand streams in eight months
Speaker 3: with no promotion independent, I get about nine hundred a
Speaker 3: month every month from Apple Spotify, you know, just extra income,
Speaker 3: which is more money than I ever made off of
Speaker 3: a number one record. Having did he shake my hand
Speaker 3: at Madison Square Gardens and telling me nice to meet
Speaker 3: the lady who took my number one spot on the billboards.
Speaker 3: We're talking nineteen ninety nine Madison Square Gardens, Mariah Carey,
Speaker 3: like I've performed with them, the crazy perfect example.
Speaker 4: He just dropped a new record.
Speaker 1: So I'm listening to lot to hearing where you're going
Speaker 1: next for all y'all listeners. Soakie, can you tell all
Speaker 1: our listeners how to keep up with you, how to
Speaker 1: follow you and support you. It's so to say it today,
Speaker 1: it's so easy.
Speaker 3: You guys, just stay tuned to what's real, what's popping,
Speaker 3: and what's rare.
Speaker 2: You can really google.
Speaker 3: Me f y k E, f y he and E.
Speaker 3: Don't spell it with an eye. They do it on purpose.
Speaker 3: It just irks me. Silk E fine, not the conceded.
Speaker 4: And what's what's your Instagram tag?
Speaker 3: Silk E fine? It's only one way to spell it.
Speaker 3: I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, I'm on.
Speaker 2: Twitter, and that's whis no eyes.
Speaker 3: That's wise no eyes because I am not conceved.
Speaker 1: And then can you just for the fun of it,
Speaker 1: I mean, I have to try this just because I
Speaker 1: love hip hop?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: Can you close out.
Speaker 1: With like a twenty second okay, because rap close out
Speaker 1: a twenty second rap for eating whalle broke in this
Speaker 1: whole situation.
Speaker 3: Hey, hey, hey, live with my girl Coleen, and I
Speaker 3: was eating while broke. Don't trip West Coast. Don't break
Speaker 3: your throat. I gotta hit him with a high note. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because you know it's murdered. They roh huh. I'm trying
Speaker 3: to figure out what happened to my boys. Poking easy.
Speaker 3: You know I'm still making noise. I don't care what
Speaker 3: they say, I am creativity. I'm'a do it born and
Speaker 3: raised in LA and i'm'a keep eating. And I might
Speaker 3: stay bro but my spirit is rich.
Speaker 2: Baby.
Speaker 3: I'm the utmost, but I'm really rich and I'm not materialistic.
Speaker 3: I kick it with Tuna Mac. Get it a.
Speaker 4: Peace out, y'all. Thanks for listening. Tuning in for more
Speaker 4: Eating while Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, Visit
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Speaker 4: your favorite shows.