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Speaker 1: Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. What's Up Everybody?

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Speaker 2: This is Sugar Steve from Quest Love Supreme as we

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Speaker 2: celebrate the holiday season. This felt like a worthy two

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Speaker 2: part classic revisit. Here is Mariah Carry. We recorded this

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Speaker 2: in the middle of the night, but it was worth it.

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Speaker 2: Mariah was promoting her book and she was an open

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Speaker 2: book to us. This is a really free and fun

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Speaker 2: conversation with one of the biggest superstars of music. Part

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Speaker 2: one originally air January thirteenth, twenty twenty one, but this

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Speaker 2: is timeless. Enjoy everybody and happy holidays and a healthy

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Speaker 2: new Year from Team Supreme and everybody at Quest Love Supreme.

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Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, Happy twenty twenty one. Let me just

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Speaker 1: start a preface that this intro might be twelve minutes,

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Speaker 1: but I'll cut to the chase. I consider all Quest

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Speaker 1: Left Supreian episodes to be top notch, some of my

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Speaker 1: favorite guests ever, but a few guests might shine a

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Speaker 1: little bit brighter. I won't even say the most, but

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Speaker 1: few of our guest on the shows sign just a

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Speaker 1: little bit brighter. As our fortune have it in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty one, this particular episode will shine very bright. Notice

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Speaker 1: the holiday Christmas motifs I'm using. I will say that

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Speaker 1: for the last three decades, our guest has been Music

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Speaker 1: Royalty out the Gate, fifteen studio albums, seventy two singles,

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Speaker 1: over two hundred million records sold globally. I will say

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Speaker 1: that for of those records, Riot, Daydream, Music Box and

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Speaker 1: Emancipation have sold one hundred million copies combined. Just those

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Speaker 1: four she is the best selling female artist globally. And

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Speaker 1: she practically, she literally owns Christmas. Her her recordal All

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Speaker 1: Want Yes Christmas is twelve months away, but still she

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Speaker 1: owns Christmas. Her All I Want for Christmas is the

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Speaker 1: biggest selling song in the world and all parts of

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Speaker 1: the globe, not even just the United States for the

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Speaker 1: second time already. It is broken crazy records. It's the

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Speaker 1: all time biggest selling streamed song. I didn't even know that,

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Speaker 1: at seventeen point two million for streams in one day.

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Speaker 1: It's the first single by a female artist in history

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Speaker 1: to be certified five times platinum in the UK, which

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Speaker 1: is not an easy feed at all. She's the first

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Speaker 1: artist to rank number one on the chart for distinct decades,

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Speaker 1: For distinct decades. She reached number one this year, officially

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Speaker 1: on the UK Singles charts, after twenty six years a

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Speaker 1: gap in between. It's the first holiday song in history

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Speaker 1: to be number one in the US and the UK

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Speaker 1: at the same time. So Fuck White Christmas by bing

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Speaker 1: Crossby Her Apple specials number one and more than one

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Speaker 1: hundred countries across the world. Her book is a New

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Speaker 1: York Times bestseller and number one on Audible. I have

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Speaker 1: to say I'll be here all damn day, Ladies and gentlemen.

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Speaker 1: How did we get the one and only Mariah Carrey

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Speaker 1: on quest of supreme Please welcome? Thank you?

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, thank you, thank you, thank you officially made it.

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Speaker 3: We've arrived.

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Speaker 1: Yes, we have made it.

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Speaker 4: No, I listen, I've been stressing out about this because

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Speaker 4: I know that I am not queen of technology, nor

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Speaker 4: am I queen of musical technical moments of discussion.

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Speaker 1: Look we are we are.

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Speaker 3: I swear.

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Speaker 1: We are four nerds that just like music. Like, trust me,

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to okay, I do. Your first question

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Speaker 1: is okay, so you're Yamaha Dix seven patches on your

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Speaker 1: first album, right, like, please don't ask me those nerdy

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Speaker 1: stuff that you ask about, like keyword patches and all this.

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Speaker 5: Oh thank god. I mean, you know, that's cool, that's it.

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Speaker 1: She hates that as well. How how are you today,

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Speaker 1: I'm good.

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Speaker 4: I'm good. Actually, it's we're having a little celibratory moment.

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Speaker 4: So you mentioned Christmas, and I just want to say

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Speaker 4: this is totally off topic, but I'll just say it anyway.

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Speaker 4: So we had an incredibleness this year and all the things,

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Speaker 4: all the things, but because it's COVID and I can't

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Speaker 4: really I haven't gone anywhere in months, almost a year,

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Speaker 4: just at a paranoid about the whole thing. And it's

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Speaker 4: not paranoid, it's just being saved. But yeah, so so

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Speaker 4: here I am enjoying like my first little party and

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Speaker 4: cheers to you guys. So cheers you have me flash

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Speaker 4: as we talk. But I did want to say thank

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Speaker 4: you for having me. And yeah, I was a little

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Speaker 4: bit like, clearly I know Greg filling games by any expect.

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Speaker 1: Nice one.

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Speaker 4: And by the way, I did hear when he when

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Speaker 4: you said, oh, the Mariah Carey Boys to men elevator

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Speaker 4: and he was like, well, that's the Greg filling games

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Speaker 4: later and I'm like that's cool, but can they pay

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Speaker 4: me back, like, can can they hit battery give me

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Speaker 4: those millions of dollars back that I used to cost

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Speaker 4: to record it. I'm sorry real for them. I'm sorry.

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Speaker 3: It is how we need to keep it. This question

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Speaker 3: of Supreme talk that sh.

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Speaker 4: No, it's nothing, it's nothing. It's just that. Really, I

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Speaker 4: can't even imagine how much money people used to spend

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Speaker 4: in on recording, you know, to record their albums or

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Speaker 4: whatever they recording in these major studios, Like just to

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Speaker 4: be in a big studio. I know how I felt,

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Speaker 4: because come on, just to be there, just to say

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Speaker 4: I'm at the Hit Factory on blah blah blah blah Street,

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Speaker 4: I'm at right Track, I'm at Quad, I'm at whatever.

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Speaker 4: But here I'm know for like I'm at Quad, but I'm.

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Speaker 1: Just wait, did you ever record a Quad?

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Speaker 4: Of course I have.

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Speaker 1: Yes, you went to Tupac Central.

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Speaker 4: Wow, I lived at Tupac Central. Yes I did, and.

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Speaker 5: We recorded there too. Couest love Supreme.

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Speaker 1: I know that, but I would expect us to be there.

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Speaker 5: It's funny.

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Speaker 4: That's the same type of thing that goes on in

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Speaker 4: terms of people's perception of me, Like yeah, I went

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Speaker 4: to Quad. Yeah, I'm not gonna.

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Speaker 1: Say, I'm not saying that recording at uh something high

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Speaker 1: level like Sony or D and D studios is beneath you,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, even I would prefer to be at at

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Speaker 1: its time when Sony was a great studio record at

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Speaker 1: or Electric Lady as opposed to D and D or

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Speaker 1: you know.

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Speaker 4: Like Electric Lady. We love Electric Lady, of course, and

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Speaker 4: the history and the whole thing of it all, and

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Speaker 4: I need to be the give the utmost respect to this.

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Speaker 4: The history of it all is everything, and we know

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Speaker 4: the room and the way it sounds in the rooms

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Speaker 4: and the way they sound and everything. We'd love that.

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Speaker 4: But yes, the glitzy and glamorous new like they're not

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Speaker 4: new now, but like you know, the head factories of

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Speaker 4: the world give you a different type of thing.

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Speaker 1: So can I ask now that you know, for the

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Speaker 1: last thirty years you've been recording at studios and they were,

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Speaker 1: you know, plentiful. In the last three decades now they're

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Speaker 1: almost like far and few between. I know Manhattan, there's

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Speaker 1: probably maybe seven left that are still up and running

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Speaker 1: and in good condition. Does that wear you little bit

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Speaker 1: that or have you adjusted already? Like have you made

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Speaker 1: music on your laptop yet. Have you you know Allah,

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Speaker 1: you know Kanye and jay Z making watch the thrown

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Speaker 1: in a hotel room in bathrooms, Like, have you adjusted

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Speaker 1: to that yet?

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Speaker 4: Or I absolutely have and not because they did it.

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Speaker 4: I started doing this. I'm going to say probably the

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Speaker 4: Rainbow album. Actually I'm trying to think that far back. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: so that's ninety nine, but yeah, I started. So I

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Speaker 4: went to Randy Jackson, not of the Jackson five, but

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Speaker 4: Randy Jackson. Randy, Yeah, Randolphin and we love him, I said, Randy,

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Speaker 4: I love going other places I'm recording. So me and

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Speaker 4: my engineer, Brian Garton, we would go wherever. We would

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Speaker 4: just go. He would set up a room, even if

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Speaker 4: I literally sang in the bathroom, he would set up

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Speaker 4: a soundproof situation and we would run the wires at

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Speaker 4: that point through he would I didn't. I didn't run

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Speaker 4: the wires, but if he would, you know, figure it out,

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Speaker 4: and we would record that way. Because I wanted to be,

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Speaker 4: whether it's Puerto Rica, wherever I wanted to be from

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Speaker 4: my own peace of mind. And like Amir, we've talked

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Speaker 4: about this, where you're like, I don't want to be

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Speaker 4: in a comfortable environment. I like to feel like that criminess.

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Speaker 4: And I understand that too. I don't know that I'm

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Speaker 4: not speaking for you and saying exactly what you said,

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Speaker 4: but I think I'm on the same page as what

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Speaker 4: you were saying.

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Speaker 1: Oh, that's exactly what you were saying.

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Speaker 4: Forward to studio, Yeah, exactly. But I spent I feel

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Speaker 4: I've spent enough years in uncomfortable studios, starting from when

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Speaker 4: I was eighteen years old, sleeping in the floor, sleeping

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Speaker 4: on the floor in the little studio behind it in

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Speaker 4: the back of the woodshed, which I talk about in

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Speaker 4: my book, but on the floor sleeping there because I

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Speaker 4: had no money to have a real studio situation. So anyway,

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Speaker 4: cut to ninety nine and I started kind of like

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Speaker 4: traveling in order to record. Actually it happened right after

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Speaker 4: the Butterfly album, which is like the year before, because

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Speaker 4: I was just trying to figure out, like where can

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Speaker 4: I do this, How can I do this? And then

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Speaker 4: I connected with my couple different engineers I was working

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Speaker 4: with and we figured it out. So Randy Jackson back

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Speaker 4: to that, he said, damn, man, I have this studio

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Speaker 4: that you would love and capri and it's on top

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Speaker 4: of a mountain. And blah blah blah. It was like

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Speaker 4: please like anything you have. So I ended up falling

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Speaker 4: in love with this studio called Capri Studios and another

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Speaker 4: Italian word that I can't pronounce, but anyway, I slept

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Speaker 4: in a little room next to the live room and

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Speaker 4: I would actually recorded several songs there, and then when

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Speaker 4: we were doing the immense I did the Chombracet album

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Speaker 4: there and other places. Basically we just traveled. It was

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Speaker 4: a traveling studio, so it was you know, pro tools

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Speaker 4: and just a setup on his laptop and then you know,

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Speaker 4: making the room so it's not super for Yeah, so

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Speaker 4: we had all of that, like we had we had

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Speaker 4: all of that together, and then I would just love

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Speaker 4: it because honestly, like and this is a total sidebar,

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Speaker 4: and I'm sure you're going to edit this however or

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Speaker 4: maybe not. But one of the things I learned early

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Speaker 4: on from Luther when we did our for our collaboration

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Speaker 4: on Endless Love we make yes and he was one

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Speaker 4: of my all time favorite people and tones like just vocal,

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Speaker 4: just the texture, and he felt that there was a

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Speaker 4: similar type of this is what he said to me,

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Speaker 4: type of like when you hear the harmonics sometimes within

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Speaker 4: the breathy tone. And he was telling me in order

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Speaker 4: to preserve that with that haven't always listened to and

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Speaker 4: have gotten back into it now. But he was like,

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Speaker 4: you need to be in a place like a very

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Speaker 4: warm and humid climate in order to preserve that. The

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Speaker 4: desert la everywhere else is really really bad for you.

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Speaker 4: Just always remember, like if you are in those places,

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Speaker 4: make sure you have like humidification, like all the humidifiers

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Speaker 4: in the land, like you need to have it. And

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Speaker 4: I have that.

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Speaker 1: Go ahead, Okay, I have a question, Okay, okay, so secretly, yeah,

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Speaker 1: behind all of your backs and by all of you

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Speaker 1: or I'm talking about singers. I I quasi eye roll

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Speaker 1: because I always thought that that was psychosomatic. So let

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Speaker 1: me let me ask the question first, okay, is okay?

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Speaker 1: So is that whole thing now? Just to give it

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Speaker 1: a little backstory, You're at the tonight show. Okay, when

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Speaker 1: Aretha Franklin was alive, she would only agreed to come

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Speaker 1: on this show if we killed all of the air

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Speaker 1: conditioning in thirty Rock. And the thing is, it's not

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Speaker 1: like one particular floor can control the temperature. So if

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Speaker 1: we turn off the air condition for Aretha Franklin that

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Speaker 1: affects like seven floors, which basically says that we should

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Speaker 1: modernize and update our temperature system. But whenever Aretha comes,

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Speaker 1: it would be a nightmare because then it would be

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Speaker 1: ninety eight degrees in this building and they would have

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Speaker 1: to turn off the air at two in the morning

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Speaker 1: the night before, and then her guy would come in

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Speaker 1: test it, and then she'd would you know, she'd come in.

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Speaker 1: So it's said that her voice, her throat would closed

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Speaker 1: or whatever and that sort of thing. Is that really true?

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Speaker 4: I believe it to be true, and particularly for Ritha. So, Amir,

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Speaker 4: you have me laughing because I know you read my

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Speaker 4: memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey shameless plug. But I'm

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Speaker 4: going to say it because we talk about Aretha and

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Speaker 4: when we were doing what was the Devis Live? Yeah yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 4: so she and Ken Rlick, we love Ken r Lick. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: And knowing that if I say something negative, he's gonna

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Speaker 4: be pissed off of me like he always gets. But

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Speaker 4: you know, I'm just being I'm just keeping in one hundred.

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Speaker 1: This is what happened, Supreme, trust me.

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Speaker 4: No, no, no, you're not. But he has a way

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Speaker 4: of hearing. So I love Ken, you love him, he

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Speaker 4: did my first naked show. Blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: we love Ken. So but here's what was happening. So

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Speaker 4: I was like, I'm in a pop culture spiral right now,

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Speaker 4: and I can't even believe this. So I'm sitting there

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Speaker 4: and you know, I already know because I just told

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Speaker 4: you about Luther and the recommendations like that was not

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Speaker 4: in front of any camera. That was not for any

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Speaker 4: reason other than he was like, preserve the tone, right,

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Speaker 4: He was like, just do these things. And I never

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Speaker 4: knew anything about the humidity blah blah blah. Anyway, so

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Speaker 4: when I first sang with Aretha that night, obviously I

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Speaker 4: was completely intimidated and flipping out and scared and everything else. Right,

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Speaker 4: So we're getting ready to go on the stage and

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Speaker 4: all of a sudden, there's this whole hoopla happening, and

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Speaker 4: I hear, you guys are are we just really pissed

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Speaker 4: off Ken? Ken Carl comes by and he's like, she's

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Speaker 4: not happy. I don't know what's going to go on.

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Speaker 4: I'm right just gonna say, you know, wait and see

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Speaker 4: what happens. Right, So I'm like, this is a big

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Speaker 4: moment in my career, Like it's right at the beginning

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Speaker 4: of Butterflies, all this and all that. But again, Wreatha

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Speaker 4: is the queen, so everybody's waiting. We were basically you're

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Speaker 4: all there in reverence. I know I was in reverence

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Speaker 4: of the queen. So so yeah, so I said, well

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Speaker 4: maybe because he said she always does this, she always

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Speaker 4: does this, and he's like, oh, I don't worry, she

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Speaker 4: always does this. And I'm like, okay, I go, can

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Speaker 4: I just maybe rehearse with her? Because I don't know

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Speaker 4: what this, what's gonna this is gonna be, So I

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Speaker 4: just just want to have a little moment so you know,

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Speaker 4: and also you want to be I had met her before,

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Speaker 4: and we had had, you know, our moments and great moments,

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Speaker 4: and but never this type of thing. So anyway, I

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Speaker 4: guess I'm not. I don't remember exactly how it happened,

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Speaker 4: but she ended up saying, okay, we can rehearse in

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Speaker 4: her tripper. So I walk into the trailer and she

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Speaker 4: goes Mariah, they're playing games and I'm not having the game. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: so we won't so we won't be rehearsing tonight and.

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Speaker 1: Saying with the frank, yeah that was a great How

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Speaker 1: long did it take you to nail that?

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Speaker 4: No? Honest, So you know my friend Treyla Wrenz, right,

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Speaker 4: he was just saying yes, yeah, yes, Florence, South Carolina.

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Speaker 1: Home Florence.

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Speaker 3: Oh wow.

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Speaker 1: He talked about fish sandwiches in all right, South Carolina.

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Speaker 4: He told me he just texted me tonight. He's like,

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Speaker 4: he's like, I love him. He asked me about the fish. Sam.

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Speaker 6: Yes, we're all but anyways, so yes, Be and Trey

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Speaker 6: always you know, we Revere a lot of singers, and

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Speaker 6: we don't do it to be funny, like we're not impersonating,

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Speaker 6: and it's just you sort of embody them when you're

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Speaker 6: telling the story because this is how it happened.

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Speaker 1: So you know what I mean.

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Speaker 4: I kind of do impersonations on the side, not really,

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Speaker 4: but it's not an impersonation. It's just me telling exactly

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Speaker 4: how it happened. So anyway, back to the story, so

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Speaker 4: we won't be rehearsing tonight, and I'm like, so anyway,

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Speaker 4: we work where they got her. And here's one thing

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Speaker 4: that I always say, and this is not that musicians

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Speaker 4: don't know. This or people like you guys who are

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Speaker 4: like professors of it all. But being that Big Jim Right,

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Speaker 4: the late Big Jim Right who we love, my former

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Speaker 4: musical director who passed the way I believe it's almost

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Speaker 4: three years ago now, but he was her musical director,

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Speaker 4: Miss Franklin's musical director as well, so he was just like,

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Speaker 4: this is prior to me working with Big GYM. I

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Speaker 4: don't even know how I got on this tension, but

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Speaker 4: he was just like, you know, she takes that queen

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Speaker 4: stuff very, very seriously, so it's a real thing. So

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Speaker 4: he would say, you know when it's she's such a

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Speaker 4: such a brilliant musician and her play her skills as

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Speaker 4: a piano player were insane and people don't even they

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Speaker 4: don't even realize that. So anyway, that's one of the

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Speaker 4: things that I revere her the most about, like that

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Speaker 4: musicality she had, and I wish people and I know

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Speaker 4: it's a female thing, and I know it's because her technical,

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Speaker 4: her vocals and her whole thing was so incredible and

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Speaker 4: the whole diva persona that they don't even they didn't

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Speaker 4: even look at it, like, look at this woman plays

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Speaker 4: the musician ship and obviously when you watch, like, I'm

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Speaker 4: trying to think, was it don't play that song or

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Speaker 4: the one where she did. She she's playing live and

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Speaker 4: it's the black and white video and you see her

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Speaker 4: playing from back in the day with the whole ensemble. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: you know what it is. But anyway, you see that

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Speaker 4: only in certain moments. Anyway, so they so cut too

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Speaker 4: Deevi's live back again. So they got her a keyboard,

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Speaker 4: put it in her in her trailer and they're like, Okay,

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Speaker 4: you guys can go rehearse this right now. So she

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Speaker 4: had wanted to do dream Lover. We had a little

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Speaker 4: rehearsal I guess the day before or something, and then

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Speaker 4: she got out of there because it wasn't the air

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Speaker 4: conditioning situation wasn't right. So she was like, I really

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Speaker 4: liked what you did. I really like your sean Dreamlover.

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Speaker 4: I think that would be a wonderful way to go.

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Speaker 4: And I was just like, oh my god, she goes

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Speaker 4: dream Lover. Anyway, I was like, can we just do

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Speaker 4: Chain of Fools? Because I just couldn't. It was too

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Speaker 4: much from my heart to actually here were song and

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Speaker 4: try to do it. So anyway, tailor she she played

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Speaker 4: the song. She played, Uh, we figured out the key

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Speaker 4: and what we're gonna do and stuff, and we kind

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Speaker 4: of went back and literally five minutes or maybe maybe

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Speaker 4: ten and a couple of little moments. I never knew

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Speaker 4: she was an Aries. I'm an Ares. We're born two

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Speaker 4: days apart from each other, different years. But she I

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Speaker 4: said something she would like us. So a few more

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Speaker 4: typical larries. I she Knowlemon Areas so, and you know

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Speaker 4: Diana ross Is in those few couple of days of

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Speaker 4: Billie Holliday, Sarah vond there's a lot of these divas

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Speaker 4: that I grew up idol Shaka Khan and other areas idolizing.

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Speaker 4: And I found this out from Maretha Franklin. I never

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Speaker 4: even knew anyway. So we rehearsed a little bit and

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Speaker 4: and the thing is, there was a huge, huge issue

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Speaker 4: about the AC and she goes like this. At one point,

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Speaker 4: in front of like my whole crew, she goes, what

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Speaker 4: are these people doing that's making them so hot? Why

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Speaker 4: do we need it?

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Speaker 1: Why?

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Speaker 4: And it just I was just like, Wow, it's really

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Speaker 4: real for her. And if you ever saw when she did,

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Speaker 4: I believe it was for Barack Obama. She did something

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Speaker 4: for the second term, and she was out of window

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Speaker 4: and it was cold and it was freezing, and she sang,

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Speaker 4: I don't remember what the song was. I believe it

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Speaker 4: might have been the star slang, but I don't remember

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Speaker 4: the one of the inaugurations, like yeah, but she wasn't outside.

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Speaker 4: She she actually apologized on Larry King Live. She went

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Speaker 4: and she apologized because she had to. And by the way,

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Speaker 4: obviously it was more than fine. She just wasn't up

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Speaker 4: and down the scale doing a million whatever. It was great,

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Speaker 4: but she felt the need to tell people that the

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Speaker 4: cold air had foiled her. And I get it because

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Speaker 4: I know I've been that hell with that type of

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Speaker 4: thing and way worse. But the thing is that level

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Speaker 4: of like she knew that she wanted to actually in

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Speaker 4: her mind kill it, and that cold air was messing

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Speaker 4: with her. So you have to to me whatever somebody says,

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Speaker 4: like if you told me I can't play drums when

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Speaker 4: they don't have like a specific light shine, like it

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Speaker 4: is what it is, like that was her thing, But

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Speaker 4: I do believe it's an actual it's an actually it's

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Speaker 4: a physical situation where the throat the cords do tighten.

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Speaker 1: Up, so let me ask, because uh, obviously you're you're

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Speaker 1: world famous for your active range. What is your active range?

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Speaker 1: You're five to six?

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Speaker 4: I don't know, and neither do you say one of

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Speaker 4: our favorites, it's going to happen. Here's the truth. You

387
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Speaker 4: would know better than me, Like I don't know. I've

388
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Speaker 4: told people know this, some people do, some people don't.

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Speaker 4: My mind other was sang with City Opera. She was,

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Speaker 4: you know, she had a wonderful and still does to

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Speaker 4: this day, range and beautiful depth of her voice. She

392
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,040
Speaker 4: wasn't a color to a soprano at stuck a metsa soprano,

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Speaker 4: but she has this range. So she would look at

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Speaker 4: me with my little moments and be like, you're gonna

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Speaker 4: hurt yourself. What are you doing?

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Speaker 3: Like what is this?

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Speaker 4: What? I was the opposite, and so I, you know,

398
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Speaker 4: we have our issues and blah blah blah blah. But

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Speaker 4: I do appreciate the fact that she didn't force me

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Speaker 4: to try to become an opera singer because first of all,

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Speaker 4: I don't think I have that in me, And second

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Speaker 4: of all, because I respect that level of what that

403
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:49,080
Speaker 4: takes to be that and to understand that and then

404
00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:52,159
Speaker 4: to interpret really like you have to really stick to

405
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Speaker 4: the composer and do exactly what it is. There's not

406
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Speaker 4: much room for, you know.

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Speaker 3: Impro conversation.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. I love feeling like you're channeling and doing whatever

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00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:07,040
Speaker 4: you want, particularly with writing and melodies and having those

410
00:24:07,119 --> 00:24:10,199
Speaker 4: flow through you. So I would have been stifled had

411
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Speaker 4: I had I tried to do what she did, because

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Speaker 4: I'm not that disciplined. I'm just not that disciplined.

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Speaker 1: So let me ask, because I know that your high

414
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Speaker 1: register is world famous. I know that in your your

415
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:32,199
Speaker 1: Christmas special, especially with the Misty Copham portion, you're singing,

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00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,600
Speaker 1: You're you're singing. Uh, I don't know if it's Carol

417
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:37,639
Speaker 1: the Bells or or the Nutcracker.

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Speaker 4: It's a shape, there's an there's an exact title. But

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Speaker 4: the sugar Plump Fairies.

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Speaker 1: Yea, the sugar Okay, So you're doing you're doing your

421
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Speaker 1: your trademark what we call the Mariah whistle. How how

422
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,760
Speaker 1: how long can you instantly turn that on at any

423
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Speaker 1: time of the day or do you have to like

424
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:02,800
Speaker 1: seth Riggs work your my sole before you can reach

425
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:06,879
Speaker 1: those levels? Like can you just turn that on at

426
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Speaker 1: any given moment of the day, twenty four hours.

427
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Speaker 4: Uh, it depends, like honestly, all of it depends, like

428
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:21,240
Speaker 4: all the different ranges depend on sleep and humidity, mainly sleep,

429
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Speaker 4: but sometimes it's it's a weird thing. So I've kind

430
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:29,359
Speaker 4: of studied it. And sometimes even if I'm completely hoarse,

431
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,159
Speaker 4: the whisper as they call it, the whisper register is

432
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:37,440
Speaker 4: even more strong and clear then if I'm not horse

433
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 4: because it's the it's the the upper register is sort

434
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:43,560
Speaker 4: of like that was where it's just sort of like

435
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:46,200
Speaker 4: when you're closing the vocal cords and it's the very

436
00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 4: very tippy top of what you're using in terms of

437
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 4: those that upper upper register. But if I'm just sitting around, yeah,

438
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:56,760
Speaker 4: I can access it. But when I'm on, when I

439
00:25:56,880 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 4: feel like pressure, it's less accessible than when I'm just

440
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:04,480
Speaker 4: sitting around the house, you know and just playing around

441
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:08,119
Speaker 4: and singing. However, like when I'm under pressure, it's always

442
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:09,960
Speaker 4: screwed up every part of my voice, so was screwed up.

443
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 4: I'm sitting there because my nervousness takes over and I

444
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 4: really am more of a quote unquote studio rat where

445
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:22,400
Speaker 4: I love to play around with it, experiment, do whatever,

446
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 4: create it as part of the melody. You know what

447
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:30,000
Speaker 4: I mean, whether it's upper registered, lower mid, background vocals,

448
00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 4: layering of background vocals, whatever, it is, all of that.

449
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,200
Speaker 4: Even when I do the background vocals and the upper

450
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 4: register as a part. For me, that's my instrument. That's fun. Actually,

451
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 4: one time James Brown told me the only first and

452
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:45,280
Speaker 4: only time I ever met him back in the days

453
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 4: at the American Music Awards, the first time I was

454
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:50,800
Speaker 4: ever there, and they were, can I give you this

455
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:54,159
Speaker 4: segue because everybody else, Yes, we believe.

456
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 1: You're already my favorite guest on.

457
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 4: No. No, I'm just like, this is how I talk.

458
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:03,880
Speaker 4: We're back and forth with things, so I don't want

459
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 4: to be like.

460
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:06,200
Speaker 1: All over the place, you know, you know, like when

461
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 1: black people eat and they don't say nothing at Mama's

462
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:11,919
Speaker 1: house because the food are good. Like this is ues

463
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,040
Speaker 1: right now, Like we're not talking over you or anything.

464
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:17,199
Speaker 7: We're just like and these stories are our time capsules.

465
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:19,119
Speaker 7: This is good too, you know, to remember this and

466
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 7: have these James Brown. Yes, let's talk about James Brown.

467
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:24,960
Speaker 4: Let's talk about James Brown. I don't know a mirror.

468
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 4: If you've got the message before. When I was playing, yeah,

469
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:32,240
Speaker 4: I was, I was.

470
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's make Christmas mean something this year.

471
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 4: Which is one of my favorite Christmas songs, but it's

472
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 4: on my loop of Christmas music. We have that, and

473
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 4: we have Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto, and

474
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:48,360
Speaker 4: then many other James Christmas quote unquote hits that I've

475
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:50,920
Speaker 4: made Christmas hits in my household because I just played

476
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 4: the round and then we get stuck on the James

477
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:55,159
Speaker 4: my phone. I'm like, I love you, James Brown, but

478
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 4: I need to hear like a little mixed street. And

479
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:01,720
Speaker 4: so when I had never met James Brown, obviously, it

480
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:05,320
Speaker 4: was my first year in the industry, and somebody said

481
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:10,159
Speaker 4: to me, I'm in I'm in my trailer. And this

482
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:14,399
Speaker 4: is when I was very much sequestered under that sony

483
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:21,080
Speaker 4: world of whatever. Yeah yes, prior to singing thing and

484
00:28:21,119 --> 00:28:24,400
Speaker 4: all of that, but anyway, under that thing. And then

485
00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:27,400
Speaker 4: so I'm shocked that they even told me that James

486
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:29,240
Speaker 4: Brown wanted to meet me. They're like, James Brown wants

487
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:34,120
Speaker 4: to meet you. So that's a huge thing. So I want,

488
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:36,119
Speaker 4: you know, I'm like, oh my gosh, like, okay, let

489
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 4: me go to his trail, Let me do the respectful thing.

490
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,280
Speaker 4: Let me walk in see what it is. So I'm

491
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:43,520
Speaker 4: sitting there and and we just meet and whatever, and

492
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 4: I'm just like shocking off, shocking off, and he's like,

493
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,000
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna do an impersonation of him.

494
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:51,960
Speaker 3: But he was like this, I was waiting for that.

495
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 1: Everyone.

496
00:28:57,680 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 4: You guys can do it when I'll tell you the text.

497
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:02,280
Speaker 4: But he was like, this is no surprise to me.

498
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:04,760
Speaker 4: This is no surprise to me. This is basically the

499
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:07,480
Speaker 4: success is no surprise to me. He's like, you use

500
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 4: your voice as an instrument. You use your voice as

501
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 4: an instrument. So that was a humongous compliment because I

502
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 4: know what he's talking about, because you can hear what

503
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 4: he does those like this, this screw. I'm not sure

504
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 4: how we how we categorize what he does with it

505
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 4: did with his voice. No, he knew that, Like, using

506
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 4: that upper register is a thing, whether you're doing it

507
00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 4: as to accentuate something like he would do, or whether

508
00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 4: you're doing it like you were talking about a mirror

509
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:38,040
Speaker 4: with the car not the caroll the bells, the sugar

510
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 4: plung ferry. Yeah, did that as an acapella moment for

511
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:45,920
Speaker 4: the album. Prior to this past year, which was just

512
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:49,400
Speaker 4: a reissue of some Christmas songs, but I said, let

513
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:51,360
Speaker 4: me do something new, and I did like that little

514
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:57,520
Speaker 4: acapella acapella part with and the high parts on top

515
00:29:57,560 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 4: of that.

516
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,880
Speaker 1: What is your, uh, at least your warm up ritual?

517
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:09,360
Speaker 1: Like as far as like, is it a lot of tea?

518
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 1: Is it a lot of Usually if I do shows

519
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:16,959
Speaker 1: with other guest or whatever, like, I'll look in their

520
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:19,920
Speaker 1: dress room to see what their writer is, so I'll

521
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,360
Speaker 1: see like Stevie Wonder's thing is, you know, two giant

522
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 1: te's and all these honey's and then Shaka Khan has

523
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:30,840
Speaker 1: a thing where it's Aca Nation and whatever. Like what

524
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:34,720
Speaker 1: before live performances, not before your studio stuff? What is

525
00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: your ritual?

526
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:38,959
Speaker 4: Can I just say that I used to have a ritual,

527
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:46,120
Speaker 4: and I've been through many facets of that ritual. It

528
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 4: started when I was a background singer and I was

529
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 4: looking at what the other like the background singers that

530
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 4: I really looked up to, I e. Cindy, Myzell and

531
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:56,680
Speaker 4: many other.

532
00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: You know, and Lisa and all their crew, the whole crew.

533
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 4: But I really spent the most time around Cindy before

534
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:06,000
Speaker 4: I even had a deal. And I talk about this

535
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,719
Speaker 4: a record deal in my book I haven't even heard

536
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 4: from her, but I did a whole like basically like

537
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,959
Speaker 4: almost a whole chapter about how much I revered her

538
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 4: just from looking at the credits when she would be

539
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:20,120
Speaker 4: when she and Audrey Wheeler would do like a lot

540
00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:23,400
Speaker 4: of these background parts, and I could tell on like

541
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,280
Speaker 4: many of these hop records where it clearly wasn't the

542
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 4: lead singer doing these parts, right, but it was with

543
00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 4: these incredibly beautifully sacked backgrounds, and I was like, oh

544
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:39,640
Speaker 4: my gosh, Cindy myself. So I wind up in a

545
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,560
Speaker 4: session for TM Stevens. Right, I'm like eighteen years old.

546
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:45,959
Speaker 4: I'm at this session. I know we just totally went

547
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 4: off topic again, but do you want to hear this story?

548
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 3: The on topic go on? We want all the stories.

549
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 1: That's my man.

550
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 4: It's the topic is relevant because the question was about

551
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 4: my writer. But I'm telling you where I got this

552
00:31:57,600 --> 00:31:58,040
Speaker 4: thing from.

553
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 1: So yeah, we are the Where the Rabbit Hole show?

554
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:03,080
Speaker 1: So you're you're right on top of.

555
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 4: Okay, cool. So so I'm at this This is prior

556
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 4: to anyone ever hearing of me. I had a dollar

557
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,320
Speaker 4: a day. I had to choose between the subway and

558
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:15,080
Speaker 4: the H and H bagels when I'm living uh yeah,

559
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 4: for real, and I'm on above. I was living above

560
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:19,880
Speaker 4: you know where Rascals. You guys know where Rascals on

561
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:22,560
Speaker 4: fourteenth Street is on the on the east side.

562
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 2: No, but I know H and H Bagels and and

563
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 2: I hope you chose bagels over subway every time.

564
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 4: Because when I lived, when I would go to the

565
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:37,520
Speaker 4: H and H Fagels is when I lived closer to

566
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 4: the Upper west Side. So the H and H Bagels

567
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:41,840
Speaker 4: that I used to go to was the one on

568
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 4: seventy ninth Street, right is that that was that where

569
00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:44,800
Speaker 4: that one is?

570
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:47,840
Speaker 1: I went to the one on the upper upper east side.

571
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 4: I don't know it's gone, it's gone, it's not even there.

572
00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:53,720
Speaker 4: I know they got shut or whatever. But back then

573
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:56,400
Speaker 4: that was my meal for the day. So it was

574
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:58,480
Speaker 4: either way subway. And I used to work at this

575
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 4: place called Sports Broadway on seventy seven and so I

576
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 4: would take the subway back and forth. But anyway, I

577
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:08,240
Speaker 4: had to decide whether it was walking or eating a bagel.

578
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 4: So that's why I was when I first came out

579
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:15,360
Speaker 4: to the public as a singer. Anyway, back to the story,

580
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,360
Speaker 4: So prior to all that, I was well, during that time,

581
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 4: I started getting background vocal gigs or whatever, and so

582
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:26,240
Speaker 4: I wound up after being a huge fan of Cindy

583
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:29,200
Speaker 4: as a background singer and a ranger, and whenever, I

584
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 4: wound up working doing a session for TM Stevens. And

585
00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 4: I'm sitting there next to Cindy myself, so I'm like,

586
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:40,240
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, this is Cindy, So mind you. I'm there.

587
00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 4: My shoes have holes in them. I'm in like one

588
00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:45,560
Speaker 4: little It probably looked like pretty much like this today

589
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 4: but a little bit different, but.

590
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:49,440
Speaker 1: Anyway, like a million bucks, Okay, I get it.

591
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:51,840
Speaker 4: My stomach was rumbling.

592
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:52,800
Speaker 5: We're on the mic.

593
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 4: She's hearing my stomach rumbling. She's looking at my shoes

594
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,320
Speaker 4: and she's like, you know, beautiful and perfect and everything,

595
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:03,040
Speaker 4: and she's like, what you know, you got to get

596
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 4: something to eat. I'm like, yeah no. And then she

597
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:08,920
Speaker 4: just like we're doing the thing, and I'm telling you

598
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,279
Speaker 4: I did not have it together. She was such a

599
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:16,279
Speaker 4: professional in terms of stacking vocals, getting it perfect. The

600
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 4: next one has to line up perfectly. You know, I'm figuring,

601
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:21,120
Speaker 4: I'm not in the pocket. I'm all over the place.

602
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:23,920
Speaker 4: After that session, I really like learned a lot and

603
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 4: learned a lot from her. But anyway, that was that

604
00:34:27,160 --> 00:34:29,720
Speaker 4: first song with Tim Stevens, and she was and Cindy

605
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:31,920
Speaker 4: was like, just call me. And I talked about this

606
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 4: in the book, to just call me, you know, whenever,

607
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,080
Speaker 4: if you wantnother you know, if you need anything. And

608
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 4: I never want to bother people. So I never ended

609
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 4: up calling her. Then I saw her for another session.

610
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:43,600
Speaker 4: She was like, she said, why didn't you call me?

611
00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:45,640
Speaker 4: I said, well, I just I didn't know, you know.

612
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:49,040
Speaker 4: She's like, no, You're supposed to call me. And I'm like, oh, okay,

613
00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 4: I don't know the etiquette. I don't know why we

614
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:54,719
Speaker 4: ended up working together over the years, but I will

615
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 4: say to answer the question and to circle all the

616
00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:01,480
Speaker 4: way back, I believe that back then it was the

617
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:05,919
Speaker 4: maybe the Red Singer tea Celestial Seasonings tea.

618
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:07,520
Speaker 5: I love Red Zinger.

619
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:13,879
Speaker 4: With the Honey Honeybear and like a ton of the honey.

620
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:16,880
Speaker 4: There was a ton like Debora Cooper and a lot

621
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:18,640
Speaker 4: of other singers I was working with. They would do

622
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 4: Depra Cooper sang on a lot of the CNC Music

623
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:28,160
Speaker 4: Factory stuff way back when. Okay, really nice person and anyway,

624
00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:30,960
Speaker 4: they used to do cayenne pepper. Do you ever hear

625
00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:34,239
Speaker 4: singing that do cayenne pepper to like clear if you're sick.

626
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:36,360
Speaker 3: If you're sick, it gets it clears.

627
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 1: Like I know, Eric do use this cayne pepper a

628
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:40,520
Speaker 1: lot in her that.

629
00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:45,839
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I would respect that, you know, but I don't.

630
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:48,799
Speaker 4: That doesn't help me. I need like I even drink

631
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,640
Speaker 4: like tea with milk sometimes, like English breakfast.

632
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:56,359
Speaker 1: You drink milk. I thought, milk is wow.

633
00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:00,279
Speaker 4: That sometimes for me it's a coating and and it's

634
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:04,160
Speaker 4: different than the lemon stripping stuff, so I don't know,

635
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:06,680
Speaker 4: it's really it's really whatever. And right now we're drinking

636
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:09,680
Speaker 4: this and it's absolutely spectac yes.

637
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:11,920
Speaker 1: And that far I use cream cheese.

638
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 3: He to my My go to would be for vocals

639
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:20,760
Speaker 3: out Always tell people mys, it saved me so many times.

640
00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:23,720
Speaker 3: Coconut water with pineapple juice.

641
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:24,759
Speaker 4: Mm hmm.

642
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 1: That shit has saved me.

643
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 3: So many times.

644
00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:27,719
Speaker 1: Cocaine water.

645
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:30,320
Speaker 3: I don't like the taste of it, but that shit works.

646
00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:35,760
Speaker 4: It's the coating and the pineapples really good too. I agree.

647
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:38,520
Speaker 4: It's just I feel like you try all different things,

648
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:40,840
Speaker 4: and I've been through ups and downs with it all. Honestly,

649
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 4: for me this whole year with COVID and everything, not

650
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 4: to sing for my supper and travel around and not

651
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 4: get the right sleep or you know, just be put

652
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 4: on this thing where there's a certain amount of stress

653
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:56,680
Speaker 4: for me that takes away a lot of stuff. So

654
00:36:57,480 --> 00:36:59,960
Speaker 4: I'm just like emotionally like that's where I need to

655
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 4: be centered or whatever. But it's being off kind of

656
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:05,800
Speaker 4: like taking off work has really helped my voice, I

657
00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:08,120
Speaker 4: think in a lot of ways, just being able to

658
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:11,439
Speaker 4: have like stress free And so I'm just like saying

659
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:12,840
Speaker 4: and everyone's like, oh, you got to get back in

660
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:15,200
Speaker 4: the studio, like you got to get back to singing,

661
00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:15,680
Speaker 4: And I'm like.

662
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 3: I know, do you feel like getting back into it?

663
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:20,759
Speaker 3: I know you just put out Caution, you know, in

664
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:23,359
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen, but are you kind of feeling like it's

665
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 3: to drop some new shit?

666
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:29,600
Speaker 4: Yes, but honestly a different approach. And I don't even

667
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 4: want to go into what it is, because when I

668
00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:33,919
Speaker 4: did Caution, I loved some of the songs from Caution,

669
00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:37,800
Speaker 4: but I don't think I was at the place vocally

670
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:42,239
Speaker 4: where I could be now. Also, it was rushed, not

671
00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:44,279
Speaker 4: that it was rushed and I look at my best,

672
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:47,960
Speaker 4: most critically acclaimed album, and you know, I think that's

673
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:51,520
Speaker 4: because the critics have changed and shifted since back in

674
00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:53,600
Speaker 4: the days, like believe it or not. If you look

675
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,000
Speaker 4: at those things, it's the most favoric thing in the album.

676
00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 4: But what I was going to say is that I

677
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,640
Speaker 4: didn't have the time time I would normally take, and

678
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 4: I really wish I did have that time to do

679
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:07,520
Speaker 4: a few more records on that album to just, you know,

680
00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:11,040
Speaker 4: fully have that expression. But what are you going to do?

681
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 4: Like it was a much more of like, oh, we

682
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:15,800
Speaker 4: got to get her back and have people know she

683
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:17,719
Speaker 4: put out a studio, And then they screwed that up

684
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:20,160
Speaker 4: with the way they gave away these instant grats. Oh

685
00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:22,960
Speaker 4: we're gonna do instant grats? Why just for this?

686
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:26,279
Speaker 3: What is what's the instant grat?

687
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:29,600
Speaker 4: What is that instant grat is when they give away

688
00:38:29,640 --> 00:38:31,560
Speaker 4: a song rather than have it be a part of

689
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:33,799
Speaker 4: an album. So and I just learned about this two

690
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:34,640
Speaker 4: years ago too.

691
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:43,359
Speaker 8: So like yeah, gangster bbdes wait, I'm sorry, man, that's yeah,

692
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:46,520
Speaker 8: I'm sorry for that reference.

693
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:48,240
Speaker 3: Wait for record.

694
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:50,799
Speaker 1: I love that song. I know they're trying to hide

695
00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:53,960
Speaker 1: it like a red hitad Stepschild, but I'm sorry, I

696
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 1: don't remember that.

697
00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 3: I remember.

698
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:01,279
Speaker 1: Video. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that was supposed to be

699
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: like their big comeback single. But because it kind of tanked,

700
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 1: then they try to act like we never did.

701
00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:09,120
Speaker 3: It, like and then they came back with Above the Rim,

702
00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:10,680
Speaker 3: and it was like, yeah, y'all could have just rolled

703
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:11,360
Speaker 3: with Gangster.

704
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:16,919
Speaker 1: Right exactly. Yeah, but yeah, labels start putting out red

705
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:21,279
Speaker 1: carpet records or red carpet singles just to announce and

706
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:23,479
Speaker 1: album that's coming out without putting it on the record

707
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 1: or whatever.

708
00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 4: Well, here's the thing, if you do for your actual fans, right,

709
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:32,600
Speaker 4: because my the lamily, they don't care about getting an

710
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:34,840
Speaker 4: instant grat. They just want to see the record do

711
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:38,640
Speaker 4: well like and they want to music. So these stupid

712
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:42,000
Speaker 4: instant grats and this is no shade to anybody. We know.

713
00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:45,000
Speaker 4: They didn't have to do it like that. So like

714
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:48,399
Speaker 4: the instagrats here, let's get on instagrat. Then they got

715
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:51,200
Speaker 4: on another Instagrat. So at that point, you're like three

716
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:54,120
Speaker 4: singles in that you gave away for free, when you

717
00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:56,600
Speaker 4: could have just had a whole experience with your fans

718
00:39:56,920 --> 00:40:01,239
Speaker 4: like this here product that's what I'm saying. So it

719
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 4: just came like, that's why when you ask the question

720
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:07,720
Speaker 4: about like caution and vocally, No, I mean I recorded

721
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:10,279
Speaker 4: that at home as well. I walked back and forth

722
00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 4: and basically I have my own little vocal booth. That's

723
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 4: a really cute vocal booth that they made for me.

724
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:16,960
Speaker 4: I wouldn't name check the company, but right now I

725
00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 4: can't remember the name. And we take it wherever and

726
00:40:21,719 --> 00:40:25,319
Speaker 4: it's really cute. It's black and pink and don't inside there.

727
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:25,920
Speaker 5: And we're obo.

728
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, my little booth. But I recorded most of all

729
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:38,960
Speaker 4: of that album pretty much there. And what's the studio Henson? Yeah,

730
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:40,920
Speaker 4: you're the world in.

731
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that's one of my favorite places.

732
00:40:46,640 --> 00:40:52,880
Speaker 4: Synchronicity and didn't record there too. We recorded, yeah, and

733
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:56,960
Speaker 4: it's Michael Jackson room right where Michael like supposedly laid

734
00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:59,839
Speaker 4: on the floor and listened to those speakers. I don't

735
00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:01,080
Speaker 4: know they tell many a story.

736
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 1: No, no, No, he did record at Hintson, but I

737
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:08,759
Speaker 1: gotta I don't know which project it was for. But yes,

738
00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:10,560
Speaker 1: Famous We Other World.

739
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 4: Was made there, Yes, and have that picture.

740
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:17,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the thing you know, when you talk

741
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:20,319
Speaker 3: about caution, you know you saying that you didn't feel

742
00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:21,880
Speaker 3: like you were vocally kind of where you want to be.

743
00:41:22,520 --> 00:41:22,680
Speaker 1: You know.

744
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:24,960
Speaker 3: The reason I think that record was so well received,

745
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:28,040
Speaker 3: and what I liked about it was that you were

746
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 3: It's very hard, you know, for artists that you know,

747
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 3: if you know, have been in the game, you know

748
00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:35,400
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, as long as you have, and I

749
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:38,200
Speaker 3: sold as many records when they quote unquote come back,

750
00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:41,040
Speaker 3: they end up trying to just copy what the youngest

751
00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:43,160
Speaker 3: is doing, and that ship up sound to corny, you

752
00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:44,880
Speaker 3: know what I mean. But I like the way that

753
00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:47,560
Speaker 3: you were able to kind of do you know, to

754
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:50,640
Speaker 3: compete with what you know, the contemporary artists were doing,

755
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,279
Speaker 3: but it still sounded like you. And that was the

756
00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:55,680
Speaker 3: thing I really liked about that record. It was it

757
00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:58,480
Speaker 3: was Mariah, but it was like, yeah, this is her

758
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:00,480
Speaker 3: in this context, like you had the record with Dollar

759
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:01,920
Speaker 3: and Gunna and you know what I'm saying, but it

760
00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 3: was like, she's still doing Mariah. And I think that

761
00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:08,440
Speaker 3: you know, for your fans, you know, particular my generation,

762
00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 3: we just you know, appreciated the way you came back

763
00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:14,000
Speaker 3: and was showing like yeah, I'm you know, I'm Mariah.

764
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:15,920
Speaker 3: But I can still bang with you, motherfuckers.

765
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:19,320
Speaker 9: I'm not.

766
00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:21,520
Speaker 4: This is And by the way, my fans get really

767
00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:25,400
Speaker 4: mad when I they think I shaved my own albums

768
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 4: or songs. That's not what I'm doing.

769
00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:28,040
Speaker 3: I'm saying.

770
00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:33,680
Speaker 4: And I appreciate you saying those things about Caution the album,

771
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:36,239
Speaker 4: because I really do like it as an album. But

772
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 4: I'm saying it to put it up against like and

773
00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:41,719
Speaker 4: this is not even a fair analogy, but like Butterfly,

774
00:42:42,239 --> 00:42:44,719
Speaker 4: I had all the time in the world I had.

775
00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:46,640
Speaker 4: I went in there and did what I wanted. I

776
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:48,719
Speaker 4: worked in Florida, I worked in New York, I worked

777
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 4: wherever I wanted, and really put the time into it.

778
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:55,320
Speaker 4: But with Caution, and with the way the record industry

779
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:59,879
Speaker 4: is now, we don't have that luxury of time, like yeah,

780
00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:01,200
Speaker 4: like some people do.

781
00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:06,040
Speaker 1: So do you believe in deadlines as in like okay,

782
00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:08,879
Speaker 1: well do you like plan the tour first? And okay,

783
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 1: I got to finish this album four months? Or is

784
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:17,960
Speaker 1: the album done when you say it's done, then we

785
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:22,600
Speaker 1: move on with the campaign. I don't know how it

786
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:32,279
Speaker 1: is for Upper Echelne. Yeah, is it like if you

787
00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:35,000
Speaker 1: agree like, okay, we're going to tour the summer from

788
00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:37,480
Speaker 1: May to September. Then I gotta have this record out

789
00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:40,680
Speaker 1: by March. So do you are you a deadline sticker

790
00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:44,000
Speaker 1: no matter what? Or is it like, this album's not

791
00:43:44,160 --> 00:43:47,880
Speaker 1: coming out unless I'm goosebump happy about it?

792
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:52,560
Speaker 4: Okay? So I would say that that's how it should be,

793
00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:56,600
Speaker 4: and that's and that's how it used to be. But

794
00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,239
Speaker 4: one also one thing that I do want to your

795
00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:04,120
Speaker 4: point about touring, I was never touring artist, and that

796
00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:06,960
Speaker 4: was a deliberate choice I think on behalf of certain

797
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:16,320
Speaker 4: CEOs of Sony. Okay, because there was a conscious effort,

798
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:19,239
Speaker 4: and I have no problem with this looking back at it.

799
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:22,719
Speaker 4: I'm very grateful for it now on some levels, and

800
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 4: on other levels I'm like, I didn't get to kind

801
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:27,759
Speaker 4: of like, what's the thing called when you cut your

802
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:29,600
Speaker 4: teeth and record?

803
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:29,919
Speaker 3: Yeah?

804
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:34,200
Speaker 5: So I because what's the reason, Because what's the reason.

805
00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 5: Why wouldn't they why wouldn't they want you to dour?

806
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:41,320
Speaker 4: Because it was more financially beneficial for me to continue

807
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:44,640
Speaker 4: to make album after album after album. Yeah, to record.

808
00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:46,680
Speaker 4: So if you look at it, and then you look

809
00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:51,800
Speaker 4: at my first album through when I left, Wow, I

810
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:55,440
Speaker 4: was still on Sony, but like through Rainbow, like I

811
00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:57,319
Speaker 4: just did, and Rainbow was because I wanted to get

812
00:44:57,360 --> 00:44:59,560
Speaker 4: off the label. So I just did that album in

813
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:01,479
Speaker 4: three months. And I still love some of the songs.

814
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:03,920
Speaker 4: But I did that like super fast because I was like,

815
00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:06,200
Speaker 4: I got to get the hell out of this toxic situation.

816
00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:10,120
Speaker 4: Not because it's sony, but because of the professional intertwinement

817
00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:14,680
Speaker 4: that was going on with that situation. Yeah, sing sing,

818
00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:17,120
Speaker 4: But but in the beginning, it was like, just make

819
00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:20,160
Speaker 4: the records, make the records, make records, sing sing like

820
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:22,880
Speaker 4: right right, you know all this stuff. And if I

821
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 4: didn't want to write, I would have. I'm sure life

822
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:27,480
Speaker 4: would have been easier, but I have the need. I

823
00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:31,400
Speaker 4: love writing. To me, I'm a writer first and and

824
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:35,279
Speaker 4: and I love being in the studio. But I never

825
00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:38,440
Speaker 4: The first tour I did was really aside from like

826
00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:43,280
Speaker 4: promo tours, from the very beginning with just the incredible

827
00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:48,160
Speaker 4: Richard T and you know Trey and Patrick McMillan and

828
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 4: the old.

829
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:51,839
Speaker 1: Time Richard T was your touring keyboard player.

830
00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:56,920
Speaker 4: Richard T played on song Vanishing from my first.

831
00:45:56,760 --> 00:46:00,600
Speaker 1: Album as in studio, yeah, I love okay and that.

832
00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:06,799
Speaker 4: Is the and then he was an incredibly I mean

833
00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:11,359
Speaker 4: just mammoth in terms of his legendary status, and we did.

834
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:15,239
Speaker 4: He did come out and do some shows with me,

835
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:19,719
Speaker 4: and then it wasn't t obviously Yeah, but these were

836
00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:22,480
Speaker 4: this is before there was like people filming. There were

837
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,600
Speaker 4: people filming and that type of thing, like I he

838
00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:28,320
Speaker 4: and then I don't know if you ever saw this America,

839
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:32,120
Speaker 4: the beautiful performance that I did for the NBA playoffs.

840
00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:33,960
Speaker 4: I know nothing about sports, so I'm saying it wrong.

841
00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:38,040
Speaker 1: But like my first first time that you debuted before

842
00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:38,720
Speaker 1: I went.

843
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:41,640
Speaker 4: On our senior Hall, which was my first like TV appearance.

844
00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:44,920
Speaker 1: Yea, the entire world saw that.

845
00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:50,560
Speaker 4: Every the NBA thing where if you look it up,

846
00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 4: and it's not only my real fans know it, but

847
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:55,040
Speaker 4: Richard T did the piano track. I went there with

848
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:59,040
Speaker 4: a track to Detroit. I know nothing about sports whatever

849
00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:02,319
Speaker 4: in record respect him, like, oh, those kids they said

850
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:06,439
Speaker 4: I would not map tied nothing. They were watching those

851
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:09,520
Speaker 4: jocks from the school they were watching. So I had

852
00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:11,480
Speaker 4: I had to do my own hair and makeup. I

853
00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:13,880
Speaker 4: had my one black dress. I walk in on the

854
00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:17,040
Speaker 4: thing and it's Richard T's piano track. You can find

855
00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:21,680
Speaker 4: it right now. I'm here and I found it on

856
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:24,520
Speaker 4: the piano and we worked it out together. I sang

857
00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:27,400
Speaker 4: it with him prior to going there and performing it,

858
00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:30,520
Speaker 4: but we like did it together in terms of the arrangement.

859
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:33,560
Speaker 4: And then I had his piano track and that was it,

860
00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:35,640
Speaker 4: and I had to go sing and nobody knew who

861
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:38,560
Speaker 4: I was, and they introduced me ladies and gentlemen, uh

862
00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:45,680
Speaker 4: Columbia recording artists Mariah Carrat to like and then but

863
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:48,279
Speaker 4: then at the end of it, it's the Shining Sea

864
00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:50,840
Speaker 4: and the note, and it was like the most of it.

865
00:47:50,960 --> 00:47:53,120
Speaker 4: Who was the man? I love him. I don't even

866
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:54,680
Speaker 4: want him to ever hear this and think I don't

867
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:56,680
Speaker 4: remember his name, but I'm so bad with sports. The

868
00:47:56,840 --> 00:47:59,600
Speaker 4: announcer and you'll see it if you look it up,

869
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:02,640
Speaker 4: and he's like lo Palace, Now, how's the Queen? And

870
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:05,040
Speaker 4: the goosebumps will continue? And I talk about in the book,

871
00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:07,680
Speaker 4: but I didn't. I would love to name check him.

872
00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:10,600
Speaker 4: I'm just so bad with sports that I always forget.

873
00:48:12,360 --> 00:48:14,080
Speaker 5: Marvin probably.

874
00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:18,560
Speaker 1: Probably mar Alt, Yes, I think I.

875
00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:20,680
Speaker 4: Know that's not his same, but he's famous. I can't

876
00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:22,160
Speaker 4: think of it now. But anyway, that was Richard T

877
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:24,560
Speaker 4: and Richard T played a really big part in that

878
00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:27,400
Speaker 4: early part of development.

879
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:30,719
Speaker 1: That's that's impressive company. Because Richard t' is a legend.

880
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:32,600
Speaker 3: I was going to ask, did you have to fight

881
00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:34,520
Speaker 3: to write your own material? Because that was something that

882
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:39,440
Speaker 3: pop singers, you know, they damned they weren't permitted, you know,

883
00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:41,840
Speaker 3: to write their own stuff. So what was that like

884
00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:42,120
Speaker 3: for you?

885
00:48:43,239 --> 00:48:45,960
Speaker 4: Well, okay, so that was to me, that was the

886
00:48:46,080 --> 00:48:51,279
Speaker 4: one thing that I really held tight onto starting out

887
00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:53,560
Speaker 4: as like having my first demo. So my first demo

888
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 4: and some of these songs are not my favorite, and

889
00:48:56,080 --> 00:48:58,400
Speaker 4: I just I like the demos better. But I was

890
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:00,640
Speaker 4: always writing songs from the time I was a little love,

891
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:03,960
Speaker 4: I vote poetry, I heard melodies, I did all that.

892
00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:08,680
Speaker 4: But so when I got my after like working with

893
00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:10,759
Speaker 4: a few different people and I started working on my

894
00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:15,360
Speaker 4: first demo. By the time it got into Tommy Mottola's hands,

895
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:20,040
Speaker 4: that demo had well, it ended up the demo ended

896
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:25,600
Speaker 4: up being Vision of Love. The demo version Someday Alone

897
00:49:25,680 --> 00:49:30,640
Speaker 4: in Love and ultimately vanishing like the original demo had

898
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:34,839
Speaker 4: had at least had one number one song, which ended

899
00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:36,800
Speaker 4: up being some Day. But you know, that's like my

900
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:39,359
Speaker 4: least favorite song. But I like the demo, I hate

901
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:39,800
Speaker 4: the record.

902
00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 1: I told her. I told her this last night. Some

903
00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:51,640
Speaker 1: day might be inadvertently responsible for my career.

904
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 5: Oh Chocolate, No, No, yeah, exactly, no, I kind of.

905
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:06,720
Speaker 1: Well no, Well, in short, uh, I was auditioning for Tarika,

906
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:08,600
Speaker 1: and I went to New York to audition. I went

907
00:50:08,640 --> 00:50:13,480
Speaker 1: to audition for colleges to uh Julliard and the News School,

908
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:16,960
Speaker 1: And on the train ride home, some girl thought that

909
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:20,560
Speaker 1: I was Chocolate playing the bucket drummer.

910
00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:23,720
Speaker 3: That Chocolate ride had the bucket drummer on the video.

911
00:50:23,760 --> 00:50:26,920
Speaker 1: Right, and also in Spike Lee's well you know, he

912
00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:30,600
Speaker 1: was also in Spike Lee's Levi's commercial, so she thought

913
00:50:30,600 --> 00:50:33,000
Speaker 1: I was the Levi's guy, when actually I was the

914
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:38,720
Speaker 1: Motown Philly guy. So the next the next day, Tarik

915
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:41,759
Speaker 1: is in my living room and after a commercial, uh,

916
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:45,520
Speaker 1: we're watching Soul Train and when that Levi's commercial comes on,

917
00:50:46,400 --> 00:50:49,200
Speaker 1: Treik was like, yo, that girl thought he was the

918
00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:52,759
Speaker 1: Mariah Carey guy anyway, so we might as well just

919
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:56,719
Speaker 1: do that. And then wow, four hours later, the Roots

920
00:50:56,760 --> 00:51:01,920
Speaker 1: are doing their first show on South Street. So yes,

921
00:51:02,560 --> 00:51:04,279
Speaker 1: thank you to Someday. Yeah.

922
00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:07,560
Speaker 5: I used to always tell people y'all came first.

923
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:17,719
Speaker 3: All right, so you talk about those demos? How did

924
00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:20,680
Speaker 3: you cut those original demos? Because you if you was

925
00:51:20,719 --> 00:51:23,640
Speaker 3: couldn't afford, you know, to eat, How did you How

926
00:51:23,680 --> 00:51:25,279
Speaker 3: did you afford it? And how did you meet Walter?

927
00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 4: Walter came later. Walter was I met through Naught and

928
00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:35,239
Speaker 4: Michael Walden and was doing a lot of production for

929
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:38,600
Speaker 4: him in that I'm trying to think of the name

930
00:51:38,680 --> 00:51:40,920
Speaker 4: of the actual area and it's like in the Bay

931
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:45,960
Speaker 4: Area kind of up in that San Francisco, but beyond Thomas,

932
00:51:46,200 --> 00:51:47,480
Speaker 4: I'm trying to think of the name of the studio.

933
00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:50,360
Speaker 4: You could, you could find out what it is. But anyway,

934
00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:54,680
Speaker 4: so Walter was working in that world but prior to that, way,

935
00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:57,640
Speaker 4: prior to that, and also Randy Jackson was around there.

936
00:51:57,800 --> 00:51:58,800
Speaker 4: Like that's how I met.

937
00:51:58,680 --> 00:52:00,879
Speaker 1: Everybody that started his whole crew.

938
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:03,640
Speaker 4: Yet his whole crew, and he had a lot of

939
00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:10,360
Speaker 4: really great people, musicians, support system, whole thing. But anyway,

940
00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:13,440
Speaker 4: that's like when I first before my first record, everybody

941
00:52:13,560 --> 00:52:15,360
Speaker 4: was like, oh, she would go work with an order

942
00:52:15,840 --> 00:52:20,080
Speaker 4: now in order to answer the question to preserve my

943
00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:25,320
Speaker 4: ability or to ensure my like just being able to

944
00:52:26,120 --> 00:52:28,560
Speaker 4: be a writer, and not to be forced to do

945
00:52:28,640 --> 00:52:31,600
Speaker 4: other people's songs. When I saw my idea, like I said,

946
00:52:31,600 --> 00:52:34,000
Speaker 4: I already had that demo that had, you know, songs

947
00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:35,880
Speaker 4: that people could look at and go, oh, she's she

948
00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:39,560
Speaker 4: wrote this, Okay what I worked with? At first, I

949
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:44,399
Speaker 4: met Gavin Christopher, who did I'm coming wanstead up.

950
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:50,080
Speaker 1: I've had I've had three legendary arguments with singers on

951
00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:52,359
Speaker 1: the internet, and Gavin Christopher is one of them.

952
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:56,920
Speaker 4: Sorry, I haven't seen him since way back then. I

953
00:52:57,000 --> 00:52:59,560
Speaker 4: haven't seen him since way back then. And he wasn't

954
00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:02,120
Speaker 4: even really like She's the next star, Da da da,

955
00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:04,719
Speaker 4: but he was cool enough to work with me and

956
00:53:04,840 --> 00:53:07,000
Speaker 4: blah blah blah. And then from him, because I was

957
00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:08,960
Speaker 4: in high school, I was like sixteen years old, So

958
00:53:09,080 --> 00:53:11,920
Speaker 4: then from him I met this guy named Ben Marca.

959
00:53:12,040 --> 00:53:14,560
Speaker 4: Lee's blah blah blah. It's all in the book. But

960
00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:18,879
Speaker 4: we worked in his dad's studio, which for the time,

961
00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:22,719
Speaker 4: I was lucky to be at any studio. But it

962
00:53:23,440 --> 00:53:27,000
Speaker 4: was a small studio in the back of a woods shop.

963
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:30,880
Speaker 4: And you know, they I guess they must have had

964
00:53:30,920 --> 00:53:33,839
Speaker 4: some money, because I surely didn't. They were like twenty five,

965
00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:36,480
Speaker 4: twenty six, and I was a kid in high school,

966
00:53:36,719 --> 00:53:41,080
Speaker 4: so I was just happy to be there working and writing,

967
00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:44,440
Speaker 4: and then I would get up. I would stay there,

968
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:47,840
Speaker 4: and then I would try to drive back to the island,

969
00:53:48,080 --> 00:53:51,160
Speaker 4: try to drive back to Long Island, which I hated

970
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:54,200
Speaker 4: that whole experience, but whatever, I would wind up lost

971
00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:57,719
Speaker 4: in Brooklyn by myself. You know, it's no cell phone

972
00:53:57,920 --> 00:53:58,960
Speaker 4: people at cell phones.

973
00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:03,839
Speaker 9: And GPS, and I was just like in this piece

974
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:08,480
Speaker 9: of crap cutless Supreme from like whatever, nineteen eighty or something,

975
00:54:08,719 --> 00:54:11,120
Speaker 9: and I'm sitting there driving getting lost everywhere.

976
00:54:11,200 --> 00:54:13,719
Speaker 4: But it was worth it because I would get there.

977
00:54:13,719 --> 00:54:15,840
Speaker 4: I would always be late to school. I would you know,

978
00:54:16,080 --> 00:54:19,239
Speaker 4: make my fake forged notes and get to school. But

979
00:54:19,400 --> 00:54:21,239
Speaker 4: really the reason I was late I could do my

980
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:23,879
Speaker 4: mother's signature perfectly. The reason I was late is because

981
00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:25,880
Speaker 4: I was working in a studio. But that's so I

982
00:54:25,920 --> 00:54:28,520
Speaker 4: started working with Ben and we made this demo with

983
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:30,160
Speaker 4: a lot of songs that we wrote. And this year

984
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:33,239
Speaker 4: when we released the Rarities, there's a few of the

985
00:54:33,360 --> 00:54:36,520
Speaker 4: song well really one song that we wrote together called

986
00:54:36,600 --> 00:54:38,600
Speaker 4: here We Go Around Again, which back then I love

987
00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:41,400
Speaker 4: the demo, but when we went on to make the album,

988
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:43,920
Speaker 4: they just tried to reinvent the wheel because the demo

989
00:54:44,120 --> 00:54:47,800
Speaker 4: was better anyway. So I had these songs and people

990
00:54:47,880 --> 00:54:50,040
Speaker 4: felt that they could be hits. The label felt they

991
00:54:50,040 --> 00:54:52,239
Speaker 4: could be hits. So when I was signing my deal,

992
00:54:52,280 --> 00:54:54,360
Speaker 4: even though I signed it like the worst deal in

993
00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:57,840
Speaker 4: history because it was through that production company, the PA,

994
00:54:57,960 --> 00:54:59,319
Speaker 4: I don't know if it the worst deal in history

995
00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:02,320
Speaker 4: is pretty bad. But the one thing, thank god, I

996
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:05,560
Speaker 4: didn't do was sell my publishing for five thousand dollars.

997
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:11,160
Speaker 4: That was yeah, that was presenting me as an option.

998
00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:15,080
Speaker 4: So five thousand dollars sounded like five one hundred million

999
00:55:15,120 --> 00:55:18,240
Speaker 4: dollars to me at that point. And luckily I didn't

1000
00:55:18,239 --> 00:55:20,600
Speaker 4: because I had seen a documentary on the Beatles and

1001
00:55:21,080 --> 00:55:25,439
Speaker 4: their whole thing, okay, yeah, and what they gave away,

1002
00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:28,359
Speaker 4: so I knew better than to do that. But when

1003
00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:30,279
Speaker 4: I did sign my ideal, the one thing I said

1004
00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:31,880
Speaker 4: to the lawyer because I knew I was kind of

1005
00:55:31,920 --> 00:55:33,920
Speaker 4: giving away a lot, but you don't know, as a

1006
00:55:34,040 --> 00:55:36,680
Speaker 4: broke kid that grew up with nothing, you don't know what.

1007
00:55:37,280 --> 00:55:40,000
Speaker 3: You don't have leverage to negotiate for anything better.

1008
00:55:40,960 --> 00:55:42,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, And plus I was too young to even be

1009
00:55:42,680 --> 00:55:46,200
Speaker 4: signing my own record deal anyway. So I was like,

1010
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:48,520
Speaker 4: you know, and my mother didn't know. She came into

1011
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:50,560
Speaker 4: the room and just trying to help. You know, I'm

1012
00:55:50,600 --> 00:55:53,239
Speaker 4: here as the guardian, but she didn't know. So I

1013
00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:55,319
Speaker 4: just said to the lawyer, I said, the one thing

1014
00:55:55,400 --> 00:55:58,280
Speaker 4: I want to make sure is that nobody can force

1015
00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:01,360
Speaker 4: me to do somebody else's song, Like, I just have

1016
00:56:01,480 --> 00:56:03,480
Speaker 4: to make sure that they can't force me to do that.

1017
00:56:04,120 --> 00:56:07,160
Speaker 4: So even when they would direct me to work with

1018
00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:10,680
Speaker 4: producers over the day that they wanted me to work

1019
00:56:10,719 --> 00:56:13,239
Speaker 4: with for whatever Warren or.

1020
00:56:15,040 --> 00:56:15,480
Speaker 7: No or.

1021
00:56:17,520 --> 00:56:20,000
Speaker 1: A name at the time, they.

1022
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:22,839
Speaker 4: Didn't force me to work with any songwriters. They they

1023
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:27,120
Speaker 4: suggested that I work with, be it Rett Lawrence or

1024
00:56:27,239 --> 00:56:31,200
Speaker 4: not to Michael Walden or Rick Wake or whoever it was.

1025
00:56:31,600 --> 00:56:34,760
Speaker 4: It was like, you know, work with these people because

1026
00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:36,520
Speaker 4: we believe this is going to happen. But then the

1027
00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:38,879
Speaker 4: ones that I loved the best were like the Richer

1028
00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:40,800
Speaker 4: t Moment or do you know what I mean, Like

1029
00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:46,759
Speaker 4: things where it was a collaborative musical experience and where

1030
00:56:46,840 --> 00:56:49,719
Speaker 4: people of that statue were giving me as a kid,

1031
00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:53,520
Speaker 4: as a young woman, which is really difficult, you know,

1032
00:56:53,760 --> 00:56:56,800
Speaker 4: really difficult, particularly being female. To get any kind of

1033
00:56:56,880 --> 00:57:00,640
Speaker 4: respect and all the obstacles, you know, just to be

1034
00:57:00,719 --> 00:57:02,960
Speaker 4: able to be like, okay, I don't I'm not being

1035
00:57:03,040 --> 00:57:05,000
Speaker 4: forced to work with writers. So that was one thing.

1036
00:57:05,160 --> 00:57:07,359
Speaker 4: Nobody ever submitted songs to me, and if they did,

1037
00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:09,960
Speaker 4: I didn't hear them. So that was one thing that

1038
00:57:10,120 --> 00:57:10,960
Speaker 4: was grateful for you.

1039
00:57:11,560 --> 00:57:12,960
Speaker 5: Now I was going to ask it they ever.

1040
00:57:13,280 --> 00:57:15,120
Speaker 7: Did they ever ask that you write songs for some

1041
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:18,640
Speaker 7: of the other ladies coming through or anyone. No.

1042
00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,080
Speaker 4: At that point I think it was like, you know what,

1043
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:24,960
Speaker 4: this is our we believe in this girl being me.

1044
00:57:26,080 --> 00:57:29,560
Speaker 4: Let's get done. So it took like a year to

1045
00:57:29,720 --> 00:57:32,880
Speaker 4: actually take what were demos and then the new songs

1046
00:57:32,880 --> 00:57:36,040
Speaker 4: that I would write or do to be this finished product.

1047
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:38,280
Speaker 4: And there was a conscious effort like because I was

1048
00:57:38,320 --> 00:57:41,080
Speaker 4: sitting like when is this going to be done? Like

1049
00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:43,840
Speaker 4: you know, it's just like that, and they're like, it's

1050
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:45,920
Speaker 4: fine because we and there was a vision that it

1051
00:57:45,920 --> 00:57:50,240
Speaker 4: would happen and begin in the nineties, not like before that.

1052
00:57:50,360 --> 00:57:52,720
Speaker 4: So that whole year of figuring it out, I do

1053
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:55,200
Speaker 4: think it was a smart move to not have it

1054
00:57:55,520 --> 00:57:58,320
Speaker 4: out until that decade began.

1055
00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:02,440
Speaker 1: I was going to ask, does when you were working

1056
00:58:02,480 --> 00:58:10,560
Speaker 1: with Narada. Does he always talk in that mystical voice? Yes, yeah,

1057
00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:14,240
Speaker 1: any anytime Narda, anytime he talks to me, I always

1058
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:16,160
Speaker 1: feel like I'm being hypnotized at the moment.

1059
00:58:16,920 --> 00:58:20,920
Speaker 4: You know, he he's very said, you know what I mean,

1060
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:22,440
Speaker 4: Like he's.

1061
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:25,280
Speaker 1: Too saying I get scared Narada and Eric about your

1062
00:58:25,520 --> 00:58:26,680
Speaker 1: two people, and I don't want to look in the

1063
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:28,040
Speaker 1: eye for more than five seconds.

1064
00:58:28,520 --> 00:58:30,480
Speaker 4: So as well.

1065
00:58:31,120 --> 00:58:35,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, Eric Erica has a very hypnotic quality that will

1066
00:58:35,240 --> 00:58:37,760
Speaker 1: have you wearing crosy pants in about a year or so.

1067
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:44,000
Speaker 4: Stop that he's an artist and she's sensitive. Word.

1068
00:58:45,080 --> 00:58:49,440
Speaker 3: I was gonna ask what was working with Walter a fantasy?

1069
00:58:49,600 --> 00:58:51,800
Speaker 3: Like what was he like in the studio? I always

1070
00:58:51,880 --> 00:58:54,960
Speaker 3: admire like one of my favorite, my favorite songs of

1071
00:58:55,080 --> 00:58:58,080
Speaker 3: yours is Can't Let Go, And I just thought that

1072
00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:01,200
Speaker 3: that's just that sound that you and him had together.

1073
00:59:01,240 --> 00:59:04,440
Speaker 3: It was just a very pop like super clean and

1074
00:59:04,880 --> 00:59:07,040
Speaker 3: you know, just just the sine that he would have

1075
00:59:07,160 --> 00:59:10,800
Speaker 3: on those records. Like when I heard God this the

1076
00:59:10,840 --> 00:59:14,360
Speaker 3: Bruno Mars record the Vasati on the floor on right,

1077
00:59:14,600 --> 00:59:18,040
Speaker 3: I was like, Yo, this is him doing Walter. Yeah,

1078
00:59:18,040 --> 00:59:20,760
Speaker 3: I mean yeah, but but nah, I just want to

1079
00:59:20,800 --> 00:59:22,680
Speaker 3: know what was he like in the studio, because he's

1080
00:59:22,760 --> 00:59:25,520
Speaker 3: not someone i've you know, really read or know much about.

1081
00:59:26,440 --> 00:59:30,120
Speaker 4: Okay, well, first of all, thank you. We can't let

1082
00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:41,600
Speaker 4: go that. Walter was a great writing partner. I would

1083
00:59:42,240 --> 00:59:45,600
Speaker 4: always try to sneer thing more and they can't let

1084
00:59:45,680 --> 00:59:51,640
Speaker 4: go direction because because it was a little bit slightly

1085
00:59:51,840 --> 00:59:57,320
Speaker 4: more R and B than black other things translation black,

1086
00:59:57,760 --> 01:00:01,400
Speaker 4: so slightly more than that more there. But you know,

1087
01:00:01,480 --> 01:00:04,720
Speaker 4: we could also do these big sweeping things like till

1088
01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:07,200
Speaker 4: the End of Time, which only like the Lambs would know.

1089
01:00:11,640 --> 01:00:14,160
Speaker 3: Yeah it was it was the next the last song

1090
01:00:14,240 --> 01:00:16,160
Speaker 3: going your first album, the.

1091
01:00:19,400 --> 01:00:19,960
Speaker 1: End of Time.

1092
01:00:20,680 --> 01:00:23,840
Speaker 4: Yeah, that part, that was when I got to really

1093
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:27,480
Speaker 4: express myself on the outros, on the on the you know,

1094
01:00:27,640 --> 01:00:32,280
Speaker 4: doing the background vocal parts, like doing those arranging that stuff.

1095
01:00:32,480 --> 01:00:34,880
Speaker 4: But I really liked working with him in that way.

1096
01:00:35,000 --> 01:00:40,080
Speaker 4: There were some uh, incestuous situations where let's just call

1097
01:00:40,120 --> 01:00:45,120
Speaker 4: it the record company and the publishing situations where I

1098
01:00:45,160 --> 01:00:47,440
Speaker 4: don't want to get into this various specifics. This is

1099
01:00:47,520 --> 01:00:51,520
Speaker 4: not i' to say it, but really it was too

1100
01:00:52,840 --> 01:00:56,160
Speaker 4: how do you call it? It was? It was a

1101
01:00:56,240 --> 01:01:01,400
Speaker 4: bit incestuous because people were like, how do I say

1102
01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:02,440
Speaker 4: it oh loood?

1103
01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:06,479
Speaker 3: Was it was? It like the label had a piece

1104
01:01:06,520 --> 01:01:08,120
Speaker 3: of Walter So like baby.

1105
01:01:08,440 --> 01:01:10,720
Speaker 4: Wouldn't want to go saying that because I don't know

1106
01:01:10,840 --> 01:01:13,880
Speaker 4: for sure, but I'm just saying certain people in my

1107
01:01:14,040 --> 01:01:19,440
Speaker 4: life had that other connection and so there was extremely

1108
01:01:19,640 --> 01:01:22,800
Speaker 4: talented but some but for the most part, when I'm

1109
01:01:22,840 --> 01:01:24,960
Speaker 4: coming up with melodies and I'm singing it to somebody

1110
01:01:25,080 --> 01:01:28,400
Speaker 4: like hey, can you play this? That happened on several songs,

1111
01:01:28,840 --> 01:01:31,720
Speaker 4: and then we would take it to another place because

1112
01:01:31,800 --> 01:01:34,920
Speaker 4: I won't think of if someone plays accord, I'll be

1113
01:01:35,080 --> 01:01:37,040
Speaker 4: like no, like I hear it in my head and

1114
01:01:37,080 --> 01:01:38,520
Speaker 4: then I'm like, that's not it. I don't know how

1115
01:01:38,520 --> 01:01:41,760
Speaker 4: to articulate it. I'm not there going can you really inverted?

1116
01:01:42,280 --> 01:01:43,960
Speaker 4: Like I don't know how to say that. I just

1117
01:01:44,080 --> 01:01:46,959
Speaker 4: know how to hear it. So so I'll be hearing

1118
01:01:47,040 --> 01:01:49,560
Speaker 4: something and until somebody gets it where I'm hearing it,

1119
01:01:49,880 --> 01:01:51,800
Speaker 4: I'll be like no, no, no, no, and then we

1120
01:01:51,920 --> 01:01:54,200
Speaker 4: get there and then from there he and I I

1121
01:01:54,280 --> 01:01:56,760
Speaker 4: will say I had a really good flow with putting

1122
01:01:56,760 --> 01:01:59,600
Speaker 4: stuff together. So it's no shade towards him. I wish

1123
01:01:59,720 --> 01:02:02,440
Speaker 4: him well whatever, but I will say, like, you know

1124
01:02:02,560 --> 01:02:04,400
Speaker 4: that was a that was a moment in time, and

1125
01:02:04,480 --> 01:02:08,520
Speaker 4: I'm very thankful for it. And also talking about people

1126
01:02:08,560 --> 01:02:11,920
Speaker 4: that have been great writers writing partners with me, Big

1127
01:02:12,080 --> 01:02:15,160
Speaker 4: Jim Wright with Fly like a Bird and Circles and

1128
01:02:15,240 --> 01:02:19,160
Speaker 4: all those songs for me. Me also James Poyser. Now

1129
01:02:19,200 --> 01:02:26,720
Speaker 4: everybody says it's poisoning that we actual pronunciation of his name,

1130
01:02:32,680 --> 01:02:35,560
Speaker 4: and I don't understand it, but I love him and

1131
01:02:36,120 --> 01:02:42,640
Speaker 4: so when we I love working with incredibly talented musicians

1132
01:02:42,720 --> 01:02:45,040
Speaker 4: because when I can sing back and forth to them

1133
01:02:45,040 --> 01:02:46,800
Speaker 4: and we can figure things out together and then we

1134
01:02:46,880 --> 01:02:50,439
Speaker 4: can go to another place, that's something that I feel

1135
01:02:50,640 --> 01:02:52,800
Speaker 4: is a gift. When I'm sitting there coming up with

1136
01:02:52,800 --> 01:02:54,520
Speaker 4: stuff by myself, I love it, but I know that

1137
01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:56,320
Speaker 4: I need to articulate it to somebody to put it

1138
01:02:56,400 --> 01:02:59,360
Speaker 4: down unless I'm playing, which is the worst thing ever,

1139
01:02:59,440 --> 01:03:03,200
Speaker 4: although sometimes it's turned out to be to my own

1140
01:03:03,480 --> 01:03:05,880
Speaker 4: benefit because I don't know the rules, so I don't

1141
01:03:05,920 --> 01:03:06,600
Speaker 4: have to follow them.

1142
01:03:07,400 --> 01:03:10,480
Speaker 2: So besides big joy question, can I just say I

1143
01:03:10,600 --> 01:03:11,960
Speaker 2: love working with James Poyser?

1144
01:03:14,560 --> 01:03:17,280
Speaker 3: James, I said.

1145
01:03:17,200 --> 01:03:22,400
Speaker 5: Poiser, Okay, his name, Mariah, say his name.

1146
01:03:23,240 --> 01:03:26,080
Speaker 4: I'm just saying, I said, James Poyser because everybody else

1147
01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:29,400
Speaker 4: goes it, says Poisoner, and then they and make me

1148
01:03:29,480 --> 01:03:30,640
Speaker 4: feel like I'm a stupid one.

1149
01:03:32,160 --> 01:03:38,600
Speaker 1: It's pains. I created James Poisoner Twitter account just a computer.

1150
01:03:40,600 --> 01:03:42,800
Speaker 3: The real the real secret is James Poyser is just

1151
01:03:42,880 --> 01:03:44,200
Speaker 3: Nelson George's side project.

1152
01:03:49,360 --> 01:03:53,040
Speaker 4: No comment, no comment. But When Christmas Comes, which we

1153
01:03:53,200 --> 01:03:55,600
Speaker 4: wrote together, is one of my favorite Christmas songs and

1154
01:03:55,680 --> 01:03:58,439
Speaker 4: I really have I really feel like it's a much

1155
01:03:58,520 --> 01:04:00,800
Speaker 4: more look we love. All I want for Christmas is

1156
01:04:00,840 --> 01:04:04,479
Speaker 4: you and I thank the Good Lord above. I really

1157
01:04:05,960 --> 01:04:10,600
Speaker 4: sat there coming up with a like And then when

1158
01:04:10,640 --> 01:04:12,520
Speaker 4: I did sing that to walderhat and he's been on

1159
01:04:12,640 --> 01:04:14,440
Speaker 4: record as saying it, why are you trying to do

1160
01:04:14,680 --> 01:04:15,760
Speaker 4: scales as a song?

1161
01:04:15,920 --> 01:04:15,960
Speaker 7: Like?

1162
01:04:16,040 --> 01:04:17,840
Speaker 4: Why is that? Why would you want to do that?

1163
01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:20,919
Speaker 4: Like he didn't hearly as a thing.

1164
01:04:21,600 --> 01:04:22,960
Speaker 1: How long did it take to record that?

1165
01:04:23,280 --> 01:04:23,760
Speaker 4: Which fire?

1166
01:04:24,600 --> 01:04:25,320
Speaker 3: No the song?

1167
01:04:26,640 --> 01:04:29,960
Speaker 1: I have a theory about mega songs. Every mega song

1168
01:04:30,040 --> 01:04:33,600
Speaker 1: that's larger than life take seconds to do. So like

1169
01:04:33,680 --> 01:04:38,680
Speaker 1: how long did it take to write, not executing record,

1170
01:04:38,760 --> 01:04:41,880
Speaker 1: but just to write the general song that we know?

1171
01:04:42,600 --> 01:04:47,400
Speaker 4: So the idea, So there was an idea do a

1172
01:04:47,480 --> 01:04:52,080
Speaker 4: Christmas album and at that point at twenty two or whatever,

1173
01:04:52,120 --> 01:04:55,680
Speaker 4: I was like lily little early and then I said, Okay,

1174
01:04:55,800 --> 01:04:58,000
Speaker 4: well I love Christmas. I always have, you know, let

1175
01:04:58,040 --> 01:05:00,600
Speaker 4: me think about it. So you you know, I was

1176
01:05:00,640 --> 01:05:03,880
Speaker 4: sitting in this house in the Hillsdale, New York as

1177
01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:07,360
Speaker 4: I came at hills Jail, and just started thinking, like,

1178
01:05:07,520 --> 01:05:09,680
Speaker 4: what are the what are the things that I loved

1179
01:05:09,720 --> 01:05:12,120
Speaker 4: as a kid with Christmas songs? And what are all

1180
01:05:12,160 --> 01:05:15,360
Speaker 4: the things that made me feel christmasly even amidst the

1181
01:05:15,440 --> 01:05:18,800
Speaker 4: bleakness of my childhood. So I started sitting there and

1182
01:05:18,840 --> 01:05:21,400
Speaker 4: there was this keyboard. I believe it was some sort

1183
01:05:21,480 --> 01:05:24,280
Speaker 4: of some sort of really really cheap like CASSIEO keyboard

1184
01:05:24,360 --> 01:05:28,000
Speaker 4: or something. And again I'm I'm not playing, I just

1185
01:05:28,120 --> 01:05:31,200
Speaker 4: write a lot. So I was in there and I'm like,

1186
01:05:35,200 --> 01:05:37,760
Speaker 4: I just started like channeling and trying to figure out

1187
01:05:37,800 --> 01:05:39,439
Speaker 4: how to play it. So by the time I brought

1188
01:05:39,480 --> 01:05:42,080
Speaker 4: it to Walter, I had done everything but the bridge.

1189
01:05:42,920 --> 01:05:46,440
Speaker 4: Oh lots of USh shining, you know, because I honestly

1190
01:05:46,960 --> 01:05:50,000
Speaker 4: couldn't probably do that transition like as a as a

1191
01:05:50,080 --> 01:05:53,320
Speaker 4: keyboard player, which I'm still not. But so we did

1192
01:05:53,400 --> 01:05:55,480
Speaker 4: that part and then we brought it back to the oh,

1193
01:05:57,720 --> 01:06:00,160
Speaker 4: so I would say the writing my part. I had

1194
01:06:00,200 --> 01:06:03,400
Speaker 4: the lyrics done except for the bridge. I had everything

1195
01:06:03,520 --> 01:06:05,680
Speaker 4: done really quick, like it was just immediate, you know.

1196
01:06:05,800 --> 01:06:09,640
Speaker 4: It's it's like with Hero. I had a They explained

1197
01:06:09,680 --> 01:06:11,640
Speaker 4: the song that I'm sorry the movie there was a

1198
01:06:11,720 --> 01:06:15,880
Speaker 4: movie by Dustin with Dustin Khoff and whatever. Tommy Mitella

1199
01:06:15,960 --> 01:06:17,800
Speaker 4: came in, Hey, Luther's doing a song for this movie.

1200
01:06:17,840 --> 01:06:19,880
Speaker 4: They want you to write this song for Glorias to Find.

1201
01:06:20,280 --> 01:06:20,440
Speaker 1: You know.

1202
01:06:20,640 --> 01:06:22,800
Speaker 4: It's about a guy that says people on a plane.

1203
01:06:22,840 --> 01:06:26,000
Speaker 4: That's pretty much what I heard, right, And I was

1204
01:06:26,160 --> 01:06:28,200
Speaker 4: never alone at that point in my life, and I'm

1205
01:06:28,440 --> 01:06:32,120
Speaker 4: pretty much I rarely still am. But anytime I would

1206
01:06:32,160 --> 01:06:34,480
Speaker 4: walk to the bathroom and I wouldn't be followed by

1207
01:06:34,640 --> 01:06:37,320
Speaker 4: somebody's goons or whatever, I would walk in. I had

1208
01:06:37,360 --> 01:06:39,720
Speaker 4: two minutes. I go in there and I'm and I

1209
01:06:39,920 --> 01:06:44,000
Speaker 4: start hearing that, and then here comes along like the

1210
01:06:44,120 --> 01:06:48,160
Speaker 4: melody and the piano part, right, and so then I

1211
01:06:48,320 --> 01:06:51,640
Speaker 4: walked back and like, well this is how it goes. No, no, no, no,

1212
01:06:52,720 --> 01:06:55,280
Speaker 4: carry me on, right. So I'm like I'm like all excited,

1213
01:06:55,320 --> 01:06:57,320
Speaker 4: like just write this, dude, this dude. And then I'm

1214
01:06:57,360 --> 01:06:58,760
Speaker 4: like I'm like, so, wait, who do they want this for?

1215
01:06:58,880 --> 01:07:01,880
Speaker 4: They wanted for Glorias to right, and Tommy's standing there

1216
01:07:01,920 --> 01:07:04,000
Speaker 4: and he's like, I think you need to keep this

1217
01:07:04,160 --> 01:07:08,640
Speaker 4: one for yourself. So it was a similar thing with

1218
01:07:08,760 --> 01:07:10,720
Speaker 4: All I Want for Christmas is You, except that I

1219
01:07:10,840 --> 01:07:14,040
Speaker 4: was by myself in the room at first, and then

1220
01:07:14,120 --> 01:07:17,760
Speaker 4: wrote those lyrics down and then went and sang it

1221
01:07:17,840 --> 01:07:19,760
Speaker 4: to Walter and we finished it from there. But the

1222
01:07:19,840 --> 01:07:22,200
Speaker 4: actual recording of the record took a while, and it

1223
01:07:22,400 --> 01:07:25,800
Speaker 4: was a collaboration, and you know, I'm not taking anything

1224
01:07:25,800 --> 01:07:28,960
Speaker 4: away from him, but there was a concerted effort to

1225
01:07:29,080 --> 01:07:31,919
Speaker 4: make it feel like a classic, which I've noticed people

1226
01:07:31,960 --> 01:07:33,720
Speaker 4: have adapted that type of.

1227
01:07:35,880 --> 01:07:40,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like the phil Spector, I love the Phil

1228
01:07:40,360 --> 01:07:42,760
Speaker 1: Spector ones of it. But I would like to note that,

1229
01:07:43,880 --> 01:07:46,800
Speaker 1: you know, when I woke up this morning to prepare

1230
01:07:46,840 --> 01:07:50,160
Speaker 1: for this interview, I was listening to it. All I

1231
01:07:50,240 --> 01:07:54,360
Speaker 1: Want for Christmas is You is probably the happiest song

1232
01:07:54,520 --> 01:07:58,600
Speaker 1: with the most minor note keys in it. Like there's

1233
01:07:58,680 --> 01:08:03,280
Speaker 1: so much dark chords and minor chords in the song, but.

1234
01:08:03,520 --> 01:08:07,880
Speaker 4: Like, because people don't expect it to go.

1235
01:08:08,040 --> 01:08:13,680
Speaker 1: There exactly like it's it's it's a very unlikely because

1236
01:08:13,720 --> 01:08:18,559
Speaker 1: usually Christmas is associated with I mean, every Christmas song

1237
01:08:18,640 --> 01:08:23,760
Speaker 1: practically has like happy chords, happy major chords. And I'm

1238
01:08:23,760 --> 01:08:26,320
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how did this song manage to

1239
01:08:28,439 --> 01:08:31,519
Speaker 1: jump over the pack because it's it's there's so many

1240
01:08:32,600 --> 01:08:37,640
Speaker 1: chromatic and and and dark chords in it that are

1241
01:08:37,760 --> 01:08:42,360
Speaker 1: more blues based or black, you know, like black chords,

1242
01:08:43,960 --> 01:08:47,679
Speaker 1: yet it works and I'm trying, like that's a hard

1243
01:08:47,800 --> 01:08:51,800
Speaker 1: thing to achieve because you know, I know that most

1244
01:08:51,920 --> 01:08:55,600
Speaker 1: pop hits have some sort of major chord element that

1245
01:08:55,680 --> 01:08:59,960
Speaker 1: feels inviting. And not to say that blues chords don't

1246
01:09:00,160 --> 01:09:02,760
Speaker 1: work and aren't successful, like you know, there's plenty of

1247
01:09:02,800 --> 01:09:06,960
Speaker 1: them out there, but usually in Christmas songs it's like that,

1248
01:09:07,160 --> 01:09:11,559
Speaker 1: like as far as like structuring the song where they're

1249
01:09:11,640 --> 01:09:16,360
Speaker 1: back and forth and sort of you know, conflict as

1250
01:09:16,560 --> 01:09:20,679
Speaker 1: in to how bright the song should be as opposed

1251
01:09:20,680 --> 01:09:24,240
Speaker 1: to how it came out, because it's it's an achievement

1252
01:09:24,320 --> 01:09:29,640
Speaker 1: that is such blues based. But still I don't know

1253
01:09:29,680 --> 01:09:32,680
Speaker 1: if I'm saying it the right way. I know what

1254
01:09:32,800 --> 01:09:33,040
Speaker 1: you mean.

1255
01:09:33,080 --> 01:09:36,360
Speaker 4: And it's interesting because Mark Shaman, when we the incredible

1256
01:09:36,400 --> 01:09:40,559
Speaker 4: Mark Shaman or Kestel Genius, who I worked with.

1257
01:09:40,680 --> 01:09:42,920
Speaker 3: Starting on he wrote the south Park movie. That's like

1258
01:09:43,000 --> 01:09:44,160
Speaker 3: my favorite thing he's ever done.

1259
01:09:44,360 --> 01:09:47,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love him and he is.

1260
01:09:47,840 --> 01:09:52,759
Speaker 4: The most irreverent, just hilarious person and super talented and everything.

1261
01:09:53,080 --> 01:09:56,200
Speaker 4: But when we first got together, he was like, don't

1262
01:09:56,240 --> 01:10:00,840
Speaker 4: think I didn't hear. I just want like, you know

1263
01:10:00,920 --> 01:10:04,479
Speaker 4: that little that was hot. Yeah, but I don't think

1264
01:10:04,520 --> 01:10:08,000
Speaker 4: I didn't hear that. So so here's the thing, because

1265
01:10:08,160 --> 01:10:10,240
Speaker 4: like I said before, I don't know the rules. I

1266
01:10:10,320 --> 01:10:12,320
Speaker 4: don't follow the rules. I just know what I hear,

1267
01:10:12,640 --> 01:10:23,720
Speaker 4: and specifically on that one, it was just like like

1268
01:10:23,840 --> 01:10:25,560
Speaker 4: I don't know, I just heard it, you know what

1269
01:10:25,600 --> 01:10:27,599
Speaker 4: I mean, I didn't do it like here, I am

1270
01:10:27,760 --> 01:10:31,200
Speaker 4: trying to be bloozy here, I am trying to I

1271
01:10:31,280 --> 01:10:34,519
Speaker 4: don't know. And I think that's why Walter was like,

1272
01:10:34,600 --> 01:10:36,639
Speaker 4: well why and that he said in that interview, which

1273
01:10:36,640 --> 01:10:38,760
Speaker 4: I don't know. I'm sure it can be geguiled, but

1274
01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:40,960
Speaker 4: you know, it was like these scales and she's trying

1275
01:10:40,960 --> 01:10:42,600
Speaker 4: to this. I wasn't trying to do anything like that.

1276
01:10:42,680 --> 01:10:45,519
Speaker 4: I don't even know how to break it down and

1277
01:10:46,520 --> 01:10:49,400
Speaker 4: explain that. I just know that that's what I heard,

1278
01:10:49,800 --> 01:10:52,599
Speaker 4: and I heard it with the with you know, the lyrics,

1279
01:10:52,640 --> 01:10:54,879
Speaker 4: and then wrote them down. But it was very specific

1280
01:10:54,960 --> 01:10:57,120
Speaker 4: to me, and I recorded it on my little tape

1281
01:10:57,160 --> 01:10:59,639
Speaker 4: recorder that I had that you know, the mini tape

1282
01:10:59,680 --> 01:11:02,920
Speaker 4: recorder and you just help it kind smaller than an

1283
01:11:02,960 --> 01:11:06,439
Speaker 4: iPhone but like thicker, and so I had that and

1284
01:11:06,520 --> 01:11:09,519
Speaker 4: I recorded it on there, and I don't know, like

1285
01:11:10,040 --> 01:11:13,320
Speaker 4: I agree the when it gets poppy is the oh

1286
01:11:13,479 --> 01:11:19,439
Speaker 4: name made? You know what I mean? Like that part's

1287
01:11:19,479 --> 01:11:24,080
Speaker 4: poppy because the backgrounds were such incredible singers, and because

1288
01:11:24,200 --> 01:11:26,240
Speaker 4: the way we range it, like you're fine with the

1289
01:11:26,280 --> 01:11:28,920
Speaker 4: poppiness of at that point, the whole thing, unless we're

1290
01:11:28,960 --> 01:11:32,000
Speaker 4: getting analytical about it, is pop. But you're right, those

1291
01:11:32,200 --> 01:11:35,559
Speaker 4: changes came from me because I didn't know any better.

1292
01:11:36,000 --> 01:11:37,880
Speaker 4: I didn't know. Oh, let me just make this like

1293
01:11:38,240 --> 01:11:41,719
Speaker 4: oh and happy and festive and we won't darker. Course,

1294
01:11:42,040 --> 01:11:43,840
Speaker 4: But like in the book I talk about how my

1295
01:11:43,960 --> 01:11:46,800
Speaker 4: Christmas is as a kid, I always wanted them to

1296
01:11:46,880 --> 01:11:48,600
Speaker 4: be perfect. I always wanted them to do great, and

1297
01:11:48,720 --> 01:11:52,840
Speaker 4: I have these ex family members who really destroyed every year.

1298
01:11:53,400 --> 01:11:56,880
Speaker 4: So I think when writing the song just by myself

1299
01:11:56,920 --> 01:11:59,599
Speaker 4: in the room, not dissimilar to where I'm at right

1300
01:11:59,680 --> 01:12:03,080
Speaker 4: now looking at the Christmas Tree by myself, just thinking

1301
01:12:03,160 --> 01:12:06,519
Speaker 4: about stuff, kind of feeling whatever's happening in the air.

1302
01:12:06,680 --> 01:12:08,519
Speaker 4: And I do feel like when you're writing, if it's

1303
01:12:08,560 --> 01:12:11,280
Speaker 4: a real, if it's a connected moment, you are channeling,

1304
01:12:11,800 --> 01:12:14,519
Speaker 4: you know. And I know that's that's we know that,

1305
01:12:15,120 --> 01:12:17,280
Speaker 4: but not everybody understands that. I'm not saying with some

1306
01:12:17,520 --> 01:12:22,120
Speaker 4: genius revelation, but that's what happened. So it was just like,

1307
01:12:22,280 --> 01:12:24,360
Speaker 4: this is what I'm hearing, you know, and this is

1308
01:12:24,439 --> 01:12:26,519
Speaker 4: what I think would be good. I never was like,

1309
01:12:26,640 --> 01:12:29,040
Speaker 4: oh and then blah blah blah, you're so now we're

1310
01:12:29,080 --> 01:12:30,599
Speaker 4: going to break the Spotify record.

1311
01:12:35,040 --> 01:12:37,680
Speaker 1: So I've learned ever since I've gotten to know you,

1312
01:12:38,240 --> 01:12:43,559
Speaker 1: I know that there's a term called Mariah hours, which

1313
01:12:44,439 --> 01:12:46,760
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen out there. This is the one of

1314
01:12:46,800 --> 01:12:51,960
Speaker 1: the first episodes that we've taped, the only the only

1315
01:12:53,840 --> 01:12:55,280
Speaker 1: most of our episodes are done.

1316
01:12:55,680 --> 01:13:00,120
Speaker 7: And I'm sorry and listen not to not to be

1317
01:13:00,200 --> 01:13:04,600
Speaker 7: your daddy, but even when we did Quincy Jones, Oh Jesus.

1318
01:13:04,400 --> 01:13:08,920
Speaker 5: Christ, it was out of respect.

1319
01:13:09,280 --> 01:13:12,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, Quincy was just was in this late like right now,

1320
01:13:12,920 --> 01:13:20,840
Speaker 1: it's it's two in the morning where we are. But hoologizing. Nah,

1321
01:13:20,880 --> 01:13:24,320
Speaker 1: it's all good. We on COVID time anyway. Ain't nobody sleeping? Yeah,

1322
01:13:24,920 --> 01:13:29,240
Speaker 1: I got a new job. What what I want to have?

1323
01:13:29,400 --> 01:13:33,360
Speaker 1: You always kept Mariah, like when do you wake up?

1324
01:13:33,439 --> 01:13:34,920
Speaker 1: When do you wake up in the morning, Like what

1325
01:13:35,080 --> 01:13:37,760
Speaker 1: is your daily routine? Because I know like three in

1326
01:13:37,800 --> 01:13:40,200
Speaker 1: the morning is sort of like you're twelve in the afternoon.

1327
01:13:42,439 --> 01:13:44,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're right, And I don't have. I don't have

1328
01:13:45,160 --> 01:13:48,160
Speaker 4: when I'm working, which when I say working, I need tramo,

1329
01:13:48,880 --> 01:13:51,840
Speaker 4: not in a studio. When I'm in the studio, you know,

1330
01:13:52,280 --> 01:13:53,680
Speaker 4: And the best place for me to be in the

1331
01:13:53,720 --> 01:13:57,719
Speaker 4: studio is wherever feels the best. So, like we said,

1332
01:13:58,920 --> 01:14:04,000
Speaker 4: Capree the Bahamas, wherever, it's just on the schedule of

1333
01:14:04,120 --> 01:14:06,439
Speaker 4: when now I'm not I don't mean writing. If there's

1334
01:14:06,520 --> 01:14:08,479
Speaker 4: like a whole like what I would love to do again,

1335
01:14:08,560 --> 01:14:10,760
Speaker 4: there's a whole bunch of writers get together. We're in

1336
01:14:10,840 --> 01:14:13,240
Speaker 4: a place, we work at a respectable hour, whatever that

1337
01:14:13,439 --> 01:14:15,960
Speaker 4: is for everybody, a little the better, But you know,

1338
01:14:16,160 --> 01:14:18,720
Speaker 4: we all get together. We come up with stuff. If

1339
01:14:18,760 --> 01:14:20,920
Speaker 4: we're doing that, like I did that on this song

1340
01:14:21,000 --> 01:14:24,960
Speaker 4: called Subtle Invitation in the Bahamas. We're working at Compass

1341
01:14:25,000 --> 01:14:26,479
Speaker 4: Points Studios, and.

1342
01:14:27,520 --> 01:14:28,800
Speaker 1: You know one of them still around.

1343
01:14:29,960 --> 01:14:33,040
Speaker 4: I don't know this is back. This is early mid

1344
01:14:33,200 --> 01:14:35,320
Speaker 4: two thousands of the Chambre.

1345
01:14:35,479 --> 01:14:39,240
Speaker 1: Compass Point world famous. We're Sli and Robbie and Grace Jones.

1346
01:14:39,479 --> 01:14:43,680
Speaker 4: Everybody record Club Tom Tom Club, and I.

1347
01:14:43,760 --> 01:14:47,400
Speaker 1: Believe anybody on island records like practically recorded down there.

1348
01:14:48,280 --> 01:14:49,320
Speaker 1: So continue.

1349
01:14:49,680 --> 01:14:52,519
Speaker 4: So you're there, and you know whatever you're working on,

1350
01:14:52,600 --> 01:14:53,840
Speaker 4: whatever the time schedule is.

1351
01:14:53,920 --> 01:14:55,799
Speaker 5: And now what I've.

1352
01:14:55,640 --> 01:14:58,519
Speaker 4: Realized with recording vocals, so that's the only thing for writing,

1353
01:14:58,560 --> 01:15:00,479
Speaker 4: but recording vocals, I just have to get up and

1354
01:15:00,600 --> 01:15:03,200
Speaker 4: luckily my engineer is cool enough to be like, okay,

1355
01:15:03,280 --> 01:15:05,920
Speaker 4: we're working on MC time. Okay we do. I drink coffee,

1356
01:15:06,200 --> 01:15:09,400
Speaker 4: like give me two hours, lea, you know, heads up,

1357
01:15:09,920 --> 01:15:12,280
Speaker 4: I'll get my two three hours. You know, we'll do

1358
01:15:12,360 --> 01:15:15,880
Speaker 4: a thing where it's like not before ten, so we

1359
01:15:16,040 --> 01:15:19,080
Speaker 4: know that usually means midnight, but you know, we know

1360
01:15:19,160 --> 01:15:21,800
Speaker 4: it's not gonna be more tense. So he sleeps, I sleep,

1361
01:15:22,280 --> 01:15:24,120
Speaker 4: and we just get up when my voice is ready

1362
01:15:24,160 --> 01:15:28,439
Speaker 4: to work. But in terms of like Mariah hours, this

1363
01:15:28,600 --> 01:15:31,000
Speaker 4: started for me when I was six years old because

1364
01:15:31,080 --> 01:15:34,560
Speaker 4: my house felt very unstable and there was always like

1365
01:15:35,040 --> 01:15:40,400
Speaker 4: teenage people and whatever happening, you know, freaking seances, whatever

1366
01:15:40,439 --> 01:15:44,320
Speaker 4: the hell was going on was happening, and it felt unsafe,

1367
01:15:44,680 --> 01:15:46,760
Speaker 4: and so I would lay in bed and kind of

1368
01:15:46,800 --> 01:15:49,640
Speaker 4: be scared and I wouldn't be able to sleep. So

1369
01:15:50,160 --> 01:15:52,320
Speaker 4: over the years it just became like I stayed up

1370
01:15:52,320 --> 01:15:55,479
Speaker 4: because I had to develop this kind of like person

1371
01:15:55,600 --> 01:15:58,360
Speaker 4: in charge, like here's my reflexes, like in case something

1372
01:15:58,439 --> 01:15:59,320
Speaker 4: has to happen.

1373
01:16:00,040 --> 01:16:00,639
Speaker 1: This mechanism.

1374
01:16:01,160 --> 01:16:03,840
Speaker 4: Yeah, defend, I'm the grown up in this scenario, like

1375
01:16:04,000 --> 01:16:06,439
Speaker 4: something may happen and I'm going to be awake to

1376
01:16:06,640 --> 01:16:10,000
Speaker 4: handle it. So that started as like a six year

1377
01:16:10,000 --> 01:16:13,320
Speaker 4: old kid, and it's all detailed in the memoir. But yes,

1378
01:16:13,520 --> 01:16:16,280
Speaker 4: that's what happened. The reason I say that is because

1379
01:16:16,280 --> 01:16:19,439
Speaker 4: I'm not explaining it as eloquently as I would like

1380
01:16:19,840 --> 01:16:22,200
Speaker 4: for people to hear it and to understand, you know

1381
01:16:22,240 --> 01:16:23,800
Speaker 4: what I mean. But answer the question.

1382
01:16:24,000 --> 01:16:25,679
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to get on that next because

1383
01:16:25,720 --> 01:16:27,160
Speaker 1: I didn't even start with the book yet.

1384
01:16:27,280 --> 01:16:30,360
Speaker 7: But but wait, can I ask about the time things

1385
01:16:30,400 --> 01:16:33,280
Speaker 7: that she did mention the time, because I mean, You've

1386
01:16:33,280 --> 01:16:34,640
Speaker 7: been mentioned in the book a little bit, but in

1387
01:16:34,720 --> 01:16:36,639
Speaker 7: the book you do talk about like your whole concept

1388
01:16:36,720 --> 01:16:39,840
Speaker 7: of time and acknowledging and whatnot, and not to go

1389
01:16:39,960 --> 01:16:41,599
Speaker 7: over it because, like you said, it's in the book,

1390
01:16:42,040 --> 01:16:45,000
Speaker 7: but I was curious. I was, like, the one thing

1391
01:16:45,040 --> 01:16:47,960
Speaker 7: you didn't mention was when you developed this concept of

1392
01:16:48,120 --> 01:16:50,759
Speaker 7: not acknowledging time. It reminded me of something my grandmother

1393
01:16:50,880 --> 01:16:52,760
Speaker 7: used to say, because people would always ask her how

1394
01:16:52,760 --> 01:16:54,800
Speaker 7: old she was, and she would say, I'm too too

1395
01:16:54,880 --> 01:16:56,240
Speaker 7: old to be young, too young to be old, and

1396
01:16:56,280 --> 01:16:56,479
Speaker 7: that's it.

1397
01:16:56,600 --> 01:16:57,519
Speaker 5: Don't ask me anymore.

1398
01:16:57,920 --> 01:16:58,800
Speaker 4: But oh.

1399
01:17:00,680 --> 01:17:03,519
Speaker 7: But but that being said, like when did that concept

1400
01:17:03,560 --> 01:17:06,360
Speaker 7: to you start developing? Like I don't need to acknowledge

1401
01:17:06,400 --> 01:17:07,960
Speaker 7: this time thing at all.

1402
01:17:08,120 --> 01:17:11,240
Speaker 4: Let's just I turned when I when I was eighteen,

1403
01:17:11,560 --> 01:17:15,960
Speaker 4: prior to getting my record deal. Right, Yeah, I had

1404
01:17:16,000 --> 01:17:18,840
Speaker 4: a I guess it's a boyfriend. It wasn't really like

1405
01:17:19,080 --> 01:17:21,400
Speaker 4: that deep of a thing. There was no actual whatever.

1406
01:17:21,680 --> 01:17:26,000
Speaker 4: La la la lah. You'll you'll get to know. I'm

1407
01:17:26,120 --> 01:17:28,560
Speaker 4: very prudish. I'm very prudish. People don't know, but I

1408
01:17:28,600 --> 01:17:30,720
Speaker 4: don't talk about certain things. That's just how I am.

1409
01:17:31,479 --> 01:17:35,440
Speaker 4: But you know, and then that's really as a response

1410
01:17:35,560 --> 01:17:38,320
Speaker 4: to like people I saw growing up that were the opposite,

1411
01:17:38,400 --> 01:17:41,320
Speaker 4: that were very promiscuous that had all these situations going on,

1412
01:17:41,600 --> 01:17:43,880
Speaker 4: and I just never wanted to be like them. But anyway,

1413
01:17:43,960 --> 01:17:46,439
Speaker 4: so when I so when I was eighteen, I cried

1414
01:17:46,800 --> 01:17:51,160
Speaker 4: and my boyfriend, you know, god lesson for tolerating my prudences.

1415
01:17:51,520 --> 01:17:55,479
Speaker 4: But he was like, why are you crying? And I'm like,

1416
01:17:55,640 --> 01:17:57,800
Speaker 4: because I didn't. I don't have a record deal yet,

1417
01:17:57,920 --> 01:18:00,200
Speaker 4: like this is supposed to be happening. When I was, well,

1418
01:18:00,680 --> 01:18:03,760
Speaker 4: what is going on? And I didn't understand it? And

1419
01:18:03,880 --> 01:18:07,440
Speaker 4: I was I was so my work ethic was insane.

1420
01:18:07,760 --> 01:18:10,640
Speaker 4: People don't understand. Yes you can be borned, Yes you

1421
01:18:10,720 --> 01:18:13,360
Speaker 4: can be born with whatever the look is or whatever

1422
01:18:13,400 --> 01:18:15,960
Speaker 4: it is. But if you don't have that work ethic,

1423
01:18:18,560 --> 01:18:21,680
Speaker 4: unless you have somebody that shines down upon you from

1424
01:18:21,720 --> 01:18:26,040
Speaker 4: above and does all the work for you, it's really

1425
01:18:26,120 --> 01:18:29,400
Speaker 4: not most likely not going to happen because you just

1426
01:18:29,560 --> 01:18:31,920
Speaker 4: have to have that Like I'm going to do this regardless.

1427
01:18:32,000 --> 01:18:34,200
Speaker 4: I believe in it and I know it is going

1428
01:18:34,280 --> 01:18:36,479
Speaker 4: to happen. So in terms of like doing it, when

1429
01:18:36,520 --> 01:18:39,160
Speaker 4: I was young, like I was, I just had this

1430
01:18:39,320 --> 01:18:41,320
Speaker 4: thing where oh my gosh, like this is supposed to

1431
01:18:41,360 --> 01:18:44,560
Speaker 4: be happening. This is a young person's industry, like and

1432
01:18:44,680 --> 01:18:48,080
Speaker 4: this is me as a kid knowing this. So I'm

1433
01:18:48,160 --> 01:18:50,120
Speaker 4: very thankful though that it didn't happen when I was

1434
01:18:50,200 --> 01:18:52,439
Speaker 4: much younger, like that, I that I didn't get those

1435
01:18:52,840 --> 01:18:55,320
Speaker 4: Broadways show things I wanted to be in as a

1436
01:18:55,640 --> 01:18:58,519
Speaker 4: ten year old because I was quote too tall. But

1437
01:18:58,640 --> 01:19:01,000
Speaker 4: we know, we know someone it was.

1438
01:19:03,400 --> 01:19:07,440
Speaker 1: You, you see, that was like one of their excuses.

1439
01:19:08,240 --> 01:19:10,000
Speaker 4: That was from Annie. Let's face it.

1440
01:19:10,120 --> 01:19:13,320
Speaker 5: We know I wasn't Oh no, you wasn't sorry boo no.

1441
01:19:17,280 --> 01:19:18,080
Speaker 3: Not life for real?

1442
01:19:20,400 --> 01:19:25,920
Speaker 4: No, no too dall. But I but I realized, like

1443
01:19:26,200 --> 01:19:28,640
Speaker 4: in retrospect, like I mean, I'm not putting myself in

1444
01:19:28,720 --> 01:19:31,360
Speaker 4: this category in terms of talent of God getting talent,

1445
01:19:31,479 --> 01:19:34,120
Speaker 4: but when you look at Michael Jackson and you look

1446
01:19:34,439 --> 01:19:37,880
Speaker 4: at how he really never had a childhood, like and

1447
01:19:38,000 --> 01:19:42,439
Speaker 4: then he became this hugely you can't even call it

1448
01:19:42,520 --> 01:19:45,360
Speaker 4: what it was. But I mean, like I was just

1449
01:19:45,479 --> 01:19:49,160
Speaker 4: thankful at least I had somewhat of a childhood dysfunctionalised

1450
01:19:49,200 --> 01:19:53,400
Speaker 4: it was that wasn't a famous person's childhood, because I

1451
01:19:53,520 --> 01:19:57,840
Speaker 4: feel like that really screws people up beyond repair sometimes.

1452
01:19:58,800 --> 01:20:01,040
Speaker 4: But in terms of like how did it make me

1453
01:20:01,120 --> 01:20:06,080
Speaker 4: feel to just not acknowledge time. I just decided, you know, anniversaries,

1454
01:20:06,240 --> 01:20:09,479
Speaker 4: no birthdays is what it is. Keep a pushing. I

1455
01:20:09,479 --> 01:20:09,760
Speaker 4: don't know.

1456
01:20:10,840 --> 01:20:15,280
Speaker 1: Okay, so Mariot, I guess I should say. I was

1457
01:20:15,320 --> 01:20:17,680
Speaker 1: about to say, I guess that's to start with, but

1458
01:20:17,840 --> 01:20:22,879
Speaker 1: it's ninety minutes into it. So our good friend Eleana

1459
01:20:22,960 --> 01:20:28,360
Speaker 1: Diaz of Rock Nation former Fallon Night now she's probably

1460
01:20:28,400 --> 01:20:32,519
Speaker 1: going to be president in ten years, sent me a

1461
01:20:32,640 --> 01:20:38,280
Speaker 1: box with your book in it, and it came with

1462
01:20:38,840 --> 01:20:42,000
Speaker 1: tissues and I was like, okay, that's interesting. What am

1463
01:20:42,040 --> 01:20:44,160
Speaker 1: I supposed to cry when I read this book? Whatever?

1464
01:20:45,880 --> 01:20:46,160
Speaker 4: And so.

1465
01:20:47,760 --> 01:20:50,360
Speaker 1: I took the book home, and this is like prime COVID,

1466
01:20:50,400 --> 01:20:52,680
Speaker 1: where like one of the one thing I stuck to

1467
01:20:54,360 --> 01:20:58,600
Speaker 1: was my promise to read more books, Like I just

1468
01:20:58,680 --> 01:21:03,479
Speaker 1: stopped reading books pre like March twenty twenty. Maybe I

1469
01:21:03,560 --> 01:21:06,040
Speaker 1: did like one of two books a year, and this

1470
01:21:06,200 --> 01:21:09,519
Speaker 1: year I'm like, okay, I'm gonna just run everything dust off,

1471
01:21:09,880 --> 01:21:13,240
Speaker 1: you know, sixteen books whatever. So you know, I said,

1472
01:21:13,280 --> 01:21:14,760
Speaker 1: all right, let me let me read the first three

1473
01:21:14,840 --> 01:21:18,720
Speaker 1: chapter see if I'm gonna learn anything about it about her,

1474
01:21:19,920 --> 01:21:23,880
Speaker 1: And you know, about chapter three, I was like, wow, okay,

1475
01:21:24,400 --> 01:21:26,600
Speaker 1: just engaged and I'm let me, let me see what

1476
01:21:26,640 --> 01:21:30,160
Speaker 1: the next three year into. So when I got to

1477
01:21:30,280 --> 01:21:34,960
Speaker 1: the fifth chapter, I crept in your DMS and I

1478
01:21:35,040 --> 01:21:38,400
Speaker 1: was like, yo, you you write a good book. And

1479
01:21:39,400 --> 01:21:43,439
Speaker 1: the thing that in Laya actually texted me this last

1480
01:21:43,560 --> 01:21:47,360
Speaker 1: night she said, and I sent you what she said,

1481
01:21:47,640 --> 01:21:52,160
Speaker 1: uh Liyah said that the way that Mariah describes food

1482
01:21:53,280 --> 01:21:58,400
Speaker 1: is making me hungry. And I was like, yo, And

1483
01:21:58,520 --> 01:22:01,800
Speaker 1: I showed Layah my first text to you, which is

1484
01:22:01,880 --> 01:22:05,519
Speaker 1: basically I was like, yo, I've written two books about food,

1485
01:22:06,360 --> 01:22:13,120
Speaker 1: and no one has described Ritz crackers so eloquently that

1486
01:22:13,320 --> 01:22:13,640
Speaker 1: you have.

1487
01:22:14,880 --> 01:22:15,320
Speaker 4: And then.

1488
01:22:16,680 --> 01:22:18,960
Speaker 1: And then I was like, all right, well I had

1489
01:22:19,000 --> 01:22:20,840
Speaker 1: to take this like long trip to Philadelphia, and I

1490
01:22:20,840 --> 01:22:23,360
Speaker 1: was like, all right, let me get the audiobook listen

1491
01:22:23,400 --> 01:22:27,439
Speaker 1: to it in the car, and hearing you narrate this

1492
01:22:27,640 --> 01:22:31,640
Speaker 1: audio book was almost like your own podcast. And I

1493
01:22:31,720 --> 01:22:32,880
Speaker 1: was like, well, now I got to start at the

1494
01:22:32,960 --> 01:22:37,040
Speaker 1: beginning again. And I had to say that this was

1495
01:22:38,320 --> 01:22:40,840
Speaker 1: for me like sleeper Surprise of the Year, Like this

1496
01:22:41,000 --> 01:22:45,320
Speaker 1: book has humanized you in a way I didn't think

1497
01:22:45,600 --> 01:22:47,400
Speaker 1: it was possible, not that I thought that you were

1498
01:22:47,520 --> 01:22:52,639
Speaker 1: subhuman or supern like most most black people, especially black

1499
01:22:52,720 --> 01:22:55,479
Speaker 1: achieving people. They're either like, you know, on the high

1500
01:22:55,600 --> 01:22:59,480
Speaker 1: level of you know, credit to their race and they're superhuman,

1501
01:22:59,640 --> 01:23:03,320
Speaker 1: or there's up human blake. We're never like, we're never neutral.

1502
01:23:03,680 --> 01:23:07,400
Speaker 1: And I love the fact that this book puts you

1503
01:23:07,680 --> 01:23:10,360
Speaker 1: as a black person in a space where black people

1504
01:23:10,360 --> 01:23:16,320
Speaker 1: are rarely allowed to bleep be which is human? First

1505
01:23:16,320 --> 01:23:18,160
Speaker 1: of all, I would like to know, because most most

1506
01:23:18,320 --> 01:23:22,880
Speaker 1: memoirs are autobiographies, I don't trust them. That's why, like

1507
01:23:23,080 --> 01:23:26,120
Speaker 1: oral history is better because you at least get a

1508
01:23:26,240 --> 01:23:30,360
Speaker 1: taste of everyone's opinion. But what made you want to

1509
01:23:30,400 --> 01:23:37,040
Speaker 1: be so transparent and blatantly honest in this book? Because

1510
01:23:37,080 --> 01:23:38,599
Speaker 1: that's what I wasn't expecting.

1511
01:23:39,680 --> 01:23:43,839
Speaker 4: Well, I've been wanting to write this book for years,

1512
01:23:44,479 --> 01:23:49,200
Speaker 4: Like I think, first of all, I just wanted when

1513
01:23:49,240 --> 01:23:52,439
Speaker 4: I when I first so I had the opportunity to

1514
01:23:52,520 --> 01:23:56,160
Speaker 4: work with a very big like probably the biggest publishing

1515
01:23:56,240 --> 01:23:59,439
Speaker 4: house that there is, when I was pregnant, Right, that's

1516
01:23:59,439 --> 01:24:01,400
Speaker 4: what I wanted to write the book. I'm like here,

1517
01:24:01,520 --> 01:24:04,679
Speaker 4: I am, I can't go anywhere. It's basically like COVID,

1518
01:24:04,760 --> 01:24:06,880
Speaker 4: but it's not COVID. But you're pregnant with twins and

1519
01:24:06,960 --> 01:24:10,439
Speaker 4: you're on bedrest, and and I was like, all this

1520
01:24:10,600 --> 01:24:14,240
Speaker 4: all my life, Oh my life. I wanted to, you know,

1521
01:24:14,600 --> 01:24:17,640
Speaker 4: write this, write my book, write my story. So I

1522
01:24:18,040 --> 01:24:19,600
Speaker 4: so I wanted to do it at that point. And

1523
01:24:19,720 --> 01:24:25,479
Speaker 4: I really had this great relationship, very just beginning on

1524
01:24:25,560 --> 01:24:29,040
Speaker 4: a relationship, but I felt a kinship with Mikayla Angela Davis,

1525
01:24:29,439 --> 01:24:31,760
Speaker 4: who I wanted to work on the book with. Right

1526
01:24:32,240 --> 01:24:35,800
Speaker 4: and then this publishing house, the person at the top,

1527
01:24:36,200 --> 01:24:38,680
Speaker 4: she was the editor in chief, and she said, I

1528
01:24:38,720 --> 01:24:41,000
Speaker 4: don't want you to collaborate with anybody because I believe

1529
01:24:41,080 --> 01:24:44,040
Speaker 4: that your voice is going to transcend. You know, you

1530
01:24:44,160 --> 01:24:46,320
Speaker 4: need to have it be your voice. I'll be your

1531
01:24:46,439 --> 01:24:49,320
Speaker 4: editor and you just do it. And I was like,

1532
01:24:49,800 --> 01:24:52,720
Speaker 4: you know what, that's huge, and I thank you for

1533
01:24:52,800 --> 01:24:55,640
Speaker 4: believing in me on that in that way. But I

1534
01:24:55,720 --> 01:24:59,080
Speaker 4: really want to work with Mikayla. And so I didn't

1535
01:24:59,200 --> 01:25:02,040
Speaker 4: do the book at point, but I started just putting together,

1536
01:25:02,160 --> 01:25:03,360
Speaker 4: like some of the stories and whatever.

1537
01:25:03,720 --> 01:25:05,120
Speaker 7: Can you just tell us I'm sorry, I don't mean

1538
01:25:05,120 --> 01:25:06,920
Speaker 7: to apolog you, but can you just tell people because

1539
01:25:06,960 --> 01:25:08,439
Speaker 7: I'm a big fan of hers, but can you tell

1540
01:25:08,520 --> 01:25:11,200
Speaker 7: everybody why you were so adamant about Mikayla.

1541
01:25:11,720 --> 01:25:16,400
Speaker 4: Well, we okay. So michaela Angela Davis is a brilliant

1542
01:25:16,400 --> 01:25:21,879
Speaker 4: writer and she we first met when I did The Essence,

1543
01:25:22,400 --> 01:25:27,240
Speaker 4: my my first and only Essence magazine cover, which ended

1544
01:25:27,280 --> 01:25:29,920
Speaker 4: up myself just to make that happen at that point,

1545
01:25:29,960 --> 01:25:34,760
Speaker 4: because there were so many quote unquote issues with my

1546
01:25:35,120 --> 01:25:39,240
Speaker 4: image and how black women would perceive me and how,

1547
01:25:39,400 --> 01:25:42,400
Speaker 4: you know, could it happen and is this gonna happen

1548
01:25:42,520 --> 01:25:46,200
Speaker 4: and whatever, And it was a really important thing for

1549
01:25:46,320 --> 01:25:49,240
Speaker 4: it to happen for me because being black and of

1550
01:25:49,400 --> 01:25:53,719
Speaker 4: mixed race, there's always been this, you know, the stigma

1551
01:25:53,800 --> 01:25:57,160
Speaker 4: that that white people have. But then there's this thing,

1552
01:25:57,840 --> 01:26:03,080
Speaker 4: this thing where the lightness is perceived as privilege, privilege.

1553
01:26:03,360 --> 01:26:05,560
Speaker 4: But really, if you were put in the situations that

1554
01:26:05,640 --> 01:26:07,519
Speaker 4: I was put in as a kid, where you're only

1555
01:26:07,600 --> 01:26:11,439
Speaker 4: in white neighborhoods and this is nothing, they can't help it.

1556
01:26:11,720 --> 01:26:14,840
Speaker 4: You're put in this situation where you're not you're not

1557
01:26:15,120 --> 01:26:18,680
Speaker 4: dark enough to scare them into not saying anything, or

1558
01:26:18,720 --> 01:26:21,760
Speaker 4: even remind them, oh, let me not say this because

1559
01:26:21,800 --> 01:26:24,160
Speaker 4: it might offend this person because they're strictly looking at

1560
01:26:24,200 --> 01:26:26,720
Speaker 4: it like that. But then when they're all around you,

1561
01:26:26,840 --> 01:26:28,960
Speaker 4: like I talk about it in the book. Whatever you do.

1562
01:26:31,200 --> 01:26:34,320
Speaker 4: I think it's important that people hear it in the

1563
01:26:34,400 --> 01:26:38,120
Speaker 4: way that it's described in the book, because to just

1564
01:26:38,200 --> 01:26:40,280
Speaker 4: flippantly talk about it, it's why people were like, oh,

1565
01:26:40,320 --> 01:26:42,759
Speaker 4: what did you take so long? And know you're embracing

1566
01:26:42,840 --> 01:26:45,479
Speaker 4: your blackness, and like there was never a non embracing that.

1567
01:26:45,600 --> 01:26:47,040
Speaker 4: What did you expect to do?

1568
01:26:47,720 --> 01:26:48,200
Speaker 1: I can't.

1569
01:26:49,200 --> 01:26:51,439
Speaker 4: I can't tattoo it on my fore I guess I

1570
01:26:51,520 --> 01:26:54,120
Speaker 4: could have. I mean, maybe I should have. I don't

1571
01:26:54,120 --> 01:26:55,040
Speaker 4: really want to attach it.

1572
01:26:55,000 --> 01:26:57,080
Speaker 1: On my forehead, but you know, like you have the

1573
01:26:57,160 --> 01:26:59,840
Speaker 1: vision to collaborate with old dirty bastard. That's the black

1574
01:27:00,240 --> 01:27:00,880
Speaker 1: move ever.

1575
01:27:01,800 --> 01:27:05,240
Speaker 7: But it was an interesting question as you listen to

1576
01:27:05,320 --> 01:27:07,080
Speaker 7: your story in the book though, because that's what I

1577
01:27:07,160 --> 01:27:08,960
Speaker 7: kept thinking to myself as I listened to you talk

1578
01:27:08,960 --> 01:27:11,280
Speaker 7: about how like your dad and you didn't really talk

1579
01:27:11,280 --> 01:27:13,040
Speaker 7: about that kind of stuff that much as I know

1580
01:27:13,160 --> 01:27:15,599
Speaker 7: about like your mom didn't talk about that stuff that much.

1581
01:27:15,640 --> 01:27:17,960
Speaker 7: And it's getting to know you and understanding that, like

1582
01:27:18,280 --> 01:27:20,240
Speaker 7: this has been an interesting journey for you in that

1583
01:27:20,439 --> 01:27:24,639
Speaker 7: way of that side of your life. So I always

1584
01:27:24,680 --> 01:27:26,080
Speaker 7: wondered as I was listening, I was like, so, I

1585
01:27:26,160 --> 01:27:27,800
Speaker 7: wonder what was that moment because I haven't gotten to

1586
01:27:27,840 --> 01:27:31,160
Speaker 7: it yet in the book where you were like maybe

1587
01:27:31,200 --> 01:27:34,080
Speaker 7: it was then the Bronx cousins or whatever, when you

1588
01:27:34,120 --> 01:27:34,880
Speaker 7: were like, this is me.

1589
01:27:35,360 --> 01:27:35,920
Speaker 1: I'm proud.

1590
01:27:36,000 --> 01:27:39,360
Speaker 5: I see it, you know, and there's a pride there.

1591
01:27:40,120 --> 01:27:42,720
Speaker 4: Yeah, what happened was there was never a lack of

1592
01:27:43,560 --> 01:27:46,320
Speaker 4: I see it, I'm proud. It was always you take

1593
01:27:46,360 --> 01:27:50,759
Speaker 4: a child, you don't explain to them how to understand

1594
01:27:50,760 --> 01:27:53,760
Speaker 4: who they are. Right, you have a bour family with

1595
01:27:53,840 --> 01:27:57,760
Speaker 4: a black father and a white mother who was from

1596
01:27:57,840 --> 01:28:02,559
Speaker 4: the whitest place where the KKK born in Springfield, Illinois,

1597
01:28:04,400 --> 01:28:08,479
Speaker 4: and you have her family that had disowned her. Well,

1598
01:28:08,479 --> 01:28:10,639
Speaker 4: her family didn't even know she married my father. Only

1599
01:28:10,680 --> 01:28:16,000
Speaker 4: her mother knew, so she didn't tell anybody. And that

1600
01:28:16,920 --> 01:28:22,120
Speaker 4: imagine how you feel like because of who my father is,

1601
01:28:22,280 --> 01:28:26,000
Speaker 4: and ultimately that means because of who and what I am,

1602
01:28:27,080 --> 01:28:29,320
Speaker 4: and my siblings who went on to talk to whatever,

1603
01:28:29,640 --> 01:28:33,559
Speaker 4: because of what we are, we are considered sub human

1604
01:28:34,080 --> 01:28:37,120
Speaker 4: to them, so we don't exist and they don't even

1605
01:28:37,200 --> 01:28:40,040
Speaker 4: know that we exist. Actually, because that's how big of

1606
01:28:40,120 --> 01:28:43,200
Speaker 4: a that's how big of a thing it was that

1607
01:28:43,360 --> 01:28:45,320
Speaker 4: my mother did this. So it was the ultimate sin

1608
01:28:45,360 --> 01:28:49,200
Speaker 4: against her whiteness to her family and to her world.

1609
01:28:49,800 --> 01:28:52,439
Speaker 4: So to be honest with you, like she was very

1610
01:28:52,479 --> 01:28:55,439
Speaker 4: into civil rights, according as the story go, and she

1611
01:28:55,640 --> 01:29:00,200
Speaker 4: marth with doctor King before all these things, but which

1612
01:29:00,280 --> 01:29:02,200
Speaker 4: I heard more about that from her than I really

1613
01:29:02,240 --> 01:29:04,240
Speaker 4: heard from my father, because I feel like my father

1614
01:29:04,400 --> 01:29:08,479
Speaker 4: was always trying to in his own way assimilate understand

1615
01:29:08,560 --> 01:29:11,920
Speaker 4: who he was and what he went through because he

1616
01:29:12,080 --> 01:29:15,240
Speaker 4: was very like he you know he was. He just

1617
01:29:15,320 --> 01:29:17,599
Speaker 4: didn't really feel like he fit in it in any

1618
01:29:17,680 --> 01:29:21,680
Speaker 4: place either. So we never had a conversations till he

1619
01:29:21,840 --> 01:29:24,160
Speaker 4: was on his deathbed. But back to the thing about

1620
01:29:24,240 --> 01:29:26,479
Speaker 4: the book and why I felt I wanted to write

1621
01:29:26,479 --> 01:29:30,600
Speaker 4: with Michael was because we had these conversations in a

1622
01:29:30,680 --> 01:29:34,639
Speaker 4: way that I never had a conversation with another, certainly

1623
01:29:34,680 --> 01:29:39,400
Speaker 4: not a writer previously, and we connected on that level,

1624
01:29:39,479 --> 01:29:42,479
Speaker 4: and we couldn't get into every detail. How can you talk?

1625
01:29:42,600 --> 01:29:47,240
Speaker 4: How can you encapsulate a lifetime of experiences in a

1626
01:29:47,760 --> 01:29:50,479
Speaker 4: twenty minute interview with the magazine where the editor is

1627
01:29:50,520 --> 01:29:53,240
Speaker 4: going to then give you what they wanted to look like?

1628
01:29:53,680 --> 01:29:56,080
Speaker 4: How they what's the angled? You know? What I mean?

1629
01:29:56,640 --> 01:29:58,040
Speaker 1: Is Mikayla is she mixed race?

1630
01:29:58,080 --> 01:30:02,320
Speaker 4: As well, I'm down the line. But she's you know,

1631
01:30:02,479 --> 01:30:06,400
Speaker 4: her family's black. She likes them, She's very Mikaela Angela David.

1632
01:30:06,479 --> 01:30:08,280
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, like she yeah, yeah, I mean,

1633
01:30:08,320 --> 01:30:08,720
Speaker 3: I got it.

1634
01:30:09,720 --> 01:30:13,040
Speaker 4: It's a different struggle when you're placed in an environment

1635
01:30:13,160 --> 01:30:16,040
Speaker 4: that you don't belong in, so you're you're like fish

1636
01:30:16,080 --> 01:30:18,960
Speaker 4: out of water and with people saying stuff around you

1637
01:30:19,040 --> 01:30:22,679
Speaker 4: that they would neverver say, and you have to figure

1638
01:30:22,720 --> 01:30:27,360
Speaker 4: out you have to figure out how do I handle this,

1639
01:30:27,720 --> 01:30:31,479
Speaker 4: how do I how do I come back this, how

1640
01:30:31,560 --> 01:30:34,840
Speaker 4: do I exist? How do I survive? Without anybody giving

1641
01:30:34,920 --> 01:30:39,200
Speaker 4: you the talk, without anybody you know, and so.

1642
01:30:39,280 --> 01:30:41,840
Speaker 3: There was never a discussion about racing your house. There

1643
01:30:41,920 --> 01:30:43,760
Speaker 3: was never no one ever set you down and was like,

1644
01:30:43,920 --> 01:30:46,680
Speaker 3: you know, listen, you are a black girl and this

1645
01:30:46,880 --> 01:30:48,679
Speaker 3: is what that entails. Wow.

1646
01:30:49,120 --> 01:30:53,640
Speaker 4: No, No, it was your intucial and that's what you

1647
01:30:53,800 --> 01:30:56,479
Speaker 4: tell everybody. I'm like, but we don't know what that means.

1648
01:30:57,479 --> 01:30:58,519
Speaker 3: What is that mean?

1649
01:30:59,000 --> 01:31:01,960
Speaker 4: They don't know what this means. That's why, Yes, my

1650
01:31:02,120 --> 01:31:04,120
Speaker 4: cousins were always like when they were my cousins from

1651
01:31:04,160 --> 01:31:07,000
Speaker 4: the Bronx CC and Chris who we love, you know,

1652
01:31:07,520 --> 01:31:09,560
Speaker 4: on the few occasions when I'll be at my grandfather's

1653
01:31:09,600 --> 01:31:11,840
Speaker 4: house in Queen's and the kids would be like, that's

1654
01:31:11,920 --> 01:31:14,120
Speaker 4: not your cousin. She's white, and they would stick up

1655
01:31:14,160 --> 01:31:15,920
Speaker 4: for me and they would be like, no, she's not white,

1656
01:31:15,960 --> 01:31:18,240
Speaker 4: this is our cousin. She's black. She's our cousin. Like

1657
01:31:18,560 --> 01:31:21,200
Speaker 4: that was the only time there was like that unified,

1658
01:31:21,560 --> 01:31:24,320
Speaker 4: like we got you type of a thing, you know.

1659
01:31:24,479 --> 01:31:29,559
Speaker 4: But it was difficult because there's also the thing about

1660
01:31:29,680 --> 01:31:32,240
Speaker 4: money and not having money. So I think if it

1661
01:31:32,360 --> 01:31:34,719
Speaker 4: was like a family unit where the parent don't forget

1662
01:31:34,760 --> 01:31:36,400
Speaker 4: my parents divorce when I was like three or four

1663
01:31:36,479 --> 01:31:39,599
Speaker 4: years old, So there's that, and there's my father living

1664
01:31:39,640 --> 01:31:42,680
Speaker 4: in the neighborhood and me and my mother living in

1665
01:31:42,800 --> 01:31:47,680
Speaker 4: like fourteen different places without the siblings, without anybody else

1666
01:31:47,760 --> 01:31:50,439
Speaker 4: to connect to say we got you, like no matter

1667
01:31:50,520 --> 01:31:53,679
Speaker 4: what these other people are saying. And again they didn't

1668
01:31:53,760 --> 01:31:56,839
Speaker 4: know how to interpret it. They also it was considered

1669
01:31:56,880 --> 01:32:01,479
Speaker 4: their biggest insult to say to someone it's your father black,

1670
01:32:01,640 --> 01:32:05,000
Speaker 4: like this was they would say behind my back and

1671
01:32:05,080 --> 01:32:07,720
Speaker 4: then ultimately took my face when you you know, in

1672
01:32:07,800 --> 01:32:10,640
Speaker 4: a different way, when you read the book, did you.

1673
01:32:10,680 --> 01:32:13,439
Speaker 7: Ever play again with that little girl? Becky that ran

1674
01:32:13,600 --> 01:32:16,240
Speaker 7: crying when she saw your dad. Did you guys ever

1675
01:32:16,439 --> 01:32:16,880
Speaker 7: meet again?

1676
01:32:18,840 --> 01:32:20,240
Speaker 4: No, m.

1677
01:32:22,960 --> 01:32:24,880
Speaker 3: There was a girl named Becky, and I'm sure she

1678
01:32:25,000 --> 01:32:27,599
Speaker 3: was white. So what your name? Becky saw your dad

1679
01:32:27,840 --> 01:32:28,479
Speaker 3: started running?

1680
01:32:29,280 --> 01:32:31,800
Speaker 1: Oh I believe that Becky knows who Mariah Carey is.

1681
01:32:31,880 --> 01:32:38,479
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I'm sure that incident really impacted upon her,

1682
01:32:38,880 --> 01:32:40,679
Speaker 4: like it was literally she had never seen a black

1683
01:32:40,720 --> 01:32:44,920
Speaker 4: person in her life before. So yeah, So when we're

1684
01:32:44,960 --> 01:32:47,560
Speaker 4: in this lily white neighborhood that my mother chose to

1685
01:32:47,640 --> 01:32:49,800
Speaker 4: live in, and then this was my friend and there

1686
01:32:49,840 --> 01:32:52,240
Speaker 4: were no questions asked like what are this and that

1687
01:32:52,360 --> 01:32:55,760
Speaker 4: I think that's before my hair retext yourized, so I'm

1688
01:32:55,800 --> 01:32:59,720
Speaker 4: still really you and you know, we go to my

1689
01:32:59,800 --> 01:33:02,000
Speaker 4: dad house and I talk about it in the book obviously,

1690
01:33:02,160 --> 01:33:06,920
Speaker 4: but she just was frozen and then she just broke

1691
01:33:07,000 --> 01:33:10,320
Speaker 4: down and then my mother like escorted her. For some reason,

1692
01:33:10,400 --> 01:33:13,120
Speaker 4: my mother knew to like linger. My mother escorted her out,

1693
01:33:14,520 --> 01:33:17,920
Speaker 4: and it was just like, I'll never forget it. I'm

1694
01:33:17,960 --> 01:33:20,400
Speaker 4: sure she probably remembers it, but maybe she blocked it out.

1695
01:33:20,439 --> 01:33:29,240
Speaker 3: I don't know, Darling, how much control or well, well,

1696
01:33:29,320 --> 01:33:31,240
Speaker 3: from from the context of what you said earlier, so

1697
01:33:31,479 --> 01:33:34,320
Speaker 3: you had like really no control. But you know, when

1698
01:33:34,400 --> 01:33:40,200
Speaker 3: you're when you first signed to Columbia, who or how

1699
01:33:40,280 --> 01:33:43,000
Speaker 3: did you decide or what role did you play in

1700
01:33:43,200 --> 01:33:46,720
Speaker 3: your imaging in your package because they marketed you very

1701
01:33:46,880 --> 01:33:51,639
Speaker 3: much as you know, like just the pop kind of girl,

1702
01:33:51,800 --> 01:33:54,160
Speaker 3: and like, you know, they kind of just marked you

1703
01:33:54,200 --> 01:33:57,080
Speaker 3: as a white woman, not us. You know, we could

1704
01:33:57,160 --> 01:33:59,960
Speaker 3: look at you and we knew you know what I'm saying,

1705
01:34:00,760 --> 01:34:04,120
Speaker 3: Like we was like I hear what y'all saying.

1706
01:34:04,240 --> 01:34:07,960
Speaker 5: But you know, like so like we knew something smells familiar.

1707
01:34:08,760 --> 01:34:12,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I see, I see them curls, you know

1708
01:34:12,960 --> 01:34:13,280
Speaker 1: what I mean?

1709
01:34:13,560 --> 01:34:13,960
Speaker 3: I see?

1710
01:34:14,080 --> 01:34:14,320
Speaker 1: Yeah?

1711
01:34:14,560 --> 01:34:17,400
Speaker 3: So yeah, what was what took us through that process?

1712
01:34:17,520 --> 01:34:21,439
Speaker 3: Like just kind of your identity being formed for you

1713
01:34:21,560 --> 01:34:23,320
Speaker 3: in a way that maybe you didn't have any say

1714
01:34:23,360 --> 01:34:25,040
Speaker 3: so over, I would.

1715
01:34:24,800 --> 01:34:28,040
Speaker 4: Say that the marketing is its own thing. If you

1716
01:34:28,320 --> 01:34:32,000
Speaker 4: look at the actual first album cover in the back

1717
01:34:32,080 --> 01:34:36,760
Speaker 4: of the first album cover, my first album cover Marine Kerry, Right, Yeah,

1718
01:34:37,000 --> 01:34:44,000
Speaker 4: what you have time to display my blackness differently? Just

1719
01:34:44,080 --> 01:34:46,679
Speaker 4: tell me, like visually it was just your face because

1720
01:34:46,720 --> 01:34:48,840
Speaker 4: it was just your face in black and white. Yes,

1721
01:34:48,960 --> 01:34:52,640
Speaker 4: it was my natural hair, you know, additional curls put

1722
01:34:52,720 --> 01:34:57,760
Speaker 4: in it and then the black cover it curvature and

1723
01:34:58,000 --> 01:35:00,360
Speaker 4: stuff like that. Like I'm just trying to asked, like,

1724
01:35:00,479 --> 01:35:02,920
Speaker 4: how do you think that I could have made it

1725
01:35:03,080 --> 01:35:05,760
Speaker 4: more clear other than telling people that my father was

1726
01:35:05,760 --> 01:35:09,439
Speaker 4: black my mother? How how could we have unless it

1727
01:35:09,520 --> 01:35:12,040
Speaker 4: was should I have adapted a different hairstyle?

1728
01:35:12,640 --> 01:35:13,479
Speaker 1: Shouldn't be.

1729
01:35:15,800 --> 01:35:18,880
Speaker 5: No, that's that's deep. No, you're right, you're right. No,

1730
01:35:19,080 --> 01:35:19,880
Speaker 5: you're right, that's deep.

1731
01:35:20,160 --> 01:35:22,320
Speaker 3: And then asking that question, I wasn't like it wasn't

1732
01:35:22,360 --> 01:35:24,360
Speaker 3: a blaming of you or anything like that. I was

1733
01:35:24,479 --> 01:35:26,760
Speaker 3: just it was just something that like we all just

1734
01:35:26,960 --> 01:35:29,080
Speaker 3: kind of notice it's a conversation.

1735
01:35:29,720 --> 01:35:31,920
Speaker 5: Yeah, because people did, but you you're right, Like I

1736
01:35:32,080 --> 01:35:32,439
Speaker 5: was just me.

1737
01:35:33,560 --> 01:35:36,960
Speaker 4: No, I was me honestly. It wasn't even like on

1738
01:35:37,120 --> 01:35:40,639
Speaker 4: that album cover, I had like straight hair and blue

1739
01:35:40,760 --> 01:35:44,439
Speaker 4: contacts and you know, none of that, Like it's the

1740
01:35:44,640 --> 01:35:48,519
Speaker 4: same nose. It's the seem like you I can't help.

1741
01:35:48,560 --> 01:35:49,960
Speaker 4: But I talked about in the book, I don't have

1742
01:35:50,560 --> 01:35:52,400
Speaker 4: an upper lift that you know they told me. The

1743
01:35:52,520 --> 01:35:54,519
Speaker 4: black people would be like, oh, your lip is too small,

1744
01:35:54,640 --> 01:35:58,040
Speaker 4: but white people were like, your lip is really full,

1745
01:35:58,320 --> 01:36:04,040
Speaker 4: and I'm like yeah, but you know, I think the marketing.

1746
01:36:04,280 --> 01:36:07,960
Speaker 4: Marketing wise, they definitely skewed it pop. They definitely wanted adult,

1747
01:36:08,160 --> 01:36:11,200
Speaker 4: temporary pop. There's no question in my mind. But at

1748
01:36:11,280 --> 01:36:14,559
Speaker 4: that point, how the hell do I know the different charts?

1749
01:36:14,600 --> 01:36:16,000
Speaker 4: I don't know. I mean, by the way, Vision of

1750
01:36:16,000 --> 01:36:17,960
Speaker 4: Love was number one on the quote unquote R and

1751
01:36:18,080 --> 01:36:22,120
Speaker 4: B charts before the pop charts, So I often refer

1752
01:36:22,240 --> 01:36:25,120
Speaker 4: to that because that makes me feel a sense of right.

1753
01:36:25,400 --> 01:36:27,760
Speaker 7: But there wasn't like a black music department at that point,

1754
01:36:27,840 --> 01:36:30,519
Speaker 7: with black music department thing a thing, or it wasn't even.

1755
01:36:30,400 --> 01:36:36,160
Speaker 4: At your point. They really skewed me away from that.

1756
01:36:36,320 --> 01:36:38,400
Speaker 4: But I did work with the Black Music Department, and

1757
01:36:38,479 --> 01:36:44,560
Speaker 4: that was when Rodriguez was running Oh Ruben.

1758
01:36:46,479 --> 01:36:51,080
Speaker 1: Ladies and Gentlemen and lambs. That concludes part one of

1759
01:36:51,160 --> 01:36:53,640
Speaker 1: our special two part terview with the One in the

1760
01:36:54,280 --> 01:36:56,760
Speaker 1: for Ria Carrey. Make sure you come back to part

1761
01:36:56,800 --> 01:37:01,479
Speaker 1: two of the Question of Supreme special with the One

1762
01:37:01,520 --> 01:37:11,720
Speaker 1: and Riah carry all right, see Oven, Hey, this is

1763
01:37:11,760 --> 01:37:12,360
Speaker 1: Sugar Steed.

1764
01:37:13,479 --> 01:37:15,599
Speaker 2: Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at

1765
01:37:15,760 --> 01:37:19,400
Speaker 2: QLs and let us know what you think and who

1766
01:37:19,439 --> 01:37:20,880
Speaker 2: should be next to sit down with us.

1767
01:37:21,840 --> 01:37:23,960
Speaker 1: Don't forget to subscribe.

1768
01:37:23,520 --> 01:37:25,360
Speaker 3: To our podcast.

1769
01:37:34,560 --> 01:37:41,640
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For

1770
01:37:41,800 --> 01:37:44,840
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

1771
01:37:45,120 --> 01:37:48,120
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.