Speaker 1: R and B Money.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 1: Thanks take vlochie. We are the authority on R and
Speaker 1: B Ladies and gentleman.
Speaker 3: Name is Tankaline and this is the R and B
Speaker 3: Money Podcast, the authority.
Speaker 4: Come on on all things.
Speaker 3: And oh my god, your vocals, oh shackles off my feet.
Speaker 4: So he's got it's gotta be the guy.
Speaker 1: In between my say sensual moments.
Speaker 5: I take time, huh to give the Lord.
Speaker 1: His just due.
Speaker 3: And today is to day we are gonna get Jay
Speaker 3: Valentine saved today. Call today gotty whip for who we
Speaker 3: got in the building. I can't say enough about this
Speaker 3: young lady, a Grammy Award winning I mean, changing the
Speaker 3: trajectory of a message, showing God in a way that
Speaker 3: is just just the way I'd love to see it.
Speaker 3: And she's here the first time I'm gonna say the
Speaker 3: first Ladies, Erica Campbell of Mary Larry's in.
Speaker 5: The Pillar, thank you.
Speaker 6: Glad to be here, Glad to be here.
Speaker 3: Finally, I remember coming here, moving to La in two thousand.
Speaker 3: Good friends of mine, good friends of all of us.
Speaker 3: Rapture at the time was my musical director and producing
Speaker 3: all this music for us East seats. Everybody nice to
Speaker 3: go over the raption and church and hang out with
Speaker 3: them all the time. You know what I'm saying, still
Speaker 3: trying to keep my church ways as I've moved out
Speaker 3: into California, you know. And and Rapture was like, man,
Speaker 3: you gotta you gotta hear these girls called Mary Mary.
Speaker 3: I was like, Mary married the names. I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't know about that name, but the gospel they crazy.
Speaker 3: And Warren is produced, I said, Warren, like Warren Warren, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it it's crazy. I was like, this a right, Like,
Speaker 3: what kind of gospel is it? Though, I'm telling you
Speaker 3: it's different. You gotta see it. You guys jumped on
Speaker 3: that scene, and I was my prayers had been asked,
Speaker 3: I have. I'm having the same conversation with you that
Speaker 3: I had with Kirk when I said, that's what I
Speaker 3: was trying to hell everybody, that's what we should do.
Speaker 3: We our message it should be competitive, Absolutely, it should be.
Speaker 3: It should be fightd.
Speaker 7: So if we, I think, if we serve the creator
Speaker 7: of the universe, right, what did creation look like when
Speaker 7: he said let there be stars, and stars just appeared
Speaker 7: the whole galaxy? What did that look like when he
Speaker 7: made birds and whales?
Speaker 6: And elephants. It was a show. It's the best show
Speaker 6: you ever seen, right.
Speaker 7: So then why do I have to sing about God
Speaker 7: and be boring and little ashy?
Speaker 6: And you know what I mean? God?
Speaker 7: So when Mary Mary first came out, we were at
Speaker 7: the salon getting our hair done and the CD cover
Speaker 7: was on the table and this guy was like, oh, man,
Speaker 7: who was this?
Speaker 6: They fine?
Speaker 7: I was like, that's gospel music. He was like, saying gospel.
Speaker 7: I said, why can't it be gospel? He said, because
Speaker 7: gospel is old, fat and bored. And I said, well,
Speaker 7: do I look old, fat or boring? He was like, ah,
Speaker 7: I said, that's me. I sen gospel.
Speaker 6: He was like, oh, okay, okay, I want to check
Speaker 6: it out.
Speaker 7: And he you know, I think a lot of people
Speaker 7: were just not expecting girls that looked like us to
Speaker 7: be saying about the Lord. But I mean, I don't
Speaker 7: think we were the first ones to look like us
Speaker 7: that same gospel though.
Speaker 3: Well, in our fairness, you kind of were in leading
Speaker 3: the charge of like, you know, because there are rules.
Speaker 3: I come from a Baptist church. There are rules. There
Speaker 3: were rules in terms of what women could wear, and
Speaker 3: we were rule breakers.
Speaker 7: We were rule breakers my father was a rule breaker
Speaker 7: and so it wasn't foreign to me. So my father
Speaker 7: did street ministry. So we were always like at the
Speaker 7: park with the gangs and the you know, and we
Speaker 7: were telling them about Jesus, but we didn't go in
Speaker 7: long white dresses looking.
Speaker 6: Corny, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: And then and our youth ministry was full of beautiful
Speaker 7: young girls. Like dudes used to come to our church,
Speaker 7: and my aunt would say, invite them all, just don't
Speaker 7: sleep with them, you know what I mean, Like, yes,
Speaker 7: they can come, you know. So this this subject of
Speaker 7: faith filled and also being cute.
Speaker 6: And you know, I don't think sexy is a bad
Speaker 6: word for Christian A lot of people.
Speaker 7: Think it is. And sexy doesn't mean sexual. It doesn't
Speaker 7: mean I'm sleeping everybody. It means I'm attractive. It means
Speaker 7: that God put me in this package and so I
Speaker 7: don't have to run from it or cover it up
Speaker 7: because I'm singing about him.
Speaker 6: I think all of this was on purpose, you know
Speaker 6: what I mean.
Speaker 7: And so when you look at it like that, it
Speaker 7: doesn't mean that if you don't look like this, you
Speaker 7: can't do. This is just my story in my path,
Speaker 7: but my goal was to always let people see Jesus
Speaker 7: in a different light, because you know, on TV, it's
Speaker 7: the corny scene, you know what I mean, it's just's
Speaker 7: church is always portrayed. It's this uncool thing and people
Speaker 7: think it's the coolest when it's unchurched.
Speaker 6: I disagree.
Speaker 3: You and you guys, let you young ladies. And Kirk
Speaker 3: brought the the freedom of it of being cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and look, but I think.
Speaker 7: It was the honesty about we're not perfect, so what
Speaker 7: we weren't never trying to pretend to be more than
Speaker 7: we were.
Speaker 8: It was.
Speaker 7: It was hard because I was a hardcore church girl,
Speaker 7: grew up Evangelistic Church of God in Christ one hundred
Speaker 7: and eleven Street, Englewood, California, went to church seven days
Speaker 7: a week.
Speaker 4: And so.
Speaker 7: For Jesus playing no games, no, but yeah, it was
Speaker 7: street ministry. We knew that there were people that didn't
Speaker 7: speak Christianese, that didn't go to church. How do we
Speaker 7: tell them about this loving God that will take them
Speaker 7: as they are.
Speaker 4: You don't have to.
Speaker 6: Clean yourself up, He'll do all the work.
Speaker 7: So I just wanted to make sure that we presented
Speaker 7: in a way where people got it. And I actually
Speaker 7: was greatly inspired by. I remember saying the Clark Sisters
Speaker 7: on the Grammys. I remember being blown away. I remember
Speaker 7: watching BB and CC going man, one day, I'm gonna
Speaker 7: get a chance. I remember going to a I think
Speaker 7: it was, might have been the GMWA, might have been
Speaker 7: some conference where Kirk was there, and I just wanted
Speaker 7: to be in somebody's choir.
Speaker 6: I tried to sing with John p Key. I sent
Speaker 6: him a tape. I didn't get in. I tried to
Speaker 6: be one of the Kirk Carr singers. I wasn't good enough.
Speaker 7: I didn't get in, and I think it was because
Speaker 7: God was saying, no, I have something else for you,
Speaker 7: because I you know, when you have this view of church.
Speaker 7: And I had a great respect and admiration for the
Speaker 7: singers and what they did. And so while I loved them,
Speaker 7: I knew I wasn't them, but I knew that was
Speaker 7: the standard.
Speaker 6: But I also have my.
Speaker 7: Father, who is this buff dude who's cool in the neighborhood,
Speaker 7: who all the gang members want to talk to him
Speaker 7: when they're dealing with issues with their girl or whatever
Speaker 7: they're going through. And I was like, man, this is
Speaker 7: so cool that he can do that, and still be
Speaker 7: so respected. He's not the hornball. Did that they like, Ah,
Speaker 7: you don't know, they knew he understood them, And that's
Speaker 7: always my prayer. I want you to know that I
Speaker 7: get you. I understand brokenness. I understand you know, not
Speaker 7: having growing up poor, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 7: that was a great conflict for me for a long time.
Speaker 7: Like y'all keep saying, God, I'm gonna make a way
Speaker 7: out of no way. Y'all are still poor. And so
Speaker 7: this unrealistic faith that just talked about what I was
Speaker 7: going to get and not my responsibility in my life
Speaker 7: is how me and Tina tried our best to relate
Speaker 7: to and Warren. Of course we couldn't do it without
Speaker 7: Warren to relate to this world who has this big
Speaker 7: divide between my life and God and what that can
Speaker 7: be when they don't know it's all intertwined.
Speaker 3: All the time. Yes, I just feel like you, as
Speaker 3: he said, the youth right, which is so very important.
Speaker 3: I think you just really stayed true to who you were.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and your message is your message, but who
Speaker 3: you are, how you grew up your surround style, all
Speaker 3: of these things I can I can be me and
Speaker 3: and serve him that that that is and that that
Speaker 3: is the the the relatable, intangible. That just made so
Speaker 3: much sense for me. I was like, that's that's thirty
Speaker 3: ninth street from me right there, That's that's Forestville, Maryland
Speaker 3: for me right there, Like, that's that's it, it's it's
Speaker 3: it's when Jesus sent them out to by two into
Speaker 3: the street the street ministry.
Speaker 6: Should you pastor he'll up the church, sir.
Speaker 3: Offak, I keep a couple of but for the Lord,
Speaker 3: keep a couple of buts tho the.
Speaker 6: Lord, I can't stand it. Just but send disciples out.
Speaker 3: He sent them out to the to the street.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Like, and so when you when you're sending somebody to the.
Speaker 4: Street, they got to be equipped for they have to be.
Speaker 3: They gotta be they got to be connected to that
Speaker 3: in order to survive that place.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you can't go like this.
Speaker 1: You know, a fake when you see one.
Speaker 4: Right right right where.
Speaker 6: You're from, right and what you're gonna say.
Speaker 7: And it's so funny because of my style of gospel,
Speaker 7: I'm always that's always who I encounter.
Speaker 6: I remember one year b ET Awards.
Speaker 7: You know, they do the press room and if you're
Speaker 7: nominated and performing, you go and do the press.
Speaker 6: So they happened to put Mary Mary on Hip Hop Day.
Speaker 7: So it is every hip hop artist in you know,
Speaker 7: the mid two thousands, and so you know they're like,
Speaker 7: praise the Lord, Mary, Marry their eyes floating, you know,
Speaker 7: up everywhere other than my eyes.
Speaker 6: Praise the Lord, God bless you. You know what the
Speaker 6: Mary's doing here on.
Speaker 8: This day.
Speaker 7: But because I'm strong in my faith and I'm strong
Speaker 7: in who I am, and I'm from Ingle, and I
Speaker 7: don't play them kind of games, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: I knew how to be cool in the room and
Speaker 7: just say what's up and how you doing? And I
Speaker 7: knew their music, they knew mine. You know, most of
Speaker 7: them either had a grandmother or auntie as somebody who
Speaker 7: grew up in church. So it's always like my girl
Speaker 7: love you. And I would say, well you don't ye, yeah,
Speaker 7: you don't need shackles off your feet. Oh that's right,
Speaker 7: that's right, Okay, okay, my grandmother did you listen to
Speaker 7: you know what I'm saying. And so being able to
Speaker 7: just kind of talk to people just on a human level,
Speaker 7: I think is what allowed our music to reach the
Speaker 7: people that it reaches. I was just doing my solo thing.
Speaker 7: I was in New York somewhere is soho, and I
Speaker 7: thought this dude was trying to talk to me.
Speaker 6: He was like, hey, hey, you know, and I was like,
Speaker 6: you know, I was like, he was like, you seeing
Speaker 6: gospel music, right? I say yeah.
Speaker 7: He was like, I know you're doing your solo thing.
Speaker 7: Wo let you let me know. He knew that I was.
Speaker 7: He was aware of ye career. So he's like, I
Speaker 7: know you're doing your solo thing. He was like, but
Speaker 7: what you and your sister do? The streets need what
Speaker 7: y'all do?
Speaker 6: He was like, and so you know, we waiting on y'all.
Speaker 7: And I just really appreciated that, and it let me
Speaker 7: know the value of you know, singing gospel music and
Speaker 7: unorthodox places in unorthodox ways that does not always get
Speaker 7: accepted by church people.
Speaker 6: Because I have had church.
Speaker 7: People, Lord Jesus, some of the things that they have said,
Speaker 7: some of the man you know. But the good thing
Speaker 7: about me, I don't care that much. So I don't
Speaker 7: always remember their names. I don't always remember I just
Speaker 7: know that you don't like me. That means I'm not
Speaker 7: assigned to you. Is somebody else, For you can listen
Speaker 7: to somebody else, But I know who I'm assigned to,
Speaker 7: and I'm okay with that.
Speaker 6: So I've never spent my career trying.
Speaker 3: To please like me.
Speaker 6: Please do you like me? Do you think I'm good enough?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 7: God gave me this talent, He opened that door, and
Speaker 7: when I stand before him, you won't be there.
Speaker 6: He won't ask you did you like what she did?
Speaker 7: So my job is to make sure that I'm authentic
Speaker 7: to who he's called me to be, singing where he's
Speaker 7: called me, even if that's collaborations with non gospel people,
Speaker 7: even if it's other rooms. If he has put me there,
Speaker 7: then I'm there to be a light, to plan a seed,
Speaker 7: to be a room changer. And so I stand confident
Speaker 7: in that, not saying that I'm never, you know, shyer
Speaker 7: and secure, because I have been like God, can you just.
Speaker 6: Give me like a regular gospel song? Why does it
Speaker 6: have to be?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 6: I love God?
Speaker 7: Now they gonna beat me up more, And then when
Speaker 7: I try to the churchy things like a little more Jesus,
Speaker 7: they'll be like this ain't your style.
Speaker 6: So I'd be like, you can't win.
Speaker 4: So I'll just be Erica Erica.
Speaker 2: Before you go and see that, though, I just want
Speaker 2: to say for me, and obviously you've seen obviously what
Speaker 2: we had your husband on.
Speaker 4: This, yes, yes, and it's my guy and you know
Speaker 4: how we go back and forth.
Speaker 2: But I think y'all style of music, of gospel music
Speaker 2: was really important for someone like me who didn't grow
Speaker 2: up in church and to still get the word through that,
Speaker 2: but to still be relatable to me, right, because I
Speaker 2: think there were times where I was the guy who
Speaker 2: looked at the gospel music, the gods music scene are
Speaker 2: you know, or even the church in itself as this
Speaker 2: place that wasn't that was wasn't.
Speaker 6: Very welcoming, wasn't welcoming.
Speaker 2: I got you to me because it didn't it didn't
Speaker 2: feel like me, And that could have been something that
Speaker 2: I just conjured up in my mind like ah, well yeah,
Speaker 2: like you said, it's not cool because I don't really
Speaker 2: see myself there. But as I started to see myself there,
Speaker 2: it became something that it was more relatable to me,
Speaker 2: and it made it made the transition easier to listen to.
Speaker 4: And even a record like Shackles because it was knocking, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I mean, So that record I felt like
Speaker 2: I wasn't the only person that it affected that way,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: And I just want to say thank you for that.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, because it is it is
Speaker 2: absolutely something that I needed personally as well to hear
Speaker 2: and to And I was never a closed minded person,
Speaker 2: so much like I don't do this and all of that,
Speaker 2: but it was just something that I wasn't tapped into.
Speaker 7: Your emotions about a thing or your idea about a
Speaker 7: thing can determine whether you will accept it receive it.
Speaker 7: Like if you go to a restaurant and somebody told
Speaker 7: you the food is nasty and the service is bad.
Speaker 7: With you walking, you're expecting trash.
Speaker 4: Yes, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: And a lot of times when it comes to faith
Speaker 7: in God, people have heard horrible things, seen horrible examples.
Speaker 7: So you're not even open to the beauty of connecting
Speaker 7: to the creator of the universe because you've got sister
Speaker 7: so and so said, and this person said, I don't
Speaker 7: serve them and they've got their own journey for whatever reason.
Speaker 7: I don't take people personal either. I think you're doing
Speaker 7: that as a reflection of you, not me. So it
Speaker 7: allows me to walk in the room not looking for
Speaker 7: Oh are they gonna like me?
Speaker 6: And you know, if you already negative, you're probably gonna.
Speaker 7: Give me that negative injury because you negative, not because
Speaker 7: there's anything wrong with me, And so me presenting the
Speaker 7: gospel has allowed me to be able to do that.
Speaker 7: I remember we were in London and we were doing
Speaker 7: this huge club and Cisco went on before us, singing
Speaker 7: the Thong song and at that time, right dumps like
Speaker 7: a truck. So we're like, we at this time we
Speaker 7: open with thingsk you Lord, I'm going Tina, we gonna
Speaker 7: do that, right.
Speaker 4: She was like, it's what we do, right.
Speaker 7: So we came on and sang that into thankful and
Speaker 7: then we sang shackles and you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: We had a good time, and at that time we
Speaker 7: knew that this wasn't which I was expecting. So we
Speaker 7: would jump off this stage, we would put mikes in
Speaker 7: people's mouth, We was dancing with people, and it was like,
Speaker 7: this is the coolest gospel.
Speaker 6: I've ever heard.
Speaker 7: But we were never afraid of that. I knew that
Speaker 7: it wouldn't be received well by church people. But where
Speaker 7: is light most.
Speaker 4: Effective in the dark?
Speaker 7: Where do they need this light? In this love most
Speaker 7: in places where I'm gonna feel better by this drink.
Speaker 7: I'm'na feel better by sleeping with this person. This is
Speaker 7: gonna make me feel I no, no, If I do this,
Speaker 7: this is gonna make me feel better.
Speaker 6: And this gospel music says you can feel better because
Speaker 6: you are a human being.
Speaker 7: And without all of that, you're still amazing, wonderful, valuable
Speaker 7: and necessary to this world. And so when your music
Speaker 7: brings value to people life, they kind of forget the
Speaker 7: misconceptions of, oh, this is actually a gospel chack talking
Speaker 7: to me. You know what I mean, because I'm not
Speaker 7: bringing the judgment, I'm not bringing the you better and
Speaker 7: follow all of these rules, right, any rule I don't follow,
Speaker 7: there is grace for me. Anytime I fall, there is
Speaker 7: grace for me. There's understanding for me.
Speaker 6: God has people won't.
Speaker 7: And I tell people, you got to stop expecting people
Speaker 7: to give you what God said he.
Speaker 6: Will give you.
Speaker 7: He never told us to trust people. He said, trusting
Speaker 7: the Lord with all your heart.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 7: And so if I trust him, I can trust him
Speaker 7: even if I'm in a room full of haters. I
Speaker 7: can trust him, even if I'm walking into areas I've
Speaker 7: never been in before, because if he's assigned me to it,
Speaker 7: he's equipped me for it. I'm prepared for it, and
Speaker 7: no devil in Hell can stop me.
Speaker 6: That's just what I believe.
Speaker 7: So my church perspective on people going in hearing the
Speaker 7: music is maybe a little bit different than somebody. I
Speaker 7: don't have the come in clean or stay away dirty. No,
Speaker 7: my uncle wasn't.
Speaker 6: Highly educated, but he was so annointed. He said, let
Speaker 6: him come, let him come.
Speaker 7: Smelling how they smell. We know what it was last night.
Speaker 7: It's okay, let him come. And the choir was singing.
Speaker 7: We would love on them and we would talk to
Speaker 7: them and they'd be like, man, this place is pretty cool.
Speaker 7: I remember it was a very big drug dealer in
Speaker 7: Englewood that would go to our church all the time,
Speaker 7: and he would always be like, man, I like it here.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 7: He ain't necessarily stop selling drugs, but you know, he
Speaker 7: came to church all the time and he would You
Speaker 7: could you could see him changing. You could see him
Speaker 7: trusting and believing that I could really like do something
Speaker 7: different with my life, like this ain't the only way
Speaker 7: I can take care of my family. And he just
Speaker 7: kept coming and my pastor would say, don't bother, leave
Speaker 7: him alone.
Speaker 4: Because everybody knew.
Speaker 6: Everybody knew we yeah, we knew.
Speaker 7: You know, some people scared, you know, because we was
Speaker 7: in a blood neighborhood and just all of that. And
Speaker 7: he'd be like, no, leave them alone, let him come.
Speaker 7: And so there's a lot of people that would come.
Speaker 7: I remember this one girl came to our choir rehearsal
Speaker 7: and she was like, I know, I'm not supposed to
Speaker 7: be here, and I got drugs in my pocket and
Speaker 7: a gun and if y'alln't pray for me, I'm gonna
Speaker 7: kill somebody right now. We stopped cire rehearsal and prayed
Speaker 7: for her. She's still in the faith right now. You know,
Speaker 7: it's not perfect, but still to this day. And she said,
Speaker 7: I've never been to a place where they expected accepted
Speaker 7: me that way.
Speaker 2: And that's what I believe that I felt listening to
Speaker 2: the music was acceptance, because that I think that's from
Speaker 2: the outside of it. The biggest deterrence is not thinking
Speaker 2: that it's going that you're going to be accepted in
Speaker 2: this space because of maybe where you come from or
Speaker 2: how you're living, or you know what I mean. Those
Speaker 2: different things that where goes back to judgment. Yeah, nobody
Speaker 2: wants to be judged, you know what I mean. People
Speaker 2: can say that it's going.
Speaker 6: To judge everybody.
Speaker 2: We judge everybody, but nobody really wants to be judged.
Speaker 2: And then you're and then you're also not going toward judgment.
Speaker 2: Like if you know, like okay, across the street, right,
Speaker 2: they about to read me all my rights over there,
Speaker 2: and they gonna tell me what I'm doing wrong.
Speaker 4: You can probably go to the.
Speaker 1: Around the corner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna go to the easy church, or
Speaker 2: not one at all, or not one at all, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. And it was something that you
Speaker 2: said that was really important because I felt like when
Speaker 2: I was growing up, what I saw and what I
Speaker 2: heard more so not even what I saw at times,
Speaker 2: but what I heard was, you know, they got the
Speaker 2: church over there in the projects in the hood, and
Speaker 2: then they got the pastor driving the shiny Cadillac, and
Speaker 2: those two things didn't go together to me.
Speaker 6: So you want your pastor poor.
Speaker 2: I didn't want them to be poor, and really I
Speaker 2: didn't even I didn't have a pastor. But for me,
Speaker 2: looking from the outside, I'm just like It just doesn't
Speaker 2: make sense to me like that. All the people here
Speaker 2: aren't doing well, but the pastor is. I think he
Speaker 2: should share the wealth.
Speaker 4: The best.
Speaker 7: I don't know who said it, but I know someone
Speaker 7: said the best thing you could do for poor people
Speaker 7: is not be one of them. Because how can I
Speaker 7: teach you how to come out of this? I how
Speaker 7: can I teach you how to elevate? How can I
Speaker 7: teach you how to maximize in your life? If none
Speaker 7: of us ain't got nothing, somebody has to have something. Yeah,
Speaker 7: And you know, I don't want to get too spiritual
Speaker 7: because I wanted your audience to be like we know,
Speaker 7: there's always an agenda to make sure people don't get
Speaker 7: this message of God right. So the enemy will start
Speaker 7: in January to destroy you by December. If you have
Speaker 7: financial issues right, and you striving and you want things
Speaker 7: and you're trying to you're trying to make it happen,
Speaker 7: and you go to church, the enemy gonna whisper in
Speaker 7: your ear he got more than you.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 7: Jealousy set sins, So I can't say, wool, I'm glad
Speaker 7: God blessed you, Maybe God will bless me. It turns
Speaker 7: into well, why didn't he bless me to. That's envy.
Speaker 7: That's not faith, that's not expectation, that's not hope. That's
Speaker 7: not gratitude. That's not looking at someone else and being
Speaker 7: able to applaud someone else, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: So sometimes it's heart posture that makes you go and
Speaker 7: look around. Let me see which church is raggedy. You
Speaker 7: don't want God, you want something else. So you're gonna
Speaker 7: find what you're looking for. The enemy gonna make sure
Speaker 7: you find what you're looking for.
Speaker 6: Most of the time.
Speaker 7: Most of the time, those people are very loud. Sin
Speaker 7: has good great marketing, great marketing. It's everywhere.
Speaker 6: People want to hear the bad news, right what's wrong
Speaker 6: with them? Just you know? And sometimes if you got
Speaker 6: yourself together, they're still looking for what's wrong.
Speaker 7: They can't be that good, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 7: Like we anticipate. We're so comfortable with the bad and
Speaker 7: the broken, and we're so comfortable with thieves, and so
Speaker 7: that's all we're looking for. We almost distrust a good
Speaker 7: guy or a good chick. We almost questioned the couple
Speaker 7: that's been there. It must be something in there. Of course,
Speaker 7: it's something in there, but love held them together. Of course,
Speaker 7: somebody's jacked up in the church. But we're not coming
Speaker 7: here for each other. We're coming here for God. And
Speaker 7: I may have to sort through some people with their brokenness.
Speaker 7: I may have to sort through some people who are
Speaker 7: struggling and trying to get this thing right. The thing
Speaker 7: about faith is you got to keep doing it every
Speaker 7: day right.
Speaker 6: It's not like I'm gonna get it right. Oh I'm
Speaker 6: setting now, I'm good.
Speaker 7: So as you come to a church, everybody is coming
Speaker 7: for the same thing, for God, right, for for better,
Speaker 7: for a light, for understanding, for healing, for whatever you're
Speaker 7: looking for. And the enemy does not want you to
Speaker 7: get that because you are the most powerful in those
Speaker 7: times and in those moments when.
Speaker 6: You're operating in your full power, in your full light.
Speaker 7: No, they're gonna start, They're gonna stop doing this raggedy
Speaker 7: stuff if they really understand the power of God and
Speaker 7: how I can tap into the creator of the universe
Speaker 7: and say, what does my tomorrow look like? And God say,
Speaker 7: I'll need you to open this door and go through here.
Speaker 7: But if you looking at people that's wrong. I can't
Speaker 7: go in that room. They're gonna hate on me. You
Speaker 7: may be called to that room, you know, and so
Speaker 7: you may have been called to that church. But I
Speaker 7: saw the Bentley first, so I'm not gonna go.
Speaker 9: That's definitely how I felt when I got.
Speaker 3: I go to a church and I say the bill
Speaker 3: and I come from the churches in d C.
Speaker 6: Does that people with money are well?
Speaker 3: No, no, here's the thing not good? Because I want to.
Speaker 3: I want to. I want to, I want to jump,
Speaker 3: I want to get Because it was just like, I.
Speaker 1: Don't I don't mind the pastor.
Speaker 3: Living good and and and and and having his car
Speaker 3: and you know, having his his portion of of what
Speaker 3: God of what God gets sure, and I was giving
Speaker 3: my experience when I like, he said l A and
Speaker 3: I was like the first when I first moved to
Speaker 3: LA was the first time.
Speaker 1: Excuse me?
Speaker 3: Then I saw a V I P section in church
Speaker 3: and I was like, so, what's so who's this there?
Speaker 3: Definitely for V I P. To sit behind. I was, oh, God, okay,
Speaker 3: I'll just park right No no, no, no, no, that's also
Speaker 3: V I P. Park So you got it? What? And
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna just here go
Speaker 3: to It was my first time ever ever ever seen
Speaker 3: and so I didn't know. I didn't know how to
Speaker 3: process it because every every church that I had been to,
Speaker 3: or every church that I grew up in, the only
Speaker 3: person that had reserved parking was the pastor and everybody
Speaker 3: else we just found us a space and help other
Speaker 3: people find spaces. And then when you came in the
Speaker 3: only people who had a signed seating where the deacons
Speaker 3: and the deaconesses and the mother's board, like you knew
Speaker 3: where they said. And then well, my grandmother had her
Speaker 3: own seat, so she don't sit in her seat, don't
Speaker 3: sit in mine, don't sit and past the Mary Jean
Speaker 3: Giles seat. It's don't be hal to pay right being
Speaker 3: the third on the end, don't touch that right. But
Speaker 3: outside of that, everybody you filled in m hm. And
Speaker 3: so just speaking more to you know, kind of what
Speaker 3: he was saying, just the nuance of it, you know,
Speaker 3: I'll add I'll add to a story with that in
Speaker 3: terms of how I would have loved to see or
Speaker 3: what I thought every church should have been.
Speaker 1: Pastor battle good friend of.
Speaker 3: Mine, I went and did his church, I think it
Speaker 3: was mother's dad performed. He called me. He was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I want you to perform my church, my mother's day.
Speaker 3: I was like, the mothers need to touch. I was like,
Speaker 3: he said, yeah, we do two services. You sing some songs,
Speaker 3: play the piano, and then we do like a h
Speaker 3: a talk where we talk about you know you you
Speaker 3: being in the industry, your faith and all these things
Speaker 3: and how it carries you through and that. I was like, this, okay,
Speaker 3: you sure? He was like. He was like, he's like yeah.
Speaker 3: He said, what do you charge? I was like, I
Speaker 3: mean it's church.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 3: I was like, I charged this much. He said cool.
Speaker 3: I was like cool. He said, yeah, I don't negotiate
Speaker 3: against people. They said, that would be me telling you
Speaker 3: that I don't believe you are who you say you are.
Speaker 3: I was like okay, amen. And then I was like, well,
Speaker 3: I don't you know. I got a gig. I'm trying
Speaker 3: to get there. He was like this, okay, well, what's
Speaker 3: the easiest way to get you here? I was like,
Speaker 3: probably a jet man, but I'm not trying to put all.
Speaker 3: He said, Okay, price out of the jet. We'll get
Speaker 3: you here. I was like what, ok amen, amen, and
Speaker 3: somebody will get church got some money. No pastor battle
Speaker 3: himself is cool. He's not the flashy is not the
Speaker 3: it's not what he does. So we get the church
Speaker 3: and we do these services, and in these services, I'm
Speaker 3: watching him. I'm watching him give, I'm watching him give car, job,
Speaker 3: place to stay. I'm watching him give, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I had never seen church like that, because I'd always
Speaker 3: seen them take the offering and just take it in
Speaker 3: the back and then that's it. And you had never
Speaker 3: actually seen how how the church, you know, fed the community.
Speaker 6: And I love that story for so many reasons.
Speaker 7: I love that that there was a reservation even in
Speaker 7: when he asked you to come, you weren't, like I
Speaker 7: do venues fine, church is fine.
Speaker 6: I love that there's a there's a sense of respect
Speaker 6: that you had like should I say this? Should I?
Speaker 7: And I think that shows that there is a reverence
Speaker 7: for you know, God and God's House and God's people.
Speaker 7: I love that they even had you and that they
Speaker 7: treated you the way you're supposed to be treated.
Speaker 6: And I can honestly say there are many churches that
Speaker 6: have done that.
Speaker 7: And then while we're on their way, we're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 7: that's our children's facility, that's our seniors facility, this is
Speaker 7: where we be the homeless, and.
Speaker 6: This is where we do this, and this is our
Speaker 6: prisons ministry.
Speaker 7: There are a lot of churches that are blessed because
Speaker 7: of the amount that they give and how they serve. Now,
Speaker 7: there are some trash churches. There are some raggedy ones
Speaker 7: out there. I'm just like and I'm not because I
Speaker 7: never want to talk about the good and not acknowledge.
Speaker 7: I know that that exists, and I know that there
Speaker 7: are a lot of people that have their hearts broken
Speaker 7: in church. But God didn't do that. And if you
Speaker 7: were going for people, you got what you were looking for.
Speaker 7: But if you were going for God, you look past
Speaker 7: that broken person and say, but Lord, what are you
Speaker 7: saying to me? I know what they said, but Lord,
Speaker 7: what are you saying to me?
Speaker 1: Keep framing it around God's name?
Speaker 3: Right, So I'll say it as I was a musician,
Speaker 3: this is I'm sorry, we're going to get.
Speaker 6: To they wanted church.
Speaker 3: It was it's what you brought is healing and something
Speaker 3: something different.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: And so as a musician in my church, as as
Speaker 3: the minister of music and playing for all the choirs
Speaker 3: and writing the songs and the songs, I just want
Speaker 3: doing rehearsals as were in there seven days a week
Speaker 3: and even know what I'm saying, how do I live?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And when it keeps being framed as well, you know
Speaker 3: God gonna take care of you? Well, you do you
Speaker 3: think you think we can get one of them bricks
Speaker 3: that God God on the street and for a play,
Speaker 3: because because right now, just seventy five dollars a Sunday,
Speaker 3: right and you're telling me God got me. I'm here
Speaker 3: in the place of God. This ain't got me.
Speaker 8: A job?
Speaker 6: Then I had a job, I was saying at my church.
Speaker 6: But I had a job. I did hair, I was
Speaker 6: watching kids. I mean, you have to the Bibles as
Speaker 6: if a man or a woman don't work, you don't eat.
Speaker 3: So the responsibility of the ministry, which I think is
Speaker 3: supposed to feed me, and can they really free?
Speaker 6: Church is not as financially strapped as people think. A
Speaker 6: lot of times people don't.
Speaker 7: There are some sundays if people just don't feel like given,
Speaker 7: they don't packed. But if the church is broke, how
Speaker 7: much where it really is? Everybody is George Washington, the
Speaker 7: host Famous Dollars.
Speaker 3: It's saying seventy five dollars, he go to.
Speaker 6: Church, He go to church, a lot. Now, there are
Speaker 6: a lot of churches that take very good care.
Speaker 1: No, no, I get.
Speaker 3: That, don't yeh of the things that just kind of
Speaker 3: were like, you know, the conversation that were just like,
Speaker 3: but think about it.
Speaker 7: Just because your pastor doesn't mean that you are financially astute.
Speaker 7: Just because your pastor doesn't mean that you're good at organizing.
Speaker 7: You know, just because your pastor, sometimes their bills ain't
Speaker 7: paige because they're just not good with money. You may
Speaker 7: be called, but there's some natural things that you have
Speaker 7: to do in your own life. You know, get your
Speaker 7: own education, you know what I'm saying. Make sure you
Speaker 7: understand if we're understand financing, but if you don't, get
Speaker 7: somebody that does.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: I remember, you know, growing up in church, and I
Speaker 7: loved my church. But the people over finances, they was
Speaker 7: on welfare.
Speaker 6: So how you gonna really manage the finances of the church. Well,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean. Not that they were bad people,
Speaker 6: but they.
Speaker 4: Weren't equip They didn't understand what to do.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we had been trying to raise we would raise
Speaker 7: money and have a building, but have too many bills
Speaker 7: and have other things and you know, insurances and all
Speaker 7: these things that go into the business of church. But
Speaker 7: nobody understood the business of church because we're just gonna
Speaker 7: come and have church. So then when your business isn't right,
Speaker 7: you blame it on the devil, or you blame it
Speaker 7: on the quicker preacher. Would he really wasn't equipped.
Speaker 4: For that part of the job.
Speaker 7: Get yourself a staff, have financial people that will come
Speaker 7: here a long time ago.
Speaker 2: This is honestly, this is outside of how amazing you
Speaker 2: are in the amazing things you've done in music. But
Speaker 2: this is why you're you're so important to our show.
Speaker 4: Because this is a this is another side of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, because we get into the business of secular music,
Speaker 2: but we don't get into the business of church.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: And because i'd say faith more than church, but just
Speaker 7: because there's always something fighting your faith.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But I'm talking about the business side of church
Speaker 2: that it's being taken care of. And like I said,
Speaker 2: you know, like I like when we started the conversation,
Speaker 2: and it started with what I saw, but I didn't
Speaker 2: see the inner working. I'm just a kid seeing something
Speaker 2: that adults are telling me isn't right. But those adults
Speaker 2: may not look at what you just said. Okay, this
Speaker 2: man has a calling. They don't really understand business. And
Speaker 2: the women that are are the men that are handling
Speaker 2: the books, they don't they don't even understand money.
Speaker 1: They don't have a degree in account.
Speaker 4: Winston that went off to college and it's now back. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So that's why I say, you know this, this conversation
Speaker 2: is so so very important.
Speaker 4: For even our audience.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And you know, because our audiences, we got people probably
Speaker 2: that go to church, that don't go to church, that
Speaker 2: you know, having opinion.
Speaker 1: Of the came from church, right.
Speaker 2: Right, And this conversation needs to be had if it's
Speaker 2: here or anywhere else, because just us having the dialogue
Speaker 2: that we're having now is helping my understanding.
Speaker 6: Oh that's so dope.
Speaker 7: I think God is always trying to get to us
Speaker 7: in different ways, and I love that. You know, the
Speaker 7: world is so big and so small all at the
Speaker 7: same time. When you think of social media, you can
Speaker 7: scroll past anything that may touch your heart and you
Speaker 7: don't know that you're going to need that for a
Speaker 7: later moment. And so I believe that God makes deposits
Speaker 7: in your soul for what you may need later. You
Speaker 7: may hear something, read something, experience something that will challenge
Speaker 7: you to think about God in a different way because
Speaker 7: you had this preconceived notion of what it could be
Speaker 7: or what it is.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: And sometimes the example was a broken person and then
Speaker 7: God allows you to see your own brokenness and say, oh,
Speaker 7: I'll kind of operate like that too. So the same
Speaker 7: grace I want for me, could I extend it to
Speaker 7: somebody else? You know, learning those principles of grace and
Speaker 7: faith and compassion, and you know, allowing yourself to be
Speaker 7: human and normal and knowing that I don't have to
Speaker 7: pretend to be perfect, I think allows me to see
Speaker 7: the greatness of God because when I'm weak, that's when
Speaker 7: he's the strongest, because he's lifting me and he's carrying me.
Speaker 7: And so if you have somebody that's coming and they
Speaker 7: see this broken guy and you know that is anointed
Speaker 7: to preach, but you know he got some issues in
Speaker 7: his flesh and he got some issues in other places.
Speaker 7: You're not holding him to this unrealistic you.
Speaker 6: Got to be perfect? Are you held to a higher standard? Absolutely?
Speaker 7: You know, should your faith make you make some different
Speaker 7: choices absolutely, but if you don't, there is grace for you.
Speaker 7: And so when you look at faith like that, you
Speaker 7: come in with a little more compassion as opposed to
Speaker 7: the eye that says she mess up?
Speaker 6: Is her dress too short? While you say it, you
Speaker 6: know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Hey man, we human Jesus went to the cross because
Speaker 7: he knew there was no way we were going to
Speaker 7: follow every single rule every single day. So every day
Speaker 7: he gives me another chance, another chance to choose him.
Speaker 7: And this is what I love about God. He don't
Speaker 7: wake me up and say you better choose me, because
Speaker 7: the plenty of people who don't, they still have breath
Speaker 7: in their body. And so that's what I think is
Speaker 7: so cool about God. So I get my eyes off
Speaker 7: of people and focus on God. Like even when I didn't,
Speaker 7: she choose you. Even when I messed up, You still
Speaker 7: blessed me. You still allow me to sing, You allow
Speaker 7: me to go across the world when I was doubting
Speaker 7: you and questioning you because you know, my father died
Speaker 7: and this manager did this, and the industry's not fair
Speaker 7: and it's shifting you. Still I'm doubting you, and this
Speaker 7: breath that I'm breathing is from you?
Speaker 6: How dare I? You know?
Speaker 7: And so it just gives me a little different understanding
Speaker 7: and perspective, perspective when I see certain artists and they're
Speaker 7: not gospel artists and they live and how they live,
Speaker 7: and I'm saying, Lord, just let there be a God
Speaker 7: deposit at some moment in time.
Speaker 6: Let somebody say, Hey, can I pray for you?
Speaker 7: I was on a red carpet and really really huge
Speaker 7: rapper and we knew that the Ruckus was coming. So
Speaker 7: me and Tina had done the carpet and we were
Speaker 7: doing an interview with ABC. So she was coming and
Speaker 7: we could hear the rush of people clicking and taking
Speaker 7: her picture, and so.
Speaker 6: We're coming off ABC. She's going up. So I turn
Speaker 6: around and I say, hey, how are you? And she
Speaker 6: was like, I'm so nervous. I said, you're.
Speaker 7: Good, don't worry about it, and she grabbed my hand
Speaker 7: and said, I feel better because you're here now. Had
Speaker 7: I got jealous because some of the cameras left me
Speaker 7: and Tina and went to her. Had I got an
Speaker 7: attitude and be like, I'm gospeling I deserve. I wouldn't
Speaker 7: have had that moment with her I don't know what
Speaker 7: that moment meant, but I know it was an opportunity
Speaker 7: for her to see a gospel artist in this big,
Speaker 7: huge star and say.
Speaker 2: Hey, how are you? Are you okay? And she said,
Speaker 2: I feel better because you're here?
Speaker 7: And I think that that is my assignment. That's God
Speaker 7: dropping those little you know, absolutely like.
Speaker 6: I'm here. I want your attention.
Speaker 7: I need your time to say thank you to me,
Speaker 7: you know what I mean, Consult me in your ways
Speaker 7: before you ain't that deal?
Speaker 6: Lord? Is this for me? You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 6: Before you go on that tour? Am I supposed to
Speaker 6: be here?
Speaker 7: Me and Ten have been invited to some tours that
Speaker 7: we knew, big stage, great opportunity, you know, Let the
Speaker 7: cute gospel girls open. Man, God, this saint. But that's
Speaker 7: from those those God seats that have been dropped in
Speaker 7: my life. And I just you know, I always say
Speaker 7: to myself and I tell people around me, when I
Speaker 7: stand before God, none of y'all are going to be there.
Speaker 6: Not a Grammy, not a nobody, not even my husband.
Speaker 7: It's just gonna be me. Did you choose me? Did
Speaker 7: you love me? Did you talk about me? You know
Speaker 7: what I'm saying, was you cool with me?
Speaker 6: Did you rock with me?
Speaker 2: You know me?
Speaker 6: So you know?
Speaker 3: Okay, let's let's let's let's get into you.
Speaker 6: Okay, let's get into if we.
Speaker 3: Start talking about buffed in the hood, I ever tell
Speaker 3: me because I don't know how much of a long
Speaker 3: time coming Mary Mary was. But I'm sure there was
Speaker 3: a moment early early on. I mean, us church kids,
Speaker 3: we always singing in church, always twenty four to seven
Speaker 3: win church, got it. But there's there's a moment when
Speaker 3: sister brother, somebody or somebody says, man, y'all, y'all dope,
Speaker 3: y'all are different special? When is that?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 7: I grew up singing in church, started singing at five.
Speaker 7: I was the solo artist at church. Me and Tina
Speaker 7: were not a group. Our choir went to McDonald Gospel
Speaker 7: Best and recorded albums and I would lead.
Speaker 6: And so Tina had a song with her.
Speaker 7: Best friend Erica bell Aircabelle wasn't there that day, and
Speaker 7: they were like, okay, well just sing the song with it.
Speaker 6: Were singing together, and we're like we singing We feel it.
Speaker 7: Like the audience, the choir, because they had never heard
Speaker 7: us sing together. They're like, oh my god, I'm about eighteen. No,
Speaker 7: maybe I'm nineteen. So Tina's about seventeen. You know, I
Speaker 7: don't meet Warren until I'm twenty three.
Speaker 6: He's twenty.
Speaker 7: So we're singing at church and I'm feeling, you know,
Speaker 7: I'm like, oh, this is something I always wanted to sing,
Speaker 7: always wanted to record.
Speaker 6: All my dreams were big stages.
Speaker 7: I would have the craziest visions of Arita's and people
Speaker 7: screaming my name, but I had no clue of how
Speaker 7: to get there. So I would go to every concert.
Speaker 7: I wanted to sing in everybody's group. I would go
Speaker 7: to all the studios and sometimes it's like, oh, cute
Speaker 7: little church girl, or you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: It was that for years, years, years, and I was like,
Speaker 6: why would you keep giving me these dreams if I'm
Speaker 6: not supposed to do this for real?
Speaker 7: So I am doing a play stage play, and by
Speaker 7: this time, me and Tina are making up songs, and
Speaker 7: you know, we moved out and all of that, and
Speaker 7: Warren comes to the show.
Speaker 6: My timeline may be off.
Speaker 7: Warren comes to the show, and you know, he just
Speaker 7: think I'm cute and we just exchange in numbers, but
Speaker 7: I go to the studio because he's working with Dawkins,
Speaker 7: and Dawkins already a big fan of theirs, right, So
Speaker 7: we're in the studio and I'm like, this guy is
Speaker 7: really cute. But I didn't want him to think that
Speaker 7: I only liked him because he did music, so I
Speaker 7: never really told him how much. I mean, he knew
Speaker 7: I could sing because he saw me to play, but
Speaker 7: I wouldn't like, oh, I want to record, do a Demommy, Simmy.
Speaker 7: It was none of that. Tina says, I want you
Speaker 7: to hear the song that I made up. The song
Speaker 7: was what a Friend, which is on our first record,
Speaker 7: I think the second or third song on the first record.
Speaker 7: So he's like, y'all should be a group, and I
Speaker 7: feel that it's coming. So in my mind, I'm going
Speaker 7: I'm getting closer to the dream. I'm getting closer to
Speaker 7: the dream. So we do a demo. He sends that
Speaker 7: demo to a few people in the industry. It's this, okay, well,
Speaker 7: I mean, I don't know if I can say it
Speaker 7: because he's in so much trouble. But Diddy was the
Speaker 7: first one that was interested in Mary. Mary just off
Speaker 7: a picture in a song. He never met us, never
Speaker 7: seen his perform. So we go to New York. But
Speaker 7: then there's also Columbia was asking and at this time
Speaker 7: then the face was asking, and so one was this
Speaker 7: is all off a demo. It's not even a record.
Speaker 7: We ain't performed nowhere. They just see these two Q
Speaker 7: girls in this song. Because Shackles is a.
Speaker 6: Beast, right, Shackles, the shackles. Shackles was the first DIF.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we did, we did, and Shackles was supposed to
Speaker 7: be for the Prince of Egypt soundtrack, and so once
Speaker 7: we heard it, because one was doing.
Speaker 6: The Prince of soundtrack, realized.
Speaker 7: Once we realized the magnitude of the song, he was like, well,
Speaker 7: let's just keep Shackles for ourselves and we'll do something
Speaker 7: else for the Prince of Eagypuntains soundtrack. We end up
Speaker 7: doing a song called let Go Let God with an
Speaker 7: unknown tie tribute in GA at the time. Yeah, so
Speaker 7: that song comes out. Then we do another soundtrack for
Speaker 7: Doctor Doolittle and we do another soundtrack, but we hold
Speaker 7: in Shackles in the bag, like you know, And so
Speaker 7: he's taking these.
Speaker 4: Meetings record from me. It was a record he knew
Speaker 4: more than we.
Speaker 3: But here's here's the other question too, as you as
Speaker 3: you moved through this, when you say you didn't want
Speaker 3: to ask him about music and all of these things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you know at the time what he was
Speaker 1: in music?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 7: I just thought he wasn't safe because he worked at
Speaker 7: death Row. But I know I liked him though, But
Speaker 7: I was like, you know, because I grew up with
Speaker 7: secular music as a singer.
Speaker 6: So I was like, man, he's so nice.
Speaker 4: This is why.
Speaker 6: This is no way he loves Jesus death Row.
Speaker 7: But that was so sweet about him, and there was
Speaker 7: just I went to my aunt, who was the first lady.
Speaker 7: I was like, so dating the guys in church was
Speaker 7: like a big no note for me. But he don't
Speaker 7: go to church.
Speaker 2: She was like, I don't know, it's something different about him.
Speaker 7: M And she said, okay, just pray for him. She said,
Speaker 7: not out loud, just say Lord, if this is you,
Speaker 7: just show me. And when we started talking we never
Speaker 7: stopped talking.
Speaker 6: It was old school sit on the phone for hours.
Speaker 7: He lives in the valley. I live in Lawndale. He's
Speaker 7: driving to my house. I'm driving his house in my
Speaker 7: raggedy Toyota tourseell, hoping that it don't.
Speaker 6: Up just to record music.
Speaker 3: Business. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: I am, but I'm still you.
Speaker 7: Know, trying to be cute but you know, but I'm
Speaker 7: you know, want to talk about music. And he knows
Speaker 7: that we can sing, so he's like, oh, do this demo.
Speaker 7: And I don't know if it's because you know, he
Speaker 7: liked me, or he was like, really want me to sing?
Speaker 6: You know, it's also.
Speaker 3: It's also mixed up when you when you're attracted to someone.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but he's becoming this producer, he's doing this these things,
Speaker 7: he's you know, and we're brand new.
Speaker 6: So we start recording the record.
Speaker 7: We are you know, dating by now, and you know,
Speaker 7: I initially was like, you're younger than me. I was
Speaker 7: used to dating older guys. I'm like, he's three years younger.
Speaker 6: Oh that's cute.
Speaker 7: But we would not stop talking to each other. So
Speaker 7: it's all of that, and somewhere in the middle, you know,
Speaker 7: before the record comes out, he proposes and yeah.
Speaker 6: And all of that.
Speaker 7: But then after he proposes, he's like, I'm not sure
Speaker 7: if I'm really ready to do this. So he says
Speaker 7: he needs space, and I said okay. But the next
Speaker 7: day we had to come to the studio, and so
Speaker 7: I said, well, I've wanted to sing longer than I've
Speaker 7: loved you, so I'll be at the studio. My my
Speaker 7: ego and attitude about Erica and her singing was like,
Speaker 7: you didn't been engaged twice before. Relationships come and go,
Speaker 7: this will be fine, but this music thing is what
Speaker 7: you want for the rest of your life. So I
Speaker 7: would go in the bathroom and cry and come out
Speaker 7: and be like, Lord, I'm thankful for what's my part?
Speaker 7: I act funny at all and Tea's like, it's okay,
Speaker 7: you want you want to stay home?
Speaker 6: I was like, no, I beat all right. So, uh,
Speaker 6: Tina and Teddy had just got married. The record comes out.
Speaker 7: By now we're on single number two, we're on I Sing,
Speaker 7: and we're traveling and.
Speaker 4: We're promoting only one that's not a Campbell yet.
Speaker 6: I'm not a Campbell yet because I'm still.
Speaker 4: For the other people that don't know.
Speaker 2: Both of the sisters married two men that are not
Speaker 2: kind to each other with the last.
Speaker 1: Name camb.
Speaker 7: So you know, he's trying to figure it out, and
Speaker 7: I don't believe. And ultimatums I believe you. You know,
Speaker 7: you show me the rules to the game and I
Speaker 7: play it. I'm not forcing you. I didn't say God please,
Speaker 7: I was like, okay, all right. So then he says, well,
Speaker 7: you know, I'm gonna call you tomorrow.
Speaker 6: And I said, but you want space.
Speaker 7: Space means a way, it means a part. So you
Speaker 7: live in your full complete, no airicodness, and you check
Speaker 7: how that feel. If that's what you want, that's what
Speaker 7: you want, and I'll deal with it. I'll cry for
Speaker 7: about a good two weeks.
Speaker 6: And then I'll be over it. And so we go
Speaker 6: on the road. We're doing something called the road shows.
Speaker 6: We're doing.
Speaker 3: On the road with you, right, No, he didn't try.
Speaker 6: He never really traveled with Mary.
Speaker 4: Mary.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So we're on the road, We're doing the road shows
Speaker 7: and I'm crying.
Speaker 2: Like my god, I thought you said this was him.
Speaker 2: But when I talked to him, I'm like, oh, I'm cool,
Speaker 2: you know, because.
Speaker 6: I'm a g and uh. We are in Paris.
Speaker 7: We're leaving Paris, and they said, somebody call the hotel,
Speaker 7: you know for one of the Mary's. I'm like, well,
Speaker 7: it's teena because I ain't got no man, no more
Speaker 7: then we go to Holland.
Speaker 6: We're in the line Ibby in Holland.
Speaker 7: And again there's a call for one of the girls
Speaker 7: and I said, well, Tine's for you. She goes to
Speaker 7: the phone. She comes back, she said, well, it ain't
Speaker 7: for me. She said, it's warn't on the phone. I
Speaker 7: was like, so I go to the phone. And by
Speaker 7: this time, honestly, I'm familiar with heartbreaking heartache. So I
Speaker 7: start building some nice brick walls around my heart. I
Speaker 7: was like, he may come back around, he may not.
Speaker 7: So I pick up the phone. He says, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 7: I do want to marry you. Let's get married in May.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, and I was like okay. He was like,
Speaker 7: why are you sound like that. I was like, well,
Speaker 7: I've been prepping myself, not for this call, but for
Speaker 7: I can't do it call. So you know, long story short,
Speaker 7: we end up, you know, getting married in twenty three
Speaker 7: years and all of that. But it was a journey
Speaker 7: because I'm a very I'm very honest with myself. I
Speaker 7: don't believe that I can force people to love me.
Speaker 7: You have the same way I could choose God, he
Speaker 7: could choose me or not. And that wouldn't even make
Speaker 7: him a bad guy, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 7: our love story and our music story is all intertwined.
Speaker 7: Probably should be a movie.
Speaker 6: It's all intertwined.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 7: I don't know how true this is, but I believe
Speaker 7: Teddy called him while we were in Paris. It said, Nigga,
Speaker 7: you are you crazy?
Speaker 4: Did you see her? You still you?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 6: You won't space like?
Speaker 3: You?
Speaker 6: Better go and get that girl?
Speaker 4: And so you know, and it shackles out at this point.
Speaker 7: Shackles is out at this point. Yeah, Shackles is because
Speaker 7: we're in Europe. It's all over it.
Speaker 3: Let's talk, Let's go back, so you get the record deal, Yes,
Speaker 3: and the first single is Shackles holding not a long time, Yeah,
Speaker 3: even if it's a year and a half, there's a talk. Yes,
Speaker 3: and out the gate you were off man to the race.
Speaker 3: You in your mind have been saying, this is what
Speaker 3: I want?
Speaker 6: For sure?
Speaker 3: Is it beyond expectation?
Speaker 6: Oh? For sure.
Speaker 7: I grew up saying that God can do exceedingly abundantly
Speaker 7: above all I could ask or think, according to the
Speaker 7: power that works in me. So I felt like God,
Speaker 7: I'm working my power. I've been singing up and doing.
Speaker 7: I've been, you know, getting ready for this, and so
Speaker 7: here we are, and God kind of dropped a bomb
Speaker 7: on me and said, if you expect me to be great,
Speaker 7: don't be surprised when I am, because interviewers favorite question
Speaker 7: is can you believe it? And so I spent a
Speaker 7: few years going, I can't believe it. Oh man, I
Speaker 7: couldn't believe it, and so then I started changing. Yeah, God,
Speaker 7: you know, you can't expect something, anticipate something, planned for something,
Speaker 7: and when you get it, you spend your days talking
Speaker 7: about it in total wonderment. It should be more appreciation
Speaker 7: and gratitude, like, wow, not only did you do what
Speaker 7: you showed me, you did more than I could imagine.
Speaker 7: Because not only did he do this through me with
Speaker 7: this music, You're changing people, those lives.
Speaker 6: You're touching people that I may never meet. You're allowing me.
Speaker 2: This girl from Englewood, who you know grew up poor
Speaker 2: on welfare.
Speaker 7: You know all of that. You allow me to have
Speaker 7: this influence, in this impact. You know what I mean,
Speaker 7: even when I'm still having moments of struggle with my faith,
Speaker 7: because life is life, you know, you still choose to
Speaker 7: use me and let me sing this music and can't
Speaker 7: give up now and God and me and go get it.
Speaker 7: And then the reality show and all these layers that
Speaker 7: become Erica that just allow me to grow and see myself,
Speaker 7: see my own brokenness, but to see His greatness. And
Speaker 7: I think that's the most that's the most amazing part
Speaker 7: of all of it, is you allow me to see
Speaker 7: how fragile I am and it those people would sing
Speaker 7: ten times.
Speaker 6: Better than me. It's of course they're out there, but
Speaker 6: you chose to use me.
Speaker 3: Mm hm.
Speaker 7: And my humility precedes me everywhere I go, even though
Speaker 7: I'm full aware of who I am in my capability,
Speaker 7: but I know it ain't me, it's him. My insecurity
Speaker 7: doesn't make me inflate myself. So I feel better about
Speaker 7: myself and God uses me.
Speaker 6: That's how I feel.
Speaker 3: Tell me we we we went to yes abundance above beyond.
Speaker 3: Tell me some of the struggle that came along with shackles.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 6: The church people that I loved that didn't understand. It's
Speaker 6: like y'all know me. So we started off, you know,
Speaker 6: doing big R and B and hip hop festivals.
Speaker 2: We started off it was an event with the roots,
Speaker 2: Snoop Dogg, Little Kim.
Speaker 7: And Mary Mary, you know, started off in all these spaces.
Speaker 6: Vibe had their juice.
Speaker 7: Addition, and it's everybody just hot and up and coming
Speaker 7: and Mary Mary smack dab in the middle of that, and.
Speaker 6: It was just it was weird, but it was great.
Speaker 7: But I wanted to be accepted by the people that
Speaker 7: have poured into me spiritually that prepared me to share
Speaker 7: the Gospel with the world. I wanted them to be
Speaker 7: okay with it being this part of the world, not
Speaker 7: the church part of the world. So there were some
Speaker 7: people who understood and got it, and most church girls
Speaker 7: that I talked.
Speaker 6: To there was like, man, we were just so happy
Speaker 6: when y'all came on a scene, like, oh finally, right.
Speaker 4: Do you think that.
Speaker 2: When you speak about it, it feels like the regional
Speaker 2: artist that blows up everywhere else.
Speaker 3: But at home. Let's see what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's like, Okay, I'm from the Bay Area, right,
Speaker 2: and it's like if the whole world is singing your song,
Speaker 2: but the Bay Area is like this, don't feel like they're.
Speaker 6: Bad, right, Yeah, when.
Speaker 4: You speak about it, that's how it feels to me.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's how it felt for some church people. So
Speaker 7: we spent some years trying to convince. If we would
Speaker 7: do a church event or a conference or something, we
Speaker 7: would spend years trying. We would try to convince them
Speaker 7: how churchy we were. I remember we did a National
Speaker 7: Baptist convention. When I tell you, they was like, and
Speaker 7: we tried to wear our church is.
Speaker 6: You know, let the dress. We're not gonna wear leather
Speaker 6: pants today. We're gonna you know what I'm saying, we
Speaker 6: don't know.
Speaker 7: We tried to wear our church is and they still
Speaker 7: was like, I mean, they invited us, you know, they
Speaker 7: gave us a.
Speaker 6: Little love offering, but it was it was just interesting.
Speaker 4: And shackles don't make you move. But I'm saying already.
Speaker 5: It's it's you.
Speaker 6: But you know, you know, every song.
Speaker 2: Isn't for everything objective. For sure, music is subjective. But
Speaker 2: that beat so was the kick in saying.
Speaker 1: This right here on shackles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you a hater.
Speaker 1: You a hater, ain't no God in you.
Speaker 7: I mean, maybe they more Mama Shirley, you know what
Speaker 7: I'm saying, Maybe they more quartet, you know.
Speaker 2: But I'm sure from from from from your eyes and
Speaker 2: your sister's eyes too had to be like this don't
Speaker 2: make sense.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, you know when we would go to
Speaker 7: we went to a Gospel award, and you know, our
Speaker 7: seats was like way in the back.
Speaker 6: And this is after Shackles. Is Shackles in the world.
Speaker 7: Top five in the world, not just gospel charts or
Speaker 7: pop charts or R and B in the world, and
Speaker 7: they still kind of just we never performed Shackles. We
Speaker 7: didn't perform Shackles on the Stellar Awards until.
Speaker 6: We did The Mary. Mary's been here for twenty years.
Speaker 7: Most of our big songs didn't get performed on that
Speaker 7: award show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's wild.
Speaker 7: I mean, but it's fine. I mean, here's how I
Speaker 7: look at it. Everybody's music is coming out. I can't
Speaker 7: let my ego say, oh, I'm supposed to be here, maybe.
Speaker 6: It's somebody else's turn.
Speaker 7: Because here's what I know for sure, there's never a
Speaker 7: moment in heaven when God is saying I'm meant for
Speaker 7: Eric to have that, but darn it, somebody else took
Speaker 7: it from her.
Speaker 6: That means it's not my time.
Speaker 7: But when it is my time, I'm gonna make sure
Speaker 7: I give it everything I have. So I become a
Speaker 7: solo artist right start doing Erica Campbell. Tina says she
Speaker 7: wants to take a break. That's two thirteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, how do you get into Is it just I
Speaker 3: need I need some time.
Speaker 6: It's I need some time with my family. You know.
Speaker 7: During the show it's made the last two seasons, Mary
Speaker 7: May is a lot, very busy.
Speaker 6: It's a lot going on, a lot of decisions. By
Speaker 6: this time, we have children.
Speaker 7: You know, we're working. I got three kids, she got
Speaker 7: five kids. You know, we're trying to do all the things.
Speaker 7: But I feel like I'm supposed to keep going. So
Speaker 7: we do a little more Jesus, which very different from
Speaker 7: the last songs. The last two songs of Mary Mary
Speaker 7: was God and Me and go get It. So we
Speaker 7: do a little more Jesus with this kind of rock
Speaker 7: church combination. And I get invited to sing on the
Speaker 7: Stellear Awards. Well, first I didn't. I'm not going to
Speaker 7: change that. I didn't get invited. We asked can Erica
Speaker 7: Campbell perform? Well, we don't know Erica Campbell by herself.
Speaker 7: And I'm like, I hosted it three times though I
Speaker 7: hop about twenty two Stellars at home.
Speaker 6: You know me.
Speaker 3: Hold on, so holdo, we gotta cut this.
Speaker 6: So no, no, no, let me tell you. No, I'm
Speaker 6: gonna tell you.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna tell you why this all makes sense. So
Speaker 7: they said, we don't know you by yourself, But that
Speaker 7: is the same thing my husband said, I don't know
Speaker 7: your voice by itself because i've heard you with your sister.
Speaker 6: Greatly offended at both him and them, but it was
Speaker 6: the truth. He said, you got two options.
Speaker 7: Be mad and don't do it, and tell this story
Speaker 7: forever how somebody didn't believe in you, or go and
Speaker 7: sing like you're losing your mind. Treat it like this
Speaker 7: is the Erica Campbell Show. Treat it like everybody there
Speaker 7: only wants to see you. So I had a custom outfit.
Speaker 7: I had Lorianne come with choreographer performance. You know, I
Speaker 7: had a lighting person come check out the lighting. Now,
Speaker 7: mind you, they only gave me a minute in thirty
Speaker 7: four secs. So I said, okay, a minute in thirty
Speaker 7: four second cause they don't know me by myself, So
Speaker 7: let me go and let you see who I am
Speaker 7: by myself. So it's a collabor collaborative performance with three
Speaker 7: other artists that were relatively new and so I didn't
Speaker 7: just do the lighting for me.
Speaker 6: I said, make us all look good. I didn't just
Speaker 6: do it for me.
Speaker 7: I said, well in the end, then we all sing
Speaker 7: it together, and it's a moment for female gospel artists.
Speaker 7: I didn't make it all about me. I remember being
Speaker 7: in the back and one of my good friends was
Speaker 7: in the back.
Speaker 6: He was like, man, this is whack.
Speaker 7: They shouldn't you should have had your whole moment. I
Speaker 7: was like, it's cool, I'm gonna take it. I was
Speaker 7: on time the sound check. I showed up and spoke
Speaker 7: to everybody.
Speaker 6: I said thank you to them for having me.
Speaker 7: You know how rehearsals at TV shows go, you know recordings.
Speaker 7: You're gonna sit there. You're gonna it's hurry up and wait,
Speaker 7: we need you hear three. But you're not gonna sing
Speaker 7: the four forty five, right. So I sat there and
Speaker 7: I was just as polite to everybody. I could be
Speaker 7: polite too, And then I sung my song and the
Speaker 7: room was blessed and God did in the room what
Speaker 7: he wanted to do in the room. So it wasn't
Speaker 7: I didn't want if I made it all about me,
Speaker 7: then it was I only got a minute thirty four.
Speaker 7: You know, but I was like, Erica, don't make it
Speaker 7: about you, right, because if God gave you this song,
Speaker 7: then somebody needs to hear. I need a little more Jesus.
Speaker 7: So you know, I came out. I had a little fascinator.
Speaker 7: I threw the head in the audience, and you know
Speaker 7: what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I rocked out.
Speaker 6: I did everything that I was.
Speaker 7: You said, I'm not gonna say that. Why Campbell said
Speaker 7: like this, He said, make it count. If you donna
Speaker 7: leave your house, make it count.
Speaker 6: Don't go and waste your time. Have I wasted my
Speaker 6: time a few times?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 7: You know, because when you're naturally gifted, maybe you don't
Speaker 7: rehearse as much, and maybe you are a little laden.
Speaker 7: Maybe you don't do this, and you know, maybe you
Speaker 7: don't do that. And he was like you, that's a
Speaker 7: waste of time. Go and be professional. Treat it like
Speaker 7: a privilege that somebody thinks enough of your talent that
Speaker 7: I want to pay you to come and sing for
Speaker 7: three minutes or thirty minutes or whatever it is.
Speaker 6: Like, nobody don't spend their day. I work an hour
Speaker 6: and I make this. Treat that with respect, you know, what.
Speaker 7: I'm saying, show up for the people that are excited
Speaker 7: to see you, that maybe this is their first time
Speaker 7: seeing you. So I always wanted to treat it like that.
Speaker 7: And I have great respect for the Stellar Awards.
Speaker 6: I'm a huge gospel fan.
Speaker 7: I remember watching it on TV wishing that I could
Speaker 7: be there. So I dare not turn my first time
Speaker 7: to stand on the stage by myself into this thing
Speaker 7: about me because they didn't receive me the way I
Speaker 7: wanted or the invitation didn't come the way I wanted.
Speaker 7: And then I started comparing myself. She's saying, and she saying,
Speaker 7: that's their story, this is mine. How You're gonna treat it, Erica.
Speaker 6: So I came and I did the best that I
Speaker 6: do could do. And the compliment that I love the
Speaker 6: most is we love working with her. It's a pleasure
Speaker 6: to work with her. So so then I came back
Speaker 6: next year.
Speaker 7: In the next year, I was nominated for eight one
Speaker 7: all eight, and then the next.
Speaker 6: Year after that, I but had I treated them nasty?
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying for that.
Speaker 3: Minute and third you are giving a real lesson.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and.
Speaker 3: First being grateful, Let's start there for sure, being grateful,
Speaker 3: but let God, let him work, let him do what
Speaker 3: he needs to do.
Speaker 7: Get out of the way with your attitude in your
Speaker 7: mouth and you're going live and you're posting and you.
Speaker 4: Like and like.
Speaker 7: Now nobody wants to invite you because that means you
Speaker 7: can't take no.
Speaker 6: You're a spoiled kid.
Speaker 1: I can.
Speaker 7: I can take a yes, and I can take a no. Well, no,
Speaker 7: she's not suited for the show.
Speaker 6: That's okay.
Speaker 7: I'll be shooting suited for another one because there's always
Speaker 7: another show.
Speaker 2: Then I'm gonna get invited, and I'm gonna come with
Speaker 2: a good spirit and I'm gonna cook and I'm.
Speaker 10: Gonna so okay.
Speaker 7: So fast forward to its twenty twenty three releasing the
Speaker 7: I Love You record, which I am immensely proud of,
Speaker 7: was my last record nominated for a Grammy. We didn't
Speaker 7: get the Grammy, went to the Stellars, nominated for two Gsmies,
Speaker 7: nominated for about six Stellars, So Warren wins for producer.
Speaker 7: They went for the video, but the one that I wanted,
Speaker 7: the Album of the Year, I didn't get.
Speaker 6: So my kids are here with me. It's a moment.
Speaker 7: My kids are fabulous. Stout by Jay Bowlin. We do
Speaker 7: this photo shoot like it's amazing. The pictures go viral,
Speaker 7: all the moments go viral.
Speaker 6: But I didn't win. So when we get back to
Speaker 6: the room, my kids are talking to me. There's always
Speaker 6: a moment to learn, right.
Speaker 7: So while I believe in that record, I know that
Speaker 7: I Love You record is powerful because my aim was
Speaker 7: to make a love deposit in the world, to take
Speaker 7: a different look at God's love, not based on is
Speaker 7: my life. I love you because my life is good.
Speaker 7: I love you even my life is bad. So I
Speaker 7: Love You record is all of that. So I've been
Speaker 7: speaking that to my children.
Speaker 6: We're in the room and they said, Mimmy, how do
Speaker 6: you feel. I said, I'm sad because I didn't win,
Speaker 6: you know, And so they're like, that's not fair.
Speaker 7: And but the people who did win are my friends,
Speaker 7: and I'm super happy for them because the record is fire.
Speaker 7: So I'm not a hater at all, but I still
Speaker 7: want to win, so I have to regulate my motions.
Speaker 7: It was the same way when we were at the Grammys, Like,
Speaker 7: you know, me and Warren left and we were just
Speaker 7: a little quiet, you know what I'm saying. So I
Speaker 7: believe God allows me to have great moments and then
Speaker 7: real moments, human moments, low moments to see. Okay, so
Speaker 7: you're real happy when I'm good to you, You're real
Speaker 7: happy when you win in are you still grateful when
Speaker 7: it's not your turn? You know what I'm saying. Everybody
Speaker 7: got to take an L. The l's make the winds
Speaker 7: much better. So you know, while I'm still working this,
Speaker 7: I love you record. I still believe in it. I
Speaker 7: still know it was powerful. It didn't do what I
Speaker 7: thought it would do. Well, maybe that wasn't God's assignment
Speaker 7: for it. Maybe it is a resurgence of it, the
Speaker 7: same way like walking with viral like four five times
Speaker 7: after the record in two thousand and eight because of TikTok.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask, was that like churches.
Speaker 5: Along no walking?
Speaker 1: I just don't know. It could be.
Speaker 6: You know what I love about Cali worship.
Speaker 7: We have a guy that somebody can be shouting like
Speaker 7: traditional church child, and it's another guy who's break dancing.
Speaker 7: It's somebody else who's crip walking in the back. So
Speaker 7: your praise is your praise, So yes.
Speaker 3: And I've seen it only in l A. I'm somebody
Speaker 3: talking about the gangster, the Gospel.
Speaker 6: Of l A we talk about and they love Jesus
Speaker 6: at the forum.
Speaker 1: I see it all at the same time.
Speaker 4: I don't know what you want I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. The crip Walking is
Speaker 1: way more cool.
Speaker 4: I think it's Big Beef. Does he go to your church?
Speaker 4: Big No, I don't think Big Beef church.
Speaker 7: But they're talking to Warren on the side for you
Speaker 7: around who they keep looking at.
Speaker 1: Great moment.
Speaker 4: Episode, Gosh, Jesus.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: But I mean, you know, we've seen some interesting people,
Speaker 2: you know, and I can understand how walking with viral.
Speaker 7: And it's everybody like it's it's all kinds of people.
Speaker 7: And I think that it's just my responsibility to put
Speaker 7: it out there, you know what I'm saying, and whoever
Speaker 7: receives it receives it. Some will someone look like church
Speaker 7: for everybody. It's for it's literally for everybody. Are you
Speaker 7: gonna tell me I can sing about God, but you
Speaker 7: can't listen to it.
Speaker 6: Everybody could listen to you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how many.
Speaker 6: Twenty seven?
Speaker 3: How many Grammys?
Speaker 1: Five?
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna come by your house. I can admire
Speaker 4: one day because you know, your husband has another twenty seven.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a blessing. You know, it's so bad.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we do have a trophy.
Speaker 5: Room, won't he do it?
Speaker 3: Room?
Speaker 8: Won't deliver a load, deliver a law deliver Alon.
Speaker 4: I'm learning everything.
Speaker 5: I'm learning every time.
Speaker 4: There's grace for us all. Thank God for grace.
Speaker 1: I listen, thank God for grace. My goodness.
Speaker 4: Amen, we were living under.
Speaker 1: The law, earth opening up and the fire burning.
Speaker 6: You know some people, don't they He will be right
Speaker 6: here because you.
Speaker 1: Don't even got to you already know.
Speaker 6: Listen, I need the piece of gud.
Speaker 1: Listen, I know where that north star is.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, Amen, Amen, come on, he's so dramatic.
Speaker 3: First lady sister, he can't believe. We are grateful that
Speaker 3: you are here on today, and now is the time
Speaker 3: that the people need to hear from you. They want
Speaker 3: to know the music that has shape and made.
Speaker 8: Who you are.
Speaker 3: Your favorites, my favorites. We call that your m HM.
Speaker 1: Five, your top.
Speaker 2: Five, top five, your top five.
Speaker 1: O the singers.
Speaker 11: RnB song he rock it out, you yallson, dude, they're
Speaker 11: on the show that everybody knows.
Speaker 8: Yes, talk.
Speaker 10: You.
Speaker 9: Oh my god, that was so dumb. Oh was I finished?
Speaker 9: I'm so sick of you right now?
Speaker 6: Oh god, five that's hard camel.
Speaker 4: Is it all females?
Speaker 6: A female male?
Speaker 3: Top five R and B singers instead, or live your list,
Speaker 3: you pray, man, what you do, whatever you want, what
Speaker 3: you did?
Speaker 6: Or alive.
Speaker 8: Jeff R and B, not R and B.
Speaker 2: That is gonna put up whatever started army. The voices, artists,
Speaker 2: the voice.
Speaker 4: The voices first.
Speaker 6: The first one that comes to mind is Donny Hathaway.
Speaker 6: Just the warmth, the runs, the the tone, the texture,
Speaker 6: the pain. Whitney got.
Speaker 7: I'm ask you a little younger, I say, Jasmine Sullivan
Speaker 7: up hm hmm, Okay, I got two more?
Speaker 6: Oh man, this is not fair. Roberta flat mm hmm,
Speaker 6: roberta flat.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's nice.
Speaker 6: She don't have to holler, she just she just she's
Speaker 6: so soothing, you know. I got one more?
Speaker 3: Hungh mmm, more voice?
Speaker 6: What did I say?
Speaker 4: I said, Whitney Whitney zz jazz.
Speaker 6: Voices to meet it.
Speaker 3: I like.
Speaker 6: Not that has the biggest records, in the biggest songs
Speaker 6: with the voice. This is yours, this is mine.
Speaker 3: When you turn on your cassette, you what you want
Speaker 3: to hear?
Speaker 4: H oh a cassette.
Speaker 6: He went way back, okay, can I said, not too
Speaker 6: long ago?
Speaker 1: I saw one.
Speaker 6: Somebody had a cassette for me to side.
Speaker 3: You because.
Speaker 4: Stephen, come on, Steve, did you right there?
Speaker 3: And remember that time when uh, what's what's my guy
Speaker 3: with the glasses from from overseas older artists? Remember when
Speaker 3: Elmon John actually didn't have a song to see Stevie
Speaker 3: on his birthday and he just made up.
Speaker 1: A song Steve there s.
Speaker 5: You wonderfull.
Speaker 1: We thank you because you wonder.
Speaker 3: Steve.
Speaker 6: Steve like he just do this, mister, happy birthday to you.
Speaker 7: You could have song song ste there. He wanted to
Speaker 7: create his own you wonderfull songwriter.
Speaker 4: And I too like that. I can enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Paard something five R and B songs.
Speaker 6: It had me crying. It was James Ingram, what James say?
Speaker 6: And I just couldn't stop. And I have a great
Speaker 6: James Ingram story. I was singing on an event with James,
Speaker 6: Stevie and Natalie Cole.
Speaker 4: He's just gonna pour all the champagne the.
Speaker 6: Opening for this show, and I'm like in my mind,
Speaker 6: I keep going, what am I doing here? What am
Speaker 6: I doing here?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 7: And right before the curtain goes up. They were honoring
Speaker 7: Lionel Richie James Ingram grabs my hand and says, you're
Speaker 7: supposed to be here too, and it just allowed me
Speaker 7: to just take a different loud No, I didn't say anything.
Speaker 7: He could just I guess he could feel my I'm
Speaker 7: looking at Natalie Cole, I'm looking.
Speaker 6: I'm like, what the heck am I doing here? And
Speaker 6: I'm not even with Tina, I'm by myself. This was
Speaker 6: way before I was solo. I was pregnant with my son,
Speaker 6: so I was like, I was like, what the heck
Speaker 6: am I doing here? And he said, you're supposed to
Speaker 6: be here?
Speaker 2: Oh man, yes, one hundred ways.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 6: M Or how do you keep the music playing?
Speaker 3: Is?
Speaker 4: How do you keep the music?
Speaker 6: How do you keep the music?
Speaker 7: Him and Patty Austin, It's like it's magical what they
Speaker 7: do with the message and the melodies, and so you
Speaker 7: got to give a shout out to Quincy Jones, right,
Speaker 7: But it's just that's definitely one of my top.
Speaker 6: R and B songs. That's a that's a good question.
Speaker 7: Top five R and B songs? I would say one
Speaker 7: of my favorite is It's It's a It's a well, Joe,
Speaker 7: all the things you man want to do.
Speaker 6: Yes, that's a good song.
Speaker 1: I've seen him sing that song live so many times.
Speaker 1: You never miss it.
Speaker 4: You don't miss he does not miss never, he does
Speaker 4: not miss.
Speaker 6: He is by Brandy m. The genius of Warren Campbell. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I would just say, oh, Warren Campbell's song. That's what
Speaker 6: I should say, because why not.
Speaker 4: Because WARRENM.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 7: But what he did for Tyrese with Shamee was amazing.
Speaker 7: And when he tells about that, how old the song was, like, oh,
Speaker 7: let me just pull.
Speaker 1: This song out of the the song Tiki could have
Speaker 1: sang that song.
Speaker 3: That it was Are you teaky?
Speaker 6: Are you not the producer?
Speaker 3: That's that's how amazing from top to bottom that song.
Speaker 3: That's the song is not defined by a person. The
Speaker 3: song is a stand alone standard that by itself will
Speaker 3: stand the test the time.
Speaker 6: Absolutely absolutely, and I think that's why it did what
Speaker 6: it did. Yes, special what Okay.
Speaker 4: That's three that's salone that song.
Speaker 6: No, but listen, that's what makes a great song great.
Speaker 6: Anybody can sing.
Speaker 1: DJ Roer song.
Speaker 3: And Warren Campbell's song, and Tyree did an amazing job
Speaker 3: absolutely singing that song.
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: But to me there are something.
Speaker 2: But to me, some.
Speaker 3: Songs are just.
Speaker 1: Like like I can't make you love me.
Speaker 3: Of course the originator is, but then you go to Prince,
Speaker 3: and then you go to voice to me, and then
Speaker 3: then you come away, and then then you go to
Speaker 3: everyone who's been on American Idol and it's like, but
Speaker 3: that's what.
Speaker 7: That's what makes a great song when everybody can singing
Speaker 7: and it's still yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: That's those ye competition songs.
Speaker 4: I start telling young fellas when they come sing and
Speaker 4: they want to sing live. Can you sing shame? How
Speaker 4: about that? Sing shamee?
Speaker 1: Can you get into your low? Can you get down?
Speaker 3: You know what?
Speaker 4: Three songs I'm talking about?
Speaker 1: Two?
Speaker 4: You keep singing these singing three songs and you sing
Speaker 4: for us?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 4: No, no, sing shame? How about that sing or single
Speaker 4: Luther song and executing Luthor?
Speaker 1: Okay, get out of your of your top top five songs.
Speaker 3: I know what you're doing. You're trying to think while you.
Speaker 1: Smart what you.
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 6: It's okay, you more, okay, Okay. This is a young one.
Speaker 6: And I would have to say p J Morton, we
Speaker 6: love we love PJ. Don't we but Pj's gumbo record.
Speaker 4: First Begin mm hmm.
Speaker 7: First Begin is a great song, and I don't know
Speaker 7: where it charted or but first Begin it's such a
Speaker 7: great song lyrically, the way he sang it, I mean,
Speaker 7: his voice is already special, right, we know that. But yeah,
Speaker 7: that's my jam. It's definitely one of my playlists. Gospel,
Speaker 7: not my gospel.
Speaker 2: I got my love playlist in my mind, raunchy pray
Speaker 2: list play listen, it's Warren Campbell playlist.
Speaker 6: It's not as thanksified as I am. I'm savor in
Speaker 6: my baylist sometime. Oh what's that? I don't want to
Speaker 6: bore you with it, but I love you.
Speaker 3: I love you.
Speaker 4: I love you.
Speaker 6: That's not knocks me off my feet. Yeah, knocks me
Speaker 6: off my feet for sure, some of these songs.
Speaker 3: Okay, I love that. I'm just saying.
Speaker 6: I like I love that.
Speaker 1: I like down there, Jon, I like down there.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 8: Cool.
Speaker 3: When somebody says, Steve, you don't don't know, don't do that,
Speaker 3: don't throw that man that smoke like that, don't do that.
Speaker 1: Put that man in that fire. Fire a better.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, we got one more segment for you.
Speaker 6: Okay, what's happening?
Speaker 4: Come on, I'm sick you.
Speaker 1: I ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 1: I ain't saying no names. Ain't saying no names. What
Speaker 1: you did your class crazy?
Speaker 5: That's what you said.
Speaker 2: He a special segment of the It's called saying names. Okay,
Speaker 2: will you tell us a story?
Speaker 1: Funny?
Speaker 2: Are m?
Speaker 6: H okay?
Speaker 4: Are funny and foolish.
Speaker 3: People that watch the.
Speaker 4: Show every week? I'll be saying some other stuff.
Speaker 5: When extremely extremely right, look at God.
Speaker 4: The only rue to the game is you can't say
Speaker 4: no names.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 7: So I'm singing background for an artist and it's an
Speaker 7: event worth a bunch of you know, R and B
Speaker 7: singers and.
Speaker 6: Not married at the time.
Speaker 7: And we get back to the hotel after the venu
Speaker 7: and I'm in the elevator about three R and B
Speaker 7: artists and it's just me.
Speaker 6: And they start going in with she.
Speaker 4: Fine man right there though, right there? Thank you man, she.
Speaker 6: Oh, thank you. And one gets off he was like, oh,
Speaker 6: I'm on this floor. I was like, okay. Then the
Speaker 6: next one, who do y'all think I am?
Speaker 2: It was just I just got three separate invitations, and
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, I think too much of myself.
Speaker 7: Some of them I had, you know, listening to their
Speaker 7: music and had crushes on. I was like, yeah, I
Speaker 7: think too much of myself to be one of them chicks.
Speaker 7: But yeah, they were remain nameless, but wow, yeah it was.
Speaker 7: It was in the eleventor it warned, don't make no
Speaker 7: one sound in that corner those kind of situations. I'm
Speaker 7: just a different kind of ship. I value myself too
Speaker 7: much in my reputation. So like, yeah, I'm gonna see
Speaker 7: you somewhere else and be trying to sing about Jesus
Speaker 7: and you're gonna be going.
Speaker 8: It alone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what can I say? You just you're just dope.
Speaker 1: Thank you?
Speaker 3: You just there are so many heavenly words and descriptions
Speaker 3: to go along with it. But in the in, in
Speaker 3: in the in the interests of trying to encompass it
Speaker 3: all in a way that we would say it, you
Speaker 3: just don't thank you. I just you fired every every
Speaker 3: time every time I see you, and and and even
Speaker 3: the husband, I'll give him some some you know, it's
Speaker 3: it's it's about you though. It's just it's like some people,
Speaker 3: it's like it's just always good to see you. You
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, like it's energy, Like, uh, you know.
Speaker 7: It's that because you avoid unfortunately been many backstages.
Speaker 3: You'll be like and it's like you you you know,
Speaker 3: you know, you're you're amongst family, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: you're amongst people that you know, hey, if it go down,
Speaker 3: I know, so I guess some people in here that
Speaker 3: got in my back.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but you know, I just don't ever want to
Speaker 7: be the gospel artist, the Jesus girl, the church girl,
Speaker 7: to be like, yeah, she ain't really about that, sheep,
Speaker 7: that's just the stage.
Speaker 4: It's a whole different way.
Speaker 3: I don't think. Yeah, I don't. That's not even possible.
Speaker 3: You know, you're your your life precedes you in terms
Speaker 3: of like you know, they say in the street, ain't
Speaker 3: no smull on your name.
Speaker 6: I ain't perfect.
Speaker 3: No I don't.
Speaker 4: Nobody let me tell you you ain't.
Speaker 3: But there's a difference. There's a difference. There's a difference
Speaker 3: in us not being perfect and it's being human and
Speaker 3: and just being and being something else. No, I can't
Speaker 3: do that, you see what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: I can't do that. So the way my family is
Speaker 6: set up, they can see here smell one thing if
Speaker 6: you lost your what.
Speaker 3: Is like some of us still have that accountability system
Speaker 3: set up strong. My mama will call me and say,
Speaker 3: is that what we're doing?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: My mom? Be the first time.
Speaker 3: I don't like that one.
Speaker 8: I don't like that.
Speaker 1: Gonna get you about dabling. I don't like that, Dorel.
Speaker 4: You have to do.
Speaker 6: You got to do what she said. You said, yo, who.
Speaker 1: No if my my younger cousins probably called mee tank
Speaker 1: put my mama, that's all.
Speaker 3: Right, you'll be back, You be back.
Speaker 1: Don't he gonna see you? Come on, you're gonna stop
Speaker 1: playing with him.
Speaker 2: Come on, you're gonna give him a complete Yet he
Speaker 2: out here with me and then comes showing up here.
Speaker 1: Absolutely you know I'm I'm on a mission.
Speaker 6: So then maybe you can't be the youth pastor. We'll
Speaker 6: talk to Warren.
Speaker 3: But and we we we we appreciate more than anything
Speaker 3: you're coming our way, hanging out with us and praying
Speaker 3: forst more important. Thank you. That's great, and I look
Speaker 3: I look forward. I look forward to to your acting journey.
Speaker 3: I look forward to that. I think that's gonna be really.
Speaker 4: Really really angela Baptist And.
Speaker 1: That was good.
Speaker 3: I got and I got it's crazy. I got something
Speaker 3: I'm working on right now.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, we just talked about it last working on.
Speaker 1: Right there.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 1: Ladies and Gentleman.
Speaker 3: My name is Tank and this is the R and
Speaker 3: B Money Podcast, the authority on all things I need it,
Speaker 3: ARM and B.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this has been a blessing that that's too long.
Speaker 8: Where's your balance?
Speaker 3: This has been a blessing from on high. They awesome,
Speaker 3: the amazing, the beautiful Erica.
Speaker 2: R and B Money is a production of the Black
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Speaker 2: favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show,
Speaker 2: and you can connect with us on social media at
Speaker 2: j Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,
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Speaker 2: Money