Speaker 1: Hey guys, and we are back. Welcome to season two
Speaker 1: of Let's Be Real. I cannot believe that we are here.
Speaker 1: I am so happy. First of all, if you are new, welcome,
Speaker 1: and if you're returning, thank you so much for coming back.
Speaker 1: I am Sammy Jay And every Tuesday a new episode
Speaker 1: is coming out. So for the first episode of season two,
Speaker 1: I am so honored to say that Anthony Ramos is
Speaker 1: my guest. I have been a fan of his music
Speaker 1: and talent for a long time. We talk about so
Speaker 1: many things, from the stigma around mental health for guys,
Speaker 1: Hamilton's behind the scenes stories of course, the new album
Speaker 1: he's working on, filming the movie in the Heights, how
Speaker 1: he's actually creating a musical, and we talk about a
Speaker 1: very special charity he works with that I'm so excited
Speaker 1: for you guys to hear about. And finally, this was
Speaker 1: recorded before the election, so that is why we did
Speaker 1: not talk about it. I hope you enjoy the first
Speaker 1: episode of season two. Anthony. I'm so excited to have
Speaker 1: you on my podcast. You have no idea at Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me, Sady come on. So actually I saw
Speaker 1: you in concert in Brooklyn. One of the best concerts
Speaker 1: I've been to. Genuinely one of the best. I think
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why I love it because you
Speaker 1: gave context before every song and you kind of explain
Speaker 1: the lyrics and my actually have a learning difference and
Speaker 1: it's auditory processing, so allowed me to understand the lyrics
Speaker 1: and the music on an entirely different level. So I
Speaker 1: think more artists should be doing that. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: you just made my whole day. We can end the
Speaker 1: interview right now. Yeah, this is an amazing thing having me, Yo,
Speaker 1: that's so awesome. Man. I'm glad. Yo, I'm glad man
Speaker 1: for real because I try to do that. I tried,
Speaker 1: you know. It's like because you go to so many shows,
Speaker 1: you're like, dang, I wish I could understand and the
Speaker 1: context behind the song too. Yeah yeah, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: and like where did this song come from? And like
Speaker 1: some songs are not personal, right, but like but but
Speaker 1: when they are, like yo, I like I want to
Speaker 1: know like who was that who was that person that
Speaker 1: you were talking about in the first verse, or what's
Speaker 1: uh when did that happen to you? You know, like moment,
Speaker 1: like when was that time in your life? You know
Speaker 1: how old were you, Like where were you? You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, like that kind of thing, that kind
Speaker 1: of just I don't know, it makes me feel more
Speaker 1: connected to the song, you know, even as as the artist,
Speaker 1: as an audience. Well, I also think that The Good
Speaker 1: Bat is so brilliant because it's this It's like it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a movie. It's the chapter of your
Speaker 1: it's the chapter of your life that it's told so eloquently,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of like a show. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's crazy. It is like when I was
Speaker 1: writing all these songs and it's like they were all
Speaker 1: like little movies in my head, you know, like you
Speaker 1: could make it a movie. It's crazy. I started talking,
Speaker 1: I started thinking about it. I was thinking about how
Speaker 1: to develop this as a as a as a film
Speaker 1: or movie musical. You know, I don't know if we're
Speaker 1: gonna do it, but it was like something I was like, dang,
Speaker 1: this is a story here, Like like all we gotta
Speaker 1: do is to put some dialogue in between, and we
Speaker 1: got your story. Yeah yeah, imagine being like an animation.
Speaker 1: That would be so sick Yoh, but you know, it
Speaker 1: was crazy, like even so even like um So from
Speaker 1: East I think it's the fourth song on the album,
Speaker 1: and One More Hour is the third, and One More
Speaker 1: Hour it was like about this, you know, these two
Speaker 1: people who had this like long night and they were
Speaker 1: hanging out all night and chilling right yeah, And then
Speaker 1: at the end of the song, I was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: what if we had Because the next song was about
Speaker 1: vacation I took with my fiance, my girl Jasmine. We
Speaker 1: went to Puerto Rico, and I was like, what if
Speaker 1: we had Like the piano at the end gets dreamy,
Speaker 1: It's like if you close your eyes you can hear this,
Speaker 1: So we put birds at the end. I was just
Speaker 1: about to say those little those little things that you
Speaker 1: put in it like sets it up for the next song,
Speaker 1: so it flows so perfectly. That's dope. Yeah, I'm glad you.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you did it. Yo. Yeah. We gotta thought
Speaker 1: about every moment. Yeah, yeah, I mean I can. That's
Speaker 1: my favorite part about putting albums together to like, like,
Speaker 1: I love putting out singles, but my favorite part about
Speaker 1: making music is like being able to put the whole
Speaker 1: body and work together and really like piece the songs together,
Speaker 1: like all right, what goes where? Why does this go? Here. Oh,
Speaker 1: we we need an up temple here. We want to
Speaker 1: feel pulse right here with you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: it's those little things that really make it all together
Speaker 1: that a lot of people don't notice. Um. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite songs is figure It Out, And there's a
Speaker 1: line in it, um why am I pushing away with silence?
Speaker 1: Has to say? And when I heard that, I was like,
Speaker 1: that is so powerful. So I was wondering how you
Speaker 1: came up with that line. I was having a hard time, really, um,
Speaker 1: really dealing with myself. You know, I was just really
Speaker 1: having a hard time dealing with myself. And you know, uh,
Speaker 1: I guess with myself and the silence too. You know,
Speaker 1: I think there's a thing that comes with being silent.
Speaker 1: And now we have phones, and now we have all
Speaker 1: these things to distract us, right, And and I was
Speaker 1: just kind of like down to I was feeling like depressed.
Speaker 1: I was like, damn, like why am I feeling like this?
Speaker 1: And and and and I was just like, what is
Speaker 1: like this recurring theme in my life that keeps happening
Speaker 1: that I can't like I can't just like shut my
Speaker 1: mind off. I don't know how to just sit quietly,
Speaker 1: like I'm always doing something. I'm always like I'm like working,
Speaker 1: or I'm talking on the phone, or I'm like texting somebody,
Speaker 1: I'm listening to music. I'm always like like on watching
Speaker 1: something or you know, like it's like, so that was
Speaker 1: where that lyric came from. You know, why am I
Speaker 1: pushing away what silence has to say? You know? Why
Speaker 1: do I push through the day like tomorrow is going
Speaker 1: to figure it out? You know, like someone else to
Speaker 1: figure it out. You think about even right now, like
Speaker 1: you know, even now, when the world had to stop,
Speaker 1: and we're seeing this uh you know, like for example,
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter been around for seven years, that actual
Speaker 1: like the organization, I think, right it's becoming it's on
Speaker 1: we're in the seventh year, coming on the seven year.
Speaker 1: But like this is this year feels like this crazy
Speaker 1: like wave of you feel me but like in the
Speaker 1: middle of a pandemic, when we're when we when we've
Speaker 1: all had to stop, you know, and I think it's
Speaker 1: like this thing when we stopped that the truth, the
Speaker 1: truth makes its way to the surface and you can't
Speaker 1: even and it's always been there, but because you know,
Speaker 1: you can't, you can't can't avoid your your your brother,
Speaker 1: or your sister or your mommy, and that whoever you
Speaker 1: quarantine with, right your significant other, you cannot ignore whatever
Speaker 1: conversations y'all may have not had before your quarantine. We're
Speaker 1: all in this house to be like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like, phone can only keep you busy for
Speaker 1: so long during quarantine. Yeah, only so many. There's so
Speaker 1: much TV you can watch, and and there's only so many,
Speaker 1: you know, times you can text somebody before you gotta
Speaker 1: like look at that person and you're sitting across from
Speaker 1: each other on the sofa, like, damn, we should really
Speaker 1: talk about this, right. I also feel like with your music,
Speaker 1: you're also just you're there's this weird stigma that like
Speaker 1: guys can like have feelings or be down or be
Speaker 1: anxious or depressed. And I just think you, like you
Speaker 1: word it so perfectly that it's so normal. But like
Speaker 1: I'm curious, so why you don't think it's talked about enough?
Speaker 1: I don't, you know, to be honest with you, I
Speaker 1: don't know why. Um, there's this thing about like, there's
Speaker 1: this thing about men. I think that we have sometimes
Speaker 1: that when we feel weak, if we're vulnerable. You know,
Speaker 1: vulnerability equals weakness, right right, as opposed to you know,
Speaker 1: as opposed to UM, someone who you know it's not
Speaker 1: afraid to be like, you know, I think it's like
Speaker 1: we substitute sadness with anger. I think men mostly, you know,
Speaker 1: at least most of them, most of them and I've
Speaker 1: met right and I know myself too, rite we substitute
Speaker 1: sadness with anger. We're like, it's not it's like it's
Speaker 1: always like I'm mad, I'm frustrated, but it's like most
Speaker 1: of the time it's like I'm just sad because you
Speaker 1: don't really you're not used to using that word because
Speaker 1: it's kind of told you to like man up or
Speaker 1: those kind of things, right, But that becomes a habit
Speaker 1: you can't even identify when it's deeper than just being angry,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And I think I think
Speaker 1: that UM in turn cuts us off from actually being
Speaker 1: able to connect with people because it's almost like so funny.
Speaker 1: I was like talking to my thea is about this
Speaker 1: yesterday that was mad for She's like, you know, before
Speaker 1: you make an assumption about what something is, maybe we
Speaker 1: just start off with saying, like I feel like that,
Speaker 1: like this person is is saying something kind of like
Speaker 1: not nice to me, or I feel like, um, this
Speaker 1: doesn't seem right. I don't mean to go into like
Speaker 1: a therapy session about it were her own words, critic
Speaker 1: and you know what on this podcast, I'm like all
Speaker 1: her therapy. There's like I've been going for years and
Speaker 1: it's so underrated. Yeah, I think everybody should do it.
Speaker 1: If you can do it, you should do it. Please
Speaker 1: like this, I agree. I mean I think of it
Speaker 1: like people like you should work out your body, but
Speaker 1: therapy is working out your mind. Like it's the same equivalent.
Speaker 1: You gotta have both though probably like I think it's
Speaker 1: important for you to, you know, for us to be
Speaker 1: in shape physically, but we have to. But like how
Speaker 1: how are you how are we even going to progress
Speaker 1: as artists if we ain't progressing right? And like how
Speaker 1: are you going to continue right? Like like it's almost
Speaker 1: like how how do we dig deeper? And what we
Speaker 1: say as artists too, and what we talk about if
Speaker 1: we aren't digging deeper like in our own like lives
Speaker 1: internally you know what I'm saying, Like you know, like
Speaker 1: it's it's like the more we dig right and like, look,
Speaker 1: you can make a whole Like the first album could
Speaker 1: be like this, this second album is is uh is
Speaker 1: not as um uh personal per se like where like
Speaker 1: every story leads into the next, right, but the second
Speaker 1: album is still very much like story driven. Every song
Speaker 1: is still story driven. But I wanted to add um
Speaker 1: like I wanted this album and feel like I said,
Speaker 1: I said to a friend of mine explaining to me, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: what's the difference between the first album the second album?
Speaker 1: I said. First album is like story Time, you know,
Speaker 1: pop up book. Second album is like the Nitro at
Speaker 1: six Flags Great Adventure. Like I was like, we're still
Speaker 1: we're going on a ride, you know, but it's like
Speaker 1: by but there's like you know, there's there there all
Speaker 1: these new small stories, but just with this adrenaline, this
Speaker 1: pumping like pulse to this album that you know, I'm
Speaker 1: excited about, but it's just like, you know, how do
Speaker 1: we how do we dig inside and how do we
Speaker 1: dig deep to find out? Like yo, like, because that's
Speaker 1: how you explore. To more we dig and the more
Speaker 1: we explore inward, the more I think, the more the
Speaker 1: world starts to open up exactly because we get a
Speaker 1: different perspective on things. Yeah, so I listened to Stop
Speaker 1: and oh my goodness, it makes me happy, especially with
Speaker 1: what's going on in the world. I just feel like
Speaker 1: it kind of makes you take a moment and breathe,
Speaker 1: being like, whoa, slow down and enjoy the moment. I
Speaker 1: saw you in an interview and they were talking about
Speaker 1: how you made a makeshift studio during quarantine and vocals
Speaker 1: with the blanket? Was this that song? Yes? So that bridge?
Speaker 1: So the whole bridge you know when you love somebody
Speaker 1: in the moment, is you know that whole bridge? I
Speaker 1: did underneath a quote like I had a I can't
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is right now, but I
Speaker 1: put that joint over my head right here, and I
Speaker 1: had my life. This is my my vocal boofer here,
Speaker 1: but I just cut my vocals in there and the
Speaker 1: mic is and then this stuff and look at that.
Speaker 1: But it came out all right, and I'm glad. I
Speaker 1: know it was this song because I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: because I heard some vocals in there, was like, I
Speaker 1: wonder if this is the one where he did under
Speaker 1: a blanket. That would be pretty iconic. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was that. Yeah, that song was homemade. What was
Speaker 1: the process of writing it, you know, what was while
Speaker 1: I was I was in l A for I was
Speaker 1: in l A for two months writing, you know, and
Speaker 1: just writing, writing every day most days, right like five
Speaker 1: days a week or whatever. And this was the last
Speaker 1: song that I was writing on this trip in l A.
Speaker 1: I think I wrote We wrote the song maybe Marsh
Speaker 1: third or something like that or Marsh and I left
Speaker 1: home back to New York on March fourth, and this
Speaker 1: was before the shutdown. It was just about me how
Speaker 1: I had problems just stopping in my life and how
Speaker 1: I just was always felt like I've been running and
Speaker 1: I'm always just like working on doing something, always always
Speaker 1: need to be doing something. If I'm not doing anything,
Speaker 1: I'm like calling a friend to see if we can
Speaker 1: hang out, Like I'm not just like I just just
Speaker 1: don't know how to sit, you know what I'm saying
Speaker 1: and just chill. And I was like, yeah, I need
Speaker 1: to write a song about that. And then that's that's
Speaker 1: how kind of lyrics came about. And I wrote the
Speaker 1: song with some awesome writers. One of my boys Castle
Speaker 1: who I went to college with, Joel and then Sean Douglas,
Speaker 1: Amy Watson, and Jesse shot cam roll and produced it
Speaker 1: and were just in there and we were going back
Speaker 1: to forth and it was just like, sometimes I wish
Speaker 1: my life was like a photograph. Double tap the good
Speaker 1: ones and just photoshop the bad put them in my wallet,
Speaker 1: in my pocket. If I need them, then I got them.
Speaker 1: But life don't work like that. Sometimes I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm in Nike's on the track even when my feet
Speaker 1: are my mind is running fast. When I'm home, I
Speaker 1: getting patient when I'm going. I kind of hate it,
Speaker 1: but my life works like that. It's like sunsets and
Speaker 1: open water sky's full of technicolor beauty right in front
Speaker 1: of you, and so there's so much to discover if
Speaker 1: you stop reading it for the moment, stop giving a minute,
Speaker 1: and you'll own it. Stop it's only just begun. Sooner
Speaker 1: they'll be almost over. So just stop, you know, like
Speaker 1: see what comes in the focus. Stop. It's kind of
Speaker 1: crazy what you notice stops like a setting sun. Sooner
Speaker 1: they'll be almost over, So stop, you know, And like
Speaker 1: that's what the song was. It's like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like I'm looking through the window of a train. All
Speaker 1: my visions blurry. What it's like looking through the window
Speaker 1: of the train, but my vision is blurry, so it
Speaker 1: all just looks the same. All the people in the places,
Speaker 1: all the voices in the faces, they all just stare
Speaker 1: right back, you know, long talks, cups of coffee, waking
Speaker 1: up and saying sorry, love is right in front of you.
Speaker 1: We could finally see each other if we stop, you know,
Speaker 1: like that's what the song is about. Like you know,
Speaker 1: like yo, like just see what happens if you like
Speaker 1: do that for yourself, you know, and see what happens
Speaker 1: and see when you do that, it helps me understand
Speaker 1: the lyrics so much more because if you tell it
Speaker 1: like a story, even though you're just saying the lyrics,
Speaker 1: it's incredible. Yeah, no, thanks man, Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of like I always try to speak the lyrics always,
Speaker 1: like even before we finish every session, I'm like, let's
Speaker 1: speak the lyrics. It's like, let's you know, say the
Speaker 1: lyrics like a monologue list, because if we could say
Speaker 1: it that way. One of my musical theater teachers taught
Speaker 1: me that actually in college, Jeffrey Dunn God rests so woman.
Speaker 1: He was like, yo, let's speak. If you can speak,
Speaker 1: let's do the monologue first, and then he used to
Speaker 1: make us do this thing called the caveman, So we
Speaker 1: used to only take like operative words. It'd be like,
Speaker 1: you know, if it's like, uh, look window train vision
Speaker 1: blurry saying uh, you know a vision blurry looks saying
Speaker 1: people places, voices, faces stare back like like that, like
Speaker 1: what are the you know, right, and then you just
Speaker 1: fill them in with the with the other words that
Speaker 1: just make the sense makes sense. Yeah, you know, let's
Speaker 1: just put a bang and beat to it. You know. See,
Speaker 1: I've been so like I love Broadway, I love musical theater,
Speaker 1: and so just past years of junior in high school
Speaker 1: and I decided to take musical theater as an elective.
Speaker 1: So fascinated. We learned all the history of Broadway and
Speaker 1: like it's mind blowing how far it's come, but how
Speaker 1: much it stayed the same too. Yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: think there's an art right to musical theater that that is,
Speaker 1: uh that is so true to that like craft and
Speaker 1: that specific like form of art right and and and
Speaker 1: and and storytelling to like you know, there's nothing like
Speaker 1: you know, people, it is a little ridiculous, right, that's
Speaker 1: someone just burst out in the song, like but it's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like yes, right, like, but there's a reason there's in context,
Speaker 1: it's weird, but like there's something about theater, Like I've
Speaker 1: grown up in New York, and it's just like there's
Speaker 1: something about it that when people are like they don't
Speaker 1: like Broadway, like, well, have you ever been to a show?
Speaker 1: And they're like no, I'm like, see that's the issue.
Speaker 1: You can't just judge it off the soundtrack, right, you
Speaker 1: gotta feel it, you gotta you gotta feel the pulse,
Speaker 1: you know. But I think there's that element right that
Speaker 1: that you know, I try to take to my live
Speaker 1: shows right, Like it's not a musical. But the reason
Speaker 1: why I explained the lyrics to you before is it's
Speaker 1: almost like this is the dialogue before exactly right, And
Speaker 1: I won't do that all the time, like and like
Speaker 1: and I'm you know, and I'm finding you know, I
Speaker 1: think I think the trick and the goal is right
Speaker 1: to like find more creative ways to just keep the
Speaker 1: post flowing, like a show like Hamilton for example, like
Speaker 1: the Way right, like Hamilton or Layman is right. These
Speaker 1: shows only had music, but and the music just drove
Speaker 1: the show the entire time, and like there was no dialogue,
Speaker 1: there were no scenes. It was just lyrics. It was
Speaker 1: just lyrics and music. Hamilton has fifty songs in it
Speaker 1: like that, you know, some some of one minute and
Speaker 1: some are four minutes. Right, But like what's dope about
Speaker 1: Broadway is like I think the more Broadway diversifies too,
Speaker 1: and the more Broadway um opens his arms to people
Speaker 1: of different races and coaches and color. Right, the nickname
Speaker 1: for Broadway is a Great White Way. You know. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, if you Puerto Rican and you grew up
Speaker 1: in the projects and whatever, you ain't really it's very
Speaker 1: easy to feel like your chances of working on the
Speaker 1: Great White Way are very slim to none, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's like the more we I think, the more
Speaker 1: Broadway opens its doors. And I think you know, Broadways
Speaker 1: doing it, but I think there's a lot of there's
Speaker 1: a lot more to do. Yeah, Like like I love
Speaker 1: that even like Netflix just just um, I think bought
Speaker 1: the rights to Once on This Island, Like that's one
Speaker 1: of my home girls. But Jocelyn Jocelyn Bio is right
Speaker 1: in the the book for it, which I'm so exorit
Speaker 1: like that that we need to we have to like
Speaker 1: open the doors for right, these musicals, like people can
Speaker 1: see it that that's like like with Hamilton's on Disney Plus,
Speaker 1: because I feel like there's this um saying that, like
Speaker 1: people are like, why should we make it like a
Speaker 1: movie and put it online for streaming? It's not gonna
Speaker 1: be the same experience. But then it's like, Okay, if
Speaker 1: you listen to the Taylor Swift album, that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you don't want to see her in person, right, right,
Speaker 1: And like look at you look at even some of
Speaker 1: these live shows right justin Timberlay got one on Netflix,
Speaker 1: and Beyonce he's got one up there, Taylor Swift that one.
Speaker 1: People people are streaming these shows. People are streaming these
Speaker 1: live events right like they were live, they were taked
Speaker 1: and you but but there's a way in cinema to
Speaker 1: to to bring people in right, like something there's something
Speaker 1: that is so special in cinema that like where you
Speaker 1: can feel like you're there to speak to what you're saying.
Speaker 1: How like how people have connected to the movie so
Speaker 1: much because folks like you're my director says something real good.
Speaker 1: He was like, you know, Anthony, everybody's got the same
Speaker 1: seat now you guys got the same seat, nobody sitting
Speaker 1: in the back, nobody sitting in the front, and like,
Speaker 1: there's no substitute for life a live event period, Like
Speaker 1: I there's nothing that I want to do more right
Speaker 1: now than play a live show. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: we're able to create these experiences for people online, which
Speaker 1: which is a dope. Second, and thank god for technology
Speaker 1: that we can you know, do a whole set up
Speaker 1: at the crib or whatever. You know, we set up
Speaker 1: the drum said, and let's let's put on a show,
Speaker 1: like if you're forced to learn in quarantine. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't know how to use like logic or I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to you know, I didn't know how you
Speaker 1: have this stuff from my computer. Now I'm not going
Speaker 1: here like okay, how you do this? Now you're a technician,
Speaker 1: like you got trying. I mean, you know, like you know,
Speaker 1: I can get it done. Like that's all that matters.
Speaker 1: So I've heard you saying someone asked you if you'd
Speaker 1: already musical and you said, you're working on one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how's that going? It's good? I mean I have I
Speaker 1: have like one, uh one that I'm working on. Uh
Speaker 1: that I'm really excited about but it's like we've we're
Speaker 1: like six songs and more like five and and I think,
Speaker 1: I mean, I got really inspired by the Nativity. I thought,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a holiday show, but I
Speaker 1: don't picture it as a holiday show. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, Jesus Christ Superstarker play and at
Speaker 1: any time right like and I feel like this joint
Speaker 1: was about like the people around the like Nativity, change
Speaker 1: it up. These were like people who I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: Mary was Mary had to go tell her man that
Speaker 1: she's having a baby, but she like then sheet on
Speaker 1: him and he's like, yo, hold on, who you how
Speaker 1: are you even pregnant? Then? And she's like, you know,
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. He's like, I don't know that, dude.
Speaker 1: You feel like someone saying that now it's like a
Speaker 1: reason they get pregnant, you know what I'm saying, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're working it out, but but I'll let you you
Speaker 1: be one of the first to know when when when
Speaker 1: this thing is ready for people, I invite you to
Speaker 1: the reading. Yeah, if you're cure and if in New York,
Speaker 1: oh absolutely all right. We have to take a quick break.
Speaker 1: But when we come back, we're gonna be talking all
Speaker 1: things behind the scenes of Hamilton's your starring role and
Speaker 1: in the heights of the movie and we're back. So
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of Hamilton, like many like many others,
Speaker 1: and I just have some questions that I just need
Speaker 1: to be cleared up. Yeah, so insatisfied. They reverse the
Speaker 1: choreography like to the exact and it kind of freaks
Speaker 1: me out how perfect and distinct it is. What was
Speaker 1: it like? Learning that? It was the worst thing ever.
Speaker 1: It was so hard. It was probably the single hardest
Speaker 1: thing I've done. Like, how did you think? However, how
Speaker 1: long did that take? I mean, so we it took long.
Speaker 1: We started learning it, like we started learning it even
Speaker 1: before we went to the public theater, you know, and
Speaker 1: brought like we we did like a like they call
Speaker 1: him like workshops, like we did like a lab of
Speaker 1: the show. We started learning helpless. Helpless was hard already
Speaker 1: and then he said, Yo, we're gonna do this but
Speaker 1: backwards and there's a move and on a turntable, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I had I had so many hours,
Speaker 1: there's so many hours. And then we start learning. After
Speaker 1: that lab, we learned it but we didn't have a turntable,
Speaker 1: and then they added the turntable. It's a production so
Speaker 1: we basically had to learn it again. It was it
Speaker 1: was wild, Like my brain, the frustration I cannot explain
Speaker 1: you the frustration then that that I experienced with that
Speaker 1: we're learning that. It was crazy. But I can't imagine.
Speaker 1: It's the most insane thing ever. When I felt people
Speaker 1: who watched on the zee bus, I'm like, Okay, watch
Speaker 1: it again. Make sure you notice that they do it
Speaker 1: all because it brings an entire other element to it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know she's she's recounting the moment in her
Speaker 1: head like she's recalling the dot just brilliant her head.
Speaker 1: And it's I mean, Andy Blank Abler, our choreographer, is uh.
Speaker 1: We call him the mad Scientist. That's his nickname. He's
Speaker 1: uh because just just no one understands how he's able
Speaker 1: to u come up with the ideas that he comes
Speaker 1: up with. It's just it's crazy, you know. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: so we actually had so Geordan Fisher was my first
Speaker 1: ever interview when I was thirteen. Come on, how so
Speaker 1: we had him on my part cast which was so
Speaker 1: full circle um, and he called Linman while we're into
Speaker 1: the modern day Shakespeare, which I think is the most
Speaker 1: accurate term I've heard yet. Okay, do you do you
Speaker 1: agree that or do you have another name that you'd
Speaker 1: like to go for? No, I think he I think
Speaker 1: that's it. He's the fort sure of us should be
Speaker 1: twitter Bio. I think we all call him that, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, like, who would have ever thought that hip
Speaker 1: hop would would uh cross over right into Broadway and
Speaker 1: in the same in the same space where like there's
Speaker 1: like Rogers and Hammerstein and then Stephen sin Well. Actually
Speaker 1: Stephen Sondheim was writing raps and I don't even think
Speaker 1: he knew he was writing rhymes. When you you listen
Speaker 1: into the Woods, you listen to song like, uh, your fault,
Speaker 1: and it's like, well, it isn't my fault. He was
Speaker 1: giving those beans. You persuaded him the trader with my
Speaker 1: cow for beans, but without those beans that have been
Speaker 1: no stock to get up to. The giants in the
Speaker 1: first place may have any magic, like they spit. They
Speaker 1: really are, and you don't think of it that way
Speaker 1: because it's it's crazy to me. Um. I actually I
Speaker 1: did a piece for Radio Disney Worry on backstage a
Speaker 1: Broadway on Hamilton's and I learned that the dress and
Speaker 1: burn that Eliza's dress is flame returned. So I was
Speaker 1: wondering if there's any other little secrets like that that
Speaker 1: you know of they could share. I didn't know that. Damn,
Speaker 1: that's no sae. Yeah, I'm like dang wow, like any
Speaker 1: like any like little things that people might not know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I remember I lifted one of the costumes and
Speaker 1: they were heavy. Oh yeah, the customes are crazy, like
Speaker 1: it's uh, I think I think something people might not
Speaker 1: know is um, I wore a wig, and uh, I
Speaker 1: wore wig like towards if you really like look closely,
Speaker 1: I mean you won't see it. You won't see it
Speaker 1: in the movie because in the movie it was still
Speaker 1: my real hair. But I had got the TV show
Speaker 1: and I started working on that on the Netflix joint,
Speaker 1: She's got to Have It. But I cut my hair
Speaker 1: um a little bit, and our director was like, yo,
Speaker 1: we gotta give you a wig. So I used Rene's
Speaker 1: off Way that she wore off Broadway. They snipped it
Speaker 1: up to the length of my head. Well, first it
Speaker 1: was too long, so I looked like some like it
Speaker 1: looked all greasy and curly and like it was. It
Speaker 1: was not a vibe at all. It was so you know,
Speaker 1: like it was to the point where I would I
Speaker 1: went on stage with that way and and uh, my
Speaker 1: cast members didn't know I was gonna be wearing a wig.
Speaker 1: And I walked out on stage and they start laughing.
Speaker 1: So we start My Shot and we're singing it with
Speaker 1: like we're doing my Shot, were doing it, We're doing it,
Speaker 1: and my cast fombers started laughing on stage, and then
Speaker 1: I started laughing. Oh I think I started laughing, and
Speaker 1: they because they everybody was. We just all laughing, and
Speaker 1: we could not get through Um, we couldn't get through
Speaker 1: My Shot. We couldn't get through Story of Tonight. And
Speaker 1: it lasted all the way until until through Story of
Speaker 1: Tonight live performance. I feel like with those songs, that
Speaker 1: kind of works because your characters are like the Bros
Speaker 1: and that, so it kind of works the laugh and
Speaker 1: kind of fits in. It's not like in burn is
Speaker 1: that what happened? It doesn't work when you don't sing
Speaker 1: the lyrics because you know, you know, we were laughing
Speaker 1: and not singing the lyrics, like it was like we're
Speaker 1: just laughing on stage. People must have been looking at
Speaker 1: us like, yo, what are they laughing at? I'm talking
Speaker 1: like red in the face show the gut, laughing, stomach hurting. Yes,
Speaker 1: it was crazy because nobody thought I was gonna have
Speaker 1: this wig on. Then they cut it. It looked a
Speaker 1: little more like natural. People couldn't kind of couldn't tell
Speaker 1: that I was wearing a wig. Do you have the wig? No? Wow,
Speaker 1: I should get that wig. Dude, you should you just
Speaker 1: wear for interviews and not say anything. You're right, I
Speaker 1: should get that wig back, I think. So. Do you
Speaker 1: have any cool Hamilton's pieces at your house, like something
Speaker 1: from the show. Did you ever take anything or did
Speaker 1: they not allow you? I took my Philip letter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I took that letter. I can't I'm not gonna frame
Speaker 1: it storage, but yeah, it's it's I took my Philip blood.
Speaker 1: I wanted it. I wanted to have something so so
Speaker 1: so I took the little note and it actually has
Speaker 1: the poem on it, you know, the daddy Daddy learned
Speaker 1: my name is Philip. Oh my gosh, that's so cool.
Speaker 1: There is um. I was listening to the soundtrack the
Speaker 1: other day and um in like this, stay alive reprize,
Speaker 1: like when your character is dying, I realized there's a heartbeat,
Speaker 1: like very like and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: Like that just brought it to a whole other level,
Speaker 1: because like, I can listen to the soundtrack so many
Speaker 1: times and I'll still pick up on these things that
Speaker 1: like have these like connections that you don't even realize.
Speaker 1: So when you were on the show, did you ever
Speaker 1: realize these like little nuances that you that just like
Speaker 1: even if you've done it like a hundred times, you're
Speaker 1: Like when I watched the movie, I saw new things.
Speaker 1: I saw like reactions I had never seen before from people,
Speaker 1: like this one reaction Renee gives Leslie and um Skyt's sisters.
Speaker 1: There's this look she gives him after that the time
Speaker 1: I've been reading time and since by Thomas Paine and
Speaker 1: some men say that I'm intense a I'm just saying
Speaker 1: and he's like, you know, I'm a trust fund baby,
Speaker 1: you could trust me and uh and she like looks
Speaker 1: like she gives him this look and it is you know,
Speaker 1: I was like, probably one of the best moments of
Speaker 1: the show right there, right there, right there, I was like,
Speaker 1: I've never seen that and then just like interactions between
Speaker 1: like Lynn and Leslie and like the ensemble, like seeing
Speaker 1: like the way, like certain reactions like f from the
Speaker 1: Way from Sykes reacts to Chris Jackson and Lynn when
Speaker 1: they're when they're doing UM, they're having that argument off
Speaker 1: to the side, and he tells me to see it
Speaker 1: because like you're on the side of the stage. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when we're backstage, we're just chilling, like we're just waiting
Speaker 1: to come on stage. Like it's not like we're like,
Speaker 1: you know, in this like mode. Like I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: when you've done the show, so never talks to the
Speaker 1: whole shown. I mean from the side, watched it na,
Speaker 1: because you're doing it so much. Trust I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you right now. No, sadly, I've not watched it, but
Speaker 1: from the side. I watched it out in the audience.
Speaker 1: So I did go out a couple of times and
Speaker 1: watched it. UM. Sometimes it's hard to watch it from
Speaker 1: the side because you're just like you're changing your costume,
Speaker 1: or you're like I'm going you're going to the out
Speaker 1: side of the stage for something, or you know eating.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not well, I'll be eating during shows
Speaker 1: sometimes because I was like, I got to eat dinner,
Speaker 1: and I'd be like grubbing if I if I had,
Speaker 1: you know, especially in the second act, because I wasn't
Speaker 1: on stage a lot, so I'll be like. That was
Speaker 1: when I was like, I mean, you've got to get
Speaker 1: prepared to die for like the second time. You got
Speaker 1: to feel yourself for that, right you know. Oh, I
Speaker 1: got a story about that. So I was eating goldfish
Speaker 1: backstage during uh, the last scene during Stay Alive before
Speaker 1: I die the in the show I had right the
Speaker 1: second time, I had goldfish in my teeth on stage.
Speaker 1: So Lena's over here and Pepper are crying over me,
Speaker 1: like having this like dramatic like seeing, and I got like, yo,
Speaker 1: I got gold fish in my teeth and I didn't
Speaker 1: even know I had it there. And Lynn was like, Bro,
Speaker 1: I could barely focus because all I could focus on
Speaker 1: was the pieces of gold fish you had in your teeth, bro.
Speaker 1: And my cat still tells that story to this day.
Speaker 1: I had chicken too, I I has I had some
Speaker 1: chicken that felt oh, but I had so I had
Speaker 1: gold fish in my pocket too because I was eating
Speaker 1: them and my constume, so I put in the pocket
Speaker 1: I don't recommend people, you know, don't costume, especially when
Speaker 1: you're at the young stage. But one of them fell
Speaker 1: out and they were just on It was just on
Speaker 1: the turntable, at this little gold fish on the turntable.
Speaker 1: Somebody took it off. I can't remember who it was,
Speaker 1: but I wish that was reformed the videotape. Yeah it was.
Speaker 1: It's not one of my brightest moments, but it's definitely
Speaker 1: good story to Okay, we have to take one more
Speaker 1: quick break, but when we come back, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about your upcoming movie In the Heights and we're back.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm really sad that In the Height isn't
Speaker 1: coming out with year. You have to wait a whole
Speaker 1: other year. So just to like, can you give me
Speaker 1: anything like a good story from on set to hold
Speaker 1: me over for another year? So I got a few.
Speaker 1: But there's a we shoot nineties six thousand. There's a number.
Speaker 1: There's a song called ninety six in the Heights and
Speaker 1: everybody's like it's about like winning the lotto and what
Speaker 1: would that be like for you? Like what would you
Speaker 1: do with this money if you want it? Like, you know,
Speaker 1: what dreams would you feel like you'd be able to
Speaker 1: achieve if you had this kind of money. And and
Speaker 1: we were singing this song and we're doing this at
Speaker 1: the public pool in Washington Heights. But YO, when I
Speaker 1: tell you that water was like sub zero, it's gonna
Speaker 1: so when you watch the scene, it's gonna look like
Speaker 1: the most beautiful summer day you've ever seen. It was gray.
Speaker 1: It rained all three days and the water was freezing.
Speaker 1: Magic of editing, Yo, when I tell you, you're gonna
Speaker 1: see the section where it's like, I'm like, it's something
Speaker 1: when we get into these crazy hypotheticals and I'm singing
Speaker 1: that and I'm walking through the water, Corey is walking
Speaker 1: through like right, I am doing my best. They must
Speaker 1: have colored my lips because they were purple. There were
Speaker 1: seventy dances in that water, dancing and people were like, yo,
Speaker 1: like one of the dances like Yo, I can't even
Speaker 1: I can't even do this, Like I can't, I can't
Speaker 1: actually physically too hypothermia, like yo. But it was it was.
Speaker 1: It was wild, but like it was that. That was
Speaker 1: one of the greatest experiences of my life. Man, shooting
Speaker 1: that film, like we had. We shot another number called
Speaker 1: God a bio and we we shot this in an
Speaker 1: alleyway between four buildings, four apartment buildings, and it was
Speaker 1: about sixty five of us that day. And it probably
Speaker 1: should have been a two day shoot, right, you know,
Speaker 1: we should have had two days theoretically to shoot this.
Speaker 1: We only have one. And john't you our director pulled
Speaker 1: off one of the great like one of the most
Speaker 1: amazing days I've ever seen a director pull off. And
Speaker 1: like this cast just everybody came together in a way
Speaker 1: that was so special. That probably is the singular most
Speaker 1: special day I've ever had on the set just in
Speaker 1: general in my life that day, it's like a community.
Speaker 1: It was just it was just like in were in
Speaker 1: Washington High School in this alleyway. We're singing about community,
Speaker 1: were singing about love, We're singing about family, were saying
Speaker 1: about pride and where we all come from. You know,
Speaker 1: you're singing songs about Sette. I like raise your flag
Speaker 1: like you know, like like you know, I saw I
Speaker 1: don't think yet, I like raise it whatever you want,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, it's just like this this pride,
Speaker 1: like having this moment, I feel like I think that's
Speaker 1: why I am just so like in love with Limen
Speaker 1: Wealth work because it's it's like it's an escape and
Speaker 1: it just it kind of makes you think, like what
Speaker 1: you want the world to be, Yeah, especially what it's
Speaker 1: going on now. Yeah. Now he's you know, he's brilliant,
Speaker 1: and you know, he's giving me you know, being being
Speaker 1: a part of these movies and shows and all that
Speaker 1: has given me an opportunity to, like, you know, I
Speaker 1: started writing songs because I got inspired by him, you know,
Speaker 1: I got inspired by you know. I'm like, he's telling
Speaker 1: his story. He's telling these stories. He wants to tell.
Speaker 1: What's the story I want to tell? You know, And
Speaker 1: that's that's how the good and the bad happens, right
Speaker 1: That's how that album happens. That's how you know, that's
Speaker 1: how a second Oltum Now happens. Like that's how these
Speaker 1: music videos happened right there. All Like even in my videos,
Speaker 1: every video is like a mini movie. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: how can we how can we tell the story? Like? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm really excited for for the Stop video
Speaker 1: because we we um you know, not to give too
Speaker 1: much away, but the main character is not me in
Speaker 1: the video, which I'm so excited about. It's this guy
Speaker 1: named Anthony Pain who I something on Instagram. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I posted something on Instagram about him, and and um,
Speaker 1: you know he was cutting hair. Um. You know, after
Speaker 1: George Floyd was was murdered, he lost his job first
Speaker 1: of all, in March, lost his job at this at
Speaker 1: this hair salon, and he stopped, you know, he wasn't
Speaker 1: cutting here for a minute, and then he just felt like,
Speaker 1: I have to do something from my community. I have
Speaker 1: to do something for the career, and I do something
Speaker 1: for my people, do something for the community. He went
Speaker 1: out there, set up a chair underneath the Wind's birth
Speaker 1: Bridge and my man's was just cutting hair for donation
Speaker 1: base and every every donation with the went to an
Speaker 1: organization that was working with Black Lives Matter. You know,
Speaker 1: there's nothing more beautiful than somebody just wanting to serve
Speaker 1: and give. I mean, do that with grace. You know,
Speaker 1: when you did the movie Monsters and Men, I thought
Speaker 1: it was so meaningful, especially with everything else going on
Speaker 1: in the world. It's kind of very similar to what
Speaker 1: happened with George Floyd. Yeah, and it's crazy how things
Speaker 1: like hit differently now with what's going on in the world. Um,
Speaker 1: and I just want to thank you for putting out
Speaker 1: work that's so meaningful that it's actually making an impact society,
Speaker 1: that's not just talking about like oh my god, I
Speaker 1: went shopping. Yeah, um no man, thanks man, I mean
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. You know, it takes people to listen to, right, Like,
Speaker 1: so that's you know that that's that's really it. You know,
Speaker 1: like you try to put out things that matter to
Speaker 1: you and things that mean a lot to you, and
Speaker 1: then you you you hope that people open up their
Speaker 1: their their ears and eyes and hearts, right and you
Speaker 1: hope they get something from it. So so thank you
Speaker 1: for watching and listening. And you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's because of you that the next person
Speaker 1: finds out about it, and then the next person finds
Speaker 1: out about it, and then and then here we are,
Speaker 1: right Like, you know, for season two of my podcast,
Speaker 1: I wanted to mix it up a bit. With all
Speaker 1: the negativity going on in the world today, I feel
Speaker 1: very helpless. No Hamilton's pun intended. I wanted to give
Speaker 1: each of my guests the opportunity to promote a charity
Speaker 1: they work with that means a lot to them and
Speaker 1: deserve support from all of us. Is there any charity
Speaker 1: you can tell us about. Yeah, I mean so I've
Speaker 1: worked with an organization called Katie's Art Project, and um,
Speaker 1: Katie's Our Project is incredible. Uh. They bring together patients
Speaker 1: with like terminal illnesses with artists and it's like more
Speaker 1: than like it's like make a wish, but not like like,
Speaker 1: let's we're gonna bring these artists together. But they're gonna
Speaker 1: and this patient, but they're gonna make some kind of artist.
Speaker 1: They're gonna write a song together, or they're gonna film
Speaker 1: something together. They're gonna make something that they create together.
Speaker 1: Today Smile Tomorrow. That's how Cry Today, Smile Tomorrow came about.
Speaker 1: So you saw that, so come on, But that's that's
Speaker 1: exactly so Cry Today, Smile Tomorrow. We wrote my boy
Speaker 1: Willing and myself and Dariel cadet Um who she had cancer.
Speaker 1: Thank god she beat it. Um. She's an incredible human being.
Speaker 1: You could see her story. Everybody listening you could. You
Speaker 1: could watch her story on YouTube. We've got you can
Speaker 1: look it up. It's on my YouTube channel. The story
Speaker 1: behind Cry Today, Smile Tomorrow. You can listen to the
Speaker 1: song there too. But this song was just about her life.
Speaker 1: Every lyric was something she said and we just transcribed it.
Speaker 1: Everything every lyric was inspired by something she said, a
Speaker 1: story that she told that day. We wrote that song
Speaker 1: in nine hours. I cut the vocal in an hour,
Speaker 1: and I re cut the vocal another day just because
Speaker 1: I was I was like, we gotta get this right.
Speaker 1: It's gotta be it's gotta be good. And then, um,
Speaker 1: thank god, you know, we were able to put it out.
Speaker 1: So it's Um, Stephanie Clemens, who is the associate choreographer Hamilton's.
Speaker 1: That's her organization. So UM, I encourage everybody you please
Speaker 1: give to the Katie's Our project. They're doing amazing work
Speaker 1: and she's bringing hope to to you know, to so
Speaker 1: many people. So just like you know, I want to
Speaker 1: support her in that organization. It's incredible organization. Please go
Speaker 1: check it out. We will. I will have a link
Speaker 1: to my Instagram. And I'm really excited. Anthony, thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Come on, come on, come on, Sammy doing
Speaker 1: uh doing all that's important work in the world. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: been seeing may come on, Anthony, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: This was awesome. You're doing amazing work and I'm just
Speaker 1: so I'm honored that you have me on your show,
Speaker 1: and and uh and and and thank you so much,
Speaker 1: thank you for really I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Anthony,
Speaker 1: thank you so much again for taking the time to
Speaker 1: come on my podcast. It truly means so much. Don't
Speaker 1: forget to listen to his single Stop the Good and
Speaker 1: the Bad Hambleton. If you've been living under a rock,
Speaker 1: don't forget to follow him on Instagram and Anthony Ramos Official,
Speaker 1: and also follow me at It's Sammy J. That's I
Speaker 1: T S S A M M Y J A y E.
Speaker 1: I am so excited for what's to come this season.
Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoyed the episode. I look forward
Speaker 1: to your feedback. Don't forget subscribed and leave a comment.
Speaker 1: I want to know your thoughts. All right, you guys,
Speaker 1: See you guys next week. Bye,