WEBVTT - Brooke Valentine 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:19.560 Well, Jake Valentine, we are all right. Welcome to the 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.520 R and B Money Podcast. I am Tank, This is 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:25.640 Jay Valentine. We are the authorities on R and B 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.560 and in the building. My dog come on now, too 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:39.199 much hair away from from side to side from not 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.280 related to Jay Valentine. Okay, gets out of the way. 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.159 You know what's so crazy? I don't know. Should we 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:51.560 do the trade? Check the road? You can check everything, 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:55.360 check the roads. Yeah, so how do you how do 0:00:55.440 --> 0:01:00.680 we get Valentine? Um? Wow, that that was probably a 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:04.360 drunk night. Um just sound good, you know what I mean? 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.200 I think that, Uh, at first it was just Valentine. 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.840 Everybody would call me Valentine's like, oh, she's so she's 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:13.839 so lovable and loving and whatever, like a little Valentine, 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:17.080 you know. And my Southern hospitality in l A was 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:22.320 like really like Valentine's Day card, you know. And Brooke 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:24.880 is is my name? My mom named me Brooke. My 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:33.160 name is Nicole Brook Nicole. Yeah, but listen, that actually 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:37.679 reversed though, because Nicole is usually ninety five percent of 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:42.160 black girl's middle name in the hood. True, very true. 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.080 If I mean we're do the calls at like if 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:47.880 ain't on the calls in here then something that, you 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:51.200 know what I mean. So definitely the black girl middle 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:55.000 middle name had to keep you Valentine. Yeah, and it 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:58.040 just it just worked out. It just sounds good, rolled 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:00.000 off the tongue. You know. I had did a little 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.000 showcase and they asked me what my name was, and 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:04.760 I tried it out on him and it was like, oh, 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:08.000 that's amazing. I was like, okay, that's it. When I 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:10.280 met Jay and he said his name was Ja Valentine, 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:21.000 I was imry, Wow, that's an R and B name. Okay, 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:28.400 here I am. Yeah. My story, my story ain't like 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.760 you know what, it's not okay, it's not about it. 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:38.040 You know. I had to change my okay yeah yeah, 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.960 not run on, not run on. We're gonna get him 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:45.640 one day and then I want to be here for that. 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.120 You gotta hear that. So what we like to do 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.160 is we really like to we really like to start 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.080 from the beginning you, but we like to act like 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.480 we're just meeting you for the first right, right. We 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.839 need the the historian, we need the journey, we need 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.480 the journey all of this. She started, like, where did 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.840 the inspiration start? Where did the understanding of I have 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.040 a gift, I can do this, start people watching gets 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:22.320 a girlfriend. But but you know, how did how did we? 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:27.880 And then coming from Houston to l A, what was 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.519 the inspiration behind that voyage and all the way to 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.160 now to where you do a bunch of stuff your 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:40.840 multimedia at this point, Okay, hello, she poses for the picture, 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:46.320 so so let's see. Okay, let's start. Um in Houston, 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.000 Texas of course, Um, I came from a family that 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.800 were they wasn't really about the music. It was like, 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:59.000 that's a not even a dream. They just they it 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.360 was just something that did exists to my family, no one, 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:03.880 no one had ever done it ever, you know what 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:05.760 I mean. It was a major joke. I feel like 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:07.720 when I watched What's a Little Movie for the kids, 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:12.520 Koko like, don't sing, that is not gonna work. So 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.520 it was my grandmother that would actually like entertain this 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.040 idea that I had. Remember, in the heat of the night, 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:28.919 in the heat, um, I was eleven once I actually 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.000 started singing out loud. You know, I would sing privately 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.640 and you know, by myself all the time. So Ronnie Levin, 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:36.240 I was singing in the heat of the night, when 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.960 it was you know, coming on, and my grandmother was like. 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.159 My grandmother was like, what's what's going on? She really 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:45.880 sang that thing, you know, and I was like, really 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.400 you like that? So time passed and then she called 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.520 me up one time to sing in church. I was like, 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:52.760 oh my god, like she was like, no, you can 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:54.280 do this, may be trust me, you can do this. 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.960 Went up there his eyes on a sparrow. Everybody to death. Okay, 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.960 Sunday after, Sunday after, and so now you belong to 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.559 the church, right. But it's a little church. It's about 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.400 ten people at the church. It's my grandmother's you know, 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:09.560 it's my good No, it was a store from for real, 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.600 like y'all my grandmother's church. So they didn't even tell 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.000 her she was the mother of the church. And it 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:21.000 was y'all know, Houston is um Nigeria and Houston have 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:23.560 come together in such a way. So it was a 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:28.120 Nigerian church. Oh yes, oh for sure. And then every 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.760 woman and my family ran off and married a Nigerian man. 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:32.719 So this was a major part of me, you know 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:34.560 what I mean, I thought I was Nigerian for the 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:38.000 longest time I had. Oh yeah, it was a thing. 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.560 I was told I had to marry a Nigerian man. 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.560 We had to put my mom in this seat for 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.200 her like that. To y'all, it was like, you go 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.880 out there and you find you a nice Nigerian Okay, 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.719 all right, she said, or a light skin with good hair. Ho, 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:55.880 it's up to you, you know, because the baby got 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.880 to have good hair. Don't bring on that hair, baby. 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.280 So it's Nigerian church. I'm singing for my grandmother, my mom, 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.120 and everybody just thinks it's hilarious, like ha ha, she's 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:10.839 singing Mrs a Joke or whatever. So because of that energy, 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:15.640 I started hiding it. I met Um back then they 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.400 called him Deja the Great Um. He was connected to 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.840 a Dino and Chisanne from Agetown and I met him 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.920 and he was, you know, very he was in the 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:27.839 music industry already, so that was something new for me, Like, wow, 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.200 you really be at the studio, like you press a 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:32.320 button and didn't your voice come out the thing? And 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:34.680 like that was amazing to me. So at this point, 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:41.240 I am of fourteen, fourteen fifteen maybe, so I'm going 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:43.360 to the studio with him. I'm catching the vibe. They 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.000 laughing at me because I'm young. They you know, laughing 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:47.839 at me, and she young. I don't know what, you know, 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.360 she thinks she could sing or whatever. So I made 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.400 the decision to lie up a little bit. All right, 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:56.200 well I'm seventeen then cool. That didn't work. Ran across 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.279 some homies from Wrap a Lot Records. They was like 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.120 saying something sunk. Something that was like, I wanna do 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:03.920 some hooks. So I don't know what that means. Look, 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:07.839 they say, we're gonna send you a taxi. What no, 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:11.000 uber back then we're gonna send you a taxi? They 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:12.800 send me a taxi. I ended up at wrapping our 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.040 record singing hooks for everybody. It was a work for 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.120 higher arm involved the little papers I was signed, and 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.200 they give me a hundred dollars work for high hundred dollars, 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.800 work for high hundred dollars. They told me I can stack. 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:26.480 I say stack? Can't you good at stack? And I 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:27.880 was like, I don't know what. I don't know what 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.920 I'm doing it here, but it's working. Coming home with money. 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:36.400 My mom mad, She's like, what's going on? I just 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:42.080 want to know what she was selling? That's my uncle 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:46.400 Legit said, ain't no way anybody paying this little girl 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:49.840 to sing anything. Real dude. He was like, it's no way. 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.360 So my mom, her best friend jumped on that bandwagon. 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:55.880 My auntie. Everybody was like, it's no way that this happened, 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:57.440 Like let me see. But I'm like, y'all come to 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:59.400 the studio, like come check me out. They was like 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.760 thin that she they you know what my uncle did say, 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:04.920 were turning ran off to be a prostitute. He did, 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:09.840 you know, he did say that. I'm still man say 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.880 it ain't no way. Okay. At the family functions, everybody 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.800 looking at me like, you know, I was really out 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.680 there singing. You know. That's what started my relationship with Scarface, 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:21.840 and I ended up doing a record with Scarface and 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.200 Pimpsy and you know, like they remember the little young 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:29.679 brook that was. They called me Skittles our butter, Skittles Butter. 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.600 Those were my two uh you know names around the hood. 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.160 They remember. I would come in there. They that's what 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:37.200 they say. She stacked like butter. And I was like, oh, 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:42.880 I like that. We just from with that, right. It 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:49.040 always got something to do with pancakes, right, So it's 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.360 butter our skittles. Depending on if you was close to 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:53.800 the family with skittles. If you met me, you know, 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:58.079 around the studio it was butter and my mom had enough. 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:00.439 Um she was like, no more wrapper lot. So I 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.400 stopped going up there. I stopped doing hoogs. I remember 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.320 J Prince coming in the studio one time and he's like, look, girl, 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.400 what's your name? I was like butter and he was like, 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.679 go home. He was like, who, who's idea was this? 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.240 He was sold, like, who's idea was it? What's going on? 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.000 I was like, no, for real? She could sing like 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.200 that's her on this record and this record. He was like, 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:21.800 oh you sound good. He said, did you have to 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:22.920 come back in a couple of years. He was like, 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:27.560 I don't feel comfortable with this. Oh yeah. He came. 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:32.360 He was so so well spoken, just I felt like 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.200 he was in the darkness and the shadow and I 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:38.160 never really saw him, but I heard him. He said 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:40.440 a little girl. He asked me what my name was, 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.280 and I told him. He still said little girl. Go home. 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.240 He had his driver take me home. So after that, 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:49.240 I'm frustrated. I'm like, man, I thought I was on 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:51.600 my whales about to get the deal, and I was 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.960 venting to the ASA at the time. That was his 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:57.480 name about it, and um, he was like, I'm gonna 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.280 start a girl group. I'm gonna put you in it. 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:01.640 So cool. That's when I did my first girl group. 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:03.640 It was called Best Kept Secret. I'm sure that's on 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:07.160 my Wikipedia or something like that. Best Kept Secret be 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.760 Kiss And it was two other young ladies from around 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:16.480 the way, and we, uh didn't work out. How long 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:23.319 were you in the roup? That group that, Yeah, I'm 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:27.960 not that group last for a hot second because the 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.360 guy that was in charge, you know, he treated us 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:33.520 all like we was his girlfriend. So that that it 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.280 was jealousy and envy and then things just and how 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.040 was how long did you do your verse? And how 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.280 why was you at the CD and that? And I 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.040 was like, okay, this ain't gonna work. They we just 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:47.160 started falling out the group and getting mad, you know, 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.880 like like I can't even tell y'all what happened. Everybody 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:51.600 always asked me why that little group broke up. Y'all 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.560 have some potential. I don't know, Okay, so they run off. 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:57.760 I'm on my own. He's like, don't worry, you know, 0:10:57.760 --> 0:10:59.760 everything's gonna work out for you. And I'm like cool, 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.520 So I'm just waiting. My mom kicked me out. One 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:07.000 day we were at the studio. Um, I remember a 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.040 friend getting up and looking out the window. It's like 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:10.400 she was like, I'm gonna run to the store. So 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.320 she got up and she looked out the window and 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:14.200 then she just backed up and sat down. She was 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.080 just looking nervous. I was like, yo, what's up. And 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.240 she was like, UM, I ain't going to the stone anywhere. 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:21.280 And I'm like, what's what's wrong? Like we all in 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:23.560 the hoods, it's like if somebody dad i't there, You're 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.240 going to let down. And she's like, no, ain't nobody 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.400 dad out there. Your mom out there, and like what 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.480 you're talking about? Yeah? Mine drop never told my mom, 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:34.680 never came to the studio, never wanted like they just 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.320 thought it was funny. I looked outside. My mom didn't 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:40.080 take my clothes off, the dress or drawer. The whole 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:44.319 dresser was out there, the whole dress to dressers, the dog, 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:48.920 my dog tied to the dress of my little snake, 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.880 had a dog of a snake. All my stuff out there. 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.120 She trashed bag the rest of my stuff and she's 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.880 standing out there. She says, say she fake, you know what, 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.960 san figure it out, you want to be at the studio, 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.480 live at the studio. I'll never forget that line. That 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:05.640 was probably one of my first loving hip hop moments 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:11.160 right there out there. And she had her best friend, William, 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.280 and he was like m M. My Auntie was like 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.760 you a little nasty, and I was like I was 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:19.040 still a virgin. I was like you guys, no, seriously, 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:21.560 like I'll be singing and like, people, do you think 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:26.240 do you think it was the church background? Probably the 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:31.160 church background, um, the lack of goals and dreams and 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:36.000 we my whole they're still in the hood. Ja, they 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.800 still don't know what I'm saying. I'm saying that the 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:43.280 side of it, were they thinking that it's something bad 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:45.120 more so than it's like, Okay, I get it being 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.760 a pipe dream, that's that's one thing, right, But it 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.680 being like if you think you're gonna be at the studio, 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:54.600 like the studio thing and this thing, and like you said, 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:57.720 and your uncle feeling like prostitution. You know what I'm saying, 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.520 Like all of these things going, I'm wondering if a 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.760 part of that is the church where it's like you're 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:08.080 taught I could see that from a second music. Second 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.760 music that you know, obviously we all call R and 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:14.880 B being this devil's music true because if I was 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:18.679 at the church at Bible and church practice. That's why 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.120 I just wanted that, because because I didn't think about 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.600 that being from that place, you know what I'm saying. Like, 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:29.440 I didn't start doing army music until ninety six. That 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.240 was two years out of high school. So I was 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:40.040 I was the Bible toten little kid. Little he got 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.160 a selection, you have to bring it back to the room. 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.839 So you know, like it's and it's funny that you 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:51.120 that that you had that interaction with your parents. My 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:55.240 parents were, We're as supportive as they could be because 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:59.400 they didn't understand it either. But I had a minister 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:05.560 actually tell me who my friend brother tell me, I 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:10.080 hope you fail. Wow, so that you can see that 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:17.240 this is not God. Oh my gosh, we left, no 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:24.760 we have I was like, no, no, He literally said 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.920 to me in front of the church, Oh, I hope 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.920 you failed. It was the pet of you can come 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.520 back to God. Did they have like a going away 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:38.160 party for you when you're going on tours? Because I 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.160 was still going you know, after my ninety seven tour 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:41.920 with Ginuine and all of that, I was still you know, 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:43.840 going back on my church and all of that stuff, 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:47.120 and um, you know, I think that kind of began 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.560 the separation of me kind of being in the building, 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.360 you know what I'm saying, Because the building and the 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:56.720 things that happened in that building, that's a bad taste 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:00.200 to me, you know what I'm saying. So I've think 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.840 the torment I had that you experienced from your mom, 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.280 you know, outside of him, I actually had more of 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.400 it internally, you know what I'm saying, in terms of 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.880 understanding if this is where I was supposed to be, 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.240 and if this was the devil and if this was 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.360 it took me a minute to come to terms where 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.840 I had been blessed by the only person who could 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.680 bless me, you know what I'm saying, to be able 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:29.520 to write and sing my songs and travel the world 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:34.400 and share my experiences through melody and through musicianship people 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:38.200 connecting that I didn't. I didn't understand that this was 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.360 this was nothing but right, and it took a minute 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.240 for me to get it. So I know you down 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:47.440 South too, like I was on the East coast Man 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:50.880 were down south. They don't. They don't play about could 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.200 be working. You're supposed to be working, bringing back, bringing 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:57.320 money home, taking care from which I was, no, you 0:15:57.360 --> 0:15:59.200 need to just go work a regular job. Something you 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.000 can see. You need to check stuff, you know what 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.800 I mean. So, so the interesting part for me to 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:10.280 hear both of your story of what R and B 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:15.320 music was to your family is the polar opposite, right, 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:21.720 because in my family it was the way to save us. 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:27.880 So it's very interesting to hear the perspective of this 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.440 is going to destroy you. All I heard was this 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.840 is what's going to take you somewhere you've never been. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.640 This is what's going to take us out of here. 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.680 Did that make you rebel from it? Or see I 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.000 was gonna say that feel like if I grew up 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.360 like that, I would be like, well, I'm it was. 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:48.760 It was forced. It was forced to find me early 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:54.160 on that you know, yeah, you have to like my 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.080 father would say, you can quit the group, but you 0:16:56.160 --> 0:17:03.880 still got to practice. How does not make sense? But 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.480 it wasn't supposed to make sense. It was like, because 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.200 you want to you want the reward for your work, right, 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:12.320 So it's like you want to hoot. If you shoot 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:13.720 a whole bunch of jumpers in practice, you want to 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:15.399 get in the game. And she was with jumpers. You 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:17.679 just don't want to shoot him just to be harmonies. 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.720 So for us, you know, coming coming from where I 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:27.320 came from, For me, I was in a space where, 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.040 like you said, I kind of rebelled against it a 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:35.440 little bit because it started so early in my childhood 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:38.359 where literally, you know, we're street performing when I was five. 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:43.040 So that's why I always asked, you know what I mean, Yeah, 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:47.000 I don't want to say. But then I realized two 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:53.280 very early on that me being a child actually gave 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:55.600 us we were all kids because they were they were five. 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:57.760 My brothers were five years older than me. But if 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.880 I'm five, their ten, it's something about the little little one. 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:06.240 So I was like, anything I do, it gets a reaction, right, 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.840 So then I started realizing, like, oh, there's a different 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:15.480 light on me. I'm gonna need some more money. Really 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:22.080 early on, I'm Michael right right, I need a different 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:29.960 type of everybody got like regular bikes. I need the mongols, 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:35.040 you know what I'm saying. Like, but the reverse, like 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.320 I said, the opposite for you guys. It's always interesting 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.520 to hear that that side of it because for me, 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:43.359 like I said, it was, it was something that was 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:47.399 pushed on us earlier. This is going to change your life, 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.320 our lives. It's going to get us out a different 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.480 that's a different pressure. But you know here now only 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:57.639 wouldn't want to do with my life is different. My 0:18:57.720 --> 0:18:59.960 father was right, he saw something, you know what I mean. 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.439 Then I appreciate it for it, you know what I mean? Definitely, 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:06.440 And I wonder if I would have come from the church, 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.639 like like how you guys grew up in church saying 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.360 we were talking about pimps, like literally the old pim 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:15.680 because I thought they could sing. We are vocal coaches. 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:26.359 They're like, yeah, I'm calling this blue magic baby. Am 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:36.600 I going to sing the del fine? But I get 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.440 it though, I get it, I get it. And it's 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:40.560 always like I said, it's it's just really interesting to 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:47.640 hear that side of it. Studio dressing dog in your 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:53.399 snake outside and your mama given you and whatever. William 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.520 William William Williams doing that too. I got cash, but 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:02.520 that's another stuff they're giving you that all of that. 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:06.840 My auntie like so I'm like, well, let me just 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:09.000 gather my thing. You know, I did run out there 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:11.880 and mom please, and you know, I'll never forget begging 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:16.720 for their blessing at that time, like in the most 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:24.119 desperate point of my life, about to turn sixteen, Like 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:28.000 I mean days away from my sixteen birthday. So so 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:32.840 you have been putting some time because you yeah, thats 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.040 a lot of time in Houston where the circles this big, 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:38.600 and you know, I probably had about ten hooks that 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:41.080 was circulating at that time. Of course it wasn't on 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:43.560 name on it, but it was like, you know, I 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:45.000 can go back and listen to it, like is that 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:47.720 me on there with the Yeah, that's my hot note, 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.800 you know what I mean? So got kicked out days 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.320 at the time, was like they call him London Now. 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:56.840 He was like, you can you stay with me? He 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:58.920 was freaked out. He was like, listen, I know I said, 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:00.440 I'm gonna start the girl group and I was gonna 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.600 help you. But I got girlfriends and you're not about 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:08.800 to blow up my spotty. Let me know that. I 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:10.920 knew that already. He was like, I got a whole 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:13.240 life and you know this ain't gonna work. So I 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.239 couch hopped for for a while, and his mom end 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.640 up moving to Texas from California ironically, and she let 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:23.440 me ren a room for seven hundred for a little while. 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:25.520 I did go back home and try to work things 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:28.040 all with my mom. That lasted all of seventeen hours, 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:30.400 because soon it was as soon as it was time 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:32.080 for me to like, Okay, Mom, I want to go 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:34.119 to the studio or you know, do something. Mind you, 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:37.040 I'm working. I have a job at the mall and 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:39.640 I'm running the money back home for my sister and brother, 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:41.719 like whatever, y'all need. Let me know, I'm doing my 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:44.199 mall job. But when I leave my mall job, if 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:45.919 I go to school and do my mall job, I 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:48.080 want to go to studio, you guys, and I'm gonna 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:50.399 be home by nine, like give me a break. But 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.119 they didn't know that. Yeah, and wh I was trying 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:56.560 to studio. The problem was starting when I would get 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:01.119 home at my mom was live it like see I 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:03.320 told you, and I'm like, Mama, you sometimes you don't 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:08.600 get it done. You know she didn't get it, so um, 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:10.719 I know I switched names on y'all, but he switched 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:15.000 his name shoot Dave's a slash London moved to California 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:34.560 and let me. I was staying with the mama, ringing 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:38.840 the room, and he was like, sending pictures back. You'll remember, 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:40.280 we have to print. You don't remember you have to 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:43.480 take the pictures and you have to wait to get them. 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:46.760 You have to mel him out. He was sending me 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:49.440 pictures of California, saying, man, is this is? I say? 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:51.359 I called him and said, let me tell you something. 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:52.840 I patient you know what I'm saying. I hit the 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:54.919 two way and I said, let me tell you something. 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:57.880 You gotta come get me. You gotta get me out 0:22:57.880 --> 0:22:59.879 of here. This is not gonna work for me. I 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:02.399 just felt. I was like, I didn't know what I 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:05.280 was talking about, didn't have anybody. My whole family was like, 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:11.680 don't call me. Yeah, even the younger ones. My younger 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:13.680 cousins didn't even understand what was going on. They didn't 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:17.040 have a choice. They grew up not liking me because 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:20.880 of their parents saying she fast, so she ran off 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:23.440 or whatever. It was like like, damn, they're like black 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:30.320