Speaker 1: Well, Jake Valentine, we are all right. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: R and B Money Podcast. I am Tank, This is
Speaker 1: Jay Valentine. We are the authorities on R and B
Speaker 1: and in the building. My dog come on now, too
Speaker 1: much hair away from from side to side from not
Speaker 1: related to Jay Valentine. Okay, gets out of the way.
Speaker 1: You know what's so crazy? I don't know. Should we
Speaker 1: do the trade? Check the road? You can check everything,
Speaker 1: check the roads. Yeah, so how do you how do
Speaker 1: we get Valentine? Um? Wow, that that was probably a
Speaker 1: drunk night. Um just sound good, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I think that, Uh, at first it was just Valentine.
Speaker 1: Everybody would call me Valentine's like, oh, she's so she's
Speaker 1: so lovable and loving and whatever, like a little Valentine,
Speaker 1: you know. And my Southern hospitality in l A was
Speaker 1: like really like Valentine's Day card, you know. And Brooke
Speaker 1: is is my name? My mom named me Brooke. My
Speaker 1: name is Nicole Brook Nicole. Yeah, but listen, that actually
Speaker 1: reversed though, because Nicole is usually ninety five percent of
Speaker 1: black girl's middle name in the hood. True, very true.
Speaker 1: If I mean we're do the calls at like if
Speaker 1: ain't on the calls in here then something that, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So definitely the black girl middle
Speaker 1: middle name had to keep you Valentine. Yeah, and it
Speaker 1: just it just worked out. It just sounds good, rolled
Speaker 1: off the tongue. You know. I had did a little
Speaker 1: showcase and they asked me what my name was, and
Speaker 1: I tried it out on him and it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. I was like, okay, that's it. When I
Speaker 1: met Jay and he said his name was Ja Valentine,
Speaker 1: I was imry, Wow, that's an R and B name. Okay,
Speaker 1: here I am. Yeah. My story, my story ain't like
Speaker 1: you know what, it's not okay, it's not about it.
Speaker 1: You know. I had to change my okay yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: not run on, not run on. We're gonna get him
Speaker 1: one day and then I want to be here for that.
Speaker 1: You gotta hear that. So what we like to do
Speaker 1: is we really like to we really like to start
Speaker 1: from the beginning you, but we like to act like
Speaker 1: we're just meeting you for the first right, right. We
Speaker 1: need the the historian, we need the journey, we need
Speaker 1: the journey all of this. She started, like, where did
Speaker 1: the inspiration start? Where did the understanding of I have
Speaker 1: a gift, I can do this, start people watching gets
Speaker 1: a girlfriend. But but you know, how did how did we?
Speaker 1: And then coming from Houston to l A, what was
Speaker 1: the inspiration behind that voyage and all the way to
Speaker 1: now to where you do a bunch of stuff your
Speaker 1: multimedia at this point, Okay, hello, she poses for the picture,
Speaker 1: so so let's see. Okay, let's start. Um in Houston,
Speaker 1: Texas of course, Um, I came from a family that
Speaker 1: were they wasn't really about the music. It was like,
Speaker 1: that's a not even a dream. They just they it
Speaker 1: was just something that did exists to my family, no one,
Speaker 1: no one had ever done it ever, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It was a major joke. I feel like
Speaker 1: when I watched What's a Little Movie for the kids,
Speaker 1: Koko like, don't sing, that is not gonna work. So
Speaker 1: it was my grandmother that would actually like entertain this
Speaker 1: idea that I had. Remember, in the heat of the night,
Speaker 1: in the heat, um, I was eleven once I actually
Speaker 1: started singing out loud. You know, I would sing privately
Speaker 1: and you know, by myself all the time. So Ronnie Levin,
Speaker 1: I was singing in the heat of the night, when
Speaker 1: it was you know, coming on, and my grandmother was like.
Speaker 1: My grandmother was like, what's what's going on? She really
Speaker 1: sang that thing, you know, and I was like, really
Speaker 1: you like that? So time passed and then she called
Speaker 1: me up one time to sing in church. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, like she was like, no, you can
Speaker 1: do this, may be trust me, you can do this.
Speaker 1: Went up there his eyes on a sparrow. Everybody to death. Okay,
Speaker 1: Sunday after, Sunday after, and so now you belong to
Speaker 1: the church, right. But it's a little church. It's about
Speaker 1: ten people at the church. It's my grandmother's you know,
Speaker 1: it's my good No, it was a store from for real,
Speaker 1: like y'all my grandmother's church. So they didn't even tell
Speaker 1: her she was the mother of the church. And it
Speaker 1: was y'all know, Houston is um Nigeria and Houston have
Speaker 1: come together in such a way. So it was a
Speaker 1: Nigerian church. Oh yes, oh for sure. And then every
Speaker 1: woman and my family ran off and married a Nigerian man.
Speaker 1: So this was a major part of me, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, I thought I was Nigerian for the
Speaker 1: longest time I had. Oh yeah, it was a thing.
Speaker 1: I was told I had to marry a Nigerian man.
Speaker 1: We had to put my mom in this seat for
Speaker 1: her like that. To y'all, it was like, you go
Speaker 1: out there and you find you a nice Nigerian Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, she said, or a light skin with good hair. Ho,
Speaker 1: it's up to you, you know, because the baby got
Speaker 1: to have good hair. Don't bring on that hair, baby.
Speaker 1: So it's Nigerian church. I'm singing for my grandmother, my mom,
Speaker 1: and everybody just thinks it's hilarious, like ha ha, she's
Speaker 1: singing Mrs a Joke or whatever. So because of that energy,
Speaker 1: I started hiding it. I met Um back then they
Speaker 1: called him Deja the Great Um. He was connected to
Speaker 1: a Dino and Chisanne from Agetown and I met him
Speaker 1: and he was, you know, very he was in the
Speaker 1: music industry already, so that was something new for me, Like, wow,
Speaker 1: you really be at the studio, like you press a
Speaker 1: button and didn't your voice come out the thing? And
Speaker 1: like that was amazing to me. So at this point,
Speaker 1: I am of fourteen, fourteen fifteen maybe, so I'm going
Speaker 1: to the studio with him. I'm catching the vibe. They
Speaker 1: laughing at me because I'm young. They you know, laughing
Speaker 1: at me, and she young. I don't know what, you know,
Speaker 1: she thinks she could sing or whatever. So I made
Speaker 1: the decision to lie up a little bit. All right,
Speaker 1: well I'm seventeen then cool. That didn't work. Ran across
Speaker 1: some homies from Wrap a Lot Records. They was like
Speaker 1: saying something sunk. Something that was like, I wanna do
Speaker 1: some hooks. So I don't know what that means. Look,
Speaker 1: they say, we're gonna send you a taxi. What no,
Speaker 1: uber back then we're gonna send you a taxi? They
Speaker 1: send me a taxi. I ended up at wrapping our
Speaker 1: record singing hooks for everybody. It was a work for
Speaker 1: higher arm involved the little papers I was signed, and
Speaker 1: they give me a hundred dollars work for high hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: work for high hundred dollars. They told me I can stack.
Speaker 1: I say stack? Can't you good at stack? And I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't know what. I don't know what
Speaker 1: I'm doing it here, but it's working. Coming home with money.
Speaker 1: My mom mad, She's like, what's going on? I just
Speaker 1: want to know what she was selling? That's my uncle
Speaker 1: Legit said, ain't no way anybody paying this little girl
Speaker 1: to sing anything. Real dude. He was like, it's no way.
Speaker 1: So my mom, her best friend jumped on that bandwagon.
Speaker 1: My auntie. Everybody was like, it's no way that this happened,
Speaker 1: Like let me see. But I'm like, y'all come to
Speaker 1: the studio, like come check me out. They was like
Speaker 1: thin that she they you know what my uncle did say,
Speaker 1: were turning ran off to be a prostitute. He did,
Speaker 1: you know, he did say that. I'm still man say
Speaker 1: it ain't no way. Okay. At the family functions, everybody
Speaker 1: looking at me like, you know, I was really out
Speaker 1: there singing. You know. That's what started my relationship with Scarface,
Speaker 1: and I ended up doing a record with Scarface and
Speaker 1: Pimpsy and you know, like they remember the little young
Speaker 1: brook that was. They called me Skittles our butter, Skittles Butter.
Speaker 1: Those were my two uh you know names around the hood.
Speaker 1: They remember. I would come in there. They that's what
Speaker 1: they say. She stacked like butter. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I like that. We just from with that, right. It
Speaker 1: always got something to do with pancakes, right, So it's
Speaker 1: butter our skittles. Depending on if you was close to
Speaker 1: the family with skittles. If you met me, you know,
Speaker 1: around the studio it was butter and my mom had enough.
Speaker 1: Um she was like, no more wrapper lot. So I
Speaker 1: stopped going up there. I stopped doing hoogs. I remember
Speaker 1: J Prince coming in the studio one time and he's like, look, girl,
Speaker 1: what's your name? I was like butter and he was like,
Speaker 1: go home. He was like, who, who's idea was this?
Speaker 1: He was sold, like, who's idea was it? What's going on?
Speaker 1: I was like, no, for real? She could sing like
Speaker 1: that's her on this record and this record. He was like,
Speaker 1: oh you sound good. He said, did you have to
Speaker 1: come back in a couple of years. He was like,
Speaker 1: I don't feel comfortable with this. Oh yeah. He came.
Speaker 1: He was so so well spoken, just I felt like
Speaker 1: he was in the darkness and the shadow and I
Speaker 1: never really saw him, but I heard him. He said
Speaker 1: a little girl. He asked me what my name was,
Speaker 1: and I told him. He still said little girl. Go home.
Speaker 1: He had his driver take me home. So after that,
Speaker 1: I'm frustrated. I'm like, man, I thought I was on
Speaker 1: my whales about to get the deal, and I was
Speaker 1: venting to the ASA at the time. That was his
Speaker 1: name about it, and um, he was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: start a girl group. I'm gonna put you in it.
Speaker 1: So cool. That's when I did my first girl group.
Speaker 1: It was called Best Kept Secret. I'm sure that's on
Speaker 1: my Wikipedia or something like that. Best Kept Secret be
Speaker 1: Kiss And it was two other young ladies from around
Speaker 1: the way, and we, uh didn't work out. How long
Speaker 1: were you in the roup? That group that, Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not that group last for a hot second because the
Speaker 1: guy that was in charge, you know, he treated us
Speaker 1: all like we was his girlfriend. So that that it
Speaker 1: was jealousy and envy and then things just and how
Speaker 1: was how long did you do your verse? And how
Speaker 1: why was you at the CD and that? And I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, this ain't gonna work. They we just
Speaker 1: started falling out the group and getting mad, you know,
Speaker 1: like like I can't even tell y'all what happened. Everybody
Speaker 1: always asked me why that little group broke up. Y'all
Speaker 1: have some potential. I don't know, Okay, so they run off.
Speaker 1: I'm on my own. He's like, don't worry, you know,
Speaker 1: everything's gonna work out for you. And I'm like cool,
Speaker 1: So I'm just waiting. My mom kicked me out. One
Speaker 1: day we were at the studio. Um, I remember a
Speaker 1: friend getting up and looking out the window. It's like
Speaker 1: she was like, I'm gonna run to the store. So
Speaker 1: she got up and she looked out the window and
Speaker 1: then she just backed up and sat down. She was
Speaker 1: just looking nervous. I was like, yo, what's up. And
Speaker 1: she was like, UM, I ain't going to the stone anywhere.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, what's what's wrong? Like we all in
Speaker 1: the hoods, it's like if somebody dad i't there, You're
Speaker 1: going to let down. And she's like, no, ain't nobody
Speaker 1: dad out there. Your mom out there, and like what
Speaker 1: you're talking about? Yeah? Mine drop never told my mom,
Speaker 1: never came to the studio, never wanted like they just
Speaker 1: thought it was funny. I looked outside. My mom didn't
Speaker 1: take my clothes off, the dress or drawer. The whole
Speaker 1: dresser was out there, the whole dress to dressers, the dog,
Speaker 1: my dog tied to the dress of my little snake,
Speaker 1: had a dog of a snake. All my stuff out there.
Speaker 1: She trashed bag the rest of my stuff and she's
Speaker 1: standing out there. She says, say she fake, you know what,
Speaker 1: san figure it out, you want to be at the studio,
Speaker 1: live at the studio. I'll never forget that line. That
Speaker 1: was probably one of my first loving hip hop moments
Speaker 1: right there out there. And she had her best friend, William,
Speaker 1: and he was like m M. My Auntie was like
Speaker 1: you a little nasty, and I was like I was
Speaker 1: still a virgin. I was like you guys, no, seriously,
Speaker 1: like I'll be singing and like, people, do you think
Speaker 1: do you think it was the church background? Probably the
Speaker 1: church background, um, the lack of goals and dreams and
Speaker 1: we my whole they're still in the hood. Ja, they
Speaker 1: still don't know what I'm saying. I'm saying that the
Speaker 1: side of it, were they thinking that it's something bad
Speaker 1: more so than it's like, Okay, I get it being
Speaker 1: a pipe dream, that's that's one thing, right, But it
Speaker 1: being like if you think you're gonna be at the studio,
Speaker 1: like the studio thing and this thing, and like you said,
Speaker 1: and your uncle feeling like prostitution. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like all of these things going, I'm wondering if a
Speaker 1: part of that is the church where it's like you're
Speaker 1: taught I could see that from a second music. Second
Speaker 1: music that you know, obviously we all call R and
Speaker 1: B being this devil's music true because if I was
Speaker 1: at the church at Bible and church practice. That's why
Speaker 1: I just wanted that, because because I didn't think about
Speaker 1: that being from that place, you know what I'm saying. Like,
Speaker 1: I didn't start doing army music until ninety six. That
Speaker 1: was two years out of high school. So I was
Speaker 1: I was the Bible toten little kid. Little he got
Speaker 1: a selection, you have to bring it back to the room.
Speaker 1: So you know, like it's and it's funny that you
Speaker 1: that that you had that interaction with your parents. My
Speaker 1: parents were, We're as supportive as they could be because
Speaker 1: they didn't understand it either. But I had a minister
Speaker 1: actually tell me who my friend brother tell me, I
Speaker 1: hope you fail. Wow, so that you can see that
Speaker 1: this is not God. Oh my gosh, we left, no
Speaker 1: we have I was like, no, no, He literally said
Speaker 1: to me in front of the church, Oh, I hope
Speaker 1: you failed. It was the pet of you can come
Speaker 1: back to God. Did they have like a going away
Speaker 1: party for you when you're going on tours? Because I
Speaker 1: was still going you know, after my ninety seven tour
Speaker 1: with Ginuine and all of that, I was still you know,
Speaker 1: going back on my church and all of that stuff,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, I think that kind of began
Speaker 1: the separation of me kind of being in the building,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Because the building and the
Speaker 1: things that happened in that building, that's a bad taste
Speaker 1: to me, you know what I'm saying. So I've think
Speaker 1: the torment I had that you experienced from your mom,
Speaker 1: you know, outside of him, I actually had more of
Speaker 1: it internally, you know what I'm saying, in terms of
Speaker 1: understanding if this is where I was supposed to be,
Speaker 1: and if this was the devil and if this was
Speaker 1: it took me a minute to come to terms where
Speaker 1: I had been blessed by the only person who could
Speaker 1: bless me, you know what I'm saying, to be able
Speaker 1: to write and sing my songs and travel the world
Speaker 1: and share my experiences through melody and through musicianship people
Speaker 1: connecting that I didn't. I didn't understand that this was
Speaker 1: this was nothing but right, and it took a minute
Speaker 1: for me to get it. So I know you down
Speaker 1: South too, like I was on the East coast Man
Speaker 1: were down south. They don't. They don't play about could
Speaker 1: be working. You're supposed to be working, bringing back, bringing
Speaker 1: money home, taking care from which I was, no, you
Speaker 1: need to just go work a regular job. Something you
Speaker 1: can see. You need to check stuff, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So, so the interesting part for me to
Speaker 1: hear both of your story of what R and B
Speaker 1: music was to your family is the polar opposite, right,
Speaker 1: because in my family it was the way to save us.
Speaker 1: So it's very interesting to hear the perspective of this
Speaker 1: is going to destroy you. All I heard was this
Speaker 1: is what's going to take you somewhere you've never been.
Speaker 1: This is what's going to take us out of here.
Speaker 1: Did that make you rebel from it? Or see I
Speaker 1: was gonna say that feel like if I grew up
Speaker 1: like that, I would be like, well, I'm it was.
Speaker 1: It was forced. It was forced to find me early
Speaker 1: on that you know, yeah, you have to like my
Speaker 1: father would say, you can quit the group, but you
Speaker 1: still got to practice. How does not make sense? But
Speaker 1: it wasn't supposed to make sense. It was like, because
Speaker 1: you want to you want the reward for your work, right,
Speaker 1: So it's like you want to hoot. If you shoot
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of jumpers in practice, you want to
Speaker 1: get in the game. And she was with jumpers. You
Speaker 1: just don't want to shoot him just to be harmonies.
Speaker 1: So for us, you know, coming coming from where I
Speaker 1: came from, For me, I was in a space where,
Speaker 1: like you said, I kind of rebelled against it a
Speaker 1: little bit because it started so early in my childhood
Speaker 1: where literally, you know, we're street performing when I was five.
Speaker 1: So that's why I always asked, you know what I mean, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say. But then I realized two
Speaker 1: very early on that me being a child actually gave
Speaker 1: us we were all kids because they were they were five.
Speaker 1: My brothers were five years older than me. But if
Speaker 1: I'm five, their ten, it's something about the little little one.
Speaker 1: So I was like, anything I do, it gets a reaction, right,
Speaker 1: So then I started realizing, like, oh, there's a different
Speaker 1: light on me. I'm gonna need some more money. Really
Speaker 1: early on, I'm Michael right right, I need a different
Speaker 1: type of everybody got like regular bikes. I need the mongols,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Like, but the reverse, like
Speaker 1: I said, the opposite for you guys. It's always interesting
Speaker 1: to hear that that side of it because for me,
Speaker 1: like I said, it was, it was something that was
Speaker 1: pushed on us earlier. This is going to change your life,
Speaker 1: our lives. It's going to get us out a different
Speaker 1: that's a different pressure. But you know here now only
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to do with my life is different. My
Speaker 1: father was right, he saw something, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Then I appreciate it for it, you know what I mean? Definitely,
Speaker 1: And I wonder if I would have come from the church,
Speaker 1: like like how you guys grew up in church saying
Speaker 1: we were talking about pimps, like literally the old pim
Speaker 1: because I thought they could sing. We are vocal coaches.
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, I'm calling this blue magic baby. Am
Speaker 1: I going to sing the del fine? But I get
Speaker 1: it though, I get it, I get it. And it's
Speaker 1: always like I said, it's it's just really interesting to
Speaker 1: hear that side of it. Studio dressing dog in your
Speaker 1: snake outside and your mama given you and whatever. William
Speaker 1: William William Williams doing that too. I got cash, but
Speaker 1: that's another stuff they're giving you that all of that.
Speaker 1: My auntie like so I'm like, well, let me just
Speaker 1: gather my thing. You know, I did run out there
Speaker 1: and mom please, and you know, I'll never forget begging
Speaker 1: for their blessing at that time, like in the most
Speaker 1: desperate point of my life, about to turn sixteen, Like
Speaker 1: I mean days away from my sixteen birthday. So so
Speaker 1: you have been putting some time because you yeah, thats
Speaker 1: a lot of time in Houston where the circles this big,
Speaker 1: and you know, I probably had about ten hooks that
Speaker 1: was circulating at that time. Of course it wasn't on
Speaker 1: name on it, but it was like, you know, I
Speaker 1: can go back and listen to it, like is that
Speaker 1: me on there with the Yeah, that's my hot note,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? So got kicked out days
Speaker 1: at the time, was like they call him London Now.
Speaker 1: He was like, you can you stay with me? He
Speaker 1: was freaked out. He was like, listen, I know I said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start the girl group and I was gonna
Speaker 1: help you. But I got girlfriends and you're not about
Speaker 1: to blow up my spotty. Let me know that. I
Speaker 1: knew that already. He was like, I got a whole
Speaker 1: life and you know this ain't gonna work. So I
Speaker 1: couch hopped for for a while, and his mom end
Speaker 1: up moving to Texas from California ironically, and she let
Speaker 1: me ren a room for seven hundred for a little while.
Speaker 1: I did go back home and try to work things
Speaker 1: all with my mom. That lasted all of seventeen hours,
Speaker 1: because soon it was as soon as it was time
Speaker 1: for me to like, Okay, Mom, I want to go
Speaker 1: to the studio or you know, do something. Mind you,
Speaker 1: I'm working. I have a job at the mall and
Speaker 1: I'm running the money back home for my sister and brother,
Speaker 1: like whatever, y'all need. Let me know, I'm doing my
Speaker 1: mall job. But when I leave my mall job, if
Speaker 1: I go to school and do my mall job, I
Speaker 1: want to go to studio, you guys, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be home by nine, like give me a break. But
Speaker 1: they didn't know that. Yeah, and wh I was trying
Speaker 1: to studio. The problem was starting when I would get
Speaker 1: home at my mom was live it like see I
Speaker 1: told you, and I'm like, Mama, you sometimes you don't
Speaker 1: get it done. You know she didn't get it, so um,
Speaker 1: I know I switched names on y'all, but he switched
Speaker 1: his name shoot Dave's a slash London moved to California
Speaker 1: and let me. I was staying with the mama, ringing
Speaker 1: the room, and he was like, sending pictures back. You'll remember,
Speaker 1: we have to print. You don't remember you have to
Speaker 1: take the pictures and you have to wait to get them.
Speaker 1: You have to mel him out. He was sending me
Speaker 1: pictures of California, saying, man, is this is? I say?
Speaker 1: I called him and said, let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: I patient you know what I'm saying. I hit the
Speaker 1: two way and I said, let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: You gotta come get me. You gotta get me out
Speaker 1: of here. This is not gonna work for me. I
Speaker 1: just felt. I was like, I didn't know what I
Speaker 1: was talking about, didn't have anybody. My whole family was like,
Speaker 1: don't call me. Yeah, even the younger ones. My younger
Speaker 1: cousins didn't even understand what was going on. They didn't
Speaker 1: have a choice. They grew up not liking me because
Speaker 1: of their parents saying she fast, so she ran off
Speaker 1: or whatever. It was like like, damn, they're like black
Speaker 1: Amish for sure, for sure. So luckily this man got
Speaker 1: me a ticket to California. Okay, I get there. I
Speaker 1: never forget he had an apartment in the Avalon and
Speaker 1: Willie Hills. I've never seen nothing like it. I was like,
Speaker 1: this crazy. That's the first place I went to when
Speaker 1: I got When I left l A X, I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: this is crazy, you know what I mean? I was
Speaker 1: a target across the street, like I made it so
Speaker 1: now across the made And I got to back up
Speaker 1: a little bit though, because before I left and really
Speaker 1: I'm on a plane to go to um California. I
Speaker 1: went to visit Atlanta, and I did my noontime. I
Speaker 1: did my noontime time, okay. And I got the call
Speaker 1: from Dessey's child when they broke up. I could have
Speaker 1: been fairer. I got the call, like, yo, it's auditioned
Speaker 1: right now. I could have been y'all know damn well,
Speaker 1: y'all know me. I got the call. I got the
Speaker 1: call when Desse's child broke up. I got the call
Speaker 1: when Day was trying to replace Mila in seven oh two,
Speaker 1: and I would be the girl that everybody would call
Speaker 1: to like and I'm like, you know what, I love
Speaker 1: seven oh two, Like I can't do that, you know,
Speaker 1: even though I didn't even know that. Yeah right, remember
Speaker 1: you know actually some meetings you know you're too smart,
Speaker 1: you don't imagine, and they're like, we don't want you.
Speaker 1: I'm so do I have to pay back the budget
Speaker 1: that they've already right, I'm not like my solo rights?
Speaker 1: Are you talking to? You? Got too much that that? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: So I did my noontime time. I was I went
Speaker 1: through the you know, skipped over the Destiny Child thing
Speaker 1: and all the other stuff. Another group, y'all a tr
Speaker 1: Terry Ross, Terry Ross hit up London. Was like, y'all,
Speaker 1: I got the girl group just lost my least singer.
Speaker 1: I heard you got a girl Now I'm in that group.
Speaker 1: I think they called it Sir Jane, a girl named Dina,
Speaker 1: and Shira and Tunisha. So we was in noontime working.
Speaker 1: That's when I met j Q. Okay, j Q, I
Speaker 1: don't da. I don't know Jake. We want to get
Speaker 1: Jake you on the phone. I don't know. I was
Speaker 1: just living. I was in a whirlwind, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I was like I made it l like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, this is this is my journey to l
Speaker 1: a kind of you know what I mean. It's like
Speaker 1: at this point I'm gone. I'm out of Houston. Ain't
Speaker 1: going back, Okay, No, mhmm. I'm like nobody's checking on you. No. No,
Speaker 1: I didn't speak to anybody in my family for like
Speaker 1: three years straight. I'm gonna tell Win, oh yeah, sixteen
Speaker 1: out get out of here with the dog and the snake.
Speaker 1: It's like, anybody want to buy child and a Cobra
Speaker 1: because I don't have anywhere to live. So yeah, I'm in.
Speaker 1: I'm in a t l with with me working with
Speaker 1: Jazz Faye and um Um tr Teddy Bishop, working with
Speaker 1: Teddy Jay Austin. Yeah, everybody like they was. You know,
Speaker 1: that's the first time I was told. You know, I
Speaker 1: remember um Teddy was like, yo, you and Aliyah sounds
Speaker 1: so much alike in the booth is crazy to me.
Speaker 1: And I was like sad you were there. You were
Speaker 1: there because they wrote all of our songs, all of
Speaker 1: our son j Q. Too Hot to Go Home. I'll
Speaker 1: never forget that song. That song got me in trouble,
Speaker 1: too gotten, too hot to just go home. Donnie is
Speaker 1: the first person that made me hate the studio. Donnie
Speaker 1: will make you record a verse a hundred times in
Speaker 1: a row. He'm gonna keep them all and I will
Speaker 1: do what I do when y'all go home. An hour
Speaker 1: later after singing that same verse, I hated that song.
Speaker 1: But any comp comp comping um Jazz Faye, I did
Speaker 1: my first like crazy little distract record. You know, I
Speaker 1: was feeling myself. Anyway, long story short, we did a
Speaker 1: bunch of meetings with the group. Didn't the meetings. Nobody
Speaker 1: was trying to sign us. So that's when it's like,
Speaker 1: it's not like that. You woke up. Keep it funky
Speaker 1: as you look back now, right, Jesus, just keep on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was something missing. It was something missing because y'all
Speaker 1: know we had the records. That's very play the records
Speaker 1: and took the records. That's very political in my mind.
Speaker 1: That just said. I remember sitting in a meeting like
Speaker 1: everybody looked good. Yeah, it was everybody get down. Everybody
Speaker 1: group was getting knocked down. Everybody was getting by the
Speaker 1: same guy except me. I came in like, oh, y'all,
Speaker 1: it's something going on. What y'all doing? Okay, but I
Speaker 1: love y'all. Uh, So we went to it was it
Speaker 1: was it was a listen week, ladies. If y'all listening
Speaker 1: to this. We can talk about this, call me, d
Speaker 1: n me. We can set we can come right back here.
Speaker 1: That's a whole lot of seats and we can figure
Speaker 1: out the entanglements that that broke up the group. Okay,
Speaker 1: But I remember sitting in the meeting like, come on, y'all, like, y'all,
Speaker 1: we gotta remember knowing you need to walk into the
Speaker 1: room and captivate you know what I mean, walk to
Speaker 1: the room. And but that was me being a Southern
Speaker 1: bill like, how y'all doing? Yeah, I sing and you know,
Speaker 1: and they would kind of be like m hmm. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was the l A on them,
Speaker 1: you know, it was the l A girls. They had
Speaker 1: the fresh press and I was in there with the
Speaker 1: country girls. You know, I don't know. But I went
Speaker 1: through a situation in that group where they kind of
Speaker 1: said they wanted to sign me after the meeting, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, that was my first encounter with that.
Speaker 1: That was E and I at the time. Oh no,
Speaker 1: it was just straight capital at the time. That freaked
Speaker 1: me out. I didn't take the deal. I was like, no,
Speaker 1: that's not wrong, that's not loyalty. You know, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I come from Houston. I'm like, no, you
Speaker 1: don't do that. You stick with your gang. They came
Speaker 1: in there with them. I'm not turn the deal down.
Speaker 1: So group just dissolved. I don't even I want to
Speaker 1: ask Terry what happened? Why? Why we keep going? You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. So it was right. I ended up
Speaker 1: in another group with Mila j In, Miyoko, Um Jane.
Speaker 1: You know y'all, y'all know what everybody don't know. So
Speaker 1: it's jen A, Miyoko, and Jamila. That's the three sisters. Um.
Speaker 1: This is as soon as I um arrived. When I
Speaker 1: arrived in l A for the first time, Like what,
Speaker 1: I so not mind you? When he got me a
Speaker 1: ticket to l A. I thought I was coming to visit,
Speaker 1: you know. I'm like, it's no way I'm gonna stay
Speaker 1: like I think I'm coming to visit. I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: it out now in my mind, I'm gonna do everything
Speaker 1: I can to stay here, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But it's like, okay, come see what it's like. I
Speaker 1: met Mila j and um Miyoko and Mama Tina at
Speaker 1: Friday's my first soon as I got off the plane. Um,
Speaker 1: that was exciting. They just took me in like mom.
Speaker 1: Matina was really a mother to me. That was the
Speaker 1: first time in a long time that I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Like she get me hughed, like baby,
Speaker 1: you need to try this condition on your hair, you're
Speaker 1: looking a little dry, and I was like, okay. We
Speaker 1: end up getting swept back to a t L we
Speaker 1: I think they called us remix to do some meetings
Speaker 1: um we and back to a t l as a group,
Speaker 1: the three of us UM. I remember us staying in
Speaker 1: hotels with the boys, um immature. Janet was there were
Speaker 1: just like you know, a little a little unit. We
Speaker 1: would all be just we would all have one floor
Speaker 1: at the hotel or the motel or whatever. Were said,
Speaker 1: let me not talk too big. You know, we had
Speaker 1: the money yet, and we were just thugging it out
Speaker 1: recording songs. I thought the songs was great, some of
Speaker 1: them are on YouTube somewhere. And we did a couple
Speaker 1: of meetings and it just just really really didn't go. Remix, Yeah,
Speaker 1: really didn't go. Those are my hearts though, like from
Speaker 1: that group, I really have relationships still to this day.
Speaker 1: We still see each other, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And it's Oh my god, Mama, te me look like them,
Speaker 1: my girls. I love them like what they were for
Speaker 1: me when I first came to l A. Nobody you
Speaker 1: know can replace that. They really took me in as
Speaker 1: I was their sister. Period. Um they're brothers, brothers too. Um,
Speaker 1: so I didn't really go anywhere. We did do a meeting.
Speaker 1: Um I did hear something about them need to sign me.
Speaker 1: I can't do that again, this is not this is
Speaker 1: not it. We did. I think we did a we
Speaker 1: did a showcase. We performed. Um. I wasn't much of
Speaker 1: a dancer at the time, and they was going crazy
Speaker 1: and I was like, what are these counsel? I think
Speaker 1: we opened right because they were going in you like,
Speaker 1: we gotta compete with Sierra. Let's go you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, the precess That's what she wasn't see everything.
Speaker 1: It was just precess then. And I remember we opened
Speaker 1: for Jagged Edge and uh it was Max Goose. Max
Speaker 1: Goose was standing on the side of the station. I'm
Speaker 1: telling on you. Max. Remember he was like, you the
Speaker 1: next Sadena. You're the next Sadena. And I was like really,
Speaker 1: and I'm dancing. Yeah, he told me that. Max told
Speaker 1: me I was the Nex Sadena and we're performing on
Speaker 1: what you're doing what I'm saying. I was just dancing,
Speaker 1: you know. I was like, listen, when you lose the
Speaker 1: counter eight, get your friends just going to back that
Speaker 1: contest immediately, and everybody forgot that I wasn't doing what
Speaker 1: everybody else is doing. Okay, see the work. What was
Speaker 1: you doing some background? Okay, because I've been on shows
Speaker 1: with what her with genuine guine introduced me. Okay, oh
Speaker 1: my god. So yes, Max Goose is like, you you,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a record that I'm gonna sign
Speaker 1: you or whatever. And I'm like, oh my god, just
Speaker 1: happing at a kid, you know. So I'm like it
Speaker 1: kind of discouraged me from the industry because I'm I,
Speaker 1: you know, people just trying to split you up. I
Speaker 1: just felt like it was gonna make me look crazy
Speaker 1: that here I am coming into these mind you, the
Speaker 1: groups are already a group, lost the lead singer. I'm
Speaker 1: coming in as the lead singer, and now, you know,
Speaker 1: and I never wanted to get a deal based off
Speaker 1: of I went to a meeting with somebody else and
Speaker 1: stole their deal or whatever. So that discouraged me when
Speaker 1: I'm now. I'm I'm still in California, just chilling. Um.
Speaker 1: I heard about a showcase. Shout out to the days
Speaker 1: of the showcases, you know what I mean, showcase. I
Speaker 1: heard about a showcase, um London, and I ran across
Speaker 1: these kids on the street. I was a kid too
Speaker 1: at the time, but ran across these kids on the
Speaker 1: street just playing with buckets. They was just play was
Speaker 1: a band. It was like, we're a band, we do
Speaker 1: our thing. And they were sold up to me and
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, it's a showcase coming up. Y'all
Speaker 1: want to perform together? And they was like, alright, cool,
Speaker 1: So we did that perform. It was this little hole
Speaker 1: in the wall spot No a C. I went in there.
Speaker 1: I had on some I still I think I still
Speaker 1: got some pictures to this day. I had on some
Speaker 1: mess that I found various places, hair colorful. Um had
Speaker 1: my own band win in there, went crazy the band
Speaker 1: on the street. Okay, I had my own. I had
Speaker 1: my own. I went in thereat Huh, they had just
Speaker 1: they had whatever. You know what if I walked in
Speaker 1: there and I saw some young kids performing and the
Speaker 1: kid with the bucket and it was a spoon and
Speaker 1: a fork and it was whatever. They had all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff. They was making noise within and I said, Janet,
Speaker 1: Jason said give me a beat, and I was like,
Speaker 1: it worked for Janet, so I'm gonna say it. I
Speaker 1: said that I sung like three songs. I mind you,
Speaker 1: I'm in California. I'm from Houston. Where they danced and
Speaker 1: they clapped and they participate. I was done with my
Speaker 1: last song. I was like, and they was looking at
Speaker 1: you like we're looking at you silent. I was like,
Speaker 1: my god, me looking at them, that's what it was
Speaker 1: to back in the day, and nobody showed no emotion.
Speaker 1: I was like, what yo. So I got off. I
Speaker 1: got off the stage and I think Pete Farmer was there,
Speaker 1: Pete Farmer, Pete Farmer, and I forgot the other guy
Speaker 1: that was there, and I walked out into the hall
Speaker 1: and I remember Pete just kind of looking like, oh,
Speaker 1: I think it went well. I'm not sure, you know.
Speaker 1: And I had met Pete before, but it was just
Speaker 1: I didn't know what he do. I didn't understand the
Speaker 1: music industry in these positions. I didn't know if it
Speaker 1: was a good thing or a bad thing, or what
Speaker 1: if you were lying to me, I don't know. So
Speaker 1: I walked out in the hall and sure enough I
Speaker 1: turned around. I'm like in tears, and these two guys
Speaker 1: walked up and it was Master Letic and Josh Josh Deutsch,
Speaker 1: and he said, we're gonna sign you. You're gonna make
Speaker 1: you a big You're gonna be a big star. And
Speaker 1: I was like what it was like, you gonna take
Speaker 1: the card, the card, come to this address, we're gonna
Speaker 1: meet with you. Went to the address. There was Capital,
Speaker 1: the big building. I was like, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: is real. This is a real thing. That's a real thing.
Speaker 1: I am. Let's see a team. So now I'm just yep,
Speaker 1: a team because yeah, when uh, when girl Fight finally hit,
Speaker 1: I was actually no, no, no, let me think I
Speaker 1: had to be nineteen when I actually went there and everything.
Speaker 1: So but then I might be off on it might
Speaker 1: like people don't understand by that time, you have been
Speaker 1: in multiple groups. Three kicked out your house saying hooks
Speaker 1: for a hunted, Yeah, that's the new ship. Took hooks
Speaker 1: for a hunted. Um, I'm sure you don't have a
Speaker 1: dog in the stare dog in the snake? No more
Speaker 1: dog in the stay gone, big boy, I loved you.
Speaker 1: Sorry whoever took care of my dog? Right? Like people
Speaker 1: really think that they just one day you decided to sing,
Speaker 1: the next day you got a record, or the next
Speaker 1: day you got a song on the radio. And fighting, fighting, fighting,
Speaker 1: little light skin and this is this is not what
Speaker 1: I call myself, light skinned girl with good hair, fighting
Speaker 1: all the fighting somebody every day I felt like, why
Speaker 1: do you want to what was wrong with y'all? Jeez?
Speaker 1: Everywhere I go, some girl want to fight me. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, I gotta And then that that started to fight.
Speaker 1: Things started back home because I was the oldest cousin,
Speaker 1: the oldest sister. So anytime somebody to pick on my
Speaker 1: little sister brother pushed them over, I gotta go out
Speaker 1: there and represent for the entire family that you can't
Speaker 1: continue to do this. So I'm out there like, oh
Speaker 1: she did, I gotta kill her because I don't. She's
Speaker 1: gonna push over everybody else in the fish. She beat
Speaker 1: me up, then I'm about to get laughed at, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I'm the oldest, so it's just
Speaker 1: a fight. I'm just fighting for my life. I'm fighting
Speaker 1: London's girlfriends because he still got he didn't came to
Speaker 1: l A and he got set. So mind you, he's
Speaker 1: he's getting he's getting ready to send me back to
Speaker 1: Houston because in his mind he's like, no, he had
Speaker 1: a one bedroom at the Avalon. He like, I remember
Speaker 1: sitting in the living room like, well, by, okay, how
Speaker 1: you doing, girl, I've heard so much about you. Yes, girl, alright,
Speaker 1: let me turn the TV up. Just I'll remember, you know,
Speaker 1: I remember, so, you know, and that's that's coming from
Speaker 1: home to you know, to watching him do his thing.
Speaker 1: So they right there, they did it right there, demodeal
Speaker 1: right there, demo deal with Virgin Records, Master Aletic and
Speaker 1: Josh Dewey. Two later, um started Downtown Records. I was
Speaker 1: we are at the same time when the when the
Speaker 1: girl fight come up? I think so all two thousand five, No,
Speaker 1: it was later earlier, okay and one okay, all right,
Speaker 1: interesting because I feel like that's my noon time days.
Speaker 1: I remember when you came to the Bay and he
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, it's this new girl. She kidding to you.
Speaker 1: Oh god, I don't know. I was a couple of
Speaker 1: times and I was like, is that you man? I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I mean I mean easy. It seems
Speaker 1: easy to me, you know. But I got my deal,
Speaker 1: um demo deal. They sent me to Sweden to work
Speaker 1: with Bloodshine in a bunt. Immediately I'm freaked out. I
Speaker 1: gotta get a passport of They put some money in.
Speaker 1: I had seventy six dollars when I sawed my deal,
Speaker 1: seventy two dollars and something said because I pawned a
Speaker 1: ring that I had, that's how I had. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: bro Broke had nothing like I pawned the ring had
Speaker 1: seventy two dollars. I remember sitting there with the seventy
Speaker 1: two dollars and my cell phone. It was forty two dollars,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I gotta I gotta eat and I
Speaker 1: gotta pay the cell phone bill. So I paid the
Speaker 1: cell phone bill. I went to the grocery store and
Speaker 1: I got to celest pizzas y'all know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Little dollar and some noodles, and I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I don't know, like how does music stuff work?
Speaker 1: And I don't know what I'm gonna do. And I
Speaker 1: went to I guess I overdraft or whatever. So I
Speaker 1: went to the A T M. Like, let me see
Speaker 1: how bad the damage is. I don't know what happened
Speaker 1: between me walking from that grocery store and every anybody
Speaker 1: that knows that part of Wooding Hills with a grocery
Speaker 1: store to the bank is literally right there. I walked
Speaker 1: from the grocery store to humh to the A T
Speaker 1: M hum about a coffee bean and all of that,
Speaker 1: and booms in my account. I was Mama, uncle, let
Speaker 1: me tell you what you do. You slept on me.
Speaker 1: I got oh and didn't get hit by nobody, still
Speaker 1: got my dignity and pray hello, so money, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: put the celest pizzas back right. I was tripping so oh,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that would be right there. So go
Speaker 1: to go to Sweden. I guess I did a good
Speaker 1: job with my demo deal. Came back with great songs.
Speaker 1: They liked them. They were all rock and roll, though
Speaker 1: I have to say that it was rock and roll songs.
Speaker 1: It was pop rock. I did pop rock music at
Speaker 1: my showcase. It was all pop rock music that I
Speaker 1: was doing. That's what I was into. When you not
Speaker 1: signed to a production company. I was signed to Subliminal,
Speaker 1: but that was literally me in London, so we just
Speaker 1: was that. So he wasn't doing the record, he was
Speaker 1: doing the records. And I did have R and B records,
Speaker 1: but my showcase with the band that I pulled off
Speaker 1: the street, all they knew were pop rock records. So
Speaker 1: I would just sing over what they knew. So I
Speaker 1: got my deal the moment they saw me. That's what
Speaker 1: I was doing. I wasn't doing my R and B stuff.
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing anything from remix or surgeon, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It was that's what they saw. So
Speaker 1: for a lot of people that don't know the story
Speaker 1: that explains how my first album, Chain Letter, went the
Speaker 1: way it went. It was so like what is this?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? You had a girl fight,
Speaker 1: and then you had a rock record, and then you
Speaker 1: had a pop record. It was like what But they
Speaker 1: didn't know, Like I kind of not on purpose because
Speaker 1: I didn't know any better, set myself up for that. Immediately.
Speaker 1: They sent me to Sweden to work with blushin a bunt,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So when I came back
Speaker 1: and I had meetings with them, they was like this
Speaker 1: little ghett old girl. It was like when I did
Speaker 1: the big round table meeting, they were like I remember
Speaker 1: them like whispering to each other and talking about my hair.
Speaker 1: And at the time, yeah, they hired Chocca. They hired Chocca,
Speaker 1: who was you know with J and B. Now Chocca
Speaker 1: and she came on and she was like, yeah, they
Speaker 1: hired me to get you together and figure you out,
Speaker 1: like because they we don't know what to do with you,
Speaker 1: you know. And a lot came with that. You know.
Speaker 1: I was told I was too light skinned to do
Speaker 1: get told music, and you know, I needed to tan.
Speaker 1: So I started tanning every day. I was burning myself up.
Speaker 1: So now people think that I bleached and I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: now I'm just regular. I was in the tan beid
Speaker 1: probably three times a week, trying to be brown enough
Speaker 1: to be as ghetto as I was telling you that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was like yeah, right away they told me I
Speaker 1: was I needed to tan. They was like, tanning is
Speaker 1: the new thing. You see a shanty like she's you know, toasted,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, well she is. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess you know. And um, they told
Speaker 1: me a couple of things and they needed to drop
Speaker 1: like twenty seven pounds. I'll never forget the twenty seven.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, because I liked my you know
Speaker 1: in Houston. In Houston, you know, you had a little
Speaker 1: It was okay, they have a little chunk I did that,
Speaker 1: dropped the weight or whatever. And then um, I came
Speaker 1: back and I don't know who had the meeting about
Speaker 1: me going to Atlanta to work with Little John, but
Speaker 1: it was like, we let's see what she does over there,
Speaker 1: you know, after Sweden. Yeah, after I did those records.
Speaker 1: So actually, hold on stop, I just skipped apart, you
Speaker 1: gotta it's been a while. I'm old. I went to
Speaker 1: Atlanta first, and I work with Tricky. I work with
Speaker 1: Tricky first. I work with Tricky and dream Um first,
Speaker 1: and um, we did a couple of records and I
Speaker 1: think that was like maybe we don't know this girl,
Speaker 1: you know, because we were in there talking crazy, you know,
Speaker 1: with those records, and um, it was just just really ghetto, okay,
Speaker 1: really nice, really colorful and ghetto. And then it was
Speaker 1: like maybe we should put her. We're hearing about this
Speaker 1: new guy named little call itself Little John. Let's let's
Speaker 1: see what she does. And I was supposed to go
Speaker 1: to Atlanta to work for him, got to ad and
Speaker 1: he wasn't there, so I don't know nothing about that.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what you mean he's not here because I'm
Speaker 1: here because y'all see me here. He's like, now I'm
Speaker 1: in Florida. I'm in Miami. Ain't I waited on templing
Speaker 1: for five days? So you feel me, you feel me.
Speaker 1: That's how it goes. That's just how it goes. He said,
Speaker 1: I understand that you in a t L. But I'm
Speaker 1: in Miami. I'm on the boat. What I do? I
Speaker 1: get it. I got on the plane and I went
Speaker 1: to Miami, like where are you at? You know? And
Speaker 1: I got called the company like, hey, I don't know
Speaker 1: what y'all talking about, but I'm just in a hotel
Speaker 1: in a t L. And he said he's in Miami.
Speaker 1: So they said, all right, let's get her to Miami.
Speaker 1: I get there. He's on the boat. He's on the boat.
Speaker 1: I'm on the boat in London. I don't care. Me
Speaker 1: like at this point, people like me and London have
Speaker 1: a son together. So that's that that. You don't ladies,
Speaker 1: just handle your busy, mixed the business with the pleasure. Okay,
Speaker 1: now drink to that. You just don't do it I
Speaker 1: thank God for my son, but jeez, did I complicate
Speaker 1: my life? That was way later. So at this point,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, what can I do to control
Speaker 1: this girl? Because you know, I'm out here and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm um something to talk about this new little you know,
Speaker 1: a little new little chick you know that's doing her things.
Speaker 1: So a couple of looks, you know, rappers are asking
Speaker 1: about me and you know, stuff like that. This is
Speaker 1: before Instagram too. Oh yeah, just when you got a
Speaker 1: real phone called inquiry. Oh yeah, you got you got
Speaker 1: the girl, the little girl that works at the desk
Speaker 1: at the company, like someone you know, someone sos in
Speaker 1: another room and he wanted to know. You know, I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh he did, Okay, all right, you know, it's all
Speaker 1: of that. It's like, oh, Bobby Valentino is another room
Speaker 1: he wants to know. I'm like, okay, I guess you know,
Speaker 1: it's just like whatever. So it's all of that. So
Speaker 1: we we're on the boat and little John is giving
Speaker 1: me a hard time. He is just like, what's gonna
Speaker 1: make me want to work with you? Why? I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: like I need some audition. I didn't know. I thought
Speaker 1: it was just gonna work together. I didn't know. I
Speaker 1: had to come out there and prove to him that
Speaker 1: I was good enough to work with him. So first
Speaker 1: of all, he was not trying to get in the
Speaker 1: studio with me. He's like, we're gonna be on this
Speaker 1: boat until you show me something. Come on a little.
Speaker 1: So I'm on the boat. Um, I'm just walking around,
Speaker 1: just taking into sights. Uh, I'm walking trying to find
Speaker 1: a bathroom. It's a big boat. The door flies open,
Speaker 1: pit and they're doing his thing. I was like, this
Speaker 1: is my first time really seeing porno in real life.
Speaker 1: So this is what the three looks like. This is
Speaker 1: why I didn't. I didn't know that I was gonna
Speaker 1: find this out today, you know what I mean. The
Speaker 1: girl come out, she's like, you cut it in my hair,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this is I didn't and I'm a
Speaker 1: fan of your work. I didn't mean to meet you.
Speaker 1: And then hey, guys, carry on all right, you know,
Speaker 1: like y'all know, I'm fresh out. I'm the country bumping like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, crime mobs on the boat. Um, Scrappy's on
Speaker 1: the boat. You know, It's just it's it's a good time.
Speaker 1: So and they all looking at me, like why should
Speaker 1: we let you in? You know what I mean? So
Speaker 1: I go upstairs. I'm now I'm looking for my person,
Speaker 1: like he really leave me? Like my security not here
Speaker 1: like you had. You had a label. Not on the
Speaker 1: boat though, just u We had security because London was crazy.
Speaker 1: And that's that's that's his that's his interview. That's his interview.
Speaker 1: We had security everywhere we win. You security, He had security,
Speaker 1: but I was with him, so you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we had security everywhere we win, you know what I mean? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was it was Your life was gab, you know,
Speaker 1: all the girlfriends, all the girlfriend you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I'm upstairs, I'm like, yo, anybody like what's up?
Speaker 1: So I get up there. I'm looking a little John
Speaker 1: who was like your boy in the bathroom and I'm
Speaker 1: like okay, I'm like, which way is the bathroom? He's
Speaker 1: like right there, open the door. They're busting down. Little
Speaker 1: John's assisted in him going crazy in the bathroom. I'm like,
Speaker 1: this canvy life. So I just she had her hair,
Speaker 1: she had like want of a little sharp buzz cuts.
Speaker 1: I'm like, dam I can't pull her hair. I just
Speaker 1: aren't choking her out. Like, let's just go because I
Speaker 1: don't want to. Like at this point, I'm up against
Speaker 1: the wall. I want a record. I want a record.
Speaker 1: Tomin and Prince says, eyeballed me, like they want to fight. Scrappy,
Speaker 1: don't like me. I saw people's peters. I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going like when I don't just I had enough,
Speaker 1: Like I don't. I don't know what's going on. I'm
Speaker 1: out of my element, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: just just started, you know, so everybody clapping. I get
Speaker 1: my record, I get my Who would have thought that
Speaker 1: all I had to He turned that boat around and
Speaker 1: we went straight to the studio. Straight to the studio.
Speaker 1: He started making the beat and it was like, come on,
Speaker 1: do something, go start writing girl fight whatever I was
Speaker 1: and that was the vibe, that was the energy, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So we did the record and
Speaker 1: he was he gave me such a hard time. He
Speaker 1: was like, um, and I'm like, you should you know,
Speaker 1: you know, little Southern girls, we got all the confidence
Speaker 1: in the world, Like, all right, so you're gonna jump
Speaker 1: on it. He's like, that's a whole another check, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. He was like, nah. So I'm
Speaker 1: like dang, that's crazy, son, And I know everything right.
Speaker 1: Everybody know how he used to work, so this is
Speaker 1: not you know, you're doing interviews like it's certain things
Speaker 1: you say and certain things you don't say. Everybody knew
Speaker 1: that there was porn on like six different flash screens
Speaker 1: in a mattress for you to go sing behind. That's
Speaker 1: how he worked period. Everybody knew. I know everybody was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a secret. It wasn't a secret location. Everybody
Speaker 1: was walking in and out. I'm just in there, like, yo,
Speaker 1: this is this is crazy. I would have definitely got
Speaker 1: kicked out from my mom. And if they knew this
Speaker 1: part of it, it's like, what's wrong with Get behind
Speaker 1: the mattress and do the rough. I'm like, all right, okay,
Speaker 1: I look at it. So I go do the rough.
Speaker 1: He's like, something ain't right about the sound. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's the A C or whatever. We gotta
Speaker 1: go to a real Stowe studio and do it. So
Speaker 1: we book another studio. I go in there, I do
Speaker 1: the vocals, you know, clean or whatever, and I leave
Speaker 1: and we go eat and I come back and I
Speaker 1: have been blessed. He heard the record. He loved it.
Speaker 1: He jumped on it. He jumped on the record. He
Speaker 1: went in there. He what you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: That happened, go back to California, played the record for
Speaker 1: the company. They're all excited. I can feel the energy
Speaker 1: of my life about to change. Like y'all really like
Speaker 1: this record because a lot more where they came from.
Speaker 1: I'm like, can I beat myself? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Because I can do this? So time pass. I don't
Speaker 1: hear anything. I don't hear anything. I remember signing papers
Speaker 1: giving away all my publishing. I remember sitting in the
Speaker 1: clk M saying, signing some long paper. That's it. So
Speaker 1: many other people was in the studio that wasn't there
Speaker 1: when I wrote the song. But okay, I didn't understand it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And I signed the paper
Speaker 1: because I'm like, I was told, if you want to
Speaker 1: be a big star, you need to start the paper.
Speaker 1: I was like, really, it's like, how much do I get?
Speaker 1: You know? I say, I see fifty, and I'll see
Speaker 1: you a six, and you know, I see all these
Speaker 1: big numbers and I got five some five. I don't
Speaker 1: know what this means, but don't see not the entire
Speaker 1: record London role with me, and we did take like
Speaker 1: a B section from a song that we did when
Speaker 1: we worked with Tricky and a T. And I think
Speaker 1: that's when it got tricky because now you got, oh
Speaker 1: that was inspired by a beat I made. And then
Speaker 1: and they started fighting, and I'll tell you girl, fight
Speaker 1: went into the black list because of this. It's I
Speaker 1: don't I ain't seen the dime I've gotten paid from
Speaker 1: other things, but that publishing that was a joke. It
Speaker 1: was so many people fighting over the guitar player. It
Speaker 1: was just so much stuff. I just remember hearing all
Speaker 1: these and I don't know what's true, but I remember
Speaker 1: hearing a lot of story. You ain't seeing no money
Speaker 1: because so and so, um, you know. I didn't like. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was all of that, and I signed for my father.
Speaker 1: I said, what's the problem, guys, I should be the
Speaker 1: one fighting. So I remember that day. I remember sitting
Speaker 1: in the Mercedes a little bit little Mercedes signing over
Speaker 1: and I remember feeling like, dang, this this kind of
Speaker 1: this don't feel good, you know what, I mean to
Speaker 1: like work that hard? And then five just didn't seem good.
Speaker 1: Just it seemed like a good number. When you saw
Speaker 1: other you know, big numbers up there. So did that.
Speaker 1: I was kind of down, kind of forgot about it.
Speaker 1: It was quiet calling a record company, couldn't get them
Speaker 1: on the phone, like hey guys, you know, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: am I still gonna be a big star. So I
Speaker 1: was like, let me just let me take a take
Speaker 1: a back seat. So I was gonna go to Houston,
Speaker 1: and I heard I needed to rub elbows with the
Speaker 1: the DJs in Houston. It was like, you need to
Speaker 1: go home to where you came from, and you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, make sure it's yeah, make sure it's
Speaker 1: cool out there. So we land. We're in a car.
Speaker 1: I'm riding a car. My song come on, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm irritated with Londons. I'm like, you keep playing the
Speaker 1: song over and over again, like we heard now. I'm irritated,
Speaker 1: Like it just needs to be on the radio. He
Speaker 1: was like, it's on the radio. It's on the radio.
Speaker 1: And I hear it right and I big boy comes in.
Speaker 1: I'm like hold on, Like my cheeks are like wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: wait wait, is that big Boy from Outcasts on my song?
Speaker 1: Like is this really happened? I'm screaming about to lose
Speaker 1: my mind, lost my voice. No, I did not know
Speaker 1: Big Boy was gonna be on the record until I
Speaker 1: heard it on the radio. Like I was worrying getting
Speaker 1: shopped down, this whole thing. Big Boy and Little John
Speaker 1: is on my first single, and I'm back home in Houston,
Speaker 1: really nice and it's on the radio. I go to
Speaker 1: the radio station. They loved me. They're like, yeah, we remember,
Speaker 1: you know, you was at rap a lot and blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, and we didn't know who you were. And man,
Speaker 1: I heard you on this song and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: And then it's just like it just you know, it
Speaker 1: just goes from there. But I mean, it just out
Speaker 1: of nowhere. And they said, they said the record league,
Speaker 1: they wasn't prepared. We didn't have art for it. I
Speaker 1: had to go. They rushed me to work with Jonathan
Speaker 1: to get pictures. Yeah, Jonathan, Man, it was putting you
Speaker 1: with all everybody. Yeah, that's the one thing of this story.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I was. I was to work with the
Speaker 1: real people. Like they put you in a spot. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I can only imagine what your budget was. Um, you
Speaker 1: definitely didn't recoup. Let me get him this publish immediately
Speaker 1: put me with Chris Robinson to shoot the video good
Speaker 1: Boy at L Down, got all the permans to shut
Speaker 1: it down a freeway. Everything just went crazy. I know,
Speaker 1: we spent a million dollars on the video, and back
Speaker 1: then I was like, are you really had to give
Speaker 1: it to him myself? I'm on there, I'm like, y'all,
Speaker 1: good point. I wanted to know how much money was
Speaker 1: being spent. Right, you know we have of our show.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're ready for it. Oh gosh,
Speaker 1: you know, I think I got my take a deep
Speaker 1: breath for real quick. Yeah you listen, you just said
Speaker 1: that terrible but with some names attached. So yes, but
Speaker 1: this story has to okay. So the segment is called
Speaker 1: I ain't saying on that right, and it's something about
Speaker 1: you y'all loving hip hops. Man, you'll like the same
Speaker 1: names man shout out to hit maker. Young birds just
Speaker 1: could not tell a story. No, he couldn't pull it off.
Speaker 1: He had to, he said, I got to it. So
Speaker 1: it's not okay. So those are the rules of the game,
Speaker 1: mhmm of the segment to not say any names and
Speaker 1: tell us a funny are funked up story? Industry related
Speaker 1: industry people, and you could say enough for people made.
Speaker 1: You know, they can try to figure some out. But
Speaker 1: it's card I ain't saying on that. Oh my lord
Speaker 1: is terrible. Okay, give us Oh Lord, I got so
Speaker 1: many Can I tell a two part story real fast?
Speaker 1: I know women could be long. I ain't saying no names,
Speaker 1: but it's a certain female. She really tall, she got
Speaker 1: real short hair. She looked banging for her age. I
Speaker 1: walked into the I would say the apartment that I
Speaker 1: was sharing with my baby daddy at the time when
Speaker 1: she was in a bid. But Nikki, that's the one part.
Speaker 1: I ain't saying no names. But there's another female. She
Speaker 1: was in a movie that we all love. This movie
Speaker 1: has a lot of sequels to it. It's a one
Speaker 1: to three folk Okay, she real cute. She got a
Speaker 1: bootook cuty with a booty. Um she was I was saying,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say she was dating the guy
Speaker 1: that I was with at the time. She was blowing
Speaker 1: him off because I heard she was good at that. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't even think they got to the point of
Speaker 1: actual you know. The meeting in the green was just
Speaker 1: kind of like when you get down there and do
Speaker 1: what I heard you was good for. But that's just
Speaker 1: my side of the story. Girl. You can come to
Speaker 1: the couch and tell it because you know who you are.
Speaker 1: You know who you are, sis, because you still be
Speaker 1: telling your jacked up side of the story you're talking
Speaker 1: about I'll be trying to jump you, and you know
Speaker 1: I don't be trying to jump you when I see you.
Speaker 1: How am I trying to jump you? When I see you?
Speaker 1: When it's just me by myself. When you're trying to
Speaker 1: jump somebody, that means it's several people. It just beat
Speaker 1: me running up on you, girl. Okay, So anyway, so
Speaker 1: just not a run up. I walked swiftly, Hey girl,
Speaker 1: Hey girl, And she's like, brook, I always trying to
Speaker 1: jump me? Would she see me? I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: jump it's just me, and I make sure I'll tell
Speaker 1: my girl stand back right there. But anyway, this young
Speaker 1: lady was at a beauty shop getting her hair done
Speaker 1: by celebrity hairstylis. I ain't gonna say no names because
Speaker 1: she do all of our hair, and she was talking
Speaker 1: mad noise. She was like, I don't know who she
Speaker 1: thinks she is. She'd just be coming up in the
Speaker 1: studio because the dude I was talking to it was
Speaker 1: both talking to. He had a studio at the time.
Speaker 1: She's like, she's just be coming up in a studio
Speaker 1: like she owned it. She's gonna have to run meet
Speaker 1: and keys. She gonna have to run meet and keys.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, So they called me and they tell
Speaker 1: me I'm riding in the car. I got my son
Speaker 1: in the bag. I'm like, good, baby boy, all right,
Speaker 1: call my mama, My mama, Mama, you you're good, You're
Speaker 1: done at the nail shop. She's like, yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: drop the kid off to you. I need to handle
Speaker 1: something right, gree Mama. She said, okay, I'll take drop
Speaker 1: my son off. This one, I knew I was certified
Speaker 1: crazy and had to get out the relationship. I found
Speaker 1: out where she was. She was in the studio at
Speaker 1: the time. I say, this the door. This is the
Speaker 1: this is the keys to the door that you speak
Speaker 1: of that I had to run. I just drove my
Speaker 1: car into the studio because now I don't nobody need
Speaker 1: no keys, and I gave it. Here's the key to
Speaker 1: the door, just the doors under the car. And they're
Speaker 1: sitting there. They're sitting there looking at me crazy like
Speaker 1: I'm crazy. You know what. I ain't gonna call you
Speaker 1: that because I don't know no more. Now we don't
Speaker 1: have to talk about this door no more. We're gonna
Speaker 1: worry about this door and who's got the kid who
Speaker 1: walking through this door? Like they own no more the doors.
Speaker 1: We will try to know Ho ho by that bus stop.
Speaker 1: Just you know, y'all know range rovers they really built
Speaker 1: for it. Took they built for it because what I
Speaker 1: drove outing with vehicles, drove outing with home and got
Speaker 1: the baby milk and everything, Like, what kind of tore
Speaker 1: that door? I think that's a great way to Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: they are old. If you want to talk, she's steal
Speaker 1: shouts out. That's don't down, it's that's I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: out of here. Um okay, I'm just out of This
Speaker 1: is Bruce Beutam and this is been R. B. Money