Speaker 1: What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. We Rolling, OK,
Speaker 1: let's do this.
Speaker 2: Supremo.
Speaker 1: Roll Come Supremo.
Speaker 2: Supremo, Roll call, Supremo, sup Supremo, Roll Supremo.
Speaker 1: Suck Supremo. Someone up there loves me theme of the show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because how we pulled this up off? Yeah, I will
Speaker 1: never know.
Speaker 2: Supremo Supremo, Role Supremo Supremo.
Speaker 3: My name is Fante.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I'm trying not to shout yeah because my inner thirteen
Speaker 5: year old it's freaking out.
Speaker 2: Supremo, Roll Supremo, Supremo.
Speaker 1: My name is Sugar. Yeah, my wraps are tasty, so
Speaker 1: lunch is served.
Speaker 6: And Tracy, I'm unpaid Billy, believe it or not.
Speaker 1: Now we know who shot Tupac.
Speaker 7: Supriv Yeah, just living out dreams. Tracy and Shawnee. I
Speaker 7: don't even know what this means.
Speaker 1: Supprivo roll call.
Speaker 8: My name is Shanese. I love to smile. I'm sitting here,
Speaker 8: don't know how.
Speaker 2: Supprivov Supremo.
Speaker 9: Role. My name is Rath. I like to begin.
Speaker 8: I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, but.
Speaker 2: Suppriva so Suppriva Supremo.
Speaker 10: Suppre Okay, Look everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone, this is what
Speaker 10: we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: This is what we're gonna do. I want everyone to
Speaker 1: in hell ex heal in hell, and we all got
Speaker 1: COVID again. Okay, okay, So a funny thing happened on
Speaker 1: my way to the forums. Yeah. So occasionally I will
Speaker 1: put out an A P B or where are they
Speaker 1: now for some of my favorites throughout the years on
Speaker 1: social media, and nine times out of ten, you know,
Speaker 1: it's tumbleweeds and no responses or whatever, especially in the
Speaker 1: case of one of our guests. And I got so
Speaker 1: used to the dead silence on the whereabouts that you know,
Speaker 1: I just gave up after a decade or so. Enter
Speaker 1: friend of the show, Shauna, Are you here?
Speaker 8: Hello?
Speaker 1: All right? So she provided probably this year's equivalent of
Speaker 1: Manna from Heaven, in which she said, a mirror, your
Speaker 1: prayers have been answered. So let's fast forward to where
Speaker 1: we are right now. Both of our guests I didn't
Speaker 1: even know were friends with each other, and they also
Speaker 1: happen to have overlapping journeys in life. Both in decades ago,
Speaker 1: they were standout acts on a show called Star Search.
Speaker 1: You know if you know the voice or if you
Speaker 1: know America Knight whatever it's you know, Star Search was
Speaker 1: you know when that was our show and basically parlayed
Speaker 1: their talents into at a very young age, into record
Speaker 1: deal and hits and whatnot and yes, of course can
Speaker 1: you dance? Ain't gonna have step in? Symptoms of true love?
Speaker 1: This house tend to kisses, Yes, I could name them all.
Speaker 1: I love your smile whatever. I've been a major, major,
Speaker 1: major fan of this is royalty of both these queens
Speaker 1: for the longest we all have been. And for some reason,
Speaker 1: you know, because they had their rise before the sort
Speaker 1: of scent of social media. There really wasn't mainstream outlets
Speaker 1: to let us know them as people, even though we
Speaker 1: occasionally seem on a soul train or b T you whatever.
Speaker 1: And even having despite the fact that I've worked with
Speaker 1: one of them, I've realized that until this very moment,
Speaker 1: I've never met them. Yes, it's it's possible to be
Speaker 1: on someone's record and not having met them anyway, it's
Speaker 1: taking me three decades to say, nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: Shanice Wilson and Tracy Spencer. Welcome to Quest of Supremes. Wow,
Speaker 1: So where the heck you been? First of all, how
Speaker 1: are you guys today, how are we?
Speaker 8: We are on on cloud nine. We're like floating. Yeah,
Speaker 8: this is like we're excited. It just seems like unreal.
Speaker 9: And emotional roller coaster.
Speaker 8: Yeah. I keep saying I'm gonna cry. She's like, I'm
Speaker 8: gonna cry.
Speaker 7: Like y'all are fresh off of popular talk show. I
Speaker 7: know we can't say where you just came from, but like,
Speaker 7: y'all just did a popular talk show, Like this is
Speaker 7: really yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's a lot so.
Speaker 9: A lot really fast.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm just really excited. I've been looking for Tracy
Speaker 8: for the past what how many years? Twenty maybe like
Speaker 8: twenty years. I tweeted a picture of us with Santa.
Speaker 8: We were sitting on Santa Claus as a lap back
Speaker 8: in the day. It took a picture with Santa Claus
Speaker 8: and I posted that on my Twitter and I said,
Speaker 8: can anybody help me find Tracy?
Speaker 1: You too?
Speaker 8: I said, I'm looking for Tracy Spencer and nobody could
Speaker 8: find her for like year. My kids were babies, they're
Speaker 8: they're pretty much grown now. And I went to a
Speaker 8: party with Shantemore's birthday party and Shawna was at the
Speaker 8: party and she said I found her. This was like
Speaker 8: a few months ago, we found Tracy Spencer.
Speaker 1: Is there an extra?
Speaker 8: Shawna said, I found Tracy Spencer. I'm like, really, she's
Speaker 8: on Instagram like she is, So that's how we.
Speaker 9: Reconnected following people on Instagram.
Speaker 8: She had this page. It didn't even look like it
Speaker 8: would be her page.
Speaker 1: Were all right, So let me just give a little backstory, Shauna.
Speaker 1: So is it mengtel or Manga ta mangata?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: So you know super executive management? Like okay, So what
Speaker 1: is your role in life?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 1: I know that for years you've worked for Michael Jackson
Speaker 1: as his personal assistant during the Dangerous period, and you
Speaker 1: assisted us in getting Howard Hewitt on the show and whatnot.
Speaker 1: So you know, you and I have been friends forever.
Speaker 1: You've been an actor, like you've been connected in acting
Speaker 1: and whatnot. You've been in so many movies that we've
Speaker 1: seen that didn't even realize. So how did you know?
Speaker 1: How did you find Tracy?
Speaker 11: Well, when I was working with Michael Jackson, I actually
Speaker 11: worked for his manager, Sandy Gallan. So I've been in
Speaker 11: music management all my career and after leaving Michael's management company,
Speaker 11: I went to work for quadri Ellamine at Southpot Entertainment
Speaker 11: and he said, I want you to work with Tracy Spencer.
Speaker 11: And this was in nineteen ninety eight. So I was
Speaker 11: brought in to work specifically with Tracy on her last
Speaker 11: album on Capitol Records, called Tracey See, and I was
Speaker 11: her day to day manager and you know, just doing
Speaker 11: her scheduling and all that kind of stuff. Fast forward
Speaker 11: to now, Tracy reaches out to me on Instagram. I
Speaker 11: didn't know why because I have been looking for her
Speaker 11: too for decades.
Speaker 1: Did you know that we were looking for you everybody?
Speaker 1: Why would you do that to us?
Speaker 12: I didn't do.
Speaker 9: It like to hurt anyone's feeling, but.
Speaker 1: It also proves me that one kid disappeared. We want
Speaker 1: to live off the grid and hang out with me.
Speaker 1: Daylight Secret Tracy Spencer. Okay, like, let's have it. Where
Speaker 1: the hell have you been?
Speaker 12: People going to be mad?
Speaker 9: She's absolutely right. There's gonna be a lot of very
Speaker 9: angry people after this.
Speaker 12: Yeah, you are your appreciative, but please.
Speaker 1: We can stand here five or six times.
Speaker 8: Yeah, let's see.
Speaker 4: After the Tracy album. Well, even before the Tracy album,
Speaker 4: the Capitol was going through so many different changes, Like
Speaker 4: at one point they got rid of the Black Music
Speaker 4: Department and kept me and wanted me to represent.
Speaker 9: Black radio radio. Yeah everybody.
Speaker 4: I mean it was literally like a ghost town on
Speaker 4: like the eighth and ninth floor, which is where the
Speaker 4: Black Department was.
Speaker 9: So I remember I'd go down and be like, wow,
Speaker 9: the lights are out, like this is so weird.
Speaker 4: And I was like seventeen eighteen years old then, And
Speaker 4: so I ended up actually recording like two different albums,
Speaker 4: one with Dallas Austin, one with Shakir from Queen Latifa's camp.
Speaker 9: I spent some time in New York.
Speaker 4: Both of those records got shelved, but I did notice
Speaker 4: that some stuff has been leaked on YouTube and someone's
Speaker 4: like selling.
Speaker 9: A mixtape for like two g's.
Speaker 4: Of some some Tracy Spencer unreleased music.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, yeah, like you would have brought that too.
Speaker 12: And so when.
Speaker 4: When once I got with Quadri, you know, he was
Speaker 4: trying to reassure me, like stick it out, it's gonna
Speaker 4: be all good. Let's do another record. That's when Roy
Speaker 4: Lott was the president of Capital and he had mentioned
Speaker 4: Soul Shock and Carlin and said, I think they would
Speaker 4: be great to help you put this record together. So
Speaker 4: we la literally sat for months, like in the studio
Speaker 4: just creating and coming up with ideas, and they pretty
Speaker 4: much did that entire album and helped me A and
Speaker 4: R the record. So after the record, you know, you
Speaker 4: go on tour. I s wasn't having any fun. It
Speaker 4: became I went from a point where I had a
Speaker 4: lot of family support to now that I was getting older.
Speaker 4: I was now twenty one, My family wasn't traveling with me.
Speaker 4: My dad was having some health issues so he couldn't
Speaker 4: go on the road, and my siblings were all, you know,
Speaker 4: doing things in their own lives. So it was like
Speaker 4: a big transition for me. And then you also have
Speaker 4: a lot of uh, you meet a lot of interesting
Speaker 4: people who want to take advantage of you in the
Speaker 4: industry as a female. Now they're like, oh, her dad's
Speaker 4: not around, or her brother's not around or yeah, and
Speaker 4: it got very uncomfortable to be very honest, and so, yeah,
Speaker 4: I wasn't having any fun. And I remember having a
Speaker 4: conversation with my mom and I just said, I'm having anxiety.
Speaker 9: I'm not like having panic attacks, Like what am I
Speaker 9: going to do?
Speaker 4: And she was like, I always told you when you're
Speaker 4: not having fun, get out for your mental health.
Speaker 9: Like she's like, come home.
Speaker 4: So I went home for a little bit, being in
Speaker 4: the country, home, playing with Iowa.
Speaker 3: Oh oh wow, that's how you disappeared.
Speaker 4: Yes, and I do agreed recently that i was now
Speaker 4: the number one place to go if you want to
Speaker 4: live off the grid.
Speaker 1: Oh so, I'm just there's another fun fact that I
Speaker 1: know about Iowa that I don't think is very appropriate.
Speaker 1: Dementium right now, But this is the amount of black
Speaker 1: women that I know from Iowa, all in the industry right, No,
Speaker 1: just in Iowa period, Robin Thedi Okay, So thus I
Speaker 1: know a comedian, a singer, and the we'll just say
Speaker 1: our actresses.
Speaker 12: I thought you were going to say that. The people like, what.
Speaker 1: Is what is it? What city in Iowa for starters?
Speaker 1: What city in Iowa is this? And that's turning out
Speaker 1: these artistic base women. Yeah, like I don't know, but
Speaker 1: something about it's something about the state of Iowa that is, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, just turns out mysterious alluring women that
Speaker 1: have a talent.
Speaker 12: Somebody get them out of.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you, Steve.
Speaker 5: What was it like growing up in Iowa?
Speaker 9: Lots of corn I really just want to see where
Speaker 9: he was gonna go.
Speaker 13: Seef, he's gonna get himself out of it.
Speaker 9: Yes, there's lots of corn. There is corn in my.
Speaker 4: Backyard, literally lots of corn. My dad's side of the
Speaker 4: family is from Canada on his mom's side, and then
Speaker 4: his father was from Alabama. My mom's family's from Louisiana.
Speaker 4: How they kind of ended up together and me being
Speaker 4: born in Iowa was after my mom's h her parents
Speaker 4: passed away. She was going to join the Air Force,
Speaker 4: but she had a brother who moved to Minneapolis, or
Speaker 4: not Minneapolis, but to Des Moines, Iowa, which is the capital,
Speaker 4: and she was traveling.
Speaker 8: She had.
Speaker 4: Eight siblings, so she was traveling to go visit him,
Speaker 4: and she decided, well, maybe I'm just gonna get into nursing.
Speaker 9: Maybe I'll moved to Iowa.
Speaker 13: I don't know.
Speaker 4: She just didn't want to go back to Louisiana. My
Speaker 4: dad ended up in a really small town called Marshalltown, Iowa,
Speaker 4: where there's like.
Speaker 9: No people of color. Yeah, it was just literally his.
Speaker 4: Dad and then his mom being white. Yeah, they were
Speaker 4: the talk of the town.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 9: And so my dad had a band called the Cavaliers.
Speaker 4: He's like performing doing one nighters around the state of
Speaker 4: Iowa and other cities in the Midwest, and he sees
Speaker 4: my mom in a club with her brother, and he
Speaker 4: walks up to her and says, I don't know who
Speaker 4: you are, but I'm gonna marry you. Basically, she never
Speaker 4: went back to Louisiana. Six months later they got married
Speaker 4: and they stayed in Iowa and she became a nurse.
Speaker 4: And that's how I ended up in Iowa.
Speaker 1: I see now, Miss Wilson. Now. One of my favorite
Speaker 1: moments ever in the history of my years in watching
Speaker 1: me our City and Hall Show, Oh Wow, was when
Speaker 1: there was an audio tape of you. I believe you
Speaker 1: had to have been under the age of two, but
Speaker 1: you singing Jungle Bookie.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And to me, not much of a hoopla has been
Speaker 1: made of the fact that someone not even one years
Speaker 1: old can harmonize get down, get down all like. So
Speaker 1: I already know that you came out the womb singing,
Speaker 1: So tell me about like where were you.
Speaker 8: Born and so yeah, I'm originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and
Speaker 8: yans yes, yes, And the audio you're talking about, I
Speaker 8: was literally seven months I was seven months and there
Speaker 8: was three songs I did on that tape. I did
Speaker 8: Jungle Boogie by Cool in the Game, tell Me Something
Speaker 8: Good about Chaka Khan and Benny and the Jets by
Speaker 8: Elton John Wow.
Speaker 1: And I don't even know the words of that song
Speaker 1: now no.
Speaker 8: One believes it, but we have it on cassette. And
Speaker 8: I couldn't talk, but I could sing those melodies but
Speaker 8: I couldn't talk. So yeah, But I'm from Pittsford, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 8: I come from a musical family. My mom sings. My
Speaker 8: dad is a guitarist, and my mom she was in
Speaker 8: a singing group and she decided her and my aunt,
Speaker 8: they had a group together, and they said, let's move
Speaker 8: to either California or New York because they wanted to
Speaker 8: pursue their singing careers. So they decided to move to LA.
Speaker 8: We got on the Greyhound bus and when we got
Speaker 8: to LA, I was like eight years old, and I said,
Speaker 8: but I want to sing too. I want to do
Speaker 8: it too. So they found me a commercial agent. I
Speaker 8: went on my first audition and I booked a Kentucky
Speaker 8: Fried Chicken commercial with Ella Fitzgerald. At eight years old,
Speaker 8: I scattered with her at eight years old.
Speaker 1: I know that commercial that was me.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so that's where it all began. When I got
Speaker 8: off the Greyhound bus. Wanda from the Emotions, the Legendary
Speaker 8: Emotions picked me up from the Greyhound station. So she
Speaker 8: was the first person that I met when I got
Speaker 8: off the bus, and I remember looking around. I was
Speaker 8: in Hollywood, and I just I was like, where are
Speaker 8: the stars? I wanna see the stars. Where's Mike. I
Speaker 8: was like, where's Michael Jackson? And then it's like it's
Speaker 8: deep because words are powerful because I kept speaking that
Speaker 8: I wanted to meet Michael Jackson. I wanted to meet
Speaker 8: Michael Jackson. And then UH when I I did Star
Speaker 8: Search one Star Search, NA when I did a musical
Speaker 8: after Star Search called Get Happy, and John McClain, who
Speaker 8: was now over Michael Jackson's estate right heard me singing
Speaker 8: uh in the musical and signed me to and in
Speaker 8: Records when I was eleven years old, and oh, she
Speaker 8: found the commercial so so so it's so deep because
Speaker 8: I was eight years old saying I wanted to meet
Speaker 8: Michael Jackson, and then I did eleven the guy who
Speaker 8: worked with Michael Jackson signed me to a and m
Speaker 8: and I finally and then I finally got to meet
Speaker 8: Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: I felt you were gonna go in deep cut and
Speaker 1: be like later I married Michael Jackson. No, no, no.
Speaker 8: I got to sing on three of his records, some
Speaker 8: backgrounds on three.
Speaker 1: No, I'm talking about somewhere. Jimmy Champs just hit me off, like, wait,
Speaker 1: who how did you pull that off?
Speaker 8: Flex? He did play Michael. But I just want to
Speaker 8: say this, when Flex auditioned for that, As a matter
Speaker 8: of fact, he even audition. He just had a meeting
Speaker 8: and they told him that it was going to be authorized,
Speaker 8: like Michael was going to be involved, and the music
Speaker 8: was going to be in the movie. Like and then
Speaker 8: once he got the part, everything changed. They said it's unauthorized.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: The makeup was terrible, the hair was terrible. Like, I
Speaker 8: just feel so bad because who would turn that down?
Speaker 8: You know?
Speaker 1: Like ah, I.
Speaker 8: Thought like Flex did a great job. The movie wasn't great.
Speaker 8: The hair and makeup and all that wasn't good, but
Speaker 8: Flex put his heart and soul into it. So I
Speaker 8: gotta give a shout out to my baby.
Speaker 1: Flex.
Speaker 3: Do you remember do you remember the songs that you sang?
Speaker 3: Backron Michael.
Speaker 8: Yeah, keep the Faith. It's a song that And after
Speaker 8: he passed behind the mask, I got to add live
Speaker 8: with him at the end of that, and I did
Speaker 8: backgrounds on top of that and then you'll be there.
Speaker 3: Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1: What's up? Do you remember your first musical memory, like
Speaker 1: in terms of you having a talent, or what's your
Speaker 1: first musical memory in life?
Speaker 4: My dad was he had two bars that he opened
Speaker 4: in Waterloo, Iowa.
Speaker 9: They were jazz bars.
Speaker 4: Well, he would let me come in and help clean up,
Speaker 4: like in the mornings, and he would play music and
Speaker 4: then I would sing along and he was just kind
Speaker 4: of like, well, that's interesting. So he started bringing records
Speaker 4: home and he bought me a record player and the
Speaker 4: first record that he played for me was Tina Marie
Speaker 4: and I just start listening to it, and then I
Speaker 4: was trying to memorize all her lyrics. And then he
Speaker 4: gave me Diying a ross and I would memorize him.
Speaker 4: But the funny thing is I didn't want anyone to
Speaker 4: come downstairs and like watch me. So my mom, my
Speaker 4: sister and everybody and my dad they would sit on
Speaker 4: the stairs and they would listen to me.
Speaker 13: They would be thinking like I can't look at me,
Speaker 13: and I would just be down there in front of
Speaker 13: the mirror, just like dancing and singing and pretending I
Speaker 13: was dying a ross at Tina Marie.
Speaker 4: And my dad was like, wow, like she really likes
Speaker 4: to sing. I much rather be in the house singing
Speaker 4: and listening to records and being outside playing.
Speaker 1: With So you're you're in the reluctant hero kind of
Speaker 1: disappeared for thirty years.
Speaker 3: What do you mean?
Speaker 5: Yeah, she's very adamant about and that is the energy
Speaker 5: I respect.
Speaker 1: Like you have a kid. I'm just letting you know, like.
Speaker 9: Oh wait, so now what's your sign cancer?
Speaker 1: Okay? Cap?
Speaker 3: Yeah, saying yeah, I'm with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah that'scy Spencer. Do we know that that for a
Speaker 1: fact right now? That happened once with you remember Reddad
Speaker 1: king Finn was like, uh capping people? Do you not remember?
Speaker 1: Like this guy? Why would he? Why why he would
Speaker 1: choose red Ad Kingpin of anybody?
Speaker 3: Like because who else is going to do that?
Speaker 1: Right open? Mark?
Speaker 13: No?
Speaker 1: But he, like me, he would like go to night
Speaker 1: clubs and from five thousand dollars like do do the
Speaker 1: right thing? And we don't have a plan B and whatever,
Speaker 1: and then like two years later he finally got caught.
Speaker 3: Wow, thank god for social media.
Speaker 1: Way fly. Now that is random. At what point? Well,
Speaker 1: I guess because you two are such at a young age.
Speaker 1: Can I assume that like the decision to put you
Speaker 1: or the baby steps into putting you into show business
Speaker 1: was made for you? Or was it? Like was there
Speaker 1: ever talk like would you like to do this for
Speaker 1: real or whatever?
Speaker 9: Or like, yeah, my.
Speaker 4: Dad he was always asking me because my one of
Speaker 4: my brothers, the one who actually does some some vocals
Speaker 4: on Tender Kisses and he co wrote it, and.
Speaker 1: He used to do interviews with you on like B.
Speaker 1: I was wondering, Yeah, I used to see anytime he
Speaker 1: did interviews like your.
Speaker 9: Brother, he was with me a lot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But he taught himself out to play the piano,
Speaker 4: so he used to My parents got us a piano
Speaker 4: and I would sing. He would just write songs and
Speaker 4: we would do that. That's when I kind of moved
Speaker 4: from the basement to upstairs, and then I became less shy,
Speaker 4: and then neighbors would come over and get free concerts.
Speaker 1: Was there ever like a thought of like you guys
Speaker 1: would be like an updated black version of the Carpenters
Speaker 1: or anything like.
Speaker 4: Actually did we thought we were gonna do that? Like
Speaker 4: he'd play keys and I would sing.
Speaker 9: Play I play the guitar.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, but so what are the steps that
Speaker 1: lead to Well, first of all, leaving Iowa and pursuing.
Speaker 4: Your My dad met this guy named Stan Plusser who
Speaker 4: was a manager for like Ozark Mountain Daredevils in Kansas City,
Speaker 4: and he also had a coffee shop that he had,
Speaker 4: like Steve Martin would come in and do stand up
Speaker 4: and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, whoa, Okay, I'm reading Steve Martin's book right now
Speaker 1: about his life as a stand up comedian, and he
Speaker 1: talks about like literally gives a step by step journey
Speaker 1: of like every place he kept diaries and everything.
Speaker 9: So which is crazy wow.
Speaker 1: Okay Yeah.
Speaker 4: And so Stan ended up seeing my dad perform with
Speaker 4: his band one day, and my dad was like carrying
Speaker 4: a cassette of me around. He's like, I have a
Speaker 4: daughter and he's like, well, how does she like twenty?
Speaker 4: And he's like she's ten. Wait, she's ten, but she
Speaker 4: can sing. And he's like, what am I going to
Speaker 4: do with a ten year old child? And he's like,
Speaker 4: just listen to it, like she really wants to be
Speaker 4: a singer. So he listened to it, and then his
Speaker 4: idea was, let's get her on Star Search. So I
Speaker 4: was like, I have an idea. I'm gonna direct my
Speaker 4: own video. So yeah, at ten, so we asked.
Speaker 9: The public life prariy in Cedar Falls.
Speaker 8: I know, but I like that.
Speaker 3: She thinks I was funny too, even.
Speaker 1: Like you can't say I with a straight face. That's
Speaker 1: there's all these cities and townships in Iowa. It's the
Speaker 1: whole state. Yeah, anytime you're saying I feel like there's
Speaker 1: a glisten, I see that, all right, all right, Oh
Speaker 1: my god. I don't know if you know there's cities
Speaker 1: in Iowa, but it's just like one state. That's it.
Speaker 1: Everybody from say the city again, God, Theedar Falls anytime you're.
Speaker 9: Love that.
Speaker 4: And so so I asked the public Library Cedar Falls
Speaker 4: if I could use their basement to shoot a video,
Speaker 4: and they're like, okay, whatever. So I got some people
Speaker 4: from the local news news station to come shoot.
Speaker 1: Was connected.
Speaker 9: That was my dad, my dad, Like everybody knew my dad.
Speaker 1: For half a second, I was.
Speaker 4: Like, wait, are you like yeah, yeah, Like, Daddy, can
Speaker 4: we get this person?
Speaker 9: He's like, I'll make a call, and he'd make a call,
Speaker 9: and then it was that easy.
Speaker 4: People were excited because they were like, what You're going
Speaker 4: to try and get on Star Search?
Speaker 9: Like that's cool, we want to be a part of it.
Speaker 4: So I recorded a demo, but the only tracks I
Speaker 4: could find that had no lead vocals.
Speaker 9: Was do Me Baby by Melissam Morgan.
Speaker 1: Songs like.
Speaker 3: And what was the other record?
Speaker 1: Do Baby?
Speaker 9: How will I know? Whitney used to I.
Speaker 12: Don't even want to hear you sing do Me Baby,
Speaker 12: that's weird.
Speaker 1: Get as a baby as.
Speaker 9: A baby, oh yeah, And then the third song was
Speaker 9: missing You Dinah.
Speaker 3: Ross okay, wow, okay, okay.
Speaker 4: So I called all my friends from like school and
Speaker 4: some cousins and they sat on the floor and watched
Speaker 4: me do like this performance and they were like dancing,
Speaker 4: and we sent that video into Star Search and that's
Speaker 4: how I got.
Speaker 1: Onto How long was it before you got the call?
Speaker 9: Like three months later?
Speaker 1: Okay? And now what is your journey to Star Search?
Speaker 8: I auditioned for Star Search. I think I went into
Speaker 8: a room and had to sing and do like a
Speaker 8: full audition and I can't remember how quickly they called
Speaker 8: back because it was so long ago. I was eleven
Speaker 8: at the time.
Speaker 1: But okay, can you walk us through because I always
Speaker 1: wanted to know like the step by step process of
Speaker 1: like do you show up? Are there other kids? Are
Speaker 1: they are?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 8: Yeah, there were backstage, There were backstage moms. Yeah, there
Speaker 8: were kids backstage, you know, warming up. Like you said,
Speaker 8: my mom is a singer also, so everything I did
Speaker 8: on Star Search, my mom coached me, like she was like, Okay,
Speaker 8: put your arms, she said at the end, put your
Speaker 8: arms up in the air like Diana Ross, and then
Speaker 8: look him in the eyes on this part, and then
Speaker 8: walk on this party. And so when backstage I wanted
Speaker 8: to play with the kids, and my mom was like,
Speaker 8: you know what you're gonna do. It's like she was
Speaker 8: literally like biting her nails. She was so scared. And
Speaker 8: I was like, Mom, I got this, I'm fine, I
Speaker 8: got it. And then I went out there and I
Speaker 8: remembered everything she taught me and and I won.
Speaker 1: Were there any in your experiences backstage? Were there any
Speaker 1: notable uh figures that we might know now that we're
Speaker 1: also at.
Speaker 12: Least we remember Tracy the model that would win.
Speaker 14: Like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8: Right, yeah, I remember. I remember her not on my episode,
Speaker 8: but I know there's I mean there's the justin Timberlakes
Speaker 8: and the everybody. He was on there with the girl
Speaker 8: that I.
Speaker 9: Was competing against.
Speaker 4: She was five, and she was the girl who played
Speaker 4: Curly Sue.
Speaker 1: Yo. You want to know something. She is a crazy
Speaker 1: hip hop head, like forgetting you played Curly.
Speaker 4: Suit recently or like a couple of seasons ago or
Speaker 4: before COVID she was on the voice.
Speaker 1: She's doing something active. I think I'm accidentally following her
Speaker 1: whatever the like. She's like we connected for some other reason.
Speaker 1: And then I looked back and I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: this is Curly Sue. And then she's like, yeah, all
Speaker 1: the college, you know, it's all the Roots. And I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to put in my head to that person,
Speaker 1: like I knew who the Roots was. But you know,
Speaker 1: she was a vege.
Speaker 8: You know, I have a guess shout out to Tasha
Speaker 8: Scott because she was the girl that I was up
Speaker 8: against on Star Search and she's she ended up being
Speaker 8: a really big actress. She did uh. She was in
Speaker 8: the TV show sou South Central with Lorenz Tate yeah,
Speaker 8: so yeah, Tasha Scott. Shout out to Tasha Scott so
Speaker 8: she was on my episode.
Speaker 1: How nerve wracking is the experience of star search as
Speaker 1: you're doing it and waiting to be judged on the
Speaker 1: line and all those things, like, especially at that young
Speaker 1: of an age.
Speaker 8: I remember for me, for some reason, I think I
Speaker 8: just kind of blocked it out, Like, but I remember backstage,
Speaker 8: I would hear kids cry, like if they didn't win, right,
Speaker 8: I would. I don't know if you experienced that, but
Speaker 8: I saw kids crying backstage.
Speaker 1: Would you at least get your own like room so
Speaker 1: that you're not like after the battle's over, like, do
Speaker 1: you also have to walk backstage together and stay in
Speaker 1: the same room? And because I would imagine, oh.
Speaker 8: Okay, I just remember a bunch of kids backstage, that's
Speaker 8: all I remember.
Speaker 4: My dad would tell me I couldn't play with them though,
Speaker 4: like you could play with the kids.
Speaker 8: Well, my mom, I was trying to play with the kids,
Speaker 8: and my mom was like, get over here and work
Speaker 8: on that song.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: My dad was like, no, we don't have time for
Speaker 4: that room.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Was that in terms of like for you know,
Speaker 1: like to give you more competitive.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not very competitive in that sense, Like I'm
Speaker 4: just like I want to sing, go.
Speaker 9: Have fun, and my dad just want to play. This
Speaker 9: is a different you know game here, girl.
Speaker 8: My mom was focused on like coaching me. But one
Speaker 8: thing I can I got to give a shout out
Speaker 8: to my mom. She was never a stage mom like
Speaker 8: I wanted to do it, like I was never forced.
Speaker 8: Even when I got my record deal, my mom sat
Speaker 8: me down. I was eleven years old. She said, are
Speaker 8: you sure because you don't have to we don't have
Speaker 8: to do this contract. Are you sure this is what
Speaker 8: you want to do? And I'm like, this is what
Speaker 8: this is my dream? So I was My mom was
Speaker 8: never that stage mom that like forced me. Yeah, Like
Speaker 8: you know, did you.
Speaker 7: Pick out your own dress on Star Search? Me and
Speaker 7: Bill were just the office was so opposite. It was
Speaker 7: so funny. Tracy looked.
Speaker 8: That out that I'd wear that today.
Speaker 2: Me too.
Speaker 12: That's what I was like, one like.
Speaker 8: A fluffy it was made. Mine was custom made.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, taker bell dress.
Speaker 8: I don't know what we were thinking with my dress.
Speaker 1: And there's like, wow, look, you know what did you do?
Speaker 1: You know what you're saying?
Speaker 8: I did the greatest love of All and Somewhere of
Speaker 8: the Rainbow, the Patty the Bell version.
Speaker 1: Why can't I?
Speaker 12: Yeah, that's a good star song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Sam Harris, Yeah, I remember that. They just got
Speaker 1: to the jas like he kept singing it week after
Speaker 1: week after week, and then one day he just came
Speaker 1: out like kept just like two minutes just for that.
Speaker 1: So how many episodes are shot? Is it week by
Speaker 1: week or is it just like you just do a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of episodes until bro, I don't know.
Speaker 8: For me, it was like I won, I sang the
Speaker 8: greatest of Ball one, and then I went back the
Speaker 8: next week and one again when I did uh Somewhere
Speaker 8: with the Rainbow, and then I won. That was the finals.
Speaker 8: So I only did like two performances.
Speaker 4: I did three against well two against just me and
Speaker 4: Alison Porter. That was her name early, so Alison Porter.
Speaker 4: And then we kept tying. So then they brought a
Speaker 4: third person in for the semi finals. Different yet they
Speaker 4: brought they could not because when they would have the
Speaker 4: judges vote, it was the same, like it was even.
Speaker 12: Four point five y.
Speaker 4: So yeah, they brought a third girl in and then
Speaker 4: I beat both of them and I was like.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, I remember when I won, I got to
Speaker 8: say this, Ed McMahon threw he was so excited that
Speaker 8: I wanted He threw the envelope up in the air, like, oh,
Speaker 8: he was really happy that I won.
Speaker 1: So immediately, How fast did the record deals come after
Speaker 1: Star Search? Like, what's the path to getting the record deal?
Speaker 1: Is it demos? First meeting a producer?
Speaker 8: Then for me? Uh, I did star Search and then
Speaker 8: right after Star Search, John McClain heard me and singing
Speaker 8: and I was singing in a musical. He heard me sing,
Speaker 8: he said, you wanted to sign me? Like immediately, I
Speaker 8: sat in Herb Alpert's office and had to sing for
Speaker 8: him a cappella and I sang for herb Alfred Nerve
Speaker 8: and I had a deal. It was like it was
Speaker 8: like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we've been in existence for seven years and
Speaker 1: one of the most elusive characters of all time is
Speaker 1: John McClain and literally, like this this show might as
Speaker 1: well be called six Degrees to John McClain. Literally he's
Speaker 1: connected to everyone, but he's so elusive. He even gifted
Speaker 1: me John Robinson's off the Wall snare like the rock
Speaker 1: with You intro snare like I have that, But he
Speaker 1: won't meet me, right.
Speaker 8: I haven't seen John. I talked to him like the Okay,
Speaker 8: the day Michael passed away, I talked to John, and
Speaker 8: then after that I haven't. I haven't talked to him since.
Speaker 8: Like it's hard to reach him, it's so hard to read.
Speaker 8: But he reached out through email and wanted me to
Speaker 8: sing on the behind the mask after Michael passed and
Speaker 8: I did that and that was because of John McClain. Wow,
Speaker 8: but I haven't seen him physically, seen him physically in years.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you got to be as proxy, like what
Speaker 1: is he like and why he's so damn mysterious.
Speaker 8: Well, I haven't seen it in a long time. But
Speaker 8: he for me when I was younger, he was like
Speaker 8: a father figure to me. He's a great musician. He's
Speaker 8: a guitarist. I don't know if you know that he
Speaker 8: plays guitar. He was very, very a strict too, Like
Speaker 8: he told me, like he sat me down. He says, Okay,
Speaker 8: you're an artist. Now, you make sure when you go out,
Speaker 8: when you walk out the door, make sure you have
Speaker 8: your your clothes are together, make sure you look right.
Speaker 8: You know, when you're going to the grocery store, you
Speaker 8: gotta look good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love looking but.
Speaker 8: No, he was.
Speaker 9: He was.
Speaker 8: He really believed him in my project, and he really
Speaker 8: believed in me. And I just wanted if John's listening,
Speaker 8: I love you, I miss you, and I hope to
Speaker 8: see him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, come and get your flowers on the show. Stop
Speaker 1: avoiding us. So the way that I uh was aware
Speaker 1: of you was actually because I was a major, major
Speaker 1: fan of Brian Lorin. Yeah, so you know Brian. His
Speaker 1: first single, Lollipop Love, was like a major jam in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: So anything that I saw with his name on it,
Speaker 1: I was just like, oh, it must be a jam
Speaker 1: because he did it. So I didn't know about you whatever.
Speaker 1: And the thing that was really shocked about was Okay,
Speaker 1: So at the time, I was I hate sound like Grandpa.
Speaker 1: Before stream before before streaming, there was Columbia House and
Speaker 1: so right, so the way that Columbia House before streaming, the.
Speaker 5: Way that twelve albums for a dollar, right you get
Speaker 5: they get you to or it was the original Spotify.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was like you get fifteen joints for free.
Speaker 1: But the hard part about Columbia House is that they
Speaker 1: will then send you a whole bunch of other records
Speaker 1: and if you don't want them, you have.
Speaker 3: To send it back, but charge you for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sort of knowing the lazy nature of how Americans are.
Speaker 1: Then it's like, I don't feel like mailing that back.
Speaker 1: So pretty much between.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that was the scam. Basically, it's like, how
Speaker 3: like when you sign up for car.
Speaker 5: If you like streaming service, to give you like a
Speaker 5: trial period credit card and if you don't cancel it,
Speaker 5: then that was what Columbia's Okay, So the trick is
Speaker 5: to sign up with a car that's gonna.
Speaker 1: In your grandma yeah, expired like a week in your
Speaker 1: uncle's name, and your grandma is your next door name.
Speaker 1: So this is how like a line share of what
Speaker 1: I know about music, Like I didn't feel like mailing
Speaker 1: back those Debbie Gibson things. So she was troubling there like,
Speaker 1: well you really know my music? I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like I didn't feel like mailing the thing back, so
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, listening to what she has
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Yeah, So when I got it and I
Speaker 1: saw Brian Leman say all right, let me listen to it.
Speaker 1: But not only in my opinion, was the record adult,
Speaker 1: but it was actually like amazingly like ass kicking, because normally,
Speaker 1: I know, like when music comes from anyone under the
Speaker 1: age of twenty one, they'll really try to like pander
Speaker 1: to an artist, Like even Candy Girl feels like it's
Speaker 1: an elementary school jam, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: not I can't imagine Lou Rawl singing to the music
Speaker 1: of Candy Girl. Yeah, but like no half step in
Speaker 1: and Yo, here's the funny thing. First car accident ever,
Speaker 1: I think he's so cute. Just came at the top,
Speaker 1: just came side too. So the music process of making
Speaker 1: that first record.
Speaker 8: Like how well I got to say this Before I
Speaker 8: get into Brian Lawrenn, I have to mention when I
Speaker 8: signed to A and M Records, the first producer I
Speaker 8: worked with was Tina Marie What. I was eleven years old.
Speaker 8: She wrote a song I'm gonna senditarybody because I want
Speaker 8: you to hear it. It was called you Met Your Match.
Speaker 8: She wrote that for me. I have I have a
Speaker 8: I have it on I just downloaded, so I'll send
Speaker 8: it to you guys. But I did a song with Tina,
Speaker 8: Ricky Bell and Rob Trestspan from New Edition produce a
Speaker 8: record on me. I did a whole album. I did
Speaker 8: a whole album that didn't that was never released because
Speaker 8: John wanted to change the direction. I had Dick Rudolph
Speaker 8: who was there to mean repertend. He was the executive producer,
Speaker 8: and I worked with Leon Ware. Wait, yeah, I have
Speaker 8: all these songs that was never released. So after a
Speaker 8: while my voice started to change and John said, no,
Speaker 8: I want to change the direction. So he put me
Speaker 8: in a studio with Brian Lawrenn and Brian Laren did
Speaker 8: that the Discovery did the whole album. We did that
Speaker 8: album probably in like two to three months, like it
Speaker 8: didn't take us long to record. But I was super
Speaker 8: I'm a shy person naturally, but I was super shy then.
Speaker 8: And I just remember in the studio Brian Laurn with
Speaker 8: all those ad libs and all of that stuff. Was
Speaker 8: Brian Laren like he said, do this, do this, try this, run,
Speaker 8: do this harmony. So I learned so much from Brian Laren.
Speaker 8: But towards the end, I gotta tell you, this story
Speaker 8: is hilarious. So I was really shy about ad libs
Speaker 8: and I'm just learning how to record and all this stuff.
Speaker 8: So he got tired of giving me all of my
Speaker 8: parts and my ad libs. So I was singing a
Speaker 8: song called the Way You Love Me? Right, okay, right,
Speaker 8: and so I'm waiting for him to give me the
Speaker 8: next part, the next ad lib and he's like, I'm
Speaker 8: tired of giving you ad libs. He said, you figure
Speaker 8: it out yourself, and he just let the track run
Speaker 8: and walked out the door. And I was and all
Speaker 8: of a sudden, at the end when I hit that
Speaker 8: long note at the end, I would I hit this
Speaker 8: long note, it just held it. And then that was
Speaker 8: my first time at living by myself. So I was
Speaker 8: super excited and Brian I did do unsung, and Brian
Speaker 8: I came on. He did my unsung with me, and
Speaker 8: he told me, he said, you know what I never
Speaker 8: got to tell you as a kid, but I was
Speaker 8: really proud of you. You know what you did on
Speaker 8: the Way You Loved Me. But he was very Brian
Speaker 8: Levren was very very hard on me, like very hard
Speaker 8: on me. When I did the whistle note on just
Speaker 8: the Game, he was like, I couldn't figure out how
Speaker 8: to hit the note. And he was like he pulled
Speaker 8: a lot out of me that I didn't think I
Speaker 8: had in me.
Speaker 1: For you over the hours, like like what's your general
Speaker 1: daily regiment for that period of making your first record?
Speaker 1: Like where's school balance? Where's home balance?
Speaker 8: Yeah? I think I was. I was still in school,
Speaker 8: so I would go to school and then right after school,
Speaker 8: I'd go straight to the studio and I literally I
Speaker 8: watched Brian like those tracks and everything. I watched I
Speaker 8: sit there and watch him write the songs and make
Speaker 8: the beats. And I would be in the studio till
Speaker 8: from getting out of school till like nighttime basically, and
Speaker 8: I would just sit there and watch him create the songs.
Speaker 8: And he played on everything like nobody there was no
Speaker 8: musicians on the record, Like Brian played the guitar, the bass,
Speaker 8: the everything on the record. Oh and Karen White sang
Speaker 8: backgrounds on kay Dance. Really, I know a lot of
Speaker 8: people don't know that.
Speaker 1: Yes, were you two allowed at all to have a
Speaker 1: say like I like the song, what do you think
Speaker 1: of this song? Like does that question ever get asked
Speaker 1: or was it like Okay, here's the chart and we're
Speaker 1: gonna just go song for song and this is what
Speaker 1: you're going to sing. Are you giving any leverage or agency?
Speaker 8: And back then I kind of just listened to the
Speaker 8: label back then. And as I got older, you know,
Speaker 8: I'm like, I kind of I know, you know, I
Speaker 8: started to learn who I am and what I like
Speaker 8: and what I don't like, and you know, but back then, no,
Speaker 8: I just I just listened.
Speaker 1: Now in your case, now, I know at the time
Speaker 1: when your first album comes out, you were eleven twelve,
Speaker 1: so I know you probably can't answer this question, but
Speaker 1: I always marvel, So yes, hide to see she was
Speaker 1: that was way too grown.
Speaker 12: About playing games.
Speaker 8: A different time different.
Speaker 1: The thing is that I brought this up on previous
Speaker 1: episodes before. There's this amazement I have whenever an album
Speaker 1: comes out and the first song is a balance.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I thought the same thing, right.
Speaker 1: And that's the first thing. I was like, whoa she opened,
Speaker 1: because I would have thought like, at least Symtms of
Speaker 1: True Love would be like the first song that would
Speaker 1: red carpet us to your world. But they started with
Speaker 1: Hide and Seek, so and yes, it was a mature
Speaker 1: song for an eleven year old to sink. So what
Speaker 1: was the process of you making your debut record?
Speaker 4: Similar to Shanese is in the sense that right after
Speaker 4: Star Search, I got phone calls from Capito CBS Records
Speaker 4: at the time, and from A and M too, but
Speaker 4: you were already signed and that they were like, well,
Speaker 4: that's not gonna make it. Like in their mind they're like,
Speaker 4: we can't have.
Speaker 13: Two Toddlers record.
Speaker 1: Is that really true? Because even like jan would have
Speaker 1: probably ran down here to have it, because he has
Speaker 1: his own questions, because even he said it was such
Speaker 1: an injustice. I mean, I can't get the quote right now,
Speaker 1: but he's like it was such an injustice because he
Speaker 1: feels as though because of Janet's presence there, like had
Speaker 1: you been on another label with that record, it would
Speaker 1: have yielded way different results. But do you generally feel
Speaker 1: does the consensus here at the table feel that that's true,
Speaker 1: Like there can only be one person of a certain.
Speaker 8: For some reason, I feel like there's room for everybody.
Speaker 8: It just don't put them out at the same time.
Speaker 8: But I think everybody everybody is unique in their own way.
Speaker 8: But with labels, for some reason, they have a hard time,
Speaker 8: like they picked one person.
Speaker 12: They want to really push.
Speaker 8: And then I feel like with the Discovery album, I
Speaker 8: felt like I kind of got lost in the shuffle.
Speaker 8: I really do, because I really did love what Brian did.
Speaker 8: I really loved my first I don't know what the.
Speaker 1: End results were was it? Was it a gold record?
Speaker 8: Or uh? Can you dance? I think we're number one
Speaker 8: in a billboard and everything. Uh as far as sales,
Speaker 8: I don't even remember thinking went gold. I think it
Speaker 8: went cold.
Speaker 1: But at that time in your life, did you I mean,
Speaker 1: did you have to worry with all to know?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 1: Were you like obsessively looking at billboard? And did you
Speaker 1: know what the bullet was? Did you?
Speaker 8: I didn't know at first, but I started I learned
Speaker 8: real fad. I just started learning.
Speaker 7: Yeah, wait, can we ask the ad lib question for
Speaker 7: Tracy in the album? Because now that I know how
Speaker 7: old you were, now I want to know when it
Speaker 7: came to the ad libs for those songs, cause I'm
Speaker 7: just seeing you in the studio singing hide and Seek.
Speaker 12: Like, why are you like it? With all this but
Speaker 12: not knowing that's how I used to sing it in
Speaker 12: my mirror?
Speaker 8: Why are you?
Speaker 12: Seriously though?
Speaker 7: But how do you do that as a young girl
Speaker 7: singing these words and just making it sound like you
Speaker 7: just know exactly what you're doing, exactly how people are
Speaker 7: supposed to feel when they listen to this song, like,
Speaker 7: how do you do that as a child?
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, that's interesting because yeah, when people listen to it,
Speaker 4: they're like, you sound like you you might know.
Speaker 9: What you're talking about.
Speaker 4: I had no clue what I was talking about, but
Speaker 4: a lot of it had to do with my dad.
Speaker 4: He would sit in the studio with me and he
Speaker 4: would help me with ad libs. And the girl who
Speaker 4: did the demo because the producer was.
Speaker 1: Ali Brown, former Jackson's drummer, you know, and Jerry.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and she would sitting there and sit in the
Speaker 4: booth with me as well and help me get through
Speaker 4: it as well, because I mean, being in a studio
Speaker 4: was a whole new territory and I was working out
Speaker 4: of Ray Parker Junior's studio, and just the history behind that.
Speaker 1: Of course, they were both Stevie Wonders disciples, so of course, yeah,
Speaker 1: I see that connection now.
Speaker 7: And then singing, imagine who decided that you were going
Speaker 7: to this was the thing to sing?
Speaker 1: A manage?
Speaker 4: This is an interesting story. But I went to see
Speaker 4: the movie Cry Freedom. Okay, yes, and after seeing that movie,
Speaker 4: I've always been a huge Beatles fan too growing up,
Speaker 4: and something about seeing that movie remembering that song, and
Speaker 4: I remember into my remember saying to my manager, I said,
Speaker 4: I want to remake Imagine, and he's like, Weld's Capital
Speaker 4: should be easy to do.
Speaker 9: They were part of the were part of Capital, and
Speaker 9: so it was. It was. It was very easy to
Speaker 9: get that done.
Speaker 4: And I recorded it at in Capitol Records, at the studio,
Speaker 4: same studio.
Speaker 1: So it slight confession time, because again I love dismantling
Speaker 1: people's lord no, no, no no. I love dismantling people's thoughts
Speaker 1: of me and being like the all knowings are of music.
Speaker 1: But I'll admit that maybe the first time that I
Speaker 1: completely heard Imagine was her version. I knew it was
Speaker 1: John Lennon's, but it's not like I'm going to gravitate
Speaker 1: to his. And you know, John was always on bet
Speaker 1: and like everywhere, so brilliant. Yeah. I think most Beatles
Speaker 1: songs have come to me through black people first, and.
Speaker 14: Then yeah, I'm sorry, that's John.
Speaker 12: Yeah, that's okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So was was Ali the sole producer of the
Speaker 1: first record or did you work with multiple producers.
Speaker 9: I worked with a couple other producers. Do not ask
Speaker 9: me who they were at this point.
Speaker 1: One of them yes, Wayne, that's.
Speaker 4: The name of the and are the album okay?
Speaker 12: Yeah?
Speaker 4: But Ali Brown was brought into to help kind of
Speaker 4: shape and mold the album and create the sound to
Speaker 4: what they were looking for because at first they really
Speaker 4: didn't know. They were saying, let's, you know, dress her
Speaker 4: up and make her into like a mini Diana Ross.
Speaker 4: And as much as I'm going Diana Ross.
Speaker 9: I'd love to be done. And then my dad was like,
Speaker 9: I don't get it, Like, how is that going to work?
Speaker 4: And to put her in gowns and have you know,
Speaker 4: eleven year old prancing around singing loves and so they
Speaker 4: were like, okay, that's.
Speaker 8: Not going to work.
Speaker 9: They just didn't really know what to do.
Speaker 1: There was no precedent for any of you, because I mean,
Speaker 1: by eighty six eighty seven, you know, I mean we
Speaker 1: had a new addition, like someone young, but really, who
Speaker 1: are you guys looking up to as far as like
Speaker 1: your age proximity? Janet maybe, but even that, she's like twenty,
Speaker 1: so she like an adult.
Speaker 8: She was definitely running the industry then, definitely, but.
Speaker 1: To YouTube she seemed like an adult correct, like in
Speaker 1: our eyes, Yeah, we still had like Penny and Penny
Speaker 1: grew up a little bit and yeah, whatever, but.
Speaker 8: The addition that was good, Like I was a huge
Speaker 8: addition fan.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Otherwise, yeah, I was listening to the Beatles, or I
Speaker 4: was listening to Whitney and yeah Whitney or three or.
Speaker 8: Some Yes, yeah we were listening to grown ups.
Speaker 12: Yeah we were sounded like.
Speaker 1: So can you talk about the process, because I mean
Speaker 1: both both these albums made impacts and splashes. Can you
Speaker 1: talk about the process of like what it was like
Speaker 1: promoting and especially like at the time when I do
Speaker 1: know that like between Debbie Gibson and Tiffany there was
Speaker 1: like mall activity and learning learning alternative at all.
Speaker 8: I never did a mall toy, did you ever do?
Speaker 8: I wait, wait, hold up, I'll take that back. I've
Speaker 8: done some all but I never did like a full toy.
Speaker 8: But I've done some parents and I've done some mall stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Those were weird.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I can't say I enjoyed them, no, but I
Speaker 8: enjoyed it because I love seeing all the people, Like
Speaker 8: I love seeing a crowd, and you know, people were
Speaker 8: singing my songs, and so I always I always enjoy
Speaker 8: whether that be at the mall or you know, in
Speaker 8: a theater. I just always loved seeing people.
Speaker 1: So what was your mall experiences?
Speaker 12: Like weird?
Speaker 4: Actually, the first song I ever sang at a mall,
Speaker 4: this is gonna be very very weird, was the Rainbow Connection.
Speaker 9: But I did have Kermit with me.
Speaker 7: I did.
Speaker 1: That's cool. I love this person, the founder, all right.
Speaker 1: So Bill Shermon right here. Uh, you know, in addition
Speaker 1: to his illustrious credits as part of the team that
Speaker 1: brought you Hamilton and and and the Heights and other things.
Speaker 1: But you know, Bill Shermon is basically the the Joe
Speaker 1: When I say the Joe ripos of Sesame Street. Uh,
Speaker 1: he all things music right now, like he runs Sesame Street.
Speaker 1: So and I just learned I'm talking about me. Move on,
Speaker 1: you know what. I just taking flowers Bill.
Speaker 8: I just did the Sesame Street did a reboot called
Speaker 8: the Megabuilders.
Speaker 1: I heard this today. Yeah, you guys know this.
Speaker 7: I did it.
Speaker 1: I don't work on that particular thing, but it is
Speaker 1: great and you sound I did listen to it today. Sound,
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 8: So that was excited with.
Speaker 6: It's a cartoon with Elmo Abbey and Cookie Monster where
Speaker 6: they're they're they're like Superheroes superes.
Speaker 1: And the last and another episode is se Sime Street
Speaker 1: thinking about pivoting off of the formula that we know.
Speaker 1: I didn't.
Speaker 6: Oh well, I mean they just do like side other
Speaker 6: shows and a lot of more animated stuff.
Speaker 8: So this is just another it's animated.
Speaker 3: It's really cool.
Speaker 1: And you sound great songs, good sound great. Thank you
Speaker 1: people apar So okay, so you saying Rainbow Connection at
Speaker 1: the mall?
Speaker 6: I did nice at the all.
Speaker 9: That's the thing. It was my own personal kerment.
Speaker 12: Oh no, no, you didn't say that. Okay, that's definitely.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 12: Did do you know?
Speaker 7: I do?
Speaker 12: Not personally?
Speaker 1: But I okay, let's so. Can can you tell us
Speaker 1: what it was like working with na on your sophomore record?
Speaker 8: Oh my goodness. Working with Narda was the best. He
Speaker 8: did the whole entire album. Uh. The first day I
Speaker 8: met him, he said, write down a bunch of titles, like,
Speaker 8: just just come up with some titles off the top
Speaker 8: of your head. And I came. I came up with
Speaker 8: every title on the album except Silent Prayer. He had
Speaker 8: Silent Prayer already written with John Johnny, he had that
Speaker 8: already wtten. All of the titles Oh yeah, Yeah, he's very, very,
Speaker 8: very gentle and kind. But vocally like he pulled a
Speaker 8: lot out of me. All the songs were like in
Speaker 8: like a high range. I remember saying, Nay, can we
Speaker 8: bring the key down just a little bit. He says, no, you.
Speaker 1: Can do it, you can do it, so he pushes.
Speaker 8: He really pushed me.
Speaker 1: I was going to say for him to work with
Speaker 1: because he works with powerhouse singers like.
Speaker 4: With me.
Speaker 1: But he's so gentle that I can't imagine, Like in
Speaker 1: Luther's memoir, Luther talks about like does he have a kind.
Speaker 8: Of No, he was very yeah, like he pulled a
Speaker 8: lout of me. But like you said, he was very
Speaker 8: like kind and gentle and and in the studio there
Speaker 8: was candles everywhere, so it was like the environment was
Speaker 8: just really just calm and relaxing. So and then I'm
Speaker 8: a teenager and it just I don't know, it just
Speaker 8: it was great. I have no complaints. Every song that
Speaker 8: we did I just fell in love with. Like every
Speaker 8: song we recorded ended up on the album. There wasn't
Speaker 8: a song that we recorded that didn't make it, Like
Speaker 8: did I.
Speaker 1: Love your Smile? Was that the last thing you guys.
Speaker 8: Made I think that was Tours. I think it was
Speaker 8: Toys the end. It wasn't the last song, but it
Speaker 8: was towards the end.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it's always the last thing recorded.
Speaker 8: I got to say this about I Love Your Smile.
Speaker 8: I came up with the title because people say I
Speaker 8: smile all the time, they say always. Really, I came
Speaker 8: up with the title. I helped. I co wrote the
Speaker 8: song with him and his team. But I didn't think
Speaker 8: it was the right first single.
Speaker 1: You think it was. You didn't know the song.
Speaker 8: No, I did it. I because at the time, I'm
Speaker 8: gonna be honest, I listened to a lot of hip hop,
Speaker 8: like I love rap, and I just felt like it's
Speaker 8: not hard enough, like it's too soft, it's too it's
Speaker 8: too happy, it's too you know. I said, people are
Speaker 8: gonna laugh at me and think I'm corny. And and
Speaker 8: so I remember sitting in Joe Busby's office and he
Speaker 8: told me I Love Your Smile is going to be
Speaker 8: the first single, and I said, no, it should be
Speaker 8: side in prayer with Johnny Gil don't put out I
Speaker 8: Love your Smile. And he says, I'm not changing it.
Speaker 8: It's I Love your Smile. And I remember crying. I
Speaker 8: was in his office crying because I thought it was
Speaker 8: the wrong first single. I was like, no, people are
Speaker 8: gonna love and because I've done and everything I wanted to,
Speaker 8: I wanted to be low key. I was a rapper
Speaker 8: in my head and so I wanted to rap. And
Speaker 8: I was like, but this rap doesn't sound hard, like
Speaker 8: empty Light and.
Speaker 1: Pepa, who are you looking at? At the time, I was.
Speaker 8: Like, this is what I wanted to be. Empty Light,
Speaker 8: so wow, the Salt Pepper, Queen Latifa, and as I
Speaker 8: got a little older, Little Kim like, no, that sounds crazy.
Speaker 8: I told Little Kim that I was a big fan
Speaker 8: and she was like, oh my gosh, you listened to
Speaker 8: my music. I'm like, yes, I love your music, so
Speaker 8: I'm a big hip hop fan.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, there's something there's something about that
Speaker 1: song that I don't know how to accurately describe earth
Speaker 1: Wind and Fires music, inters like, there's something so joyous.
Speaker 1: And what I specifically remember about the release of that
Speaker 1: song was that song came right when the Desert Storm
Speaker 1: war was happening.
Speaker 8: That's why I wanted Silent Prayer first because of the war.
Speaker 1: But what you don't know is. Yeah, it was. That
Speaker 1: was such a dark time, like.
Speaker 5: Barbenheimer right, exactly, such a dark time, but because the song,
Speaker 5: it was a joyous song. But I never I mean,
Speaker 5: I was God twelve I think when it came out.
Speaker 5: But but nah, man, that record it was. I was
Speaker 5: a huge hip hop fan as well, but that was
Speaker 5: always a song that it never it was joyous.
Speaker 3: But we never thought.
Speaker 5: It was corny, like we were.
Speaker 1: It to be hard. You just accepted you need a
Speaker 1: balance and that's the thing. And I understand what you mean,
Speaker 1: Like some artists don't like again, this is it's showing
Speaker 1: joy in that level of ability, like people think like
Speaker 1: you're weak or whatever, like come on, but that song,
Speaker 1: that song like was necessary. And even though like I'm
Speaker 1: at the time when what ninety one? Yeah yeah, I
Speaker 1: was like twenty, so not like I consider it my
Speaker 1: part of the psychographic like that your age. But even
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, this song makes me ask.
Speaker 8: I'm so glad I could make people happy with.
Speaker 1: That song and it still works today.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Wait, I gotta say this. I went online and
Speaker 8: Snoop Dogg was on Instagram singing I love your smile,
Speaker 8: and I was thinking back, like wow, I thought people
Speaker 8: were going to think I was corny and the hardest
Speaker 8: of the hardest Snoop Dogg is sitting there singing, I
Speaker 8: love your smile, and then Chris Brown thanks.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 8: I decided, oh my gosh, thank.
Speaker 12: You Chris, about a reinventtion of a song. What did
Speaker 12: you think when you first heard that?
Speaker 8: I loved it? What happened was I'm going to tell
Speaker 8: you how this happened. So Bill Bellamy called Flex and said,
Speaker 8: Chris Brown is trying to reach you in Shyese. And
Speaker 8: he was like, in Flex, said the singer Chris, and
Speaker 8: Bill Bellamy said, Noah, the preacher. You know they're comedians.
Speaker 8: So they so he gave gave us a Chris's number,
Speaker 8: and Chris just wanted to get my approval before the label,
Speaker 8: you know, had to clear it and all that. He
Speaker 8: wanted me to hear it first, to see if I
Speaker 8: approved it first and if I liked it, And they
Speaker 8: sent me the song. I loved it, and I'm like, yes,
Speaker 8: please do it.
Speaker 7: I carried that feeling, that joy feeling that was kind
Speaker 7: of crazy everybody between him and Beyonce, what they did
Speaker 7: to those two songs, like the Frankie Bever was a
Speaker 7: beautiful rebi.
Speaker 12: I just wanted to know the do do?
Speaker 1: Was that?
Speaker 12: Do do do?
Speaker 1: Do do?
Speaker 12: Was that on paper? Or was that just like, oh,
Speaker 12: I'm feeling this.
Speaker 8: We wanted to have like a catchy like we wanted
Speaker 8: to have something where like whatever language you speak, you know,
Speaker 8: you could sing along to it. So anybody could sing that,
Speaker 8: whether you're you speak Spanish, French, whatever. So that's where
Speaker 8: that camera.
Speaker 12: And why brand for Marcella's because that just felt.
Speaker 8: Well, you know what, I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 8: Brandford Marcella's played on the song, and he played on
Speaker 8: it before I recorded, so I didn't get to work
Speaker 8: with brand for Marcello's. I still haven't even met Brandford Marcella.
Speaker 8: I promise you wait.
Speaker 1: Do we ask Branford about that? On his he teaches.
Speaker 5: Uh at my alma Model, North Colina Central and Durham. Okay,
Speaker 5: so he's still there.
Speaker 3: We had him on the joke a while, But.
Speaker 8: You want to talk to him. I would love to
Speaker 8: talk to him. We have a record together. We didn't
Speaker 8: even like, we've never been on stage together.
Speaker 7: It's possible, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: There's a question I've been dying to ask Okay, so
Speaker 1: climbing what I call Mount Minnie is a task. Why
Speaker 1: what was the process of making remaking Loving You for
Speaker 1: your album?
Speaker 8: You know, I was in the studio just playing around
Speaker 8: and Narda heard me just singing Loving You off the
Speaker 8: top of my head, and he was like, we got
Speaker 8: to do that, We have to do that. So I
Speaker 8: called Dick Rudolph and you know, he co wrote it,
Speaker 8: so he gave me the approval to do it, and
Speaker 8: we did it. And I love that song so much
Speaker 8: that I recorded twice. So I put out an independent
Speaker 8: project called every Woman Dreams in like two thousand and six, okay,
Speaker 8: and I put Loving You on it again because I
Speaker 8: love it. I love it so much.
Speaker 1: The process of you doing the Make the Difference record,
Speaker 1: what was different than the first time around? Besides obviously
Speaker 1: you being a little bit older and whatnot. Was there
Speaker 1: discussion on like where to go creatively or any of
Speaker 1: those things?
Speaker 4: And around time I even got to work with Narda
Speaker 4: Michael Walden too, And yes, because when I went to
Speaker 4: his studio and he had the Maryland Rode pictures, yeah
Speaker 4: he did of you.
Speaker 9: And yes love that picture.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And we never put those out.
Speaker 9: Knowing they're gorgeous.
Speaker 4: He had those at the studio and I went to
Speaker 4: meet with him just to like explore and try to
Speaker 4: come up with some ideas. And at the at that time,
Speaker 4: I had gotten approach to do a song for Super
Speaker 4: Mario Brothers.
Speaker 9: And I had just gone.
Speaker 3: Through okay, just like.
Speaker 4: Not for the video game, but for the first movie.
Speaker 1: This guy doing.
Speaker 4: No and so he wrote a song specifically for that,
Speaker 4: And I had just gotten out of I had just
Speaker 4: gotten out of a relationship, so I was like a
Speaker 4: little girl having.
Speaker 9: Issues.
Speaker 1: So anyway, yeah, I totally forgot to ask, like what
Speaker 1: are your lives into at this point, and like because
Speaker 1: your celebrities and I'm certain that you're protected by family
Speaker 1: and whatnot and brothers and all that stuff. So and
Speaker 1: there's no cell phone, so you tell me back then.
Speaker 8: When we had kids, For me, my grandmother was my
Speaker 8: tour manager.
Speaker 1: Sheltered. My grandmother toured the world.
Speaker 8: She came with me to Japan, Europe and all those countries,
Speaker 8: and and my grandmother we shared a room together. I
Speaker 8: stay in the same room with my grandma. So yeah,
Speaker 8: I was very sheltered, which I'm glad because now that
Speaker 8: I'm older and I have kids too now, so I
Speaker 8: hear all the horror stories about how people can take
Speaker 8: advantage and all that stuff. So I'm glad that my
Speaker 8: family was there. But I remember being frustrated because I
Speaker 8: was like, I'm eighteen now, like can I have my
Speaker 8: own hotel room? I sleep in my own room. So
Speaker 8: I was very well protected, and I'm so glad I
Speaker 8: had my grandmother, my mom. My mom would travel with me,
Speaker 8: or my grandmother would travel with me.
Speaker 1: What's your social circle like at this point, like in
Speaker 1: terms of like friends, and like.
Speaker 8: I don't know, you want to answer, was that for
Speaker 8: her and me or both?
Speaker 4: My circle over time has gotten real small, and that's
Speaker 4: by choice, you know, either people grow with you or
Speaker 4: they grow away from you.
Speaker 9: And also.
Speaker 4: I don't have like a ton of industry friends. That
Speaker 4: was never really my thing.
Speaker 9: I have a lot of like regular people.
Speaker 1: You weren't hanging just kermit.
Speaker 4: I mean at the time, Like, yeah, when I was younger,
Speaker 4: most of my friends were industry because.
Speaker 9: That was my life.
Speaker 4: I was on the road all the time, and I
Speaker 4: went to Catholic school. But I didn't really get along
Speaker 4: with many of I didn't see them enough. I was
Speaker 4: just like this figure that kind of walked in in
Speaker 4: her plaid skirts.
Speaker 12: And walked right back out.
Speaker 9: They're like, who is she?
Speaker 8: You know?
Speaker 4: It was very weird, a weird time. So I didn't
Speaker 4: have any friends, and.
Speaker 8: My friends I actually have the same I have the
Speaker 8: same friends since second grade and some of my friends
Speaker 8: still since still yeah, since high school and second grade.
Speaker 8: So when I find a good friend, I hold on too,
Speaker 8: like the real ones, you know. And and that's why Tracy.
Speaker 8: I never looked at her as an industry friend. Like
Speaker 8: I used to go and spend a night at her
Speaker 8: house and everything, like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what did you two first meet?
Speaker 8: We can't remember how we met. We just notice.
Speaker 4: But we It was weird because, yeah, our personalities are
Speaker 4: kind of similar. It's like we do compliment each other
Speaker 4: with our personalities that when we are When we were together,
Speaker 4: we didn't.
Speaker 9: Really even talk about industry industry.
Speaker 8: We never talked about music or anything. We just laughed
Speaker 8: and hung out.
Speaker 1: Were your parents because I also know that some families
Speaker 1: will be like that's the competition, like no, no, no, But.
Speaker 8: My family, my family wasn't like that. But they could
Speaker 8: pick up on energy and if somebody wasn't cool, they'd
Speaker 8: say I don't know, the energy is not cool, but
Speaker 8: they never They've always loved Tracy. It was never issue
Speaker 8: with Tracy, but with a lot of there's a lot
Speaker 8: of industry people that my mom would go, oh no, no, no.
Speaker 9: We're not going to throw people. There are a lot
Speaker 9: of industry people that were not very.
Speaker 8: Kind, not very not very nice.
Speaker 9: They didn't really like us, with.
Speaker 12: Bad impressions too for y'all because y'all were like untouched.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no new addition, hangout and at the time, do
Speaker 8: you remember there's a question when you were signed to
Speaker 8: Capitol when you do interviews. They had first of all,
Speaker 8: they had someone to coach me to teach me how
Speaker 8: to do an interview because I'm very shy. I would
Speaker 8: give like yes and no answers and stuff like that.
Speaker 8: So they taught me that if you're in a relationship,
Speaker 8: you couldn't you had to lie about it. Yes, I
Speaker 8: had to lie like I had like a boy like
Speaker 8: if I had a boyfriend back then, I had to say,
Speaker 8: you couldn't. You couldn't say it in an interview they
Speaker 8: want because yeah, they said, well, boys, you're going to
Speaker 8: lose your matle fans if you have a boyfriends. I
Speaker 8: remember I did a lot of lion.
Speaker 1: But you know how especially in times where like where
Speaker 1: where zoom is not a thing, where the internet, like
Speaker 1: long distance is a real thing to Chang Chi Chin
Speaker 1: Chi ching? Was it also a lonely existence like being
Speaker 1: a goldfish in terms of like, you know, you're a
Speaker 1: product and you want to take time out and I
Speaker 1: want to go to this concert or I want to
Speaker 1: see that movie, or I want to hang what do
Speaker 1: you guys doing? We're going to the birthday party?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Was there ever those situations where it's just like you're
Speaker 1: living a life that most of your friends don't get
Speaker 1: to experience.
Speaker 4: That was hard because I liked sports and I ran
Speaker 4: track and I played basketball, and that stuff kind of
Speaker 4: got taken away from me.
Speaker 3: What was your track do you remember?
Speaker 8: I don't remember.
Speaker 9: I was good at I was really good at the
Speaker 9: one hundred meter dash. I'm very fast.
Speaker 1: I'm very fast, probably not an athletic.
Speaker 5: It's like one hundred meters, run as fast as you can,
Speaker 5: and yeah, the winner is the across project.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so if you weren't singing, you would have probably.
Speaker 9: Been a track star. No, no, not at all. No
Speaker 9: for me, growing, growing, up. It was either singing or
Speaker 9: wanting to be a doctor, like I always had.
Speaker 12: What we heard you went to do?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 12: That was a rumor. It was like Tracy Spencer. I
Speaker 12: heard she was a veterinarian song.
Speaker 9: Okay, taking care of your pet?
Speaker 7: No.
Speaker 4: I am in medical school though, but okay, yeah, what
Speaker 4: year are you?
Speaker 1: You're going to be doctor Spencer?
Speaker 9: Not a doctor. I'll end up being a p A
Speaker 9: though that's the goal position.
Speaker 3: You can write scripts though you didn't write, and you
Speaker 3: can write scripts? Yeah, so what do you need something?
Speaker 3: I lived a lot of life.
Speaker 9: I really don't want to.
Speaker 3: Really far are you into completion?
Speaker 9: Like?
Speaker 4: How much the program I'm in right now will be
Speaker 4: done by the summer. I have to do an externship
Speaker 4: and I think I'm going to do it in a
Speaker 4: surgical tech so it's like people who go in for
Speaker 4: surgeries and do pre ops and post ops and yeah.
Speaker 7: So I guess this means you won't be doing any
Speaker 7: Tracy Spencer shows because you know, you just had a
Speaker 7: whole resurgence and you're doing I'm figuring that out. I
Speaker 7: think I thought it would be a Tracy Spencer shawnees.
Speaker 4: We can tour and then I can do likees in
Speaker 4: the back, or we can I can give.
Speaker 9: You an IVY for hydration.
Speaker 8: Exactly, dude.
Speaker 1: We just all of the tour, we just dripping away
Speaker 1: flavor drips, fruity pebble drips. It was amazing diabetes, but
Speaker 1: it was in my life. I didn't I never knew
Speaker 1: there were so many flavors of drip ivy drips.
Speaker 12: I didn't it in your body.
Speaker 14: I'm sorry, I've never done it, but it is a
Speaker 14: real Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's like you feeling in your taste buds and everything.
Speaker 8: Like I don't know about fruity pebble I never had.
Speaker 7: I don't think that doctors, but it feels but it's sweet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it tastes sweet like fruity pebbles, and it gives
Speaker 1: you energy. I guess so, because the tour.
Speaker 9: Does not.
Speaker 5: I would have asked you my favorite record of yours
Speaker 5: of all time. It's for you. Thank you, Michael Angelo
Speaker 5: from Portrait Record. You guys worked together anymore?
Speaker 8: No, it was myself, Michael Angelo and Eric from Portrait.
Speaker 8: The three of us wrote it together and it was
Speaker 8: for the Media Man soundtrack. And I just spoke to
Speaker 8: Michael Angelo actually recently. He just redid the track, So
Speaker 8: we're going to re release it. I'm going to re
Speaker 8: sing it and put it back out because they've the
Speaker 8: labeled that it's not you can't stream it anywhere. So
Speaker 8: I said, well, we might also just re recorded put
Speaker 8: it back out. That that's actually that's actually one of
Speaker 8: my favorite songs too. That was It was fun to
Speaker 8: work with them and I think they did an amazing
Speaker 8: job on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, damn man, many more questions and I know we
Speaker 1: got like mere minisan.
Speaker 8: I do want to say to say one thing. I'm
Speaker 8: in a musical called forty four and I'm playing Mistyell Obama.
Speaker 8: Oh wow, So I want everybody everybody go to the
Speaker 8: Bourbon Room. Go to forty four Obama Musical dot com
Speaker 8: or get your tickets. It starts October eleventh to November eighteenth,
Speaker 8: and it's at the Bourbon Room in La in LA
Speaker 8: and Hollywood, California.
Speaker 1: So how did this coming out?
Speaker 8: So Carrie Gordy Berry, Gordy's son Kerrie, Yes, Carry reached
Speaker 8: out to me.
Speaker 1: Does the word apollo mean anything to you? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: I love There's nothing I love more than scaring Carrie
Speaker 1: or Benny Medina or any other member of that group Apollo.
Speaker 8: Just oh, I thought you met this.
Speaker 1: I'm like, y'all know about the Apollo No, in seventy
Speaker 1: eight all those guys, which which is weird because it's
Speaker 1: even connected to McLean. Like, there's this a period in
Speaker 1: the Lates Evan, these early eighties in which the first
Speaker 1: generation of teenage black Hollywood Cravitz's the Gordys Medina. Yes,
Speaker 1: they were like formed a group. Okay, you know, and
Speaker 1: you won't. I will say you have the episode.
Speaker 8: And also I have a I have a vegan lipstick
Speaker 8: line Vegan. Yes, what you're wearing right now, I'm wearing
Speaker 8: it right now. It's called Smile by Shinese. So please
Speaker 8: see goes around dot com.
Speaker 7: Is your reality show stream anywhere? Because I remember that
Speaker 7: was a whole er.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's I mean you can find on YouTube. I
Speaker 8: think it's on Open war Free's on Bones website. I
Speaker 8: think if you go to the website you can find
Speaker 8: like old episodes. And but yeah, we had a reality
Speaker 8: show for three seasons on.
Speaker 3: I want to also Kids Incorporated.
Speaker 5: One of one of my favorite singers that you're friends with, Patterson,
Speaker 5: that was I.
Speaker 1: Just reached out yesterday.
Speaker 8: No, he is in New York.
Speaker 1: He's in New York.
Speaker 8: Yeah, he's on him.
Speaker 3: It was I mean this has been probably like this
Speaker 3: is overten.
Speaker 8: We want kids in corporate. I was the keyboard player
Speaker 8: and the dancer in the background.
Speaker 1: Kids. What year was your eighty four? I think, oh,
Speaker 1: damn okay, I was why I didn't realize that you
Speaker 1: were okay? All right? So as we rap, what does
Speaker 1: the future hold? Because they just can't stop at this, like,
Speaker 1: what is your no pressure?
Speaker 12: No, no, no, well, I mean combination is overwhelm.
Speaker 8: I mean, I would love for us to do a
Speaker 8: song together, definitely, like tour, tour together, some music together.
Speaker 8: That's that's what I would love.
Speaker 5: Tracy, in the midst of your doctor pursuits, do you
Speaker 5: you want to do music anymore?
Speaker 3: Do you still have desire to create?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 4: I do the going to going back to school. It's just,
Speaker 4: you know, we all have other things that we're interested in.
Speaker 4: And I mean I have a degree in psychology.
Speaker 9: I did all these because I just I like learning.
Speaker 4: I'm very passionate about learning.
Speaker 1: Because I feel like she's the modest type off.
Speaker 11: Yeah, the degree in psychology. She's currently in school and
Speaker 11: making it all work. She was at a talk show,
Speaker 11: but she's doing homework, Like this morning she went to
Speaker 11: Starbucks to do her homework.
Speaker 9: So she's making it.
Speaker 12: Children your wife too.
Speaker 4: No, I am not a wife. I have no children.
Speaker 4: I have a cat named.
Speaker 9: Georgia to keep them away.
Speaker 12: Yeah, some people you want to keep.
Speaker 1: That's like, oh, that's what's up.
Speaker 12: No strings, no strings.
Speaker 9: Yeah, So if it happens, it happens. But it's not
Speaker 9: like that's all right on the weekends and shows. You know, Yes,
Speaker 9: you've grown ups. I mean, here's another important thing though, too.
Speaker 4: I A lot of what's happened in the past several
Speaker 4: years too, was my father passed from leukemia and I
Speaker 4: helped take care of him. My mom passed in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty one, right before Thanksgiving. She had lung cancer, and.
Speaker 9: I helped take care of her. I yeah, so part
Speaker 9: of that.
Speaker 4: Also one of her things was she was like, you know,
Speaker 4: go back and finish school, but also do music. So
Speaker 4: for all this stuff to happen the way it's been happening,
Speaker 4: I just feel.
Speaker 9: Like, you know, I'm a very spiritual person.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we talk about it that they're up there
Speaker 4: orchestrating all this.
Speaker 9: I fear that they brought it.
Speaker 11: I think they helped bring us all together and we
Speaker 11: did that jam session what three Dyes?
Speaker 1: And did this happen in your house?
Speaker 11: My living room?
Speaker 9: Party? Like it was just right.
Speaker 11: Chinese over to my apartment to say goodbye to Tracy
Speaker 11: because she was going back to Iowa.
Speaker 9: And that very day.
Speaker 11: Eld Barge called me in the morning and was like, hey,
Speaker 11: what are you doing this evening? And I said, well,
Speaker 11: come to think of it, Tracy Spencer and Shinese Wilson
Speaker 11: are coming over and he said, he said, what time
Speaker 11: do you want me to be there? Bringing show at
Speaker 11: my front door with his keyboard, keybooked it across town,
Speaker 11: Like he.
Speaker 8: Went over with his keyboard.
Speaker 12: What did y'all sing? What was the song?
Speaker 13: Every day?
Speaker 1: When he was just sea.
Speaker 11: It was, I mean, all of us felt like it
Speaker 11: was surreal.
Speaker 8: It was a dream.
Speaker 11: Even l couldn't believe it, and we all cried throughout
Speaker 11: the night. He was sitting there in my living room
Speaker 11: playing his keyboard for like three hours.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was That's what sparked me, like, wait, can
Speaker 1: we get them on the show because exactly we've been
Speaker 1: looking for you forever and looking for just to give
Speaker 1: both of your flowers.
Speaker 12: Manse, but thanks.
Speaker 7: He wasn't looking for Shaw because she was savinge Cod
Speaker 7: like you her husband.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I really think it's important to just y'all because y'all,
Speaker 5: you know, we've seen so many you know, child singers,
Speaker 5: child actors that get into this game really young, and you.
Speaker 1: Know, and don't get out. They don't make it out.
Speaker 5: So just to see y'all sitting here today just still beautiful,
Speaker 5: still healthy, like still driving like that really is a
Speaker 5: blessing and I'm happy to be with you all today
Speaker 5: for real.
Speaker 1: Now it's Africa for the forty two hour clap SOI childhood. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is an epic episode that will go down in
Speaker 1: the record books. And I thank you for this. I've
Speaker 1: been waiting for. Thank you so much. Is there anyone
Speaker 1: else that you.
Speaker 11: Have maybe I could.
Speaker 1: Do you Unclean?
Speaker 9: I can't reach out to Possible.
Speaker 8: I know, I got to reach out to him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's just yeah, we can get John McLean is
Speaker 1: like he treats us like the matrix like.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So man, this is amazing episode to be present. Yes,
Speaker 1: you guys, this is beautiful. So when we have a
Speaker 1: a little sugar Steve and uh Shna, thank you very
Speaker 1: much and I'm paid Bill and Laiah Sonny's and Tracy Spencer.
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming out of hiding this question.
Speaker 5: I We'll see you in twenty forty three.
Speaker 9: I'll be going back and hiding.
Speaker 1: Thank you. We'll see you next week and next around.
Speaker 1: Quest Love Sprien Right. Thank you for listening to Quest
Speaker 1: Love Supreme, hosted by Amir quest Love, Thompson, Why You,
Speaker 1: Saint Clair, Sponte, Coleman Sugar, Steve Mandel, and unpaid Bill Sherman.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Amarra quest Love, Thompson, Seanch and
Speaker 1: Brian Calhoun. Produced by Brittany Benjamin Cousin, Jake Payne, Eliah
Speaker 1: Saint Clair, edited by Alex Conroy. Produced by iHeart by
Speaker 1: Noel Brown and Mike Johnson. Audio engineering by Graham Gibson
Speaker 1: at iHeart La Studio. What's Love Supreme is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.