WEBVTT - Samara Joy Part 1 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:21.439 Quest Left Show is a production of iHeart Radio. Ladies 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:26.160 and gentlemen, Welcome to the Quest Loft Show. I cannot 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:31.200 come up with enough superlatives to describe. 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.560 The gift that our guest today possesses. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:40.040 Occasionally, in private, I will rant about my disdain and 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.080 dissatisfaction with the state of what we. 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:44.400 Call music today. 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:50.440 But in twenty twenty two, when I received my Grammy ballot, 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:54.520 and you know, I'm looking at names of people that 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.800 I know personally, people that I've played with, people that 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:02.480 I'm friends with, Anita mar Apollo, Dommy and j D. Beck, 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:07.160 Lotto Man, Skin Money Long, Toby in a wigway, Molly 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:12.880 Tuttle wet Leg named them all. However, I chose the 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:18.040 right option when voting for the Best New Artist award, 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:19.559 and that is our guest today. 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.319 Welcome miss Joy to the show. How are you? 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:29.440 I'm well, walk with me just five minutes before when 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:31.319 you know your cat? Do you know who's like presenting 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:32.080 your category? 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.240 Like are you aware of these things? Oh? So you 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:37.360 had no idea, like when it's coming up in the. 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:40.120 And I was just coming from the red carpet, and 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.399 so I was a little disheveled because of what happened 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.120 earlier in the day. I had to change my outfit. 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:46.880 I had my little brother with me as my date, 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:51.480 and wait outfit was wearing. That was my second outfit. 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.200 It was only for the pretail, you know what I'm saying. 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.440 It was only for the live stream portion, right, and 0:01:57.440 --> 0:01:59.880 it had to change, you know, until five minutes before. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:01.400 I'm trying to get my seat and all these seat 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.040 fillers in my seat, So I couldn't really hate that 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.240 I couldn't get to my seat until the next commercial break. 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:09.359 But me and my little brother. Of course, it was 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:13.280 the anniversary, fiftieth anniversary a hip hop. I think that for. 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:20.679 Me really, that was a nightmare for me together, Okay, Rhymes. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.400 Is on stage quienla tifa? It was, I mean it was. 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.360 We were having so much fun. So five minutes before 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:27.600 I was just like, there's no way this night is 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.320 even happening, Like this is amazing. 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:31.960 So you walked in right when the metal was happening. 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.000 No, I was like a couple of minutes before a 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.360 couple of minutes Okay, there was still some other awards 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:38.360 being given out, so yeah, I. 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:39.400 Was real for you. 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:44.040 I was there at the very beginning when I believe 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:48.079 Bad Bunny started the the telecast and he's dancing through 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.160 the audience and if you saw the layout of the 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:55.280 you know they have these like elegant cocktail tables. 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:57.560 With didn't really eat. 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:02.480 Yeah, she came, I don't know, like it was given that. 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:09.080 Yeah, you're trying to write exactly, and so somehow the 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:13.079 producer of the show, Jesse Collins, Now as you explained, 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:17.680 it was, you know, hip Hop's fiftieth anniversary and the 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:19.000 Roots put together. 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:23.320 This eleven minute presentation. The thing is is. 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:27.800 Because the the elaborate, sort of sprawling arrangement of the 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.040 whole thing, it's not a thing where it's just like 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.640 a band playing something and we can make adjustments later. 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.240 Like we're on a clock, like the the light people 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:40.240 have their cues for how it's going to go, the dancers, everything, 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:45.000 so everything's on a clock. And you know, I'm sitting 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:49.200 there watching Bad Bunny before him and my phone's going 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.600 off and it's like literally like nine one one, like 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:58.400 and I'm looking and I'm being told that Lil Wayne 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.600 has just dropped out. 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.880 Of the performance. No way, he just took his ball 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:04.400 and went home. 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:09.160 He had an altercation between some security person whatever. 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:10.640 It was like, well I'm going. 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:15.600 Home, damn, and like Barack Obama couldn't make him turn back. 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.400 And the thing is is that now I'm sitting in 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.920 the audience and bad bunnies like dancing on all the 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:26.520 dancers and everything, and so I can't get up with 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:29.960 less than an hour on the clock to figure out 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:32.760 what plan B is going to bring. Because it's a 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:37.279 live show, somebody has to let the light person know 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.719 that whatever we have designated between four minutes and twenty 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.240 seconds and six minutes and five seconds has to be edited, 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.040 like you gotta go to the teleprompter person. You gotta 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:48.680 go through like five different people. 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:53.960 We fixed that. So no, Millie, We're fine. 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.520 And then Future decides to drop out no because he 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:58.640 lost Album. 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:00.360 Of the Year to Kenchrick Labarn geez. 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.039 He's like I'm going home, and it's like, dude, you 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:06.560 got jeez. And this is with like mere seconds left. 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:11.480 So right now I will say getting through that nightmare 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:17.320 seeing you when Best New Artist, which yes I voted 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.960 for you, but I kind of felt like it was 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:23.160 a hell Mary throw from all the way in and 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.360 a miracle might happen because you know, you had a 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:31.000 stiff competition there, but I couldn't have been more happy 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:33.120 as if it happened to me. 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.600 So for you, though, like were you in your right mind? 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:39.480 That day was? 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.080 It was just it was just such an emotional weekend. 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.560 This is my first time at the Grammys, and so 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:49.720 I naturally brought my entire family what felt like, and 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.520 we stayed in this Airbnb right across the way from 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.320 Quincy Jones's house. So we felt very much fresh, Prince 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:58.760 of bel Air, very you know, we feel very It 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:00.520 felt like such a very special and I got the 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.760 chance to perform and be in LA and being all 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:05.840 these Circle See artists I only ever seen on TV. 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.800 So yeah, the whole the whole weekend was insane, and 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.080 so being there with my family, with my little brother, 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.200 I don't know. I wasn't expecting it. I know everybody 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:21.080 probably says that, but I really wasn't because all well, 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.480 I just I had just released the album that I 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.640 was nominated for that day two months prior, two and 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:28.839 a half months prior, I had just signed with a 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.599 big label, and so there were a lot of things, 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:33.240 there were a lot of firsts, and so I wasn't 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.320 expecting that to be one of them, the nomination much 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.520 less the the win. So it's just I'm just grateful 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:38.760 for it. 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.159 Were you kind of on the impression that no Morton 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.640 would know who you were or like not really familiar, see. 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.960 Absolutely, because I was just starting. I mean yeah, up 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.279 until up until that point, I only had two albums. 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:54.760 I had never you know, it was my first tours, 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:56.640 first performances, all that kind of stuff. 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.080 So yeah, but you gotta look at the totality of 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.080 this situation, like you're saying, I was just starting, like 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.440 kind of like a first time house painter, like you know, well, 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:10.200 I was just doing that, but you're sort of forgetting 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.560 what gift you're bringing to the table, which. 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:14.880 Kind of leads to my next thing. 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.000 You know, as a New Yorker, I will say that 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:22.360 ninety percent of the time. All right, this is the 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.760 worst one percent humble brag I'll ever say. 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.440 I'm always driving in New York. I'm not a. 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.560 Subway in New Yorker, so people don't see me as 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:31.880 a real New Yorker until I'm a subway. 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:33.000 Okay, so good. 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.000 So the thing is is that I'm always listening to 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:43.800 Wbgoye and that's our beloved local MPR jazz station for 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.920 the tri State and some other parts of the country 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:50.440 that can get it syndicated. And I always joke with 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.960 my high school buddy, Christian McBride. Yes, Christian has always 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:58.320 been seventy years old, even imagine a fifteen. 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.680 That's what you two have in common, both of you. 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:05.040 Both of you have. 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:11.120 Ancestors trapped inside you, some epogenetic thing. And usually if 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.560 something moves me, I will exam it. I have no 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.160 shame whatsoever mine. I will exam everything, because that's how 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.280 you learn something new. 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:22.840 This is weird. 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.160 On the pop side of things, it's always Bieber Oh, 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:28.280 Like I'll be in CVS at two in the morning 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:30.800 and then like, oh this is cool and I. 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:33.120 Look damn right. 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.520 So on the jazz side of things, literally like after 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:37.800 the eighth time. 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.079 Oh my god, Chris, I'm like. 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:47.640 Yo, that like, if ixam eight songs, then that means 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:49.559 I really must be a fan of this person. 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:52.199 Yo. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.040 They love you and that's how why I love you. 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.200 So basically, like I had a whole narrative in my head. 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.360 I was like, wait a minute, so one named samar Joy. 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.679 She has a voice sounding like this, how come this 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:08.959 person had to been singing for at least forty years, 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:11.960 so I kind of thought we were in the same 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:13.120 age bracket. 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:14.839 Internally. 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.360 Literally in my mind, I was like, Wow, she's easily 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.480 forty five forty, Like I really thought there was a 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:27.360 five on the left digit of your age, right, there's. 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.480 The two in front of it. That's that's the only difference. 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.199 When I'm gonna tell you a level of depression four 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:35.880 days ago, when I really wanted to, like, I mean, 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:37.600 I knew everything. I knew all the music and all 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:40.040 that stuff, and so I just wanted to do general 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:41.400 brush up things that I didn't. 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:42.880 Know, like oh, where's she born? And all that stuff. 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.960 And so when I went to Wikipedia and I saw 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:51.400 that my first five albums are older than you, oh 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:56.000 my god. It's a level of depression I never felt before, 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:59.640 but also a level of ease because I was absolutely 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:05.160 certain that anyone I tag gen Z or Jen Alpha 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:11.480 just has an absolute disdain for anything in the rearview 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:16.640 mirror of music. How at what age did you notice 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.959 that your voice isn't like anyone else's. 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:24.560 When did this voice first materialize? 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.520 I guess I started singing and imitating what was already 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.600 around me. My family is from Philly. They have many 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.360 roots in Philly. My dad to Overbrook High School and 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:37.080 Strawberry Mansion. My mom is from South Philly, and my dad, 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.800 my grandfather, you know, they started. My grandfather and my grandmother, 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.120 Eldergowyron Ruth mclein did started a group called the Savettes 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.520 of Philadelphia and so hearing their recordings from nineteen sixty 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.480 two nineteen sixty six on albums like the Sensational Savettes 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.600 and Mercy Hearing my dad in his home studio writing 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:59.800 songs from its very beginning to when it was finally finished, 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:02.920 Singing to and from school, listening to my mom's music, 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.000 Luther Vandros and Stevie Wonder and you know, all of 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.000 these different influences. My dad is a bass player too. 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.120 Could they trick you into the family business? 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.480 It was definitely, you know, I was absorbing what was 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.319 around me. You know. I listened to the Brothers Johnson, 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.199 I listened to the Spinners and the Whispers and all 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:19.600 this kind of so all of this I was kind 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.160 of I don't know, I was just absorbing it. And 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.200 I think because of that, maybe I just had a 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:26.840 certain ear, certain. 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.520 Obsession maybe with the reason why I'm asking that is 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:36.400 because Okay, so I too grew up in a similar situation. 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.480 My dad was an oldies duop singer from the fifties, 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.760 and when I was in first grade, I went to 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:48.920 a performing arts high school and our homework assignment, we 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.360 all had to purchase songs in The Key of Life 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:57.480 came out the week that I started first grade. So 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.960 we all it was like, have your mommy and daddy 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.240 buy you this record, and we brought the record. We 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.439 all brought it in the next day, and for music 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.760 appreciation class we read the liner notes. You know, this 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:12.800 is the first time you saw like sprawling liner notes 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:16.240 and all that stuff. And so the thing is, the 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.240 next homework assignment was bring your favorite forty five in 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:24.280 and your favorite single. And you know, the kids in 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:26.440 my class are bringing. 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.120 In stuff of the day. 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.280 I come in with like Frankie Lymon and the teenagers 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.440 like Wider Fools fall in Love from like nineteen fifty something, 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.800 and I, honest to god, thought it was new music, 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.559 like my parents. My dad tricked me to thinking that 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:48.640 do wop and early rock was new. So I'm a 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:50.920 six year old that knows who chuck berry Is and 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.240 Bo Diddley and all this stuff in the way that 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:56.520 my teachers laughed like they were so amused, like. 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:58.560 Oh, no, this is music. Well, we were. 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.600 Kids a mirror and were feeling like, oh, they're bringing 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.440 in disco ducking y'all making me bringing like I was 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.560 angry at my parents for tricking me, like I later 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.560 found out, like, oh, there's old music, and there's my music. 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:16.880 And then finally my sister started feeding me what new 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:21.520 music was. But so for you though, like just typically 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.719 that is what was heard in the household or just okay, and. 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:28.640 Then what was whatever was on the radio. I mean, 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:32.120 I think because my family, at least they made it 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.559 look so easy. When I was younger, I just wanted 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.400 to be able to harmonize with anything, imitate any run 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.120 or riff or anything like that. And I also have 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.520 to slide this in my uncle. I forget how how 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:46.880 we're related. My uncle in law produced the album Suddenly 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.640 by Billy Ocean. He like wrote the whole thing Keith Diamond. 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:52.679 So I was just listening and absorbing and. 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:58.320 Keith Diamond, Yeah god damn, okay, I know shit, Okay. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.480 So I was listening to his music. I was listening 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:03.560 to my dad's, my grandparents, so a combination of that 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:05.480 and whatever was popular, so you. 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:11.439 Lived in a gospel Christian household that did not penalize you. 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:12.760 For listening to secular music. 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:18.680 I always wanted to meet the generational chain breaking because 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.760 for a lot of other artists born in the seventies, 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:25.760 and I mean the Clarksist is probably the best example 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:31.120 where they're literally making up p funk songs and Stevie 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.440 Wonder songs because they can't listen to that in their 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:37.080 own households. And so you know, I always wondered, and 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:38.680 I asked them, like when you guys are doing an 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:41.520 overdose of the Holy Ghost, Like do they not know 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:43.440 that's Doctor Funkenstein by Parliament? 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:48.040 Like no one in your church is like objection, they're. 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:49.920 Not listening to that. So you know, if they knew 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.160 what it was, then maybe it would cause a problem. 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:56.120 But I always wondered if there is ever going to 0:14:56.120 --> 0:15:00.040 be a day in which a Christian. 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:06.880 House is not going to be somewhat overbearing in what 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.520 you receive. And so okay, I think my yeah. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.600 My dad definitely broke that because he was a bass player, 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:14.560 so he was just you know, He's born in nineteen 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.600 sixty and during the seventies he's learning how to play 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:19.360 bass and listening to all these things on the radio, 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.160 trying to learn the song before it goes off and 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:24.560 before his parents get home. I think he also tells 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:26.800 a story of how he was in church playing for 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:28.800 the first time and he played a Rick James bassline 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:35.480 and the drummer was, yo, you gotta stop playing that man. 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.560 I played right right. 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.640 Yeah, I got in trouble many times, like me coming 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:46.960 to the age of hip hop and drumming in my church. 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.600 If I start playing like top Building by the audio too, 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.160 or you would know as the drum beat is Real 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.120 Love by Mary J. Lodge or whatever like, then the 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:58.400 elders would start if the kids would start doing the 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.240 whop or whatever, like start dancing, and the elders look 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.320 at me like you're playing secular music, and I just 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.160 had to sort of morph back into a boring drummer. 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:19.400 Okay. 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.400 So I would like to talk about the Ellington Festival 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:26.120 competition at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Can you walk me 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:30.120 through that? What song did you sing? That Wild Christian? 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.880 And who else was part of the Do you know 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:33.720 who was part of. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:35.520 The that one. 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.440 It was actually I know what you're saying there. I 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.280 actually did an essentially Ellington side thing when I was 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:43.880 in high school. The competition that Christian McBride was a 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:46.680 part of was the Syrevon competition, and that was when 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:51.720 I was junior in college, Okay, And during the Seravon competition, 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:56.400 McBride was a judge. Monifa Brown I think from WBGO, 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.520 Dede Bridgewater, Jane mon Height and my former a producer 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.200 and my former manager was a part of the judges 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:08.040 in the lineup. And that was my first competition ever. Definitely, 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.480 I was definitely nervous because I had only just started 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:14.040 learning about jazz when I got to college, so I 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.199 didn't feel that I was I didn't feel like I 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.639 was ready yet, you know, like everything that I was 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.280 learning didn't necessarily come out at the same time. Like 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:25.320 it took a lot of I don't know, I don't 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.240 know the right word ingestion is probably not the right word, 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:28.840 but it just took a lot of learning and a 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.120 lot of listening before it would actually become a part 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:32.879 of who I was, like become a part of my 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.639 language and my musical identity. But I tried anyway, and 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.600 thankfully McBride in them saw a potential. 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:45.400 Okay, so let's go to that. Let's go to two 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.240 thousand and nine when you're ten. Okay, have you ever 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:49.239 been to karaoke night? 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:50.520 No? Not? 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:55.199 At that point was yeah, no, no no. 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.679 But I just mean, like, do you have. 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:02.760 A brush in the shapur no everyday person voice? 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.879 Oh, I would say, so I would say it was 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.199 a little underdeveloped because then I was still trying to 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:12.600 copy my dad and my my parents and my my grandparents. 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:13.040 I meant. 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:14.800 And at that point, I think two thousand nine was 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:16.720 when Michael Jackson died, so I was like just becoming 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.760 obsessed with him. And uh yeah, I was just starting 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.800 to get into musical theater in school too, and performing 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.040 in front of people, being in choir. So I was 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:27.679 doing that kind of thing, you know, just trying to 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:31.440 trying to sing at every at every possible opportunity, right. 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:34.280 But I'm just saying that when you're emoting down or whatnot, 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:36.800 not like, are you not noticing people or like. 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.200 My dad definitely. I remember he called his brother and 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:44.200 my uncle one day and he was like, she sang 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:45.960 for me, my daughter sang for me. You got to hear, 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:48.840 and so I think I sang his eyes on the sparrow, and. 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.959 Oh my god, Dad put in a classic. Wait, I'm 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.199 gonna tell you something. I'm gonna tell you something. 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:00.600 The number one clause at my will don't say that, 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.920 So I do not want his eyes on the spat. 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:05.639 Can I tell you how many funerals I've been to, 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:08.360 even a non Christians like Yore's. 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:10.840 There's I'm not even having a funeral. That's how many 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:12.800 times I've heard his eyes on his barrel. 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.720 It's a classic, I know, but Laura Hill brought it 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.760 to a new generation. Now everybody you know, including myself, 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:20.840 tries to sing it like her. 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.399 So we have sister act to to blame for this. 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:25.760 No, I mean not to blame. I think I think 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:27.440 it should be credited it. 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.000 I did not see his sister Act too, so thus 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.000 I didn't realize that. That's why I made it come back. Okay, 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.200 it's a long story. I'm sorry I didn't see. 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:38.240 There's a lot of things you don't like. We need 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.240 to know everything. 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:44.320 I'm plus love. My name is love. My name is love. Ok. 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:46.520 You know his eyes on this barrow? Got it? 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:47.040 Yeah? 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.720 So in case I passed before. If they come to you, 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:56.280 someone's trying to control. 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.840 Me, You're come in a white robe and just descend 0:19:58.920 --> 0:19:59.639 upon the building. 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.520 At the age of three or four. It wasn't like this, my. 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.720 Dad Okay, sorry, sorry, my dad does have a recording, 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:10.760 a recording of me on cassette singing you don't have 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.119 to call by usher, But that was just because it 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:14.720 was on the radio. 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.560 I guess were you matching his tone? Like were you 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:18.920 always this out? 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:21.280 Definitely wasn't saying the words, but I think I was 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:23.359 an altoe got it? 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:23.800 Okay. 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:29.080 I think around ninety seven is when the roots started 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:33.040 this idea of doing jam sessions in my living room, 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.080 and you know. 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:42.160 The first generation of like I think like eleven. 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:47.200 To twelve record deals were born out of that first gathering. 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:51.960 Like this is where Kendrick the Family Soul, Jazzy Fat Nasties, 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:57.159 Jill Scott who's working in retail Blao was in the 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:01.520 eighth grade music worked at the pizza shop. Like I'm like, 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:03.880 we're letting the pizza guy get on the microphone now, 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:04.280 Like this is what. 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.040 We're show time, Apollo, this is what we're doing. Wow. 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:11.119 But at one point my boy was like, Yo, you know, 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:13.840 my daughter's best friend has a voice like you. 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:15.879 Wouldn't believe and da da da da da. But she's like, 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:18.280 you know, eight, like nine years old. 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:20.400 And I was like, oh, we can't have nine years 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:23.000 old like in this environment or in the nightclub or whatever. 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:27.400 But sure enough, like four years straight, Jazmine Sullivan's dad 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:30.960 would drive her to the five spot or to Wetlands 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.560 or to my crib. She'd sleep in the back of 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:35.480 the car, and when it was the time first singing 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:39.399 three songs, he come in, but with that voice with 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.000 like nine years old but be an adult voice. And 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:47.240