WEBVTT - Christina Millian 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:00.960 Speaks to the planet. 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:02.560 I go by the name of Charlamagne of God and 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:04.920 guess what, I can't wait to see y'all at the 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:08.319 third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival. That's right, We're coming 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.360 back to Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, April twenty six at Poeman 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.840 Yards and it's hosted by none other than Decisions Decisions, 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:17.560 Mandy B and Weezy. Okay, we got the R and 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.319 B Money podcast. We're taking Jay Valentine. We got the 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:22.919 Woman of All podcasts with Sarah Jake Roberts. We got 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:25.479 Good Mom's Bad Choices. Carrie Champion will be there with 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.440 her next sports podcast and the Trap Nerds podcast, with 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.200 more to be announced. And of course it's bigger than podcasts. 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.160 We're bringing the Black Effect marketplace with black owned businesses, 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.400 plus the food truck court to keep you fed while 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:39.839 you visit us. All right, listen, you don't want to 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.599 miss this. Tap in and grab your tickets now at 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:45.479 Black Effect dot Com Flash Podcast Festival. 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:56.639 R and B Money, we second take valleib We are 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:03.440 the authority R and B Ladies and gentlemen. My name 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.039 is Tank Valentine and this is the R and B 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:13.920 Money Podcast. The authority on all things are n B. Yeah, 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:21.920 you know, hit records, hit movies, dessert. 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:26.800 You can't spell that. 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:34.959 It's written right here on my phone class beauty and Talent. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:36.600 Oh my gosh. 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:43.600 It's all package and a really cool paggage and it 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:48.120 has a really really awesome being to define it. I 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.200 would enjoy saying this name, announcing this. 0:01:51.120 --> 0:02:03.440 Person to be family, excuse my friends, but is oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Christine, 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:07.560 I didn't know you. 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.919 Were sta Okay, okay. It was a great intro. 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.920 That was exciting, That was exciting, and I wish, you 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:17.520 know what, we have it on tape if I ever 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:19.520 go out and perform ever again, I'm gonna play that 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:20.320 right at the beginning. 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:24.320 You know, you have you the intro, that's my intro. Hi, 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:25.720 what's the guys gonna be? 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:28.640 Y'all give me million? Where's Lilyan? 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:30.400 From my mom? 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:35.680 So Carmen Million is my mom and my dog. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.680 And I'm Cuban, So I come from Cuban descent. 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.880 But Cuba is like a melting pot, just several just 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:47.399 different different cultures, different places and faces, and so from 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:49.919 what I'm told, I mean, we have just a long 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:50.720 lineage back. 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:51.919 But it's Spaniard. 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.440 It also feels very Italian if you have veryal But 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.760 I don't know, I honestly, really I need to do 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:00.799 one of those like twenty three and and just kind 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.040 of go back, I know, because. 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:04.320 Then you find out you're connected to a whole bunch 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:06.280 of presents you don't want to be in contact even 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:06.640 just that. 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:08.640 Then they start, you know, they probably will be looking 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:10.960 for people that they got certain that's true. 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:12.959 What you're in the system. They might they might build 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:14.640 a robot off of me. I found a little bit 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:16.800 of inkling. What is the ear wax or what is 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:17.600 it the nose? 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:22.720 I didn't do it yet, No, sure yet. I'm just interested, 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.959 you know what I'm saying. Because every time, every every 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.560 time I'm around me him there, they say, start talking 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:30.840 through me, you know. So I'm like, I must be 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.080 I must be part of the community, you know. They 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:37.320 told to me, and they see me, they say, hey, 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:42.280 your name is Derail. That's my mama fault. But my 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:43.320 middle name is out. 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.040 With the role just artists. 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:56.640 Artists, Okay, you know what it has? I like, like 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.840 over over my e there's the thing. It's only found 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.400 in the in the Spanish, right over top of. 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:07.720 Okay, it count you even. 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:09.880 Know what I'm talking about. It's US scree today. 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:16.800 You're Spanish. 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.640 I was taught Spanish. Is my first language? Really? Yeah? 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:22.960 Wait so in school or you mean in general? That 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:24.279 was your first first language. 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.760 My grandmother believed that that Spanish was going to be 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:30.800 the first language of the US. One day, Wow, my 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:34.279 grandmother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said, I'm going to put you 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.280 in a Spanish immersion school kindergarten through fifth grade. I 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.840 only learned Spanish, really, and you would lose recess if 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:47.600 you talk English write the word Spanish too. 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:49.880 Did you teach nobody? You're coming from me like, oh, 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:51.520 your grandma me. 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.480 I thought I was slick. I'd be like, she's like, 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:57.560 where's your homework. I was like, it's right here, and 0:04:57.600 --> 0:04:58.880 she'd like this, So what all you got to do? 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:03.400 I said, well, this says right here, no necessity, and 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.800 then and then this part says I saw them, and 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:09.920 then I'm done. And she said, okay, you can talk 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:11.840 that Spanish stuff if you want to. I'm gonna see 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.159 when the report car come out. And my dumb self 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:16.279 like this, whatever, you know what I'm saying, And that 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:17.800 report card came out English. 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.560 Yes, maybe you got beep. 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:25.520 Dang man. 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:28.560 She lied to me. She told me, I was good, 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:29.240 it's Spanish. 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:31.760 You thought you had a secret language and everything thought 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:32.880 I had a secret leg. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.760 Kids always think that they're smarter than the adults. 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:41.400 I don't know why they do. My daughter, I had 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.599 to talk with her this morning talking about stuff that 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:45.400 wasn't turned in and how she found out three other 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:47.080 people had turned it in and she had turned it 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:49.520 into and the teacher wrote to me that they hadn't 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:51.560 gotten it, but they sent the same message to everybody 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.640 else and blah blah blah blah blah. And I'm like, everybody, 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:56.800 this is the same story all the time. I never 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:58.680 I don't think I tried to pull this stuff on 0:05:58.720 --> 0:05:59.880 my parents, but they were too smart. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.840 Dad was super smart. He was really strict to me. No, no, no, 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:03.160 no no. 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.160 I remember the day I had a C on my 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:07.839 pre report you know, like the middle of the semester 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:11.320 report card. I was an AB student and so I 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:11.760 had a C. 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:12.560 Do you know. 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.760 I was crying on my walk home, like, oh my gosh, 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.120 my dad, my parents are going to kill me. I 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.919 got a C on my on my report card on 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:23.920 the progress report. Oh my god, I was so scared 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:25.919 about what would happen when I got home because it 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:28.120 just meant that I wasn't doing my homework. It was 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:30.279 meant I wasn't, you know, focus, et cetera, et cetera. 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.719 My dad was big on like focusing and about you know, 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:33.640 being great. 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:34.800 And so when I had a. 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:38.280 See, Oh my gosh, but you know what he was surprisingly, 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:42.040 they were cool. I didn't get my my butt whipped. 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:43.679 I gots yeah. 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.360 Went out. We're talking about c's here. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:49.680 That mean that was average. 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.600 First of all, when I got a SEE, was going 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:53.360 to basket Rappers. 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.880 Yes, you got the pizza. 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.440 They knew you were going to master the middle seat. 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.200 L Look what happens when you stay here with. 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:10.600 Graduate. He didn't even need to school. He didn't even 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:18.880 need to school. She said. I was getting a and 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.800 BS and scene. No, it tormented me. 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.960 It was terrible. I thought death was It was upon me. 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:36.440 Christina. When was the identifying moment that you have a 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:41.040 gift or something different to offer outside of your intellectual 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:43.040 and scholasticabilities. 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:47.600 Wow, okay, well outside of being extremely. 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:51.320 You know, I knew early on. 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.360 My mom says she saw it early of course a parent, 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.240 they recognized things, and now as a parent, I recognize 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:57.640 things in my. 0:07:57.680 --> 0:07:58.560 Children, so I get in. 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.240 But she I was always singing, and I still to 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.640 this day. There's not a moment in my day even 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.040 if I'm having an argument or having a conversation, I 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.360 don't even notice I'm humming or I'm singing. So I'm 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.200 always like musically, it's always going through my head. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:15.080 I could be having me my mom would be screaming 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:17.520 at me and she's like, stop, stop doing that, and 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:19.640 I'm like, I'm not doing it, and then she started 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:20.040 talking again. 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:28.880 I'm like, like, I don't know, it's it's something neurological, 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.480 it's something, but I think it's a great thing. I 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:34.080 say that musical people or people that sing like that. 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:36.320 I'm like, you don't see like an unhappy person. I 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.480 think that's just what keeps me in my little happy bubbles. 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:40.720 Music. So it was really it was. 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:42.720 It was the Greats that I was watching as I 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.360 grew up. It was Michael Jackson, I was listening to 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:48.280 Diana Ross. I was listening to a lot of oldies, 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:50.959 a lot of motown. My parents only had AM radio 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:53.160 in their car for some reason. It was like broken 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:55.559 so Am Radio. I was just listening to old school 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.960 stuff and I also just listened to everything all genres. 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.240 So I was looking at the people and they. 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.839 Like, I mean, especially Michael Jackson, like I can get 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.520 chill still thinking about him to this day and seeing 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.600 him being on stage and people passing out and screaming 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.200 and sweating and just the energy. And I had dreams 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:17.360 about it. So I would dream about like performing, and 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:21.280 I'd dream about that same exact thing. And of course 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:23.240 at the in the back, like the helm of that 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:25.800 is having parents telling me I can do anything I 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.480 want to do, be great at it, work hard at it, 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:33.640 you know, just always enforcing this this energy in me 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.240 to just want to go big and back then, those 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:39.120 people had such a mystique about them, I just wanted 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:41.000 to know so much, so I just I dreamt about 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.600 it and I begged my parents. I really did to 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.000 do what I do today. So they started me early, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:47.880 like they helped me out early. I don't want to 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:49.559 say they started me because it was really a thing 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:51.680 that I really like if you watch old camp quarter 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.200 videos to me, like you couldn't get me off the camera. 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.320 I was singing the Oscar Marina song. Whatever I can 0:09:57.360 --> 0:09:58.840 sing in front of the camera, they're like. 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.520 Get away from the they're screaming up. I got screamed 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.160 at a lot for. 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:07.679 You know, people telling me sing for everybody, for the family. 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:09.960 So I'd always have to sing some Italian aria, some 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:13.520 opera thing or whatever. But it started really early, and 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.280 I started like auditioning and stuff when I was a kid, 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:18.400 mostly for acting because we didn't really know how to 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:19.440 get in the music industry. 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:22.840 I was living in Maryland because my dad was in 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:23.679 the military. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.560 Yeah. Yeah, and my parents they were my dad and 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.280 my mom. They started young, like they had me at 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.319 seventeen and eighteen years old, and so these are like 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:37.920 two Cuban refugees, you know, they'd come from Cuba five 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:40.839 with their family, big family, and they met eventually in 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.120 high school, fell in love. Well, I guess they fell 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.120 in love. They had me, so they had to follow 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:45.319 in love. 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:45.600 Back then. 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:47.640 They were like, y'all gotta get married, y'all gotta do this, 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.160 and they got their lives together. And so my dad 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.800 was in the military and that's what took us to Maryland. 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:54.800 And in Maryland it was just you know, there's not 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:56.920 much out there. At that time, but I grew up 0:10:56.960 --> 0:10:59.640 in the age of MTV. That was also the Information 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:02.920 is the year MTV was really born, so it was 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:06.120 just so exciting. So I just wanted to embody all 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.520 of that. So I was just, you know, auditioning. I 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.800 didn't really get anything for a long time, so my 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:12.600 parents took me out because they were like, this costing 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.640 us too much money and maybe you need to focus 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.600 on school. And it was like a year later, I 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.600 just I just I couldn't bear just doing that. Only 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:23.880 I really asked my parents, like I really want to 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:25.480 do the skin. They're like, Christina, we're going to be 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:27.880 one more try. So they got an agent or whatever, 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.760 and I went my first audition. I booked it and 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:36.880 it was a national geographic campaign. It was like not 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:38.760 a campaign, but back then you used to watch those 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:42.040 scholastic videos a national geographic video when you were in 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.480 elementary school about whatever. And so I was acting and 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:47.600 like I did like three of them, and so that 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:48.840 was my first thing I ever did. 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:50.719 And then from there was just like. 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.839 A little short small like baby steps and musical theater 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:57.720 kind of was my first foray into music and acting. 0:11:57.800 --> 0:11:59.760 And I started out in DC at the Fords Theater 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:02.680 doing a play and I was an understudy. So I 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:04.839 was an understudy, so I had to learn everybody's lines. 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.800 Everything not always nice to the understudy. So I learned 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.319 that as a kid that you know to be patient. 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.199 My time would come. But I watched people every night, 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.640 had the whole thing memorized from top to bottom, everybody's lines, 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.120 everybody's voice, this, that, and it was exciting. I got 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.040 a chance to actually perform because I got chicken pox 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:25.559 and then somebody else got chicken pox. 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.440 Just kidding, not saying that you not saying that you 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:30.400 took your chicken pox. 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:33.960 I must have gone back a little too early. 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:35.840 I can give you a hood. 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.920 No, that's like our ongoing joke. But I guess technically 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:43.640 it was. Maybe it might have been back to a 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:46.559 little too soon. And so I got my opportunity to perform. 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.760 And I just felt the energy of being on that 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.520 stage performing for a crowd, the voice that you have 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.800 to belt out, it was invigorating. 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.480 I actually swore for my life like. 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:02.040 The most of the beginnings of my career was musical theater, 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.480 and I thought, that's all I want to do. My 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.040 musical theater is my life because it was just such 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:08.320 a good feeling to be live. 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:11.280 So you weren't even thinking about making records or anything 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:11.560 like that. 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:13.320 No, I mean it was a dream, but I just 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.079 we were like, maybe one day I'll get discovered. We'll 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.560 be walking in them all and somebody discovered, or maybe 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:20.920 I'll go on what was the one not start start 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.199 star search, you know what I mean. But never bothered 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.600 to like seek those things. It was just like, maybe 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:29.600 we'll get discovered and tell me this. 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:34.679 You two can speak to this as child stars and performers. 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:41.200 I was terrified as a kid to get in front 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.120 of that church and sing a solo, like. 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.920 Terrified, But do you find it's maybe because you knew 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:48.360 the people. 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:49.640 I think if I. 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:51.079 Sing in front of my family, I was like I 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:52.720 don't want to sing in front of my family, But 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:54.520 in front of strangers, I was about it. 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:56.760 I was like, this is great, I know. 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:59.319 I mean I would sneak and do it, like I 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.559 would sneak and play my grandmother's piano when nobody was looking, 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.600 sneak and play my cousin finals's drums when he wasn't looking. 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:10.200 But I wasn't like I wasn't ready to get in 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:15.160 front of five hundred one thousand people and that it 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.240 wasn't emmy. Do you feel like that was something because 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.000 with you having with you having pops and you having 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:26.040 your parents that they kind of they kind of read 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:28.480 in you in terms of getting you ready for that 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.160 or do you feel like that you were born? I 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:32.680 think I was ready for the world. 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:33.680 I was. 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:35.240 I was just like I told you, I was such 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:37.800 an extrovert because I was just I was born ready 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.160 for the world because I knew, like with the idea 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.520 that I could get discovered, because you'd hear these stories. 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:45.480 No matter who it was that asked me to sing, 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:49.240 I would just start singing anywhere. I'm like in the mall, 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:51.920 blah blah blah, this place, that place. I would just 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:53.880 start singing because I was like, this might be my 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.120 opportunity to make it. And like I said, Michael Jackson, Ma, Donna, 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.120 Janet Jackson, all these people to see that, I was like, 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:00.920 I'm ready. 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:06.120 Yeah, I feel like I was raised like yours being born. 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.200 I think I was raised and early on, I think 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:14.280 for me it was where's the money. My niggas got 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.280 a couple of dollars on y'all this is what because 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.200 I mean because early on too, like we were street performers. Yeah, 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:24.400 like my family street performers, me and my brothers. So 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:27.520 you know that how that goes. That's you know, the 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.320 crowd gets around and they see these little kids and 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.960 they throwing money. So I'm like, oh, this is cool. 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:34.640 So if you didn't have no money, I wasn't doing 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.360 no singing. That's just kind of how it was for me. 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:41.440 That's kind of how it is to this business. Business, 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.480 so it is the juice worth to squeeze. If not, 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:48.200 I'm going here and talk a little bit on this podcast. 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:49.920 Managed to do some executive ship, but I. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:51.400 Was right, and I'm not about to just be out 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:53.920 here sinking for free. So I think for me, I 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.480 was I was more so raised into it and brought 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:58.800 into it in that sense more so than like one 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.080 day I was just oh I'm a singer now. 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:01.360 Yeah. 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:02.480 I wasn't that me personally. 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:04.080 I was just I wanted to. 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.320 I was. I felt like I was destined for success 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:08.840 and something. And my dad was like, you don't have 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:10.440 to wait for any man to do it for you. 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:12.360 You have to do this, do that. It's all in you. 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:14.120 So I was just like, Okay, that's. 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.880 Amazing, that's o Ye. When is discovery? When is like 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:19.720 the real? Like I'm not going to say National Geographic 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.040 when real because that's a gig. I know you got 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:26.080 some money for that put in the account. Yeah. When 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:29.400 do you feel like that that defining moment where it's like, 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.080 oh shit, they all of these things that. 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:33.160 I connecting. 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:38.200 Manifest Yeah, I've been knowing I'm gonna do this. Now 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.800 we're here looking at yah eye. 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:41.480 Okay. 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:43.880 So when I was thirteen, we moved to Los Angeles 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.720 because I did a play at the Pantags Theater Pantage, Yeah, 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.760 and all these agents started calling and asking me to stay. 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:52.680 They said they had seen the show and they were like, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:54.200 she should stay in Los Angeles. 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:55.240 We were still living in Maryland. 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:57.360 My mom was on the road with me, and so 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.400 we're like, wow, Hollywood agents are asked for me to 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.160 stay and they want me to come home and do this. 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:06.040 So we considered it, but we went back home because 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.840 my mom's my grandma was sick. So we went to 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:10.960 go take care of her for like a good year 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.560 year or two, and eventually cancer took over and she 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.480 passed away. And by that time it was like, Okay, 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:20.480 now it's time to take a chance and go We're 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:21.040 going to do this. 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:22.720 And I was ready. 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:24.159 I was so ready to get out of Maryland. I 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:26.520 was like, he's y'all, I'll see you later. I'm going 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:32.240 to Hollywood in Maryland. West Lake High School, you know, Weslake. 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:37.840 West Lake High School is in Waldorff, Charles County. 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:38.520 That's where I grew up. 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:40.240 Okay, so I'm in PG County. 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:40.760 I forgot. 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.160 We were both from We've been had that show one 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:45.520 time in DC a long time ago. It was like 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:52.080 a college and so yeah, PG County. I grew up 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.080 over there. I grew up in Maryland, like right in the. 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.159 Room of it and where you would go to go 0:17:56.200 --> 0:18:03.080 to up against the. 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:02.320 It off with the you know, but the children's places, 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:03.399 and then you grow up and you go up. 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:03.920 Yeah. 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.640 Yeah, so yes, it was cool, but I was ready 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:08.760 to be out. So we just tried it out l 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.200 a for a second. We said, okay, six months and 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:15.480 see what happens. Nothing happened. Six months later, my sisters 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:17.439 and we were supposed to come back, and my sisters 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.760 and I booked all these commercials, and so the commercials 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.359 is what kept us out here. So we stayed and eventually, 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:26.720 like I started to get discovered. So I stayed at 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:27.560 the Oca departments. 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:32.280 We know the we started a lot of a lot 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:36.200 of people's you know, their their journey and you had 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.720 like people like Tupac and O dB, all these people there. 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.160 I was always always around and I would be selling 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:42.080 cookies with my sisters. 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:43.680 They were in the girls Scouts and stuff you need. 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:56.600 People got a lot of money d by and it's 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:01.639 when I met Ronnie Jerkins. Yes, so right before Rodney Jerkins, 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:03.880 I met another guy that was the in my building. 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.960 They were called Spanky and Charles. And Spanky and Charles 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:08.960 were the first people that they had like a little 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:11.960 studio in their apartment and they were like, you do 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:13.879 you sing? I was like, yes, I do, and they 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:15.480 were like sing for us. So I sang, but all 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.919 I sang back then was like classical arias and Broadway songs. 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:19.560 So I'm like. 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:27.600 To play life and real musical, like real musical theater. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.199 And so they brought me into the studio first. It's 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:32.760 before I met Rodney. And this is all at the 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.199 oak Woods also, and that's where I learned to like 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.880 my first time behind a microphone and hearing my voice 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:43.080 and on a song it was I was hooked. 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:44.480 I was hooked, Like. 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:44.760 How are you? 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:46.520 At this point, I was just thirteen. 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:51.240 I was thirteen, and so we made like two songs 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.280 were followed spanking and charles around. They were in like 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.040 a band with like I don't remember. It wasn't earth 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:57.000 Win the Fire, but it was somebody the Temptations or 0:19:57.000 --> 0:19:59.880 something I remember, but they were older gentlemen. 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.200 And I was making like some R and. 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.600 B, like you know records, but of that style of 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:06.520 the night and of the nineties, but it was it 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:08.840 was the nineties, yeah, And so I made a couple 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.800 of demos and then eventually I just started meeting people. 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:13.760 It was like a trickle effect. Just started meeting people, 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:16.920 and Rodney Jerkins came around. And I met Rodney when 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.720 I was about fourteen or fifteen fifteen, maybe fifteen forty 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:20.720 to fifteen, and he. 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:22.320 Was in his early stage. She was only like eighteen. 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.320 He's like eighteen years old, and he invited us to 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:30.520 the studio and I remember seeing these massive speakers. I've 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.119 never seen such huge speakers in my life. And we 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:36.560 played the music, your ear drums. 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.280 Full out drink yeah, that's what he did. 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:43.080 Yes, that was the first time I experienced music that way. 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:45.639 I mean I used to play it up loud in 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:49.200 our little tourists you know, our four tours that Yeah, 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:51.800 we had the four tourist station wagon. I was the 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:53.679 DJ in the car. But when we got to that 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:55.840 studio and I heard that music and heard him play 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.320 and watched him play, and he connected with me and 0:20:58.359 --> 0:20:59.720 my mom. So my mom is my right had died 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:02.040 like this, I said, Carmen is my mom. She's my 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:05.160 manager and for years, like she's just everywhere I went. 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:07.280 We just did this together, and so we were like, 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:09.840 maybe this is our opportunity to really like to get 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:10.480 a record deal. 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:11.880 And we're meeting people constantly. 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:15.320 We're meeting people through Rodney, I'm meeting people at different avenues, 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:16.480 just walking walking the street. 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:18.400 Again, like I met a lot. 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.600 Of different people, like you know, people from Babyfaces Camp. 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:23.640 You know, people would just they were trying to find 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.640 girls like to sing or to be in girl groups. 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.920 And so I didn't know these people, but eventually, like 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:31.920 you know, they were all legit and they're still here 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:32.560 to this day. 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:34.080 You know a lot of these producers A. 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.080 And RS and stuff, but Rodney. I made some great 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:40.560 people through Rodney and Rodney. Originally he asked me to 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:41.960 make some demos. He was like, you want to make 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:44.520 some demos, you could practice there and he wanted to 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:47.440 sign me. So I was making demos for him and 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:49.240 I got him. I got to watch him make the 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:51.280 Boys Mine. I got to watch him make all that 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.600 Brandy album that was a really good album, amazing. I 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.080 got to see him work with Whitney Houston and he 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:58.879 would just invite us to the studio. And that's the 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:01.240 first time I experienced like, don't go to sleep, you know, 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:05.040 you don't sleep, like working late at night, people talking, gathering, 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:07.960 watching them work, listening to music. The music's so powerful. 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:10.720 It's just like you dream big as this is happening. 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:14.760 So that was really my first foray into the record 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:18.040 business world. R and B world and Ronnie used to 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:19.639 They used to make fun of me because I was 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.959 They would say, I sing white so like they so 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:24.920 I would go and make demos, but they're like, can 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:25.400 you do this? 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:27.919 Run? Can you do this? And I'm like, and Sean, 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:30.280 you know everybody, they're making fun of me and stuff. 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:34.160 But I was learning and trying and you know, trying 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:35.679 to do runs. I just didn't do that. You know, 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:38.080 when you do musical theater. It was just so like plugging, 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:41.800 you know, learn and you stick to that. So I 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:46.560 learned to find myself by myself emotionally. I wasn't writing 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:49.480 back then, but I was singing other people's demos. But 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:51.199 it was there that I learned that I wanted to 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:54.880 write because it was the really like I just sometimes 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:58.240 couldn't relate to the lyrics. So I wanted to write 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:01.320 songs that related to me and to other kids and stuff, 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:01.879 and so. 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:03.360 That happened later on. 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:07.120 But yeah, Brodney, I didn't end up signing with him, 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:08.679 and I don't even think we got to the paper, 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:12.679 but I started to the papers part of it. But 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:14.879 I started to meet other people, and I think, like 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:17.840 at sixteen, I took a music as a business class 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:20.560 at Valley College over here, and I met a gentleman 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:24.679 who worked with David Foster, and they also ended up 0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:25.760 wanting to offer me a deal. 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:27.080 I got a little deal. 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:30.200 The deal was offer was like twenty five thousand dollars, 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:34.439 but it was David Foster, and I learned about the 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:37.359 music business and I got an attorney, and then the 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:39.919 attorney was like, you should probably meet some other people 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:43.119 before you sign this deal. So we're like okay, and 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:45.199 so they set up some meetings and I ended up 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:47.280 going to New York and meeting with Island f Jam. 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:49.560 I met with Sony, I met Tommy Mottola, I met 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:52.000 Leo Cohen, and I just sang for them. I made 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:53.959 a demo. I ended up writing a song for myself. 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:55.840 It was called what You're going to Do. I have 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:57.639 like songs that I wrote as a kid. I was 0:23:57.640 --> 0:23:59.320 because I'm the big sister, So I used to like 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:01.000 write songs, do plays. 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:03.640 In the house of my sisters. I used to make Yeah, 0:24:03.720 --> 0:24:06.239 they had to sing yeah to act out what I did. 0:24:06.960 --> 0:24:07.480 Pup show. 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:10.800 I'm the director, you said, the puppet rail station, the 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:13.080 record and play and record on the little play. 0:24:13.960 --> 0:24:17.720 Yeah, that was me say this. They are the puppet 0:24:17.760 --> 0:24:18.520 by the way too. 0:24:27.480 --> 0:24:29.879 So you all these means you do the you do 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:32.800 the whole thing. Yeah, where you go sit practically you 0:24:32.800 --> 0:24:34.680 you're naming all the labels at this time. 0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:36.040 Yeah everybody. 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:39.040 Yeah, that was that was crazy to me because like 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:42.200 I finally had a little CD collection. Oh no, no, 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:45.400 it might have been cassette. I wasn't on CDs yet. 0:24:45.400 --> 0:24:47.720 I was like, I'm not CD. But when I finally 0:24:47.760 --> 0:24:49.960 did get into CDs, I was sixteen seventeen years old 0:24:50.240 --> 0:24:52.320 and I had like my little record book, my little 0:24:52.359 --> 0:24:54.840 CD book, and I had most of the artists in 0:24:54.880 --> 0:24:57.320 there were rappers. I love the jay z Jall Rule, 0:24:58.160 --> 0:25:02.040 all these people. Most of them were artists. So in 0:25:02.080 --> 0:25:04.320 my head, I was like, you got either bad Boy. 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:05.560 I was like, that would be cool to be on 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:09.080 bad Boy, or I could be something like Deaf Jam 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:09.720 and Deaf Jam. 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:13.000 So those were like two big record laklans. 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:15.159 Like what I had plans. I had dreams. It was 0:25:15.200 --> 0:25:16.280 really like dreams, but. 0:25:16.720 --> 0:25:20.880 You were very concerned. It's almost like you were studying, 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:24.960 like this is gonna this is where, this is where 0:25:24.960 --> 0:25:26.320 it's gonna work best for me. 0:25:27.240 --> 0:25:31.480 I was like, there's no other person that competes. They 0:25:31.520 --> 0:25:34.000 would appreciate me this. I would be the girl of 0:25:34.160 --> 0:25:35.639 the team, you know what I mean. I would be 0:25:35.680 --> 0:25:37.720 that person. But at the same time, I was like, 0:25:37.760 --> 0:25:39.600 I want to be an urban pop artist, Like I'm 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:41.840 not just R and B, but I'm urban pop. I 0:25:41.840 --> 0:25:44.160 want to go really mainstream, And back then they only 0:25:44.160 --> 0:25:47.840 had like, you're only listening to pop radio hip hop radio. 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:50.360 Remember it was also, I'm so separated. 0:25:50.359 --> 0:25:51.880 If you wanted to be if you made a pop song, 0:25:52.080 --> 0:25:53.639 you want to be on R and B radio or 0:25:53.680 --> 0:25:55.960 hip hop radio, you had to get a feature from 0:25:56.119 --> 0:25:56.879 hip hop artists. 0:25:57.000 --> 0:25:57.760 Now it's all. 0:25:58.119 --> 0:26:00.399 So I had to find this like happy middle. But 0:26:00.520 --> 0:26:02.280 I just knew that I was both, you know, it 0:26:02.320 --> 0:26:04.080 was all of it. I was like, I'm not going 0:26:04.160 --> 0:26:06.840 to be just you know, one tone. And I was like, 0:26:06.840 --> 0:26:08.760 I want to dance, but I didn't know how to dance. 0:26:08.800 --> 0:26:11.280 By the way, I didn't I didn't take dance lessons. 0:26:11.040 --> 0:26:11.840 Or I wanted to dance. 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:14.080 But yeah, I was like, I want to be Michael Jackson. 0:26:14.080 --> 0:26:15.680 I want to be Jenna Jackson, but I don't take 0:26:15.720 --> 0:26:17.760 dance classes because we can't afford it. But I'm going 0:26:17.840 --> 0:26:20.480 to do it the musical theater. I faked it the 0:26:20.480 --> 0:26:22.320 whole way too. I said I was the tap dancer. 0:26:22.359 --> 0:26:25.720 I said I could ride horses. I can skateboard. Yeah, 0:26:27.160 --> 0:26:33.640 I've seen kills, you know, ride never. 0:26:33.560 --> 0:26:33.960 Have a horse. 0:26:36.160 --> 0:26:39.040 I was like, I want to learn it. 0:26:39.920 --> 0:26:43.679 Pop in to the meeting. You pop it to the 0:26:43.760 --> 0:26:51.040 meeting and they say so you ride horses first. 0:26:51.320 --> 0:26:54.200 My skills were deep, but you have no idea that's 0:26:54.200 --> 0:26:56.040 how That's what my list was. So I was like, 0:26:56.080 --> 0:26:58.480 whatever the case is, I'm going to learn it, you know. 0:26:58.960 --> 0:27:02.400 And so yeah, I met Tommy Wutola, I went to them, 0:27:03.400 --> 0:27:05.760 I came back again, did a whole meeting. I met 0:27:05.800 --> 0:27:08.720 Jeff Finster at Island def Jam and he was the first. 0:27:08.760 --> 0:27:11.879 He was the one that discovered and signed Backsheet Boys. 0:27:12.359 --> 0:27:15.119 He was the A and R for Britney Spears and 0:27:15.160 --> 0:27:19.240 Sink and so they brought him over to Island f JAM. 0:27:19.400 --> 0:27:22.360 I was like, what a perfect union for what I want. 0:27:22.680 --> 0:27:24.080 You are doing so much. 0:27:24.240 --> 0:27:25.960 It was a great, amazing. 0:27:25.520 --> 0:27:29.119 Calculating and processing at an early age. 0:27:28.920 --> 0:27:30.600 Like I had a lot of information. 0:27:31.320 --> 0:27:33.520 None of that is like, give me a d I 0:27:33.600 --> 0:27:37.400 was like, I didn't even know that was like you're 0:27:37.440 --> 0:27:41.399 still talking about sixteen seventeen eighteen. I'm still at church, 0:27:42.119 --> 0:27:44.439 not even considering R and B. But I mean we 0:27:44.520 --> 0:27:47.720 had a deal with Verity Records doing gospel and stuff 0:27:47.760 --> 0:27:49.800 like that. But I didn't even know what that meant, 0:27:49.840 --> 0:27:51.200 you know what I mean. I just wanted to get 0:27:51.200 --> 0:27:54.080 on my two keyboards and sing my songs. And write 0:27:54.119 --> 0:27:57.119 my songs. I didn't know there was life after that, 0:27:57.119 --> 0:28:00.399 that there was a whole thing happening that I was 0:28:01.000 --> 0:28:03.440 that was being stolen from me. I didn't know that, right, 0:28:03.960 --> 0:28:06.040 And so when I finally get to this R and 0:28:06.080 --> 0:28:09.040 B space, I don't know, they just say, yea, we're 0:28:09.040 --> 0:28:09.800 gonna get a deal with such. 0:28:09.880 --> 0:28:12.640 I'm like, cool, cool, and put the music out. 0:28:13.320 --> 0:28:14.720 Oh we lost that deal. We don't get a deal 0:28:14.720 --> 0:28:16.760 because we got another one coming there. We'll get deal 0:28:16.760 --> 0:28:17.159 with such. 0:28:17.000 --> 0:28:20.359 A Ya that happened. Yeah, people work didn't go through that. 0:28:20.560 --> 0:28:24.160 Barry Higginson says he would blackground records now is it cool? 0:28:25.560 --> 0:28:28.040 I'll I'll tak it whatever. 0:28:28.119 --> 0:28:31.639 But you're like doing so was that a result of, 0:28:31.640 --> 0:28:35.360 of course, not just you understanding or wanting to understand 0:28:35.400 --> 0:28:39.080 the terrain, but also having your mom involved to have 0:28:39.200 --> 0:28:42.800 that back and forth and have those those Yeah, my mom. 0:28:42.760 --> 0:28:45.040 I mean she, like I said, we were really close. 0:28:45.120 --> 0:28:47.880 We still we're very close. And like because she was 0:28:47.880 --> 0:28:49.480 a young mom. We were talking about her being in 0:28:49.520 --> 0:28:52.040 her thirties and I'm like, you know, early thirties. And 0:28:53.080 --> 0:28:55.640 it was when my parents, like I don't know where 0:28:55.680 --> 0:28:57.760 they were going to have a divorce. My dad asked 0:28:57.760 --> 0:28:59.200 for a divorce from my mom and that was like 0:28:59.240 --> 0:29:02.040 around fifteen, and it came as kind of a real 0:29:02.080 --> 0:29:04.280 big surprise, even though and I look at their history, 0:29:04.280 --> 0:29:06.960 I'm like, it shouldn't have been a surprise because things 0:29:06.960 --> 0:29:08.920 were all over the place, but it was normal back then. 0:29:10.120 --> 0:29:12.880 But it really, like all of a sudden, our life. 0:29:12.720 --> 0:29:17.440 Kind of changed, like like a from zero to one 0:29:17.520 --> 0:29:20.200 hundred real fast. We went from living this like it 0:29:20.240 --> 0:29:22.600 was a more middle class family life and really surviving 0:29:22.640 --> 0:29:26.440 off of what we you know, my money, our family money. 0:29:26.480 --> 0:29:29.600 It's nothing like my dad working his butt off. My 0:29:29.640 --> 0:29:31.479 mom had to quit her job help with all this stuff, 0:29:31.960 --> 0:29:34.240 and next thing you know, we were on our feet 0:29:34.320 --> 0:29:35.760 on our own, like my dad. 0:29:35.840 --> 0:29:36.800 It kind of shifted. 0:29:36.800 --> 0:29:39.520 It was a shift, and we've come to terms with 0:29:39.560 --> 0:29:42.720 the reasons why and everything, and you know what was 0:29:42.720 --> 0:29:44.720 happening in our life. But all of a sudden, it 0:29:44.800 --> 0:29:46.720 was my mom and I having to raise my two 0:29:46.760 --> 0:29:49.560 sisters and we decided to stay here in California instead 0:29:49.560 --> 0:29:52.480 of going back to Maryland. And so because we made 0:29:52.480 --> 0:29:56.480 that choice my dad, it was like a separation of 0:29:56.560 --> 0:29:59.760 everything from financ shoal to everything. So we were surviving 0:29:59.760 --> 0:30:03.640 on our own. So in that time, it was a rough, 0:30:03.840 --> 0:30:06.680 rough patch for my mom. She had, you know, months 0:30:06.680 --> 0:30:08.880 of crying and listen to unbreak my heart and Tony 0:30:08.960 --> 0:30:10.400 Braxton and the bathtub got. 0:30:10.400 --> 0:30:10.680 To do it. 0:30:11.240 --> 0:30:12.840 And I had to get her back on her feet 0:30:12.840 --> 0:30:15.120 and say, Mom, like we're here, We're still living life. 0:30:15.200 --> 0:30:17.280 And she had to get her life together again because 0:30:17.280 --> 0:30:20.480 she was just so distraught over it. And I remember 0:30:20.520 --> 0:30:22.200 we went to the grocery store and we went to 0:30:22.200 --> 0:30:24.560 go buy groceries and we found out like the credit 0:30:24.600 --> 0:30:27.160 cards everything was cut off, so we're gonna have to survive. 0:30:27.720 --> 0:30:31.200 And survival mode really was like we had just moved 0:30:31.240 --> 0:30:33.440 into our apartment everything we were gonna have to pay 0:30:33.440 --> 0:30:35.800 the the you know, the rent on our own without 0:30:35.800 --> 0:30:38.480 my dad and I'm only fifteen, you know. 0:30:38.920 --> 0:30:40.880 So she started taking temp. 0:30:40.840 --> 0:30:47.400 Jobs, I started babysitting, hosting at restaurants, We started cleaning 0:30:47.400 --> 0:30:51.560 houses together, and we really went through this survival mode 0:30:51.640 --> 0:30:54.440 of like work, work, work, but we were just working 0:30:54.520 --> 0:30:57.440 to survive. But also life was actually kind of great 0:30:57.440 --> 0:31:00.880 at that time when you're at your life hardest time 0:31:01.080 --> 0:31:03.320 and you really have faith, but you're in a situation 0:31:03.360 --> 0:31:04.920 where it's like we had no furniture. We just moved 0:31:04.920 --> 0:31:07.040 through the whole apartment thinking like life was gonna be fine. 0:31:07.160 --> 0:31:09.120 We had moved in, we didn't have furniture, we didn't 0:31:09.120 --> 0:31:10.600 have anything, and all of a sudden, we had nothing. 0:31:11.400 --> 0:31:13.200 You really appreciate with that nothing that. 0:31:13.240 --> 0:31:16.360 Says you appreciate, like having toilet paper from the dollar 0:31:16.360 --> 0:31:18.440 store instead of getting it from you know, McDonald's up 0:31:18.480 --> 0:31:21.240 the street and getting ketchup or whatever. You liked the 0:31:21.320 --> 0:31:24.280 can of beats that's the only food that you have 0:31:24.360 --> 0:31:25.640 in the house, and you mix it up with some 0:31:25.680 --> 0:31:27.560 olive oil and so, oh my gosh, it tastes like 0:31:27.600 --> 0:31:29.960 a damn stk rob and noodles taste like a steak 0:31:30.000 --> 0:31:32.320 and lobster. You're like, I don't know what these rich 0:31:32.360 --> 0:31:35.040 people are talking about, but I could live like this. 0:31:35.040 --> 0:31:37.760 This apartment is fine. We do. We as a family 0:31:37.800 --> 0:31:39.360 were such a union. 0:31:39.160 --> 0:31:41.920 And our friends were so dope. We had so many 0:31:41.920 --> 0:31:44.840 friends from all of rich my friends. I had a 0:31:44.880 --> 0:31:48.480 lot of kind of like young black, wealthy friends, and 0:31:48.960 --> 0:31:49.600 they used. 0:31:49.440 --> 0:31:52.240 To love to come to my house and like thug 0:31:52.280 --> 0:31:53.000 it out with us. 0:31:53.880 --> 0:31:57.120 It was like everybody's sitting on the floor watching TV 0:31:57.200 --> 0:31:58.920 and my Mom's just like the cheapest thing to make 0:31:59.000 --> 0:32:01.000 was like spaghetti or a list. You know, it doesn't 0:32:01.040 --> 0:32:03.360 cost anything for noodles and sauce, but she cooked it 0:32:03.440 --> 0:32:05.360 up and she would make a mass amount, and people 0:32:05.480 --> 0:32:08.280 just every day just loved being with us and didn't 0:32:08.320 --> 0:32:10.720 really feel like we were technically that we were broke, 0:32:11.440 --> 0:32:14.480 though we were like on the verge of eviction every 0:32:14.560 --> 0:32:17.760 other day, but we also just didn't feel like we 0:32:17.760 --> 0:32:20.760 were broke, like something still felt like we were surviving, 0:32:20.800 --> 0:32:22.760 even though there were some times that was like tough. 0:32:22.920 --> 0:32:26.120 But the one moment when we realized it was the tough, 0:32:26.160 --> 0:32:27.840 isn't it was the turnaround that we were like, let's 0:32:28.320 --> 0:32:28.880 focus on. 0:32:28.840 --> 0:32:29.560 This music part. 0:32:29.720 --> 0:32:32.200 You really want to do this, then let's focus is 0:32:32.200 --> 0:32:33.959 when my mom and I went to a we went 0:32:34.000 --> 0:32:36.240 to a food line in North Hollywood. 0:32:36.240 --> 0:32:36.640 There's a church. 0:32:36.680 --> 0:32:38.080 I know you've probably seen it all the time. It's 0:32:38.120 --> 0:32:41.840 on like Moore Park and like Colfax, and they still 0:32:41.840 --> 0:32:44.920 do this. They give away food to those that need it. 0:32:45.280 --> 0:32:48.200 And we went there because we had no food. And 0:32:48.240 --> 0:32:50.840 by the way, blessings would happen sporadically out of nowhere 0:32:50.840 --> 0:32:52.360 all the time, so that's like we find like one 0:32:52.440 --> 0:32:54.719 hundred dollars on the floor or something. Just random things 0:32:54.760 --> 0:32:56.760 would happen so that we really were surviving off of that. 0:32:57.600 --> 0:32:59.680 But it was in that line that I saw like 0:33:00.360 --> 0:33:02.160 the rest of the people that were there with us, 0:33:02.600 --> 0:33:05.640 and some people even more of a hopeless situation with 0:33:05.720 --> 0:33:09.080 no shoes, nothing, And we got like I was standing 0:33:09.080 --> 0:33:11.040 there with my mom and I just remember like I 0:33:11.080 --> 0:33:13.959 didn't want to show them, but I was crying, and 0:33:14.000 --> 0:33:15.920 I was like we it had gotten to this, you know, 0:33:16.680 --> 0:33:18.520 and we had gotten the food and they gave us, 0:33:18.520 --> 0:33:20.440 you know, all the necessary needs that we needed. And 0:33:20.480 --> 0:33:22.320 when we went home and I started opening the box 0:33:22.880 --> 0:33:24.600 and when as we were walking and I'm looking like 0:33:24.640 --> 0:33:27.920 there's ants in the boxes and stuff, and I'm crying, 0:33:27.920 --> 0:33:31.520 and my mom she said to me, Christine, and we 0:33:31.560 --> 0:33:34.240 made this promise to each other on that walk back 0:33:34.240 --> 0:33:37.360 home that we were going to focus, that we were 0:33:37.360 --> 0:33:40.160 going to sacrifice. We were going to sacrifice the fun 0:33:40.280 --> 0:33:43.200 and all different all the other stuff to focus on 0:33:43.240 --> 0:33:43.680 my career. 0:33:44.240 --> 0:33:45.680 She started reading books. 0:33:45.680 --> 0:33:47.840 She had just started reading books about music as a business, 0:33:47.880 --> 0:33:49.800 and this is what made me go to school for 0:33:49.880 --> 0:33:54.840 music as a business. She read about just contracts and 0:33:54.920 --> 0:33:57.240 focusing on that because we seemed so close to everything, 0:33:57.240 --> 0:33:59.200 but it just never got there. We were like, there's 0:33:59.240 --> 0:34:01.720 something there, and I really wanted it. And so we 0:34:01.880 --> 0:34:03.840 made this promise to each other that I would always 0:34:03.840 --> 0:34:05.720 take care of her. To promise that to my mom 0:34:05.760 --> 0:34:07.440 to this day, I said, I just need you to 0:34:07.520 --> 0:34:10.160 focus on managing me. I need you to focus on me, 0:34:10.200 --> 0:34:12.279 and we'll focus on this together. We got to get 0:34:12.280 --> 0:34:15.160 out of this rut. And so we went home. We 0:34:15.840 --> 0:34:19.440 put on all white, lit some candles and said a 0:34:19.480 --> 0:34:21.360 prayer with my sisters and we had this joke with 0:34:21.440 --> 0:34:23.760 my mom said a prayer on her knees. Like answers 0:34:23.800 --> 0:34:27.000 were came immediately, and so we said, I can't tell 0:34:27.040 --> 0:34:28.080 you about the job she was. 0:34:28.000 --> 0:34:30.399 Doing at the time, but they's just. 0:34:30.320 --> 0:34:33.640 Say she had to use her voice, yes, And let 0:34:33.640 --> 0:34:34.720 me tell you the next day. 0:34:34.680 --> 0:34:38.479 Her voice was gone. She needed her voice for this job. 0:34:39.120 --> 0:34:43.160 And just like our neighbors knocked on the door said hey, 0:34:43.160 --> 0:34:44.400 we're moving out. Do you want the milk? Do you 0:34:44.400 --> 0:34:46.400 want the stuff in our cabinet? And like we just 0:34:46.440 --> 0:34:48.799 appreciated all the little things, the little answers were coming 0:34:48.880 --> 0:34:51.360 to us. I would find like ten cents under the 0:34:51.360 --> 0:34:52.880 couch so I can get a little gas, just so 0:34:52.920 --> 0:34:56.120 I can go to the Valley College and get my 0:34:56.440 --> 0:34:58.400 anda take these lessons. And that's where I met the 0:34:58.440 --> 0:35:01.400 gentleman from David. So it was like we're just getting 0:35:01.440 --> 0:35:03.240 these little answers. But we were going to this crazy 0:35:03.280 --> 0:35:06.000 time in life. And when we went to New York, 0:35:06.040 --> 0:35:08.080 it was like, we're in New York and I have 0:35:08.120 --> 0:35:10.200 to make this happen. And so yes, it was a 0:35:10.200 --> 0:35:13.080 strategy and it was a there was we It was 0:35:13.120 --> 0:35:16.080 a lot of homework. We really my mom My mom 0:35:16.400 --> 0:35:19.799 is the mostly especially the spiritual part holds us down. 0:35:19.880 --> 0:35:22.400 And that's where I became connected, the spiritual part, because 0:35:22.480 --> 0:35:24.479 I understood religion as a kid, but I still didn't 0:35:24.560 --> 0:35:27.760 understand it. But it was then that I became spiritual 0:35:27.760 --> 0:35:30.160 and I had conversations with God and that's when I 0:35:30.320 --> 0:35:34.520 was like everything was just starting to unfold itself. And 0:35:34.920 --> 0:35:37.440 the day I so I got the deal with Island 0:35:37.440 --> 0:35:40.080 Deaf jam oh M. 0:35:40.480 --> 0:35:42.719 Just Censer came to me again, offered the deal. 0:35:42.800 --> 0:35:45.880 I went in sing acapella, got my deal singing acapella 0:35:45.920 --> 0:35:47.440 and what You're gonna do about a demo? 0:35:48.080 --> 0:35:50.920 And the day I finally signed my deal. We literally 0:35:51.000 --> 0:35:53.920 drove our little tour station wagon to the attorney's office 0:35:53.960 --> 0:35:54.319 and that. 0:35:54.280 --> 0:35:58.000 Thing it was broken down. We were laughing, my mom 0:35:58.040 --> 0:35:59.600 and I because there was smoke coming out the car. 0:36:00.000 --> 0:36:03.000 We had to push our car there. We had to 0:36:03.000 --> 0:36:05.279 push our car there. We finally made it there. It 0:36:05.400 --> 0:36:08.800 was right off of like Highland and Hollywood Boulevard. Signed 0:36:08.800 --> 0:36:10.799 my deal and on the way home we got it 0:36:10.840 --> 0:36:13.400 to start again, and then it stopped like right on 0:36:13.440 --> 0:36:16.560 the hill, like you know when you're like the Hollywood Bowl, and. 0:36:16.600 --> 0:36:17.319 Stopped right there. 0:36:17.920 --> 0:36:19.840 We were there and my mom and I are laughing 0:36:19.920 --> 0:36:22.959 and crying, laughing like we just signed a deal for. 0:36:22.840 --> 0:36:24.400 One hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. 0:36:24.400 --> 0:36:26.320 I didn't think I'd ever seen money like that, and 0:36:27.200 --> 0:36:29.920 we went from zero I had actually been. We were 0:36:29.960 --> 0:36:32.080 getting evicted and my attorney had to forward us money 0:36:32.120 --> 0:36:33.600 in the meantime because I wasn't going to be able 0:36:33.600 --> 0:36:37.319 to pay it. And so we're laughing and crying and like, 0:36:37.440 --> 0:36:39.480 look at us, look at what's happening right now. It 0:36:39.520 --> 0:36:42.640 was so humble. It's so humble, our humble beginnings, Like 0:36:42.760 --> 0:36:45.680 stick with me. That's probably why I'm very frugal and 0:36:45.680 --> 0:36:48.400 all this other stuff because I'm like always like you know, 0:36:48.680 --> 0:36:52.839 I save and other stuff lasting out. I can laugh 0:36:52.880 --> 0:36:56.680 at it, right, right, But it's those humble beginnings that 0:36:56.719 --> 0:36:59.479 I always draw back to and my connection with God 0:36:59.520 --> 0:37:01.960 and I was my spiritual side. That's really like that 0:37:02.080 --> 0:37:04.799 opened up when I was sixteen fifteen, sixteen years old 0:37:04.800 --> 0:37:09.000 and those times and yeah, you know that is now. 0:37:08.920 --> 0:37:09.200 That's it. 0:37:09.280 --> 0:37:10.080 That's incredible. 0:37:10.120 --> 0:37:13.359 That's an incredible story. And it just shows you got 0:37:13.360 --> 0:37:15.640 to stick to what you really want. Yeah you know 0:37:15.680 --> 0:37:17.960 what I mean, because so many people you just never 0:37:18.040 --> 0:37:20.719 know how close you are, yes, right, And for you 0:37:20.800 --> 0:37:23.440 and your mom to have that moment together to say, listen, 0:37:23.880 --> 0:37:26.800 all right, no more this, no more that, no more this, 0:37:26.840 --> 0:37:29.440 because we're focused on getting you to a certain place 0:37:29.760 --> 0:37:31.239 and actually getting there. 0:37:31.360 --> 0:37:33.040 Yeah, that moment. 0:37:32.760 --> 0:37:35.000 Of relief and that like you said your car had 0:37:35.000 --> 0:37:36.719 broken down, but you broke down with a with one 0:37:36.800 --> 0:37:37.600 hundred and twenty five. 0:37:38.480 --> 0:37:43.239 You got five if you just picked me up. 0:37:44.160 --> 0:37:45.080 Somebody pushed us. 0:37:48.320 --> 0:37:49.960 They pushed ark and said there was somebody saw us 0:37:49.960 --> 0:37:51.640 and they pushed our car from their car and they 0:37:51.680 --> 0:37:55.440 pushed us up the hill. But yeah, it's crazy that 0:37:55.920 --> 0:37:57.640 walk that I had with my mom was like an 0:37:57.840 --> 0:38:00.680 it was an eye because the option was stay and 0:38:00.840 --> 0:38:02.960 dug it out and let's make this happen, or go 0:38:03.040 --> 0:38:05.239 back to Maryland. And I was like, I just don't 0:38:05.280 --> 0:38:06.880 see it. I don't see me going back to Maryland. 0:38:07.200 --> 0:38:09.080 All my friends that I had from back in Maryland 0:38:09.080 --> 0:38:11.839 at that time, they started, you know, doing drugs out 0:38:11.880 --> 0:38:14.080 of boredom. There's stuff that kids do in towns like 0:38:14.120 --> 0:38:15.520 that that is just out of boredom. And if they 0:38:15.520 --> 0:38:19.239 don't have, they weren't dreaming, already motivating. I was in 0:38:19.280 --> 0:38:22.120 a different position. I still just felt like I could 0:38:22.160 --> 0:38:22.520 see it. 0:38:22.800 --> 0:38:24.040 I wasn't going back to There. 0:38:23.920 --> 0:38:26.040 Was no giving up. I was like, I'm not giving up. 0:38:26.080 --> 0:38:28.560 And that Maryland was a bad place, not at all. 0:38:28.600 --> 0:38:32.040 It just felt like the opportunity. 0:38:32.760 --> 0:38:36.200 I'm in Hollywood, the land of opportunity. If I go home, 0:38:37.120 --> 0:38:40.200 if I just pack it up and go home, I've 0:38:40.360 --> 0:38:41.000 given up. 0:38:41.280 --> 0:38:43.520 Yes, that's exactly, And I was not. I was not 0:38:43.600 --> 0:38:44.040 giving up. 0:38:44.200 --> 0:38:48.200 So let me just move out to Rancho Cuckamonga, you know, 0:38:48.360 --> 0:38:51.359 just a little ways away, okay, where I can afford it, 0:38:52.840 --> 0:38:54.960 you know, where they can't really see me doing bad 0:38:56.719 --> 0:39:00.200 or Corona. Yeah, you know what I mean, until I'm 0:39:00.239 --> 0:39:03.239 still here. I still I still can drive my stick 0:39:03.280 --> 0:39:04.280 shift Ford Escort. 0:39:05.520 --> 0:39:06.920 So you had a Ford that Scort, she had a 0:39:06.960 --> 0:39:07.520 four tours. 0:39:07.640 --> 0:39:10.440 Yeah, we're in the family. Thank you for you know 0:39:10.480 --> 0:39:14.640 what I'm saying, the very wheel spell off. 0:39:25.080 --> 0:39:26.120 So now you got your deal. 0:39:26.560 --> 0:39:26.799 Yeah. 0:39:27.440 --> 0:39:29.960 People don't realize now it's a whole nother process. 0:39:30.040 --> 0:39:30.200 Yeah. 0:39:30.360 --> 0:39:31.960 Yeah, because now you gotta find songs. 0:39:32.320 --> 0:39:35.439 Now you got to people, you might get shelved. 0:39:36.520 --> 0:39:40.360 How long does it take you to get to the 0:39:40.440 --> 0:39:43.680 record with you and ji U? Between me and you? 0:39:44.120 --> 0:39:49.320 Okay, I think it took I signed my deal September. 0:39:49.360 --> 0:39:53.160 I think by the next summer that that song came out. 0:39:53.440 --> 0:39:56.320 So I signed my deal. I was making music. 0:39:56.400 --> 0:39:58.359 Are you still acting? In between two? 0:39:58.440 --> 0:40:00.719 Though I was at the I was I had gotten 0:40:00.719 --> 0:40:02.360 to the job on Disney Channel, so I was like 0:40:02.440 --> 0:40:03.680 Tina from the movie Surfers. 0:40:04.920 --> 0:40:06.319 So that was actually that was one of those. 0:40:06.280 --> 0:40:08.279 Checks that would come I would get sporadically, that was 0:40:08.320 --> 0:40:09.919 like one of the things that helped us. So I too, 0:40:10.719 --> 0:40:12.359 and I was getting a name for being Tina from 0:40:12.400 --> 0:40:14.359 the movie Surfers. And also this probably helped me move 0:40:14.400 --> 0:40:16.920 my deal. Because Disney kids were popping and popping through 0:40:17.280 --> 0:40:19.080 they were trying to find Disney kids. So that probably 0:40:19.160 --> 0:40:20.480 really helped because when I look at it, I'm like, 0:40:20.520 --> 0:40:22.320 I don't sing that great, and I wasn't dancing. 0:40:22.160 --> 0:40:22.839 Oh, you know what I mean. 0:40:23.120 --> 0:40:24.960 But I had enough of a chance and a globe 0:40:25.000 --> 0:40:26.640 that walked in and they were like they saw it, 0:40:28.320 --> 0:40:31.759 and so yeah, I had squit this Disney because by 0:40:31.760 --> 0:40:34.319 then I was like seventeen, eighteen eighteen, and I was like, 0:40:34.360 --> 0:40:35.960 I can't do this high pitch voice anymore. 0:40:36.400 --> 0:40:38.120 And I was just in the studio and surviving off 0:40:38.120 --> 0:40:39.160 this money. So I was doing fun. 0:40:39.200 --> 0:40:40.839 I didn't have to do the acting at the moment, 0:40:41.280 --> 0:40:42.879 and I was tired of doing like girl number four, 0:40:43.040 --> 0:40:44.000 number three, you know what I mean. 0:40:44.040 --> 0:40:45.440 I wasn't getting my main roles. 0:40:46.239 --> 0:40:50.560 So I was making music and unfortunately, for a period 0:40:50.560 --> 0:40:53.080 of time, there was I did it something that could 0:40:53.120 --> 0:40:54.600 have helped me back. I ended up in an abusive 0:40:54.600 --> 0:40:59.520 relationship for a little while, but my def gen people 0:40:59.719 --> 0:41:02.719 really like stuck with me, and my mom was on me, 0:41:03.320 --> 0:41:05.879 and I stuck it out and I eventually got out 0:41:05.880 --> 0:41:09.279 of that and I made this trip my A and R. 0:41:09.360 --> 0:41:11.120 Jeff said come to New York and start working on 0:41:11.200 --> 0:41:14.600 music here. So I went to New York and in 0:41:14.640 --> 0:41:17.000 that trip, I was able to break off of that relationship. 0:41:17.040 --> 0:41:19.800 I cut off my phone number. This that though I feared, 0:41:20.120 --> 0:41:22.040 you know, for the worst, I was like, I'm gonna 0:41:22.040 --> 0:41:23.640 take this chance, and I really want this. 0:41:23.840 --> 0:41:24.840 I can't let this stop me. 0:41:25.239 --> 0:41:27.360 And so I went to New York and I started 0:41:27.400 --> 0:41:30.480 working on music there and I met my Her name 0:41:30.560 --> 0:41:31.400 is Shanita Floyd. 0:41:31.520 --> 0:41:34.040 She was like my creative director, I guess, she would say. 0:41:34.520 --> 0:41:36.960 And she got a call from IRV Gotti and IRV 0:41:37.080 --> 0:41:39.560 was looking for somebody to sing between me and you, 0:41:39.719 --> 0:41:41.399 and he wanted somebody that kind of sing. 0:41:41.440 --> 0:41:44.239 Like Mariah Vibe. He wanted, like I forgot the song. 0:41:44.400 --> 0:41:46.200 There was a song that Mariah did maybe with buster 0:41:46.239 --> 0:41:48.920 rhymes or something like that, and he wanted that kind 0:41:48.920 --> 0:41:51.120 of sweet spot voice. And they or the song was 0:41:51.160 --> 0:41:53.880 written and she's like, go to the studio and I 0:41:53.920 --> 0:41:55.319 was like, they're like, would you want to do this? 0:41:55.400 --> 0:41:56.759 I was like yeah. I was like, I'll go to 0:41:56.800 --> 0:41:57.759 the studio and hear the song. 0:41:58.200 --> 0:42:00.359 So I went and I met IRV and I had 0:42:00.719 --> 0:42:03.520 Irven his God bless him, and May he rest in peace. 0:42:04.080 --> 0:42:07.200 He had this loud New York energy and everything with 0:42:07.280 --> 0:42:09.399 bananas and it was electric. 0:42:11.320 --> 0:42:11.800 Banana. 0:42:12.320 --> 0:42:13.400 That was the first time I was in the studio, 0:42:13.440 --> 0:42:14.960 so like there was a gun on the table. I 0:42:15.000 --> 0:42:17.560 was like, oh my here, you know, the guys had 0:42:17.560 --> 0:42:19.960 to protect themselves. But Job Rule was one of my 0:42:20.040 --> 0:42:23.439 first you know, theft jam albums CDs that I bought, 0:42:23.520 --> 0:42:25.560 so I was a band of Ja Rule, like, oh yeah, 0:42:25.880 --> 0:42:27.680 I want to work with them, And so he played 0:42:27.680 --> 0:42:29.440 me to the song and the song was dope. 0:42:29.480 --> 0:42:30.560 It was there. 0:42:30.920 --> 0:42:33.600 So I went in the booth, sang it, didn't know 0:42:33.640 --> 0:42:37.240 anything of it, left, the left my mom and I left, 0:42:37.640 --> 0:42:41.000 and within a month we're shooting a music video David 0:42:41.000 --> 0:42:45.240 Myers up in like Porter Ranch, Chatsworth and this giant 0:42:45.280 --> 0:42:49.960 house and I'm shooting a video and it was like overnight. 0:42:50.000 --> 0:42:53.120 It was those chances that I would take of sacrificing, 0:42:53.239 --> 0:42:55.800 Like even when you're in an abusive relationship, it is 0:42:55.840 --> 0:42:59.080 a sacrifice to leave something because you're scared and you're 0:42:59.080 --> 0:43:02.000 also so in love brainwashing that person. You're like, you know, 0:43:02.160 --> 0:43:04.600 I could you know You're It's it's a it's a 0:43:04.719 --> 0:43:06.640 sacrifice I had to make because my heart was so 0:43:06.719 --> 0:43:08.080 in it, but I knew it was the wrong thing. 0:43:08.640 --> 0:43:11.120 So it was when I would take those chances and 0:43:11.200 --> 0:43:13.960 follow my heart and connect with God that I would 0:43:13.960 --> 0:43:18.240 have these amazing turnovers, like these turns in my life 0:43:18.239 --> 0:43:20.399 that was like it. God was always telling me, see, 0:43:20.640 --> 0:43:22.719 like I'm your friend, I got you, I got you, 0:43:23.520 --> 0:43:28.120 and I did. The video song came out and I 0:43:28.160 --> 0:43:30.120 didn't really know that it was like blowing up like that. 0:43:30.200 --> 0:43:30.840 It was crazy. 0:43:30.880 --> 0:43:36.760 I was like, yeah, like at Ralph's on Venture Boulevard 0:43:36.880 --> 0:43:39.000 one day, all of a sudden, I'm power one of six, 0:43:39.280 --> 0:43:41.319 I'm hearing the song and I'm sitting in the in 0:43:41.360 --> 0:43:43.960 the parking lot with my mom, and I'm like, I 0:43:44.040 --> 0:43:45.320 just thought, I'm calling people. 0:43:45.680 --> 0:43:49.680 I'm hearing myself on the radio like like it was. 0:43:49.760 --> 0:43:52.680 It was that's when you you cry and you're counting 0:43:52.719 --> 0:43:56.080 your blessing. You're connecting back to the moment of walking 0:43:56.120 --> 0:43:59.440 and you know, you know, the whole I've lived. I 0:43:59.440 --> 0:44:01.640 still live in the area where all of this stuff happens, 0:44:01.680 --> 0:44:04.000 you know, So I passed by these places and remind 0:44:04.000 --> 0:44:05.680 myself of this stuff all the time. 0:44:06.280 --> 0:44:08.000 So yeah, the job Rol. 0:44:07.920 --> 0:44:13.760 Song came out, Give You that's when the label was like, okay, studio, 0:44:15.840 --> 0:44:18.719 I go to Sweden. Oh yeah, like yeah, I go 0:44:18.800 --> 0:44:21.120 to Sweden. It had been took like four months. It 0:44:21.200 --> 0:44:23.879 was like maybe maybe two maybe two and a half months. 0:44:23.880 --> 0:44:25.880 I made an album. 0:44:25.480 --> 0:44:27.200 And you said to Sweden to make it. 0:44:27.320 --> 0:44:30.239 I went to Sweden. I went to Norway. That was 0:44:30.280 --> 0:44:32.120 my first time at the country. I still have these videos. 0:44:32.200 --> 0:44:34.000 Was watching the other day and I was such a novice, 0:44:34.239 --> 0:44:36.200 like like, wow, look there's a burger king. 0:44:36.239 --> 0:44:36.960 Wow, this is that? 0:44:37.640 --> 0:44:40.520 And and yeah, I went and worked with a couple 0:44:40.680 --> 0:44:41.960 couple people stricken to Rogers. 0:44:42.000 --> 0:44:45.960 These guys name bloodshin Avunt, even what's his name? 0:44:46.320 --> 0:44:49.320 My mama, Mama Mark Mark when we made all the 0:44:49.320 --> 0:44:51.200 Brittey Spears records, I should. 0:44:50.880 --> 0:44:54.880 Know this, Yeah, Max Martin. 0:44:57.719 --> 0:45:00.000 Historic. So these are people. 0:45:00.040 --> 0:45:03.000 Well I'm like watching, you know, and I'm in the 0:45:03.040 --> 0:45:04.920 studio making records. And I started writing. 0:45:05.360 --> 0:45:07.640 I really started the I started. 0:45:07.719 --> 0:45:09.680 Yeah, it was with Bloodshed. I started writing. 0:45:10.239 --> 0:45:13.720 And because people were giving me songs at eighteen talking 0:45:13.719 --> 0:45:17.040 about there were either two overly sexualized or always like 0:45:17.280 --> 0:45:18.919 I've got pictures of him on my wall. 0:45:19.040 --> 0:45:19.600 I look at him. 0:45:19.600 --> 0:45:22.120 It's always admiration and like over the top of guys, 0:45:22.160 --> 0:45:25.160 and I'm like, well, what about my real experiences, Like 0:45:25.200 --> 0:45:27.719 I didn't fit in in school, girls didn't like me, 0:45:28.760 --> 0:45:31.120 you know the you know the records about. 0:45:31.200 --> 0:45:33.120 Just like real high school stuff. 0:45:33.840 --> 0:45:36.359 And so I started writing those songs with really great 0:45:36.400 --> 0:45:40.680 melodies and pop sounds. And when I was working with him, 0:45:40.719 --> 0:45:44.520 I ended up writing a song called play also, and 0:45:44.760 --> 0:45:46.920 that was supposed to be like I wrote that right 0:45:46.960 --> 0:45:48.799 before song. The next day, I wrote a song called 0:45:48.840 --> 0:45:50.920 AM to PM. So play was something I did in 0:45:50.920 --> 0:45:52.520 like twenty minutes. I didn't think anything of it. 0:45:52.560 --> 0:45:55.759 I was like, Oh, it's cool, Bampa, doctor Seuss. I 0:45:55.840 --> 0:45:57.719 was like, is this too simple? My Mom's like it's great, 0:45:58.160 --> 0:45:59.439 you know simple, It's good. 0:45:59.520 --> 0:46:01.480 And by the way, I studied to write because I 0:46:01.480 --> 0:46:03.880 didn't think I could write, So my mom told me, 0:46:03.880 --> 0:46:05.239 if you could read, you could write. So I did 0:46:05.280 --> 0:46:07.320 study a lot of the greats to learn how to 0:46:07.360 --> 0:46:10.120 write songs in the formats, all that stuff that was 0:46:10.160 --> 0:46:12.200 happening also in those really broke times. 0:46:12.239 --> 0:46:12.880 So that's what we do. 0:46:12.960 --> 0:46:15.200 We go to Second Spin on Ventura and we would 0:46:15.200 --> 0:46:17.320 listen to music for free, because you get the CDs, 0:46:17.320 --> 0:46:20.279 you listen to music and so anyways, so that's how 0:46:20.360 --> 0:46:22.040 I learned how to write, learn how to format. 0:46:22.080 --> 0:46:24.160 I wrote a first song, my first song called you 0:46:24.200 --> 0:46:24.759 Make Me Laugh. 0:46:24.800 --> 0:46:28.279 Anyways, So play happens and I was like, oh, it's 0:46:28.320 --> 0:46:30.080 a good song write am TOPM. 0:46:30.080 --> 0:46:31.640 I'm like, that's a great song. This is me. 0:46:32.160 --> 0:46:34.319 And then like a week later, Tommy Watola comes to 0:46:34.360 --> 0:46:37.560 Sweden to come get some songs for j LO and 0:46:37.960 --> 0:46:39.839 he hears the song play and he's and he fell 0:46:39.880 --> 0:46:42.160 in love with it, and he's like, we need this 0:46:42.239 --> 0:46:44.120 song for Jenny Lopez. And they were like do you 0:46:44.160 --> 0:46:46.359 are you? Do you? Are you cool to give it away? 0:46:46.360 --> 0:46:50.480 I was like, oh yeah, yes, please, yes, I don't 0:46:51.080 --> 0:46:55.200 like the song like that. I was like, am TOPM. 0:46:54.960 --> 0:46:56.600 Was my party song. I was like, there's no way 0:46:56.600 --> 0:46:58.240 they're going to put two party songs on this album. 0:46:58.239 --> 0:47:00.480 I'm going to keep AM to PM. Yes, yes to 0:47:00.560 --> 0:47:04.279 j LO. And so yeah, I'm like I got a 0:47:04.320 --> 0:47:05.719 song on j LO by accident. 0:47:06.120 --> 0:47:06.839 It was so cool. 0:47:06.840 --> 0:47:10.400 I went to New York she recorded the song like 0:47:10.480 --> 0:47:12.440 it blew my mind. And then I started writing for 0:47:12.480 --> 0:47:15.759 other people too, and it's just it was crazy and yeah. 0:47:15.880 --> 0:47:18.640 Eventually AM to PM came out of course. 0:47:18.719 --> 0:47:21.279 Unfortunately it came out around the nine to eleven era, 0:47:21.920 --> 0:47:24.400 so a lot of that changed, a lot of the 0:47:24.680 --> 0:47:27.080 trajectory of music. I ended up getting Johnny Right as 0:47:27.080 --> 0:47:29.600 a manager, so he started co managing with my mom 0:47:30.280 --> 0:47:31.240 and Johnny Wright. 0:47:31.040 --> 0:47:32.680 Was handling Britney Spears and Sync. 0:47:33.280 --> 0:47:35.800 When I tour within Sync, which was cool and opening 0:47:35.800 --> 0:47:38.000 for them, Yes, I opened for. 0:47:37.920 --> 0:47:42.640 Them and the week my album was it was crazy. Yeah. 0:47:43.120 --> 0:47:45.920 I met my idol. The day I went to MTV, 0:47:47.320 --> 0:47:48.400 I met Jenny Jackson. 0:47:49.160 --> 0:47:52.360 The one day you go up there having a meeting. 0:47:52.480 --> 0:47:55.120 Jenny Jackson was going to surprise PRL and come out 0:47:55.760 --> 0:47:57.840 and they decided they said. 0:47:57.719 --> 0:47:58.359 You want to meet her? 0:47:58.920 --> 0:48:01.439 Yes, absolutely, They. 0:48:01.320 --> 0:48:03.480 Brought me down to her. I walked in that room. Guys, 0:48:03.960 --> 0:48:06.359 I couldn't get a word out of my mouth. I 0:48:06.400 --> 0:48:10.240 was like, like, I said, Hi, I was like so timid. 0:48:10.320 --> 0:48:12.080 I had my mom with me. All I said was 0:48:12.440 --> 0:48:14.719 nice to meet you. She was glowing. That's the thing. 0:48:14.800 --> 0:48:17.319 I walked in there. She was glowing. She had an 0:48:17.400 --> 0:48:18.799 art she was glowing, and she. 0:48:18.840 --> 0:48:21.759 Was petite, and she was telling me that she saw 0:48:21.800 --> 0:48:28.479 my music video and she was telling me, my mind, did. 0:48:28.400 --> 0:48:31.160 You never know who's watching no, you never know who's watching. 0:48:31.200 --> 0:48:33.360 It blew my mind and I was on MTV. I'm like, 0:48:33.400 --> 0:48:35.440 this is my dreams that come in true. Like she 0:48:35.600 --> 0:48:37.239 left the room or I left the room, I can't 0:48:37.239 --> 0:48:40.280 even remember. And I was I cried for two hours 0:48:40.360 --> 0:48:42.760 and laughter in tears and crying good. 0:48:43.800 --> 0:48:45.840 Like I was crazy, but I was crying. 0:48:45.880 --> 0:48:49.080 I was so happy, like everything just unfolded so beautifully 0:48:49.080 --> 0:48:50.640 and so it was so cool and it was such 0:48:50.640 --> 0:48:53.200 a time. This is why people don't like. People ask 0:48:53.280 --> 0:48:55.879 me about doing music now and I just don't know. 0:48:56.440 --> 0:49:01.200 It's cool. It's cool, is it? I have to ask you. 0:49:01.400 --> 0:49:03.280 My husband does it, but he does it in France, 0:49:03.600 --> 0:49:05.960 I think on a really international level. And I had 0:49:06.080 --> 0:49:10.400 MTV and I had the nineties, nineties, two thousands. 0:49:10.080 --> 0:49:17.279 Early two thousands, man please, there was like, yeah, there 0:49:17.400 --> 0:49:23.480 was so music mediums, like especially visually you know what 0:49:23.560 --> 0:49:27.360 I mean with that MTV and those like music videos, 0:49:27.480 --> 0:49:28.480 worry things. 0:49:29.480 --> 0:49:32.160 You spent your money on that being man what And 0:49:32.239 --> 0:49:35.680 people watched it. People came home after kids came home 0:49:35.760 --> 0:49:36.680 after school. 0:49:36.920 --> 0:49:37.720 It was a tradition. 0:49:38.080 --> 0:49:39.520 I think they made it more normal. 0:49:39.560 --> 0:49:42.720 Now music feels too in my opinion, it feels too normal. 0:49:42.880 --> 0:49:49.280 Because back then, doing a video right was special because 0:49:49.560 --> 0:49:52.120 you have to actually have an't you called just content. 0:49:52.719 --> 0:49:55.719 You have to have a You couldn't use this to 0:49:55.760 --> 0:49:56.600 shoot a video. 0:49:57.160 --> 0:49:59.480 I mean the first time a director said that to me, 0:49:59.520 --> 0:50:01.320 he was like, you know, I shot it on my iPhone. 0:50:01.320 --> 0:50:04.319 I said, oh, we're fucked. Dang, I said, we're fuck. 0:50:04.840 --> 0:50:08.080 No, in my head, I was like when someone said that, 0:50:08.120 --> 0:50:08.880 I was like, damn. 0:50:09.000 --> 0:50:10.239 If I would have had that, then do you know 0:50:10.239 --> 0:50:12.040 how many songs I wanted to put out or how 0:50:12.080 --> 0:50:14.759 many videos I wanted to do? People telling me no 0:50:15.000 --> 0:50:18.040 because you technically did what the label told you in 0:50:18.080 --> 0:50:19.680 a way or what they were down for what they 0:50:19.680 --> 0:50:22.840 would commit to. But like I have video ideas. I 0:50:22.880 --> 0:50:26.280 wanted to shoot so many things, and eventually people did. 0:50:26.120 --> 0:50:27.719 Do that, and I was like, damn, I should have 0:50:27.880 --> 0:50:28.319 done that. 0:50:28.680 --> 0:50:31.960 Well, it just wasn't economical back No, it wasn't. Yeah 0:50:32.160 --> 0:50:34.600 that and that's you know that, that's where videos also 0:50:34.719 --> 0:50:36.319 made star videos may start. 0:50:36.400 --> 0:50:37.280 They made stars. 0:50:37.800 --> 0:50:41.399 These pieces of content don't really make our stars. 0:50:41.440 --> 0:50:43.040 Like they introduced you to artists. 0:50:43.040 --> 0:50:47.040 They engagement, and it's engagement, but maybe not even I 0:50:47.080 --> 0:50:51.120 won't say they don't make superstars they don't make superstars. 0:50:51.400 --> 0:50:54.600 All the superstars have videos with labels and still. 0:50:54.440 --> 0:50:57.440 Still don't you got videos? Still it says they got 0:50:57.480 --> 0:51:02.200 video Chris Brown got videos, Beyones got videos, drakevideos, can videos. 0:51:02.320 --> 0:51:03.960 Name some new people who got videos. 0:51:04.000 --> 0:51:04.880 They don't got videos. 0:51:04.880 --> 0:51:07.400 Those your cat got videos. Those you can't got videos. 0:51:07.880 --> 0:51:09.279 But those are super That's what I'm saying. 0:51:09.320 --> 0:51:12.080 Those are Those are the superstars now though, and they 0:51:12.120 --> 0:51:16.560 still have that. The rest of the artists don't have that. 0:51:16.920 --> 0:51:18.600 Let me shoot this in my hood real quick. 0:51:18.800 --> 0:51:20.040 Yeah, you're gonna. 0:51:19.880 --> 0:51:21.520 Get a buzz off of it, and that's cool. 0:51:21.800 --> 0:51:24.880 It's not gonna make it to me because it's just 0:51:24.920 --> 0:51:28.040 something about the screen, something about that screen, right, It's 0:51:28.080 --> 0:51:28.560 just like being. 0:51:28.400 --> 0:51:30.359 In the movie There was Now I don't even get 0:51:30.360 --> 0:51:32.479 to watch music videos. 0:51:32.920 --> 0:51:35.040 Did I make music videos? 0:51:35.080 --> 0:51:35.279 Man? 0:51:36.480 --> 0:51:37.280 You know, I'm surprised. 0:51:37.320 --> 0:51:39.880 Sometimes there are videos, but we just don't get to 0:51:39.920 --> 0:51:42.200 seek them all the way. Like I'll find out when 0:51:42.239 --> 0:51:44.200 I go on the treadmill and I'm like, Okay, I 0:51:44.280 --> 0:51:46.120 just want to see listen to music, So I'll go 0:51:46.160 --> 0:51:48.480 on put a playlist on, and I'm like, oh. 0:51:48.320 --> 0:51:50.359 They made a video for that. Like, but you're right. 0:51:50.440 --> 0:51:52.640 Still, some people are just making like lyric videos and 0:51:52.640 --> 0:51:54.799 stuff because it's like why spend the money. But it 0:51:54.880 --> 0:51:56.840 was just a different time. We had the platforms. Is 0:51:56.840 --> 0:52:00.200 when we had we had MTV overseas, we had all 0:52:00.239 --> 0:52:02.560 these different networks of shows that you will perform on 0:52:02.680 --> 0:52:04.920 PEPSI smash this, that, blah blah blah, and it was 0:52:04.960 --> 0:52:08.120 just so exciting. And I just don't like if it 0:52:08.160 --> 0:52:10.600 doesn't give me that vibe, and I got a hustle 0:52:10.640 --> 0:52:13.399 and that probably not make any money, not that much money, 0:52:13.440 --> 0:52:16.360 and leave sacrificed my family for that. It doesn't feel 0:52:16.480 --> 0:52:18.279 really worth it for me right now to do that. 0:52:19.400 --> 0:52:21.200 And I just feel like I lived in such a 0:52:21.200 --> 0:52:23.759 good time. And actually back then you can kind of 0:52:23.840 --> 0:52:26.000 know what the numbers were. I don't know how y'all 0:52:26.000 --> 0:52:28.640 count the numbers streams and this, that that, and figure 0:52:28.640 --> 0:52:30.279 out how you make money off of this as an 0:52:30.400 --> 0:52:31.960 artist just for music. 0:52:32.040 --> 0:52:34.280 You know, now it's just touring and maybe merchant stuff. 0:52:34.320 --> 0:52:38.759 But figure out the numbers how you do that character show? 0:52:38.800 --> 0:52:39.160 You know what I mean. 0:52:39.239 --> 0:52:41.520 I mean, that's that's a big tricky That's the only 0:52:41.640 --> 0:52:44.200 real thing. Those the numbers that they've created. Now as 0:52:44.200 --> 0:52:47.560 far as like the streaming, it's all bullshit. Yeah, I'll 0:52:47.560 --> 0:52:49.640 say it clearly, it's all bullshit, you know what I mean? 0:52:49.680 --> 0:52:53.520 Somebody telling you that you gotta stream fifteen hundred times 0:52:53.520 --> 0:52:55.759 for it to be considered one download? 0:52:56.440 --> 0:52:58.120 Like who made that dumb ass shit up? 0:52:59.480 --> 0:53:00.000 Are you? 0:53:00.640 --> 0:53:00.839 Yeah? 0:53:02.960 --> 0:53:03.360 Crook? 0:53:03.840 --> 0:53:04.680 That's crazy? 0:53:05.280 --> 0:53:06.080 Crook made that up? 0:53:06.400 --> 0:53:06.640 Right? 0:53:06.760 --> 0:53:09.440 Because and then it's like, okay, are the numbers even real? 0:53:09.480 --> 0:53:12.600 Because you can trick the algorithm. Somebody may have phones 0:53:12.680 --> 0:53:15.560 just running over unning about that, you know what I mean. 0:53:15.600 --> 0:53:16.680 So it's a lot of things. 0:53:16.680 --> 0:53:18.879 The only thing that's that's in my opinion, that's really 0:53:18.920 --> 0:53:22.320 tangible is going out there and performing for your for 0:53:22.680 --> 0:53:23.920 your audience and for your fans. 0:53:24.160 --> 0:53:27.120 When you show up to that room five hundred or 0:53:27.120 --> 0:53:31.359 one thousand or fifteen hundred, that's gonna tell strong what 0:53:31.480 --> 0:53:37.000 the truth is outside. All that makes the stream and 0:53:37.080 --> 0:53:41.399 YouTube and all I get it? What do the people say, though, Yes, 0:53:42.560 --> 0:53:44.799 that's how you define it. Yeah, I'm gonna jump around 0:53:44.800 --> 0:53:50.600 a little bit because my stories no no, no, no, no, I'm learning, like, 0:53:50.600 --> 0:53:54.520 like I've learned so much about you that it's really really. 0:53:54.280 --> 0:53:56.480 Cool that I had no idea good, Like. 0:53:56.800 --> 0:54:00.640 Really your journey is really really awesome, let's go here 0:54:00.680 --> 0:54:02.440 because because this is I want to go and sequence 0:54:02.520 --> 0:54:08.120 your order. Love don't cost the thing? Oh two thousand. 0:54:07.800 --> 0:54:09.120 And three, right, great movie? 0:54:09.880 --> 0:54:12.839 Yep, how'd you land that? Just me me quick. 0:54:13.200 --> 0:54:15.400 I was surprised. I was going away with that one. 0:54:16.360 --> 0:54:19.160 My first album came out only overseas because, like I said, 0:54:19.200 --> 0:54:21.040 nine to eleven kind of change the trajectory of that. 0:54:21.880 --> 0:54:24.480 But I had a name that was out there. Am 0:54:24.560 --> 0:54:27.279 TOPM did come out between me and you came out. 0:54:27.320 --> 0:54:30.520 But I got a call from Troy Bayer. That's she's 0:54:30.520 --> 0:54:32.840 an actress who was also a director. 0:54:33.520 --> 0:54:33.960 She's great. 0:54:33.960 --> 0:54:37.160 She ended up writing the script to have a general meeting, 0:54:37.600 --> 0:54:39.279 and that was one of my first general meetings that 0:54:39.320 --> 0:54:40.960 I had. It was like an in between album thing. 0:54:41.000 --> 0:54:44.120 I was coming back to you know, LA, because I 0:54:44.160 --> 0:54:46.319 was on the road everywhere. I traveled to over like 0:54:46.400 --> 0:54:48.960 thirty five countries off just the first album because I 0:54:48.960 --> 0:54:51.839 went overseas, and so I came back and they asked 0:54:51.840 --> 0:54:53.799 me to have I ended up getting an agent because 0:54:53.800 --> 0:54:56.680 I was like, I'm interested in acting again, and I 0:54:56.680 --> 0:54:59.799 got an agent and she got the call about this meeting. 0:54:59.880 --> 0:55:02.719 So when had a meeting and didn't have a. 0:55:02.719 --> 0:55:03.600 Script or anything. 0:55:03.760 --> 0:55:06.440 They had introduced me, given me a script, and they 0:55:06.480 --> 0:55:08.760 were just talking to me, and I'm like, okay, cool, 0:55:08.840 --> 0:55:11.239 We're here having this meeting in Santa Monica talking and 0:55:11.239 --> 0:55:13.640 it was like the producers and stuff didn't really know 0:55:13.680 --> 0:55:17.120 anything of what was happening. But she was just smiling. 0:55:17.239 --> 0:55:19.560 She was just so happy to see me. It's just 0:55:19.560 --> 0:55:21.680 something to director Troy, and she kind of looked like 0:55:22.000 --> 0:55:23.600 she could be like my big sister. So I think 0:55:23.640 --> 0:55:27.120 she saw her in me. And by the end of 0:55:27.160 --> 0:55:32.000 the meeting, she's like there telling me, we want you 0:55:32.080 --> 0:55:37.040 to do this movie. And I was like, really, like, 0:55:37.920 --> 0:55:40.880 I had been auditioning my whole life for everything, for 0:55:41.000 --> 0:55:43.120 small roles because they didn't have as many black roles, 0:55:43.440 --> 0:55:46.560 black Latina rolls, anything like that back then. So I 0:55:46.600 --> 0:55:49.120 was always auditioned for really small roles or the best 0:55:49.120 --> 0:55:54.400 friend of or something. And they said they want me 0:55:54.520 --> 0:55:56.160 to do this movie. And back then it wasn't even 0:55:56.239 --> 0:55:58.480 with Warner Brothers. Yet they got the green light off 0:55:58.480 --> 0:56:01.239 of me, off of my name, and so I read 0:56:01.280 --> 0:56:03.680 the script loved it. It reminded me of Can't Buy 0:56:03.760 --> 0:56:05.920 Me Love, which it is a remaking Can't Buy Me Love. 0:56:06.000 --> 0:56:08.879 So I knew the vibe. I didn't know actually until 0:56:08.920 --> 0:56:11.680 later on, that it was actually a reimagining of and 0:56:12.000 --> 0:56:13.440 so they said, if you want to do it, then 0:56:13.680 --> 0:56:15.680 we'll bring it to Warner Brothers. So Warner Brothers said yes. 0:56:15.719 --> 0:56:17.600 They green lit the movie off of me saying yes. 0:56:18.080 --> 0:56:20.440 And then we had to find the guy. And so 0:56:21.640 --> 0:56:23.160 they thought of a couple guys. But I thought of 0:56:23.280 --> 0:56:24.759 you know who I thought of? So I thought of 0:56:24.800 --> 0:56:26.640 two guys. It was the guy who played Jet Jackson 0:56:26.960 --> 0:56:30.600 on Nickelodeon. And I thought of Nick Cannon. And there 0:56:30.600 --> 0:56:32.759 was saying, that's funny, we were think about Nick Cannon two, 0:56:33.200 --> 0:56:35.680 et cetera, et cetera. So had a general meeting with 0:56:35.760 --> 0:56:37.640 them and I connected with Nick. And now the reason 0:56:37.680 --> 0:56:39.120 I thought about Nick cause Nick used to hit on 0:56:39.120 --> 0:56:40.640 me all the time when I was younger, and I 0:56:40.719 --> 0:56:41.520 just felt like, you know. 0:56:41.520 --> 0:56:43.560 The whole and I always felt like he was nerdy. 0:56:44.440 --> 0:56:48.440 He was young, Yeah, we were both young, but I 0:56:48.480 --> 0:56:49.919 always felt like he was a little bit nerd. 0:56:49.960 --> 0:56:52.279 He just wasn't my type, you know. So I was like, 0:56:52.320 --> 0:56:55.600 how perfect fit. He's popular in Nickelodeon. 0:56:56.000 --> 0:56:58.480 It's this and he's actually a really nice guy and 0:56:58.560 --> 0:57:00.520 so when he came in and we all had this meeting, 0:57:00.600 --> 0:57:02.799 they were like they still were on the fence. They 0:57:02.840 --> 0:57:04.640 were thought maybe jee Jackson, and I was like, no, 0:57:04.680 --> 0:57:06.719 it's Nick. I think it's Nick. And so they went 0:57:06.760 --> 0:57:08.480 off of my off of my. 0:57:08.480 --> 0:57:09.560 Say and said we'll do Nick. 0:57:10.239 --> 0:57:15.319 And so Nick ended up being Alvin and within what 0:57:15.440 --> 0:57:17.960 didn't take much like I don't even know how they 0:57:18.000 --> 0:57:21.280 green lit it and it happened so fast, but whatever 0:57:21.320 --> 0:57:22.720 period of time it was, the production. 0:57:22.440 --> 0:57:23.120 Company was ready. 0:57:23.680 --> 0:57:27.320 We shot the movie, and I mean it was the 0:57:27.320 --> 0:57:29.920 best experience ever. I just I was nervous because I 0:57:29.960 --> 0:57:32.880 finally had a lead role, so it was gonna fall 0:57:32.960 --> 0:57:34.840 on me and I was gonna had to actually memorize 0:57:34.880 --> 0:57:36.720 all these lines and everything. But it was easy. It 0:57:36.760 --> 0:57:39.200 was so easy. Troy was an amazing director. She was great, 0:57:40.080 --> 0:57:42.800 such a great guide. My connection with Nick I was 0:57:43.200 --> 0:57:46.120 we had great chemistry and it grew over time in 0:57:46.160 --> 0:57:47.960 the role. I almost felt like I was my character 0:57:48.040 --> 0:57:51.400 sometimes when people would, you know, when the odds were 0:57:51.440 --> 0:57:52.320 against me, you know what I. 0:57:52.200 --> 0:57:53.880 Mean, Sometimes I was like nobody's my friend here. 0:57:55.040 --> 0:57:57.320 And Nick and I connected and had this chemistry on 0:57:57.400 --> 0:57:58.920 screen and of course in person. 0:57:59.080 --> 0:58:00.480 That happened eventually. 0:58:01.560 --> 0:58:05.600 Where you got to see that and now you know, 0:58:06.360 --> 0:58:09.040 after that role, I immediately got another role. 0:58:10.680 --> 0:58:13.120 What happened because because you're having a time right now, 0:58:13.440 --> 0:58:15.400 like you're starting like. 0:58:15.360 --> 0:58:17.640 Two thousand and three, two thousand and three, you. 0:58:17.560 --> 0:58:20.800 Start having a time, then you drop it's about time 0:58:21.720 --> 0:58:25.960 and hit that hot one hundred with dip it low. Yes, yeah, yeah, 0:58:26.000 --> 0:58:27.000 you're cooking right now. 0:58:27.080 --> 0:58:31.440 Yes. So I'm back in the studio, back in the studio. 0:58:32.400 --> 0:58:36.240 So Love don't cost a thing. The record company said, yeah, 0:58:36.400 --> 0:58:37.440 we got some money. 0:58:37.720 --> 0:58:40.480 You want album going, keep going, Come on, I'm in 0:58:40.480 --> 0:58:42.280 the studio. I'm trying to find a hit. By the way, 0:58:42.320 --> 0:58:44.960 I'm making songs. I consistently was in the studio, by 0:58:44.960 --> 0:58:47.320 the way, all this time, because music was still like. 0:58:47.400 --> 0:58:49.640 I was like, there's no reason I can't do both. 0:58:50.000 --> 0:58:52.480 So I'm still in the studio doing and filming Love 0:58:52.480 --> 0:58:55.840 don't cost the thing, but I'm making songs movies over 0:58:56.040 --> 0:58:58.240 I'm still continuing to make songs. But I still didn't 0:58:58.280 --> 0:59:01.200 have that hit. I didn't have that home, so I 0:59:01.240 --> 0:59:04.880 was searching. It took months finding it. And my friend. 0:59:04.640 --> 0:59:08.680 Billy Billy's in the building. Big Billy like he was 0:59:08.720 --> 0:59:09.400 at Deaf Jam. 0:59:09.560 --> 0:59:12.840 I made best friends with him and Billy is he 0:59:12.920 --> 0:59:14.160 is one of the A and R's here on the 0:59:14.160 --> 0:59:16.760 West Coast and he's just one of my best friends 0:59:16.760 --> 0:59:18.920 who just believed in me. And he's another lover of 0:59:18.960 --> 0:59:22.120 like the Jacksons, Michael Janet and he just gets it too. 0:59:22.560 --> 0:59:26.960 And Billy, Billy knew some producers. 0:59:27.000 --> 0:59:28.360 I called him one day, I said, Billy, I said, 0:59:28.400 --> 0:59:31.360 I want to meet as many producers as possible. I 0:59:31.400 --> 0:59:34.440 need to find a hit. And so just put me 0:59:34.720 --> 0:59:37.000 like every hour I want to go to a studio, 0:59:37.200 --> 0:59:39.080 meet somebody listening to some music. Tell him I want 0:59:39.080 --> 0:59:41.760 to come in, and you know, because not every hour 0:59:41.840 --> 0:59:43.480 is like maybe you have two hours because you got 0:59:43.520 --> 0:59:46.280 traffic in La So I had one meeting and then 0:59:46.320 --> 0:59:47.840 he told me about this guy named Polly Paul and 0:59:47.840 --> 0:59:52.160 this guy named Demetrius. Demetrius was managing Polly Paul and 0:59:52.320 --> 0:59:56.840 also at the time it was Schaeffer as we know 0:59:56.920 --> 1:00:00.520 was Neow he was Schaeffer back then was working with 1:00:00.600 --> 1:00:03.240 him too and like helping him, like with vocal production 1:00:03.320 --> 1:00:05.240 and stuff like that. So I went and had a 1:00:05.280 --> 1:00:08.439 meeting with Shape or not Shape or with Paully Paul 1:00:08.480 --> 1:00:13.240 and Demetrius. First time I met them, and uh, he 1:00:13.280 --> 1:00:16.640 plays me songs and the first song they play is 1:00:16.680 --> 1:00:19.000 dip it little first song, first song. 1:00:19.240 --> 1:00:19.600 And TJ. 1:00:19.680 --> 1:00:21.520 Moses is the one that wrote it. She's singing the song, 1:00:22.440 --> 1:00:23.080 and my mom and I. 1:00:23.320 --> 1:00:25.680 Have chills thinking about this. We looked at each other 1:00:25.840 --> 1:00:29.800 and we were like, that's it. You know, you don't 1:00:29.800 --> 1:00:33.640 say that. I loved And they started playing game. They 1:00:33.680 --> 1:00:37.480 started over play Oh, so and So wants it? So 1:00:37.600 --> 1:00:38.440 I got a lot of that. 1:00:39.160 --> 1:00:40.920 You find a song like oh but so and So 1:00:41.040 --> 1:00:44.560 wants oh but it. Songs that never even came out 1:00:44.920 --> 1:00:48.720 to this day. So I heard, We heard that song, 1:00:48.800 --> 1:00:50.920 and we just knew it was immediate. 1:00:51.080 --> 1:00:51.880 It was immediate. 1:00:52.200 --> 1:00:54.880 We didn't say it in front of him, but we knew. 1:00:55.640 --> 1:00:57.640 Then he played some other songs. We're like, yeah, those 1:00:57.680 --> 1:01:00.160 are good. That's a good great We were like that 1:01:00.200 --> 1:01:02.040 Diplot song, that would be a good one. 1:01:02.360 --> 1:01:05.959 That would be a good one. That's great. 1:01:07.320 --> 1:01:09.240 Yeah, I should explore it. 1:01:09.320 --> 1:01:10.080 Let me tell you. 1:01:10.640 --> 1:01:12.600 We got in the car my mom and I called 1:01:12.640 --> 1:01:18.960 Billy like Billy sorry, that was prob. We got it. 1:01:20.040 --> 1:01:23.040 We got it. We got it. Called the label do 1:01:23.080 --> 1:01:26.240 this do that? We got to set this up. We 1:01:26.320 --> 1:01:29.120 got to record this song. That's the one. It's the one. 1:01:29.200 --> 1:01:31.600 I'm telling you, it's the one. Billy was so excited, 1:01:31.640 --> 1:01:33.760 you know, because it's like as a friend and as 1:01:33.760 --> 1:01:36.360 an an r and you know that your friend is happy, 1:01:36.640 --> 1:01:38.439 and those meetings were set upright. 1:01:38.120 --> 1:01:40.439 And everything was was good. Everybody was good. 1:01:40.560 --> 1:01:43.120 But that song we knew we had the single single 1:01:43.200 --> 1:01:46.920 is everything. First single, that's first single, and now we 1:01:47.000 --> 1:01:49.160 know it's dip it low like diplo. Is my biggest 1:01:49.160 --> 1:01:53.360 song today. So I went in and Uh Schaeffer, which 1:01:53.440 --> 1:01:59.040 is Neo. He was my vocal producer, and I sang 1:01:59.280 --> 1:02:02.400 that song. And thank you teacher Moses, Moses for writing 1:02:02.400 --> 1:02:05.600 it also being a great demo guide because most of 1:02:05.720 --> 1:02:08.120 what I did on top of what I did on 1:02:08.160 --> 1:02:08.880 my own. 1:02:09.200 --> 1:02:10.640 Was her flair, you know what I mean. 1:02:10.680 --> 1:02:13.240 She was a great inspiration for that and I found 1:02:13.320 --> 1:02:16.080 my I felt sexy already in that time. 1:02:16.120 --> 1:02:18.920 I was twenty one, twenty twenty one. There was a 1:02:18.920 --> 1:02:20.479 big change. Also, you had like. 1:02:20.440 --> 1:02:23.680 All the maxims and all this other stuff. So it 1:02:23.720 --> 1:02:27.439 was it's like I feel this, I am this, I'm 1:02:27.480 --> 1:02:31.920 ready to make this leap into my womanhood. 1:02:32.080 --> 1:02:34.080 Yeah, she just jumped over King magazine. You went right 1:02:34.120 --> 1:02:34.640 to Maximum. 1:02:38.480 --> 1:02:46.560 King was the Queen of King most magazines ever sold. 1:02:46.760 --> 1:02:47.640 It was the time. 1:02:48.080 --> 1:02:52.680 Platinum, the time. 1:02:53.160 --> 1:02:57.160 We did a couple of those, by the way. 1:02:57.960 --> 1:03:00.439 So yeah, I fell into my woman Hud. I felt 1:03:00.480 --> 1:03:03.120 confident this was me, and it felt like even though 1:03:03.160 --> 1:03:04.680 I didn't write it, and it was rare that I 1:03:04.720 --> 1:03:06.680 would find songs that didn't write that I connected with. 1:03:07.000 --> 1:03:09.280 So this one, I just felt it and it was right, 1:03:09.560 --> 1:03:12.680 and so I recorded it. The label was super happy 1:03:12.720 --> 1:03:17.800 with it, and wam bam music video. The ideas were 1:03:17.880 --> 1:03:19.560 just coming out, coming out, and we found the right 1:03:19.560 --> 1:03:21.760 director and we had this whole idea based off of 1:03:21.840 --> 1:03:24.480 the seventies and just doing body paint and they used 1:03:24.480 --> 1:03:26.360 to do shows with the body paint and everything. 1:03:26.840 --> 1:03:29.320 Then I started getting movies. I got be Cool. 1:03:30.080 --> 1:03:33.880 That's ship. I don't do no no this nigga loves 1:03:34.000 --> 1:03:34.439 be Cool. 1:03:34.520 --> 1:03:37.320 Well, the video for Dipple Little helped me also, like 1:03:37.360 --> 1:03:38.880 I showed them after I got me cool. 1:03:38.920 --> 1:03:41.440 But keep going. Let's let's back it up, going, go ahead, tank. 1:03:41.280 --> 1:03:48.520 Go ahead, Well, now Diplo in my pocket. 1:03:48.760 --> 1:03:53.040 Now we're two thousand and five. We be cool? Yes, 1:03:53.320 --> 1:03:56.520 I don't even think you understand how many times me 1:03:56.560 --> 1:04:01.640 and Zina have watched this funny movie. It comes on today, 1:04:02.120 --> 1:04:08.920 I stopped and watch It's just one of my movies. 1:04:09.720 --> 1:04:14.360 I love that movie. Like in this period in time, 1:04:14.560 --> 1:04:17.800 like this, this, this, this is I just want to 1:04:18.000 --> 1:04:20.480 I just want you to speak to this is life. 1:04:20.520 --> 1:04:25.000 You're having a life changing something that never happens in 1:04:25.080 --> 1:04:30.400 a lifetime for most entertainers, like you have hit records 1:04:30.440 --> 1:04:33.920 and hit the movies at the same time, it doesn't 1:04:34.000 --> 1:04:39.600 happen like that. And just speaking to the walk home 1:04:39.680 --> 1:04:46.960 with mom too. Now you're having this moment that had 1:04:46.960 --> 1:04:47.600 to be like. 1:04:48.720 --> 1:04:49.840 That means, what's happening. 1:04:49.920 --> 1:04:54.040 But we're still like it's crazy because we're still living 1:04:54.120 --> 1:04:57.320 like this, like a really cool regular life because we're 1:04:57.360 --> 1:04:58.640 still saving. 1:04:58.640 --> 1:05:01.240 I'm sure you don't have to get My little. 1:05:01.000 --> 1:05:03.200 Sisters are going to school in North Hollywood High School. 1:05:04.880 --> 1:05:06.840 I'm showing up at the little you know, the little 1:05:06.920 --> 1:05:10.720 you know prom thing, being the ambassador little things, showing 1:05:10.760 --> 1:05:12.640 up for my sisters because they also had to sacrifice 1:05:12.640 --> 1:05:15.320 a lot too from like me being away. I felt 1:05:15.320 --> 1:05:17.520 like I was like their parents too, So yes, all 1:05:17.520 --> 1:05:19.080 this stuff, I was like, I'm doing it for me, 1:05:19.200 --> 1:05:21.920 for my family or my sisters. There were my daughters, 1:05:22.000 --> 1:05:25.280 you know, and uh yeah, it was the time. I'm 1:05:25.280 --> 1:05:27.960 doing photo shoots every the day. Magazines were selling back 1:05:27.960 --> 1:05:30.600 then too, so we're doing photo shoots every day, magazine covers, 1:05:30.640 --> 1:05:35.240 traveling the world, shows, Japan, this, that, tours and sync. 1:05:35.240 --> 1:05:38.880 I'm touring with Britney Spears and doing this that below. 1:05:39.640 --> 1:05:43.440 So I get the audition for Be Cool. Yeah, and 1:05:43.480 --> 1:05:45.760 they had John Jivalta and now with Thurman involved, and 1:05:45.760 --> 1:05:49.680 I knew it was the sequel to Get Shorty. 1:05:49.760 --> 1:05:53.720 Yeah, yeah, are you kidding me? 1:05:53.960 --> 1:05:54.160 Yeah? 1:05:54.240 --> 1:05:55.800 Tell me about it. I was blown away that I 1:05:55.840 --> 1:05:56.120 got it. 1:05:56.200 --> 1:05:57.120 Did you have to audition? 1:05:57.240 --> 1:06:01.160 I auditioned four times, and that time I was exhausted. 1:06:01.240 --> 1:06:04.520 I was shooting the movie Man of the House Tommy 1:06:04.560 --> 1:06:07.919 Lee Jones in Texas. Love Don't Cost a Thing came 1:06:07.960 --> 1:06:11.000 out that same month, and I came back to do 1:06:11.040 --> 1:06:17.040 these auditions for f Gary Gray and I sang, well 1:06:17.160 --> 1:06:18.479 should I feel this good? 1:06:19.760 --> 1:06:20.160 I sing? 1:06:20.240 --> 1:06:21.920 I can't sing right now, but I was singing it, 1:06:22.280 --> 1:06:24.920 singing and that was the song I was using to 1:06:24.960 --> 1:06:28.600 sing it. And I did my audition and they loved it, 1:06:28.960 --> 1:06:31.280 and there were a couple of really really great contenders 1:06:31.280 --> 1:06:33.440 I was up against. It was like a handful of 1:06:33.440 --> 1:06:35.880 women that were up for this role. So I was 1:06:35.920 --> 1:06:37.880 really surprised actually that I got it because they're real 1:06:38.040 --> 1:06:42.800 the sangers, and they're really popular. And when it came 1:06:42.840 --> 1:06:45.880 down to my last audition, I was exhausted. I was 1:06:45.960 --> 1:06:48.280 tired because I was filming. I was doing a lot, 1:06:48.320 --> 1:06:50.760 and I flew in from Texas to do this last 1:06:50.800 --> 1:06:53.400 audition and I remember sitting inside the driveway for the 1:06:53.400 --> 1:06:55.360 audition because they were negotiating my deal. 1:06:55.640 --> 1:06:57.880 You have to negotiate for the it's. 1:06:57.800 --> 1:06:59.280 Kind of like it's kind of like a screen test, 1:07:00.040 --> 1:07:02.400 so you kind of have to negotiate if you if 1:07:02.480 --> 1:07:05.200 they're going to agree to what's happening. If not, you 1:07:05.240 --> 1:07:07.680 don't do the audition, you do not even doing the movie. 1:07:07.960 --> 1:07:10.960 So this last screen test, my attorney was was like 1:07:11.000 --> 1:07:12.720 for an hour and a half. I was sitting inside 1:07:13.160 --> 1:07:15.960 the driveway and I had practic singing so much that 1:07:16.040 --> 1:07:17.920 my voice was actually kind of tired, so I was like, 1:07:17.920 --> 1:07:21.480 I gotta go and sing again. So I remember crying 1:07:21.480 --> 1:07:24.040 to my mom like I'm just exhausted, and she's like, Tina, 1:07:24.160 --> 1:07:25.840 you can do this. You can pull through with this, 1:07:26.520 --> 1:07:28.680 you know, don't you know, don't discourage yourself. 1:07:28.720 --> 1:07:29.720 This is the last one. 1:07:30.640 --> 1:07:33.400 And I went in there and I sang and I 1:07:33.440 --> 1:07:35.480 did crack a little because I was tired. It was like, 1:07:35.480 --> 1:07:37.360 how my voices right now is got scratchy. But it 1:07:37.400 --> 1:07:41.240 was just a small crack. But I had enough parisma, 1:07:41.280 --> 1:07:44.320 I guess, and enough of the auditions enough that Efgary 1:07:44.320 --> 1:07:46.520 Gray saw something and the innocence I think still in 1:07:46.560 --> 1:07:52.000 me that match to character. And gosh, when I got 1:07:52.000 --> 1:07:56.480 that call talk about bringing to your knees crying and 1:07:56.600 --> 1:08:00.840 prayers and being where I was at and back then 1:08:00.880 --> 1:08:03.120 I was still with Nick Too, and I had just 1:08:03.200 --> 1:08:05.120 I shot the video for Dip It Low too, and 1:08:05.160 --> 1:08:06.760 I had the video in my hands and we were 1:08:06.760 --> 1:08:10.040 at the edits and stuff and uh, and I got 1:08:10.040 --> 1:08:10.400 that call. 1:08:10.480 --> 1:08:17.320 It's just a man, Yeah, maybe you'll feel me. I 1:08:17.400 --> 1:08:18.479 don't have to say words. 1:08:19.720 --> 1:08:21.240 And then I was on the set with these people 1:08:21.280 --> 1:08:22.720 and I'm like, what am I doing here? 1:08:22.880 --> 1:08:23.760 I had it was pinched me. 1:08:23.800 --> 1:08:25.720 It was pinched me all the whole time, just like 1:08:26.680 --> 1:08:29.519 and you're shocked that I'm working with these legends, these 1:08:29.600 --> 1:08:32.960 amazing of a plus actors and I couldn't believe I 1:08:33.080 --> 1:08:35.759 was there with them and I was singing, and I'm 1:08:35.800 --> 1:08:36.320 the focused. 1:08:36.479 --> 1:08:39.479 My character is the focus of this movie, Linda Moon, 1:08:40.200 --> 1:08:42.799 Linda Moon. John Travolta's my manager. 1:08:42.840 --> 1:08:47.160 These people are fighting over me in this movie. Alicia 1:08:47.240 --> 1:08:51.439 Keys wrote one of the songs. Bergie and wrote one 1:08:51.520 --> 1:08:55.400 of the songs. And will I am Vince Vaughn. Like 1:08:55.439 --> 1:08:57.160 the scene actually with me and Vince Vaughan in the 1:08:57.160 --> 1:08:59.760 beginning where he's like, Linda, get over here, blah blah blah, 1:08:59.760 --> 1:09:04.760 and by the arm like I really fel grabbed me 1:09:04.800 --> 1:09:06.599 and I slipped in my little wedges and I love 1:09:06.680 --> 1:09:09.360 that they kept that stuff in there. But he stays 1:09:09.360 --> 1:09:11.120 in character, by the way, even when he's not feeling 1:09:11.240 --> 1:09:14.080 he was. He was his character all the time when 1:09:14.080 --> 1:09:17.920 we're not chooting. So so uh it was. It was 1:09:18.000 --> 1:09:21.080 mind blowing at this point. 1:09:21.280 --> 1:09:25.400 What's your favorite? You have a favorite between being an 1:09:25.520 --> 1:09:26.839 artist or being an actress? 1:09:26.960 --> 1:09:27.439 Not at all? 1:09:27.520 --> 1:09:29.040 Are you just like I'm doing everything? 1:09:29.080 --> 1:09:31.120 You're doing everything. I loved doing everything. 1:09:31.280 --> 1:09:33.200 People try to break me away from doing one or 1:09:33.200 --> 1:09:35.280 the other, like the label would be like she has 1:09:35.320 --> 1:09:38.439 to do acting. They didn't really tell me I had 1:09:38.479 --> 1:09:40.080 to do that, but they kind of were like she 1:09:40.240 --> 1:09:42.120 has to a little bit. There was a there was 1:09:42.160 --> 1:09:45.400 a like she's gonna get more movies she focuses on. 1:09:45.600 --> 1:09:47.240 And I was like, no, I can do it all. 1:09:47.520 --> 1:09:49.600 And even at the label, they were fighting over me. 1:09:49.760 --> 1:09:51.960 I went, if you look at my albums, I was 1:09:52.000 --> 1:09:57.040 like Island plus Murder plus the ink. They changed the 1:09:57.040 --> 1:09:58.280 thing because I don't want to have Murder on that 1:09:58.720 --> 1:10:00.760 the ink. Then they changed me the deaf Soul. So 1:10:00.760 --> 1:10:02.840 they were fighting over me. Even as a pop artist 1:10:02.840 --> 1:10:04.320 and an R and B artist, I was always in 1:10:04.360 --> 1:10:06.920 between these things where people trying to make me make choices, 1:10:07.400 --> 1:10:09.439 and I never believed that that was the option. Like 1:10:09.479 --> 1:10:11.160 it's just like I can do it all, and like 1:10:11.479 --> 1:10:16.240 don't give me these labels actor or singer, pop or 1:10:16.360 --> 1:10:18.880 R and B or this or that, Like I can 1:10:19.040 --> 1:10:20.680 do all of these things, and so. 1:10:20.680 --> 1:10:21.680 I just kept doing it. 1:10:21.760 --> 1:10:23.840 Sometimes I had to make these adjustments and do things 1:10:23.840 --> 1:10:27.200 their way, especially music label wise, and then would prove 1:10:27.240 --> 1:10:29.080 itself like if it didn't work, it just didn't fit. 1:10:29.240 --> 1:10:32.000 But yeah, it was a it was a beautiful time. 1:10:32.000 --> 1:10:35.360 I ended up going on tour after that with Usher 1:10:35.479 --> 1:10:37.280 and Kanye West. 1:10:37.920 --> 1:10:41.519 Your tour lineup is pretty crazy and it's pretty cool. 1:10:42.040 --> 1:10:47.320 Confessions Tour at that that was Kanye West the Graduation 1:10:47.720 --> 1:10:53.479 like College drop Out that say, it was college the 1:10:54.000 --> 1:10:56.120 College Dropout album and we have. 1:10:58.200 --> 1:11:00.080 Never people. He's honest. 1:11:03.040 --> 1:11:05.840 Time he was cooking. I don't I don't want to. 1:11:05.920 --> 1:11:09.080 I don't want to gloss over bring it on. 1:11:09.920 --> 1:11:12.960 Oh that was yeah, that's still girls to because it 1:11:13.840 --> 1:11:16.800 bring it on is a thing. It is a thing 1:11:16.880 --> 1:11:18.720 that they came to me, Universal came to me. That 1:11:18.760 --> 1:11:21.400 was a straight up offer. I no longer had a 1:11:21.439 --> 1:11:24.559 record deal. I had gotten dropped from ild Def Jam 1:11:25.280 --> 1:11:27.880 after my third album. It was a crazy like drop, 1:11:27.920 --> 1:11:30.519 but it happened, and I was in this lull and 1:11:30.560 --> 1:11:35.800 I still wanted to do music, and uh. 1:11:34.479 --> 1:11:36.040 But I didn't know you know, the labels. 1:11:36.080 --> 1:11:38.519 You know how labels it could be like people don't 1:11:38.560 --> 1:11:40.400 want you to be somewhere else, so they'll talk about you, 1:11:40.479 --> 1:11:42.439 and you know, so I was like in this crazy 1:11:42.479 --> 1:11:44.519 place and next thing I know, I got a call 1:11:44.680 --> 1:11:47.760 out of nowhere to bring it on and it was 1:11:48.000 --> 1:11:49.960 great money, great franchise. 1:11:51.200 --> 1:11:52.280 I needed them. I did. 1:11:52.520 --> 1:11:54.680 When I say money is because again you go through 1:11:54.680 --> 1:11:57.519 dips as an entertainer. Everything is not certain. People have 1:11:57.560 --> 1:12:00.840 to understand like it might be famous, but it's nothing 1:12:00.880 --> 1:12:02.559 is certain. You have to be you have to let 1:12:02.600 --> 1:12:04.920 your pride go to the side sometimes, but this is 1:12:04.920 --> 1:12:06.240 not a pride thing. I was a fan of to 1:12:06.240 --> 1:12:08.880 bring it on, you know, franchise, and they brought me 1:12:08.920 --> 1:12:11.080 a really great deal and I was like, yeah, I 1:12:11.120 --> 1:12:13.720 love the script and I did it. And now to 1:12:13.760 --> 1:12:16.960 this day, I have little girls and their mama coming 1:12:16.960 --> 1:12:20.040 to me overseas are like it's called American Girl. They're like, 1:12:20.080 --> 1:12:22.400 I love American Girl. I have girls recognized you in 1:12:22.520 --> 1:12:25.320 now yeah called American Girl. 1:12:25.400 --> 1:12:28.280 Okay, Yeah. And I had so much fun doing it. 1:12:28.280 --> 1:12:30.600 It was great. It was an awesome opportunity. 1:12:30.680 --> 1:12:32.680 One thing that's awesome about what you were able to 1:12:32.680 --> 1:12:34.479 do with your career is you were able to really 1:12:34.600 --> 1:12:40.760 establish an overseas presence, yes, which which which pays dividends 1:12:40.800 --> 1:12:43.800 as you as you moved in through move through those 1:12:43.880 --> 1:12:47.720 highs and lows, because something about overseas, Yeah, they just 1:12:47.960 --> 1:12:51.200 they stick, which yeah they rocking. 1:12:50.960 --> 1:12:53.439 Which they still then they still rock with me whether 1:12:53.439 --> 1:12:55.519 I'm doing music or not. When you see those numbers 1:12:55.520 --> 1:12:58.600 on those Netflix films and when you see numbers on 1:12:58.920 --> 1:13:02.240 you know, especially movie these they do numbers these days. 1:13:02.240 --> 1:13:05.080 A lot of things data driven. That's what streams are for, 1:13:05.600 --> 1:13:09.800 for data. And and when you see that, you're like 1:13:09.840 --> 1:13:12.599 a movie you do is number one in over seventy 1:13:12.600 --> 1:13:13.760 five countries. 1:13:14.920 --> 1:13:18.000 Speak because of that relationship I've carried with them. 1:13:18.160 --> 1:13:18.479 You know that. 1:13:18.840 --> 1:13:20.200 You know my sister did that movie with you? 1:13:20.400 --> 1:13:20.880 Which one? 1:13:21.240 --> 1:13:22.200 Meet me at Christmas? 1:13:23.080 --> 1:13:23.479 Which one? 1:13:23.800 --> 1:13:28.479 Oh my gosh, yes, yes, yes, yes, let's tell you 1:13:28.479 --> 1:13:29.479 you know ser tomorrow. 1:13:30.240 --> 1:13:31.040 That's my girl. 1:13:32.160 --> 1:13:32.880 There's most people. 1:13:32.960 --> 1:13:35.280 Most people don't. Most people don't put two and two together. 1:13:35.680 --> 1:13:37.920 Because our last name is new but my middle name 1:13:37.960 --> 1:13:38.840 is Valentine, So. 1:13:38.840 --> 1:13:41.760 Most people don't put it together. We don't always say it. 1:13:41.920 --> 1:13:43.320 You know what I'm saying, Like, you know, she has 1:13:43.360 --> 1:13:43.719 her career. 1:13:44.320 --> 1:13:49.480 She surprised me when she talks about it. I forgot. 1:13:49.640 --> 1:13:51.360 I didn't put it. I did didn't even put the 1:13:51.400 --> 1:13:51.880 two together. 1:13:52.680 --> 1:13:54.040 I love her, She loves you. 1:13:54.120 --> 1:13:55.160 She did a fantastic you. 1:13:55.200 --> 1:13:57.839 Guys did an amazing movie and we watched it over Christmas. 1:13:58.800 --> 1:14:00.679 Loved it the whole family. 1:14:00.960 --> 1:14:04.240 She's like, and make sure what was the extra one? 1:14:04.240 --> 1:14:09.840 It's like excellent movie makes all y'all got got you? 1:14:10.080 --> 1:14:12.360 Oh man, Yes, that's amazing. 1:14:12.439 --> 1:14:14.000 She's great. She's an awesome producer. 1:14:14.080 --> 1:14:17.080 Now I've gotten just step into the producer lane, you know, 1:14:17.120 --> 1:14:18.760 which is cool on producing movies now. 1:14:19.240 --> 1:14:20.680 And so that was one of. 1:14:20.640 --> 1:14:23.240 My first I produced an independent before that, and then 1:14:23.400 --> 1:14:26.760 I just was an executive producer with Netflix after I've 1:14:26.800 --> 1:14:29.400 done two very successful movies with them. They trusted and 1:14:29.560 --> 1:14:31.479 trusted in me and my gut feeling about how to 1:14:31.479 --> 1:14:33.439 do this. And I'm pretty good at rom coms, you know, 1:14:33.840 --> 1:14:37.760 Love Don't Cost a Thing, and and Latania and I 1:14:37.880 --> 1:14:42.120 and also Christina Rogers she introduced me Militania. She entrusted 1:14:42.160 --> 1:14:44.160 in the both of us to really help put this 1:14:44.200 --> 1:14:46.280 project together in a way that would make it work 1:14:46.320 --> 1:14:48.920 and become what that movie was. And we had some 1:14:48.960 --> 1:14:51.760 really great partners. I mean Mark Mark Roberts is the 1:14:51.800 --> 1:14:53.720 one that you know, initially started the movie. So all 1:14:53.720 --> 1:14:55.800 the producers, all of us together was a really great team. 1:14:55.840 --> 1:14:58.000 We had so much fun, so much fun, and it 1:14:58.000 --> 1:15:01.200 shows on screen. And she's very I love she's on it. 1:15:01.800 --> 1:15:04.360 She stay with us the whole way. She could have left. 1:15:04.400 --> 1:15:06.960 She still like that. You still like that for sure? 1:15:08.280 --> 1:15:13.960 You're sending me leon. We got TV film, we got 1:15:14.200 --> 1:15:22.840 records producers. Now we got my nickname is snacks. Now 1:15:22.920 --> 1:15:26.280 we got these motherfucking Ben. 1:15:28.040 --> 1:15:32.559 And said my daughter two days ago. Listen, she loves it. 1:15:33.000 --> 1:15:42.759 No disrespect to anybody, am I beignets anywhere? You got 1:15:43.360 --> 1:15:49.160 my favorite beignets. No, no disrespect to anyone, to the 1:15:49.200 --> 1:15:52.559 originators of the idea, just. 1:15:52.520 --> 1:15:56.320 God, and say what you gotta say, disrespect. 1:15:55.880 --> 1:16:03.360 Your beignets are my favorite. Thank you light extra powders 1:16:03.479 --> 1:16:07.360 sugar for me late almost died. It was so much 1:16:07.400 --> 1:16:10.639 powdered sugar. And I breathed in hell, Never in hell, 1:16:11.640 --> 1:16:15.360 yesterday powdered sugar for the love of God. 1:16:15.439 --> 1:16:19.600 Gosh, no the first bite, never in hell, because the 1:16:19.640 --> 1:16:21.479 powdered sugar is just gonna go straight. 1:16:21.800 --> 1:16:27.240 What really quickly? What made you say I'm going to start? Ben? 1:16:27.439 --> 1:16:30.240 Yeo okay, Ben. 1:16:30.120 --> 1:16:30.799 Yeah okay. 1:16:30.840 --> 1:16:33.599 So in the between, after all the music has happened, 1:16:33.960 --> 1:16:38.120 and after being bring it on, I started living real 1:16:38.160 --> 1:16:40.759 life after I had a divorce, so my daughter Violet 1:16:40.800 --> 1:16:43.439 came along, I met dream, got married, had a crazy 1:16:43.439 --> 1:16:46.479 world when life of one year and a half and 1:16:46.520 --> 1:16:48.280 then I had to figure out my life after that, 1:16:48.280 --> 1:16:50.360 I'm getting a divorced, got a divorce, the whole deal, 1:16:50.520 --> 1:16:52.839 and I'm like, what am I gonna do. I'm figuring 1:16:52.840 --> 1:16:54.760 out my career, start getting a little rolls here and there. 1:16:55.080 --> 1:16:57.400 But then I started to figure out friendships. I was 1:16:57.479 --> 1:16:59.680 always working, so I didn't really get to hang out 1:16:59.680 --> 1:17:01.840 with pa people like I have. My dancers were my friends. 1:17:01.880 --> 1:17:03.920 Police people like Billy were my friends. But it were 1:17:03.920 --> 1:17:06.920 always music related. But my family was like my friend. 1:17:07.040 --> 1:17:08.360 That was like I was kind of raised, like your 1:17:08.400 --> 1:17:10.240 family is your friend and everybody else is an out 1:17:10.240 --> 1:17:12.400 of it. But I'm such an extrovert, like everybody is 1:17:12.400 --> 1:17:14.960 actually my friend. But I didn't really go out. I 1:17:14.960 --> 1:17:17.040 didn't go out in Hollywood, none of that. But I 1:17:17.040 --> 1:17:19.760 had to figure out how to stay famous in Hollywood 1:17:19.760 --> 1:17:24.439 after getting dropped from the label and like, But the 1:17:24.479 --> 1:17:27.839 thing was it was going out, going out, being popular, 1:17:27.960 --> 1:17:31.160 going to Robertson doing pop Rozzi snapping you, and so 1:17:31.240 --> 1:17:32.000 I figured that out. 1:17:32.160 --> 1:17:33.240 So I started to go. 1:17:33.240 --> 1:17:36.719 Out and I had a friend named Liz that I met. 1:17:37.439 --> 1:17:39.800 We know, she's not my Venia box partner, but Liz 1:17:39.920 --> 1:17:40.559 was in the scene. 1:17:40.600 --> 1:17:41.320 She knew people. 1:17:41.960 --> 1:17:45.760 And I met Liz through an organization, like we were 1:17:45.760 --> 1:17:50.280 going to work on an organization mentoring kids and that 1:17:50.439 --> 1:17:52.560 were in a Plowster care system. 1:17:53.160 --> 1:17:54.160 And through our. 1:17:54.040 --> 1:17:57.120 Connection there on one side, we're like doing all the 1:17:57.439 --> 1:17:59.920 you know, foundation hands on work, and we're also girls 1:18:00.040 --> 1:18:03.040 going out clubs and partying and stuff like that, and 1:18:03.120 --> 1:18:06.360 we just grew this bond. We grew this tight, tight friendship. 1:18:06.720 --> 1:18:09.559 And through that type friendship, we meet lots of girls, 1:18:09.960 --> 1:18:11.160 girls become our friends. 1:18:11.200 --> 1:18:12.800 Girls in the bathroom, girls this you. 1:18:12.800 --> 1:18:14.240 Know what I mean, you're going out, And we just 1:18:14.280 --> 1:18:17.920 grew this clique of girls that just was growing, you know. 1:18:18.439 --> 1:18:21.599 And so after my divorce, I started to go back 1:18:21.600 --> 1:18:23.920 out again. It was that revenge body, revenge life. I 1:18:23.960 --> 1:18:25.760 got to get my life together, but I know that 1:18:25.920 --> 1:18:27.960 also being on the scene helps me get my roles, 1:18:27.960 --> 1:18:32.520 helps me do this da da And we eventually decide 1:18:33.600 --> 1:18:34.679 let's get a place together. 1:18:34.720 --> 1:18:35.920 She had this place called the Sugar Shock. 1:18:36.000 --> 1:18:37.479 So the Sugar Shock is where all the girls got 1:18:37.520 --> 1:18:41.280 together hung out sugar Shack, and we're there and everybody's 1:18:41.280 --> 1:18:43.560 doing their business, doing their life. And I started to 1:18:43.600 --> 1:18:46.599 become an entrepreneur. I had this thing called Platinum Hookah 1:18:46.920 --> 1:18:49.400 that I started at the time and it was getting 1:18:49.400 --> 1:18:51.519 popping by the way. By the way, that would have 1:18:51.560 --> 1:18:54.680 been a big business. It was these little, little known 1:18:54.760 --> 1:18:57.840 nicotine hookah sticks, which is really popular, and I was 1:18:57.920 --> 1:19:01.000 killing it. Let me tell you, I was killing it. 1:19:01.080 --> 1:19:05.680 But I also felt it didn't match my life and 1:19:05.720 --> 1:19:07.679 the FDA and all this other stuff was too complicated. 1:19:07.680 --> 1:19:10.400 But she saw my ethic, my work ethic, and that 1:19:10.520 --> 1:19:12.560 was my first entrepreneurial thing that I did, and that 1:19:12.720 --> 1:19:15.240 was a goal getter. I didn't sleep. I was working 1:19:15.240 --> 1:19:17.639 on that thing day and night. And Liz had her thing. 1:19:17.720 --> 1:19:20.080 She has events, you know, knocked out, she's got marketing 1:19:20.160 --> 1:19:20.760 knocked out, this that. 1:19:20.840 --> 1:19:22.880 So we always used to say. So we ended up 1:19:22.880 --> 1:19:23.240 moving in. 1:19:23.280 --> 1:19:25.559 I moved in with her because I'm single, I'm with 1:19:25.640 --> 1:19:27.400 the girls all the time. I needed to get out 1:19:27.400 --> 1:19:29.200 of my mom's house because that's where I was after 1:19:29.200 --> 1:19:31.200 my divorce, and I was like, I can't keep doing this. 1:19:31.520 --> 1:19:32.720 I had Violet, so. 1:19:32.680 --> 1:19:34.479 I was like, my girls, I'm with them all the time. 1:19:34.600 --> 1:19:37.680 We're raising Violet together. We're a village. Plus to have 1:19:37.720 --> 1:19:40.400 my sisters and my mom. But we said to each other, 1:19:40.520 --> 1:19:42.439 Liz and I were like, we just saw what we 1:19:42.479 --> 1:19:44.720 had on our hustle, and we were like, someday we 1:19:44.760 --> 1:19:46.479 need to do a business together. We need to figure 1:19:46.479 --> 1:19:48.639 it out. We need to do something local in Studio City. 1:19:48.760 --> 1:19:50.920 That's our community, these are our people. We got that 1:19:51.040 --> 1:19:53.559 vibe we're going to do something, and so we set 1:19:53.600 --> 1:19:55.160 our mind that someday we were going to do something, 1:19:55.160 --> 1:19:56.639 and we thought about it. We would go on walks 1:19:56.680 --> 1:19:59.240 and running canyon and say, you know, maybe a candy store, 1:19:59.320 --> 1:20:03.000 maybe this be a bakery. But we're not chefs, but 1:20:03.080 --> 1:20:06.360 we never said bannets. But she had this organization where 1:20:06.360 --> 1:20:09.960 we would rebuild houses in New Orleans. It was called 1:20:09.960 --> 1:20:12.760 the Hope Foundation. And so I would go back to 1:20:12.800 --> 1:20:15.080 New Orleans and she had this gala and we would 1:20:15.080 --> 1:20:17.960 actually physically like meet the families and rebuild their houses. 1:20:18.000 --> 1:20:20.960 We raise money, and we would try the food. We 1:20:21.000 --> 1:20:23.720 had po boys, we had turtle soup, we had this that. 1:20:24.320 --> 1:20:27.200 And one day all the girls we gathered we went 1:20:27.240 --> 1:20:32.320 to cafe doing it and we got the coffee and 1:20:32.360 --> 1:20:33.280 we got the bagnets. 1:20:33.680 --> 1:20:35.639 And lord, let me tell you, we. 1:20:35.479 --> 1:20:39.639 Were like ben like we're girls, you know, drinking wine 1:20:39.680 --> 1:20:42.200 and having bagnets, like you know, we're bringing it back. 1:20:42.240 --> 1:20:44.080 But it just wasn't the same when we would bringing 1:20:44.160 --> 1:20:47.120 back like there it was great. We'd bring them back 1:20:47.160 --> 1:20:48.920 to the house and it was like kind of like 1:20:49.000 --> 1:20:51.160 doe and cold and it was just not the same thing. 1:20:51.160 --> 1:20:52.880 But the sugar, the sugar was doing a thing. 1:20:53.320 --> 1:20:55.240 So we're like, before we go back to La, we 1:20:55.280 --> 1:20:57.400 need to get some Beagnets again. We have to do 1:20:57.439 --> 1:20:59.479 it again. We're like, Liz, you have to bring us back. 1:21:00.439 --> 1:21:03.280 And it was there that we were like, there's no 1:21:03.360 --> 1:21:04.280 Begnets in La. 1:21:06.520 --> 1:21:10.559 Why not Beignet's in La. And this was like. 1:21:10.680 --> 1:21:12.679 We were like all of us are, Yeah, we should 1:21:12.760 --> 1:21:15.479 d D D And Liz started to do the numbers 1:21:15.520 --> 1:21:17.880 and see what the business of it would be and 1:21:17.960 --> 1:21:22.559 it just made sense and so yeah, like it sounded 1:21:22.680 --> 1:21:23.679 like it just made sense. 1:21:23.760 --> 1:21:25.680 We loved it. We knew there was nothing like it. 1:21:25.680 --> 1:21:27.800 There was a food culture in La and just the 1:21:27.840 --> 1:21:30.920 world that food is everything, and we decided that was 1:21:30.960 --> 1:21:31.960 gonna be the Begnet. 1:21:32.320 --> 1:21:33.679 So it took us some time. 1:21:35.040 --> 1:21:37.519 She started working on We really first started working on 1:21:37.560 --> 1:21:38.960 the look of the branding. 1:21:39.320 --> 1:21:40.200 That's what Liz does. 1:21:40.880 --> 1:21:43.240 And through that time we started to figure out what's 1:21:43.240 --> 1:21:47.640 the Begnet, what's gonna be the best tasting, most flavorful. 1:21:47.760 --> 1:21:50.080 What's going to make sense in La? Why did we 1:21:50.120 --> 1:21:50.599 choose La? 1:21:50.680 --> 1:21:51.400 Our friends were there. 1:21:51.439 --> 1:21:56.120 It was gonna be the community, the people, and but 1:21:56.439 --> 1:21:59.240 you know La, we're also like health conscious, were also 1:21:59.360 --> 1:21:59.880 like fit. 1:22:00.040 --> 1:22:00.639 It's conscious. 1:22:00.640 --> 1:22:02.599 We're like, we got to do something a little bit light, 1:22:03.280 --> 1:22:04.519 but give them the same flare. 1:22:04.880 --> 1:22:06.880 Unless we got and we figured out the. 1:22:07.120 --> 1:22:09.519 Run off the turkey, then we don't care about none 1:22:09.560 --> 1:22:09.760 of that. 1:22:09.760 --> 1:22:10.880 It's okay, just go a light. 1:22:10.800 --> 1:22:19.639 Bo I say it's a diet because they're super light. 1:22:19.760 --> 1:22:22.439 They're very fluffy, the layered, and that's why we thought 1:22:22.439 --> 1:22:24.080 it would be the perfect benyet. 1:22:23.800 --> 1:22:24.800 The mini Ben. Ye. 1:22:27.600 --> 1:22:30.040 Yeah, you guys were one of our first customers too. 1:22:30.640 --> 1:22:33.840 We started with the truck. That's holy. 1:22:33.880 --> 1:22:35.800 That's how I found out about it. Yeah, coming to 1:22:35.840 --> 1:22:37.759 the house, I see the truck. 1:22:38.160 --> 1:22:41.000 Yeah, and out of nowhere, I see Christie in the window. 1:22:41.000 --> 1:22:46.200 I'm like serving people cooking. 1:22:46.680 --> 1:22:48.040 It's taking sure, everyone's getting it. 1:22:48.520 --> 1:22:50.559 Okay, you got to search now, fine, give me give 1:22:50.560 --> 1:22:51.040 me two boxes. 1:22:51.520 --> 1:22:52.240 Really awesome. 1:22:52.360 --> 1:22:54.320 Yeah, it's cool. It's a crazy start. 1:22:54.439 --> 1:22:56.200 We were like, we do a shop and then we 1:22:56.240 --> 1:22:58.320 couldn't figure out the shops. Too many permits and too 1:22:58.400 --> 1:23:00.640 much stuff. And then Liz, Liz is the go get her. 1:23:00.720 --> 1:23:03.360 That's the one thing like, that's the partner I chose 1:23:03.479 --> 1:23:05.000 was right for me, and she chose I was right 1:23:05.040 --> 1:23:07.880 for her because we're connect we're connectors, we're one with 1:23:07.960 --> 1:23:12.320 God and manifesting and we work hard. But Liz, she 1:23:12.600 --> 1:23:16.160 is she is, She's diligent, she's like on it, she's persistent, 1:23:16.240 --> 1:23:19.080 she's consistent, she's on and as a partner and as 1:23:19.080 --> 1:23:20.880 an artist, I still want to be an artist. 1:23:20.880 --> 1:23:23.080 I don't want to have to do all the work. 1:23:22.840 --> 1:23:25.400 That she is really what she's really good at. She 1:23:25.439 --> 1:23:26.680 doesn't want to have to do it all the time. 1:23:26.720 --> 1:23:28.960 And I have been there when I can, especially in 1:23:28.960 --> 1:23:32.160 the beginnings. But she's one of those people. She's a boss, 1:23:32.280 --> 1:23:35.599 and she learns things and she grows things, and she's 1:23:35.600 --> 1:23:37.600 not afraid to get her hands, you know, in the 1:23:37.640 --> 1:23:40.599 dirt and learned some lessons and to get us where 1:23:40.640 --> 1:23:42.439 we are even in the hardest times, because you know, 1:23:42.520 --> 1:23:45.760 we've gone through pandemic, we've gone through actors strike, we've 1:23:45.800 --> 1:23:48.479 gone through a lot of changes. But the food truck 1:23:48.520 --> 1:23:50.160 was the best start for us because we got around 1:23:50.200 --> 1:23:51.800 town and we made our way to the people and 1:23:52.040 --> 1:23:52.800 we got the word out. 1:23:53.120 --> 1:23:55.320 How many restaurants do you guys have now? 1:23:55.479 --> 1:23:58.360 Right now, we have two trucks and we have one location, okay, 1:23:58.560 --> 1:24:01.080 And the reason we did that just wanted to focus 1:24:01.160 --> 1:24:04.360 on we want a franchise, and so our biggest thing 1:24:04.479 --> 1:24:07.600 was learning the different ways this company could work. So 1:24:07.640 --> 1:24:09.599 we've had a brick and mortar. We've had a really 1:24:09.640 --> 1:24:12.080 big brick and mortar. The location was quite large, the 1:24:12.160 --> 1:24:13.400 rent was high, you have. 1:24:13.320 --> 1:24:14.400 To employ more people. 1:24:14.680 --> 1:24:17.759 Yeah, so you have to employ more people, the rent 1:24:17.840 --> 1:24:20.640 is high, the insurance, everything is much higher. In those situations, 1:24:20.680 --> 1:24:23.840 it looks great, but you know, the the you know, 1:24:23.920 --> 1:24:26.559 there's a lot of setbacks in that in that way, 1:24:26.760 --> 1:24:29.800 but we've learned, like kiosks work, you know, really well 1:24:29.800 --> 1:24:32.320 for us to go, the trucks work extremely well. So 1:24:32.360 --> 1:24:34.960 we've learned the different patterns that work well for us, 1:24:35.040 --> 1:24:37.919 so that if anybody wants a franchise, they can understand 1:24:37.960 --> 1:24:41.120 what they're working with and with the best direction for them. 1:24:41.240 --> 1:24:45.040 So it's been some really great learning lessons and we've 1:24:45.040 --> 1:24:47.479 employed a lot of people, our friends' kids, you know, 1:24:48.080 --> 1:24:51.880 and here here and around Studio City and North Hollywood everywhere. 1:24:52.160 --> 1:24:53.920 We've had a lot of people come for us as 1:24:54.000 --> 1:24:56.479 far as like to come to eat the beignet, but 1:24:56.520 --> 1:24:59.400 also family like you know, you know your daughter needs 1:24:59.439 --> 1:25:02.120 a job, first job, and we've had some great like 1:25:02.160 --> 1:25:04.040 they bring on the other kids to come. You know, 1:25:04.280 --> 1:25:07.719 it's a family, you know, Benya Box is about family. 1:25:07.960 --> 1:25:11.479 The Benya Bytes is about sharing, it's about community, and 1:25:11.560 --> 1:25:13.600 eventually we want to bring this back to where it 1:25:13.640 --> 1:25:17.200 all started with foundations, organizations, and just last night we 1:25:17.240 --> 1:25:19.160 work with a foundation called Hands for Hope. It's in 1:25:19.200 --> 1:25:21.880 North Hollywood and we've done a lot of great things 1:25:21.920 --> 1:25:24.960 personally with them and also now through the organization with 1:25:24.960 --> 1:25:28.040 with with Benye Box. So it all leads one thing 1:25:28.160 --> 1:25:29.320 right back to the next. 1:25:30.280 --> 1:25:32.599 Since you're here now, can you tell the people where 1:25:32.840 --> 1:25:36.640 the trucks are located or around the way or even. 1:25:38.640 --> 1:25:40.960 Yeah, well you can find us at Bennet Box, our 1:25:41.000 --> 1:25:45.120 online on social media just at Bennet Box. And then 1:25:45.160 --> 1:25:47.800 we're we're up updating our website right now. Right now, 1:25:47.800 --> 1:25:50.439 we're so focused on marketing and on making every short 1:25:50.600 --> 1:25:52.240 making sure all the things that we have. We've never 1:25:52.240 --> 1:25:54.479 done email marketing, we've never done any of that stuff. 1:25:54.600 --> 1:25:58.559 Really we've been like just so small business, grassroots friends, family. 1:25:58.800 --> 1:26:01.120 Then now we're like, okay, time take those next steps 1:26:01.320 --> 1:26:02.760 because we really are a small. 1:26:02.479 --> 1:26:04.599 Team running it. We're just us women. 1:26:04.840 --> 1:26:06.719 We've had people come in and out that just didn't 1:26:06.720 --> 1:26:09.360 work out, but we've got to figure it out. And 1:26:09.479 --> 1:26:12.040 so yeah, you can find us right now at the 1:26:12.040 --> 1:26:15.840 Topanga Mall at the Westfield to Panga Pega Social Yes, 1:26:16.320 --> 1:26:19.240 which is great, brings lots of people over there. And 1:26:19.280 --> 1:26:22.080 then the truck is usually in and around all around town, 1:26:22.160 --> 1:26:25.360 Studio City, Calabasas, Santa Clarida, Long Beach. If you just 1:26:25.439 --> 1:26:27.880 check out the page, you know, it'll show where it's at. 1:26:27.920 --> 1:26:30.280 And eventually right now we're figuring out the email marketing. 1:26:30.360 --> 1:26:32.880 We have a loyalty program all that stuff. We'll start 1:26:33.000 --> 1:26:35.000 letting people know, you know where we're at. But you 1:26:35.000 --> 1:26:35.840 can really just go to it. 1:26:35.960 --> 1:26:37.719 I mean, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get some uh 1:26:38.000 --> 1:26:38.639 a discount. 1:26:38.640 --> 1:26:53.240 Then put you on the loyalty reward, you get a 1:26:53.920 --> 1:26:59.160 a we got some good deal. 1:26:59.520 --> 1:27:00.400 Congratulate relations. 1:27:01.479 --> 1:27:05.320 Just watching how you pivoted in your career has been 1:27:05.360 --> 1:27:09.240 really cool, you know what I mean, Like, no, absolutely right, 1:27:09.280 --> 1:27:10.680 because we never know, nobody ever know. 1:27:10.760 --> 1:27:11.560 People. 1:27:11.640 --> 1:27:14.640 We meet each other young age, we're all kids, and 1:27:14.680 --> 1:27:17.200 then some of us become what we become. Some of 1:27:17.280 --> 1:27:21.760 us go into other spaces. But the main thing that 1:27:21.840 --> 1:27:25.720 I've seen just off of the survivors in this thing 1:27:25.840 --> 1:27:29.680 is like literally surviving in music and having a real career. 1:27:29.800 --> 1:27:32.880 Because you got to be able to pivot. You have to. 1:27:33.840 --> 1:27:35.320 You know, we talk about that all the time. You 1:27:35.720 --> 1:27:40.000 can't shop that same demo, yeah, you know what I 1:27:40.000 --> 1:27:41.640 mean in any term, You know what I mean. You 1:27:41.680 --> 1:27:44.320 just can't continue to shop that same thing. It's like, Okay, 1:27:44.360 --> 1:27:49.439 well what else can I do in these spaces because 1:27:49.479 --> 1:27:52.000 all of this is in your wheelhouse though, everything that 1:27:52.040 --> 1:27:56.439 you just said all connected, It all connected, and it's 1:27:56.520 --> 1:27:59.760 really cool to see. And just like I said, congratulations 1:28:00.120 --> 1:28:02.040 you graduation. I've known you a really long time. 1:28:02.080 --> 1:28:04.120 I know we have each other for a long time, 1:28:04.439 --> 1:28:06.439 all of us here. We're not gonna talk about age. 1:28:08.320 --> 1:28:09.160 That's all I got to say. 1:28:09.200 --> 1:28:11.240 You know that beauty. 1:28:15.080 --> 1:28:15.559 Forever though. 1:28:15.600 --> 1:28:17.479 While he was sixty three, is he about to be 1:28:17.520 --> 1:28:19.760 sixty four? I said, yeah, I'm allowed to be sixty five. 1:28:21.520 --> 1:28:26.840 Oh my birthday, right time. It was the right time. 1:28:26.920 --> 1:28:27.479 A good time. 1:28:27.520 --> 1:28:29.599 We need a couple of things from you before you go. Yes, 1:28:32.640 --> 1:28:39.280 we need your top Oh lord, oh lord, five oh. 1:28:41.439 --> 1:28:45.280 R and B artists Brandy. 1:28:45.080 --> 1:28:53.200 Oh okay, let's go all right, married j oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, 1:28:52.680 --> 1:28:54.240 yeah yeah yeah. 1:28:55.720 --> 1:28:59.960 Oh gosh, I mean Beyonce, she's she's a little everything. 1:29:00.880 --> 1:29:07.320 She's I can consider her. She's and my last one. Dang, 1:29:07.640 --> 1:29:11.519 I gotta go back though. I want to go. Oh, 1:29:12.000 --> 1:29:15.200 Aretha Franklin. No no no no no no no no 1:29:15.200 --> 1:29:17.439 no no no, I said the wrong name. It starts 1:29:17.439 --> 1:29:23.640 with the A. No no no, no know me. I 1:29:23.680 --> 1:29:24.680 need a baker. 1:29:25.960 --> 1:29:31.599 What a voice? Guy in there? Right? 1:29:32.280 --> 1:29:34.240 I mean I can keep going no, no, no, no no. 1:29:35.680 --> 1:29:39.200 But I like my females and I relate very much 1:29:39.280 --> 1:29:39.960 to them. 1:29:40.280 --> 1:29:42.320 And uh, but there are a lot of ARM and 1:29:42.320 --> 1:29:45.519 B males. I mean, especially groups. I love groups, my gosh, 1:29:45.560 --> 1:29:47.599 true hell, Joe's all the groups. 1:29:47.640 --> 1:29:48.400 I mean, everybody. 1:29:48.439 --> 1:29:53.600 You make great albums, like I can keep going. 1:29:52.720 --> 1:29:55.680 Five, it'll be in the top fifteen. I know you. 1:29:55.760 --> 1:29:59.400 I know you're gonna do top five Army songs. 1:30:00.040 --> 1:30:06.320 Oh nah, he would go, I gotta do this R 1:30:06.400 --> 1:30:06.640 and B. 1:30:07.720 --> 1:30:11.599 Gosh, can we just go through all the Confessions album. 1:30:15.080 --> 1:30:16.160 That's a great album. 1:30:16.320 --> 1:30:16.960 Incredible. 1:30:17.920 --> 1:30:20.320 Gosh, guys, you really do this. 1:30:20.600 --> 1:30:21.920 You should have told me in bed. 1:30:21.960 --> 1:30:23.559 This is the thing we told Billy. 1:30:24.439 --> 1:30:28.200 Yeah, he didn't tell me. Can I'm gonna go through 1:30:28.200 --> 1:30:28.519 my phone. 1:30:28.560 --> 1:30:32.760 I'm gonna tell you what I have that you did not, guy, 1:30:33.439 --> 1:30:34.360 did not say this. 1:30:34.920 --> 1:30:36.639 Hold on, we go to R and B and we're 1:30:36.640 --> 1:30:37.280 gonna make this. 1:30:37.760 --> 1:30:41.400 Okay, okay, I mean to B B. I get so weak. 1:30:41.680 --> 1:30:44.240 Yeah yeah, Mary j. 1:30:44.320 --> 1:30:47.880 Blige, Wait wait, but there's a specific song because that 1:30:48.200 --> 1:30:48.880 was my jam. 1:30:49.000 --> 1:30:51.439 That was like, Mary, Oh my gosh, y'all killing me. 1:30:52.920 --> 1:30:54.479 I love that you have the pink phone with the 1:30:54.520 --> 1:30:57.120 heart hanging now if it's very I love, don't cost 1:30:57.120 --> 1:30:57.360 the thing. 1:30:59.439 --> 1:31:00.680 I haven't out of it. 1:31:01.640 --> 1:31:01.720 Not. 1:31:02.320 --> 1:31:05.599 Well, that's a great song too. Oh yeah, I love 1:31:05.640 --> 1:31:07.800 real love. She's got so. 1:31:07.800 --> 1:31:09.920 Many songs, but there's just one. 1:31:12.360 --> 1:31:14.479 But let's let's get it. Cronk. I'm sorry. It's an 1:31:14.560 --> 1:31:16.479 army songs was my jam. 1:31:16.520 --> 1:31:22.760 So we're gonna put that read about heartbreak Hotel. That's 1:31:22.800 --> 1:31:23.360 another one. 1:31:23.760 --> 1:31:25.000 It's a Mary js Los song. 1:31:25.080 --> 1:31:31.200 I have to say because it's necessary my life. Mary Jane, Oh, 1:31:31.400 --> 1:31:35.280 I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna give Maya Maya. Maya's 1:31:37.000 --> 1:31:39.800 gosh Case of the X. Case of the X was 1:31:39.800 --> 1:31:44.200 popped though, but her first song too, and it's uh damn, 1:31:44.240 --> 1:31:47.120 what was Maya? I love Maya Rocked the Boat, Aliyah 1:31:47.360 --> 1:31:51.320 Rock the Boat, great song, amazing and we got one more? 1:31:51.800 --> 1:31:56.799 Is that? What it is? Brandy? Brandy Brandy. 1:31:57.080 --> 1:31:59.240 Because it's gonna be hard to pick this one, but 1:31:59.360 --> 1:32:01.479 that I'm gonna go with this. 1:32:01.360 --> 1:32:04.000 Album, Never Say Never. That was my jam. 1:32:04.040 --> 1:32:06.320 And it's gonna be hard to pick this one because 1:32:06.360 --> 1:32:08.519 Never Say Never was my album. Me and my girlfriend 1:32:08.560 --> 1:32:11.640 would be in the car crying over our little boyfriends, 1:32:11.760 --> 1:32:16.280 singing the songs, Oh my gosh, Oh Angel in disguise. 1:32:17.720 --> 1:32:24.840 Angel, Yes, and I got the Roddy Jerkins what he 1:32:24.880 --> 1:32:28.760 did in music, super bad by super Bad. 1:32:28.880 --> 1:32:31.280 He was a super producer, He is a super is Yes, 1:32:31.320 --> 1:32:32.439 he is super bag. 1:32:33.040 --> 1:32:36.040 So I'd say that whole album, actually, but we'll go 1:32:36.120 --> 1:32:39.519 with Angel. Honestly, it's every song you got a top 1:32:40.120 --> 1:32:46.960 that Okay. 1:32:44.439 --> 1:32:47.200 It's your world, it's your work. Let's make a Vultron. 1:32:47.240 --> 1:32:49.800 You're a super R and B artist, right. If you're 1:32:49.840 --> 1:32:52.880 making an artist, you're making a superhero R and B artist, 1:32:53.200 --> 1:32:56.559 and you want to get the vocals from somewhere or 1:32:56.640 --> 1:33:01.400 mid style from somebody, the styling of the artists, the 1:33:01.439 --> 1:33:03.760 heart of the artist. And since you're a songwriter who's 1:33:03.760 --> 1:33:05.880 gonna write for this artist, you need one vocal to 1:33:05.920 --> 1:33:07.479 make your super R and B artist. 1:33:07.479 --> 1:33:08.680 What is that going to be? 1:33:09.320 --> 1:33:11.840 Well, I just love Brandy's voice, So I'm gonna put 1:33:11.880 --> 1:33:16.840 Brandy's voice on it, saying easy walk Brandy's boys performance style. 1:33:18.400 --> 1:33:19.520 We're making a super. 1:33:19.320 --> 1:33:23.960 R and B with the R and B performance style 1:33:24.200 --> 1:33:26.920 of you know what, I love Maya. 1:33:27.080 --> 1:33:28.479 We're gonna put she she has. 1:33:29.000 --> 1:33:33.480 We're talking about her staff. 1:33:34.640 --> 1:33:36.840 I love a girl that can own it and who's 1:33:36.840 --> 1:33:39.000 She's kind of timid, she's not like like an hour 1:33:39.080 --> 1:33:43.120 person that's like, but her music is like she's I 1:33:43.200 --> 1:33:49.559 like her, Yes, Maryland, you know my love is like Whoa? 1:33:50.640 --> 1:33:52.439 Here was another one that's another person I should be. 1:33:53.400 --> 1:33:55.599 But I'm gonna go with Maya because Maya I love. 1:33:56.040 --> 1:33:59.240 I think I love that. I love what comes out 1:33:59.240 --> 1:34:00.840 of her. You know what I mean as an artist, 1:34:00.960 --> 1:34:09.080 a performance and stuff like that. With clothing wise, oh gosh, 1:34:09.720 --> 1:34:14.160 there's a couple of them. Style wise, I would say dang, 1:34:14.360 --> 1:34:15.920 I can't put it up at the top of my 1:34:16.479 --> 1:34:22.640 the top of my ah, give me some girls, damn styling. 1:34:22.320 --> 1:34:24.200 Wise, you gotta read. 1:34:24.320 --> 1:34:28.759 You got the oh Rihanna, Yeah, Rihanna and the style too, please. 1:34:29.280 --> 1:34:31.240 Rihanna got easy easy. 1:34:31.040 --> 1:34:34.840 Love that love that she she put that ship on. Yeah, 1:34:34.880 --> 1:34:36.679 the passion of the artist, the heart. 1:34:36.520 --> 1:34:38.400 Of the arts coming from the heart. 1:34:38.400 --> 1:34:40.360 I'm gonna give it to Beyonce because that girl's got 1:34:40.360 --> 1:34:41.759 a heart of the heart of a lion. 1:34:41.840 --> 1:34:42.840 She just doesn't give up. 1:34:43.520 --> 1:34:46.439 She's just she's that what would Beyonce do? Like, she's 1:34:46.479 --> 1:34:48.840 that voice in your head when you're feeling lazy that 1:34:48.960 --> 1:34:52.360 day and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm overwhelmed, and 1:34:52.400 --> 1:34:52.760 you're like. 1:34:52.880 --> 1:34:54.080 Whoa that woman? 1:34:54.720 --> 1:34:56.960 Beyonce would get to work. She would get to work, 1:34:57.680 --> 1:35:00.839 heels on the track, get to work. 1:35:01.000 --> 1:35:04.200 On treadmill and singing and singing. Yeah, caring a baby. 1:35:04.200 --> 1:35:07.000 I'm sorry, who's writing for this artist? 1:35:07.520 --> 1:35:20.519 Oh? Dang, okay? The dream yeah? Yeah. Tricky Steward. 1:35:24.439 --> 1:35:28.640 Yeah, I'm not mad, not biased at all, No, not 1:35:28.760 --> 1:35:32.200 for any particular reason, but I have witnessed the man's 1:35:32.200 --> 1:35:33.320 talent in his very. 1:35:33.520 --> 1:35:42.879 Respect respect what's going on because We got one more segment, 1:35:43.800 --> 1:35:45.200 and we have to give a disclaimer. 1:35:46.080 --> 1:35:48.479 My brother's doing eight shows a week now. He's doing 1:35:48.520 --> 1:35:51.960 eight shows a week on John Browdway, right, he's a thespid. 1:35:52.280 --> 1:35:54.400 Can we talk about the title? Give me the title. 1:35:54.439 --> 1:35:56.479 We need to name anybody who doesn't know what show 1:35:56.520 --> 1:35:57.519 he's doing? What's the show? 1:35:58.439 --> 1:36:02.520 I am doing Hell's Kitchen and asking Alicia Keys Broadway 1:36:02.640 --> 1:36:08.599 Musical and I play her father Davis. And it's real. 1:36:09.000 --> 1:36:10.720 It's real, it's real. You got it. 1:36:10.720 --> 1:36:12.120 When you go back to New York, you gotta go 1:36:12.200 --> 1:36:12.599 check it out. 1:36:12.600 --> 1:36:16.759 I will like it's like, you know, it's Tony Award 1:36:16.840 --> 1:36:19.120 winners and nominees all over that. 1:36:19.240 --> 1:36:20.960 I was ready to throw tomatoes at him. He did 1:36:21.000 --> 1:36:22.960 his thing, no starting, I mean I had to tell 1:36:23.080 --> 1:36:23.920 I had to celebrate it. 1:36:24.439 --> 1:36:25.080 You couldn't help it. 1:36:25.160 --> 1:36:29.679 You killers on stage. 1:36:30.120 --> 1:36:32.400 Yeah, especially, and by the way, Broadway is killing you 1:36:32.479 --> 1:36:35.559 right now. You're amongst all these eight plus everything everywhere. 1:36:36.040 --> 1:36:39.600 Danzel's feet away, Denzel's right there. They cool and all that. 1:36:39.640 --> 1:36:40.280 But we talked. 1:36:40.080 --> 1:36:42.840 About this week talking about we're. 1:36:42.720 --> 1:36:49.799 Talking about dol Doorrail junior juniors. We'll be talking about senior. 1:36:49.880 --> 1:36:53.240 I get it. You want to see the new Denzel 1:36:53.320 --> 1:36:57.240 get to work. I'm on forty four. Oh, hello, my, 1:36:58.040 --> 1:37:00.400 I'm on forty four. Stand. 1:37:04.080 --> 1:37:07.120 We had a very important segment of the show. What 1:37:07.240 --> 1:37:09.439 we close out is called I Ain't saying on names? 1:37:10.240 --> 1:37:13.599 Will you give us a story? Funny or fucked up? 1:37:13.920 --> 1:37:17.479 Are funny and fucked up? The only route to the 1:37:17.520 --> 1:37:19.200 game is you can't say no names. 1:37:19.200 --> 1:37:20.559 Funny orked up? 1:37:20.840 --> 1:37:21.880 Both are both. 1:37:22.439 --> 1:37:28.160 It could be Billy, You'm alright and die. You gotta 1:37:28.160 --> 1:37:35.880 tell me because I know we got stories and I'm yeah, 1:37:36.560 --> 1:37:37.320 Las Vegas. 1:37:37.920 --> 1:37:40.040 I like that New Years. 1:37:41.840 --> 1:37:48.240 Hotel opening New Year's not okay, I can't sit then 1:37:48.360 --> 1:37:54.880 because I just love won't. But you might know the 1:37:54.960 --> 1:37:58.600 name just based off of my own interpretations of the situation, 1:37:58.960 --> 1:38:00.519 because this is an it's one of those nights. 1:38:00.520 --> 1:38:01.880 Actually you don't say the name. That's how good. 1:38:01.880 --> 1:38:04.880 This is beautiful, because this is almost a couple. This 1:38:04.920 --> 1:38:08.519 is twenty years later or no, ten years later. Okay, 1:38:08.760 --> 1:38:11.840 So we go night, Oh my gosh, we're having so 1:38:11.920 --> 1:38:13.719 much fun. Me and my friends, me and my sister 1:38:13.880 --> 1:38:18.200 and my sisters. Billy's there we go, New Year's Night, 1:38:18.320 --> 1:38:22.280 We see the fireworks, Crazy night, Billy, let's let's help 1:38:22.280 --> 1:38:24.479 me this with this story, because how do we end 1:38:24.560 --> 1:38:27.599 up there? Somehow we end up going with a very 1:38:27.640 --> 1:38:31.240 popular ARM and B pop star to a strip club. 1:38:31.320 --> 1:38:32.880 Is that where we started? How we end up there? 1:38:34.000 --> 1:38:37.280 Go say it, just say the beginning of it. 1:38:38.479 --> 1:38:39.759 Jay Z and Coldplay were playing. 1:38:40.080 --> 1:38:41.559 They are not in the part of the story, but 1:38:41.600 --> 1:38:44.599 they were there at the Yeah, so we see this 1:38:44.760 --> 1:38:47.360 all this everybody everybody like, all the hottest stars are 1:38:47.360 --> 1:38:50.680 at this big cosmopolitan, you know, New Year's night thing, 1:38:51.120 --> 1:38:54.800 and somehow we end up around this other star. She's 1:38:54.840 --> 1:38:59.320 a female's pretty dope, and we all decide somehow we're 1:38:59.360 --> 1:39:00.360 all going to the strip club. 1:39:00.400 --> 1:39:02.599 And she's like, come on, let's go. So she's got 1:39:02.640 --> 1:39:02.920 you know. 1:39:02.880 --> 1:39:04.960 The biggest you know, the big suv trucks. 1:39:05.040 --> 1:39:05.919 We all clamoring. 1:39:06.000 --> 1:39:08.960 We're stuffed in there like sausages, and she's like, she's 1:39:09.000 --> 1:39:11.200 a boss, by the way, and she gets. 1:39:11.000 --> 1:39:12.160 Us all inside of the car. 1:39:12.520 --> 1:39:14.920 We get to the strip club. We're at the strip 1:39:14.960 --> 1:39:17.320 club having a really good time. By then, we've had 1:39:17.400 --> 1:39:20.560 multiple shots, you know, there's people smoking, a little everything. 1:39:21.840 --> 1:39:24.320 She decides she's done with the strip club. We're gonna 1:39:24.320 --> 1:39:25.599 bring the strip club back. 1:39:25.560 --> 1:39:27.560 To her hotel room. 1:39:28.680 --> 1:39:31.920 So everybody gets back in the car. She's really cool, 1:39:31.960 --> 1:39:33.760 by the way, and we get in the car. We 1:39:33.840 --> 1:39:36.639 go to her penthouse suite that she has at the hotel, 1:39:37.040 --> 1:39:38.160 and we're just in awe of all. 1:39:38.439 --> 1:39:39.920 We're watching it, and she's such a boss. 1:39:39.960 --> 1:39:43.120 She's walking around the room, she's got stacks of singles 1:39:43.479 --> 1:39:45.800 in her pocket, and she's the but she doesn't really 1:39:45.840 --> 1:39:47.519 hasn't shared it. And she brought the strippers back. So 1:39:47.560 --> 1:39:49.960 these female strippers come back, you know, and so they're 1:39:50.000 --> 1:39:53.080 shaking their butt everywhere and everything shaking ass and they're naked, 1:39:53.840 --> 1:39:55.160 but nobody's paying attention to them. 1:39:55.160 --> 1:39:57.600 They're just like music playing out loud. People are smoking a. 1:39:57.600 --> 1:39:59.160 Little weed, you know what I mean, and we're all 1:39:59.160 --> 1:40:01.800 talking just you know, having a good time. But the 1:40:01.800 --> 1:40:03.799 strippers are doing stuff, but they're not getting paid anything. 1:40:04.120 --> 1:40:06.080 She has the money, but she hasn't you know, it's 1:40:06.080 --> 1:40:06.559 in the cut. 1:40:07.280 --> 1:40:08.720 So eventually the strippers. 1:40:08.400 --> 1:40:10.320 Are like, you know, oh my god, they're starting to 1:40:10.320 --> 1:40:12.160 get bored because no one's paying attention to them. So 1:40:12.240 --> 1:40:15.479 they go up to this girl and they're like, so 1:40:15.520 --> 1:40:19.880 and so we're gonna lead because you know, everybody's you know, everybody, 1:40:21.600 --> 1:40:24.920 Billy have to tell it, Come on, say it, you 1:40:25.000 --> 1:40:27.040 have to say what she says, Okay, you're gonna say it. 1:40:27.840 --> 1:40:30.200 So we're gonna leave because nobody's paying attention to us, and. 1:40:30.200 --> 1:40:44.519 They're holding their clothes in their hand, and she says. 1:40:48.320 --> 1:40:50.000 They weren't back. 1:40:49.880 --> 1:40:52.360 On the floor got to dancing, and then she said, 1:40:52.920 --> 1:40:55.120 just threw her she just threw the sacks. 1:40:54.800 --> 1:40:55.839 Of cash at them. 1:40:56.120 --> 1:40:58.320 And the night continued on and we were just in 1:40:58.360 --> 1:41:01.120 all of this woman because she's just for so cool 1:41:01.360 --> 1:41:04.840 and she's and I think, you know, I think that 1:41:04.960 --> 1:41:07.000 told the story. So that's night we still talk about 1:41:07.040 --> 1:41:10.920 to this tonight. We still talk about to this day, 1:41:11.120 --> 1:41:14.360 just kind of like watching this this strong ass female 1:41:14.800 --> 1:41:18.559 that's just so cool, be as dope as you imagine 1:41:18.560 --> 1:41:19.040 that she is. 1:41:19.880 --> 1:41:21.680 Yeah, I love it. 1:41:22.600 --> 1:41:23.559 Shut and there. 1:41:27.880 --> 1:41:28.920 I don't want to hear it. 1:41:29.360 --> 1:41:30.360 That's all she had to say. 1:41:30.400 --> 1:41:35.240 That was it. Yeah, I don't want to hear nothing else. 1:41:35.880 --> 1:41:37.479 Yeah, that's great. That's a really good story. 1:41:37.640 --> 1:41:39.800 That's christ So that's a funny story. 1:41:39.479 --> 1:41:48.200 Yeah, yeah, you have you have navigated this thing in 1:41:48.320 --> 1:41:48.880 such a way. 1:41:49.080 --> 1:41:52.000 Yeah, that was amazing. Was that two hours? 1:41:51.640 --> 1:42:05.640 It's close. We were trying to you. But you've navigated 1:42:05.640 --> 1:42:09.680 this thing with with with so much grace and so 1:42:09.800 --> 1:42:14.640 much class. And to see you now, to see you 1:42:14.880 --> 1:42:21.479 still evolving, to see you still growing, still surprising us 1:42:21.520 --> 1:42:24.360 and showing us new things, it's just like, really dough, 1:42:24.600 --> 1:42:26.519 you know what I mean. We we we didn't get 1:42:26.520 --> 1:42:30.280 to tap too heavy into the the you know, the 1:42:30.320 --> 1:42:32.960 wife and the children in this aspect of But that's 1:42:33.080 --> 1:42:37.200 that's a whole another space. That is to where you know, 1:42:38.400 --> 1:42:41.000 with everything else that you do, like you're in this 1:42:41.560 --> 1:42:46.519 super woman super hero space that is just it should 1:42:46.560 --> 1:42:47.120 be studied. 1:42:49.120 --> 1:42:51.400 I got some work to do. It's not easy, no. 1:42:56.880 --> 1:42:59.439 Space, but we get to you know, we get to 1:42:59.439 --> 1:43:01.240 see you show up. You get to pull up on 1:43:01.360 --> 1:43:04.200 us and and it all looks good on you. 1:43:04.360 --> 1:43:05.040 Oh thank you. 1:43:06.160 --> 1:43:08.839 I'm just trying to stay young, drink a lot of water, hopefully, 1:43:08.880 --> 1:43:11.880 stay in shape, trying to do what these kids need 1:43:11.880 --> 1:43:15.160 in their life. It starts show for whoever needs me 1:43:15.240 --> 1:43:18.800 to show up for. You know, that's important. But no 1:43:18.840 --> 1:43:21.280 matter what, God has just guided me. I always turned 1:43:21.320 --> 1:43:23.479 to gout and that's what keeps me and all of 1:43:23.520 --> 1:43:26.360 those things going. And I'm just thankful for my longevity 1:43:26.760 --> 1:43:29.479 and to meet good people and through my lifetime and 1:43:29.520 --> 1:43:31.679 be good to people and people be good back and 1:43:31.720 --> 1:43:34.960 it always comes back around. So great lesson I've learned 1:43:34.960 --> 1:43:36.000 and I'm really happy about it. 1:43:36.280 --> 1:43:38.000 Look at us, look at. 1:43:37.920 --> 1:43:43.560 Us, look good at look at you. 1:43:46.680 --> 1:43:49.240 And this is the Army Money Podcast, the authority on 1:43:49.439 --> 1:43:57.320 all things are and be a Superwoman. Family Are outro. 1:43:57.760 --> 1:44:02.680 Thank you has been been great. Thank you died that 1:44:07.120 --> 1:44:09.040 Yah