WEBVTT - Black Music Month QLS Classic: Angélique Kidjo

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<v Speaker 1>Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic

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<v Speaker 1>episode was produced by the team at Pandora.

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<v Speaker 2>What up, y'all, it's unpaid bill for Quest Love Supreme.

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<v Speaker 2>As you may have seen throughout June, we are celebrating

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<v Speaker 2>Black Music Month by releasing an episode every day, So

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<v Speaker 2>every day you either hear especially picked QLs Classic, and

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<v Speaker 2>on Wednesdays we are dropping new two part episodes with

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<v Speaker 2>Wayne Brady and the legendary James Poyser, both of which

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<v Speaker 2>were filmed at Studio. Black music is deeply important to

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<v Speaker 2>me and has been an influence throughout my entire career.

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<v Speaker 2>It's also something we celebrate here at QLs. Today we

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<v Speaker 2>look back at our twenty eighteen conversation with the incredible

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<v Speaker 2>five time Grammy Award winning Angelie Quijo. We spoke about Afrobeat,

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<v Speaker 2>Lakuti and more.

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<v Speaker 3>Supremo Sun Sun Suprema, Roll Call, Suprema Sun Sun Suprema

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<v Speaker 3>Roll Call, Suprema Su Su Supremo, Roll Call, Subprema Son

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<v Speaker 3>Supremo roll Just so.

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<v Speaker 1>That you know, Yeah, Angel Leek, you, Joe, Yeah, my

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<v Speaker 1>roots just might be Yeah and Ben and come.

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<v Speaker 3>To Supremo Roll Suprema Son Son Supremo roll call.

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<v Speaker 4>It's like, yeah, I booked an African diva.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, then I didn't show up. Yeah, I'm at home

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<v Speaker 1>smoking's a Teeva.

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<v Speaker 3>Supremo roll call out Supremo Supremo roll call.

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<v Speaker 1>Out paid Bill. Yeah, and I'll tell you so. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>I wrote my college thesis on Angelikio.

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<v Speaker 3>Supremo, son Son Supremo roll call Supremo Son Son Supremo role.

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<v Speaker 1>Boss Bill is excited. Yeah for this here show Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm ready to learn. Yeah, what I do not know?

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<v Speaker 3>Roll so some Supprimo roll call Supreme got killed here

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<v Speaker 3>seven Supremo roll here.

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<v Speaker 5>I come, Yeah from Africa. Yeah, I've got something.

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<v Speaker 6>Yeah to tell you, dude, son Son Supprimo roll call

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<v Speaker 6>Suprema son Sun Supremo roll call Suprema son Son.

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<v Speaker 3>Supremo roll call Suprema son Son Supremo roll call.

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<v Speaker 2>Wait, Sativa, Wait, whatever's happened You ever cough so hard

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<v Speaker 2>that you have a headache?

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah? I think I love Vessel. Greatth that's good.

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<v Speaker 5>Come on with that.

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<v Speaker 1>We got Sugar Steve and and the Bill Twins. Hello,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm feel unpaid in U and Boss Bill. If you

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<v Speaker 1>hear any noise, it's just the boys, because like sound

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<v Speaker 1>of where is Like, why did you call her? She's moving?

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<v Speaker 4>She's not here?

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, I don't know, Well, she's moving, and this would

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<v Speaker 1>be it's just that she's not she's This would be

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<v Speaker 1>such a great nerve to participate in. I mean, we

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<v Speaker 1>we have royalty with us, and and why he's not

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<v Speaker 1>here for this? And I guess fan take a little

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<v Speaker 1>still tending to his uh kitchen countertop.

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<v Speaker 5>Anyway, it's not easy, guys, Come on ye.

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<v Speaker 1>Anyway tonight or today, we're in the presidence of royalty. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>We have the undisputed queen of African music.

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<v Speaker 4>Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>And according to Time magazine, she is Africa's premiere diva.

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<v Speaker 1>I don't know if what's the jury when the word

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<v Speaker 1>term eva. It's over with diva, isn't it already?

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<v Speaker 5>Yeah?

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<v Speaker 1>Enough of that, okay, okay, so we'll just say that

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<v Speaker 1>according to Time magazine, you're just the premiere. I will know.

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<v Speaker 5>I'm not a premier.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm just a regular scene that okay, Okay, she's one

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<v Speaker 1>of those Yeah, yeah.

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<v Speaker 5>No, I'm always humble because this life is like that.

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<v Speaker 5>One day you're up, the next day you're down with

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<v Speaker 5>your nose in the Doukie.

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<v Speaker 7>All right, well, waiting and gentlemen, fresh forky News's welcome,

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<v Speaker 7>right the Queen of the Queen of all Angeley Qujo

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<v Speaker 7>the quest.

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<v Speaker 5>Love Supreme, thank you so much.

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<v Speaker 1>Yes, okay, now I'm paid, Bill, Yes, and you rarely

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<v Speaker 1>take the take. You're rarely out of the batter's box

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<v Speaker 1>first on the show. But here I am. You did

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<v Speaker 1>your final college thesis on our subject today.

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<v Speaker 2>I did explain this, okay. Well, I was really into

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<v Speaker 2>West African music in college. I went to Ghana for

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<v Speaker 2>a semester when I was in a sophomore or junior

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<v Speaker 2>or something like that. Wait you what, Yeah, I went,

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<v Speaker 2>I've been to Africa more than anybody in this room beside.

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<v Speaker 1>Are you serious? Yeah?

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<v Speaker 2>But so I went to wait, I'm not using this

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<v Speaker 2>just to play your new themes. By the way, there's

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of random ship that goes on in my life.

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<v Speaker 1>And here's why.

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<v Speaker 4>Alright, okay, what's just happened?

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah I didn't get you didn't know that? Now that

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<v Speaker 1>worked because I felt like I was so high, no

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<v Speaker 1>more than normal or just like I'm paying Bill is

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<v Speaker 1>random round me?

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<v Speaker 2>He's just so wait, So I I how many times

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<v Speaker 2>have you been to Africa three, three times, twice twice. Okay,

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<v Speaker 2>that's the North Coast anyway, that's important. I wrote my

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<v Speaker 2>thesis about what I called Transatlantic diasporic feedback, which is

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<v Speaker 2>a smart way of saying, we all know how West

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<v Speaker 2>African African music affected the States, but then in turn

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<v Speaker 2>how the States how the music went back around and

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<v Speaker 2>affected West Africa. So like people like Fale and people

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<v Speaker 2>like Angelikijo who like by Funk and like also with

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<v Speaker 2>African music, but like other stuff that happened, and then

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<v Speaker 2>and then there's another trip across the Atlantic, and it

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<v Speaker 2>kind of keeps on going in this big.

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<v Speaker 1>Circle, and so dog chasing it. Yeah, so I wrote

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<v Speaker 1>my thesis about that. That's beautiful. Okay, Well anyway, Angeline,

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<v Speaker 1>that was like the movie previews. Now I'm gonna get

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<v Speaker 1>to you.

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<v Speaker 5>But I think that is interesting that you thought of

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<v Speaker 5>doing that. But most of most of the time, people

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<v Speaker 5>don't even understand, don't even realize that the music they

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<v Speaker 5>have been listening to for so many years or centuries

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<v Speaker 5>comes from Africa. And I always tell people no music

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<v Speaker 5>will exist in America without the blues. Everything started with

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<v Speaker 5>the blues and with the blues, blue grass is not

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<v Speaker 5>white people's music. It's black people and music. All the

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<v Speaker 5>music in this country, it's black people. That's sorry.

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<v Speaker 1>A lot of my UH students the first year started

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<v Speaker 1>teaching at U n Yu didn't know that. Three students

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<v Speaker 1>didn't know that the banjo came from Africa, like a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of instruments that are used in country Western music.

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<v Speaker 5>They don't even know that.

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<v Speaker 1>They didn't know that. Yeah, they didn't. So how are

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<v Speaker 1>you today?

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<v Speaker 6>Me?

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<v Speaker 5>I'm cool, apart from the rain that makes me stay

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<v Speaker 5>in the car for more than and now I have

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<v Speaker 5>to get here. And my bladd I was crying for

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<v Speaker 5>help when I walked in here. I mean, come on, guys,

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<v Speaker 5>just for you, I do that request of you know that? Right?

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<v Speaker 1>Yes? Just for me?

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<v Speaker 5>Yeah, because every time he invited me, I always have

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<v Speaker 5>to go for traffic. But something going on with these

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<v Speaker 5>guys sounds about right.

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm glad you made it. I'm glad you made it.

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<v Speaker 1>So you're you've been in New Yorker for a second? Correct?

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<v Speaker 1>How long have you been?

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<v Speaker 5>I've been here since nineteen ninety seven.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, so I guess twenty one years makes you that.

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<v Speaker 1>My official rule is that if you're a transplant, uh

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<v Speaker 1>from out of New York, you can officially start calling

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<v Speaker 1>yourself a real New Yorker. Yeah after twenty years. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>oh so I'm only on one ninth year.

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<v Speaker 5>I am broken. I'm from Brooklyn, y'all.

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<v Speaker 1>I feel like you always changed.

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<v Speaker 3>That.

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<v Speaker 1>Not from you, I hear it from a lot of people.

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<v Speaker 1>I've heard. I heard no the number of years it

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<v Speaker 1>takes to claim New Yorker status. I've been here for

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen years. I think I'm in New Yorker.

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<v Speaker 5>Now, once you past ten years, you're in New York.

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<v Speaker 1>Sorry, buddy, Yeah, because I can't. I've reknew my driver's

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<v Speaker 1>license here twice. I'm still a Pennsylvania residence. My tax like,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm still a Pennsylvania because, uh, I'm too lazy to

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<v Speaker 1>go to DMV.

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<v Speaker 5>I guess I don't know, but he's so close it

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<v Speaker 5>doesn't matter.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but how long have you been? I was gonna

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<v Speaker 2>to ask. I grew up on Long Island, which all

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<v Speaker 2>New Yorkers don't know he exists.

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<v Speaker 1>No, you're really a New Yorker. Yeah, I don't have

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<v Speaker 1>an accent. My mom does, I don't. I don't know.

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<v Speaker 5>Okay, I don't even know you have an accent. I

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<v Speaker 5>have so many accident a little bit of it.

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<v Speaker 1>Accent too, just a tiny one.

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<v Speaker 5>I don't care. I have accent and I'm proud of it.

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<v Speaker 1>We're part of Brooklyn Park Slope. Oh okay, nice cool Brooklyn?

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<v Speaker 1>Is there an uncruel Brooklyn?

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<v Speaker 5>Like?

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<v Speaker 1>What's what's hitting for Vincent Hurst these days? Like I

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<v Speaker 1>live in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in brooks Bushwick, and you don't

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<v Speaker 1>wear an ounce of cameo or not since like two

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<v Speaker 1>thousand and eight. Okay, No, I've seen them brothers in Bushwick,

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<v Speaker 1>like they still have like one leg rolled up in

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<v Speaker 1>a Dutch a Dutch in their ears. It's changed a

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<v Speaker 1>little bit. Okay. So there's are like pickle shops and okay,

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<v Speaker 1>I see, I understand. One day I'll check the Brooklyn

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<v Speaker 1>no you yeah, We'll go to Brooklyn Bowl, don't you

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<v Speaker 1>like once a month? Yeah? I guess. I don't know

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<v Speaker 1>if Williamsburg really counts as super like Brooklyn. But anyway,

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<v Speaker 1>so suburb, Okay, I see, yes, the Manhattan suburb. So

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<v Speaker 1>I have to say that in the years that I've

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<v Speaker 1>been collaborating with you and you know, doing stuff and

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<v Speaker 1>shows with you, you and I have never ever, ever

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<v Speaker 1>talked about your story and what brought you to prominence

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<v Speaker 1>and dominance UH across the world and especially in the

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<v Speaker 1>in the world of African music. First of all, Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>when they say African music, I almost feel like it's

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<v Speaker 1>being too broad.

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<v Speaker 5>I mean, it's acolic, reducing Africa to one thing that

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<v Speaker 5>Westerner can understand you and absorbs without asking themselves questions.

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<v Speaker 1>We're idiots. Okay, we're idiots.

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<v Speaker 5>No, no, no, you, no you. I'm saying it. But

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<v Speaker 5>I'm talking about Westerner because who tell the story of

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<v Speaker 5>Black people from the beginning? The Westerner from the beginning

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<v Speaker 5>when they set a foot in Africa. We were doing

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<v Speaker 5>because they come with a plan, and that plan was

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<v Speaker 5>to enslave us, to colonize us, and to take our

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<v Speaker 5>wealth away, the resources away, and keep the hands on

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<v Speaker 5>it and continue telling the story of us not being

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<v Speaker 5>smart enough, being shylish. We have no culture, we have

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<v Speaker 5>no civilization, we have no library, we have nothing. We

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<v Speaker 5>are savage people. When you are dehumanized from the beginning,

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<v Speaker 5>how do you reclaim your your humanity? As as Curry

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<v Speaker 5>James was telling me when I was sitting down with him,

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<v Speaker 5>he said, we never win any battle we've been We've

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<v Speaker 5>been defeated. So it's very hard for us to tell

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<v Speaker 5>our story from the point of being defeated because we're

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<v Speaker 5>never given a chance to do whatever we wanted to

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<v Speaker 5>do the way we wanted to do it.

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<v Speaker 1>Get work, work, work, Yeah, okay. So I just recently,

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<v Speaker 1>up until maybe five or six months ago, was told

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<v Speaker 1>that my family history starts in Benin. Benin, you're from?

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<v Speaker 1>How many How large is the the territory that you're from?

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<v Speaker 5>Well, I know in kilometter, I don't know. In one

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<v Speaker 5>point six million kilometer is the country? It is the

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<v Speaker 5>small country we are. We are close to pretty much

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<v Speaker 5>twelve million, and we have fifty different languages. Whoa, oh yeah,

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<v Speaker 5>I may take one five miles you go to the

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<v Speaker 5>next village. Different rhythm, different drums, different languages, everything is different.

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<v Speaker 5>So out of the fifty, I only speak four, but

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<v Speaker 5>those four allowed me to be able to move completely

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<v Speaker 5>in the south all the way to the center of

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<v Speaker 5>the country. But as soon as I hit the northern countries,

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<v Speaker 5>I need an interpreter because I don't speak any of

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<v Speaker 5>the language from the north.

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<v Speaker 1>How many languages are would you your assessment? How many

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<v Speaker 1>languages are in the continent of Africa.

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<v Speaker 5>Some people say fifteen hundred, and I said, there's more

0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:20.079
<v Speaker 5>than that, because every little village the language. Sometimes what

0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:25.199
<v Speaker 5>happened is that it's like between Latin and French. The

0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:29.480
<v Speaker 5>language of my father's phone was at the beginning, it's

0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.600
<v Speaker 5>called Peter. It was a tribe and it was very

0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.520
<v Speaker 5>difficult for people to understand. So step by step when

0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.160
<v Speaker 5>colonization coming, is that being diluted and a little bit

0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.640
<v Speaker 5>to make it more understandable. So it turned to French

0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.920
<v Speaker 5>instead of being the peda language, but the better language.

0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:47.760
<v Speaker 5>When you speak the better language, you understand a lot

0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:52.959
<v Speaker 5>of languages from the southern part, like Eva, like Nagou,

0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:56.679
<v Speaker 5>many different languages in the south. And what is interesting

0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.480
<v Speaker 5>to me is how as a little girl born in

0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.959
<v Speaker 5>the city, I was able to be surrounded by different

0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.559
<v Speaker 5>languages in one street, the street I grew up in.

0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:07.880
<v Speaker 5>So I have in front of my house, I have

0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:11.520
<v Speaker 5>the Muslim I have the mosque, I have people from

0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:17.240
<v Speaker 5>the Mono that comes from between Ghana Togo and being

0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.960
<v Speaker 5>in that kind of and then I have been from Nigeria.

0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.160
<v Speaker 5>My mom is from Nigeria, so I have I speak

0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.840
<v Speaker 5>Yoruba too, and then you have all these people during

0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:29.320
<v Speaker 5>the battle between the Kingdom of the Phone and the

0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:33.440
<v Speaker 5>kingdom of your Yoruba, when they used to fight for territory.

0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.200
<v Speaker 5>Every time somebody win the battle, you bring the prisoners back.

0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:41.080
<v Speaker 5>So the prisoners that come from the Yoruba land there

0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:45.000
<v Speaker 5>you find them in the place. The village is the

0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.800
<v Speaker 5>vigia that they built is called Ketu and the language

0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:53.320
<v Speaker 5>is called Nago, which drive from Yoruba, but mixed with

0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.360
<v Speaker 5>the language that was in the area, so they mix

0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.880
<v Speaker 5>it up and it's a completely different language from Yoruba.

0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:05.480
<v Speaker 1>So is it is it quite often that there's conflict

0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:07.880
<v Speaker 1>between the Nigerians and.

0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:13.080
<v Speaker 5>Uh no more. No more. At the beginning it was

0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:18.880
<v Speaker 5>Nigeria been in Togo Ghana there were one country. So

0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:24.680
<v Speaker 5>is the colonizer that put the frontiers, that's separate tribes.

0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:26.920
<v Speaker 5>We are all the same pretty much. If you do

0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:31.440
<v Speaker 5>the DNA test of Nigerian, Ghani and even Cameroonian on

0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:35.720
<v Speaker 5>the northern part of Cameroon and Togo, we're all the

0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:37.960
<v Speaker 5>same people all the way to the north. The north

0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:42.680
<v Speaker 5>of Bening frontiers is the Niger River. So what makes

0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.160
<v Speaker 5>it complicated for me to learn in language from Nize.

0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.160
<v Speaker 5>Is that you have a lot of trade that go

0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.960
<v Speaker 5>from the northern part of Beining to Nigeria. You have

0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:56.120
<v Speaker 5>the Ausa. Ausa is the language. Alousa and Swali are

0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:59.040
<v Speaker 5>the two biggest language in Africa. Because there are languages

0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:01.920
<v Speaker 5>of trade. So if you want to trade from west

0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.320
<v Speaker 5>to east, north south, if you speak ourside, you can turn,

0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.280
<v Speaker 5>you can do the whole continent. And if speak Sayili too,

0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.000
<v Speaker 5>so you have the outside. In the north, you have

0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:14.880
<v Speaker 5>the northern people from Togo that are there. You have

0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.320
<v Speaker 5>the northern people from Nize that comes in because they

0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.240
<v Speaker 5>are all the nomad they're coming when it's too dry

0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.440
<v Speaker 5>in the desert. The closest way place where they can

0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.440
<v Speaker 5>get water is in beneath, so they cross the river

0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.320
<v Speaker 5>to come in. So it's very very complex the north,

0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.280
<v Speaker 5>and they have so many different languages. And the rhythm

0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:33.880
<v Speaker 5>also is completely different.

0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:34.640
<v Speaker 2>Is the.

0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:40.040
<v Speaker 5>Rhythm in the in the south is much more six

0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:44.440
<v Speaker 5>eight and in the northern is more complex. Is you

0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.600
<v Speaker 5>have five four, all those kind of different weird rhythm.

0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.760
<v Speaker 5>And it's the only place in the whole country where

0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.440
<v Speaker 5>women have the music, the traditional music separate from the

0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.000
<v Speaker 5>men when they are playing. They want no guys in there,

0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.440
<v Speaker 5>and it's like you just don't touch our drum. This

0:16:59.640 --> 0:16:59.920
<v Speaker 5>kind of.

0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:04.439
<v Speaker 1>Serious, really really, Also the drums themselves are totally different.

0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.159
<v Speaker 2>The whole rhythmic complexities are completely if you go like

0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.600
<v Speaker 2>five miles east or five miles west, because all those

0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:15.240
<v Speaker 2>countries are really close together. So Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria

0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.040
<v Speaker 2>are all next to each other and you can get

0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:19.840
<v Speaker 2>two of them by going through them, and then you

0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.359
<v Speaker 2>go from an Anglophone to a Francophone to an anglophone country.

0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:26.920
<v Speaker 2>So there's this constant dealing of languages and it's it's

0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.080
<v Speaker 2>insane and and not And in addition to Benin, sorry

0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.320
<v Speaker 2>to get all gannany, but like that. That country also

0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:35.800
<v Speaker 2>as you go north, has totally different languages and totally

0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:39.720
<v Speaker 2>different drum cultures. By going fifty miles you have Kumasi,

0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:41.399
<v Speaker 2>which is the middle of the country, which has its

0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:45.399
<v Speaker 2>own culture. I love Akra yeah, me too, and Tamala,

0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:47.119
<v Speaker 2>which is closer to the desert, which is more like

0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:48.200
<v Speaker 2>talking drums and things like that.

0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:50.320
<v Speaker 1>It's a totally different culture as well. As you go.

0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.879
<v Speaker 5>Like like what verse one village that was wait hang

0:17:54.920 --> 0:18:03.040
<v Speaker 5>one second, like your mommy Jamaican, I want to tell

0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:07.560
<v Speaker 5>you know about Look, you know one of the things

0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:11.080
<v Speaker 5>that was really interesting for me growing up in Benin,

0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:14.520
<v Speaker 5>I never wanted. I never went to the north because

0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:18.520
<v Speaker 5>when the colonizer came, they divide the Southerner from the

0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:21.840
<v Speaker 5>northerner and they tell us they told the Southerner, you

0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.040
<v Speaker 5>go to the North, They're gonna kill you. They are

0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.440
<v Speaker 5>savage people there. So when I was little kid, I'm

0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:28.200
<v Speaker 5>not gonna go to the North. I'm wanna travel, travel

0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.600
<v Speaker 5>to desert. My father said, yeah, I like to go.

0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.960
<v Speaker 5>My mama said, no, don't send my child there. I'm like,

0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.399
<v Speaker 5>what's going on? I have to leave my country because

0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:40.400
<v Speaker 5>of the communist dictatorship, go to France and coming back

0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.480
<v Speaker 5>to my country to discover the north. And I discover

0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:50.960
<v Speaker 5>a village insane. It's called Mani Grie. They speak Nago Yoruba,

0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:55.119
<v Speaker 5>but it's different. It's I understand them, but there's a

0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.040
<v Speaker 5>certain thing I don't understand. And in that village particularly,

0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.880
<v Speaker 5>the only thing that guys are allowed to do when

0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.440
<v Speaker 5>they are playing music is to play the equivalent. I

0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:07.840
<v Speaker 5>think the ancest of Bernbau. That's where it comes from

0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:12.440
<v Speaker 5>is that small guitar that got ding ding ring ringing.

0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.320
<v Speaker 5>And the only thing he can say the women are singing.

0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:20.960
<v Speaker 5>He's going mmmmm, that's it. You said more that they

0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:23.720
<v Speaker 5>just go like, we don't, we don't ask you to

0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:24.639
<v Speaker 5>sing it shut up.

0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.560
<v Speaker 1>So it's sort of not segregation, but it's is.

0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.120
<v Speaker 5>That the guys. But the thing is when the guys

0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.679
<v Speaker 5>are doing their music, the women are not singing. They

0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:37.199
<v Speaker 5>are cooking.

0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.840
<v Speaker 1>So there's no tribes that collaborate with each other.

0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:47.000
<v Speaker 5>And when somebody die, so somebody dies, when somebody have

0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:49.760
<v Speaker 5>a baby, when somebody is getting married, when there for

0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:53.040
<v Speaker 5>something that is not official. Because when I come to

0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:54.639
<v Speaker 5>see them in the village, the women want to pay

0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.720
<v Speaker 5>tribute to me. So that's when they come and they

0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.119
<v Speaker 5>want sing to me, and they tell the guy, she

0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.360
<v Speaker 5>is our sister. We want to sing for you can't

0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:06.280
<v Speaker 5>come in. But we are the main attraction here. So

0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.439
<v Speaker 5>that's the choice, and the men respect that, but they

0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:09.880
<v Speaker 5>are there.

0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.919
<v Speaker 1>They do, oh yeah, because I would figure that.

0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.240
<v Speaker 5>There's in music. There's not none in music. There's no violence.

0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.040
<v Speaker 5>It's just like this, and then everybody respect each each

0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.800
<v Speaker 5>person's desire to play the music. They want to play

0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.920
<v Speaker 5>at that time, and that's what is really interesting. And

0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.560
<v Speaker 5>it's also a Muslim village and.

0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.520
<v Speaker 1>Even now and today like that that is still respected.

0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:33.480
<v Speaker 5>Well, you want to go, come with me. I take

0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:34.600
<v Speaker 5>you there. You see for yourself.

0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:36.239
<v Speaker 1>When's the last time you you there?

0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:38.280
<v Speaker 5>It was three years ago, boss Bill.

0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:44.679
<v Speaker 1>When's the last time your boss? One day? Two thousand

0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:46.119
<v Speaker 1>and one, two thousand one.

0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:52.399
<v Speaker 5>Okay, So let's go to Benin.

0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:53.679
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, let's go.

0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:57.680
<v Speaker 5>From beginning. You gotta go see it.

0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.280
<v Speaker 1>Well, I was asking because I think the story that

0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:08.160
<v Speaker 1>was told to me was that when the last slave ship,

0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:15.399
<v Speaker 1>American slave ship, the Clotilda, was gathering their last flock,

0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:26.560
<v Speaker 1>their last cargo of slaves, that there were prisoners. I

0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:31.480
<v Speaker 1>guess they were either there were Nigerians captured in Benin

0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:35.600
<v Speaker 1>or Benin in Nigeria. That part I'm still kind of

0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:40.880
<v Speaker 1>rusty on, but I believe that they were Nigerian captured

0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:43.639
<v Speaker 1>in Benin and it was two hundred of them and

0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:47.639
<v Speaker 1>they were taken to Alabama and then at the last

0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:51.439
<v Speaker 1>not at the last minute, because slavery was illegal by

0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:57.920
<v Speaker 1>that point. It's kind of like the the grand great

0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:04.439
<v Speaker 1>great Grandfather's the last sleep he was allowed to start

0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:11.000
<v Speaker 1>his own European practice in Little Africa in Alabama. Have

0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:12.959
<v Speaker 1>you got a chance to see that village at all

0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:15.040
<v Speaker 1>or what? It's No.

0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:17.359
<v Speaker 5>I've been to Alabama, but I stopped.

0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:18.240
<v Speaker 4>I was in.

0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:23.600
<v Speaker 5>Birmingham and this is more near Mobile, so I think

0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:25.920
<v Speaker 5>I have to go back there. Because I went to

0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:31.760
<v Speaker 5>visit the memorial of those young girls in school. It

0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:35.359
<v Speaker 5>was it was just a moving moment for me. What

0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:37.280
<v Speaker 5>is really sad for me when I go to those

0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:40.000
<v Speaker 5>places that we in Africa we got no idea what's

0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:42.639
<v Speaker 5>going on, what goes on when people left? We have

0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:47.119
<v Speaker 5>no idea, and we are so ignorant about the history

0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:50.440
<v Speaker 5>of African American is painful. And I came here in

0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:53.920
<v Speaker 5>nineteen eighty seven. I knew very little. I knew a

0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:57.120
<v Speaker 5>little bit because I always ask questions, and because music

0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:00.520
<v Speaker 5>has attracted my attention to the fact that they African

0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:02.879
<v Speaker 5>people in America, that they are doing the music that

0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:05.800
<v Speaker 5>speaks to me that I can bring to the traditional musician.

0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:08.399
<v Speaker 5>It's the funniest thing ever. I brought James Brown in

0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:11.239
<v Speaker 5>the middle of my village. Their group on it, man

0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:14.840
<v Speaker 5>is just like how you go, what the hell? They

0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:17.240
<v Speaker 5>don't understand nothing. They're going to say, love back, come blind.

0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:21.320
<v Speaker 5>They played. I'm like, oh tru damn, what is that?

0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:24.800
<v Speaker 5>It was even groovier than James Brown's stuff. So I'm like,

0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:28.320
<v Speaker 5>we have so much in common, yet the job of

0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:31.880
<v Speaker 5>brainwashing us and dividing us has been done so smartly

0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:37.000
<v Speaker 5>that we keep believing the people that enslave us what

0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:39.840
<v Speaker 5>they tell us is the truth. I have a different

0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:41.960
<v Speaker 5>take on this because I grew up with my both

0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:45.240
<v Speaker 5>grandmother died over one hundred years and the first time

0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:48.000
<v Speaker 5>I heard the World's slave, I'm what is that? I

0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:51.840
<v Speaker 5>was nine years old because my brother taught himself to

0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:53.919
<v Speaker 5>play guitar. But I listened to all the guitar players

0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:57.320
<v Speaker 5>and he was a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix, and

0:23:57.480 --> 0:23:59.800
<v Speaker 5>he was born bold and he never had any hair.

0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:03.320
<v Speaker 5>So one day the axis of love what that?

0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:05.760
<v Speaker 1>That's what that?

0:24:05.880 --> 0:24:08.280
<v Speaker 5>I don't come home. I'm like, this guy is Penniees.

0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:10.080
<v Speaker 1>But how are you hearing that? You thought he was?

0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:12.879
<v Speaker 5>You think that, yeah, he was playing. My brother was

0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:15.359
<v Speaker 5>playing the guitar. He put a freaking Afro week on.

0:24:15.480 --> 0:24:17.360
<v Speaker 5>I said, you don't need any Afro week to play

0:24:17.440 --> 0:24:19.600
<v Speaker 5>the guitar. Man, But what the hell is going on?

0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:21.840
<v Speaker 5>He said, I'm gonna look like that guy and sound

0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:23.880
<v Speaker 5>like him. I said, yeah, that guy, by the way,

0:24:23.920 --> 0:24:26.879
<v Speaker 5>he's African. He's Bennie. What is language he is snaking in?

0:24:26.960 --> 0:24:30.280
<v Speaker 5>And he goes, he's not Beniese, he's African American. I

0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:31.680
<v Speaker 5>was nine years old. I look at him. I said,

0:24:32.000 --> 0:24:34.320
<v Speaker 5>I might be nine, dude, I ain't stupid. You can't

0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:37.560
<v Speaker 5>be African American at the same time. And then he said, yes,

0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:39.680
<v Speaker 5>you can't. I said, no, you're lying to me. He

0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:41.879
<v Speaker 5>said no, he's a slave descender. I said, what is

0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:44.440
<v Speaker 5>the slave? What is a descendant? He goes, you don't what?

0:24:45.160 --> 0:24:47.440
<v Speaker 5>Because my nickname in my family went white? How I

0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:49.760
<v Speaker 5>asked so much question every elderly people. As soon as

0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:52.960
<v Speaker 5>I come into the video, they go sh everybody just

0:24:53.119 --> 0:24:56.040
<v Speaker 5>gat around. So he said, go ask Grammar. So I

0:24:56.119 --> 0:24:58.159
<v Speaker 5>went and asked my grandma. My grandma started telling me

0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:04.240
<v Speaker 5>the story of slavery. I'm like, who she's mad because

0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:07.800
<v Speaker 5>I never member. My mom and dad always used to advestment.

0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:10.920
<v Speaker 5>One thing that repeated every day to us is that

0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:13.119
<v Speaker 5>a human being is not a matter of color. Do

0:25:13.280 --> 0:25:14.960
<v Speaker 5>not come back to this house and say you felt

0:25:14.960 --> 0:25:16.800
<v Speaker 5>because you're black, because that's the day you're gonna see

0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:19.800
<v Speaker 5>our hands. Because they never let raise the hand on us.

0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:22.359
<v Speaker 5>I'm like, why they say that. I grew up in

0:25:22.440 --> 0:25:28.040
<v Speaker 5>such a protected, loving, musical, cultural place where the house

0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:30.840
<v Speaker 5>was open to everybody. Today you go to cotton and

0:25:30.840 --> 0:25:32.440
<v Speaker 5>you say you're my friend. My mom said, come on,

0:25:32.560 --> 0:25:35.719
<v Speaker 5>this is the room, it's sleep. That's how my parents are.

0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:38.159
<v Speaker 5>They don't have any kind of fear about any other

0:25:38.280 --> 0:25:41.879
<v Speaker 5>human being. So for me, when I I arrived in

0:25:41.960 --> 0:25:45.480
<v Speaker 5>France and started hearing all those racist slur I was like,

0:25:45.840 --> 0:25:48.879
<v Speaker 5>what does this thing come from? I never felt like that,

0:25:49.080 --> 0:25:51.639
<v Speaker 5>And even the story of slavery, for me, it was

0:25:51.720 --> 0:25:55.359
<v Speaker 5>not true. I did not believe in it until I

0:25:55.440 --> 0:25:58.560
<v Speaker 5>turned fifteen and I said Winnie Mandela on TV talking

0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:01.359
<v Speaker 5>about Nelson Mandela and Jail Path, and I was sitting

0:26:01.359 --> 0:26:03.520
<v Speaker 5>in the living room and I turned around. For the

0:26:03.600 --> 0:26:06.440
<v Speaker 5>first time in my life, I start cursing at my

0:26:06.560 --> 0:26:09.199
<v Speaker 5>parents and insulted them. Think I've never done, and they

0:26:09.240 --> 0:26:14.640
<v Speaker 5>were just like, take a back you were. I was mad,

0:26:14.680 --> 0:26:16.639
<v Speaker 5>I say, you are liars, you're lying to me. That

0:26:17.400 --> 0:26:21.399
<v Speaker 5>Suddenly I realized that I've been I've been living believing

0:26:21.480 --> 0:26:23.320
<v Speaker 5>that my skin color was not going to be any

0:26:23.359 --> 0:26:26.440
<v Speaker 5>liability for me. Ever, that everywhere I go in the world,

0:26:26.520 --> 0:26:30.040
<v Speaker 5>I'll be I'll be welcome with open arms. And then

0:26:30.080 --> 0:26:32.720
<v Speaker 5>I'm not far from where I live, people are still

0:26:32.760 --> 0:26:36.600
<v Speaker 5>on their apathet and what so, and I just go crazy,

0:26:36.840 --> 0:26:39.480
<v Speaker 5>literally go crazy. I was sobbing so much, and I

0:26:39.560 --> 0:26:42.760
<v Speaker 5>walk into my room, slam the door, and I stay

0:26:42.800 --> 0:26:44.840
<v Speaker 5>in that room for two three hours, and I come out.

0:26:44.880 --> 0:26:47.639
<v Speaker 5>I said to my dad, I wrote a song, and

0:26:47.720 --> 0:26:50.480
<v Speaker 5>I was still crying. My father said, let us hear it.

0:26:51.240 --> 0:26:54.120
<v Speaker 5>So I start singing the song. And I finished the song,

0:26:54.160 --> 0:26:58.080
<v Speaker 5>and my father said to me, well, I understand you,

0:26:58.200 --> 0:27:03.040
<v Speaker 5>mad I understand, and you said, whatever feeling you have tonight,

0:27:03.920 --> 0:27:06.359
<v Speaker 5>I get it. But one thing I have to tell you,

0:27:06.359 --> 0:27:11.520
<v Speaker 5>you never, as a musician praise hate nor violence. What

0:27:11.680 --> 0:27:14.199
<v Speaker 5>you're saying not gonna go on my house. You're never

0:27:14.240 --> 0:27:17.240
<v Speaker 5>gonna sing that song unless, as an artist, you realize

0:27:17.240 --> 0:27:21.159
<v Speaker 5>that your role is to build bridges, to hold the

0:27:21.240 --> 0:27:24.080
<v Speaker 5>kid to a closed door for people to come together,

0:27:24.240 --> 0:27:26.640
<v Speaker 5>because it's a gift that is given to you with love,

0:27:26.920 --> 0:27:30.160
<v Speaker 5>not with hate. Unless you go back in that room

0:27:30.240 --> 0:27:32.960
<v Speaker 5>that you come from and rewrite this song and think

0:27:33.000 --> 0:27:36.280
<v Speaker 5>about what that anger can be turned to into positive,

0:27:37.119 --> 0:27:39.720
<v Speaker 5>what strength it can give you, what you think the

0:27:41.000 --> 0:27:44.439
<v Speaker 5>future can look like, and you rewrite the song. If

0:27:44.480 --> 0:27:46.720
<v Speaker 5>you don't do that, you know what I'm gonna sing

0:27:46.800 --> 0:27:50.960
<v Speaker 5>under my roof anymore. So I went back and I

0:27:51.080 --> 0:27:54.840
<v Speaker 5>rewrite the song, and it becomes for me to be

0:27:54.880 --> 0:27:58.720
<v Speaker 5>able to live with it an anthem of peace, where

0:27:58.840 --> 0:28:01.960
<v Speaker 5>I said in that song, the song comes out everywhere

0:28:02.080 --> 0:28:05.240
<v Speaker 5>the same way the bird flies in the sky, the

0:28:05.359 --> 0:28:08.560
<v Speaker 5>same way. There's no frontchier's no color. Wherever they go,

0:28:09.000 --> 0:28:11.760
<v Speaker 5>they go free. And I'm dreaming of the world where

0:28:11.840 --> 0:28:14.840
<v Speaker 5>we all, as human being we can move around free

0:28:14.960 --> 0:28:17.800
<v Speaker 5>with no fear that I'm dreaming of the world where

0:28:17.880 --> 0:28:21.399
<v Speaker 5>it's not there will never be anymore ever oppressor or

0:28:21.520 --> 0:28:24.200
<v Speaker 5>oppressed people. My father said, now I like that song,

0:28:24.280 --> 0:28:24.879
<v Speaker 5>you can sing it.

0:28:25.280 --> 0:28:28.399
<v Speaker 1>So you're saying at that moment when you saw Winniam Anddella,

0:28:29.520 --> 0:28:30.840
<v Speaker 1>you were fifteen years old.

0:28:30.760 --> 0:28:34.040
<v Speaker 5>This time, so it called my life bar It's like

0:28:34.480 --> 0:28:38.040
<v Speaker 5>two costmos come together. So suddenly what my grandmother's told

0:28:38.040 --> 0:28:40.120
<v Speaker 5>to me, I'm like, it's kind of the same thing.

0:28:40.800 --> 0:28:43.480
<v Speaker 1>So were you not aware of what was going on

0:28:43.680 --> 0:28:47.160
<v Speaker 1>next door in Nigeria with what failure I was doing

0:28:47.280 --> 0:28:48.040
<v Speaker 1>with his music.

0:28:48.200 --> 0:28:50.920
<v Speaker 5>And oh yeah, fella, yes, I knew what I mean

0:28:51.000 --> 0:28:53.920
<v Speaker 5>when I was a teenager. I knew because when Zombie

0:28:54.000 --> 0:28:57.959
<v Speaker 5>come out first of all, when first Fellows Fellas music started,

0:28:58.840 --> 0:29:03.200
<v Speaker 5>it was a kind of revolution, a huge revolution because

0:29:03.240 --> 0:29:05.360
<v Speaker 5>for me, for years, the music that was coming from

0:29:05.440 --> 0:29:08.600
<v Speaker 5>Nigeria was fuji music and juju music, and we were

0:29:08.640 --> 0:29:12.120
<v Speaker 5>like dring and we were like you know, benez Obey,

0:29:12.160 --> 0:29:14.920
<v Speaker 5>we were all dancing on that music and juju music.

0:29:18.440 --> 0:29:22.920
<v Speaker 5>I mean most I just like dancing it. And then

0:29:25.840 --> 0:29:30.280
<v Speaker 5>fella comes in and it was come ona, come Ona.

0:29:30.520 --> 0:29:32.240
<v Speaker 1>So it sounded radical to you at the time.

0:29:32.360 --> 0:29:34.240
<v Speaker 5>Oh man, I like it because the first song I

0:29:34.320 --> 0:29:38.680
<v Speaker 5>heard was open and close. We drave our parents crazy

0:29:39.120 --> 0:29:43.880
<v Speaker 5>because we invented so nasty dance. I tell you, even

0:29:43.920 --> 0:29:47.800
<v Speaker 5>how what we're doing it, you're not gonna listen to

0:29:47.880 --> 0:29:50.200
<v Speaker 5>that music anymore if you don't like that. We're like, yeah, right,

0:29:50.560 --> 0:29:52.160
<v Speaker 5>as soon as you go to work, we're gonna call it.

0:29:52.560 --> 0:29:54.840
<v Speaker 5>Crank it up and then move body and open it up.

0:29:55.480 --> 0:29:58.080
<v Speaker 5>I mean's just like chrisy. And then it gave us

0:29:58.240 --> 0:30:02.800
<v Speaker 5>as a younger freedom of making our own music, music

0:30:02.920 --> 0:30:04.920
<v Speaker 5>on top of it and dancing it because we see

0:30:04.920 --> 0:30:07.720
<v Speaker 5>it fella dancers dancing. We were like, it was an

0:30:07.800 --> 0:30:11.240
<v Speaker 5>eye opening for me as a young girl, what you

0:30:11.320 --> 0:30:13.320
<v Speaker 5>can do with music, how you can empower people with

0:30:13.480 --> 0:30:17.440
<v Speaker 5>music too. Then he wrote the song zombie mm hmm,

0:30:17.880 --> 0:30:19.760
<v Speaker 5>because I always you to go back and forth on

0:30:19.880 --> 0:30:21.720
<v Speaker 5>vacation in Nigeria, because I have part of my family

0:30:21.760 --> 0:30:26.360
<v Speaker 5>in Nigeria. So we arrive in Legos one day and

0:30:26.520 --> 0:30:29.960
<v Speaker 5>my auntie said, you come in that house, you close

0:30:30.040 --> 0:30:32.160
<v Speaker 5>the door, you don't go out. I'm like, Auntie, we

0:30:32.240 --> 0:30:34.640
<v Speaker 5>gotta go see the other cousins as you are living

0:30:34.760 --> 0:30:38.760
<v Speaker 5>this house. What's going on me? I'm curious that care

0:30:38.840 --> 0:30:42.640
<v Speaker 5>you tell me no or be it? Oh, you better

0:30:42.760 --> 0:30:44.800
<v Speaker 5>wait for something that's gonna happen to you. And I

0:30:44.920 --> 0:30:46.560
<v Speaker 5>know all the way to sneak out of that house

0:30:47.160 --> 0:30:49.880
<v Speaker 5>because all my cousins or this ship we do the

0:30:49.960 --> 0:30:52.400
<v Speaker 5>presid don't see. So they were sitting in the living

0:30:52.480 --> 0:30:58.480
<v Speaker 5>room out there. We get into the street. Oh my god.

0:30:58.920 --> 0:31:02.360
<v Speaker 5>The house of my auntie was not far from the shoe,

0:31:02.920 --> 0:31:05.600
<v Speaker 5>not far from the shine where all the taxi comes to.

0:31:06.040 --> 0:31:08.280
<v Speaker 5>And all those people were there and then you see

0:31:08.320 --> 0:31:11.120
<v Speaker 5>the military out there, and it was working from the military.

0:31:11.400 --> 0:31:13.840
<v Speaker 5>So I'm being talk unless you tell them to talk

0:31:13.880 --> 0:31:15.560
<v Speaker 5>to their fast like this, and they would chase their

0:31:15.600 --> 0:31:18.360
<v Speaker 5>deby running. And at one point I'm like, you don't

0:31:18.560 --> 0:31:21.440
<v Speaker 5>leave here, They're gonna kick you. And then at that

0:31:21.520 --> 0:31:23.800
<v Speaker 5>time my mom realized I was no longer serious, screaming

0:31:23.840 --> 0:31:26.680
<v Speaker 5>in my name, your father gonna kill me. Man, something

0:31:26.760 --> 0:31:28.920
<v Speaker 5>happened to this child. And I came by. He said,

0:31:28.920 --> 0:31:30.120
<v Speaker 5>why are you? I said, I didn't go to know,

0:31:30.200 --> 0:31:36.880
<v Speaker 5>I went to the toilet. I didn't go anywhere. I

0:31:37.000 --> 0:31:39.720
<v Speaker 5>just went to the toilet, really, I says, more and

0:31:39.840 --> 0:31:42.080
<v Speaker 5>I was colored with us. So what was the toilet?

0:31:42.120 --> 0:31:43.840
<v Speaker 5>I said. We went to the next labor there because

0:31:43.840 --> 0:31:46.440
<v Speaker 5>somebody was in the toilet. Way, just we make up

0:31:46.720 --> 0:31:49.120
<v Speaker 5>your mind makes up because you're gonna get a slap

0:31:49.240 --> 0:31:53.760
<v Speaker 5>on your head. So fella, that's what fella did. And

0:31:54.520 --> 0:31:57.360
<v Speaker 5>also by me growing up listening to me and Makay.

0:31:57.400 --> 0:31:59.320
<v Speaker 5>But but when she came here, I was eight years old.

0:31:59.600 --> 0:32:01.760
<v Speaker 5>What I was with my mom. They have a group

0:32:01.840 --> 0:32:04.240
<v Speaker 5>of women asking for women to write to vote to

0:32:05.240 --> 0:32:08.360
<v Speaker 5>decide who they're gonna marry. No more arranged marriage. And

0:32:08.480 --> 0:32:10.560
<v Speaker 5>I was eight when I'll be singing the retreat song

0:32:10.560 --> 0:32:12.480
<v Speaker 5>of Miriam Makayba with them because they're like, we can't

0:32:12.520 --> 0:32:15.320
<v Speaker 5>saying when you're from in front, you're singing, everybody stop

0:32:15.440 --> 0:32:17.200
<v Speaker 5>and listening to our message. Just keep on singing. That's

0:32:17.640 --> 0:32:19.440
<v Speaker 5>I was sitting in the front. I don't understand nothing

0:32:19.440 --> 0:32:21.000
<v Speaker 5>about what they were saying. I'm like, I'm not doing

0:32:21.040 --> 0:32:24.320
<v Speaker 5>my homework. I'm here having fun. I'm singing. That's it.

0:32:24.560 --> 0:32:27.960
<v Speaker 5>I'll be singing and then I start having that political

0:32:28.080 --> 0:32:32.320
<v Speaker 5>conscience actually about what you can do with music for

0:32:32.440 --> 0:32:35.880
<v Speaker 5>people to empower people first and to make people aware

0:32:36.320 --> 0:32:38.320
<v Speaker 5>of what is going on because the menus, most of

0:32:38.400 --> 0:32:40.200
<v Speaker 5>the time, what they're telling the man not be the truth.

0:32:41.080 --> 0:32:48.440
<v Speaker 5>So fell off Miriam, Aritha Franklin, Didna Simon. They were

0:32:48.480 --> 0:32:52.760
<v Speaker 5>the women musically that opened my eyes to a lot

0:32:52.880 --> 0:32:53.320
<v Speaker 5>of things.

0:32:54.240 --> 0:32:59.719
<v Speaker 1>How how would American artists in the seventies, uh, trickle

0:33:00.720 --> 0:33:04.800
<v Speaker 1>to the culture in Africa? Like was there and was

0:33:04.880 --> 0:33:06.040
<v Speaker 1>there a radio station.

0:33:07.520 --> 0:33:10.280
<v Speaker 5>Or the radio? I mean our radio was playing every music.

0:33:10.400 --> 0:33:12.640
<v Speaker 5>I mean it was the I'm talking about it now

0:33:12.720 --> 0:33:15.880
<v Speaker 5>and then looking back, I'm like, I didn't even realize

0:33:15.920 --> 0:33:19.240
<v Speaker 5>how revolutionary It was at that time before the communist

0:33:19.320 --> 0:33:22.680
<v Speaker 5>regime arrived and say no more music from outside. I

0:33:22.760 --> 0:33:26.600
<v Speaker 5>mean they would do a traditional music program and then

0:33:27.280 --> 0:33:30.040
<v Speaker 5>right after there they would go to chuck Berry or

0:33:30.080 --> 0:33:31.920
<v Speaker 5>they would go to the Rolling Stones, or they'll go

0:33:32.000 --> 0:33:35.320
<v Speaker 5>to the Beatles, or they go to Amazing Grass from

0:33:35.840 --> 0:33:38.920
<v Speaker 5>as Afroncan to Crazy. For me towards the norm, it

0:33:39.160 --> 0:33:42.360
<v Speaker 5>was okay, it was really what it is and those music.

0:33:42.400 --> 0:33:44.800
<v Speaker 5>I was listening to them home because my brother they

0:33:44.840 --> 0:33:47.280
<v Speaker 5>have a musical band. Way before the playlist moved. They

0:33:47.320 --> 0:33:49.640
<v Speaker 5>started and my father bought the instrument for them. The

0:33:49.800 --> 0:33:54.040
<v Speaker 5>first time I saw a drum kid and far fista organ,

0:33:54.400 --> 0:33:58.600
<v Speaker 5>the bass, a guitar, percussion. It was because my father

0:33:58.680 --> 0:34:02.680
<v Speaker 5>bought the instrument. The boxes eat outside and I come

0:34:02.720 --> 0:34:05.920
<v Speaker 5>from school. I started booking myself. I'm and when they

0:34:06.040 --> 0:34:09.319
<v Speaker 5>opened everything, I sat down the rehearsal room looking at

0:34:09.360 --> 0:34:11.680
<v Speaker 5>the drum kid, going is it one person that played

0:34:11.719 --> 0:34:12.120
<v Speaker 5>out or two?

0:34:13.840 --> 0:34:13.880
<v Speaker 4>No?

0:34:13.920 --> 0:34:15.319
<v Speaker 5>One person? I said, how many arms?

0:34:17.040 --> 0:34:19.880
<v Speaker 1>Wait? How many? How many siblings do you have in

0:34:19.960 --> 0:34:20.400
<v Speaker 1>the family?

0:34:20.560 --> 0:34:23.439
<v Speaker 5>We are ten, seven boys and three girls. And where

0:34:23.520 --> 0:34:24.720
<v Speaker 5>do you fall seven?

0:34:25.800 --> 0:34:27.880
<v Speaker 1>You're the seventh child, and I have three brothers.

0:34:27.920 --> 0:34:28.239
<v Speaker 5>After me.

0:34:28.960 --> 0:34:36.359
<v Speaker 1>Okay, okay, so I said that now I don't want

0:34:36.400 --> 0:34:39.399
<v Speaker 1>to sound like the ignorant Americans.

0:34:38.840 --> 0:34:41.400
<v Speaker 5>Who let me tell you African, let me tell you

0:34:41.520 --> 0:34:45.160
<v Speaker 5>how Aretha Franklin has impacted.

0:34:46.320 --> 0:34:46.640
<v Speaker 1>Save me.

0:34:46.719 --> 0:34:50.040
<v Speaker 5>Thank you all of those. I mean. There was a

0:34:50.120 --> 0:34:53.279
<v Speaker 5>period of LPs and some LP will come with two

0:34:53.320 --> 0:34:56.000
<v Speaker 5>songs and some some will come all the whole song,

0:34:56.760 --> 0:35:01.120
<v Speaker 5>and I just get my brother's I drive them nuts.

0:35:01.840 --> 0:35:04.160
<v Speaker 5>I'm like, can you get any LP out in this

0:35:04.360 --> 0:35:06.919
<v Speaker 5>house that have some women on the cover. I'm sick

0:35:06.920 --> 0:35:09.959
<v Speaker 5>and title seeing boys on the covers, man boys band

0:35:10.680 --> 0:35:13.680
<v Speaker 5>from CONSI to two, my jesty here and this there,

0:35:14.000 --> 0:35:17.239
<v Speaker 5>they're no woman that does music. And my brother said,

0:35:17.239 --> 0:35:20.160
<v Speaker 5>you better start bringing some city in the LP here

0:35:20.200 --> 0:35:23.000
<v Speaker 5>with women, because this little girl, you're gonna break all

0:35:23.040 --> 0:35:26.840
<v Speaker 5>this stuff down. So they start bringing the French female singer.

0:35:26.880 --> 0:35:29.879
<v Speaker 5>I'm like, yeah, okay, I take that. Why's there any

0:35:30.000 --> 0:35:33.440
<v Speaker 5>black women playing? Right? And a friend of them come

0:35:33.520 --> 0:35:37.960
<v Speaker 5>from New York, from America and brought amazing grace of

0:35:38.280 --> 0:35:41.400
<v Speaker 5>Aretha Frances I was not home where the album came in.

0:35:42.200 --> 0:35:44.640
<v Speaker 5>The singer of the band of my brother. His ego

0:35:44.680 --> 0:35:46.960
<v Speaker 5>can't even fit here, he said. I can't sing anything.

0:35:47.640 --> 0:35:49.400
<v Speaker 5>I'm the best singer in the world. I'm like, I

0:35:49.440 --> 0:35:52.040
<v Speaker 5>would look at me and yeah, sometimes you sing off key,

0:35:53.320 --> 0:35:55.080
<v Speaker 5>but I'm a little ger. I can't say that right.

0:35:55.760 --> 0:35:57.640
<v Speaker 5>So I came back from school and they were having

0:35:57.760 --> 0:36:01.360
<v Speaker 5>that hitting discussion because my brother wanted to do some

0:36:01.480 --> 0:36:04.839
<v Speaker 5>of the song of the Amazing and the guy said,

0:36:05.719 --> 0:36:08.440
<v Speaker 5>that woman singing, sit crazy me. I can't sing that.

0:36:08.600 --> 0:36:13.879
<v Speaker 5>I'm like, huh, a woman. I'm going to see that me, mister,

0:36:14.000 --> 0:36:16.479
<v Speaker 5>I know everything. Oh, I'm going to find out who's

0:36:16.520 --> 0:36:19.520
<v Speaker 5>whooping his boat right there. And I grabbed the city

0:36:19.600 --> 0:36:22.960
<v Speaker 5>from the table, and I from the first time I saw,

0:36:23.280 --> 0:36:25.680
<v Speaker 5>I read the frank and I'm like, thank you, sister,

0:36:26.000 --> 0:36:30.799
<v Speaker 5>you whooping this guy's board. I like it so much

0:36:30.840 --> 0:36:33.399
<v Speaker 5>I can't even scream up enough. And then I sat

0:36:33.440 --> 0:36:35.160
<v Speaker 5>and I looked at him and said, and I said

0:36:35.200 --> 0:36:39.239
<v Speaker 5>to him and said, don't you sing everything? He said,

0:36:39.320 --> 0:36:42.279
<v Speaker 5>why you know about singing? I said, I can't sing better?

0:36:42.400 --> 0:36:43.960
<v Speaker 5>Now you are to him my brother, I said, shut up,

0:36:44.560 --> 0:36:46.880
<v Speaker 5>because my daughter, my brother always telling him, come and

0:36:47.000 --> 0:36:51.360
<v Speaker 5>listen to the note sometime you're And he said, but

0:36:51.480 --> 0:36:54.080
<v Speaker 5>she's the woman. What woman knows how to sing? This

0:36:54.239 --> 0:36:56.760
<v Speaker 5>one is just screaming. I said, no, she is screaming,

0:36:56.840 --> 0:37:01.320
<v Speaker 5>she's singing, and you can't. He was so mad and

0:37:01.480 --> 0:37:03.920
<v Speaker 5>did that day my brother said he didn't come for

0:37:04.040 --> 0:37:09.560
<v Speaker 5>the two revers of that. I'm like, well, you know

0:37:09.719 --> 0:37:11.520
<v Speaker 5>that he can't sing, I said, but you can't say

0:37:11.600 --> 0:37:15.360
<v Speaker 5>everything that you think. I mean, you have flitted a

0:37:15.400 --> 0:37:15.759
<v Speaker 5>little bit.

0:37:15.960 --> 0:37:17.879
<v Speaker 1>I said, was her singer? Was he okay?

0:37:17.960 --> 0:37:18.759
<v Speaker 5>He was the lead singer?

0:37:18.960 --> 0:37:20.759
<v Speaker 1>Or was he okay? Was he a good singer?

0:37:20.880 --> 0:37:20.920
<v Speaker 3>No?

0:37:21.040 --> 0:37:24.320
<v Speaker 5>He wasn't. Impersonator. That's the different thing singing. And because

0:37:24.360 --> 0:37:26.680
<v Speaker 5>he likes to do James Brown with the cape with

0:37:26.840 --> 0:37:29.279
<v Speaker 5>the thing and he come up, that guy's stupid, man.

0:37:29.480 --> 0:37:31.080
<v Speaker 5>I mean they play what they played, they have red

0:37:31.160 --> 0:37:33.879
<v Speaker 5>clean on the floor. He were white or white James Brown.

0:37:34.239 --> 0:37:36.439
<v Speaker 5>And I'm like one day and I was like looking

0:37:36.440 --> 0:37:38.040
<v Speaker 5>at him and said, this guy is just a fool.

0:37:38.880 --> 0:37:42.440
<v Speaker 5>And he did the what do you call that? Splitting

0:37:42.600 --> 0:37:48.200
<v Speaker 5>the pango on direct. I'm loving this.

0:37:49.800 --> 0:37:53.680
<v Speaker 1>He's idea on what's happened? I feel it.

0:37:54.760 --> 0:37:57.160
<v Speaker 5>Well, that's the gold man that you're gonna take some.

0:37:59.120 --> 0:38:05.280
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, have you I know how much that that album

0:38:05.400 --> 0:38:08.320
<v Speaker 1>means to you? Have you ever been fortunate enough to

0:38:08.400 --> 0:38:13.400
<v Speaker 1>see the documentary that Sidney No No, No, No, No,

0:38:13.880 --> 0:38:21.560
<v Speaker 1>The The The Amazing Grace. So basically Sidney Pollack directed

0:38:22.160 --> 0:38:26.680
<v Speaker 1>had eight cameras on her at the whole time. The

0:38:26.760 --> 0:38:30.080
<v Speaker 1>funniest part of that documentary is the fact that the

0:38:30.239 --> 0:38:36.680
<v Speaker 1>rolling Stones are the deacons. Like there's a scene where

0:38:36.840 --> 0:38:43.200
<v Speaker 1>like Mick uh, the drummer, Charlie Watts Keith and the

0:38:43.239 --> 0:38:54.520
<v Speaker 1>bass player, Yeah, Brian Jones, Uh, McK taylor, the bill

0:38:56.080 --> 0:39:01.920
<v Speaker 1>thank you, Yeah, they like the church is in like

0:39:02.040 --> 0:39:07.160
<v Speaker 1>the hood of south central Los Angeles, and and then

0:39:07.280 --> 0:39:09.840
<v Speaker 1>you see the rolling Stones get out of like a

0:39:11.040 --> 0:39:15.720
<v Speaker 1>rolls voice limousine and they're ushered and flanked them between

0:39:15.880 --> 0:39:19.360
<v Speaker 1>like the deacons on the side of the choir, and

0:39:21.040 --> 0:39:25.120
<v Speaker 1>it's it's I mean, I saw a good ten minutes

0:39:25.160 --> 0:39:28.160
<v Speaker 1>of this. A friend of ours, a friend of the show,

0:39:29.680 --> 0:39:34.920
<v Speaker 1>Matthew uh has the complete movie. What oh yeah, Okay,

0:39:38.040 --> 0:39:42.560
<v Speaker 1>I don't know he has the complete movie. But for

0:39:42.719 --> 0:39:50.960
<v Speaker 1>the longest, for some reason, uh Aretha keeps uh these

0:39:51.040 --> 0:39:55.480
<v Speaker 1>injunctions from stopping it from being shown. It was supposed

0:39:55.480 --> 0:39:59.160
<v Speaker 1>to be shown on its on its fortieth anniversary at

0:39:59.280 --> 0:40:03.160
<v Speaker 1>cons Film Festival, but even at the very last minute,

0:40:03.239 --> 0:40:05.160
<v Speaker 1>right before they were about to like press the thing

0:40:05.600 --> 0:40:08.560
<v Speaker 1>like a judge in Juckson came through and like prevent it.

0:40:08.920 --> 0:40:12.520
<v Speaker 1>I guess there's she gets last rites options. So for

0:40:12.719 --> 0:40:16.640
<v Speaker 1>some reason, not obviously it's money or you know, she

0:40:16.760 --> 0:40:20.080
<v Speaker 1>doesn't want that footage to be seen. So, but it's

0:40:21.440 --> 0:40:26.560
<v Speaker 1>the ten minutes I saw some of the most life changing,

0:40:27.400 --> 0:40:33.000
<v Speaker 1>probably the best footage of any seventies act I've ever seen.

0:40:33.120 --> 0:40:36.160
<v Speaker 1>And this includes like watching Michael Jackson do the robot.

0:40:36.000 --> 0:40:38.719
<v Speaker 5>And so, I mean, she's great, that's I mean, she's

0:40:38.800 --> 0:40:42.360
<v Speaker 5>the ultimate. I mean she she's just there's no words.

0:40:42.760 --> 0:40:44.200
<v Speaker 1>Have you met her?

0:40:44.600 --> 0:40:47.520
<v Speaker 5>Oh yeah. We did a show at Radio City Hall

0:40:48.200 --> 0:40:56.080
<v Speaker 5>for Nelson Mandela's birthday and the lineup was intimidating. She

0:40:56.320 --> 0:41:02.160
<v Speaker 5>sung right after Steve Wonder and Alicia Kiss and myself

0:41:02.239 --> 0:41:07.400
<v Speaker 5>were to go right beef after Aretha and my husband

0:41:07.520 --> 0:41:09.279
<v Speaker 5>was sweating, going, how are you gonna do this? I'm

0:41:09.360 --> 0:41:12.480
<v Speaker 5>like a man, She's giving me the back tone and

0:41:12.600 --> 0:41:15.480
<v Speaker 5>I'm taking it. We're putting flame on that tone. Man,

0:41:15.600 --> 0:41:17.120
<v Speaker 5>even light up the place.

0:41:17.239 --> 0:41:20.600
<v Speaker 1>I was about to say you, I can't even imagine,

0:41:20.760 --> 0:41:23.440
<v Speaker 1>like your your show is so high powered, and so

0:41:25.840 --> 0:41:30.880
<v Speaker 1>I I can't imagine you being stopped or I am

0:41:31.160 --> 0:41:33.719
<v Speaker 1>getting nervous about anything, and starts struggling.

0:41:33.920 --> 0:41:36.640
<v Speaker 5>She sings, I mean because she's such a good singer,

0:41:36.719 --> 0:41:40.480
<v Speaker 5>she's such a great performer. She has something that is

0:41:40.920 --> 0:41:43.160
<v Speaker 5>if it's not given to you by nature, as no

0:41:43.280 --> 0:41:45.560
<v Speaker 5>way you can be like that. You know, the people

0:41:45.600 --> 0:41:48.440
<v Speaker 5>said they have it and they're wasted, don't know how

0:41:48.520 --> 0:41:51.200
<v Speaker 5>to use it. She's in control of every part of

0:41:51.280 --> 0:41:54.600
<v Speaker 5>her body in that voice. Every word that comes out

0:41:54.640 --> 0:41:57.240
<v Speaker 5>of the mouth of Aretha, it doesn't come out because

0:41:57.360 --> 0:41:59.320
<v Speaker 5>it can't come out. It just come out before it

0:41:59.400 --> 0:42:03.239
<v Speaker 5>has to as to. So when she finished and she goes, Halleluiah,

0:42:03.280 --> 0:42:06.080
<v Speaker 5>I'm like, hallelujah. I mean, I'm coming, man, and I

0:42:06.280 --> 0:42:09.120
<v Speaker 5>look as Alicia said, girlfriend, are you ready? She goes,

0:42:09.200 --> 0:42:12.520
<v Speaker 5>let's go kill it, and we walk on. That's taking bamn.

0:42:13.480 --> 0:42:14.520
<v Speaker 1>Wow. It inspired you.

0:42:14.760 --> 0:42:17.440
<v Speaker 5>I inspired us, both of us so much. We look

0:42:17.480 --> 0:42:20.319
<v Speaker 5>at each other. We're singing this song differently, because when

0:42:20.360 --> 0:42:23.040
<v Speaker 5>you come after somebody like that, you don't want to

0:42:23.120 --> 0:42:26.799
<v Speaker 5>shame her. You want to shine, to prove to her

0:42:26.920 --> 0:42:29.359
<v Speaker 5>that everything she does we admire, and then we're gonna

0:42:29.360 --> 0:42:32.560
<v Speaker 5>continue doing it with the continuation of whatever she gave

0:42:32.680 --> 0:42:33.680
<v Speaker 5>us to person.

0:42:33.760 --> 0:42:37.160
<v Speaker 1>So that's it. That's very noble, because I know a

0:42:37.200 --> 0:42:39.759
<v Speaker 1>lot of people would just be like, nope, I'm gonna

0:42:40.680 --> 0:42:42.080
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna ld you.

0:42:42.320 --> 0:42:46.680
<v Speaker 5>And music is not competition for me if you're there

0:42:46.800 --> 0:42:49.520
<v Speaker 5>to do competition, if you're not there to empower people.

0:42:50.120 --> 0:42:53.480
<v Speaker 5>My mother used to say phrase to me for years.

0:42:53.560 --> 0:42:58.000
<v Speaker 5>I'm like, what did she mean? It took me years.

0:42:58.400 --> 0:43:00.279
<v Speaker 5>One day I was about to go and stay in

0:43:00.400 --> 0:43:05.640
<v Speaker 5>Boston a Somerville theater. And as I was getting because

0:43:05.800 --> 0:43:09.320
<v Speaker 5>till then, even though my show are really great and everything,

0:43:09.760 --> 0:43:12.000
<v Speaker 5>I used to be a little bit stressed before I

0:43:12.040 --> 0:43:14.360
<v Speaker 5>go on stage. And as I was staying on the

0:43:14.480 --> 0:43:19.120
<v Speaker 5>wing of the stage before I go on stage, I

0:43:19.280 --> 0:43:23.320
<v Speaker 5>heard that voice of my mother saying, before you set

0:43:23.560 --> 0:43:28.560
<v Speaker 5>a foot on the stage, you have to be able

0:43:28.680 --> 0:43:35.000
<v Speaker 5>to think of yourself and be naked spiritually. And then

0:43:35.080 --> 0:43:38.400
<v Speaker 5>suddenly it hits me. It hits me like bell I

0:43:38.480 --> 0:43:41.480
<v Speaker 5>walk on that stage, no fear, my feet barely touched

0:43:41.520 --> 0:43:45.560
<v Speaker 5>the ground. I'm like, I'm free, no more fear. I'm

0:43:45.600 --> 0:43:48.000
<v Speaker 5>never gonna be afraid of going on stage because what

0:43:48.400 --> 0:43:51.280
<v Speaker 5>she means by that is that you are not on stage,

0:43:51.320 --> 0:43:53.680
<v Speaker 5>you look at your belly button and how beautiful your

0:43:53.760 --> 0:43:56.400
<v Speaker 5>dress is or what if you wear is. You are

0:43:56.480 --> 0:43:59.080
<v Speaker 5>there to be humble at the service of the music

0:43:59.160 --> 0:44:01.680
<v Speaker 5>and the song that you are doing, to be able

0:44:01.719 --> 0:44:06.000
<v Speaker 5>to open yourself to the public. The more open you are,

0:44:06.120 --> 0:44:10.600
<v Speaker 5>the more you give, the more you get. And from

0:44:10.680 --> 0:44:13.279
<v Speaker 5>the moment I understood that it transformed completely in my life.

0:44:13.400 --> 0:44:16.440
<v Speaker 5>And what amazes me is people that come back and say,

0:44:16.719 --> 0:44:19.000
<v Speaker 5>you never can see what we see when your show

0:44:19.120 --> 0:44:21.680
<v Speaker 5>is over. When we are walking the street with people,

0:44:22.000 --> 0:44:23.800
<v Speaker 5>the smile they have on their face is just like

0:44:23.880 --> 0:44:26.560
<v Speaker 5>you can't even put in the bottle. I don't think

0:44:26.600 --> 0:44:29.640
<v Speaker 5>about it when I'm on stage. My stage is my sanctuary.

0:44:30.400 --> 0:44:33.200
<v Speaker 5>My stage is my heaven on earth. And I always

0:44:33.239 --> 0:44:35.680
<v Speaker 5>tell my musician, if you have an issue, check it

0:44:35.760 --> 0:44:37.879
<v Speaker 5>on the garbage before you work on that stage. It'll

0:44:37.920 --> 0:44:39.239
<v Speaker 5>be waiting for you can pick it up when you

0:44:39.280 --> 0:44:41.319
<v Speaker 5>come up. When you come on my page, you make

0:44:41.360 --> 0:44:43.520
<v Speaker 5>faces you don't know me. I don't have to talk

0:44:43.760 --> 0:44:46.000
<v Speaker 5>and look at you men, and you know you don't

0:44:46.040 --> 0:44:48.040
<v Speaker 5>do it right. You can leave if you don't like it,

0:44:48.160 --> 0:44:51.360
<v Speaker 5>you can go. No one is indispensable, and even not me.

0:44:52.080 --> 0:44:55.440
<v Speaker 5>So when we are on stage. What we do, we artists,

0:44:55.880 --> 0:44:59.520
<v Speaker 5>is to play to entertain and at the same time

0:45:00.160 --> 0:45:03.640
<v Speaker 5>knowing because we don't know that we are empowering people.

0:45:05.200 --> 0:45:08.720
<v Speaker 5>And that's what we do the best. That's why music

0:45:09.040 --> 0:45:14.719
<v Speaker 5>specifically and arts in general are the first thing that dictator, dictators,

0:45:15.120 --> 0:45:19.839
<v Speaker 5>auto returning regime the target. Because we set people three,

0:45:20.520 --> 0:45:22.799
<v Speaker 5>we tell people what time it is. We give them

0:45:22.840 --> 0:45:25.120
<v Speaker 5>the strength to go in the street in march, to

0:45:25.600 --> 0:45:28.920
<v Speaker 5>speak out the mind. And I don't want that. Do

0:45:29.040 --> 0:45:33.080
<v Speaker 5>you remember any speech of JFK. As smart as he is,

0:45:33.239 --> 0:45:37.040
<v Speaker 5>You don't martinly thinking we love him, but we remember

0:45:38.800 --> 0:45:43.320
<v Speaker 5>phrases of his. But songs you listen to from sixty

0:45:43.360 --> 0:45:44.719
<v Speaker 5>to seventies, you tick and sing them?

0:45:45.640 --> 0:45:46.440
<v Speaker 1>Is it true? That?

0:45:47.920 --> 0:45:48.040
<v Speaker 3>Right?

0:45:48.239 --> 0:45:49.520
<v Speaker 5>That's the power of music right there?

0:45:54.480 --> 0:45:57.680
<v Speaker 1>Do you remember your very first performance on the stage?

0:45:57.880 --> 0:46:01.040
<v Speaker 5>Oh Jesus, how long ago was? I was six years old.

0:46:02.160 --> 0:46:05.840
<v Speaker 5>My mom have a theater group till today. She's the

0:46:05.960 --> 0:46:09.560
<v Speaker 5>only woman in West Africa that has had such a

0:46:09.719 --> 0:46:13.560
<v Speaker 5>large theatre group ever. And she wrote the piece. She

0:46:13.640 --> 0:46:17.040
<v Speaker 5>did everything by herself. She learned how to do lighting,

0:46:17.360 --> 0:46:21.160
<v Speaker 5>she does the costume everything. It was her passion. So

0:46:21.320 --> 0:46:23.359
<v Speaker 5>a little girl in the theater group of my mother

0:46:23.840 --> 0:46:26.120
<v Speaker 5>that sing a song that I knew before she started

0:46:26.160 --> 0:46:29.359
<v Speaker 5>saying it, and I knew every part of the piece.

0:46:29.880 --> 0:46:32.040
<v Speaker 5>And I will tell my mom why I'm not the

0:46:32.120 --> 0:46:34.320
<v Speaker 5>one singing it. And my Mama, is that because you

0:46:34.320 --> 0:46:36.120
<v Speaker 5>ain't playing the part? I said, what is? What does

0:46:36.239 --> 0:46:39.120
<v Speaker 5>mean playing the part? She said? Can you shut up?

0:46:39.160 --> 0:46:42.279
<v Speaker 5>Then I finish what I'm doing. I'm like, every time

0:46:42.360 --> 0:46:44.200
<v Speaker 5>you don't want to answer me, I have to shut up.

0:46:44.320 --> 0:46:46.359
<v Speaker 5>But I'm gonna ask the question tomorrow and the day

0:46:46.360 --> 0:46:47.080
<v Speaker 5>after tomorrow.

0:46:47.200 --> 0:46:49.120
<v Speaker 1>Every day I see why they called you? Why now

0:46:49.400 --> 0:46:50.160
<v Speaker 1>shoot man?

0:46:50.680 --> 0:46:53.839
<v Speaker 5>Oh geez. And then every time there's a player, I'm

0:46:53.880 --> 0:46:57.279
<v Speaker 5>gonna just to piece her off. I'll be messing up

0:46:57.360 --> 0:47:00.279
<v Speaker 5>with the costumes because she has nobody. So see, after

0:47:00.320 --> 0:47:09.759
<v Speaker 5>seeing she would put this mixed them. And then one

0:47:09.880 --> 0:47:12.759
<v Speaker 5>day the girl had malaria crisis something like that.

0:47:13.239 --> 0:47:15.040
<v Speaker 1>So I am you didn't you?

0:47:17.520 --> 0:47:22.560
<v Speaker 5>I was trying the costume. She came and dragged me

0:47:22.640 --> 0:47:25.120
<v Speaker 5>by my feet and say, come on, you want to sing? No,

0:47:25.320 --> 0:47:27.320
<v Speaker 5>this is your turn, come and sing. I said, no,

0:47:27.520 --> 0:47:31.120
<v Speaker 5>I ain't singing. She goes, yeah, you swinging. No I'm not, Yes,

0:47:31.239 --> 0:47:33.560
<v Speaker 5>you're singing. She put the dress on me, and I

0:47:33.800 --> 0:47:37.120
<v Speaker 5>swear she shoved me that stage. She shoved me literally

0:47:37.160 --> 0:47:40.480
<v Speaker 5>on the light. For the first time, I realized I

0:47:40.520 --> 0:47:47.160
<v Speaker 5>have a skeleton. She was looking at me like this

0:47:47.320 --> 0:47:51.920
<v Speaker 5>in the wings you want to play the fart. Thank

0:47:52.000 --> 0:47:54.160
<v Speaker 5>God for me. There only one light in that theater.

0:47:55.120 --> 0:47:57.560
<v Speaker 5>The spotlight was right on my face. I can't see nobody.

0:47:58.400 --> 0:48:01.839
<v Speaker 5>People know in my I'm the clown. Two hours making jokes,

0:48:01.880 --> 0:48:03.880
<v Speaker 5>cracking up jokes, and people start laughing. I'm like, oh,

0:48:03.960 --> 0:48:06.040
<v Speaker 5>they ain't seeing me. I can do my thing as

0:48:06.080 --> 0:48:08.920
<v Speaker 5>I do, and I sing and I stopped singing. Or

0:48:09.000 --> 0:48:12.239
<v Speaker 5>whom yeahdy sound on that old beth Man Joe Man

0:48:12.320 --> 0:48:14.920
<v Speaker 5>wag bed yeah yeah, boon dilla, I go thrown. Oh

0:48:14.960 --> 0:48:17.439
<v Speaker 5>I means he whom yeah, I tell you, I try

0:48:17.520 --> 0:48:20.160
<v Speaker 5>home so her bear door d who I g there? Well,

0:48:20.280 --> 0:48:23.239
<v Speaker 5>y'all boom got gone, boom tha gone, lady or me

0:48:23.320 --> 0:48:25.960
<v Speaker 5>and my child file o chow. When y'all are you

0:48:26.120 --> 0:48:29.000
<v Speaker 5>throw away Jude ju boom chair, y'all all we bore

0:48:29.080 --> 0:48:30.520
<v Speaker 5>Lord Donnie throw away it up?

0:48:30.800 --> 0:48:30.960
<v Speaker 1>Chow?

0:48:31.080 --> 0:48:33.000
<v Speaker 5>When y'all are you throw away y'all?

0:48:33.080 --> 0:48:33.480
<v Speaker 4>All? Hell?

0:48:34.560 --> 0:48:36.399
<v Speaker 5>Or who's up bad? When my child who he had

0:48:36.440 --> 0:48:38.880
<v Speaker 5>me and I alway coy man oh, I means he

0:48:39.040 --> 0:48:41.400
<v Speaker 5>who Yeah, I tell you, I try home. So her

0:48:41.440 --> 0:48:44.880
<v Speaker 5>beard door d who I wear the way and I finished.

0:48:45.239 --> 0:48:45.680
<v Speaker 3>I just.

0:48:48.280 --> 0:48:51.080
<v Speaker 5>Run upstairs and my mama was like this. I said, Mama,

0:48:51.120 --> 0:48:53.440
<v Speaker 5>how did he go? She just shaking her head. I'm

0:48:53.480 --> 0:48:55.279
<v Speaker 5>not gonna take this off my head. I took it

0:48:55.600 --> 0:48:57.080
<v Speaker 5>food dive back to the COSTU.

0:48:57.400 --> 0:48:59.800
<v Speaker 1>Wait, you didn't wait to see if the audience applauded.

0:49:00.320 --> 0:49:02.000
<v Speaker 5>In a version, I was gone and I'll come back,

0:49:02.040 --> 0:49:03.240
<v Speaker 5>I said, I'm going back there.

0:49:04.960 --> 0:49:07.160
<v Speaker 1>There. So I have to ask you said that most

0:49:07.239 --> 0:49:10.640
<v Speaker 1>of the that was in six eight what you were clapping,

0:49:11.239 --> 0:49:14.000
<v Speaker 1>So was that typical of the rhythms.

0:49:14.280 --> 0:49:16.080
<v Speaker 5>That's typical of the rhythm form my village?

0:49:16.719 --> 0:49:19.280
<v Speaker 2>But also that's like a backwards clave, like a backwards

0:49:19.360 --> 0:49:21.600
<v Speaker 2>rumblave that's in six eight. It depends on how you

0:49:21.680 --> 0:49:24.560
<v Speaker 2>hear it, because that's the other thing. It's like you're

0:49:24.600 --> 0:49:27.200
<v Speaker 2>thinking about it, like, where does your one line? What

0:49:27.320 --> 0:49:29.000
<v Speaker 2>she was just singing, can you sing it again?

0:49:31.120 --> 0:49:39.920
<v Speaker 1>Where's one? Yeah? You got so, where's your One's not there?

0:49:41.200 --> 0:49:41.759
<v Speaker 5>It's not there.

0:49:42.719 --> 0:49:43.399
<v Speaker 1>That's the whole thing.

0:49:43.440 --> 0:49:45.400
<v Speaker 2>It's like it's like the perception of where one is

0:49:45.520 --> 0:49:47.200
<v Speaker 2>is a completely different thing, and that you have to

0:49:47.480 --> 0:49:48.600
<v Speaker 2>completely abandon all of that.

0:49:49.320 --> 0:49:51.600
<v Speaker 1>Oh, so she could easily join the roots because nobody know.

0:49:52.680 --> 0:49:59.480
<v Speaker 1>I mean, she join like that, abandon the one a

0:49:59.600 --> 0:50:00.440
<v Speaker 1>band with no one.

0:50:00.560 --> 0:50:02.600
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I mean I think the thing that he's right

0:50:02.640 --> 0:50:05.600
<v Speaker 5>about that because my husband and I we've been working

0:50:05.680 --> 0:50:07.960
<v Speaker 5>together forever with Marrid for twenty thirty one years, and

0:50:08.040 --> 0:50:11.000
<v Speaker 5>the first time we met, he knew nothing about African music,

0:50:11.600 --> 0:50:15.040
<v Speaker 5>nothing at all. He just listened to Van der Graff

0:50:15.120 --> 0:50:18.120
<v Speaker 5>or whatever he tried to I'm not your music. If

0:50:18.160 --> 0:50:19.799
<v Speaker 5>you're not diad me, this is not a kind of music.

0:50:19.880 --> 0:50:22.239
<v Speaker 5>Don't be playing the actually for me. I want something else.

0:50:22.640 --> 0:50:27.440
<v Speaker 5>So I start in teaching him traditional music, and when

0:50:27.480 --> 0:50:30.040
<v Speaker 5>he started listening to it, it transformed completely his life.

0:50:30.440 --> 0:50:32.480
<v Speaker 5>And when we went to be in nineteen ninety five,

0:50:33.600 --> 0:50:38.080
<v Speaker 5>I always tell him, forget to count, don't count. If

0:50:38.160 --> 0:50:40.840
<v Speaker 5>you go to Africa, you coun't you you're out of

0:50:40.920 --> 0:50:41.279
<v Speaker 5>the door.

0:50:42.200 --> 0:50:44.879
<v Speaker 1>It's like it's part of the bottom. It's feeling. Yeah,

0:50:45.640 --> 0:50:46.319
<v Speaker 1>So when you do it.

0:50:49.840 --> 0:50:51.920
<v Speaker 5>Like a drummer right now, so bad you can't No,

0:50:52.080 --> 0:50:54.239
<v Speaker 5>you can't just play, just play.

0:50:54.920 --> 0:50:59.440
<v Speaker 1>I mean, but half sciences.

0:50:59.400 --> 0:51:02.720
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, well in sciences, wait, you know what the drums

0:51:02.840 --> 0:51:07.080
<v Speaker 5>and the music in Africa, they are coded their cycle

0:51:07.200 --> 0:51:10.080
<v Speaker 5>all the time. Like you're playing, somebody's playing the clavet

0:51:10.320 --> 0:51:13.000
<v Speaker 5>the person stand up and go pee. Somebody coming black

0:51:13.120 --> 0:51:16.600
<v Speaker 5>there because he knows where his body is. I mean,

0:51:16.680 --> 0:51:19.000
<v Speaker 5>it's such you gotta feel it in your body. And

0:51:19.120 --> 0:51:21.120
<v Speaker 5>that's why when I'm dancing, I can't be dancing six

0:51:21.239 --> 0:51:23.840
<v Speaker 5>eight and doing any rhythm on top of it because

0:51:23.880 --> 0:51:25.840
<v Speaker 5>the one I don't count. It's just my body that

0:51:25.880 --> 0:51:29.000
<v Speaker 5>I follow. So I mean, when we start doing this

0:51:29.120 --> 0:51:33.759
<v Speaker 5>field trip recording songs and music everywhere, that's when he

0:51:33.880 --> 0:51:37.400
<v Speaker 5>realized exactly what I was saying versus village in my

0:51:37.520 --> 0:51:39.719
<v Speaker 5>village where I come from, the village where my father

0:51:39.840 --> 0:51:42.040
<v Speaker 5>come from, is the village where you have the gate

0:51:42.120 --> 0:51:45.440
<v Speaker 5>of No returns, the memorial that have been built by

0:51:45.480 --> 0:51:49.400
<v Speaker 5>the President Soglu that no one wants, especially not the

0:51:49.480 --> 0:51:52.880
<v Speaker 5>French wanted, because he said, we cannot be in denial

0:51:53.000 --> 0:51:57.000
<v Speaker 5>of this country's past. Slavery have happened here and we

0:51:57.120 --> 0:51:59.919
<v Speaker 5>have no memorial for it, and we need to build

0:52:00.120 --> 0:52:05.719
<v Speaker 5>place for that, and not far from the beach where

0:52:05.760 --> 0:52:08.120
<v Speaker 5>they take the slave, where you have the Gate of

0:52:08.239 --> 0:52:11.319
<v Speaker 5>no Return. We have a village that belonged to us

0:52:11.719 --> 0:52:14.480
<v Speaker 5>that it's called as is a que mm hm and

0:52:14.600 --> 0:52:17.080
<v Speaker 5>you only can get that that by both little boats

0:52:17.600 --> 0:52:23.800
<v Speaker 5>because it's between mangroves and swamps. And you have a

0:52:23.920 --> 0:52:27.000
<v Speaker 5>kind of island that that village is. And in that

0:52:27.239 --> 0:52:30.959
<v Speaker 5>village one of the rhythms of my family is made

0:52:31.520 --> 0:52:36.120
<v Speaker 5>of How can I explain this? I would say, a

0:52:36.200 --> 0:52:39.520
<v Speaker 5>symphony of cowbell. You have carver that I high like this.

0:52:40.600 --> 0:52:42.600
<v Speaker 5>You have big one all the way to the small one,

0:52:42.800 --> 0:52:47.759
<v Speaker 5>and there are like that big sound playing right and

0:52:47.840 --> 0:52:52.040
<v Speaker 5>you have two drums in the middle of it. Okay,

0:52:52.120 --> 0:52:55.719
<v Speaker 5>I can. I'm visualized. I have the sound of it

0:52:56.080 --> 0:52:58.520
<v Speaker 5>in the in the computer and you look at the

0:52:58.600 --> 0:53:03.040
<v Speaker 5>pro tools. It's is the craziest thing ever. Everybody is

0:53:03.160 --> 0:53:08.239
<v Speaker 5>sharp on time. It's crazy. The wave I like. And

0:53:08.360 --> 0:53:10.480
<v Speaker 5>then I tell him, I tell you, don't count. He said,

0:53:10.520 --> 0:53:11.120
<v Speaker 5>how do they do that?

0:53:13.840 --> 0:53:18.880
<v Speaker 1>So you're saying, without counting, they're somehow in sync with

0:53:18.960 --> 0:53:20.440
<v Speaker 1>each other because.

0:53:20.200 --> 0:53:22.840
<v Speaker 5>We live together, we breathe that we were born in it.

0:53:23.080 --> 0:53:26.080
<v Speaker 5>It's like, for example, I give you an example another

0:53:26.200 --> 0:53:29.200
<v Speaker 5>example in the northern part of Bennie, where the rhythm

0:53:29.200 --> 0:53:32.920
<v Speaker 5>is completely different from the southern part. Okay. There's the

0:53:33.400 --> 0:53:38.560
<v Speaker 5>rhythm that is called teke alke is a rhythm okay,

0:53:39.160 --> 0:53:42.480
<v Speaker 5>and it's played like two drum in the front and

0:53:42.640 --> 0:53:46.040
<v Speaker 5>stick along like that. There can be eighty of them

0:53:46.719 --> 0:53:50.120
<v Speaker 5>singing and dancing. And when the rhythms split it up right,

0:53:50.880 --> 0:53:53.680
<v Speaker 5>they'll go. They're dance and they're dancing. They're not looking

0:53:53.680 --> 0:53:56.320
<v Speaker 5>at each other, and they all coming. They clack, they

0:53:56.520 --> 0:54:01.480
<v Speaker 5>all the stick come together. You have one sound, no fla.

0:54:03.200 --> 0:54:05.040
<v Speaker 2>You want a comparison, I think what it is, it's

0:54:05.080 --> 0:54:07.200
<v Speaker 2>like everything is by feel in the same way. What

0:54:07.280 --> 0:54:08.800
<v Speaker 2>you're known for is like when you play with d

0:54:09.040 --> 0:54:11.279
<v Speaker 2>and like you're never on the beat right these things.

0:54:11.360 --> 0:54:13.040
<v Speaker 2>He's always behind the beat. And it's a feeling that

0:54:13.160 --> 0:54:15.239
<v Speaker 2>you feel that you're famous for that this is your ship.

0:54:15.560 --> 0:54:17.640
<v Speaker 2>You're on the back side of the beat. It's a feeling.

0:54:18.000 --> 0:54:18.400
<v Speaker 1>So is this.

0:54:18.640 --> 0:54:20.799
<v Speaker 2>It's exactly the same thing. It's just like you're born

0:54:20.840 --> 0:54:24.120
<v Speaker 2>and you're born into your father was a drummer. I

0:54:24.280 --> 0:54:28.239
<v Speaker 2>can't make you could try a mathematical sense of this.

0:54:28.440 --> 0:54:30.440
<v Speaker 2>You could try to and people have done it, like

0:54:30.680 --> 0:54:32.759
<v Speaker 2>like scholars who go to Africa to study of the music,

0:54:32.760 --> 0:54:33.279
<v Speaker 2>They're like, this is.

0:54:33.680 --> 0:54:35.640
<v Speaker 1>Alan Lomec's been around the villages.

0:54:36.320 --> 0:54:38.040
<v Speaker 5>But the thing is, you studied that and you write

0:54:38.040 --> 0:54:39.319
<v Speaker 5>it down. When you played, it's not the.

0:54:39.320 --> 0:54:40.680
<v Speaker 2>Same, right, And when they would look at it and

0:54:40.760 --> 0:54:42.200
<v Speaker 2>be like, who that What the hell is that, it's

0:54:42.239 --> 0:54:44.000
<v Speaker 2>like it's like twelve a versus six eight, because that's

0:54:44.000 --> 0:54:44.160
<v Speaker 2>the thing.

0:54:44.200 --> 0:54:46.160
<v Speaker 1>It's like she's saying, it's it's a six, but it's

0:54:46.680 --> 0:54:49.000
<v Speaker 1>I couldn't read it but in my head. And now

0:54:49.000 --> 0:54:51.040
<v Speaker 1>I'm trying to figure out. When she said that, I

0:54:51.160 --> 0:54:56.160
<v Speaker 1>was like, I wonder if only because I've spent meticulous

0:54:56.239 --> 0:55:00.719
<v Speaker 1>amounts of time, like decades of having inner clock in

0:55:00.800 --> 0:55:04.919
<v Speaker 1>my head when I'm drumming. I don't even know if

0:55:04.960 --> 0:55:08.759
<v Speaker 1>I can drum without the inner monologue.

0:55:08.880 --> 0:55:10.400
<v Speaker 5>You can, you can.

0:55:10.719 --> 0:55:13.120
<v Speaker 2>The other thing that you're not getting is that you

0:55:13.360 --> 0:55:15.400
<v Speaker 2>should comment on this is that is that often it's

0:55:15.440 --> 0:55:18.600
<v Speaker 2>tied to the dance, and so like more often than not,

0:55:18.680 --> 0:55:21.040
<v Speaker 2>the drumming is tied to the dance. So where they

0:55:21.080 --> 0:55:23.840
<v Speaker 2>are stressing certain beats is where they feel it. So

0:55:23.920 --> 0:55:26.200
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't have anything to do per se. Yeah, the

0:55:26.239 --> 0:55:27.520
<v Speaker 2>accents a lot of times come.

0:55:27.440 --> 0:55:29.560
<v Speaker 5>From But the thing is, when we start playing for example,

0:55:29.640 --> 0:55:33.520
<v Speaker 5>it's let me set it for we are. For some reason,

0:55:33.800 --> 0:55:36.360
<v Speaker 5>it's always a circle, and I never understand why it is,

0:55:36.560 --> 0:55:38.920
<v Speaker 5>but that's the way it is, right only in the

0:55:39.040 --> 0:55:41.640
<v Speaker 5>nov that you have lines like that, but people stand

0:55:41.800 --> 0:55:44.560
<v Speaker 5>like that. The teka is one san louis another one

0:55:44.600 --> 0:55:47.120
<v Speaker 5>sinan louis something they put on the feet all the

0:55:47.160 --> 0:55:52.560
<v Speaker 5>way up here and then they do the rhythm and

0:55:52.640 --> 0:55:54.920
<v Speaker 5>it is not it's like that, all of them and

0:55:55.040 --> 0:56:00.360
<v Speaker 5>it's one sound. Okay, So here it is when you

0:56:00.480 --> 0:56:02.800
<v Speaker 5>are in Africa and in the middle of these things

0:56:03.920 --> 0:56:07.680
<v Speaker 5>you have been you haven't been taught to think about counting.

0:56:09.480 --> 0:56:13.640
<v Speaker 5>It's just you. You, you breathe it. It's you're born

0:56:13.719 --> 0:56:16.239
<v Speaker 5>in it, and you don't ask the question at all.

0:56:17.000 --> 0:56:19.960
<v Speaker 5>So for me, since I've been a little girl, I

0:56:20.040 --> 0:56:23.320
<v Speaker 5>have been always exposed to that rhythm. So this is

0:56:23.360 --> 0:56:27.120
<v Speaker 5>how we start. We come together. We start playing. You

0:56:27.239 --> 0:56:29.439
<v Speaker 5>have the cowbell, you have the drums, you have people

0:56:29.440 --> 0:56:33.520
<v Speaker 5>that claps, you have people that saying. So you start

0:56:33.600 --> 0:56:37.719
<v Speaker 5>playing back to to go back to, back to, back

0:56:37.880 --> 0:56:39.560
<v Speaker 5>to come back to good, to come back to good,

0:56:39.600 --> 0:56:42.920
<v Speaker 5>to go back to good. And then you have the

0:56:43.000 --> 0:56:46.840
<v Speaker 5>dancer coming. And then he said the drummer, the principal drummer.

0:56:47.320 --> 0:56:51.319
<v Speaker 5>He takes his cue from the feet of the guy.

0:56:51.920 --> 0:56:55.680
<v Speaker 5>When he starts going to it's changed in me that

0:56:55.760 --> 0:56:59.480
<v Speaker 5>it's the same rhythm, but it's completely brings brought somewhere

0:56:59.520 --> 0:57:02.520
<v Speaker 5>because the guy he can decide to this slowly in

0:57:02.640 --> 0:57:07.240
<v Speaker 5>that he can everything changes.

0:57:08.360 --> 0:57:12.040
<v Speaker 1>Wow, some people are born with it and maybe it's

0:57:12.080 --> 0:57:22.120
<v Speaker 1>maybe it is my mind is yo. I knew I

0:57:22.160 --> 0:57:24.400
<v Speaker 1>was going to learn something, but damn I didn't. You

0:57:24.520 --> 0:57:33.440
<v Speaker 1>gotta come to mean, I gotta smoke weed. I think.

0:57:33.600 --> 0:57:35.160
<v Speaker 1>I think when you have a lot of thoughts in

0:57:35.240 --> 0:57:39.160
<v Speaker 1>your head, and you know, being a sober guy, that

0:57:39.280 --> 0:57:43.240
<v Speaker 1>I am like, I'm almost thinking that I have to

0:57:43.320 --> 0:57:46.120
<v Speaker 1>clear Like even if I wanted to clear my mind,

0:57:46.200 --> 0:57:49.320
<v Speaker 1>like there's no amount of meditation that will ever not

0:57:49.480 --> 0:57:50.200
<v Speaker 1>make me think.

0:57:53.120 --> 0:57:57.240
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, it's okay. So that's what a music is about.

0:57:57.600 --> 0:58:03.040
<v Speaker 1>Is counting overthink it or underthinking it or constricting. I

0:58:03.080 --> 0:58:05.480
<v Speaker 1>think the lesson I'm learning now is that counting is

0:58:05.560 --> 0:58:06.120
<v Speaker 1>overthinking it.

0:58:06.200 --> 0:58:07.880
<v Speaker 2>But that's just how you were taught, how you were born,

0:58:07.920 --> 0:58:09.240
<v Speaker 2>and like that's what you came up in. And he

0:58:09.440 --> 0:58:11.400
<v Speaker 2>she's saying that hers is completely different.

0:58:11.600 --> 0:58:14.120
<v Speaker 5>And what you counting. I can't do it too without

0:58:14.160 --> 0:58:18.000
<v Speaker 5>any problem. Why I don't read music and I can

0:58:18.200 --> 0:58:21.280
<v Speaker 5>play with classical orchestra. I mean I did a piece.

0:58:21.680 --> 0:58:24.560
<v Speaker 5>I wrote a piece with Philip Glass based on three

0:58:24.600 --> 0:58:27.040
<v Speaker 5>poem that I gave to him, the mythology of the

0:58:27.080 --> 0:58:29.000
<v Speaker 5>creation of the world. I calld it the Yoruba. So

0:58:29.120 --> 0:58:32.480
<v Speaker 5>the first piece is Lodu Malus, the second one is Yamanja,

0:58:32.640 --> 0:58:37.520
<v Speaker 5>and the third one is the Shumrie. And knowing Philip Glass,

0:58:37.760 --> 0:58:41.640
<v Speaker 5>he changes from five to four to five six, and

0:58:42.000 --> 0:58:46.800
<v Speaker 5>then you sang it. So I memorize it. I memorized

0:58:46.840 --> 0:58:49.800
<v Speaker 5>the whole thing in my dream. You whake me up.

0:58:49.840 --> 0:58:54.600
<v Speaker 5>I go straight for it because you developed that memorization

0:58:54.800 --> 0:58:57.680
<v Speaker 5>in the wound of your mom. You remember songs that

0:58:57.800 --> 0:58:59.600
<v Speaker 5>you never even know that it has been played because

0:58:59.640 --> 0:59:03.560
<v Speaker 5>you have heard it. So for me, I memor memorize everything.

0:59:04.000 --> 0:59:06.680
<v Speaker 5>Everything that has to be memorized is in my head,

0:59:07.160 --> 0:59:10.240
<v Speaker 5>all the music I listen to, For example, when American

0:59:10.360 --> 0:59:13.080
<v Speaker 5>music starts coming to my house. I don't speak in English.

0:59:13.320 --> 0:59:15.960
<v Speaker 5>I mean I was speaking. I mean pigin from Nigeria.

0:59:16.200 --> 0:59:18.200
<v Speaker 5>I mean proper English. I mean I don't know what

0:59:18.320 --> 0:59:21.120
<v Speaker 5>that is, but I make up my own words and

0:59:21.240 --> 0:59:25.200
<v Speaker 5>it feeds perfectly. That's how I start. When I create songs,

0:59:25.240 --> 0:59:27.040
<v Speaker 5>I create world like my tonga is the world that

0:59:27.080 --> 0:59:30.200
<v Speaker 5>doesn't exist in my language, doesn't exist. I just come

0:59:30.320 --> 0:59:33.800
<v Speaker 5>up with that because it it feels right, and it

0:59:33.920 --> 0:59:36.800
<v Speaker 5>describes something that I've seen that I can't put any

0:59:36.840 --> 0:59:39.320
<v Speaker 5>word in it because the world doesn't exist. And for me,

0:59:39.440 --> 0:59:41.840
<v Speaker 5>when I'm inspired, there's no limit. I don't care if

0:59:41.840 --> 0:59:43.800
<v Speaker 5>it works or not. I just put it there. So

0:59:43.960 --> 0:59:50.560
<v Speaker 5>for I grew up in such a rhythmic surrounding. The

0:59:50.720 --> 0:59:55.720
<v Speaker 5>language phone is the language of the Amazon. It has

0:59:55.880 --> 1:00:00.160
<v Speaker 5>no It's like somebody is just hitting you. Urubi is

1:00:00.240 --> 1:00:10.000
<v Speaker 5>like I wanaoady bo I waaoady bo. Hey reck no

1:00:10.440 --> 1:00:15.240
<v Speaker 5>the phone h That's what I was seen before, all

1:00:15.320 --> 1:00:18.880
<v Speaker 5>that kind of stuff. So you gotta be so tight.

1:00:19.480 --> 1:00:23.440
<v Speaker 5>I have prefered rhythm, and you move me. I look

1:00:23.480 --> 1:00:25.440
<v Speaker 5>at you like I'm moving from here because I know

1:00:25.520 --> 1:00:28.560
<v Speaker 5>he's right, because that's what it is.

1:00:29.160 --> 1:00:37.520
<v Speaker 1>So is westernize basic four four rhythm sort of look

1:00:37.640 --> 1:00:38.920
<v Speaker 1>down upon and.

1:00:39.560 --> 1:00:42.560
<v Speaker 5>The four four you have it in everything, the sixth

1:00:42.600 --> 1:00:43.720
<v Speaker 5>eight you have the four four.

1:00:44.960 --> 1:00:49.880
<v Speaker 1>But I've just been something like okay, So when Billy

1:00:49.960 --> 1:00:55.680
<v Speaker 1>Jean first comes across the pond as a song. And

1:00:55.800 --> 1:00:59.200
<v Speaker 1>I know it's hard to separate the presence and the

1:00:59.400 --> 1:01:04.040
<v Speaker 1>artist that is Michael Jackson, separate from the song. But

1:01:05.040 --> 1:01:08.320
<v Speaker 1>is that seeing as something that's just basic boom cat

1:01:08.600 --> 1:01:11.800
<v Speaker 1>boom cat boom cat boom cat.

1:01:11.840 --> 1:01:16.400
<v Speaker 5>Bo You know? You know what though, it's not the

1:01:16.520 --> 1:01:21.640
<v Speaker 5>boom cat boom boom that's that appear appeal to the

1:01:21.680 --> 1:01:22.400
<v Speaker 5>African people.

1:01:22.560 --> 1:01:23.680
<v Speaker 1>It's the space in between.

1:01:23.840 --> 1:01:30.680
<v Speaker 5>No, it's the basics, dom doom. The bass always sings.

1:01:31.120 --> 1:01:33.280
<v Speaker 5>You're never gonna hear any music in Africa the best

1:01:33.320 --> 1:01:37.360
<v Speaker 5>going boom boom, boom boom. People gonna go, what the

1:01:37.400 --> 1:01:39.640
<v Speaker 5>hell is wrong? You just was saying, Man sing that

1:01:39.960 --> 1:01:43.760
<v Speaker 5>make up based thing and the thing that it's really

1:01:43.840 --> 1:01:47.120
<v Speaker 5>interesting to me. I never realized that till I started

1:01:47.120 --> 1:01:51.720
<v Speaker 5>writing music with my husband and one of the bass

1:01:51.800 --> 1:01:53.880
<v Speaker 5>line because I can't play the bass, but I can

1:01:53.960 --> 1:01:56.440
<v Speaker 5>sing it for you. And I can't play the drums,

1:01:56.480 --> 1:01:58.520
<v Speaker 5>but I can sing it for you. So that's how

1:01:58.560 --> 1:02:00.760
<v Speaker 5>I write my song so Very a song that we

1:02:00.880 --> 1:02:03.360
<v Speaker 5>wrote on the album I that had been produced by

1:02:03.440 --> 1:02:06.920
<v Speaker 5>David c in Presley Park, and it's called a Manja

1:02:07.720 --> 1:02:11.240
<v Speaker 5>Hey David, go what is that baseline? I said, if

1:02:11.320 --> 1:02:13.600
<v Speaker 5>you start counting one, two, three, you don't, you're not

1:02:13.680 --> 1:02:17.280
<v Speaker 5>gonna get it. So he was the one playing, So

1:02:17.440 --> 1:02:19.680
<v Speaker 5>I come up as I was singing the song or

1:02:19.760 --> 1:02:22.720
<v Speaker 5>your fair fair fair ojo. Go on, let me hell

1:02:23.600 --> 1:02:27.640
<v Speaker 5>jr fair fair fair ojo. Go on, let mell jr

1:02:27.720 --> 1:02:32.160
<v Speaker 5>fa fa fat ojo. Come on, let me lo ojo fair.

1:02:32.840 --> 1:02:36.479
<v Speaker 5>You best go the bass, go, don't do do doom, doom, do, don't,

1:02:36.480 --> 1:02:40.120
<v Speaker 5>don't d doom, dumb, don't do, don't, don't, don't, damn do, don't,

1:02:40.160 --> 1:02:43.360
<v Speaker 5>don't dumb dumb dumb dumb do dum dunn dumb dumb

1:02:43.480 --> 1:02:46.400
<v Speaker 5>dumb dumb do do, don't dumb, don't, don't don't. The

1:02:46.480 --> 1:02:48.640
<v Speaker 5>best is always giving the cue to the percussion and

1:02:48.680 --> 1:02:54.040
<v Speaker 5>the drums. The first go, do do, do, do, don't, don't,

1:02:54.080 --> 1:02:58.400
<v Speaker 5>don't do. Then don't don't doo doo doo do don doom, doom,

1:02:58.440 --> 1:03:02.000
<v Speaker 5>damn doom, dad, don don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't,

1:03:02.240 --> 1:03:04.040
<v Speaker 5>don't d don't, don't, don't don't.

1:03:04.200 --> 1:03:06.480
<v Speaker 1>I changed it all the time, so it never goes,

1:03:06.520 --> 1:03:12.640
<v Speaker 1>and it never goes in a loop circle. No old

1:03:12.760 --> 1:03:15.120
<v Speaker 1>David z as match.

1:03:17.000 --> 1:03:20.440
<v Speaker 5>And it was fun. Because I have fun, I cannot

1:03:20.520 --> 1:03:23.440
<v Speaker 5>be able to dance. I always said, astell, if you

1:03:23.520 --> 1:03:26.840
<v Speaker 5>remove the keyboard and you remove the guitar, you leave

1:03:26.880 --> 1:03:28.640
<v Speaker 5>me the percussion in the drums, I'm cool.

1:03:30.680 --> 1:03:33.880
<v Speaker 1>That's a drums and bass or that's the key to life.

1:03:38.720 --> 1:03:41.560
<v Speaker 1>So why did you move? You moved to Paris in

1:03:41.760 --> 1:03:45.480
<v Speaker 1>the early eighties. What caused your uh? Well?

1:03:45.560 --> 1:03:48.120
<v Speaker 5>I moved to Paris in nineteen eighty three because of

1:03:48.240 --> 1:03:52.560
<v Speaker 5>the communism addicted to shipping benin uh in the seventies.

1:03:52.600 --> 1:03:58.880
<v Speaker 5>When they arrived, my home becomes an open jail. The

1:03:58.960 --> 1:04:02.040
<v Speaker 5>freedom of speech was on because you can't speak. Everybody

1:04:02.080 --> 1:04:06.400
<v Speaker 5>spying on you. My father has been asked to do politics.

1:04:06.400 --> 1:04:08.560
<v Speaker 5>They say, I don't do politics. I'm a retired from posts.

1:04:08.560 --> 1:04:11.440
<v Speaker 5>I'm a postman. I don't want to sleep with blood

1:04:11.480 --> 1:04:14.760
<v Speaker 5>on my hand. Please, I don't do politics. So therefore

1:04:15.480 --> 1:04:22.080
<v Speaker 5>it created the surrounded of paranoia. The phone what tapped

1:04:22.200 --> 1:04:26.840
<v Speaker 5>or not? The thing is brothers, family has start eating

1:04:26.880 --> 1:04:29.960
<v Speaker 5>at each other and you find yourself in jail. I

1:04:30.080 --> 1:04:33.320
<v Speaker 5>mean because basically they tell you your father have to

1:04:33.360 --> 1:04:36.200
<v Speaker 5>be called comrade, your mom have to be called comrade.

1:04:36.560 --> 1:04:39.040
<v Speaker 5>Everybody have to become comrade. You see anybody on the street,

1:04:39.040 --> 1:04:42.520
<v Speaker 5>you say hey, camera, I'm like, what the hell? And me,

1:04:42.760 --> 1:04:45.720
<v Speaker 5>I've been told by told by my father that I

1:04:45.800 --> 1:04:49.200
<v Speaker 5>can never bring my music to be associated with the

1:04:49.240 --> 1:04:51.920
<v Speaker 5>political party because they come and they go. I have

1:04:52.040 --> 1:04:54.280
<v Speaker 5>to be neutral. All I have to do is just

1:04:54.360 --> 1:04:57.920
<v Speaker 5>be the voice of the voiceless. And every artist in

1:04:58.000 --> 1:05:00.680
<v Speaker 5>being in at that time, all of us have been

1:05:03.160 --> 1:05:06.720
<v Speaker 5>elegantly urge, if it's possible to put it like that,

1:05:07.280 --> 1:05:11.240
<v Speaker 5>to write propaganda song, which I refused to do. So

1:05:11.400 --> 1:05:13.920
<v Speaker 5>it coincided with the release of my first album Pretty.

1:05:14.360 --> 1:05:18.000
<v Speaker 5>So I was trained in West Africa, Cameroons, every coast,

1:05:18.040 --> 1:05:21.400
<v Speaker 5>all different places. I was always able to dodge the

1:05:22.680 --> 1:05:26.160
<v Speaker 5>political gathering where you have have you have to sing too.

1:05:27.000 --> 1:05:29.840
<v Speaker 5>And then one day I was stranding, been in and

1:05:29.960 --> 1:05:31.800
<v Speaker 5>have to do it. And after that I just said

1:05:31.840 --> 1:05:34.320
<v Speaker 5>to my parents, saw me throw it. My father and

1:05:34.440 --> 1:05:40.320
<v Speaker 5>mother said you gotta go because then I'm gonna open

1:05:40.400 --> 1:05:42.320
<v Speaker 5>my mouth and I'm gonna finish my life in jail

1:05:42.440 --> 1:05:46.640
<v Speaker 5>for sure. So it took them one year to plan

1:05:47.000 --> 1:05:50.680
<v Speaker 5>my escape, and we were waiting for a location that

1:05:50.800 --> 1:05:52.880
<v Speaker 5>we'll coincide with that and one of my cousins was

1:05:52.960 --> 1:05:55.720
<v Speaker 5>getting married and she lived close to the airport. So

1:05:56.280 --> 1:05:58.680
<v Speaker 5>my mom and dad has been made the weakness of

1:05:58.720 --> 1:06:05.880
<v Speaker 5>the couple, and that was our our reason to plan this.

1:06:06.080 --> 1:06:08.800
<v Speaker 5>So everybody knew about it in the village, in the

1:06:08.880 --> 1:06:12.080
<v Speaker 5>street where I grew up, because everybody's spine. Our house

1:06:12.240 --> 1:06:15.439
<v Speaker 5>was already a movie there, because people from every kind

1:06:15.720 --> 1:06:18.360
<v Speaker 5>work of life would come to the house, white, black, yellow, blue,

1:06:18.440 --> 1:06:21.400
<v Speaker 5>whatever color you are, you come to the house. So

1:06:21.560 --> 1:06:24.680
<v Speaker 5>we were we were already it was suspicious before the

1:06:25.600 --> 1:06:28.800
<v Speaker 5>military regime arrived. So the day of the wedding we

1:06:28.880 --> 1:06:31.800
<v Speaker 5>went to the city hall, marriage went to the church,

1:06:31.960 --> 1:06:34.840
<v Speaker 5>and then the evening was the moment where my father

1:06:35.600 --> 1:06:39.800
<v Speaker 5>put the car in the house. I put my my

1:06:40.000 --> 1:06:42.480
<v Speaker 5>evening dress and in the plastic bag I put my

1:06:42.560 --> 1:06:46.680
<v Speaker 5>traveling cool clothes. He put the suitcase in it and

1:06:46.840 --> 1:06:52.480
<v Speaker 5>everybody saw us going to the party. So my flight,

1:06:52.840 --> 1:06:56.080
<v Speaker 5>the flat that I took to live is still lived

1:06:56.200 --> 1:07:02.840
<v Speaker 5>Stilly to Paris eleven fifty five. Still it's still the

1:07:02.920 --> 1:07:08.240
<v Speaker 5>flight still exist. And what happened when the military regime started.

1:07:08.440 --> 1:07:11.640
<v Speaker 5>The military coup was was perpetrated by military that comes

1:07:12.040 --> 1:07:15.840
<v Speaker 5>from north northern Parst so the division comes into the politics.

1:07:16.280 --> 1:07:21.080
<v Speaker 5>So in every powerful position they put the Southerner and

1:07:21.640 --> 1:07:26.320
<v Speaker 5>a Northerner, so they spy on each other. So I walked.

1:07:26.520 --> 1:07:29.440
<v Speaker 5>My father dropped me four so I checked my luggage

1:07:30.520 --> 1:07:33.760
<v Speaker 5>and then I have to go through customs, and I

1:07:33.960 --> 1:07:37.400
<v Speaker 5>was praying because there I can, I will end up

1:07:37.400 --> 1:07:39.360
<v Speaker 5>in jail, because before you leave the country you need

1:07:39.440 --> 1:07:42.320
<v Speaker 5>the authorization of the government. And you said to them,

1:07:42.480 --> 1:07:44.600
<v Speaker 5>when what you're going to do, where you're going, how

1:07:44.680 --> 1:07:46.320
<v Speaker 5>long you're going to be going, and when you're coming back.

1:07:46.360 --> 1:07:48.600
<v Speaker 5>You don't come back. Your parents are the one that

1:07:48.680 --> 1:07:49.959
<v Speaker 5>they put it. They put in jail.

1:07:50.520 --> 1:07:50.960
<v Speaker 1>Oh where?

1:07:51.400 --> 1:07:51.800
<v Speaker 5>Oh yeah?

1:07:51.920 --> 1:07:52.320
<v Speaker 1>Oh man.

1:07:52.720 --> 1:07:56.320
<v Speaker 5>So I didn't have that paper in my passport. So

1:07:56.520 --> 1:07:59.800
<v Speaker 5>I walked to the custom and I saw one of

1:07:59.880 --> 1:08:01.880
<v Speaker 5>the friend of my brother they used to do music with.

1:08:03.080 --> 1:08:05.720
<v Speaker 5>He saw me. He almost have a heart attack. He goes,

1:08:06.160 --> 1:08:08.320
<v Speaker 5>what are you trying to do? You have the authority?

1:08:08.800 --> 1:08:12.840
<v Speaker 5>I said no, He goes, my you one second, you'll

1:08:12.920 --> 1:08:15.400
<v Speaker 5>have the guy here. He just stepped to the toilet.

1:08:16.400 --> 1:08:20.760
<v Speaker 5>Run disappear, just disappear. I didn't see you. I don't

1:08:20.800 --> 1:08:24.160
<v Speaker 5>want to see what. Just go and I ran. I ran,

1:08:24.280 --> 1:08:27.000
<v Speaker 5>So I never run that first in my life. And

1:08:27.120 --> 1:08:30.400
<v Speaker 5>I walked into that plane and dive under the seat

1:08:30.960 --> 1:08:34.560
<v Speaker 5>and crawl down there till the plane take off, and

1:08:35.280 --> 1:08:38.200
<v Speaker 5>pretty much before we learned I came, I came out.

1:08:38.840 --> 1:08:41.320
<v Speaker 5>I was so scared that the police was still there looking.

1:08:41.200 --> 1:08:44.280
<v Speaker 1>For me, even in Paris. You thought that you weren't

1:08:44.320 --> 1:08:44.960
<v Speaker 1>safe yet.

1:08:45.280 --> 1:08:47.040
<v Speaker 5>Until I get off and I see my brother, I

1:08:47.160 --> 1:08:50.519
<v Speaker 5>was not safe. Yehad and I walk out. It was

1:08:50.760 --> 1:08:54.160
<v Speaker 5>September eleven, nineteen eighty three, and I saw my brother.

1:08:54.280 --> 1:08:57.800
<v Speaker 5>My brother say, you made it. But for six years straight,

1:08:57.840 --> 1:09:00.920
<v Speaker 5>I couldn't speak to my parents because we didn't know

1:09:01.640 --> 1:09:05.160
<v Speaker 5>my brother and my parents if the phone were tapped.

1:09:05.280 --> 1:09:08.760
<v Speaker 5>So my brother he left from to go so they

1:09:08.800 --> 1:09:10.680
<v Speaker 5>didn't have anything on him. They didn't know when it

1:09:10.800 --> 1:09:13.320
<v Speaker 5>was and then they have a call to speak about

1:09:13.360 --> 1:09:16.600
<v Speaker 5>this or about that. So I arrived in Paris and

1:09:18.960 --> 1:09:21.040
<v Speaker 5>I decided that if I want to do music, I

1:09:21.120 --> 1:09:24.439
<v Speaker 5>want to learn to know. My father told me, whatever

1:09:24.520 --> 1:09:26.519
<v Speaker 5>you choose, if you become a human right lawyer, or

1:09:26.560 --> 1:09:28.800
<v Speaker 5>you become a singer, whatever it is, go to school

1:09:28.800 --> 1:09:32.040
<v Speaker 5>and learn to know your capacity, were your strength, and

1:09:32.160 --> 1:09:35.880
<v Speaker 5>your weakness to be a better person. I want you

1:09:35.880 --> 1:09:40.040
<v Speaker 5>to so I start going to music school, and I

1:09:40.120 --> 1:09:42.439
<v Speaker 5>spent a trimester at the university to learn a little

1:09:42.479 --> 1:09:45.120
<v Speaker 5>bit about law, and I realized at that point the

1:09:45.240 --> 1:09:47.000
<v Speaker 5>law don't serve justice, and if you want to be

1:09:47.280 --> 1:09:50.439
<v Speaker 5>a human right lawyer, you have to study politics. I'm like,

1:09:50.520 --> 1:09:52.200
<v Speaker 5>it's too much for me. I don't want to go there.

1:09:52.240 --> 1:09:55.920
<v Speaker 5>I'm just gonna focus on singing. And my first year

1:09:56.000 --> 1:09:59.679
<v Speaker 5>in France, oh my god, I cried every day. People

1:09:59.680 --> 1:10:02.320
<v Speaker 5>were so races. I'm like a crazy man, and and

1:10:03.280 --> 1:10:05.240
<v Speaker 5>I was. For the first time. I take vocal class

1:10:05.360 --> 1:10:08.679
<v Speaker 5>because I never had any vocal teacher, and the teacher

1:10:08.840 --> 1:10:11.679
<v Speaker 5>was like, I come from the classical school of Italy,

1:10:11.920 --> 1:10:14.400
<v Speaker 5>so you're gonna I'm like whatever. As long as I

1:10:15.240 --> 1:10:19.960
<v Speaker 5>know how to do scales, I'm started. And that's when

1:10:20.000 --> 1:10:23.439
<v Speaker 5>people start telling me all this crazy stuff. They come

1:10:23.520 --> 1:10:26.519
<v Speaker 5>one day, some two or three of them, the same guys,

1:10:27.320 --> 1:10:30.640
<v Speaker 5>the stupid guys. They come and say, so, actually, tell us,

1:10:31.439 --> 1:10:33.760
<v Speaker 5>how do you go do your groceries? How do you

1:10:33.840 --> 1:10:36.479
<v Speaker 5>go to the market there? You have cars or you

1:10:36.600 --> 1:10:39.120
<v Speaker 5>go on the back of elephants. I say yes, and

1:10:39.200 --> 1:10:40.400
<v Speaker 5>then the wings of the monkeys.

1:10:42.880 --> 1:10:43.720
<v Speaker 1>Everyone started that.

1:10:43.720 --> 1:10:47.280
<v Speaker 5>Africa, Yeah, nineteen eighty three. I'm not just crazy. And

1:10:47.640 --> 1:10:50.800
<v Speaker 5>sometimes the teacher, the vocal teacher, will play some open

1:10:50.920 --> 1:10:53.960
<v Speaker 5>back singing all those stuff, and then one day you say, okay,

1:10:54.120 --> 1:10:55.680
<v Speaker 5>I want you to listen to this song and tell

1:10:55.720 --> 1:10:59.120
<v Speaker 5>me what you think. So she played ravel Boolero and

1:10:59.240 --> 1:11:02.519
<v Speaker 5>when it's finished said, this is African man, and oh

1:11:02.600 --> 1:11:05.920
<v Speaker 5>what did I say? MA, I'm like okay, and I

1:11:06.000 --> 1:11:07.840
<v Speaker 5>shut up. I didn't say anything anymore. That's why I

1:11:07.920 --> 1:11:10.439
<v Speaker 5>did my version of Bolleroo revel b put lyrics on it,

1:11:10.479 --> 1:11:13.760
<v Speaker 5>and I'm like, hit this, I just settle my mind

1:11:14.000 --> 1:11:16.240
<v Speaker 5>issue letter on. I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna stay there.

1:11:16.560 --> 1:11:20.160
<v Speaker 5>Last I always got the last word. And in the

1:11:20.280 --> 1:11:23.439
<v Speaker 5>same period we go sometime I make some friends, a

1:11:23.520 --> 1:11:25.200
<v Speaker 5>good friend that you always used to say to me,

1:11:25.520 --> 1:11:28.640
<v Speaker 5>They're stupid, man, they live on another world. Just leave

1:11:28.720 --> 1:11:30.560
<v Speaker 5>them alone. So, because the parents have one of the

1:11:30.600 --> 1:11:32.559
<v Speaker 5>things that they entitled to everything, they want to say,

1:11:33.160 --> 1:11:35.920
<v Speaker 5>do I care? They don't pay marry what. I don't care.

1:11:36.720 --> 1:11:39.559
<v Speaker 5>So we went to a party and then at that party,

1:11:39.720 --> 1:11:45.640
<v Speaker 5>I heard once in a lifetime talking head and I

1:11:45.720 --> 1:11:50.640
<v Speaker 5>was like, this is African No no, no, no, no, no,

1:11:50.840 --> 1:11:54.440
<v Speaker 5>no no no, it's up. So African melody is ridiculous.

1:11:55.160 --> 1:11:59.280
<v Speaker 5>So I like, hm hmm, I like this, this is Africa.

1:11:59.360 --> 1:12:01.880
<v Speaker 5>And they say he don't say this in front of

1:12:01.920 --> 1:12:04.920
<v Speaker 5>other people. And then people say, yeah, but well, Africans,

1:12:05.080 --> 1:12:07.519
<v Speaker 5>you know you're not sophisticated enough to understand all of

1:12:07.600 --> 1:12:10.639
<v Speaker 5>these things. You can't do this, And I say, well,

1:12:11.000 --> 1:12:14.479
<v Speaker 5>I'm just saying you're stopping me from saying what I

1:12:14.640 --> 1:12:18.200
<v Speaker 5>think to say. So that's how my life started in

1:12:18.400 --> 1:12:21.880
<v Speaker 5>in Europe, and I was lucky to work with a

1:12:21.960 --> 1:12:25.759
<v Speaker 5>piano player called Jaspevanov. That guy is the crazy dude,

1:12:26.520 --> 1:12:29.760
<v Speaker 5>but men independency have it both hands. He can play

1:12:29.840 --> 1:12:32.680
<v Speaker 5>something completely crazy. He be playing this. He got a

1:12:32.760 --> 1:12:37.120
<v Speaker 5>song and goes on the left eie, you go dead

1:12:37.120 --> 1:12:44.400
<v Speaker 5>and dead and then drag good dun dun. Yeah you're

1:12:44.400 --> 1:12:48.400
<v Speaker 5>gonna kill me. Yeah, it's just that crazy. And that

1:12:48.680 --> 1:12:51.479
<v Speaker 5>for him from him because he did an album with

1:12:51.640 --> 1:12:56.280
<v Speaker 5>Ashy Ship called Mamaruse and he comes from that world

1:12:56.400 --> 1:13:01.280
<v Speaker 5>of I mean free jazz. And he went to Africa

1:13:01.439 --> 1:13:06.040
<v Speaker 5>with the guitar player from uh Belgium called Philip Catherine.

1:13:07.200 --> 1:13:10.160
<v Speaker 5>He came back he said the first time we met,

1:13:10.200 --> 1:13:12.719
<v Speaker 5>he said, I have to apologize to you. We're white people,

1:13:12.760 --> 1:13:16.479
<v Speaker 5>didn't create nothing. We just we just dipped from all

1:13:16.560 --> 1:13:25.320
<v Speaker 5>you from Africa. I'm like, oh, really, okay, I said,

1:13:25.439 --> 1:13:27.679
<v Speaker 5>he said, man, please teach me some of your stuff.

1:13:28.000 --> 1:13:30.000
<v Speaker 5>I want to make music. I can't live my life

1:13:30.280 --> 1:13:33.519
<v Speaker 5>being the free jazz musician anymore. So we started to

1:13:33.600 --> 1:13:37.479
<v Speaker 5>a Pilli Pilly was the name of the band, and

1:13:37.600 --> 1:13:39.360
<v Speaker 5>we I wrote a lot of songs with them, and

1:13:39.479 --> 1:13:44.200
<v Speaker 5>we Phillip Pilly. So after that, you know, I started

1:13:44.240 --> 1:13:48.120
<v Speaker 5>making money to pay my graduation. But I have to

1:13:48.200 --> 1:13:51.080
<v Speaker 5>go do hair, I have to clean hotel room, I

1:13:51.160 --> 1:13:52.920
<v Speaker 5>have to do babysitting and all the things that I

1:13:54.000 --> 1:13:55.719
<v Speaker 5>and I was a big star when I left my country,

1:13:55.760 --> 1:13:58.200
<v Speaker 5>But me, it doesn't mean nothing to me. I knew

1:13:58.280 --> 1:14:02.439
<v Speaker 5>that I had to do something from scratch again. Yeah,

1:14:02.479 --> 1:14:04.680
<v Speaker 5>because I'm like now I'm in. I mean, I'm an

1:14:04.760 --> 1:14:07.479
<v Speaker 5>adult for real. Mom is no longer there. I gotta

1:14:07.520 --> 1:14:09.559
<v Speaker 5>pay my rent, I gotta pay my food, I gotta

1:14:09.560 --> 1:14:12.439
<v Speaker 5>pay my transportation. I got everything, And I like the

1:14:12.520 --> 1:14:15.960
<v Speaker 5>responsibility that it bestowed open me to do that. And

1:14:16.120 --> 1:14:17.800
<v Speaker 5>one of the things that was really important for me

1:14:17.920 --> 1:14:19.720
<v Speaker 5>to bring up here is that my mom and dad

1:14:19.800 --> 1:14:22.600
<v Speaker 5>before I left, I knew they were worried. And I

1:14:22.720 --> 1:14:24.880
<v Speaker 5>know my parents and then won't tell you why they're worried.

1:14:25.040 --> 1:14:28.639
<v Speaker 5>And I went to them one or two days before

1:14:28.920 --> 1:14:31.560
<v Speaker 5>I left. I said, momy, that what is going on?

1:14:31.680 --> 1:14:32.240
<v Speaker 3>What is it?

1:14:33.280 --> 1:14:36.280
<v Speaker 5>And they said, we just worried that in France, if

1:14:36.280 --> 1:14:39.200
<v Speaker 5>it's too hard for you, maybe tempted to go through

1:14:39.280 --> 1:14:43.240
<v Speaker 5>prostitution or take drug or jail drug. I say, I

1:14:43.320 --> 1:14:45.400
<v Speaker 5>will clean the floor for one dollar a day for

1:14:45.520 --> 1:14:47.840
<v Speaker 5>how long it takes before I come back. Are doing that?

1:14:49.160 --> 1:14:51.800
<v Speaker 5>So for me, doing music was the thing that really

1:14:53.240 --> 1:14:55.719
<v Speaker 5>keep me together. And after that I went to jazz

1:14:55.720 --> 1:15:00.320
<v Speaker 5>school and I start learning jazz. For me, jazz was before.

1:15:00.360 --> 1:15:02.760
<v Speaker 5>When I was listening, I was to Mahalia Jackson. I

1:15:02.880 --> 1:15:06.280
<v Speaker 5>was listening to because my mom my dad loved Mahalia Jackson,

1:15:06.720 --> 1:15:10.760
<v Speaker 5>loved Sydneyhborshame, my mom used to play clarinet and all

1:15:10.840 --> 1:15:13.800
<v Speaker 5>those things for me was jazz. But really knowing more,

1:15:14.160 --> 1:15:17.560
<v Speaker 5>I become just a junkie of music. And it's just

1:15:17.800 --> 1:15:21.760
<v Speaker 5>because for so many years none of no music came.

1:15:21.920 --> 1:15:23.760
<v Speaker 5>I mean, the Talking Heads never made it to be in.

1:15:24.320 --> 1:15:27.679
<v Speaker 5>It was crazy. I mean I missed out so much

1:15:28.080 --> 1:15:32.360
<v Speaker 5>that I started just kind of hurry hurrying up to

1:15:33.120 --> 1:15:35.280
<v Speaker 5>to to catch up with all the music.

1:15:35.640 --> 1:15:35.920
<v Speaker 1>Everything.

1:15:35.960 --> 1:15:37.720
<v Speaker 5>I just I'm taking everything. And then I get to

1:15:37.760 --> 1:15:41.960
<v Speaker 5>the jazz school the first day to register and as

1:15:42.000 --> 1:15:44.519
<v Speaker 5>I was walking the stairs to go to the office

1:15:44.520 --> 1:15:49.040
<v Speaker 5>of admission, the admission office, then one brunette and one

1:15:49.080 --> 1:15:52.320
<v Speaker 5>blonde girl, and I met them halfway. Because it was

1:15:52.400 --> 1:15:54.479
<v Speaker 5>an old building with corners, you never know if you're

1:15:54.479 --> 1:15:56.640
<v Speaker 5>going left or right. So I asked them what was

1:15:56.680 --> 1:16:01.320
<v Speaker 5>the admissions office and they go why I said, I said,

1:16:01.320 --> 1:16:04.400
<v Speaker 5>because I have to go register, and they said you're African.

1:16:04.560 --> 1:16:06.599
<v Speaker 5>I said yes, and they look at me and said,

1:16:06.600 --> 1:16:08.320
<v Speaker 5>what are you doing here? Jazz is not med for

1:16:08.400 --> 1:16:11.479
<v Speaker 5>African people. I'm like, okay, doesn't matter. I just walked

1:16:11.560 --> 1:16:14.240
<v Speaker 5>up and I do yeah, and the founder of the

1:16:14.320 --> 1:16:16.479
<v Speaker 5>school listened to it and he didn't say anything. I

1:16:16.560 --> 1:16:20.240
<v Speaker 5>finished with my registration in pay and then he came

1:16:20.280 --> 1:16:22.600
<v Speaker 5>to me and said, don't listen to them. That is

1:16:22.680 --> 1:16:27.639
<v Speaker 5>ignorant speaking every school and year and we do music here.

1:16:28.560 --> 1:16:30.720
<v Speaker 5>I will help you put a song together, and I

1:16:30.800 --> 1:16:33.080
<v Speaker 5>know you can't do it. And at the end of

1:16:33.160 --> 1:16:38.280
<v Speaker 5>that year, they all picked el pick up this all

1:16:38.360 --> 1:16:43.160
<v Speaker 5>this song like okay, just got him, just go ahead,

1:16:43.800 --> 1:16:47.840
<v Speaker 5>And I came with George Benson this masquerade and I

1:16:48.000 --> 1:16:48.880
<v Speaker 5>nailed them on the wall.

1:16:50.120 --> 1:16:59.680
<v Speaker 1>Nice, nice, Wait, besides the overt cultural racism, Uh, where

1:16:59.680 --> 1:17:03.040
<v Speaker 1>were the other cultural differences as far as that you

1:17:03.160 --> 1:17:06.560
<v Speaker 1>face the first time when you got to Paris, that

1:17:06.960 --> 1:17:07.840
<v Speaker 1>you weren't used to.

1:17:08.360 --> 1:17:13.880
<v Speaker 5>The difference of people indifference completely. People weren't friendly, people

1:17:14.040 --> 1:17:16.960
<v Speaker 5>weren't indifferent completely. I mean, when I get out of

1:17:17.120 --> 1:17:23.679
<v Speaker 5>my building, my house, my apartment, you cross your neighbors

1:17:24.320 --> 1:17:27.720
<v Speaker 5>on stairs, you say good morning. Everybody just go like

1:17:28.720 --> 1:17:31.400
<v Speaker 5>like you just have it gone. You're gonna shoot them there.

1:17:31.640 --> 1:17:36.559
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, just how you make it out? In Brooklyn? Right, Brooklyn?

1:17:36.680 --> 1:17:38.200
<v Speaker 5>We say hi to each other. I tell you, man

1:17:38.320 --> 1:17:40.120
<v Speaker 5>in Man Street, we are a polite we know each other.

1:17:40.240 --> 1:17:43.479
<v Speaker 5>Come on, it's like the village man works. Okay, but no,

1:17:43.680 --> 1:17:47.160
<v Speaker 5>but you got there's a difference. There's a profound difference

1:17:48.040 --> 1:17:50.759
<v Speaker 5>here in America. When you make eye contact with people,

1:17:50.960 --> 1:17:55.920
<v Speaker 5>there's a nod or there's a can can't recognition somehow,

1:17:56.240 --> 1:17:59.519
<v Speaker 5>you know, in France it's just like you can be

1:17:59.640 --> 1:18:04.720
<v Speaker 5>transpar and nobody cares. And everywhere she performed, I mean

1:18:05.120 --> 1:18:08.320
<v Speaker 5>one thing that really really struck me to the point

1:18:08.360 --> 1:18:10.960
<v Speaker 5>where I just like, how am I gonna live in

1:18:11.040 --> 1:18:13.320
<v Speaker 5>this country? I was in the subway going to school

1:18:14.240 --> 1:18:17.559
<v Speaker 5>and there is at one station a girl walked into

1:18:17.960 --> 1:18:20.800
<v Speaker 5>the station and she's just sobbing so much it barely

1:18:20.840 --> 1:18:23.439
<v Speaker 5>could set. So I stood up and gave her my seat,

1:18:23.479 --> 1:18:25.320
<v Speaker 5>and she was crying, and I was there, and it

1:18:25.479 --> 1:18:28.200
<v Speaker 5>was looking at her, turned the head and there's something

1:18:28.280 --> 1:18:31.479
<v Speaker 5>profoundly wrong with this crying. It's not like crying for

1:18:32.680 --> 1:18:35.680
<v Speaker 5>by crying. It's there something bad about this. So when

1:18:35.720 --> 1:18:40.080
<v Speaker 5>she came out of the subway, she was stumbling, so

1:18:40.280 --> 1:18:42.599
<v Speaker 5>I get out. It was not my station. I get

1:18:42.640 --> 1:18:44.280
<v Speaker 5>out and grab her because she was going to fall

1:18:44.360 --> 1:18:48.280
<v Speaker 5>on the tracks. So I brought her to sit and

1:18:48.400 --> 1:18:51.360
<v Speaker 5>I gave her my handkerchief and I sit there and said,

1:18:51.680 --> 1:18:53.840
<v Speaker 5>I hold her. And she was shaking so much, and

1:18:53.920 --> 1:18:56.439
<v Speaker 5>I said, what's going on? Can I help you? She

1:18:56.520 --> 1:18:59.160
<v Speaker 5>couldn't speak, But I stayed there and I missed my class,

1:19:00.080 --> 1:19:02.560
<v Speaker 5>but I was not gonna let her there because I

1:19:02.640 --> 1:19:05.679
<v Speaker 5>didn't know what was going on. And finally she said

1:19:05.680 --> 1:19:09.280
<v Speaker 5>to me that she's orphans of both of her parents.

1:19:09.320 --> 1:19:11.479
<v Speaker 5>The only person she still have alive was her brother,

1:19:11.920 --> 1:19:14.679
<v Speaker 5>and she just get into accident and he's very critical

1:19:14.760 --> 1:19:17.840
<v Speaker 5>in hospital. And I said, let me take you to

1:19:17.920 --> 1:19:20.680
<v Speaker 5>the hospital. See but I can't stay alone. I say,

1:19:20.720 --> 1:19:23.080
<v Speaker 5>I'll stay with you. So I have to find a

1:19:23.120 --> 1:19:24.680
<v Speaker 5>way to call my brother because I was living with

1:19:24.760 --> 1:19:27.360
<v Speaker 5>my brother. I could not live without him knowing where

1:19:27.400 --> 1:19:29.479
<v Speaker 5>I was. So when we get to the hospital, I said,

1:19:29.520 --> 1:19:31.320
<v Speaker 5>this is what happened, and this is where I am.

1:19:31.640 --> 1:19:33.519
<v Speaker 5>And then he said, if he's too late, tell me

1:19:33.640 --> 1:19:38.400
<v Speaker 5>I come and get you. The brother make it. He

1:19:38.520 --> 1:19:41.120
<v Speaker 5>was feeling better when I left her, and I said,

1:19:41.160 --> 1:19:43.360
<v Speaker 5>you want to come to my house, you can stay

1:19:43.439 --> 1:19:46.400
<v Speaker 5>with me. And she looked at me and said, no

1:19:46.520 --> 1:19:49.800
<v Speaker 5>one do that here. I said, yes, but where are

1:19:49.800 --> 1:19:53.800
<v Speaker 5>you gonna go? You don't have the key. Your brother

1:19:53.960 --> 1:19:56.400
<v Speaker 5>was the one that have the key. And then I said,

1:19:56.479 --> 1:20:00.320
<v Speaker 5>let's go ask the nurse if if in his stuff keys.

1:20:01.000 --> 1:20:04.320
<v Speaker 5>So we find the keys. I accompany her to where

1:20:04.360 --> 1:20:06.320
<v Speaker 5>she was going and I tell my brother where I was.

1:20:06.920 --> 1:20:08.639
<v Speaker 5>He had God at that time. He said, now it's

1:20:08.840 --> 1:20:11.080
<v Speaker 5>past ten pm, I'm gonna come and pick you up.

1:20:11.160 --> 1:20:15.360
<v Speaker 5>And then and for me, it was just something that

1:20:16.040 --> 1:20:21.360
<v Speaker 5>really no one just cares and That's why my first

1:20:21.439 --> 1:20:26.280
<v Speaker 5>album that I released in France when I was signed

1:20:26.280 --> 1:20:32.040
<v Speaker 5>by Island Record, I call it Tortois Logoso and with

1:20:32.560 --> 1:20:36.040
<v Speaker 5>the free signs see no evil, talk no evil, hear

1:20:36.160 --> 1:20:40.160
<v Speaker 5>no evil. For me, it represents so much this Western

1:20:40.280 --> 1:20:45.880
<v Speaker 5>society that called itself civilized, developed, yet we have lost

1:20:45.920 --> 1:20:49.360
<v Speaker 5>the ability to reach out helping him to somebody that

1:20:49.560 --> 1:20:53.560
<v Speaker 5>is a need because we are just so swamp in

1:20:53.840 --> 1:20:58.400
<v Speaker 5>survival mode. We don't leave. We survive and we have everything.

1:20:58.800 --> 1:21:01.559
<v Speaker 5>People that are poor and ever got the leave, they

1:21:01.640 --> 1:21:03.320
<v Speaker 5>have one. They can have one mill a day. That

1:21:03.479 --> 1:21:06.880
<v Speaker 5>will laugh. We are resilient and that's one thing that

1:21:07.080 --> 1:21:08.680
<v Speaker 5>no one can take from us.

1:21:08.960 --> 1:21:13.880
<v Speaker 1>No one, they can't. There's no way that you can

1:21:13.960 --> 1:21:18.040
<v Speaker 1>take good. Oh no, I was just I was just agreeing.

1:21:18.720 --> 1:21:18.840
<v Speaker 3>Up.

1:21:23.960 --> 1:21:27.479
<v Speaker 1>How did you How did you come across meeting Chris Blackwell?

1:21:28.760 --> 1:21:32.920
<v Speaker 5>Well, that's that's an interesting story. The founder of the

1:21:33.000 --> 1:21:35.280
<v Speaker 5>jaz school where I was had a label called Open

1:21:36.000 --> 1:21:39.560
<v Speaker 5>Right and he produced only jazz right. And then he

1:21:39.680 --> 1:21:41.800
<v Speaker 5>said to me, he came one day and see one

1:21:41.840 --> 1:21:43.479
<v Speaker 5>of my shows. We had a bend together with my

1:21:43.560 --> 1:21:45.240
<v Speaker 5>husband and some friends, and I was doing my own

1:21:45.360 --> 1:21:47.680
<v Speaker 5>music and he said, man, I love the way you sing.

1:21:47.760 --> 1:21:50.680
<v Speaker 5>I want to produce your album. So he produced the

1:21:50.720 --> 1:21:52.840
<v Speaker 5>album one. By the time we finished it was broke.

1:21:53.400 --> 1:21:56.320
<v Speaker 5>So he said, okay, I'm printing five hundred copies of Cities.

1:21:56.880 --> 1:21:58.680
<v Speaker 5>I gave you two hundred and sell three hundred and

1:21:59.080 --> 1:22:03.400
<v Speaker 5>that's it. With the two hundred, I sent it to

1:22:04.640 --> 1:22:09.080
<v Speaker 5>record labels at every record label that exists in France.

1:22:09.120 --> 1:22:14.560
<v Speaker 5>Have my CD promoters and I started playing at the

1:22:14.680 --> 1:22:18.040
<v Speaker 5>New Morning Club and I gave one of my city

1:22:18.120 --> 1:22:23.760
<v Speaker 5>to a guy from Mali called Mamadouconte. He's the one

1:22:23.800 --> 1:22:27.920
<v Speaker 5>that founded the festival Africa e Fect okay, and he

1:22:28.160 --> 1:22:32.400
<v Speaker 5>was the you Soon manager at that time, and then he,

1:22:32.920 --> 1:22:37.439
<v Speaker 5>without telling me anything, send the CD to Chris Blackwell.

1:22:38.439 --> 1:22:40.680
<v Speaker 5>So here I am playing the show at the New

1:22:41.479 --> 1:22:46.200
<v Speaker 5>Morning Club in Paris, and you do two sets. I

1:22:46.320 --> 1:22:50.479
<v Speaker 5>think the first set, the owner of Madame Farie and

1:22:50.640 --> 1:22:54.799
<v Speaker 5>all the team of the club. Everybody had just been hijacked.

1:22:54.840 --> 1:22:57.799
<v Speaker 5>When I walk out the stage, they are very important

1:22:57.840 --> 1:23:03.599
<v Speaker 5>people waiting for your durussing room. I say, really more

1:23:03.680 --> 1:23:08.120
<v Speaker 5>important than God. All right, let's go say So I

1:23:08.240 --> 1:23:12.400
<v Speaker 5>walk in. You have the ear off from UK Island

1:23:12.600 --> 1:23:15.040
<v Speaker 5>and you have the head of Island France and then

1:23:15.040 --> 1:23:18.479
<v Speaker 5>introduce the to them themselves to me, say we really

1:23:18.520 --> 1:23:20.040
<v Speaker 5>want to work with you, you want to sign you

1:23:20.840 --> 1:23:24.439
<v Speaker 5>and I'm like this dude from France. I send them

1:23:24.479 --> 1:23:27.519
<v Speaker 5>ticket to my shows, I send them everything. Nobody reply

1:23:29.280 --> 1:23:32.920
<v Speaker 5>we're coming. We're not coming, just like now, you want

1:23:32.920 --> 1:23:35.640
<v Speaker 5>to work with me? You know me, ma'am. How I

1:23:36.000 --> 1:23:38.040
<v Speaker 5>ask questions? I said, I want to know what I

1:23:38.320 --> 1:23:41.519
<v Speaker 5>was on here. I don't want to win. I want

1:23:41.560 --> 1:23:42.080
<v Speaker 5>to how.

1:23:44.040 --> 1:23:45.720
<v Speaker 1>You didn't trust the situation at all.

1:23:46.960 --> 1:23:50.120
<v Speaker 5>And then I get and I get my hand on

1:23:50.280 --> 1:23:55.120
<v Speaker 5>the fact that Crispy Blackwell sent and say you better

1:23:55.200 --> 1:23:58.360
<v Speaker 5>sign this girl before somebody do. If somebody signed her

1:23:58.439 --> 1:24:01.400
<v Speaker 5>before you, guys are losing your up. I'm like, yeah, baby,

1:24:02.560 --> 1:24:02.840
<v Speaker 5>like this.

1:24:07.320 --> 1:24:11.720
<v Speaker 1>Were you excited because of the the lineage that that

1:24:12.000 --> 1:24:12.439
<v Speaker 1>he had.

1:24:14.000 --> 1:24:15.200
<v Speaker 5>I didn't even know who he was.

1:24:16.360 --> 1:24:18.280
<v Speaker 1>I didn't know what Chris No.

1:24:18.520 --> 1:24:20.479
<v Speaker 5>I just know the label Island. I didn't know who

1:24:20.520 --> 1:24:24.679
<v Speaker 5>he was until the signior to the day we're gonna sign.

1:24:25.640 --> 1:24:28.559
<v Speaker 5>I was kind of reluctant because I never signed any contract.

1:24:29.200 --> 1:24:31.280
<v Speaker 5>Because signing a contract for me and my culture is

1:24:31.320 --> 1:24:33.880
<v Speaker 5>a handshake. So while am I signing a paper for

1:24:34.760 --> 1:24:38.080
<v Speaker 5>I just like hell. And I was just worried that

1:24:39.320 --> 1:24:42.880
<v Speaker 5>signing such a big record company and I lose my identity,

1:24:43.000 --> 1:24:47.120
<v Speaker 5>my cultural identity, that I'll be doing music that I

1:24:47.200 --> 1:24:50.600
<v Speaker 5>don't like. So Chris Blackwall came before we signed and s,

1:24:51.000 --> 1:24:53.479
<v Speaker 5>I'm really happy to have in the family. If you

1:24:53.600 --> 1:24:56.439
<v Speaker 5>have any resistance, if you have any doubt, this is

1:24:56.479 --> 1:24:58.600
<v Speaker 5>the moment to talk to me about it. And I

1:24:58.720 --> 1:25:01.280
<v Speaker 5>just say, I just want to keep my artistical freedom

1:25:01.320 --> 1:25:03.560
<v Speaker 5>and do the music that I love to do. And

1:25:03.720 --> 1:25:06.479
<v Speaker 5>he said, that's no question about it. You do I sell,

1:25:06.920 --> 1:25:09.080
<v Speaker 5>just sign it, put it in. And I'm like yeah.

1:25:09.439 --> 1:25:12.880
<v Speaker 5>And for the first ten years of my career, I

1:25:13.040 --> 1:25:18.080
<v Speaker 5>have the privilege of having Chris Blackwell as my artistical director.

1:25:18.960 --> 1:25:22.320
<v Speaker 5>That guy have an ear. Oh my god. He goes

1:25:22.720 --> 1:25:25.920
<v Speaker 5>on the sixteenth bar, your snare is too loud. I'm like,

1:25:28.840 --> 1:25:31.679
<v Speaker 5>for real, and you listen, Marc.

1:25:32.040 --> 1:25:32.240
<v Speaker 1>You know.

1:25:34.640 --> 1:25:39.400
<v Speaker 5>It's out of face, no no good. And every time

1:25:39.439 --> 1:25:40.960
<v Speaker 5>I do it demo, when I send it to him,

1:25:41.000 --> 1:25:44.519
<v Speaker 5>it's like he's in a candy store because I always

1:25:44.600 --> 1:25:48.400
<v Speaker 5>do my demo so well, because you have to think

1:25:48.479 --> 1:25:51.599
<v Speaker 5>about something. It might be hanging out somewhen, somebody might

1:25:51.680 --> 1:25:53.679
<v Speaker 5>put his hand on it. You don't know who listened

1:25:53.680 --> 1:25:57.280
<v Speaker 5>to what. It gotta be clean, man, it gotta be perfect.

1:25:57.960 --> 1:26:00.240
<v Speaker 5>Even if a producer have to put his hand on it,

1:26:00.800 --> 1:26:04.680
<v Speaker 5>he got something good to work with. Like when I

1:26:04.760 --> 1:26:08.200
<v Speaker 5>did this project, remaining like that I'm doing now the demo.

1:26:08.640 --> 1:26:10.760
<v Speaker 5>The voice of the demo are the final voice on

1:26:10.840 --> 1:26:11.280
<v Speaker 5>the album.

1:26:14.120 --> 1:26:14.519
<v Speaker 1>Not bad.

1:26:15.760 --> 1:26:21.400
<v Speaker 5>My backing singing all is in there. Yeah, percussion from

1:26:21.439 --> 1:26:24.719
<v Speaker 5>being all in there, and I add some more percussion.

1:26:24.840 --> 1:26:28.679
<v Speaker 5>Everything about this album start with a percussion. The drum

1:26:28.800 --> 1:26:31.559
<v Speaker 5>followed char Haynes followed the percussion player. When we were

1:26:31.640 --> 1:26:34.320
<v Speaker 5>doing Once in a Lifetime with the current response with

1:26:34.439 --> 1:26:36.479
<v Speaker 5>the drum, and then he asked, I mean when he

1:26:36.600 --> 1:26:38.560
<v Speaker 5>played he started playing with the percussion player, I was

1:26:38.600 --> 1:26:42.600
<v Speaker 5>sitting down like in the studio leg this is my

1:26:42.760 --> 1:26:45.760
<v Speaker 5>brother's man. This dude a killing this start right there.

1:26:46.360 --> 1:26:49.000
<v Speaker 5>Nobody else can play like that, And I just I

1:26:49.160 --> 1:26:52.080
<v Speaker 5>just raised myself. Really, don't be racist in the other way.

1:26:52.200 --> 1:27:01.400
<v Speaker 1>Just shut up. You work with so many musicians and

1:27:01.600 --> 1:27:09.920
<v Speaker 1>so many different producers. What what are the highlights of

1:27:10.040 --> 1:27:12.479
<v Speaker 1>your your working relationships? Like I know that you did

1:27:12.600 --> 1:27:14.160
<v Speaker 1>a project with Tony Usconi.

1:27:14.880 --> 1:27:18.360
<v Speaker 5>Tony was a wonderful mind though Tony was because I

1:27:18.400 --> 1:27:22.200
<v Speaker 5>told him when blank, I don't lie studio me and

1:27:22.240 --> 1:27:22.920
<v Speaker 5>a studio at all.

1:27:23.120 --> 1:27:25.640
<v Speaker 1>I was about to say the first time you you

1:27:25.880 --> 1:27:27.960
<v Speaker 1>always tell me you don't like the studio. I hate

1:27:28.000 --> 1:27:30.639
<v Speaker 1>the studio, but it's it's where the magic happens.

1:27:30.800 --> 1:27:35.160
<v Speaker 5>That they don't have the freaking daylight. I'm like, if

1:27:35.200 --> 1:27:37.720
<v Speaker 5>it's wearing the snow. Something happened, I don't know, right,

1:27:37.960 --> 1:27:39.240
<v Speaker 5>And it's no public to sing?

1:27:39.600 --> 1:27:39.920
<v Speaker 6>Why not?

1:27:40.000 --> 1:27:41.280
<v Speaker 5>Why should I sing to a wall?

1:27:41.640 --> 1:27:43.479
<v Speaker 1>We in that case, what was it like working at

1:27:43.520 --> 1:27:48.479
<v Speaker 1>Paisley Park? Because you did your whole lap? It was

1:27:48.760 --> 1:27:50.840
<v Speaker 1>it was like your snow in Minnesota.

1:27:51.439 --> 1:27:54.240
<v Speaker 5>Shoot man, my daughter was ten days old when we

1:27:54.439 --> 1:27:57.080
<v Speaker 5>stopped doing it. I just because that album have been

1:27:57.120 --> 1:28:01.120
<v Speaker 5>produced by two different producers, Will More from Soul to

1:28:01.200 --> 1:28:05.400
<v Speaker 5>Soul in London and David Busy, So I was between both.

1:28:05.600 --> 1:28:07.760
<v Speaker 5>I'll grab my child and go do this and go back.

1:28:08.240 --> 1:28:11.720
<v Speaker 5>I love Park. It was the time of revolution, the

1:28:11.960 --> 1:28:16.880
<v Speaker 5>Michael the Drama. We got so much fun. Man, We've

1:28:16.920 --> 1:28:19.200
<v Speaker 5>been talking about music when Prince was not there. We're like,

1:28:19.240 --> 1:28:21.479
<v Speaker 5>come on, come on, let's let's jump. I'm like, yeah,

1:28:21.600 --> 1:28:25.280
<v Speaker 5>come on. It was fun park. And the funny thing

1:28:25.400 --> 1:28:28.599
<v Speaker 5>is you see Sting comes in and you have Prince here.

1:28:28.840 --> 1:28:31.680
<v Speaker 5>Sting is just like regular Prince is all maked up.

1:28:33.160 --> 1:28:35.800
<v Speaker 5>I mean, the Christ of the pant is now I'm

1:28:35.880 --> 1:28:38.639
<v Speaker 5>like Jesus Christ. And you look, you see two most

1:28:38.720 --> 1:28:42.400
<v Speaker 5>of music here completely different worlds and not like that.

1:28:42.840 --> 1:28:45.080
<v Speaker 5>That's what music brings me to. I mean, what is

1:28:45.160 --> 1:28:48.479
<v Speaker 5>important for me when I'm doing an album is that

1:28:49.240 --> 1:28:52.840
<v Speaker 5>the producer becomes also as part of the music. It's

1:28:52.880 --> 1:28:55.240
<v Speaker 5>not just pushing bottoms. And if you have any idea,

1:28:56.479 --> 1:28:59.040
<v Speaker 5>I come from a culture where we do things together

1:28:59.680 --> 1:29:02.000
<v Speaker 5>and and my father always used to say to me

1:29:02.680 --> 1:29:05.880
<v Speaker 5>that's the reason why he encouraged me to play soccer.

1:29:06.520 --> 1:29:09.360
<v Speaker 5>He said, you play soccer and everybody works together for

1:29:09.439 --> 1:29:12.200
<v Speaker 5>one goal. You have to learn to do that to

1:29:12.320 --> 1:29:15.360
<v Speaker 5>have people around you that even if you don't think

1:29:15.400 --> 1:29:18.000
<v Speaker 5>the same, you have the same aesthetics. You have you

1:29:18.080 --> 1:29:20.640
<v Speaker 5>have the same goal to achieve, and then you are

1:29:20.680 --> 1:29:24.960
<v Speaker 5>stronger because you bounced off each other. And two three

1:29:25.040 --> 1:29:29.200
<v Speaker 5>brands together is powerful. It's more powerful than any atomic bomb.

1:29:29.640 --> 1:29:32.320
<v Speaker 5>And that's how I like to do my work. And

1:29:32.439 --> 1:29:35.040
<v Speaker 5>I remember the first time he played on my album

1:29:36.080 --> 1:29:39.560
<v Speaker 5>was in quir You remember Quar Studio when I was

1:29:39.640 --> 1:29:40.439
<v Speaker 5>doing the cover of.

1:29:40.680 --> 1:29:46.320
<v Speaker 1>Voodoo Chai, right, and we call it that's you. Yeah,

1:29:46.360 --> 1:29:48.719
<v Speaker 1>that's me. I'm kind of everywhere.

1:29:50.439 --> 1:29:52.400
<v Speaker 5>But I think I didn't like it. I didn't like

1:29:52.479 --> 1:29:55.400
<v Speaker 5>that process because I didn't come to meet everybody. And

1:29:55.560 --> 1:29:58.760
<v Speaker 5>after that, I'm like, the next album is everybody in

1:29:58.880 --> 1:30:03.559
<v Speaker 5>the studio. Otherwise that's what we did for Black Average.

1:30:03.600 --> 1:30:06.280
<v Speaker 5>So the black As album we recorded, it was the

1:30:06.400 --> 1:30:10.040
<v Speaker 5>funniest thing ever. Out of this world. Here comes am

1:30:10.120 --> 1:30:14.280
<v Speaker 5>here the best player come from French West Indies. The

1:30:14.360 --> 1:30:17.280
<v Speaker 5>percussion player have never been to America. We do all

1:30:17.360 --> 1:30:19.680
<v Speaker 5>the paper for him to come from Salva yea. He

1:30:19.800 --> 1:30:24.000
<v Speaker 5>does not speak a word of English. Go listen to

1:30:24.080 --> 1:30:27.560
<v Speaker 5>that album Rhden section. Oh boy, it is tired or

1:30:27.640 --> 1:30:33.600
<v Speaker 5>what I'm telling you. You don't need to speak the

1:30:33.640 --> 1:30:36.240
<v Speaker 5>same language to do music. And it's the only form

1:30:36.360 --> 1:30:48.000
<v Speaker 5>of art. I mean, I remember, I remember the song

1:30:48.120 --> 1:30:54.360
<v Speaker 5>I cover a song of Gilberto Jill mhm. And then Jesus,

1:30:54.880 --> 1:30:58.599
<v Speaker 5>I'm still listening to it and then I mean, what too,

1:30:59.280 --> 1:31:09.439
<v Speaker 5>and the guitar go adam, he just he sits everybody

1:31:09.520 --> 1:31:11.800
<v Speaker 5>down saying, okay, this is where it is and you

1:31:11.920 --> 1:31:14.000
<v Speaker 5>have the bass player. He was so happy what he

1:31:14.080 --> 1:31:15.800
<v Speaker 5>loves it? How wi is all the drummers that have

1:31:15.960 --> 1:31:19.920
<v Speaker 5>mean I said, don't be messing up with me right now?

1:31:22.479 --> 1:31:29.080
<v Speaker 1>Numbers now now I wish my roll call Angelie.

1:31:29.080 --> 1:31:30.720
<v Speaker 2>How do you pick your covers? Because you're known for

1:31:30.760 --> 1:31:32.559
<v Speaker 2>a lot of like Voodoo Child and the other ones.

1:31:32.560 --> 1:31:33.840
<v Speaker 2>You're known for a lot of your covers. How do

1:31:33.920 --> 1:31:34.400
<v Speaker 2>you pick them?

1:31:35.360 --> 1:31:38.240
<v Speaker 5>Well? The Voto Child wants started pretty I mean, I've

1:31:38.320 --> 1:31:42.479
<v Speaker 5>known Jimmy Hendrix since being in but then I came

1:31:42.520 --> 1:31:48.760
<v Speaker 5>to Price and we had a friend called he's a

1:31:48.840 --> 1:31:53.879
<v Speaker 5>specialist of uh you know Jimmy Henry's mother. Any American

1:31:55.200 --> 1:32:00.920
<v Speaker 5>come some bed yazid man. He's from Benin. There's nothing

1:32:01.320 --> 1:32:03.120
<v Speaker 5>I'm telling you sitting down here. You want to try

1:32:03.240 --> 1:32:05.200
<v Speaker 5>him next time? I tell him when he comes coming

1:32:05.240 --> 1:32:07.320
<v Speaker 5>six to speak to you, there's nothing you would say

1:32:07.320 --> 1:32:10.280
<v Speaker 5>about Jimmy Hendy that he doesn't know. Ever, Really, I

1:32:10.400 --> 1:32:13.519
<v Speaker 5>swear you he got everything. This is this is This

1:32:13.680 --> 1:32:17.559
<v Speaker 5>guy is crazy. I mean, he's he loves Jimmy Hendrix

1:32:17.680 --> 1:32:20.400
<v Speaker 5>so much. I'm like, it's not even your brother, dude.

1:32:21.520 --> 1:32:25.280
<v Speaker 5>Come on, And we were listening to us telling him

1:32:25.280 --> 1:32:28.559
<v Speaker 5>how I discovered the music of Jimmy Hendry and he said,

1:32:28.600 --> 1:32:30.680
<v Speaker 5>have some news for you. He started playing me all

1:32:30.720 --> 1:32:33.440
<v Speaker 5>the stuff that I missed because of this tupid communists,

1:32:35.760 --> 1:32:38.479
<v Speaker 5>all those dub and then he puts Voodoo Channel and

1:32:38.560 --> 1:32:42.840
<v Speaker 5>I'm like, oh, this is my song right there. I'm

1:32:42.920 --> 1:32:44.320
<v Speaker 5>doing a cover of it. And he looked at me

1:32:44.360 --> 1:32:49.920
<v Speaker 5>and really, I said, what Jimmy really said? Well, let's

1:32:49.920 --> 1:32:53.200
<v Speaker 5>see I'm not Oh, don't dare me. You don't know me.

1:32:53.560 --> 1:32:57.080
<v Speaker 5>Don't do this. It's not good for you. It takes me.

1:32:57.520 --> 1:32:59.240
<v Speaker 5>It can take me ten years. I'm gonna do this

1:32:59.360 --> 1:33:03.599
<v Speaker 5>coover take me six years. I woke up one morning

1:33:03.720 --> 1:33:05.680
<v Speaker 5>and I started singing the guitar in my head with

1:33:05.760 --> 1:33:09.160
<v Speaker 5>words because I said, Jimmy Hendrix can't play the guitar.

1:33:09.760 --> 1:33:12.200
<v Speaker 5>I might also say it damn it. I don't want

1:33:12.240 --> 1:33:15.599
<v Speaker 5>anybody else but Jimmy Hendy's to do it. He can't

1:33:15.640 --> 1:33:18.639
<v Speaker 5>do it. I'm sanging it. So that's what I did.

1:33:18.880 --> 1:33:24.360
<v Speaker 5>I go a mom michiligit for doom va michiligo. A

1:33:25.080 --> 1:33:28.800
<v Speaker 5>mom michiligo for doom va michiligo.

1:33:29.520 --> 1:33:32.799
<v Speaker 1>I mean that to you is been in the spirit.

1:33:32.920 --> 1:33:34.240
<v Speaker 5>It's it's it's the Amazon.

1:33:34.479 --> 1:33:37.280
<v Speaker 1>What other American songs? Because you know we're lost in America.

1:33:37.360 --> 1:33:39.760
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I was been until five months ago.

1:33:39.920 --> 1:33:44.080
<v Speaker 1>So I'm just saying that, what other songs do you

1:33:44.200 --> 1:33:47.200
<v Speaker 1>hear an American culture that you feel in your heart?

1:33:48.040 --> 1:33:49.560
<v Speaker 5>There are so many of them. I just singing it.

1:33:50.640 --> 1:33:52.840
<v Speaker 5>It have to be there, I mean, versus versus price,

1:33:52.960 --> 1:33:55.720
<v Speaker 5>it's not. When I was doing the the listening wing

1:33:55.880 --> 1:34:00.080
<v Speaker 5>on the album of the Talking Heads, The Vermain to

1:34:00.160 --> 1:34:04.040
<v Speaker 5>Remain Live, I sang and Ezra sign that song with me,

1:34:05.080 --> 1:34:07.240
<v Speaker 5>and that song is a song that is really profound.

1:34:08.760 --> 1:34:13.240
<v Speaker 5>It goes I'm a wabo. Then on sackwayo Baldi tula,

1:34:14.920 --> 1:34:21.640
<v Speaker 5>I'm a wabo no sackway tula o me why oh me?

1:34:21.800 --> 1:34:28.800
<v Speaker 5>Why o me? Why hey me? Why e yay yeah

1:34:29.080 --> 1:34:30.800
<v Speaker 5>yeay tu last.

1:34:32.080 --> 1:34:34.520
<v Speaker 1>He said, you make that look so effortless.

1:34:36.479 --> 1:34:41.599
<v Speaker 5>It's definitely because that's like a my life. You can't

1:34:41.680 --> 1:34:47.240
<v Speaker 5>cast a spell, you can't stop. When a hunter goes

1:34:47.320 --> 1:34:51.400
<v Speaker 5>out to hunt, he's the one telling the story. But

1:34:51.560 --> 1:34:53.840
<v Speaker 5>when you shoot at the black panther and you miss,

1:34:54.840 --> 1:34:59.080
<v Speaker 5>the story is different because that spell you cast before

1:34:59.120 --> 1:35:02.639
<v Speaker 5>you try shooting him, he can come back and get

1:35:02.760 --> 1:35:04.599
<v Speaker 5>you and then who's staring the story?

1:35:04.680 --> 1:35:12.760
<v Speaker 1>Now? The panther there it is. I do want to

1:35:12.760 --> 1:35:18.000
<v Speaker 1>ask you about remaining light? How how long has this

1:35:18.240 --> 1:35:23.720
<v Speaker 1>been passion project? I mean, I'm assuming that for you

1:35:23.840 --> 1:35:26.680
<v Speaker 1>to cover an entire album, it has to be a

1:35:26.760 --> 1:35:27.519
<v Speaker 1>passion project.

1:35:27.640 --> 1:35:28.920
<v Speaker 3>So what.

1:35:30.479 --> 1:35:33.000
<v Speaker 1>First of all, did you know the history of David

1:35:33.040 --> 1:35:35.719
<v Speaker 1>Byrne's obsession with Nigerian music?

1:35:35.880 --> 1:35:36.640
<v Speaker 5>And I didn't know.

1:35:36.880 --> 1:35:37.719
<v Speaker 1>You didn't know anything.

1:35:37.800 --> 1:35:40.519
<v Speaker 5>I didn't know all that till I start working on it.

1:35:41.200 --> 1:35:43.560
<v Speaker 5>Wait what Yeah, when I started working on it, I

1:35:43.680 --> 1:35:48.360
<v Speaker 5>went out and find out, Oh, really, start listening to

1:35:48.439 --> 1:35:50.320
<v Speaker 5>the song first, because the song have to speak to

1:35:50.400 --> 1:35:53.479
<v Speaker 5>me before I get dive into it too, because I

1:35:53.520 --> 1:35:55.200
<v Speaker 5>don't want to know anything about it. Then it can

1:35:55.800 --> 1:36:00.800
<v Speaker 5>it would impact my inspiration. So as as we were

1:36:00.880 --> 1:36:04.040
<v Speaker 5>working on it, I had so many traditional songs that

1:36:04.040 --> 1:36:06.439
<v Speaker 5>I've been sung to me by women when I was

1:36:06.520 --> 1:36:08.840
<v Speaker 5>doing Beninese women and Kenyan women. When I was doing

1:36:08.880 --> 1:36:12.000
<v Speaker 5>my album Eve and that album that I dedicate to

1:36:12.080 --> 1:36:14.120
<v Speaker 5>the resilience and the beauty of the African women that

1:36:14.240 --> 1:36:17.840
<v Speaker 5>want the Grammy. It was not only songs that I

1:36:18.000 --> 1:36:22.599
<v Speaker 5>come back with, life stories too, women that I've been

1:36:22.640 --> 1:36:26.200
<v Speaker 5>going through hell. I've sung with Amazon Descendants in a

1:36:26.280 --> 1:36:31.720
<v Speaker 5>boomy many songs, profound songs, so I put them there.

1:36:32.000 --> 1:36:33.920
<v Speaker 5>I listened to talking and I listened to the women,

1:36:34.360 --> 1:36:39.639
<v Speaker 5>and the song goes, they go together, and the message

1:36:41.520 --> 1:36:45.360
<v Speaker 5>just match so well. And I also I think that

1:36:45.560 --> 1:36:53.600
<v Speaker 5>this project for me is about many things. After the

1:36:53.680 --> 1:36:56.839
<v Speaker 5>last election, I said, I don't want to live in darkness.

1:36:58.000 --> 1:37:00.600
<v Speaker 5>I don't want to live in fear because I had

1:37:00.720 --> 1:37:06.479
<v Speaker 5>never been raised in fear. Whatever gonna happen, my music's

1:37:06.479 --> 1:37:08.519
<v Speaker 5>gonna be always the one that's gonna remain in light

1:37:08.640 --> 1:37:09.599
<v Speaker 5>and keep people in light.

1:37:10.800 --> 1:37:11.000
<v Speaker 1>One.

1:37:11.840 --> 1:37:15.360
<v Speaker 5>The second reason is that the voice of the women

1:37:15.960 --> 1:37:18.800
<v Speaker 5>have so much wisdom that this album deserved to have it.

1:37:20.080 --> 1:37:22.680
<v Speaker 5>The third thing is when they wrote this album and

1:37:22.960 --> 1:37:26.320
<v Speaker 5>did this album, it was at the reggae era, war

1:37:26.479 --> 1:37:30.840
<v Speaker 5>on drugs, and now we have war on democracy. So

1:37:31.240 --> 1:37:35.599
<v Speaker 5>I started listening to the lyrics differently, and people used

1:37:35.600 --> 1:37:39.719
<v Speaker 5>to tell me those talking Head songs, men, the words

1:37:39.760 --> 1:37:43.160
<v Speaker 5>are absurd. You don't understand nothing, And I'm like, you

1:37:43.280 --> 1:37:46.760
<v Speaker 5>gotta know how to listen to it. You got to

1:37:46.880 --> 1:37:49.479
<v Speaker 5>know how to listen to it. And the first time

1:37:49.479 --> 1:37:51.000
<v Speaker 5>I heard Born on the Punch is I'm like, this

1:37:51.120 --> 1:37:54.080
<v Speaker 5>is corruption big time here. We are all born on

1:37:54.160 --> 1:37:57.800
<v Speaker 5>the punches. Our lyrics have set up a system of

1:37:57.960 --> 1:38:02.920
<v Speaker 5>corruption that deprived us from our rights to thrive, our children,

1:38:03.000 --> 1:38:07.640
<v Speaker 5>to thrive, our society to function, North Southeast. It does

1:38:07.760 --> 1:38:10.160
<v Speaker 5>not matter where it is. It's not an African problem.

1:38:10.320 --> 1:38:14.160
<v Speaker 5>Is the worldwide problem. And that for me, is one

1:38:14.160 --> 1:38:15.720
<v Speaker 5>of the things that we have to shed light on

1:38:16.600 --> 1:38:19.600
<v Speaker 5>because if you look at it, you look at the

1:38:19.640 --> 1:38:22.400
<v Speaker 5>world in which we are living. I'll take it from

1:38:22.439 --> 1:38:30.320
<v Speaker 5>Africa after colonization, and I said, organizations still exists in Africa.

1:38:31.000 --> 1:38:34.479
<v Speaker 5>The independence that we have is just a word with

1:38:34.720 --> 1:38:40.080
<v Speaker 5>no substance because the independence that we had does not

1:38:40.280 --> 1:38:44.559
<v Speaker 5>allow us Africans to set our resources the price we want.

1:38:44.680 --> 1:38:47.680
<v Speaker 5>We don't set the price of our resources. People come

1:38:47.760 --> 1:38:49.479
<v Speaker 5>and take it and pay the price they want it

1:38:49.560 --> 1:38:51.680
<v Speaker 5>that sometimes they don't pay. They don't give money to

1:38:52.439 --> 1:38:54.200
<v Speaker 5>a government that they want to keep in place to

1:38:54.240 --> 1:38:58.439
<v Speaker 5>be able to take what they need from Africa. And

1:38:58.560 --> 1:39:04.800
<v Speaker 5>in order to continue that what they call independence, they

1:39:04.880 --> 1:39:07.760
<v Speaker 5>have to find a way to stop. Every single person

1:39:07.760 --> 1:39:10.639
<v Speaker 5>that's gonna stay gonna say to them, this is not doable.

1:39:11.560 --> 1:39:16.880
<v Speaker 5>Start with Bluemomba Kuiman Krumer, all those educated men, when

1:39:16.960 --> 1:39:21.320
<v Speaker 5>the country colonizing them presented to them what they call

1:39:21.640 --> 1:39:26.960
<v Speaker 5>the colonial Pact, in which basically they have no power.

1:39:27.720 --> 1:39:31.439
<v Speaker 5>You are independent, but you have no power. You can

1:39:31.560 --> 1:39:34.840
<v Speaker 5>have a currency. If you want to build the roads,

1:39:34.880 --> 1:39:36.800
<v Speaker 5>we have to come and do it. Anything you have

1:39:36.920 --> 1:39:38.960
<v Speaker 5>to do, we have to do it for you. You

1:39:39.080 --> 1:39:44.800
<v Speaker 5>cannot make any policy that will impact our interest and

1:39:45.120 --> 1:39:47.439
<v Speaker 5>you have to keep your population on the check. No

1:39:47.680 --> 1:39:50.840
<v Speaker 5>riot in the street against our interests. All those things

1:39:50.920 --> 1:39:53.400
<v Speaker 5>are written in the pact. So when the mover stand

1:39:53.520 --> 1:39:58.200
<v Speaker 5>up against it, they kill him, not I mean with

1:39:58.360 --> 1:40:01.960
<v Speaker 5>the help of CIA. The CI, the guide of CIA

1:40:02.080 --> 1:40:04.320
<v Speaker 5>said we kill him and dump him and asked for

1:40:04.520 --> 1:40:06.400
<v Speaker 5>him not to have any place where people can come

1:40:06.479 --> 1:40:11.800
<v Speaker 5>and say this is our hero. So why did they

1:40:11.880 --> 1:40:19.120
<v Speaker 5>do that? Because they put people puppets in politic in

1:40:19.400 --> 1:40:22.000
<v Speaker 5>high places. They continue doing it. I don't know. If

1:40:22.040 --> 1:40:28.120
<v Speaker 5>you see the documentary UH on CNN about the Cobalt, well,

1:40:28.160 --> 1:40:31.519
<v Speaker 5>you gotta see that the children are working to get cobalt.

1:40:31.720 --> 1:40:34.320
<v Speaker 5>The Cobold people don't even know where it's going when

1:40:34.360 --> 1:40:36.320
<v Speaker 5>they put it on the on the on the bus.

1:40:36.800 --> 1:40:39.760
<v Speaker 5>They have paper and they write the amount, Well, who

1:40:39.880 --> 1:40:42.880
<v Speaker 5>is it going to? You can't find it? I mean

1:40:43.479 --> 1:40:46.679
<v Speaker 5>the head of Testla saying, oh, we always follow the origin.

1:40:46.760 --> 1:40:48.640
<v Speaker 5>And then they're going to say, ask him where it

1:40:48.760 --> 1:40:51.720
<v Speaker 5>is the paper? Say what is your name? So it's

1:40:51.840 --> 1:40:55.160
<v Speaker 5>always everything the business. The way business is done in Africa,

1:40:56.160 --> 1:40:58.800
<v Speaker 5>it's done nowhere. The rule of business don't apply in

1:40:58.880 --> 1:41:03.479
<v Speaker 5>Africa is just we come, we take, we leave. So

1:41:03.640 --> 1:41:05.679
<v Speaker 5>for me, one of the point is, well, the first

1:41:05.720 --> 1:41:08.800
<v Speaker 5>song and I said, I'm going hard on this one.

1:41:09.320 --> 1:41:12.200
<v Speaker 5>I'm gonna do it. And then you have cross cross

1:41:12.280 --> 1:41:16.840
<v Speaker 5>eye penless. Cross eye penless is about calling people names.

1:41:17.360 --> 1:41:20.040
<v Speaker 5>You call us what you call us the N word,

1:41:20.160 --> 1:41:22.960
<v Speaker 5>you call us any kind of name, But what kind

1:41:23.000 --> 1:41:24.680
<v Speaker 5>of name you want us to tell? To give you?

1:41:24.680 --> 1:41:28.479
<v Speaker 5>You start telling me who you are? That question never

1:41:28.600 --> 1:41:31.519
<v Speaker 5>come out? Who are you? How do you see yourself

1:41:32.800 --> 1:41:35.439
<v Speaker 5>compared to us? If you call us name, who are you?

1:41:36.320 --> 1:41:38.000
<v Speaker 5>Why do you call us that name? And who give

1:41:38.080 --> 1:41:39.680
<v Speaker 5>us that name? What gives you the right to give

1:41:39.760 --> 1:41:45.479
<v Speaker 5>us that name? So that said, cross eye penless, your

1:41:45.520 --> 1:41:47.559
<v Speaker 5>eyes are crossed, and goes to the direction that function

1:41:47.720 --> 1:41:50.680
<v Speaker 5>for you. The rest you don't want to know, and

1:41:50.840 --> 1:41:52.800
<v Speaker 5>so on and so forth. So the whole album. I

1:41:52.920 --> 1:41:56.280
<v Speaker 5>listened to it completely differently. The Great Curve is about

1:41:58.200 --> 1:42:02.960
<v Speaker 5>Mother Earth, hm, not only the nature, but the women

1:42:04.560 --> 1:42:10.880
<v Speaker 5>from since since we have been on this planet. Who

1:42:11.040 --> 1:42:13.840
<v Speaker 5>tells the story of the women? Not about the man?

1:42:15.840 --> 1:42:19.439
<v Speaker 5>Adam and Eve's all, my mom says. All our problem

1:42:19.520 --> 1:42:23.599
<v Speaker 5>as women start from there. From the moment a man

1:42:23.800 --> 1:42:28.120
<v Speaker 5>cannot stand for his own tech responsibility, for his own

1:42:28.200 --> 1:42:32.519
<v Speaker 5>desire and have to blame a woman for tempting him.

1:42:33.560 --> 1:42:36.080
<v Speaker 5>And he has a brain to think, knowing very well

1:42:36.160 --> 1:42:39.880
<v Speaker 5>that apple if he takes it, there are gonna be consequences.

1:42:40.280 --> 1:42:43.680
<v Speaker 5>He took it anyway and blame a woman? Did I

1:42:43.800 --> 1:42:47.160
<v Speaker 5>always ask the question did Eve just knock him down

1:42:47.320 --> 1:42:49.560
<v Speaker 5>and put his feet on the throat and shoveled in

1:42:49.640 --> 1:42:53.000
<v Speaker 5>his mouth? So why do we have to be blamed

1:42:53.040 --> 1:42:56.840
<v Speaker 5>for the man's sexual life? I mean there's a war

1:42:57.040 --> 1:43:00.519
<v Speaker 5>rage again in this country against women to go for abortion.

1:43:00.640 --> 1:43:03.479
<v Speaker 5>Abortion is not never an easy decision to make for

1:43:03.600 --> 1:43:06.280
<v Speaker 5>any woman. It takes two today as the tank wor's

1:43:06.280 --> 1:43:08.920
<v Speaker 5>the guy. If the guy is there helping the woman,

1:43:09.120 --> 1:43:11.679
<v Speaker 5>the woman don't think two seconds to go have a abortion.

1:43:13.120 --> 1:43:15.559
<v Speaker 5>So we are blamed for that to everything we blame,

1:43:15.640 --> 1:43:18.120
<v Speaker 5>we are blamed for. So the mead To movement is

1:43:18.200 --> 1:43:20.000
<v Speaker 5>a great movement, but we have to have a mead

1:43:20.040 --> 1:43:22.640
<v Speaker 5>To movement for the mother Earth because the way we're

1:43:22.680 --> 1:43:28.160
<v Speaker 5>treating this planet, oh my God, oh my God, is bad.

1:43:30.240 --> 1:43:33.519
<v Speaker 5>Beyond that, exactly house is in motion is eight thousand,

1:43:33.720 --> 1:43:37.160
<v Speaker 5>two thousand and eight crisis. There's one, there's another one looming,

1:43:37.640 --> 1:43:41.280
<v Speaker 5>not gonna come. And it's always the same. We choose,

1:43:41.600 --> 1:43:44.439
<v Speaker 5>we have chosen as human being when we come to

1:43:44.560 --> 1:43:48.120
<v Speaker 5>this planet, not to go for the greater good, not

1:43:48.240 --> 1:43:50.839
<v Speaker 5>to go for kindness, but to go for the jugular,

1:43:51.600 --> 1:43:54.200
<v Speaker 5>go for the violence. You want something, you want it,

1:43:54.320 --> 1:43:57.080
<v Speaker 5>and then somebody is on your way. We kill, we

1:43:57.280 --> 1:43:59.600
<v Speaker 5>eradicate your raist, and that's it. We did it for

1:43:59.640 --> 1:44:03.200
<v Speaker 5>the Inn and in in in, in Peru. We did

1:44:03.240 --> 1:44:06.440
<v Speaker 5>it I mean everywhere, the general side of the aboriginiest

1:44:06.479 --> 1:44:10.400
<v Speaker 5>people here, the Native Indians in Africa, slavery I mean,

1:44:10.640 --> 1:44:14.400
<v Speaker 5>and we all have made and excused. The word of

1:44:14.560 --> 1:44:18.040
<v Speaker 5>excuse for those crime is business. When you're doing business,

1:44:18.080 --> 1:44:21.760
<v Speaker 5>you're making profit, everything is cool. We worship money more

1:44:21.840 --> 1:44:24.519
<v Speaker 5>than we worship God, more than we worship human life.

1:44:24.920 --> 1:44:27.920
<v Speaker 5>So for me, the whole Many Light album is the

1:44:29.080 --> 1:44:33.080
<v Speaker 5>anxiety of the Reagan era that we are feeling today.

1:44:33.840 --> 1:44:37.559
<v Speaker 5>So how do we reconcile that? That's why my take

1:44:37.680 --> 1:44:43.160
<v Speaker 5>on Once in a Lifetime is so joyful because there's

1:44:43.200 --> 1:44:48.080
<v Speaker 5>something positive about it. It brings us to questions, how

1:44:48.160 --> 1:44:52.519
<v Speaker 5>do we get here? Can we ask ourselves the questions

1:44:52.680 --> 1:44:57.120
<v Speaker 5>and see the symbolism of water in all this? Every

1:44:57.200 --> 1:44:59.800
<v Speaker 5>single human being have to grow up in water before

1:44:59.840 --> 1:45:04.080
<v Speaker 5>you come to be born to this earth. What have

1:45:04.280 --> 1:45:08.559
<v Speaker 5>been at the center of my our migration in this world?

1:45:08.640 --> 1:45:13.680
<v Speaker 5>All of us, from Homo erectus to homosapiens, to the

1:45:14.479 --> 1:45:17.439
<v Speaker 5>town to Davidian. All of the brains we can call

1:45:18.560 --> 1:45:23.920
<v Speaker 5>goes through water. The migrant crisis of today is on water.

1:45:25.560 --> 1:45:30.599
<v Speaker 5>We're gonna be fighting for water pretty soon. We can

1:45:30.680 --> 1:45:34.080
<v Speaker 5>live without gasoline? Can we live without water?

1:45:35.960 --> 1:45:36.000
<v Speaker 6>So?

1:45:36.160 --> 1:45:36.920
<v Speaker 5>How do we get here?

1:45:38.200 --> 1:45:38.760
<v Speaker 1>Are we wrong?

1:45:39.240 --> 1:45:42.280
<v Speaker 5>Are we right? My god? What have we done?

1:45:46.320 --> 1:45:54.320
<v Speaker 1>Hang on? Yo? This is the wokenst episode of the

1:45:54.439 --> 1:46:01.320
<v Speaker 1>show ever, Like, I h can we go on after this?

1:46:01.560 --> 1:46:03.720
<v Speaker 1>Like like I feel like I need to go home

1:46:03.760 --> 1:46:06.360
<v Speaker 1>and listen to remain in a couple of times exactly now?

1:46:06.840 --> 1:46:09.080
<v Speaker 2>Did you or you should start a coffee table book?

1:46:09.120 --> 1:46:12.880
<v Speaker 2>Of your saying you have ever done that? No people

1:46:12.920 --> 1:46:17.160
<v Speaker 2>have that's next, Yeah, that's I mean, yeah, Well, is

1:46:17.240 --> 1:46:22.679
<v Speaker 2>there anything that you you haven't done? You've worked with everyone, You've.

1:46:23.960 --> 1:46:24.000
<v Speaker 1>That.

1:46:24.600 --> 1:46:26.960
<v Speaker 5>We have never done our album. We've been talking about we.

1:46:27.080 --> 1:46:30.000
<v Speaker 1>Were I know, I know we're going to do it.

1:46:31.040 --> 1:46:31.680
<v Speaker 5>We're going to do it.

1:46:32.439 --> 1:46:36.920
<v Speaker 1>But okay. So that's like the running theme of the show.

1:46:37.479 --> 1:46:41.320
<v Speaker 1>Everybody does a record request love Yeah, or that I've

1:46:41.439 --> 1:46:45.760
<v Speaker 1>yet to hold up my end of the bargain. Too

1:46:45.840 --> 1:46:46.559
<v Speaker 1>many jobs.

1:46:48.520 --> 1:46:51.160
<v Speaker 5>No, it's not that. Because he liked music. I like

1:46:51.280 --> 1:46:54.720
<v Speaker 5>him for that. I mean, he's open to I mean,

1:46:55.320 --> 1:46:59.240
<v Speaker 5>it was very surprising for me when he he started

1:46:59.280 --> 1:47:01.719
<v Speaker 5>playing with me. I'm like, this guy is American drummer,

1:47:01.760 --> 1:47:05.120
<v Speaker 5>but he's more than that because he listened to so

1:47:05.280 --> 1:47:07.600
<v Speaker 5>different type of music. It's like me, he grew up

1:47:07.640 --> 1:47:11.080
<v Speaker 5>with music parents musicians, and sometimes you can grow up

1:47:11.120 --> 1:47:14.120
<v Speaker 5>with parents musician and you go, I hate music, man,

1:47:14.120 --> 1:47:16.320
<v Speaker 5>I want nothing to do with that. Drive me crazy.

1:47:17.360 --> 1:47:20.000
<v Speaker 5>He listens and he come up to be who he is.

1:47:20.320 --> 1:47:21.200
<v Speaker 1>I don't have a choice.

1:47:21.400 --> 1:47:24.599
<v Speaker 5>He does not copy. He is himself. When you hear

1:47:24.720 --> 1:47:28.040
<v Speaker 5>his drumming, you know it's him. Nobody else plays the drum,

1:47:28.120 --> 1:47:30.559
<v Speaker 5>the way he plays. That's it. And that's the most

1:47:30.560 --> 1:47:32.920
<v Speaker 5>difficult thing to do in our business where you have

1:47:33.080 --> 1:47:36.640
<v Speaker 5>so many talents around. How do you you? How are

1:47:36.680 --> 1:47:38.759
<v Speaker 5>you unique and true to yourself?

1:47:39.840 --> 1:47:41.840
<v Speaker 1>Well, let's see if you feel that way after this

1:47:41.960 --> 1:47:47.680
<v Speaker 1>Prince project. Thank you very much for a coming.

1:47:52.840 --> 1:47:53.040
<v Speaker 5>Man.

1:47:54.520 --> 1:47:59.320
<v Speaker 1>I need a sandwich. I need to go back to college.

1:48:00.920 --> 1:48:04.280
<v Speaker 1>Anyway we have of Damn, this's public school education in

1:48:04.400 --> 1:48:07.920
<v Speaker 1>my let me having of Sugar, Steve of Chat with

1:48:08.040 --> 1:48:12.760
<v Speaker 1>Sugar and twin Bills. Uh, this is a quest Love.

1:48:13.080 --> 1:48:16.040
<v Speaker 1>Also shout out to fan Tigelow and it's like it's like,

1:48:17.080 --> 1:48:19.200
<v Speaker 1>thank you Angelic one more time. This is a quest

1:48:20.960 --> 1:48:21.600
<v Speaker 1>I appreciate it.

1:48:21.800 --> 1:48:21.920
<v Speaker 7>Uh.

1:48:22.080 --> 1:48:24.360
<v Speaker 1>This is quest Love Supreme on Pandora. We'll see you

1:48:24.479 --> 1:48:38.720
<v Speaker 1>the next go round. Thank you. Quest Love Supreme is

1:48:38.760 --> 1:48:42.600
<v Speaker 1>a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode was produced by

1:48:42.760 --> 1:48:48.599
<v Speaker 1>the team at Pandora. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio,

1:48:48.760 --> 1:48:52.160
<v Speaker 1>visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

1:48:52.280 --> 1:48:53.400
<v Speaker 1>listen to your favorite shows.