Speaker 1: R and B Money.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 1: Thanks take MATOCHI. We are the authority on all things
Speaker 1: R and B.
Speaker 3: Ladies and gentlemen. Money is Tank Valentine. This it's the
Speaker 3: R and B Money Podcast. It is the authority on
Speaker 3: all things.
Speaker 4: What it is R Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got talent
Speaker 4: in the building. Yeah, it's shining. You see, I got
Speaker 4: glasses on.
Speaker 3: You see it is it somewhere shine? It's the gifts
Speaker 3: are in the buildings. They are Are you well rounded?
Speaker 1: Huh hm hmmm. Do you know your chart?
Speaker 3: Do you do you know either?
Speaker 1: Can you do it all? Man? Don't look shy?
Speaker 3: Sang it, sing it, write it, write it, acted, produce it,
Speaker 3: promote it.
Speaker 1: Doing impression up, doing impression up?
Speaker 5: Guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but wait, you don't know your chart, your birth chart?
Speaker 2: Do you all know what time you were born?
Speaker 1: Now you know what? Let's get into the interview. No,
Speaker 1: let's do it. No, listen to it. I don't know
Speaker 1: any of that.
Speaker 4: I went for any of those women in my DMS
Speaker 4: trying to figure out my chart. I will never tell
Speaker 4: you because I don't know it.
Speaker 3: I was the seventh baby born on January first, I
Speaker 3: don't know.
Speaker 1: None of that was in the morning.
Speaker 5: But you don't know what's time.
Speaker 1: Seven seventeen.
Speaker 4: I do know that my father caught a charge on
Speaker 4: the day I was born, because I seen his police record.
Speaker 1: Is that does that? Did that do anything.
Speaker 2: Significant?
Speaker 1: Absolutely had some astrological significance.
Speaker 4: I was just randomly looking at his rap sheet one
Speaker 4: day and I'm like, Dad, are you serious?
Speaker 1: Man? This is my birthday?
Speaker 2: Man trying to get to you.
Speaker 1: He had to, you know, he ad something on him
Speaker 1: and you know he.
Speaker 2: Got you know, yeah, a little celebratory.
Speaker 1: No, not celebratory fireworks.
Speaker 2: Maybe for another time, we'll discuss a gunshote.
Speaker 3: Geez doctor goal slap, slap my son on the back.
Speaker 1: So pull it out on. Hit him again, See what happened?
Speaker 1: Hit him again? See what happened? How you doing? J good?
Speaker 1: I just seen you.
Speaker 2: I did. I seen you at south By Southwest talking
Speaker 2: in a little fireside chat and dropping gems.
Speaker 3: And enough fireside chat. Shout out to Alex Haike over
Speaker 3: a sound Royalties.
Speaker 1: Out there talking about man.
Speaker 3: Man, we're talking about the business man and and getting
Speaker 3: into the ideas of ownership and in ways that the
Speaker 3: business can help you and find ways that people don't
Speaker 3: really know or are able to tap into it.
Speaker 1: Sound.
Speaker 3: Royalty is a one those places that people don't really
Speaker 3: totally understand how it helps you, how it can help
Speaker 3: you sustain your business and grow your business and all
Speaker 3: of these types of things without having to give away ownership.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So that's where I was,
Speaker 1: you know, doing a panel, and what you're doing here
Speaker 1: is getting the penalty.
Speaker 4: Now we have an example of independence, a clear example
Speaker 4: of independence how you can thrive dependently.
Speaker 3: But also, like you know, I think you know, there
Speaker 3: are so many I mean, there's so many ways of
Speaker 3: skin a cat, but I think you've done it in
Speaker 3: such a way where you've led.
Speaker 2: With your talent that analogy scared me. Do we do
Speaker 2: we have another option for skinning cats as a vegan?
Speaker 2: I find that.
Speaker 1: Here we go, Here we go.
Speaker 2: Peter agreed.
Speaker 3: I mean, but but they didn't eat the cat. It
Speaker 3: just just okay, let's just get.
Speaker 1: Their hair, cam.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I.
Speaker 1: Didn't eat the cat. I don't know part of it.
Speaker 1: It's getting the cat. I'm scared. I'm scared of peed.
Speaker 1: It more than one way to chop down the tree.
Speaker 2: That's still that's not good for the environment.
Speaker 3: All right, Okay, there's there's more than one way.
Speaker 1: To be successful, or you could be literal that's yes, and.
Speaker 3: You've I think I feel and I'm sure most would agree,
Speaker 3: you've let with your talent, like in a in a
Speaker 3: in a space or in a landscape where people are
Speaker 3: leading with a whole lot of other things, like what
Speaker 3: shock value? Ass you know, I'll stop there shock value and.
Speaker 2: Ask maybe that's their talent, maybe because some people are
Speaker 2: really gifted.
Speaker 3: But where I come from, you had to be able
Speaker 3: to sing to turn all that ship off. It'll be
Speaker 3: a sing thank god you and write a song that's
Speaker 3: a plus, but then stand on that stage and deliver
Speaker 3: that ship like nobody's business. But you're also a unicorn
Speaker 3: in the fact that you act and you do all
Speaker 3: of these comedic things and have to commit like that.
Speaker 3: Now you're now you're just showing off. Ah, Now you're
Speaker 3: just showing you're.
Speaker 2: Don't want to talk. I told my friend I was
Speaker 2: coming out here and I was like, yeah, Tank, And
Speaker 2: like the comedian Tank, I'm like, wa, yes, yes, somebody cool.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's really cool. One standup?
Speaker 6: What you doing?
Speaker 2: Stand up? Now?
Speaker 1: I've been doing stand up?
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna have to like, I'm gonna have to
Speaker 2: pick your brain on that because I'm getting ready. I'm
Speaker 2: ready for stand up.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you there's there There is no like blueprint,
Speaker 3: Like everybody's gonna have different advice for you right in
Speaker 3: different you know.
Speaker 1: Just do it. I know what's the worst that can happen?
Speaker 2: I know, yeah, getting heckled, But I mean I think
Speaker 2: that's a part of the process. Like Chappelle, the most
Speaker 2: incredible storyteller comedian of our time, gets heck You.
Speaker 1: Can rebuttle a heckle.
Speaker 3: You're fast and witty enough to get back into It's
Speaker 3: not what you think it is.
Speaker 1: I just can't see j being like, shut the fuck up.
Speaker 2: Most certainly I sold the crowd during an R and
Speaker 2: B concert to shut the fuck up. If the energy
Speaker 2: isn't right, I will call it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but we gotta get back to that job.
Speaker 4: How do you tell the R and B? Because I've
Speaker 4: been to your show, Yeah, I could not imagine you
Speaker 4: in the middle of that show where it's like stars
Speaker 4: and beautiful things and lights.
Speaker 2: I'm a Gemini. I mean, I don't know what that
Speaker 2: means to you.
Speaker 1: I know exactly what this means.
Speaker 2: He seems very anti astrology.
Speaker 1: I have a daughter that's a Gemini. I know exactly
Speaker 1: what it is.
Speaker 2: Yes, we can.
Speaker 1: What's your day? Yeah?
Speaker 2: May thirtieth, My daughter's May twenty six made Gemini. So
Speaker 2: when emerald gem is what I like to call us
Speaker 2: because the Burthstone, And okay.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell her. You know you're an Emerald. I'm
Speaker 3: call her as soon as we fits. No, it's just
Speaker 3: I think, just literally just jump. You have the material, like,
Speaker 3: you know you're funny. You know you're funny, and so
Speaker 3: it's just discovering how funny you are in this space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it trusts me.
Speaker 3: It goes a long way when you can get on
Speaker 3: that stage.
Speaker 2: How long have you been doing stand up though, Shah?
Speaker 1: I started years ago? Yeah, shit, close to.
Speaker 2: Eight nine years old, you've been doing this.
Speaker 1: I had no idea, but I literally jumped off the roof.
Speaker 3: Literally I had. I had never been on stage before.
Speaker 3: And Chris Spencer is getting ready to go up in
Speaker 3: Atlanta and perform.
Speaker 1: Damn was that eight years ago?
Speaker 3: That's more than eight years ago probably, And that was
Speaker 3: more than eight years ago, and Chris and I was like, bro,
Speaker 3: you're here in a Landa, you're going on. You're going
Speaker 3: on stage. She was like, He's like, yeah, what's up.
Speaker 3: He's liked, you want to open? I was like this, man, no,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't be doing those those things. You
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, though, Well, well maybe, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I want to open. He's like, then shut the funk up.
Speaker 3: I said no, I want to open for real. He
Speaker 3: was like, whatever, all right, just just meet me up here.
Speaker 3: I was like, all right, cool. And I sat there
Speaker 3: and I just start writing jokes right on the spot.
Speaker 3: On the spot, yeah what I thought with jokes anyway.
Speaker 3: So I start writing these jokes and these moms or whatever.
Speaker 3: And so I get there and I'm like, I'm like,
Speaker 3: I say, Chris, I'm like, yes, So what's up? So
Speaker 3: what time do I go on? He was like this,
Speaker 3: fuck are you talking about? I'm like, what time do
Speaker 3: I hit to stay?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 3: I want to open? He's like, man, come outside. So
Speaker 3: we go outside. He's like this, are you sure about this?
Speaker 3: He's like, cause this is what you should do if
Speaker 3: you're gonna do it, say, I said, I got it.
Speaker 3: He said yeah, but this is different. Thank if you
Speaker 3: go I said, I got it. He said all right, okay.
Speaker 2: And how many minutes did you prepare?
Speaker 3: I prepared, Like see, that's the thing. I didn't know
Speaker 3: what minutes were. As I'm writing jokes.
Speaker 1: I don't know back to songwriting, yes, not knowing when
Speaker 1: the hook, know that.
Speaker 3: It was completely foreign to me. I just know I
Speaker 3: had about four or five jokes, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But I also knew that I was a storyteller, so
Speaker 3: if I needed to extend, I could just I don't
Speaker 3: make up some shit whatever. And so when I get there,
Speaker 3: there are other opening acts. I thought it was going
Speaker 3: to be me and then him, there are other comedians
Speaker 3: and when I say they are going crazy, they are
Speaker 3: fucking ship up. And I like when somebody's singing good
Speaker 3: before I go on, or performing good in the R
Speaker 3: and B space, I know what to do to combat that.
Speaker 3: Take a shirt off.
Speaker 2: That's my method.
Speaker 1: Yeahga's your comedy right there.
Speaker 3: So I never I had never followed a comedian that
Speaker 3: was killing. So I said, if you could give me
Speaker 3: three patrons, just three outs, three of them, Just just
Speaker 3: line me up with three shots of patron really quick,
Speaker 3: because this thing is going crazy. I don't know what's
Speaker 3: gonna happen when I get up there, pads, patrons, He
Speaker 3: called me up to do this set, called me up
Speaker 3: do my set, and I do my set, and it's
Speaker 3: one of those things where anything that could go right
Speaker 3: went right. It was a magical moment, like literally like
Speaker 3: my my ending joke. The girl that was supposed to
Speaker 3: be participating, it was just dance she was supposed to
Speaker 3: be doing. And to make my joke even bigger, she
Speaker 3: fucked around and slipped and fell off the stage.
Speaker 1: And I said, that's my time, good night, and everybody's laughing,
Speaker 1: going crazy like it got.
Speaker 3: It was so crazy. Chris came on, he did it.
Speaker 3: When he started his set, he did his first fifteen
Speaker 3: minutes about me, like this motherfucking came on. So I
Speaker 3: literally jumped out the window.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 3: Almost got booed and it's inglewood, but that's a that's fine.
Speaker 3: It happened, almost got booed in front of baby Face.
Speaker 3: So I came back and said back down. Baby Face
Speaker 3: looked at me, said I took guts in baby Face fashion,
Speaker 3: right right. And then somebody went on stage after me
Speaker 3: and did a whole fifteen minutes about me and my outfit.
Speaker 1: So listen. That's comedy.
Speaker 2: You gotta you gotta yeah, you gotta have a lightheartedness
Speaker 2: and a thick skin.
Speaker 1: You of all people can do stand up.
Speaker 2: Okay, say I received it.
Speaker 1: And you've got when you go up, I'm.
Speaker 2: Coming absolutely not. You will do it like anonymously.
Speaker 3: How about we do it together? Okay, okay, we just
Speaker 3: picked we just we pick a spot. We'll go somewhere
Speaker 3: on lancashim or.
Speaker 2: Go or maybe seasoned.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm not season jumping together.
Speaker 1: Just nobody. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not known as
Speaker 1: a comedian.
Speaker 2: Clearly you are because when I told someone I was that,
Speaker 2: somebody said, tank to comedian, the comedian, let's do it together.
Speaker 1: You have way more comedic hours than I do. I know.
Speaker 1: That's for a fact.
Speaker 2: Okay, I have some material. Let's let's yeah listen.
Speaker 1: And then you have the trump card when you go
Speaker 1: into that person.
Speaker 7: Impersonations, it's a rap.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it is a rap.
Speaker 3: That's the that's the it's number one love and comedy impersonations. No,
Speaker 3: I can do a couple, but they're I'm like, great,
Speaker 3: can I hear him?
Speaker 2: No? But who do you do?
Speaker 6: Though?
Speaker 2: Just so I know, who's your who can you impersonate?
Speaker 1: I do Quincy Jones?
Speaker 2: I could, I could already imagine that you would do that.
Speaker 3: Well, I stole that from Jamie. I do Quincy Jones,
Speaker 3: and uh, that might be it.
Speaker 2: Quincy Jones is really big on horoscopes too. I met
Speaker 2: him and he asked what my sign was. Yes, Devin,
Speaker 2: my husband with his sign was that's a thing for him.
Speaker 3: You know, quiz is different. Okay, all right, so let's
Speaker 3: do this. Let's go at the beginning. Yeah, let's start
Speaker 3: at the beginning, all right, the early Jade is it?
Speaker 1: Jade? Nova isn't isn't birth name?
Speaker 2: That is not my birth name. That is my given name.
Speaker 1: Okay, gave it to you. Let me get so, where
Speaker 1: does Jaye Novah come from?
Speaker 2: Well, Jade, I'm really into like stars, and I'm really
Speaker 2: into crystals and all that, and Jade is like the
Speaker 2: stone that represents femininity and love. And and then Nova
Speaker 2: I'm into the cosmos and Nova is an exploding star.
Speaker 2: So I just put those two together and then added
Speaker 2: in h at the end, because why went not you?
Speaker 1: That is really cool? Tank stellar tank cutless Nova.
Speaker 4: This guy.
Speaker 8: Well played.
Speaker 1: The beginning. Let's go back to oh Hire Cleveland.
Speaker 2: From Cleveland, Ohio, born and raised, born and raised.
Speaker 1: I have one question. Do you know Tasha?
Speaker 2: I mean, of course Cleveland.
Speaker 1: I just need to know if you know Tasha.
Speaker 2: I don't know her person.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to meet Tasha.
Speaker 2: Maybe you guys should have her on the shows.
Speaker 3: How you have to listen to that, to to those
Speaker 3: few bars, like really listen to them to understand how
Speaker 3: trap those.
Speaker 2: Bars you're talking about Tasha's bar.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, they literally say, hey, come here, come here, come here,
Speaker 3: get Tasha, come sing. Just just just sing that we
Speaker 3: hear you know what I'm saying, Just sing that ship
Speaker 3: all right?
Speaker 1: Literally just that. And she definitely had a beard in
Speaker 1: her hand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably shout.
Speaker 1: So in the beginning, where does this love for music
Speaker 1: come from? Where? Did? Where? Where do you find this?
Speaker 2: I mean? I grew up in a musical family. Like
Speaker 2: my dad, he plays guitar, he plays keys, and he sings,
Speaker 2: and he was in a rock band when he was younger. Actually,
Speaker 2: so I grew up listening to a lot of rock
Speaker 2: and roll. And my mother just loved Broadway musical She
Speaker 2: had like all the Broadway musicals on vinyl, and yeah,
Speaker 2: my sisters sing, So that was just sort of a
Speaker 2: love language in our house, Like we just sang like
Speaker 2: kind of like the Black Partridge Family, well, the Jackson Puff.
Speaker 2: I don't know why I said the Black Partners because
Speaker 2: there's clearly an option for that. But yeah, we were
Speaker 2: like just a musical family.
Speaker 1: And was it was it church related or it was.
Speaker 2: Just more so not so much church related. That came
Speaker 2: a little later in life, but yeah, just singing around.
Speaker 2: Pe would go to nursing homes and perform. My dad
Speaker 2: would write songs and me and my sister would sing
Speaker 2: in a way. So I've always been singing. That's always
Speaker 2: been That's always been my singing lead. Oh I was.
Speaker 2: I was definitely the Beyonce of the group. She was, Yeah,
Speaker 2: she was.
Speaker 1: And is your sister? Does she still sing with you?
Speaker 2: No, both my sisters did at the time, and no,
Speaker 2: neither one of them do.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: One's a nurse and one is a full time mother
Speaker 2: of six.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, she spent her time raising that family.
Speaker 2: She was listening to the R and B clearly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So when was the separation though for you where
Speaker 1: you were like this could be a career for me
Speaker 1: or someone identified you as just being different than everybody else.
Speaker 2: Well, I was in a girl group and it started
Speaker 2: off with my sisters actually, and then they went off
Speaker 2: and started doing their own thing, and then the woman
Speaker 2: who was managing us at the time just started bringing
Speaker 2: in different girls. I mean, I feel like they were
Speaker 2: probably over the because I was in this girls group
Speaker 2: from the time I was like eight years old to
Speaker 2: eighteen years old.
Speaker 1: What.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And in that whole time, there was probably about
Speaker 2: twelve girls who came and win. I was the only
Speaker 2: one who stayed in that whole time.
Speaker 1: So that was my name in the group change or
Speaker 1: was it the same name?
Speaker 2: The total package for ten years for ten years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they just kept repackaging. That's good. I mean
Speaker 1: they were trying, you.
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, yeah, they were trying to find the right Yeah.
Speaker 2: But that was that was my I guess you would
Speaker 2: say church or boot camp and sort of learning how
Speaker 2: the industry worked and learning how to record in the studio.
Speaker 2: That's pretty much all we did was record demos in
Speaker 2: the studio. And yeah, so ten years of my childhood
Speaker 2: and Cleveland in Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Yep, did you guys perform anywhere?
Speaker 2: Very rarely? We did. We did showcases around like Gerald LeVert,
Speaker 2: he was I wouldn't say he was a part of it,
Speaker 2: but he definitely supported and like whenever he had things
Speaker 2: would allow us to come and sing, and we recorded
Speaker 2: at Trouble, which was his studio in Cleveland on ninety
Speaker 2: third and way shout out. But yeah, Joe Little like
Speaker 2: a lot of those he produced some of my first
Speaker 2: records when I was when I was a kid, Joe
Speaker 2: was that guy. Yeah, he's so talented.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 2: There's so much in Cleveland and these are the guys
Speaker 2: that I was learning from and just working with as
Speaker 2: a kid and in the studio almost every day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's crazy. Eight to eighteen yep.
Speaker 2: And then I hated it. I didn't like the way.
Speaker 1: They hated singing. I had like, what part about it
Speaker 1: did you hate?
Speaker 2: But the industry was different back then, you know, like
Speaker 2: there was no social media and it was just this
Speaker 2: goal to get signed to a major label. You know,
Speaker 2: there was really only one sort of trajectory to find
Speaker 2: success at that time, and so everything that kind of
Speaker 2: went along with it, especially being in a group, because
Speaker 2: the group was very much you know, manufactured, like how
Speaker 2: most groups were, where everyone kind of had this role
Speaker 2: that they played that was kind of predetermined. And since
Speaker 2: I'm a kid, like I didn't really know myself enough
Speaker 2: to know who I was and how I wanted to
Speaker 2: show up. I wasn't writing anything. I wasn't picking out
Speaker 2: my clothes. I didn't name the group clearly because I
Speaker 2: wouldn't have went with total package, no shape. But I'm
Speaker 2: just saying like I just didn't have any creative control
Speaker 2: whatsoever and that and so I didn't like that part.
Speaker 2: I didn't like feeling like I had to be this
Speaker 2: sort of intriloquis dummy to do my art, you know,
Speaker 2: carrying out someone else's vision and it's coming out in
Speaker 2: my mouth.
Speaker 3: Like.
Speaker 2: I didn't like that. So I stopped as soon as
Speaker 2: I turned eighteen. I quit the group because I could,
Speaker 2: and honestly I tried to before, but they wouldn't let
Speaker 2: me leave.
Speaker 1: Who wouldn't let you leave?
Speaker 2: Child? Don't get me in trouble.
Speaker 1: You couldn't leave the group?
Speaker 2: No, I tried, and then they tried to sue my family.
Speaker 1: What.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I tried to leave. They would not let me
Speaker 2: runder contract. It's a little dark, maybe we won't.
Speaker 4: Go there, but having an understanding too though, of what
Speaker 4: you get your kids into. Yeah, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: Like this is an important part of this business as
Speaker 4: well as far as you know, just even from the
Speaker 4: contractual state of you know, what you signed off for, Yeah,
Speaker 4: what you signed or signed up? Sign up for or
Speaker 4: sign off either one.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: I think sometimes people, you know, they see the dream
Speaker 4: and maybe not fully see all the things that come
Speaker 4: along with that, or you know, have a you know, shit,
Speaker 4: we would have to have a crystal ball in a
Speaker 4: sense to you know, because people turn to right, we
Speaker 4: all know that, like everything seems sweet until you're in it,
Speaker 4: and then they're like, oh, well this is how it is.
Speaker 4: And since you're in the contract.
Speaker 2: And I've invested so much in you, you can't leave.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I was again also the only girl who did
Speaker 2: sign the contract, which is why all the other people
Speaker 2: were coming and going oh wow. And I had no choice,
Speaker 2: Like I was literally forced in some instances to be
Speaker 2: a part of this.
Speaker 4: So did you ever think of like at that point,
Speaker 4: before you're eighteen, I'm just like, all right, well I'm
Speaker 4: just not going to sing it all anymore.
Speaker 2: Well that's pretty much what it came to. And I
Speaker 2: did stop, like even after I got out of the contract,
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't want to do this anymore,
Speaker 2: because this is all I knew of the industry to be,
Speaker 2: was that I had to carry out someone else's mission
Speaker 2: and you know, sort of submit to everyone else and
Speaker 2: what they wanted for me. And so I started writing
Speaker 2: that's that's really well. Actually I went through a period
Speaker 2: of just I went to college. I just didn't Most
Speaker 2: people who knew me at the time didn't even really
Speaker 2: know that I sang or had ambitions for it, Like
Speaker 2: I was just going to school, like I would do
Speaker 2: talent shows and stuff, but it wasn't like a true ambition.
Speaker 2: And then do you guys know Yanni the producing ya
Speaker 2: you know I have made I've made some YouTube videos
Speaker 2: around that time. I just played around and he saw
Speaker 2: it and I was like, Yo, you're in Cleveland, like
Speaker 2: come and like reference some stuff for us. We have
Speaker 2: this this writing camp called the Skeleton crew Man and
Speaker 2: like just come reference and I was like you know what,
Speaker 2: and he's like, well, i'll pay you. I'm like, don't
Speaker 2: pay me, just let me write too, cause I've never
Speaker 2: been given the opportunity to do that. Like I've always
Speaker 2: been carrying out someone else's songs and singing other people
Speaker 2: you know, I'm sorry, singing other people's song and carrying
Speaker 2: out other people's visions. So he was like cool. So
Speaker 2: he just started giving me tracks. And I was trash
Speaker 2: at first, but he just believed in me and just
Speaker 2: gave me the space. And I was driving to Cleveland
Speaker 2: from I went to Kent State at the time, and
Speaker 2: I would drive that hour to Yanni's studio and write
Speaker 2: and just really work at it. And I became so
Speaker 2: passionate about it, and I started falling in love with
Speaker 2: it and again and realizing like, Okay, I can do
Speaker 2: this if I have control over it, you know, and
Speaker 2: get to be creative and take up space. You know.
Speaker 2: I fell in love with it, and that was really
Speaker 2: the thing that shifted my trajectory again and falling in
Speaker 2: love with music again was Yanni was Oh God. The
Speaker 2: first song I wrote with Yanni was called oh God,
Speaker 2: I don't know. There's so many trash ones that there
Speaker 2: were so many no I have And I found like
Speaker 2: a little drive the other day that had all those songs,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, wow, he really had vision because it
Speaker 2: was trash.
Speaker 3: I was trash. I listened to my early tracks like.
Speaker 1: That processes is real.
Speaker 4: That process is real, and it's you know, and it's
Speaker 4: also a testament to the people who stay, who stay
Speaker 4: in it right, because nobody's first song or their first
Speaker 4: track or you know, the first thing that they do
Speaker 4: really sounds good ultimately, you know what I mean, You're
Speaker 4: trying to get to somewhere. It's so funny when you
Speaker 4: see people and they're like, yeah, that's the first song I
Speaker 4: ever did.
Speaker 1: I don't really be believing.
Speaker 4: It depending on how the age.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean tanks first stand up, he kneeled, so
Speaker 2: I guess it's possible.
Speaker 1: That was definitely luck. That was That was also to
Speaker 1: I think with.
Speaker 4: It might have been his first time going on stage,
Speaker 4: but it wasn't his first time kind of preparing.
Speaker 1: His mind to right.
Speaker 4: I'm talking about the first time you put into paper
Speaker 4: and decide I want to try to write a song,
Speaker 4: saying that's your first my first time ever. I had
Speaker 4: never written a song before, and I wrote the greatest
Speaker 4: level of all.
Speaker 2: No, you didn't did not write that song, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean?
Speaker 4: So that part, you know, I'll be listening, but I'll
Speaker 4: be in my head.
Speaker 2: I'm like you, But I love that process, so with
Speaker 2: figuring it out and then watching how over time it
Speaker 2: got better and better better, like it was, it was therapeutic.
Speaker 8: I loved it.
Speaker 6: I love it.
Speaker 1: You have this pub deal now now you have some freedom,
Speaker 1: and you found your man.
Speaker 7: I did you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3: And that's and that's gotta be cool too, and yeah,
Speaker 3: even in a in a creative space like that's gotta
Speaker 3: be really.
Speaker 4: Because you definitely married like one of the most talented
Speaker 4: people I've ever met.
Speaker 1: I did, because you know, we worked with him.
Speaker 4: Wait when years ago before I want to say, maybe
Speaker 4: before y'all even.
Speaker 1: Were married, probably yeah, probably, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Devin's so he was like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that guy's really talented.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's he doesn't even like to say that
Speaker 2: he sings, and it bothers me, like when he goes
Speaker 2: and talks about the things that he's done, he rarely
Speaker 2: acknowledges the fact that he's also a vocalist and very
Speaker 2: cool one.
Speaker 4: Yeah yea like Simpson.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'll take it. Yeah, that's babe.
Speaker 1: That's so.
Speaker 4: Did you guys immediately become a writing and production.
Speaker 2: Team pretty much? Yeah, like the first time we got
Speaker 2: in the session together and I do remember the name
Speaker 2: of the song we did. It was called cat Got
Speaker 2: Your Tongue. It was very nasty, and he was just.
Speaker 4: About, yeah, well that's the bring it on back, bring
Speaker 4: it on back, and sometimes they got to get.
Speaker 1: Skinned a.
Speaker 2: Tchet, but yeah, he I just thought he was a
Speaker 2: writer because he did a co write with me. But
Speaker 2: then I discovered all of the layers and any talents
Speaker 2: of Devin Johnson and I'm like, yo, I want to
Speaker 2: work with you. And he's honestly who inspired me to
Speaker 2: want to be an artist because I.
Speaker 1: Was not an artist at this point.
Speaker 2: I was just writing and I had no desire to
Speaker 2: be an artist whatsoever. And he's like, you're crazy. He's like,
Speaker 2: no one's going to sing these songs like you like,
Speaker 2: let's do this, Let's do something. And he inspired me
Speaker 2: to start the solo stuff. He's like, you already have
Speaker 2: some stuff on YouTube, Like let's just keep going from there.
Speaker 2: And that was the vision, Like we'll do some covers,
Speaker 2: I'll reproduce them. You don't have to like all of
Speaker 2: the anxieties that I had around being an artist, like oh,
Speaker 2: the control or the label. He's like, nah, we could
Speaker 2: do this independent like that was always the goal. He's like,
Speaker 2: we're gonna own this. Let's just do this thing. Because
Speaker 2: he had come from being an artist. He was signed
Speaker 2: to Motown and he was able to get out of
Speaker 2: his deal. So we both had similar experiences and just
Speaker 2: kind of switched roles and he's like, I know it
Speaker 2: from this perspective, you know it from that perspective. Let's
Speaker 2: bring all of our knowledge together and like do something
Speaker 2: that hasn't been done and like just really take advantage
Speaker 2: of social media. And so he would reproduce the covers
Speaker 2: that we would do. We were very strategic about trying
Speaker 2: to do songs that didn't have music videos yet, and
Speaker 2: then we would put them out first and we would
Speaker 2: go viral like that was the That was the formula.
Speaker 4: So if y'all found a song that was cracking but
Speaker 4: they didn't have no video to.
Speaker 1: It, yeah you was the video to it, do it.
Speaker 2: And we would play official video and get it. So
Speaker 2: it was Rihanna Diamonds came out and he he heard it.
Speaker 2: He sent we gotta do this right now. So we
Speaker 2: hurried up and did it and shot a video like
Speaker 2: two days later and put it up and then had
Speaker 2: like thirteen million views and it was on Rolling Stone
Speaker 2: like everything, like it was a whole thing.
Speaker 1: Did y'all ever get a cease and desist?
Speaker 2: No? No, I mean there are covers and it's YouTube,
Speaker 2: and YouTube was still like not what it is now,
Speaker 2: like where they can take your things down, but you're still.
Speaker 1: Like cutting into the to the market.
Speaker 2: Share million light.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was kind of crazy. Yeah, I mean the video
Speaker 2: wasn't the greatest, but it was what.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're just tapping into the to the early
Speaker 3: connection of that song and people just wanting to see
Speaker 3: it or hear it wherever it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're like, I came in for Rihanna, but
Speaker 2: I kind of fuck with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that was the formula to call you.
Speaker 8: Well.
Speaker 2: I ended up singing back from for Rihanna, not mainly
Speaker 2: because of.
Speaker 4: That, but I mean she knew you knew the words
Speaker 4: your part last time, you know your damn part. Right,
Speaker 4: here's a there's a question I have for you.
Speaker 3: Because here's a question I have for you because a
Speaker 3: lot of times.
Speaker 1: Producers get accused.
Speaker 3: Of using their their their gifts, and their their songs
Speaker 3: to romanticize.
Speaker 1: A woman. We get accused of this. They only want
Speaker 1: to do a late night session because I'm a girl.
Speaker 1: How did he How did he sway.
Speaker 3: You we should do a late night session?
Speaker 1: Cats?
Speaker 2: Absolutely it was me. Yeah, Devin wasn't really interested in me.
Speaker 1: No, it was you. I take that shot.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I did and it didn't work. It didn't go
Speaker 2: so well. What do you mean he rejected me? He
Speaker 2: did the first time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we should just really focus on I
Speaker 1: think we should really focus on the music in the business.
Speaker 2: And it wasn't even that. I think he was like
Speaker 2: talking to someone at the time, and he was just like,
Speaker 2: I just want to see He was just so honest,
Speaker 2: you know, because she didn't even live in Atlanta. He's like,
Speaker 2: I just want to kind of see where it's going.
Speaker 2: And didn't go anywhere, and I waited, We'll see how
Speaker 2: that plays, just keeping quirky.
Speaker 1: Did you break out your crystals on him?
Speaker 2: I didn't. I wasn't super I wasn't there quite yet.
Speaker 2: I mean I guess I was because I was starting
Speaker 2: the J and Over thing. But it's almost like the
Speaker 2: name chose me, because then I started to sort of
Speaker 2: become a lot more to those things as time went on,
Speaker 2: like so Yeah, I didn't. I didn't put any spells
Speaker 2: on him yet, but yeah I did. It didn't take long.
Speaker 4: Wow, that man be out here producing and mixing and
Speaker 4: writing and playing musical. I love it.
Speaker 2: I call him the husband because he played.
Speaker 3: Really good the Husbandand have you seen the show live?
Speaker 1: No, I went.
Speaker 4: I went to see the show live. It's really cool
Speaker 4: they got. They put together a really dope show. You
Speaker 4: guys put together a really really dope yank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Yeah. Storytelling has always been a big passion
Speaker 2: for both of us, so just the synergy, it just
Speaker 2: made sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so let's get to Jay Novak. Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: get there.
Speaker 3: And in the first project, your first outing, building, your
Speaker 3: first moment, what went into that.
Speaker 2: It's all blue, right, the first Yes, the first project
Speaker 2: really just from the years of doing covers and like
Speaker 2: mixtapes and things like that over the years. It took
Speaker 2: a while. I think it was twenty eighteen, so literally
Speaker 2: six years after we had been working to put out
Speaker 2: the project. But yeah, it was. We had moved to
Speaker 2: it to LA in that time, so like twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: we moved to LA and that's when our minds just
Speaker 2: started changing and we started unlearning a lot of things
Speaker 2: and just kind of being around more like minded people.
Speaker 2: LA changed some things for me, and All Blue was
Speaker 2: like the manifestation of that change in me, which is
Speaker 2: why I was saying, like I think I kind of
Speaker 2: became Jay Nova like in that time that I was
Speaker 2: in LA, Like really yeah, transformed and All Blue was
Speaker 2: just the embodiment of that for sure.
Speaker 1: And how do you feel like it was received?
Speaker 2: It was really well received. It debuted number two independently
Speaker 2: on the iTunes. Is it really well? Is it really
Speaker 2: really well? And I'm really proud of it. That's my baby.
Speaker 2: All Blue is probably my favorite project still to this day.
Speaker 4: So for you guys now going into the space of
Speaker 4: releasing your own music, can you give us a little
Speaker 4: bit of insight of how that went right?
Speaker 1: Being your own.
Speaker 4: Label rocess, putting your own money up like you know,
Speaker 4: because everybody yells independent, everybody yells independent or you know
Speaker 4: what I should or shouldn't do, but they don't really
Speaker 4: know all the things that go into that. Being your
Speaker 4: own publicist, your own marketing department, figuring out content. Can
Speaker 4: you give us a little bit of insight, you know,
Speaker 4: just did you guys put together a budget starting off,
Speaker 4: or were you just like, you know, whatever come in
Speaker 4: we putting toward this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were really winging it early on, like I
Speaker 2: And it's funny because we went to your fireside chat
Speaker 2: at south By Southwest where you were talking about if
Speaker 2: you knew what you know now then, like about setting
Speaker 2: up a business and like really putting things into place
Speaker 2: to really run your stuff like a true business. You know.
Speaker 2: I wish that I had known what I knew now
Speaker 2: then because we were just kind of winging it, and
Speaker 2: we were taking advantage of more non traditional ways to
Speaker 2: get visibility. So like the covers for example, or my
Speaker 2: comedy for example, which is another thing that Devin sort
Speaker 2: of encouraged me to do, like yo, it's all going
Speaker 2: to feed itself. Because I'm thinking, like, okay, well if
Speaker 2: I do comedy, are people going to be able to
Speaker 2: take music seriously? But He's like, not, like it's a thing,
Speaker 2: like it's all you, it's authentic. Just keep showing up,
Speaker 2: like you know, authentically. And so those were the things
Speaker 2: that gave us the visibility, that gave us this social
Speaker 2: following for people to just organically want to tap into
Speaker 2: the music. But we did do a distribution deal with
Speaker 2: the first project, so we went through Empire, so we
Speaker 2: had help on that front, so it wasn't like we were,
Speaker 2: you know, doing it alone. Yeah, and Tina had just
Speaker 2: come on at the time, so yeah, it was we
Speaker 2: had help and we had set it up in a
Speaker 2: way to where we had already done. Some of the
Speaker 2: project was done, the album was done, the like, everything
Speaker 2: was ready to go. They were just there to really
Speaker 2: just help us handle more of the administrative things that
Speaker 2: you were talking about, like the PR.
Speaker 4: And the marketing.
Speaker 2: So yeah, though we were independent, we definitely had that
Speaker 2: help with the distribution. But yeah, I think now though
Speaker 2: I'm more we're more in a space of doing things
Speaker 2: completely independently, you know, like where we're handling our own
Speaker 2: budget allocations and marketing and running ads and more of
Speaker 2: the business side of things that I would have loved
Speaker 2: for us to have done back then because then we
Speaker 2: would have you know, we've all been ours at the time.
Speaker 2: But you know, you live, you learn.
Speaker 1: And what was your standout Your standout track from this from.
Speaker 2: From the new project, from All Blue Blue, I mean,
Speaker 2: I think the most popular one was All Blue, but
Speaker 2: my favor it was Cosmic Love Into it, Yes, cosmically
Speaker 2: was that purposely done?
Speaker 4: What now for you to find that space in music
Speaker 4: for you?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 4: Because they have you know, people have toxic music, people
Speaker 4: have you know, people have you know, nasty music, people
Speaker 4: have cosmic music.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like, but what's that what
Speaker 1: you sought after?
Speaker 4: Like, okay, you know what I want to make my
Speaker 4: projects and my music about this.
Speaker 1: I want to put this into the songs.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that was the intention by this At this point,
Speaker 2: Devin and I were already married, I think three years
Speaker 2: when the project came out, and I saw the beauty
Speaker 2: of partnership. I saw healthy, a healthy love that I
Speaker 2: honestly had never experienced before. And so, like you said,
Speaker 2: the narrative in music is this divisive mindset, like especially
Speaker 2: hip hop and some R and B. You know right now,
Speaker 2: it's not promoting black love. It's just it's very angry,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, no, we need to show and we
Speaker 2: need to be a light in this industry that doesn't
Speaker 2: have much of that. So it was very much intentional
Speaker 2: to be to be cosmic, to be a light, to
Speaker 2: be high vibrational, like that's that's always been the goal
Speaker 2: because it's authentic to who we are and music there
Speaker 2: is like a spell, you know, the things that you
Speaker 2: say over and over and over again. Lyrics are like mantras.
Speaker 2: And I just didn't want to be responsible for poisoning
Speaker 2: anyone with something that is low vibrational or that leads
Speaker 2: to their brokenness.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that wasn't and also isn't you it is? Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. I'm not saying that isn't
Speaker 4: you like giving them something that you know, because there
Speaker 4: are artists who are just they sign up for what
Speaker 4: they sign up for, and they whatever the song is,
Speaker 4: like it's a hit record, they're gonna sing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Nah, I will say no with the quickness. But
Speaker 2: I guess that's the advantage of being able to write
Speaker 2: your own stuff, right, you know, and not having to
Speaker 2: because that's what it would have been for me if
Speaker 2: I had continued in that group and stayed, you know,
Speaker 2: living under someone else's mission.
Speaker 3: But you also have to decide what you're willing to
Speaker 3: live with too, Yeah, because you know, it may be
Speaker 3: it may be lucrative to sing this song that's outside
Speaker 3: of your existence in a sense, but for you, it's like,
Speaker 3: I mean, I'd rather live and die with me sure,
Speaker 3: and that's a hard decision to make.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess it depends on what you want out
Speaker 2: of it, you know, Like my idea of success has
Speaker 2: changed over the years, and I am My idea of
Speaker 2: success is only doing the things that make me happy.
Speaker 2: I don't have to be at a Beyonce level of
Speaker 2: visibility for me to feel like I've arrived. I feel
Speaker 2: like I've arrived because I have found my tribe and
Speaker 2: I'm able to be authentic. That matters so much more
Speaker 2: to me than having something that might be universally accepted.
Speaker 2: But I'm miserable singing it all the time. Like if
Speaker 2: I'm not happy, then what's the point even if I
Speaker 2: do have this, you know, from the outside looking in
Speaker 2: crazy level of success, like is it really success?
Speaker 1: Listen, the greatest mindset but not normal.
Speaker 2: You don't think now, like in this day and age
Speaker 2: with all these independent creatives, that.
Speaker 1: That is I think that.
Speaker 3: I think that as I think that because there's so
Speaker 3: much more money and independence, people are willing to do
Speaker 3: anything to get the money. Now they haven't like nobody's
Speaker 3: zoned in on the Oh this is me. People have
Speaker 3: zoned in on oh this is where the bag is
Speaker 3: and so that's been the excuse for people doing everything.
Speaker 3: But look at my bag, though, people will throw that out.
Speaker 2: Fast, like what kind of things were they? Like, where
Speaker 2: are they getting this bag from?
Speaker 3: I'm curious, I mean from streaming, I mean from YouTube,
Speaker 3: from streaming, from listen, big business, from fortune. Five hundred
Speaker 3: companies have bought into the ratchet. You you can get sponsorship,
Speaker 3: but the bullshit.
Speaker 1: Absolutely that's crazy.
Speaker 2: And see I always looked at it like music wasn't
Speaker 2: really the cash cow. Like music, of all the things
Speaker 2: that I do, I probably make the least for music
Speaker 2: unless it's touring. You know. I think brand deals are
Speaker 2: just again like more of the business of what we've
Speaker 2: created and not looking cause yeah, that's where the mindset
Speaker 2: shift came for me. Like there was a time where
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, I'm an artist, I must be mysterious,
Speaker 2: and you know, all these antiquated ideas of what it
Speaker 2: is to be an artist and not really understanding where
Speaker 2: we're shifting to. And so a lot of people hurt
Speaker 2: themselves by still trying to perpetuate that same idea of
Speaker 2: what it is to be an artist. And all I'm
Speaker 2: only going, you know, I don't need TikTok or social media.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to post a couple of times and
Speaker 2: do X, Y and Z, and it's like, okay, cool,
Speaker 2: you can do that, or you can take the ego
Speaker 2: out of it and figure out how to make an
Speaker 2: actual business out of what you do. And there are
Speaker 2: so many moving parts, and if you were doing anything,
Speaker 2: you have to do some things that you don't necessarily love.
Speaker 2: And I don't mean like in an integrity sake. I
Speaker 2: just see as far as the work you know to
Speaker 2: get where you have to go, and a lot of
Speaker 2: people don't want to do it, which is why a
Speaker 2: lot of people end up just signing deals because they
Speaker 2: can just be a vessel for someone else's agenda. And
Speaker 2: I just I can't do that shit.
Speaker 4: You're preaching now, Yeah, you're preaching them you talk to talk.
Speaker 4: I can't, Yeah, because what you're saying should be followed.
Speaker 4: In my opinion, even if you do decide to do
Speaker 4: a deal somewhere, that's fine, but you have to do
Speaker 4: the work. You gotta do the work if you really
Speaker 4: and truly believe it in your artistry and you want
Speaker 4: the world to see it. When all these things are
Speaker 4: going on and everything that's going on in the world
Speaker 4: posting that one time, unless I won't say in case,
Speaker 4: but unless that's just you know who you are, and
Speaker 4: that's fine, But you can't expect these results to come
Speaker 4: from that type of work ethic.
Speaker 2: And you can't just rely on social media either. You
Speaker 2: have to build a community, and you have to get
Speaker 2: their emails, and you have to get their phone numbers,
Speaker 2: and you have to not only rely on social media
Speaker 2: because social media might not be here one day. It's
Speaker 2: about the connection and for people who are anti social
Speaker 2: media and doing all the things that they have to
Speaker 2: do to get there. It's like before social media, people
Speaker 2: had to go out and do shows and ghrind you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, Like there was there's always a hustle.
Speaker 2: There is always going to be something that you have
Speaker 2: to do if you really want to do it. And nowadays,
Speaker 2: even with some of my major label peers, like you know,
Speaker 2: they still have to do that stuff too. And then
Speaker 2: the labels move reactively, so you still got to do
Speaker 2: it whether or not you have a label behind you
Speaker 2: or not, so you may as well do it. Everything
Speaker 2: is changing and now they're literally waiting on you. So
Speaker 2: if you if what are you doing it for? So
Speaker 2: that's why I asked that question, like what are you?
Speaker 2: What are you doing it for?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, let's get to the second album.
Speaker 2: Sure stages.
Speaker 1: I love stages.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, thank you?
Speaker 1: That. Uh you were wild for somebody's.
Speaker 7: Son again, something that's going on in social media and
Speaker 7: making a song out.
Speaker 1: Of it, somebody's son. I was like, oh, somebody's son.
Speaker 8: Oh god, no, not today, but yet that was a
Speaker 8: I think that was my real introduction to that project.
Speaker 2: Man, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I was like, Oh, she's dope up, thank you, like
Speaker 3: really really good. And and I don't like there's no
Speaker 3: like with your projects, like in listening to your projects,
Speaker 3: like there's no fall off, there's no saying where where
Speaker 3: you know there's there's not a whole lot behind her,
Speaker 3: whereas you consider a major project versus an independent project,
Speaker 3: like your project is your project is competing in fighting
Speaker 3: for real space. You know what I'm saying sonically lyrically
Speaker 3: Like you know what I'm saying. He's talking about the shows.
Speaker 3: I haven't been to show. I want to go. But
Speaker 3: if he say it's a show, it's definitely show because
Speaker 3: he don't he don't go to shows.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I bought March too. Maybe you signed my
Speaker 4: T shirt? He don't do that, No, I don't.
Speaker 3: So it's got to be a thing. If you got
Speaker 3: the Valentine. I was in there away to stay away.
Speaker 4: With all the cool lights. Yeah, they ain't even have
Speaker 4: my size in March. You know what all y'all got left?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 1: Okay? She's been sending a lot of merch out here. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: give me the two X. It's fine. It's fine, Taylor,
Speaker 1: It's fine. And what did you learn?
Speaker 3: What or what more did you learn coming from your
Speaker 3: first project to your second project that you felt it.
Speaker 1: Was more useful. I learned.
Speaker 2: That this really is a business. I don't even know
Speaker 2: how much I want to get into what happened exactly,
Speaker 2: but it was a very pivotal time for me. I
Speaker 2: had started doing radio. Actually, I was hosting a morning
Speaker 2: show on V one O three in Atlanta. Sure it was.
Speaker 2: It was an experience.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but uh huh.
Speaker 2: I love Ready such a man man, he's a good
Speaker 2: guy man. He took a chance on me, and you know,
Speaker 2: it was a It was an interesting time because I
Speaker 2: was learning a lot about myself. I wasn't really prepared
Speaker 2: for that world quite yet and balancing still doing my artistry.
Speaker 2: Like you have to wake up at three thirty every day,
Speaker 2: three thirty camera ready, be there?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, alright.
Speaker 2: Three thirty, be there at four ish to prep and
Speaker 2: then I'm prepping with shade room articles like all this
Speaker 2: low vibrational stuff. I mean, I get it, I understand,
Speaker 2: but it just was so opposite of what I normally
Speaker 2: consume and how I move about my day. And then
Speaker 2: you know, I have to be there until like noon,
Speaker 2: and then I was touring on the weekend and it
Speaker 2: was a lot. It was a lot, and I it
Speaker 2: was it was meant like my mental health was dwindling.
Speaker 2: I was holding on by like like it was. It
Speaker 2: was rough so in that my output wasn't as great
Speaker 2: as it should have been. It was taking me a
Speaker 2: really long time to get the project together, and ultimately,
Speaker 2: like Empire, myself decided to part ways, which was really
Speaker 2: difficult for me because now I'm out here by myself.
Speaker 2: Like I literally found out the day before somebody's son
Speaker 2: was supposed to come out that I had already gotten
Speaker 2: the song done and the artwork and everything, and They're like,
Speaker 2: m no, just kind of let me and try with
Speaker 2: this project. And then I'm like, okay, cool, I can
Speaker 2: do this myself. I figured it out. We spent so
Speaker 2: much money. We're doing a tour behind it, invested so
Speaker 2: much money and time into it. I ended up leaving
Speaker 2: the station because I just could and I didn't have
Speaker 2: the capacity. And then the day before we were supposed
Speaker 2: to go on tour, the world shut. Now, yeah, it
Speaker 2: was a rough time. So I learned that regardless of
Speaker 2: all these things going on, that business is still going
Speaker 2: to operate as business, whether your mental health is able
Speaker 2: to keep up or not. And yeah, it was a
Speaker 2: really hard lesson, but we still put out the project independently,
Speaker 2: like without anyone else, and it debuted number one that time.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 2: Completely independent. Well all the obstacles that we had gone through,
Speaker 2: and it was a lot of them, but we still
Speaker 2: put it out and it you know, the tour didn't
Speaker 2: get to happen, But that time during quarantine allowed me
Speaker 2: the opportunity to really just kind of revamp, learn more
Speaker 2: about myself, you know, and just be more prepared.
Speaker 1: Where were you Where were you doing quarantine?
Speaker 2: And Atlanta? Thank god? Yeah, thank god it was Atlanta.
Speaker 2: We had just moved back for the radio show. Actually,
Speaker 2: what timing it was perfect time.
Speaker 1: It was in Atlanta, Like cool, who's quarantine? Ya? Y'all?
Speaker 1: Shut down? You shut y'all. We might shut it down,
Speaker 1: but got down.
Speaker 3: I don't know, no nigga name quarantine, nigga Nick come
Speaker 3: around here and niggas gonna be up. Nigga, Tell me
Speaker 3: I was that house down Atlanta strip clubs? Wow, wide open?
Speaker 3: That's actually where I caught COVID. Yeah, almost died.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Do you do anything?
Speaker 3: Are you able to do anything pivotal like during Quarantine
Speaker 3: with this project to to get the noise and the
Speaker 3: buzz going for it.
Speaker 2: Honestly, I started to shift more into comedy at that
Speaker 2: got your I I had got my agent reached out
Speaker 2: because SNL reached out, and they asked me to audition.
Speaker 2: And they were like, would she audition because I know
Speaker 2: she does music? Is this even a passion? We've seen
Speaker 2: some of her videos? And I'm like, absolutely, I would.
Speaker 2: And it was a very interesting process, especially because it
Speaker 2: was during COVID. But yeah, I did the audition. I
Speaker 2: auditioned twice and then I made it to test week
Speaker 2: and I made it down to the final eight people
Speaker 2: like I was very close to getting on that particular
Speaker 2: season and it didn't end up happening. But I'm actually
Speaker 2: grateful that it didn't. It it affirmed me in that, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is definitely a space that I need to be.
Speaker 2: I mean, I knew it, but you know, like it
Speaker 2: was it was the conference and I'm like, cool, this
Speaker 2: did it? You know what I'm saying. So I'm like,
Speaker 2: this is I want to really focus this time on this.
Speaker 2: And because it's more self contained, you know, we were
Speaker 2: just shooting stuff at home and I created it was
Speaker 2: called the Real Divas Series where I was like impersonating
Speaker 2: all these different divas Beyonce and Erica and they were
Speaker 2: in the house with COVID and it was just so can.
Speaker 4: You go from one to the other just quick?
Speaker 1: Quick? Quick? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Like like or do you need time to like how
Speaker 4: does that?
Speaker 1: How does that go? Oh?
Speaker 2: God, I don't know. I don't know. I've never had
Speaker 2: like a rapid fire.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we could try, you know, I'm just saying, is
Speaker 1: that how you do it?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 1: Are you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: No, I'm not saying you.
Speaker 4: I mean, like you would like to, but I know
Speaker 4: I don't have one of them type of show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nigga dance.
Speaker 4: No, okay, even though the people in the comments be
Speaker 4: pretty much saying nigga dance, We're not like that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I do one character at a time. I do,
Speaker 2: I do one character at a time. But that was
Speaker 2: that was the time when I was really honing in
Speaker 2: on it and yeah, just building it. And it supported
Speaker 2: the music too, because our numbers started going crazy just
Speaker 2: from these sketches that we were making, and so people
Speaker 2: were then going and listening to the music because ain't
Speaker 2: nobody else had antybody had shit to do, you know.
Speaker 2: So it was just that was what was starting to
Speaker 2: take more of the focus, was just the writing and
Speaker 2: the comedy.
Speaker 1: Here's a question, were you monetizing that?
Speaker 2: Oh abso freaking.
Speaker 1: Where did you.
Speaker 4: Find it that there were more opportunities during that time?
Speaker 2: It's for that content, Yeah there was. And even in
Speaker 2: the music side, like I feel like I did so
Speaker 2: many virtual shows that I was getting crazy bad.
Speaker 1: He would do virtual He didn't want to do it,
Speaker 1: and I was.
Speaker 2: I was singing right in front of no one. I was,
Speaker 2: and I was, and I was getting the bread, I
Speaker 2: was look collecting the checks.
Speaker 1: I did one you didn't like it. I did, but
Speaker 1: I did it with my band, so that was the
Speaker 1: only way I would do it. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I guess somebody gotta be in the room, bro.
Speaker 2: I mean I had my husband, you know, he was
Speaker 2: with me doing the stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I was just like my wife and my
Speaker 3: kids just sitting there looking at me like doing it.
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't want to do that.
Speaker 3: And then my music is like sexual in nature, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, Like, Yeah, just take my shirt
Speaker 3: off by myself.
Speaker 2: That's fun.
Speaker 1: Just be like rubbing all on me.
Speaker 2: Slur ya could have been myself, I feel it.
Speaker 3: But we did the Woman with the band, Donna, Keith
Speaker 3: Sweat's House, Uh, the Slash Studios Slash, uh Slash, Slash.
Speaker 1: Slash Slash. It was crazy.
Speaker 3: It was really dum yeah fun, but you know your
Speaker 3: comedy was going crazy.
Speaker 1: It was a hilarious.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm like, you got the ultimate trump card
Speaker 3: when it comes to stand up, Like dialing into these
Speaker 3: these characters is just gold. Like you know, with like
Speaker 3: Jamie Fox, you're putting yourself on that kind of level.
Speaker 2: That's the goal. That's the goal. And even in the
Speaker 2: show that Jay saw like if the show feels like
Speaker 2: a variety show. So we would go in and out
Speaker 2: of I mean not necessarily stand up, but kind of
Speaker 2: sort of just fun moments, and I would do the
Speaker 2: impersonations and you know, telling a story from beginning to end.
Speaker 2: So it was already there. It's just stand up.
Speaker 8: Is man.
Speaker 1: It's the same.
Speaker 3: And you actually are going to be You're you're better
Speaker 3: prepared for stand up because you already work the stage.
Speaker 1: You have the cheek.
Speaker 7: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I will take my shirt up
Speaker 7: and sing a minute.
Speaker 2: Say.
Speaker 1: They would that would have saved you? That wouldn't have
Speaker 1: saved you. No, I wasn't there. Thanks, don't make no
Speaker 1: money from comedy song. It was already.
Speaker 4: I see you when you get back to know I've
Speaker 4: been to a gang government. I actually haven't been to
Speaker 4: a gang government. And he's funny and I'm his real friend,
Speaker 4: like we have I'm like cheap.
Speaker 1: That was too far. We still got to sell some
Speaker 1: n B.
Speaker 2: You what do you talk about in your stand up? Like,
Speaker 2: just give me an example, like.
Speaker 3: I really go through like my family life. You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, like like like my wife, my kids,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, I really tell those stories.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, tell you know, tell some
Speaker 3: music stories. You know what I'm saying. I got comedy
Speaker 3: that I do from the piano, got musical songs that
Speaker 3: are like, you know what I'm saying, I gotta, I gotta.
Speaker 1: I got a.
Speaker 3: Song called trash. We're talking about a woman's almost vagina.
Speaker 2: And it's called track.
Speaker 1: It's called I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna need some context.
Speaker 4: We still got to sell R and B music, this
Speaker 4: nigga tripping, and that's the conversations that we had.
Speaker 1: But it was in the joke space. It worked.
Speaker 3: I'd be having reminded me still tanks, not on R
Speaker 3: and B stage, So I needless to say, I cut
Speaker 3: that joke out of.
Speaker 1: It went over very well. But we still got records.
Speaker 2: And you don't think you could from from that because
Speaker 2: that's only a specific person.
Speaker 1: I have enough jokes to where I didn't need to
Speaker 1: take a chance with that one.
Speaker 2: That's fair.
Speaker 1: So I was like, you know, let me not. You know,
Speaker 1: women in here like me, so my trigger, my trigger.
Speaker 1: So this nigga told.
Speaker 3: Me, all right, so now let's focus. You have an
Speaker 3: album out now.
Speaker 6: The great singers.
Speaker 2: I can't that's not how no one does. I mean
Speaker 2: not people do, haven't.
Speaker 1: I don't know? The mine is all.
Speaker 2: That was great, But yes, new album Who It Is?
Speaker 3: It described this process because it's got to be different
Speaker 3: from the first two.
Speaker 1: You've lived, you've.
Speaker 4: Learned, yes, and now you're talking about where I did,
Speaker 4: and now you're come on, now.
Speaker 2: Come on, where have I been? It is a concept album.
Speaker 2: It's like combining storytelling and contemporary R and B music.
Speaker 2: So it's a love language origin story. It's a journey
Speaker 2: to self love. So it goes back to my childhood
Speaker 2: and my dad has not been very verbal about love
Speaker 2: or words of affirmation. He wasn't like, oh I'm a
Speaker 2: pretty good my baby girl. That just wasn't his give.
Speaker 2: And I'm coming to find out that's a lot of
Speaker 2: people from that generation didn't really know how to verbalize
Speaker 2: love in that way. But that's kind of how my
Speaker 2: love language became words of affirmation because I didn't get
Speaker 2: it from him, so I was looking for it in
Speaker 2: all these other people. So it goes on this journey
Speaker 2: of how I navigated my relationships with sort of this
Speaker 2: kind of baseless thing of oh, if you tell me
Speaker 2: you love me or if you tell me that I'm pretty,
Speaker 2: then that's enough to make a relationship work and not
Speaker 2: you know, action behind it. And so ultimately I learned
Speaker 2: how to use words of affirmation to affirm myself and
Speaker 2: that's why it becomes this sort of self love journey.
Speaker 2: And I have really really amazing features on this project
Speaker 2: because I wrote it out like a script. I wanted
Speaker 2: it to feel like visuals through sound, and I wanted
Speaker 2: the project to be something that you could immerse yourself
Speaker 2: in and not have to have a screen like you
Speaker 2: know people are. We're in the age of where the visuals.
Speaker 2: I'm want the visual system. It's like, nah, let the music.
Speaker 2: It's supposed to be an audio experience, you know, when
Speaker 2: we come away from that so much and everyone's just
Speaker 2: kind of distracted by all the ass you speak of
Speaker 2: and all the smoke and mirrors that we've discussed.
Speaker 1: You know, no I've spoken of.
Speaker 2: As No, not you speaking of ass.
Speaker 1: You talk about how you can.
Speaker 4: He's somebody for promotions, promotional promotional, only for promotional use.
Speaker 2: But like you know, just visuals have become such an
Speaker 2: expectation and I wanted people to really be able to
Speaker 2: immerse themselves and hear the music and feel like they
Speaker 2: were in my world. And so yeah, that was the intent.
Speaker 2: And Wayne Brady played my dad on it, which is
Speaker 2: really cool. I just always by Leslie Junior played my
Speaker 2: love interest. He played Miles. Tony Baker played my boss.
Speaker 3: Tony Baker is absolutely I heard him on it. I
Speaker 3: was like this, he is so stupid. He'll be trying
Speaker 3: to be funny and he.
Speaker 2: Just his voice voice. He literally has just one of
Speaker 2: those voices that he could say anything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a gift either look funnier or sound funny.
Speaker 2: And luckily he just signed and he just sounded nice guy.
Speaker 2: He's a speaking guy. Well he doesn't. He said that
Speaker 2: he don't like to say that he is because the
Speaker 2: people have a really high expectation for him. If you
Speaker 2: ever ate a cookie that wasn't He just don't want
Speaker 2: that pressure.
Speaker 1: The god you got, I don't want that pressure.
Speaker 3: I just want to be able to just eat it
Speaker 3: with no nobody looking for just the morsel.
Speaker 2: You the morsels are really good, so you press.
Speaker 1: No, I don't. I just I just did that just now.
Speaker 2: That was really good.
Speaker 1: But I was working on much of him he's working on.
Speaker 1: I watched that food all.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, that's dope because when it came on, I
Speaker 3: was listening to like the narration in this story and
Speaker 3: you did the job.
Speaker 2: And yeah, another vegan, Tabitha Brown plays my favor are vegans?
Speaker 2: Ken Dixon another vegan.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, are you I saw and I don't
Speaker 1: know what he ates? Are you telling them? No, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying I saw can be a vegan snitch.
Speaker 3: Bro Listen, First of all, if you're gonna say I
Speaker 3: don't want.
Speaker 1: To I don't want to see you, why can't you? No,
Speaker 1: you can go to Noble. You can go to Noble.
Speaker 1: They got great Bigan options and Noble I can attest
Speaker 1: to that. Yeah, are you recruiting vegans? Is that going on?
Speaker 3: Is that the Is that why I'm not a part
Speaker 3: of this project?
Speaker 1: You did not?
Speaker 2: I did?
Speaker 1: When you don't?
Speaker 2: No, I did. I reached out. I wanted you to
Speaker 2: be in it. You reach out to who I haven't
Speaker 2: reached out to?
Speaker 1: Jay, you're not vegan.
Speaker 2: He's like, look, I'm not going there, but yeah I did.
Speaker 2: I wanted you to be on it. I did.
Speaker 1: I won't miss the next one.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, but that's the project.
Speaker 1: And I'll go vegan while I do my part.
Speaker 2: You'll be planting based during the product.
Speaker 1: I've gone vegan.
Speaker 2: Okay, how long what's the longest you've done shoot?
Speaker 1: I went vegan. I was doing vegan for maybe like
Speaker 1: six seven months.
Speaker 3: And then I just and then I went and then
Speaker 3: I went with vegetarian for a while, then pescatarian, and
Speaker 3: then and then when I started training, I felt like
Speaker 3: I felt like pause. I felt on my body was
Speaker 3: crying out for crying out for meat. Pause again. I
Speaker 3: just feel like it needed.
Speaker 2: To your body was crying out for me.
Speaker 3: No, you can't do that. Once I paused. Okay, once
Speaker 3: I pause, we got to get out of there. And
Speaker 3: it's just like, because I'm training twice a day, so
Speaker 3: I felt like I needed that kind of protein.
Speaker 1: I got you pause again.
Speaker 3: So so that was kind of like, but I still
Speaker 3: I still dabbling vegan food, raw food, like I had
Speaker 3: I had a raw chef that I would call and
Speaker 3: she would make dope raw dishes for me and bring
Speaker 3: them over.
Speaker 1: Like all of that.
Speaker 2: Stuff living foods down here before.
Speaker 1: No where is that.
Speaker 2: It's downtown. We stopped there on the way here. It's
Speaker 2: incredible wild living. They figured that ship out. It's amazing.
Speaker 2: They have raw burgers.
Speaker 1: But why it's all the way downtown, I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's amazing, it's worth it. It's worth that's where the
Speaker 2: vegans go.
Speaker 1: No, it's a vegan spot right up here Crossroads.
Speaker 2: And Crossroads is everything and was holly Oh they opened up.
Speaker 2: They did open up a new local.
Speaker 1: I think it's Court Kardashian and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think it's Travis Barkers.
Speaker 1: Yea, yeah. They full vegan, like given her supplements, all
Speaker 1: that stuff, all vegan. So they're heavy.
Speaker 2: They could have been on the album.
Speaker 1: They could have you get Travis boy. I know you're
Speaker 1: gonna get it next time. I know.
Speaker 4: How.
Speaker 1: So, how are you feeling about the movement of this
Speaker 1: both this project?
Speaker 2: So I'm feeling really great about it, I am. I
Speaker 2: think just there's a lot of relatability with that self
Speaker 2: love journey and sort of that vulnerability and talking about
Speaker 2: therapy and just sort of you know, falling in love
Speaker 2: with yourself is something that a lot of people can
Speaker 2: relate to. Even the story I was telling you with
Speaker 2: my dad and him not being able to verbalize love.
Speaker 2: There have been so many people who've been reaching out
Speaker 2: and just telling me like yo, like this has inspired
Speaker 2: me to go into therapy or just inspire me to
Speaker 2: have these conversations, and you know, cause really it's about
Speaker 2: accountability too. And like Wayne and I have a duet
Speaker 2: on the project that's called Maybe It's Me. It's a
Speaker 2: father daughter duet which I hadn't really heard too much
Speaker 2: of in R and V. And everything's usually romantic love
Speaker 2: or friendship, but this duet between a father and her
Speaker 2: daughter just saying, you know, at some point, I can
Speaker 2: no longer blame you for the way I show up
Speaker 2: in my relationships because you were doing the best that
Speaker 2: you could. Now it's up to me to be the
Speaker 2: change in myself so that I can show up and
Speaker 2: be in more healthy relationships. And so yeah, people were like,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have a conversation with my father, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: have a conversation with my mother. And then I released
Speaker 2: a self love workbook that's sort of a companion to
Speaker 2: the album to give people a space to sort of
Speaker 2: write their own stories and to kind of like do
Speaker 2: their own healing and work. It's got like inner child
Speaker 2: activities and self love activities and then just journal prompts
Speaker 2: based off of the songs from the project. So I'm
Speaker 2: really falling in love and embracing this like healing wellness
Speaker 2: space that's sort of organically come from this project.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been beautiful.
Speaker 4: And it's completarly one percent independent it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the name of the label?
Speaker 2: Oh, Let there be Arts, you know, because we are creators.
Speaker 2: Let there be Art, and you know, it's Devin and
Speaker 2: I's company, and we're actually getting ready to launch an
Speaker 2: indie collective, like an initiative to help empower other independent artists.
Speaker 2: So that what we were talking about, right, like creating
Speaker 2: that blueprint because a lot of people don't know the
Speaker 2: business of being an independent artist and they get overwhelmed
Speaker 2: by publishing. There's so much money that is out there
Speaker 2: that people are not collecting. I'm just saying, there's so
Speaker 2: many things that we have learned along the way over
Speaker 2: the course of doing these three projects and just sort
Speaker 2: of creating a blueprint for people to be able to
Speaker 2: focus on the creative and not have to worry about
Speaker 2: all of the nuances and getting your publishing and getting
Speaker 2: your songs registered. Like there are people who are doing
Speaker 2: this at a very high level who are independent artists
Speaker 2: who didn't even know that they could how to upload
Speaker 2: their music to DSPs. A really good friend of mine
Speaker 2: pay is giving someone ten or fifteen percent of their
Speaker 2: publishing because they put the music on the DSP and
Speaker 2: I'm like, you don't got to do that. There's better ways,
Speaker 2: like you know, and so just really giving them the
Speaker 2: tools and then also creating a wellness initiative. We're starting
Speaker 2: a residency down in Atlanta called Spaces where it's gonna
Speaker 2: feel like, you know, it's for independent creatives, but it's
Speaker 2: also going to be a space where we have speakers
Speaker 2: coming in and teaching financial literacy or mental health. You know,
Speaker 2: we're gonna do yoga and stretching in mindfulness because it's
Speaker 2: holistic at the end of the day, because I learned
Speaker 2: that when I went through my depression trying to you know,
Speaker 2: navigate all these things and not really take care of
Speaker 2: myself first. That's important. So to be successful, it has
Speaker 2: to be holistic. And so I'm really excited about launching
Speaker 2: that through our company Let There Be R and really
Speaker 2: just giving other independent artists a blueprint because we don't
Speaker 2: have it and we don't have to go through the
Speaker 2: major label route. They make it so hard. We were
Speaker 2: just talking about that too. You know, they make it
Speaker 2: hard to figure out how to do it yoursel self,
Speaker 2: and it shouldn't have to be that hard. It's all
Speaker 2: there be giving you the information.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Did you know that when you were in total package
Speaker 3: that you would become the total package?
Speaker 2: Come on, manifestation, I kind of do keep becoming.
Speaker 1: The name you. I'm telling you like you're you're everything.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you?
Speaker 9: Ah he go, he go, here, he go, he go?
Speaker 9: What you got, Jade Novah?
Speaker 1: Somewhere amongst the stars and the quasars and all the
Speaker 1: cool ship and all the cool.
Speaker 3: Shit, there are some songs that mean a whole lot
Speaker 3: to you. We'd like to know what these songs.
Speaker 1: Are, these other worldly songs from your third eye? Do
Speaker 1: people want to know your top five? Your top five?
Speaker 1: Come on, wait, top five? Your top five on the singers?
Speaker 2: What else?
Speaker 1: Alrathy songs? Oh yeah, we wanta do you got to show?
Speaker 1: What will do be doude when you let us go?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Your five.
Speaker 2: That was really something? So what you want?
Speaker 1: Here? Here we go?
Speaker 3: Tell your top five R and B singers.
Speaker 2: Wow, I'm not good at favorites, but I will tell
Speaker 2: you five people.
Speaker 1: That's fine that I love. That's fine in R and B.
Speaker 2: Stevie Wonders my awesome, and I can say that's number
Speaker 2: one without a doubt. Stevie Wonder is what are we
Speaker 2: talking about? He's Stevie Wonder.
Speaker 1: Hmmm.
Speaker 2: Whitney Houston.
Speaker 1: Levels, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Oh, Brandy, okay, Oh this is getting hard because there's
Speaker 2: a bunch more that I want to name, and now
Speaker 2: I don't know how to consolidate.
Speaker 1: She's going fast?
Speaker 2: Can I do like to if I said, just go fast? Okay?
Speaker 2: Tony Bryson.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. To Mia is so cold. She does not
Speaker 1: get the respect she is so called.
Speaker 2: To me is one. She is a huge inspiration.
Speaker 3: She is a flat footed, stand alone sanger. Don't need
Speaker 3: nothing else.
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, Tamya is is it?
Speaker 1: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: I gotta say Beyonce.
Speaker 1: To could you better?
Speaker 2: Of course? I think that was seven.
Speaker 1: I know he's gonna say that on you. Okay, you're
Speaker 1: gonna stop there, I mean there, I asked. I did
Speaker 1: ask the question.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna stop there. I feel I feel good. I
Speaker 2: feel good about your.
Speaker 1: Top five R and B songs.
Speaker 10: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: OVERJOYEDV Gonna build your castle love. This is hard. Oh
Speaker 2: my god. I should have been prepared for this. This
Speaker 2: is Can y'all edit this so it could be a
Speaker 2: lot quicker.
Speaker 1: We need all this jeez, Oh.
Speaker 2: My gosh, rmy songs to me, you put a move
Speaker 2: on my heart.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: That's up there for me.
Speaker 1: That song.
Speaker 2: Every time it does something.
Speaker 1: She sang.
Speaker 3: God this way before the two way before pitch correction.
Speaker 2: Yea to me, it's incredible.
Speaker 3: So I had to say that she sang it correctly. Yes, ooh, y'all,
Speaker 3: Oh my god, you're gonna make me go. Pull that
Speaker 3: song up and let's do it in the car.
Speaker 1: You should as soon as I leave.
Speaker 2: Q's Duke Joint was an incredible project. Incredible, and then
Speaker 2: obviously her first album was incredible as well. Oh R
Speaker 2: and B songs. Okay, so we got Stevie, we got Tamya.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna try and pick one from each of
Speaker 2: the people that I said to just make things easier.
Speaker 2: So Brandy, I really love Say You Will by Brandy.
Speaker 2: I know that's like a wild card, but I really
Speaker 2: love that song. I really love that song. See, Tony,
Speaker 2: there's so many Tony songs. I mean, unbreak my heart?
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 4: Why not?
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 2: Who do we have Beyonce? Ooh, I love the lot
Speaker 2: B Day, that whole project. I'm just can I just
Speaker 2: do that?
Speaker 1: You can't do that.
Speaker 2: You can't beda B Day? Oh, Destiny's Child Desney Fulfield
Speaker 2: has some crazy projects and some crazy songs on there too.
Speaker 2: I'm not doing a good job, Tweter, Oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: I think have I not?
Speaker 3: All right, let's do your vultrying. This is where you
Speaker 3: build your super R and B artists, all right, So
Speaker 3: we're gonna see who you're gonna get the vocal from,
Speaker 3: the performance style, the styling, the heart of the artist,
Speaker 3: and who's going to write for these artists?
Speaker 1: You songwriter? Here we go.
Speaker 3: Who are you going to get the vocal from to
Speaker 3: build your super R and B artist?
Speaker 2: One vocal Whitney Houston. Yeah, because she is. She's Whitney Houston.
Speaker 3: She's the guy is ballads all time. It's it's temple,
Speaker 3: It's up temples all time. It's it's whatever you want.
Speaker 2: It's whatever you want. It's whatever you want. Okay, yep,
Speaker 2: we're gonna go. When Houston I'm grappling with her or
Speaker 2: Beyonce for a reason. I think because Beyonce can rap,
Speaker 2: Beyonce can do anything. Mm hmm. Beyonce Houston, Whitney.
Speaker 1: Knows, Whitney knows.
Speaker 2: Yeah, ship, Yeah, there's something about them as one. I mean, honestly,
Speaker 2: Whitney Houston can sing whatever too. She gave us Queen
Speaker 2: of the Night, and she she has rained.
Speaker 3: I feel like if whatever the time would have required
Speaker 3: of Whitney Houston.
Speaker 2: She could have delivered. So, in all fairness, either one
Speaker 2: of them interchangeably, just depending.
Speaker 3: On what we've just seen, the progression, because Beyonce is
Speaker 3: the evolution of Whitney Houston.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that versatility that both of them have, that's incredible.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, okay, okay, So Winnie knows performance style on stage,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna.
Speaker 2: Have to go with hmm. I'm have to go with Oh,
Speaker 2: we might have to go with do ca I was.
Speaker 2: Have you looked at some of the clips from her
Speaker 2: Coachella performers. She is she allows the people, and it's
Speaker 2: clear she allows the band to do what they need
Speaker 2: to do. She allows the creative director to do what
Speaker 2: they need to do, and she clearly studies and rehearses
Speaker 2: and puts on a good ass show. She is very talented, fire,
Speaker 2: she is incredible. I'm gonna have to go performance styling Rihanna.
Speaker 2: There's nobody cooler. There's nobody cooler. Rihannest building something right now,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, Building something, playing Lego.
Speaker 1: Selling one hundred million represent the heart, the passion of
Speaker 1: the artist.
Speaker 2: Oh, the passion. Hm hmm. I'm gonna have to go
Speaker 2: with jay Nova.
Speaker 1: Yeah, come on, come on, because you fighting for this space. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's all on your own Yeah, all out my account.
Speaker 2: She got the passion.
Speaker 1: I'm not playing out here.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: She's been doing this. She was a little baby, been
Speaker 2: doing this.
Speaker 3: I was signed since I was eight. I was under
Speaker 3: contract under Michael, Michael saying it.
Speaker 2: So, Michael, that's really good. A man of many gifts.
Speaker 1: You Yeah, your passion is real, Your passion is real.
Speaker 1: Who's writing for this artist?
Speaker 2: Oh Stevie Wonder, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Wonder. I think that
Speaker 2: might be a cop out though.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll get deep.
Speaker 2: There, because now I feel like I've created a very
Speaker 2: modern artist.
Speaker 5: So mayhaps m h Frank Ocean Hmmm.
Speaker 2: I'm interested.
Speaker 1: I'm interested as well.
Speaker 2: I'm interested to see what that looks like. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: because Frank Ocean to me has Stevie wonder isms and
Speaker 2: the way he paints a p make sure he's yeah.
Speaker 1: Freak my curiosity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a very interesting artist, curate.
Speaker 3: I mean, the artist is not interesting. The artist is
Speaker 3: a monster. But choosing Frank to write is interesting. I
Speaker 3: want to hear that.
Speaker 2: I want to hear it. I want to hear it intrigued.
Speaker 3: Because it's going to have it's going to have it's
Speaker 3: going to have a different type of depth to it.
Speaker 3: It's not like a it's not a commercial thing. It's
Speaker 3: truly art. It's like you know what I'm saying, Like, yeah.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's going to be interesting, Like you like.
Speaker 1: That's how you build a cult, a cult following with
Speaker 1: that type of material.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, yeah, oh yeah, we've come to that time.
Speaker 10: What's happening now, cul shit, I ain't.
Speaker 1: Saying no hey, I ain't saying no name. I ain't
Speaker 1: saying no names. I ain't saying no name. Was what
Speaker 1: you did? Don't say she? And I'm saying no name? Yeah?
Speaker 2: What does it all mean?
Speaker 4: So we've come to that point very special segment of
Speaker 4: the show, Will you tell us the story funny or
Speaker 4: fucked up? Are funny and fucked up? The only rule
Speaker 4: to the game. You can't say no names. Come on,
Speaker 4: come on, give us some good Come on, come on
Speaker 4: straight from pleav And, Ohio by way of Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 2: Period. What oh, oh god, funny or fucked up? I
Speaker 2: mean I kind of already said one of them, well too, guys, okay,
Speaker 2: kind of fucked up, really fucked up. Actually a very
Speaker 2: dope producer who wanted to work. Yeah, kind of back
Speaker 2: to what you were speaking on earlier. Yeah, oh, I
Speaker 2: just really wanted to work. And I was really excited
Speaker 2: because this producer is very dope and very relevant. And
Speaker 2: he sent me a DM and I'm like, great, let's work.
Speaker 2: Here's my husband's information. He's my partner. We're gonna like
Speaker 2: collaborate or whatever.
Speaker 8: And then.
Speaker 4: This had to do nothing with no husbands.
Speaker 2: He went ghost and I was really disappointed. I was
Speaker 2: really disappointed. But yeah, and it wasn't me trying to
Speaker 2: like even put it just this is the way I work,
Speaker 2: Like he's my business partner, so like that, it just
Speaker 2: was what it was. And yeah, I never heard from
Speaker 2: him again.
Speaker 1: It's probably for the best.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely for the best.
Speaker 11: I mean, he wanted to work, but he didn't want
Speaker 11: to work.
Speaker 2: So I'm with you on some of your your your
Speaker 2: women friends who say that that's an interesting thing to navigate,
Speaker 2: and I've the conversations that I have had are wild,
Speaker 2: and so I think that I lost my ability to
Speaker 2: have that whatever that thing is to be a single
Speaker 2: woman in this industry because I've heard that it don't
Speaker 2: even matter. There's a lot of opportunities that I feel
Speaker 2: like are not given because people's intentions.
Speaker 1: Are because you're not allowing a certain access exactly.
Speaker 2: So, but like you said, it's for the better because
Speaker 2: then you're reading out the bullshit.
Speaker 1: It well, and it's for you.
Speaker 3: Like your your path and how you want to go
Speaker 3: about this thing is just set a certain way and
Speaker 3: everything that go alongs with even just how you create
Speaker 3: your music, it just doesn't it doesn't warrant that like
Speaker 3: yours is just different. So I commend you on your path,
Speaker 3: commend you however you go about getting your business done.
Speaker 3: You know, God bless you. I have no judgment at all,
Speaker 3: but I commend you on how you've gone about gone
Speaker 3: about your business is very admirable, very respectable and as
Speaker 3: Jay says, should be studied, it should.
Speaker 2: Be I want to hear these stories. Y'all do the
Speaker 2: song again, and then y'all tell me.
Speaker 3: You're in the hot seat, so we're going to keep
Speaker 3: it on you. Jay, You're super dope. We first of
Speaker 3: all appreciate you coming because we know you know your
Speaker 3: time is real money. Your time is your money. It
Speaker 3: ain't nobody else there is your money, and we appreciate
Speaker 3: you being here. We are we are one hundred percent
Speaker 3: and support you. That is why you are here, so
Speaker 3: we can celebrate you and let people know who and
Speaker 3: what you are. And this is always available to you always.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: And I'm so proud and inspired at what you both
Speaker 2: have built here, like it's so necessary, and I love
Speaker 2: that y'all highlight independent artists as well, artists from all
Speaker 2: walks of life, like this is some really dope. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know this is dope ship that you've built. Now
Speaker 2: you've got a tour popping from it like you're doing.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do this. You're not gonna.
Speaker 2: Chain about it, all your plaque about it.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna do. That's incredible about you.
Speaker 2: But I'm saying like it's I'm grateful, like the give
Speaker 2: back because y'all are legends and it's and it's it's
Speaker 2: crazy awesome. I'm honored.
Speaker 3: And this is the R and B Money popocast, the
Speaker 3: authority on all things, all things, all things R and B.
Speaker 1: Fight for yourself because that's what this young lady does
Speaker 1: at jad Novan R and B Money.
Speaker 4: R and B Money is a production of the Black
Speaker 4: Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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Speaker 4: and you can connect with us on social media at
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Speaker 4: Money