Speaker 1: R and B Money.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 1: Than take valotized. We are the authority on tall thing
Speaker 1: R and B.
Speaker 3: My name is Tank Valentine.
Speaker 1: This is the R and B Money Podcast.
Speaker 3: Why are you doing?
Speaker 1: I don't know, I under saying the authority on all
Speaker 1: things R and B. You're about to be acted. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Let's seehere this is going.
Speaker 1: We got some of that, yes in the bills. You know,
Speaker 1: when it gets elegant, it's very you know when it
Speaker 1: gets sexy and saxony, you know what it gets.
Speaker 2: Brown Claire is here, so pro woman in the building.
Speaker 1: You're the set. I'm saying, real singing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, real black woman, real writing. Yeah, huh yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't want to label before you long or no
Speaker 1: intro because I want to talk to teacher about because
Speaker 1: I want to talk to I want to talk to him.
Speaker 4: Ship.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're going to turn it on even Thursday quick.
Speaker 1: I just think I just think that you're just dope.
Speaker 1: I think that you're just awesome, and I think that
Speaker 1: you're it's I don't even think you even have to
Speaker 1: do anything. I think you just have a presence about
Speaker 1: you and a disposition that it's.
Speaker 3: Just like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's what it's supposed And it's like when
Speaker 1: those comparisons happened from the tiny desk, it was like, oh.
Speaker 4: Do you see that?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 4: I don't see it?
Speaker 3: You don't see it, not at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: They used to tell my mother she looks like Claire
Speaker 4: hu It was like, what.
Speaker 1: If Claire Huxtable could say Claire, probably can't you think
Speaker 1: about it? Probably Claire is probably in the choir.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she has songs out.
Speaker 1: You know what fair comparison? Listen it was, it was
Speaker 1: it's a.
Speaker 3: Thing, but we all have someone that people think.
Speaker 1: But again it goes back to that energy.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's the thing. It matches.
Speaker 1: It's all that you're doing right now, Claire.
Speaker 3: But we're not about just Claire Hexley.
Speaker 1: Let you talk about Shah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: First of all, you know, I'm I'm sure they didn't
Speaker 2: whooped a couple of girls from them too, But.
Speaker 3: Don't do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't tell somebody something about themself. I know,
Speaker 1: I know what you don't do. Let's go back to
Speaker 1: the beginning. Can we go back to the beginning, of course,
Speaker 1: can we like get into where where where all this starts?
Speaker 1: Fatigra Moses? Who who points this out? Who tells you
Speaker 1: or affirms you if you have a gift.
Speaker 5: You know, my mama did. My mama used to and
Speaker 5: I wasn't even thinking about singing. My mother used to
Speaker 5: tell me these songs I should sing when I make
Speaker 5: my album, you should cover this song. Or she would say,
Speaker 5: you know, make sure you don't get all those cavities
Speaker 5: in your mouth, because it is so disgusting when those
Speaker 5: ladies be on camera and they's singing and opening mouth
Speaker 5: and all that black stuff is in them mouth. I
Speaker 5: wasn't thinking about any of this stuff.
Speaker 4: I wanted to rap. I wanted to be a rapper.
Speaker 5: But I think a lot of the greatest songwriters they
Speaker 5: have that, especially of our era, have that thing in
Speaker 5: them where you kind of like can just come off
Speaker 5: the top of you here. So I wanted to rap,
Speaker 5: and when I first started doing music, I wanted to
Speaker 5: do it more aggressively than what actually came out.
Speaker 4: But shout out to Paul PAULI he just smoothed it out.
Speaker 5: He smoothed it all out for me and made it
Speaker 5: a little bit more sensual and less raw as I
Speaker 5: actually was at that time.
Speaker 1: So who does where's your discovery moment? Where? Because I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm obviously singing in church.
Speaker 4: No, I missed all of that. My mother's sing gospel.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but I was like too shy, you know, in
Speaker 5: a Southern Baptist church.
Speaker 4: If you not.
Speaker 5: Belting out and like really getting busy still, I don't
Speaker 5: even think you can sing, you know. And my voice
Speaker 5: was a little too sweet. I just kept it to myself,
Speaker 5: sing in a shower.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: But then I met a guy by the name of
Speaker 5: Paul Pauli who produced my first album, majority of it
Speaker 5: with me, and he was a producer for my children's father, Razkaz,
Speaker 5: and he he introduced us and we just kind of
Speaker 5: crafted this sound. I came in with crutches. He was like,
Speaker 5: where is she going? She has crutches, she got a
Speaker 5: broken leg.
Speaker 3: What are we gonna do with this?
Speaker 4: I came to the studio and crutches.
Speaker 1: How did you.
Speaker 4: I had?
Speaker 5: I used to do wardrobe styling. So we were on
Speaker 5: a set up a video and I was going down
Speaker 5: the hill, just you know, going down the hill, and
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, the momentum started building and I'm
Speaker 5: going and I'm going, I'm going, and I jumped over
Speaker 5: a boulder and my female bone just.
Speaker 4: Breaks you jump over because I mean, yeah, it was
Speaker 4: taking me.
Speaker 5: You're young, you just got jump.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna politely just jump it.
Speaker 5: And so this is this is where my knee is,
Speaker 5: and this is what my my leg is doing.
Speaker 4: And so it was all broken.
Speaker 5: And after that, I couldn't do wardrobe style anymore because
Speaker 5: that wasn't my thing anyway. So it's like it's time
Speaker 5: for me to figure out this music thing. And I
Speaker 5: asked my children father to introduce me to producers. One
Speaker 5: was a guy by the name of Khalil Khalil that
Speaker 5: produces here in Los Angeles. I can't think of his
Speaker 5: last name, and really dope and Paul Pauli. And Paul
Speaker 5: Pauli lived in Glendale, I lived in Pasadena. Great little
Speaker 5: you know. Yeah, So we just started cooking and that's
Speaker 5: what happened.
Speaker 1: And is it the music that that creates the discovery
Speaker 1: on the next level or are you performing somewhere?
Speaker 2: Are you starting to You had done no shows, nothing,
Speaker 2: You just like, you know what, I.
Speaker 3: Want to do it?
Speaker 4: I want to do it. I was like I always
Speaker 4: liked as.
Speaker 3: A rapper as a singer at this point.
Speaker 4: Initially it was like I used to do.
Speaker 5: Like talent shows, rapping. My mother would take me to
Speaker 5: the clubs and all these different stuff.
Speaker 3: You know, this is New Orleans, this was.
Speaker 5: I was in LA by the time I became an artist.
Speaker 5: I moved to Los Angeles area about fourteen, originally from
Speaker 5: New Orleans, Louisian an area called Kenna right outside of
Speaker 5: I hear.
Speaker 1: So many things.
Speaker 4: What you hear?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was the thing.
Speaker 4: I was from New York.
Speaker 1: I was just about to say, you got some New
Speaker 1: York on you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because once I got here it started shaving up.
Speaker 5: But I'm living back in New Orleans again, so scrabably
Speaker 5: coming back out of me more. But yeah, like when
Speaker 5: I first got here, I started, you know, just kind
Speaker 5: of like dibbling and dabbling. But I didn't do my
Speaker 5: first show until I already had an album. I was
Speaker 5: signed to TVT Records.
Speaker 1: So hold on, hot, how do you skip these steps?
Speaker 1: How do you get straight from demo to deal to show?
Speaker 4: I don't know. I just was honest at the time.
Speaker 4: I was just so honest.
Speaker 5: I just was doing what I could, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean, Like it was just pouring out of me.
Speaker 5: And believe it, my first show, if I was to
Speaker 5: show y'all video. I had so much energy how you
Speaker 5: was talking about genuine jumping out there, That's how it was.
Speaker 5: My energy was so on tin and I had to
Speaker 5: like hone my energy in and learn how to really
Speaker 5: perform because I was just hella excited.
Speaker 4: But you know, we smoothed it out.
Speaker 1: And what was so in your mind? Like if in
Speaker 1: your mind at that time when you were like, this
Speaker 1: is the artist I want to be right, what did
Speaker 1: that feel like like if it's if it's comparing to
Speaker 1: anyone or never thought.
Speaker 5: About it, never thought about it. All I wanted to
Speaker 5: be was tjer. I wouldn't even put weave in my
Speaker 5: hair in the beginning because we had hair. You know,
Speaker 5: I'm from the South. We pride ourselves for having hair
Speaker 5: and all these things. So I didn't even put weave in.
Speaker 5: Then I tore my hair up and have to start.
Speaker 5: But yeah, like I we just were very natural girls.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to do anything that wasn't the One
Speaker 5: thing I knew in my mind is I wanted to
Speaker 5: be relatable. You know, we come from an era of
Speaker 5: like big stars. I didn't really want that vibe. I
Speaker 5: wanted to be touchable. I wanted to be somebody that
Speaker 5: was extremely relatable. So I that's all I had in mind.
Speaker 5: And when I made an album, I wanted.
Speaker 4: To feel like Aliah's Rockaboat. That's what I wanted.
Speaker 2: Album itself to feel like that record. Yes, that's a
Speaker 2: great start.
Speaker 1: Gray Star.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I wanted it to be something that and cause
Speaker 5: I love eighties R and B was just always so
Speaker 5: sensual and like, you know, grown, and that's what I
Speaker 5: wanted my my album to be on. But as far
Speaker 5: as what kind of artists I wanted, I didn't know
Speaker 5: how I wanted to dress anything. I just wanted to
Speaker 5: be myself and I hone that over time, and that's
Speaker 5: why I'm glad that that big thing that happens for
Speaker 5: people didn't happen for me right away because I probably
Speaker 5: wasn't ready because I didn't even know what I wanted
Speaker 5: to present to you because I was just being myself.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to become anything. I just wanted to
Speaker 5: be myself. And as I grew as a person as
Speaker 5: an artist, I became more clear on what that was,
Speaker 5: what that was.
Speaker 3: So you were signed to T TVT in the beginning, Yes,
Speaker 3: that's like the label they had, like Little John right.
Speaker 4: Yes, little John ying Yan twins people and me and
Speaker 4: I used to roll with them too.
Speaker 3: Of course, because that's how that goes. Though people don't
Speaker 3: know that.
Speaker 5: Like right too, you know what I mean. I'm I'm
Speaker 5: I can be around men drinking and smoking and I
Speaker 5: can play those games.
Speaker 4: I can play those games and walk out with my heels.
Speaker 1: And yeah, tell me, I see it. I see It's
Speaker 1: okay your first album. As you're going through these motions,
Speaker 1: what are some of the things that you're discovering that
Speaker 1: you know early on and just from your experience, like
Speaker 1: the things that hit you immediately that you were like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know that. I got to figure this out.
Speaker 4: Here's the thing.
Speaker 5: I was blessed to have Neo in studio every day
Speaker 5: as I'm recording these songs, and I think that he
Speaker 5: is one of the greatest.
Speaker 4: Of our time.
Speaker 3: You said Neo Neo.
Speaker 5: I called him chaffer at the time, but he became
Speaker 5: near absolutely, and he is one of the greatest vocal
Speaker 5: producers of our time. And I was blessed to have
Speaker 5: that when I knew nothing about this. All I knew
Speaker 5: about was singing my lead lines, and I put a
Speaker 5: little you know, three part harmony here and there.
Speaker 4: And he taught me how to paint.
Speaker 5: He literally taught me how to paint with my vocal
Speaker 5: and I think that was the first thing I realized,
Speaker 5: I have to tighten up here. This is where I
Speaker 5: have to learn to really make complete records. That's the
Speaker 5: first thing I thought of. My writing came natural. It's
Speaker 5: more so like it would just pour out of me.
Speaker 5: I have never taken a pin in written anything down,
Speaker 5: because I don't think that's how it goes for me.
Speaker 5: I just kind of stand in the mirror and look
Speaker 5: at myself and start singing to myself, you know, and
Speaker 5: it starts to pour out whatever's going on. It starts
Speaker 5: to pour out. I just sing it over and over again.
Speaker 5: But I would find when I go to the studio,
Speaker 5: I would get stuck when.
Speaker 4: It was time to paint the vocals.
Speaker 5: And that was the first thing I realized, I have
Speaker 5: to get very strong at that. And I've gotten much
Speaker 5: better over that time, you know.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so he worked on the whole first.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: The only song that he didn't vocal produce and arrange
Speaker 5: vocally arranged was Caught Up. That was the first song
Speaker 5: I ever wrote in my life. Ever recorded, ever did
Speaker 5: ever and that one was he but then we got
Speaker 5: to the next one. I was just getting stuck. So
Speaker 5: they called him because we want the same production company.
Speaker 5: I think it was called Bridge Kid. We were both
Speaker 5: stigned to the same production company and we would cook
Speaker 5: every day, me Pauli and Neo.
Speaker 1: That's crazy, that's really great because I remember early Neo Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: me too, least work with Vig Tang. Yeah. And he
Speaker 1: was like, I'm telling you, this kid is dope. Man,
Speaker 1: Like you got to go. And I went over there
Speaker 1: and they started playing songs. I looked at this little
Speaker 1: nigga said, I said, I wanted yeah, yeah, he had
Speaker 1: a smash for me. That that Uh, this is the
Speaker 1: first time that I had heard that a writer wanted
Speaker 1: in advance.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, gold Neil.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I was like, get a nigga
Speaker 1: the money. Well, my label was I was like, no,
Speaker 1: we don't pay no writers. I'm like this, listen to
Speaker 1: the song.
Speaker 4: The song, and let's say this too.
Speaker 5: A lot of these tracks without the song, it's just
Speaker 5: and then you put that personality, you put that that
Speaker 5: you put the record on the record, Yes.
Speaker 4: And why you're not gonna pay that person. Why would
Speaker 4: you not pay.
Speaker 1: Because traditionally the advance was always allotted to the.
Speaker 5: Producer, So why wouldn't the producer? I got bills to pay. Baby,
Speaker 5: My kid's tuition is to you can't throw me something.
Speaker 2: Because in our genre of me, not even just our
Speaker 2: genre of music, but our sector of music and black music,
Speaker 2: it became where we just had more beat makers more
Speaker 2: than even producers, because a producer could have been either
Speaker 2: side of that in the beginning, right, and then they
Speaker 2: share the wealth as they see fit if they didn't
Speaker 2: pin the record or they didn't do the beat. But
Speaker 2: then when you said that a beat maker was the producer,
Speaker 2: it just.
Speaker 3: Side you know what I'm saying. And they were like, oh, ship,
Speaker 3: that's that.
Speaker 1: That's they.
Speaker 3: They said, I'm just I'm the producer because I've been doing.
Speaker 1: Cool. The first person I ever heard of like kind
Speaker 1: of taking that energy back was Missy Elliot.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, yep, Absolutely, she.
Speaker 1: Was a person where it was like she's like, I'm
Speaker 1: taking this from Okay, you brought it the beat, which
Speaker 1: which takes us from A to maybe G but from
Speaker 1: g on that's me, that's right, And without g on,
Speaker 1: that's sitting on the CD. I'm the producer and this
Speaker 1: is my fee. And so, like going back to Neil
Speaker 1: early in his like this is before he's neo. I'm like,
Speaker 1: pay this kid. I don't know he's getting ready be neo,
Speaker 1: but I know this right here what he's doing and
Speaker 1: special and we need to figure that out. And you
Speaker 1: know it wasn't figured out. We didn't figure it out.
Speaker 1: He didn't he didn't sign with us, I didn't get
Speaker 1: the record. Next thing, you know, so Sick is out
Speaker 1: and I told you.
Speaker 5: No, next thing, you know, what's the Mario record?
Speaker 1: You should yea and just went so disrespectful. I feel so.
Speaker 3: It happens.
Speaker 1: I saw one day. I was like this, I got
Speaker 1: one one, Neil. I've known you for so long. One
Speaker 1: please sure God damn.
Speaker 3: Next day, when we see the nigga and you produce, we.
Speaker 1: Jumping on eat you seed you to start it? You
Speaker 1: just did you? Did you? Did you know that you
Speaker 1: were you? You were in a space style wise that
Speaker 1: was very unique when you were when you started creating
Speaker 1: with me and all these guys, and you started hearing
Speaker 1: the product, like once you started listening to the body
Speaker 1: of work and listening to your voice and how you
Speaker 1: how you? Uh?
Speaker 5: I didn't think I could sing very well. You don't
Speaker 5: have to remember I came from Southern Baptist church, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean. The girls in there sound like.
Speaker 1: Franklin.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 5: So I didn't think I could sing very well, and
Speaker 5: it took a while for me to like it. It
Speaker 5: took a while for me. I think once people started
Speaker 5: liking I gave myself great.
Speaker 1: I was about to say, what was the yeah, what
Speaker 1: was that moment or in terms of, like, you know,
Speaker 1: the validating moment in a sense to where you you
Speaker 1: you you finally accept Yeah. I think it.
Speaker 5: I think when people and this crazy thing is I
Speaker 5: don't need people to validate. That's not my personality. But
Speaker 5: I think at the time, I just it was new.
Speaker 4: I was extremely new.
Speaker 5: Like most people had a lot of things that they
Speaker 5: did before they started. I was extremely new, so I
Speaker 5: was kind of insecure in the sense of like, I
Speaker 5: don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 4: I would always tell them I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 5: But even in me not knowing I was doing, I
Speaker 5: was gonna stand on what I like and what I
Speaker 5: didn't like, you know. And I think that by the
Speaker 5: time I started going out on the road. That's I
Speaker 5: think for any artist, that's the validation when you realize
Speaker 5: you got something because you start seeing the energy that
Speaker 5: it brings out of people. And I think that's when
Speaker 5: it happened. It took me getting on the road and
Speaker 5: seeing people sing my songs.
Speaker 3: Did you did you immediately have good reactions.
Speaker 5: On the road, Well, immediately, there was no one there first.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: It was the first tour I went on was a
Speaker 5: Seagums Gen tour and it was myself, Tweet and Sel,
Speaker 5: which is a really great show, but they weren't there
Speaker 5: for me to like about somewhere around Houston and it
Speaker 5: was like two people and they were rocking. This is
Speaker 5: why now to this day, I still turn around and
Speaker 5: play with my band like we jam out together, because
Speaker 5: I start off with nobody there, so we get into
Speaker 5: each other, two people. Then it started going and going
Speaker 5: and going, and it eventually happened, but it started with
Speaker 5: nobody and we were just rehearsing them and listen.
Speaker 1: And it's a real thing because as a as a
Speaker 1: new artist, you have to decide how you're going to
Speaker 1: approach that moment if you really want.
Speaker 5: This, because if you're doing it just to see them
Speaker 5: do that and nobody's up there. Are you just gonna
Speaker 5: be like up there just bullshitting you know, because nobody's
Speaker 5: up there.
Speaker 4: No, you're gonna go.
Speaker 5: You're gonna still give that energy because you're enjoyed it
Speaker 5: with your band at this point and from that day
Speaker 5: till now.
Speaker 4: I love when people out there enjoy it.
Speaker 5: You know, it's a totally different thing now everybody's enjoying it,
Speaker 5: but we're enjoying it.
Speaker 4: There it is, we connected, we locked it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I've had many a show where I can't tell
Speaker 1: you what we call the shows trick, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: all five uh many a show where fine, okay, let's
Speaker 1: eat because I had never imagined that I would be there.
Speaker 1: Like when I started singing backgrounds for Genuine, I thought
Speaker 1: in the LEADU, I said, oh d I'm doing this
Speaker 1: forever Genuine I was like, no, no, you gotta go
Speaker 1: do your thing. I said, no, I don't.
Speaker 4: This feels good.
Speaker 1: I can see, yeah, this is great. I see backgrounds
Speaker 1: with you. You take your shirt up, then I take
Speaker 1: my shirt off, and then like this is this is great?
Speaker 1: So why would I want to leave? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying I thought having fun carrying Genuine's bag, remember
Speaker 1: the time of my life. And he's like, nah, bro,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be you like you gotta do your thing.
Speaker 1: And when they pulled me off the road with Genuine,
Speaker 1: I almost cried as a grown man, you're taking mind
Speaker 1: you you're killing me right now.
Speaker 2: And because as you left, you go to a new
Speaker 2: space where's no crowd.
Speaker 1: It's no round because Genuine was introducing me. So when
Speaker 1: I sang, there was motion. It's like that's Genes got girl.
Speaker 2: To this day, he still sings background.
Speaker 1: Don't matters going to start singing. I sing backs, give
Speaker 1: me my park, my mixtop, playing with me. But when
Speaker 1: I started singing those those two of those three, those
Speaker 1: four people like again I come from that Baptist church.
Speaker 1: You better sing. And sometimes when you're singing during devotion,
Speaker 1: the people ain't came in the church yet. People are
Speaker 1: still drinking, trickling in. But the spirit gotta be there
Speaker 1: when they get when they when they the spirit better
Speaker 1: be there. You ain't ushering in no spirit. They move you,
Speaker 1: they move you along. You won't get devotion. No more
Speaker 1: emotion was a big deal.
Speaker 4: The devotion there you go and.
Speaker 1: So liked that experience of singing in front of those
Speaker 1: ten those twenty people. Like that's what made me yeah,
Speaker 1: because I'm like, oh no, i'ma I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: kill y'all so crazy, y'all gonna go get twenty more people,
Speaker 1: promise you. And I remember the day when I walked
Speaker 1: into a building and I said, I got to do tonight.
Speaker 1: Sold out? Yeah? How many? How many people here? Like
Speaker 1: eight and fifty? What? Oooh it's your you? What what? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh my god? And they were screaming. I was genuine,
Speaker 1: And you know, it's like Jay said, it's like those
Speaker 1: are the moments that make you make a real decision
Speaker 1: about how much of this you really want.
Speaker 5: But see, I think it's also according what you're doing
Speaker 5: it for, right, I was really doing it for me.
Speaker 5: I like this.
Speaker 1: I love it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I like this, so I want y'all to like it.
Speaker 5: But it's only a couple of y'all here. I'm gonna
Speaker 5: give it all I got to you. But whoever comes
Speaker 5: to my show just know I love you dearly. But
Speaker 5: I'm up here enjoying myself, you know, And I pray
Speaker 5: that that spills into you like the energy transfer, you know,
Speaker 5: but I'm not paying enjoying myself.
Speaker 4: I'm gona talk how I want to talk.
Speaker 5: I'm act you are now in my living room, you
Speaker 5: know what i mean, Even if I'm at somebody else's house.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm opening up for somebody. We're still in
Speaker 5: the room they gave me to stay in.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: It's like, I'm gonna give myself and if you like it,
Speaker 5: I'm glad you like it. But I'm not as much
Speaker 5: trying to win you over as much as I'm just
Speaker 5: giving myself to you.
Speaker 4: And how you.
Speaker 5: Take that, you take that, because I can only give
Speaker 5: you me, not back.
Speaker 1: To the validation things. But when you feel that connection
Speaker 1: of your lyrics and the people.
Speaker 5: And you're like, oh yeah, yeah, that's that's really feels good.
Speaker 4: That feels really good.
Speaker 5: Because I'm a very honest writer. I'm not poetic on purpose,
Speaker 5: you know what i mean. I just write what I
Speaker 5: feel at the time. And when I'm saying things like
Speaker 5: everybody's worried about tomorrow when they see tomorrow, I'm just
Speaker 5: trying to get mine off today and everybody's looking at
Speaker 5: me like yes, yes, singing these words like they came
Speaker 5: from their own brain. That's a really awesome feeling, because
Speaker 5: you don't feel crazy when people are like relating to
Speaker 5: you like that.
Speaker 3: You feel like we are a little crazy.
Speaker 5: We are insane, we are delusional, and we are insane.
Speaker 4: We are freaking insane. But I'm not by myself, you know.
Speaker 5: I feel like, you know, yo, all these things I've
Speaker 5: been fitling, Yeah, all these things I've been feeling.
Speaker 4: They feel it too.
Speaker 5: Men, women, gay, straight, you know, you name it. People
Speaker 5: are relating and that have always related to my my lyrics.
Speaker 5: I really appreciate that because I was a weird o
Speaker 5: child that always felt like nobody else understood.
Speaker 1: What was the first song that did that for you?
Speaker 5: The first song that did that for me was in
Speaker 5: Baltimore on the same the first tour I went on
Speaker 5: the Seagums Gen tour.
Speaker 4: Baltimore, sing every word for word.
Speaker 5: They started with no more tears, just kind of like
Speaker 5: some singing some of it. But of course by the
Speaker 5: time you got to be your girl, they're just singing
Speaker 5: it out, singing it out, you know, And I just dropped.
Speaker 4: The fucking bike. I just dropped the mic and.
Speaker 5: Just was standing there like I had to like get
Speaker 5: myself together to start back singing with them because I
Speaker 5: was blown away.
Speaker 4: I was blown away.
Speaker 5: I could not believe that those people, we had done
Speaker 5: a whole tour, nobody, you know, people starting to get
Speaker 5: into me knowing, you know, but now we're here in
Speaker 5: Baltimore and they're going up for me.
Speaker 4: It was crazy.
Speaker 3: Did you have.
Speaker 2: A hit record as a writer first? Did that record
Speaker 2: come out first? Did Dipplo come out? Because I mean
Speaker 2: for people, I mean, we know, but y'all, I don't know.
Speaker 3: She wrote Christina? Did that come out before?
Speaker 4: I'm trying to think.
Speaker 5: I think that we were almost simultaneous, simultaneous. I think
Speaker 5: I think it was around the same time. Yeah, I
Speaker 5: think maybe my album came.
Speaker 3: Out about it dropped out.
Speaker 5: Let me just tell you I was I was, Oh
Speaker 5: she was first. Yeah, I think I think Diplo was first.
Speaker 5: But either way, I'll never forget. I used to sing
Speaker 5: it like it's mine.
Speaker 3: Oh you put in your show too, And no.
Speaker 4: They didn't do it back then. Back then, nobody did that.
Speaker 5: Back then, you weren't really singing the songs you wrote
Speaker 5: for other people.
Speaker 1: Tank, it.
Speaker 4: Wasn't happening but.
Speaker 2: Used to do that with Babyface because about such a thing.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying I wish I would have been doing
Speaker 1: that back then. Y'all heard that, y'all heard this.
Speaker 5: That's all me every radio station because you know I
Speaker 5: was underground. So I want you to know, like what
Speaker 5: I do works when it has some support, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean?
Speaker 1: Wow, do you I've had this moment before? And I
Speaker 1: want to know if you've had this moment as a
Speaker 1: as a singer and a songwriter where you write this song,
Speaker 1: whatever song this is for you. You write this song
Speaker 1: and you tell this story, you tell this truth, and
Speaker 1: you get it off and you send it out into
Speaker 1: the universe and one day you're singing this song where
Speaker 1: they're singing this song back to you and you finally
Speaker 1: you realize what this song means.
Speaker 5: Yes, for sure, what song is that? I think that
Speaker 5: would probably be No More Tears, That's it. And I'm
Speaker 5: really stuck in my first album right now because I've
Speaker 5: been touring this thing right now and that's like really
Speaker 5: where my head is, and I think that's the one,
Speaker 5: that's the one, And this is when those experiences happen
Speaker 5: in the very beginning, you know, like, like I said,
Speaker 5: I was just speaking honestly when I was writing these records,
Speaker 5: and I'm seeing.
Speaker 4: This chick crying, singing no.
Speaker 5: More tears, which is kind of an oxymoron, but she's crying.
Speaker 5: She's like so intensely crying, like these were her last tears.
Speaker 5: She was gonna cry. And I was like, Oh, that's
Speaker 5: what I was on. That's what I was on, Like
Speaker 5: I'm really not about to be around here sad.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna get all this out and I'm not gonna
Speaker 5: be sad no more. And I think that's the first
Speaker 5: time I really saw the reflection, like the mirror of
Speaker 5: what I really was on when what's writing that record?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was. I was singing maybe I deserve one
Speaker 1: day mmm, and I didn't. I got lost, like to
Speaker 1: the point to where the song and I started tearing up.
Speaker 1: I was like, I was like, I'm getting ready to break.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh no, And they're singing there, singing
Speaker 1: it back, and I'm realizing what this song is sang
Speaker 1: from a perspective that I hadn't really looked at before.
Speaker 1: I just I don't know why I had that experience,
Speaker 1: but I was just like, this song means something so different,
Speaker 1: and it's those people in the audiences. Is the dude
Speaker 1: singing it to his girl maybe yeah, and it's the
Speaker 1: girl like you? And I'm like, I'm watching it, you know,
Speaker 1: as it sounds destructive, I'm watching it repair. Huh. You
Speaker 1: understand what I'm saying. Because having a moment, they're finally
Speaker 1: they're finally having a real moment of accountability. And through
Speaker 1: that accountability or through that truth, people can make better decisions.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like women, as long as they know
Speaker 1: the truth, they can navigate anyone.
Speaker 5: If you give them the truth, then they got all
Speaker 5: the pieces to really work with.
Speaker 1: A woman can navigate. Okay, cool, So that's okay, cool.
Speaker 1: Just let me be able to walk in there with
Speaker 1: my head up.
Speaker 4: Oh no, I'm not walking in after you tell me
Speaker 4: I'm going in another direction.
Speaker 5: But you gave me information for me to be able
Speaker 5: to make that decision.
Speaker 4: That's I'm appreciative and I love you forever.
Speaker 7: Goodbye. Let me have the car.
Speaker 1: Oh no, you got first. I'm teaching. I am right.
Speaker 1: Oh look, yeah, I'm teaching mostly I don't I don't
Speaker 1: even know what the fuess you got going on? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: the truth to set me free. I'm out, you.
Speaker 3: Know what I'm I'm tired of you already.
Speaker 1: I was gone somewhere. Where do you feel? How did
Speaker 1: you feel from a success standpoint with your first album?
Speaker 1: How did you feel?
Speaker 5: I didn't feel any success. I'm under I'm an underground artist.
Speaker 5: I'm slowly, twenty years later, people starting to know me more,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. I came from doing wardrobe
Speaker 5: for big labels, big budgets, all these things. I went
Speaker 5: to a record label called TVT, which was Indy, and
Speaker 5: we were thugging it, you know. And also, let's be clear,
Speaker 5: the Indy is so celebrated now. It's oh my god,
Speaker 5: that Indian. You know, it's India's Indie, Indian doing this Indy.
Speaker 5: We were not celebrated, right.
Speaker 3: I'm from the Bay Area, so you know, everything independent.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's different.
Speaker 2: But I'm saying our mindset is already where you are
Speaker 2: with it. But like you said, it's so celebrated now.
Speaker 2: But we were independent because you didn't have any like from.
Speaker 5: The Bay and it was no industry in Oakland, yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, and you would have to come to La
Speaker 5: to become Everybody had to go to these big cities
Speaker 5: to come.
Speaker 4: It was not like it is now. We all know that.
Speaker 5: But so when you're indy and you're not, these platforms
Speaker 5: aren't really.
Speaker 4: Checking for you.
Speaker 5: These I remember, I'm not going to say his name,
Speaker 5: that's my baby. But were real cute, cool, and he
Speaker 5: was like, you know, she's too skinny to put up.
Speaker 5: You know the smooth magazine used to have with the
Speaker 5: girls and stuff like that, She's too skinny. Every time
Speaker 5: I see my swing my ass in front of like,
Speaker 5: I'm too skinny.
Speaker 4: Huh, I'm too skinny. You said, I'm too skinny her.
Speaker 4: We have a laugh.
Speaker 5: But these are the things.
Speaker 1: You got that big.
Speaker 4: So it wasn't easy.
Speaker 5: So when you talk about success, it's like.
Speaker 4: I didn't. I didn't pay attention. I just didn't really think.
Speaker 1: About you at least.
Speaker 4: I mean I was getting money as a writer.
Speaker 1: Did you feel like I wasn't.
Speaker 4: Even thinking about it? If I was seeing or not,
Speaker 4: I was Can.
Speaker 5: I keep it g with you? I was working hard
Speaker 5: to take care of my kids. I couldn't worry about
Speaker 5: all of that. I just had to get what I
Speaker 5: was getting and be grateful for it and keep I
Speaker 5: have twin sons, twin sons.
Speaker 3: Oh really, Oh my god, Oh fabulous. So they're part
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 5: Before you go on, I have to tell everybody, very
Speaker 5: amazing part of a group called Coast Contra that's really
Speaker 5: really dope doing very true hip hop music.
Speaker 4: And yeah, that's my babies.
Speaker 3: So Chefferless is oh okay, okay, and.
Speaker 2: That's been my homie before she had a restaurant. Okay,
Speaker 2: so when she opened a restaurant, you know, I'm going
Speaker 2: through there and I just keep saying these these these
Speaker 2: these young fellas, and I'm like, at first, yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: hold on.
Speaker 3: And I have twin brothers.
Speaker 2: I have brothers that are twins, so but my brothers
Speaker 2: are fraternal twins. But it's always you know, it's a
Speaker 2: thing when you see twins, especially when you see identical twins.
Speaker 3: Right, And they was.
Speaker 2: Just the nicest guys. Literally, you did an amazing job.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: The nice when I say the nicest dudes, bro, just
Speaker 2: you know, cause you go to restaurants and it be
Speaker 2: bush it sometimes and even when it because I used
Speaker 2: to go a lot too, so you know, I would
Speaker 2: see them all the time. And they never said anything
Speaker 2: about music, right, And obviously I'm a music guy and
Speaker 2: chef knows that and the whole thing. So one day
Speaker 2: she was like, you know who their parents are, right,
Speaker 2: And I was like, we've never they've never said anything.
Speaker 3: And she's like, y'all come here, you know, she.
Speaker 4: Do her thing, my sanitary sister.
Speaker 2: And they came and they and they were like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, but our dad is is uh Is Razskaz
Speaker 2: and our mom is teacher Moses.
Speaker 8: I'm like, oh, as the R and B guy, and
Speaker 8: they were like, yeah, you know, we're trying to put
Speaker 8: together our music and we're doing this, that and the other.
Speaker 2: And I just watched the progression and of them just
Speaker 2: killing everything when they do their freestyles. And those guys
Speaker 2: are so talented in the group as a whole. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's super super talented. And listen, the generations is going
Speaker 2: for you because that that is that's.
Speaker 3: Special what they do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that. You know, when they first started,
Speaker 5: I didn't know that they wrap. I knew nothing about it.
Speaker 5: And a friend of theirs was coming up. We lived
Speaker 5: in Miami at the time, and a friend was coming
Speaker 5: over and he would come by and he be like,
Speaker 5: it's most as you have to hit him rap And
Speaker 5: they'd be like, no, no, mom, we don't rap.
Speaker 4: We don't.
Speaker 5: And I don't know why they thought I didn't want
Speaker 5: them to do this. I don't know why they thought that.
Speaker 5: But when they I finally did, they finally get get
Speaker 5: around to saying it. Just listen, just be good, just
Speaker 5: be good at it. And that's what they told me.
Speaker 5: We didn't want to tell you before we thought we
Speaker 5: were good enough because we knew you would tell us
Speaker 5: that we were horrible if.
Speaker 3: We were, and I would, Yeah, yeah, you have to.
Speaker 5: I expect excellence from my children. I told them ever
Speaker 5: since they were younger, you're great, and it said they
Speaker 5: had to figure out what they were great at, because
Speaker 5: I'm like, you gotta you're great.
Speaker 4: It's in you.
Speaker 5: You just got to figure out what it is. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and they figured out this was what it was. But
Speaker 5: I was not gonna be I see these people that
Speaker 5: do music and do it.
Speaker 4: Really well, and then they have.
Speaker 3: Kids, what are you doing, friggy business?
Speaker 5: Sit them down and have to talk. I didn't do
Speaker 5: all of this for you to take us all the
Speaker 5: way back there. Don't make me look crazy, and my
Speaker 5: kids don't, thank god, thank god.
Speaker 1: Put in too much work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now cents.
Speaker 1: Yes, my two cents been my two cents in a minute.
Speaker 3: And it's funny because they were probably didn't.
Speaker 5: But you know, that's how it was as a wardrobe stylist.
Speaker 4: No one knew I was saying. Do you know when
Speaker 4: my music.
Speaker 5: Came out, everybody, producers, people that would be around. I
Speaker 5: would be in so many spaces, and I was very quiet,
Speaker 5: probably didn't smoked out, and just in the corner, high
Speaker 5: as hell, you know what I mean. And I never
Speaker 5: talked to anyone. But by the time it started going,
Speaker 5: people just came up to me frustrated and disgusted with me,
Speaker 5: like you did this all this time, and you told
Speaker 5: no one I was there doing this. I was just
Speaker 5: there doing this. I'm doing what I came here to do.
Speaker 5: If anybody asked, I would have told them.
Speaker 1: It's just I mean, because you know, from adding adding
Speaker 1: mom to it, like, people don't understand how difficult that
Speaker 1: in itself is, because you know, men and women are
Speaker 1: completely we operate completely different in that space. Man men detached.
Speaker 1: As soon as they leave a house man out may
Speaker 1: throw a phone call the two D, but he out
Speaker 1: in the field, he working. I gotta do what I
Speaker 1: gotta do. A woman is calling back to the house
Speaker 1: pulling out of the driveway. Yeah, and to be able
Speaker 1: to to mentally make sure this is in the space
Speaker 1: it needs to be, but also be of service to
Speaker 1: the people who are coming to see you, people who
Speaker 1: want to interview you, people who are spending money on you.
Speaker 1: Any but like, great.
Speaker 4: Job, thank you, And to do it as a single parent.
Speaker 4: Let's make that clear.
Speaker 1: Great job, thank you.
Speaker 3: How old were they when you first went out on
Speaker 3: the road.
Speaker 6: And like seven something like that, but they were good,
Speaker 6: Like we would have these conversations about how like listen,
Speaker 6: weird team.
Speaker 5: Okay, don't be the weakest link because if you mess up,
Speaker 5: that messes up for me. If I messes up, that
Speaker 5: message up for you. We have to all be strong
Speaker 5: in It's like I raised them to understand we're doing
Speaker 5: this together. It was very much so what you see
Speaker 5: is what you get. Ain't nobody, no fairies dropping off,
Speaker 5: no money here. You know, I'm out here hustings. How
Speaker 5: I get it out the damn clad.
Speaker 3: I was conversation with my daughter.
Speaker 5: Yes, I kept a gem from like five years old.
Speaker 4: They knew.
Speaker 5: So these conversations made, you know, made it different and
Speaker 5: I remember once we were on the road, my son
Speaker 5: started going to roll with me. After they got older
Speaker 5: and started doing music, I would take them to the
Speaker 5: UK and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: They were performed before.
Speaker 5: Me and the band asked them when your mother was gone.
Speaker 5: We knew y'all would have parties. You know, y'all would
Speaker 5: have parties at the house. And they were like no,
Speaker 5: and they're like, nah, y'all had parties. No, they were
Speaker 5: why didn't you have parties? Because we didn't want to
Speaker 5: make it any harder for her.
Speaker 4: That's real teammates, Jim saying what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: You about to cry.
Speaker 4: It's getting really motion.
Speaker 5: That's man, that's real teammates, right and til this Sunen,
Speaker 5: that's my I mean to this day, my sons are
Speaker 5: my best friends, best best friends. We did it together,
Speaker 5: like and that's why you know, even now with their stuff,
Speaker 5: they'll call me and I'll tell them my opinion out
Speaker 5: in myself. You know.
Speaker 4: We just teammates teams.
Speaker 1: That is so cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is you.
Speaker 1: I want to do that, Tomates. Don't make it hard over.
Speaker 1: I'm quite and I'm like, turn that thing up.
Speaker 5: No, listen, I'm into the parties too. But don't do
Speaker 5: anything that I'm going to have to rush home.
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely because I'm gonna kill you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's really why you're not doing because you
Speaker 5: know you're gonna die.
Speaker 1: What could happen? I'm all about that everything you said.
Speaker 1: I love it. My wife is more like that. I
Speaker 1: was like, I mean, the whole wall ain't burnt.
Speaker 5: It's just has to be balanced though two of you guys,
Speaker 5: it's just did you die?
Speaker 1: But you know what, my trauma is different because I
Speaker 1: was like everything for me coming out of that Baptist house,
Speaker 1: in that church and that grandmother, great grandmother, great grandfather,
Speaker 1: mom and dad, everybody being there like Auntie Betty and
Speaker 1: own nit because I said, so, yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, and so.
Speaker 4: I get to and I never said it. I would always.
Speaker 1: Explain yeah and I and you know, like I grew up,
Speaker 1: asked my father Jack, can I go outside? And having
Speaker 1: to sit there, well, he smoked his cigarette.
Speaker 3: Still that's are you still waiting to answer right now?
Speaker 1: Still waiting to go outside? Wide?
Speaker 3: That's why you like outside.
Speaker 1: I would have to literally wait at the door sill
Speaker 1: for like ten to fifteen minutes and then just walk
Speaker 1: away and then later on he come walking out. You
Speaker 1: all your friends go out by yourself. All I have
Speaker 1: to say was that trauma that kind of forced me
Speaker 1: in a hard way in the other direction to number one,
Speaker 1: not my kids to be able to I think we're
Speaker 1: kind of teammates because I let them communicate.
Speaker 4: That's important.
Speaker 1: I let them say it how they feel it, and
Speaker 1: then we can we can make the corrections, we can
Speaker 1: make the alterations on how that should be communicated and
Speaker 1: and get into the wise of the feelings that they're having.
Speaker 1: Because I know I felt some things as a kid
Speaker 1: growing up. You know what I'm saying that I would
Speaker 1: love to have shared with my parents, but I didn't
Speaker 1: totally know how to articulate it. These new kids, sheesh,
Speaker 1: they're talking and articulating my nine year old his daughter.
Speaker 5: It's also because they feel safer to do it. When
Speaker 5: you come from the era of like, yeah, do what
Speaker 5: I say, shut up and do us, it's a safer
Speaker 5: space to be.
Speaker 1: I love that teammates. Shout out to my teammates, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, get them rapping or something. Get
Speaker 1: you were Grammy nominated songwriter.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I can't even remember what song that's crazy, right,
Speaker 5: because I'm trying to think because it happened a couple
Speaker 5: of times. She does know to me, and what song
Speaker 5: was Grammy nominated?
Speaker 1: You said that because it happened a couple of times.
Speaker 5: I remember about below them damn checks. So I was
Speaker 5: like homeless, me and my kids didn't have anywhere to stay.
Speaker 5: We were like kind of just going from political posts.
Speaker 5: I just went out on that tour something about and
Speaker 5: I didn't have no money, and we were going to
Speaker 5: do this and I wasn't going to sell my publishing.
Speaker 5: That wasn't my thing. So we're going to do this,
Speaker 5: admitted administration two point fifty. It was gonna give me
Speaker 5: to do twelve percent, okay, And they told me they
Speaker 5: give it back to you and you go somewhere else.
Speaker 4: Okay. Cool.
Speaker 5: So I still own it, and my lawyer it was
Speaker 5: like December, you know, everything closes down, and she's like,
Speaker 5: but there's some jargon in the in the contract that's
Speaker 5: just not right. And I'm gonna get back to it
Speaker 5: in the new year, what cause I'm homeless.
Speaker 3: I need to way, I'm gonna get back to it.
Speaker 4: We'll get back around to the new year.
Speaker 1: But God talk about.
Speaker 5: It must have been like my kids, somewhere around like
Speaker 5: the second or the fourth. My son's birthday is on
Speaker 5: January fourth. I got a check for like three hundred
Speaker 5: and something thousand dollars home more more my see what
Speaker 5: I'm saying. Wow, that's what I remember about dipping it
Speaker 5: pick it up slowly. Yeah, it was like, you know,
Speaker 5: that's when I that's to what I remember. That is
Speaker 5: the moment that I said, oh, you will never own me.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna own all of me every time. If I fail,
Speaker 5: I'm anna fail owning me. If I win, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: win owing me. Because that changed everything, I just do
Speaker 5: want to say thank.
Speaker 4: You to the people that have held me down for
Speaker 4: all these years.
Speaker 5: Like I said, I've been underground, but it's been consistently
Speaker 5: growing the entire time, and I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 4: And yeah, just thank you. I'm grateful. What's your playing
Speaker 4: over there?
Speaker 1: Brother?
Speaker 5: I got songs? Why does that sound like sometimes it
Speaker 5: snows in April a little bit?
Speaker 4: The beginning of it.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is.
Speaker 5: Press press no time, the neighborhood.
Speaker 3: On the way though he had a principle.
Speaker 2: I love Prince, you know, I'm talking about like in
Speaker 2: real life, like you knew Prince you.
Speaker 4: I didn't know him, but I met him.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I feel like Prince met you too many times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, teacher, the people are concerned about some information that
Speaker 1: they need from you. All the singing and all the
Speaker 1: touring and all the shows you've done, there's been some
Speaker 1: musical influences they would like, they would like to know
Speaker 1: who inspired we do all of this. And it's segment
Speaker 1: cold far You're top fa.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm t far.
Speaker 9: Your top pat I beasings, come on all and me songs.
Speaker 1: We've got to move then though, you call there all
Speaker 1: you you more you you Yes, right, you're.
Speaker 3: Tap f.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 5: Okay, So you want to know my top five R
Speaker 5: and B singers singers, I would start with Anita Baker.
Speaker 5: Anita Baker because I think she gave birth to a
Speaker 5: whole generation of singers. I think that uh, Donnie Hathaway
Speaker 5: has one of the greatest tones I've ever heard in
Speaker 5: my life. Jasmine Sullivan is the greatest singer of her generation. Uh,
Speaker 5: let's see singers.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm.
Speaker 5: Let me see who else tank mm hm. I'm not
Speaker 5: just saying that because you're here, not for real. I've
Speaker 5: heard you sing live. Yeah, I'm not playing with you, bro,
Speaker 5: I've heard you sing live. Really, I've heard you sing live,
Speaker 5: and I've heard you pull it out of your spirit
Speaker 5: on them at the moment. I'm always amazed by that.
Speaker 5: I can't do that like that. I gotta go with
Speaker 5: her civilian figure it out. Would my last person be?
Speaker 5: And I mean this as a singer because I think
Speaker 5: just because you can do all the acrobats doesn't mean anything.
Speaker 4: Can you sing the song? Can you just sing the song?
Speaker 1: I feel man, you're talking about feeling something.
Speaker 5: And if you've seen her live, you know it goes
Speaker 5: just like the record.
Speaker 3: You know, I never seen that.
Speaker 1: I said it. I need to see. It's just different. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's different.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna find out if I can go find her
Speaker 2: in one of them castles that she lives in the castle.
Speaker 2: I don't know that, but I think I know that.
Speaker 1: Castle for sure. I want to hear it saying.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like her on stage is everything her music is,
Speaker 5: you know it is it is.
Speaker 4: It's so good. She is probably one of my really
Speaker 4: top artist period.
Speaker 1: Of all time. I would I love that she don't
Speaker 1: have to move, she.
Speaker 5: Just and there's no other of her.
Speaker 4: No, there's no more. I don't think that ever be okay.
Speaker 1: Top five R and B songs.
Speaker 4: Adore You by Prince Greatest Sex R Kelly.
Speaker 5: What a song you can close your eyes and see everything?
Speaker 4: He sang.
Speaker 1: I was so angry I heard that song.
Speaker 4: How did you get to anger?
Speaker 1: Because in my mind I was always competing against him,
Speaker 1: even though I wasn't at that space yet, and I
Speaker 1: was like, he's still so much better.
Speaker 4: Let's see what else do I have? Stronger in pride?
Speaker 4: It's one of my favorite songs.
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 4: Beauty?
Speaker 1: True?
Speaker 4: Hill?
Speaker 1: Real? You mean absolutely? That song angered me too.
Speaker 4: That was a good one though.
Speaker 1: Signed. That's when I was signing the Cliff and Jerry
Speaker 1: and it just got off tour with him and they
Speaker 1: dropped that song, and I think it was Jerry, look me,
Speaker 1: you ain't make sure like this. I can. That's how
Speaker 1: you motivated. Ain't making sure like that? Get your ship together?
Speaker 5: Beautiful songs. To this day, I listen to it and
Speaker 5: it just makes me feel so good as a woman,
Speaker 5: Like you know, I I love that there are male
Speaker 5: artists out here singing for women, but that's like one
Speaker 5: of those key songs. It's like, if you as a woman,
Speaker 5: if you just want to feel good, you put that
Speaker 5: record on. I don't know, I think that might have
Speaker 5: been three or four. Crush Jeanne hmmm, yeah, I love them.
Speaker 5: By the way, I was a third member of that group.
Speaker 5: We all have a group that we were shout out to,
Speaker 5: the Baylor Project because jean from Jean Nay is with
Speaker 5: her husband. They're still getting nominated for Grammys and yeah,
Speaker 5: doing their thing. And then my last one, I think
Speaker 5: we're at five now, would be Marvin Gaye's when Did
Speaker 5: You Stop Loving Me? Because you know what, no structure,
Speaker 5: just a really good song until you don't get to
Speaker 5: the hook of it all until the end.
Speaker 4: He just see he just tells his whole story.
Speaker 5: Like visit you here, my dear, my dear, and that
Speaker 5: that's the one, that's the one. And I was in
Speaker 5: heavy heartbreak when I listened to that. He was just
Speaker 5: like talking about her calling the cops on. It was
Speaker 5: just he ran the whole thing down. It's really really good. Yeah,
Speaker 5: so that would be my top five.
Speaker 1: Dear.
Speaker 9: Wow, I ain't saying no next, I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 9: I ain't saying no names. Saying no names.
Speaker 2: You was.
Speaker 1: What you did, don't say? She said.
Speaker 3: So we had a very very important part of the show.
Speaker 1: Pivotal, very very pivotal.
Speaker 2: He would say, segment of the show called I ain't
Speaker 2: saying no name? Okay, will you tell us a story?
Speaker 1: They or fucked up?
Speaker 3: Are funny and fucked up?
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: The only rude to the game is you can't say
Speaker 3: no name.
Speaker 4: Okay. I got a few of those.
Speaker 5: So when I first started out, was going on tour,
Speaker 5: and I told you I had never really done a show.
Speaker 5: So going on tour, and let's be clear, my sisters,
Speaker 5: my management, we've been like this for the whole time.
Speaker 5: We both with New Booty. We knew nothing going on.
Speaker 5: So the label gives us money to put together a
Speaker 5: band and everything. There were certain people that were pretty
Speaker 5: you know, well known for doing it at the time,
Speaker 5: putting together bands, mds, you know all this stuff.
Speaker 4: There's this guy.
Speaker 5: That we gave the money too to put it all together.
Speaker 5: I ain't gonna say his name, but this nigga took
Speaker 5: my money and just left it, just took the money.
Speaker 5: We had rehearsal. He just did not show up. One
Speaker 5: person in the band that he put together came. I'll
Speaker 5: say his name, mister Wild Jones, who's an amazing arranger,
Speaker 5: producer and MD.
Speaker 4: He came and he.
Speaker 5: He kind of like helped me put a real but
Speaker 5: I had to go get some more money, yeah, because
Speaker 5: they took the money.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: So then he goes and gets people. It's my first
Speaker 5: time going out on the road. He goes and get people,
Speaker 5: pull together a really great band. But the day, but
Speaker 5: maybe two days before it was time to go out
Speaker 5: on the road, the guy that we didn't rehearse with
Speaker 5: all this time. And keep in mind, I don't know
Speaker 5: how to just pull thing together things together like I
Speaker 5: can now, you know, I'm.
Speaker 4: Just new booty, right.
Speaker 5: And so the guy goes to jail, one of the
Speaker 5: guys the band. Yeah, he goes to jo but we
Speaker 5: gotta leave tomorrow or the next year or something like that.
Speaker 5: I can't really find somebody else to replace him. So
Speaker 5: I go bail him out because that's what I thought
Speaker 5: I would have I was supposed to do. Now I
Speaker 5: wouldn't do that, but back then, that's what I thought
Speaker 5: I was supposed to do. So cool, So I got
Speaker 5: him out. Now we go and we do the first
Speaker 5: show we're doing a song produced by Rafael Sadik in
Speaker 5: which he is playing bass. What kind of bass does
Speaker 5: Rafael play, you guys, regular bass? He doesn't play key bass.
Speaker 1: It's time.
Speaker 4: There's like this boo bas thing. I turn around.
Speaker 5: It's my first time, maybe my fourth time ever being
Speaker 5: on stage, first show of the tour. I'm in front
Speaker 5: of these killers, right. I turn around and this nigga
Speaker 5: is then forgot his bass and he's only playing key base.
Speaker 5: I want to throw the whole experience away.
Speaker 4: I have my money. So he got fired never and
Speaker 4: he's my friend. He knows who he is. He's my friend,
Speaker 4: still my friend to this day.
Speaker 5: But this was my This was the beginning of me
Speaker 5: having experience of like going out here on the road
Speaker 5: and having to deal with band members and and music directors.
Speaker 5: And I was green and I was a mark and
Speaker 5: they got me and y'all know who you are. And
Speaker 5: when one of them, one that took my money, see
Speaker 5: me act like.
Speaker 3: Oh, you never got that money back, never got the
Speaker 3: money back.
Speaker 7: Yes.
Speaker 5: I saw him at the homing house one time, because.
Speaker 4: He'd be with them.
Speaker 5: So I see him at the house and he goes,
Speaker 5: he goes like he's talking to me like everything normal,
Speaker 5: and I'm like, okay, cool. As soon as they let
Speaker 5: you know that nigga stole my money, right, like that
Speaker 5: nigga stole my money, and like it's like, do you
Speaker 5: did you do this so much that you forgot everybody
Speaker 5: you stole? Probably I want my money back, Yeah, I
Speaker 5: want all of it with interest.
Speaker 4: Yes, stole my mom. I mean, it was just ridiculous.
Speaker 5: My start out was just like this is pure hell.
Speaker 4: You gotta you gotta know you want it, because I
Speaker 4: was like, this ain't fun.
Speaker 3: It's not cool, it's not funny. Mean over here, over here,
Speaker 3: it's not fun, and people are mean.
Speaker 4: People are mean.
Speaker 5: But you know what great experiences that taught you. You know,
Speaker 5: how to be a shark with the sharks, you know.
Speaker 4: They got me.
Speaker 1: Well. First of all, thank you, thank you for coming.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having this was so much fun.
Speaker 4: You are not.
Speaker 3: Like so I ain't coming on there.
Speaker 5: You are.
Speaker 4: I feel like you' the crazy one. You to calm.
Speaker 1: It's perfect and we switch sometimes, yeah, but it ain't
Speaker 1: good if we switch.
Speaker 3: If he crazy, craziest, fun my craziest, My crazy.
Speaker 4: Is dangerous, somebody might get killed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're not trying to nobody.
Speaker 3: That's why I try to say okay, good good, good good.
Speaker 1: I like that. Yeah, it's about if we're both crazy.
Speaker 1: Oh man, God bless a child. But you I love
Speaker 1: everything about you. Like I said in the beginning, you're
Speaker 1: you're super dope. Your energy is is very much needed,
Speaker 1: almost required in a sense, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Those stories and those things that you've been through, and
Speaker 1: in the amount of time that you've put into this
Speaker 1: and and the way you're still standing in it, like
Speaker 1: people need to hear that. People need to see that
Speaker 1: period and that's going that that's going to continue to
Speaker 1: inspire generation.
Speaker 3: So we're happy that we can help people see it.
Speaker 5: Yes, thank you, thank you, and thank you all for
Speaker 5: what y'all doing.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you anytime, the safe We're here for you.
Speaker 1: Whatever you need. You're going to nowhere, new music, yes,
Speaker 1: new album.
Speaker 3: Yes, all that.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna come school on between.
Speaker 1: Come on, yeah, maybe saying a little bit. My name
Speaker 1: is and this is the R and B Money Podcast,
Speaker 1: the authority on all things R and B just don't
Speaker 1: just essence, you know, just all of elegance. Yeah, sexy,
Speaker 1: just fly and talented.
Speaker 4: Thank You.
Speaker 2: R and B Money is a production of the Black
Speaker 2: Effect Podcast Network. For more podcast from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 2: favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show,
Speaker 2: and you can connect with us on social media at
Speaker 2: jy Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,
Speaker 2: subscribe to YouTube dot com, forward slash, R and B
Speaker 2: Money