Speaker 1: Of course. Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This
Speaker 1: classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Hey,
Speaker 1: what's going on, y'all?
Speaker 2: This is Fante Fonteglo here with this week's QLs classic.
Speaker 2: This week we talked to my friend, my family, my
Speaker 2: dear friend. One of the best singers on the planet.
Speaker 2: Grammy winning singer Layla had the way she talks about
Speaker 2: carrying on her father Donnie's legacy, working with Prince, singing
Speaker 2: phone notes at the same time like it ain't shit,
Speaker 2: her deep love of video games, and plus we get
Speaker 2: loads of wisdom, loads of words of wisdom from my
Speaker 2: QS brother Sugar Steve.
Speaker 1: This is a great episode. Check it out. Originally state
Speaker 1: was March twenty eight, twenty eighteen pre Roma. It was amazing.
Speaker 1: Check it out QLs Leila Hathaway QS classic. It's Fonteo Loo.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Supreme mother, some suprema roll called Suprema son supremo
Speaker 3: role called Suprema suprema role called suprema so supremo roll.
Speaker 1: Sound of Layla's voice, Yeah yeah, but when she starts harmonizing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Suprema supremo role called Suprema supremo roll.
Speaker 2: Call my name is Fante. Yeah, I'm cashing checks. Yeah
Speaker 2: with my nigga Layla, watching some real sex.
Speaker 4: Suprema son Supremo, rod come Suprema, Suprema roll call.
Speaker 1: My name is Sugar.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I love Fela. Yeah, I love Dayla. Yeah, I love Tequila.
Speaker 1: Suprema some Suprea role still is flying yeah, flying high.
Speaker 1: Yeah when Layla sings, Yeah, baby don't cry roll.
Speaker 7: Suprema so SUPREMEA roll call Suprema some.
Speaker 1: Supreme roll call.
Speaker 5: It's like, yeah, been called Layla, Yeah, never really minded.
Speaker 5: Yeah because this girl stays playing you.
Speaker 1: Sorry, we're talking about my rod turn Suprema. Yeah, really
Speaker 1: your turn Supreme my role call.
Speaker 8: My name is Layla, yeah, not Leila.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Supreme roll Suprema some some suprema role called Suprema
Speaker 4: son Supremo, roll call Suprema s Suprea roll call.
Speaker 1: Shut up.
Speaker 8: My first I to give you the cord. The chord
Speaker 8: was not really popping, just now it came out. There's
Speaker 8: a lot of air.
Speaker 1: Okay, stop it.
Speaker 9: What's going on on the air?
Speaker 1: Stop it?
Speaker 9: I just I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't stop it. Something to do with Prince probably, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: tell me. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, it'll come up another
Speaker 1: episode of course, Love Supreme. I am quest love, I'm
Speaker 1: still alive. Yeah, okay, wait, I'm just going to come
Speaker 1: out and say it. Uh, that was the worst.
Speaker 6: Come out and say it.
Speaker 1: It's worth It's worth the wait. Okay, No, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be professional about this, all right. First of all, I
Speaker 1: have to say, yeah, we have literally one of the
Speaker 1: most brilliantly frightening singers ever to walk on this earth.
Speaker 8: Frightening. You've said that before. He told you what is
Speaker 8: the frightening part.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get into it.
Speaker 8: She's so cuddly.
Speaker 1: Because I want you to know that my love for
Speaker 1: you is beyond awe.
Speaker 8: Oh that's deep. I'm glad you said that, because it
Speaker 8: doesn't feel like that.
Speaker 1: I know, and I know I know you feel a
Speaker 1: certain way, maybe jokingly or maybe real a little bit both.
Speaker 8: But I appreciate that. I appreciate that that's deep.
Speaker 1: But this is from such a level of oh god,
Speaker 1: this feels like the first episode. All right. My name
Speaker 1: is Ques. All right. First of all, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: please welcome Layla. Half the way you.
Speaker 8: Intro go down and infamy. I appreciate all of that
Speaker 8: you had to get through this before.
Speaker 1: Just tell a story. Okay, Look, just the sound of
Speaker 1: your voice talking like as I really I want us
Speaker 1: to be BFFs. But the sound of your voice is
Speaker 1: quasi traumatic for me. The speaking sound I love when
Speaker 1: you talk to me.
Speaker 8: Yes, it's speaking sound, just regular.
Speaker 1: I know, it is, it is, it is, it is,
Speaker 1: it is. But it's just that the the texture of
Speaker 1: your voice reminds me so much of your dad that
Speaker 1: I just have connections of I understand of that. But
Speaker 1: it's also anytime you sing, it just psychologically puts me
Speaker 1: back at being like seven years old, eight years old.
Speaker 8: Interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is a hell of a way to
Speaker 1: start off.
Speaker 8: Get it out right.
Speaker 1: They're just all laughing at me because they know that
Speaker 1: this isn't fake nervousness. I'm doing it right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: paper bag to breathing. No, I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 9: Is that the first time you've heard that? Because I'm sure.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 8: It's interesting to me because I know, you know, like
Speaker 8: my box was made by my mother and father, so
Speaker 8: I know that I sound like my parents, both my parents.
Speaker 8: But it's interesting that people sound is deep. Sound is
Speaker 8: like super deep. It's a transporter. So when people tell
Speaker 8: me that it takes them to a place, I get yeah,
Speaker 8: because I have that sound, those sounds that do that
Speaker 8: for me, So I get it.
Speaker 1: It's deep, though, did your mom did she sing as well? Yeah?
Speaker 8: My mom is a singer. My parents met at Howard
Speaker 8: in the fine arts department, and a lot of the
Speaker 8: way he approached singing he got from her, you know, so.
Speaker 1: As do I.
Speaker 8: You know, so I definitely get it. It's interesting though,
Speaker 8: because people say, Wow, it's so cool, you sound so
Speaker 8: much like your dad. But I'm like, you probably sound
Speaker 8: like your dad too, you know who who has not
Speaker 8: answered the phone and somebody said, is this you or
Speaker 8: your mama? This is you or your daddy? So it
Speaker 8: makes sense to me.
Speaker 1: I get it now. I definitely sound like my father.
Speaker 1: And sometimes my dad passed last January, and every time
Speaker 1: I call home to talk to my mom, always have
Speaker 1: to be mindful of how I say hello on the
Speaker 1: phonecause it might sound just like him calling her.
Speaker 9: Anyway, talk about nowhere to go?
Speaker 1: But actually, can you answer all your questions and your
Speaker 1: neal diamond voices? Yes? Absolutely? Like yeah, Like I kind
Speaker 1: of want to bring our online relationship out to here
Speaker 1: and some times when you sit on the show and
Speaker 1: we talk about singers you love or ideas, crazy ideas
Speaker 1: you have. Yeah, I love talking about that stuff. Anyway.
Speaker 1: Can I assume that you were where were you born?
Speaker 8: I was born in Chicago. I like to think of
Speaker 8: it as the late eighties.
Speaker 1: You born in the late eighties Chicago. It was born, Yes,
Speaker 1: I feel you born what part of Chicago.
Speaker 8: Born on the South Side, grew up on the North Side,
Speaker 8: moved back to the south Side before I went to Berkeley.
Speaker 1: Can you explain like Chicago to me? I mean, Chicago
Speaker 1: means everything that all people. Of course, you know politicians
Speaker 1: will use what about Chicago as a sort of reminder,
Speaker 1: But I mean, what is when you think of Chicago?
Speaker 1: Is it fuzzy home memories? Is it like the eye
Speaker 1: roll in the air?
Speaker 8: Is Chicago has many things?
Speaker 1: To me?
Speaker 8: Chicago is? I mean, anybody from Chicago will tell you
Speaker 8: we have a super strong sense of being from that place.
Speaker 8: The city has a lot of character and holds a
Speaker 8: lot of character. The food, the culture of the museums,
Speaker 8: the people, the weather, the sides, the segregation. You know,
Speaker 8: Doctor King said when he went there in the sixties
Speaker 8: that it was the most segregated city he had ever
Speaker 8: been to. So for me, Chicago, Yeah, Chicago was a
Speaker 8: lot of things. And that's the thing when people say
Speaker 8: I'm from la or I'm from Virginia, nobody says what side.
Speaker 8: You know, people, Chicago's either south Side or north Side.
Speaker 1: That's its south Side represents what.
Speaker 8: That's for black folks. North Side is white folks, South
Speaker 8: Side is black folks. There of course, there's everything in between,
Speaker 8: and there's the West Side, but there's definitely a delineation
Speaker 8: if you grew up in Chicago, particularly in the seventies
Speaker 8: and eighties, like where in Chicago are you from? You know,
Speaker 8: there's definitely that aspect, you know. So I grew up
Speaker 8: in both parts of town, you know, south Side and Northside,
Speaker 8: mostly north Side.
Speaker 1: So in the eighties when you were four, what I mean,
Speaker 1: what was the environment?
Speaker 8: Like, Vin, I went to a performing art high school.
Speaker 8: I don't have a huge memory of my life before
Speaker 8: like seventh grade, sixth grade, I went to Performing Arts
Speaker 8: High School.
Speaker 1: Any other notable students there that are now.
Speaker 8: John Cusack, Laura Flamboyle, You said John or Joanes? John
Speaker 8: John Joan went there when I was there, it was
Speaker 8: only the third year they had.
Speaker 1: Of course. Okay, that's why he said fidelity. And well
Speaker 1: he was in shyrek as well.
Speaker 8: Preacher and those John Hughes films. You know, all of
Speaker 8: those kids. Let's see Susan Tunnya. Her sister's name is
Speaker 8: Robin Tunney, who's on the Mint Yeah, Lar flam Boyle.
Speaker 8: I said that she's you know a lot of kids.
Speaker 1: So you're obviously your major was vocal.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Well see I got to the school and I sang.
Speaker 8: I walked in, I had my sheet music and I
Speaker 8: was singing this Anne Murray song and I was probably
Speaker 8: thirteen or fourteen.
Speaker 1: You needed me, you needed me. What is what is
Speaker 1: up with you in country? I don't know, I really
Speaker 1: I just the midwesterns.
Speaker 8: It might be it might be that it might be
Speaker 8: like I like to sing and I like tone and
Speaker 8: growing up, those were some of the songs that captured me,
Speaker 8: those voices and those songs like you know, you could
Speaker 8: pull them like taffy.
Speaker 1: Are you the youngest or oldest in your oldest? Okay,
Speaker 1: so you discovered the music first. Did you hang with
Speaker 1: older cousins or anything or not? Really?
Speaker 8: I mean my cousins were like, you know, I have
Speaker 8: two older cousins, really my first cousins. One of them
Speaker 8: was like a huge kiss bas city rollers, you know there,
Speaker 8: and the other was like Prince and that's it. Like
Speaker 8: in her closet behind the clothes was the poster of
Speaker 8: him in the shower with the leather, and I would
Speaker 8: dip in there like I ain't getting the sweater. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 8: I love I love country music. I love Dolly Parton
Speaker 8: and all that growing up.
Speaker 1: But how I mean, how was this introduced to you
Speaker 1: if it's not an older cousin, older sibling, or were
Speaker 1: you just that curious or was it your friends?
Speaker 8: It was not a big whoop to understand who those
Speaker 8: people were in the seventies and eighties before I.
Speaker 1: Was born, right, Okay, it was.
Speaker 8: Nothing to see Lionel Ritchie with Dolly Parton somewhere, everything
Speaker 8: Kenny Rogers or the Mandrell System.
Speaker 1: On Saturday Night, Barbara Crystal Gale.
Speaker 8: Yeah, all of that stuff for me, even like the Eagle,
Speaker 8: you know, the sort of country rock. All of that
Speaker 8: stuff was all in the same sort of collective for me.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, so you chose Anne Murray, you need it?
Speaker 8: I did. I did, and dude started playing and I
Speaker 8: was standing up there and I said, I cried. He
Speaker 8: was like, wait, wait wait, you got singing up the
Speaker 8: octave and I was like, I never sing it up
Speaker 8: the octave. He said, we'll try it. That's where you're
Speaker 8: supposed to sing. Oh, And I was like, I cry.
Speaker 8: You know this is wrong, this feels wrong. He was like,
Speaker 8: you should try the theater department.
Speaker 1: Then wow, wait what talk?
Speaker 8: Yeah, so I did that for a little bit.
Speaker 1: Oh, so they I'm wrong. So they you went to
Speaker 1: you did drama first before you.
Speaker 8: I did a little drama. I did music. I just
Speaker 8: kind of basically blended in really until I got to Berkeley,
Speaker 8: Like I tried out for different things at school and
Speaker 8: didn't make it. I went to show choir camp. I
Speaker 8: didn't really you know, I just kind of blended in
Speaker 8: everywhere until I got to Berkeley.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean in doing that era, like were you
Speaker 1: at all trying to pursue a music career?
Speaker 5: Was not?
Speaker 8: Really? I mean in high school, I just feel like
Speaker 8: I feel like I was waiting for this thing to happen,
Speaker 8: Like I at some point I came to LA when
Speaker 8: I was sixteen or seventeen, right at the top of
Speaker 8: Berkeley and I went to Bri remember br Jack Rapper
Speaker 8: and Bri Yeah, and Prince was playing that year and
Speaker 8: I just stood in that audience and I was like,
Speaker 8: I love him. This is what this is. I'm supposed
Speaker 8: to be here.
Speaker 1: Uh when he did Diamonds and Pearls.
Speaker 8: No, I was way before that. It was it was
Speaker 8: like eighty It was before I went to Berkeley. It
Speaker 8: was like eighty nine. Sheila came out and played and
Speaker 8: I was like wow. I was in the hotel waiting
Speaker 8: to get in the room where he was going to play,
Speaker 8: and Stony Jackson was standing in front of me.
Speaker 1: And I was like with the curl. Yes.
Speaker 8: I was like, this is my ship.
Speaker 1: Does Stony Jackson exists without the curl? Stony Jackson came
Speaker 1: back on something and he had a fan. I can't remember.
Speaker 1: That's what we're talking about.
Speaker 9: Okay, I remember the name.
Speaker 1: Yea, the Stony Jet. But he came back. He was
Speaker 1: on something fairly wasn't everybody hates Chris, That makes sense, Chris.
Speaker 1: He had a face, he had a fad. What do
Speaker 1: you remember Stony Jackson, Steve, did you ever watch The
Speaker 1: White Shadow?
Speaker 10: Uh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was he was one of the black guys.
Speaker 9: That eventually, I mean but l asked me to watch
Speaker 9: two two seven.
Speaker 8: He had a show, Remember that show where he was
Speaker 8: a detective and his friend was a detective.
Speaker 1: Yes, how do you know that?
Speaker 8: I loved Stony Jackson growing up.
Speaker 1: It said to me that you and Fante might be
Speaker 1: like matching wits. As far as this dude information.
Speaker 8: This dude, I told you. We sat in the hotel
Speaker 8: lobby one night and chopped it up for hours. This
Speaker 8: dude is absolutely one of my soulmates. He don't know
Speaker 8: it yet, but that's true.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that, My members.
Speaker 9: When you find your tribe, it's nice.
Speaker 1: True, it's true, though, a tribe called real Sex. We're gonna.
Speaker 2: So when I first got on Twitter right now, this
Speaker 2: is like early Twitter. This is like the early days
Speaker 2: of Twitter, like O nine, O ten Twitter, Ok, Twitter
Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven, though, well, I'm saying this
Speaker 2: was the glory days. This is I mean, oh seven,
Speaker 2: it was still early, and then like oh nine, that's
Speaker 2: when people got on old teams. Cool it started popping,
Speaker 2: and then like twenty eleven, twenty twelve, that was when
Speaker 2: Trump the tumblr uh people came over and just ruined it.
Speaker 2: So now this ship is whatever, but like now this
Speaker 2: ship is you know then, So back then, before all
Speaker 2: the tumbler buffoks came over, you could just talk about whatever.
Speaker 2: And every time Real Sex came on HBO, Layla would
Speaker 2: show up in my timeline like it was without fail.
Speaker 1: She would just alwayshow yep, watching real six this is episode.
Speaker 1: I just I was like, yo, like lately you really
Speaker 1: you watch all these them all all that I think
Speaker 1: I've seen them all to it's.
Speaker 9: Like thirty of them at this point.
Speaker 8: It's real sex and I'm showing them. And now they've
Speaker 8: tried to update, you know, they have news cyber sex
Speaker 8: and all that stuff, but it's nothing like the actual
Speaker 8: real in the cab.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so that's that's me.
Speaker 8: And that's what you called me, Real Sex.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's her name, Real Sex. Every time they come on,
Speaker 1: I checked my Twitter, Yeah, Leila has the way is
Speaker 1: right there? Different? But yes, no, no, no, it's just
Speaker 1: this is mine. This is big sister.
Speaker 9: We just but does that say something about you though, Layla?
Speaker 8: I don't know, does it. I watch a lot of TV.
Speaker 9: I mean, but you know all the real sexes I do.
Speaker 8: Then you make friends with iknew, I knew one of
Speaker 8: the poets?
Speaker 9: Yes, yeah, what city was that the poet episode?
Speaker 8: I feel like it was l A.
Speaker 9: I feel like it was.
Speaker 1: I was thinking d C too, but Los Angeles. How
Speaker 1: do you know that? So quickly Google? Yes we here,
Speaker 1: Google's lightning festways.
Speaker 9: Bill said, oh, google.
Speaker 1: That Betty. Yes, the three girls with the like kind
Speaker 1: of harmonizing but like not really, but then they used
Speaker 1: to be on that show and cycle. How are you
Speaker 1: going to be on the kids show? And Betty, I'm
Speaker 1: out outside here with you, Steve so high.
Speaker 6: This is all good stuff for real. I'm just like
Speaker 6: thinking how bad real sex was. That's and I love sex.
Speaker 1: Was terrible, it was good, it was good, it was good.
Speaker 7: Here's a here's a sex house, and in the middle
Speaker 7: of nowhere where people have sex, there's nothing.
Speaker 8: I'm just saying they were interesting, Like let's pay four
Speaker 8: hundred dollars and go to upstate New York, loll along
Speaker 8: in the mud and have sex and learn how to
Speaker 8: play a drum.
Speaker 1: That's what they were doing, like have that connection caucastity.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you ain't watch real sex.
Speaker 1: I think during this period we were like living in
Speaker 1: Europe or something. Yeah, like there's a big part of
Speaker 1: the early nineties that I just had no television.
Speaker 8: Because you're probably way smarter for it, though, you.
Speaker 1: Know now I feel left out, like is this on?
Speaker 1: Is this still? But I learned a lot.
Speaker 8: I learned a lot on that program about like furries
Speaker 8: and people that after they cover themselves and mustard and
Speaker 8: these are things consciousness.
Speaker 1: Before and this is in the nineties, Like so this
Speaker 1: is like pre Internet. Yeah, it was pre Internet. That's
Speaker 1: the thing. Like now you can type any pre words
Speaker 1: and get a sexual fetish, but this was pre Google.
Speaker 2: So that was our real sex, was our window into
Speaker 2: the weird sex workings of white people.
Speaker 8: Into mostly white people.
Speaker 1: It was like it was like one of them swingers coming.
Speaker 1: It was like one nigg in the whole.
Speaker 8: I was like, man for the girl with the girl
Speaker 8: with the bit in her mouth and she's a pony
Speaker 8: and it's got the thing of her rider bag.
Speaker 1: That was like cosplace.
Speaker 9: That was like in betweens were nice to when they
Speaker 9: stop people on the street.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that bit. That's where Dave gets the bit
Speaker 1: well on Chappelle Show when he would do to talk
Speaker 1: to people and that's yeah, that's real.
Speaker 6: Don't waste your time.
Speaker 1: It's actually kind of funny now to watch. It's more
Speaker 1: funny now than sexual Yeah. Anyway, what did what year
Speaker 1: did you?
Speaker 8: Eighty six? I got to Berkeley?
Speaker 9: You got there in two thousand.
Speaker 1: And one, Yeah, like, yeah, uh, what was your experience?
Speaker 1: And I had?
Speaker 8: I had a really great experience at Berkeley. I mean
Speaker 8: I really that was where I really my mind started going. Oh,
Speaker 8: actual music. Like I lived on the eighth floor in
Speaker 8: the dorms, and these cats that were in the rooms
Speaker 8: on my hallway would bring me these records and literally
Speaker 8: it was like they were feeding me every day. I
Speaker 8: didn't know about John Schofield or John Abercrombie or Carla
Speaker 8: Blay or you know that I was learning so much
Speaker 8: new stuff because when I got to Berkeley, I had
Speaker 8: like a box of tone Master cassettes, you know, a
Speaker 8: couple of the black ones, the good ones, and the
Speaker 8: rest were the yellow ones. I had like Janet Jackson Control,
Speaker 8: which I had gone over Miles Davis record bootleg for
Speaker 8: that record. I had Pat Metheni First Circle, I had
Speaker 8: a Jean Luponti record. I thought, you know, I thought
Speaker 8: I was all over the place, Like I listened to.
Speaker 1: Everything could have made beats.
Speaker 8: I had no idea.
Speaker 1: You're that didn't make beats.
Speaker 8: I didn't know.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 8: So I got there and I really started really listening
Speaker 8: to things, and probably within like the first month of school,
Speaker 8: I realized like, oh, I'm wanna hang out with these
Speaker 8: cats because they go play every day and they let
Speaker 8: me come play with them. So I would just show
Speaker 8: up and not change the keys to any of the
Speaker 8: songs and not not understand the form or what was
Speaker 8: happening in the room. And I just was able to
Speaker 8: play with them every day.
Speaker 1: Do you play an instrument?
Speaker 8: I play keys?
Speaker 1: Okay, so you went for keyboards or no.
Speaker 8: Just for singing. But you know I would show up
Speaker 8: to like I was the only singer in the John
Speaker 8: Schofield ensemble, you know, like we would transcribe score SCO
Speaker 8: solos and playing the class.
Speaker 1: You know you're serious, is no joke.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm a SKO fan.
Speaker 6: Carla Blair.
Speaker 8: I love Carla Blae.
Speaker 6: People don't know about her.
Speaker 8: I never I know. She was the first show I
Speaker 8: saw at Berkeley, and Hiram Bullock was in her band
Speaker 8: at that time. And you know, I went on to
Speaker 8: have a really beautiful friendship with him. He's gone now.
Speaker 8: But that was the first show I saw at Berkeley,
Speaker 8: and my hair just blew back, like, oh my god,
Speaker 8: what are these people doing? Steve?
Speaker 6: What year was that?
Speaker 9: Eighty six?
Speaker 6: So right right when you were born?
Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing. What the mind can you captured at the
Speaker 1: age of one.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what music she
Speaker 7: had out at that at that time, what album?
Speaker 8: I don't remember what album she had out at that time.
Speaker 8: I just remember the show was a dollar for students.
Speaker 1: Wow. How she get paid though I don't like the universe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they probably out of the student.
Speaker 8: They probably just didn't pay her much for it. Yeah,
Speaker 8: they probably didn't pay much a dollar And Hirom was
Speaker 8: up there with his bare feet, and I was like,
Speaker 8: oh my god, this cat.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 8: Subsequently, I saw Michael Brecker in that room. I saw
Speaker 8: it's just Muhammad in that room.
Speaker 1: I saw.
Speaker 8: I saw so many people in that performance center, Like
Speaker 8: I learned really a lot, like in that one room.
Speaker 6: So you must like chess, do I mean.
Speaker 1: I do?
Speaker 8: I mean, you know, I have a love for it.
Speaker 6: Most people go to Berkeley study have to study it anyway.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean it just comes up. It comes up. Yeah,
Speaker 8: I think people think I'm a jazz singer. I don't
Speaker 8: know if that's you.
Speaker 9: You say you sing jazz, wouldn't say it sings such times.
Speaker 8: I mean, I think my approaches like that. I don't
Speaker 8: know what I would call myself, like a soul singer
Speaker 8: or a jazz singer.
Speaker 10: I don't really jazz jazz singer was recorded.
Speaker 6: Diamonds go ahead, Yeah, I love on the rocks. We
Speaker 6: should shot at where we are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry I forgot to mention at the top
Speaker 1: of the show when I was being traumatized that we
Speaker 1: are live at sunsets down studios. The I still want
Speaker 1: to say. I know it's much more than just Prince,
Speaker 1: but obviously I start with Prince, but yeah, much further back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's opened in nineteen six doors Zeppelin twos down here?
Speaker 6: What else the doors uh van Halen.
Speaker 1: Zeppelin too, A lot of a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of Warner Brothers, uh at Jubie Brothers. Yeah, by minute
Speaker 1: was made here.
Speaker 6: Yes, but but then the Purple Rain, obviously.
Speaker 1: Purple Rate nineteen ninety nine was made and here the
Speaker 1: song Purple Range in the album in a different room,
Speaker 1: here and a differently. The song was recorded at First
Speaker 1: Avenue where we were a couple of but he did
Speaker 1: a lot of over ups here, but nineteen ninety nine
Speaker 1: was down here. Majority of around the world in the day,
Speaker 1: like before he built Paisley Park, this was his this
Speaker 1: was his playground. After the taping, I'm gonna go to
Speaker 1: the seven eleven across the street, where he would often get.
Speaker 8: I'm going with you. I've been on I've been on
Speaker 8: Prince lately, like I dreamt about him. The other night
Speaker 8: we were we were trying to get to a gig
Speaker 8: and we were snowed in somewhere and Jaden Smith was
Speaker 8: there for some reason.
Speaker 1: Talk some more change Smith, thank you.
Speaker 8: It was it was like two thousand and five and
Speaker 8: we were somewhere at a hotel literally like a a Laquenta.
Speaker 8: He was He was sitting up in the bed and
Speaker 8: I was laying down at the foot of the bed,
Speaker 8: and he was saying, you could lay up there if
Speaker 8: you want to. And I was like, I'm cool, and
Speaker 8: we were just watching TV.
Speaker 9: Oh, but he says, you can lay That's interesting, you
Speaker 9: can up there if you want to.
Speaker 8: I appreciated it.
Speaker 1: What does it all mean? Do you ever we need
Speaker 1: like a dream interval of somebody to break up shit.
Speaker 1: Now it makes sense to me because does he does
Speaker 1: he still since his passing? Does does he appear to you? Often?
Speaker 8: And not often? Occasionally? But I got to spend a
Speaker 8: very concentrated moment of time with him, And you know,
Speaker 8: I had this fear in my heart, like I've been
Speaker 8: wanting to meet him and play with him since I'm
Speaker 8: eleven or twelve years old, and I've heard all these
Speaker 8: things and and and you don't look at him in
Speaker 8: the eye right. And when I opened for him those
Speaker 8: few dates, he was so cool and so gracious and
Speaker 8: so that.
Speaker 1: New York run was the first time that you met him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what year was that? That was two thousand and Oh
Speaker 1: that show was on my birthday too, that I went.
Speaker 1: What day, the fifteenth of December?
Speaker 8: I'm the sixteenth.
Speaker 1: Oh nice, Yeah, it was awesome, happy belated, Uh, thank you.
Speaker 8: I'm seventeen now, so.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, you got something.
Speaker 1: We did.
Speaker 8: We did like four cities with him, four or five
Speaker 8: cities with him. It was it was just cool.
Speaker 1: It's hard for your band to adjust because I know
Speaker 1: that the on the on the other side of that
Speaker 1: coin when you weren't opening those dates. Sometimes Sharon Jones
Speaker 1: and the Daft Kings were trying to open those dates
Speaker 1: and they wouldn't allow them to use their their equipment
Speaker 1: and you know, like their sonic and their equipment is
Speaker 1: is very key to their presentation. So watching Sharon Jones
Speaker 1: and the dap Kings perform on MPG uh yeah, equipment
Speaker 1: not allowed to adjust anything. Everything sounds crystal clear. Yo.
Speaker 1: It was the funny show. It was the funniest show
Speaker 1: I've ever It was with the exception of the horns
Speaker 1: and the sound of Sharon's voice, like everything was like
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven sound. It was great.
Speaker 8: He was so cool to us and so like magnanimous
Speaker 8: and gracious, and he would come stand on the stage
Speaker 8: during my soundcheck and request songs.
Speaker 1: Was that weird? Yeah? What kind of songs would he requests?
Speaker 8: He likes the song that I wrote called What Goes Around,
Speaker 8: and he would request that. You know, so they send
Speaker 8: you this list when you're gonna go open for him,
Speaker 8: and it's like, please, you know, pick two or three
Speaker 8: songs if you'd like to sing with Prince, you know,
Speaker 8: for the songs. And I looked at the list and
Speaker 8: I was like, I don't want to sing any of
Speaker 8: these songs. I want to sing Diamonds and Pearls. I
Speaker 8: want to do Park Sexy Dancer. He literally showed up
Speaker 8: and his hand was here, and I looked at him
Speaker 8: and I said, listen, I don't feel comfortable presenting myself
Speaker 8: with you with the so I have gas. I told
Speaker 8: him that, and he said what And I said, I
Speaker 8: have gas, and I just I really want to I
Speaker 8: really want to get into it with you where we
Speaker 8: can be at the same place. He said, okay, what
Speaker 8: do you want to sing? And I said, well, can
Speaker 8: I see your set list? And he was like yeah,
Speaker 8: And then somebody brought the set list over and I
Speaker 8: was like, I want to do Diamonds and Pearls. I
Speaker 8: know you don't do that anymore. He said, yeah, we
Speaker 8: don't do that. I said, okay, why don't we do
Speaker 8: sometimes the Snows in April. So I did that with him,
Speaker 8: and that night was my birthday. And after we finished
Speaker 8: singing sometimes the Snows in April. It's so crazy when
Speaker 8: I think about it, like that shit actually happened. I'm
Speaker 8: rising up on the stage. He said, all right, stand
Speaker 8: right here, go up, take my microphone. When you get
Speaker 8: up there, do whatever you want and I'll be up.
Speaker 8: And I was like, okay, So I'm standing on this thing,
Speaker 8: just still tripping, trying to breathe, and the thing rose
Speaker 8: up and I was just standing there and all these
Speaker 8: people like a and the dress was blowing and I'm
Speaker 8: just singing sometimes and there he is again, and then
Speaker 8: we're singing on the same mic, and I just I
Speaker 8: wanted to lick him, but I knew that was.
Speaker 9: What is smelling.
Speaker 8: It were ruined. He smelled great. He was He's everything
Speaker 8: you thought he was. And when we finished, I got
Speaker 8: ready to leave and he said, no, no, no, come
Speaker 8: with me, and he took me across the stage to
Speaker 8: the other side of the stage and we did Diamonds
Speaker 8: and Pearls. It was awesome and I said, oh my god, yeah,
Speaker 8: I mean, I can't remember, I can't remember how much
Speaker 8: we did.
Speaker 6: It was.
Speaker 8: It was an interesting interpretation of the of the record.
Speaker 8: It wasn't like the full thing, I don't think. And
Speaker 8: when we stood up and people were plotting, I said,
Speaker 8: oh my god, thank you so much. It's my birthday.
Speaker 8: That's the greatest thing ever. He said, well, I don't
Speaker 8: celebrate birthdays. But congratulations, Am I tripping it?
Speaker 1: Doesn't?
Speaker 9: I mean a mirror?
Speaker 5: Maybe you can answer this, is that very courageous because
Speaker 5: the average singer, I mean, there is no average singer
Speaker 5: who will be singing with Prince. But it just seems
Speaker 5: like the average person would not have felt the courage
Speaker 5: enough to be like, yo, I don't feel comfortable.
Speaker 9: Can we sing this song?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 8: I mean I didn't want to get up there and
Speaker 8: not take the moment like I You know, if I
Speaker 8: had gone up and just been sitting there while he
Speaker 8: was playing, which I did a few nights, I'd have
Speaker 8: been better off than singing anything that I was unfamiliar
Speaker 8: with or not connected to.
Speaker 6: You didn't want to sing some whack twenty song.
Speaker 8: That's that's now what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: I'm just saying most singers would.
Speaker 1: Yeah, why didn't you? Like?
Speaker 6: That's an incredible, incredible.
Speaker 8: He was the greatest.
Speaker 6: He was the greatest, incredible on your birthday?
Speaker 8: It's crazy.
Speaker 1: So when you graduated, you got how did you get
Speaker 1: your record deal?
Speaker 8: I got my record deal the way they did it
Speaker 8: in the seventeen hundreds. I made a tape and someone
Speaker 8: took it to a record label, and a guy named
Speaker 8: Jeff Foreman signed me.
Speaker 1: Do you know Jeff Foreman, I'm sure does.
Speaker 8: Ma's cousin. He was a rep at Virgin Records at.
Speaker 1: The I think mentioned him, you know episode I'm sure
Speaker 1: you do.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And I got signed right when I was in school.
Speaker 8: So I would come out here on the train and
Speaker 8: listen demos and record demos and go back and forth
Speaker 8: like that.
Speaker 1: You did four original songs or I.
Speaker 8: Did no original songs on the first album, No.
Speaker 1: No, No, no No. I'm talking about your demo that
Speaker 1: got very taking.
Speaker 8: The demo was a Renee and angela song which I
Speaker 8: cannot find, which was a banger, another ballad.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 8: I had a manager at that time, right in high
Speaker 8: school named Raynard Minor.
Speaker 1: I know who.
Speaker 8: You probably know who raynar Minor is as well. He
Speaker 8: was a songwriter at Motown, blind songwriter who wrote your
Speaker 8: na is Living Yes, And we wrote these songs and
Speaker 8: they are classic. If I ever find them, I'll let
Speaker 8: you know. I hope you don't find them before I do.
Speaker 8: And we turned him in and I got a deal
Speaker 8: like that. So I was going back and forth from
Speaker 8: college and making the record.
Speaker 1: So I know on your debut record you worked with
Speaker 1: You worked with Donzela. You also work with Andre Fisher, Yeah,
Speaker 1: nephew of Claire Fisher and drummer Rufus. Oh, Chucky worked
Speaker 1: on Obvious, the.
Speaker 8: Song obvious not Obvious. No, that was Chuckie. Don't put
Speaker 8: that on Chucky.
Speaker 1: You have an own.
Speaker 8: Heaven knows, Derek Bramble. Chucky did a song called Sentimental Sentimental. Yes, right,
Speaker 8: So a lot of my first record was covers, even
Speaker 8: though you know people don't know that it's something was
Speaker 8: a cover.
Speaker 1: I'm coming back, you know that for the longest Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm coming invest original.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Gary Taylor wrote that song for her and I learned
Speaker 8: her version of it to sing.
Speaker 1: Ah. Did her version ever come out? Yeah? It was
Speaker 1: on their first album. Oh damn, I missed that. Okay,
Speaker 1: So what was the decision behind covering the songs or
Speaker 1: covering obscure songs?
Speaker 8: People were just bringing music to me. You have to remember,
Speaker 8: like at that point, I'm eighteen, I'm basically in my
Speaker 8: mind on the path of like Janet Jackson. Right, I'm
Speaker 8: making this record and they got me in like this
Speaker 8: little tight jacket and I'm on the La River like
Speaker 8: posed with my little weave, and they're bringing the songs
Speaker 8: to me, and there are people in my ears like,
Speaker 8: you know, don't worry about writing, They're just gonna tailor
Speaker 8: make all this whole record for you. And I'm thinking, Okay,
Speaker 8: this is probably that bullshit, but it's cool because I'm
Speaker 8: on my way and I'm gonna get in and I'm
Speaker 8: gonna do what I have to do. So I didn't
Speaker 8: write anything on that record.
Speaker 1: So up until that point, including high school and including college,
Speaker 1: and including your pursuit of a record deal, no one
Speaker 1: was thinking was connecting the dots from your father's lineage
Speaker 1: to your lineage as far as like your deal or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's just like, okay, let's just I don't know if.
Speaker 8: They were I don't know. I don't I don't you
Speaker 8: know there was a lite.
Speaker 1: Were your peers in school where that I think royalty?
Speaker 8: I think so, I think, you know. When I got
Speaker 8: to Berkeley, the first thing that happened to me is
Speaker 8: I was walking up the steps and Walter Beasley, who's
Speaker 8: a saxophone player who was one of my instructors at Berkeley,
Speaker 8: came up behind me and said, hey, are you Leila Hathaway?
Speaker 8: And I said yes. He said, are you Doney's daughter
Speaker 8: And I said yes. He said, well, get your get
Speaker 8: your ratings. I want you to be in my ensemble.
Speaker 8: And that was the first I was like, oh, just
Speaker 8: because I'm Donnie's daughter, that's what you want. And then
Speaker 8: I realized like oh, that people were kind of approaching
Speaker 8: me in a different way. That was the first time
Speaker 8: I was really aware of any kind of cachet on
Speaker 8: that level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, was it in hindsight? Was it beneficial or was
Speaker 1: you rather than just not known?
Speaker 8: And it's hard to say. I'd have to do it
Speaker 8: the other way. I just don't know, you know what
Speaker 8: I mean. I think when I walk in the door
Speaker 8: as a singer, I recognize that I bring with me
Speaker 8: like forty years before me. You know, I walk in
Speaker 8: with a brand that people have already an association with,
Speaker 8: be that traumatic or you know whatever, is that association.
Speaker 8: I recognize that that precedes me when I walk in
Speaker 8: a room. So at some point I started feeling like okay,
Speaker 8: and I don't even think it was a conscious effort,
Speaker 8: but I started understanding like, Okay, clearly i'ma have to
Speaker 8: be bad as hell otherwise.
Speaker 1: So what is that pressure? Because that's the thing. I
Speaker 1: part of your question at the top, like what feels
Speaker 1: some sort of way, like how come you never told
Speaker 1: me this or whatever? Because I also know that that
Speaker 1: pressure of damn hathaway, it wasn't a pressure.
Speaker 8: Though it was mostly it was mostly me hanging out
Speaker 8: with all these dudes knowing that.
Speaker 6: For me.
Speaker 8: Fortunately they accepted me into their little group, so that
Speaker 8: meant I got to learn like I wasn't the girl
Speaker 8: singing in front of the band. I was sitting with
Speaker 8: them and smoking cigarettes and blowing over Scotch charts, you
Speaker 8: know what I mean. I knew that aside from my lineage,
Speaker 8: aside from the name, that I wanted to be a badass.
Speaker 8: I wanted to be able to go to a session
Speaker 8: and not be thought of as the chick singer. That
Speaker 8: was a big deal for me. It has. It had
Speaker 8: grown into understanding that people placed me alongside my dad
Speaker 8: and and people began to ask like, is there any pressure?
Speaker 8: Is there a pressure you know on you with your father?
Speaker 8: And I never felt like there was a pressure. I
Speaker 8: have always been super aware of the fact that there's
Speaker 8: there's there's him, and there's me and we. For some
Speaker 8: people are like this but I recognize that I can.
Speaker 8: I can comfortably develop into a badass because I come
Speaker 8: from the greatest that ever lived. So I have a
Speaker 8: runway to work.
Speaker 1: With, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, just as a fan, like,
Speaker 2: I never drew. I never drew that comparison, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, Or you know, in terms of you
Speaker 2: talk about just having the weight of the expectations. I
Speaker 2: think the thing that sets you apart from maybe other
Speaker 2: people that you know come from that kind of lineage,
Speaker 2: is that you were just dope. So it was almost
Speaker 2: like for me, it was kind of retroactive. It's like
Speaker 2: you hear this dope singer and then you find out
Speaker 2: who her dad is, Like, oh well, okay, so at
Speaker 2: least it's.
Speaker 1: Genetically unfit, that's what you said.
Speaker 2: It gives you more explanation. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: so that's why she's okay, I get it. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean versus some for you, versus
Speaker 2: someone like.
Speaker 1: Like like Nona Gay or something. You know what I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a little shots fired shots The things we all
Speaker 1: do for love is a great yes, But I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: but that's someone in that position. I like Love Records.
Speaker 8: For the Few.
Speaker 1: There was some dope songs on that record. But I'm
Speaker 1: just saying someone.
Speaker 8: Somebody really committed to it, right, Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 1: Okay. So what I want to know is during your
Speaker 1: your Berkeley years and which you are holding your craft,
Speaker 1: are you actively like, are you aware that you have
Speaker 1: the same uh texture of yes, genetically? Are you aware
Speaker 1: that you have the same texture? No? And the thing
Speaker 1: is do you try to avoid it or it's just
Speaker 1: like fuck it? This is what I have.
Speaker 8: No, it is what it is, and i've and I
Speaker 8: have as a singer. Now what it's a weird storm.
Speaker 8: It's a perfect storm because all the girls are singing
Speaker 8: way up here and I'm trying, and there's blood. It's
Speaker 8: just all bad. And so as I'm trying to figure
Speaker 8: out how to manipulate my vocal so I don't have
Speaker 8: to be up there and in pain, then I'm finding
Speaker 8: my voice, you know.
Speaker 1: So it hurts you to sing soprano? Or it did.
Speaker 8: I wasn't sure.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 8: What it was was my body saying okay, you can
Speaker 8: conform to that shit, or you can figure out what
Speaker 8: you got. Yeah, And that's what I that's what I
Speaker 8: learned to do.
Speaker 1: Okay, So when you're in the shower or just singing
Speaker 1: to yourself in the car? Uh control? So are you
Speaker 1: singing when I wass uf do with people?
Speaker 8: Told me a lot of time, Yeah, Or I'm making
Speaker 8: up really super up to harmonies, you know, or trying
Speaker 8: to sing hybrids on top of shit, I'm doing the
Speaker 8: weird the weird ship.
Speaker 1: So do you gravitate more too male singers when you like,
Speaker 1: who are your favorite singers?
Speaker 8: My favorite singers are like, you know, my dad and
Speaker 8: Stevie and ne King Cole and Johnny Hartman and I
Speaker 8: really love Prince and I mean there's a lot of
Speaker 8: I definitely probably gravitate in terms of things to sing
Speaker 8: to male songs. Like if I'm gonna put a cover
Speaker 8: in the show, nine times out of ten, it's gonna
Speaker 8: be like a Charlie Wilson cover or Maurice White cover
Speaker 8: or you know like that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, Aye, the closest I'm trying to think that
Speaker 2: even the closest female singer I can think of in
Speaker 2: your lane is like Cassandra Wilson, I.
Speaker 1: Mean down there too, oh yeah, oh yeah, Jasmin's hoping.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was gonna ask you, guys, have you had
Speaker 5: conversation with some of these ladies because Sondra, Jasmine, Anita,
Speaker 5: Tony Yep, where y'all bind on these moments of never Tony.
Speaker 8: I've never met Tony. I have talked to Anita about
Speaker 8: it many times because you know, growing up, her voice
Speaker 8: for me was one of those voices I heard and
Speaker 8: I thought, oh this is this is hm. You know
Speaker 8: those songs I knew I could sing no songs and
Speaker 8: Angel became one of those songs. Like I used to
Speaker 8: be all the time with the hair brush like and
Speaker 8: when I was that age singing along with Anita Baker,
Speaker 8: I would sing that song an octave lower under her.
Speaker 9: You know what was her critique of Angel?
Speaker 8: She liked it. You know, she told me that I
Speaker 8: should cover all of her music.
Speaker 1: WOA. She was nice, nice, she's.
Speaker 8: She's she's beautiful, and she's another person like I was
Speaker 8: kind of afraid to meet. But all the people I
Speaker 8: have ever met that I really idolized have been so cool.
Speaker 8: You know, I've been really lucky.
Speaker 5: You're an awesome but you're an awesome cover that also
Speaker 5: gives it's weird. It's like you give your own version.
Speaker 5: But it's an honor in a way.
Speaker 8: Yeah, but that's and that's the point, is to pay
Speaker 8: homage to it. But I'm absolutely trying to eraseial ship
Speaker 8: from consciousness.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, in a way, you can't.
Speaker 8: You can't make You cannot make something without what came
Speaker 8: before it. So what I'm what I'll say there is
Speaker 8: I want my thing to stand next to yours, and
Speaker 8: then separately, I'm trying to create a new original from
Speaker 8: that thing that.
Speaker 1: You gave me to me. The king of that well,
Speaker 1: kings of that word, Brothers and Luther like they like
Speaker 1: I never knew. I'm got me tell you.
Speaker 8: Someone else that killed that too is Donny Hathaway. Oh yeah,
Speaker 8: I mean I did not even know that this is horrible.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I didn't know.
Speaker 8: I didn't I didn't know. My father did so many
Speaker 8: covers and I do so many covers, but I never
Speaker 8: no one told me that John lennamro jealous guy. And
Speaker 8: when I heard him singing it, like when I was seventeen,
Speaker 8: I thought, why is he singing the song? I didn't
Speaker 8: understand it. I didn't understand it. Marvin Gay wrote What's
Speaker 8: going on till I was like thirteen or fourteen years old,
Speaker 8: because everybody always played my father's version of that with
Speaker 8: that bridge, so I never knew that. So he had
Speaker 8: a way of taking a cover and really interpreting it
Speaker 8: into a new thing, and even even Superwoman. When I
Speaker 8: listen to that, now, that's that's the one I want
Speaker 8: to hear. I'm biased, but that's the one I want to.
Speaker 1: Hear from the poor black genius. I still remember the
Speaker 1: first time I heard that Superwoman cover. I think DJ
Speaker 1: Spinner played at one of the Wonderful parties. Party just
Speaker 1: stopped and I think like half the room cried.
Speaker 5: It's a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's a lot.
Speaker 6: So uh, my dad was a dentist.
Speaker 1: Wait, I'm slacking, sorry forgive me.
Speaker 11: Here we go.
Speaker 1: Blessed my dad. God did you so as far as
Speaker 1: the performance of the first record, I mean, were there
Speaker 1: expectations for you to What were your expectations as far
Speaker 1: as the outcome of your.
Speaker 8: My expectations, Oh, I thought I was on the way
Speaker 8: you owned the way you got this record nowaday and
Speaker 8: taking your picture. I had these dreams of where I
Speaker 8: was going to be, you know, in these big places
Speaker 8: with like fifty thousand people, and I was going to
Speaker 8: be at you know, at MSG, and I was going
Speaker 8: to be all these places. And what I was finding
Speaker 8: out was I went into that record feeling like, at
Speaker 8: that point in my life, I felt like a jazz musician.
Speaker 8: I felt like I moved to LA because my label
Speaker 8: told me I had to because our Senio was here
Speaker 8: and you got to be in LA. But what I
Speaker 8: really wanted to do was go to New York where
Speaker 8: all my friends were going. And I wanted to go
Speaker 8: to fifty five and see Mike Stern, and I wanted
Speaker 8: to go see Scow and I wanted to be in
Speaker 8: that environment where I was still creating music every day
Speaker 8: with musicians. And I kept thinking, if I moved to LA,
Speaker 8: I'm gonna get soft, I'm gonna make this record, and
Speaker 8: I'm gonna do what I have to do, and it's
Speaker 8: gonna afford me this life where I can I can
Speaker 8: play the fifty five bar when I want with GO,
Speaker 8: and then I can do MSD you When I had
Speaker 8: this dream in my mind of having this kind of career.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this pop world and serious musician world.
Speaker 7: Absolutely so, I'm sorry just to interject here, it's John
Speaker 7: Schofield for our listeners, right, is that what you're talking about?
Speaker 6: Yes, okay guitar player. Yes, have you worked with him
Speaker 6: or I come across him?
Speaker 8: Since I have come across a lot of those those
Speaker 8: people that I you know, got my a lot of
Speaker 8: the synapses flying listening to their music, firing listening to
Speaker 8: their music. I met him at International Jazz Day with
Speaker 8: Herbie and Marcus last year and he told me that
Speaker 8: he loved my voice, and I literally like almost went
Speaker 8: down on my knees, like, yeah, huge fan.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: He sat in with the Roots on the Tonight show,
Speaker 6: and so it's true.
Speaker 8: I know, I really I really want to play with him,
Speaker 8: like him, just him and me. I want to just
Speaker 8: see what happens.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you should, you should pursue that.
Speaker 8: I'm super I'm super enamored though, just because we're talking
Speaker 8: about SCO. Just I'm super enamored with the period of SKO,
Speaker 8: which is still warm, Electric Outlets go. You know how
Speaker 8: you go through these sort of He's in these periods
Speaker 8: after that was sort of the now She's Blonde period
Speaker 8: and I'm electric Outlets, still warm, Shenoby, I mean, Shanola.
Speaker 8: These are albums, yeah, Shanola, and what years are and
Speaker 8: I'm gonna say eighty two to eighty six eighty seven.
Speaker 6: Mark Kelly, the bass player from the Roots, played with
Speaker 6: Schofield for a while.
Speaker 9: Huge fan to Berkeley, do.
Speaker 1: Oh there it is.
Speaker 6: Shout out to Mark Kelly.
Speaker 2: When you after your first album and you went into
Speaker 2: the second record, what was the because I mean we've
Speaker 2: talked let me love you, I want you to do
Speaker 2: that live.
Speaker 1: I love that song, Thank you for Like, how did that?
Speaker 1: What was the expectation going into the second one? From
Speaker 1: the label side, you know, it was a weird time.
Speaker 8: It was a time of transition for everybody in the
Speaker 8: music industry. Everything was moving toward this where we are
Speaker 8: right now, and I felt myself sort of feeling like, hmm,
Speaker 8: there's an element of music that my records don't really express.
Speaker 8: And I found at Virgin like they had just signed di'angelo,
Speaker 8: they had signed Janet, they were doing a lot of things,
Speaker 8: and I wasn't at that time. Also, Keith Crouch was
Speaker 8: working with me on that record and he had just
Speaker 8: started working with Brand. So I was seeing where everything
Speaker 8: was headed and I was really excited about it. My
Speaker 8: record didn't really express all of that, and right when
Speaker 8: the record came out like the second week they I
Speaker 8: got dropped, and it was the saddest period of my life.
Speaker 8: And I was so happy and so sad because I
Speaker 8: felt like, Okay, now I can move in the way
Speaker 8: I want to move. I can make these records and
Speaker 8: do these live in these different spaces and create the
Speaker 8: way I want to create. And then it was another
Speaker 8: ten years before I made a record.
Speaker 1: Does it feel like the end of the world like
Speaker 1: it did.
Speaker 8: At that point? You know, I was like twenty five
Speaker 8: years old, and what I couldn't understand. I couldn't understand
Speaker 8: it because we only got through that first single, which
Speaker 8: was let Me Love You, and I went to see
Speaker 8: Janet Jackson and I went to see Paul Abdul, and
Speaker 8: I couldn't understand, like, you guys wouldn't give me money
Speaker 8: to rent a piano on a date, and you spend
Speaker 8: so much money on pop music. In my mind, there
Speaker 8: was a disparity and I couldn't really make sense of
Speaker 8: what that was at that time.
Speaker 1: You know, Well, in the ten years that you were
Speaker 1: off high, did you survive? How'd you pay the bills?
Speaker 8: As a working musician? I was on the road. Everybody
Speaker 8: and their father you know Joe Sam Yeah, everything, Marcus
Speaker 8: Miller I played with a lot. I was in his
Speaker 8: band for many years. Uh did a lot of records.
Speaker 8: I'm on a lot of records that some didn't even
Speaker 8: come out here, just like session work. Yeah, Michelle's records.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, which she's.
Speaker 8: On Earth, I'm on Heaven.
Speaker 1: I love that version of Heaven.
Speaker 8: By the way, me too. It's the slowest record ive
Speaker 8: ever recorded in my entire life.
Speaker 5: Have you have you ever you said earlier that you
Speaker 5: don't categorize yourself as a soul singer or a jazz singer.
Speaker 9: So, but you are were a woman of a certain
Speaker 9: age when you came out a young woman.
Speaker 5: Did you ever feel some type of way that I
Speaker 5: feel like you just skipped the urban and went right
Speaker 5: to the urban ac.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that was weird. I mean I think urban had
Speaker 8: this element of hip hop that my record didn't express,
Speaker 8: and I recognize right around ninety three or ninety four, like, Okay,
Speaker 8: if you don't include this, you're gonna get left in
Speaker 8: the vortex of the mid nineties, which is Misha Paris
Speaker 8: and Shaw, Nice, Stephanie Mills, Karen Wheeler. There were a
Speaker 8: lot of women, a lot of women a RB. Yeah,
Speaker 8: that just kind of kind of got lost in this vortex.
Speaker 1: But it's so weird now because now I think today
Speaker 1: we're longing for R and without a hip hop now
Speaker 1: without any Yeah, you know, it's interesting now.
Speaker 8: I mean I don't know what is R and B
Speaker 8: right now. I don't really get it in terms of
Speaker 8: what's new ish R and B. I'm down for whatever.
Speaker 8: You know, people just make your music and do whatever
Speaker 8: you're gonna do. But it's interesting to me. Someone suggested
Speaker 8: to me that if you are like Sid from the
Speaker 8: Internet or Sizza or Childish Gambino, there is a there
Speaker 8: is a community of that rhythm and blues music that
Speaker 8: I can identify looking at it, like you may have tattoos,
Speaker 8: you may have big hair, you may I mean, there's
Speaker 8: a whole entity of it. If you're looking at a
Speaker 8: person like me that's sort of considered adult contemporary or
Speaker 8: a black adult contemporary, there's like me Letusy, who else
Speaker 8: Jill Jill not really but sort of not really, I
Speaker 8: don't think so. I think Jill is in a different
Speaker 8: stratosphere because she's also like a movie star I'm talking
Speaker 8: about in terms of what's on the radio playing. She
Speaker 8: plays on different types of stations. If you are a
Speaker 8: black female and you didn't get in that entry point
Speaker 8: with hip hop and you're not under thirty, there is
Speaker 8: a chasm which is like R and B and dusties.
Speaker 1: You know, so do you feel nice?
Speaker 8: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well not do you feel a certain way, But obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, it has to be weird for you to
Speaker 1: see maybe a figure like Adele being able to pull
Speaker 1: these rabbits out of the hat, not doing R and
Speaker 1: B whatever, But you know, like her voices, her voice
Speaker 1: is celebrated for that sort of thing.
Speaker 8: But it's interesting. It's has always been that way. Let's
Speaker 8: not get it twisted. It has always been that way.
Speaker 8: The only thing that killed me was who gets two
Speaker 8: chances at the Grammys? That must be nice to be
Speaker 8: afforded though.
Speaker 1: Because wow, George Michael tribute.
Speaker 8: That is something.
Speaker 1: If if you do not follow listen man Layla Hathaway
Speaker 1: is a great follow on Twitter.
Speaker 5: Follow her right now because I A, you're telling the tram.
Speaker 1: I think it was the Grammys something she tweeted something.
Speaker 1: She was like, why is fifth harmony? Yes?
Speaker 2: Singing three part harmonies? I said, And the thing is
Speaker 2: you can talk your ship because it's like, ain't none of.
Speaker 8: I had honest questions and you know me, so you know,
Speaker 8: for me to say fifth Harmony, four girls, three part
Speaker 8: Harmony discussed that don't mean nothing to me. I don't
Speaker 8: have anything against those don't.
Speaker 1: Forgot I forgot that with them and.
Speaker 8: And and their their minions so upset words.
Speaker 1: I didn't see that. Oh yeah, yeah it was a
Speaker 1: little newsworthy.
Speaker 8: It got I mean yeah, I went. It went on
Speaker 8: like a couple of little blogs, and one of my
Speaker 8: singers was like, okay, let me let you know. First
Speaker 8: there were five girls, they got rid of one girl,
Speaker 8: and I was like, oh, okay, now I get it.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 8: I don't know who they are at all.
Speaker 5: Any of those twitterers, the twitter thugs say that you
Speaker 5: can't sing anyway.
Speaker 8: Yes, I get a lot. I get a lot of
Speaker 8: I mean, who is you?
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's more like, oh my god, hear you anyway?
Speaker 8: You know, people really try to make me feel like,
Speaker 8: ooh you shady. Like normally I'm telling the truth. You know,
Speaker 8: nobody gets two chances on the Grammys. That's the truth.
Speaker 8: Adele is great. I don't have anything against her. She's
Speaker 8: doing her music and God bless her, But who the
Speaker 8: fuck is two chances on Network TV? Thought this over,
Speaker 8: y'all just start over, and and you needed two chances
Speaker 8: last year too, you.
Speaker 1: Got four chances. Yeah, wait, explain this to me.
Speaker 2: So when the first year she did, she did Hello,
Speaker 2: she turned to Hello, and like she boy, her voice cracked.
Speaker 1: Well, no, she was like in the wrong.
Speaker 6: Hello here he recorded Hello. I'm serious, we're.
Speaker 1: Coming to it, man, you know what, Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: this is where I was, okay, being at the Grammys
Speaker 1: and being backstage. I didn't watch it. What happened?
Speaker 2: She she started Hello and was just in the completely
Speaker 2: wrong key, and so then she like apologized for it, right,
Speaker 2: She was like.
Speaker 8: I don't know what happened.
Speaker 1: It was very bad. I couldn't hear you know whatever.
Speaker 1: So she stopped it on National TV.
Speaker 8: No, No, that was the first year.
Speaker 1: That was the first year singing it, and it was bad.
Speaker 1: Second second year, it was.
Speaker 2: The George Mike Coop tribute and they had her doing
Speaker 2: fast Low Yeah, which is like the I'm like, why
Speaker 2: are y'all doing that?
Speaker 1: And it was the one she wanted to do.
Speaker 8: But in addition to that, they're playing the Tonic yeah,
Speaker 8: here's your key.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're playing it, and they were doing it in
Speaker 1: a different arrangement.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a slow dirge like arrangement.
Speaker 6: It was.
Speaker 1: It was a bad idea. It was a bad idea
Speaker 1: from the jump. It was.
Speaker 8: It was all bad. And she just up And good
Speaker 8: for her for saying, no, fuck this, I'm gonna do
Speaker 8: this right, I'm starting over, start over. But God bless America.
Speaker 8: Did you get that.
Speaker 1: It's British? Yeah, you know, because Frank Ocean did not
Speaker 1: get not another opportunity. I understand. I don't think that's
Speaker 1: got enough invitations you got.
Speaker 8: If he has said let me start over, you think
Speaker 8: that'll let him.
Speaker 1: My quick time said, you got thirty more quick saying
Speaker 1: that out.
Speaker 8: I get tired of uh singers that are not great.
Speaker 8: That's just my call it.
Speaker 1: What you want.
Speaker 8: I just get tired of ship.
Speaker 9: Who's Who's great anymore?
Speaker 8: Like I can only take so much whisper, Yes, the
Speaker 8: whisper singing is annoying.
Speaker 1: And children, yes, the daughters of they are the daughters
Speaker 1: of Aliah.
Speaker 9: Yeah, thank God for Jasmine. I'm just that's all I
Speaker 9: can think.
Speaker 8: And you don't have to be all with the with
Speaker 8: the raw rod but singing key. You know, if there
Speaker 8: are four of you, just somebody step out and sing
Speaker 8: another note.
Speaker 5: It's ask all the question as singers, I really don't
Speaker 5: know and this is not a shapeful question.
Speaker 9: But you're right, it isn't.
Speaker 5: But people like sid and her and uh Sizza what
Speaker 5: we called them singers like I.
Speaker 1: Think sid Well personally.
Speaker 2: For me, Sid has improved a lot, absolutely and like
Speaker 2: her new record if you listen to way she's singing now,
Speaker 2: to me, she sings with a lot more confidence like.
Speaker 8: I would put her like with with Michael Frank. She's
Speaker 8: like the type of singer that sings her material. Really,
Speaker 8: you don't want her covering yo, you don't want her
Speaker 8: covering long walk by jokes. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: You guys can't. You're listening to this podcast. But the
Speaker 1: look on Bill's face right now is like no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: not just using I know, yeah, I know what you're
Speaker 1: It's not in the same sentence. It's kind of offensive
Speaker 1: to me. It's not like just a virtual soul like
Speaker 1: Bill now for said because of j Davy never getting
Speaker 1: their props, So.
Speaker 9: A long list, Bill, It's a long list that got
Speaker 9: on the J day.
Speaker 8: I like her vibe, I like I like when she
Speaker 8: sings what she's written. I like her, you know what
Speaker 8: I mean.
Speaker 1: I love ye I'm sure she's nice, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: was always.
Speaker 8: Her Sisa is a singer. I think it's an interesting
Speaker 8: time now because a lot of people really exemplify their time,
Speaker 8: and that is an art in itself. If you're going
Speaker 8: to write, you know, if your whole, if your whole
Speaker 8: stease is like the accent and the thing and the
Speaker 8: repetitive notes, like to me, it's math and science. But
Speaker 8: she understands what that is. This is She's Yeah, she's
Speaker 8: of her time. So yeah, I would definitely I like
Speaker 8: her a lot of the stuff on her record.
Speaker 1: So how can you because I feel like you judge singers,
Speaker 1: I mean the way that I would judge beat makers,
Speaker 1: like I know, based on certain drum patches or certain
Speaker 1: small just small things that the maybe light YEA would
Speaker 1: totally get, Like, Okay, I don't see what makes this
Speaker 1: guy is so great that you think it's you know,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. So are you one of those?
Speaker 1: I can tell in eight seconds if you can sing?
Speaker 8: Yes, I can tell looking at you, if you could say.
Speaker 9: Oh, I want to know how conversation.
Speaker 1: Now you say you look at somebody, how can you.
Speaker 8: Tell what can generally glean from a person what their
Speaker 8: voice sounds like looking at them. Like if I walk
Speaker 8: into a room and look at everybody and take it
Speaker 8: in and then one of them calls me on the phone,
Speaker 8: I can tell which one of them call me on
Speaker 8: the phone.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that is scary.
Speaker 8: It just seems super natural to me though, you know
Speaker 8: what I mean. It's not like a get it's the thing.
Speaker 8: It's just it's just that's the way my ear is.
Speaker 1: So what about old girl who was on Britain Scott
Speaker 1: Talent whatever, like everyone losing oil? Yeah, like so the
Speaker 1: white woman from she looked crazy? And then like can't
Speaker 1: I can't call.
Speaker 8: It normally I can't call it, but you know I
Speaker 8: would imagine I can't say because I've seen.
Speaker 1: Her, And so just based on looking at us, you
Speaker 1: could tell I.
Speaker 8: Have an idea of what your voices sound like. It
Speaker 8: may be wrong, but I definitely associate you with a sound.
Speaker 5: That was not me.
Speaker 1: I actually looked at you though, I know.
Speaker 5: That's why I said, But guys didn't shocked and say
Speaker 5: that she does something similar to this, and then she
Speaker 5: tests people in their face.
Speaker 9: That's I was wondering. I was like, have you ever
Speaker 9: had a conversation?
Speaker 1: Said that she could just look at someone and see
Speaker 1: if you can sing or not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, was more like she if someone tells her that
Speaker 2: they're a singer, she like sing sing right now, like
Speaker 2: that's are you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like it's that's a cool thing, Like.
Speaker 8: That's like that you could go down in flames like that.
Speaker 8: I never want to make anybody feel bad about anything.
Speaker 1: Do people come up to you and like, yes, can
Speaker 1: I sing for you?
Speaker 8: Or or this happens all the time. I sound just
Speaker 8: like your father, And I'm like, you probably don't.
Speaker 1: How do you think that one?
Speaker 6: Why that one?
Speaker 2: I love that song, so I'm thinking so I'm trying
Speaker 2: to remember it. So you're it was ten records? No,
Speaker 2: you say it was ten years between the album and the.
Speaker 8: Third and the third album. In that time, I made
Speaker 8: a record with Joe sample. Yeah, and that's the duet's record.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, how did how did that come about? Hey, y'all,
Speaker 2: how did y'all first have.
Speaker 8: Been playing with him since like ninety two or three
Speaker 8: with Marcus Miller? Okay, and we were in Japan. We
Speaker 8: were at the Blue Note and we were having dinner
Speaker 8: one night and I said, Joe, we should make a record.
Speaker 8: He said, girl, we should, Let's do it when we
Speaker 8: get home. Do you any of y'all know Joe Sample? Yes,
Speaker 8: I mean he was like one of the funniest realist
Speaker 8: people I have ever met in my entire life. And
Speaker 8: we got back and we made that record. I went
Speaker 8: in and sang with them with the band for like
Speaker 8: the first day so that they could get everything done.
Speaker 8: And I realized every time Joe would change the time
Speaker 8: or something would happen, like I was getting tired. So
Speaker 8: I said, let me just if you pick your tempos,
Speaker 8: I'll just sing everything and you have it to play too.
Speaker 8: And then I went in on the following Monday with
Speaker 8: Al Schmidt and just sang the record down. So the
Speaker 8: whole record is all just one singing down.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that damage your voice though? After a while, which
Speaker 1: you mean you're saying that you just did the entire
Speaker 1: record of one setting.
Speaker 8: Yeah, No, it's like singing five songs. It's like a
Speaker 8: half a showy.
Speaker 1: You mentioned those Japan Blue Note runs. I gotta ask,
Speaker 1: was it two or three shows a day. Two?
Speaker 8: Who does three shows a day?
Speaker 1: Neil fucking Diamond, I'm sorry it wasn't cute.
Speaker 8: Three shows a day is a whole lot. I've only
Speaker 8: done that once.
Speaker 1: Well, I was going to say that doing doing that
Speaker 1: Japan run like getting your sleep and hard adjusting. Always
Speaker 1: that after that first show.
Speaker 8: And that in between they.
Speaker 1: Have the food for you that you got the items
Speaker 1: on top of.
Speaker 8: Everyone's sleeping on those couches over there. Yeah, yes, that's
Speaker 8: what they wake you up to do the second show.
Speaker 8: It's very hard.
Speaker 1: Yo.
Speaker 8: Do you feel like when you're at the Blue Note
Speaker 8: or when you're in Japan? When I feel like I'm
Speaker 8: in Japan, the entire country feels like a recording studio
Speaker 8: to me.
Speaker 1: It's tight. Sound is tight.
Speaker 8: It's literally like the sound in the streets is kind
Speaker 8: of dead to me. So when I'm in a space,
Speaker 8: I feel like I'm in a recording studio.
Speaker 1: It's true.
Speaker 8: Yes, with the Babbling Brook playing Yes, Yes Yes.
Speaker 5: Can I ask you about the Joe Sample album because
Speaker 5: it's funny It was one of my favorites. But I
Speaker 5: wanted to ask you about the photo that you guys
Speaker 5: have on the cover because it always it's I know,
Speaker 5: it's very endaring and sweet, but I figured, like, what
Speaker 5: did y'all, How did y'all decide that this is what
Speaker 5: we're gonna do?
Speaker 8: This is exactly the cover. The man said, whispering is here,
Speaker 8: like you're telling him something? And I said, all right, Joe,
Speaker 8: I'm telling you something. And he said, don't stick your
Speaker 8: tongue in mine. And that is exactly the photo that's
Speaker 8: on that record. He was a crazy person, one of
Speaker 8: the greatest storytelling I've ever met. I would sit at
Speaker 8: his knee and just listen to him talk. Marcus Miller
Speaker 8: is the same way. But Joe used to tell these
Speaker 8: stories about, you know, being in the Fifth Ward, being
Speaker 8: stopped by police on the way to a gig and
Speaker 8: everybody being made to get out on the street and
Speaker 8: play their instruments, and because he played the piano, they
Speaker 8: would make him dance.
Speaker 1: That's Houston. He's from Houston. Okay.
Speaker 9: Yeah, who knew Joe sample was from the Fifth War?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't know.
Speaker 6: I had no idea.
Speaker 1: I always just associated him with La No, Wow, that's dope.
Speaker 9: Did you have any issues in your evolution of your look?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 9: Yeah, in the beginning, you know, the hair was different.
Speaker 8: The hair was different. It was a we delicious time
Speaker 8: in the nineties. Everybody had to weave, and I wanted locks,
Speaker 8: and everybody said, you can't have locks because that's not
Speaker 8: it's not what they do. What that was a big deal?
Speaker 1: When?
Speaker 9: Was that like when you first.
Speaker 1: Out the sky? Though?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean I literally for that record, I look
Speaker 8: like that for about a half an hour hour and
Speaker 8: then went inacted my regular ship. She cleans up. Well,
Speaker 8: I don't know. I think I think it's at certain
Speaker 8: points there was a lot of excuse me, confusion about
Speaker 8: what to do with me, Like this girl is, first
Speaker 8: of all, she reads books and she likes jazz, and
Speaker 8: I would get in these conversations where I'm going on
Speaker 8: I'm going on BT to talk to Donny Simpson and
Speaker 8: he's going to ask you who you like. Now we
Speaker 8: know that you like train and Wayne and you like
Speaker 8: you know, Bud Powell. You can't say that, thank you, Yeah, please.
Speaker 8: You got to say Luther Vandross, you got to say
Speaker 8: Joe to See, you got to say.
Speaker 1: You know, I had a whole little yea, the not
Speaker 1: the Trainers, the little media. Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's how long I've been in this business. No, yes, yes,
Speaker 8: oh man, Yeah, they coach you. They don't want you
Speaker 8: to you know, they don't want you to look like
Speaker 8: you know too much.
Speaker 1: So do you feel that when you got to outrun
Speaker 1: this guy, that was the moment where you actually took
Speaker 1: control of in a way.
Speaker 8: Yeah. I had been signed to a label called Mojazz.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Motown Wayman, that label.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and yeah we made a whole record and then
Speaker 8: the label just folded and I was like shit, no jazz.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 8: And then I took some of that stuff and moved
Speaker 8: into the next record, which was Outrun the Sky. And
Speaker 8: I felt like at that point, like, oh, okay, I'm
Speaker 8: starting to marry the things that I want to do,
Speaker 8: Because in the nineties I would listen to like Merry
Speaker 8: Records and Faith Records, and I would think, how come
Speaker 8: to people don't bring me those types of records? How
Speaker 8: come people don't bring me the beats? How come I
Speaker 8: want to dance? I like, I played video games, and
Speaker 8: I ride a skateboard, and I got a truck with
Speaker 8: a subway for the lights up pink. Why don't I
Speaker 8: get these Why don't I get this really interaction from people?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Temporary?
Speaker 8: Yeah, because because people had a perception I've been telling
Speaker 8: you forever we got to make a country record. He
Speaker 8: was traumatizedzed. So the biggest, the biggest ache for me
Speaker 8: in this industry is kind of like, oh my god,
Speaker 8: I love you, I really want to work with you,
Speaker 8: and then nothing, nothing, Who is that?
Speaker 9: In your mind?
Speaker 1: Everybody?
Speaker 8: Everyone? I can everyone, almost everyone, because.
Speaker 5: In my mind I just know that you know what
Speaker 5: she's speaking about specifically, not that she was talking about you,
Speaker 5: because in my mind, I'm like, is she talking about
Speaker 5: for real?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 8: No, because I got to work with for real? We're
Speaker 8: still supposed to make a record, you know. And And
Speaker 8: the first cat that actually said I really want to
Speaker 8: work with you and really did it was Mike City.
Speaker 8: Mike City came to a show and was in the
Speaker 8: back of the room like sing I'm coming back. He
Speaker 8: was heckling me. He said, I want to.
Speaker 1: Get you in the club.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I want to get you on the radio. I
Speaker 8: want to do this for you. And we started writing together.
Speaker 8: So he's one of those cats that showed up. But
Speaker 8: I mean the actual love that I get from people.
Speaker 8: People say, do you feel like you're underrated? And I
Speaker 8: feel like, no, I'm super highly fucking rated.
Speaker 1: I'm highly would you just say underappreciated them.
Speaker 8: Under underheard, underserved, I'm super appreciated.
Speaker 5: Like yeah, black thought of I'm like a secret and
Speaker 5: a lot of you know, right like the singer's favorite, singer.
Speaker 10: Favorite Sea, the jazz singer's favorite, over the joy.
Speaker 1: So like with the new record with oh well, before
Speaker 1: we get to the new record ahead, I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about the Darters of Soul to what was
Speaker 1: that experience?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 8: It was cool? Uh, Sandra sat Victor put that together.
Speaker 8: Who used to be the lead of the family stand
Speaker 8: absolutely it was me? Uh and dear con Nina Simone's daughter. Yes,
Speaker 8: I want to call her Lisa, Yeah, Joyce Kennedy, Nonah Hendricks,
Speaker 8: Joyce do changes yes she I mean it was killer
Speaker 8: we did. It was a really short run, but we
Speaker 8: were in Europe, so we were really it was a
Speaker 8: really beautiful time. We tried to get it booted back up,
Speaker 8: and it's so hard to sell anything of quality in
Speaker 8: the United States. That is, you know, it's a hard sell.
Speaker 8: But that was a really good time for me because
Speaker 8: I wasn't on the road a lot. We would go
Speaker 8: do like the Poory Jazz festival and they would come
Speaker 8: take our picture and put it in a museum. You know,
Speaker 8: it was a really good time and playing with those
Speaker 8: people was really great.
Speaker 1: Do you okay, do you have do you have have
Speaker 1: a tribe? Or are you this lone oasis?
Speaker 8: I'm a lone wolf, but.
Speaker 1: Because I feel that the only the only true way
Speaker 1: to sell product is either through the controversial means of
Speaker 1: which you know, the public wants blood and it's thirsty
Speaker 1: for you know, curious about whatever, a backstory or kind
Speaker 1: of a tribe association. Yeah, I mean if you take
Speaker 1: Kendrick's current situation, I mean time, nine times out of ten,
Speaker 1: if you see a tde associated you know, act or whatever,
Speaker 1: you'll at least peep it for three seconds on the internet.
Speaker 8: You get get what that association is.
Speaker 1: Right? So is it hard to start a community of
Speaker 1: of people to gather eight or nine of you, especially
Speaker 1: when you know I would I'm not saying that it
Speaker 1: would be intimidating, but I think that what you bring
Speaker 1: to the table, And I'm not I don't even mean
Speaker 1: like your lineage, but you know there's in my mind
Speaker 1: it's just like no bullshitting And I almost feel not unworthy.
Speaker 1: But I know a bullshit you say no, no, no,
Speaker 1: But I'm just saying that a lot of times, a
Speaker 1: lot of my Eureka arrival moments comes at the from
Speaker 1: a place where a lot of mistakes have to be
Speaker 1: made before I'm like, ah, this is what I'm bringing
Speaker 1: to the table where I just feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: you could start saying Mary had a little lamb right
Speaker 1: now and this shit would be spot on bullseye. You
Speaker 1: know what.
Speaker 8: I feel like I have a tribe. It's interesting because
Speaker 8: what people perceive of me as kind of like this
Speaker 8: jazz urban adult contemporary type singer. That is, that is
Speaker 8: a part of who I am. But my tribe is
Speaker 8: like Robert Glasper like I'm on the Kendrick to Pimp
Speaker 8: a Butterfly, Like they sample one of my entire songs
Speaker 8: for that record. I did a session three weeks ago
Speaker 8: with Quick, I did a session with Battlecat and Exhibit
Speaker 8: two weeks ago. I work with Terris Martin. I find
Speaker 8: that I have this initiative called real music rebels. I'm
Speaker 8: generally kind of the only female and a collective. If
Speaker 8: I find myself in a collective, there are other women
Speaker 8: like me, but I find that if you are a
Speaker 8: musician that has a sort of education in that field,
Speaker 8: and you you play jazz and you play pop and
Speaker 8: you play like glasspur or somebody I completely relate to.
Speaker 8: You know, I feel like I can go true as well.
Speaker 8: He's crazier than I am. But I mean, either one
Speaker 8: of us could go to any set on any bandstand
Speaker 8: and blend in or stick out. You know, I'm just
Speaker 8: prepared as a musician to ex experience like what that means,
Speaker 8: like to come on and play with you guys. It's
Speaker 8: not even fair because you know it's bumpers and that's
Speaker 8: kind of you know that take advantage of it in
Speaker 8: the room when we rehearse, like, okay, let me just
Speaker 8: breathe it in. I'm super into music. I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 8: gonna make a record with Nancy Wilson and a record
Speaker 8: with Kendrick Lamar.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 8: I already made a record with Nancy Wilson. I'm saying
Speaker 8: last year, what was that like, Yes, she was not there,
Speaker 8: but the record is killer. It's Terry Lane Carrington's record,
Speaker 8: which is called I can't bring it to my mind
Speaker 8: right now. I'm saying, over the course of a year.
Speaker 8: For me, that's making a record with Nancy and with
Speaker 8: Kendrick and with Quick and Snoop, and then with Vince
Speaker 8: Mendoza and then maybe with Anita Baker and then you know,
Speaker 8: I'm all over the place in terms of what I
Speaker 8: can do.
Speaker 1: What is his name? See Wilson project coming up?
Speaker 8: It's not a project, it's it's Terry Lynn Carrington's record.
Speaker 8: Are you looking it up? Rummer? Yes, back from Yeah,
Speaker 8: she's a she's a producer.
Speaker 9: She's bigger than that now. But I'm just giving from yeah.
Speaker 1: But she she that was like saying Michael Jordan, the
Speaker 1: actor from uh yeah, Hey.
Speaker 9: Guys, it's all right, what Civilians.
Speaker 8: She made a record that featured me and Lettusy and
Speaker 8: and Natalie Cole and sha Ka Khan and Liz Wright
Speaker 8: and it's a great record. And Nancy Wilson was on
Speaker 8: that record, and I crafted some padding around her vocal,
Speaker 8: which is for met us everything. I love Nancy Wilson, you.
Speaker 1: Know, aside Nancy Wilson. Wilson's story. So it's us on
Speaker 1: tour with Lauren Hill back in ninety nine and Lauren
Speaker 1: Hill's like towards the end of the end of the set.
Speaker 1: It's like a big ass moss pit right in front
Speaker 1: of the stage, and she's doing the encore like everything
Speaker 1: is everything, and then mid verse she said stop the song.
Speaker 1: Stop the song stop, stop stop stop. Got hang on.
Speaker 1: She's like she looks in the mospit. She's like Nancy.
Speaker 8: Wilson in the marsh pit.
Speaker 1: Why are you in the moshpit? She was like she
Speaker 1: was just in the middle. Like it was just like
Speaker 1: some smells like teen spiritshit like Nancy Wilson was in
Speaker 1: the middle of She's another great storyteller.
Speaker 5: Oh man, Yeah, I feel like we just haven't seen
Speaker 5: her a lot lately. She doesn't go out attle worried.
Speaker 8: Last time I saw her, she told me, she said,
Speaker 8: I'm not going to be doing this much longer.
Speaker 6: Oh wow.
Speaker 8: She's just she's she's she's comfortable and she's happy and
Speaker 8: she's with her family and she's good. She just ain't
Speaker 8: making records right now. And and Terry recorded her for
Speaker 8: that record, and I wanted to just add some color
Speaker 8: for her, you know, kind of breathing. You know, it's cool.
Speaker 1: Oh that what's up? I always wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: about out your record. The word it all begins record
Speaker 1: with Ernie g What's what was that like? Because I
Speaker 1: love that song, like I love that song. You know,
Speaker 1: I love the album, but I love.
Speaker 8: That song too. Bobby Sparks brought me that song, ah okay,
Speaker 8: and the moment I heard it, I was like, oh
Speaker 8: my god, that that that whole baseline, the movement of
Speaker 8: that record. Sometimes I put it on it makes me
Speaker 8: very happy. I still have not met him.
Speaker 1: Oh so you y'all, Wow, y'all for in exchange it?
Speaker 1: Damn he Si.
Speaker 8: He gave Bobby that record and said get this record
Speaker 8: to her, and then I wrote the lyric and the
Speaker 8: melody and everything and recorded it.
Speaker 1: Oh okay. So in the studio, who's your who's your
Speaker 1: right here? So to speak?
Speaker 2: Like you clearly, if you're with an engineer, you have
Speaker 2: someone that's like, okay, maybe you can do that again better,
Speaker 2: or like who gives you feedback during your sessions?
Speaker 8: Whomember I'm working with, you know, I keep it like
Speaker 8: a tight circle. I ultimately am harder on myself than
Speaker 8: anyone will let a lot of times, if I'm working
Speaker 8: on my own stuff, it's hard because when I go
Speaker 8: to work with people, which happens a lot, I'll sing
Speaker 8: it once and they won't let me. They won't let
Speaker 8: me go again, and I'm like, you don't discover anything
Speaker 8: like that, you know. I appreciate the fact that it's
Speaker 8: whatever is on the top of your head, you know,
Speaker 8: And it's the spontaneity of it. And it's exciting for
Speaker 8: me to go into a session and not know what's
Speaker 8: going to happen. And that's what you got. But there
Speaker 8: are things listening back. I wish I had taken a
Speaker 8: little more time with so for me, in my sessions,
Speaker 8: everybody's allowed to talk. It's all super democratic. Ultimately, I
Speaker 8: am gonna be like, Okay, that wasn't that's that was terrible?
Speaker 1: What was that? And what is it that you're what
Speaker 1: you're listening for?
Speaker 6: Like what it?
Speaker 1: Because I'm trying to imagine what does a terrible Leyla
Speaker 1: Hathaway take sound like, Oh, it.
Speaker 8: Could be cracky, it could be just clams floating out.
Speaker 8: It could be the color is wrong for me. It's
Speaker 8: about color a lot of times, you know, or that
Speaker 8: didn't taste right happen or you know, let me just
Speaker 8: make that prettier, or it's any number of things.
Speaker 9: Do you have like physical rituals and no warm ups. No,
Speaker 9: not even the fun.
Speaker 1: Wait you don't do is seth riggs warm up.
Speaker 8: Things sometimes I do with my singers, like if they're
Speaker 8: doing it, I'll do it with them. Yeah, but not really.
Speaker 1: It's not necessary to warm up your voice. No, I
Speaker 1: think it is, But I talk all day, so yeah,
Speaker 1: I was going to say, I get the feeling. There's
Speaker 1: there's two types of singers, I know, like the the
Speaker 1: rigorous exercise like the quote professional singers that do all that,
Speaker 1: and then there's the singers that talk and sing twenty
Speaker 1: four to seven to themselves. Are you one of these
Speaker 1: in public? And I don't mean like in public like
Speaker 1: in a Fame Way breakout and song now, but like
Speaker 1: when you're home alone, are you talking to yourself?
Speaker 5: Are you?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 9: Not really, not out loud.
Speaker 8: My voice is always in some sort of state of
Speaker 8: warmth because of the quality of my voice. So I
Speaker 8: recognize that even when it's cold, like right now, it's cold,
Speaker 8: and if I sang it would sound okay on the
Speaker 8: okay scale, it would not sound okay.
Speaker 1: To me where we are right now it's cold to you,
Speaker 1: like my voice would be cold.
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay, because I haven't sang and I'm sitting here
Speaker 8: on a mic and it doesn't sound necessarily. My speaking
Speaker 8: voice to me is super annoying. It's like a weird
Speaker 8: mirror that is like you're looking at really close.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, you have a very saltry speaking very yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, but I wonder here's the thing. I was like,
Speaker 1: I wonder if Layla's trying to nerd up her. No,
Speaker 1: this is me a voice.
Speaker 8: This is super mean.
Speaker 1: But the line between a point extra voice and it's crazy,
Speaker 1: a very I imagine your your phone, your nighttime phone
Speaker 1: voice is on some next ship.
Speaker 8: It's regular. My mourning phone voice is definitely Susan Plashett
Speaker 8: all day, the references, all day, Bob. It's very low.
Speaker 8: My voice is just really low by nature. And I
Speaker 8: practiced kind of talking up higher. I got intimidated at
Speaker 8: some point, like girls don't talk like that, and I
Speaker 8: started sort of trying to lift it up and make
Speaker 8: it bubblier and more.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that you're on the Kathleen Turner
Speaker 1: very soldier. M we wait, speaking of where it all begins, Steve,
Speaker 1: you should note that she worked with Phil Ramone.
Speaker 8: Could you what was He's awesome? I loved him so much.
Speaker 6: Produce something for you.
Speaker 8: Well, we did this thing when we worked on that record,
Speaker 8: We had a live We had a chance to go
Speaker 8: into Capitol Live and record in the A room and
Speaker 8: it was going to be Auschmidt and Phil Ramon. So
Speaker 8: I got to record four of my records with them
Speaker 8: that day. And it was awesome because basically he just
Speaker 8: walked around and smiled and that's magnanimous and made jokes
Speaker 8: and he's really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry, Oh no, I just wanted to talk
Speaker 1: to you about your new record, honestly, and the hate.
Speaker 1: Well we talked, you know, we talked.
Speaker 2: This is offline, but how I guess a lot of
Speaker 2: your traditional R and B fans are like.
Speaker 1: They mad mad as hell.
Speaker 8: They mad because the saxophone on the record and the
Speaker 8: record I cussed on the record. I cussed on Outrun
Speaker 8: the Sky too, But they missed that record. You know,
Speaker 8: people really have come to know that they can come
Speaker 8: and just suckle on my bosom and I will rock
Speaker 8: them to sleep and remind them of their mother.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 8: Michelle told me, she said you are my sexy Mehelia,
Speaker 8: Oh my god, And I said, that is the worst
Speaker 8: up to But I get it. I get it. I
Speaker 8: get that there is something in me that for people
Speaker 8: is provocative, but it's also genetic, like a genetic, soulful
Speaker 8: memory of their mother. I understand that.
Speaker 1: Wait, because I know it's coming. I want to suckle.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I do, it's coming. I just I'm sorry
Speaker 1: pressed the tugar before you even got to say it.
Speaker 1: Hilarious on a circle. But I really like the new record.
Speaker 1: I think it's dope.
Speaker 2: I like that, and I mean we I texted you
Speaker 2: all the ship before, but no, I like that you
Speaker 2: that you're not You play a lot younger than you are.
Speaker 2: I think you know what I'm saying. What I mean
Speaker 2: by that is just like I think a lot of
Speaker 2: times it's three instead of twenty eight. Yeah, exactly, And
Speaker 2: I mean right, and I mean a lot of times
Speaker 2: people in the ac or urban contemporary they kind of
Speaker 2: aged themselves too early, you know what I'm saying. It's
Speaker 2: just like, dude, you, I look at somebody like Charlie
Speaker 2: Wilson that can sing over whatever and be timeless, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And so the thing I do like about your record
Speaker 1: is that you're doing stuff that will be considered young.
Speaker 2: But you have the flexibility to do it, and the
Speaker 2: shit is dope and like there's only nine songs like
Speaker 2: this is yeah.
Speaker 8: I mean honestly, I started it as an EP and
Speaker 8: then I thought, oh, we could keep going, and then
Speaker 8: we just kept going. But the record to me feels
Speaker 8: like my record's in the nineties, you know what obvious
Speaker 8: and you gotta going on and the Chucky Records and
Speaker 8: the Keith Crouch records. I love those records. So for me,
Speaker 8: it was about presenting something that was a little bit different, you.
Speaker 1: Know, and talk about Tiffany because I don't really know
Speaker 1: if I've heard of is a.
Speaker 8: Young woman producer, songwriter, singer. We did the whole record together.
Speaker 8: She has records out, she got a new single out
Speaker 8: right now. And it was exciting to me to work
Speaker 8: with one person. I didn't know going into that that
Speaker 8: would that's what I was doing, you know, I had
Speaker 8: never done a record with just one person. I'm getting
Speaker 8: ready to start working with a cat named Phil Boudreaux.
Speaker 8: What come on, man, do you understand how excited I am?
Speaker 1: Phil is uh.
Speaker 2: He's one part of a group AOI, which is him
Speaker 2: and Dewan Parkerdwan Parker as a producer, keyboard player. He
Speaker 2: used to be in Dre's camp, like back during like
Speaker 2: the Lost Ones era. I think that's him on the
Speaker 2: Lost Ones. I think, but like Lost Ones and all
Speaker 2: those records around that, like seven, I was like, wait
Speaker 2: a minute, now, jay Z Lost Ones. But yeah, and
Speaker 2: so they have a group called ao E that is
Speaker 2: fucking amazing and Phil also is.
Speaker 8: A producer, player, keyboard player.
Speaker 1: And he's just fucking stupid.
Speaker 8: Yeah that ep I listened to it. Probably it's one
Speaker 8: of them. Is my like my wake up alarm which
Speaker 8: one never know me?
Speaker 1: Oh my god? Yeah, that's.
Speaker 9: Adding him to my pandora right now.
Speaker 1: It's on a well Field bow Drow. He has a
Speaker 1: solo I'm called Ethoist Dope, but just ao E is
Speaker 1: the uh that's hard to google.
Speaker 8: Get ready getting ready to work with him. I'm very
Speaker 8: very excited about.
Speaker 1: I won't end on that something some.
Speaker 8: I'm excited. I told him I wanted to record this
Speaker 8: Dion Warwick record, which one?
Speaker 1: Do you know?
Speaker 8: This song in between thanks you Hold Me Close in.
Speaker 1: It's on track of the Cat.
Speaker 8: I don't know. It's a background song, insane. It is
Speaker 8: a beautiful record and I can't wait to record it.
Speaker 8: I get excited like by songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, never know. It's funny you mentioned that because never
Speaker 1: know me. I told him that that reminded me of
Speaker 1: a back kind of melody.
Speaker 8: It is gorgeous, isn't it. It's kind of like a
Speaker 8: Willy Walker melody as well? You know what I mean.
Speaker 8: It's kind of like that record imagination in a way.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, that's a it's a it's a killer.
Speaker 8: It's a killer record.
Speaker 1: That's what I wouldn't pick your brain on. Just quirky ship.
Speaker 1: I feel like you're the person that like probably knows
Speaker 1: like Marlo Thomas is free to be you and me
Speaker 1: like I sh.
Speaker 8: Wow, wow, I haven't thought about that in a long time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean it, I never I always wanted
Speaker 1: to avoid the cliche questions like where your desert island
Speaker 1: disco or whatever? But what a desert out of video games? Hmmm?
Speaker 8: All right, I'm a Final Fantasy person. But the last
Speaker 8: episode of Final Fantasy they fucked it up totally and
Speaker 8: turned it into like Entourage, just like it's like four
Speaker 8: dudes in a car.
Speaker 1: So I've never gotten I never got.
Speaker 8: Into the Japanese.
Speaker 1: Okay, I have no idea.
Speaker 9: What you guys are talking.
Speaker 1: About the video games?
Speaker 9: I do that beyond that, that's phrasing.
Speaker 8: I was just saying, I just got to switch. That's
Speaker 8: pretty fun.
Speaker 1: I was looking at the switch, but I was like,
Speaker 1: I mean, are you still keeping for a switch?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 6: Hair?
Speaker 1: Oh that's what I was. I was like, why are
Speaker 1: you carrying brother purse? Look like a clutch.
Speaker 8: The remotes are so small they don't make sense.
Speaker 1: I had to buy the prop control.
Speaker 9: You take them off, you leave yours on.
Speaker 1: It depends, I mean, if I'm doing it handheld.
Speaker 8: Okay, So I had a handheld game like that before,
Speaker 8: which was called The Atari Links.
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember, I remember that. I remember that. I
Speaker 1: remember that.
Speaker 9: Mm so, are you like a Mario? What's your I'm
Speaker 9: I was gonna say, are you the Mario person? Are
Speaker 9: you the gun?
Speaker 8: Things?
Speaker 1: First person shooting?
Speaker 8: I like them. I get tired of them. I really
Speaker 8: miss like, really good full games with stories, you know
Speaker 8: what I mean.
Speaker 1: That's why I like The Last of Us.
Speaker 8: I started it, Oh my god, I got stuck in
Speaker 8: the warehouse. I never finished it.
Speaker 1: It's like the greatest screenplay. It was better than a
Speaker 1: lot of movies that came out I will now too.
Speaker 1: It's coming. So how do I get back on the bandwagon?
Speaker 1: Because I'm the guy that actually switched?
Speaker 8: Get a switch?
Speaker 1: I got like a stock of this stuff, like sitting
Speaker 1: in the closet. Never like I'll give it away for Christmas?
Speaker 1: Keep it?
Speaker 8: I mean, yeah, I mean I got like I have everything,
Speaker 8: but I still have everything?
Speaker 1: Can I even get back on the bandwagon? Get back on?
Speaker 8: I mean I think I got a Merlin last what Merlin?
Speaker 6: Marlin?
Speaker 8: Remember Merlin? Yeah, my friend gave it to me for
Speaker 8: my birthday.
Speaker 1: You have Merlin?
Speaker 8: Where is Merlin now? He's out on the porch.
Speaker 6: I was addicted to that. I ever broken one.
Speaker 1: You have been on my life? And what is now?
Speaker 1: It's a it's a game.
Speaker 6: It was.
Speaker 8: It's a game system. It looks like a big red phone.
Speaker 1: Yo, Marl. Yeah, I'm seventy one. Yeah, yeah, there's that
Speaker 1: separates us. YEA Merlin was like right after that, you know,
Speaker 1: right after the like the home the first home system
Speaker 1: of television.
Speaker 8: Yeah, precedes like Simon handheld.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like the first.
Speaker 8: Remember that.
Speaker 1: I do not I've never seen this before. You have
Speaker 1: a working Maryland?
Speaker 6: I do it works?
Speaker 1: I cannot love you more than this moment?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 6: Can you have live nearby and.
Speaker 8: Over by the airport?
Speaker 1: Where is this?
Speaker 8: Oh man, my friend gave it to is in mint condition?
Speaker 8: I need to finance.
Speaker 1: I need to google that person loves you to Death,
Speaker 1: because there's one on Amazon right now. Do you remember much.
Speaker 8: That's cheap?
Speaker 7: Do you remember the game Einstein? It was like it
Speaker 7: was sort of like it was Simon, but it was
Speaker 7: like what the Jewish parents bought that we couldn't we
Speaker 7: couldn't get. They didn't want to play for Simon, so
Speaker 7: they got It was like a rectangle and it had
Speaker 7: for for you know, yeah, this is not a joke.
Speaker 7: It's called Einstein. Yeah, seriously, after after Simon was like,
Speaker 7: it was like the it's like an a person.
Speaker 1: Super remember that one? Everyone? Did you ever get into Doom?
Speaker 6: You were you were doing?
Speaker 8: I get My eyes were like, okay, I need people
Speaker 8: in the scenes. I want to be you know, I
Speaker 8: would play Call of Duty now, but generally I'm gonna
Speaker 8: get into a group and listen to everyone cussing and
Speaker 8: then hide in the corner and pick people off at
Speaker 8: the angles. That's what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: So for me, the shooters are like, I get bored fast,
Speaker 1: so Final Fantasy and then what else? What else?
Speaker 8: You like Mario, Zelda, you know, Zelda, Donkey Kong, all those.
Speaker 8: But I also like love Halo, and you know, I
Speaker 8: like a lot of the original games. I didn't like Tried,
Speaker 8: I tried, It's not it passed over. It's not for us.
Speaker 5: It's that video game they made a movie out of.
Speaker 5: I just watched it on a lot of them, seriously,
Speaker 5: like the Battle.
Speaker 8: Ratchet and Clay.
Speaker 9: It was like a whole dragon.
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat. You the codes for like all the things
Speaker 1: aalties and wow wow yeah yeah yeah. A new Mortal
Speaker 1: Kombat now is like super fucking brow now, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: super graphic. It's crazy.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean the way they snapped the heart out
Speaker 9: must be like real crazy.
Speaker 8: It's like the slow motion pan into the jaw breaking.
Speaker 8: I love that.
Speaker 1: Come here, so you're a gamer? What else do you do?
Speaker 8: I have a dog, This dog I do. His name
Speaker 8: is Boston.
Speaker 1: What kind of dog?
Speaker 8: He's a b Shan?
Speaker 6: Huh?
Speaker 8: What a b Shan?
Speaker 1: That's like a black name.
Speaker 8: What He's like one of those dogs that was bred
Speaker 8: to entertain in the circus. They have the fluffy little Afro,
Speaker 8: the white dog with the fluffy.
Speaker 1: Afro carrying Louis.
Speaker 8: No, he's big and he's he doesn't look like that.
Speaker 8: He's he's super scrappy.
Speaker 1: Okay, and his name is Boston. Boston. I thought it
Speaker 1: would be sewn. That's the type.
Speaker 8: No, and you know I'm DJing now, I'm trying talk
Speaker 8: about it. Wait a minute, I'm trying. And I had
Speaker 8: I had a birthday party a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 8: and then Battlecat showed up and I was like, I'll
Speaker 8: just wait till you finished. I just wait.
Speaker 1: I'm certain that you can curate music as good as
Speaker 1: you sing it, and you have rhythm.
Speaker 8: Thank you from your lips. I hope. What's interesting to
Speaker 8: me is to look at two records now that in
Speaker 8: my head before, like oh if I had a if I,
Speaker 8: if I had a Janet Jackson a cappella for when
Speaker 8: I think of you, can I put it over anything?
Speaker 8: On the Weather Report? Eight thirty records?
Speaker 1: How can I?
Speaker 8: What can I do?
Speaker 1: Wait? Was that you that told me the greatest set? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well he did a return Forever something for He played
Speaker 1: his fourteen minute return Forever song and came out of
Speaker 1: it and it worked central heating, by cold, by heat wave,
Speaker 1: by heat wave, and it worked, and it worked like
Speaker 1: it was just the most cathartic experience because it's like
Speaker 1: fourteen minutes of just fucking chaos and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden and it's like, oh, yes, I love those
Speaker 1: moments that was that it was wild. I would never
Speaker 1: try that. That's a holy grail moment for a DJ.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: I think the art of DJing really is and you know,
Speaker 1: like parents sort of ask me, now, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like there's a generation of button pressure kids or whatever.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if I should enable them and
Speaker 1: just you know, create start creating a generation of DJ's
Speaker 1: that I'm a hate. Once they turn to understand, it's
Speaker 1: gonna happen whether you do it or not. Right. But
Speaker 1: the thing is is that I tell them that, above
Speaker 1: all else one, you should really love music. That's that's
Speaker 1: the number one impetus. Yeah, And I think that the
Speaker 1: art of DJing really is knowing or at least having
Speaker 1: a good guest to which for any song you play,
Speaker 1: there should be five songs that can perfectly exactly right
Speaker 1: and you're just playing some sort of psychological you're playing
Speaker 1: psychological control with your.
Speaker 8: Audience absolutely and telling them a story along the way,
Speaker 8: Like when we play we have sometimes we put Rocket
Speaker 8: with You in a set, right, So at the end
Speaker 8: of Rock with You, we played that vampom. We stay
Speaker 8: there and then I sing like fifteen Michael songs over
Speaker 8: that vamp right, you know, And it maintained a melody,
Speaker 8: just singing it in that key.
Speaker 2: Right, you know, and yeah, you can do it, Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: talk to me about because we talk about it. Talking
Speaker 2: to me about covering, Well, I guess recovering I'm coming
Speaker 2: back on what was that like to revisit that twenty.
Speaker 8: Years I love that record and I knew going in
Speaker 8: that it was a song I wanted to record live
Speaker 8: because the arrangement that we have of it is so
Speaker 8: different from the other arrangement. It was just one of
Speaker 8: those songs I knew, Like when we asked people what
Speaker 8: do you want to hear the shows, that's the number
Speaker 8: one record that they want to hear, Which is interesting
Speaker 8: to me because no matter how much people say, you know,
Speaker 8: maybe he picked up the tempo to show a little
Speaker 8: and do this and do that, people want to come
Speaker 8: and be wrung out and they love that record.
Speaker 1: And that was that was never officially a single right now. No,
Speaker 1: that's amazing.
Speaker 8: No, you know Gary Taylor wrote that song.
Speaker 1: He's yeah, he wrote whispers and yes.
Speaker 8: He also wrote the song that I demoed that he
Speaker 8: then gave to Anita Baker, which is good love you
Speaker 8: know that record, Thanks for that. I demoed that record
Speaker 8: for an to basically I did it for my record,
Speaker 8: and he's like, you know, my kids want to go
Speaker 8: to college. So I was like, yes, let's do it.
Speaker 8: So that was my first kind of sort of interaction
Speaker 8: with her. I was so excited that when I heard
Speaker 8: her she was singing it sort of in the way
Speaker 8: I was singing.
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, you know you're do you have
Speaker 1: an original your copy of it? Wow? That can you
Speaker 1: cook to? Yeah?
Speaker 9: She'll go to dish over there lately.
Speaker 8: You know, I will make a chicken real quick. It
Speaker 8: seems simple, but yeah I would. I would just make
Speaker 8: a whole chicken with your size, might make some greens,
Speaker 8: you know.
Speaker 1: You know. Okay, wait are you Jack and are you
Speaker 1: find out for me?
Speaker 9: Oh? Yeah, that's what I was doing. Yeah, potato, I.
Speaker 8: Think right now is the pot roast? Like I'm trying
Speaker 8: to really perfect.
Speaker 1: A pot roast. I mean my first pot roast.
Speaker 8: Dude is super meat and potatoes.
Speaker 5: Dude.
Speaker 8: He is from Nebraska, so.
Speaker 1: Wow to raise Wait you said you made a pot roast.
Speaker 1: So all those posts that was you cooking? Oh? I
Speaker 1: thought you were watching people cook cook me my bad. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's fun now that the pot rolls. The crock pot
Speaker 1: is also a life saving to.
Speaker 8: You put it on and just like I like the
Speaker 8: big Dutch obb and I like to just cook it
Speaker 8: really slow.
Speaker 1: So are you satisfied with life?
Speaker 6: Pot roast? No?
Speaker 5: Just and.
Speaker 1: Where you are right now? Are you satisfied? M I
Speaker 1: mean all artists are insatiable, but are you? Is there
Speaker 1: anything left? You know? Oh?
Speaker 8: God?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, I mean okay, that's a bad question. Ask
Speaker 1: is there anything Everyone wants a world domination, but kind
Speaker 1: of like Denar on heat, like that whole thirty seconds thing, like, ye,
Speaker 1: is there something behind you that makes you want a
Speaker 1: lot's wife turn around and just be like okay, let
Speaker 1: me I want the number one pop single.
Speaker 8: Or yeah fuck it? I mean yeah, I want all
Speaker 8: that I want. I want to I want to see
Speaker 8: what my potential is. I'm on the path. I feel
Speaker 8: like I'm just like, literally, I'm singing for twenty years
Speaker 8: or twenty three years on record, and then one day
Speaker 8: I just sing a chord on a record. What will
Speaker 8: happen in twenty years from now, Like, I don't know
Speaker 8: what's gonna happen. I really want to realize what I have,
Speaker 8: and I feel like I'm just at the top of
Speaker 8: it right now.
Speaker 1: I would agree you to me, You're one of the
Speaker 1: few people I know that it seems like, you know,
Speaker 1: have a twenty plus years in it. Really just feel
Speaker 1: like you're just getting started.
Speaker 8: And I feel like it is crazy to me, Like
Speaker 8: I know a lot of girls went like that, and
Speaker 8: I feel like I'm sort of you know. At times,
Speaker 8: it has felt like it ebbed off and then it
Speaker 8: would creep up a little bit. But I feel like
Speaker 8: I'm on the path. I definitely would like the opportunity.
Speaker 8: There seems to be a weird like when I go
Speaker 8: to radio stations or when we do pitches for TV,
Speaker 8: when we do all the stuff, people are always like,
Speaker 8: oh my god, we love you. I have your record
Speaker 8: in my car. I sang your father song at my
Speaker 8: father's funeral. Your record and your dad's record got me
Speaker 8: through divorce all of these, uh, these monumental landmarks that
Speaker 8: people have me in their life, and it's hard to
Speaker 8: plug those in in a mainstream way. It's it's a
Speaker 8: it's a weird situation for me because like I'm from Chicago,
Speaker 8: they don't really play my records in Chicago on the radio.
Speaker 8: Whenever I go through Chicago, I make time to go
Speaker 8: to the radio station and meet everybody. I know, everybody.
Speaker 8: I've sang it, everybody's kids birthday, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 8: Like everybody loves me, and there's no you know, I've
Speaker 8: been seeing these a lot.
Speaker 1: Of people, people like the idea of people that have help.
Speaker 8: The concept of it, and.
Speaker 9: Yeah, can you not alone?
Speaker 8: I recognize that, I believe.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. But see, the thing is is, as long
Speaker 1: as you avoid the crazy potholes and you don't seem
Speaker 1: like a person that I will say that we'll really
Speaker 1: truly separates you from a lot of the contemporaries of
Speaker 1: yours that I personally know and personal life male and female.
Speaker 1: Is you don't seem to have, at least on surface,
Speaker 1: any any saboteur kind of spirit about you. You seem
Speaker 1: rather fearless, and your approach to stuff, mistakes could be
Speaker 1: made or whatever. Let me try this out. Let me okay,
Speaker 1: let me get with this good. Let me try snarky puppy.
Speaker 1: Let me go into like you're just you're curious about it,
Speaker 1: and you just with reckless abandonment. You just you just
Speaker 1: indulge yourself in it, which is good because a lot
Speaker 1: of times, a lot of singers I see, they will
Speaker 1: second guess and talk themselves out of a good thing
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing and tailspin until you know
Speaker 1: it's fifteen years between albums.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's sort of okay. So before I wrap up, okay,
Speaker 2: oh well yeah, we talk about your grammy, Well you
Speaker 2: have multiple singing.
Speaker 1: Can I can I can? I can I make this
Speaker 1: to my personal therapy moment. Okay, I'm gonna get a
Speaker 1: for this, but it's just her and I in the
Speaker 1: room right now. One, how long have you had that gift?
Speaker 8: Since I was probably twelve or thirteen.
Speaker 1: That's the thing though, when I asked you, like and
Speaker 1: your alone and stuff for you to perfect something like that.
Speaker 8: First of all, it's no, it's in the shower. I'm
Speaker 8: in the shower, like what can I do with it?
Speaker 8: And I'm gonna show it to people. What is this?
Speaker 8: What can I do it? And people are like, well,
Speaker 8: I don't know, it's cool, what can you do with it?
Speaker 8: And then I did it on a John p Key
Speaker 8: record and he kept it.
Speaker 1: John p Key of all Things, Yes, quis No, this
Speaker 1: is like ten years ago. Oh okay, okay, he kept it.
Speaker 8: I did it as a joke at the end of
Speaker 8: his record.
Speaker 1: You know crash Cuts got ky Yeah, yeah, be in
Speaker 1: my friend. Yeah wait, I'm putting that out there. If
Speaker 1: anyone knows how we can get the crash cuts, I
Speaker 1: need him on the show.
Speaker 6: A crash Cut.
Speaker 1: It's a spirit. Let it modify in your life.
Speaker 6: He's the truth.
Speaker 1: He's a lie. Focus on Jesus. Jesus.
Speaker 8: Just the fact that I was like, well, I did
Speaker 8: it for him and he kept it. And then people
Speaker 8: said you should do it on records, and I said, well,
Speaker 8: it's not cool on a record because people can think
Speaker 8: you manufactured.
Speaker 1: They can't see it.
Speaker 8: So when I do it live for people, and I
Speaker 8: can do it in key and it's in context, then
Speaker 8: people see it. But if you ever have watched that
Speaker 8: video with Snarky Puppy, I am realizing at that moment, Oh,
Speaker 8: I can do this. The first time is whack. Second
Speaker 8: time I started like, okay, just fucking go for it.
Speaker 8: The third time it was clean, and then they changed keys,
Speaker 8: and then I was able to change with them. I
Speaker 8: did not know what Corey is going to play, so
Speaker 8: that what is that called?
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 8: I don't know. It's not called anything. It's funny. People
Speaker 8: on YouTube like that is polytonic. I don't know what.
Speaker 8: I don't know. Anybody else I don't know. I think
Speaker 8: I have, I have not heard it.
Speaker 1: Is it hard to produce on the spot? Like like
Speaker 1: whistling on the mic.
Speaker 8: Sometimes it's a fourth. Sometimes I can get a six,
Speaker 8: like a major sixth.
Speaker 1: Not that I asked you to do it in this spot.
Speaker 9: I had no idea what you'a were talking about until
Speaker 9: at the moment.
Speaker 8: It's feel ugly right now.
Speaker 1: You don't realize that she can harmonize with herself.
Speaker 5: Yes, but I didn't know what specifically when you were like,
Speaker 5: what is that that you and you should patent that.
Speaker 1: I did not know what you meant. Now and that's
Speaker 1: since twelve you've been able to do that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, in some form, it always just sounded. There are
Speaker 8: some things I'm working on that when I get them,
Speaker 8: they're going to be awesome. Like I'm really working on
Speaker 8: finding the fundament note and then work in the overtone
Speaker 8: over that. It sounds like shit right now, but when
Speaker 8: I can get it, it's going to be killer. I'm
Speaker 8: still working on those chords. They don't always come out
Speaker 8: like I like, and they don't always I'm not in
Speaker 8: control of the color of it, and right now I
Speaker 8: can still only do it or an ooh on awe sound.
Speaker 8: So for me, it's not perfected. It's just something I
Speaker 8: still I just have in my back pocket that nobody
Speaker 8: else can do. It's just way my instrument is set up.
Speaker 8: Way my instrument is set up.
Speaker 1: But that's the thing though, Like you just did that
Speaker 1: so effortlessly. But I know you have to have a
Speaker 1: place of trial and err and experimentation, and where does
Speaker 1: that happen?
Speaker 6: Just right just now, I'm for really you can do
Speaker 6: that thing where you go I can't do it, you
Speaker 6: know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 1: That do it?
Speaker 6: What like when you stub your toe or when you see.
Speaker 1: Something like that? What's that one?
Speaker 6: Do that?
Speaker 1: Like that?
Speaker 6: That's pretty impressive? Impressive? I was being sincere, but I
Speaker 6: came off the opposite. But I think I can't do that, So.
Speaker 1: I didn't know I could do it till I just
Speaker 1: tried it. Well, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 8: Trying to learn how to sing overtones right now, right
Speaker 8: but this sounds crazy and everybody can't hear.
Speaker 1: It, so okay, so so mmm.
Speaker 8: Like I can hear it in my head. I know
Speaker 8: you guys can't hear it. I'm only getting a third
Speaker 8: and a fifth, so I'm working on that and one
Speaker 8: day I'm going to do it somewhere and it's going
Speaker 8: to flower into this thing and people will say wow,
Speaker 8: and they will be like, when did you work on it?
Speaker 1: I'll be like, so you are out of this world
Speaker 1: and and again, not in an alien way or whatever,
Speaker 1: simply brilliant.
Speaker 8: Can we can we just say we love each other
Speaker 8: now and we'll just be friends. The last time I
Speaker 8: saw you, you were like, you said, I find a word.
Speaker 8: You said something, and I said, I thought I told
Speaker 8: you that. I said, let's do what? What what did
Speaker 8: we cover? Joelene?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 8: And I said I've been telling you we should do that,
Speaker 8: and you said, yeah, but now we're friends, And I
Speaker 8: said I thought we was friends.
Speaker 1: Was yes, Well, one day I'll get over myself and
Speaker 1: and and and be able to be in front of
Speaker 1: your brilliance. Remember that time I came.
Speaker 8: To see you Indiangelo in the studio at that time.
Speaker 1: Doing the Voodoo period.
Speaker 8: This was like six seven years ago. Do y'all were
Speaker 8: working listening to stuff? You don't remember?
Speaker 1: You have to remind me. It's we were in New York.
Speaker 8: I came a boy to hang out ham I do
Speaker 8: with me and my cousin. You guys were working on
Speaker 8: some stuff, listening to some Michael Jackson stuff.
Speaker 6: All right, So obviously they weren't just they weren't working
Speaker 6: on stuff. They were just listening to.
Speaker 8: Just listening to.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes at uh uh.
Speaker 6: S MSR at MSR forty eighth Street or something like that.
Speaker 5: Can I just ask all the question that the music
Speaker 5: fans are thinking right now, like, is there any chance
Speaker 5: in the future, now that we've ironed this ship out,
Speaker 5: that we can get like some roots lailor ship or something.
Speaker 9: Oh my god, I mean, I just I'm sorry, Ma.
Speaker 1: I know you like to put it on the spot,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, no, listen, what I want to make
Speaker 1: absolutely positively ten thousand percent clear is that I've always loved.
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, let's get to the work.
Speaker 1: I need you listening, car.
Speaker 5: But seriously, the fans they want, that's what they want,
Speaker 5: especially like as you know right now and the life
Speaker 5: and times, I just feel like there's something there.
Speaker 8: It's so nice to work with a band too. What
Speaker 8: they never happen then you need that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, she has the job. You don't have to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not bullshitting. Yes, I would love to work with
Speaker 1: Let's do it. There is a radio so that we're
Speaker 1: documenting for the world here, it's like we have, like
Speaker 1: you can a million listeners right now. Yeah, Leila, I
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Thank you. Oh two questions.
Speaker 8: It goes so fast, doesn't it. It goes over. It
Speaker 8: gets over so fast.
Speaker 1: It's not when it's right, when it's done right. So
Speaker 1: I hope this question doesn't anger you because I don't
Speaker 1: know how you feel about this particular record, but your
Speaker 1: very first single. Some people don't like talking about their
Speaker 1: very first records. So Inside the Beat, Oh, I didn't
Speaker 1: know this record existed until.
Speaker 8: So Inside the Beat was a demo that we didn't
Speaker 8: even give that demo to the people to get a deal.
Speaker 8: So whoever boot like that and made it into a single.
Speaker 8: People come to me and say I love you since
Speaker 8: the eighties, and I'm like, well, no, I didn't have
Speaker 8: any records in the eighties, just born.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: That record came out, and then I did a Japanese
Speaker 8: cigarette commercial where I recorded night and Day Wow, and
Speaker 8: they made it into a record. It's for sale now
Speaker 8: in Japan and it was for a cigarette commercial.
Speaker 1: And when you buy it, that explains the cover.
Speaker 8: It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: It makes absolutely It's like two random white people and
Speaker 1: you know it's a jack.
Speaker 8: So it's a dude with a teddy bear and a
Speaker 8: ham at a bar smoking a cigarettes. I don't know
Speaker 8: what it's for, but that record, I'm just scatting at
Speaker 8: the end of it a cappella and they kept it
Speaker 8: for the record. So a lot of things happened in
Speaker 8: the eighties, but that record is so that's a funny
Speaker 8: record to me.
Speaker 1: I have to find that now. Have you ever heard it.
Speaker 1: I've never heard it. I didn't know it existed until
Speaker 1: like a couple of hours.
Speaker 8: Let me just sing you the hook inside the beat?
Speaker 1: Was it.
Speaker 5: That?
Speaker 8: It's a super super disco type you know, occasionally I
Speaker 8: got throw it into a DJ's eighties. It's super eighties.
Speaker 8: Don't judge me.
Speaker 1: When you hear I'm gonna love it probably. And my
Speaker 1: final question, how did you hook up with Martin Ware
Speaker 1: and uh Ian the I can't remember his name?
Speaker 8: People.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for.
Speaker 8: After my first record, I did a lot of records.
Speaker 8: They were one of the groups of folks that approached
Speaker 8: me and said, hey, can you come and be on
Speaker 8: our record? And Billy Preston was there and we record
Speaker 8: that slide tune. I don't even know. I just got
Speaker 8: really lucky based on my first record. People came to
Speaker 8: me that I would not have associated with the type
Speaker 8: of music I was recording, Like Marcus Miller came and
Speaker 8: I started working with him until now.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 8: So, I don't know how I got so lucky.
Speaker 1: I just because I always thought that was kind of
Speaker 1: a strange pairing. I mean, the end result was great,
Speaker 1: but it's not one that I would have.
Speaker 8: I have a record out now with a cat called
Speaker 8: Miss Jukes. You know that record. It's a really interesting record.
Speaker 8: I don't know how this kid knows who I am.
Speaker 8: You know, he's a huge star somewhere else in the world.
Speaker 8: And I made a record with him, and I don't
Speaker 8: know how that happens. I have lots of records. People
Speaker 8: say I have all your albums, even the obscure ones,
Speaker 8: and I'm like, no, you don't. There are records that
Speaker 8: I'm on in Japanese that only came out like in Fukuoka.
Speaker 8: Like really, you know? So I just keep getting lucky.
Speaker 1: What's your favorite market to perform?
Speaker 8: I love Atlanta, I love Tokyo. I haven't been a
Speaker 8: whole lot of places. Actually, LA is becoming one of
Speaker 8: my favorite places to play. It was a hard place
Speaker 8: to play in the beginning because people would just come
Speaker 8: sit and look at me, right, you know, But that
Speaker 8: happens everywhere I go. Like there's a certain amount of
Speaker 8: people in the front row that are just kind of
Speaker 8: like in some sort of weird I see your father trance,
Speaker 8: you know, which I recognized.
Speaker 1: Sorry, it's all right. How did the Mary tour end
Speaker 1: up going?
Speaker 8: It was cool, It was a lot of fun. It
Speaker 8: was great to be in front of her audience, even
Speaker 8: though I know that part of that audience is kind
Speaker 8: of my audience as well. Every night, my DJ would say,
Speaker 8: how many of y'all this is your first Layla Hathaway show,
Speaker 8: and a lot of hands went up, and that told me, like,
Speaker 8: I'm in the right place. You know, I'm getting in
Speaker 8: front of folks.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. I'm good. Okay, Well Layla, anyone, anyone? Anyone?
Speaker 1: Thank you?
Speaker 6: What was the song we worked on at Electric Lady?
Speaker 6: First time I met you? It was like a.
Speaker 1: Was it a Mary J.
Speaker 8: Blige record?
Speaker 5: I did do that?
Speaker 1: I was assist which one?
Speaker 8: What was I producing?
Speaker 1: Mary J.
Speaker 8: Blige and Stevie Wonder?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 6: No, no, it was Is that a Christmas song?
Speaker 9: Maybe you dropped that though that that happened once?
Speaker 6: Was it might have been a cover of of This
Speaker 6: Christmas for some like.
Speaker 8: I just did. I just did that for Spotify for
Speaker 8: the first time. Wait, what year was it you remember?
Speaker 6: It would be the late nineties something like that or
Speaker 6: early two thousands.
Speaker 8: You remember who the session was with?
Speaker 6: No, I don't remember much of anything.
Speaker 8: I hear you, man, I don't know. I feel like
Speaker 8: I've always known you. I don't know if I ever
Speaker 8: tell you that. There's something about you that I feel
Speaker 8: like I have always known, and I don't.
Speaker 5: Know what that is.
Speaker 1: Every engineer you've ever met, No, but you.
Speaker 8: Remind me of this kid I went to high school
Speaker 8: with named Todd Heckman, who gave me a lot of records.
Speaker 8: There's something about you I connect with, not I don't
Speaker 8: know what that is.
Speaker 1: All right, Maybe it's the records.
Speaker 6: Maybe I'm going over to house and.
Speaker 1: So have you? Have you? Have you fulfilled your bucket
Speaker 1: list as far as the people that you've wanted.
Speaker 8: To almost work with almost, I mean, ship, Well, there's
Speaker 8: a lot left. I mean, but if I got hit
Speaker 8: by a bus today, I have to say, well.
Speaker 1: We did.
Speaker 8: Prince did, Billy Preston, Anita Shaka, Vince Mendoza, Herbie Wayne,
Speaker 8: Dizzy Little.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 8: I don't know, I really there's a lot of people left, and.
Speaker 1: Now we got to work together because I don't want
Speaker 1: to be on the I don't. I don't want to.
Speaker 8: I want to be I already already know. There's there's
Speaker 8: a few people I really want to work with that
Speaker 8: I talk to every time I see them about working
Speaker 8: and I know it's not going to happen to go around.
Speaker 8: Who Stevie? You haven't worked with him yet, not officially.
Speaker 1: Man, I would have thought he would have been the
Speaker 1: first one. He can't.
Speaker 8: He's he's he's you know, yeah, we we always talk
Speaker 8: about it. He's got a song for me. I need
Speaker 8: to go. I need to call him. I'm gonna call Aisha.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna keep calling. I'm gonna keep trying to do
Speaker 8: it every time, but I don't know that it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, and it's okay, no, wait wait now
Speaker 1: I'm thinking that's the thing. Yeah, now I'm thinking what
Speaker 1: song would she be good for? No, because one time
Speaker 1: I heard him trying to give Knocking on your Door
Speaker 1: to Jennifer Hudson really and I was like, no, I
Speaker 1: was Jennifer husband. But it's just that song, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm jealously you know what, I think I might know one.
Speaker 1: We have to we have to can't play it on there, damn. Okay,
Speaker 1: y'all saying y'alluys really Stevie stuff going on? We would
Speaker 1: never say that, and thank you. Never know that public
Speaker 1: throwing us under the bus on your own radio shown. Yes,
Speaker 1: even the Pandora people are looking at you. You say,
Speaker 1: woman's wrong drinking. Yeah, I got some underleased from literally
Speaker 1: Stevie J, some underly Steve J track that he did
Speaker 1: for the mister Dalvin record.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it came out on Everick it came out,
Speaker 2: it did, mister Yeah, wait, mister.
Speaker 1: Had a album met a morph Morphic single was called
Speaker 1: and actually that's why he did those DJ Blad interviews
Speaker 1: by himself. I was wondering why, like he was getting
Speaker 1: the star treatment, like he had a project out, but
Speaker 1: well this was like ninety yeah, it was came it
Speaker 1: was back in the day. No, no, that horrible.
Speaker 9: It was not heard him saying the joint.
Speaker 2: His mister Davin jams was always the soundtrack jams. Like
Speaker 2: his soundtrack jams.
Speaker 1: He has one true o G that was on Dangerous Mind.
Speaker 1: There was there was another one that was you know what,
Speaker 1: I want an episode where you two just Cisco and
Speaker 1: Ebert whoever that is, whoever that is Wells and Ebert,
Speaker 1: every R and B record. No, I'm down for that.
Speaker 1: It's an art watching these two like go Got Got
Speaker 1: Over I never heard of before, obscure B sides and soundtrack.
Speaker 11: Songs you never heard of, mister Belvedere. All right, so yeah,
Speaker 11: so Stevie, yeah, Stete, all right.
Speaker 8: There's a lot of people though, you know, because when
Speaker 8: I mean people, they say I want to make a
Speaker 8: whole record with you. They don't say we want to
Speaker 8: make a song like That's why I came to see
Speaker 8: D'Angelo that night. He's another one. I keep telling him
Speaker 8: we should make the Blackish record. Ever, we should do
Speaker 8: it now, while we're both living. We should both we
Speaker 8: should do it now.
Speaker 9: Give her our chances of mere what you think?
Speaker 8: Every time he says it, he says, you know, I
Speaker 8: love you. I want to do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 1: It's more on b it's more. I wish d Angela
Speaker 1: was on the show for three words were words. We
Speaker 1: had a wager. What was the wager everybody was going
Speaker 1: to get? It was one hundred one thousand, one thousand
Speaker 1: dollars Christmas bonus. They said that I could never get
Speaker 1: d angel on the show. And it just so happens
Speaker 1: that Dangela had to stop by the studio to pick
Speaker 1: something up nice and I love it. And then he
Speaker 1: went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back.
Speaker 1: Right pulled the black Daddy on us. Black dad anyway.
Speaker 1: H yeah, I thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 8: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: I had so much fun with you, man, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. We want to do this for a long time.
Speaker 1: We've been trying to we're trying to catch this other
Speaker 1: and stuff.
Speaker 9: Thank you so much for doing this, making it happen.
Speaker 8: How long you're gonna be here.
Speaker 1: Forever? We're shooting forever. He'll be here forever, well, not forever.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're going to do a couple more episodes
Speaker 1: and then you know, I'm in town to like Tuesday Wednesday, you.
Speaker 8: Want to go bowling or something?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I live here, let's go.
Speaker 1: Where do you live?
Speaker 9: Hollywood?
Speaker 1: So yeah, I thank you for coming on the show. Leila,
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. Appreciated and we will we will
Speaker 1: work in the future. So on behalf of the team,
Speaker 1: Supreme Crew on, behalf of the teams.
Speaker 9: You're not part of the team, so you ain't gonna
Speaker 9: say our names. It's not usually like Bill, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we want some individual credit, all right, Sugar Steve
Speaker 1: and in Boston, Bill and font Tikeolo and sweet Feet.
Speaker 1: It's like, is sweet feet all right? It's might be
Speaker 1: so yeah, Actually, Lela, we we sort of did work together.
Speaker 1: Now that I think of it, it does not count. Well,
Speaker 1: then then you and Nancy Wilson didn't count, then.
Speaker 8: It does count.
Speaker 1: That does count record Technically we work together because of
Speaker 1: the Hidden Figure soundtrack that the Roots just totally remade.
Speaker 8: Uhn' wait to hear the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's it's freaking awesome and we're gonna release it
Speaker 1: for a record store day. Yeah. And this is your
Speaker 1: contribution called Surrender and my favorite joint on the record. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. West Love Supreme is a production iHeartRadio. This
Speaker 1: classic episode was produced by the team at Endora. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.