WEBVTT - Black Music Month QLS Classic: Lady B 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.040 Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:09.080 What's Up Everybody, It's Sugar Steve from Team Supreme. June 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:11.840 marks Black Music Month. We often speak about it on 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.760 Questlove Supreme and we've had some of the legends responsible 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:18.400 for the recognition on the show. Every day this June, 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.320 we are running a different episode from the QLs archives 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.439 to honor the tradition and a tent of Black Music Month. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:26.599 This week we are focusing on some of the great 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.640 hip hop conversations in the QLs catalog. Our leader Questlove 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:31.720 has a new book out. 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:32.880 Called hip Hop Is History. 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.279 Check it out at questlove dot com. Today we are 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.720 airing an interview with Philadelphia's own Lady B, who is 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.560 not only a pioneering force at radio, but is also 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:44.880 one of the first hip hop artists. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:01:00.720 To release a record. 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:06.480 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of quest Love Supreme. 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:11.840 I will say that this is a highly personal episode 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:16.200 for myself in my professional. 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:17.600 Eddie in our SiO territory right here. 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:19.680 Yes, no, no, it's not gonna be Edie. 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.720 I will say that in my my thirty plus years 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.440 of being in this business, I never thought the day 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:37.440 would occur that my first interview with the person who 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:44.640 literally introduced me to hip hop. Whatever happened on my platform. 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.160 I mean, that's that's that's how often I dreamed of 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.800 like being on her show. I mean even when I 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:53.800 was listening to her, I didn't have dreams of being 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:58.600 in hip hop. But literally, what what you know, what 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:02.640 Greg Mac means to kd A y in La, what 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.280 mister Magic means for New York City. 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.960 I will say that this, this young lady. 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.840 Was not only crucial for the Tri State area, but 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.520 in hip hop in general, because I mean, at one point, 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.400 Philly was the second largest hip hop market in the 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:25.600 in the first formative years of hip hop being on 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:29.480 Wax between like seventy nine and eighty nine. Yeah, just 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.639 any major first, you know, the first time I heard 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:36.840 cutting scratching on Grand Master Flash on the Wheels is Steel, 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.400 The first time I heard Pumpkin play a breakbeat on 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:42.560 on Spoony G's Love Rap, the first time I heard 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.239 Sucker C's, the first time I heard anything by the 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:50.160 Juice Crew, the first time got the moment I first 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:53.680 heard Rebel without a pause, It's it's this young lady 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.400 on our show for are you Roots? Officionados. Of course, 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.160 her voice might be familiar to you if if you 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.600 hold Our Things Fall apart album Hear and Deers. She's 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:07.920 on the without a doubt. 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.440 That was the best session ever. 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:12.840 She is the first female to be on WAX as 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.760 an MC, A pioneering DJ. 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:20.640 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the person who introduced me 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:23.000 to hip hop, Lady B. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:29.200 But oh, I feel so touched by that. 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.160 But you know what, as I approach, you know, because 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:35.280 as I approached his fortieth anniversity, I've been doing a 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:39.640 lot of reflecting and just getting in my spirit with 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.640 God and just thanking him for being the person who 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:44.760 did what you just said that I did to introduce 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:49.240 a genre of music that little had faith in, a 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.920 political crap connected to that to get it on the radio. 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.800 And you're right, I know you say that is the 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:58.880 second no I want. I want. I want to tell 0:03:58.920 --> 0:03:59.360 the facts. 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.640 And here's another thing I decide to do for my 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.200 fortieth I'm usually very humble. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.120 No moment, come on, bring it out. 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.280 When people say you're a pioneer, you're an icon, you're this, 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.040 you're that, And then I start thinking, just the other day, well, 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:15.800 all here, I swear to God, I was like, you 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.160 know what, onw this is the onus because you did it. 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.520 And too many times the brothers get all the accolades 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:23.920 and we, as sisters, we don't. So yeah, I'm gonna 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:25.440 putting my fists in the air and I'm gonna say 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.160 it with my chest out that it wasn't just as 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:30.640 far as you know, people always say New York was 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:34.240 first and then Philly was the second biggest market. First 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.320 of all, all due respect to the only man who 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.600 shared my same story, and that is mister Magic in 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:42.479 New York. I missed his brother so much, but he's 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:46.280 the only one that is parallel with my life and 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.600 what we did and to fight to get it on 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.720 FM radio, And so you have to understand that I 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:54.719 was the first one to play it on FM radio. 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.159 But Magic and what we're doing was a college thing. 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.440 I kick y'all off on AM and then in Power 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.040 ninety nine put us on FM that that made stations 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.560 across the country follow suit. Yes, you understand what I'm saying, 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:13.200 Like I started this avalanche of a culture, and I'm 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:15.440 so proud to say that I did that. And when 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.240 I think back on just how much freaking fun I 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.600 had doing that. I am so full of joy right 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.359 about now, like I'm doing a lot of reflecting and 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.600 I'm like, wow, I did that. I knew these millionaires 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.919 when they were broken, had roaches in their apartment, and 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.680 I'm so glad to have helped them follow their dreams 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:36.320 and do what they do. 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:38.520 It's it's amazing. 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:43.080 It's it's you have no you have no idea how 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:45.440 many brick walls I came across people. 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.039 Oh my, don't. 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:48.360 Give it away. 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:55.400 I'm I got time this Look, this ain't a radio show. 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:58.559 Let me fall back and calm down. I'm sorry. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:00.839 Let me just say. 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:05.160 Let me just say that, you know you you revealed 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.719 how many decades around the sun that you were before 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.000 we went on air, and I have to say that 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:16.960 you were still a timeless teenager to me. You you 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.760 literally have not like this is when she was nineteen. 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.480 As as on air personality, this is the same one, 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:31.120 Like nothing has changed, nothing has changed at all, you know, 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.760 this is I feel like this is my first real 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:36.279 conversation with you, like we've seen each other in passing. 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:37.040 And whatnot we do. 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:38.760 It is, I think it is. 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.080 But I'm glad to finally get a moment to rapt 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.600 you because I have so many questions about my hometown 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.039 and what. You know what, I didn't get the experience 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:51.440 that you know, you also helped pave the way. 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.640 Well. First of all, are you from Philadelphia. 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:59.080 Born and raised Philadelphia or were you born in saying? Well, 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.240 I was born my family. My mother owned a bar 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:06.800 on Woodland Avenue in Southwest Your mom owned the alley 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:07.880 Alley's Alley. 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:09.640 Yes, that's your mom's jorn. 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:14.440 That was my I grew up in that avenue. That 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:15.160 is correct. 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.880 Alley's Alley is my grandmother's name Ali? Yes, yes, yoh? 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.800 Because I used to catch the thirty six trolleys. 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.040 That's exactly where he wasn't the trolley barnh Yeah? 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:28.760 Wow? 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:30.240 It was my mom's bar. 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:32.400 And then she raised us in Windfield, so I was 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:36.200 literally I literally grew up from kindergarten right two blocks 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:37.880 and where Will and his mom lived. 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:42.400 And talk about your your people real quick, because you 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:44.920 have an interesting background like ethnically. 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:51.040 My Malaysian African American connection, yes, we like to call it. 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:55.640 My grandfather is from Malaysia. He's Malaysian born in Singapore. 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:56.240 Wow. 0:07:56.360 --> 0:08:00.440 And my grandmother was a prevate thing to little mixed 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.800 up everything. And they married and had ten children and 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:05.440 they raised them right there on Willing Avenue. 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:09.480 Because so, yeah, I had yeah my mother. 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.920 My mother had ten siblings, five with Arabic names, five 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:13.720 with Christian names. 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.880 Is very blended, very interesting family. 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.280 So you were always like around forty ninth with Woodland. 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:23.600 I yeah, I did my homework at that bar because 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:25.360 I watched the glasses. 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:30.360 Yeah alright, yo, because literally that that little grocery store 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.000 next door to Alley's Alley. 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.679 It's the reason I don't have any teeth now. All 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:35.360 that candy. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:40.480 Remember that damn candy to mister Luther. I used to 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.040 tell them, you want to play my dnnis Bill. I 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.240 go in there, I go in my mom's bar. I 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:47.480 get like three dollars and that's penny candy. That's three hundred. 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.480 That's a candy, right, and I would buy. 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.319 It in that store next door. 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.559 Not to mention Jack Myers across the street, this might 0:08:58.600 --> 0:08:59.840 turn into our city on Eddie. 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:03.640 I'm sorry, sorry, y'all. 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.800 Talk y'all shit, man, but rat but yeah, so yeah, 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.080 that's that's where I Wentfield West, Philadelphia. 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:13.199 Girl, my grandmother used to live on forty ninth and 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:13.880 King Sessing. 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.240 So okay, my grandmom lived one block over, so it 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:21.440 was that forty nine forty eighth street. Move probably her 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.720 house Yep, right behind right off the Paschal. 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.200 Oh wow, because I know that sister Sledge and their 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:34.520 grandmam lived on. 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.720 Did they can't they? Yeah? Kathy's grandmom and them came 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:35.640 from around the area too. 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:38.920 Yeah, they were like in the backyard of where my 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:39.640 grandmam lived. 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:41.679 That's where their grandmam lived. 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:43.600 My brother took all of them on the Prime. 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:45.439 Their mom wouldn't allow them to have prime dates, like 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.520 he took at least three sister Sledges on their proms. 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:54.160 Every three year altogether. Ms Blow wouldn't let them go 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:55.000 out on dates. 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:56.080 You're right now. 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:58.559 It was like the stand in prime. Dude. 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.640 Dude, everyone has a misflowed story about how strict she 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:03.560 was with their daughters. 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.760 What you had to I guess you had to do 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:09.160 that that back then? You know, of. 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:09.760 Course she did. 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.840 They were beautiful, talented and if she hadn't there would 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:14.320 they would not be where they are today. 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:19.560 Okay, So, because your your story is so loaded, I 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:25.439 want to I kind of want to start with the session. 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.360 That will start with to the beach. Y'all your twelve 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.640 inch single? Okay, So how how did that come to be? 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.160 So I'm the youngest of four, my oldest sister I 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.640 learned and did way too much before my time, but 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.640 I followed behind her like a little puppy dog, which 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:47.439 landed me in the club scene. Kim Gray's Whispers serendipity. 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.240 It was that back then Philly had a club night 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.360 every night, like at Tuesdays you went here, Wednesdays, you 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:53.280 went there Friday. 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.360 That was popping. That was kind of. 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:57.959 The neighborhood clubs or No, these. 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:00.640 Were all like downtown like Kim Grays was twenty, Nathan Samson, 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.800 Sarah Jipas was down there. Club Whispers is like off 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:04.640 a thirteenth and Walnut. So it's kind of like a 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:09.520 simmer City, okay, a downtown type thing. And I befriended 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:14.640 World be Free, the basketball player and Darryl Dawkins, and. 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.200 They hung out with my sisters. They were older than me. 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.560 I was kind of like the little yeah, the little 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.800 one that followed behind, just trying to hang out with 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:21.559 the older kids. 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:23.079 Exactly. 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:25.600 You said, there's ten of you. You said, there's ten 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.439 of you. What's the girl boy ratio of your siblings? 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:31.800 Two and two and it's just me and my brother. 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.520 Now I am the youngest, and there are all. 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:36.040 Three years aparts and eight years later. 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.880 Yeah, my mother went to get her appendix taken out 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:40.199 and they found an embryo here. 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.800 I am wow, oh. 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.360 Definitely definitely not planned. Yeah. 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.440 So anyway, I started hanging out in the club scene, 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:52.440 hanging out with World and them and going up to 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.840 New York, you know, and I start here. 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:57.440 In hip hop. I'm like, this is dope, you know. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:01.400 And I was on the courtyards and the jacks, walking 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:04.160 up to pissy elevators and shit like, listening. 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:05.680 To hip like in the hip hop like. I went 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:07.800 to see what their culture was about. 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.240 And then I was working call myself, getting a little 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.320 part time job before I went back to college, before 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.679 I went to college in the first place, and did 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.679 you go I wanted to go Listen, My plans were 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:20.360 to go to Howard. 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.080 All this got kicked to the curb. Me tell you 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:24.600 the story. That was my plan. 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.560 I wanted to be a lawyer, a corporate lawyer, is 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.280 what I wanted to do with my life. This is 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.800 before this happened. And being in the club there was 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:39.440 a DJ, Lawrence Levon, and he would break down these 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.360 break beats and I would put my trade down. 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:43.280 I was a cocktail waitress. I put my trade down. 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:44.960 Had no business being in there. Mind you, I'm not 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.920 twenty one yet. Put my put my trade down and go. 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:51.520 You know, do what I heard, world, and I'm doing 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:52.400 busting rods. 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.719 I want a breakway. I was about to say, yeah, 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.640 he was a world. No, he took me around people 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:02.400 that did it. You don't see what I'm saying. 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:05.439 And then I no, seriously, like we I went shopping 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:07.200 for him for his first twelve hundreds and we set 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:08.599 up the tables in the living room like it was 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:10.520 a whole thing with us, like his crew. 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.480 Daryl. You couldn't tell Daryl Dawkins he wasn't a rapper. 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:15.320 He had the whole, remember Quass, I don't know, Oh, 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:17.280 you might be too young, but he had this whole 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.440 I don't He had this whole setup in his crib. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.640 He was chocolate, thunder W d U n K. Like 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:26.920 they were. If that's how I. 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.840 Got introduced to hip hop. These old these older basketball players, 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:33.120 they were and young at that time to me, they 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.719 were eight years my older. And and then so I'm 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:39.360 doing this and this becomes popular and Kim Grays now 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:40.960 they're telling me put the trade down, going in and 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:41.400 do your thing. 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.600 Go go do one of them rhunds. 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:48.120 So that Perry Johnson, that was the da of doctor 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:50.280 Perry Johnson from w D A S. 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.480 Yes, he's a real doctor now. Actually went and got 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:55.240 a doctor. He's in LA. 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.400 Who hang on a second, you got to slow down. 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.760 Second second, we'll get up for our listeners. So doctor 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.520 Perry Johnson was probably. 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:05.480 One of our franky crocker. 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.439 Yes, he was one of the most crucial DJs of Philadelphia. 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:14.560 If you're a fan of Bohannon's Let's start the dance. 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:16.959 Come on and do it, Come on and do it. 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.920 He's boom, there's there's a special remix with a guy 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:24.360 doing like DJ rapping like shake a boom, boom, shake 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.120 a like if you just look up Bohn and let's 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:27.920 start the dance. 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:29.680 Doctor Perry Johnson. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.640 Like his his rapping over that song was just as 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:35.560 famous as the original song itself. 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:37.760 But it's such a he's a real doctor now. 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:40.080 He's a real doctor now And an author. 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.960 He had a book signing here, maybe not that long 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:44.720 before COVID. 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:46.680 I got to meet that brother man. I got to 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:47.840 we can make that happen. 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.840 I have his number in my He would be so 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.840 to wow. Sh he would be so touched. 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:59.240 But anyway, he approaches me to do this hip hop 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.600 song and I'm remember calling world, like, yo, they want 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:03.840 me to do a record doing what you do, like 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.360 what the sugar Hill guys did, and blah blah blah. 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:07.520 He's like, you're going to do it. I'm like, I 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:08.120 don't want. 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:11.840 To do that. And long story short, me me brown 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.280 another well on DJ and my sister sat up drinking 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.040 or doing whatever they were doing, and took these three 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.680 by five cards and kept telling me to tell them 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:23.440 all my rhymes, and they put them on cards and 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:25.000 they stuck them on the board. And every next day 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:26.840 I was in the studio and I cut to the beach. 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.920 All when people wonder why I hate the song so much, 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.200 even though it will go down in history as the 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:37.120 first female on WAX, it was to a direct current 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.040 song that they really didn't make any money off of, 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:42.480 so they rather than do a new track, they made 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:47.040 me rap over this black so mad about that. And secondly, 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:49.400 come to find out that the guy who owned the 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.800 label didn't even really wanted to really hit. It was 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.800 more of a tax write off thing to him. He 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:57.840 was kind of a crook. He didn't pay Frankie Smith 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:02.240 for double Dutch bucks either. Yeah, he was a real 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.240 he was a real shyster. And it was a one 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:06.800 take song. Like I was like, but I can do 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.560 that part. They were like, no, it's fine print, right. 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:13.080 But was this on WM O T Records? 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.160 It was before yet mot was Tec Records. It's a 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:23.200 yellow label with black writing. Wowaving yeah, so anyway, but 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.320 but here's the bright side of my to the Beach 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:27.520 all Lady B experience. To give you a little hip 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:29.480 hop history. I feel like I'm writing a book and 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:34.280 telling my truth. No, honestly, this is the I've never 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:38.000 told these stories before, but I will say this. I 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:41.480 didn't I got financially taken advantage of with this gentleman, 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:43.680 and I didn't get the money. Would turned around to 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.040 the song being the first female and no one knew 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.000 that hip hop was gonna be that popular and messed 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.080 around to win gold so and Doude wasn't paying me. 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:55.120 But then mister gangster himself, mister Joe Robinson, owner of 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:59.600 Sugar Hill Records. Step the dude got my master, pressed 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:01.440 it up and paid me for my son. 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:06.840 Wow O. Stories about Joe. 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:08.480 Like that, right, they laugh. 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:09.360 It's a big joke. 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.880 It's a big joke amongst me and God, everybody else 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:14.320 on the label. They was like, Lady B was only 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:19.919 want to get paid. Joe was like a dad to 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:20.199 be not. 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:22.760 To forget that I'm the one playing all of these 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:24.439 records coming out of his campus. 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.760 I don't think he was pretty stupid. He's very smart 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:31.640 to be friend of me at that time. 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.000 Were you a communications major in college? Like, did you have? 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:41.840 I was not? So here we go. So I remember 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:43.760 I was going to go to college or whatever. 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:49.719 And my mother, my my paternal father passed when I 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:51.560 was three years old from a heart attack. My mother 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:56.120 remarried and my stepfather passed when I was about twelve 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.440 eleven twelve, So I had you know, when when you're 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:01.159 in the service, both of them were in the Service, 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:03.879 you can go to college for free. It's paid for 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:06.720 it because your dad was in the Service. So now 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:10.239 I'm stuck because I got this record out and I'm 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.040 getting shows and I'm going up to Harlem and I'm 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.439 staying on stage with a micro. But it's crazy, But 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:16.960 I want to go back to school because I got 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:19.720 free school just sitting there. So I came up with 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.439 the great idea. Once I got you know, the record 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:24.119 came out and I go to hat and I get 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.080 this job and an office job, and I'm start begging 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:29.280 them to let me play hip hop. I said, well, 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:31.800 you had to have a license to be on the air. 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.800 You don't have to anymore, but back then, the FCC 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.520 required a license. So I went to broadcasting school while 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.120 I was at the station and got it for three years, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:42.480 and got my license. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.639 For three years. Damn it a long time broadcast. I 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:46.520 wanted it extra. 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.480 There was different levels of it, and I wanted Yeah, 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:51.760 I wanted to do more than radio. Got a license, 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.800 like to do TV here, whatever you do. It's not 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:57.680 like that anymore. The FCC done changed on. They you 0:18:57.720 --> 0:18:59.040 could just walk up the street and get a damn 0:18:59.119 --> 0:18:59.600 radio show. 0:18:59.640 --> 0:18:59.760 Now. 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:01.359 Look, yeah I got my radio, Jose. 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.240 Yeah, so for for our listeners, uh listening, She mentioned 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.359 h h A T w h A T was an. 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:14.080 AM radio station. I knew as a kid. 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.320 I knew it because, like my I mean the way 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.359 that people always listening to talk radio. Now, we had 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.320 a woman by the name of Mary Mason in Philadelphia, 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.360 who I owe grand mom, And I mean, I don't 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:30.840 know how typical it was for a black woman to 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:36.159 have her own platform to that of like, uh, I mean, 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:37.240 who's pop. 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:43.520 In terms of like Alex what's his name? 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.840 Like, let me let me just share one Mary Mason stories. 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:47.440 Please. 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:53.200 Yeah, I'm eighteen years old and Nancy Reagan walks into 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.639 the lobby the Secret Service with her blah blah blah. 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:00.280 She just doesn't pop up right stop by to say 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.240 how to marry? This is how politically strong she was. 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:08.639