Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 2: What up, y'all, it's unpaid bill from Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 2: As you may have seen throughout June, we are celebrating
Speaker 2: black music a month. We are releasing an episode every day,
Speaker 2: so every day you would either hear especially picked a
Speaker 2: QLs classic, and on Wednesdays we are dropping new two
Speaker 2: part episodes Wayne Brady and the legendary James Poyser, both
Speaker 2: of which were filmed in studio. Black music is deeply
Speaker 2: important to me and has been an influence throughout my
Speaker 2: entire career. It's also something we celebrate here at QLs.
Speaker 2: In twenty sixteen, during the first season of QLs, we
Speaker 2: had Solange Knowles on the show. This was a special
Speaker 2: and spirited conversation with a tremendous artist who was in
Speaker 2: the season of an amazing album.
Speaker 1: A set of the table.
Speaker 3: Supremo Sun Supremo, Roll Call Suprema Sun Sun Supremo, Ro
Speaker 3: Call Suprema s S Supremo, Ro Call Supreme Son Son
Speaker 3: Supremo Role Call.
Speaker 1: My name is Questlove. Yeah you got the message? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure like you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I say.
Speaker 3: Supreme Supremo role came Suprema So Supprivo roll.
Speaker 1: My name is Fante.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I am not bitter. Yeah, thank God is real life?
Speaker 4: Yeah and we not on Twitter. Supre roll call Supremo
Speaker 4: Supremo roll call.
Speaker 1: My name is Sugar Yeah, hell so lunge. Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: eat some but the cookies. Yeah and smoke some gun.
Speaker 3: Suprema role called Suprema Son Son so Brea.
Speaker 1: Role called Bill. Yeah, I ain't that legit. Yeah, back
Speaker 1: with quest of Supreme. Yeah, I ain't got some ship.
Speaker 3: Oh, Supreme Son Son Supremo role called Suprema Son Son Suprema.
Speaker 5: Role call my name's like yeah, yeah, my day is made?
Speaker 6: Yeah, cut so Lodge is here, Yeah, no shade roll call.
Speaker 3: Supremo son Sign Suppremea roll call Supremo Son Supremo.
Speaker 7: Roll come until is here? Yeah an electric Lady. Yeah,
Speaker 7: So Lounge's new album. Yeah it's crazy.
Speaker 3: Rome Supprima Sun Sign Supremo role cal Supremo Sun Sun Supremo.
Speaker 5: Roll called names Lone.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and I'm hungover. Yeah, ask me some week.
Speaker 3: Yeah er Suprema Suprema roll call, Suprema son Sign Supremo.
Speaker 3: Role called Suprema son Son Suprema roll called Supremo.
Speaker 1: Supremo, dude in the ship that was that was wow
Speaker 1: on time in rhythm go with message. I'm like, what
Speaker 1: is it going wround with?
Speaker 3: You?
Speaker 9: Used the five minutes on the record and everything that
Speaker 9: was some ship five minutes before I thought of Yo,
Speaker 9: Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of Quest Love
Speaker 9: Supreme on Pandora.
Speaker 1: We're broadcasting from the legendary Studio A at Electric Ladyes
Speaker 1: Studios in New York. I'm your host Questlove, and we
Speaker 1: have an incredible show for you today. Our guest is
Speaker 1: an amazing singer. She's an amazing songwriter, dancer, choreographer, and
Speaker 1: so much more. She recently released her critically acclaimed new
Speaker 1: album called A Seat at the Table in my opinions,
Speaker 1: one of the best albums of twenty sixteen. Uh Solange
Speaker 1: noses on the show today, y'all, and we'll bring on shortly.
Speaker 1: But before we do, let's check in out with Team Supreme. Yes,
Speaker 1: of course Love, Team Supreme. Yes, Uh Fante, you've been.
Speaker 4: On the road, have you not? I have been on
Speaker 4: the road. My vand of Foreign Exchange. We performed, we
Speaker 4: did our West Coast run, so.
Speaker 1: In the black and white vans.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, and I segregated vans okay because I am
Speaker 4: from do y'all ask for a black.
Speaker 1: And white man?
Speaker 10: Were?
Speaker 4: Now when we written the event, well, well we actually
Speaker 4: own a white van, Like we have a van that
Speaker 4: we y'all drove to the West Coast. No, no, no,
Speaker 4: we didn't. We didn't this time. No we No, I'm
Speaker 4: not I'm not that adventurous. But so we actually own
Speaker 4: a white man. So when we go out, like really
Speaker 4: it's the members. The black members are in one van
Speaker 4: and the white members and the other van. But we
Speaker 4: come together on stage.
Speaker 1: And make music. Wait, wait, through is there a difference
Speaker 1: besides melononlas melon man? Like I said, a we ben
Speaker 1: Now do we know? Straight up, let's talk about it.
Speaker 4: There is a we a surprisingly it is is the
Speaker 4: white man is the white man is the we man,
Speaker 4: and the black man is the conservative man. Yeah we're
Speaker 4: pretty conservative. Absolutely, No, no, that's no bullshit. We've been
Speaker 4: pulled over like I got pulled over on ninety four
Speaker 4: on our.
Speaker 1: Way to Detroit. Uh, dude, made us, made us get
Speaker 1: out the car. Just get.
Speaker 10: Right.
Speaker 6: Now, you are witnessing a reference to a Five Heartbeats movie.
Speaker 1: Is that right? It was five heart Beats meat? But
Speaker 1: you were right, You're right. But but nah, man, we
Speaker 1: toured tours. Dope. I'm glad it's over, you know, because
Speaker 1: I already don't like touring. But you're touring all the time.
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 4: I know, just I just cause like, fuck that ship touring, man, Like,
Speaker 4: here's the thing with me with with touring, Like, I mean,
Speaker 4: it's necessarily evil, right, you gotta go get your money
Speaker 4: and the time while I'm actually on stage, I do
Speaker 4: enjoy you know what I'm saying. I do enjoy performing,
Speaker 4: you know, the interplay with the band, I do enjoy that.
Speaker 4: But everything leading up to that and after that, I
Speaker 4: fucking hate what.
Speaker 1: Touring?
Speaker 4: Okay, we the parls of touring are just pretty much.
Speaker 4: It disrupts your patterns. So whatever it is that you're
Speaker 4: trying to do in your life to be better, whether
Speaker 4: if you're trying to eat better, you're trying to exercise,
Speaker 4: you trying to stay off these holes, whatever it is
Speaker 4: you're trying to do. You're trying to stay off cocaine,
Speaker 4: You're trying to leave drugs along, You're trying to stop drinking.
Speaker 4: Whatever it is that you're trying to do. The road
Speaker 4: is like the last place you want to try to
Speaker 4: do it. So when I'm at home, my routine is
Speaker 4: very simple. Wake up, you know, hit the gym, you know,
Speaker 4: work a little something around the house, go pick up
Speaker 4: my boys from school, homework, dinner, I right, go to bed, whatever,
Speaker 4: play some dune, you know what I mean, not a
Speaker 4: hole to be found, saying. The only hope we find
Speaker 4: is in the is in the garage. So but when
Speaker 4: you go on the road, it just disrupts everything. So
Speaker 4: like you're eating, goes to ship, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: You're up crazy hours and then you perform. And after
Speaker 4: you perform, I mean that's essentially energy that you've absorbed
Speaker 4: from all these people.
Speaker 1: So now you can't go to sleep. So now you
Speaker 1: got to figure out how do I get to sleep?
Speaker 1: So you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So you know, I never like, I never liked,
Speaker 4: so I just don't. I like just a real simple life.
Speaker 4: And so my goal is to get enough money to
Speaker 4: where I ain't gotta do it no more.
Speaker 1: But I bet the road is good for someone who's
Speaker 1: in their whole face now listen, let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: I feel like next door you and me, I'm coming
Speaker 1: with man.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you one got damn thing, Bill Sherman. Yeah,
Speaker 4: come out here on your whole face. Man, listen.
Speaker 1: Bro Oh my god, I'm gonna do it. No, no,
Speaker 1: just sound like Entourage is one of the I mean
Speaker 1: that show was.
Speaker 4: It's kind of candyass as it was, but it was
Speaker 4: real in the sense that it showed how the guy
Speaker 4: didn't really get to have the fun.
Speaker 1: All the guys around, the guys right, they got to
Speaker 1: live it up. The star, the person who's in the
Speaker 1: epicenter never has the fun. Never Matt Well, okay, referring
Speaker 1: back to our Alan lead show, like Brown Mark of
Speaker 1: the Revolution used to always get fined more for like
Speaker 1: one minute late two minutely simply because like he had
Speaker 1: the freedom to really clean and rack up in the
Speaker 1: bars and in the hotel lobby because he was known
Speaker 1: as the guy from a Revolution. But it wasn't like
Speaker 1: kass and Mayhe he it wasn't the guy. Prince on
Speaker 1: the other hand, would cause Kasos and Mayheim everywhere he went,
Speaker 1: so he was basically a prisoner in his hotel.
Speaker 4: Absolutely he couldn't go to nowhere. He did all that
Speaker 4: work for nothing. Yeah man, so yeah, so yeah, so
Speaker 4: I generally hated it. I'm not print but but I mean,
Speaker 4: but really after the show, I don't know, maybe Mars,
Speaker 4: maybe I'm Maris, I'm on Morris than Prince.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, I'm thankful for the opportunity. I'm
Speaker 1: thankful for the work. You know what I'm saying. I'm
Speaker 1: thankful for the checking.
Speaker 5: So much joy to the people.
Speaker 1: Know when I'm on stage, I love it and the
Speaker 1: minute it ends. Yeah, she came. She was that engine
Speaker 1: came to the LA show. Oh lord, oh lord, exactly
Speaker 1: with the.
Speaker 6: T and plus I've been coming to Fontae shows. I'm like,
Speaker 6: I'm not as much as your shows. Don't get it
Speaker 6: twisted because he's a little I don't.
Speaker 1: Perform as much. Like God, damn, the old jokes keep coming.
Speaker 4: No, I called, I was that was hard. But but nah, man,
Speaker 4: I'm yo, I'm I'm good. I'm happy. I've been playing
Speaker 4: on Xbox, so I'm good. All good. Let's get to
Speaker 4: her special guest right now. Hey, surprises a bum.
Speaker 1: Actually this is not a surprise though, because I guess
Speaker 1: back in twenty fourteen. Uh, I kind of made a
Speaker 1: cry to the Internet for artists to really start making
Speaker 1: music relevant to the times we live in. And somehow
Speaker 1: the gods have heard my cry. And I knew that
Speaker 1: something was coming up the pike from our special guests,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know the magnet, the levels level of
Speaker 1: deepness that was going to come with it. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Quest Love Supreme Clon's no.
Speaker 8: Thank you?
Speaker 1: How are you? Solon?
Speaker 8: I'm doing really really well.
Speaker 1: What was drinking all? What was drinking all last night?
Speaker 8: Tequila and wine?
Speaker 5: Oh wow, to Como party and I know.
Speaker 8: Not Titos.
Speaker 5: I think it was like, that's not a drinking.
Speaker 1: I thought it was. It was I'm sorry, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: learning to what's Tito's? Yeah, you know, I wish people
Speaker 1: would stop like, ah, like look, I'm still drinking from water. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's that fise like frad wise like night training me.
Speaker 1: That's like a hard what is frame wall? What is
Speaker 1: what is Lambic? Frame boishek rhyme that one and say
Speaker 1: nothing new. Okay, it's a Belgian beer, but it really
Speaker 1: tastes like uh Welch's grape juice with a little bit
Speaker 1: of like non alcoholic near beer in it, and I
Speaker 1: take it they only sell this in neighborhoods where you'll
Speaker 1: find hot cheeto wrappers on them.
Speaker 3: This is.
Speaker 1: No this is a high ended beer.
Speaker 10: I guess it's been like five weeks without drinking, just
Speaker 10: in preparation for my Saturday night live performance, so I
Speaker 10: had a little.
Speaker 8: Catching up to.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you still agreed to come.
Speaker 8: Oh man, I'm honored to be here with all of
Speaker 8: you guys. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Thanks you too.
Speaker 5: See me, I'm playing I'm playing cool. What are you
Speaker 5: talking about?
Speaker 1: A special sweater for tonight?
Speaker 6: Wearing sweatshirt from I Forget the Ages?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 8: Great.
Speaker 6: By the way, congratulations on your Saturday live performance.
Speaker 5: That joint was so much.
Speaker 8: Was beyond nervous.
Speaker 1: Why are you nervous?
Speaker 8: You know what I think, because through.
Speaker 10: The process of making the album, it was such an
Speaker 10: insular experience in some ways that it felt so mine
Speaker 10: and so personal. And to have that platform and and
Speaker 10: that be offered to me was just such an honor.
Speaker 8: I was so honored.
Speaker 10: And of course you don't say no to that, but
Speaker 10: for your first time delivering these songs, to be on
Speaker 10: such a huge platform and almost like the safety net
Speaker 10: in the space that I've created throughout making this album
Speaker 10: and releasing it.
Speaker 8: That was the moment where it was like, Okay, this
Speaker 8: is outside of that safety.
Speaker 1: Oh your comfort zone. Yeah, but I would think you've
Speaker 1: been performing all your life. Yeah, about some point you
Speaker 1: would just be numb to the experience of like, oh,
Speaker 1: this ain't nothing, it's just another No.
Speaker 8: Actually it was not you air yeah, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 8: no no.
Speaker 1: I've seen you singing at the age of seven on
Speaker 1: videotape and all that stuff. That's the thing. I'm shocked
Speaker 1: that you still get nervous about performance, you know.
Speaker 10: I actually about three years ago I suffered from my
Speaker 10: first bout of stage.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 10: I had a show and it just came out of nowhere.
Speaker 10: And it's really really something that I've been trying to
Speaker 10: work through. It's fairly new. Like you said, I have
Speaker 10: been performing for a really long time. So yeah, I
Speaker 10: was working through a lot of stuff before that performance
Speaker 10: and again just sharing it in such a big space
Speaker 10: because after I put out the record, I actually went
Speaker 10: to Mexico, as you know, for ten days, like the
Speaker 10: day after I put the record out, so I didn't
Speaker 10: have a lot of the outside noise, you know. In
Speaker 10: that experience, I was able to just shut my brain
Speaker 10: off and really just live in the moment of releasing
Speaker 10: and sharing such a big part of myself with the world.
Speaker 10: And so as soon as I came back, it was
Speaker 10: time to prepare for Saturday Night Live. So I really
Speaker 10: didn't have I have that time to transition into that
Speaker 10: that headspace and the way that I maybe would have liked.
Speaker 4: From the time they say, hey, we want you to
Speaker 4: do it to the time you're on stage. How much
Speaker 4: time is that the prep I.
Speaker 10: Had three weeks? Okay, about a week of that time
Speaker 10: was putting together a band I wanted to put together
Speaker 10: a new band, a New Orleans space band, and then
Speaker 10: I actually choreographed the entire show as well, the band's choreography,
Speaker 10: my choreography. So I spent a week on that and
Speaker 10: then yeah, a solid week of rehearsals. So not a
Speaker 10: whole lot of time for such a big platform.
Speaker 1: But and that was your first time ever performing those
Speaker 1: songs live ever. Wow, So are you are you saying
Speaker 1: that you essentially finished the record, mastered sequence it whatever,
Speaker 1: released it as an hell Mary Throw and then you
Speaker 1: just fled the country kind of with your fingers over
Speaker 1: your ears and your eyes closed and like, Okay, let
Speaker 1: me see what's gonna happen. Kind of yeah, And you
Speaker 1: did it just to protect yourself from either what you
Speaker 1: either criticism of it or the not knowing what the
Speaker 1: response would be.
Speaker 8: No, I think I did it as a personal retreat
Speaker 8: for myself.
Speaker 10: I worked on the album over a three year course
Speaker 10: of time, and you know, it was at times a
Speaker 10: very taxing experience emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually, and the two
Speaker 10: weeks leading up to releasing the album were some of
Speaker 10: the most challenging days that I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 10: I had a lot of issues with clearances and mastering
Speaker 10: and you know, all of the stuff that comes at
Speaker 10: the very end of putting an album. I almost lost
Speaker 10: my album date. There was just a lot of internal
Speaker 10: stuff that was happening, and I think towards the end
Speaker 10: I kind of lost a little context because everything was
Speaker 10: moving so rapidly.
Speaker 8: But I always knew that for.
Speaker 10: My sanity that when I released the record, I needed
Speaker 10: to just have some quiet, reflective time.
Speaker 1: You told me at the very beginning of the recording
Speaker 1: process of the record back when you just had demos
Speaker 1: that you were going to make the quote, the statement
Speaker 1: the quintessential you know what you felt would you've been
Speaker 1: dying to express, which I know for you that had
Speaker 1: to be a challenge because I mean I can imagine
Speaker 1: based on and I've been on uh where I reach
Speaker 1: your that sounds stalky, like I'm always on your website,
Speaker 1: a website that's not stalker, that's not I know.
Speaker 8: I'm like he's also acting like we don't talk.
Speaker 1: No, no, that's the thing. But that's the thing, like, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure like we're genuinely friends, but our
Speaker 1: friendship really hasn't been on the musical worship side of things,
Speaker 1: like we rarely talk about each other's projects, you know,
Speaker 1: and but just in general.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we built that friendship off of a ginuine friendship connection.
Speaker 8: I know that.
Speaker 1: There was there was one entry on your site that
Speaker 1: really had me curious and I wanted to call you
Speaker 1: about it, but I forgot to. And that was the
Speaker 1: I guess we can call the the craft work incident. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the thing was I understood. I guess what I
Speaker 1: got from it was that it's really hard for you
Speaker 1: to make people understand that you still go through human experiences,
Speaker 1: which because people perceived you as coming from such a
Speaker 1: this perceived dynasty of giants that you know, would be
Speaker 1: time to pull out the violin or whatever, like, oh
Speaker 1: that's good, you know, and it's never validated. What I'm
Speaker 1: saying is that what I got from that entry was
Speaker 1: the fact that you were frustrated that you really couldn't
Speaker 1: figure out a way to express the anger you have
Speaker 1: when those injustices and those situations happened to you, because
Speaker 1: people don't see you as a human being and just
Speaker 1: see you as part of this, you know, this dynasty
Speaker 1: that's supposed to be tafline to emotions, and I can
Speaker 1: imagine that being frustrating. Can you explain the craft work situation?
Speaker 10: Yes, but I will say before before I get into that,
Speaker 10: just to carry on what you said. The thing is
Speaker 10: is that doctor Dre is going through this in front
Speaker 10: of his home, and Oprah Winfrey is going through this,
Speaker 10: you know, in the Hermez store, and these are billionaires,
Speaker 10: so that in that landscape, I think those kind of
Speaker 10: micro aggressions happen to everyone daily as as a black
Speaker 10: woman and man in this country.
Speaker 8: It doesn't matter your class.
Speaker 10: It doesn't matter how much money you have, what kind
Speaker 10: of quote unquote empire dynasty you come from.
Speaker 8: That's just the lay of the land. Essentially.
Speaker 10: My husband and my son who's twelve jewels, and his
Speaker 10: friend Rashid, we went to see craft Work. And the
Speaker 10: interesting thing was it was a Friday night. My son
Speaker 10: had his friend over. They had never heard of craft Work,
Speaker 10: to be honest, that was the last thing that they
Speaker 10: wanted to do with their Friday night.
Speaker 8: So, you know, Allen and I.
Speaker 10: Are showing them YouTube videos and trying to make the
Speaker 10: link with hip hop to get them more interested, and
Speaker 10: showing them visuals and like, no, you guys are gonna
Speaker 10: love this, like, you know, just relating and specifically showing
Speaker 10: the samples that.
Speaker 8: Jules's uncle sample of Craftworks.
Speaker 1: So whoever that is because it took me a minute.
Speaker 8: So essentially.
Speaker 10: That's important to note, just just for the story itself,
Speaker 10: that here you have two young black kids who are
Speaker 10: not really interested, don't have much, you know, knowledge about
Speaker 10: this band. Yeah, and we are you know, trying to
Speaker 10: navigate them into the show and build interests and whatever.
Speaker 8: As soon as we walk in, we got our three.
Speaker 1: D glasses said their museum run.
Speaker 10: No, this was at the Orpheum Theater, and so yeah,
Speaker 10: we're basically walking to our seats and it just so
Speaker 10: happened the very song.
Speaker 5: Yes exactly was on.
Speaker 8: And so we were super stoked. We had box seats.
Speaker 10: There was two rows in front of us in one
Speaker 10: row behind us, and we walked to our seats and.
Speaker 8: We're dancing, and these women essentially just started yelling at
Speaker 8: the top of their lung sit down, now, sit down,
Speaker 8: shut up. You guys are been so disruptive.
Speaker 10: And I turned around, and I, in that moment, had
Speaker 10: to make a decision. Am I gonna respond or am
Speaker 10: I just going to enjoy this song and deal with
Speaker 10: it later. I actually clocked into myself, you know, you
Speaker 10: have that moment and said, I'm gonna dance to this
Speaker 10: song and then I'm gonna sit my ass down because
Speaker 10: I already know where this is heading. Simultaneously, which I
Speaker 10: didn't write about, which Alan thought was really important for
Speaker 10: me to note and note you My son is he
Speaker 10: was eleven at the time, and this the attendant comes
Speaker 10: over to him and his friend who are sitting down.
Speaker 10: They weren't standing up dancing.
Speaker 8: Alan an hour and says put your no electronic cigarettes.
Speaker 8: Put your cigarettes away to these children. Yes, yes, cigarettes,
Speaker 8: know you. As soon as we walked in and.
Speaker 10: We saw these two older white men sitting in front
Speaker 10: smoking the cigarettes, we took note of that.
Speaker 8: We weren't bothered, but you know.
Speaker 10: It was just the assumption that if someone was breaking
Speaker 10: the rule, surely it was the two eleven year old
Speaker 10: black kids.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, vapin.
Speaker 10: So it was just a lot of tension in general,
Speaker 10: and thank god, by the grace of God, Alan hopped
Speaker 10: into that immediately and was like, ma'am, these are children,
Speaker 10: You've got the wrong people.
Speaker 8: Whatever.
Speaker 10: And then after that, Alan's going to kill me for
Speaker 10: for blanking on the name of the song automond Ye
Speaker 10: that comes on.
Speaker 8: And on the ride there, Alan had played me the
Speaker 8: entire twelve minute song and.
Speaker 10: It just so happened that that's what they played. So
Speaker 10: I was like, well, I'm gonna just dance to this
Speaker 10: one too, because we had just had that moment, right,
Speaker 10: and we're at an electronic dance music concert.
Speaker 8: It's not like.
Speaker 1: Engaged in.
Speaker 8: So there's two there's two parts of this problem.
Speaker 10: The problem is also that you know, we probably should
Speaker 10: have asked for floor seats.
Speaker 8: But we were under the assumption that people were going
Speaker 8: to be dancing all night long.
Speaker 1: So you're in the balcony the theater.
Speaker 10: Yes, So we're dancing, and then I feel something hit
Speaker 10: me on the back of my head.
Speaker 8: But I say, surely I am tripping.
Speaker 10: Must be tripping, must be tripping, right, So I actually
Speaker 10: tell Alan, I said, I swear, and maybe I'm just
Speaker 10: losing my motherfucking black eyes light.
Speaker 8: But I just felt something hit.
Speaker 10: Me on the back of my head, and he was like, babe,
Speaker 10: you might just be tripping, like just lay low.
Speaker 8: So I actually, you know, shook it off.
Speaker 10: And then I felt something harder, Oh yeah, me on
Speaker 10: my shoulder, and my son, my eleven year old son,
Speaker 10: tapped me. He picked up a line from the ground
Speaker 10: I half eaten lime, and he said, Mom, I just
Speaker 10: watched these women throw this at you in front.
Speaker 5: Used to be tested in all kinds of ways.
Speaker 8: A reference, And I feel so bad because they gave
Speaker 8: us the tickets.
Speaker 10: I've never met them, but you know, it just it
Speaker 10: just sucks that they also had to be associated with
Speaker 10: this incident. But yeah, you know, in that moment, I
Speaker 10: basically knew we had probably three choices one was to react,
Speaker 10: which probably would have led to someone getting arrested, you know,
Speaker 10: just spiraling out of control, or I called the police
Speaker 10: on them because essentially.
Speaker 8: You know, they did throw ship at me.
Speaker 1: Wow. I never even thought, yeah, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you're going we can.
Speaker 5: Sometimes exactly that's what they.
Speaker 8: Do literally, But I knew that even if that happened,
Speaker 8: that somehow.
Speaker 10: It would still be our fraud, or just to just
Speaker 10: take it and be silenced, because I knew that if I.
Speaker 8: Spoke to them that it would escalate.
Speaker 10: And my son was there, it was already traumatic enough
Speaker 10: for him to have to experience that, especially in a
Speaker 10: context where it was a predominantly white space and he
Speaker 10: didn't want to be there in the first place. And
Speaker 10: so now I think the thing that saddened me the
Speaker 10: most is that here we are, as parents trying to expand,
Speaker 10: you know, his horizon and his experience and make him
Speaker 10: feel like he belongs wherever he chooses to be.
Speaker 8: But that was not the message that we got that nex.
Speaker 1: What do you think he took from that experience? Did
Speaker 1: you explain them? Oh?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I had several talks. No, no, no, we had
Speaker 8: several talks. In fact, you know, the we had. It
Speaker 8: was it was quite a three days after that, I
Speaker 8: think that.
Speaker 10: Number one, I think just as a young man and
Speaker 10: him and Alan, both as the men and the family
Speaker 10: also felt silent and powerless just in protecting me in
Speaker 10: that situation because they are black men, and no matter
Speaker 10: what would have been said or done, they would have
Speaker 10: been the aggressive in the situation. So on one end,
Speaker 10: it was about teaching him, you know, after the last
Speaker 10: eleven twelve now twelve years of teaching him about injustices
Speaker 10: and how to stand up for himself and to not
Speaker 10: be afraid and to speak up and then having to say.
Speaker 1: But there to say.
Speaker 8: Right. So it was it was just very complicated. But
Speaker 8: I felt the need to write that piece for him.
Speaker 8: I felt the need to essentially not be silenced.
Speaker 10: In that situation and to let him know that there
Speaker 10: is an outlet in a way to use his voice
Speaker 10: responsibly because there are so many people who read that
Speaker 10: piece who I felt had a deeper understanding of the
Speaker 10: microaggressions that we face as black men and women on
Speaker 10: a daily basis, who were able to empathize, which is
Speaker 10: something that we have the expectation of people to do
Speaker 10: on a daily basis and to treat us with humanity.
Speaker 8: But it was really.
Speaker 10: Interesting, and I felt regretful because I had so much
Speaker 10: rage in the moment that I started tweeting because I
Speaker 10: wanted them to see it. When they got home, they
Speaker 10: were put on black. But I wish that I would
Speaker 10: have just channeled my emotions and that waited and channeled in.
Speaker 8: In that piece. And it was a great lesson learned that.
Speaker 10: You know, it really is no way to condense that
Speaker 10: experience in however many letters that you get on one
Speaker 10: hundred and forty.
Speaker 5: Characters had to write a book about it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, it's really no way.
Speaker 10: But I wanted them to get home and to see
Speaker 10: them and to see they have some accountability. I honestly
Speaker 10: thought that it would come up at this point because
Speaker 10: so many people are.
Speaker 1: Just put two and two together.
Speaker 10: It was widely widely talked about locally and normal. The
Speaker 10: real crazy ship, though, is that they got up and
Speaker 10: started dancing.
Speaker 8: Of course, after you.
Speaker 5: Get out of your pistom, like you burning right.
Speaker 1: Youst we're going to take that word, yes, And.
Speaker 10: I did forget to note that Alan went over to
Speaker 10: them and said, did you just you know, throw fruit
Speaker 10: at or whatever? At my wife, and one of the
Speaker 10: women says, I just want to make it clear that
Speaker 10: was not me saying those horrible nasty things, streaming those
Speaker 10: horrible nasty things.
Speaker 8: So we don't even know what they actually were saying
Speaker 8: while they were throwing Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but again you.
Speaker 1: Can figure out who, and I would be happy to
Speaker 1: listen listen to you. What should be noted, though, is
Speaker 1: I feel like that was very mature of you to
Speaker 1: just stop pondering. Think we're having a fascinating conversation with
Speaker 1: our guests to lunch. I don't even think do you remember?
Speaker 1: I remember the first time I met you, I was
Speaker 1: in the audience at an Apollo show.
Speaker 8: Probably was no stop pondering and thinking.
Speaker 1: And the first time I met you, you were confronting
Speaker 1: someone in the audience about what they said about That's
Speaker 1: the first time I met you.
Speaker 8: They were out of control though, and.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I know, but it's just like, you know,
Speaker 1: I always felt that you had to walk the thin
Speaker 1: line between any any defense, your family, your art, your
Speaker 1: you know, and the fact that you I think I
Speaker 1: would have lost it, you know, especially as like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're trying to masculate me in front of front of
Speaker 1: my kids. That's that is amazing. I just want to
Speaker 1: say that to be committed.
Speaker 10: But I felt like, honestly, throughout the course of making
Speaker 10: the album, that was it incredible amount of growth that
Speaker 10: I was able to achieve through channeling you know, this
Speaker 10: rage and just frustration and pain through my art and
Speaker 10: through my writing, and I feel like I have a
Speaker 10: better toolbag, were.
Speaker 1: Able to get it, were able to get it out,
Speaker 1: and I was.
Speaker 10: Even you know, some things happened last night that I
Speaker 10: would not have responded in the same way. But I
Speaker 10: honestly feel like everything that I could have said, I
Speaker 10: wrote on this album. So when those things are happening
Speaker 10: to me now versus pre this album, I feel like
Speaker 10: it's there for you to discover if you want to
Speaker 10: have that conversation. But I don't feel the need to
Speaker 10: have those conversations as much as I did prior to
Speaker 10: releasing this record.
Speaker 8: The conversation is.
Speaker 1: There, you know, the period between the true album Yes
Speaker 1: and this album, Like why didn't you feel that you know,
Speaker 1: twenty twelve wasn't the apropros time to do it, or
Speaker 1: even with the Heavey Street record, or even did you
Speaker 1: have any say in the very first record, so it's oh.
Speaker 10: Yeah, that's my baby, I wrote. I wrote probably seventy
Speaker 10: five percent of that record at fifteen.
Speaker 1: Well you wrote all your material practically, okay, but were
Speaker 1: there people that you can't do that? I honestly, when
Speaker 1: you told me that I was scared, I was like no, no, no.
Speaker 10: Honestly, at fifteen, through throughout that record, I think that
Speaker 10: that was just such an interesting time in music.
Speaker 8: That was at the height of.
Speaker 10: You know, Britney Spears, Christine Angular and sync and here
Speaker 10: I was. Everyone goes to that phase. I was thirteen,
Speaker 10: I went to Jamaica. I was that suburban kid who
Speaker 10: you know, was definitely felt connected and I still do
Speaker 10: feel connected to a lot of principals of Rastafarism. But
Speaker 10: I definitely, you know, cut all my hair off.
Speaker 8: I was a vegan. I was really doing some soul searchinges.
Speaker 1: So this was like your snoop lyon period wow alone
Speaker 1: or like under the guise of like we was Miss Tina.
Speaker 8: Like no, no, we no.
Speaker 10: But it was more so about I really did feel
Speaker 10: a lot of connectivity to my body being a temple,
Speaker 10: and you know, it had a really strong effect on
Speaker 10: me and I actually feel like though as a songwriter,
Speaker 10: I was at my most potent and honest. Even still
Speaker 10: to this day, I say it all the time, the
Speaker 10: way that I approached songwriting. Yes, there was a sense
Speaker 10: of clarity and like, I'm dying to make a playlist
Speaker 10: of my fifteen year old songs that I wrote because
Speaker 10: I still still feel like there's some of my strongest
Speaker 10: songwriting to this day.
Speaker 8: Yeah really, yeah, I mean, but I also.
Speaker 10: Was, you know, extremely privileged to have been in the
Speaker 10: studio during that time with Pharrell and Timberland and Rock Wilder,
Speaker 10: and I was around some real musicians, you know, so
Speaker 10: it must be interesting for them to have seen you
Speaker 10: then and then see you now like have you gotten
Speaker 10: I'm sure Farrell's hit you up like whoa yeah. And
Speaker 10: Pharrell has been such a champion of me since day one,
Speaker 10: and I am so grateful for that. I remember, you know,
Speaker 10: a lot of times being fourteen, going into those studio sessions.
Speaker 10: I was signed to Colombia then it was a very
Speaker 10: different Columbia, like I said, and two three ooh.
Speaker 8: Probably two probably two.
Speaker 10: And I would walk into these sessions with these producers
Speaker 10: and they would say, okay, like we have a few
Speaker 10: tracks that we want to play you and I was like, no,
Speaker 10: actually write my own music.
Speaker 8: Can you play some instrumentals?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 8: Fifty percent of the time people were like, we need
Speaker 8: to call the A and R. And you know, because
Speaker 8: they thought that this was just going to be easy.
Speaker 10: I was younger sister, like, let's just come in, get
Speaker 10: this check and keep a cute and quick.
Speaker 8: And I was playing like, you know.
Speaker 10: Shuggary Otis Records and like, I actually have brothers Johnson
Speaker 10: play guitar on some of my songs on.
Speaker 8: That album, and like your first record, yes, yeah, but
Speaker 8: I have to say for real was one of the
Speaker 8: ones I was just immediately.
Speaker 10: Like, Okay, if you want to write it, then let's
Speaker 10: do it, you know. So yeah, I feel like, what's
Speaker 10: really interesting is.
Speaker 8: That album cover.
Speaker 10: I actually I have on my little Cari shells and
Speaker 10: my red in the Rosta cap and then in Hadley Street,
Speaker 10: you know. I I it was still really really important
Speaker 10: to me to incorporate social activism and black pride and
Speaker 10: black history into that record and my first video. I
Speaker 10: had images of Malcolm X and Angela Davis and aside
Speaker 10: of Secure and Chay, and it was people weren't peeping.
Speaker 6: But I'm like, this is I decided.
Speaker 10: I decided, if you look back at that that video
Speaker 10: on the history, it was all of that was in there.
Speaker 1: So where does that come from?
Speaker 5: Sound?
Speaker 1: I was to do the question, Yeah, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: back to the beginning, because they're going to me from repetition,
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 8: So I was just saying that to say that it's
Speaker 8: always been there.
Speaker 10: You know, it's always the storytelling through the lens of
Speaker 10: a black woman, and our stories in our history has
Speaker 10: for me, always been there.
Speaker 8: It has always been a part of my work.
Speaker 10: I don't think it's ever been as explicitly as honest
Speaker 10: and spelled out and unavoidable.
Speaker 8: I always did it in ways that were kind of
Speaker 8: less at the forefront.
Speaker 10: But I think it was the album that I was
Speaker 10: really destined to make, you know, from a very young age,
Speaker 10: and I had gone through enough experiences between that timeline
Speaker 10: of releasing True and the aftermath of that to where
Speaker 10: it really challenged me to say, what is it that
Speaker 10: you can write now that is what you are living
Speaker 10: through and existing in, and that that was it, you know,
Speaker 10: those stories that are told on the album, that's what
Speaker 10: I was living and existing in every day.
Speaker 8: So it felt really good to get that out.
Speaker 1: Between True and Headley. Your your fondness for the word fucking.
Speaker 1: The first thing I noticed the one True was with
Speaker 1: some the second song some Things don't just seem to
Speaker 1: fucking work to me. It was the ultimate title. And
Speaker 1: then I think Headley's last song was fuck this industry, which.
Speaker 8: That's a man. I have to say.
Speaker 10: Dev actually wrote the line some things never fucking work.
Speaker 10: So I didn't say fucking two times. I didn't write
Speaker 10: fucking two times in a song.
Speaker 8: But sometimes that's just the only way that you can.
Speaker 1: Well just kind of let you know that it's on
Speaker 1: on another level. So now I do want to go
Speaker 1: back to the beginning to take I think no. I
Speaker 1: think it's only important because the way that this album
Speaker 1: is built, especially with the interludes and master needs to
Speaker 1: drive an audio book.
Speaker 10: I've got like two hours of audio from p that
Speaker 10: will blow your mind.
Speaker 1: Now, Okay, white guy questions purpose like that? Why can't
Speaker 1: they just be questioned? No, but this is the purpose
Speaker 1: of the show is for all of us different cultures
Speaker 1: and background, black and white people and bosses and minions
Speaker 1: and bosses. I pointed to myself when I said minions,
Speaker 1: it's got real Disney for a second. Okay, minions, No,
Speaker 1: but he Okay, I was shocked that master P got
Speaker 1: so much uh space on the album. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: borderline the narrator of the record.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm sorry, Are you right?
Speaker 1: I wasn't shocked that you chose him to narrate it
Speaker 1: because unbeknownst to me, he did have a story to tell,
Speaker 1: which again, I think the thing is that hip hop
Speaker 1: Maybe this couldn't answer your concern Bill, your question?
Speaker 2: What was the question and why master And I said,
Speaker 2: I reallyct the record was to deal with master P.
Speaker 1: That was the first because I was listening to the
Speaker 1: entire ride here and that's what I thought.
Speaker 5: So what you know about how I worked together?
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 1: But the thing is is that with ninety percent of
Speaker 1: the participants in hip hop culture, you really don't get
Speaker 1: to see the vulnerability and the human side of them.
Speaker 1: So thus we would just think that Masterpiece the guy
Speaker 1: from the from about about it. Yeah, and just like
Speaker 1: you know, like, Okay, it's some guy in the trap
Speaker 1: and he has money and Da da dada and c murder,
Speaker 1: and you don't think of them as human beings. Human being, right,
Speaker 1: The thing that shocked me the most was like I
Speaker 1: was engaged. I started looking. I didn't even look at
Speaker 1: the credits. I was just like, Oh, I wonder if
Speaker 1: there's another Master, Oh he's back. How did you know
Speaker 1: that he had a story to tell and why did
Speaker 1: you think it would be engaging and why did you
Speaker 1: provide the platform for him to not tell his story
Speaker 1: but also to kind of tell your story as well well.
Speaker 8: First of all, I think that.
Speaker 10: Master is incredibly regal, and there was a thread of
Speaker 10: regality that I wanted to connect to the album and
Speaker 10: to the visuals. I really wanted to present Black people,
Speaker 10: as you know, regal, stately beings that we are, and
Speaker 10: I think that regality can be expressed in so many
Speaker 10: different ways.
Speaker 8: But I remember, and this might be generational, like.
Speaker 10: Seeing MTV Cribs with Master B on it and him
Speaker 10: having like a gold toilet seed and all old everything
Speaker 10: and being incredibly ornate. But I also remember my father
Speaker 10: really looking up to Master Be because he was a
Speaker 10: black man who entered this music industry and this landscape
Speaker 10: completely independent, and he held on to his independence. And
Speaker 10: that was something that was really important from my father
Speaker 10: as someone who is transitioning as a music executive and
Speaker 10: learning the business. He you know, had a great deal
Speaker 10: of respect for MASTERP and I would hear about that.
Speaker 10: So I think that there's like a few different levels
Speaker 10: to it. One is again the regal aspect. I've always
Speaker 10: you know, thought of him in that way. And then secondly,
Speaker 10: throughout the course of this album, independence and empowerment is
Speaker 10: one of the messages that I wanted to constantly drill
Speaker 10: in and hone in on. And who better to tell
Speaker 10: that story to me than Master Be. I mean, he
Speaker 10: is honestly one of the own only ones who didn't
Speaker 10: sell his company, who did not you know, shortsight his
Speaker 10: company and his empire for a check. And he really
Speaker 10: really started in the trunks in the trenches. He saw
Speaker 10: a vision. What I love about him is that he
Speaker 10: saw so much within his twelve blocks. He saw so
Speaker 10: much potential and belief within his local community that it
Speaker 10: was never an idea or he when he speaks about this,
Speaker 10: he says like he never was thinking about mainstream or
Speaker 10: building this global empire. He was thinking about a need
Speaker 10: and demand in his community. You know, he actually opened
Speaker 10: a record store after he started selling trunks in his
Speaker 10: car and that was during a time when and I
Speaker 10: guess you couldn't like the idea of FedEx and overnighting
Speaker 10: CDs like was so foreign. But he was in Oakland
Speaker 10: or somewhere Richmond, Richmond, California, where it was really hard
Speaker 10: to get a lot of explicit hip hop records, and
Speaker 10: so he struck up a deal with a lot of
Speaker 10: the southern distribution places and he with FedEx.
Speaker 8: Albums overnight, and that was like unheard of at that time.
Speaker 10: So he was basically like importing CDs locally and right exactly,
Speaker 10: but just the idea for him of wanting to supply
Speaker 10: that for people who wanted to have access to that,
Speaker 10: that was super inspiring to me.
Speaker 8: And then I also think that I see a lot of.
Speaker 10: Similarities in my father and and the empowerment of being
Speaker 10: a self made black man and navigating through that.
Speaker 4: One of the things I wanted to ask you about
Speaker 4: in regards to your dad, the interlude where he's talking
Speaker 4: about how he was angry as a kid, that really
Speaker 4: resonated with me as someone born and raised in the South,
Speaker 4: and just from hearing I don't know how you guys
Speaker 4: recorded it, I don't know the setting, but it sounded
Speaker 4: really intimate, and it sounded like, was that your first
Speaker 4: time hearing that story from him?
Speaker 10: No, So I always heard the stories about my father
Speaker 10: integrating his schools. He did that in both elementary and
Speaker 10: junior high school and gas in Alabama, and my parents
Speaker 10: are no longer married. I wanted to close the chapter
Speaker 10: of the album making process by interviewing both of them
Speaker 10: and hopes that a I could really break down and
Speaker 10: get to the root and the origin generationally of how
Speaker 10: some of these traumas have been passed on to me,
Speaker 10: because I do think that there's generational trauma as black
Speaker 10: people that you just inherent and I wanted to be
Speaker 10: kind of cleansed of.
Speaker 8: That in some kind of way. And if something made
Speaker 8: the record, then it did. But that was truly for me.
Speaker 10: And one of the beautiful things about this album is
Speaker 10: that my father and I have had a very complicated
Speaker 10: relationship and we are so much closer and I was
Speaker 10: able to forgive him for a lot of things and
Speaker 10: understand him in an entirely new way. So although I
Speaker 10: had heard the stories before, it was something about having
Speaker 10: that formal moment of him getting to explicitly tell his
Speaker 10: story without all this background noise and have the focus
Speaker 10: be on him getting to be honest and have that moment.
Speaker 10: He deserved that and we I'm thirty years old and
Speaker 10: he's never really had the opportunity to.
Speaker 8: Do that in that kind of a setting. And I
Speaker 8: think that it was just so powerful. There's so much
Speaker 8: from his story that I couldn't even put on the record. Unbelievable,
Speaker 8: I know. I actually both of.
Speaker 10: My parents, like, I want to do something with that
Speaker 10: audio much bigger because I think that now, through me
Speaker 10: making this record and my sister making her last record,
Speaker 10: I think that people have come to have a better
Speaker 10: understanding of what kind of household we grew up in,
Speaker 10: and the kind of values and just the environment that
Speaker 10: we were raised in. And I think that both of
Speaker 10: my parents have such interesting stories that are not, you know,
Speaker 10: unique to a lot of.
Speaker 8: Black folks parent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but not at all.
Speaker 10: Yeah, but I will say that there's something specifically about
Speaker 10: carrying the weight of integration that I hadn't thought of
Speaker 10: in that way, and that is very unique.
Speaker 8: Like you can't not many people can say that their
Speaker 8: parents integrated.
Speaker 1: But we're the.
Speaker 6: Last, well not really you, but you're probably more your sister,
Speaker 6: but that's we're the last generation of parents who have
Speaker 6: experienced that. I mean, most of our parents were of
Speaker 6: a certain age in nineteen sixty five when they were
Speaker 6: able to vote. But it's funny because listening to those
Speaker 6: interviews it made me happy. I actually listened to my
Speaker 6: mom with my mom and I was like, oh my god, Mom,
Speaker 6: I'm so happy because people get to see the foundation
Speaker 6: of which you two come from. And for a lot
Speaker 6: of black people, especially a lot of black women, it's
Speaker 6: just a level of even more comfortability.
Speaker 5: Of course, it also made me worry.
Speaker 6: Yeah, because I was like, you, part of your life
Speaker 6: is in a pop world and I don't.
Speaker 5: Know, just even even with a little bit of I
Speaker 5: was like I was and I was like, oh, here
Speaker 5: comes to Launch, here comes Tina. It's real, it's really
Speaker 5: not a secret.
Speaker 6: They're black, and they're they're black. It's just like a
Speaker 6: lot of other people's black. And four minute I did have.
Speaker 8: A little worry.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, now that the Anelus were really they were
Speaker 10: really powerful, and I think that just having that documentation,
Speaker 10: I honestly just feel like it's something that everyone should do,
Speaker 10: Like everyone should have that of their parents that some
Speaker 10: kind of documentation of the storytelling. I understand them so
Speaker 10: much better, and I honestly feel like I will be
Speaker 10: a better, better person and a better.
Speaker 8: Parent for it.
Speaker 10: Like just certain things that my dad was telling me
Speaker 10: that that I had not heard before, like the electric
Speaker 10: prodding that he was electric product. Maybe two or three occasions.
Speaker 10: I didn't understand how much of a participant that my
Speaker 10: dad was.
Speaker 8: In terms of the civil rights movement in Gaston, Alabama. Yeah,
Speaker 8: he was.
Speaker 10: He was a classmate of CORRETTA. Scott's and he was
Speaker 10: a freedom fighter. He did sittings And.
Speaker 5: Did Daddy look young?
Speaker 8: Because I went up, Wow, So I learned. I learned
Speaker 8: all of that. I didn't know that.
Speaker 10: And it was really interesting because my dad, he had
Speaker 10: a full scholarship and to uh Tennessee for basketball, and
Speaker 10: he spoke about how he didn't actually love that basketball,
Speaker 10: but he used it as a defense to basically have
Speaker 10: safety from racism because then people were able to like
Speaker 10: him and accept him and protect him from all of
Speaker 10: the fuckery that was happening. And it carried him through
Speaker 10: high school and kind of gave him a safety net
Speaker 10: from all of the violence that was happening.
Speaker 8: Got a full scholarship and played Fisk. There was a
Speaker 8: huge riot because he was.
Speaker 10: A black kid on this college team, which that was
Speaker 10: also the very early stages of that happening. And there
Speaker 10: was a huge fight between the two schools and people
Speaker 10: you know, were flipping cars and they got really violent
Speaker 10: and really crazy, and he bore the weight of that
Speaker 10: because black people were mad at him.
Speaker 8: They were calling him a trader. You know, how could
Speaker 8: you and you uncle Tom and all of that.
Speaker 10: And there was a coach from Fisk who said, listen, like,
Speaker 10: we know you have this full scholarship and that you said.
Speaker 10: And at this point, my dad had been in predominantly
Speaker 10: white schools for you know, fifteen years. That's who he
Speaker 10: was around all the time. And they offered him a
Speaker 10: scholarship to Fisk, and everyone thought he was absolutely crazy.
Speaker 10: And he left Tennessee and State and went to Fisk.
Speaker 10: And when he went there, he thought like, I'm about
Speaker 10: to be bawling and fly. And it actually was super
Speaker 10: corny at the time to be an athlete, and it
Speaker 10: was much cooler to be an intellectual and be on
Speaker 10: the debate team and to uh, you know, be stylish
Speaker 10: and you know, just be smart, and that was his
Speaker 10: first black experience was that it was awesome to be smart,
Speaker 10: and so he really was a nerd. My dad really
Speaker 10: was a nerse. So he was just like super stoked.
Speaker 10: So just hearing all of that, like that's the ship
Speaker 10: that you never hear about, Like I never knew that
Speaker 10: during that time that that was considered more cool, you know,
Speaker 10: like you don't hear that story. So it was just
Speaker 10: a lot that came out of it that really really
Speaker 10: empowered me through the making of this record.
Speaker 1: We're here with salone in studios, Yes.
Speaker 10: And my album by the way, I turned in in
Speaker 10: my album, I played it for the label here only
Speaker 10: I don't know two months three months ago.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 10: Yeah, So the engineer who was walking around, I remember
Speaker 10: him from that day. But imagine, yeah, imagine now like
Speaker 10: me having to play this for you know, my white
Speaker 10: record label heads.
Speaker 5: Yeah, when when Don't Touch My Hair came on? What
Speaker 5: did they what did they do?
Speaker 6: Because you know, I gotta tell you for that record
Speaker 6: with such a because a lot of us, I'm not
Speaker 6: gonna say, bring it up so.
Speaker 5: Long, don't you understand.
Speaker 6: While I'm a little befuddled, because it's something that we
Speaker 6: go through all the time. And to be able to
Speaker 6: the way that you said it in such a calm way,
Speaker 6: and then to watch what you say to me. But
Speaker 6: it was still like smooth. But in my mind I
Speaker 6: translated it what you say to me. You know what
Speaker 6: I mean, don't touch my hair. But can you walk
Speaker 6: us through this song and why you chose to do it,
Speaker 6: and you chose to do it on Saturday Night Live,
Speaker 6: which was really brave and I appreciate it.
Speaker 8: Oh, thank you.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 10: I had a jam session or a week of jam
Speaker 10: sessions when I first started to write the album, and
Speaker 10: for whatever reason.
Speaker 8: I just sang one day, don't touch my head.
Speaker 10: Don't know why, I just said it, and probably wrote
Speaker 10: that song in like ten fifteen minutes.
Speaker 8: I think it was so.
Speaker 10: Potent at the time, and it was less about, you know,
Speaker 10: the actual physical touching of the hair and more about
Speaker 10: the allowance to have our safe spaces, our cultural you know,
Speaker 10: things that we celebrate, our pride, our glory, and sang
Speaker 10: like don't touch that.
Speaker 8: Don't come for me. Let us have this moment, let
Speaker 8: us revel in this culture that we have built from
Speaker 8: nowhere and still have to protect on a daily basis.
Speaker 5: Because in my minds too, And.
Speaker 6: In that metaphor, you're like because every day we see
Speaker 6: it being taken from us. And so in that moment,
Speaker 6: because I knew what you meant, I knew it wasn't
Speaker 6: just a physical don't touch my hair, but which.
Speaker 8: Is annoying, right, it's all don't.
Speaker 6: Touch my hair, don't touch my culture, don't touch let me.
Speaker 6: Can I have this?
Speaker 5: Can I have my corn rolls and not.
Speaker 8: My box breaks experience?
Speaker 5: It's just can I ask?
Speaker 1: And this is not a okay, you're already unfull, like
Speaker 1: you already.
Speaker 5: Like off, like I'm just all the chicks who loved
Speaker 5: this record, okay, and thank you.
Speaker 1: I want to ask a question. Is it possible two
Speaker 1: in the age of the internet kind of of deluding
Speaker 1: regionalism and culture at the same time. Is it possible
Speaker 1: for culture practices to not be appropriated when the internet makes.
Speaker 4: It too easy for you to have access to it.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's well. I think it's just all
Speaker 4: in how you do it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I think if you do it like in a tasteful way,
Speaker 4: then I don't think nobody getting mad at you.
Speaker 5: Just don't act like it's yours. And you created it.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, I didn't mean, but that's always been my
Speaker 6: or like.
Speaker 4: When they try to like what you said, I mean
Speaker 4: with the corn rolls and like they were like Caitlyn
Speaker 4: Jenner's and not Caitlyn the other one Incredible, Kylie's new
Speaker 4: incredible news, like doing that.
Speaker 1: Shout out. Appreciate that.
Speaker 10: Appropriation is such a complicated conversation and it's really hard
Speaker 10: to simplify.
Speaker 1: But but it's rarely a conversation because because I only
Speaker 1: see it on I see it as rest on Twitter, right,
Speaker 1: but I never hear the conversation of it. Part of
Speaker 1: my dismay or what Twitter has taught me at least, Wow,
Speaker 1: what is what Twitter has taught me? Exclusive? The general
Speaker 1: belief is that basically, you know, the idea that black
Speaker 1: culture there's a there's a difference between loving black culture
Speaker 1: but not black white people. So usually, especially with the
Speaker 1: onslaught of the police activity, the police assassinations that have
Speaker 1: been going on in twenty sixteen, you know, the sudden
Speaker 1: silence that you see some of our appropriators that are
Speaker 1: speaking that you know won't speak up for us, but
Speaker 1: we'll still you know, right, Yeah, and so well, yeah,
Speaker 1: to explain the bill and to Steve here, a lot
Speaker 1: of the a lot of the seeds of dismay and
Speaker 1: anger lie in the fact that you have artists that
Speaker 1: are quick to you know, borrow you the fashion uh
Speaker 1: and and the language and the dances and the music
Speaker 1: and the inspirations and the swag and the lifestyle. But
Speaker 1: when it comes to us as human beings again, it's
Speaker 1: like black people are rarely seen as human beings. Like
Speaker 1: even listening to like from what we generally hear about
Speaker 1: your father and just seeing him in the news, I
Speaker 1: just seeing him as an overprotective, you know, guy in
Speaker 1: the background that caused all the shots, and I'd like
Speaker 1: this this, yeah, this is humanizing. Yeah, now I want
Speaker 1: to know more about Matthew knows that I never knew about.
Speaker 8: My dad's story is really powerful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when you said it was difficult with you guys before, Like,
Speaker 4: what what made it difficult with your relationship or complicated?
Speaker 1: That was your word.
Speaker 10: I just think that, honestly, the weight that you have
Speaker 10: to carry as a black man, especially coming up in
Speaker 10: that time, there are just things that I can never
Speaker 10: understand how that tolls on you emotionally and your decision
Speaker 10: making and not being able to have an outlet to
Speaker 10: really say I'm flawed, you know, I made mistakes because
Speaker 10: you've had to be black excellent your whole life, and
Speaker 10: he had to be black excellent in order to give
Speaker 10: what he gave to my sister and I And so
Speaker 10: I think that that's a heavy burden to carry. I
Speaker 10: think that this album was as much of a tribute
Speaker 10: to my parents and my grandparents and my ancestors and
Speaker 10: my lineage of everyone who played a role in the
Speaker 10: privilege that I have today.
Speaker 8: And I don't take that for granted, you know, I know.
Speaker 10: Now, I'm very clear on all of the steps that
Speaker 10: my parents took for us to be who we are.
Speaker 10: When I say who we are, I mean as humans,
Speaker 10: as women, as Black women, as mothers.
Speaker 8: As wives. And I think that he was, you know,
Speaker 8: sort of a chosen one.
Speaker 10: And I do my little quote hands there because I
Speaker 10: think that in black communities, especially in that day and age,
Speaker 10: there is a little bit of a chosen one complex
Speaker 10: in terms of like, oh, you're a smarter black little nigga,
Speaker 10: or like, you know, you're one of the really intelligent ones,
Speaker 10: are articulate, Yeah, you're you're the exception.
Speaker 8: And I think that.
Speaker 10: Him being chosen to be integrated. My my grandparents were very,
Speaker 10: very poor. They did not have even high school education,
Speaker 10: and my dad was just they were very.
Speaker 8: Smart, but they were not educated at all.
Speaker 10: And so for him to have gone through that journey
Speaker 10: as like sort of this chosen one and it just
Speaker 10: continued from the every phase in his life essentially from
Speaker 10: elementary school on up.
Speaker 1: Did you have siblings or is he the only child?
Speaker 10: So he had fourteen foster sisters, brothers, but he was
Speaker 10: the only biological child of my grandparents.
Speaker 8: It's such as now and he has he has my
Speaker 8: half sister, my aunt Shaquita, and that is his mom's
Speaker 8: daughter from another relationship.
Speaker 1: We're just I can't that Jesus, okay, But yeah.
Speaker 8: It's it's loaded.
Speaker 10: And I remember going, you know, two gass and and
Speaker 10: like my grandparents still having an outhouse and I seventeen,
Speaker 10: the outhouse of the bathroom and my sister and I
Speaker 10: would be like this is some fun shah.
Speaker 8: Gross and crazy.
Speaker 10: But honestly, my my dad's side of the family was
Speaker 10: so ged up. Like my grandmother was a boot My
Speaker 10: great grandmother was a bootlegger, and she was like eighty
Speaker 10: years old, seventy five years old, still bootlegging alcohol.
Speaker 8: And she was like she was like the most un.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it worked out really well for her because she
Speaker 10: was like the little old lady. So she basically they
Speaker 10: owned a property next door and in the wee hours
Speaker 10: like she would basically, you know, have this little juke
Speaker 10: joint going and people would be like, who is running
Speaker 10: this and she would be complaining, like it's.
Speaker 8: Keeping Holland and I'm seventy eight years old and they keep.
Speaker 10: So that was that, and then my great grandfather on
Speaker 10: that side, his name was Dave Hoak. He was one
Speaker 10: of the first black men to own that amount of land,
Speaker 10: and he actually was so smart. He didn't have enough
Speaker 10: money to turn the land into farmland because that would
Speaker 10: have meant him having you know, lumber chopped down and
Speaker 10: he didn't have the money the cash flow to do that,
Speaker 10: but he had the land, so he struck up a
Speaker 10: deal with the city that and charged them, of course,
Speaker 10: that they could you know, come and use his land
Speaker 10: as lumber. Yes, So that basically they cleared out his shit,
Speaker 10: but he also got a check.
Speaker 8: So they were incredibly smart.
Speaker 10: They were not educated, but they were really really smart
Speaker 10: business people and entrepreneurs, and so I think to answer
Speaker 10: your question because I just went all around the block
Speaker 10: and back, I.
Speaker 8: Just think that he had a very heavy burden to wait.
Speaker 10: And to hold, and especially my sister's group when they
Speaker 10: were like thirteen fourteen, their manager passed away from Lupus
Speaker 10: and Tillman and they had just gotten an offer from
Speaker 10: the face actually, and she passed away really tragically, and
Speaker 10: my dad stepped in and was like, well, someone has
Speaker 10: to step in, like this offer is on the table
Speaker 10: their kids, and she was doing all of the paperwork,
Speaker 10: and he literally just went to the library and bought
Speaker 10: every book that he could find on the music business.
Speaker 8: He had no experience.
Speaker 10: He was vice president regionally of Xerox in the Southern region,
Speaker 10: so he's an incredibly you know, gifted businessman, but he
Speaker 10: basically knew nothing about the music industry and he had
Speaker 10: to step up to the plate and make sure that
Speaker 10: no one was going to screw these fourteen year old girls.
Speaker 10: But that's not the narrative that everyone has, you know,
Speaker 10: been so he could have sworn he was Joe Jackson and.
Speaker 6: We had Alan Lee's here and Shep Gordon and listening
Speaker 6: to how they became managers with so more matter of
Speaker 6: facty like they didn't. It was no studying involved, It
Speaker 6: was no going to the library. It was like Jimmy
Speaker 6: Hendrick said, you're Jewish, you should be a manager.
Speaker 5: Wow, no struggle a little different.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, And he basically applied all of the knowledge
Speaker 10: that he knew from Corporate America in terms of negotiations.
Speaker 8: My dad Rax, the department that he actually led. A
Speaker 8: lot of people don't know this.
Speaker 10: X RAX is the leading manufacturers for X rays and
Speaker 10: MRIs and medical equipment, and so it was his job
Speaker 10: to basically go to hospitals and sell this super expensive.
Speaker 8: State of the art medical equipment.
Speaker 10: And he basically just utilized all of those skills you know,
Speaker 10: in the music industry. And I just think, you know,
Speaker 10: he had a lot of pressure, and knowing his story
Speaker 10: and having the space for him to be allowed to
Speaker 10: tell that explicitly, it really really changed the dynamic of
Speaker 10: our relationships.
Speaker 8: And I'm really really grateful for that.
Speaker 1: Okay. I know, like we kind of the modus operandi
Speaker 1: of the show is to really dissect the music and
Speaker 1: the art and everything. So this is probably the first
Speaker 1: time we've ever dealt with social issues on the show.
Speaker 8: But my god, damn it, I just had therapy in here.
Speaker 1: Every week. I would be remiss. I would be remiss
Speaker 1: if I didn't mention, uh, the Lil Wayne incident, not
Speaker 1: to be confused with the craft work incidents. But I
Speaker 1: guess I should let the listeners know that there's kind
Speaker 1: of been grumbling in debates on the room on how
Speaker 1: I guess brother Tip t I has decided to handle
Speaker 1: his chastising of Lil Wayne. I guess Bill and.
Speaker 8: And and.
Speaker 1: Okay, the little Wayne.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'll be I'll be Lil Wayne, or maybe you
Speaker 4: should be t I because you have the more stately voice.
Speaker 4: Maybe I'll be I'll be Wayne. I'm a young, rich mother,
Speaker 4: young I know black lives matter. I'm a nigga.
Speaker 1: He a white man. He feeling me my life matter,
Speaker 1: especially my bitches.
Speaker 4: So that's a little way, especially especially to my life matter,
Speaker 4: especially to my bitches.
Speaker 1: MS.
Speaker 4: She didn't play that part. It's online, It's it's on Twitter.
Speaker 4: You add this to the things you learned from Twitter. Wow,
Speaker 4: his life matters, especially to his bitches, which I think
Speaker 4: is a motivational statement.
Speaker 1: Can I make a shirt? I think that's wait a minute,
Speaker 1: this is about to take a whole another turn. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that statement. To my bitches, let me be
Speaker 1: particular about this, Fiel.
Speaker 5: Did you find you ready for your part with t I?
Speaker 10: Why?
Speaker 4: But then so then U t I got on Instagram
Speaker 4: and like he you know, I guess he had you know,
Speaker 4: dictionary dot com over.
Speaker 1: Time out wait for the record, like we're sparky, We're sparky.
Speaker 1: And we talked about this last night, and well, I
Speaker 1: commended him on handling it, okay, was like to stop
Speaker 1: cooning and basically was like, but it's a first. It's
Speaker 1: a first.
Speaker 8: I have to say.
Speaker 10: I really appreciate what t I has done, the work
Speaker 10: that he's done for the movement, you know.
Speaker 8: Over the course of these this last year.
Speaker 10: Really, I think it takes a lot of bravery to
Speaker 10: step up and actually try to walk and live in
Speaker 10: that truth outside of just making art about it.
Speaker 1: You know, he's saying that he because he has children, hm,
Speaker 1: that he sees life different now than say, eleven years ago,
Speaker 1: when he was mired in a lot of trouble on controversy.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like he was about that life quote.
Speaker 1: But I guess the grumbling in the room was whether
Speaker 1: or not he should have sund him in public or
Speaker 1: have a conversation.
Speaker 10: Maybe he did both and maybe he felt like he
Speaker 10: had a responsibility to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think the sunning was self serving like
Speaker 1: some people's son just to be self serving, as in
Speaker 1: to be like yo yo, that nigga woke like you
Speaker 1: see what he did? You see? And that's and that's
Speaker 1: kind of where I'm at with it.
Speaker 4: I feel like on like Twitter, Instagram, everybody's competing for
Speaker 4: woke points and ship, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 4: so for me, my thing is like I feel like
Speaker 4: everything that t I said in was valid, But I'm
Speaker 4: just at a point with me now where it's like,
Speaker 4: I'm very careful about the way we talk to each
Speaker 4: other in front of white people, you know.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying. Always been that way though, except for
Speaker 1: this radio show.
Speaker 8: How does that?
Speaker 1: What does that sound like?
Speaker 5: People don't even know about this general rule amongst black people.
Speaker 1: This last time, the last time that someone was on
Speaker 1: this level was caros One and Prince B. And we
Speaker 1: know how that after that confrontation that the PC.
Speaker 6: Better give us a circle after nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: Oh, don't act like you you don't remember that, right. No,
Speaker 1: Prince Be in an interview said he's a teacher, but
Speaker 1: what kind of teacher is a teacher? Of what? He?
Speaker 1: In Details? It was so okay in Details magazine. Uh,
Speaker 1: he was basically saying that a lot of message teacher rappers.
Speaker 1: He was referring to Chuck Dye and Caris one, we're
Speaker 1: making mountains out of mohills and you know basically that
Speaker 1: we are hypocrites. And uh actually, later in line of
Speaker 1: Prince B's death, I think a lot of us when
Speaker 1: we saw the source. You remember, like the source on
Speaker 1: the last page you used to have that cartoon. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're talking right. So there's there's an illustration of karas
Speaker 1: One grabbing grabbing the stage and and later I found
Speaker 1: out and actually uh later verified through uh T Bunny
Speaker 1: whose birthday party it was tea money formally on TV
Speaker 1: raps and original concept on Deft Jam Records that it
Speaker 1: wasn't that level of like him getting kicked off the
Speaker 1: stage and throwing off. It was kind of like, okay,
Speaker 1: it was maybe a lighthearted coudeta like they just took
Speaker 1: over the stage and performed and Pmdring just exited stage
Speaker 1: left So that's that's one thing that happened. Like it
Speaker 1: is this pre like Instagram and Snapchat when it was
Speaker 1: could be verified, right, so you could tell tall tales
Speaker 1: and right, but the urban legend of the stories that
Speaker 1: Kris One and his anger came and just dropped kick
Speaker 1: I mean, Prince VI, it was like three hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy trillion pounds bigger than me. My whole point is
Speaker 1: that after that period of or at least the you know,
Speaker 1: the idea of you could lose your career if you
Speaker 1: criticize somebody publicly and may respond to you, I felt
Speaker 1: that we lost something because after that incident, every person
Speaker 1: that would otherwise have an opinion or two cents about
Speaker 1: what he feels about another rapper, Uh, that just got
Speaker 1: squashed because no one wanted to risk the public humiliation
Speaker 1: of the retaliation of Oh, you're going to share your
Speaker 1: two cents about me, Yeah, I'm gonna see you at
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah. The confrontation basically stops
Speaker 1: since nineteen ninety three. So I just felt that was
Speaker 1: necessary one because that is the first time that that
Speaker 1: level of public criticism has happened, and in general, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, dude, I mean Wayne is Wayne's family, Like
Speaker 1: I'm about to work with him in a month and
Speaker 1: a half or so. My point is that I just
Speaker 1: feel as though, maybe now once we start confronting each
Speaker 1: other and those that know better, right do better, and
Speaker 1: those that should know better, I feel, yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: as though even if Wayne doesn't know better, I would
Speaker 1: like to think that now he might surround himself.
Speaker 6: Like, let's be real, he is who he is, and
Speaker 6: especially at the age it's hard enough to get a
Speaker 6: regular black man to change, but a rich black man
Speaker 6: does not know he is working.
Speaker 5: How did you feel like now that he's been on
Speaker 5: the Mad Song?
Speaker 10: I think that I feel really conflicted about the whole situation.
Speaker 10: I think that his verse, he's so yeah, and I
Speaker 10: think that, you know, he really was the perfect person
Speaker 10: to obviously speak to being mad.
Speaker 8: He does have a lot to be mad about. And
Speaker 8: I've been really conflicted.
Speaker 10: Do I have a responsibility as an artist and who
Speaker 10: I align myself? Do I take on their politics and
Speaker 10: their ideals just by creating with them? But ultimately the
Speaker 10: answer is no, I don't. I created a song and
Speaker 10: a message that was very clear. I think people are
Speaker 10: very clear on my stance and my politics, especially when
Speaker 10: it comes to black issues, and I would I would
Speaker 10: just uphold him to a responsibility, Like you said, now
Speaker 10: that you know you have children, My son is twelve
Speaker 10: years old, and he respects him as an artist. He's
Speaker 10: a fan, and I would like to see us uphold
Speaker 10: a certain level of responsibility for our children and the
Speaker 10: internalized messages that they're already having a fight so hard against.
Speaker 10: We don't need to be on the same team, you know,
Speaker 10: combating those messages in that way, like we gotta be
Speaker 10: more unified than that.
Speaker 1: This is me not playing Devil's advocate again, which I
Speaker 1: guess kind of means that. But based on the interview,
Speaker 1: which I still didn't hear that last statement, but I
Speaker 1: had the feeling that he literally did not know what
Speaker 1: she was talking and what Black Lives Matter was.
Speaker 10: Yeah, well, I think a lot of people are unclear
Speaker 10: on Black Lives Matter as an organization and an entity
Speaker 10: and the movement itself.
Speaker 8: But do you respond to the statement, the statement.
Speaker 10: Itself in that Black lives matters? There should not be
Speaker 10: in hesitation to, you know, just be able to say
Speaker 10: that and be proud and feel pride in that what
Speaker 10: is there to combat?
Speaker 1: But I don't think he literally I think he literally didn't.
Speaker 1: I don't know mad people in Brooklyn that are proud
Speaker 1: to not to not have a television. OK, right, So
Speaker 1: we take those people and then there's the uh oh,
Speaker 1: I can't watch the news because it's too it's too much.
Speaker 5: He has like six children who have homework. I'm not
Speaker 5: doing that with you.
Speaker 1: I see where you're going.
Speaker 4: But this is where I think it falls apart because
Speaker 4: he said because he starts off and he's like, well, nah,
Speaker 4: what is black man?
Speaker 1: What is that? But then he says, well, no, what
Speaker 1: it is it's actually police killing people. So he's aware
Speaker 1: of what it is, but he just doesn't agree with
Speaker 1: the way that the argument is being framed.
Speaker 4: So he's aware of what it is, but he's just saying,
Speaker 4: you know, that doesn't have anything to do with me,
Speaker 4: which I mean fairness. I think that's his reality, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, Like, you know, if you ask
Speaker 4: for a lot of you know, rich black people.
Speaker 1: He's taking black Republican stance. I mean, dude, that's his reality.
Speaker 4: That's why again, back to our guest, back to Solange,
Speaker 4: why your album I think is resonating with so many people.
Speaker 4: It is because it its present and you have your
Speaker 4: finger on what everyone is talking about, Like just you know, you.
Speaker 1: D way better. This is lives matter. This is the
Speaker 1: blackest episode of Quizov Supreme to date.
Speaker 4: But No, your album, I think it really speaks to
Speaker 4: where people are feeling right now. And that's why it's resonating,
Speaker 4: because you know, even though with all your success, and
Speaker 4: you know, with your sister's success and you being involved
Speaker 4: in all these things, you're still just saying, like listen,
Speaker 4: all of that or this is my interpretation, you know,
Speaker 4: with all of this is whatever, I'm still a black
Speaker 4: woman in America and these white bitches still.
Speaker 1: Throwing lives at me. You know what I mean? You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So it's you know, so I
Speaker 1: commend you for that.
Speaker 4: I really that really speaks like when you have people
Speaker 4: like a Wayne and not to beat up on him
Speaker 4: because I fuck with Wayne too, like that's my man.
Speaker 4: But but you know, there is a difference, and I
Speaker 4: think it shows that when people like you make a
Speaker 4: record like this, that makes it even harder for me
Speaker 4: to give cats like Wayne whoever pass It's like nah, bruh, like,
Speaker 4: if she know what's going on?
Speaker 1: How you don't know? You know what I mean, right?
Speaker 10: And I think we have a responsibility, especially in the
Speaker 10: places that we are in, to want to know and
Speaker 10: to have a yearning to understand. There's still so much
Speaker 10: that I'm learning that I'm not privy to about other
Speaker 10: cultures and sexualities that you have to go and google.
Speaker 8: And learn your shit.
Speaker 10: You have to have a yearning to want to treat
Speaker 10: people in the way that they deserve to be treated
Speaker 10: and to have empathy and humanity. And no one expects
Speaker 10: everyone to know everything and to just have a plethora
Speaker 10: of knowledge, you know, sitting there, But you have to
Speaker 10: want to know and to take on that responsibility to
Speaker 10: expand yourself.
Speaker 8: And I think that as artists, if.
Speaker 10: You move all the other stuff aside, I would just
Speaker 10: hope that as artists that we're.
Speaker 8: All doing that so that we can become better artists.
Speaker 10: And you know, I think that that's a really important
Speaker 10: thing to just want to evolve and grow in yourself
Speaker 10: so that you also are doing that in your artistry
Speaker 10: so that it inspires people and people are able to
Speaker 10: build off of that.
Speaker 8: So I think that that was kind of my stance
Speaker 8: on that.
Speaker 4: Just one lyric that I always wanted to ask you
Speaker 4: about it was it was a It was a Beyonce
Speaker 4: lyric where she says and pardon me, butcher, but you're saying,
Speaker 4: you know, my my sister taught me to speak my mind.
Speaker 1: If I'm.
Speaker 4: Okay, I got it? Where what explain that? Like, what
Speaker 4: influence did you play or do you do you think
Speaker 4: you played on her in that way?
Speaker 8: I don't know.
Speaker 10: I didn't know that that lyric was going to come out,
Speaker 10: so I was just as suc surprised as everybody else.
Speaker 10: But I think that our relationship is really cool because
Speaker 10: since we've been younger, we've both been very very protective
Speaker 10: of each other, and we both have pushed each other
Speaker 10: in the boundaries and our ways of communicating through just
Speaker 10: humans and women, but also as artists. And I think
Speaker 10: everyone who's around me, friends, family, my son, his friends.
Speaker 10: I'm a huge, you know, advocate for people getting to
Speaker 10: live in their honesty and their truth.
Speaker 8: I think we all deserve that.
Speaker 10: And even when I think back to my SNL performance,
Speaker 10: like you know, just the feeling of being able to
Speaker 10: say that everything that we do as humans is not
Speaker 10: going to be perfect, and it's going to be flawed
Speaker 10: and to be able to own those imperfections and speak
Speaker 10: up on them and not feel hindered.
Speaker 8: Or you know.
Speaker 10: That I would like to think that maybe you know,
Speaker 10: just as family, that I have played a role and
Speaker 10: also constantly telling her that as well, you know, just
Speaker 10: I tell all of my especially my black women friends,
Speaker 10: like we have to operate in the world so heavily
Speaker 10: and carrying so much weight on a daily basis, the
Speaker 10: black woman in America, and I think that we're not
Speaker 10: told like it's okay to be flawed and to not
Speaker 10: be so strong all the time.
Speaker 1: And write out my mouth. Okay, I know you're mad regular.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I'm allowed to say that
Speaker 1: I am. I'm pretty.
Speaker 8: You know, that's very funny. A lot of my friends
Speaker 8: describe me as that way, and I'm like, I.
Speaker 1: Don't know what is like, Well, that's when I knew
Speaker 1: you would be cool.
Speaker 8: Okay, But you know, at the.
Speaker 1: Beginning, it's okay to an outsider because the perception of
Speaker 1: the dynasty is so gleamingly blinding that again, people don't until.
Speaker 8: My mom was on Instagram.
Speaker 10: To be getting it.
Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is that do you still feel
Speaker 1: I know that you fight for your private life, and
Speaker 1: you fight, well, not fight just.
Speaker 8: To you you protected, well, not even protected, just you're.
Speaker 1: Gonna do what you're gonna do, and sometimes you just
Speaker 1: want mad normal moments. And you guys indulged in mad
Speaker 1: regular normal Hey, the you know, the the noles.
Speaker 4: When I saw her, when I saw Miss Tina and
Speaker 4: mister Lawson posing in the parking lot of Costco, I
Speaker 4: was like, yo, data realist niggas outright now.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, she real for that, and she was
Speaker 1: happy to get.
Speaker 10: The savings, Like, oh my god, she's so serious about
Speaker 10: those mic downs.
Speaker 1: But I mean, do you at what point did you,
Speaker 1: collectively all of you decide like I'm done, I'm tired,
Speaker 1: like we could just be regular. I mean, because some
Speaker 1: of y'all are super heroes to some people, and then
Speaker 1: you want to be regular. So at what point do
Speaker 1: you just decide like I gotta be regular and what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna just be me? Yeah?
Speaker 8: I don't know.
Speaker 10: I think I personally have always operated from a space
Speaker 10: of like you said, like what, I'm drawn to the
Speaker 10: things that bring me the most joy, and I try
Speaker 10: to nurture them whatever that is. And I've also lived
Speaker 10: in places that have allowed me to do that safely, Like.
Speaker 8: Living in New Orleans is a huge part of that.
Speaker 1: And why did you choose New Orleans? I love New Orleans.
Speaker 8: I just love the city. I love the people, I
Speaker 8: love the culture.
Speaker 6: Did you kind of break up with New York because
Speaker 6: I read something like that you kind of got tired
Speaker 6: of certain aspects of New York or East post elitism
Speaker 6: liberally like that.
Speaker 8: That was definitely a part of it. That was definitely
Speaker 8: a part of it. But I think you're doing in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: We were doing so good in Brooklyn. You give it you.
Speaker 5: How do you doing all that gentrification in Brooklyn?
Speaker 10: And it's a lot, it happens, It's happening, It's happening, Yeah,
Speaker 10: but it's everywhere.
Speaker 1: Do you still have those house parties in New Orleans?
Speaker 1: Her last night in Brooklyn was was really cool. Like
Speaker 1: I had not even had a house party in my house,
Speaker 1: Like when I do a party, I gotta do it
Speaker 1: somewhere that's not in my house. Ship. Yeah, but it
Speaker 1: was like it was like a cool house party, like DJ.
Speaker 1: It was people on Earth. Yeah, I was.
Speaker 5: It's been twenty years.
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
Speaker 6: Can I just add on this to something that you said?
Speaker 6: I wanted to ask you, you know, Amir said something
Speaker 6: about just the perception of you. But I feel like
Speaker 6: Solange fans have a different perception.
Speaker 5: Of you, and I think, yeah, like I feel like
Speaker 5: in kind of going back.
Speaker 6: To what Fante said, because I said to Fante when
Speaker 6: we first were talking about having you on the show,
Speaker 6: I was like, you know, Solange is like she's free,
Speaker 6: you know, and either.
Speaker 1: The male.
Speaker 5: Who else?
Speaker 6: He said, what does that mean to you? And I said, well,
Speaker 6: to me, it means that whatever she does and whichever
Speaker 6: way she decides to do it, people who love her
Speaker 6: will follow, and that fuck with you. And you don't
Speaker 6: have any leashes or any fences around you, like and
Speaker 6: the way you said, it's so easily, like, you know,
Speaker 6: I get to say all these things that I want
Speaker 6: to say and do all these things I want to do.
Speaker 5: That's like freedom.
Speaker 6: Do you know that? Do you know your fans look
Speaker 6: at you as kind of like the free.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's it's a lot that
Speaker 10: comes with that, because I think even just the design
Speaker 10: of the.
Speaker 8: Term like care free black girl.
Speaker 10: Parts of that I embrace, and then parts of that
Speaker 10: I reject because I do have a lot of care.
Speaker 8: I don't know, I didn't say the care I know. Well,
Speaker 8: you know that's a girl.
Speaker 1: That's the new thing to care for you, that's the
Speaker 1: new Twitter turn.
Speaker 5: What is a carefree black girl?
Speaker 6: There's no such thing, but you were well, I.
Speaker 10: Of if we claim that, and we we claim that
Speaker 10: as our names, that people are not allowed to see
Speaker 10: black women as carefree individuals. They see us as angry
Speaker 10: black women, as you know, very wonful.
Speaker 1: This just turned into an episode of.
Speaker 6: You know, can I just ask as men, like what
Speaker 6: you just said, I feel all the time, y'all, don't
Speaker 6: that doesn't.
Speaker 5: Just make you tire, just might be real.
Speaker 4: This this is like black healing time. No, No, that
Speaker 4: was real because what she said, because sometimes she took
Speaker 4: the words out of my mouth when she was talking
Speaker 4: about like strong black women, And that's something that I've
Speaker 4: always what I think is like, you know, kind of
Speaker 4: the gift and the curse, so to speak of black
Speaker 4: women is that that's like the first thing that black
Speaker 4: women always described as she's so strong, she's so strong,
Speaker 4: so strong, and so when you do that, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 4: they're strong in the sense of like what we've had
Speaker 4: to endure as people and how like women have been
Speaker 4: the backbone of the family and all the voise, right,
Speaker 4: But it wasn't a choice. And too, when you characterize
Speaker 4: something as always being strong, you don't ever give it
Speaker 4: a chance to be delicate. So you don't ever get,
Speaker 4: you know, a black black woman get to be soft
Speaker 4: or vulnerable or delicate or fragile, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: You never get to see them in that way. So again,
Speaker 4: that was just one of the things I liked about
Speaker 4: your album. Gives a full portrait of just a black woman.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm like getting.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, apparently you are your friends free
Speaker 1: in the Black Woman. I love black women.
Speaker 10: And Bill.
Speaker 4: And I must say, and this is all because me
Speaker 4: and slides we had a Twitter incident.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of incidents.
Speaker 5: Definitely had a Twitter incident.
Speaker 1: But it was all good about that.
Speaker 8: But you know what I will say about my black asses,
Speaker 8: I will pick up a phone.
Speaker 1: She was and that day was when it was little
Speaker 1: brother to reunite. That's all I wanted. And now we're here,
Speaker 1: that's all. Now this is happening.
Speaker 8: But it was cool.
Speaker 1: I mean, we traveled off.
Speaker 8: It was all respect for each other. That's the way
Speaker 8: it should be.
Speaker 10: I'm really really like clean and sober Twitter beefs for
Speaker 10: very long time, but I really really try to pick
Speaker 10: up the phone. So I appreciated that moment because a
Speaker 10: lot of people are scared of that dialogue, like they
Speaker 10: want to to leave it there, and.
Speaker 1: It's like, nah, were in the real world speaking of
Speaker 1: your Twitter beast. I must say.
Speaker 4: I liked that it was her uh deep album Deep
Speaker 4: Brandy album, yea necessary necessary.
Speaker 8: She has a song called It's necessary that I love
Speaker 8: that record.
Speaker 1: That's all.
Speaker 8: You're like, Yeah, that was the set up huge feld.
Speaker 1: John from the New York Yeah, have you spoken to
Speaker 1: him about so? Yeah, we must love the album because.
Speaker 8: Love the album. Yeah.
Speaker 10: So what I will say is that again, me, me,
Speaker 10: and and I pick up the phone you call looking
Speaker 10: at us. So yeah, after that happened, I tracked down
Speaker 10: his number.
Speaker 8: And I emailed him immediately because, like I said, I
Speaker 8: really do.
Speaker 10: I'm a big fan of conversation, Like, nothing about conversation
Speaker 10: scares me.
Speaker 8: I think again, not to bring it back to my dad.
Speaker 10: I think that was one thing that for whatever reason
Speaker 10: he put a lot of emphasis on, like never be
Speaker 10: afraid of conversation. So when I, you know, heard and
Speaker 10: read those statements that he made about don't let the
Speaker 10: hand write the hand that feeds you and wouldn't be
Speaker 10: solange if there was no Grizzly Bear and YadA YadA,
Speaker 10: I immediately reached out to him. I said, can we
Speaker 10: have a conversation about your statements? And he wrote back
Speaker 10: something very snarky and I speak record in fact, if
Speaker 10: I'm going to be perfectly honest, and I think that
Speaker 10: this is it sucks that he has to bear the
Speaker 10: weight of this. But this really was sort of the
Speaker 10: catalyst and the moment that I said I have to
Speaker 10: write this album. So it's an important part of the
Speaker 10: conversationis it was? It was I lost a lot of
Speaker 10: sleep about that, and I wrote him and I second,
Speaker 10: I have a conversation you wrote back he said, I'm
Speaker 10: assuming you don't want to talk about to me. So
Speaker 10: I just kind of scratched my head and was like, okay,
Speaker 10: this is what we're doing here, And ultimately a conversation
Speaker 10: was not had, and I felt very silenced. And again
Speaker 10: it's sort of like that craft work incident where you
Speaker 10: are like brewing in this incident.
Speaker 8: And you're not really able to speak your piece.
Speaker 10: And it was so crazy because the conversation about Brandy
Speaker 10: was completely isolated. It had nothing to do actually with
Speaker 10: what they were originally talking about, which was like a
Speaker 10: review of a Chief Keef album, which I couldn't tell
Speaker 10: you anything.
Speaker 8: About a Chief Keef album.
Speaker 10: That was an isolated thing that I just kind of
Speaker 10: got looped into through virtue of the topic of cultural tourism.
Speaker 8: And I think it was all relevant in that way,
Speaker 8: but I was just kind of being looped into it,
Speaker 8: and it was so weird.
Speaker 10: Marty Garras in New Orleans, I have a very different experience,
Speaker 10: is very spiritual for me, and it's like when fat
Speaker 10: Tuesday comes, that's.
Speaker 8: The day of release and relief. And for whatever reason,
Speaker 8: it was Marti Gras three years later.
Speaker 10: And I just said, I have to free myself of
Speaker 10: this one incident before I go through this next chapter
Speaker 10: of Marti Gras. And it was actually, I believe like
Speaker 10: Pitchfork or someone wrote something about Brandy. I can't remember
Speaker 10: exactly what happened, but I know Saint Hron had written
Speaker 10: something around the same time and so it just brought
Speaker 10: up a lot of emotions and shit got ruined. And
Speaker 10: I got his phone number from someone and I called
Speaker 10: and I just say, you know, last night, I just
Speaker 10: got really pissed, and it was the day before Mardi Gras.
Speaker 10: I needed to get it off my chest.
Speaker 8: I went to Twitter. It probably wasn't the best form,
Speaker 8: but I wanted to call and really explain to you
Speaker 8: what the deal was.
Speaker 10: And he immediately knew he apologies, guys. He felt very
Speaker 10: remorseful for using that terminalogy. But I still feel like
Speaker 10: there's a lot of fuzziness, like a lot of people
Speaker 10: still don't really know.
Speaker 8: They didn't hear the podcast.
Speaker 10: So it felt again very reactive from a black woman,
Speaker 10: you know, rolling her neck and smacking her gumbs.
Speaker 1: Okay, real quick, this question, Love Supreme Wan Ben Duran.
Speaker 1: We're talking with our guests a lunch about Twitter beefs,
Speaker 1: and one in particular she had with the writer from
Speaker 1: New York Times. Can I catch light you up? Do
Speaker 1: you know where you are in the story now?
Speaker 8: I know I did not tell that very clear.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, so basically I don't. She expressed well justified
Speaker 1: admiration and fandom for Brandy's work.
Speaker 8: Of which I'm a megastan.
Speaker 1: I guess. I guess Bill and I can also agree
Speaker 1: to this. You look at me like I pulled you
Speaker 1: on the agree to what about to be in the ship? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I think everyone can agree so as especially her debut record,
Speaker 1: I mean just in general, but her debut record was
Speaker 1: probably one of the probably a very pleasant surprise in
Speaker 1: it's in its artistry. And you know, oftentimes black music
Speaker 1: is so cut and paste and and quick money and
Speaker 1: here's the hit, and here's the follow up hit, and
Speaker 1: it's disposable. But Brandy and her producers Keith Crouch and
Speaker 1: Jipper Jones. Kipper Jones really made something that that that
Speaker 1: was lasting and you know, really amazing, and she expressed
Speaker 1: admiration for that, and I guess and kind of the
Speaker 1: way that we kind of dismissed La with her opinions,
Speaker 1: just like we do. Yeah, exactly. You look at her
Speaker 1: looking at you right now, Margaret.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, right, I do, I do. I'm sorry.
Speaker 6: I want to hear about this though, because I want
Speaker 6: to I want to not like this motherfucker.
Speaker 1: What do you say?
Speaker 10: Essentially, it became it became no he didn't throw he
Speaker 10: didn't throw some shade. Essentially, I expressed this, and it
Speaker 10: became a little bit of a joke between indie white bros.
Speaker 10: I expressed, you know that, as a music journalist, that
Speaker 10: you shouldn't even feel qualified, which I still stand by
Speaker 10: to write about R and B music unless you really
Speaker 10: understand Brandy's influence on the culture of R and B music.
Speaker 10: When you're writing about Frank Ocean and the innovation of
Speaker 10: black artists today, she needs to be a part of
Speaker 10: that conversation because she is valued.
Speaker 8: In that way.
Speaker 10: And essentially it became a hashtag, primarily by white music
Speaker 10: journalists who Wright wrote for indie blogs and magazines, and
Speaker 10: they turned it into a hashtag deep Brandy album cuts,
Speaker 10: and it became like a.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 10: And so New York Times reached out to me. They
Speaker 10: said they were doing a podcast about cultural tourism. Apparently
Speaker 10: around the same time there was a lot of resistance
Speaker 10: from black hip hop writers who had problems with the
Speaker 10: way that a Chief Key review was written about. So
Speaker 10: they were having this podcast about cultural tourism, invited me on.
Speaker 10: I decline. I did not see any incentive for me
Speaker 10: to go and have a debate with two white men
Speaker 10: about cultural tourism just didn't make sense. So I was
Speaker 10: not present, and they brought up me speaking about Brandy
Speaker 10: and the little hashtag, and essentially he said that he
Speaker 10: was a fan of mine, that he went to my
Speaker 10: show and made him feel good and fuzzy inside. But
Speaker 10: let's be clear that there would not be a Solange
Speaker 10: album if if it weren't for Grizzly Bear.
Speaker 6: Right, and they are I thought we were using cold language.
Speaker 10: Actually, dear friends of mine and I put out that
Speaker 10: record on one of their labels.
Speaker 1: I love the label terrible.
Speaker 10: To him, he did not know the general landscape of
Speaker 10: my album. He didn't know that Hadley Street il Soold
Speaker 10: True five six times over. But what he was saying
Speaker 10: was that because that was a primarily black audience who
Speaker 10: bought that and True was a primarily audience, that my
Speaker 10: relevancy rested in that that world, and his friends and
Speaker 10: his bros knew about me and valued me in that way.
Speaker 10: And he actually ended off that statement by saying, does
Speaker 10: she know who buys her records? And if I were her,
Speaker 10: I would not bite the hand that feeds me.
Speaker 1: Trying to say, don't all these white Yeads depending was
Speaker 1: mightier than and.
Speaker 10: Then he named on his Twitter the podcast, like his
Speaker 10: introduction to the podcast was called does Solange know who's
Speaker 10: buying her records? Oh? Wow?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: This is times where I feel like it like that
Speaker 4: was one of the instances where I really feel like
Speaker 4: it should kind of go back to days of like
Speaker 4: you know, when chi Ococa got knocked out by uh yeah,
Speaker 4: like where journalists were really you know, held accountable, held
Speaker 4: account of, held accountable.
Speaker 10: I mean I had a lot of I had a
Speaker 10: lot of black men that I have to say came hard,
Speaker 10: like if you want me to do this.
Speaker 8: There was definitely a lot of conversations like that.
Speaker 10: But ultimately, and I actually on Don't You Wait on
Speaker 10: my album, I say, I don't want to bite the
Speaker 10: hand and with my whole life, but I didn't want
Speaker 10: to build the land that has fed you your whole life.
Speaker 1: I know that is so I wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 8: I said my piece, But I think I think ultimately
Speaker 8: that was just.
Speaker 10: The emotional tormal and taxing that goes on and being
Speaker 10: silenced and me feeling like there's no way that I
Speaker 10: can actually break this down and him still be held
Speaker 10: accountable at the level that he deserves to be held accountable,
Speaker 10: because that's just the way that things work, and that
Speaker 10: is the alliances that this industry has.
Speaker 8: Created to protect people to be able to say this.
Speaker 10: And then one day I just had enough and I
Speaker 10: went on Twitter before Marty Gras was like, it's been
Speaker 10: three years.
Speaker 8: And I've been wanting to tell you. Don't you ever
Speaker 8: tell a black woman not to bite the hand? My
Speaker 8: mama was so mad. She wouldn't let it go because
Speaker 8: someone told her baby, don't bite the hand. That feet.
Speaker 1: Of that.
Speaker 8: It's really deep and I had to hold him accountable
Speaker 8: for that.
Speaker 10: I'm sure he is a nice guy and I'm sure
Speaker 10: he's learned a lot through this incident. And he told me,
Speaker 10: you know, he had people calling him that were really disappointed,
Speaker 10: and I felt validation in that. I felt like, we
Speaker 10: have to be held accountable. I surely have been held
Speaker 10: accountable for my functionit, so you have to too. And
Speaker 10: it sucks when that has to be public. But you know,
Speaker 10: the incident was made public when you decided to say
Speaker 10: that on.
Speaker 6: Record, And we're learning what not to say in these
Speaker 6: days and age. I think we're really on track to learn.
Speaker 1: I thank you for that, because especially the way that
Speaker 1: I publicly have declared my life uh and uh in
Speaker 1: a way that's like it's it's so in depth to
Speaker 1: music critics and how I acknowledge that they have their
Speaker 1: hands on the guillotine button in any moment, they can
Speaker 1: make or break my life. They once did this to
Speaker 1: Donald Glover with a very mean spirited, uh like one.
Speaker 1: I think Pitchford gave him like a one, not why no, no, no,
Speaker 1: this is his one of his records got a one.
Speaker 1: It was just like a mean spirited we can wow,
Speaker 1: you know, like if you get a one, that's like,
Speaker 1: I mean to put it in perspective like Motten Tomatoes
Speaker 1: and Andrew originally from Whim got a half from Rolling
Speaker 1: Stone like they'd never review it. They just wanted to
Speaker 1: be mean flexed about it and do that.
Speaker 6: Don't y'all remembers the critics names they remember y'all and
Speaker 6: so who you are?
Speaker 1: You have one? Just in general since since the onslough
Speaker 1: what I call Pitchfork culture, which is yeah, I do too.
Speaker 8: It's it. It sucks when it feels like it is
Speaker 8: a modern day good old boys club.
Speaker 1: Can I ask because on the other side of that coin.
Speaker 1: One of the best, most eloquent reviews of your album,
Speaker 1: ironically also came from Pitchwork, which I was shocked at
Speaker 1: the level of all the right things that were said. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, I've known that since since two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: they've really diversified.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, I'm happy.
Speaker 10: I'm happy about the work that they've done. And this
Speaker 10: this is the thing about that situation that happened. I
Speaker 10: felt like there was a spin on that story in
Speaker 10: that I was like somehow unhappy or being braddy about
Speaker 10: the way that they were talking about me. I have,
Speaker 10: you know, always had great reviews from my albums in general,
Speaker 10: I feel which I've been, you know, really happy about.
Speaker 8: But I do feel like there were certain narratives coming
Speaker 8: out of that brand of.
Speaker 10: Indie music blogs in general during that time, and people
Speaker 10: have held them accountable and I've seen the changes and
Speaker 10: I've seen the transformations, and I'm happy. That's all you
Speaker 10: can ask for, is when you can plain about some
Speaker 10: shit and you uphold people to that responsibility that they're
Speaker 10: willing to make the changes that people are asking for.
Speaker 10: And I've seen that and I've respected it.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I'm glad you did it, because oftentimes
Speaker 1: I feel like journalists can also be ass petty they
Speaker 1: want to and then wait till the next record comes down,
Speaker 1: and you know, I mean for those that are are
Speaker 1: in the dark. I guess a lot of my disdain
Speaker 1: for some of the Well, first of all, the Internet
Speaker 1: just gives anybody the right to be super journalists if
Speaker 1: they want to be. But I often noticed that, Uh,
Speaker 1: there was there was a period in which I guess
Speaker 1: they they were trying to determine what was authentically black
Speaker 1: absolutely and really what was pretentious. So there was a period.
Speaker 1: There was a period where like there's there's a really
Speaker 1: glowing review of Hell haf No Fury, the CLIs second album,
Speaker 1: which was a dope album, which it was amazing.
Speaker 7: It was amazing Internet blocker Bible, I swear to god,
Speaker 7: they went so fucking crazy over that record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like but at the level of eloquence
Speaker 1: and beauty, like the review, the Pitchwork review of Hell
Speaker 1: Have No Fury was almost as incredible as the album itself.
Speaker 1: But then it left me questioning because I knew why
Speaker 1: I love the record, but just see the levels of salivating,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you know, watch but it was it
Speaker 1: was like looking at.
Speaker 5: Land like, wait, are you.
Speaker 1: Never you're laughing with me or you're laughing at me.
Speaker 10: It's it's kind of right, right, and so that's I'm
Speaker 10: so happy though that that's like deading.
Speaker 8: It feels like it is. You think, maybe I'm being optimistic.
Speaker 10: But I remember it was like during that time where
Speaker 10: I went on all of the profiles of people who
Speaker 10: were saying, oh hell yeah I was.
Speaker 8: I saw every single one of them had a profile
Speaker 8: picture of of something ratchet and.
Speaker 1: They would never subscribe to you.
Speaker 10: I was like, let somebody drop your ass off in
Speaker 10: that part of Chicago and take a field trip for
Speaker 10: the day and see how that goes for you. Since
Speaker 10: we want to talk about cultural tourism like you know. So,
Speaker 10: but I do feel like I feel like we're.
Speaker 8: Moving away from that.
Speaker 10: No, I don't know.
Speaker 8: I couldn't be wrong. Maybe I just stop giving au.
Speaker 10: But I think I think honestly, when it comes to
Speaker 10: you know, reviews and things like that, like you can't
Speaker 10: give that energy in that way because I just feel
Speaker 10: like in two thousand and eight, during the Hadley Street
Speaker 10: shows and the aftermath of shows and meeting black girls
Speaker 10: who said some of the most profound, powerful things that
Speaker 10: I felt like I had to then live up to,
Speaker 10: you know, after the shows, those are the reviews for me,
Speaker 10: those are the moments, and even with this album, you know,
Speaker 10: it's been really important to me that I honor those moments.
Speaker 10: You know, this is so wonderful that my music is
Speaker 10: being able to reach as many people as it is
Speaker 10: and the dialogue of like, oh, this is your best work,
Speaker 10: and it is definitely an elevation of my work. But
Speaker 10: I feel proud of all of my work, and I
Speaker 10: feel really proud of the connectivity and the black girls
Speaker 10: that have been at my show since I was twenty one,
Speaker 10: who are still there and are still connecting, like those
Speaker 10: are my reviews. Those are sacred moments of being in
Speaker 10: Paris and black girls telling me like we were never
Speaker 10: told that we can wear I makeup blue and crazy lipstick,
Speaker 10: like this be aloud and it be like, those are
Speaker 10: my reviews. You know, There's nothing that can feel better
Speaker 10: to me than that, because I was that girl. I
Speaker 10: was that girl with Reese and Caalise and all of
Speaker 10: these girls were coming out and I saw people how
Speaker 10: I saw myself and what that did for my confidence
Speaker 10: and my self worth.
Speaker 8: That was everything to me. So the reviews are nice,
Speaker 8: but that's what I thrive off of.
Speaker 10: That's what makes me get back in the lab, Like, Okay,
Speaker 10: I gotta write some shit to honor that. And if
Speaker 10: you feel a connection to it and you write something glowing,
Speaker 10: that's beautiful. But what you won't do is disrespect my heroes.
Speaker 10: I feel very, very very protective of my heroes, whoever
Speaker 10: that might be. And I feel like still to this
Speaker 10: day that like Full Moon for me, like that's such
Speaker 10: an experimental, weird as avant garde progressive record and going
Speaker 10: further than half of the shit that you're writing about
Speaker 10: and saying it is so innovative. I mean, the sounds
Speaker 10: and the landscapes that they created with that album. So
Speaker 10: you just aren't going to leave people out of this context,
Speaker 10: you know, like even for my record, like Tweet is
Speaker 10: my vocal bible, Like, you're not going to leave these
Speaker 10: people out of the context that all of us are
Speaker 10: actually building and inspired by. And that's the part of
Speaker 10: that culture that I don't have respect for, is the
Speaker 10: pet favorites of the moment without honoring the work and
Speaker 10: the influence behind them.
Speaker 5: How did Brandy receive all your fighting and all the.
Speaker 8: This is really a lot.
Speaker 10: No, she actually, you know, publicly says she really appreciated
Speaker 10: it and it made her feel really good.
Speaker 8: And you know, she says some really kind things. But
Speaker 8: one more time it could get weird.
Speaker 1: So Solann's what, how eclectic has your record collection always been? Actually? Actually?
Speaker 8: Okay, this is like a cool way to answer.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, growing up? All right, let's take it the
Speaker 1: late eighties, early nineties, when you're no, when you're younger, Yes,
Speaker 1: what does the Noles family record collection look like like?
Speaker 1: If you're taking family trips somewhere?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 1: Who controls the radio?
Speaker 8: So?
Speaker 10: Okay, so you have to understand that Kelly from Destiny's
Speaker 10: Child is like a sister me. She moved in with
Speaker 10: us when I was five, so as far as I
Speaker 10: have memory, she was there. And then we have my
Speaker 10: cousin Angie, who's also like a sister to me.
Speaker 1: You're still trying to play guitar, she is, she's.
Speaker 8: Doing really good. Angie moved in when I was ten,
Speaker 8: so as far as I can remember, I have four sisters.
Speaker 8: And then my mom.
Speaker 10: So my dad was outnumbered by women. It was a
Speaker 10: five woman household. So the really cool thing about that
Speaker 10: is that all three of my sisters had very different
Speaker 10: musical tastes. Kelly was very much so into alternative music.
Speaker 10: She listened to a lot of Fiona Apple and Elena's Morriset.
Speaker 10: My sister actually listened to a lot of Mariah Carey,
Speaker 10: and then when she got older, she listened to a
Speaker 10: lot of soul music, Arita Sugy, She's the one who
Speaker 10: put me up on all of that stuff. And then
Speaker 10: Angie listened to a lot of hip hop, a lot
Speaker 10: of Tupac, Little Kim Too Shore, a lot of Houston shit.
Speaker 10: So I had the experience to grow up around so
Speaker 10: many different types of music between my older sisters and
Speaker 10: then my parents were just all about earth Wind and
Speaker 10: Fire Isley Brothers.
Speaker 8: My mom owned a hair salon, so they had like
Speaker 8: a stack of CDs that she would.
Speaker 10: Play, you know, throughout the day at the hair salon,
Speaker 10: And I actually used to play the records when I
Speaker 10: would get home from school, but it was only like.
Speaker 8: Twelve earth Wind and Fire records I could choose out
Speaker 8: of our Isley Brothers. That was like the two favorites.
Speaker 10: My parents, though, actually met arguing over records my music.
Speaker 8: Yep. My dad was like kind of a man around town,
Speaker 8: and he had his.
Speaker 10: Apartment and he had all these like parties there that
Speaker 10: people knew about.
Speaker 8: And my mom went with.
Speaker 10: Her friend and he was an extensive vinyl collector, like
Speaker 10: hardcore don't touch my records type of guy, and my
Speaker 10: mom started flipping through his records and he walked over
Speaker 10: to her and the first words of them ever meeting
Speaker 10: was him saying, don't touch my records, and she was.
Speaker 1: Like, records, yes.
Speaker 10: So they had like a little argument actually, and then
Speaker 10: I guess it turned into flirting, but.
Speaker 8: Exactly.
Speaker 10: But yeah, I mean I grew up, I would say,
Speaker 10: primarily like soul music was at the forefront, but through
Speaker 10: the influence of my sisters, I heard a little bit
Speaker 10: of everything. And then when I became about thirteen, I
Speaker 10: started dancing for Destiny's Child and I went on the
Speaker 10: road with them, and we spent a lot of time
Speaker 10: in Europe, and as you know, over there, the radio
Speaker 10: formats are extremely different. So I'd be in London, you know,
Speaker 10: for two weeks and here in New York and Chemical
Speaker 10: Brothers and all of this shit on the radio, and
Speaker 10: I would go back to actually I was eleven. It
Speaker 10: was before I started dancing for them, because I remember
Speaker 10: going back to my junior high school and playing New
Speaker 10: York records.
Speaker 8: My friends like, I don't know what the fuck. Yeah,
Speaker 8: I'm doing over there, but we don't really dig this shit.
Speaker 10: And so I went through like a serious, downbeat, electronic
Speaker 10: middle school moment where it was just like All Boards
Speaker 10: of Canada.
Speaker 8: Pevery or.
Speaker 5: Seven, all that.
Speaker 10: Canada, and so I kind of went into that landscape.
Speaker 10: And then I would say, really like the thriving moment
Speaker 10: of my musicality in terms of, you know, just collecting
Speaker 10: music was around thirteen. That was, like, you know, obviously
Speaker 10: around the time that the sol Aquarians came onto the scene,
Speaker 10: and I, for the first time felt a connection outside
Speaker 10: of the music, but more so just culturally of people
Speaker 10: who I felt like I could identify myself with.
Speaker 1: Honest no, no, no, I'm not.
Speaker 5: Just laughed at me.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, it wasn't that. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I want to tell the story now, because you just
Speaker 1: said something and it triggered off. Do you not remember Sacramento?
Speaker 1: All right, So we're in Sacramento. The Voodoo Tour is
Speaker 1: in Sane Sacremento. But for some reason, h one of
Speaker 1: those like uh power jams or whatever, you know, like
Speaker 1: everybody that is also supposed to be the same night,
Speaker 1: but for some strange reason, they decided to mix both nights.
Speaker 1: So this is one of the rare times in which
Speaker 1: d'angelo's voodoo tour is also sharing a bill with Destiny's Child.
Speaker 1: Oh wow. So the whole point was that you said
Speaker 1: all these things, and it reminded me of the time
Speaker 1: that you're not aware of. All right, So Devil Spy
Speaker 1: is the first song that's performed. Here's the thing. If
Speaker 1: D'Angelo knows that someone notable is watching him perform, that
Speaker 1: could be a good thing. I'll i seeing shock of
Speaker 1: combackstage and him really being in rare form, or that
Speaker 1: could be a bad thing. Allah Destiny's Child in the
Speaker 1: corner watching him. Now, there was a slew of women there,
Speaker 1: So I'm assuming that you're also in this or you
Speaker 1: don't have a recollection of the story. Anyway, My point
Speaker 1: was that in Deed's excitement of this moment, uh, and
Speaker 1: he was very big on the James Brown moves and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. There's a point in Devil's Pie where
Speaker 1: he runs across the stage and he slides to the
Speaker 1: microphone right before we get to that hole. All a lot,
Speaker 1: but there was a nail. Oh fuck wait, I didn't
Speaker 1: even get to the punch on yet. There was a
Speaker 1: nail slightly sticking out the stage and he had on
Speaker 1: like very thin leathers. Did you have yes. So the
Speaker 1: point was that I was noticing that, Wow, he's really
Speaker 1: singing the ship out of this song like his life
Speaker 1: depends on it. And then when I looked to the left,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh God, he's showing off. And the
Speaker 1: thing was when he slid and imagine like sliding the
Speaker 1: home plate, he just basically sliced his entire side of
Speaker 1: his pants off. So I mean, he wasn't naked. It
Speaker 1: was just that when she mentioned voodoo and soul aquarians,
Speaker 1: it just triggered, wait a minute, we did it show
Speaker 1: together and D'Angelo not only split his pants, a mirror
Speaker 1: ruins another moment. Thank you for the compliments. No, I
Speaker 1: wasn't okay, Maybe I was psychologically deflecting the compliment, but
Speaker 1: what is it like.
Speaker 6: To have a mir and Rafaela that's interesting on this
Speaker 6: last album, Like.
Speaker 1: He explained everyone on this record.
Speaker 8: A lot of these songs I actually just wrote like
Speaker 8: sketches of to the.
Speaker 10: Piano, like Rise when I'm came, I had already sketched
Speaker 10: it out on my little struggle piano course, And it
Speaker 10: is a very vulnerable thing to like share that with
Speaker 10: someone and hopes to build it into something tangible. And yeah,
Speaker 10: Amyor and Ray and Greek came over one night and
Speaker 10: I just like you know, kept playing it and singing
Speaker 10: it on the piano, and they started to build soundscapes.
Speaker 10: So a lot of these sessions happened like that. In
Speaker 10: the case of Raphael, who is just so so wonderful.
Speaker 10: I had actually thought that the album was pretty much done,
Speaker 10: and I went to New Iberia, a little town maybe
Speaker 10: two hours north of New Orleans two you know, finished
Speaker 10: writing the album and I actually produced a great deal
Speaker 10: of it there as well, and I had a lot
Speaker 10: of program sounds that I was working with, and towards
Speaker 10: the end, I felt like an order for the album
Speaker 10: to punch in that way that I wanted to replace
Speaker 10: a lot of my digital sounds and replaced the sens
Speaker 10: with piano and live bas and live drums. And I
Speaker 10: actually took it to quite a few different people, and
Speaker 10: I won't name them, although I want.
Speaker 1: To, but.
Speaker 10: Raphael was actually the person that I played it for
Speaker 10: and immediately had the chemistry that a I was going
Speaker 10: to have someone who really respected my vision and really
Speaker 10: respected my voice. And I think as a songwriter and
Speaker 10: a producer, as a woman, I've been very very sensitive
Speaker 10: about my role in my art and how a lot
Speaker 10: of times when you invite that space open for men
Speaker 10: that it's just nature of the beast that they get
Speaker 10: a lot of credit for that. And I felt like Raphael,
Speaker 10: I knew that I was in good hands, and I
Speaker 10: knew that he would respect my vision and just be
Speaker 10: there to elevate it, and that he did. And he
Speaker 10: did such a phenomenal job of translating these sounds and
Speaker 10: making them that much richer and making them, you know,
Speaker 10: cut through his baselines, just cut through so.
Speaker 8: Emotionally, and they're like just like a direct connection of
Speaker 8: God's space.
Speaker 5: I feel like, you know, is that and on.
Speaker 6: It is?
Speaker 8: So Yeah. Essentially, the album went in three parts.
Speaker 10: I had the preliminary writing, just concepts that I sketched
Speaker 10: out to piano. Then I had jam sessions with a
Speaker 10: number of people of Samfa being one of them, Dave
Speaker 10: long Street being one of.
Speaker 1: Them, amazing from thirty Projectors, Yes.
Speaker 8: Whose drum sounds are incredible, and.
Speaker 10: So yeah, I kind of like assorted all of these
Speaker 10: people from all different worlds into a space and for
Speaker 10: a few weeks we just jammed and and I essentially
Speaker 10: took those damn sessions, lots of them an hour long,
Speaker 10: and produced them into four minute songs. And then I
Speaker 10: went and wrote and filled in all of my lyrics
Speaker 10: and melodies to those, and then I took it to
Speaker 10: Raphael and we you know, elevated a lot of those sounds,
Speaker 10: so it went in three different parts. But it was
Speaker 10: just really just such an honor to have everyone who
Speaker 10: worked on the project, in the spirit of collaboration, just
Speaker 10: have those experiences where we could just.
Speaker 6: Let it go in the music, to them all believe
Speaker 6: in your vision, yes it does.
Speaker 8: And to trust me with it.
Speaker 10: And again because it was such a male oriented set
Speaker 10: of musicians and producers, also having the utmost respect and
Speaker 10: you know, being clear that I was leading the process,
Speaker 10: and I think that that was something in the past,
Speaker 10: especially starting off as a little I feel like I'm
Speaker 10: like a little writer baby, like got I signed my
Speaker 10: publishing deal when I was fifteen, and I would be
Speaker 10: in sessions, you know, every day in LA I would
Speaker 10: go there for a week and a lot of people
Speaker 10: don't know how those things work, but they're very tedious
Speaker 10: and a lot of times you just feel really vulnerable.
Speaker 10: You just meet a producer and then it's just like
Speaker 10: write a song. Or I would go to Miami like
Speaker 10: Circle House Studios and it be like a bad boy
Speaker 10: writing camp and you're just there with like twenty producers.
Speaker 10: And as a young girl navigating that world with primarily
Speaker 10: male producers and leading that a lot of times I
Speaker 10: would have to fight for my voice to be heard
Speaker 10: outside of just like here's the song. And so this
Speaker 10: was a really special environment to create that because I
Speaker 10: do think it's important to note that though the album
Speaker 10: is overall the expression of the black plight and our
Speaker 10: social issues, it's written through the lens of a black woman,
Speaker 10: and naturally that's going to resonate with black women in
Speaker 10: a very specific way. So I think having that male
Speaker 10: energy just in terms of being in the space really
Speaker 10: translates on the production.
Speaker 8: I know a lot of nighgas who are like them.
Speaker 8: Beats is hard.
Speaker 4: Your record is like the modern day equivalent of like
Speaker 4: My Life by Mary It is my sh because it
Speaker 4: was just one of those records that I mean as
Speaker 4: a man, I mean I like the record.
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, yeah, this is dope. But like
Speaker 1: women like it's so crazy though, men.
Speaker 8: Really really.
Speaker 5: Like every day.
Speaker 10: Like blasting cranes like it's got bars. So that's been
Speaker 10: like really phenomenal.
Speaker 1: Definitely, can't deny that baseline, can.
Speaker 8: Deny that ray based man, So yeah, it was. It
Speaker 8: was awesome.
Speaker 6: We didn't even get a chance to talk about like
Speaker 6: the visuals that went like cranes and don't touch my
Speaker 6: hair and what you and Allen came together do and
Speaker 6: I read the whole cinematographer from Daughters of the Dust
Speaker 6: like that.
Speaker 5: July dashed but the cineatographer director of that.
Speaker 6: But you just got a lot of energy between the
Speaker 6: images and then the choreography.
Speaker 8: It's a lot thank you.
Speaker 10: I have to say that honestly creating these visuals with
Speaker 10: Alan was such a phenomenal experience, and I don't think
Speaker 10: that anyone else could have translated the way that I
Speaker 10: see the world better than him. And he put his
Speaker 10: motherfucking foot and back and elbow and everything he does
Speaker 10: look so cool that yes, and there was a journey,
Speaker 10: you know, we we started off with the AJS and
Speaker 10: all of you know, the crew of twenty five when
Speaker 10: we first embarked on the journey of this video, but
Speaker 10: we actually ended it just the two of us. So
Speaker 10: most of what you see in Crane specifically was actually
Speaker 10: shot by Alan holding the camera himself, hiking up mountains,
Speaker 10: across the rivers and doing that, you know, through love.
Speaker 6: So what was y'all like, Like, did you guys sit
Speaker 6: down and say, let's pick out some images of direction
Speaker 6: that we're going?
Speaker 10: Like?
Speaker 8: What was the So I knew that I wanted to again,
Speaker 8: you know, really have a meditation and a reflection of
Speaker 8: the way that I see blackness in.
Speaker 10: This super regal, ornate, stately way, but also encompass just
Speaker 10: the vulnerability and the texture and the nuances, especially of
Speaker 10: the black woman, and the solidarity between us and the sisterhood,
Speaker 10: especially for Cranes, because I feel like so much of
Speaker 10: those things that I'm trying to work out through the song,
Speaker 10: like black women, I can identify so closely to that.
Speaker 10: So it was really about me, like emotionally mood boarding
Speaker 10: first and then I just started looking up all these
Speaker 10: locations that either felt like very regal or almost in
Speaker 10: this Grecian way, but wanting to see black people presented
Speaker 10: it in that way. And then for Cranes, I essentially
Speaker 10: wanted to create this meditation of like moving through all
Speaker 10: of these spaces still trying to work this shit out.
Speaker 10: And that literally took us from New Orleans to Houston,
Speaker 10: to Lubbock, to Austin, to Big Ben National Park, to
Speaker 10: Santa Fe to White Sands, New Mexico.
Speaker 8: To get all of those landscapes.
Speaker 10: And yeah, like I basically moved boarded all of that.
Speaker 10: I shared it with Alan, I said this is my vision,
Speaker 10: how can we do this? And he just went to
Speaker 10: the trenches like and mapped out all of the ways
Speaker 10: that we could do that and assembled a team that
Speaker 10: he felt could put forth that.
Speaker 8: But I have to say, like we started off with
Speaker 8: a crew of.
Speaker 10: About twenty two people and we he went from and
Speaker 10: we were in two RV's and we went from all
Speaker 10: those cities that I said, And towards the end of it,
Speaker 10: everyone was so burnt out, tired, frustrated, hungry, sleepy, yes,
Speaker 10: that they all went home and Alan, being the director
Speaker 10: that he is said, there's still so much of this
Speaker 10: that we don't have. There's still so many pieces of
Speaker 10: this storytelling that we did not complete. And he went
Speaker 10: to Enterprise and rented a van and we did the
Speaker 10: trip all over again, from New Orleans to New Mexico
Speaker 10: in a van with just him and I and four
Speaker 10: other people, and he actually depeed the shoot he directed
Speaker 10: defeat catered and I think that the beautiful car. I
Speaker 10: definitely did that. It's the whole twenty three hour drive.
Speaker 10: But I have to say that I had so many reservations.
Speaker 10: We've been together eight years. Amir has been there like
Speaker 10: from the time I met him until now, and I've
Speaker 10: always been a fan of his work. Likewise, he's always
Speaker 10: been a fan of mine, but we've never bridged that
Speaker 10: gap creatively because I was so scared that it would
Speaker 10: fuck shuit up.
Speaker 8: And it made it. It made the art itself. I
Speaker 8: feel like you see and experience.
Speaker 10: So much love and magic when you're watching those and
Speaker 10: I think that was really through the lens of what
Speaker 10: we put into it together. And again, like you're with someone,
Speaker 10: you see the way that they see the world, and
Speaker 10: that scene and don't touch my hair at the very
Speaker 10: end when we're all on the steps and I'm dancing.
Speaker 8: Like that scene. Specifically, I remember trying to coordinate this ripple.
Speaker 10: Because I did all of the choreography and all of
Speaker 10: the videos with like one hundred people who weren't dancers,
Speaker 10: like and now.
Speaker 8: We're gonna do this, and then you do this.
Speaker 5: I was wondering who all those.
Speaker 10: People are so long just friends, right, No, those those
Speaker 10: were just New Orleans magical people. But we spend so
Speaker 10: much time trying to like coordinate all of this dance
Speaker 10: stuff that we were losing light and everybody on set
Speaker 10: was saying it's too dark, we can't shoot it, We're
Speaker 10: gonna have to reshoot it, and Alan saying the right
Speaker 10: the light just got right, Like the darkness, the birthlaze
Speaker 10: is what we need.
Speaker 8: This doesn't need sunlight. It's not bright, it's not cheery.
Speaker 1: This is the mood.
Speaker 8: So it was just things like that that I really.
Speaker 10: Really appreciated, you know, having to explain myself choreography, thank you.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 6: It's like, I don't even know what you call between
Speaker 6: modern dance and I don't even know, especially what you
Speaker 6: did on Saturdy ny Line.
Speaker 5: What do you what was what influences that. I don't
Speaker 5: mean to get all gross on.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, but the choreography is kind of amazing, and
Speaker 6: it's not it's she ball because that's not where you
Speaker 6: first started.
Speaker 10: So yeah, I think I've had such an interesting relationship
Speaker 10: with dance, being that I actually thought that I was
Speaker 10: gonna be a modern dancer growing up. That's what I
Speaker 10: wanted to be. I wanted to go to Juilliard. And
Speaker 10: then when I started to dance for Destiny Shot, I
Speaker 10: was doing hip hop, but I was looking absolutely crazy
Speaker 10: at that, like that was just not the way that
Speaker 10: my body language really spoke that I was trying.
Speaker 8: And I think maybe, like really like.
Speaker 10: Six years ago, as my son got older, as I
Speaker 10: got more confident in who I was and who I
Speaker 10: was becoming, I was just like, fuck it, this is
Speaker 10: actually how I move, this is when I'm at home,
Speaker 10: this is actually how I communicate. And I remember even
Speaker 10: through true like when I started really expressing myself in
Speaker 10: that way, people being like what.
Speaker 8: The fuck is this ship? Now I feel like people
Speaker 8: are like, Okay, that's just what it is.
Speaker 1: But I don't think people would question that though.
Speaker 8: Because oh yeah, people are like.
Speaker 1: Really like what she doing? People still question not I
Speaker 1: mean no, I think now my cousins and friends are
Speaker 1: like no.
Speaker 10: I meant like, you know, just people reacting to the
Speaker 10: visuals online and stuff. But I think that consistency is
Speaker 10: so key and like now that it's just like no,
Speaker 10: this is just the way I'm moving and sharing it.
Speaker 10: It's it's really cool doing it with the band because
Speaker 10: like you know, two of the dudes are like thea's from.
Speaker 8: New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Over here, but.
Speaker 10: Everybody has just been so and trusting. So I actually
Speaker 10: enlisted PJ. Harvey Oh Wow to help me find musicians
Speaker 10: in New Orleans, and he he auditioned a bunch of
Speaker 10: kids from Loyola and Diler and just New Orleans based musicians,
Speaker 10: and I came in at the end and we did
Speaker 10: like chemistry tests.
Speaker 8: And then it was like, well can you dance? And
Speaker 8: everybody was like, well, like what, So I showed them
Speaker 8: some moves and that actually eliminated like for people. But
Speaker 8: it's such a strong part of of how I like
Speaker 8: envision the show that.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, I've not seen the show where you're
Speaker 1: being you're being kind to put just a shame because
Speaker 1: you know, the time be doing like I definitely when
Speaker 1: when she when she Uh did the Roots picnic like
Speaker 1: two or three years ago, he was jamming on stage
Speaker 1: and was like, damn, we don't got no choreography.
Speaker 10: Oh my god, I want to do it more for
Speaker 10: other people. So if you want so, yeah, graciously gracious
Speaker 10: because it brings me so much.
Speaker 1: Jo please do that.
Speaker 5: And mark all day because you're like the young ones
Speaker 5: up making work.
Speaker 1: How are you going to deal with this presentation live?
Speaker 1: Because I'm still see this album from beginning to end.
Speaker 1: I see it as a sweet and I don't see
Speaker 1: it in concert. I see it.
Speaker 8: I love that you thought you were like texting me
Speaker 8: that as if I was not already working.
Speaker 1: Thinking about that. That It wasn't that. It's just that
Speaker 1: the album had moved certain people so much that they
Speaker 1: wanted to be a part of history. Even when I
Speaker 1: called you to congratulate you on the record, I forgot
Speaker 1: I was on the record you did.
Speaker 5: I don't wait for you to tell us, But I
Speaker 5: was like, forget it no, And she.
Speaker 1: Got mad at me because like I didn't. It was
Speaker 1: a going on, Like Yo, why did you instagram about it?
Speaker 1: I forgot I was on it first saw.
Speaker 8: And those are popping.
Speaker 1: No, But you know, I was just I was so
Speaker 1: amazed by the record. I totally forgot that. I thought
Speaker 1: she took me off the record, you know, and.
Speaker 6: It was.
Speaker 8: Everyone.
Speaker 1: Well, no, it was makes so different that I couldn't
Speaker 1: tell that that was you. I got you. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: that's the thing. I just thought, Oh, okay, well you
Speaker 1: should I.
Speaker 10: With those drums. I had fun like mixing and queuing
Speaker 10: and panning and all of that. But I remember that
Speaker 10: day so so well because that was the first time
Speaker 10: that I had shared my sketches with anyone, and I
Speaker 10: remember being really really scared of adding drums on it.
Speaker 10: And you were like, come on, son, like I'm gonna
Speaker 10: keep this farce and go in and I was like,
Speaker 10: of course you are.
Speaker 8: But it was still a lot of trust.
Speaker 1: I was too, because I sometimes call you the Queen
Speaker 1: of No.
Speaker 8: So it's true. I've been known to say no came
Speaker 8: out phenomenon. I'm so gracious.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, like I don't I don't want
Speaker 1: to name any names of people. But the way that
Speaker 1: I see this presentation like it's almost as if I
Speaker 1: wish you were and I feel like you will be
Speaker 1: or you could already be in a position where you
Speaker 1: could present this on a unnamed artist with the letter
Speaker 1: K and his name, like what he would do to
Speaker 1: his show floating stages the letter Oh, Kanye, I know
Speaker 1: this show is not going to be a normal presentation.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so I'm excited.
Speaker 10: I've been developing some ideas for the last couple of
Speaker 10: weeks and even through the SNL performance, like visualizing how
Speaker 10: that would carry out, and I'm really excited.
Speaker 8: I think that it's important for me to.
Speaker 10: One of the reasons, like I went to Stanford and
Speaker 10: had to talk because I wanted to ground the work
Speaker 10: in conversation and.
Speaker 8: Has Perry, Oh, she's so happened, No, she's not.
Speaker 10: No, but I want to be able to have that
Speaker 10: conversation really closely, and so even things like performing the
Speaker 10: album on a ground level where I'm able to be
Speaker 10: on the same physical level as people and look.
Speaker 5: Instead of the eyes yeah, looking down.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm really excited about working out how I can
Speaker 8: do that.
Speaker 10: But it's it's a lot of logistics. I've been working
Speaker 10: on it. But of course, when you know you're trying
Speaker 10: to present something in that way and work with other
Speaker 10: venues and vendors, and promoters and all of that. That
Speaker 10: stuff gets very complicated, but I'm working through it and
Speaker 10: I'm really really excited.
Speaker 8: I just I just think that I have to.
Speaker 10: The songs are so emotionally charged, and again, they feel
Speaker 10: so insular, and that even a lot of people have
Speaker 10: shared with me that they primarily listen to the album
Speaker 10: alone and that they feel kind of weird playing it
Speaker 10: in group settings.
Speaker 8: I feel the same.
Speaker 10: Way performing it and SNL was a big wake up
Speaker 10: call for me because I was emotionally charged in a
Speaker 10: way that I had never been performing before. Like my
Speaker 10: voice was shaking because of the words that I was
Speaker 10: saying and all of the things that were encompassing that
Speaker 10: in that moment, and who it was reaching and how
Speaker 10: it was reaching people who voted for Trump, and you know,
Speaker 10: just saying don't touch my hair, don't touch my pride,
Speaker 10: Like I have the hone in how emotionally I'm going
Speaker 10: to perform that without shaking because it's so fresh and
Speaker 10: it's so raw that I also have, like you know,
Speaker 10: the challenge of most of this stuff is intentionally falsetto
Speaker 10: and sweet, and like Minie Riperton and Serita Wright were
Speaker 10: huge influences in terms of vocal presentation for this, but
Speaker 10: that takes a great amount of air and control and stillness.
Speaker 10: But I'm saying things that are strong and aggressive.
Speaker 1: That's that's an awesome kind of contrast.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean it's intentional. It's intentional, but it's not
Speaker 10: easy to pull off live. And I feel like I
Speaker 10: have to have a great deal of meditation and control
Speaker 10: to be able to do that because a lot of
Speaker 10: people don't understand like the nuances of having to say
Speaker 10: these is one thing to put them on the record
Speaker 10: and say here you go, I'm gonna allow you to
Speaker 10: have a seat at this table and share this with you.
Speaker 10: It's another to deliver that face forward in full on
Speaker 10: and feel that kind of exposure.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just having brainstorming moments right now.
Speaker 1: And I feel like like b Yorick is someone that
Speaker 1: I've seen in concert a lot of times, and all
Speaker 1: of our presentations are just like.
Speaker 8: Some next level Yeah, they are the influence.
Speaker 1: She did one particular show in which she chose like
Speaker 1: a church in Harlem, oh Wow, and gathered the audience
Speaker 1: stood in a circle and she just sang everything a cappella.
Speaker 1: She just walked in the middle and just saying everything
Speaker 1: a cappella, no music, no nothing, just a very intimate
Speaker 1: her walking, no amplification, no microphone. But everyone attend that
Speaker 1: show still maintains that was like the most powerful music
Speaker 1: experience of their life.
Speaker 10: Like where you're going, I think that you have to
Speaker 10: really identify. I guess I've had to really identify, you know,
Speaker 10: what it is that I feel like I'm going to
Speaker 10: really really connect to and feel gravity and in that moment,
Speaker 10: like I realize now that I've gotten like award show
Speaker 10: offers and all of those things, and I realize now
Speaker 10: that that's not my space. I'm not going to never
Speaker 10: say never, I be open to it, but that's not
Speaker 10: the space right now that I'm reaching to connect with,
Speaker 10: like come February, Like yo, I don't think that that's
Speaker 10: why I feel like I thrive, And that could change
Speaker 10: and I could work at it.
Speaker 1: But I you could write your own ticket.
Speaker 10: I know, and that's that could evolve and that could
Speaker 10: change and I can feel differently and that's the cool
Speaker 10: thing about having, you know, I guess not putting the
Speaker 10: kind of pressure on myself to say, like if I
Speaker 10: do it and then basically.
Speaker 8: I don't know. Like the ESNL experience.
Speaker 10: Was very I feel really happy that I did it,
Speaker 10: But at the same time, I think that it reveals
Speaker 10: a lot to me about in what space I want
Speaker 10: to present this album in live. And it's like even
Speaker 10: the concept of FUBU is like, do I want to
Speaker 10: perform that song at Bonner? You know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 10: it's a lot that I'm like just working out as
Speaker 10: I go along, and that's fine, and it's okay. And
Speaker 10: I think as artists we should be able to be
Speaker 10: allowed to do that and change our minds and work
Speaker 10: it out and figure out what works best for us
Speaker 10: and our storytelling and that.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, this has been the most real question
Speaker 1: Love Supreme. Yeah ever Yeah, yeah, definitely our blackest episode
Speaker 1: by far. Matter of fact, we'll have some lounge in
Speaker 1: the reflections. All I've learned. I've learned that, uh, that
Speaker 1: master p Percy Miller such a soulful name, Percy, that
Speaker 1: Percy Miller, uh was a human being. And and I
Speaker 1: learned a lot about Matthew Knowles that I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I learned that Tina Noles controls the music. Matter of fact, Uh,
Speaker 1: boss Bill, this this is my Serrito DJ list. Read
Speaker 1: the highlighted blue playlist on the left. This is this
Speaker 1: is my only challenging This is a very serious I
Speaker 1: named my playlist after you know. It could be Saturday nights,
Speaker 1: it could be that at our wedding. But that's called
Speaker 1: what Tina Knowle's Gonna Love Me? Dak dat? What is
Speaker 1: in that play? What's in that Tina and Lowell's Gonna
Speaker 1: Love Me playlist? I've never had a client or an
Speaker 1: attendee at a quest love DJ gig that put more
Speaker 1: pressure on me than Tina Knowles. Seriously. I played for
Speaker 1: presidents and kings and whoever. But yeah, Tina Knowles is
Speaker 1: one of the hardest clients ever. So what does she does?
Speaker 1: She like, what's her what's her jams? Okay?
Speaker 5: And I'm assumed for her daughter as well.
Speaker 8: I will say so, it's really funny.
Speaker 10: It's like he played my my house party, and I
Speaker 10: think that she felt like he was playing stuff to safe.
Speaker 1: She thought I was playing too safe.
Speaker 8: Cater to her and she was like, no, I want
Speaker 8: the people to get turned.
Speaker 1: The quote was do you know who my son is
Speaker 1: at the time?
Speaker 5: Okay, because she wasn't playing her son.
Speaker 1: No, no, I was pretty okay in the beginning.
Speaker 8: He was just kind of player clean and real safe.
Speaker 1: Tell me, did you not tell me to just be
Speaker 1: careful because all types of people are going to be
Speaker 1: in attendance.
Speaker 5: I did, But I don't know.
Speaker 10: I guess like, like, yeah, she was like when he
Speaker 10: says that, she was like, do you know my son's language?
Speaker 10: You know that he says in his music, Like I'm
Speaker 10: not just like yeah, like play the ship. That's gonna
Speaker 10: keep the party.
Speaker 1: What she doesn't know is that in any party I
Speaker 1: will play Benny Goodman. Of course, I was doing the
Speaker 1: Quest Love thing, the all inclusive and it was like
Speaker 1: just cut to the chase and get to the.
Speaker 10: Just like playing with you gonna play like my mom
Speaker 10: was in the kitchen like handing out pizzas.
Speaker 1: Yeah she was. Yeah, she takes pictures at Costco Bro.
Speaker 1: I think she can handle.
Speaker 6: I was.
Speaker 7: I gotta say miss Tina that she's a very funny woman.
Speaker 7: The first time I met her was there's an MTV
Speaker 7: taping or something. She was backstage cutting up with Ed Lover.
Speaker 1: Just they're just cutting up.
Speaker 5: I believe she's just going Then I.
Speaker 7: Did a brief stint at Music World your father's company. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: for like three months. The holiday party, we had it
Speaker 7: at some Chinese spot in the Chinese restaurant on the
Speaker 7: Lower East Side, and your mother did karaoke.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what she's saying. Are you seriously she
Speaker 1: did karaoke. I think I think I might have pictures
Speaker 1: of that. Oh might.
Speaker 8: I'm dying to know you.
Speaker 7: I want to say you were there early that night.
Speaker 7: You and your sister were there earlier in the night,
Speaker 7: and then you both left, and then they brought out
Speaker 7: the karaoke machine.
Speaker 8: And oh wow, Now my mom is fun time. She
Speaker 8: was there last night at the AFT party and my sister.
Speaker 10: Left and my mom was like riding with her back
Speaker 10: until she wanted to stay and get turned.
Speaker 1: So that's what I learned, Tina, turn up. No man,
Speaker 1: what have I learned? God? So much? To start?
Speaker 4: I learned that Solange is probably and I know you
Speaker 4: know you say you've heard it a lot, but I
Speaker 4: mean like, she's probably one of the most relatable. I
Speaker 4: won't say regular, because regular that signifies something that's like,
Speaker 4: you know, like ordinary, so and you're and you're not ordinary,
Speaker 4: but you're definitely one of.
Speaker 1: The most relatable people. That I think that I've had
Speaker 1: that we've had on the show.
Speaker 4: For me, just hearing about your background and as the
Speaker 4: as the mother of a son, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: I have sons as well, and so there's a lot
Speaker 4: of there's a lot of common threads in your story
Speaker 4: and then a lot of stuff that I go through
Speaker 4: as well. And uh, just to hear that from someone
Speaker 4: who people would consider, you know, oh, well, she's a
Speaker 4: celebrity and she's this, she's that. It just kind of
Speaker 4: shows just that common thread of being black in America.
Speaker 4: You're never you can be on the Grammys and have
Speaker 4: a cousin in County jail. You know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 4: there's never you you ain't but that far removed from
Speaker 4: the bottom, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, man, I just.
Speaker 4: You Once Liya once referred to me as the male Solange,
Speaker 4: and I understand that.
Speaker 1: Now Solange as the female Solange. Yeah, so it makes
Speaker 1: sense now we relate to each other yet very very free.
Speaker 1: I try to be free, but.
Speaker 4: And I have a greater understanding about the record now.
Speaker 4: I never I never looked at it. I never put
Speaker 4: it together. When you were talking about you know, being
Speaker 4: a dedication to your mom and your dad, even though
Speaker 4: they're not together now, just being able for them to
Speaker 4: tell their stories and you hearing that now as an adult,
Speaker 4: I think that's something that really resonated with me. I
Speaker 4: think as a kid, you just see your parents as
Speaker 4: like these super human people. But then once you get older,
Speaker 4: you just see them as just people. You know, you
Speaker 4: just realize that they're flawed, and they made mistakes and
Speaker 4: they did the best they could with whatever they had,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, man, Solange's a real chick.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 1: I focused a long all right, paid, Yeah, what'd you
Speaker 1: learn to day? Man? Just like therapy. I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: it's like therapy. Come on the show. What did I learn?
Speaker 2: I learned two things. One I still don't know why
Speaker 2: I'm on this show, but I think bore I learned
Speaker 2: every time we're here. That like, I think I'm here
Speaker 2: to learn a lot, and I like that, and I
Speaker 2: think that I leave here every time being like, first
Speaker 2: of all, like at least texting one friend of mine, going,
Speaker 2: I still have no fucking idea why I invite me back,
Speaker 2: and to like what I what I learned, and I think.
Speaker 2: And the second thing is is talking about music like
Speaker 2: I don't know. We talk about this sometimes when when
Speaker 2: are we're artists?
Speaker 10: Right?
Speaker 2: We write music and fucking whatever, and it sometimes becomes
Speaker 2: really business oriented. And so since Soland's here, we should
Speaker 2: talk about her. You seem like, at your core such
Speaker 2: a fucking artist to me, and that's so, and that's
Speaker 2: and so like with me, it's like I write, I
Speaker 2: work on saysme Street. I do all this ship, but
Speaker 2: I feel like I get confused sometimes about when it's
Speaker 2: a business and when it's not. And I always I
Speaker 2: find myself more often than not, being like, this is
Speaker 2: what has to be done right now, this is what
Speaker 2: I'm doing, blah blah blah, and and neglecting the other
Speaker 2: side of it. And I don't think you ever do that.
Speaker 2: And I think that that's great, done out, sugar, Steve.
Speaker 1: Yes, would you learn me? Yeah? Would you learn Steve.
Speaker 11: I liked all the stuff you were saying about the
Speaker 11: way that you feel about having a responsibility to the past.
Speaker 11: Maybe your father had felt that way or burdens. I'm
Speaker 11: not sure the phrase you put on it, but I
Speaker 11: liked all that. I'm a nostalgic person I'm somewhat archival
Speaker 11: and historian, and you know.
Speaker 1: Your recording engineer, well, he was one of the engineers
Speaker 1: of voodoo.
Speaker 11: By the way, I like your respect for the past
Speaker 11: and making people respect the influences of the of the
Speaker 11: artists we have now respect.
Speaker 1: On an a I was actually I didn't.
Speaker 7: I don't want to say I'd learned something, but you
Speaker 7: definitely reinforce something that's kind of been on my on
Speaker 7: my head for for a while with the whole you know,
Speaker 7: you sat and talked with your parents for a long
Speaker 7: time and asked them to tell you stories, and that's
Speaker 7: something I've really wanted to do for a very long
Speaker 7: time and just haven't had the opportunity to do. My
Speaker 7: parents are getting up there in the age. I don't
Speaker 7: know how much longer I'm going to have to do it,
Speaker 7: so you know, I need to hurt U from do it.
Speaker 7: So thank you kind of reinforces that.
Speaker 1: Means everything that episode Master where oh yeah, yeah exactly, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah. So Layah, Margaret really need first name.
Speaker 5: I don't want you to think that I just have
Speaker 5: an attribute. Okay, I wonder Margaret is my first name?
Speaker 1: Can you please tell us I don't have what you
Speaker 1: learned today.
Speaker 6: To be honest, mister Love, I haven't really learned much
Speaker 6: because I know a lot about launch. And also I
Speaker 6: would not take that back because that sounds like I
Speaker 6: didn't learn it.
Speaker 5: That's not true.
Speaker 6: I learned a lot of ship is she just reinforced to.
Speaker 6: I think me and the rest of the sisters that
Speaker 6: are listening that she is our sister in our head.
Speaker 6: I pray, I pray that you stay where you are
Speaker 6: on that whole. I can't perform these songs everywhere. I
Speaker 6: have to figure out. That's and because Solons, you don't,
Speaker 6: you can you can really do whatever the fuck you
Speaker 6: want to do. I do hope that you show up
Speaker 6: at the Grammys to get your award. But that don't
Speaker 6: mean that you got to say you understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: And but do figure out a way to perform for
Speaker 6: us by us, because they need to know. And I
Speaker 6: would just say that I've learned that you are super dope.
Speaker 6: We already thank you the world.
Speaker 1: Well, since you work here now, Salons, you got to
Speaker 1: round it out. Oh god, wow, don't focus on spread
Speaker 1: spread their life. Okay. I got a lot of patience
Speaker 1: because I know they would be sleeping right now.
Speaker 10: No, I'm really really happy to be here, and to
Speaker 10: be quite honest, I learned that there are safe spaces
Speaker 10: for storytelling, and I'm so happy that you guys created
Speaker 10: this platform to to have that safe space. And I've
Speaker 10: been really really protective about how to speak about this
Speaker 10: album because I feel like it's so explicitly spelled out
Speaker 10: on the album that it almost feels like, do I
Speaker 10: need to talk about it? But this was such a
Speaker 10: such a great start, and you guys are also kind
Speaker 10: and funny and charming and nerdy and.
Speaker 5: Everybody.
Speaker 10: I also learned that a mean cannot take a compliment.
Speaker 10: He needs to work on that. I learned that I
Speaker 10: sat next to the man that I had Twitter beef with,
Speaker 10: that I sat next to someone who actually used to
Speaker 10: work with my family, and saw my mom do karaoke.
Speaker 1: This is the ultimate fans.
Speaker 10: Now, this was really awesome. It was really good therapy
Speaker 10: from like the come down of last night. I woke
Speaker 10: up being really hard on myself and feeling actually kind
Speaker 10: of bummed and sad.
Speaker 6: Really, yeah, I do that brought way too much joy
Speaker 6: to be feeling like that. You have to remind yourself
Speaker 6: I'm so serious. You have to remind yourself. Sometimes your
Speaker 6: artists do that. He does that too, out of yourself.
Speaker 6: You're bringing people because it's selfish.
Speaker 10: To not do that. Yeah, I mean it's true. It's true.
Speaker 10: So this is such a great like closing to that,
Speaker 10: Thank you guys for that.
Speaker 1: Thank you nose ladies, gentlemen, on behalf of on, behalf
Speaker 1: of uh yeah, and unpaid Bill and Boss Bill and
Speaker 1: Sugar Steve. This is quest love supreme only on pan. Well,
Speaker 1: let me we gotta do. I didn't sign off. I
Speaker 1: didn't sign off. All right, So when Steve, when Steve
Speaker 1: stopped working at Electric Lady Studios where we are right now,
Speaker 1: where we are right now, Yes, he relocated to Philadelphia. Wait,
Speaker 1: can I just be Sugar Steve, like the cool version
Speaker 1: of Sugar version showing that you're sacrificing your life for
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters out there. Sugar, that's Steve. No, this
Speaker 1: is the best part of your thing. This it's funny.
Speaker 1: Every time we thought it was some sexy ship kind
Speaker 1: of sexualized.
Speaker 8: Where are we going? We're not going to keep it.
Speaker 1: It's unanimous. No, it's not. We'll tell you all in
Speaker 1: this room that the truth, raise your hands, damn even.
Speaker 5: Even it's a good story, a short one.
Speaker 1: Basically, when Steve moved to Philadelphia to be my full
Speaker 1: time engineer, UH, we were working on Pharrell's UH in
Speaker 1: My Mind record, and for those three weeks Steve basically
Speaker 1: adjusted his diet to my diet.
Speaker 8: I was just about to say, what was chomping?
Speaker 1: No one like Solange does Anyway, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, at the end of the record, Steve wound
Speaker 1: up getting the sugars and is now has diabetes still
Speaker 1: levels the level of Solange's eyeballs songs were about lollipops
Speaker 1: and ice cream.
Speaker 11: Confused, did you really get he actually likes to take
Speaker 11: responsibility for this for some reason.
Speaker 1: But yeah, white people don't get diabetes on that level.
Speaker 1: And we pissed poor diet my whole life. It wasn't
Speaker 1: starting in Philly but culminating health. There was a soul
Speaker 1: was down the flock from the studio, so thus we
Speaker 1: ate there every night. It's like a recurring theme on
Speaker 1: the show for some reason.
Speaker 10: Well, that wasn't an era where you were like going
Speaker 10: super hard on that, like healthy microbatic.
Speaker 8: It was really annoying, so.
Speaker 1: Hot there were so much. I wasn't there for.
Speaker 5: South Street Diner.
Speaker 1: It was there for the mac and cheese. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of bone marrow marrow, never any Cavin Grunt.
Speaker 8: It was really hardcore and you are being really like
Speaker 8: kind of obnoxious.
Speaker 10: About this person really like me about food and ship,
Speaker 10: like literally calling me up.
Speaker 5: Like super foods are superfoods.
Speaker 1: And gentlemen on behalf of everybody. Quest Supreme, my name
Speaker 1: is Quest, loved this Bandora, good Night, What's Love? Supreme
Speaker 1: is a production of my Heart Radio. This classic episode
Speaker 1: was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.