Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Tiffany Cross. I'm your host of Across Generations,
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Speaker 1: in to be a guest again. I'm your host, Tiffany
Speaker 1: Cross to a cross generation. Welcome to a cross Generations
Speaker 1: where the voices of black women unite. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Tiffany Cross. Tiffany Cross. We gather a season elder myself
Speaker 1: as the middle generation, and a vibrant young soul for
Speaker 1: engaging intergenerational conversations. Prepare to engage or hear perspectives that
Speaker 1: know no one else is happy.
Speaker 2: You know how we do?
Speaker 1: We create Maggie Creates mag Hey everybody, I'm Tiffany Cross
Speaker 1: and welcome to your next episode of Across Generations, and
Speaker 1: this is going to be a great conversation. We are
Speaker 1: talking about music, and music is deeply rooted in our tradition.
Speaker 1: The soundtrack of my life can be set chronologically by
Speaker 1: the music my mother will play on Saturday mornings. You
Speaker 1: know those Saturday mornings where everybody gotta get up and
Speaker 1: do chores. Well, she'd be playing Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole,
Speaker 1: Earth Wind and Fire Maze, and Frankie Beverly of course,
Speaker 1: Prince Anita Baker, Luther Big Luther and Little Luther, Michael Jackson,
Speaker 1: of course, Eurley Murdoch, Regina Bell, of course, Whitney Houston,
Speaker 1: the Voice. I gotta tell you, I would barely be
Speaker 1: ten years old, singing along talking about somebody else's husband
Speaker 1: as we lay barely in my double digit singing and
Speaker 1: my imaginary husband that I am not just superwoman. It
Speaker 1: took me to a place yet unseen. When What's the
Speaker 1: four one one drops? I was a teenager at this
Speaker 1: time and albums were fading out, CDs were fading in.
Speaker 1: I listened to that CD and had every song memorized.
Speaker 1: In the week, Who among us wasn't looking for real
Speaker 1: love in nineteen ninety one. This is around the same
Speaker 1: time I was one of my first adult parties, and
Speaker 1: one of the first was in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 2: At Wendy Hill Village.
Speaker 1: And this is back when the parties always closed out
Speaker 1: to that slow song some of y'all know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about and Forever My Lady by Jodas he came
Speaker 1: on Baby, the hormones were hormony.
Speaker 2: Then came the girl.
Speaker 1: Groups, Escape in Vogue, and you may remember a little
Speaker 1: girl group, Destiny's Child. I wonder whatever happened to them,
Speaker 1: and of course Brownstone more about that later. So I
Speaker 1: wonder now are the love balance the same what we
Speaker 1: listened to, how we listened to music. We went from
Speaker 1: boomboxes to walkman tonanos to our phones. We went from
Speaker 1: copping albums, the dubbing tapes, the burning CDs to now
Speaker 1: streaming stars are discovered and made on social media. Audio
Speaker 1: soon helps the tuneless, and streaming numbers do not translate
Speaker 1: to millions of dollars for artists. So for both artists
Speaker 1: and consumers, I wonder, is this the best earl R
Speaker 1: and B or the worst?
Speaker 2: And why?
Speaker 1: And where are we going? In this industry. So you
Speaker 1: guys remember like Blue Eyed Soul, like they kind of
Speaker 1: had a place, right. I mean, you think about color
Speaker 1: me bad, George Michael, Michael Bolton, who is the guy
Speaker 1: who just died? Bobby Caldwell. Bobby Caldwell, he was I
Speaker 1: would listen to these guys and think they were literally black,
Speaker 1: but they were not. So we're going to get into
Speaker 1: this conversation and I want to bring in my guests.
Speaker 2: Joining me now Nikki Gilbert Daniels.
Speaker 1: She's fifty three year old singer and songwriter, most known
Speaker 1: for being the founder of the multi platinum Grammy nominated
Speaker 1: group Brownstone.
Speaker 2: I used to love that song if you Love Me,
Speaker 2: y'all know that song.
Speaker 1: The group had success during the mid nineties as the
Speaker 1: first group sign to Michael jack Sin's record label MJJ.
Speaker 1: Currently independent, Nikki has set forth to create her own
Speaker 1: streaming platform to give female artists more control over their content.
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of female artists appreciate that. She's
Speaker 1: also the creator of the hit reality series R and
Speaker 1: B Divas. Now on the other side of this, we
Speaker 1: have Smaya. She's twenty six years old. She's an independent
Speaker 1: singer and songwriter I wonder if she'll sing for us today.
Speaker 1: She's based in Atlanta, Georgia. She's never been signed to
Speaker 1: a major label and does not aspire to be signed.
Speaker 1: Proudly writes all of her own music. She strongly wants
Speaker 1: to be able to heal others through her music, while
Speaker 1: unfortunately navigating an industry that has not made her feel
Speaker 1: safe or supported as a woman.
Speaker 2: Isn't that all the industries? But yes, very much.
Speaker 1: I am so excited about having this conversation.
Speaker 2: Especially with somebody I used to listen.
Speaker 1: To all the time.
Speaker 2: Is no excitement for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, when they told me that they hooked to you,
Speaker 1: I was super excited. So I'm so happy to be
Speaker 1: in community with both you ladies. Nikki, since you've had
Speaker 1: a career in music, I mean, really, it has taken
Speaker 1: such a turn. I remember when Walkman's were a big deal, yes, ma'am,
Speaker 1: And when CDs came out, I was like, but what
Speaker 1: are you going to do? Like how are you going
Speaker 1: to be able to be a bubble? And then there
Speaker 1: was sure enough you could have a Walkman and a
Speaker 1: CD player. And then after that it was like the
Speaker 1: whole industry changed. Napster came along, and everything changed. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: it really redefined the industry. But as an artist, because
Speaker 1: I only experienced this as a consumer. As an artist,
Speaker 1: I'm curious, what was the state of R and B
Speaker 1: then in your heyday, and what is the state of
Speaker 1: R and B now in your opinion?
Speaker 3: I think the biggest difference in R and B ban
Speaker 3: and now is artist development, right. I think back then
Speaker 3: you had to know how to sing, you had to
Speaker 3: know how to write. Yeah, you had to really invest
Speaker 3: in your craft.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Now it's a numbers game, right, which you know, I
Speaker 3: understand people wont capitalized and monetize. But I think when
Speaker 3: you start talking about longevity and when you talk about
Speaker 3: being here thirty years later, which we will be next
Speaker 3: year for thirty years, the biggest thing is that artists
Speaker 3: development and having a real love for the craft, the music,
Speaker 3: the songs, the lyrics, all of it.
Speaker 2: It's kind of the thing of the past. It feels
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'm gonna shift to you, Samaia. So you're
Speaker 1: young and cool and independent.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Questions Come on, I can set a little cool cocktail
Speaker 1: for the folks listening to us. I put on my
Speaker 1: cool shade so I can talk to the cool hip artists. No,
Speaker 1: but seriously, you're entering this industry, you don't have a
Speaker 1: memory of what it was like, you know, walk in
Speaker 1: CD players, But who were like, like, what is even
Speaker 1: old school to you?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: Who are some of the people that you wean you're
Speaker 1: weaned after, like your style that you were inspired by?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say I grew up listening to artists
Speaker 4: like h NB, I Re Music, Soul, Child, just Scot
Speaker 4: justone R and b Neo Soul.
Speaker 1: It was like that, Okay, okay, so all those sounds
Speaker 1: kind of influence you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So this is the thing that I think as consumers
Speaker 1: we don't realize because we just like music, and so
Speaker 1: you know, I download music, I listen to it, I
Speaker 1: play it, But those streaming numbers are not necessarily profitable
Speaker 1: to the artists themselves.
Speaker 2: I don't even understand how that works. I don't think
Speaker 2: anybody understands how it works to really honest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just something that literally came out of thin air,
Speaker 3: Like the music comes out of thin air, and it's
Speaker 3: just something that they sort of just decided this is blue, so.
Speaker 2: We're gonna call it purple.
Speaker 3: We don't know, And the truth is unless you are
Speaker 3: a streaming platform or you have access to the back
Speaker 3: door of the analytics. Nobody really knows what was making
Speaker 3: the money. Spotify is making the money, iTunes is making
Speaker 3: the money. The distributors that are in partnership with those streamers.
Speaker 3: I'm not the artists. No, they're now let me say
Speaker 3: they're recently Sony Music. Shout out to Sony. We had
Speaker 3: conversations and they made a few changes, and those changes
Speaker 3: are that most artists from the nineties did not have
Speaker 3: any If streaming didn't exist in the nineties, how do
Speaker 3: you addressing in the contract, right? How do you say, hey, listen,
Speaker 3: we want this for your streaming. So I think that
Speaker 3: it was it was referenced as a digital file because
Speaker 3: they would send those over to Europe as opposed to
Speaker 3: actually sending records, right, because they had stuff like breakage
Speaker 3: and all the excuses for taking your money. Now, these
Speaker 3: digital files are the closest thing to streaming. So typically
Speaker 3: what happens with nineties and legacy artists is if you
Speaker 3: have a digital file, because they don't have to have
Speaker 3: the breakage and the returns and all that other stuff,
Speaker 3: because you can't technically return a digital file right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you get fifty percent. Right, So what they're saying is
Speaker 3: you're getting fifty percent of two dollars. Now, we get
Speaker 3: fifty percent, but we can't determine if that fifty what
Speaker 3: that number we're getting fifty percent of is actually an
Speaker 3: accurate number?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 2: Right, So there's always a way. Yeah, and look to
Speaker 2: be fair.
Speaker 1: I mean, I will say in the nineties, like TLC
Speaker 1: went broke, they filed bankrucy, Tony Braxton foiled Bankrancy. So
Speaker 1: the music industry has always been somewhat shady, I think,
Speaker 1: and like the deals that artists get first time deals.
Speaker 1: Why are you resistant to signing to a label? And
Speaker 1: would you as an artist starting out, would you make
Speaker 1: more money on the front end signing to a label
Speaker 1: or are you better off staying independent?
Speaker 4: I mean, I think with the money labels give, like
Speaker 4: you got to pay back, right, I feel like that's
Speaker 4: you starting in a deficit now rather not.
Speaker 2: I think I'm more keen on being independent.
Speaker 4: Because I value creative control and kind of operating based
Speaker 4: on you know, what I think is best for myself.
Speaker 4: Don't necessarily want anyone controlling me. I appreciate guidance and
Speaker 4: and all those things, but I still want to be
Speaker 4: in control of my past. Yeah, I completely get that
Speaker 4: creative control is a big deal. And I know what
Speaker 4: you mean about like how deals are structured.
Speaker 1: Somebody get a little packer on the phone, relating to relate.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's an interesting take before we get
Speaker 1: too deep in the business though, just because I'm I'm
Speaker 1: in the mood, I'm feeling a babe, I just want
Speaker 1: to talk about the music itself, because when I think
Speaker 1: about good music, like there's music from my era, you know,
Speaker 1: like definitely the nineties girl group, Like that was my era,
Speaker 1: you know, But then my mother's music was also kind
Speaker 1: of my music, you know, Like she my mother had
Speaker 1: amazing taste in music. She like has this huge album collection.
Speaker 1: She gave all those albums away, but had this huge
Speaker 1: album collection, and I mean from like Diana Ross, Billie
Speaker 1: Holiday and she.
Speaker 2: This is what I notice happens in every generation.
Speaker 1: And I feel like I'm becoming one of those people,
Speaker 1: one of those get off my launched. Every generation talks
Speaker 1: about how crappy.
Speaker 2: The next the next generation music.
Speaker 1: I find myself feeling that way, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm so lame feeling that way. But I remember my
Speaker 1: mother saying that to me, and she would talk about
Speaker 1: the vulgarity of it. I'm like, man, you want to
Speaker 1: go dipp into your Stashi records? Ut like she you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I remember being a little smelling at Resa party.
Speaker 2: I remember that music. But it's always been like that.
Speaker 1: But do you as an artist, like, do you hear
Speaker 1: some of the music today this trash?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: You too, Auntie, who hasn't because for that very reason, Like,
Speaker 3: we've really become an industry that's based on numbers. So
Speaker 3: when you're based on numbers, it's just like, you know,
Speaker 3: let's just shake us, let's you know, drop a low
Speaker 3: spreaded wide, you know what I mean. It's not about
Speaker 3: the actual music the lyrics, right, And that's cool.
Speaker 2: Because I know that, you know, we have to evolve.
Speaker 3: Like you said that our parents thought our music was
Speaker 3: bad and it's nothing compared to this. But I do
Speaker 3: believe that the connection to your what you liked about
Speaker 3: your mom and the nineties music is that we were
Speaker 3: actually inspired by what we heard, right, right, heard great
Speaker 3: music and great lyrics, and we were inspired by that.
Speaker 3: And then there's this period between the nineties and today
Speaker 3: because I don't think there's been anything since the nineties
Speaker 3: where it's just been a whole bunch of like who
Speaker 3: shot John? That's not making a lot of it doesn't connect,
Speaker 3: and it's it's clear because nobody's going out. People are
Speaker 3: going to see ninety shows, but I don't know how
Speaker 3: many people are going out to see two thousands shows
Speaker 3: like that. Maybe, but maybe they are, and we just
Speaker 3: are not the drop it. Yeah, okay, yeah, well we
Speaker 3: will rise with.
Speaker 2: I mean, I literally I don't know. But I just
Speaker 2: don't think. I don't think.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I don't think anything sticks to your ribs.
Speaker 3: I think everything is like, you know, you're hungry, you
Speaker 3: throw something in the microwave to get sune quickly, right
Speaker 3: my taste?
Speaker 2: Okay, it's not good for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think when you let them greens sit in there
Speaker 3: for a few hours and you cook it load. That's
Speaker 3: what good soul music is. Soul food, sol music. It's
Speaker 3: a thing. It's something that takes time to evolve and
Speaker 3: to develop. We used to have this thing called freshman
Speaker 3: Jitters on our second albums because there was always like
Speaker 3: competing with that first successful record. We really cared and
Speaker 3: we really worked hard to make sure that we could
Speaker 3: do album after album that would compete with the first one.
Speaker 2: Now it just doesn't matter the singles driven industry.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, you listen to songs for
Speaker 3: two minutes plenty Grapevine, it's five minutes and forty five seconds.
Speaker 2: That way too long.
Speaker 1: But you know, you know it's not too We love Grapevine,
Speaker 1: but for you, Like I said this one of our
Speaker 1: meetings that we had talked about this show, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't know, I just feel like all
Speaker 1: this new R and B is just about sex.
Speaker 2: And one of our producers, Mandy.
Speaker 1: Was like, how dare you there are great music that
Speaker 1: people talk about love and but I had to think
Speaker 1: about I had to consider her point because I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I don't listen to a lot of
Speaker 1: new R and B, so just what I've heard doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily speak to me. But school me like, you're an
Speaker 1: independent artist, so are there people out there? It's like, no,
Speaker 1: Like you were talking about her, the music artist her.
Speaker 1: I think it's a beautiful voice, super talented. I definitely
Speaker 1: like her songs. My friend Carrie Champion is like a
Speaker 1: huge TIMS fan, so she like is always talking about
Speaker 1: Tims outside of it.
Speaker 2: I don't know that.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of current people in heavy rotation. Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean I would recommend alex Eisley for sure.
Speaker 2: I think she would. I think she said.
Speaker 4: Out amongst a lot of R and B artists that
Speaker 4: are just like newer. I agree with y'all a lot
Speaker 4: of what you said. Like, I do think there's a
Speaker 4: lot of music that is being amplified and promoted that
Speaker 4: doesn't matter, that won't last past two seconds.
Speaker 2: But there are a lot of underground artists.
Speaker 4: There are a lot of R and B artists that
Speaker 4: are like, are out here, are promoting themselves, they just
Speaker 4: don't have the machine behind them making amazing music. Like
Speaker 4: there's another R and B artist India, Sean La, and.
Speaker 2: I mean her, like the soul in her voice is
Speaker 2: just it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: Really Okay, So I listened to a lot of different
Speaker 1: R and B artists because I'm just I love R
Speaker 1: and B. So yeah, all day, how do we find
Speaker 1: these people that, like when you say they're giving great music?
Speaker 1: I made the point of in the open saying people
Speaker 1: stars are discovered on Instagram, you know they're made on
Speaker 1: TikTok and so I'm not necessary. I don't live my
Speaker 1: life on these platforms. So how can I find like
Speaker 1: good young artists who are like true artists and support them?
Speaker 2: How do you find it? I were like you, I
Speaker 2: want to support you.
Speaker 4: Well, I think I'm a little different in the sense
Speaker 4: of like, because I create music, I don't go looking
Speaker 4: for music.
Speaker 2: I just allow it to just naturally come to me.
Speaker 2: If I know.
Speaker 4: Something I can passing and I'm like, oh, that piques
Speaker 4: my interest, Like let me like explore this artist and
Speaker 4: like what they have to offer. Like there's an artist
Speaker 4: orian's son amazing but so underground, Like she's not well,
Speaker 4: like you know, she's not super amplified, but just super talented.
Speaker 2: And I think she's she did a colors.
Speaker 4: She did a colors. I'm not sure if you're familiar
Speaker 4: with that platform, but it's like, OK, I am not
Speaker 4: sure where they're so on YouTube kind of similar to
Speaker 4: tiny Desk, but I don't think they have.
Speaker 2: A wall, and it's different.
Speaker 4: Artists from Like there are some major artists that have
Speaker 4: gone up there and some very underground.
Speaker 2: Artists that have gone up there.
Speaker 4: I think they do a really good job in digging
Speaker 4: and just trying to find But the internet is going
Speaker 4: to be your best friend. Yeah, Like I don't, I
Speaker 4: don't know where to tell you to go look because
Speaker 4: where we're promoting ourselves is on the internet, because I mean,
Speaker 4: how well to do people find us? That's I mean
Speaker 4: anytime I'm performing in Atlanta, it's because somebody found me
Speaker 4: through social media?
Speaker 2: Really and like where do you perform? Wherever? They ask me?
Speaker 2: But like venues yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Different different venues, yeah, just around the city. I love
Speaker 1: what you said about you don't go looking for the
Speaker 1: mus like you create. You are are discipline, your you
Speaker 1: let the music come to here? Is that how the
Speaker 1: process wants for you?
Speaker 3: I think when you're real creative, you just have to
Speaker 3: find your own voice. And a lot of times, if
Speaker 3: you're going out and you're looking for other things with
Speaker 3: other people, you'll subconsciously even take something from somebody else
Speaker 3: without even realizing. Yeah, we're not talking about copyright in
Speaker 3: frins with that's but just being inspired, Yeah, being inspired,
Speaker 3: And yeah, I would say that a lot of times
Speaker 3: creatives tend to get into their own bubbles and create
Speaker 3: their own stuff and then sort of that's how you
Speaker 3: create a sound that works for you.
Speaker 2: So that's super powerful when people ask me like, who
Speaker 2: do you listen to me? Yeah, that's not that's not
Speaker 2: being vain.
Speaker 4: It's just not just like creating a lot, and it's
Speaker 4: like I do I need to listen to it over
Speaker 4: and over again and kind of sit with it and
Speaker 4: experience it so that I can figure out what I
Speaker 4: want to change or you know, yeah, I just got to.
Speaker 1: Sit the Yeah, I you know, I'm talking about how
Speaker 1: like the industry has changed, and it occurs to me
Speaker 1: the industry changed for you because like now I feel
Speaker 1: like you have to be a personality, you know, like
Speaker 1: your house and people see you before they hear you,
Speaker 1: and you have to have like stage presents all these things.
Speaker 1: But it was kind of the same for you because
Speaker 1: then it was there of music videos, yes, and so
Speaker 1: you weren't just on stage with a mic, like you
Speaker 1: haven't had a fit, you have had a dance moves down.
Speaker 1: And then you know, the same people who were like
Speaker 1: this music is trash, like those were like we have
Speaker 1: all these music videos. You just had one mic and
Speaker 1: five right.
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: So the industry is always changing, So I, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to become a curmudgeon. But as you
Speaker 1: were talking about those people, I was trying to think of,
Speaker 1: like who I listened to there's an independent.
Speaker 2: Group tank in the Bangers?
Speaker 1: Yes, I know I love them, but they're so good. Okay,
Speaker 1: you look like you would like is there an independent share?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I heard it. Yeah, I need to. I literally
Speaker 2: happened upon her. She's dope.
Speaker 3: She's very like in a pocket, which is why to
Speaker 3: your point, you have to be careful about what you say.
Speaker 3: And it's interesting because she did a shot a cover,
Speaker 3: so it's kind of like hard to hear.
Speaker 4: You don't want to type you don't want to be
Speaker 4: type cast if you want to just represent yourself.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Well, where do you think the industry is going?
Speaker 1: Because we talked about like where it's like, where where
Speaker 1: it's been, and where we are now. But for a
Speaker 1: younger person who's navigating this space, where do you think
Speaker 1: it's going. I think we're doing away with superstar like
Speaker 1: celebrity culture. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I don't think that's going to be much of a
Speaker 4: thing anymore. I think it is going to start being
Speaker 4: more of like you find the artists that you really appreciate,
Speaker 4: You kind of find your niche and you dive into that.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's going.
Speaker 4: To be like, oh, you're like touring all the time,
Speaker 4: or if you are, it's just very like small, like
Speaker 4: more intimate spaces, which I kind of would appreciate it really.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: How do we feel about award shop like the Grammys?
Speaker 1: For instance? Well, you are you are a Grammy winner,
Speaker 1: Grammy nomination, two time Grammy nominated artists. How do you
Speaker 1: feel about the feel war shows in general?
Speaker 3: But I feel like award shows in general have become
Speaker 3: opportunities for corporate sponsorship and corporate places, right. I think
Speaker 3: it's more based on relationships with labels who have the
Speaker 3: money to make sure that this artist is upfront. And
Speaker 3: I've been in some of those rooms where we're supposed
Speaker 3: to be been invited to be in that circle of
Speaker 3: people who are like, hey, this is a really important
Speaker 3: record to amplify, and it still ends up being well, yeah,
Speaker 3: but this person over here is sponsored by commercials.
Speaker 2: So I think it is.
Speaker 3: Disappointing to see that it has become more of a
Speaker 3: marketing opportunity for corporate you know, situations than art.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how about you?
Speaker 4: I think I've always been told to care about that stuff.
Speaker 4: But I just naturally didn't like if I want to me, okay, great,
Speaker 4: But I think because of the purpose behind, like why
Speaker 4: I chose this path of like pursuing music.
Speaker 2: What I'm trying to do with music is far more
Speaker 2: important than an award.
Speaker 1: You know, well, I have to tell you, as a consumer,
Speaker 1: I can't tell you who won out best album last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the year before, that year before.
Speaker 1: It won't influence if I buy that album or not,
Speaker 1: you know, I but I do. I do download and
Speaker 1: like strain a lot of music. And I wonder, am
Speaker 1: I part of the problem as a consumer? Am I
Speaker 1: hoping to destroy this great medium that has meant so
Speaker 1: much to black folks?
Speaker 2: You know, I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I think again, it's one of those situations where if
Speaker 3: that's what you're if that's what we're exposed to, because
Speaker 3: that is what the corporations have put the money behind
Speaker 3: making sure it's on the head, the front of the
Speaker 3: streaming sites or whatever.
Speaker 2: You know, what can you do except to word of mouth?
Speaker 3: Jill Scott is a classic example of I think the
Speaker 3: last time a word of mouth project really made a difference,
Speaker 3: Because if you think back and you're familiar obviously with
Speaker 3: Jill Scott. Okay, I think her first album was who
Speaker 3: was Jill Scott? And the whole campaign was we didn't
Speaker 3: know that this was Michael Jordan's label.
Speaker 2: We didn't know.
Speaker 3: We just we hear this music and we're getting into
Speaker 3: the music before we even see who the artist is, right,
Speaker 3: and then we're like, yes, she changed the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I think when you have an opportunity to have
Speaker 3: authentic marketing where people can really just immerse themselves in
Speaker 3: the art and it's not all about the commercial stuff,
Speaker 3: we get back to that, we're good, but right now
Speaker 3: we're just you know, most of the people in the
Speaker 3: audience of the award shows are corporate guys and bring
Speaker 3: your friends to see people.
Speaker 2: It's that's fame have a negative impact on creating arts.
Speaker 5: Mmm.
Speaker 2: I would.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think my first thought is yes, Like
Speaker 4: I think you see people kind of get into these
Speaker 4: spaces and get this notoriety and they flip on a dime,
Speaker 4: or they change, or some people might say, oh, it
Speaker 4: was always in them. I think fame can be good
Speaker 4: if you stay aligned to like who you are, and
Speaker 4: I guess if you're a good person, I guess let
Speaker 4: me say that, right, if you stay aligned to like
Speaker 4: who you are and you are trying to use your
Speaker 4: influence to positively impact the world. But I think it
Speaker 4: has become an extremely terrible thing. It's become a popularity
Speaker 4: context contest, and I feel like it's come a bit
Speaker 4: become a bit dangerous.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, well, Nikki honestly tell us that the change.
Speaker 1: You Hell no, no, are you at the height when
Speaker 1: people running?
Speaker 3: Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something
Speaker 3: in real life, and I thank God for it. Number One,
Speaker 3: I always kept family around me, So when I moved
Speaker 3: from Detroit to Los Angeles, I brought family with me.
Speaker 2: I hung around family.
Speaker 3: I took care of my sisters and my cousins and
Speaker 3: come live with me in LA. I never got caught
Speaker 3: up in it now, like I have one or two
Speaker 3: industry friends, Faith Evans, not to name drops one of them,
Speaker 3: but we knew each other before she became famous, very like, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 3: and she's very anti thing, very regular, very regular saying
Speaker 3: bisy from brick City whatever. So I never allowed myself
Speaker 3: to get into it because I've always known that it
Speaker 3: was a vapor. Any time, you know, it's funny because
Speaker 3: people talk about wanting to be the most famous person
Speaker 3: in the room. There will never be a person or
Speaker 3: people more famous than Prince or Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2: He most slave on the side of the space, this task.
Speaker 3: Michael talked about it and every turn we see based
Speaker 3: on how we all woke up this morning or yesterday
Speaker 3: morning and saw how real the world gets with certain
Speaker 3: very famous people, that it really is a toxic, destructive,
Speaker 3: awful place right now. And I believe that that is
Speaker 3: because they have prioritized numbers over art. Art is the
Speaker 3: soundtrack of our lives. When we hear make you want
Speaker 3: to holler, or we hear some of those songs you
Speaker 3: were talking about, like like your intro, I can smile
Speaker 3: about it because Saturday cleaned the crib music. Everybody had to,
Speaker 3: you know, and it was motivating you to do something,
Speaker 3: even if it was clean up your ron. Right like
Speaker 3: you talked about your I tend to agree with you.
Speaker 3: There are very few songs about love like that ribbon
Speaker 3: in the sky and where is the ribbon in the
Speaker 3: sky today?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Where is the rocket love? What is it writing in
Speaker 3: the rocket? Where's anything written by cev one? Yeah?
Speaker 1: We further folks who are are audio and if I
Speaker 1: will invite you, like if there are people I don't
Speaker 1: be I'm not over London, but I just feel like
Speaker 1: that's just kind of like, you know, no shame, but
Speaker 1: I just feel like it's.
Speaker 3: It's to your point, it's been done and he's really
Speaker 3: talented artist, but you want to say unique, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: let us know who we should be listening to. Like
Speaker 3: I don't know if.
Speaker 2: The groove.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to think of like the last like love
Speaker 4: song where it's like, oh you want that to be
Speaker 4: your wedding song? And I think that was like by
Speaker 4: Major this is why I Love you so long ago.
Speaker 2: So I mean that's what I'm saying, Like I do
Speaker 2: agree with y'all, like it is missing, Yeah, there's a
Speaker 2: lot missing. The music is changing.
Speaker 1: I think about like some of the songs I listen
Speaker 1: to and I talk about it.
Speaker 2: I really did not know what I was.
Speaker 1: Saying, but you know you would have, like you, I
Speaker 1: have been taking my little ten year old place that
Speaker 1: I didn't even know I felt it. And I wonder
Speaker 1: like who are the artists that take younger people to
Speaker 1: that place now? And you know, I don't know Eric Kabaidu,
Speaker 1: who was also a game changer. I think she one
Speaker 1: of my favorite songs Liberation, and it's a song that
Speaker 1: Erka Baidu did with Outcasts and it's I think I
Speaker 1: think Ever Write album is one, but it's an outcast
Speaker 1: Erka Badu song and there's a line in it where
Speaker 1: she says, all you want to do is give the
Speaker 1: world your heart. Record label try to make you compromise
Speaker 1: your heart? And I think so many artists can probably
Speaker 1: understand that, did the record label ever try to make
Speaker 1: you compromise who you were?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: So yes, from the perspective of, you know, outward appearance.
Speaker 3: Right creatively, we had creative license. I wrote maybe eighty
Speaker 3: percent of the records. Thank god they allowed us to
Speaker 3: do it. And because we were signing Michael Jackson's label,
Speaker 3: I think that there was a certain sensibility that we,
Speaker 3: you know, that he had that we were able to
Speaker 3: make from well we worked with him, not like we're
Speaker 3: in the sudre like hey, Mike, what you think of
Speaker 3: this same? But he did get you know, and that
Speaker 3: and that is where I have to say. They gave
Speaker 3: us freedom because they allowed us to move to New
Speaker 3: York and they would introduce us to all of these
Speaker 3: producers and we would just go in and vibe, and
Speaker 3: that's when albums took a year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a body of work. It was a
Speaker 2: body of work. Now, when you say they allowed you
Speaker 2: to move to New York, is the record label paying
Speaker 2: for you?
Speaker 3: So listen, here's the thing, honey. We were doing car
Speaker 3: services and all kind of sugar honey. I see yeah,
Speaker 3: and then there you get.
Speaker 1: Here like, oh yeah, I got car service that you
Speaker 1: had for that year and a half. That's five hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty nine million dollars. So we definitely learned the
Speaker 1: hard way that you don't just and you're young. We're
Speaker 1: twenty two, twenty three years old. We're like, hey, this
Speaker 1: is cool. We're not taking the taxi, we're not taking
Speaker 1: the train. We want car mail, car service. And then
Speaker 1: you realize I was a mistake. But in terms of
Speaker 1: like when it got to the place and were like, okay,
Speaker 1: so maybe you should try some diapens or maybe there's
Speaker 1: always someone who's not really the label but closely connected
Speaker 1: to them, Like you know, I literally had major surgery.
Speaker 3: I had a tummy tuck and life a section. I
Speaker 3: talked about it all the time at twenty three, going
Speaker 3: on twenty four years old.
Speaker 2: My mom did not even know.
Speaker 3: I didn't even call my mom say like, hey, Mom,
Speaker 3: I'm going to have the surgery, because I knew she'd be.
Speaker 1: Like are you are you right? Why did you do it?
Speaker 1: Because I had very little I didn't start off with
Speaker 1: a little selmestine. See, I'm a girl who is heavy set,
Speaker 1: big girl. Cut my hair off natural, like you cut
Speaker 1: your yes, yes fine to me, Yeah, this is the
Speaker 1: women in my family rocked short natural hair. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then as I started to realize that the more
Speaker 3: detroit I was, the less I fit into that sort
Speaker 3: of la artists mode. So there was someone who literally
Speaker 3: referred me to a cosmetic surgery. I went to the
Speaker 3: same doctor who did Michael surgery.
Speaker 2: Why oh yeah.
Speaker 3: I had a whole full on tummy tuck and everything,
Speaker 3: and my mom did not know.
Speaker 2: I have my sister go with me, and she's like,
Speaker 2: you should tell me, you should tell me to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then another after I had the tummy tut I
Speaker 3: still didn't have a really bad case of body dysmorphia
Speaker 3: or whatever, and took fin finn back twelve shot yes
Speaker 3: and got always unhealthy skinny.
Speaker 1: And was the the ozpic and exactly yesteryear.
Speaker 3: And I'll never forget going home and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: everybody's going to see me.
Speaker 2: And my my mom opened the door and she was
Speaker 2: just like.
Speaker 1: Ah and I fly, yeah, yeah, I look sick. She
Speaker 1: was worried about Yes, yeah, of course, well I want
Speaker 1: to We have to pay some bills here, because that's
Speaker 1: how it goes. So I wanted to take a really
Speaker 1: quick break. But on the other side of this break,
Speaker 1: I want to ask you all about the industry itself,
Speaker 1: because you said that you don't feel safe in the industry,
Speaker 1: and there have certainly been you alluded to, you know,
Speaker 1: moguls who have been in the cross hairs of late.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk about that. Get her on
Speaker 1: the other side of the string. Okay, y'all already know
Speaker 1: the streets are talking, talking, talking, all right.
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
Speaker 1: So before we went to break, we were talking about
Speaker 1: feeling unsafe in this industry. You you know, alluded to
Speaker 1: executives saying, oh have you considered this or that now?
Speaker 1: And I'm sure this has been going on forever, but
Speaker 1: now there is actual documented harm happening to young women
Speaker 1: in particular in this industry, and I don't think we
Speaker 1: can have this conversation without talking about R. Kelly, and
Speaker 1: R Kelly has been tried and convicted and so some
Speaker 1: of the accusations against him, it was a lot of
Speaker 1: young girls being left in his care, so to speak,
Speaker 1: most famously Aliyah, who has signed an NDA. And I
Speaker 1: will be honest with you. I remember watching our because
Speaker 1: as a society we watched it, so we have the
Speaker 1: whole now. We saw this grown man with this teenager,
Speaker 1: and I was Aliah and I were close in age.
Speaker 1: I may have been like a couple of years older
Speaker 1: than her, but I remember seeing them and thinking, yeah, guys, okay,
Speaker 1: he understands her. They're like best friends. Like I totally
Speaker 1: get it. She's mature like me. I was not with her,
Speaker 1: and that was not normal, nothing normal about it. And
Speaker 1: I just wonder what that type of predatory behavior looks
Speaker 1: like now.
Speaker 2: And you said that you don't feel safe, So what
Speaker 2: are we not seeing?
Speaker 4: I guess more personally with my experience, it is me
Speaker 4: trying to just simply work on music and just sexual
Speaker 4: advances being made. So whether it's just like I'm working
Speaker 4: with a producer and it is like a fill up
Speaker 4: or something like that, or it's you know, the premise
Speaker 4: of the conversation before working together is like, Oh, you're
Speaker 4: really talented, I really want to.
Speaker 2: Work with you.
Speaker 4: And then you go to the session to work and
Speaker 4: it's a lot of flirtation and a lot of like
Speaker 4: just sexual advances, and it's it's weird. It's extremely weird
Speaker 4: because it's like why you should want to I don't
Speaker 4: know if this is like your passion or you feel
Speaker 4: like your purpose in life, Like focus on the goal
Speaker 4: and don't make me feel uncomfortable and also give me
Speaker 4: the opportunity to choose what I want to do.
Speaker 2: So I think I moved here.
Speaker 4: I moved to Atlanta when I was eighteen, and I
Speaker 4: probably started doing music here maybe around nineteen twenty, and
Speaker 4: it's it had been that maybe the first maybe four years,
Speaker 4: Like I just kept running into men that were that
Speaker 4: worked in these spaces that I couldn't trust and I
Speaker 4: won't just like label producers as the predatory ones.
Speaker 2: It's also like photographers and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: And there are lists that go out on social media
Speaker 4: of like people that you should just stay away from.
Speaker 4: Wow wow, Yeah, people make like whole social media accounts
Speaker 4: geared to just protect women in these spaces because it's
Speaker 4: I mean, this is a creative like town. Yeah like this,
Speaker 4: this is where people come to do art and to
Speaker 4: amplify what they're doing. So yeah, but it happened so much,
Speaker 4: so they have to make these spaces, yeah and keep
Speaker 4: the conversation going.
Speaker 2: Well, you didn't have that bull.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean you didn't have the protection. Oh no,
Speaker 1: we didn't have the protection. We did not have the
Speaker 1: list on social media.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it's been a very toxic, awful, terrible place.
Speaker 3: When you talk about r Kelly and Aliah Elias, my
Speaker 3: little sister from Detroit. You know, when she was here,
Speaker 3: we definitely had a great relationship, and to your point,
Speaker 3: a lot of us turned a blind eye because you're
Speaker 3: just taught. Unlike now, it's what goes on. You need
Speaker 3: to take it or leave it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: And not let me let me say this. We weren't
Speaker 3: aware of how far things were going with r Kelly
Speaker 3: and Aliah, but everybody had heard that they were married
Speaker 3: and she was only so you know, allegedly. I don't know,
Speaker 3: was there a mariage certificate? Yeah, we'll fact check that,
Speaker 3: but I'm and it's terrible because you grow to you know,
Speaker 3: you grow to have the industry love for these people,
Speaker 3: right because every time I've ever met Robert he was
Speaker 3: nothing but polite. I thought he was a musical genius.
Speaker 3: I remember sitting in the studio with him, having him
Speaker 3: play a record that was so phenomenal, it was like
Speaker 3: the South African choir. I was just like, what can't
Speaker 3: you do? Everybody here is I believe I can fly?
Speaker 3: And you're like, oh my god. And you don't know
Speaker 3: that he's been enabled by a lot of people in
Speaker 3: this industry to have really destructive, toxic behavior towards young women.
Speaker 3: And what's sad is that people get away with being enablers.
Speaker 3: People get away with booking flights and setting up studio
Speaker 3: sessions and even sending their children to the presidor, and
Speaker 3: we don't address those issues, which are often more important
Speaker 3: to address than the actual predator himself, because you know,
Speaker 3: he can't do it alone, and those people are still
Speaker 3: here to do it for whomever else is willing.
Speaker 1: I'll say something controversial. I think two things can be true.
Speaker 1: I think R Kelly is a musical genius. I think
Speaker 1: the things that he did in music. When he was
Speaker 1: doing the music with the Isley Brothers, I'm like, this
Speaker 1: man put a soap opera music, you know, literally a
Speaker 1: soap opera so music. I thought that was very innovative.
Speaker 1: I also think R Kelly is a sexual predator editor.
Speaker 1: I also think R Kelly is a victim of sexual abuse.
Speaker 1: I think all those things can be true. The whole
Speaker 1: campaign to mute R Kelly. I do find that interesting
Speaker 1: because if we start looking at the personal lives of some.
Speaker 2: Of our favorite artists, we're gonna right.
Speaker 1: I wonder where that lies, right, I wonder like, does
Speaker 1: an artist's personal life matter? Should it impact how we
Speaker 1: view their music or if we listen to their.
Speaker 3: Music again, that's where you get into artist's development and
Speaker 3: holding these executives that give these people deals responsible. You
Speaker 3: cannot tell me that the first that anybody's ever heard
Speaker 3: of what our Kelly was doing was when we all
Speaker 3: heard of it in the news.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And if you can't get to it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: you look at all these these shows where they got
Speaker 3: to get to the Queen.
Speaker 1: Bee or you know what I'm saying, gets to the high.
Speaker 1: Get about these minions get to the high, then it
Speaker 1: will all stop. That is what this industry has become.
Speaker 1: It has become a place where we have to name
Speaker 1: the problem in a much bigger way because now it's
Speaker 1: gone from r Kelly to the next.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what we heard about yees?
Speaker 1: Okay, well let's talk about that. So a lady, Yes,
Speaker 1: Diddy has been accused by Chassie, an next girlfriend whom
Speaker 1: he dated for ten years on and off, and the
Speaker 1: New York Times I think this is in December, I
Speaker 1: can't remember, but months ago dropped an expose, if you will,
Speaker 1: about what she allegedly endured with Diddy. Things have since escalated.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what agency, Maybe the FBI. They raided
Speaker 1: his LA Homeland Security raided his homes in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and Miami. By the time it airs, we don't know
Speaker 1: where this story will be. I do want to make
Speaker 1: it clear he as a the time of this recording,
Speaker 1: has not been charged with anything, and so we don't
Speaker 1: know what happened.
Speaker 2: However, some of the accusations that have come out about
Speaker 2: him and how he was treating women around him are
Speaker 2: quite disturbing and also quite consistent with some of the
Speaker 2: nightmare stories that we're hearing about this industry.
Speaker 1: I just wonder is there a safe way to enter
Speaker 1: this industry and still be in community with powerful men.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not no, no, not at all. I mean,
Speaker 2: what's the solution.
Speaker 1: More women need to be mobile than perhaps, sure, but
Speaker 1: I mean women are capable of these things too. Really,
Speaker 1: give me an example, what do you mean women?
Speaker 4: I mean women can be predators too, right, Like it's
Speaker 4: not if it's like sexual predators.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it can be sexual.
Speaker 4: I mean I guess that's like creating Yes, yes, because
Speaker 4: I mean the start of R.
Speaker 2: Kelly's story is his sister. Yeah, him, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So I'm not going to say it's just a man
Speaker 4: thing that we are focusing on two men and for sure,
Speaker 4: but yeah, no, I.
Speaker 2: Think it's I don't know, it's just become extremely dangerous.
Speaker 4: And I think one of the conversations that I have
Speaker 4: with my sister kind of surrounding this topic is like,
Speaker 4: anybody with money has power, which means they have access.
Speaker 4: And sometimes having too much access means you kind of
Speaker 4: fall into this idea of like I can do and
Speaker 4: get whatever I want. And it might start small, and
Speaker 4: like I don't really have an example, but it could
Speaker 4: start you know, fairly small, but then it becomes an
Speaker 4: itch that you can't really scratch. So that small thing
Speaker 4: then becomes bigger and bigger, and then it spins out
Speaker 4: of control. So whatever the start of R. Kelly's story
Speaker 4: was in him becoming a predator, it started small. And
Speaker 4: if he had maybe if people were holding him accountable
Speaker 4: and saw those things and called it out, and maybe
Speaker 4: it wouldn't have spun this huge web and impacted so
Speaker 4: many lives. And even with the ditty situation, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting that it's like sex, drugs and rock
Speaker 1: and roll right, like this are the prevalent things, yeah,
Speaker 1: in our spaces.
Speaker 2: And I just wonder, like, what is the way to
Speaker 2: produce great music?
Speaker 1: You know, offer consumers great art, be paid a fair wage,
Speaker 1: fairly considered for, to be honored for your work at
Speaker 1: award shows, and to manage to do this without you know,
Speaker 1: having the foul bankruptcy or be raped or assaulting, you know,
Speaker 1: like is that possible?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it goes back to what you said about You're
Speaker 3: absolutely right. Women are also can also be predators. But
Speaker 3: what I found is, and Chanty and I were just
Speaker 3: talking about this, if there were more women in positions
Speaker 3: of power. Now we got to understand what power is
Speaker 3: the ability to say this does not go to air,
Speaker 3: this is not going to We're not going to play
Speaker 3: this on the radio. And I hate to put on
Speaker 3: my auntie hat, but I have to say. A woman
Speaker 3: by the name of c Delores Tucker warned us about
Speaker 3: Kelly and.
Speaker 2: Diddy and hip hop and pop and they made a
Speaker 2: song I Wonder why they call you bitch? Yeah, and dedicated.
Speaker 2: You know, you understand what I'm saying. And it wasn't
Speaker 2: Jesse de Lord Tucker, Delora Tucker.
Speaker 3: It was the mother's of the civil rights movement, Dione
Speaker 3: Warld with Melbourne Moore, a bunch of women who because
Speaker 3: there the reality is there are far more men who
Speaker 3: engage in these activities and women, and typically women are
Speaker 3: going to have this. You know, let's really talk about
Speaker 3: whether or not this is what you want to do.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about whether or not this lyric is gonna fly.
Speaker 3: So once you've allowed those lyrics to penetrate our audience,
Speaker 3: like we talked about Saturday cleaning the trip music, once
Speaker 3: you've been caught so many times, once you've been caught
Speaker 3: a wholesome once it has been normalized, right, and we
Speaker 3: have shown them that we enjoyed dancing to music that
Speaker 3: basically destroys our communities every single day. They're like, all
Speaker 3: we're doing is capitalizing, monetizing off of what you guys
Speaker 3: were telling us that you enjoyed.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I danced around with Luke Skttwalker.
Speaker 3: But we get to the beat and if the lyrics
Speaker 3: were different in the same.
Speaker 1: Cadence, Yeah, yeah, Well, I mean there were there were
Speaker 1: songs that I dnsu that I like that I knew
Speaker 1: the lyrics.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Luke was definitely one of those. I mean in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: like bass music was the thing that's it. But I
Speaker 1: can't lie Like when Low Down Camp, I was definitely
Speaker 1: out there like wow, I don't know. But I do
Speaker 1: want to address what you said about Ceve the Lauras Sucker,
Speaker 1: because this was a big deal when this happened, and
Speaker 1: I think a lot of black men felt attacked and
Speaker 1: the same way that women were feeling attacked. But black
Speaker 1: men felt attacked because they were producing music reflective of
Speaker 1: their environment.
Speaker 2: And that's another thing. It was more authentic thing.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like this commercial lives hip hop lest invent
Speaker 1: this poverty story.
Speaker 2: You know, you weren't ever poor.
Speaker 1: These guys were like from the hood and they were saying,
Speaker 1: this is what we deal with. And they were, you know,
Speaker 1: calling women bitches and hoes and in their mind like
Speaker 1: they weren't around seed the Lauris Tucker's you know.
Speaker 3: The police and they say, no, no, no, you can't do that,
Speaker 3: right but right but never no, no, no, you can't call
Speaker 3: a woman a bit.
Speaker 1: So that I agree with because to me, then the
Speaker 1: challenge is it is a white run industry where the
Speaker 1: power rests solely in the hands of white people who
Speaker 1: don't have a problem with you know, when fuck the
Speaker 1: Police came out, it was an anthem, it was a
Speaker 1: rallying cry. It wasn't about a beat. It was about survival.
Speaker 1: It was about sheer survival. And what happened to NWA
Speaker 1: moments was where they recorded that song, they were assaulted
Speaker 1: by police officers. So you kind of got it, and
Speaker 1: I do. I just want to make this point because
Speaker 1: I don't want black men to feel attacked. Here, brothers,
Speaker 1: we're not attacking. But I do want to make the
Speaker 1: point that when you were going through that and you
Speaker 1: were being oppressed by you know, this system, and by
Speaker 1: white male faces who are part of this system. And
Speaker 1: then you had this group of black women come out
Speaker 1: and saying, shame on y'all for doing that. I can
Speaker 1: imagine that hurt. You know.
Speaker 2: There's some that.
Speaker 3: Hurts when you are outside after the street lights come
Speaker 3: on and your auntie tells you or your grandma tells you,
Speaker 3: could you hurt?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: I am maybe as hard as it is for black
Speaker 3: men to accept the criticism from the old aunties telling
Speaker 3: them how they should be at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: most of them after they became moguls, they didn't have
Speaker 3: that mentality once they grew up and they realized, you
Speaker 3: know what, Auntie the Lords and Auntie Dion were actually
Speaker 3: right right. So that goes to it basically touches on
Speaker 3: a bigger issue in our community, which is the respect
Speaker 3: that we have for our elders and the people who
Speaker 3: came before us, and the people who are saying this
Speaker 3: because they see what you don't in your seventeen eighteen
Speaker 3: year old testop throne driven mind sees. But these folks
Speaker 3: are going to allow you to say whatever you want
Speaker 3: to say and do whatever you want to do because
Speaker 3: they can monetize it. And the fact is, I don't
Speaker 3: think what she was trying to do is to say,
Speaker 3: don't speak from your lived experiences. I think what she
Speaker 3: was trying to do is say, number one is not
Speaker 3: going to age. Well, number two, can we make sure
Speaker 3: that young kids who are not out here at the
Speaker 3: level that you are, there's a parental advisory sticker or
Speaker 3: whatever the case may be, and holding the companies accountable,
Speaker 3: putting some of the bonus on me, these executives and
Speaker 3: these labels that are making millions and millions of dollars
Speaker 3: out of what we now have off of what we
Speaker 3: now see is the destruction of our community. Whether they
Speaker 3: felt attacked or not, is they were absolutely correct.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I didn't agree with it at the time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was thinking what to call you?
Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh god, well, did we disrespect these
Speaker 3: women who were really trying to prevent us from being
Speaker 3: where we are today? Yeah, So I'd like to know
Speaker 3: what Tray thinks about. Was c Delora Tucker was talking about?
Speaker 6: Now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd like to know what I mean. Look at
Speaker 3: Tupac and Piggy think about it. They were younger than you,
Speaker 3: and yeah.
Speaker 1: Well you know this is we're talking about hip hop
Speaker 1: and the bull of time we've been I'm sorry because
Speaker 1: they the two I think converged. You know, the confluence
Speaker 1: of hip hop and R and B really happened with incidentally, Diddy.
Speaker 1: When Diddy put out Mary, it was a very hip
Speaker 1: hop beat Diddy and I Andre was you know, they
Speaker 1: ran bad way together. And that's when these two very
Speaker 1: different styles of music married, and they where they remain today.
Speaker 1: I don't know, they have to be married and unhappy.
Speaker 1: They are merged today. And so you have like rap
Speaker 1: singing and you have pure R and B with a
Speaker 1: rap lyric on it. You know, it might be a
Speaker 1: Kendrick Lamargert on an R and B song. So I
Speaker 1: do appreciate the consolence of these styles of music, but
Speaker 1: some of that, like rugged edge hip hop, uh kind
Speaker 1: of infiltrated R and B for sure, Like ballads went
Speaker 1: away and it was more direct and like the poetry
Speaker 1: of it. The allegory of R and B went away
Speaker 1: and it was more like you know, but wid oh
Speaker 1: before you know, and it was just it just became
Speaker 1: a different industry. But again, audience, if y'all know, people
Speaker 1: like what are you okay?
Speaker 2: Death row? I mean I love Dre.
Speaker 3: I think he's genius. But death Row, bad Boy, Murder, inc.
Speaker 3: Like you know what I'm saying, how do we justify?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was like that's true. It was all very it was.
Speaker 1: It was and like you listen to Biggie Lyrics and
Speaker 1: Biggie and Pop are my favorites, Like Pot was my brother,
Speaker 1: you know, but this ship is crazy when you really
Speaker 1: think about it, and what they're doing is ready to die,
Speaker 1: you know, such and such a you know, we're out
Speaker 1: here repeating these mantras. And I'm just the person who
Speaker 1: believes that you summon that energy to you in our community.
Speaker 2: I would say, like Biggie, he listen. I remember listening
Speaker 2: to Biggie having to look up in the dictionary.
Speaker 1: He was a lyrics, Pot was a poet, a visionary.
Speaker 2: Yes, he was an activist.
Speaker 1: He was so many things in his language was was
Speaker 1: wrapped in vulgarity, you know, and I just thought that
Speaker 1: was okay. I think now with R and B and
Speaker 1: hip hop, you know, kind of combining forces there are
Speaker 1: I have not anyway heard a lot of songs of activism,
Speaker 1: like I remember Brenda's Got a Baby, which was you
Speaker 1: know that hook was very r and dear Mama, Dear
Speaker 1: Mama very much. And then you know, Jodices started performing
Speaker 1: with like hip hop artists and now it's like that
Speaker 1: happens all the time. It's not even a big deal.
Speaker 1: And I remember just thinking, like, where are the songs
Speaker 1: that are speaking to an issue? You know, because you
Speaker 1: can do that in R and B two like marmon gay,
Speaker 1: what's going on? You know, wake up Everybody? Like all
Speaker 1: these songs that were kind of messic songs, I don't
Speaker 1: see them. But perhaps our new young artist, like.
Speaker 3: Everything has to be like so super inspirational. Love in
Speaker 3: and of itself is like I'm sorry, it's.
Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah, you might have a whole catalog. No, I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 4: I'm over here, Like while you're speaking, I'm like, who
Speaker 4: can I think of that has made like maybe a
Speaker 4: motivational song?
Speaker 2: And I think the song that came to mind was
Speaker 2: like rise.
Speaker 1: Up, but yes, that's a good one. Yeah years, I
Speaker 1: don't know, but yeah, yeah, Well but I'm sitting here.
Speaker 1: I don't mean to impose, because I'm sure people impose
Speaker 1: on you all all the time, But would you all
Speaker 1: like to hear me sing?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, I'd like to hear you off. You did
Speaker 2: not want to hear me.
Speaker 1: I cannot carry you tune if it was waitless, okay,
Speaker 1: to be polite, bright eyes got a thing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: she says to the young lady, that's one of your
Speaker 1: original songs.
Speaker 2: I was hearing.
Speaker 4: I want to see like what because I'm writing like music.
Speaker 4: I want to lord, you put me on the spot.
Speaker 1: I might forget my lyrics that I've seen the song
Speaker 1: that you know the best. You don't have seen the
Speaker 1: whole song, just a stanza of one song. We can't
Speaker 1: pay for a concert.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'll just do something that like I kind of
Speaker 4: wrote to like inspire myself.
Speaker 1: Okay, do you want me to sing backup? Are you yourself?
Speaker 1: Well you say you didn't want to.
Speaker 2: Say, I don't. I don't want to mess up.
Speaker 5: Okay you os yeah you oh yeah yeah you are
Speaker 5: us yeah yeah you oh yeah you oh yeah you
Speaker 5: you o rus.
Speaker 6: Yeah you love a chim You need attention. But not
Speaker 6: from them is not the answer. It's not the truth.
Speaker 6: Study luck and bone. It's nothing from you. I love
Speaker 6: his actions. We feel it's truth.
Speaker 2: Baby.
Speaker 6: The interesting interest is you buddies instident buddies in consistent steady, gotcha, Chip,
Speaker 6: I'm like messing.
Speaker 1: You are see that's beautiful. It was amazing Beau track
Speaker 1: and all this. It was very beautiful and singing. I
Speaker 1: was singing Lauren, Lauren h.
Speaker 3: Like and girl like she blessed us and we yes, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's you see what happened there.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The other thing is other cultures don't have to do it.
Speaker 2: The other folks don't have to sing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I still don't quite know what happened with Lauren Hill,
Speaker 1: but I know it's some trauma that she was overcoming
Speaker 1: with a lot in the industry and industry full of men. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: speaking of what would you like to sing for.
Speaker 3: Us today with just a few bars with the old face?
Speaker 2: Okay, I don't know this, but I'm starting. It's a
Speaker 2: question that was me.
Speaker 7: I'm not looking for all the bad based on true
Speaker 7: not just Dick moltiping. You will not hurt my pride
Speaker 7: if not you.
Speaker 1: That you Yeah, okay, I was. I was mouthing while
Speaker 1: you were singing along, and we dubbed that voice over
Speaker 1: you look like I was singing. Yeah, that song still
Speaker 1: takes me right back. So like artists development, Yes, I honestly,
Speaker 1: if I could sing, I would sing all. I would
Speaker 1: have sung the whole interview if I could sing. So
Speaker 1: I know what it's like when people are constantly asking
Speaker 1: you to share your gifts. I want to thank you
Speaker 1: both sharing your gift, not just your beautiful voices, you songbirds,
Speaker 1: but just your gift of wisdom. Thank you, and your
Speaker 1: gift of hope about where music is going. I feel inspired.
Speaker 1: I look forward to hearing about new artists and all
Speaker 1: the people that the viewers are going to tell us.
Speaker 1: And so it's been just a pleasures, so honored to
Speaker 1: me in your community, so loved and admired. Really necessary conversation,
Speaker 1: so important conversation.
Speaker 2: What was the name of the song you did, Well,
Speaker 2: it's not out.
Speaker 1: Also the music that came to you, Well, when you
Speaker 1: put that music out there, we were your debut audience
Speaker 1: and we love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So for the people who just heard you belt out
Speaker 1: that beautiful too, where can we find you?
Speaker 2: How do we get your music? Yeah?
Speaker 4: So I'm on all like music platforms, so Spotify, Apple Music,
Speaker 4: anything like that. My latest project is called Oasis. It's
Speaker 4: a three part project. Nine songs, so I mean nine
Speaker 4: minutes is like very very very short, but a but
Speaker 4: a good dose and experience and then you can follow
Speaker 4: me on social media at Simmy Somaya. That's s I
Speaker 4: am am I E, s I am A like, I
Speaker 4: love it beautiful.
Speaker 2: And are you Are you in the studio these days?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, yes we are. The song I just
Speaker 3: sang If You Love Me turns thirty October twenty one,
Speaker 3: thirty Oh my god, and then our album turns thirty
Speaker 3: January ten.
Speaker 2: That song is older than you. Yes it is, Yes,
Speaker 2: it is, Yes it is.
Speaker 3: So we're excited about releasing a new thirty year version
Speaker 3: of our album from the bottom of thirty years ago
Speaker 3: and Brown's official everywhere we're on the road.
Speaker 2: Okay, excited. We have a show with y'ls this summer
Speaker 2: and I come to the South. I love it. Now
Speaker 2: you're saying that the thirty year edition of this song
Speaker 2: is going to be out, but we're covering remaking Okay,
Speaker 2: let's swifting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, our first album which came out January tenth, nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety five. So January ten, twenty twenty five, we're releasing
Speaker 3: a new record, okay, and the single we're releasing an
Speaker 3: advance of the record.
Speaker 2: We're gonna do an old school thing put a single.
Speaker 1: Out, yeah, the album octob Now, how should we get
Speaker 1: that because.
Speaker 3: I would also dot com Okay, streaming it on a
Speaker 3: streaming platform, okay, worst media, women in reality, film, music
Speaker 3: and media. I love w I R S media.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's the best place to get it. That
Speaker 1: is supporting the artists and okay, all right, we will that,
Speaker 1: we might put out a record, we might throw.
Speaker 2: Back your album somewhere just for people to have. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm excited about this. You all give me hope
Speaker 1: about where R and B is going. I look forward
Speaker 1: to hearing about new artists from our audience. And uh,
Speaker 1: we just really appreciate you guys.
Speaker 2: To RB is not dead. It's gonna save music. Oh
Speaker 2: I love that. And we're gonna save because I love it.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Well this has been a great conversation.
Speaker 1: I think so much, so much. We'll have to have
Speaker 1: this conversation again. I think it might have to be
Speaker 1: one on hip hop exactly that we might have be
Speaker 1: a part of this. All right, Well, thank you guys.
Speaker 1: I know you probably have a lot of thoughts, so
Speaker 1: please be sure to rate and review across generations. Let
Speaker 1: us know what you thought about this episode and what
Speaker 1: you think about the series in particular. Also, I'm a
Speaker 1: crazy neurotic person I read all your comments, so drop
Speaker 1: us a comment. If you're watching this on YouTube, be
Speaker 1: nice and let us know what you think about the
Speaker 1: show and just weigh in with some new artists who
Speaker 1: we should check out on Instagram, YouTube, wherever you catch
Speaker 1: us and we will see you next time on the
Speaker 1: next episode of A Cross Generation. Across Generations is brought
Speaker 1: to you by Will Packer and will Packer Media in
Speaker 1: partnership with iHeart Podcast I'm Your Host and executive producer
Speaker 1: Tiffany d Cross from Idea to Launch Productions Executive producer
Speaker 1: Carla Willmerit. Produced by Mandy Be and Angel Forte, editing,
Speaker 1: sound design and mixed by Gaza Forte. Original music by
Speaker 1: Epidemic Sound Video editing by Kathon Alexander and Courtney Dan