WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Dawnn Lewis 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.040 Quests Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:05.120 Mm hmm. 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:13.920 Suprema Son Supremo role called Suprema Son Supremo. Roll call 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:21.400 Suprema So some supremo role called Suprema Son Sun Supremo roll. 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:26.000 Call MS Love Supreme. Yeah. The podcast Champ Yeah here 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:26.960 with Don Lewis. 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:32.280 Yeah, I'm not asking about Cramps. 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:36.680 Supremo role called Supreme So Supreme. 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:37.600 Role call. 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.760 My name is Sugar, Yeah, sweet as a muffin. Yeah, 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.600 but I ain't puffing around. Grandma is stuffing. 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:52.760 Suprema Supremo, roll Supreme Supremo. 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:57.440 Roll call, My name is Boss Bill, Yeah, keep keeping on. Yeah, 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.200 in the words such word is keeping there is in 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:00.920 this song. 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:08.600 Supreme So Supreme, So Supreme. 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:09.479 Roll call. 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.280 My name is Don. Yeah. You can call me Jalisa, Yeah, 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.920 you can call me Zelma. Yeah, just call me health there. 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:29.040 Right now, Supremo, Supreme, Supreme, Subpreme. 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:32.479 Supreme. 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:35.119 Wow. 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:37.560 And I'm flying your background vocals into every role called 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:42.760 we can you you out did Charlie Wilson Q TIP 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:49.400 trying to go rogue on the ladies and gentlemen. Welcome 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.440 to another soon to be classic episode of q LS. 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:55.480 I'm your host quest Love with Me today is the 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:57.160 legendary Sugar Steve. 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:01.200 Wow, Sugar, Hey, I upgraded you to legend appreciate that. 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.240 Yeah, I Figu're gonna update my resume right now my 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:06.320 bio and yeah, put legendary at the time. 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:07.920 You're the legendary Sugar Steve. 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:10.920 You know the songs for everything Sugar. 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:16.880 Already? Wait, do we have to pay for the archies? 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:19.400 Yeah? I don't know. Okay, anyway, they're all gone. 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.480 We got the boss the bosses, Boss Bill, that's me. 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:26.240 Yeah, it's a song for that too, William Marry Big. 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:29.760 I'm only kidding, don't you know? 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.320 All right, So, do we have a theme for two 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.680 negligend fathers who walk out on their kids going out 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:44.560 for cigarettes for a Yeah, unpaid and fante out in 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.560 the world smoking cigarettes. They promised they'd be back, but 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.360 you know, I don't know. If it's quiet again. Uh, 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:57.440 if it's rather quiet around here, it's because Layah has 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.880 also taken up smoking cigarettes, and she went out and 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.760 said she'll be back momentarily, so we'll trust that she'll 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.440 be back next episode. Ladies and Gentlemen, Today, as I 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:10.960 said earlier, should be a rather amazing episode. 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:16.200 Our guest is a renaissance woman. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.200 You know, some we always hear the term like a 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:23.440 renaissance man or whatever, but I'd rarely hear women described 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:28.200 in the same sort of superlatives. If you will, I 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:34.680 will say she's multifaceted, multi talented, pretty much as a singer, songwriter, 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.840 as an actress, be it whatever medium of stage, television, movies. 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:45.080 With a gazillion impressive credit to boot, I will personally 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:51.400 say that she's probably part of the most life changing 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:55.240 ensemble for me personally. I'm speaking of her work on 0:03:55.520 --> 0:04:00.520 a different world as Jalisa Vincent, which I could say 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:04.560 single handedly inspired me not even to go to college, 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:09.040 but to be more intelligent, Like that's how I can 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:14.920 you know That's and I'm saying in the most non 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:17.760 eloquent way possible because Steve is looking at me, like, 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.039 who are you right now? Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:26.160 to Questlo Supreme Don Lewis, Hey, everybody. 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.240 Wow, I'm truly humbled. What a beautiful thing to say. 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:30.160 Thank you so much. 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.360 I wasn't looking at your funny I'm I'm taking it 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:35.720 in usually, no, you give me this. 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:38.760 I'm wondering how you know the last name of the 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.000 character on the show, like usually you remember the first. 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.479 Game Lisa Vincent Taylor. 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:47.080 Oh say there you go. 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.360 Yeah, that's okay. How many names did you have? 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:51.760 You know? 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.040 What you have to understand is, I know it's it's 0:04:55.160 --> 0:05:00.440 weird that having binged it in probably a ten day 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:02.880 period the entire series. 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.360 Wow, I can't. Yeah, I have time on my hands. 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.600 When I'll know, you know, I want to get my 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:15.359 hair braided, traveling whatnot in the jacuzzi. 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:20.080 Yes, yes, it's conscious image. 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:22.880 At the local wire, not in my house because I 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.080 can't afford one yet. I will say that, Yeah, the 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:30.000 show was definitely way ahead of its time as far 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:34.400 as like subject matter and things that are still relevant 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:39.160 today and whatnot. But most importantly, I think that when 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:43.080 it first came on, I mean I don't think I 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:47.880 had aspirations or even new I was college material or 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:52.720 that sort of thing. So seeing that on television for 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.960 me probably more life changing than seeing The Cosby Show. 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:57.960 So and now I know that you guys don't get 0:05:58.640 --> 0:05:59.360 enough praise for that. 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:00.520 Appreciate that. 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:04.360 That's my fan worship for the hour, So thank you 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:04.880 so much. 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.280 I did watch Different World, but in reading up on it, 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.760 it seems like that shows created almost specifically to talk 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.240 about issues that weren't being talked about on The Cosby Show. 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.799 More so than just like a vehicle for Lisa Bonet 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:20.520 or spin off. 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:20.920 It was. 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:24.800 It was not so much comparatively to The Cosby Show, 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.680 but just what wasn't being talked about today and what 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:30.640 particularly young people were dealing with and faced with. You know, 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:32.839 when you go from the shelter of your parents' home 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.160 out into the real world, all of a sudden, so 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.200 many things start smacking you in the face that nobody 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:41.360 necessarily taught you how to deal with. Yet it's there 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:45.760 and in your life, in your relationships, all of it. 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.840 And they wanted to keep it authentic to what we 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:52.800 were dealing with at the time. And like you, I 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.520 went to college and had just graduated just a couple 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.360 of years before. But it wasn't until I started doing 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.080 a Different World World that it clicked for me what 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.640 an HBCU was Because we had those commercials of mind 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:07.680 is a terrible thing to waste with a person of color, 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:09.400 and you think, well, that makes sense, everybody should get 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:11.920 into ed education. I didn't put two and two together 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.800 that that was talking about a specific grouping of schools 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.960 of higher learning for people of color, for af African Americans, 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.280 So even those of us who were in the show 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:26.440 were learning lessons while we were doing the show. And 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.560 my name, I had never heard the name Jalisa before, 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.040 but I was actually named after the wife of one 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:37.640 of mister Cosby's best friends, Jalisa Hazard. And my last name, Vincent, 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.280 was the last name of one of our stage managers, 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:42.000 Chuck Vincent. 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:42.920 I always wondered about that. 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.040 Yeah, Chuck, Chuck Vincent's. He was naming people after every everybody. 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:50.080 Sindbad was named after Walt Hazzard coach Walter Oaks. Yeah, 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:52.240 oh okay, we were all named after somebody after. 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.480 And there there's an episode where Ron mentions that month 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:57.880 for by name and he was like a producer on 0:07:57.880 --> 0:07:58.360 the sho or something. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.880 That was one of our executive producers first season, and 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:05.480 that was one of the first the pioneers of writing 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:08.160 for traditionally white shows when he wrote on Mash. He 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.280 wrote for several different shows and was executive producer. So 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:15.320 we missed him, miss him Dealer. Yeah, Dad was a trailblazer. 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.160 So where were you? Where were you? 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:18.440 Born. 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:23.120 Are you Let's Dyet. 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:24.800 Corner raised Bedstye. We moved six times, but always in Brooklyn. 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.440 So I went from Bedstide to Park Slope, back to 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:31.200 Bedstide to Crown Heights and ultimately Flat Push, about five 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:32.360 blocks from Brooklyn College. 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:38.920 What was your Brooklyn experience? I always ask whenever Brooklyn 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.200 mights come on the show, and I ask, are they 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.199 you know, surprised at how it's transformed since then? 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:46.480 Like? 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:51.360 Oh yeah, when I was coming up in Brooklyn, the 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.640 neighbors I had now are not the neighbors I had then. 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.839 Let's still that way. No. Right now, while I'm here working, 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.640 I'm up in Harlem and Harlem and what it used 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:04.719 to be either I went to high school and home 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:06.440 I went. That was when music and art was up 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.280 on one hundred and thirty fifth Street in Convent, So 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:11.280 that was where I went went to high school, from 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.760 the last stop the junction in Brooklyn, right all the 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.240 way to one hundred and thirty fifth Street in Harlem. 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:18.199 How many hours was that? 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:20.640 That's about an hour and twenty minutes for me to 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:22.040 get to school every day. 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:23.400 What time did you wake up? 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:25.920 I don't even remember. I don't know if I was 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:27.880 awake when I woke up, I just knew. I got 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:28.440 on the train. 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:29.600 No school busing, No. 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.040 No, I got on the number. Okay, they switched the 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:34.959 numbers cause the three and the four used to go 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:36.839 to Flatbush and the two and the five used to 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.280 go to New Lots and Utica. So it took me 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:42.480 like fourteen fifteen years to even be willing to ride 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.560 the subway again. Once I moved to California and I knew, 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:47.800 I knew where I was going, Childo's trains took me 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.760 in all kind of wrong directions. I was like, what 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.840 is happening right now? When did the two start going 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.680 to Flatbush? When did that happen? But no, so yeah, 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.760 by an hour twenty minutes every day to get up 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.480 to high school. So that was when music and art 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.319 and performing arts were in two separate, separate buildings. Music 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.280 and art was where you did vocal music, progressive instrumentals 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:14.120 like the jazz band. Photographic and portrait arts, you know, 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.680 visual arts and performing arts was down in Times Square, 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.439 and that was where you had traditional dance training. It 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:23.319 was on a thing around forty sixth Street or some 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.240 something like that. So is this the fable LaGuardia School 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.760 or LaGuardia School, a fame fame. So about two years 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.439 after my graduation, class was when they put everybody in 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:36.480 one building. And now that's the building that's in Lincoln Center. Okay, 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:44.200 so Brooklyn was very different, humble, honest, grounded, you know, challenging. 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:45.880 I was bullied a lot when I was a kid, 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.720 but I was also popular. Was I was bullied because 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.840 I was popular, if that makes sense. 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:53.680 So you never had the I'm gonna get my brother 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:54.160 to fuck you. 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.280 Oh yeah I did, and I have I'm the only girl, 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:01.280 and I have three brothers, and yeah, they they could 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:03.400 torment me all they wanted, but no one could mess 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.080 with their little little sis sister. So everybody, no, I'm third, 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.760 I'm third, two older and one younger who thinks he's older. 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:14.080 I'm sorry. I called your grandma mixed. 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.959 I'm not sorry, You're not sorry, You're not sorry. 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:22.200 So was it a creative household a musical house? 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.000 I'm the only one. I'm the only one. One of 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.400 my older brothers ultimately got into music, and then he 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.719 started a family. So he got a regular nine to 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.800 five job. He was a paralegal. Now he's in it 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:38.439 and now he recently retired, so now he plays bass 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.240 in a in a trio whenever they feel like it 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:44.440 on week weekends and clubs and stuff. But my oldest 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:48.559 brother grew to be a fireman, so he was a firefighter. 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:51.400 Now he works as a fire marshal and head security 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:53.600 for a building on Park Avenue. And my younger brother 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.040 went into loss. He has his own law firm. And 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:01.280 then there's me singing and dancing and stuff. 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:03.840 Okay, was it was it encouraged or. 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:05.800 Was it just it was encouraged because again, like I 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:08.320 like I said, I had three brothers and my family 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:12.480 is from South America, so very different traditional values of 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:14.959 what is appropriate for a young girl to do and 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:17.520 for a young boy to do. But at the same time, 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:19.920 I wasn't allowed to do anything unless my brothers took me. 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:21.760 Were you first generation born. 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:27.040 First generation American citizen? Yes, and your parents are Guyany 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.319 South South America, Guyana. So they came up and my 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.880 mom one day, I was seven, very tall, athletic because 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:35.920 I was playing handball. That's what you did in Brooklyn. 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:40.280 You played handball, stickball, skellies in the in the skelly Yes, 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:49.319 in the street. Kelly's is a street it's street pool, 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.240 but you play it with with bottle tops and you 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:52.719 pluck it. 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.599 And the amount of times I got in trouble for 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:59.160 stealing milk capsm's milk. 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:01.480 Throw a ball at or something, try and flip it. 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:03.760 Well, no, you would take the milk caps. 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.760 And then or a quarter to give us some more weight. 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:09.520 Yes, yeah, I would go on the street first. I 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:12.280 would take her spoons, which is a no no. Go 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.920 out in the street, find a grease spot and then 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.240 dig for tar of the street and put it inside 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.520 the caps. And then we scrubbed the cap on sidewalks 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:25.160 and go smooth. Freeze it at night and you just dream. 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:27.679 You put in a freezer and then you dream. So 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.600 think of a milk cap with tar. 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:31.920 It's like a hockey puck. 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:35.439 This is why there's no black hockey players. They're all playing. 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.400 So what you do is you draw this big board 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.240 and there are numbers strategically placed around the board, and 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:47.240 you shoot your cap from number to number and sequential order. Okay, 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:52.880 you wait, this is a very cultural different. Marbles go 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.720 Marbles and Brooklyn. They kill small children, they swallow them 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:57.120 and die. 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:06.080 Okay, shot fire shots fire. Yes, you're right, I couldn't 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.760 afford mom, So you shoot. 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.400 Them around the board. And the thing was when it rained, 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.880 that's when parents got really pissed because we had parque 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.560 floors in our house. So we took that same chalk 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:21.960 and would draw Skelly's boards indoors, indoors and on my 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:26.440 mom's parquet floors. We would draw Skelly boards and well, 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.720 I'm here, Wow, I ran, I'm faster than my mama. 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:31.440 She caught. 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.120 Can I tell you it is my dream. 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:40.040 Man, just between nineteen seventy eight and like nineteen eighty one, 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.320 Like I mean, me and my cousin would dream at night, 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:46.680 like your ways to. 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.760 Get the Sean Riley family like to knock there. 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.000 They had the best caps ever, it like, and you 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:57.440 couldn't get the milk tops with the stickers on them 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:59.920 because then that would not give you tracks. 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.840 Yes, yo, man, it was an art to play. 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.320 It was fantastic, dude, it was fantastic. 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:12.880 Between were speaking of South America. There's there's a you 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:16.040 know there's a tag tournament in South America. Yes, like 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.400 for real, like think of those like what are those shows? 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:23.480 Were like Ultimate Warrior like that sort of thing Warrior. Yeah, 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:24.600 but they have it for tag. 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:26.360 For tag, they're pretty. 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.400 So imagine like a playground where literally like a guy's 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:32.920 chasing you and you gotta like jump over a monkey 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.720 bar and you know there's like obstacles there, like you 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:36.880 might get your head knocked off. 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.120 But so coming home from fifth grade, Okay, I want 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:44.160 that right running home in fifth grade. 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:49.080 I want that for Skelly, like you just played. All right, 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.960 So we played stickball. That's where you shave half. 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:52.600 The ball. 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.000 Is where you take your room and you use it 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.520 as a bat. And remember the pink spalding balls the balls. 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:02.080 That was the ball that you would use and you 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.280 would pop it or punch ball, because if you couldn't 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:12.320 afford a stick, you would take the ball it. You 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.560 would take the ball and punch it and you would 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.840 run run the bases. All right, So we were very 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:19.600 creative children, thank you. 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:20.200 We would take that. 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:22.240 We didn't need expensive things like marble. 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.120 So you would play with the pink pol See. We 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:31.960 would take a razor and then yeah, gets. 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.120 See little children in my neighborhood weren't allowed to play 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:34.720 with razors. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.560 Well, we would have make it. We would cut it 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:38.560 in half. Uh, huh. 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.720 In Philadelphia, you played stickball with half I guess so 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:43.800 you wouldn't ring a window. 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:45.000 Oh we didn't care. 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.760 Wow, so you would have to you would throw half 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:53.720 of a tennis ball or half of a one of 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:55.040 those pink bouncy. 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:57.840 Yeah huh, and then play stickball that way. 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.920 Yeah damn, we just make it a street. We ain't 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:03.640 even getting the nineteen eighty seven. 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:07.040 Talk about the street. You ever play kingball? 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:07.600 No? 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:08.880 What's king kingball? 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.959 Kingball is like all right, if you have a sidewalk, 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:18.399 it's it's sort of like, uh, you need four people 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.840 to play it, and each person gets a designated square 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:26.280 of a sidewalk. Think of like tennis with a basketball, 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:31.480 So the goal is not to hit the boundary of 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:32.359 the sidewalk. 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:35.320 It's a long exploit. 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:36.080 It sounds like it. 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:37.840 I feel like I need to be eight years old 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:40.199 to understand what it is. It's a Philly thing. 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:43.280 Okay, wait, okay. Two more favorite games as a kid 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:45.760 high Water low Water? Did you play high water low Water? 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:46.320 I remember this. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.280 You use a rope and you lay it on the 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:53.560 ground and you take your turn stepping over. Then still, 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:56.080 after everybody goes, you raise it a little high and 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.159 then and then you start then it becomes like the 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.520 high jump, and then one concrete not safe, and then the. 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:02.639 Other version of this. 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:05.000 Well, I was just that just sounds like the reverse 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:05.920 of limbo. 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:11.600 Limbo limbo exactly exactly because your caribbean hr catch a. 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:13.840 Girl, freaking girl. Anyone know. 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:21.840 Something else that's a child molestation? Now, all right, one 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:23.600 more game. How about hot peas and butter. 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.359 I've heard this referred to in every rap song, but 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:29.680 never knew what butter is. 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:34.280 You would take a belt and you would hide it somewhere, okay, 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.080 and you were the person who was it in control 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.399 of hiding it. Then everyone else had to go and 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.199 try to find the belt. And so if people were 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.160 anywhere near where you hit, you go hot, hot hot, 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.880 if they went away cold cold, cold, So you would 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.720 yell after the belt was hit, Hot Peas and butter, 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.720 come and get yourself, and the people would go looking 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:58.960 for it, and here yesterday, come and get yourself. And 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.080 then people would go and looking for the belt. And 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:03.440 whoever found the belt, you tried to keep it hidden 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:07.080 and you would run and hit everybody with Yeah. 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:11.360 I wasn't playing that. I was not playing that game. 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:14.760 And then you had to run and not get hit 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:15.800 with them. 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:21.520 That don't sound fun. It sounds like my child is 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.280 the worst way possible. It was hilarious, like me trying 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:26.320 to hide a belt from somebody. 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:27.560 I do that. 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:37.520 Three weeks before every report. So what do you all right? 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:39.840 So what do you do play anymore? 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.480 You're so multi faceted with your talent. What do you 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:50.200 consider yourself is at least at fourteen fifteen when you're 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:51.520 developing your talent? 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:53.600 Are you a singer? Are you a poet? Are you 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:55.760 an actress? Are you dancer? 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.840 Like? I was all of it? Quite frankly, I was. 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:02.359 I was singing. I started singing at four, I was 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.680 lead singer in a band at fourteen. I had my 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.680 about four or five poems published in a compilation book 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.840 of young writers. By the time I was fifteen, I 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.560 was dancing on the stage at Carnegie Hall and Brooklyn 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:18.360 Academy and music by the time I was nine. 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:19.480 So I was. 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.440 I was all of that. So I never considered that 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:26.320 I had to choose. What I believed in, what the 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.639 environment I was raised in was that you had to 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.560 maximize everything. It was called being a trip triple threat. 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.040 You had to sing, dance, and act in order to 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:39.720 be viable in the business. And you asked me, was 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:41.480 it encouraged? You know, going back to how we got 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:44.520 into childhood game was my mother looked at me. I 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.800 was seven years old, really tall, really fit, playing all 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.480 these games with all these boys and everybody in the street. 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:52.680 She realized, you know what, I have to get my 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:54.560 child out of the middle of all of these boys 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:57.600 and give her something that she can do on her own. 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:01.200 And my mom had a really great friend, missus Green, 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.200 who had a daughter who was about five six years 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.440 older than I was, who was dancing. So she took 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.240 me to a dance recital at the Academy of Music. 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:11.960 I said, ma, I want to do that. She said, 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:14.840 are you sure? I said yes. So she enrolled me 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.360 in dance class. And I was riding the bus from 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.200 my house which was in on mid Where were we 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.720 at that time. We were on Midwood Street in Crown 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:28.000 Heights at that time, and I had to walk three 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:32.520 blocks over to the bus on New York Avenue get 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:34.160