Speaker 1: Wes F slip service. I'm Angela Yee, I'm Gg maguire,
Speaker 1: I'm Laura.
Speaker 2: Maura, and I'm Selena Johnson.
Speaker 1: Hey she's that's Selena. Yeah, don't laugh for you. She's
Speaker 1: a talk show host to Sister Circle, it is, and
Speaker 1: that's correct. Did you love doing that?
Speaker 2: I really love I really loved Sister Circle because it
Speaker 2: was in studio when we went back to Crown. That
Speaker 2: was fun because it was back in the studio when
Speaker 2: we were in the bubble and we were doing Fox.
Speaker 2: So I love my co host, but I hated being
Speaker 2: like in the computer because like you'd be talking and
Speaker 2: somebody be talking and then you have to wait all
Speaker 2: the way to the silent and then say something. So
Speaker 2: that was kind of difficult trying to, you know, figure
Speaker 2: out how to do that successfully. But I do like
Speaker 2: being on talk platforms. It's a relief sometimes singing there's
Speaker 2: a lot of pressure and a lot of a lot
Speaker 2: of preparation and stuff. So yeah, I really loved it.
Speaker 2: Plus Sister Circle was was the most fun too because
Speaker 2: we had guests. I enjoyed your Sister Circle, so that
Speaker 2: was the time. It was a time, but we had guests,
Speaker 2: so that was fun, you know, to be able to
Speaker 2: converse with other people and learn about other people's life
Speaker 2: and story, like the story, and be on the other
Speaker 2: side because as an artist the whole time, I'd never
Speaker 2: been on the other side, you know. So I learned
Speaker 2: a lot of things on huh okay, now see why,
Speaker 2: Well then that makes sense why they've been doing, you know, so.
Speaker 1: Well listen, it is also Women's Month, and International Women's
Speaker 1: Day is March eighth, Yes, and so I really want
Speaker 1: to talk about the fact that you see, we have
Speaker 1: an all women cast on lip Service always and I
Speaker 1: love them. We have our women guests, and so you,
Speaker 1: like we just talked about, you've been in spaces where
Speaker 1: it's been all women. So I just want to take
Speaker 1: a moment to acknowledge all of the podcasts and shows
Speaker 1: out there that represent for women, because we need those
Speaker 1: safe spaces to be able to talk and to be
Speaker 1: able to express ourselves.
Speaker 2: You know, emphasis on safe space safe.
Speaker 1: Yes. And so I heard it's doing this International Women's
Speaker 1: Day initiative. It's called the Women Take the Mic, And
Speaker 1: so I just want each of us and I love
Speaker 1: this because you also have this journal here yes, music, Yes,
Speaker 1: but as we are talking about women. Take the mic.
Speaker 1: I want each of us to just have a reflection
Speaker 1: on what it means for you like to be a woman,
Speaker 1: and to embrace other women too, and just moments of
Speaker 1: maybe people who have done something amazing for you. You know,
Speaker 1: let's start with you, Laura.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 4: Well for me, I've been blessed to always have strong
Speaker 4: women I who inspire me, who encourages me to be
Speaker 4: you know, I've grown up single mom by myself. Mother
Speaker 4: was there but couldn't be there as much as she
Speaker 4: wanted to. You know, my sister was away in the army.
Speaker 4: I didn't have like a family female sister. But I've
Speaker 4: always been blessed and God has always blessed me to
Speaker 4: put women in my life. Every single woman in my life,
Speaker 4: whether they're here or not, has had a huge impression
Speaker 4: in my life. Like I've always and able to look
Speaker 4: and see and have leaders, and it's always been the women,
Speaker 4: Like every single time. Sometimes I'm like, God, how is
Speaker 4: it that I've been so blessed to be around so
Speaker 4: many strong women from all different walks of life, from
Speaker 4: middle school, high school to my adult life. Like all
Speaker 4: my female friends have always been five to six years
Speaker 4: older than me, and I've again that's a blessing, you know,
Speaker 4: because sometimes when you hang with people your age, like
Speaker 4: we're both growing and evolving at the same time. And
Speaker 4: I think as a woman, you evolve in stages. You
Speaker 4: evolve at your twenties, it is different from your thirties.
Speaker 4: And to be able to have something to see and
Speaker 4: understand and say, Okay, this is where I'm gonna be at,
Speaker 4: this is where I want to go, this is what
Speaker 4: I want to do, this is how I want to think,
Speaker 4: this is how I want to handle this. And even
Speaker 4: with in relationships, you know, seeing what it is to
Speaker 4: be a woman self love, loving yourself, seeing your friends
Speaker 4: go through things and say, Okay, I don't want to
Speaker 4: do that. I don't want to go through that, or
Speaker 4: letting them know I've been do that, don't do that.
Speaker 4: But I've been blessed and I'm so thankful where I'm
Speaker 4: at right now in my life.
Speaker 2: It's because of all the women that's been around me.
Speaker 2: Do you think it's helped you to be like a
Speaker 2: better mom? Since you say a single mom, it's like
Speaker 2: you being surrounded by all these strong women was like
Speaker 2: a blueprint or like a set up by God. He
Speaker 2: knew you was definitely a setup by God because being
Speaker 2: a young mother, I was so focused on just being
Speaker 2: a mother, being a provider, being there for my kids.
Speaker 2: And it was like, to me, all I saw was
Speaker 2: having to make sure that I had these two little
Speaker 2: human beings that I have to be everything for that
Speaker 2: I forgot that I needed to be something for myself.
Speaker 2: You understand what I'm saying, Like it was hard for
Speaker 2: me to understand, Like I said, self love, Like my
Speaker 2: love was my kids.
Speaker 1: Right, Sometimes you got to put yourself first. And that's
Speaker 1: a hard thing to do because it feels selfish because
Speaker 1: you when you have kids, Yeah, it feels like you
Speaker 1: got to put the kids first.
Speaker 5: And yeah, and my.
Speaker 4: Friends always always always reminded me or no, like you
Speaker 4: have to put into yourself, like when you're on a plane,
Speaker 4: you have to put your mask on first to be
Speaker 4: able to save.
Speaker 3: Those in need.
Speaker 4: And my friends always provided that in everywhere and ugly
Speaker 4: and even when I didn't like it, like what are
Speaker 4: you talking about? Like I got it, I understood it,
Speaker 4: and yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Love mine, mana. What about you when you think about
Speaker 1: what it means for you growing being in the space
Speaker 1: that you're in. It's not an easy industry. And I
Speaker 1: know we're going to get into that too when we
Speaker 1: talk about the new music. But how have women influence
Speaker 1: where you are and who you are today? And who
Speaker 1: are some people that you would credit to like really
Speaker 1: helping you.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, my mother was, My mother is a
Speaker 2: strong force. She was the first black female police commissioner
Speaker 2: in the United States. So that's like who we was
Speaker 2: raised back, that's our person. But I was raised in
Speaker 2: a predominantly female family. Like all of my aunts. They
Speaker 2: were single moms, you know, but they had a husband,
Speaker 2: but some were divorced, you know, up and down in relationships.
Speaker 2: My mom is divorced obviously for my dad, but they
Speaker 2: were together for you know, twenty some years. But still
Speaker 2: it was very very female based. Everything was the mama,
Speaker 2: the grandmama, the aunties, even the cousins. Was just very
Speaker 2: female based. I have two sisters by my mom and dad,
Speaker 2: and then I have two half sisters, you know, Ryan,
Speaker 2: So I speak women, you know, I speak especially Black women.
Speaker 2: I turn up on us, but I you know, I've
Speaker 2: been and being the youngest, you know, I've been surrounded
Speaker 2: by women my entire life. It's been my upbringing. But
Speaker 2: what was interesting is and so my appreciation for them
Speaker 2: is extremely hot, It is extremely high. But coming into
Speaker 2: the music business was male for male dominate. So the
Speaker 2: way that I looked at things was totally different from
Speaker 2: the way that they looked at things. But that's when
Speaker 2: I started, that's when I knew, that's when I grew
Speaker 2: such an appreciation for the way that I looked at
Speaker 2: things because it just it just it helped me in
Speaker 2: a lot of ways. Women, the women in my life
Speaker 2: taught me even though we were absent of men, male
Speaker 2: strong male figures, they still taught me how to be
Speaker 2: strong in the absence of that. And you know, they
Speaker 2: will say that, you know, a woman needs a man
Speaker 2: in her life to kind of let her know her value.
Speaker 2: But the women in my life did a very good
Speaker 2: job at stamping that.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I didn't always move like that, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: because you know, we just make mistakes in our life.
Speaker 2: But I think I had a solid foundation that was
Speaker 2: built by women. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: If you want to get something done right, ask a
Speaker 1: woman to do it.
Speaker 2: It's the truth. Though, it's the truth. It's not even
Speaker 2: shade like it really is the truth. This is why
Speaker 2: men hire a bunch of women to push their companies, right,
Speaker 2: you know, no shade, and they be black, But I'm
Speaker 2: just saying it be women of color. But at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, I think that I have the
Speaker 2: women who have pushed me, have been the women in
Speaker 2: my family, and I am surrounded. I'm very blessed to
Speaker 2: have friends who are very strong and professionals. Also my sorority,
Speaker 2: you know, to have joined the sororities. I a sorority
Speaker 2: incorporated is a is another additional sisterhood, you know. So
Speaker 2: I've just if your friends are a reflection of who
Speaker 2: you are.
Speaker 5: I'm.
Speaker 1: What about you, Gig, what would you say? So?
Speaker 5: I would definitely say that I always consider myself a
Speaker 5: girl's girl, right, I always have women around me.
Speaker 3: I come from a family full of women.
Speaker 5: I have older sisters, aunts, and you know, family members
Speaker 5: who are strong black women. I've been able to maintain
Speaker 5: lifelong friendships with friends from you know, from the block
Speaker 5: as litt kids running aund.
Speaker 3: Outside, playing hungle seek and stuff like that.
Speaker 5: And that's hard to maintain, you know, as women, when
Speaker 5: we grow and evolved, sometimes we shift apart. But you
Speaker 5: know how you have those friends that no matter how
Speaker 5: long y'all talk, y'all jump right back in like y'all
Speaker 5: just talked yesterday. So I'm grateful for those relationships that
Speaker 5: I have. And I also want to take this opportunity,
Speaker 5: Angela to give you your flowers someone okay, because look at
Speaker 5: this space that you've created for us and have brought
Speaker 5: me into. And we'll be celebrating ten years in September doing.
Speaker 1: G always knows how long it's been.
Speaker 3: I don't because she just yeah, I'll be on it.
Speaker 5: And you know, I'm just grateful for this opportunity that
Speaker 5: has led to so many other opportunities and opened so
Speaker 5: many doors for me. We've done all types of festivals
Speaker 5: and all types of you know, just different engagements, and
Speaker 5: we went on tour and I've experienced and had the
Speaker 5: pleasure to meet people like you and you know for
Speaker 5: so long and it's just so easy and it's just
Speaker 5: so regular to me now. But you know, I have
Speaker 5: my friends that are in awe of this platform that
Speaker 5: I'm on, in this opportunity to have.
Speaker 3: So I just want to thank you like.
Speaker 5: I always do for this, and I also appreciate the
Speaker 5: friendship that we have and have been able to maintain
Speaker 5: for so many years as well.
Speaker 1: Well. I love to see when my friends win. So
Speaker 1: when Gigi's like, oh, we got this documentary, and like
Speaker 1: to see when she's happy about something, and she'd be like, okay, girl,
Speaker 1: you the second person because I'm never the first. I'm
Speaker 1: always a second. But she's like, you're the second person
Speaker 1: I'm calling and telling us. But I think that's what
Speaker 1: it's really about for us. A lot of times they
Speaker 1: act like women are very competitive with each other, and
Speaker 1: I find that, like a lot of stuff that I've
Speaker 1: done in spaces of entrepreneurship and spaces like this, we
Speaker 1: do get so much support from women more or stronger
Speaker 1: in numbers. Yeah, and it's not an easy journey, but
Speaker 1: I do want to say that I've been really blessed,
Speaker 1: Like even with some partnerships that we have with our
Speaker 1: coffee company, you know, coffee Uplist people. We have a
Speaker 1: black woman importer, a black woman role there that Rosar
Speaker 1: beans Laura manages the shop. You know. Also but even
Speaker 1: you know, just those things, some of the things that
Speaker 1: we're doing with Pinky from Sluddy Vegan that's so exciting
Speaker 1: to me, just to see the partnerships that we've been
Speaker 1: able to form. And as soon as I put something out,
Speaker 1: it's always like my girls that are like, just pick
Speaker 1: this up. They post it and support you, and that's
Speaker 1: great to see. Like even for you, Selena, You're on
Speaker 1: tour right now and I see so many women posting
Speaker 1: you like and feeling uplifted by your music for so long.
Speaker 1: I think that's a huge thing because it speaks to
Speaker 1: them and they can relate to it, and even you
Speaker 1: being open in spaces like seeing you on marriage boot
Speaker 1: Camp and fix my Life. But that's not an easy
Speaker 1: thing to do, is to share your life with people.
Speaker 1: But you don't know who you're helping when they're having
Speaker 1: the opportunity to see those things, because people might look
Speaker 1: at you as an artist and be like, she's so perfect,
Speaker 1: she's so this.
Speaker 2: They're looking at all of us like that. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: they're looking at y'all like that, Oh, they got it
Speaker 2: all together, they got it all going on.
Speaker 1: They don't think we perfect.
Speaker 2: Of them. If you got more followers than them, they
Speaker 2: think you better off than them. That's what they think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, And that's what I want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about. Just being in a space where you're
Speaker 1: able to even open up the way that you have,
Speaker 1: because I feel like that's what makes somebody relatable when
Speaker 1: we don't just hear the music and so you perform,
Speaker 1: but we also know who you are as a person
Speaker 1: and like the things that you've gone through, you know.
Speaker 1: So I just want to say that even just watching
Speaker 1: you early on and like, you know, like she got
Speaker 1: a beautiful voice from a young age, a grown voice.
Speaker 2: Like right, cham me up in the in the beginning, add.
Speaker 1: Don't know where that came from, but now like you
Speaker 1: have this song now, I was listening to this Monster's
Speaker 1: in the closet, Yes, and it seems like there's a
Speaker 1: lot more you want to tell us.
Speaker 2: Well, okay, So when my father died in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: two and rest in peace, Hill Johnson, my father was
Speaker 2: Blues Hall of Famer soul R and B blues artist.
Speaker 2: He was like one of the most sample artists and
Speaker 2: sampled history, you know, and back in the day, you know,
Speaker 2: he came out and during like the Civil Rights movement,
Speaker 2: he was like popular during that time. He went through
Speaker 2: a lot of anguish as you can imagine, and I
Speaker 2: feel like a lot of those things that he went through.
Speaker 2: He didn't pray those off of me, you know, So
Speaker 2: that was I think I kind of absorbed a generation
Speaker 2: or adopted a generational curse in a lot of different
Speaker 2: ways because of the things that I went through in
Speaker 2: the industry were very similar to some of the things
Speaker 2: that he had to experience. And so monsters in the closet.
Speaker 2: When my father died, I think I just had like
Speaker 2: a it was like an avalanche of all the pain
Speaker 2: and all of the drama and trauma that was called
Speaker 2: that is caused by this music business just came to
Speaker 2: a head, and that song was birthed from that moment.
Speaker 2: You know, Like these monsters that are in this industry,
Speaker 2: they are. And I was in therapy because you know,
Speaker 2: I am transparent, I just be talking. But I was
Speaker 2: in therapy the other one time and I was talking
Speaker 2: to Love McPherson, you know love me. You may know
Speaker 2: Love mcpheerson. She's a therapist man, And we were talking
Speaker 2: about monsters in the closet and I was having one
Speaker 2: of those sessions where you crying and carrying on and stuff,
Speaker 2: and she said, you know, Selena, seems like your monsters
Speaker 2: are men. And that was right. That hit me down
Speaker 2: in my stomach, you know, and so that really took
Speaker 2: me out even worse because this is a male dominated
Speaker 2: industry and not necessarily that someone has to do a
Speaker 2: physical assault to you. But there's a lot there's a
Speaker 2: lot of shit that be jumping off. That's mental abuse
Speaker 2: that is actually worse than the actual physical abuse and
Speaker 2: gatekeeping and blocking you from getting things and doing things
Speaker 2: simply because you have breast, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So for me, it was about, you know, my father
Speaker 2: experiencing the racism. He had a very cultural conscious album
Speaker 2: called is Because I'm Black during a time the Civil
Speaker 2: Rights movement era. His label shelved it said that the
Speaker 2: lyrics were too controversial later on. So that's imagine you
Speaker 2: have a whole album, whole project, and then the label
Speaker 2: will be like, oh no, we don't like the lyrics
Speaker 2: and all this.
Speaker 1: Work, and it exactly proves his point.
Speaker 2: It exactly was the point. But you know they didn't care, right,
Speaker 2: people don't care at that time. Didn't even do it right.
Speaker 1: You can't do where people gonna hear it, you.
Speaker 2: Know exactly, and so they're just still your still your ship.
Speaker 2: And then make it like theirs, but you know he
Speaker 2: I mean I did like think like my dad would
Speaker 2: be on buses where you know, going through towns where
Speaker 2: it's burning crosses, like really like in my mind, like
Speaker 2: going back to those moments of Trump, that had to
Speaker 2: be traumatic. You know, everybody in that era had to
Speaker 2: be like probably still dealing with trauma from that.
Speaker 1: Your career and what you love correct was traumatizing. It
Speaker 1: was traumatized.
Speaker 2: So monsters in the closet came from, you know, thinking
Speaker 2: of how he died and still wasn't in a place
Speaker 2: that he felt he should have been. Like we could
Speaker 2: look at him and look at his accomplishments and be like, man,
Speaker 2: you go down in history. My dad's in the Blues
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame, my uncle's in the Blues Hall of Fame,
Speaker 2: Like that's big. But to feel inside even though you
Speaker 2: don't have even though you have all these accomplishments, but
Speaker 2: still feel like you haven't done anything that's deep and
Speaker 2: so that's sad to me. That's sad, And it's like
Speaker 2: secondhand trauma for me.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about you being in this business
Speaker 1: after what he went through?
Speaker 2: Well, so me and my dad had an a strange
Speaker 2: relationship because when I signed to Jive Records, he felt
Speaker 2: like I left him, so we didn't have the best relationship.
Speaker 2: It was very icon Teina from then on. But when
Speaker 2: my father got sick, you know, all that kind of
Speaker 2: goes way. You got you start to when you see
Speaker 2: someone that was a juggernaut in your life weak and
Speaker 2: not able to do, you know, and be this strong
Speaker 2: person that's been cussing you out your whole life. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, You just be like, it don't
Speaker 2: matter what you did at this moment. You're my daddy
Speaker 2: right now, you know. So Monsters in the Closet came
Speaker 2: from the frustration of what he had been through and
Speaker 2: had not healed from on top of what I deal
Speaker 2: with already and had been through, and I just got
Speaker 2: sick of it. So I kind of just, you know,
Speaker 2: said what I have to say.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you say all that because people don't understand.
Speaker 1: You know, we see a lot of things happening and
Speaker 1: coming to the light and the music business, and people like,
Speaker 1: why didn't they say something at the time that had happened,
Speaker 1: or you know, you just was going to be in
Speaker 1: the room while that was going on. And not do anything,
Speaker 1: or you just let that person. But why didn't you
Speaker 1: just walk away and do X, Y and Z.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, everybody, if it was a fifth we all
Speaker 2: be drunk. Answer. We're all sweating, you know in here.
Speaker 2: You know, so at the end of the day, we
Speaker 2: would all have done something different. But first of all,
Speaker 2: you have to take age into consideration. When I was signed,
Speaker 2: I was twenty one years old. You know, I'm forty seven. Now,
Speaker 2: that's twenty six years ago. Of like not even you
Speaker 2: don't know your ass from your boy twenty one and
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have known that until I was in my
Speaker 2: fort You see what I'm saying. Till now, we wouldn't
Speaker 2: have known that. We didn't know shit. Now, back then,
Speaker 2: we thought we knew a whole bunch, we had all
Speaker 2: we worst way, we did have all the answers. But
Speaker 2: now you realize you and you can give yourself grace
Speaker 2: for things now because you know that you didn't know much,
Speaker 2: You didn't know what to do, you didn't know better,
Speaker 2: and you.
Speaker 1: Weren't support that either. No, I feel like now there's
Speaker 1: people will actually listen. Even though some people will still
Speaker 1: bash you, there will be people who support you. And
Speaker 1: you have a platform to be able to express yourself
Speaker 1: and to.
Speaker 2: Social media too, because you could just come on your
Speaker 2: own page and say what time it is and people
Speaker 2: will you.
Speaker 1: And you could be like, well, if I'm not signed
Speaker 1: to that label anymore, there's other ways that I can
Speaker 1: make my money. It's not dependent on that. And also, yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think back then it was definitely different. And
Speaker 1: like you said, being younger, I mean, there's things I
Speaker 1: went through when I was in my early twenties that
Speaker 1: you just be like, let me just keep on pushing
Speaker 1: and everything. Just keep on pushing, you know, blinders, you
Speaker 1: don't want to get blackballed. You feel like, well if
Speaker 1: I say something, maybe I won't be able to work again.
Speaker 1: No one's believe me.
Speaker 2: It's that's real. That's real. That is very real. And
Speaker 2: what people think is that when women say that, like
Speaker 2: we plan like you could have said something. No, actually,
Speaker 2: if you would have said something in real life, probably
Speaker 2: would not have been able to feed yourself, right, Like
Speaker 2: that's how bad it be. It's really ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I mean, and I think this is great that now
Speaker 1: we see a lot of things coming, you know, to light.
Speaker 1: And because I always feel like people only get away
Speaker 1: with things, but for so long and at some points, right,
Speaker 1: it does catch up with you at some point. And
Speaker 1: it also is who wants to live their life not
Speaker 1: knowing when it's going to catch up there.
Speaker 2: Something, And these people take the risk all the time.
Speaker 2: They don't give a ship. They will do what they
Speaker 2: got to do all over you and just feel like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: but that's a narcissism too, Right, Narcissists don't have that
Speaker 2: realization that what they're actually doing is wrong because they
Speaker 2: all they think they're right, everybody around them is, so
Speaker 2: they don't feel they don't have the realization that you
Speaker 2: just had because they don't.
Speaker 3: They don't.
Speaker 1: I mean like, I feel good that even though it
Speaker 1: may take longer to get to where you're going doing
Speaker 1: things the right, at least I'm not having other things
Speaker 1: that I have to feel like, Man, I have you know,
Speaker 1: anxiety from this, or I'm worried about this, or one
Speaker 1: day the phone's gonna ring or I'm gonna get a
Speaker 1: message or see myself trend in because somebody, I don't
Speaker 1: worry about none of those things because I'm very comfortable
Speaker 1: and how I've got to where I've gotten to and
Speaker 1: the way that I've treated people.
Speaker 2: Hello, somebody, it's nice to be important, but it's important
Speaker 2: to be nice. Yes, yes, and that's and that's just
Speaker 2: like that. So you get further just being kind, just
Speaker 2: being kind of people because you don't know who's who,
Speaker 2: and you don't know who God will elevate in any
Speaker 2: given time. So you being mean to somebody right now,
Speaker 2: Like let's say we mean to the sound man right now,
Speaker 2: then here come another show that he's on and or
Speaker 2: that he's in charge of, and then here come your
Speaker 2: name is comes up as talented book and he's like,
Speaker 2: oh no, she was a bitch. And this there it
Speaker 2: goes opportunity out the window.
Speaker 1: But the best thing is when he'd be like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I love to work at her. We should
Speaker 1: get her because there's so many opportunities I can get
Speaker 1: just from being on time, being pleasant, doing my job,
Speaker 1: being prepared, showing up.
Speaker 3: Doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do.
Speaker 2: How about just because.
Speaker 1: Now I want to Now this is lip service. Still
Speaker 1: what that means you know, we're gonna talk about some
Speaker 1: things up here. Oh God, okay, but I do want
Speaker 1: to dig into relationships somewhere. So the first time you
Speaker 1: got married? How over were you twenty.
Speaker 2: Two, twenty three?
Speaker 1: Okay, I had no business. I was gonna ask you,
Speaker 1: so what makes you think like this is? You know
Speaker 1: right now I'm ready, Like, how did that even happen?
Speaker 2: Do you want the real truth? You may tell you
Speaker 2: something that's like phone we went, the real truth. I
Speaker 2: was bored. It's the truth, okay, And I had to
Speaker 2: really admit it to myself because I when I when
Speaker 2: I did get after it was all said and done,
Speaker 2: you wanted you wanted to believe that, No, I really
Speaker 2: was in love. I really was bored.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: I signed to Jive Records in nineteen ninety eight, and
Speaker 2: I was sitting on the label, just sitting, you know,
Speaker 2: I was working on material. But one year had gone by,
Speaker 2: two years gone by. I started dating this guy. He's
Speaker 2: a really nice guy, and we were like, I guess
Speaker 2: we were in love because we was together all the time,
Speaker 2: but I was, you know, it was bored. I was like,
Speaker 2: let's do something, you know, And then when it was
Speaker 2: like this how the proposal went, you think we should
Speaker 2: get married. Let's just get married.
Speaker 1: We ain't doing nothing.
Speaker 3: Now that's.
Speaker 2: Bored. So then go to the store. Ooh, we pick
Speaker 2: out a ring. I think we went to CA's Jewelry
Speaker 2: back then, so we went to the Case jewelry. You know,
Speaker 2: we was in college. We went to the k jury
Speaker 2: picked out a little ring and then he tried to
Speaker 2: do the whole you know what. He was a gentleman
Speaker 2: about it. He went and asked my mom and all that.
Speaker 2: So that was like something to be doing, probably from
Speaker 2: the impatience or the anxiety of I've been signed to
Speaker 2: the slavel when nothing's happening kind of thing.
Speaker 1: I gotta do something in my life. I'm doing something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a distraction and excitement and then when
Speaker 2: it started it became proper mad and so then that's
Speaker 2: why that didn't work, because I didn't take into consideration.
Speaker 1: Things about any of them. Nothing, just this is fun
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: Let's go. I had thirtwo girls, so ghetto at thirteen
Speaker 2: brass Maids. It was so ghetto. Girl. We came down
Speaker 2: the aisle to Moments.
Speaker 1: Of Love, was so gathered, lot of friends listen, they
Speaker 1: had candles and it was it was get help up.
Speaker 2: And it was on the West side of Chicago.
Speaker 3: Girl.
Speaker 2: We was up at that church, like I went the
Speaker 2: two steps.
Speaker 1: Down the hound.
Speaker 3: Listen that.
Speaker 2: Day, Girl, I was. I was so taed at the
Speaker 2: at the reunion. What do you call the receptnion, because
Speaker 2: that's what it felt like, reginion. But I was so
Speaker 2: tired at the reception that I didn't even really get
Speaker 2: to eat or anything because it was so busy. There
Speaker 2: was so much The Little Muppet people was in there.
Speaker 2: And then Joe came in there and saying because we
Speaker 2: was on the same label, so my label surprised me
Speaker 2: and had Joe comeing there. Girl was a mess. And
Speaker 2: then my cousin stole my car at night and went
Speaker 2: to go be with some girls. We was at the
Speaker 2: hotel and he brought my car back. It was numbers
Speaker 2: all on the floor. It was just a ghetto ass
Speaker 2: did But he was a nice guy. He just was
Speaker 2: too young, and so was I.
Speaker 3: How long did it last?
Speaker 2: Girl? Five seconds? We got we were together for a year,
Speaker 2: We got married, and we were and then I went
Speaker 2: on tour with R Kelly, the TP two tour, and
Speaker 2: that's when he was he was my He was my
Speaker 2: role man, okay, And it had nothing to do with R.
Speaker 2: Kelly and them because we were kind of separate, like
Speaker 2: we was opening over here acting our food on that tour,
Speaker 2: he was getting on my nerves.
Speaker 3: By the time the tour was over, the marriage was over.
Speaker 2: To absolutely but nothing just like that I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: Right when it was over, it was like, I'm staying
Speaker 2: at my mama house and I don't never want to
Speaker 2: see you again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how was it?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 1: During the time when he was still a nice guy,
Speaker 1: he was still nice, He was a nice day.
Speaker 2: He was baby. He wasn't but twenty he was younger
Speaker 2: than me. He was like twenty one. Oh damn, yeah,
Speaker 2: we was babies.
Speaker 1: What do you think about working with somebody who you're
Speaker 1: married to?
Speaker 2: Okay, so for some people that works, like my girl
Speaker 2: Avery Sunshine, her and Dana. That works for them because
Speaker 2: Dana is a musician, so when she performs, he's performing,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, right, So that that works
Speaker 2: in that instance. But Dana's also management too. But Avery
Speaker 2: and Dana are like best friends, so that works. But
Speaker 2: then there are other relationships that I that I've you know,
Speaker 2: seen or witnesses witnessed over the years that it didn't work.
Speaker 2: It didn't it didn't work, and isn't working. You know
Speaker 2: in my opinion, because things just be my opinion why
Speaker 2: they might be thinking they be working. But to me
Speaker 2: it's a conflict of interest in a way because they're
Speaker 2: As an entertainer, sometimes you have to be in a
Speaker 2: character form and that character has to be able to
Speaker 2: attract men and women. But it has to be able.
Speaker 2: It has to be able to attract especially women. Sexuality
Speaker 2: is a big part of marketing for us in terms
Speaker 2: of getting people to want and to buy into your music.
Speaker 2: You know, to feel away, right, so you want to
Speaker 2: create that, you know, that that aura. You want to
Speaker 2: create this character, you know, so that they can buy into.
Speaker 2: You know, whether it's real or not, you still want
Speaker 2: to create that for someone. So like if I'm if
Speaker 2: I'm a person that sings ballads, right and I sing
Speaker 2: sexy songs, then people who listen to men who listen
Speaker 2: to my music, they want to feel like a sexy
Speaker 2: that sexy vibe, and they want to be able to
Speaker 2: view me that way. Even if they can't have me,
Speaker 2: they still want to be able to view you that way.
Speaker 2: Just like with men. You can really tell a tank
Speaker 2: I'm sure women love.
Speaker 3: But they know he's very much mad.
Speaker 2: He is so merry and in love, right, but he
Speaker 2: has to create that that you know, that ideology that
Speaker 2: you can that he's terrible.
Speaker 3: He does that well.
Speaker 5: Actually we've all seen him on stage with no shirt
Speaker 5: and yes, and he's very sexual and listens to be
Speaker 5: right there like that.
Speaker 2: Remember one time he said the end of the Soul
Speaker 2: Train Awards and they came together and I had to
Speaker 2: do the carp sister circle and they had on green
Speaker 2: she had on a green dress here on the white
Speaker 2: seat with a green shirt. They looked like they was.
Speaker 3: Going to prime.
Speaker 2: And he performed and she was in the audience and
Speaker 2: it was the cutest thing. Everything he did was like
Speaker 2: to her, to her section that. But but that alone
Speaker 2: made other women be like, wish I had a man
Speaker 2: like that, had a go bather record just to keep
Speaker 2: wishing and feeling and what.
Speaker 1: They thought, man's special fight And she's special for like
Speaker 1: wanting that and being able to be there in the audience.
Speaker 1: And I love that he.
Speaker 2: Did that to her because clearly he's a sex symbol.
Speaker 2: But I loved how he openly was like, yo, when
Speaker 2: I go home, it's up you know, and your man,
Speaker 2: it's up for her. She didn't have a good old.
Speaker 3: Time been ahead. It's a good time that all y'all
Speaker 3: want to have and.
Speaker 2: There's nothing we can do about it, you know.
Speaker 1: All right, So now after this first marriage, what were
Speaker 1: your thoughts on married? Were you like, I'm not doing
Speaker 1: this again, or were you just like.
Speaker 2: I didn't I wanted to get married again because I
Speaker 2: understood that first of all, my husband, my first husband,
Speaker 2: wasn't a bad person, so it didn't leave this taste
Speaker 2: in my mouth like marriage is terrible. We were just
Speaker 2: we just didn't know what we were doing. We were
Speaker 2: just again, we were bored, you know. I just feel
Speaker 2: like we were bored. It just felt like something to do.
Speaker 2: But he made it difficult, obviously because you know, I
Speaker 2: guess it was a hard It was a hard detachment
Speaker 2: for him, so it was kind of difficult. It took
Speaker 2: us three years to actually be divorced. That was crazy.
Speaker 3: You know, I want to be able to get up
Speaker 3: and go and just say yeah.
Speaker 2: And we don't have any kids or anything. We have
Speaker 2: any kids, So that was like crazy, Like we should
Speaker 2: have been able to give divorce in two seconds. We
Speaker 2: didn't have nothing. We had no money, We have nothing.
Speaker 2: So even though I came off to the TB two tour.
Speaker 2: I still didn't have that much money because I was
Speaker 2: open and opening. The real opener was Sunshine Avery. Okay,
Speaker 2: it's right, Sunshine, Sunshine, and I get every sunshine Sunshine.
Speaker 1: There's too many.
Speaker 2: Averies and Sunshine, and I loved both of them. Time
Speaker 2: hung it out before Sunshine and which I absolutely loved.
Speaker 2: That was my girl, but she was the real opener,
Speaker 2: you know, and Job Records R. Kelly was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you can put her on the top. I only had
Speaker 2: like fifteen minutes of like, you know, Hail Mary, you know,
Speaker 2: at the beginning, you know. So it's not like I
Speaker 2: came off the tour with all this money either.
Speaker 1: So sometimes people pay to be on tour, like yes,
Speaker 1: that's when they're opening. They'll be like, okay, who can.
Speaker 2: Well, technically job Records paid for me to be on
Speaker 2: that tour because I wasn't making any money. The only
Speaker 2: money that we were really making was pre deal, right,
Speaker 2: and the label was paying that. You know. So the
Speaker 2: label paid for the tour bus and let because it
Speaker 2: was part of the marketing budget.
Speaker 1: And then you owe it back and then you owe
Speaker 1: it pay.
Speaker 3: A whole different conversation.
Speaker 2: Which is the monsters in the closet. This is what
Speaker 2: I'm saying there. This is why we have monsters.
Speaker 1: But people will tell you all the time in the
Speaker 1: music and the music business that everybody goes through that right,
Speaker 1: and they make it seem like it's a right path.
Speaker 2: It's okay, right because you go through it. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's slavery. We all went through slavery back in the day.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't that don't mean it's okay because they
Speaker 1: don't make it seem like, well, everybody signs a bad
Speaker 1: contract at first, and then you go through that and
Speaker 1: then you learn from that and then da dah da
Speaker 1: da da. But that shouldn't be.
Speaker 2: It's like Jesu said, why you just can't do right
Speaker 2: because the right thing? Because it's the right thing.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: So then after that, right, what was it like for
Speaker 1: you being single after having been married because you went
Speaker 1: on tour and you were in a relationship on your
Speaker 1: first time. So them, wait, I was out, he was
Speaker 1: outside outside because I can't being a beautiful young artist
Speaker 1: that Ku sang. First of all, I had a divorce
Speaker 1: party and I announced it on the radio like it
Speaker 1: was like come out to the divorce party, very regious
Speaker 1: ch in Chicago.
Speaker 2: I know that was and was kicking it. But I
Speaker 2: ran the numbers for a good three years. My third album,
Speaker 2: Chapter three, The Flesh, the one one, I'm like, that's
Speaker 2: your guys, that's the song slowly on there and the
Speaker 2: phone and all.
Speaker 1: The little there.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, just let's just say I enjoyed myself. I had
Speaker 2: a good old time time that you I don't remember,
Speaker 2: you know, because I just was. I never had like
Speaker 2: one person just at one time, okay, you know, to
Speaker 2: start in five Okay, at all times, playing the whole
Speaker 2: game too.
Speaker 3: They played the whole game.
Speaker 1: And you gotta date when you're not locked, you know, because.
Speaker 2: All about yeah, data is date means collecting data. How
Speaker 2: are you going to collect data? You have to do research?
Speaker 2: Dating is research.
Speaker 1: Now with some of these guys fans like, did you
Speaker 1: ever feel like.
Speaker 2: No, because I dated my pay grade at that time? Okay,
Speaker 2: I dated up, I date and then you know what
Speaker 2: was interesting And I ain't gonna have to put nobody
Speaker 2: name out there because we all a thousand now. But
Speaker 2: they would call my label, They would reach out to
Speaker 2: my label and publicist and dates.
Speaker 1: That used to be the thing. It was also trying
Speaker 1: to have like a hook up that felt like it
Speaker 1: would be publicity.
Speaker 2: Why they like the R and B gas, Yeah, especially
Speaker 2: the athletes.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, it's those athletes. Athletes and the
Speaker 1: R and B girls like the athletes and the labor
Speaker 1: and the label likes that too, because the labels like publicity.
Speaker 1: They like that, they like they get you in a relationship.
Speaker 1: It's a public relationship.
Speaker 3: People talk and get.
Speaker 2: Her and get the people talking.
Speaker 1: Now they're just going to dms, that's it.
Speaker 2: But even still, like, I'm a very private human being,
Speaker 2: so I never wanted to, like, I would never be
Speaker 2: up top with people because you know, I wanted to
Speaker 2: have multiple concepts, so I didn't be just like out,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm with this guy on the arms.
Speaker 1: Did you ever have more than one guy that you
Speaker 1: were dealing with at the same time at a show? Yeah,
Speaker 1: in the audience, Yeah, that's absolutely thing. And then afterward
Speaker 1: they're probably like, I'm coming backstick.
Speaker 2: But nobody's your man. So you don't have egos.
Speaker 1: They do not want to be in that type of
Speaker 1: they don't, but they would never they would never know
Speaker 1: because you know this, let's keep it real.
Speaker 2: Women are much better at this. Yes, men panic women
Speaker 2: are very calm.
Speaker 1: We're solution oriented.
Speaker 2: And men's egos are so big that they think she
Speaker 2: would never do that to me.
Speaker 3: Little do you know? You better tighten the baby. Okay
Speaker 3: that part.
Speaker 1: They'll talk themselves out of it. They could see something
Speaker 1: and be like, nah, she ain't my home wife told me.
Speaker 1: But I know, well, if you didn't see me do it,
Speaker 1: and it's not in record, it did not happen.
Speaker 2: And that's all the way up on to the grave.
Speaker 2: So that's my best thing.
Speaker 1: You said, that's my best sie. I mean, and listen,
Speaker 1: I think it has been hard because and I tell
Speaker 1: I tell you this, Laura, like dating one person but
Speaker 1: that's not your man. I always feel like that's not
Speaker 1: the best idea of because you get so invested and
Speaker 1: if they're not trying to commit to you and you're
Speaker 1: not in.
Speaker 4: That friend, he's so mad at me. They're like, you
Speaker 4: got to be on the same page. You mean, you
Speaker 4: can't go with somebody else somewhere like what are you doing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you have to let that be known.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you can't like sneaking, you can't be lying.
Speaker 2: You can't be lying. You gotta just you have to
Speaker 2: let people know straight out of the gate, you know.
Speaker 2: And then too with women, we have to also understand
Speaker 2: you have to have the emotional intelligence to be able
Speaker 2: to accept that they too can have And for me, like, well,
Speaker 2: at that time, because I've been married for seventeen years,
Speaker 2: but at that time, dating like that was better because
Speaker 2: then there's no obligation and you've got something to lose.
Speaker 2: I got something to lose. Like you don't want to bite, No,
Speaker 2: I don't want to buy.
Speaker 1: No. We good, right, we're doing You're looking at me,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at you. Why I feel like why?
Speaker 3: That's fun? That's fun, keep it spicy, all right.
Speaker 1: So then how did you end up getting back off
Speaker 1: the market.
Speaker 2: Well, I got real sick of men after a while
Speaker 2: because they they Although I had a start in five
Speaker 2: and all these, you know, it was out here having fun,
Speaker 2: after a while it was getting stupid to the point
Speaker 2: where they just were getting stupid and getting on my
Speaker 2: nerve and then you would be finding other stuff out
Speaker 2: about them. It's like why he didn't tell me that shit,
Speaker 2: you know, stuff like that. That was just cumbersome after
Speaker 2: a while. So I just wanted to be by myself.
Speaker 2: And I just was like, I just need a break
Speaker 2: from men in general, and so I just stopped dating
Speaker 2: everybody and just kind of tried to focus a little
Speaker 2: bit on my career and just like get my thoughts
Speaker 2: processed together. So for about four months, four or five months,
Speaker 2: I was just like just by myself and just okay
Speaker 2: with being by myself, working out real hard. It was
Speaker 2: working on my album, getting ready for Chapter three to
Speaker 2: be released and stuff like that. And then my husband,
Speaker 2: my current husband, he played basketball the time overseas, and
Speaker 2: apparently his cousins, this is very he's cousins of a
Speaker 2: cousins and second cousins, his twin girl cousins worked with
Speaker 2: a very close friend of mine, a very close friend
Speaker 2: of mine's girlfriends. So it wasn't even that they worked
Speaker 2: with him. They worked with his correct. So they had
Speaker 2: a picture on their desk, the twin girlfriends, the twin cousins,
Speaker 2: my cousins now Rashoota and Dahlila. They had a picture
Speaker 2: of me with them taking on their desk because I
Speaker 2: saw him at a party one time and we all
Speaker 2: took a picture, and so he was in town and
Speaker 2: saw the picture on you know, with them and was like, oh,
Speaker 2: y'all know her. That's gonna be my baby, mama. I
Speaker 2: love her, that's my you know, I love her. And
Speaker 2: they were like, oh, well, we know her best one
Speaker 2: of her best friend's girlfriends. And then he was like, oh,
Speaker 2: hook that up, not really thinking it was gonna be
Speaker 2: but he called. They called the girlfriend tells my friend,
Speaker 2: and then he tells me, and I'm just like, athlete,
Speaker 2: let me go google him to see what I'm kneeling with.
Speaker 2: He was, okay, he cute here, a red bone, you
Speaker 2: know him, not my type, you know, but he all right.
Speaker 2: You know he's six two and a half, look short,
Speaker 2: but it's cool.
Speaker 1: We taller than me.
Speaker 2: I said, all right, well I go on a date
Speaker 2: with him. I said, but look, I don't. I'm not
Speaker 2: in the move, no bullshit, So tell him don't. I'm
Speaker 2: just I'm not in the move. No athlete bullshit, that
Speaker 2: ego athlete bush, that spoiled mimmy shit. I said, so
Speaker 2: you need to know the people back beforehand. Of course,
Speaker 2: he didn't tell him any of that stuff, you know.
Speaker 2: He just told him all stuff like oh yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: y'all will be good, you know, and then he ended
Speaker 2: up calling me, and he was supposed to call me
Speaker 2: at a certain time. So you know, after that little
Speaker 2: in that four month period, what happened was this, I
Speaker 2: started understanding, Okay, you guys said boundaries, you have to
Speaker 2: do all these little things that I kind of learned
Speaker 2: in the dating that wasn't working, that was causing some
Speaker 2: shit that was like, oh no, you the fool. Oh no,
Speaker 2: I learned. I had to learn that in the dating process.
Speaker 2: So that's why dating is good too, because you have
Speaker 2: to learn what you do like and don't like, and
Speaker 2: what you will and will not talk correct. It's research.
Speaker 2: So I'm ready to now go out and create, you know,
Speaker 2: a dissertation. So he's supposed to call me at four thirty.
Speaker 2: He did not come here five, so I did not
Speaker 2: answer the phone. So I was starting from the gate,
Speaker 2: very petty from the top.
Speaker 1: And he might have been thinking, I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: look thirsty.
Speaker 2: Why, That's probably what he was. But I was like, well,
Speaker 2: according to my clock, I had told you four thirty solid,
Speaker 2: very adamant. Now I'm busy. So then he called back
Speaker 2: like an hour later, and I picked up and act
Speaker 2: like I was sleepy. But we we had a little
Speaker 2: conversation and he I was like, well, he asked me
Speaker 2: to go on a date with him whatever, and I
Speaker 2: was like okay, and I gave him like this date
Speaker 2: that was kind of like weeks and weeks ahead. So
Speaker 2: it was like May May twenty six because I know
Speaker 2: my little man and his stuff now. And then when
Speaker 2: he we went on a little date. You know now
Speaker 2: normally when you go on your first day and you're
Speaker 2: Selena Johnson, Okay, you got to turn up. You know,
Speaker 2: you gotta hang you the hair and the nails, and
Speaker 2: you know you gotta look like something buyer. Let me
Speaker 2: tell you something. I had on a B B jogging suit,
Speaker 2: a BB jogging suit with some Louis Vauton sladhs, and
Speaker 2: my hair was in. My hair was cute, but it
Speaker 2: was it was like it was a sow in. I
Speaker 2: had like a little ponytail. And on the booty it
Speaker 2: said dangerous. It didn't have the roundstone. It was like
Speaker 2: a satin type of little red red on the booty
Speaker 2: said dangerous. I still got closed and baby, that's the
Speaker 2: crazy movie.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: But he I told him he had to meet me
Speaker 2: at my sister's house. He could I meet me in
Speaker 2: my house.
Speaker 3: I don't know you.
Speaker 2: And so I drove to meet him and when he
Speaker 2: when I got the car, he was so handsome. He
Speaker 2: was clean cut, you know, had on this little linen outfit.
Speaker 2: You know that was in style at that time with
Speaker 2: this air force. But but I was like, if if
Speaker 2: these if they don't like me, they gotta like me
Speaker 2: from here.
Speaker 1: And guys left to see when you look good like.
Speaker 2: That, apparently because before you're you know, you're thinking, I
Speaker 2: have to keep this, you know, facade up. I have
Speaker 2: to keep this image up. You know, this is who
Speaker 2: they want to be with, So I have to keep
Speaker 2: this image. I was like, and that ship is too
Speaker 2: tiring after a while, because you do want to just
Speaker 2: be yourself, like you do want to say, take my
Speaker 2: weave out here, on my regular hair and just be.
Speaker 1: You want to be because you're always on and so
Speaker 1: so you be able to have your hair ponytails.
Speaker 2: And so he asked me, and I know there's a
Speaker 2: big debate in the world, but he asked me where
Speaker 2: I wanted to go eat. And I told this man,
Speaker 2: cheesecake factory.
Speaker 1: Hello, see.
Speaker 2: Factory.
Speaker 1: I listen, I do. I don't have a problem with that.
Speaker 1: It's just too many options. So I wouldn't have picked
Speaker 1: that because a lot of that man, you I never
Speaker 1: know what you're right. You be on there for like,
Speaker 1: hold on, maybe this.
Speaker 3: Used to get the biscuit the cream.
Speaker 4: Would I used to eat chicken bag and the biscuit,
Speaker 4: the biscuit with the chicken, with the gravy, with the peas.
Speaker 2: Staff, see I And you're right about that because what
Speaker 2: I ordered I didn't like, but he ordered something that
Speaker 2: was sharp. So I spent the end the whole night
Speaker 2: eating out of his plate and drinking his ship.
Speaker 1: Like y'all knew each other.
Speaker 2: Zero Fox just was like, I don't like my food
Speaker 2: and just start eating his food. And I didn't care.
Speaker 2: I think I was being obnoxious on purpose too, to
Speaker 2: try to see if he would, you know, it was
Speaker 2: very that, you know, or just to see, you know,
Speaker 2: what what's but he was surprised by everything. He would
Speaker 2: just be like smiling, like wow, she's nuts and so
Speaker 2: and I was just talking.
Speaker 3: And he.
Speaker 2: Was not expecting that, I'm certain. And so when we
Speaker 2: were done and we were like, he took me home,
Speaker 2: but in the car I fell asleep on him the
Speaker 2: whole way home isn't that crazy? Got that man food
Speaker 2: and went to sleep and calls and he I was like, well,
Speaker 2: I was like, she's I love her. The next day
Speaker 2: he called me at twelve, which was very promising because
Speaker 2: you know, the people like to call at midnight, so
Speaker 2: they didn't come up.
Speaker 1: They think.
Speaker 2: He called it noon and asked me to go on
Speaker 2: to lunch date. So after that, for about two three
Speaker 2: months he courted me, but I was very stringent about stuff,
Speaker 2: and I used to go to Bible study on Wednesdays,
Speaker 2: the church on Sundays. You know that I was in
Speaker 2: that phase of self reflection, self improvement, so like I
Speaker 2: couldn't go to the I had to say no to
Speaker 2: the twelve because I had to go to a training session.
Speaker 2: But then I was like, well, I'm going to Bible
Speaker 2: study at seven. I was like you want to go?
Speaker 2: He was like, no, I want to go. I'm I'm
Speaker 2: And I was like, all right, well I'll talk to you.
Speaker 2: And then he called me right back. I was like,
Speaker 2: I go.
Speaker 1: He was.
Speaker 2: Bible went to a Bible study.
Speaker 3: He won.
Speaker 2: He went to the church. He was sitting there looking weird.
Speaker 2: You know, I was in there. He was just sitting
Speaker 2: there you know, his hands uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a big thing to take somebody to also,
Speaker 1: because you have people in churches all looking like, Okay, that's.
Speaker 2: What you trying to see it is he gonna blow
Speaker 2: up your flames in here. I'm gonna take his answer
Speaker 2: to the church and see if he said, and I know,
Speaker 2: leave his hands right where the Lord deal with the ashes.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Oh my god, what story? And so and then
Speaker 1: you guys were on marriage boot camp. Yes, and I
Speaker 1: know you had said that you had went to therapy
Speaker 1: before doing that. You guys were already in therapy.
Speaker 2: We had to go to couple's therapy because we started
Speaker 2: having We had a lot of turmoil in our relationship
Speaker 2: because when Kiwan retired from basketball, he suffered a depression.
Speaker 2: He went through a lot of different emotional traumas, you know,
Speaker 2: because before he's been able to live his life, you know,
Speaker 2: be on the run, you're you know, he had he
Speaker 2: had a he has a son, you know. But they
Speaker 2: were in America for two months out of the year.
Speaker 2: He's in America all the rest of the other team
Speaker 2: because I lived with him for four years overseas, so
Speaker 2: the other ten months were overseas. Which means everything in
Speaker 2: America is like, well, we lived in Italy. Oh, it's
Speaker 2: fantastic because everything is slower and.
Speaker 1: Time. I know, I know the other way exactly, and
Speaker 1: we lived in Venice at one point.
Speaker 2: But it's so much was because you know, he was
Speaker 2: to start playing a basketball team, and you know, the
Speaker 2: way that they embraced the players over there, like it
Speaker 2: was like it was the bomb. It was a little boring,
Speaker 2: but when you have each other and that's all that
Speaker 2: you need.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because because your family, there no distraction.
Speaker 2: No distraction except when I had my first baby. My
Speaker 2: first son was over there with me. I got pregnant
Speaker 2: overseas and then I had to wait till his two
Speaker 2: month shots. And then I was like, I know, you
Speaker 2: don't think I'm finna raise this baby by myself. So
Speaker 2: we're down to this plight. So I just stayed over there.
Speaker 2: But you know, all the all the doctors and everything,
Speaker 2: all the health care was free. You know, they would
Speaker 2: just assign you a doctor that spoke English.
Speaker 1: You know that's crazy because we certainly don't have that
Speaker 1: here at all.
Speaker 2: Now. Everything places, Yeah, absolutely, yeah, it worked, especially the team.
Speaker 2: You know, they didn't pay for any of that stuff.
Speaker 2: They didn't pay for anything their apartments or anything. We
Speaker 2: were to save a lot of money because we didn't
Speaker 2: pay for anything over there. You just go over there.
Speaker 2: You don't pay for anything. Like even after the games
Speaker 2: or whatever, there would be like family restaurants, Like they
Speaker 2: didn't have like fast food like they had it, but
Speaker 2: it'd be closed, so but the family restaurants will cook
Speaker 2: up a full five course meal. It was just wow.
Speaker 2: Now you weren't watching nothing on TV. But unless you
Speaker 2: got like.
Speaker 1: A little these NBA players and you also have to
Speaker 1: think about you're right because that was his career. Like
Speaker 1: imagine you just stopped singing Stoff going.
Speaker 2: And I did, though. That was and that was a
Speaker 2: very that was a pivotal moment in my life, like
Speaker 2: he won literally saved my life. In two thousand and six,
Speaker 2: I was dropped from Jive Records and they dropped me
Speaker 2: and I didn't even know what happened, And so I
Speaker 2: went over to I'm not sure if it was Deaf Jam,
Speaker 2: but Kevin Lowles was in the meeting. And I remember
Speaker 2: going over to the meeting with my lawyer and being
Speaker 2: in the room with Kevin Lowles and he looked at
Speaker 2: me like he didn't know. They took the meeting, but
Speaker 2: they looked at me like they didn't know who are
Speaker 2: I was. They were like, and I had three albums
Speaker 2: out and he was like, you don't have any new material.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I just released the album. What am I
Speaker 2: supposed to go do? And so it's just like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: Collins when we have another album. And I was really
Speaker 2: devastated behind that, and so keiwan I say, I feel
Speaker 2: like he saved me. My husband's name is Kiwan. I
Speaker 2: feel like he saved me because I was able to
Speaker 2: go overseas after that, to Italy. We were living in Milan,
Speaker 2: of all places. He had just proposed to me in
Speaker 2: that July. That happened in April. He proposed to me
Speaker 2: in July, and then I just packed my ship and
Speaker 2: went to Milan and just stay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, perfect time.
Speaker 2: And I could and I could be a I literally
Speaker 2: for the first time feel like I can actually act
Speaker 2: like a woman. I could act like and I, but
Speaker 2: I could act like I could be in the actual
Speaker 2: role of what we were designed to be. I'll say
Speaker 2: it like that the traditional, the traditional or just the
Speaker 2: the design of women. We were not made to take
Speaker 2: care of men. We were made to help men. We
Speaker 2: were made to take care of our children, but we
Speaker 2: were not made to take care of full blown households.
Speaker 2: So when you're an entertainer and you're by yourself and
Speaker 2: you're a woman, you're single, you are your household and
Speaker 2: whoever else around you that you need to help, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. But the pressures of having to
Speaker 2: fight and hustle and scrape and scrap and scratch to
Speaker 2: get to the so called success goals in your life,
Speaker 2: the release of that was just it was healing and
Speaker 2: I could just be a mom or a girlfriend.
Speaker 1: To even think about that because you have been working
Speaker 1: since you were so young.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then and being able to go just go over
Speaker 2: there and then he's the star, right, so I'm just
Speaker 2: and he's telling you know, they know, oh you're a
Speaker 2: singer in America, Okay, great, but they don't know your
Speaker 2: music really are like that in Italy that wasn't one
Speaker 2: of my big markets, so they don't really know. I
Speaker 2: was able to just person. I was just getting little girl.
Speaker 2: When I tell you, the team Milan, So the way
Speaker 2: that they have over like the way it was was
Speaker 2: overseas and me, certain leagues are bigger than the others,
Speaker 2: like your leagues are obviously bigger. Certain leagues are bigger.
Speaker 2: So the Italian League is a bigger league, right. The
Speaker 2: sponsor of the team was Georgie our money, Wow girl
Speaker 2: we got and he had nerd to play for a
Speaker 2: team that was sponsored by PRAD. I was over there
Speaker 2: living my life, road noodles and just having a time
Speaker 2: with five course meals. It was so free, It was
Speaker 2: so different life. It was free. But I got to
Speaker 2: be a mom like he He made me a mother
Speaker 2: and a wife. He saved me. And then because I
Speaker 2: was able to do that, I was able to reappreciate
Speaker 2: my music. Because I suffered a depression. I'm talking about
Speaker 2: bad depression. Job Records was like a bad marriage. I
Speaker 2: was like locked in for eight years, you know, constantly
Speaker 2: trying to prove myself for eight years. I guess like
Speaker 2: being with an abusive man like you constantly trying to
Speaker 2: let him know, trying to get him to see you
Speaker 2: as this way, and he constantly keeps shooting you down
Speaker 2: or telling you ain't shit all the time, and you
Speaker 2: but you, well, maybe if I do this, this will work,
Speaker 2: and then it still doesn't work. For eight years straight
Speaker 2: from being twenty one years old all the way to
Speaker 2: twenty nine, you know what I'm saying. So they were
Speaker 2: eight years of my youthful life.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And then to be able to go okay, you know.
Speaker 2: And I didn't know that that was getting ready to
Speaker 2: happen to me, but God did. And I'll tell you.
Speaker 2: I remember I could. I couldn't even pay my rent.
Speaker 2: I could not my mortgage because I had a town
Speaker 2: home at the time, and I couldn't pay it because
Speaker 2: I was being sued by my lawyers from my divorce
Speaker 2: because I owed them so much money. They had charged
Speaker 2: me so much money because they figured, to you on
Speaker 2: drive records they could fit the bill. So they overcharged
Speaker 2: me except for a three year long divorce that was unnecessary,
Speaker 2: but they fell.
Speaker 1: I did up.
Speaker 2: I didn't have nothing, but they felt like that job
Speaker 2: was the cash cow. So I wasn't able to pay them.
Speaker 2: And I remember Kiwan coming too the house and I
Speaker 2: swear to God and this is this is very lifetime
Speaker 2: movie Hallmark station. But that man walked in the house
Speaker 2: with a woman's bible and inside the bike because I
Speaker 2: called him crying because I had to go to court,
Speaker 2: and I couldn't believe I had to go to court
Speaker 2: and I had to go to court by myself and
Speaker 2: fight my own lawyers, like stand against my own lawyers.
Speaker 2: And the judge was like, you're extorting her, like he
Speaker 2: cussed out the lawyers because I was in it by
Speaker 2: myself because I was paying, but I just didn't have
Speaker 2: enough to pay what they wanted, like they want to
Speaker 2: all the stock, right, but if you show intent to
Speaker 2: pay something, then the judge leniency. So he called me
Speaker 2: and he asked, men, we were dating. This is still
Speaker 2: in the dating phase. He called me and he asked me,
Speaker 2: you know what what happened at the court? You know
Speaker 2: what happened at the And I just I was in tears, crying,
Speaker 2: like I don't have this money. I think it's like
Speaker 2: fifteen sixteen thousand dollars. I don't have this money. They
Speaker 2: want this money right now whatever, And so I was like,
Speaker 2: I can't even pay my mortgage on fuck, am I
Speaker 2: gonna pay it? You know? So? And I didn't want
Speaker 2: to have to tell him that because as Selena Johnson,
Speaker 2: you're supposed to have money, you know, but that was
Speaker 2: not always the case. And so I'll never forget this.
Speaker 2: This is what I was like, Oh, you're my husband
Speaker 2: and min We're gonna be together forever. He walked in
Speaker 2: the house and he came over and he had a
Speaker 2: woman's bible, and in the bible was a check for
Speaker 2: the mortgage. Yes, and do you know I never paid
Speaker 2: my mortgage from then on ever? Wow? Ever again for
Speaker 2: that for that town home ever again. And the next
Speaker 2: house was a house we had built up from the
Speaker 2: ground that he paid for.
Speaker 4: That is a So it's not about you pay my
Speaker 4: bill or any of that.
Speaker 2: It was about him saying I can take care of you,
Speaker 2: and I needed it too, because I needed it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This wasn't about and show yes. Yeah, this was like
Speaker 1: I'm just having a bad day and you've never had
Speaker 1: anybody do that for you before?
Speaker 2: No, No, because I was doing I was taking care
Speaker 2: of me.
Speaker 1: And so then when did you guys get to the
Speaker 1: point where you hit a rough patch?
Speaker 2: And how after his retirement and we had to like
Speaker 2: walk away from everything because when he stopped working, I
Speaker 2: wasn't working, you know, I was just being a mom.
Speaker 2: I was pregnant with my second baby, and that he
Speaker 2: couldn't get a job anymore. He hurt his hand and
Speaker 2: he couldn't. They wouldn't take him back because he was
Speaker 2: like thirty five thirty six, because to them, that's old
Speaker 2: or whatever. And so for the money that they were
Speaker 2: offering him, he didn't want to leave. His family is
Speaker 2: a small three year old boy. Then he has a
Speaker 2: seven year old and then he has a baby in
Speaker 2: the stomach, you know. But you didn't have no answer
Speaker 2: financially to combat that. You know, we had savings that
Speaker 2: we went through, but I had to get on the
Speaker 2: road thirty eight weeks pregnant and start being Selena Johnson
Speaker 2: all over again and build us all the way up.
Speaker 2: And Kewan was I just think he was just depressed.
Speaker 2: He just didn't know what to He didn't know who
Speaker 2: he was. He didn't have an identity outside of Kewan
Speaker 2: Garris the basketball player.
Speaker 1: I would imagine a lot of athletes because that's what
Speaker 1: they're trained to do, like the whole life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and even now my son is following in his
Speaker 2: exact footsteps. Just got Player of the Year. He's top
Speaker 2: ten in the state of Georgia. You know, he's very
Speaker 2: very good, probably gonna do all that good stuff, you know.
Speaker 2: But I'm also like constantly telling him stuff like like
Speaker 2: I have his Merrill Lynch account. He's sixteen, I got
Speaker 2: he got a MARYL. Lynric. I get tack for it
Speaker 2: and he.
Speaker 1: Has it now. That's why make him so much better financially.
Speaker 2: Yes, because when you retire. I want him to have
Speaker 2: millions of dollars when he retires. Whether it's overseas, whether
Speaker 2: it's in the Gila, I don't care where he plays.
Speaker 2: He's gonna have money sitting waiting when he's done. That's
Speaker 2: the goal. If I have to put it in there,
Speaker 2: he has to. But whatever. But he has a gym
Speaker 2: shoe company. It's called Sneaky Souls and he like so
Speaker 2: I'll let him be an entrepreneur, have something else, have
Speaker 2: some more you know interest. Because Kiwan came from you know,
Speaker 2: from the street to basketball.
Speaker 1: Basketball. That's it.
Speaker 2: Basketball got him saved him from the what could have
Speaker 2: been his.
Speaker 1: Think about how the dynamics change where now you're working.
Speaker 1: But he's not doing what he was doing right, So
Speaker 1: it kind of like flip.
Speaker 2: Right, and I can't take care of her. That's taking
Speaker 2: him out. You see what I'm saying. I'm not in
Speaker 2: the predicament where I can do the things that I
Speaker 2: used to do. So he thinks that he feels like
Speaker 2: I'm looking at him even if I'm telling him you
Speaker 2: took care of us for this many amount of years.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm gonna do what I need to do regardless
Speaker 2: of that. No man, no real man wants to hear
Speaker 2: you say that. And it's gonna be okay with.
Speaker 1: That because when you did marriage boot Camp, people were like,
Speaker 1: what problems do that? You know, because everything from the
Speaker 1: outside lists.
Speaker 2: I don't run We don't run around telling our business.
Speaker 2: Real real couples don't let everybody know what's going on
Speaker 2: in their relationships up top because that could ruin your
Speaker 2: marriage forever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm sure that was a hard decision to
Speaker 1: even do that.
Speaker 2: It was a hard decision, but at that point, I
Speaker 2: was like, I don't know what else to do. We
Speaker 2: have been through everything and I couldn't. I couldn't think
Speaker 2: of anything else. Neither or he couldn't either. That would
Speaker 2: help us get back on track. And actually, marriage boot
Speaker 2: Camp was the best thing we had ever done because
Speaker 2: we realized, oh wow, we're not as crazy. Yes, people
Speaker 2: in the house, but let me tell you the couples
Speaker 2: we were in that house with were so fun. We
Speaker 2: had the best time in history. And what's crazy is
Speaker 2: like Spencer and Heidi alone the funniest couple of all time.
Speaker 2: Like it was just and uh, Natalie nine and her husband,
Speaker 2: they and all these colos are still together, all these
Speaker 2: we had the best one because we have stuff, but
Speaker 2: we didn't have enough stuff that was like too bad
Speaker 2: to tear us up, which we realized when we were
Speaker 2: in the house. But the production was kind of like,
Speaker 2: all right, guys, this is boring. So Natalie was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'll go. And Natalie people believed that Natalie is so
Speaker 2: Banana's than wild, but Natalie is a smart business I
Speaker 2: like she is a joke double major in college soccer player, Like,
Speaker 2: no joke she was. She's yes, she she she's just brilliant.
Speaker 2: She's a very smart girl. But she understood that.
Speaker 1: To use yeah, to use people's clicks yes, in order
Speaker 1: to amplify herself.
Speaker 2: And I think my husband seeing other husbands being in
Speaker 2: different predicaments that were kind of similar to him too,
Speaker 2: like because we're all strong women, all of us were
Speaker 2: kind of like strong women out for women, you know,
Speaker 2: or taking you know, making money and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: It allowed him to be able to see all the
Speaker 2: different dynamics and give his self mercy, give himself great,
Speaker 2: you know, like and then him just you know, he
Speaker 2: got with the NBA Retirement League and talking to other
Speaker 2: guys and he started playing again and like the other
Speaker 2: leagues because basketball is his that's like for me singing
Speaker 2: singing for me is like playing basketball. For him is
Speaker 2: like singing for his life. It's one of his DNA absolutely,
Speaker 2: so when that was taken from him, that was heartbreaking.
Speaker 2: That's heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: Did you think you weren't gonna sing again when she
Speaker 1: went overseas? Were you like, this is it?
Speaker 2: Or did you always know you would be turn I
Speaker 2: knew that I would return because I still was recording
Speaker 2: while I was over there. It's just I was recording
Speaker 2: with a different energy. I was recording with I love
Speaker 2: the music. I'm doing this because I love the music.
Speaker 2: I can't if I don't, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Different vibes and and the new album is called Legacy, Yes,
Speaker 1: and this is so tell us about that because I
Speaker 1: know that deals with your father's legacy also.
Speaker 2: So you know, legacy pretty much not pretty much every
Speaker 2: song on the album will have a sample of my dad,
Speaker 2: so you'll hear his voice or his music because he
Speaker 2: was the most sampled artist. I'm talking Michael Jackson, jay Z,
Speaker 2: Kanye will Smith, I'm talking about over a thousand and
Speaker 2: like they can't even count. Where's Nima? Like his best
Speaker 2: was like his best? Oh god, he did hear that?
Speaker 2: A Rizza were like close. Rizza called me when when
Speaker 2: he died because they were like friends, because they like
Speaker 2: bought his house, you know, they gave him so much
Speaker 2: money from samples that my father was able to buy
Speaker 2: his own house, you know, buy his house. So I'm
Speaker 2: going to sample every every song would be a sample
Speaker 2: of his. The newest single, Black Balloons, is his voice
Speaker 2: in the top, and so it's like Selena featuring Cel
Speaker 2: Johnson all of it. But it's not even gonna really
Speaker 2: be featuring Cel Johnson. You're just gonna hear remnants of that.
Speaker 2: So the album is gonna feel very soul for very old,
Speaker 2: you know, old old.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you back in the day, we used
Speaker 1: to have these clubs called these parties called Soul Kitchen,
Speaker 1: and it would be parties where they would play all
Speaker 1: the samples that people use and music. It was never
Speaker 1: the actual song and you will be like, oh, I
Speaker 1: didn't even realize it was only the original. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: let's get that out there. Hopefully they do.
Speaker 2: They should maybe.
Speaker 1: Atlanta, you can do that with your dad's music, really right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: when it is the album coming out.
Speaker 2: So the album is going to come out probably the
Speaker 2: end of second quarter. We still haven't done the date
Speaker 2: yet because we're just really having fun with this new industry.
Speaker 2: The new industry says you can do whatever you want
Speaker 2: to do. You know, we want to put it out
Speaker 2: before the third quarter because obviously you want to make
Speaker 2: the Grammy cut off, you know, because the Grammy cut
Speaker 2: off is like August or something like that. But we
Speaker 2: just don't know, like we're going to release singles. That's
Speaker 2: how our world and our people are starting to our
Speaker 2: fans are starting to adjust music before they actually you know,
Speaker 2: pull the trigger. So once you get the singles, then
Speaker 2: when it's out, it'll automatically download and you're you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, then you'll have the whole thing. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's going to be so good. I have some
Speaker 2: of the songs are so good and I'm just talking
Speaker 2: very grown on this record. It's real fun. It's gonna
Speaker 2: be a good time.
Speaker 3: I can feel yours about it. I can feel how much.
Speaker 2: And it's free. It's nobody in my shoulder telling me
Speaker 2: over my shoulder, telling me how to do something. Because
Speaker 2: I also built a studio on my home when my dad,
Speaker 2: when my father was very sick, and when he died,
Speaker 2: I finished it, and so it's called Legacy Studios. It
Speaker 2: looks like it looks like a studio studio, I guess,
Speaker 2: like this and a booth and everything. It's it's huge.
Speaker 2: It's like a real setup. So I'm recording the whole
Speaker 2: album there. I have my father's ashes in there. I
Speaker 2: have this guitar plaques, you know, so there he is.
Speaker 2: He is there, and that's what he would have wanted.
Speaker 2: My father was was always like, and we own the estate,
Speaker 2: which is smart because now the money just keeps coming back.
Speaker 2: People clean us up perfect, so it just comes right
Speaker 2: back in and we will talk to you.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I feel like I feel like this was my father
Speaker 2: and I didn't have the best relationship, but I feel
Speaker 2: like this is a way I can honor our legacy,
Speaker 2: or honor our music or not succumb to what was
Speaker 2: the generational trauma and kind of break that generational curse
Speaker 2: for my sons. You know what I'm saying, because just
Speaker 2: because they're not in music, even though my youngest does
Speaker 2: play piano, but he got a studio to work out, right,
Speaker 2: he can go down to the studio and they can
Speaker 2: be free of that generational curse of lack, that generational
Speaker 2: curse of underrated or not being seen. That my kids
Speaker 2: don't have to feel that way. I'll absorb it. It's fine,
Speaker 2: but my kids will not. So my son kJ will excel.
Speaker 2: He will get everything that he's supposed to get. No
Speaker 2: one would be able to stop him because I'm going
Speaker 2: to pray those generational curses off of him. If my
Speaker 2: father did not do them, now I got to pray
Speaker 2: to the secondhand generational curses off of him. And through
Speaker 2: our music, I feel like it is honoring our legacy
Speaker 2: as opposed to always looking at the cup half empty,
Speaker 2: but more so how full it was. So that's all
Speaker 2: I'm trying to do.
Speaker 1: Well, you deserve it, But I've been taking you so
Speaker 1: much for stopping through the seas. I know you've been
Speaker 1: working a lot, and I know you know, this is
Speaker 1: what you.
Speaker 2: Do anding me. This is so full circle. Like you
Speaker 2: and I was on Reapers Club, we were there too,
Speaker 2: So now I get to be just with you and
Speaker 2: with you lovely ladies. Women Like I told her, I
Speaker 2: said that, she was like, it's gonna be great. I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, you, nothing can go wrong with this women.
Speaker 2: She said, oh, no, stuff can go.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, that's not going wrong with afflimation. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you for Women's Yes, Women's Happy Women's Month, for
Speaker 1: all of you, and these journals.
Speaker 2: So I have my own journals and I put my
Speaker 2: album in there as an artifact. I know y'all probably
Speaker 2: even got no CD players, no more but in the cars.
Speaker 2: But these journals are just for you to be able
Speaker 2: to reflect. I know you said you're doing a vision board,
Speaker 2: and so it's good to like jop down some of
Speaker 2: the stuff that you may put on your vision board
Speaker 2: so that once you do it, you're like, Okay, it's
Speaker 2: like I got my notes, my pictures, and just every
Speaker 2: day reflection. I found that, especially during the pandemic, journaling
Speaker 2: was a big deal for me. Now, journaling has been
Speaker 2: a big deal since the beginning Chapter one, my first
Speaker 2: album was created from journals I can put together. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I had some wragly a man down.
Speaker 3: To that album.
Speaker 1: We need a part. I feel like there's so much.
Speaker 2: That's one thing I've done is lived.
Speaker 3: I mean that's what life is.
Speaker 1: Life.
Speaker 2: I've been here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had. If there's one thing I lived, I
Speaker 1: could be remember that the little chop proper one life
Speaker 1: to live I didnet lived about fifteen.
Speaker 2: Wow, I'm like a cat out here.
Speaker 1: Well it's just more for the son, for the music. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I hope you guys enjoy your journals get added
Speaker 2: into your daily informations or your daily routine in the morning,
Speaker 2: even if it's like two words. I think we get
Speaker 2: wrapped up in Well I didn't write en up, you know,
Speaker 2: because we're perfectionists. What's your sign Cacorn? Oh god, did
Speaker 2: you organize her? And what's your sign? Jim? And okay, Jim,
Speaker 2: Gigi is two people. Yes, we gotta when this is
Speaker 2: offics should be somebody else like, but she's constant right
Speaker 2: now is who she is? And what's your son? Pices? Okay,
Speaker 2: Pisces are very smart, but there's slick and you're a virgo.
Speaker 2: I'm a virgo. If you are dumb around the pisces.
Speaker 2: You fell off. Like if you're not sharp, they'll be like,
Speaker 2: oh and do their thing which all sharp. They'll be like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: those are my levels. Good.
Speaker 1: I love it. We got books, we got a reading.
Speaker 2: Yes, you gotta reading. Not but in your journal. I know,
Speaker 2: as women in general perfectionists, so we'll feel like, oh
Speaker 2: if I didn't write enough, man, I didn't do good today.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: So even if you have one thing to say, you
Speaker 2: might come in there and just say.
Speaker 3: I need to get back to it.
Speaker 2: Tired, Yeah, period, your business, and that might be all
Speaker 2: you have to say, you know, because you might be
Speaker 2: just that tired, or you might have a whole dissertation write.
Speaker 2: But I really feel like it's good to be able
Speaker 2: to just do something every day, you know, even if
Speaker 2: I go in there and draw hard. You know, I
Speaker 2: love myself today. Ship, I love my man, my man.
Speaker 3: That's so crazy.
Speaker 4: She was just talking to me about that. And this
Speaker 4: whole episode is about writing and journaling.
Speaker 3: So here we are full circle.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much. That is lip service. Yes, you.
Speaker 2: Are awesome. It's so pretty. My goodness. You guys are gorgeous,
Speaker 2: all of you with you, so Fae's.
Speaker 3: Girl.
Speaker 2: I was hearing to post down.
Speaker 4: That's right, I was not about to still just posing
Speaker 4: my next photo.
Speaker 1: I love the hair today. Thank you.
Speaker 2: This is the fastest braider. My tree braided lady. She's
Speaker 2: the bomb, she's ale. It took her two hours to
Speaker 2: do this.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: Two hours you need. And she don't break tight so
Speaker 2: soon as you be braided. Okay, great, where she's at Atlanta,
Speaker 2: But people fly in. They flying in and they make
Speaker 2: a trip.
Speaker 1: It's fast to go there, right back and get your
Speaker 1: hair braided, then see.
Speaker 2: It for seven hours in the hair salon. Girl, you're
Speaker 2: gonna sit in the hair salon all right.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much