Speaker 1: R and D Money.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 1: Take the child. We are the authority on.
Speaker 3: R ladies and get her name was Tank and this
Speaker 3: is the R and B Money Podcast, the authority.
Speaker 2: On all things R and B.
Speaker 1: Okay, you got the same clothes on. You do too,
Speaker 1: I do too.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying something because you know we
Speaker 3: had we had flexing here earlier. But I said, listen,
Speaker 3: there's gonna be a problem if we don't get the
Speaker 3: better half in here, if we don't get that real
Speaker 3: ar they sing in here, we.
Speaker 1: Don't take this my fuck up lady, And she pulled
Speaker 1: out Yes she did, shine up, she smiling, she smiling.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you. Yeah, I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 3: You have you have one of the coldest, like craziest,
Speaker 3: awesomest smiles of all times.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Like of all times.
Speaker 4: You just gotta be a mean person. If she smiles
Speaker 4: at you know, you don't smile by you're mean.
Speaker 2: You know. It's so funny. I came up with the
Speaker 2: title of the song, and I co wrote it with
Speaker 2: naughta Michael Walden and his team. And I came up
Speaker 2: with that title because I used to get laughed at
Speaker 2: in school because they said I smiled too much. They said,
Speaker 2: you're always smiling. And so when Narda asked me to
Speaker 2: write down a title for a song, I wrote down
Speaker 2: I love your smile. And then that's how we started
Speaker 2: forming the song from that title.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we're gonna get into it. Yeah, it's perfect.
Speaker 3: It's like every time I see you, it's like, man,
Speaker 3: life is all right.
Speaker 2: As soon as you walked into that, just like this,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 3: Like and I smile a lot, right, but your smile
Speaker 3: is different. Your smile is like it's radiant, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. It like it like commands good energy
Speaker 3: and like holiness. It's like like when you smile the
Speaker 3: lord walk in the room, you see your smile.
Speaker 1: Right, I did that. I gave you a smile, so
Speaker 1: like you're awesome.
Speaker 3: You you're beautiful and and we want to of course
Speaker 3: want to give you your flowers and and and give
Speaker 3: you your your this you know, this is this is
Speaker 3: your moment too, to lack of a better word, no pun,
Speaker 3: intent to flex. Yes, today is your day to do that.
Speaker 3: Because you are nice. You are you are cool, come
Speaker 3: and collective, you are a consummate professional you.
Speaker 1: Oh no, that is a sad you know that's about
Speaker 1: the trap side. Yeah, so we want to get into
Speaker 1: all of that.
Speaker 3: We really, we really would love to start at the beginning,
Speaker 3: the beginning of my beginning, of the beginning of you
Speaker 3: with me. When do you identify this gift or who identifies.
Speaker 1: It for you?
Speaker 2: So my mom sings. As a matter of fact, she's
Speaker 2: now in the group the emotions. She sings with the
Speaker 2: emotions Emotions, So yeah, she's one of the emotions. Now.
Speaker 2: They just did that big festival with Diana Ross and everyone.
Speaker 2: So I come from a musical family. My mom and
Speaker 2: my aunt, We're all from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and my mom
Speaker 2: and my aunt had singing group. My dad would play
Speaker 2: the guitar and my aunt my mom would sing, and
Speaker 2: my mom would She sang the whole nine months while
Speaker 2: she was pregnant with me. And so when I was
Speaker 2: seven months, I came out singing like we live really
Speaker 2: have it on cassette. My first song was telling Me
Speaker 2: Something Good by Sha Ka Khan, I Want to Know
Speaker 2: by Elden John and Jogo Boogie by calling the Gang.
Speaker 2: And I couldn't talk, but I had the melody down
Speaker 2: pack at seven months, so I just came out singing,
Speaker 2: just hearing all that music the whole time, and my
Speaker 2: dad would play guitar to her stomach. And at the
Speaker 2: age of three, my mom put me on stage for
Speaker 2: the first time with her her group, and I performed
Speaker 2: on stage for the first time at three. And at
Speaker 2: the age of eight, we left Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and we
Speaker 2: moved to California because my mom and my aunt wanted
Speaker 2: to pursue their singing careers. When we got to California,
Speaker 2: when I got off the Greyhound bus, wander.
Speaker 1: From that's it's the Greyhound.
Speaker 2: We took the Greyhound.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, listen, all you new artists.
Speaker 2: We got on the Greyhound.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know nothing because I've been on the
Speaker 4: Greyhound before.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it took like three days.
Speaker 1: Is not fun.
Speaker 3: It was terrible, but as a kid, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a little bit bigger space.
Speaker 4: You better be back on that bus before they take
Speaker 4: off that pitstop or you will be stuck in some
Speaker 4: random city.
Speaker 2: No, it was. It was not a great ride, but
Speaker 2: my mom wanted to. They said we're going to go
Speaker 2: either to California or New York because they wanted to.
Speaker 2: You know, pursue their careers. When we got off the
Speaker 2: greyhound bus, wandered from the Emotions picked me up. She's
Speaker 2: my auntie, she picked me up. Yeah, she's she's the
Speaker 2: least singer of the Emotions. The best of my life. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: she's like mine, like I've known since I was a baby.
Speaker 2: And so she picked us up from the Greyhound station.
Speaker 2: And I remember getting off the bus saying, where's Michael
Speaker 2: Jackson because I heard that Hollywood had starts, so I
Speaker 2: was looking around for Michael Jackson. And you have to
Speaker 2: really watch what you asked for because my dream as
Speaker 2: a kid was to meet Michael Jackson. And I'm gonna
Speaker 2: get to that. But I told my mom, Okay, I
Speaker 2: want to sing too. So they found me a and
Speaker 2: I started going out on auditions, you know, for commercials
Speaker 2: and stuff. And my first audition I went on was
Speaker 2: I had to scat with Ela Fitzgerald in the Kentucky
Speaker 2: Fried Chicken commercial.
Speaker 1: That's your first audience.
Speaker 2: I sang with el Fitzgerald when I was eight years
Speaker 2: old in a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial. So that was
Speaker 2: like my first big thing. And then after that I
Speaker 2: did Star Search one Star Search at eleven years old,
Speaker 2: and then I was in a musical called Get Happy,
Speaker 2: and the musical was about the music of Harold Arlean.
Speaker 2: I sang some of the Rainbow in that musical and
Speaker 2: John McClain, who is over Michael Jackson's estate, heard me.
Speaker 2: He came to hear me perform because he heard about
Speaker 2: me and signed me to AEM Records when I was
Speaker 2: eleven years old. So that's how it all. That's how
Speaker 2: it all started.
Speaker 1: Why she's been smiling since she was.
Speaker 4: Calling me Matael Jackson. Okay, well you know John McLain
Speaker 4: sign you got eleven.
Speaker 2: John McClain signed me eleven years old.
Speaker 4: After you win Star Search though, because this is another
Speaker 4: thing talk about it. Star Search was like American Yes, yes,
Speaker 4: Star Search was If you want Star Search, you were
Speaker 4: the real deal, because it's so many people's stories that
Speaker 4: talk about being on Star Search.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know I did Star Search.
Speaker 2: Everybody does to say when I won, I want Star
Speaker 2: Search twice Actually okay, but I want the finale.
Speaker 1: So you won the you said the finale.
Speaker 2: The finale, I learned the.
Speaker 1: The big one when all the winners come back.
Speaker 3: So you beat you beat your heat and then you
Speaker 3: beat the combined Winner's.
Speaker 1: Heat aka Thanos. I'm a smile, a smile and so
Speaker 1: it don't hurt.
Speaker 2: And then when John McClain signed me, I get in
Speaker 2: the studio. Do you know Richard Rudolph, Dick Rudolph, He
Speaker 2: was married to Minnie Ripperton. They wrote Loving You Together
Speaker 2: and everything. So I got in a studio with him
Speaker 2: and he introduced me to Tina Marie. And I'm eleven
Speaker 2: years old working with Tina Marie at eleven years old,
Speaker 2: so she was like one of the first producers that
Speaker 2: I worked with was Tina Marie at eleven years old.
Speaker 2: And I recorded a whole album when I first signed,
Speaker 2: and Jon McClain didn't use the label A and M
Speaker 2: didn't use that album. We had to re record the
Speaker 2: whole thing because I started to get older, my voice
Speaker 2: started changing. He's so Brian Laren produced and wrote my
Speaker 2: first album, which was called Discovery, and it came out
Speaker 2: in eighty seven, So I had an album out before
Speaker 2: I Love Your Smile, Yeah, in eighty seven.
Speaker 4: Yeah no, And it's funny because I know of that time, yeah,
Speaker 4: and I remember it's like very reminisce of like a
Speaker 4: younger Janet.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, that's what well, Brian loren, I guess it
Speaker 2: kind of had like a he kind of put that
Speaker 2: Minneapolis Yeah sound on it.
Speaker 1: Because you had to know, no half stepping record.
Speaker 2: We had no half stepping yeah signed baby Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 2: no half step in and and and and Okay, this
Speaker 2: is the thing. I was signed in Janet. Janet's Control
Speaker 2: came out in eighty six and I came out eighty
Speaker 2: It was m all label mates, and I wanted to
Speaker 2: be very careful about my image and everything because I
Speaker 2: wanted to have my own look, my own thing, and
Speaker 2: it had nothing to do with Janet. But the hairstylist
Speaker 2: I told her, I said, I wanted to wear my
Speaker 2: hair straight because Janet is wearing her hair curly and
Speaker 2: you know, in control, and I didn't want to look
Speaker 2: like Janet. So she does my hair straight and you know,
Speaker 2: whispy towards my face. I shot my album cover and
Speaker 2: two weeks later I went to Jane's Pleasure principal video
Speaker 2: and she had the same exact hair. So I was like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh. So when my album came out, everyone
Speaker 2: was at the time was saying, you're trying to be
Speaker 2: like janeted and I'm like, I'm not trying to be
Speaker 2: like Janet.
Speaker 4: I was trying not to, but people don't understand the
Speaker 4: behind the scenes and how that goes. Yeah, and a
Speaker 4: lot of the same hairstylists, a lot of same makeup artists,
Speaker 4: a lot of different people that are like, oh.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what, I just tried this on this
Speaker 1: young girl and it would look good. It would look good.
Speaker 2: On you, right, that's what happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, that happens.
Speaker 3: Though all Yeah, in our business, and the fact that
Speaker 3: the more the bigger star gets it off first, it
Speaker 3: automatically looks like.
Speaker 1: It belongs to me.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Never it never came from you. Who are you?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Thank you originated something?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I had to at eleven. That was really
Speaker 2: hard for me at the time. I was fourteen. By
Speaker 2: the time the album finally came out, I was fourteen.
Speaker 1: So you signed for three years?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I worked on songs for three I actually
Speaker 2: worked with Ricky Bell and Rolph Trustman from New Addition
Speaker 2: had a song, yeah, and Tina Marie and Leon Ware
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. I worked with a lot of people on that.
Speaker 2: And were you in school or I was still in school? Yeah,
Speaker 2: So I went out homeschooling you yet No, I would
Speaker 2: still go to school, come home, and after school go
Speaker 2: to the studio, you know, so, and that's how it was.
Speaker 4: Yeah, those are the days. Yeah, that's that's the real development.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I wasn't, you know.
Speaker 3: I didn't start doing my thing until later in high school.
Speaker 3: But I can just only imagine, like we were offered
Speaker 3: a deal when Janet was on Virgin.
Speaker 1: I was in tenth grade to be part of that
Speaker 1: label and to be like a boys to men kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Wow. We were like, we have to say, Jesus,
Speaker 1: we can't have.
Speaker 2: You a gospel groups.
Speaker 1: He's done too much. Man. I was so stupid. Look
Speaker 1: at me now when we.
Speaker 2: That's funny.
Speaker 3: But it just didn't happen for me, you know, till later.
Speaker 3: So I really didn't, you know, get any of the
Speaker 3: I was a singer in high school, and I was
Speaker 3: a popular guy in high school. But it's different being
Speaker 3: famous in high school, like having an album out and
Speaker 3: and and knowing, you know, labelmates with Janet signed with
Speaker 3: Michael Jackson's people like us going to high.
Speaker 4: School with that on you that's different.
Speaker 1: Had you done kids Incorporated it?
Speaker 2: I did Kids Incorporated? That was before I had my deal.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, so what this is the thing with
Speaker 2: Kids Incorporated. I auditioned to be one of the singers
Speaker 2: on the show and I got you know, they picked
Speaker 2: me and everything, so I was excited. I'm thinking, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be able to sing on the show.
Speaker 2: And then once I got the part, they decided to
Speaker 2: make me the keyboard player and a backup dancer, which
Speaker 2: I'm not a professional dancer, but I can get I
Speaker 2: can you know, I have good rhythm, but I'm not
Speaker 2: a professional dancer. Make a long story short. I did
Speaker 2: the first season with them, and they they didn't let
Speaker 2: me sing. They just would not let me sing. So
Speaker 2: my mom pulled me out of the show because I
Speaker 2: was really hurt about not singing. Yeah so that's wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah they didn't let me sing.
Speaker 2: But right after I left Kids Incorporated, that's when everything happened.
Speaker 2: I got my deal, you know, so it was a
Speaker 2: blessing in disguise. I'm glad I left because I was
Speaker 2: that's you know, I got signed right after what it
Speaker 2: Hayden was well, I'm not going to say anyone's name,
Speaker 2: but I found out actually a few years ago, I
Speaker 2: found out that there was a person on the show
Speaker 2: that said, if you guys let her sing, then I'm
Speaker 2: going to quit the show. And I and at the time,
Speaker 2: I was only like maybe ten years old. This person
Speaker 2: was a teenager and I'm like, I was way younger
Speaker 2: than her, I said, heart but I but this is
Speaker 2: the thing. Yeah, boy, I found out because Rassan and
Speaker 2: I are like, we're like best friends. That's like my
Speaker 2: family was on the show as well, so it wasn't Rasan,
Speaker 2: But yeah, I found out. The person who created the
Speaker 2: show mentioned to someone that that's what the case was. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was the case he was handing out. So they
Speaker 2: were hating on you.
Speaker 1: Was that deal? You know, they're they're singers and they're
Speaker 1: sing girl with the smiles one song.
Speaker 2: Out, I found out that that's why I didn't get
Speaker 2: to sing on the show. And that was heartbreaking to here.
Speaker 2: So but then I got my deal and everything you
Speaker 2: know from the from then on was great. You know,
Speaker 2: I signed with A and M. I came you know,
Speaker 2: did that, and then I left an them because John
Speaker 2: McCain left the company. So then I left after John
Speaker 2: McClain left.
Speaker 1: But this is this is you had put your first
Speaker 1: album out right there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, after Kids Incorporated, I could sign my deal
Speaker 2: and then it was took some years because we're trying
Speaker 2: to find out find the direction. And then at age fourteen,
Speaker 2: I went to the studio with Brian Laren. He did the
Speaker 2: whole album and then and then that came out in
Speaker 2: eighty seven.
Speaker 1: Then how did it do? How were you feeling it?
Speaker 2: It did well? Like I think, I think, can you dance? Might?
Speaker 2: I think it was number one? I think I had
Speaker 2: the number one I believe, yeah, right, yeah, so it did?
Speaker 2: It did well after yeah, after the first single, they
Speaker 2: really pushed the first single, and then it seemed like
Speaker 2: after the first single, like you know how labels like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, it seemed like they didn't push it
Speaker 2: as hard after the first single. But I did get
Speaker 2: to travel the world, like during that time, I was
Speaker 2: all over Europe and Japan and at fourteen, yeah, at fourteen,
Speaker 2: I was traveling all over the world.
Speaker 1: Clearly not in school no more.
Speaker 2: I had a tutor. So when I did have to travel,
Speaker 2: we'd have a tutor on the road, and then then
Speaker 2: after the road, I just go right back to school.
Speaker 2: They would just give me all my work.
Speaker 1: Going back to regular school.
Speaker 2: I went back to regular school, and how was mom's
Speaker 2: with all this? Oh? Right, they were managing at the time.
Speaker 2: I listen, my mom and my aunt never forced me
Speaker 2: to do this, like I told them, this is something
Speaker 2: I wanted to do. She was never a stage mom.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, before I signed my deal,
Speaker 2: she was like, are you sure you want to do this?
Speaker 2: I'm like, yes, I want to do this. So my
Speaker 2: mom was very supportive. And the great thing is that
Speaker 2: they were always with me, so I felt always felt protected,
Speaker 2: you know. And I'm looking at some of the young
Speaker 2: kids out now, you know, I'm hearing all these stories
Speaker 2: about you know, you look at Britney Spears and you know,
Speaker 2: kids doing you know, drugs and alcohol and all that.
Speaker 2: I'm just thankful that I had that support, the team
Speaker 2: that I had. Very importantly, yeah.
Speaker 1: Extremely important. The mama, your is is underappreciated. Yeah, mama
Speaker 1: gonna raise hell right.
Speaker 2: But the labels don't like when your family's working with
Speaker 2: you because.
Speaker 1: Because then they can't control they can't control you.
Speaker 2: Yeah today, And I like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I'm all over your yeah, all over you.
Speaker 1: I love that, all ye all over your team. I
Speaker 1: still haven't been to Japan. I'm forty eight years old.
Speaker 2: No way, that's my favorite, that one. I can't say
Speaker 2: my favorite, one of my favorite countries. I love Japan.
Speaker 2: I love it. Thanks, you have to go. They would
Speaker 2: love you.
Speaker 1: Over there when you go, all open up just let me.
Speaker 2: Know, would you. Yeah, Okay, we're going to go to Japan. Okay,
Speaker 2: we got some stuff that I'm sure they love you
Speaker 2: over at Japan.
Speaker 1: I love it, I would love them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna make that happen. We're gonna go to Japan.
Speaker 1: You heard everything that is said on the Running podcast
Speaker 1: is a binding contract.
Speaker 2: I love it there. I love the people. I love
Speaker 2: the food. This I just love it. It's beautiful, the fashion,
Speaker 2: it's just great. And they're very supportive. Once they love you,
Speaker 2: they love you forever. So they're loyal. They're loyal fans. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you can always tore them.
Speaker 3: Okay, let's go, we're moving, Okay now, John McClain label.
Speaker 2: So yeah. So then I left uh Anna Records and
Speaker 2: I went to Joe Busby signed me recipes.
Speaker 1: He signed me to you know Tank played Joe Busby
Speaker 1: in a new edition.
Speaker 2: You sure did.
Speaker 1: Busby gave me a lot of money.
Speaker 2: Words. Right, you played absolutely, you did a great job.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did a great.
Speaker 1: Will be there that guy I got you? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: very well.
Speaker 2: But Joe Busby, I signed with Motown because my manager
Speaker 2: at the time was Bill Dern. Actually they talked about
Speaker 2: Bill Dern in the in the new edition, No, it
Speaker 2: was a new addition. Yeah. So Bill Darn was the
Speaker 2: one that played, was the manager of the new edition.
Speaker 2: He was also my manager. And we decided to go
Speaker 2: with Jerl Busby because you know, Jerl has kids and
Speaker 2: you know, and he was very nurturing and and so
Speaker 2: I signed to Motown.
Speaker 1: How are you now? I said, how are you now?
Speaker 2: Right now? No, I don't care. I mean he get
Speaker 2: Google or you know, but at that time, I I
Speaker 2: love your smile came out when I was eighteen.
Speaker 1: Okay, so was he discover about sixteen?
Speaker 2: About sixteen seventeen, Yeah, And so I signed with Dyll
Speaker 2: and then he put me in the studio. Nartim Michael
Speaker 2: Waldonnardi Michael Waldon did that whole album. My first song
Speaker 2: that I recorded was Silent Prayer with Johnny Gill was
Speaker 2: on was the first song It's your first song, which
Speaker 2: with with you on that album with It's.
Speaker 4: Your first Session of the Moment, first session album, Yeah, Johnny.
Speaker 2: He was with Johnny Silent Prayer, and then Narda said,
Speaker 2: do you have song titles? I gave him, so I
Speaker 2: wrote down a whole bunch of song titles. He used
Speaker 2: all of my titles that I came up with on
Speaker 2: the album not a Special Yeah. And then and then
Speaker 2: he was sitting by the piano and I just started
Speaker 2: singing melodies and and then everything just kind of started
Speaker 2: from there.
Speaker 1: Oh, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 4: So Jarvis jay La Rue, who was a co writer
Speaker 4: with you guys on Love is from my neighborhood.
Speaker 2: That's crazy. The wrap.
Speaker 1: This is the thing.
Speaker 2: I'm sure Flex. I think Flex told you guys is
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I've always wanted to be a rapper.
Speaker 1: Save you said it's authentic too.
Speaker 2: So so when I did I Love Your Smile, at
Speaker 2: the time, I was listening to like Salt and Pepper
Speaker 2: Quin Latifa, I was listening to MC light and I
Speaker 2: wanted something hard, right, So when we did I Love
Speaker 2: Your Smile and then Jarvis wrote the rap and I
Speaker 2: did the rap, I was like, is this too sweet?
Speaker 2: Like I want something like hard and so Jeryl Busby
Speaker 2: said after we finished the album, he said, okay, I
Speaker 2: Love Your Smile is going to be the first single,
Speaker 2: and I was like, no, I think it should be
Speaker 2: Silent Prayer because at the time, the Persian golf War
Speaker 2: was going on, and I said, we need prayer in
Speaker 2: the world. I think I Love Your Silent Prayer should
Speaker 2: be the first single. And then Geryl said, no, oh,
Speaker 2: it's going to be I Love your Smile. I was
Speaker 2: literally in his office crying. I said, it's the wrong
Speaker 2: first single. I did not know. I wanted to be
Speaker 2: Silent Prayer. And then I thought the song was too happy.
Speaker 2: I said, people are gonna laugh at me and think
Speaker 2: I'm corny because it's so happy. And and when he
Speaker 2: put that song out, it literally overnight, it just blew
Speaker 2: up everywhere. And you know what's crazy. I went on
Speaker 2: Instagram one time and Snoop Dogg was singing I Love
Speaker 2: Your Smile and I was just like, the hardest of
Speaker 2: the hardest is singing my song. And then Chris Brown
Speaker 2: was undecided. So I was so wrong. I was so
Speaker 2: wrong about this. I was so wrong about that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, he's talking to jail.
Speaker 2: He was right about that, but he but the second
Speaker 2: single was a song called I'm Crying. I don't think
Speaker 2: I should I should have gone from smiling. I went
Speaker 2: from smile into crying. And I think that Silent Prayer
Speaker 2: should have been the second single with Johnny, and we
Speaker 2: should have shot a video. We never got to shoot
Speaker 2: a video.
Speaker 1: But you had such a massive first single, like out
Speaker 1: the Gate. I think when that first single takes off,
Speaker 1: it's a whole other world.
Speaker 3: But that's like that's an all timer, as you said,
Speaker 3: like it's still being.
Speaker 1: Pieces.
Speaker 3: People are still taking as many pieces of that song
Speaker 3: as they can to make new moments and memories from it.
Speaker 2: And I'm so grateful that is I'm so grateful.
Speaker 1: That's hard.
Speaker 4: So when this record, you said, it takes off immediately, Yeah,
Speaker 4: do you feel the immediate shift in your life?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I was really really busy, like to the point
Speaker 2: where sometimes I would I felt I was exhausted because
Speaker 2: I was going from one country to the next. And
Speaker 2: you go into you go, you fly in to that,
Speaker 2: you're on the plane for like fifteen hours. You get
Speaker 2: off the plane and go straight to a photo shoot,
Speaker 2: and you go to the radio station and then you're
Speaker 2: sitting in the one room and then you have like
Speaker 2: eighteen different journalists come in to interview. And I was
Speaker 2: just like, oh my gosh, I'm exhausted. But I had
Speaker 2: my dad. I have one of my best friends. His
Speaker 2: name is Sean Earle. He was one of my dancers,
Speaker 2: and he traveled with me and he kept me laughing.
Speaker 2: And I'm telling you, the team that I had around
Speaker 2: it was really good. I don't think I could have
Speaker 2: done it without without the people that I had around me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So that helped.
Speaker 3: Litigrate because it's like and in those days, like the
Speaker 3: promo was a different kind of.
Speaker 1: Heavy, way different lift. It was way different. It was
Speaker 1: like sun up right to sundown.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I worked my butt off.
Speaker 1: You're going to sleep for four to five five hours
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get right back at it again the
Speaker 1: next day. That's how it was.
Speaker 2: That's how it was.
Speaker 3: And I had to fight that at one point because
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm a machine, right and if you put
Speaker 3: it on the schedule, cool, I'm gonna get to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But then I started to realize that R and B
Speaker 3: is not supposed to be saying in between the hours
Speaker 3: of six am to ten am.
Speaker 1: It's just not right.
Speaker 3: It's just not And I said, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna keep sucking up these more than show performances, right
Speaker 3: because I don't.
Speaker 1: Belong here this early.
Speaker 3: R and be don't open up to six thirty pm,
Speaker 3: maybe seven eight, that's when we'll start the performances.
Speaker 4: You know, overseas it's a day chair clock, right, That's
Speaker 4: why they ain't let your ass over there.
Speaker 3: The problem is this, let are and be sick. Where's
Speaker 3: all singing when you need them? Where's the Keenan Way
Speaker 3: Show when you need it?
Speaker 2: Huh?
Speaker 1: It's called the Army Money Podcast I'm talking about. That's
Speaker 1: what I aren't being supposed to be saying. Right, you're right,
Speaker 1: I'm just apologizing for what they did to us.
Speaker 2: That's true. Yeah, But now labels aren't doing artists development
Speaker 2: and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: They're not doing any of this because they're not trying
Speaker 1: to build legends.
Speaker 4: They're not trying to build legacy. They're going off of
Speaker 4: what's hot right now, and then they're.
Speaker 1: Going to swap you out right now.
Speaker 4: You have to decide for yourself if you want to
Speaker 4: be in that category at any point of your career
Speaker 4: that's true, you know what I mean. But before they
Speaker 4: were literally like no this artist, because think about it,
Speaker 4: they were some artists were signed to six, eight, ten
Speaker 4: album deals, so they're like, oh, this is and we're
Speaker 4: gonna believe in you to album three or album whatever
Speaker 4: it is the case may be. Because even in your case,
Speaker 4: you sign an eleven, the album don't come out to fourteen.
Speaker 1: Only reason you leave is because Joan mccauyn left.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you might have still been there by the second album,
Speaker 4: third album, whatever it is. And I don't even think
Speaker 4: the labels look at the artists in the long run
Speaker 4: like that because the songs come and go, and ultimately
Speaker 4: the artists come and go. But before it was kind
Speaker 4: of a forced thing. We're gonna force you to be great,
Speaker 4: right right, because we believe in you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like Motown. They even they worked with me so
Speaker 2: much that they even had a guy come in to
Speaker 2: teach me how to do interviews. And I'm gonna tell
Speaker 2: you why, because I had to. We had I had
Speaker 2: to train for this because I am extremely shy. I'm
Speaker 2: a shy person. So when I used to sit down
Speaker 2: and do my interviews, I would just give it like
Speaker 2: a one line answer. So, I mean that Motown really,
Speaker 2: you know, they taught me how to do interviews, you know,
Speaker 2: brought in someone with wardrobe and hair and makeup and
Speaker 2: just all of that stuff, dance classes and acting and
Speaker 2: all of that.
Speaker 1: But that was an investment, don't you are a real investment.
Speaker 3: And I just, man, it's just not because you see
Speaker 3: you see glimpses of the talent in today's R and
Speaker 3: B artists, but you can tell immediately from the school
Speaker 3: that we're from. Ah, they just haven't been trained, and
Speaker 3: they suffer because of it. They suffer live because of it,
Speaker 3: They suffer in interviews because of it. They don't know
Speaker 3: how to get back to the point of while they're there,
Speaker 3: they're able to be laid off on tangents that have
Speaker 3: nothing to do. You know why we're here right promoting
Speaker 3: an album, we're promoting a single. We're like all of
Speaker 3: these things that all these people have been laid off.
Speaker 1: The positions aren't even there anymore, and I missed.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad I got to experience the eighties in
Speaker 2: the nineties using the Golden Yeah, those are some great
Speaker 2: years because I'm looking at it now and it's like,
Speaker 2: I hate that people can't go to the record store
Speaker 2: and then like buy the record and look at the
Speaker 2: artwork and read all the credits, and you know, I
Speaker 2: hate that, Like people are downloading stuff for free and
Speaker 2: getting music for free. They're not buying it.
Speaker 1: They're not buying into the experience of an artist.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then these streaming companies are taking all of
Speaker 2: our money. We're not making anything off of streams.
Speaker 3: Well, they're also killing again the true artists experience right
Speaker 3: in between phones and the concert and songs being sold
Speaker 3: one at a time. Right, you can't really you can't
Speaker 3: really get into the story. Like back in the day
Speaker 3: when you bought that Anita Baker album, that whole thing.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, Like I listened. I flipped the album. Yeah,
Speaker 1: listen to it from front to back. Any heartbreak flip
Speaker 1: that album? Yeah, god god, yeah, the whole thing. Yes,
Speaker 1: I bought it.
Speaker 3: I was into the story from song one to eleven.
Speaker 1: And we don't have that. When I went to the
Speaker 1: New Edition concert, I don't have a phone, right, I
Speaker 1: have nothing.
Speaker 2: I me and my mom might I had a pager.
Speaker 3: I had a bad outfit. No, I have a pager.
Speaker 3: I just had my bad outfit. That's it, and I
Speaker 3: enjoyed the show from top to bottom.
Speaker 1: Lost my mind.
Speaker 2: Yes, me too. I almost got beat up behind a
Speaker 2: new edition.
Speaker 1: Wait wait, yep, we got to come.
Speaker 2: It was like I told you I was. I've known
Speaker 2: the guy since I was like ten eleven years old,
Speaker 2: and ride On magazine posted a picture of Ralph Trustman
Speaker 2: kissing me on the cheek. So when I went back
Speaker 2: to school when that magazine, that article came out, graders
Speaker 2: wanted to beat me up. I was in the seventh
Speaker 2: grade and the ninth graders.
Speaker 1: Was gonna jump me. Listen, that's that's serious.
Speaker 2: My mom had to pull me out of school.
Speaker 1: Was your school six or twelve?
Speaker 2: I know it was seventh to ninth middle of school.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so my mom literally had to pull me out
Speaker 2: of school. Like the last couple of weeks I had
Speaker 2: to do work there.
Speaker 1: Girls wasn't having it.
Speaker 2: They were gonna be They were ready to beat me
Speaker 2: up because of Ralph Chessman.
Speaker 1: I almost tell them all the time, you might be
Speaker 1: the least singer. You ain't round you.
Speaker 4: It ain't Ralph though. They don't understand the power of Ralph. Ralph,
Speaker 4: Ralph kick this thing off. After Michael Jackson was Ralph was.
Speaker 2: Wrong, Ralph flex that he wanted to be Ralph. He
Speaker 2: had to ship the shag with the part on the side.
Speaker 1: Ralph was is Dursday.
Speaker 2: Yes, so I just had to share that with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that's great, that's great. You start naming so
Speaker 1: many names at the beginning.
Speaker 2: I know, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: It just went.
Speaker 3: Crazy from off the top. Okay, I love your smilers out.
Speaker 3: You're you're clearly on top.
Speaker 1: Of the world.
Speaker 4: Now you're a world wide star. Now you're a world
Speaker 4: wide star. I want to get into.
Speaker 1: Like you you.
Speaker 3: Personally at that time, because of course mom auntie every
Speaker 3: you know you got you got a family union unit.
Speaker 3: But do you say, okay, it's time for me to
Speaker 3: get my own place, get my own moving around.
Speaker 2: Was a woman now, Yeah, yeah, I so. My grandmother
Speaker 2: was my road manager, my grandmother and my.
Speaker 1: Grandmother grandma wasn't taking no ship, ain't nobody none of it.
Speaker 1: Look out, look out.
Speaker 2: I was so protected. Oh my my grandmother slept in
Speaker 2: my same my room with me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like yeah, but I love your smiles.
Speaker 2: This is when I love your smiles out, Like, yeah.
Speaker 1: Your mom's in a double they're not my grandmother youand
Speaker 1: lock it up.
Speaker 2: So yeah, they were very closed seven.
Speaker 1: So it's about it's about time for us to go
Speaker 1: to bed, don't you think.
Speaker 2: So I had the success, but I didn't feel like
Speaker 2: I didn't feel any different, and you know, I was
Speaker 2: sheltered and I didn't feel.
Speaker 1: You weren't you just you didn't get that that experience.
Speaker 1: I was not wild out yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, did
Speaker 1: you desire to?
Speaker 2: No, I was the way I am now, I'm being
Speaker 2: honest with you. I've been this way like kind of
Speaker 2: like my whole life.
Speaker 3: Didn't want to hit the club one time when you
Speaker 3: was out of age, like and see what it was,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've can to a couple of clubs. No. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I have a friend of mine who was who was
Speaker 2: like my brother at the time, and we would sneak
Speaker 2: into night clubs and stuff like that. So I can't
Speaker 2: say I'm like goodie two shoes. I've done some some
Speaker 2: some stuff, but you know, but but for the most part,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm a church girl. Like I grew up singing
Speaker 2: in church. My I used to sing in James Cleveland's
Speaker 2: choir when I was a kid, and I was the
Speaker 2: only I was the only kid in his adult choir.
Speaker 1: Yeah, James, because I wouldn't allowed to listener and be
Speaker 1: Rights was the soundtrack.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I went to church and sing in the choir.
Speaker 1: And you know, so.
Speaker 2: So whenever I did, like whenever I would veer to
Speaker 2: the left a little bit, God would always pull me
Speaker 2: back over to the right, you know, because you know,
Speaker 2: because I feared God, I never would go.
Speaker 4: But so far so you weren't turning up at eighteen
Speaker 4: with this smash international smash record.
Speaker 1: Did you buy something crazy? Did you? Well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, put yourself.
Speaker 1: Are you touching the money?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, I buy myself a Mercedes. Oh yeah, get yes,
Speaker 2: I bought a really nice car. And that's like the
Speaker 2: only thing I bought a nice car. I bought my Mercedes,
Speaker 2: and I kept that. The funny thing is, I don't
Speaker 2: know if Flex told you this, but I'm frugal, like
Speaker 2: I know how to save money and I hold on
Speaker 2: to things. So I bought that car in ninety two
Speaker 2: or ninety one, ninety two when I met Flex. I
Speaker 2: met him in ninety nine. Why did I still have
Speaker 2: that same car?
Speaker 1: I was still driving that all the way to the
Speaker 1: nine nine, two thousand you.
Speaker 2: Had to make me get rid of that car, same
Speaker 2: car to I would drive a car to the wheels
Speaker 2: fall off. That's just how I got you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't keep cars that love. But up
Speaker 1: my car now three years anybody who complimented my car,
Speaker 1: be like, it's what everything got? Money?
Speaker 2: Take it that funny?
Speaker 1: What kind of bands was it?
Speaker 2: It was gosh, what's the name of it? It was great.
Speaker 2: It was a three hundred three. That's three hundred.
Speaker 1: Yeah for ten years.
Speaker 2: Yep, I had it for ten years.
Speaker 3: You say, one hundred and sixty thousand miles probably saw
Speaker 3: you saw a couple of remodels.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 1: I like not having a car. No, yeah, yeah, it's so.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And do you move out you're still with the family
Speaker 1: at this point.
Speaker 2: Yes, you're still still at home with the family. And
Speaker 2: then in Flex and I met in ninety nine. Uh,
Speaker 2: and we got married in two thousand.
Speaker 1: Oh, y'all went right to it.
Speaker 2: Oh we dated three months and then he asked me
Speaker 2: to marry him.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, he knew what was going on.
Speaker 2: And then four months later we got we were married
Speaker 2: and it's been twenty four years.
Speaker 1: Oh he knew. Yeah, So it was like, shout out
Speaker 1: the Flex, shout off the Flex. But you hadn't moved
Speaker 1: out from your family until then, all right, you had
Speaker 1: moved out.
Speaker 2: No, I moved out, and then I moved out for
Speaker 2: a minute, and then I moved back in. So so
Speaker 2: in the in the earlier nineties, I did get engaged
Speaker 2: to another guy to guy and it didn't work out,
Speaker 2: and I called myself being grown, and you know, I
Speaker 2: moved out of my mom's house. And then after that
Speaker 2: relationship ended, I moved back to my mom's house until
Speaker 2: I'm at Flex.
Speaker 1: But let me get back in this nest. Yeah over here,
Speaker 1: well in the street. That's crazy. So Flex just you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: he wasn't gonna let the smile pass him by.
Speaker 2: No, And it's crazy because I was he moved into
Speaker 2: my apartment building and I was getting off the elevator
Speaker 2: and he was getting on the elevator moving his furniture.
Speaker 2: And I was on my way to Lauren Hill's concert.
Speaker 2: And he said Shane, and I said Flex. And I
Speaker 2: knew of him, and he knew of me, because you know,
Speaker 2: he's an actor. I sing, and I said, you live here.
Speaker 2: He said, I'm moving in today. Let me get your number,
Speaker 2: and I said, okay, I said, let me go get
Speaker 2: a pin. I may go upstairs and get a pin.
Speaker 2: I went upstairs. By the time I got back downstairs,
Speaker 2: he was gone. Because it took me a minute deep,
Speaker 2: it took a minute gets back. And so two weeks
Speaker 2: later we read to each other by the elevator and
Speaker 2: then he said, okay, I'm not gonna let you go
Speaker 2: without geting your number. We exchanged numbers and we really
Speaker 2: started off as like really good friends. Like I didn't
Speaker 2: think he was going to be my husband, but I
Speaker 2: want to say this. A friend of mine in ninety
Speaker 2: one did a pilot with him, did a TV show pilot,
Speaker 2: and he called me that day and said, I just
Speaker 2: met your husband, and I said he said, Flex, he's
Speaker 2: going to be your husband. And I was like, oh no,
Speaker 2: I don't even know him. He gonna be my husband.
Speaker 2: Then in ninety nine he moved into my apartment building
Speaker 2: and it happened.
Speaker 1: That's wild. Yes, that's wild, it's ye. Did you invite
Speaker 1: the homie to the wedding? Oh yeah, what, yeah, it
Speaker 1: was this in your mind when you met Flex.
Speaker 2: I forgot about it because it wasn't ninety one. So
Speaker 2: I wasn't even paying any attention till I and I
Speaker 2: told my friend, I said, guess who lives in my building?
Speaker 2: He said Flex And I was like, but I still
Speaker 2: didn't think nothing of it. I still it's crazy. I
Speaker 2: still didn't think, Okay, this is going to be this
Speaker 2: is the one, And then really.
Speaker 1: Left him at the elevator for thirty minutes, right, I.
Speaker 2: Mean he would come to my apartment and I have
Speaker 2: rollers in my hair, flannel pajamas, like I was just like, oh,
Speaker 2: he's the homie, like right, you know. And when he
Speaker 2: started telling me like how much he loved God and
Speaker 2: and he was celibate, I was celibate, and yeah, I
Speaker 2: loved it. And then I started learning more about him
Speaker 2: and I'm like, okay, okay. And then I went on
Speaker 2: tour with th Sink and I opened up for in
Speaker 2: Sync in ninety Was that ninety nine? Ninety nine? I
Speaker 2: opened up for Sink?
Speaker 1: And describe that working with open up for describe opening
Speaker 1: up for in Sync? Because I went to that concert.
Speaker 2: That was such I really did you see me on
Speaker 2: the ship? Was I there?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you tell you no, it was whole.
Speaker 2: That's so crazy. Okay. So I had the time of
Speaker 2: my life within Sync. Justin Timberlake loved my song yesterday, uh,
Speaker 2: to the point where he said, can I sing it
Speaker 2: with you? On stage? Can I sing it with you?
Speaker 2: And I was like yeah. And then on my last show,
Speaker 2: Justin got up on stage and we turned it into
Speaker 2: a duet and we performed my song Yesterday. So that
Speaker 2: was that was really cool. And the guys they treated
Speaker 2: me so good on on tour. They were really nice
Speaker 2: to me, and it was it was a great time.
Speaker 4: So absolutely came to that tour you did, because it's
Speaker 4: like when I first came back to LA as an adult.
Speaker 4: And but before that, we had written a song for you.
Speaker 4: It was called so Hard to Say, So Hard to
Speaker 4: Say Goodbye? What my brother and myself and Damon Thomas. Yes,
Speaker 4: I wrote that record Whoa, which the song ended up
Speaker 4: going to Coco from s WV Wow, But we wrote
Speaker 4: it for you. It was your song first.
Speaker 2: That's so and that's crazy. It's another song that I'll
Speaker 2: tell you about that.
Speaker 4: But and then after that, I ended up writing for
Speaker 4: InSync and up writing for in Sync, getting cool with Justin,
Speaker 4: I ended up writing Celebrity for InSync.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: So it was crazy for me to come to the
Speaker 4: show because I always like, I always remembered your version.
Speaker 4: It's so hard to say it, but I'm like, oh man,
Speaker 4: Nice had the record. Then they went here, you know,
Speaker 4: just label in politics and house.
Speaker 2: Yeah that happens a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, songs get held up here and then it's like
Speaker 1: are you using that record?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: You know that.
Speaker 4: Then they're not gonna use it, and then it goes
Speaker 4: to another artist and that whole thing. So for me,
Speaker 4: like seeing you on that tour, I was like, damn,
Speaker 4: this is crazy, like because my INSNC record hadn't come
Speaker 4: out yet, but I'm just watching it.
Speaker 1: I'm just like, damn, say she's on this tour and
Speaker 1: I love Chanice. I was a kid and seeing it whole,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like just how it all
Speaker 1: played out, it was just it was a world world tour, right.
Speaker 2: Well, I just did the States because the lab I
Speaker 2: can't remember how many they have to be like sixty.
Speaker 2: I had had a lot of dates, but I can't
Speaker 2: remember how many. But the label they didn't want. The
Speaker 2: guys wanted me to stay on the tour, but the
Speaker 2: label had to pay for like the tour bus and
Speaker 2: all that stuff and they didn't want to continue to
Speaker 2: pay for the tour support. Yeah, I didn't get the
Speaker 2: tour support, so I could have stayed on the tour,
Speaker 2: but the label didn't want to pay to take.
Speaker 4: An artist off of in Syncs tour during those people, Yeah,
Speaker 4: we were doing huge arenas at the height of a group. Yes,
Speaker 4: you got your artists on that tour, Like.
Speaker 1: You take care because when you double back with another record,
Speaker 1: all those fans that you've.
Speaker 2: I'm like, do you know men people per night, I'm
Speaker 2: singing in front of like and putting you in front
Speaker 2: of a lot of people that were new for you,
Speaker 2: that were that were there were new fans for you.
Speaker 1: You you gaining new fans R and b artists.
Speaker 2: I can't on a.
Speaker 1: Super pop tour with the biggest pop group at the.
Speaker 2: Time that the day were huge. Yeah, I really serve.
Speaker 2: So many things happens in my career and I still
Speaker 2: people ask me all the time, like, what happened with
Speaker 2: this album? Why did this happen? Why? I'm like, I
Speaker 2: don't even know, you know, I can't even answer that
Speaker 2: because I thought that was ridiculous. I should have stayed
Speaker 2: on that tour and the guys wanted me on the tour.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you know, you know, like you said, politic politics.
Speaker 4: Politics, So it's so much more. It's so much more
Speaker 4: than than the general public knows.
Speaker 1: So so what is the energy going? So now you've
Speaker 1: you've you've done this, you've done the tour and all
Speaker 1: these things, So what's what's the energy now with you
Speaker 1: in the label? And in terms of what they're saying,
Speaker 1: is next you're.
Speaker 2: Talking about at the time, back then.
Speaker 1: You can speak on the label if you want to.
Speaker 2: I won't say that, okay. So yeah, after after the tour,
Speaker 2: I met Flex, and then Flex and I got married.
Speaker 2: And right after we got married, like we that same
Speaker 2: year we got I got pregnant. So I sat with
Speaker 2: the label at the time, I was like five months pregnant,
Speaker 2: and we were talking about working on the next album.
Speaker 2: So I was super excited, like, yeah, I can't wait
Speaker 2: to get back in the studio and record and my
Speaker 2: stomach's like out to hear and so the meeting went well.
Speaker 2: But then after my meeting they I got a phone
Speaker 2: call and they said we're just going to let you
Speaker 2: be a mom for a while. And I was like,
Speaker 2: but nobody's going to see me pregnant, I only have
Speaker 2: four more months to go. We could just start recording.
Speaker 2: Nobody's going to see me pregnant. And then after that
Speaker 2: phone call, I got another phone call said that we're
Speaker 2: just gonna we think you're really talented, but we're just
Speaker 2: going to let you go. And so I lost my
Speaker 2: record deal while I was pregnant, while you're pregnant. That's
Speaker 2: just that's how it happens. I was. I don't understand,
Speaker 2: and I'm telling you, I'd always try to treat people,
Speaker 2: you know, to be nice to people. I've always tried
Speaker 2: not to be you know, difficult or anything like that.
Speaker 2: So I never understood why, like like why, I still
Speaker 2: don't know. To be honest, I don't know.
Speaker 4: And the wildest part about it, too, is that I
Speaker 4: actually know of artists, female artists who have hit their pregnancies.
Speaker 2: Right, imagine how many artists have had abortions because because
Speaker 2: of that. Yeah, you know, but now the times are different,
Speaker 2: Like now women are on covers of magazines now and
Speaker 2: it's accepted now. But back in the late nineties and
Speaker 2: early two thousands, the labels looked at you like, Okay,
Speaker 2: you're done. I guess I don't really think that, you know,
Speaker 2: men aren't going to find you attractive anymore, or I
Speaker 2: don't know, I don't know what.
Speaker 1: There was a bunch of weird uh things in place
Speaker 1: back then that you couldn't be in order to be
Speaker 1: this that we're just religious.
Speaker 2: They said, okay, don't mention the interview that you got
Speaker 2: a boyfriend, or like.
Speaker 1: In my career there was like you don't say you're married, right, because.
Speaker 2: Then you'll lose all your girls, women fans.
Speaker 1: Women love you. Man, you are a fantasy. He tells
Speaker 1: how I said, you are a fantasy.
Speaker 4: Bro Like that should be, that should be. All of
Speaker 4: those things should be up to the artists. If you
Speaker 4: want to publicize whatever you want to publicize, be up
Speaker 4: to you.
Speaker 2: I mean, now you thank god it's changed has changed.
Speaker 2: But back then it what they was the case. It
Speaker 2: wasn't the case.
Speaker 3: They just they just had a thing that whatever their
Speaker 3: analytic was, it told them that X, Y and Z
Speaker 3: has to be this in order for it to be that, you.
Speaker 1: Know what I mean? And the because they hadn't seen
Speaker 1: any other way seen it, Yeah, has it? So they
Speaker 1: were going to run that formula until it ran out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I got That was really a tough time
Speaker 2: for me because, like I told you, I signed when
Speaker 2: I was eleven years old. I always had record deals
Speaker 2: and I've always since I was a kid, and so
Speaker 2: when that was snatched away from me, I kind of like,
Speaker 2: you know, went into depression. And you know, I had
Speaker 2: a new baby, and I was happy that I had
Speaker 2: a new baby, but at the same time, I was
Speaker 2: like miserable because I couldn't, like, you know, do what
Speaker 2: I love and I couldn't sing. And so then in
Speaker 2: like two thousand and six, I said, I used to
Speaker 2: get on YouTube all the time, and I had this
Speaker 2: one fan that would post videos about me and just
Speaker 2: like really like say great things about me. And I said,
Speaker 2: you know what, if the fans want to still hear
Speaker 2: me sing, why am I waiting on a laby? Why
Speaker 2: am I trying to, you know, wait on a label.
Speaker 2: Let me just put out my own album and deal
Speaker 2: with my fans directly. And that's when I did. In
Speaker 2: two thousand and six, I put out an independent project
Speaker 2: and I worked with a guy named Richard Nash. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you know Richard Nash and his wife
Speaker 2: Feita and uh and Mike Mike Kelly. We put out
Speaker 2: an printed album called every Woman's Dreams, and it was
Speaker 2: very independent, but we did really well for it to
Speaker 2: be as independent as it was. We did really good
Speaker 2: with that.
Speaker 4: So, and were you during this time, from like two
Speaker 4: thousand and one to two thousand and six, are you
Speaker 4: performing still? I was still kind of shut everything down.
Speaker 2: No. I was still doing the shows here and there.
Speaker 2: You know, I just didn't have a record deal, but
Speaker 2: I was still kind of you know, still singing, still
Speaker 2: singing to church, still doing shows. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, but you were trying to figure out the record
Speaker 1: and I wanted to.
Speaker 2: Get back on the recording side.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I did that and we had to spend
Speaker 2: money out of our own pockets. So we know, whenever
Speaker 2: I had to travel or whatever, I was funding everything.
Speaker 2: So it was really hard. So we couldn't really push
Speaker 2: it as hard as we wanted to because the funds
Speaker 2: just wasn't. It just wasn't.
Speaker 4: They don't come back as fast they go out right. No,
Speaker 4: it's just people they don't know how this thing works.
Speaker 1: Of like I had.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had to pay all the producers, I had
Speaker 2: to pay for travel, I had to pay for my videos,
Speaker 2: my photo shoots all of that, so I just we
Speaker 2: couldn't afford it. And then I know, we talked about
Speaker 2: this several times publicly, but then our money started running out.
Speaker 2: You know, we ended up losing our house. We lost everything,
Speaker 2: like Flex's show one on one ended, and then at
Speaker 2: that time, it was such an awful time. We lost
Speaker 2: our cars, we lost our house, we lost everything. So
Speaker 2: we ended up pretty much homeless. And so we were
Speaker 2: in a hotel and Martin Lawrence and his ex wife
Speaker 2: Shamika Uh, they said, we want to take you guys
Speaker 2: out to dinner, and I was like okay. So we
Speaker 2: went out to dinner and they knew that we lost
Speaker 2: our house and said get you a place. We don't
Speaker 2: want you in a hotel, like, get you a place.
Speaker 2: So they're really my guard like angels, like you know.
Speaker 2: So I hate to talk about that because I said,
Speaker 2: I will never talk about this again because we told
Speaker 2: it on our we had a reality show and we
Speaker 2: talked about in the reality show. But that's just like
Speaker 2: that was like one of the hardest times in my life.
Speaker 2: But God put the you know, angels in my life
Speaker 2: that helped me.
Speaker 1: No, and we have to we have to be there
Speaker 1: for each other in this business because I think people
Speaker 1: see it on the outside.
Speaker 4: I've spoken about them multiple times during this interview of
Speaker 4: how people perceive things and how they think things go
Speaker 4: more than what the realities are. The realities are. We're
Speaker 4: all human, yeah, we all. This is a this is
Speaker 4: a passion, but it's also a job exactly. Sometimes we
Speaker 4: lose jobs, you know what I mean. And it's great
Speaker 4: when you've made the right relationships that someone will help
Speaker 4: you either get another job, help you get on your
Speaker 4: feet till you get that another job. Like this is
Speaker 4: real life, and I think when people see it through
Speaker 4: a lens, it doesn't seem real to them. It's like, oh,
Speaker 4: you're fine and everything is fine and everything, and yes
Speaker 4: you do have an opportunity to make more than some
Speaker 4: others may, but you also got to pay more taxes
Speaker 4: and when you take on more things, there's more people
Speaker 4: and overhead. And like you said, you decided to have
Speaker 4: true independence at this point.
Speaker 1: Flights, hotels, everything, every clear a sample yeah whatever these
Speaker 1: things are, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So you know, I just and we also said this
Speaker 4: to flex, like we just appreciate the honesty and the
Speaker 4: openness that your family has had to tell what this
Speaker 4: thing really is.
Speaker 1: We I mean me and me and him.
Speaker 4: We joke a lot about a lot of stuff, but
Speaker 4: same experiences at the time, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: You know, we talk about him and I could never
Speaker 4: keep a car.
Speaker 1: He was coming to get it.
Speaker 3: He was trying to hide them cars. I wuld have
Speaker 3: lost two houses. I don't know how many cars. Please,
Speaker 3: But it's just somehow or for some reason, it's just
Speaker 3: par for this course. It's just what this thing, This
Speaker 3: thing takes all of you, a lot of you, and
Speaker 3: and depending on you know, how strong you are, what
Speaker 3: you're or what you're rooted in. We're able to figure
Speaker 3: it out and sit here in this room today and
Speaker 3: talk about it with a smile on our face.
Speaker 2: That's you know, made it through the stone. I'm not where.
Speaker 2: I mean, things are much better, much better than it was.
Speaker 2: You know, we made it through the storm. Well. We
Speaker 2: we actually Pitchedory the idea for a reality show to own.
Speaker 2: We had one meeting. We didn't even get out of
Speaker 2: the building and they wanted to show. They picked it
Speaker 2: up like immediately, and so you know that helped us,
Speaker 2: you know, get back on our feed again. And so
Speaker 2: you know, Flex is doing going out doing stand up
Speaker 2: and I'm you know, I'm still doing a lot of touring,
Speaker 2: so things as you should definitely picking up.
Speaker 4: So how is it for you though, as you know,
Speaker 4: going and doing one side of the business as a
Speaker 4: recording artist and then being a reality TV star too?
Speaker 1: Though now like because now people people in your business.
Speaker 4: First thing in your business as an artist, but now
Speaker 4: they really in your business because you didn't give them
Speaker 4: some more information.
Speaker 1: How is that?
Speaker 2: I've always been an open book, you know, so it
Speaker 2: didn't bother me. It was actually my idea to do
Speaker 2: a show. I always I love reality TV. Watch I
Speaker 2: watched Girls, I watched I watched all of those. I
Speaker 2: watched the Housewives, subscriptions, Ship, I got all that, so yeah,
Speaker 2: I watched everything.
Speaker 1: Everybody name shout.
Speaker 2: So so yes, I love all the shows. So I
Speaker 2: asked Flex before that happened to us with the house
Speaker 2: and all that. I told Flex, I say, let's do
Speaker 2: a reality show. And he was like, no, I don't
Speaker 2: want to do a reality show because people are not
Speaker 2: going to take me serious as an actor anymore. Like
Speaker 2: he really thought he wouldn't be able to act if
Speaker 2: we did reality show. So then when all that stuff
Speaker 2: went on with the with the house and the cards
Speaker 2: and all that, he said, you know what, we have
Speaker 2: a story to tell. He said, now I feel like
Speaker 2: this is the time because you know, we have a story.
Speaker 2: He didn't want to just do something just to do
Speaker 2: it and make up fights and and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: So he's like, Okay, well now I think this is
Speaker 2: the right time. So that's when he decided, Okay, let's
Speaker 2: do it. And we did it, and we had three
Speaker 2: great seasons. Our ratings were, you know, really good and
Speaker 2: like once again politics. You know, I think we could
Speaker 2: have definitely had way more seasons, but it was. It
Speaker 2: was a good run.
Speaker 1: You're trying to bring it back flex and.
Speaker 2: It's like, no, I'm not doing that again. Like he
Speaker 2: doesn't want to do it again. I don't know, it
Speaker 2: depends on it depends, it depends I would do it again.
Speaker 1: So did you do you? Guys?
Speaker 4: Did do like the like the other shows though, you
Speaker 4: know how they do the like Couples Island after they
Speaker 4: do their your reality show.
Speaker 2: But then you go and yeah, we've never done those,
Speaker 2: like those couple retreats and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, did you do it?
Speaker 2: Did you do it now?
Speaker 1: Flex, We got we got it almost did it. I
Speaker 1: was like, this man, you we had one more million
Speaker 1: of that I might get on that island. One more million.
Speaker 1: And you got me. That's dope. That's dope.
Speaker 3: How are you feeling now because you got listen you
Speaker 3: I told I told I told Flex this too, and
Speaker 3: I said something about seeing you two together is like
Speaker 3: really cool.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Like it's like an energy like no other.
Speaker 3: And and and we were going through the progressions of
Speaker 3: his careers were gone through the progressions of your career.
Speaker 3: It's like he said, he told us that, you know,
Speaker 3: a couple was thinking about picking their lives, taking their
Speaker 3: lives until they saw your show and they saw your
Speaker 3: journey and that kept them from from hurting the very
Speaker 3: bad hurt themselves. And I'm like, it's crazy how all
Speaker 3: of you know, like as talented as we are and
Speaker 3: as many gifts as we have, you know, we find
Speaker 3: this underlining purpose or maybe this true purpose of while
Speaker 3: we're here, and that's to really help somebody else.
Speaker 1: Yeah with this thing.
Speaker 2: Yes, So yeah, I was at church one day and
Speaker 2: this lady cried on my shoulder and she told me
Speaker 2: that she was her and her husband couldn't killed themselves
Speaker 2: because they had lost everything, but our show saved their lives.
Speaker 2: And that's when it all clicked in my head. I said,
Speaker 2: that was you know, we went through that so that
Speaker 2: we can, you know, help others. And I'm glad we
Speaker 2: did the show. But I ain't gonna lie. In the beginning,
Speaker 2: when they started playing the promo, I made a statement
Speaker 2: and I said, it's hard being a broke celebrity. And
Speaker 2: I said that, and that's the thing they kept playing
Speaker 2: over and over again, and then I got scared.
Speaker 1: I was like, why did I say that.
Speaker 2: That's so embarrassing, Like I was in the beginning, I
Speaker 2: was like really nervous and embarrassed. And and then after
Speaker 2: I when I when I heard that woman's story and
Speaker 2: I saw how it was affecting people's lives, and I said, okay, lord, okay,
Speaker 2: then you know, I felt good about it. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm glad we did that.
Speaker 3: It's not a bad line. The line is so factual
Speaker 3: all across the board.
Speaker 1: More than people want to admit to not get fooled
Speaker 1: by the gram.
Speaker 2: That's true. You can make your life look so fly
Speaker 2: on Instagram.
Speaker 1: Man, these celebrities they're gonna post a meal, right, but
Speaker 1: they're gonna post chopping up that check. Who had the chicken? Right?
Speaker 1: Who had gratuit gratity? Who had graduate gray, who had gratuy?
Speaker 1: I ain't had no, I ain't have grady. I don't
Speaker 1: even know. I don't even know.
Speaker 2: That's real.
Speaker 3: It's real, it's not sweet, and that type of transparency
Speaker 3: use and you don't have to write, but it goes
Speaker 3: such a long way for people who inspire to be
Speaker 3: like you because they like when it's when, it's when
Speaker 3: it's when, when when it's tied is high, when when
Speaker 3: you know when the waves is high and the surfing
Speaker 3: is good, the swear yeah, we end. But what happens
Speaker 3: when it is not? What happens when the dream has.
Speaker 4: To now.
Speaker 1: Become a different type of reality.
Speaker 3: Right, You've had deals since you was eleven. First time
Speaker 3: in your life you don't have a record deal, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean? And so they're looking to you
Speaker 3: to say, well, how do I get out of that?
Speaker 1: What do I do to to to move on? And
Speaker 1: can tinue? Where do I find value in myself?
Speaker 2: Because you have to love yourself and have other things
Speaker 2: that you're interested outside.
Speaker 1: Of that if we weren't taught ancillary.
Speaker 2: That's true if you put all if you just focus
Speaker 2: on I want to. I want to, you know, do
Speaker 2: music and music and music, and I want to be
Speaker 2: famous and I want to. And you don't have anything
Speaker 2: else that you you love, and you don't have a
Speaker 2: loving family or just like other things to turn to,
Speaker 2: Like you can literally lose your mind, you know, when
Speaker 2: it's taken away.
Speaker 4: And that's why it's so great to have you here
Speaker 4: and to have your husband here to see that, to
Speaker 4: see that you haven't lost your mind in this thing,
Speaker 4: you know, and that you still just and he mentioned
Speaker 4: this a couple of times.
Speaker 1: Just the energy, the energy that you both have together.
Speaker 4: Separately, like you know, like I just randomly ran into
Speaker 4: them on the air airplane, airplane.
Speaker 1: It's just my guy.
Speaker 4: I think that's early morning too, you know when people
Speaker 4: don't even be speaking to each other early.
Speaker 1: Hell, we need you and Johnny's on the box, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like, I'm so glad because that
Speaker 1: is just what you've the aura of both of you
Speaker 1: that you've always given everybody you thank you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I've never heard.
Speaker 4: Anybody say they don't like next or shans never ever
Speaker 4: thank you ever, ever ever thank you, and that is
Speaker 4: that is to be celebrated.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate you guys thinking of us absolutely.
Speaker 3: I want I want to touch you one more thing
Speaker 3: as we talk about you, your strength and your perseverance
Speaker 3: and and and and life and its reality. You are
Speaker 3: a survivor.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah wow yeah. This year. Well, in
Speaker 2: about eight years ago, I had a I did a
Speaker 2: mammogram and an ultrasound on my breast and they thought
Speaker 2: they saw something and so they said, we want you
Speaker 2: to go to I think it was USC to do
Speaker 2: a biopsy because they have a USC hospital.
Speaker 1: So I went and.
Speaker 2: The guy, the doctor there, said why are we doing
Speaker 2: a biopsy on something that I don't see? Because he
Speaker 2: ran his own test and he said, everything looks clear.
Speaker 2: You're fine. But that moment freaked me out so much
Speaker 2: that I never went back again, and so I didn't
Speaker 2: get I wasn't going every year to get my mammogrounds. Yeah,
Speaker 2: because I was terrified. I was scared. So I had
Speaker 2: this lump in my breast and I thought it was
Speaker 2: assists because I always get cyst in my breast. It
Speaker 2: was like normal for me to have cyst, but cists
Speaker 2: are benign and you don't really worry about that. So
Speaker 2: I felt this lump, but normally assists they come and
Speaker 2: go with this lump. Didn't. It just stayed and I
Speaker 2: was like, okay, let me just get this checked. And
Speaker 2: I went and they said, well, you have DCIS, which
Speaker 2: is is cancer in the milk ducks. And they said,
Speaker 2: if you're going to catch anything, that's the best thing
Speaker 2: to catch because it hadn't spread into my breast tissue.
Speaker 2: So I was like, oh, okay. So when I did
Speaker 2: the surgery, they said, we want to take your breast.
Speaker 2: We want to take your breast because I had so
Speaker 2: much of it in my milk ducks. It would have
Speaker 2: if they would have taken half of my breast that
Speaker 2: it would it would I would have half of a breast.
Speaker 2: It wouldn't look right. So they said, we want to
Speaker 2: take your whole breast cut to I said, well, if
Speaker 2: you have to take one breast, just take them both
Speaker 2: because I don't anything to pop up in my other breast.
Speaker 2: So once they did the surgery, it took everything out.
Speaker 2: They retested it and they said, oh, you had a
Speaker 2: one centimeter stage one tumor in your breast. So I
Speaker 2: didn't know that from my scans. It was just I
Speaker 2: only knew of the the stuff in the milk duck,
Speaker 2: so I didn't know I had a whole one one
Speaker 2: sendime to stage one tumor until we did the surgery
Speaker 2: and they took it out and.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't have known or they just didn't catch it.
Speaker 2: No, they didn't see it. They I mean, the other
Speaker 2: stuff in the milk ducks showed up, but the tumor
Speaker 2: they didn't see it on the Mamma Grand or the ultrasound.
Speaker 2: So I didn't know that until after that I had
Speaker 2: a stage one tumor. So I had both of my
Speaker 2: breasts removed. Thank god that I have implants now, because
Speaker 2: everybody's like, well, how come you look like it's doing press. Well,
Speaker 2: I haven't. I haven't plants now, but I'm good. You know,
Speaker 2: I caught it early, and I just have to keep
Speaker 2: myself healthy.
Speaker 1: You still walked in this room smiling, it was building, smiling, enlightened.
Speaker 2: And this was three months ago. So I had my
Speaker 2: surgery three months ago, and you know, I just had
Speaker 2: an examination a couple of days ago and she said
Speaker 2: everything everything, looks good. So I'm just gonna stay on
Speaker 2: the on the other side of every so every six months,
Speaker 2: I got to get checked every six months.
Speaker 4: And just in that too, just in your your journey
Speaker 4: and your story, just telling other women, and we tell
Speaker 4: men all the time when you know on our podcast,
Speaker 4: like especially in our community, yes please.
Speaker 2: Get tested even with prostate, like check all of that,
Speaker 2: like you know, because when you catched up early, you
Speaker 2: can You'll live, you can do, you can live. So
Speaker 2: I'm so glad I caught her right.
Speaker 1: We are too, I'm good.
Speaker 2: I'm good. I also want to say this before we go.
Speaker 2: I'm in a musical and I'm playing Michelle Obama in
Speaker 2: a musical called forty four and the Food.
Speaker 1: Where can we check it out?
Speaker 2: So it's about Barack Obama when he was running for president.
Speaker 2: And we did a run here in California at the
Speaker 2: Bourbon Room for like six weeks, and and then we
Speaker 2: just did New York, we just did Chicago. Looks like
Speaker 2: we're about to go to Philly next month. So I'm
Speaker 2: enjoying it so much.
Speaker 1: Are you guys coming back to l A?
Speaker 2: I know, I think after after the New year back here,
Speaker 2: so I'll let you know, but I'm having the time
Speaker 2: of my life doing this musical. So much fun.
Speaker 1: Your stomp. You're a flat footed singer, so that worked.
Speaker 1: It works for you.
Speaker 2: A huge com from you and you.
Speaker 4: It's not like we were going there like yeah, she's
Speaker 4: gonna that would be the last of the words, like
Speaker 4: she about to cook?
Speaker 2: Thank you?
Speaker 1: Are we gonna get some new music? We're gonna you know, yeah.
Speaker 2: I you know. I just recently Jimmy Jam and Terry
Speaker 2: Lewis did.
Speaker 1: End for Nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did a show a festival in Minneapolis and
Speaker 2: asked me to be a part of it. It was
Speaker 2: myself and Reuben stuttered and we had to sing all
Speaker 2: of their hit songs and and so it went really well.
Speaker 2: And so now they're like, we want to get you
Speaker 2: in the studio. So I haven't been in the studio yet,
Speaker 2: but they want to get me in the studio to record.
Speaker 1: So I can't wait.
Speaker 2: I want to work for you guys too.
Speaker 1: This is this, this is our place, this is where
Speaker 1: we do.
Speaker 2: I want to record. Yes, yes, okay, you heard them right,
Speaker 2: you guys.
Speaker 1: Everything you can ship. I'm waiting for the Jimmy Jam
Speaker 1: and Terry Lewis.
Speaker 2: They just finished La Adams album and.
Speaker 3: I know, I know we would love to work with you,
Speaker 3: but as fans of that ship, I know what Jimmy
Speaker 3: jam and Terry Lewis are going to do.
Speaker 2: I am so excited.
Speaker 1: I want to hear it first before I do anything.
Speaker 1: I saw the songs up. I want to be able
Speaker 1: to fight on the even playing.
Speaker 2: Whatever.
Speaker 1: Her niece, Take your your top five R and B.
Speaker 2: It's hard to pick five.
Speaker 1: If I had you have to or you're five at
Speaker 1: the moment, you know you're five. Just you know which
Speaker 1: just comes to my.
Speaker 2: Winnie Houston is definitely Whitney Houston. Jesus, I love well
Speaker 2: does it have to be? R and B?
Speaker 1: Whatever you want your world?
Speaker 2: Because I love Karen Clarks.
Speaker 1: Know I love all of the Clarks Okay, will make
Speaker 1: them a whole to a whole. Got to get a
Speaker 1: who section. I watched I watched the movie and it
Speaker 1: was real. It's real.
Speaker 2: I was a little girl and I used and I
Speaker 2: used to say I used to watch them and I
Speaker 2: used to say, I want to sing like that one
Speaker 2: right there, Karen. But you know, and then when I
Speaker 2: met her, she had all white and I remember saying,
Speaker 2: she's a real angel. She's wearing white. Okay, So anyway
Speaker 2: was the white that.
Speaker 1: FLEX had on in Michael Jackson. It was.
Speaker 2: Then I messed my head. I waked him Mike too.
Speaker 2: I sang three backgrounds on three records. Yeah, I sang
Speaker 2: backgrounds are three of Michael's records is keep the faith,
Speaker 2: keep the faith behind the mask. After he passed away,
Speaker 2: they put me on that song and then I did
Speaker 2: You'll be there.
Speaker 1: You'll be there and break my heart for Tony Braxton.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I say backgrounds on unbreak my heart.
Speaker 1: Look at me, look at me, look a look at me.
Speaker 1: Know my little tit bitch.
Speaker 2: That's true. But okay, so okay, favorite top five R
Speaker 2: and B.
Speaker 1: Singers too, like I did too mean Clark's sisters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna put them and then shoot, I love
Speaker 2: Kim Barell.
Speaker 1: Why not. Yeah, she's a beach super saying, oh my.
Speaker 2: Gosh, I heard her seeing the other day. I was
Speaker 2: a she did this like it's almost like the tiny
Speaker 2: desk thing, and she did a performance. It was a small,
Speaker 2: intimate crowd and I'm just sitting there with my mouth open.
Speaker 3: Like it's always it's insane. It's always a lesson. Oh
Speaker 3: my goodness, I never get tired of it.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 2: I'm like, if I could just jump into her brain
Speaker 2: and just like, I just I don't know what she's
Speaker 2: thinking when she's singing. I just wish I could think.
Speaker 1: But what she picks to go is it's insane.
Speaker 4: I can't do it at all, but she's even hearing it.
Speaker 4: It's like I didn't even know that's where you could
Speaker 4: go there.
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson's one of my favorite. I love Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2: And gosh, there's so many people that I love. I
Speaker 2: love Beyonce.
Speaker 1: Why not. I love Beyonce a loyal member.
Speaker 2: I think she sings in that song Plastic on the Sofa.
Speaker 2: I love those I love what she did on that plastic.
Speaker 2: They are not going to tell me right it's called
Speaker 2: It's just a song that's on her new album called
Speaker 2: Plastic on the Sofa.
Speaker 1: I have to look Renaissance.
Speaker 2: She I love that song.
Speaker 1: She opened her She opened her stadium concert with ballads.
Speaker 2: I remember that.
Speaker 1: I went like, like, how disrespectful.
Speaker 3: I'm going to sit right here by this piano. Classic
Speaker 3: off the plastic off the sofa.
Speaker 2: It's plastic off the sofa and on the sound and.
Speaker 1: Give you these raw, unadult orted vocals.
Speaker 2: That's what she did. I got to say this. I
Speaker 2: know you said top five, but I got I have
Speaker 2: I have to mention. Let us see, I have to
Speaker 2: mention Chante Moore. I have to mention to Miya these
Speaker 2: are people that I really do, I really do love.
Speaker 2: I have to mention Jazz and Sullivan too.
Speaker 1: I like, you got no argument for anyone you said,
Speaker 1: you and to Mia have this like special place for
Speaker 1: me where you got.
Speaker 3: You two exist in just this space of like skill
Speaker 3: power and and if I'm going to make me make
Speaker 3: up a word angelics, thank you. Okay, your top.
Speaker 2: Five R and B songs, well the best of my
Speaker 2: love by the emotions. And I'm gonna reason why is
Speaker 2: because when I was a little girl, I didn't know
Speaker 2: how to harmonize. I knew how to sing lead, but
Speaker 2: when it was time to harmonize, I would always go
Speaker 2: off my note and go on to another note. And
Speaker 2: so my mom taught me how to harmonize by listening
Speaker 2: to the best of my love. So that's how I
Speaker 2: actually learned how to harmonize from the emotions.
Speaker 4: I mean, you just got the family full of singers.
Speaker 4: Everyone sings yes, get on your cheating. I have to
Speaker 4: be telling your husband to get off.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. We taught him how to harmonize to him,
Speaker 2: My mom and I did because because Flex sings on key.
Speaker 1: Flex doesn't sing out of key.
Speaker 2: No no, he's much better now. He has a good
Speaker 2: ear too. No no, no. Flex has a good tone
Speaker 2: and he can hear if someone's off. He can hear
Speaker 2: it like he knows.
Speaker 1: Now we heard your eye turner. He could you see
Speaker 1: the episode? I heard another he comes out with right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So we worked with Flex and he actually can sing.
Speaker 2: I think Flex flex, but I would say the best
Speaker 2: of my love. I love Michael Jackson's You Are Not Alone.
Speaker 2: I love that song. That song just when I.
Speaker 1: Hear simple, it's so simple, it's so simple.
Speaker 2: The song the Titanic song that Celine Dion did saying that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he'll go on. So you know.
Speaker 2: I worked with Diane Warren and David Foster. I did
Speaker 2: a song called Save a Third for You. It's on
Speaker 2: the Night One soundtrack. She wrote that, Yeah, Diane wrote, Diane, Diane.
Speaker 1: Warne taught me a real lesson in music publishing. Yes
Speaker 1: that I will never forget. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I love.
Speaker 2: Celeine Dion. How wasn't it my life my harbor gone, Gosh,
Speaker 2: it's so hard to pick you got it? I think
Speaker 2: all time?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Three yeah, three, Well since I love your smile was
Speaker 2: so good to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I told you something. Yeah and that undecided
Speaker 1: check yeah because she wrote it.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah yeah. And then I have to say adore
Speaker 2: by Prince. I love Prince.
Speaker 1: He was so ahead of his time, yes, with those records.
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna tell you. We meet and you know,
Speaker 2: we meet celebrities all the time, but when I met Prince,
Speaker 2: he's the only celebrity that made me cry. I literally
Speaker 2: not in front of him. I was like, nice to
Speaker 2: meet you, and then I went to the bathroom.
Speaker 1: I was like Prince moment.
Speaker 2: I was such I found out when I met Prince.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I got to say door kind.
Speaker 1: Of I didn't meet him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we was in the same room.
Speaker 1: He was like right over there, Wow, you didn't meet him.
Speaker 3: I didn't get a chance to meet him because it
Speaker 3: was like it was a it was just kind of
Speaker 3: a weird interaction. It was one of Jamie's parties throwing
Speaker 3: the party at this hotel and Prince came.
Speaker 1: And then I'm like, that's prissy. And then and then
Speaker 1: he was looking at me. I was like, I know,
Speaker 1: he's so like mysterious, completely mysterious. Like what do I like,
Speaker 1: do I go?
Speaker 3: Do I walk over to the Yeah? And then he
Speaker 3: wasn't even in there for five minutes and then he
Speaker 3: came walking towards me. I'm like, is he going to
Speaker 3: say ahead of me? And then he just walked by
Speaker 3: me here like I guess not. And then it was like,
Speaker 3: we're going to the Sayers Club and we all gonna
Speaker 3: jym out.
Speaker 1: Prince is coming. And then we got there and I
Speaker 1: think Prince came for like a second, and then Princess
Speaker 1: Prince like batman. Yeah, yeah, I told her. I told
Speaker 1: her home.
Speaker 4: He said, don't don't say nothing to print, leave princes
Speaker 4: alone and didn't listen. They didn't listen, and it went
Speaker 4: a little left.
Speaker 2: Did they ask for a photo or something? Because I
Speaker 2: don't think he took pictures with people.
Speaker 4: They start bringing up like holidays and birthdays. It's my
Speaker 4: birthday and he's like, oh, you don't witness I.
Speaker 1: Don't believe in birthday. He just went and went left
Speaker 1: and then he vanished into the night. Oh wow, literally
Speaker 1: like one. We looked over to each other and say something.
Speaker 1: We looked back, he was gone, gone, I don't know.
Speaker 1: He's a magical nigga. He's so good at that, good
Speaker 1: at that. But yeah, let's build your voltron, your super
Speaker 1: R and B artists. We want to get the characteristics
Speaker 1: from artists that you've loved in the door since the
Speaker 1: beginning of time. We're going to look for the vocal,
Speaker 1: the performing style, the styling, the passion of the artists, and.
Speaker 3: And and here's what and here's one. I'm gonna throw
Speaker 3: a monkey wrench on you. What's going to be the
Speaker 3: title of their first single?
Speaker 1: Here we go. You're so good at it, I'm so confused.
Speaker 3: To guide you through it. Making a super R and
Speaker 3: B artist. You can pick one voice to build that artist.
Speaker 3: What voice are you picking the singer?
Speaker 2: So if I had a new artist and there's a
Speaker 2: singer that I want to know, you're putting this artist
Speaker 2: together like vultron. Oh, I'm putting it. I'm putting an
Speaker 2: artist together.
Speaker 3: You're putting all the DNA artists. So you have to
Speaker 3: pick one vocal to be the vocal of this artist.
Speaker 3: What vocal are you picking? Whose vocal. Are you picking?
Speaker 2: If it's a female artist, I would say, this is
Speaker 2: whatever you want to be. I would say, Whitney h
Speaker 2: strong strong, strong, strong, and and and she doesn't overseing
Speaker 2: and she knows like she does her run like she
Speaker 2: could hit you with a dope run. But she didn't
Speaker 2: overdo it because she's so quick. But it was so
Speaker 2: much power. She didn't have to like when she did
Speaker 2: the National Anthem, she didn't do a whole lot of runs,
Speaker 2: but it was so much power in that performance.
Speaker 1: It was it was the most intense.
Speaker 2: She knows how to land those runs.
Speaker 1: To her I've ever seen, I've ever felt.
Speaker 2: But if you think about it, she wasn't like all
Speaker 2: over the place she was.
Speaker 3: She was just precise and had so much intention with
Speaker 3: every note. I was like, you gotta be kill Like
Speaker 3: who cries during the national anthem?
Speaker 1: People were crying like I was. It was a tear
Speaker 1: coming out of my iuse fighting a tear. I didn't cry,
Speaker 1: it was a tear in my eye. That's not crying
Speaker 1: now you cry, that's emotions.
Speaker 2: Te Can I say one more thing? And I know
Speaker 2: you're going to be like, oh here she goes dropping
Speaker 2: another name. I just want to say this. So whitn
Speaker 2: and I were We were really cool. And as matter
Speaker 2: of fact, when I got married to Flex, she said,
Speaker 2: that's a gift, a wedding gift. And so my friend
Speaker 2: Don Juan used to be her sound person and used
Speaker 2: to run her, I think, her recording studio. She had
Speaker 2: her own home studio and he he called me one
Speaker 2: day and I missed the call. He said, why didn't
Speaker 2: you answer? He said, He said, I had Whitney on
Speaker 2: the phone. She wanted to talk to you because she
Speaker 2: wants to do a duet with you. And I was like,
Speaker 2: Whitney wants to do a duet with me? And he
Speaker 2: said yeah, he said, but she she wants Babyface to
Speaker 2: produce it. And I was like that's perfect. I said,
Speaker 2: I'm on the face, like yeah, let's do it. So
Speaker 2: it never happened, that's all I got to say. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it just never. It just never happened. She wanted
Speaker 2: it to happen, and but it just never happened. But
Speaker 2: I wish it would have happened because I love her.
Speaker 3: Something so okay, performance style, performance style, You're going to get.
Speaker 1: Style on stage on stage?
Speaker 2: Oh, like the way to perform on stage.
Speaker 1: They give me male female. You're just you're building, You're
Speaker 1: just building an artist.
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: Why why not? I know your attachment. I know your attachment,
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson. I know you do.
Speaker 2: Styling, drip vocals, closed styling, Beyonce, why not.
Speaker 1: Nothing off the rack? Yeah, once you get there, a
Speaker 1: new wardrobe area album, a new theme theme ding. You've
Speaker 1: seen that Cowboy Carter. You seeing that alb cover.
Speaker 2: Her images really strong?
Speaker 1: Is that a see through horse?
Speaker 3: It was it was special, it was special, like yeah,
Speaker 3: like that those reinventions. There's Madonna and then that's Beyonce.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, Madonna. She knows how to reinvent her
Speaker 2: just turning in all the time.
Speaker 1: And and everyone who's on board is changing clothes.
Speaker 2: It's true.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're not an army. No more cool.
Speaker 2: Oh I got to say something. I just saw Dinah
Speaker 2: Ross on stage and she looks like a gazillion dollars.
Speaker 1: That's what she does.
Speaker 2: We got to mix Dina Ross in with beyond that.
Speaker 2: You can do that change so many times. And I'm
Speaker 2: telling you her outfice look like every dress you wore
Speaker 2: looked like it costs at least a million, Like she
Speaker 2: looked beautiful.
Speaker 3: That's what does Yes, it's all elegance, elegance, all high level.
Speaker 1: Business, circle star.
Speaker 4: When I was a little I just saw that five
Speaker 4: years old, and she brought my brother on stage to sing.
Speaker 2: I love Dinah Ross. I didn't get to mention her too.
Speaker 2: I love Dinass.
Speaker 1: This is fun.
Speaker 2: It's fun, okay, okay, So yeah, Diana, you had to mix.
Speaker 2: I was mixing a little Diana Ross and and Beyonce.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that. I love that mix.
Speaker 1: The passion of the artists. Who means it, who makes
Speaker 1: you feel it?
Speaker 2: Karen Clark. Yeah, when I hear her songs, it brings
Speaker 2: to her like I literally cry when I listen to
Speaker 2: her music.
Speaker 1: So and I feel her both criers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I cried. It's okay, cry.
Speaker 1: Just for the love of black man. I don't want
Speaker 1: to be I'm not group the group. I am in
Speaker 1: the group.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you are an agreeas in the group. You are
Speaker 2: in the group.
Speaker 1: Let me and now I'm crying. Let me out. O man,
Speaker 1: it's great, it is great. Just you know, just a
Speaker 1: thug tear. What's okay?
Speaker 3: Here we go and what's the name of the saying,
Speaker 3: what's the title of the single for this artist, for
Speaker 3: this artist, what's she gonna name the single?
Speaker 2: Smiling through it all?
Speaker 1: Smiling through it all?
Speaker 2: Wow, smiling through it all.
Speaker 1: I guess it's really good at this right for don't
Speaker 1: take our title Jimmy Jam turn noise. We got it first.
Speaker 1: Smiling through it all?
Speaker 2: Is it because I've been through the ringer? But I'm still,
Speaker 2: you know, smiling all In with.
Speaker 1: That, I'm going to the pewter when I get home.
Speaker 2: Yes, let's go.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start tickling the I I mean strings.
Speaker 2: Yes, will be in the studio, both of us crying.
Speaker 4: So here we are very important segment of the show,
Speaker 4: so important called I Ain't saying no names. You tell
Speaker 4: us a story funny and funked up, a funny and
Speaker 4: fucked up. The only rude to the game is you
Speaker 4: can't say no name.
Speaker 2: I can tell you stories that's funny, funked up, but
Speaker 2: just don't say the person's name.
Speaker 1: No names, no not now name. You can say occupation,
Speaker 1: you can say was you not who you was with?
Speaker 2: Okay, So do let me tell you a story you okay. Well,
Speaker 2: So there was an artist recording artists that was really
Speaker 2: big at the time, and the person's song single just
Speaker 2: came out and I had to be on the same
Speaker 2: show with her, and I was so excited because they
Speaker 2: had our names on the dressing We had to share
Speaker 2: dress rooms together. So I got to my dressing room.
Speaker 2: I got to dress room first, and my mom was
Speaker 2: with me and my grandmother was with me. So when
Speaker 2: the artist came in, she looked around and she had
Speaker 2: a towel wrapped around her neck, and she said, my
Speaker 2: sharing dress rooms with nobody. She walked out and sat
Speaker 2: on the hallway floor and demanded that she had her
Speaker 2: own dressing room. So I thought that was pretty messed up,
Speaker 2: and I was crushed. And every time her song would
Speaker 2: come on the radio, my grandmother would say, turn that off,
Speaker 2: and so she would turn her music all every time,
Speaker 2: So that that was really messed up. That hurt my feelings.
Speaker 3: We don't have to be that way. Yeah, but maybe
Speaker 3: in fairness, yeah okay, And it probably wasn't about you,
Speaker 3: and more so about the promoter what maybe.
Speaker 2: Was promised to her right And and I've read to
Speaker 2: this person over the years, like recently, and that person
Speaker 2: is super nice to me. But that was my first
Speaker 2: that was your intro, My intro.
Speaker 1: Meet you too, ready to share space with you.
Speaker 2: I was so excited. So my feelings, yeah, my feelings
Speaker 2: got hurt and.
Speaker 1: He was probably smiling and everything, and Jesus, yeah, didn't
Speaker 1: see when he said in the hallway.
Speaker 2: I can't say the person's name, but it was another
Speaker 2: person that wanted to do a duet with me and
Speaker 2: the label told him no. But I'm not going to
Speaker 2: say yeah, they said no, and they said I don't understand.
Speaker 2: I said I don't understand either, and so that was pretty.
Speaker 1: So he came and told you like they told me.
Speaker 1: I was like, why, but you wanted to I want
Speaker 1: to do it.
Speaker 2: So when you talk about politics.
Speaker 3: Like I know all about that or you know, you
Speaker 3: were in it when the politic was was heavy everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, my feelings have been my feelings have been
Speaker 2: hurt on several occasions and I'm like why, Like what
Speaker 2: did I do? You know? So, yeah, that's another story
Speaker 2: that's messed up.
Speaker 3: You were you were also a heavy commodity and people
Speaker 3: were trying to figure out you know, a lot of
Speaker 3: people trying to want to control that.
Speaker 1: I want to have their hands in on it. Heavy
Speaker 1: standing next to how they saying it you know, to
Speaker 1: read the reason she is that because I made sure
Speaker 1: of that right doing that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I wish and we speak about this
Speaker 4: like I wish that Chris Brown's would have come along earlier.
Speaker 1: In R and B.
Speaker 4: I love Chris, Chris Cherish his wealth. He works with everybody,
Speaker 4: the songs with everybody, and he doesn't and it was
Speaker 4: his idea to do.
Speaker 2: I love your smile too.
Speaker 4: He doesn't let the labels get in the way of
Speaker 4: who he just wants to work with. And for so long,
Speaker 4: like you said that, politic kept so many artists from
Speaker 4: doing records together, people who were actually friends.
Speaker 1: And people and people who may have thought, maybe we're.
Speaker 4: Not friends because of those things that labeled politic and
Speaker 4: a manager saying something to the artists and you feel
Speaker 4: away because you don't really know the person.
Speaker 1: But now we you know, we have this.
Speaker 4: Where you'll see multiple R and B artists doing a
Speaker 4: record together.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 2: Now everybody you know, and it could have been, like
Speaker 2: you know, rappers are good, they collaborate, Rappers collaborating the.
Speaker 1: Smoke together, they sol drugs together, they were locked up together,
Speaker 1: they're in the gang together. Like their togetherness was already
Speaker 1: like part of the package. Right, we're just once plucked
Speaker 1: out of church one at a time. We need like
Speaker 1: an R and B tang clan, we do, that's true.
Speaker 2: We need like nine young like yeah, that would be,
Speaker 2: that would be, that would be dope. I did the
Speaker 2: Soul cipher on Soul Train with Chante, Moore, PJ. Morton,
Speaker 2: and Stokely.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we all did it together. So that's kind of
Speaker 2: similar to Chante.
Speaker 4: You're the only one she named that has not been
Speaker 4: on the R and B Money podcast. Against has been
Speaker 4: on the podcast, has been on the podcast. Yes, has
Speaker 4: done the podcast. And you told me that she was
Speaker 4: coming to and we both from San Francisco. You have
Speaker 4: to do you have to do this podcast?
Speaker 1: Yes, please, Kelly, take this phone, take this phone. That's
Speaker 1: the wrong song too, that's the wrong soul.
Speaker 2: But I also have a funny story. I was a
Speaker 2: Flex was talking that It was after an award show
Speaker 2: and he was in the press room and he was
Speaker 2: talking this is funny, but oh he said, don't say
Speaker 2: any names. Well Flex was there, Yeah, yeah, he was there,
Speaker 2: but he was standing next to somewhere really big and
Speaker 2: they were talking on the microphone that was in a
Speaker 2: press room and I was standing on the side of
Speaker 2: the stage and I was just pregnant with my son,
Speaker 2: and I said, let me go sit down because I
Speaker 2: don't want to be in the way. So I went
Speaker 2: to sit him to sit down, and I tripped over
Speaker 2: the speaker and I led and I fell in front
Speaker 2: of everybody in the press room. And then the person,
Speaker 2: the celebrity that FLEX was standing next to, he had
Speaker 2: the microphone in his hand and he said, it's all right,
Speaker 2: don't be embarrassed. Don't be embarrassed. So everybody's looking at
Speaker 2: me and I'm on the floor in the press room.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so that was embarrassing in front of that celebrity.
Speaker 1: You're all right, Oh, I was good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was That was years ago. But that was
Speaker 2: just a funny story. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You're probably one of the most awesome persons human beings
Speaker 1: in the world. Thank you. The combination of you and
Speaker 1: your husband, it all makes sense. Thank you. Good people
Speaker 1: finding good people and I don't know, man, just just
Speaker 1: making this world a better place. Shout shout out to.
Speaker 4: You know yet it was it was everybody knows about
Speaker 4: that place I've been apartment building.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what that's what we need.
Speaker 1: Money.
Speaker 3: Almost moved in there too, really, that's what we met.
Speaker 3: I was like, let's record deal money. I was like,
Speaker 3: I see what's going on in there.
Speaker 2: But at the time, I'm being honest. When I moved
Speaker 2: in there, it was like, for one Baron was like
Speaker 2: thirteen hundred a month. No. Yeah, but then but now
Speaker 2: that same apartment, it's like probably like four thousand a
Speaker 2: month easy, probably.
Speaker 1: More than that. Yeah. Yeah, they're gonna whoop be because.
Speaker 2: That location is because I think what friend of my
Speaker 2: checked a couple of years ago. It was like four
Speaker 2: thousand it.
Speaker 1: Anywhere from over there. Yeah, you get anywhere in twenty
Speaker 1: highway right there.
Speaker 2: I remember thinking like thirteen hundred a month. Back then,
Speaker 2: back in the day, I was like, that's what thirteen
Speaker 2: I had.
Speaker 1: I had a two bedroom in Ranch and cucka Manga.
Speaker 1: It's like twelve hundred.
Speaker 2: See, it's not like that anymore.
Speaker 1: I need that back, No, right, I need that.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: I think I'm think I'm baby from Caney, right. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Nigga for a focus with the Corinthian eleven cruisers, Wow,
Speaker 1: niggas didn't realize it, but they were being economical as
Speaker 1: a motherfucker. Think about it.
Speaker 3: It wasn't ten Bentley's, it was ten custom pet cruisers.
Speaker 1: We saved money, but we still look but they weren't
Speaker 1: holding on to him for ten years like Shanese.
Speaker 2: Oh, I held on for ten years.
Speaker 1: That three. I love it. You know you got three
Speaker 1: four years max? Right? Do you say that you got
Speaker 1: to get rid of? Yeah? You done? All right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Can, I say, yes, you can. I have a vegan
Speaker 2: lipstick line. It's called Smile by Shines, and I'm actually
Speaker 2: wearing the lipstick right now, so I have to give
Speaker 2: a shout smile to your camera. Smile byes. Go to
Speaker 2: my website smile by Chinese dot com and get my
Speaker 2: lipstick line is vegan, it's long lasting. You love it
Speaker 2: and I have several have five different colors.
Speaker 1: So and that's why media training is needed.
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm not done. Thanks to say that.
Speaker 3: I'm going to say, and you call me up here,
Speaker 3: let me talk. I can say what I'm doing and
Speaker 3: how I'm doing it.
Speaker 2: What my.
Speaker 1: Smile by You got anything else? Smile by Shawn, that's it.
Speaker 1: That's a vegan and it's vegan.
Speaker 2: It's vegan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, smile through it all, smile through we are we yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's coming.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate you,
Speaker 1: thanks for having My name is Tank, I'm Jay Valentine.
Speaker 3: This is the Army Money Podcast, the authority on all
Speaker 3: things R and B things, and this has just been
Speaker 3: a breath of fresh air, array of sunshine and smiling
Speaker 3: through it all.