Speaker 1: And money. Well say, take val we are the authorities
Speaker 1: all things R and B. Ladies and gentlemen, what's going on?
Speaker 1: I am tanked from J Valentine and this is the
Speaker 1: R and B Money Podcast, the authority on all things
Speaker 1: R and B. We're excited today, um in R and
Speaker 1: B money like uh good family member, Uh loved one.
Speaker 1: Uh just you know, you know I lost a lot
Speaker 1: of fans um doing some work, you know, with with
Speaker 1: with this young lady. It's very very talented, um multifaceted,
Speaker 1: um boss lady. You know, let's just let's just get
Speaker 1: into who she is. First, ladies and gentleman. From the
Speaker 1: Preacher's kid being he's on yeah not come on times.
Speaker 1: Oh huh sing a song writer produce that we got
Speaker 1: it for comedian in there. Uh stylus control. You understand
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Interior design, Huh you need a bag,
Speaker 1: She's probably already got it. She'll resell it to you.
Speaker 1: Turn up. Yeah yeah yeah, So can can we just
Speaker 1: get this out the way? Yes? Go? Would you like
Speaker 1: to apologize? Devlin? I don't think my dad still don't
Speaker 1: sunk with you, but you know when I see that, listen,
Speaker 1: we don't we don't need the full exp Would you
Speaker 1: like to apologize, Devlin? I stand on my character. You
Speaker 1: did your work. I did listen and they really had
Speaker 1: me doing worse. Yeah, And he was like, I can't,
Speaker 1: I can come. Come on, guys, Jesus maning for this.
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't. Just like they said, hit it, K.
Speaker 1: I don't understand. Is this movie about abuse? Domestic abuse?
Speaker 1: Like it's like you're losing me and them kids. I
Speaker 1: remember getting off the plane one time and a little
Speaker 1: kid going like, no, no, it's not it's I want
Speaker 1: to know whose parents had watching it? Was it was?
Speaker 1: It was a movie. It's the movie that became this
Speaker 1: classic in schools and churches. Yeah, they play it in
Speaker 1: schools and churches. Apparently it's you know, there is to
Speaker 1: keep you away from the R and B singer. I
Speaker 1: don't know why you laugh, right, I'm not I'm not devil.
Speaker 1: I'm not definitely either. I got paid to be. Can
Speaker 1: I tell you my bros want to and I have
Speaker 1: to say this every time someone tries to, you know,
Speaker 1: make a job in my bro they're like, you know, student,
Speaker 1: like take over the movies. I'm like, he's one of
Speaker 1: the nicest people I've ever encountered in life, like he's
Speaker 1: my bro for real, he's loving like this was hard
Speaker 1: for him to do, but he just did his job.
Speaker 1: So job well done. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Not gonnapologize, get out of my comments. I don't care
Speaker 1: what I post bishops Baby. They still think my daughter's
Speaker 1: bishops Baby greatly. It just when you do, when you
Speaker 1: do the work, you do well, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And it's the mean people that stick with people because
Speaker 1: when you be nice, and movies they forget you. What
Speaker 1: I don't keep getting booked to be the villain me too?
Speaker 1: Is that thing. But you know why because we have
Speaker 1: so much um pent up because we want to be
Speaker 1: the nice persons, the nice person all the time. So
Speaker 1: we always have to pack those letn't that you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. We always have that packed away. It
Speaker 1: started away for when for when we hit a breaking point,
Speaker 1: and I enjoy using it, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like when it's time. So what would I be if
Speaker 1: I'm an actor? Then yeah, you've that might be your
Speaker 1: every day It's so what I would I mean, like
Speaker 1: the super nice you might not so direct if you
Speaker 1: could just you could beat around it a little bit. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we also want to point out, um, this is
Speaker 1: Army Money, the Army Money podcast. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And sometimes people, um, you know, we'll go into their um,
Speaker 1: their style, bad, their money back and and just just
Speaker 1: you know, just just help with the aesthetic. Hund you
Speaker 1: know the the shirt. Yeah, it's big money talking. It's
Speaker 1: big money talk. I knewhere I was coming and UH said,
Speaker 1: I just don't want to wear anything. I want to
Speaker 1: put it on. And nobody pulled up with the money.
Speaker 1: The money in a money got to wear it. You know,
Speaker 1: you're super stylish. Thank you, bro, you are too super.
Speaker 1: You're you're super super. You've been on it. I learned
Speaker 1: my style a little later after, after Jay burned half
Speaker 1: my closet up. Um, but you yeah, he did it.
Speaker 1: I love telling this story because it's true. What listen to.
Speaker 1: What happened is he walked in my closet when we
Speaker 1: were you know, when Jay was like officially, you're you're
Speaker 1: the manager. If you're the guy, you're the only guy.
Speaker 1: We're gonna trust each other and we're gonna take this ride,
Speaker 1: right and he walked in my closet alight, but let's
Speaker 1: just start getting everything together. You're aesthetic. Let's just start
Speaker 1: really tapping into the music. And so he walked in
Speaker 1: my closet. He looked and he's like, we should we
Speaker 1: should burn all of this, all of this gotta go
Speaker 1: all of that. And I was like, that's what friends before.
Speaker 1: But bro, that's a real I mean, you've been shocked. No, No,
Speaker 1: he's right that I was. I was, I was church.
Speaker 1: I looked church good. There's a difference. Yeah, we had
Speaker 1: to get into the streets. I mean, you could be sharp,
Speaker 1: a church could be a church. But you have to
Speaker 1: get me, you know, you have to get me to
Speaker 1: Italy saying you had to get me the wrong He
Speaker 1: got you there. You understand I'm saying you got me there.
Speaker 1: And so now I'm just now you can't give me
Speaker 1: even like you dove your casual fly stuff. So the
Speaker 1: fact that you stepped in and no, you know, Jay
Speaker 1: is fresh, she's fresh, guys, always fresh fresh since he
Speaker 1: was a baby. That's Jay's It's not a it's not
Speaker 1: an over the top style. It's just always really cool,
Speaker 1: nice ship, really nice. Always if you crisp, if you
Speaker 1: my clothes, I feel we are going to go back
Speaker 1: in time, but I just want to start at the
Speaker 1: style part, because you're always very stund come with some
Speaker 1: always what where did where did you get that from?
Speaker 1: Where did that shot? I think was my grandmother and
Speaker 1: my mom, because my my grandmother has always been mean,
Speaker 1: like until she left this earth, she had her Gucci
Speaker 1: bags and she used to match it. I mean, come out,
Speaker 1: alf Alfa Williams. Okay, Alfred Williams were shot, and my
Speaker 1: mom was the same way. And I think also shout
Speaker 1: to shout out to my mama, Pam, Mama Pam, and
Speaker 1: we know, we know we love oh who can't love
Speaker 1: mama fas um. But I do feel like with starting
Speaker 1: my career early at what twelve, like we couldn't get
Speaker 1: off the plane looking crazy, like we had to have
Speaker 1: makeup done, hair done, have on the right it um.
Speaker 1: You know, we had to carry ourselves a certain way
Speaker 1: because we knew with being in the public of someone
Speaker 1: blogs and stuff and operas, but you know, we have
Speaker 1: to be on point. So I think it taught me
Speaker 1: to be that way. Like, and my mom was also
Speaker 1: one of those people that was like, you never know
Speaker 1: who you're gonna see on the way to the mail bags.
Speaker 1: I never know she would tell me that little birl.
Speaker 1: I was like, who who's gonna be out there? My mom?
Speaker 1: Just when I'm about to ride my bike, I don't
Speaker 1: see nobody but the ice cream man. But I guess
Speaker 1: so between my mom, my grandmother and my mom and
Speaker 1: you know, starting this thing early with d C, I
Speaker 1: was I was kind of trained to one of always
Speaker 1: make the effort to be on point with my style.
Speaker 1: And last question in the present before we go back
Speaker 1: to the past, do you think that that's missing now
Speaker 1: entertainment are just in music? I think as it pertains
Speaker 1: to uh, female R and B artists. Good question, and
Speaker 1: I mean, all right, let me let me let me
Speaker 1: serve it to you this way. So with social media,
Speaker 1: like people are able to be themselves on their platform,
Speaker 1: on their pages, they can. However they want to show
Speaker 1: up style, the way they talk, that's who they are.
Speaker 1: So I feel like the cookie cutter way that the
Speaker 1: labels might have, you know, wanted us to look or well,
Speaker 1: this is what's hot, this is the nutrient, and then
Speaker 1: the style, the stylish shows up to the photo shoot,
Speaker 1: the album shoot with this one rack of what everybody's
Speaker 1: wearing that's not happening anymore. So it kind of makes
Speaker 1: me feel like, Okay, I love that people are being
Speaker 1: individuals and they're able to be creative. And if they
Speaker 1: the type of girl don't want to put on the
Speaker 1: short dress and maybe wants to wear the baggy jeans
Speaker 1: and maybe crops, however you want to do with this,
Speaker 1: do it. But I just feel like social media has
Speaker 1: allowed the freedom for people to be themselves and not
Speaker 1: be that could you know how when it was him
Speaker 1: to do the album packaging photo shoot whatever was hot,
Speaker 1: there used to be an album cycle literally an album cycle,
Speaker 1: and the rollout and the whole thing, like what you
Speaker 1: had to either like get in shape or you had
Speaker 1: to whatever it is. It's like, like like you said, they
Speaker 1: would bring you the full thing, the full gammage of
Speaker 1: whatever is the hottest stuff, whatever was hot at the top,
Speaker 1: which kind of I think didn't allow people. I mean,
Speaker 1: you could you remember I forced y'all on the first album,
Speaker 1: the first DC album at the time. I love wearing
Speaker 1: shades on my head for what I don't know. I
Speaker 1: never put the Mothercker's on, but anyway, just on the
Speaker 1: top of your head, on the top I threw a whole.
Speaker 1: I didn't throw a fit, but it was like, no,
Speaker 1: like I really this is my thing, Like I want
Speaker 1: to just add my thing to it. And it made
Speaker 1: the photo, it made the album, the cover of the album,
Speaker 1: and I just was like, this is just my little
Speaker 1: piece of me that I want to carry into this moment.
Speaker 1: You know. So I feel like now people are allowed
Speaker 1: to be more of themselves. And whether that's more casual
Speaker 1: or you're looking like you running on the runway every
Speaker 1: time you freaking get on't why are my cousins so
Speaker 1: much just kissing my comfortable It's crazy? Is this even allowed?
Speaker 1: You know what? Because I'm having a conversation with my
Speaker 1: brosers we talked, yeah, and uh, well the reason I
Speaker 1: asked you that question is because I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: in with social media there there has been an effect
Speaker 1: on all of that. Um, but I think, excuse me,
Speaker 1: you all were so respected and revered, very polished in
Speaker 1: your clothes, all the things. Yeah, you understand, I'm saying
Speaker 1: it was like it was. It was. It was great styling,
Speaker 1: It was all of these things and you know, great
Speaker 1: music to go along with it, to where um, you
Speaker 1: did necessarily have to exploit yourself as a woman. Oh
Speaker 1: that's that's the question. Are you trying to get me
Speaker 1: in trouble? No, No No, I'm not trying to get you
Speaker 1: in trouble. I'm just saying that times are where they are,
Speaker 1: and so in order to be heard sometimes nowadays, you've
Speaker 1: gotta be seen first. You know what I'm saying to understand, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I understand that, I understand the shift. I'm just saying.
Speaker 1: I'm just asking from from your standpoint, is is there
Speaker 1: a way to to get back to, you know, being heard,
Speaker 1: respected and love. So there's the second part of that question.
Speaker 1: So with the freedom of being who you are and
Speaker 1: how you want to be seen, right, because some women
Speaker 1: feel perfectly okay with, you know, showing up with barely
Speaker 1: anything on, and that's just who they are, and they
Speaker 1: don't get that's what's who they are, and I can't
Speaker 1: judge that. Right. Um. When we were coming up, right,
Speaker 1: I remember watching videos ducting. When she first we first
Speaker 1: started being friends, there was a lot of music that
Speaker 1: she wasn't familiar with, you know, with being raised in Africa,
Speaker 1: so she didn't really know some of our key R
Speaker 1: and B artists, right, So I was playing her the
Speaker 1: Tony Brexon videos and Janet Jackson videos and Whitney Houston videos,
Speaker 1: and I was like, the one thing that she pointed out,
Speaker 1: she was like that all covered and I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I said back then, like you can look at the
Speaker 1: Tony Brexton video and she had on the turtleneck dress
Speaker 1: and it was still giving sexy and body and you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, you were you were focused on
Speaker 1: her vocals because you couldn't help but too, but you
Speaker 1: were like, yo, this woman is sexy and she's feminine
Speaker 1: and she's all these different things, and I want to
Speaker 1: be that, you know what I mean. Or Whitney Houston,
Speaker 1: she would also, do you know, she would be in
Speaker 1: a white button up blouse with a pair of jeans on,
Speaker 1: sitting in a chair sanging her thoat off. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Janet Jackson did that one of the
Speaker 1: baddest routines with a black tied up T shirt and
Speaker 1: a pair of jeanus. She stood up on that chair
Speaker 1: and almost and didn't bustle shut up it, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: that was impressive, But we were so focused on the
Speaker 1: artistry and all of those women were very different, um,
Speaker 1: but they didn't I am really trying to work this
Speaker 1: the right? Why how you gonna pull this on council,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, but like it was different. But okay, we
Speaker 1: saw Janet Jackson and if we've seen Janet Jackson on
Speaker 1: the cover of her album, wouldn't do hole nur chitties.
Speaker 1: We've seen all of these different things. There were small moments,
Speaker 1: there were small here's the other part of that. There's
Speaker 1: a personality that's allowed to be seen on social media
Speaker 1: that we didn't see what was going on behind closed
Speaker 1: doors with Jenn We didn't see what was going on
Speaker 1: behind closed door with Tony or did anybody murat We
Speaker 1: didn't know. We knew what they allowed us to see.
Speaker 1: Now with social media, if there's some ratstet behavior going
Speaker 1: on to match the outfit, then we go, oh, that's
Speaker 1: who that person? You know. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's the mystery. It's gone. But that's what the internet did.
Speaker 1: It did We always we talked about that, right there
Speaker 1: with freedom comes freedom comes freedom, and you gotta allow
Speaker 1: people to be But sometimes freedom is also a prison
Speaker 1: right because now you're now you're playing into Yeah, what
Speaker 1: you think everyone wants to see are what you you see,
Speaker 1: you know, the numbers jump off of what they're reacting to.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to be reactive. Everybody wants to be reactive.
Speaker 1: So you become now within your freedom, you become a prisoner.
Speaker 1: You become a prisoner to those likes, to those analytics too,
Speaker 1: and not realizing that forever. And you know, I'm sure
Speaker 1: your grandmama said it, My grandmama said, and my people
Speaker 1: said it. Everyone loves to watch your train wreck. Yeah,
Speaker 1: every every no matter what part of the world, of
Speaker 1: what hood you come from, you've heard that in your lifetime.
Speaker 1: And now we're literally living it and seeing it because yes, if, if,
Speaker 1: if somebody's gonna crash, you're gonna be like this. You
Speaker 1: on the other side of the freeway and be like, man,
Speaker 1: why is it traffic? And people are slowing up to
Speaker 1: see what's going on on the other side. And now
Speaker 1: we're faced with that within you know, from the Internet
Speaker 1: and from social media, and I think the music business
Speaker 1: really suffers from because we've always been reactive and now
Speaker 1: it's a magnifying glass on the reactions. So when you
Speaker 1: walk in there and you go to a label and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, what's going on with him. Oh, she
Speaker 1: got three baby daddies. She makes songs about how these niggasation. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he got photy seven bodies. He getting out next week. No, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: he beat. He beat forty forty nine, he'd beat two
Speaker 1: extras two. Yeah, it's one of what he didn't do.
Speaker 1: He'd beat those too. We canna put his album our
Speaker 1: next week, like this is where we at. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a cold place, bro. But it definitely has trickled down
Speaker 1: to the female artists, with them having to show more
Speaker 1: of themselves from a body sense or you're boring or
Speaker 1: playing and safe. Yeah, And I remember being told that
Speaker 1: a lot too, like you don't never really you don't
Speaker 1: show nothing like you you're always trying to be politically
Speaker 1: correct or you always you know, it gives it gives safe,
Speaker 1: it gives square, And I'm like, but I don't. It's
Speaker 1: not like I'm going, oh, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: this kind of way, like this is y'all know me.
Speaker 1: That's how I care myself. That's always raised and your
Speaker 1: your music, it's not you don't make rashing music because
Speaker 1: that's here's my other thing. If that, if that is
Speaker 1: who you are that's fine. I want to hear the
Speaker 1: music that's connected to that. Now, if you're you know,
Speaker 1: if you're quote unquote safe, your songs are probably a
Speaker 1: little more safe. Yeah, you know what I mean, And
Speaker 1: I understand it. But like throwing, because I've watched people
Speaker 1: try to throw artists into the fire where one thing
Speaker 1: doesn't match the other. Yeah, And if that's the case,
Speaker 1: you you probably just don't want that artist, m or
Speaker 1: you don't want to be in that type of business
Speaker 1: with that artist because at some point that's going to implode.
Speaker 1: There's nothing you can't live a love so longly. Definitely not. Now,
Speaker 1: all right, let's get back to the beginning. Let's go
Speaker 1: to the beginning when Texas. When did you know what
Speaker 1: church for you? In? What mother on the mother's board
Speaker 1: came to you and said, well girl, you can shows.
Speaker 1: When did you know you had something? Betty Hollands, Come on,
Speaker 1: Betty Hollands, come on, Bist church, baby, Yes, real with
Speaker 1: Baptist church. Uh. And she would do this thing during
Speaker 1: service where she the children's church, the children's quid would
Speaker 1: be singing and she would pass the mic around and
Speaker 1: it got to me, I ain't get it, mother, I
Speaker 1: just felt like it was my time. That was white
Speaker 1: not coming my way, baby, And I think in that moment,
Speaker 1: I was like, this is what I want to do.
Speaker 1: And I remember my like, oh I was about six, okay,
Speaker 1: I was about six, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was ready um.
Speaker 1: And I just from that point on, I think she
Speaker 1: saw my confidence and the love that I had for music,
Speaker 1: and she just continued to allow me to lead the songs.
Speaker 1: And then she sent me to Japan with like wait, wait, wait, yeah,
Speaker 1: how did you go from church church Mike? And then
Speaker 1: she sent me to Japan at the age of ten
Speaker 1: to represent the us UM in this big world choir
Speaker 1: they were doing. She sent me, thank you miss bid
Speaker 1: famous hogans I love she still lived down street from me. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so that was the that was the light bulb
Speaker 1: in your head, it was. But my confidence was different
Speaker 1: back then, Like y'all know how I get shot on
Speaker 1: the mic? Now, I what you couldn't tell me nothing.
Speaker 1: The one thing I knew I could do a thing,
Speaker 1: And I just wish I could get that confidence back.
Speaker 1: I would do anything to have that confidence back. And
Speaker 1: from there, like I started being in the school plays
Speaker 1: and going out for the lead roles. You couldn't tell
Speaker 1: me nothing. And then somebody told me I was off, yeah,
Speaker 1: and it it's Betty moment because that's that's off. Well here,
Speaker 1: that turns you up though, turned me up. I was like,
Speaker 1: how are you doing to Betty? You was off baby? Yes?
Speaker 1: And so with them, okay from a confidence standpoint, because
Speaker 1: in this business, it's that's pretty much the major key.
Speaker 1: The key it's to be he'll definitely be oky, but no,
Speaker 1: but the confidence that's key. You can't let anyone affect
Speaker 1: your confidence in this because tomorrow can be your day.
Speaker 1: So most of the time, because we're in that subjective business,
Speaker 1: we all know that we're all opinions. People don't even
Speaker 1: realize how many knows you gotta go through. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I talked about that all the time. There's so many
Speaker 1: knows to get to the right. Yes. So if your
Speaker 1: confidence ever waivers, that you can throw you off completely completely.
Speaker 1: So at what age does someone tell you that where
Speaker 1: they throw Like did you have that moment where they
Speaker 1: where it was like, like you said, someone told me
Speaker 1: I was off? Well yeah. Once I started going to
Speaker 1: UM Voice lessons and I became up a part of
Speaker 1: d c UM it wasn't your local talent anymore. Just
Speaker 1: wouldn't the stage play this was? It was the business real,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And how old are you
Speaker 1: at this point? I'm twelve at this point, twelve maybe
Speaker 1: going on yeah, yeah, and um, I think you know too.
Speaker 1: Hear the other voices around me and especially I mean
Speaker 1: we're talking about be m. I don't sound like that, Mom,
Speaker 1: I don't sound like that. Ain't high? Now? Is that
Speaker 1: Does that mean I'm not good? Or does that mean
Speaker 1: it's just different? Like and you start questioning because this
Speaker 1: isn't what me watching Whitney on screen anymore. This is
Speaker 1: someone in my face and I'm hearing the power. This
Speaker 1: is someone in my face and I'm hearing the power
Speaker 1: in her folt and I'm going whoa. And it didn't
Speaker 1: turn into competition or anything like that. It turned into Wow,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at this person with an amazing gift and
Speaker 1: I'm getting to experience I'm getting to experience it, like
Speaker 1: how can I better myself? Or you know, like I
Speaker 1: know our tones are different, We're never gonna sound the same,
Speaker 1: but like I need to work on I need to
Speaker 1: work on myself, you know what I mean? I need
Speaker 1: to work on myself, and I think I had a
Speaker 1: moment of Wow, is am I ever going to be
Speaker 1: good enough? So I'm gonna play my position that I've
Speaker 1: been given and this and and take advantage of this opportunity.
Speaker 1: And the position I was given with solo was soprano.
Speaker 1: So I just worked on that. I found my lane
Speaker 1: in the group. Um, I played my part. But I
Speaker 1: played that part for so long that I never really um,
Speaker 1: I never really put the effort to make the other
Speaker 1: parts of my voice, like to grow that, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Because I was so busy at sharpening
Speaker 1: the soprano. I gotta be on my so I became
Speaker 1: insecure in anything else. And to to even hear my
Speaker 1: voice stand alone, because I'm just here for the harmonies,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I'm just here to play
Speaker 1: my part as a as a soprano in the harmony.
Speaker 1: The thought of hearing my voice alone again or being
Speaker 1: a solo artist was, Oh my god, the anxiety. But
Speaker 1: when you look back on that time when that was
Speaker 1: never a problem at the edge of time, but I
Speaker 1: want to hear myself. But then the flip of that
Speaker 1: is what it helped create and you because of the rehearsals,
Speaker 1: the time is spent, the criticism, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: what this, what this builds? Because what I find too
Speaker 1: in our in the industry that we're in now, where
Speaker 1: we're at now, this current moment and it's time, is
Speaker 1: the work ethic is so different. Yes, I think that
Speaker 1: people think you just have to live in the studio
Speaker 1: and whatever comes out of the studio is what it
Speaker 1: is more so than it is the rehearsals, the voice training,
Speaker 1: the endurance training, you know, like running there And that's
Speaker 1: why I was about to go to There are stories
Speaker 1: about y'all development and what it took to get y'all
Speaker 1: to a space where what I would call unfunck wiable.
Speaker 1: I remember the first time time I saw y'all group
Speaker 1: and I was like, this ship is crazy. These girls
Speaker 1: are cooking, singing, dancing, not missing they know, not missing
Speaker 1: their steps. Like that ship was really really cool to
Speaker 1: watch from from the female sense because obviously I was
Speaker 1: in a kid group, so I came up through that
Speaker 1: whole Brooke Payne, you know, military style rehearsals, but it
Speaker 1: was always very male based for for that type of stuff. Sure,
Speaker 1: that type of structure where you saw what was created
Speaker 1: through that, and I just always respected it. I always
Speaker 1: respected it because you can. For me, I could see
Speaker 1: the work. I could see the work that y'all had
Speaker 1: put in from the rip like, oh no, no, they're different,
Speaker 1: they really rehearsing. Can you give us a little bit
Speaker 1: of like the just just the the regiment because I think,
Speaker 1: like I said, people get confused, was on what this
Speaker 1: ship really takes to have a thirty year career, a
Speaker 1: fifty year career, a lifetime career. In this um, it
Speaker 1: was no games, you know. We we didn't get to
Speaker 1: do the problems and the home comings and the kicking
Speaker 1: it with our friends. Of course there was time for that,
Speaker 1: but we eight slept impede this industry like we were.
Speaker 1: It was NonStop. We would wake up, go to rehearsal,
Speaker 1: then we would have individual voice lessons, then we would
Speaker 1: have group voice lessons, and then we would eat, and
Speaker 1: then we come out of that and we go into
Speaker 1: another rehearsal, and then we work out, and then we
Speaker 1: go into another rehearsal, and that was our day. Then
Speaker 1: you slept all over again, all over again. For how
Speaker 1: long before y'all ever even put out an album we
Speaker 1: started that. I mean they have been girls time had
Speaker 1: already been doing that thing four or five years before me,
Speaker 1: I think for sure. So when I got I got
Speaker 1: it in at twelve, so I mean from it's all
Speaker 1: we knew. We didn't know anything but that. There was
Speaker 1: no like, oh I'm gonna you know, I'm going to movies,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a family trip. I'm nah. It's like,
Speaker 1: especially when we were trying to get our deal, it
Speaker 1: was NonStop. Remember showcases. We were having showcases for labels.
Speaker 1: So when that got amped up, then it was time to,
Speaker 1: you know, do more rehearsals. And we go to Atlanta
Speaker 1: and we you know, we rehearse there and have a
Speaker 1: vocal coach there, and it just it was non stop.
Speaker 1: It was non stop. And the debut album comes out
Speaker 1: at how I was sixteen, so another four years. Yuh yeah.
Speaker 1: Well but but I will I will one thing I'll
Speaker 1: take away from that experience, man, that whole thing. If
Speaker 1: you if you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready.
Speaker 1: I remember, I don't care if we were in the airport.
Speaker 1: I remember being on an airplane getting woke up like
Speaker 1: at our sleep like come to the front of plane. What.
Speaker 1: Of course, we never asked that, but it was like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're saying the national anthem on the plane as people
Speaker 1: are trying to just to have rehearsal, singing in front
Speaker 1: of people on the spot. We were singing like hotel lobbies,
Speaker 1: like wherever, whenever, like we had to be on point.
Speaker 1: We would sit around and practice our harmonies all day long.
Speaker 1: We were fine. We used to listen to boys to
Speaker 1: men invoke all the time and be sitting by the
Speaker 1: boom box like this show note this show, notedition. And
Speaker 1: we would do that all day every day, just harmonizing,
Speaker 1: getting to blend together, and you know, it just it
Speaker 1: just it was life. We didn't know life outside of that,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And there was no break.
Speaker 1: But what h you ain't got to wear right? Um? Wow,
Speaker 1: that taking your hurdle. But I think that that's why
Speaker 1: we've been able to have long careers, to be okay
Speaker 1: with a little criticism here and there. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of the criticism that we were getting came from
Speaker 1: a place of love and wanting some someone wanting us
Speaker 1: to see us at our best. Um. And I think
Speaker 1: now we all know how to differentiate between you know,
Speaker 1: the two you know, and also we know how to
Speaker 1: keep our business to ourselves. We were trying to do that.
Speaker 1: We ain't gonna pop off. Unlet's listen to the song.
Speaker 1: You want to response, lets do come out. We learned
Speaker 1: how to keep We were talking about the mystery and
Speaker 1: how to keep that. We had to watch the Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: You know, if there was a tour DVD at out
Speaker 1: our tape, because you know, something like that. We were
Speaker 1: watching Mike all day. We will watch Janet, we would
Speaker 1: watch Shaka, we would I mean, we will watch the
Speaker 1: greats all day, all day long, studying, studying them, studying,
Speaker 1: and y'all were connected to some things that were that
Speaker 1: were also great that a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: people may not know. I know because I'm from there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got some Bay Area roots. I mean shut out
Speaker 1: to my brother Duwayne Wigis because that's how I first
Speaker 1: heard about you through Duwayne Wiggins from Tony, Tony, Tony.
Speaker 1: For for people who may not be familiar with just
Speaker 1: you know, the govern a man. But even in even
Speaker 1: in that, those steps to get y'all to where y'all
Speaker 1: were going, moving to Oakland, moving like as kids. She's
Speaker 1: gonna uproot, moved to Oakland of all places, and listen
Speaker 1: and what I know about the Wayne? Wayne will have
Speaker 1: you in the trap. Hey Dwayne, you know Ian wrap
Speaker 1: that gets you with the whole. You know, incense and
Speaker 1: candles in the whole. You know anythink nah nah, they
Speaker 1: from They're from the streets. They from the deep deep Oakland.
Speaker 1: They from the streets of Oakland. So I already know
Speaker 1: that y'all were experiencing something completely different. How did that
Speaker 1: also play into right, because you're now signed to another artist.
Speaker 1: Were you able to experience some of what was going
Speaker 1: on with their group or was that something completely different
Speaker 1: from your completely different. We were sheltered from a lot
Speaker 1: now although we were there, and whether we were in
Speaker 1: the hood or not or whatever, we didn't really know.
Speaker 1: I mean, we was in the house. He was in
Speaker 1: the house practicing and learning harmonies. We didn't get outside
Speaker 1: at all, you know what I'm saying. We maybe to
Speaker 1: go have dinner every once in a while, but we
Speaker 1: were babies, so they knew to keep us out the way,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Um, we were even they
Speaker 1: were even super careful about who they put us on tool.
Speaker 1: It just all of that because we were so young
Speaker 1: and and very sheltered and protected and there were chaperones.
Speaker 1: It was as it should be, kids on the road,
Speaker 1: you know, we Oakland went first, Atlanta was during Freaknick time.
Speaker 1: Who was in the house. It was in the house.
Speaker 1: He just knew. I think they So when do you think, um,
Speaker 1: when do you think you regained at least enough confidence
Speaker 1: to say and I don't want to skip over anything
Speaker 1: but to say I can do this on my own. MM.
Speaker 1: That came later. I'm still I'm still fine with that
Speaker 1: a little bit. Um, after all your solar success, after everything,
Speaker 1: you still people don't realize how the seeds that they plant,
Speaker 1: especially into children, the words that are said, even if
Speaker 1: said with love. I think I have very now that
Speaker 1: I have kids, I'm very careful with the way that
Speaker 1: I talked to them and the things that I say
Speaker 1: to them, because as an adult, I remember, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying and this We were kids in an
Speaker 1: adult industry, so it's just kid artists. And even if
Speaker 1: we were exactly and you know, we were getting I
Speaker 1: think we got dropped from the label at one point.
Speaker 1: We got it. Just the rejection started early with us
Speaker 1: because we were you know, wanting to get on. We
Speaker 1: were wanting to put out an album and all these
Speaker 1: different things, and everybody wasn't feeling it. So rejection we
Speaker 1: got our nose early. And that can do something to you.
Speaker 1: It can do something to you. And um, but it
Speaker 1: also I feel makes you stronger. I do feel like
Speaker 1: I am stronger and able to push through a lot
Speaker 1: of things because I know, even with some of the
Speaker 1: knows that I received, I'm still here and I'm still
Speaker 1: my gift. Nobody has taken my gift from me. They
Speaker 1: can't do that. Um, but it does have enough. It
Speaker 1: had it can It can be a mental mental fun
Speaker 1: So what sounded like you had? But I'll tell you
Speaker 1: when it started? So I um, after after uh d C,
Speaker 1: I I honestly didn't know what what it was that
Speaker 1: I wanted to do. I was being a solo artist.
Speaker 1: Was nowhere what I would be. I would argue you down,
Speaker 1: I might have gone off on you if you said
Speaker 1: anything to me about what. No, that wasn't an option.
Speaker 1: And then I found myself here in l A working
Speaker 1: with Chris Hicks, Terry Ross, Dave Young, and you know
Speaker 1: what he were like, Yeah, let's you know let's let's
Speaker 1: do a little something, you know whatever. So I did
Speaker 1: a few of these records and Dave was helping to
Speaker 1: build my confidence up in the studio. Um. I would
Speaker 1: love him forever for that because he was my teacher
Speaker 1: and he was very patient with me, and he knew,
Speaker 1: you know, what I was going through mentally, um, and
Speaker 1: he just he was like, your tone, your tone is crazy.
Speaker 1: Your tone is crazy. You need to just just like
Speaker 1: understand that you can't stand alone, like you can do this.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my god, this is sun
Speaker 1: or whatever. And so um, we just kept working together
Speaker 1: and ended up you know, Chris ended up shopping me
Speaker 1: a deal and getting me signed a capital and everything
Speaker 1: was fun and all until I had to start performing
Speaker 1: live really and that's when the anxiety, the panic attacks,
Speaker 1: the that's when it got real. Oh yeah, it got real.
Speaker 1: I would have panic attacks in the bathroom. I was
Speaker 1: scared to go on stage. My voice would literally be shaking,
Speaker 1: like to be out there alone by myself and not
Speaker 1: have my girls up there with me. You know, I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't know how to play that off. Wow,
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to play that off. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't until I got on on the Mary J Blast tour.
Speaker 1: That's what it wasn't until I got and I thanked
Speaker 1: Mary at the BT Awards, like just a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: because I don't under I don't think she understands what
Speaker 1: she did for me and giving me that opportunity and
Speaker 1: allowing me to just be a part of something so amazing,
Speaker 1: and watching her on stage every night, like one thing
Speaker 1: about Mary is going to be from her soul. She's
Speaker 1: not worried about whether it's on as off. Is this
Speaker 1: that she is telling her story and that's all that matters.
Speaker 1: She getting it out. And I learned so much from
Speaker 1: watching that. I came from this, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Which is great too. We see, we see how that performs.
Speaker 1: But to watch someone just go out there and pour
Speaker 1: out their soul every night, it made me go let
Speaker 1: your hair down a little. I get your freedom back,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like, trust yourself, trust your gift.
Speaker 1: You're here for a reason. I just want to win
Speaker 1: to have you opened enough for her if you're sounded
Speaker 1: like a dying goat, like you're here for a reason.
Speaker 1: And I just feel like in that moment and allowing
Speaker 1: God just showed up. He did, and every night I
Speaker 1: got stronger and stronger and stronger, and I just I
Speaker 1: started to realize, Okay, this is where you're supposed to be,
Speaker 1: and how long is your set? At that point, my
Speaker 1: set was about five minutes. You got right into it too,
Speaker 1: because peop don't realize that, like twenty five minutes sounds short,
Speaker 1: but for a new artist, because you also weren't doing
Speaker 1: any old records. You just do no, no album, So
Speaker 1: you're giving them twenty five minutes of new music and
Speaker 1: a few come on, that's not that's not easy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a lot. I saw you on that tour
Speaker 1: you did, and I was like, and it was when
Speaker 1: you was you were singing uh uh what it called
Speaker 1: them between two? You were singing tour and I knew
Speaker 1: what notes were coming up? Why does everybody know the note?
Speaker 1: I knew what notes were coming up, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to see how it played outline and I was like this,
Speaker 1: see and you went into the heavens and lived there.
Speaker 1: So when you did you okay? So that that that's
Speaker 1: another question. Did you know that they'd be looking for
Speaker 1: that note? But did you purposely do that? In the
Speaker 1: studio like I'm about to show these motherfucker's I can sing.
Speaker 1: Dave said, where do you want to go with this?
Speaker 1: Because this is the bridge, So you can't give me this.
Speaker 1: You gotta give me that. And they don't really give
Speaker 1: that anymore. But you know, whatever they give you this now,
Speaker 1: he gave me a little bit of something, David, you
Speaker 1: know d So he gave me a little bit of hood.
Speaker 1: I felt he did something and I was like, we're
Speaker 1: going there. He was like, yeah, so he gave me
Speaker 1: a couple of takes of it. And that's what y'all got.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like what happened with good to me? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: we get no. But because I also I remember that,
Speaker 1: I remember the notes, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: like you said, everybody remembers that. I think for me
Speaker 1: it was more so, oh she got something to prove. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe even if you you know, unknowingly did it. I
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna lead the back until that was. That's what
Speaker 1: That's what I felt hearing that record, like, oh, she
Speaker 1: has something to prove. Because I'll be very honest with you,
Speaker 1: I didn't know nobody else could sing just is what
Speaker 1: it is, right, I can't beat, no, bide with me
Speaker 1: and take the truth. I didn't know nobody else to sing,
Speaker 1: so I remember, I think I was I don't know
Speaker 1: what city I was in, and the harmony. I'm on
Speaker 1: the streets. I don't hear no harmonies, so him, no,
Speaker 1: I hurt the harmonies. But it was still you didn't
Speaker 1: know anybody could do that. That wasn't so listed on
Speaker 1: the package. I'm at a hotel some random city. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it was an event. Did they have
Speaker 1: like some I feel like I'm right. Did they do
Speaker 1: a promo where they like hung something on the doors
Speaker 1: hotels of yours? Remember the first time I saw it,
Speaker 1: I'm like, she can't say don't fight before it. But
Speaker 1: this is my first I gotta beat, you know me
Speaker 1: my first time seeing and I'm like, cute girl from
Speaker 1: what is this? Oh? Put this on my door? What
Speaker 1: is this? Right? And I'm sure I wasn't the only
Speaker 1: person who I'm sure I was the only person who
Speaker 1: did that because we just were ignorant to the fact
Speaker 1: of you know, we go off of what what's presented
Speaker 1: to us. So for me, I just thought that's my
Speaker 1: natural thought. Then I hear the song, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck she cooking? You came out as a
Speaker 1: solo artist, first in the group, but as a solo
Speaker 1: artist before auto tune, before this auto tune thing. So
Speaker 1: what was on that record was how you sang that ship?
Speaker 1: And I was a believer from that point on. Thank
Speaker 1: you from that point on. But at first, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was like, she's just you know, keep girl the group
Speaker 1: and this, what's this? What's this? Pretty girls don't saying?
Speaker 1: That was a young sa uh. And then I guess
Speaker 1: before we get to that next album where we come in,
Speaker 1: there was this movie mm hmm um called The Preacher's
Speaker 1: Kid that you still don't apologize. I tried to get
Speaker 1: you to apologize. She can devilely apologize. I don't even
Speaker 1: know where Devil is. Yes, yes, I want to know
Speaker 1: that Jackie. He had on too. I'm sure he probably
Speaker 1: still got that Jackie. Listen, listen. I had a hard
Speaker 1: job managing this guy after he played Devil, because I
Speaker 1: didn't manage him when he played Devil. Talking about there
Speaker 1: was people who still remember Devil. And when I took
Speaker 1: Tank on as an artist, or when he took me
Speaker 1: on as a manager, part I remember there was an
Speaker 1: agent was like I was you know how I go
Speaker 1: for you, bro And I was like, no, like my
Speaker 1: broking act. He was like, I'm not signing him. I
Speaker 1: don't like go from the movie. I was like, you
Speaker 1: really did a great job though, like I'm trying get
Speaker 1: your poet, but it's a great job in that movie
Speaker 1: because it affected everything. Yeah did yeah, but just not everybody,
Speaker 1: but everything. There were people who saw you as that.
Speaker 1: People were like and they couldn't unsee it, like dude,
Speaker 1: it's mean serious. And then on this album currency just
Speaker 1: on their buff look at me, but he's not the
Speaker 1: world mean, Nick, tell me this. So we're doing this
Speaker 1: movie and and I think the coolest moment in shooting
Speaker 1: this film was that downer saying nope, which one I
Speaker 1: think that came off cool to everybody else. But the
Speaker 1: personal moment between me and you that we shared, that
Speaker 1: we unintentionally shared was was in the bedroom after the fight,
Speaker 1: after I beat you up, I hit you and then
Speaker 1: start apologizing and then just start talking about how the
Speaker 1: industry oh my gosh, yes, and I was there they
Speaker 1: only did want to take it that didn't and we
Speaker 1: had a moment so personal between the both of like
Speaker 1: we were having a conversation, not as the character, and
Speaker 1: we got to crying and who hoo, and like they
Speaker 1: had hurt you the thing was called for in real life,
Speaker 1: we were hurt. Why what else? Right? It was to
Speaker 1: the point to where she was missing lines, just crying
Speaker 1: and I was like maybe you know what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say was like and they still owe me money
Speaker 1: and we are crying, laving really emotions in this scene
Speaker 1: to the point that oh my god, to the point
Speaker 1: to when they said cut, well not stop crying like
Speaker 1: we were just we were we were just it was
Speaker 1: it was a release of some real ship that we
Speaker 1: was going through at the same time we connected. I
Speaker 1: think that's when we connected as friends like brother and
Speaker 1: sister in that very moment, like this is bigger than
Speaker 1: this movie. Because I remember that was like I got
Speaker 1: a song for years two thousand nine, yeah, like nine, yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: some yeah, that's right before we started working on an
Speaker 1: Hour and Ever album. Yeah yeah, yeah, because I was
Speaker 1: kind of in limb again because you know, it's like
Speaker 1: something pain that came out and I had done on
Speaker 1: you know, the cool stuff with se cleving pain. But
Speaker 1: then I'm just you know, starting to start starting to driving,
Speaker 1: started driving again, starting to dry up on me. Background
Speaker 1: wasn't acting right, and you know, but you know, all
Speaker 1: these things, but that moment and then I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, I had some music for you. We
Speaker 1: should we should do some music, man, And and now
Speaker 1: we can get into the first of all, you killed
Speaker 1: pretty skid. You did you kill? Thank you? You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Thank you. You're such You're such a
Speaker 1: bar for female solo artists. You're such a bar. And
Speaker 1: when that bar is missing, you know, like who was
Speaker 1: Who's going to help influence and help inspire and help
Speaker 1: like keep that thing. Like like Big Jay used to
Speaker 1: get to get on me. It's like he's just like, man,
Speaker 1: you don't put out of his music. I was like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean. It's like you just don't put
Speaker 1: out in those music. Like people need to see you,
Speaker 1: they't need to hear that, Like there is need to
Speaker 1: be programming tune that that frequency needs to always be
Speaker 1: available so the people know what it is, so that
Speaker 1: the real is never missing, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And to me, that's what you represent. Every time I've
Speaker 1: ever called you on stage, cook on demand, every time
Speaker 1: can I get my show back? If I can get
Speaker 1: my show back, yeah, he's gone to it. What I'm saying,
Speaker 1: because if she said most them at the pair and
Speaker 1: so even to this day, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: like you're missing You're what's trying to do me a
Speaker 1: good time? Well, first of all, can we just I
Speaker 1: have to do this. I have to do this. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: do it. I know y'all know me as like cist
Speaker 1: and whatever, and we've probably had conversation about like me
Speaker 1: having more kids and what do I want for my future,
Speaker 1: especially going through what I just went through. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, And I'm like, I want more kids.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. I feel like I love my
Speaker 1: two that I got. I'm two and I'm through. But
Speaker 1: this record, y'all just dropped if to write, motherfucker. Sure,
Speaker 1: y'all were singing to the uterus is across the world,
Speaker 1: Every Uterus Unite, Come forward, y'all were singing to our services.
Speaker 1: That damn song does something to the cush. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all. I was like, y'all put some spirits on.
Speaker 1: It's y'all put some in the spaghetti on that y'all
Speaker 1: did that on purpose, and I don't like it. It
Speaker 1: wasn't on purpose. Was crazy. It's actually accidental. You don't
Speaker 1: accidentally come up with the have been the record had come,
Speaker 1: did the record had been sitting with us for a minute, y'all.
Speaker 1: Let that's it. Why would you do that? Well, because
Speaker 1: here's something you don't know you need something until you
Speaker 1: actually need it right, And you don't actually see the
Speaker 1: full value and potential in a thing until you until
Speaker 1: you need it right, until you're trying to fill a
Speaker 1: void and you look back like, that's what I It
Speaker 1: fits perfectly like a cut, right, And so you know,
Speaker 1: they sent us a song shout out to Will getting
Speaker 1: sent us a song or co sign for you for me,
Speaker 1: for you, um, and I'm like, Jay, play it for me.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm like, I like it. But in my mind,
Speaker 1: I'm coming off of when we fuck we got fucking
Speaker 1: with me dirty? And how much can we do? Man?
Speaker 1: Because we flitched positions a few times because you know,
Speaker 1: we're running into overtime right now with all this fucking
Speaker 1: And as I'm finishing the album, I'm like, what's missing?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, wow, we just went you know, number one.
Speaker 1: We have the number one song for two years in
Speaker 1: a row, seventeen and eighteen. We gotta have some of
Speaker 1: that essence here. We can't outside a little flex that
Speaker 1: was a little okay, it's necessary. I was like, we
Speaker 1: can't not have any of that here. I gotta make
Speaker 1: sure we have that. That President's gotta be a little
Speaker 1: of you, at least a little bit. And cosign Re
Speaker 1: sends me the song, and I didn't realize it was
Speaker 1: the same song since I said at the time I
Speaker 1: need this kind of song. I'm like, this motherfucker's a monster.
Speaker 1: It is. He's like he's like, he's like, big bro.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you. You know, the guys are big fans
Speaker 1: of yours and they want this record for you as fired.
Speaker 1: And I called Jay, I'm like, Jay, remember that song that?
Speaker 1: Did you let me hear this song? He said, yeah, Nick,
Speaker 1: I'll let you hear that song. Look at it. So
Speaker 1: that's the song. I said, Nigga, it's crazy. He's like,
Speaker 1: I told you crazy. I said, I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: what's gonna be even crazy? Here? You on the second verse,
Speaker 1: come one out of retirement, Jane, I said, it's time.
Speaker 1: He said, Chief you know, it's just I don't want
Speaker 1: to hear nothing. Get over here, get your come sing.
Speaker 1: I know the way y'all cried on that record, like
Speaker 1: the way that there was like what women want and desire.
Speaker 1: Of course, you know you like it, run sometimes, you
Speaker 1: like whatever. But it was a very like the sensitivity
Speaker 1: that we need from a man. The even though y'all
Speaker 1: didn't sing the lyrics slow or anything like that or
Speaker 1: any of that, the passion, the what we want from
Speaker 1: a man to feel loved, to feel y'all hailed us
Speaker 1: in that record. Y'all are literally spooning, if you will know.
Speaker 1: It's a central my first time, my first time here
Speaker 1: in the record because because we didn't write the record
Speaker 1: right record in which is even more foreign, because you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, we just we do our own record.
Speaker 1: So that's why the record was even that. It was
Speaker 1: just it was such a special record I just couldn't
Speaker 1: get away from. But a big part of why I
Speaker 1: couldn't get away from it because I was just like,
Speaker 1: these niggas wrote a record that's sensual and nasty at
Speaker 1: the same time, but it's like but sweet and it's
Speaker 1: and it's not like it's not overbearing. It's the only
Speaker 1: thing right because you know you'll see the comments here
Speaker 1: and there obviously just the word funk in itself, it
Speaker 1: just you know, just it gets. It gets people. It's
Speaker 1: gonna it's gonna cause a reaction. And anybody that knows me,
Speaker 1: when I do music or anything I've been a part
Speaker 1: of in music, I don't want to do it if
Speaker 1: there's no reaction. M there has to be a reaction,
Speaker 1: you know, right reaction. You put that on, and when
Speaker 1: you get the right reaction, you got something. What's crazy
Speaker 1: is that he don't even know is that the the
Speaker 1: I guess when what what did you say? You said,
Speaker 1: the the there's all yeah, a wine and a crop, yes,
Speaker 1: which he delivered better than me in the original version.
Speaker 1: But his voice. So when he when I recorded my
Speaker 1: verse in in my hook and all of that, he
Speaker 1: then came and record his. And then when I heard his,
Speaker 1: I said, oh he could he croot ain't coming out
Speaker 1: like this. He put it out like that's it. And
Speaker 1: I heard his hook. I said, I got it. I
Speaker 1: hear it. I hear where he has a wine. I said,
Speaker 1: I gotta be there. I turn the ship back on,
Speaker 1: put it up, put it up because this is not happening.
Speaker 1: Was coming off as was going in there. No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I just wasn't pulling hard enough. Yeah, he tugs like
Speaker 1: I was. I was. I was going through the motions
Speaker 1: like he was really pulling. And I was like, oh, yeah, okay, alright,
Speaker 1: see what we're doing. We'll see what Yeah yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: turning this stip back on so I can tell my
Speaker 1: grand I made tank re seeing his part, you make
Speaker 1: chicken go back in and redo his verse like that was.
Speaker 1: That was That was clear up about that day and
Speaker 1: almost made to last on the plane at nighttime. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I heard the song on the plane at nighttime at nighttime.
Speaker 1: You know, I get when you're taking the night flights. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you're just listen to you. Yeah, I ain't got
Speaker 1: nobody even laying it go to your boss that turkey leg. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that thing for me and said it made me feel
Speaker 1: like I'm got in your comments. Yeah he's back. But
Speaker 1: it was perfect. It was it just lined up the
Speaker 1: right way. Everything I told you in the movement you know,
Speaker 1: continues from there, but back to you. Um so, how
Speaker 1: many how deep are you into the show at this point?
Speaker 1: How many episodes? Are you in oh man, I don't
Speaker 1: even know. I think we're uh somewhere around six or eight. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We put on out every Tuesday. Okay, every Tuesday, y'all
Speaker 1: make sure you'll tune in. Leave it to Latoya's cute.
Speaker 1: So I have a question, yes, sir, First, this this this, uh,
Speaker 1: this is what you have leaven to la Toya? Um,
Speaker 1: happening at the moment? Really talk what do you what
Speaker 1: do you see? Is next? I want to be on
Speaker 1: the writer producer side of more music and film. I like, seriously,
Speaker 1: I have some ideas. Um, I've put them on paper
Speaker 1: and everything, and I'm about to start taking meetings. So
Speaker 1: I want to be on the other side of the camera. Um.
Speaker 1: I want to really dive into also design. I love fashion,
Speaker 1: I love I love interior decor. Like I could do
Speaker 1: that in my sleep, you know. So I'm this conversation
Speaker 1: having a storefront and easy though it's a lot going
Speaker 1: on in the world, and it's like and with online
Speaker 1: and with social media Instagram, what why my parents? Anyways? UM,
Speaker 1: I just feel like I want to I want to
Speaker 1: dive deeper into like things that I've really always wanted
Speaker 1: to do. It might be scared too, you know, would
Speaker 1: you design your own line like yeah, what okay? I would? Yeah,
Speaker 1: top five R and B artists yours, yours, yours mine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not saying what people rank in the you know.
Speaker 1: Oh she puts such and sudding, No, no, no, yours.
Speaker 1: This is who you enjoy personally, that you believe, school,
Speaker 1: new school, school whatever again whatever, looser, gotta start with
Speaker 1: little thing, big louth, a little little thing. Both, okay, both?
Speaker 1: I take them? Yeah, Anita Tank, Wow, you were bro
Speaker 1: just nicking my tough he did? This is the song
Speaker 1: in Return and Produce. Are you saying that she's getting
Speaker 1: right here? You know what I'm saying? He definitely. Um, oh,
Speaker 1: Tony didn't got me to a lot. M Tony to
Speaker 1: talk to me, talk to me to name who should
Speaker 1: got me through some heartbreak. Um, I'm a dang it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw Jasmine in there, Jasmin Sellman. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't add jo to see because Joda See is
Speaker 1: in there. Like you said, artists, but I want to
Speaker 1: say artists assist the bad sex first? Fine, can't you
Speaker 1: Jody see how he's a child of Davante father? Well,
Speaker 1: clearly I could telling them smile lines instructured fore hit
Speaker 1: top five R and B songs, rude. Why would y'all
Speaker 1: ad see that? Because we want to know that's not
Speaker 1: cool like that would like to know And I know
Speaker 1: that can change every day, it can fluctuate. Jams Man
Speaker 1: jams get jams M R and B jams R B
Speaker 1: jams Yo. Okay, if only for one night? Well, m okay,
Speaker 1: what's the name of a song? Uh? What do I do? Friends?
Speaker 1: True evil? What's the hook? Something? And it's they never
Speaker 1: knew something, they never knew and it's much more. It's
Speaker 1: much more than they ever knew, much more, much more
Speaker 1: than they can be called. I think so. But that's
Speaker 1: my hum too, Okay, okay, sorry, second, Oh, this is
Speaker 1: a hard one. You know what. I can't stop playing
Speaker 1: right now about it? Funny? How time fly? Have y'all
Speaker 1: listened to that Janit record? They were just playing it?
Speaker 1: Where was I? I cannot remember where I was. We
Speaker 1: were on the boat yesterday in Miami on the river boat.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Kiki on the river. I'm gonna throw
Speaker 1: that over. And and Brian who is who swears he's
Speaker 1: an R and B archaeologist. He's really good he's really good. God,
Speaker 1: he's a really good R and B official Nodo. And
Speaker 1: he got the ox from Jordan, because you know, Jordan
Speaker 1: had us my nephew. I'm sure he got a turn.
Speaker 1: He was playing alle Oh yeah, that was all rightcheckt.
Speaker 1: But then it was time to go and to the
Speaker 1: RM and and uh Brian seized the controls and he
Speaker 1: started that Janet Jackson and it was just it was
Speaker 1: just a little dark outside. Yeah, that'll takes something from it,
Speaker 1: do something. I still do it. Yeah, the way it
Speaker 1: comes in, did she give you French at the end,
Speaker 1: it is that French? I don't know. I don't care.
Speaker 1: I don't care. Oh my god. And isn't it a
Speaker 1: continuation of less wait a while? No, I thought it was.
Speaker 1: I thought she didn't want to do it and less
Speaker 1: wait a while, and she said, let's wait a while.
Speaker 1: And then it was like funny, how time flies. She
Speaker 1: ran back into that again, and it was like, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, I'm ready. The way you're putting
Speaker 1: it together, it makes sense because I thought that as
Speaker 1: a young girl. That's what I said to myself. You
Speaker 1: probably shouldn't have been listening to that as young girl.
Speaker 1: You know, what pam pam, my mama, let me listen.
Speaker 1: I thought that was hot girls out. I only wanted
Speaker 1: to be the truth about a round truth. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I couldn't chake that song. I still can't. Um Um,
Speaker 1: it's a voiceman song. I don't know if it's I'll
Speaker 1: make love to you or if it's um we've been
Speaker 1: on together? Is that the same into the road? Which one?
Speaker 1: Is it that's end of the row, that starts that's
Speaker 1: end of the road, or is it I'll make love
Speaker 1: to you? Which one? I don't know, Guys, it's the
Speaker 1: one that starts together. I'm to five and okay, five babies,
Speaker 1: I'm not really I have to be done five. You're
Speaker 1: just you're doing six of everything. Yeah, we're letting you
Speaker 1: get away with girl. Nobody get away really do all right?
Speaker 1: R and B Voltron, Who are you taking the vocals from?
Speaker 1: Who are you taking the styling from, the aesthetic the appearance?
Speaker 1: And who are you taking the performance from? To make
Speaker 1: the complete your complete? R and B artist? Why kidding
Speaker 1: shipped from Thank you for coming Chief? I'm gonna ask him.
Speaker 1: It's me and Rubens in in there. He's like, and
Speaker 1: then we can and then I was like, yeah, damn
Speaker 1: man um, and I don't want no trouble for saying
Speaker 1: what I gotta say. Ain't no trouble I'm saying because
Speaker 1: you know, I'm about to say two female artists who
Speaker 1: are totally different, but let's started. Who are getting the
Speaker 1: vocals from Jasmin? Come on, come on, I'm getting them
Speaker 1: from Jasmine. I said in front of that. I found girls.
Speaker 1: She performed the essence this past year and I literally
Speaker 1: was like, pick up your goddamn feelings. I'm did it come?
Speaker 1: I was like, is she talking to come this stress?
Speaker 1: I felt like I left feelings over there, pack them up.
Speaker 1: This put him in a doggy bag. I might have
Speaker 1: left a few who You're getting the styling from Aesthetic
Speaker 1: and Rihanna very Fly, very fly, every fly very Yeah.
Speaker 1: She didn't like Rihanna. I love her because she just
Speaker 1: do her and like she don't miss especially like remember
Speaker 1: she was disrespecting the sidewalk for us every day, like
Speaker 1: she would every time she walked outside. It was like
Speaker 1: she was modeling white. We're all pregnant. She was. She
Speaker 1: was still mold. You know what I'm saying. Like I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, okay, Okay, the belly is all it is.
Speaker 1: Everything is part of the vibe, you know. And she
Speaker 1: just got a effortless. She got an ownership, she got everything.
Speaker 1: The confidence is because when it comes down to is
Speaker 1: they're not giving a funk and she don't like we
Speaker 1: talked about with a Mary J. Blige. Mary gonna give
Speaker 1: you her no matter whatever it is, what it is,
Speaker 1: and she's my emotion because you didn't. You got to
Speaker 1: add that emotion, Mary. Emotion make you cry sometimes that's
Speaker 1: what age town talking. We're gonna add emotion to that emotion.
Speaker 1: May who do you get the feelings? Do you get
Speaker 1: the film? Mary? Who do you get that? Man? Okay?
Speaker 1: You feel like she been She will mispronounce a word
Speaker 1: in a song. You don't kill what she meant that
Speaker 1: in this Dancer read, I don't even know. I don't
Speaker 1: even think that they've even made a dancer reach don't
Speaker 1: I still don't know. It has something to do with
Speaker 1: the stiff leg dance and the bob that's what that's
Speaker 1: the place. Everybody does that in the Dancer when she
Speaker 1: said I should have left your ass alone time ago,
Speaker 1: and in wind that Down. I've seen it, listen, I've
Speaker 1: seen it live every night. When she started rolling around
Speaker 1: on the ground during normal drama or stumping or having
Speaker 1: a full out tantrum, I'm like, our, y'all, not, this
Speaker 1: is craziest. I'm in church. I'm having a full borne experience.
Speaker 1: When I watched mary last one performance, I got to
Speaker 1: it would be, it would be, it would would listen. Okay,
Speaker 1: because people gonna argue me that Michael isn't pop Michael. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean Michael Jackson is an R and B. They'll
Speaker 1: say he's a pop artist. People will argue me down
Speaker 1: and say that Michael Jackson isn't an R and B artist,
Speaker 1: He's a pop artist and all these things. He's all
Speaker 1: things Christ strengthen that what no, no, enough that Michael
Speaker 1: Jackson's R and B. He is go to the all things.
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson's R and B start and Gary Indiana. R
Speaker 1: and B is. Let's let's say this R and B
Speaker 1: has encompasses so much. And I think that I think
Speaker 1: that it was hours R and B was ours still ours. No,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying, and a way for them to
Speaker 1: take a piece of that. That's where the word pop
Speaker 1: I get it. I don't know what pop is popular,
Speaker 1: but just a way for them to own that space.
Speaker 1: But you know it was crazy, you know how he
Speaker 1: owned them. He called himself the king of it. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: But think about this though, like even even if we
Speaker 1: talk about a guy, a guy named Bruno, a guy
Speaker 1: like Bruno, Marr, R and B and so are we
Speaker 1: saying you know what I'm saying, just but R and
Speaker 1: B saying pop takes it out of not here at
Speaker 1: R and B money not here not here, R B money,
Speaker 1: Michael Jose, all of what other names, R and B,
Speaker 1: R and period, all the middle names. Talk about it
Speaker 1: before you get to Jackson, Michael Jackson. Okay, so you
Speaker 1: got Michael Jackson, R and B artists. I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: to watch Beyonce before I'm sorry, I don't know. And
Speaker 1: that's why I said I had to have I had
Speaker 1: to say Michael, and I had to say be to
Speaker 1: Miami and the rose Ball and I was still affected.
Speaker 1: I still she was like walking over and ship. Yes,
Speaker 1: it was just like she likes to splash around in water.
Speaker 1: It was just the power that she brings. It was
Speaker 1: a levels of performance that I'd never ever I've seen before.
Speaker 1: I'll be watching on stage sometimes she don't know this,
Speaker 1: but I'd be like, we used to do that. You
Speaker 1: got some upgrades. He didn't used to do that. But
Speaker 1: it came from It came from expecting your craft and working.
Speaker 1: And when some of us wanted to go to the movies,
Speaker 1: when some of us wanted to go when we did
Speaker 1: have our off time, she was in the studio, sitting
Speaker 1: there by herself, right in the record. She was in
Speaker 1: the car when we I never forget. We was at
Speaker 1: this little like indoor play, jungle gym situation or whatever
Speaker 1: happen on fun like kids are supposed to. And she
Speaker 1: set out in the hot ass car and was right
Speaker 1: into a track. And I remembering, what be I'm going
Speaker 1: on and see what you're doing. And I went and
Speaker 1: set a passenger seat as she just wrote this record,
Speaker 1: and I was like, we'll be out. You're trying to
Speaker 1: have fun. And this girl, she's she's on it. She
Speaker 1: lives this like this, she wants this bad she is.
Speaker 1: It is no surprise to me that she is the
Speaker 1: icon that she is now. A lot of other things
Speaker 1: went into that, but I will say her work ethic
Speaker 1: is I ain't seen. It's monstrous. I am I ain't
Speaker 1: seen nothing like it, and being around it made you
Speaker 1: feel guilty if you weren't like, wait hard, I'm not
Speaker 1: doing something right away. She didn't have to say anything
Speaker 1: to hold your account. She did it by example. She
Speaker 1: led by example. Wow, yeah, that's that's a we gotta
Speaker 1: get back to that. Used to sit in the booth
Speaker 1: with me while I was singing my parts. You know,
Speaker 1: normally the lead singer once they've done their role or whatever,
Speaker 1: you coming and seeing your foe lines and they go
Speaker 1: off and do whatever. He was sitting in the booth
Speaker 1: with us on the lord in the corner and like nah,
Speaker 1: I tried it again, blah blah blah. And the support
Speaker 1: she would give us, even in the roles that we
Speaker 1: played in this I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that.
Speaker 1: She never stopped, She hasn't stopped, she won't. She's unstoppable
Speaker 1: for real. That's great. Yeah, anything that has her name
Speaker 1: on it, anything that has to do with her, will
Speaker 1: be great. Body means necessary, even if it means sacrificing
Speaker 1: it all well, and I saw that firsthand. M Hard work, dedication,
Speaker 1: hard work, and all that means. Um, don't ask, no,
Speaker 1: don't I'm not. I feel like I'm being threatened. Oh well,
Speaker 1: then we got this part of the show. Short's tight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna bust about him, bust about him. Listen. So
Speaker 1: just part of the show. It's called I ain't saying
Speaker 1: on name. I ain't saying on names. It can either
Speaker 1: be funny, are fucked up? Are both funny? And the
Speaker 1: only rule to the game is you can't say the names.
Speaker 1: So nobody that's a part of the story can be
Speaker 1: mentioned that. You might can say the occupation, you might,
Speaker 1: can dabble around whatever you gotta do, but you cannot
Speaker 1: say their name. And it's that sample. Just give us
Speaker 1: a story, story, give us your name. Whatever. Let's get
Speaker 1: behind the curtain. The curtain. Hell, you know the velvet rope,
Speaker 1: you know all the cool ship you grew up in.
Speaker 1: I didn't go to your pin a tin. Come on,
Speaker 1: what happened you're paying? You still know the niggas from
Speaker 1: your pet? Come on? We know what pass me some
Speaker 1: of that? Maybe a snack? Basically want the snacks? Many
Speaker 1: I don't cooking something, man, I mean maybe saying we'll
Speaker 1: ben here, eat chips and all the kind of ship.
Speaker 1: Yes we do, we go we'll be snacked up, baby snack.
Speaker 1: Get you get your chips. Ship. I'm snacking cold. Snacky Robinson,
Speaker 1: snacky Jackson. I don't know both. Imagine the motherfucker right
Speaker 1: now because we're chewing. I know, but you shout out
Speaker 1: to both because both maddening him up right now. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I remember I had just started this show and
Speaker 1: I was super excited about the role. And first day
Speaker 1: at work called time was like four am. Crazy Son,
Speaker 1: barely up, I know my lines. I'm nervous as hell
Speaker 1: because I'm working with some like I mean, amazing actors,
Speaker 1: and I mean the director was crazy. I mean just
Speaker 1: the line was nuts. So I go on um on
Speaker 1: set and I'm in the makeup trailer, um crack of dawn.
Speaker 1: I still gotta sleep in my eyes, it's the whole thing.
Speaker 1: And so the main actor walks in and she's losing
Speaker 1: it on hair and makeup, and I'm just watching her,
Speaker 1: like this is how we get down this. First of all,
Speaker 1: it's early. You ain't even six willing out to lake,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's just breakface. I ain't even got
Speaker 1: my breathfets ordered taken yet, and you are willing, And
Speaker 1: so where it started. Then you know, I get on set,
Speaker 1: I'm getting Mike, going through the you know, the proper
Speaker 1: rehearsals all this stuff or whatever, and uh, I noticed
Speaker 1: her energy is a little different on set. And so
Speaker 1: when it was time to like roll, when I tell
Speaker 1: you this, lady's past on everybody to the point where
Speaker 1: she started throwing set chairs and being violent and clearing
Speaker 1: everybody off the set. And just like I was like
Speaker 1: losing it on everybody. She didn't want nobody to mike her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was like, don't touch me and get your hands
Speaker 1: off of me. And I was just like, I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: I am about to have to do like all of
Speaker 1: my scenes are with her, like all of them, every
Speaker 1: single one of them. And I'm like, um, what if
Speaker 1: I signed up for it? So she proceeds to kick
Speaker 1: everybody off set, but then you hear her she kicked that,
Speaker 1: not every she was like, get out, get away from me.
Speaker 1: It was like that moment and then they left. Everybody left.
Speaker 1: But then you hear her the distance going I'm so alone.
Speaker 1: Everybody has left me and abandoned me. And I was like,
Speaker 1: what the fun is happening? And I'm on the phone
Speaker 1: with my agent, like, bitch, why didn't you like what? Whatever?
Speaker 1: But the sad part about it was because eventually she
Speaker 1: got it together and we started her scene, moved on,
Speaker 1: the day, kept going, they kept going like it was
Speaker 1: nothing like this was the norm. But so my and
Speaker 1: it was my million dollar question? Is just a black?
Speaker 1: You know? And that was the sad part about it
Speaker 1: because in my mind, I'm going like I had this
Speaker 1: been a sister, she would have been first and to
Speaker 1: Instagram and talked about it. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: She would have been black balled. Has she carried on
Speaker 1: like this? Have you noticed that it's called black balled?
Speaker 1: Everything black isn't good. It's what his banks. And that's
Speaker 1: how they made us feel like when you're black, anything
Speaker 1: it's wrong or it's bad, we gotta star check. But
Speaker 1: we've already started to work on that. But it's such
Speaker 1: a powerful word that it makes you feel away. You
Speaker 1: have a reaction to it. But yes, she wouldn't have
Speaker 1: had no job, but they when I tell you, I
Speaker 1: was like, I remember we did also did a scene
Speaker 1: after and she whirled out in the car and I
Speaker 1: was in a passage sea of the car and she
Speaker 1: was using her hands, and I said, who she grazes me?
Speaker 1: You know how you feel the wind she hit me
Speaker 1: first moment. Yeah, you only needed a graze, you know.
Speaker 1: And I'm going and you gotta keep professional under these circumstances.
Speaker 1: But as a black woman, I'm sitting here watching her
Speaker 1: carry on like this. No one I couldn't do the
Speaker 1: same thing. Nobody's saying anything. Everybody's just and the tan
Speaker 1: from he was like, this ship is not the cameras.
Speaker 1: What with y'all? This is show this Yeah, what if
Speaker 1: people need to see And that's how you're saying the
Speaker 1: name ladies and gentlemen. Yes, yes, ladies and gentlemen. Um,
Speaker 1: this has been absolutely special. You know you know how
Speaker 1: I feel about you. You know I love you to pieces. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's families love, it's always, it's everything. Um. Now we
Speaker 1: we are extremely thankful. Yeah, like of course you would
Speaker 1: just look at it like these my guys, But no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, because we know how busy you are. We
Speaker 1: know that you had to. Yeah, when the baby's getting
Speaker 1: involved and you gotta make plants like that's appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I moved thanks around for y'all. Y'all. Ain't never not
Speaker 1: showed up when I called, so I'm gonna always do
Speaker 1: the same. Thank you for performing at my birthday party.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. He came to the trenches. That
Speaker 1: was a time and they sang as loud as they
Speaker 1: could when they're for I came off. Thank you and
Speaker 1: you know, you know we are. We left than the
Speaker 1: phone call away always. Thank y'all for always being there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: y'all have seen me at my worst. Y'all see me
Speaker 1: at my best. And y'all are always the first ones
Speaker 1: to call when when she hits the fan. Ye, ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, I am Tank, I'm Jay Valentine.
Speaker 1: And this has been the R and B Money podcast,
Speaker 1: the authority on all things are in be with one
Speaker 1: of the colest, one of the coldest of the flyers,
Speaker 1: the beautiful inside and out and Money. R and B
Speaker 1: Money is the production of the Black Effect podcast Network.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the R
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you're listening to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows, don't forget to subscribe to and rate
Speaker 1: our show, and you can connect with us on social
Speaker 1: media via at R and B Money Podcasts or at
Speaker 1: the real tank or at J Valentine