Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very
Speaker 1: very special guests, recording artists in naz x is in
Speaker 1: the building. Hey, hey, I am really excited to have
Speaker 1: you here.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1: So you really look like you are really into cooking, right.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited about this, Like literally it's dope because
Speaker 2: this idea that we went to is like, so like
Speaker 2: this just excited me up.
Speaker 1: Yes, what are you gonna be having us eat today?
Speaker 3: Okay, so today we're gonna be having.
Speaker 2: Hummus samas, the organic original homemade Arab ways.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that because basically, what you're
Speaker 1: telling me is that instead of me buying hummus from
Speaker 1: the containers, that I can actually make it at home
Speaker 1: and it's budget.
Speaker 2: Friendly, literally so much more budget friendly and just just
Speaker 2: better take.
Speaker 1: Really, so we gonna find out today.
Speaker 3: It's literally real, let's get it. I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1: Yes, so tell us what it takes to make homemade hummus.
Speaker 2: Okay, So we have the chickpeas.
Speaker 1: And these are canned so people don't have to boil
Speaker 1: them in.
Speaker 2: And we love Goya products always always, so yeah, the
Speaker 2: Goya product will work. But whatever product chickpeas boom. And
Speaker 2: then honestly, the lemon juice and the olive oil, I
Speaker 2: don't know. If we have our olive oil.
Speaker 1: We can have someone run and get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the olive oil, the lemon juice just crucial like anything.
Speaker 2: Middle Eastern they always put lemon juice and olive oil anyway, always.
Speaker 1: Oh really, even in all the all the like cooking dishes.
Speaker 3: Cooking always get olive oil.
Speaker 2: Is like our especially Palestinians, like olive oil is the.
Speaker 3: Thing because we like grow olives.
Speaker 2: So it's like oh yeah, like my mom would tell
Speaker 2: me like oh yeah, we would grow olive trees. Like
Speaker 2: literally you might like to. I would drink the olive oil,
Speaker 2: organic real organic stuff. Drink yeah, like my grandpa would
Speaker 2: drink the olive oil. Is like so healthy. But it's
Speaker 2: like olive oils.
Speaker 1: And everything sound healthy. Okay, have you ever drink.
Speaker 3: Ours in America?
Speaker 2: Because they put so much stuff on our stuff, So
Speaker 2: I don't know if we could do that, but you know,
Speaker 2: olive oil is there. We go in the extra virgin period,
Speaker 2: So I don't know about these brands, but you know,
Speaker 2: like it's so good, Like I honestly olive oil and
Speaker 2: everything for us Arabs?
Speaker 1: Is it? Okay?
Speaker 2: Oil and a lemon juice. You gotta put the lemon
Speaker 2: juice and everything.
Speaker 1: Literally, Okay, what are the other ingredients?
Speaker 2: And then just a bunch of seasonings. So some of
Speaker 2: the seasonings are like you know, some traditional and then
Speaker 2: some stuff. I'm going like a little out because I
Speaker 2: like to like season my stuff.
Speaker 1: Okay, so season the taste.
Speaker 2: And there's peppers, yes, so we have Do we have
Speaker 2: the peppers?
Speaker 1: Yeah, in that little orange case? Oh my god, yes,
Speaker 1: but I don't know if those were the right ones.
Speaker 2: Oh no, these aren't the right ones. But we're gonna
Speaker 2: just use this as an embellishment at the end. That's
Speaker 2: what was cute. It'll be cute chipotle peppers and a
Speaker 2: double sauce ooh a doubo Okay, cool.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know what roasted peppers in a can
Speaker 1: look like.
Speaker 3: I don't know, Like literally, I think it was supposed
Speaker 3: to be the jar.
Speaker 1: The jar. I tried, I tried. I didn't know what
Speaker 1: I was looking for.
Speaker 3: No, I ain't a roast chef in here.
Speaker 2: We just be doing it.
Speaker 1: But we were doing it and we're doing it right,
Speaker 1: and you have garlic and onions teach us how to
Speaker 1: make it.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, so literally, okay, the thing is is like
Speaker 2: the garlic and the onions, I would have liked to
Speaker 2: like roast it up and stuff to make it a
Speaker 2: little bit that, But since it's not that, we're not
Speaker 2: gonna put them in today.
Speaker 1: We're just gonna have them as cute little decoration.
Speaker 3: Cerations on the side.
Speaker 2: Okay, But okay, so we're gonna start with the chickpeas.
Speaker 1: Got it?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Do we get started?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 1: Get started? And do we have to I'm genuinely really
Speaker 1: invested in this. I'm hoping that I never buy how
Speaker 1: much again after this. But do we have to drain
Speaker 1: the liquid out of the key?
Speaker 2: Yes, we do it.
Speaker 1: You could use those blue keys.
Speaker 5: Look, I'm asking all the right questions, really, okay, honestly,
Speaker 5: just like like, we do have to drain it out
Speaker 5: because this water that they have it's sitting in it's.
Speaker 1: Just you know, it's like fermented or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fermented, And it's not really like necessary because
Speaker 2: the thing is you're supposed to soak the chickpeas overnight
Speaker 2: if they're fresh fresh chicken, you know, but they're already
Speaker 2: soaking them, so it's like perfect because.
Speaker 1: You have to Oh they're not soft in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're soft now because they soaked them.
Speaker 1: So if I were to get a bag of chickpeas,
Speaker 1: the dry one.
Speaker 2: You can just soak them overnight and then they come
Speaker 2: like this and they become fermented and stuff and then
Speaker 2: you just like drain it out.
Speaker 3: You can use that too.
Speaker 1: Oh I don't have to boil them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't have to boil them. So the thing
Speaker 2: is is if you do boil them, it's like the replacement.
Speaker 2: Either you soak them or you boil them.
Speaker 3: Either.
Speaker 2: Or we have this other dish called food and it's
Speaker 2: like garbonzo beans.
Speaker 3: Is that what it is? Or these are the girls.
Speaker 2: It's another bean. I only know in Arabic it's fooled,
Speaker 2: but like literally it's another bean. And with that one
Speaker 2: you cook and that you have to cook that one.
Speaker 3: This one is optional.
Speaker 2: You cook it.
Speaker 3: You can soak it every night.
Speaker 1: Okay, So for all y'all listeners, you can actually get
Speaker 1: the bag, soak it overnight and then wake up put
Speaker 1: it in a blunder.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's think, let's get it very excited.
Speaker 1: We ain't never had this dish ever in the history.
Speaker 1: This is three seasons and we've never had anybody make
Speaker 1: homemade humus.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, this is so exciting.
Speaker 2: It's so crazy because I would wake up in the morning,
Speaker 2: like growing up, and then this would be like our breakfast,
Speaker 2: you know, like yeah, and I hated it growing up, right,
Speaker 2: I hated it, Like I was like I don't want that,
Speaker 2: Like I don't want it.
Speaker 1: And then because you ate it so much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like you know, you were so used to it,
Speaker 2: you know, you get so used to it and stuff.
Speaker 2: And then I literally like then it became a viral sensation.
Speaker 2: And then I was like that everywhere as home as
Speaker 2: helmus hummus, and I'm like, as an Arabic girl, it's
Speaker 2: the most interesting thing ever to see, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, Because you're like, I would have never thought that,
Speaker 2: like things like this would have been viral because I
Speaker 2: was a little girl.
Speaker 3: You just grow up like it's a part of you know.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's like a part of the culture. It's like if
Speaker 1: you're if you're a Jamaican and you eat like jerk chicken.
Speaker 1: All yeah, well I don't even use jerk chicken. Yeah
Speaker 1: something like who was it? Like Trevor Noah had a
Speaker 1: joke about his friend that was Indian and his friend
Speaker 1: like just hated eating different versions of curry every day,
Speaker 1: and Trevor was like so annoyed with eating I think
Speaker 1: just school lunch. So they would like trade or whatever,
Speaker 1: because that kid was just like, I can't even look
Speaker 1: at the curry. Dang. Okay, we're just kidding, all right,
Speaker 1: were we only need one?
Speaker 2: Need one anyway, We're gonna try it all out, okay,
Speaker 2: so boom, but we got this stuff in here, the
Speaker 2: chickpeas in here. We gotta throw in the olive oil,
Speaker 2: of course, because.
Speaker 1: It's how you know you a real cook. Right here.
Speaker 1: She she didn't even pull out a measure and she
Speaker 1: never was there's not even a measuring anything on the table.
Speaker 1: She just took the olive oil and she just ran
Speaker 1: it through. Okay, got it. She was signed a generous
Speaker 1: for y'all listeners. She was generous the olive oil, okay.
Speaker 2: And then when I was honestly, it would be cute
Speaker 2: if we had like whatever, but we're just gonna throw
Speaker 2: in these seasonings, like straight up this season. Okay, So
Speaker 2: I love me some garlic. We gotta put the garlic
Speaker 2: garlic powder. I would have loved to roast a garlic
Speaker 2: and put in the fresh garlic nothing like it. But
Speaker 2: since we don't have that, we're gonna just put in
Speaker 2: the garlic powder.
Speaker 1: And when you say you roast, what does roasting look like?
Speaker 2: When I just put it on the stove and then
Speaker 2: put it with some oil and.
Speaker 1: Just like like almost like a saltee. Yeah, so it
Speaker 1: has that like little.
Speaker 2: I start getting my terminology for my cooking up. Oh
Speaker 2: my goodness's yeah. I like, yeah, the onion garlic nothing
Speaker 2: like it. Always we saw ta onion and garlic in
Speaker 2: every dish too.
Speaker 3: That's not always.
Speaker 1: Onion, garlic and lemon. Ye. And you're and your first generation,
Speaker 1: did you at all grow up in Palestine?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Have you visited?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: Okay, so my whole life Palestine has been more unfortunately,
Speaker 2: you know, high family members go back there and you know,
Speaker 2: just come back different. So it always gave me a
Speaker 2: like damn, like I want to go back there so bad.
Speaker 2: But you know, it's like there's traumatizing, it's traumatizing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my mom had a very traumatizing experience.
Speaker 2: So I think that for me it was always like
Speaker 2: I always have dreamed to go back, but I always
Speaker 2: like in the right time one day, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, And that's like the dream and the goobo.
Speaker 2: Now for me, it's like I love like going back
Speaker 2: to any of the parts of the Middle East. Like
Speaker 2: I stopped in Dubai and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, you just feel the vibe
Speaker 2: because I feel like being in the Western world, being
Speaker 2: in America, like it's so different when you go to
Speaker 2: that side of the world, and I really haven't experienced
Speaker 2: it as much as I need to, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, Like as much as I want to. And
Speaker 2: I mean, like there's so many places right now out
Speaker 2: there that are just so beautiful, soapopen and just so
Speaker 2: like it that I haven't seen yet that I'm just
Speaker 2: dying to see. But of course, like I want to
Speaker 2: go back so bad, but I've never spent as much
Speaker 2: like time there or anything. I went to Egypt when
Speaker 2: I'm like sixteen with the family, and that was like
Speaker 2: the closest thing I kind of got to it because
Speaker 2: Egypt is right across you know, the water. But yeah,
Speaker 2: that's it. And I one day, one day, god willing,
Speaker 2: we'll be going back, you know what I mean? One
Speaker 2: day that's the goal, because honestly, I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2: It's such a we just want to, you know, you
Speaker 2: want to experience the motherland.
Speaker 3: You know what.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course I think it's I think it's important.
Speaker 1: But I also understand as a Jamaican, I ain't been back,
Speaker 1: and all my Jamaican friends like talk crap because they're like,
Speaker 1: you've never been there and you're a Jamaican and dah
Speaker 1: dah da da. I'm like, man, you hear all these
Speaker 1: stories about stuff that may have happened in your family.
Speaker 1: You like, I don't know if I'm ready to do that.
Speaker 1: But now that I'm older, I'm like, yo, it's definitely
Speaker 1: on my bucket list. But when I was younger, you
Speaker 1: couldn't pay me to go back there because that was scary.
Speaker 2: It was scary. Yeah, you hear all these stories.
Speaker 3: But then now you're like, oh.
Speaker 2: My god, I really want to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah I want to. I want to.
Speaker 2: I want to roots.
Speaker 3: Yeah, your roots exactly.
Speaker 2: And that's what's so important, And honestly, a lot of
Speaker 2: Arabs will do that to me too. They'll be like,
Speaker 2: but you've never gone back or I speak Arabic, that's
Speaker 2: my first language technically, oh okay, yeah, but it's very
Speaker 2: like broken, like it's like we say Macusa, so it's
Speaker 2: like it's like broken, like you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: because it's americanized because I speak English so much.
Speaker 1: Now do do the Palestine? Does the Arab culture judge
Speaker 1: if you're you're your is it Arabic?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Is it? If it's like not perfect? Because I know
Speaker 1: in the Spanish community they all judge. Yes, they discriminated.
Speaker 2: The Arabs in the Latin community and the Arab basic
Speaker 2: so much alike, like my mom's that's friend growing up
Speaker 2: saying it's like Puerto Rican That's why I use like
Speaker 2: Adobo Goyle products, Like I just like, you know, my
Speaker 2: favorite food is Puerto Rican food technical because I'm just
Speaker 2: like so obsessed with the whole Spanish culture period. But
Speaker 2: I feel like it's the same way, like it's very
Speaker 2: judgmental if you're not if you don't speak clear like
Speaker 2: Spanish or clear Arabic, they're.
Speaker 3: Like super judgments.
Speaker 2: How you're saying no, No, they talk, you know, a lot
Speaker 2: of crap. Yeah, it's the same way. And it's the
Speaker 2: same way too, I know in the Latin community and
Speaker 2: the Arab community of like if you're Puerto Rican and
Speaker 2: Dominican and yeah, it's a little different.
Speaker 1: Like you know, yeah, they'd be like, don't get it,
Speaker 1: don't get it messed up, got it messed up.
Speaker 2: It's the same thing with the Arabs. But honestly, for me,
Speaker 2: like you know, now, for me, I love it all.
Speaker 2: Like people think I'm Latino all the time and I'm
Speaker 2: from New York, so I love it. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: oh they are all like what, like, I'm very much
Speaker 2: so that, you know. So I feel like cause we're
Speaker 2: so we're so like entertime. So me, I'm just like
Speaker 2: if someone confused me for Latino, or someone confused me
Speaker 2: for another Arab thing, I love it.
Speaker 3: People get really offended by that.
Speaker 2: They're like, don't do that, don't do that, I'm not
Speaker 2: that or whatever, and I'm like whatever.
Speaker 1: Like people will literally confuse me for Latino. They'll be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican or they so I keep telling myself if
Speaker 1: I learned Spanish, I'm claiming.
Speaker 2: Noah, if you walk up on me and you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: are you Puerto Rican.
Speaker 1: If I know how to speak it, I'll be.
Speaker 3: Like a Spanish country.
Speaker 2: They they they start speaking to me in Spanish and
Speaker 2: then I get by, but then it starts getting.
Speaker 3: Mad real like busted.
Speaker 2: Okay, I really am not for real because my actient
Speaker 2: be on place and they'll be like, oh, you speak Spanish,
Speaker 2: just go in okay, But then I want to learn sometimes,
Speaker 2: so when I go, like, I'll go because Mexico's right there,
Speaker 2: So I'll go to Mexico, take a trip, and then
Speaker 2: it's literally like well, they'll start speaking to you, and
Speaker 2: then you're like, okay, teach me some Spanish. And then
Speaker 2: they want to speak English. It's like no, no, no,
Speaker 2: Like my aunt can do that to me too. They'll
Speaker 2: speak to me in English and I'm speaking into them
Speaker 2: Arabic and I'm like, speak to me in Arabic so
Speaker 2: I can get my Arabic up, and then they start
Speaker 2: speaking to me English.
Speaker 1: I'm like they like, we don't have time to do this, yes,
Speaker 1: like no, no.
Speaker 3: No, don't play with us right now. Don't play with us.
Speaker 1: I get that though, too, because whenever I'm around like
Speaker 1: my Spanish friends. You know what I do. I tell
Speaker 1: their kids. That's what I learned. If you go after
Speaker 1: the kids, yeah, they're more likely to help you out
Speaker 1: and be like, all right, could we could do this,
Speaker 1: We could talk to you in Spanish, but adults always alike, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's over.
Speaker 2: It, like literally, and I'm like, well, I'm trying to
Speaker 2: get my stuff up. You know, I don't got nobody
Speaker 2: to practice with. You know what I'm saying. We out
Speaker 2: here in La you know what I'm saying. But I
Speaker 2: think even for my mom, I only speak to my
Speaker 2: mom in Ah, so it's weird because then when I
Speaker 2: speak to her in Arabic, I just feel so weird.
Speaker 2: But some people speak to their parents in Arabic and
Speaker 2: that's how they keep it up, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Me, I've only spoken to my mom in English.
Speaker 2: Like technically, we taught my mom English when she came
Speaker 2: all out here to New York from Palisade, and she
Speaker 2: just was just learning from like the like TV shows
Speaker 2: and stuff, and then we were speaking only English. She's working,
Speaker 2: and then that's how she learned English. So we, like
Speaker 2: her kids like kind of told her English.
Speaker 3: And that's a lot of it.
Speaker 1: And how good is her English anything? Really?
Speaker 3: Yeah, she sounds like.
Speaker 2: A New York like, you know, Middle Eastern woman, you know.
Speaker 1: But you know from New York. I'm gonna be like
Speaker 1: hitting you up when I'm on that side, Like, well,
Speaker 1: I was saying, take me back to what was going
Speaker 1: on in the era of you eating hummus to not survive,
Speaker 1: but you know, in the times of just take me
Speaker 1: back to what was going on during the time of
Speaker 1: eating and making homemade hummus.
Speaker 2: You know, I feel like, for me, it's really crazy
Speaker 2: because like you know, when you're a kid, you like
Speaker 2: just you just take so many things like for granted,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, And I feel like even
Speaker 2: like things like this, it's like, you know, yeah, like
Speaker 2: I guess it's this is just such a cheap meal
Speaker 2: that you can make no matter what, no matter cause
Speaker 2: I grew up in Brooklyn, Like I was born in Brooklyn,
Speaker 2: New York. You know, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York, which
Speaker 2: is a very Latin community. And when I was a teenager,
Speaker 2: my mom she started a business, and my mom my
Speaker 2: stepdad they started a business together. So it started kind
Speaker 2: of like we experienced being very broke, having no money,
Speaker 2: living in like a two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, having no money, like literally like
Speaker 2: small two bedroom apartment building.
Speaker 1: And how many siblings do you have?
Speaker 2: I have three, but at the time, it was just
Speaker 2: me and my older brother. Okay, so I have a
Speaker 2: little brother and little sister as well. They're my like babies.
Speaker 2: My siblings are my everything. But me and my older
Speaker 2: brother was just us at the time. And then my
Speaker 2: little brother was born and then we wounded up when
Speaker 2: I was around a teenage, like around there in New York.
Speaker 2: When you start when you're like like living in New York,
Speaker 2: you either are broke or you got money. Period, either broke.
Speaker 2: There is no real class and if you're able to
Speaker 2: live in New York City, you're either broke you got money.
Speaker 3: So we were just broke.
Speaker 2: So when my mom started her business when I was
Speaker 2: a teenager, because she was my mom was really a
Speaker 2: self made woman.
Speaker 1: Like she sounds like she came by herself.
Speaker 2: She came by herself with my father oka and yeah,
Speaker 2: like it didn't unfortunately work out with my father, so
Speaker 2: then you know, like her she met my stepfather and
Speaker 2: it was kind of like my mom was Christian.
Speaker 3: My father and my stepfather were both Muslim Arab men.
Speaker 2: So I mean my mom being a coming to America
Speaker 2: and having to work and figure it out and having
Speaker 2: both parents having to you know, it's hard, you know,
Speaker 2: and it kind of I saw my mom really like
Speaker 2: for her kids go so hard and figure it out.
Speaker 2: Like she was working at supermarkets in Brooklyn, like working
Speaker 2: at you know, like arrest someone else's restaurant, working on
Speaker 2: wherever she could work to figure it out and make
Speaker 2: the money for her kids. And you know, then she started,
Speaker 2: her and my steps id were working for this person
Speaker 2: that was in this business, and they figured out the business.
Speaker 2: And then my mom was like, I could do this.
Speaker 2: So then she was like I could do this on
Speaker 2: my own. I'm gonna do it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And then you know, I'm a kid, so I don't
Speaker 2: know what's going on, and she just like and she
Speaker 2: was basically by herself in America. Her family was like
Speaker 2: in Palasine or around the world, you know, like and
Speaker 2: her my mom being Christian, my father being Muslim. Marrying
Speaker 2: each other was a very Romeo Juliette story, like it
Speaker 2: was like forbidden, you know, so like they fell in love.
Speaker 2: But of course moving to America and Brooklyn, New York,
Speaker 2: you know a lot, it was a different thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was different era, Like it was hard, it was
Speaker 2: too hard. So but my mom had that really like
Speaker 2: she's like the ultimate. She's like my biggest inspiration. She's
Speaker 2: such a self made iconic woman to me because I
Speaker 2: saw her really figure it out. You know, we were
Speaker 2: like so broke living in Brooklyn. I was always a
Speaker 2: broke friend, you know what I mean. I was always like,
Speaker 2: had no money, no nothing, like you know, I remember
Speaker 2: going to like the grocery store, going anywhere and being
Speaker 2: so jealous or being so jealous of my rich friends.
Speaker 3: Like god, I wish I was whatever I had.
Speaker 2: More, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, And then when
Speaker 2: my mom started her business when I was a teenager,
Speaker 2: like it didn't really start doing well, and then it
Speaker 2: started doing well. Out of nowhere, we moved to Connecticut.
Speaker 1: So in New York, you know, most people.
Speaker 2: Either moved to Connecticut, or they moved to Jersey, or
Speaker 2: they moved to Long Island, or they moved out of
Speaker 2: New York unless you got money, like ye to afford
Speaker 2: New York. And if you want to afford New York.
Speaker 2: But so we moved to Connecticut, and as a teenager,
Speaker 2: my whole world changed. Like it was like what the
Speaker 2: heck is going on? You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: And at the time I was like so not with it.
Speaker 2: But then when after it happened, it was like I
Speaker 2: don't know everything kind of like, yeah, everything started changing
Speaker 2: and I experienced a different life in Connecticut, Like I
Speaker 2: was now the friend that had more money.
Speaker 1: You know, and and more space, right, did get stuff?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: And when yeah, Like it was kind of like a
Speaker 2: thing where it was like you experience how people like
Speaker 2: change with you, how people like when I didn't have money,
Speaker 2: they treat you away, and then when you start having
Speaker 2: some like some like people start, it's like different. But
Speaker 2: it's like it was always like I was always like
Speaker 2: as a kid, I was like I wanted people to
Speaker 2: like me so hard and so bad. So when I
Speaker 2: didn't have the money, you know, I was always like, oh,
Speaker 2: I want more, I want more, I want more. And
Speaker 2: then when I had more, you start realizing that people
Speaker 2: might not always want to know you or to be
Speaker 2: friends with you for you. They might just be doing
Speaker 2: that for what you have. Yea you know, so it
Speaker 2: was weird, but I experienced both, and I am so
Speaker 2: thankful now as an adult that I get to experience both.
Speaker 2: And then as an adult, I experienced both having no
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying and.
Speaker 3: Having you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So it's like good to experience both so you really
Speaker 2: realize things of you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: People like Dinnell did that also, Like was there difficult
Speaker 1: like friendship dynamics with that change.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the friendship dynamics were always really challenging for me
Speaker 2: because like it was like I always had a lot
Speaker 2: of friends, I was always really popular, I was always
Speaker 2: really pop, and I was always that. But it was
Speaker 2: really hard for me to like I had like a
Speaker 2: like you know, like you know, having immigrant parents and
Speaker 2: this that they were figuring it out. It was a
Speaker 2: hard family life. So I always went out and seek
Speaker 2: that validation from my friends and seek that validation. And
Speaker 2: I feel like movie to Kataga was the hardest thing
Speaker 2: ever because I was the only Arabic girl.
Speaker 1: Next question, and then there was a period. We all
Speaker 1: know this period.
Speaker 2: You feel me, Okay, we got I don't.
Speaker 1: Even I don't know how to safely say this in
Speaker 1: the right words. But there was a period where America
Speaker 1: was I would say discriminatory towards Arabs of You know
Speaker 1: after around nine to eleven. You're from New York where
Speaker 1: you and you were during that did you have to
Speaker 1: like come face to face with any of that even
Speaker 1: though you don't don't fully look have the look or
Speaker 1: did you have the look or what was that experience?
Speaker 2: Like you know what, I'm not gonna lie, like being
Speaker 2: in Brooklyn, New York is such a melting pot and
Speaker 2: it's the most magical place in the world to me,
Speaker 2: Like I've been so many places in the world, there's
Speaker 2: nothing like New York. I love it more than like anything,
Speaker 2: you know, there's nothing like it because it's like it's
Speaker 2: such a melting pot. I never felt like I was different,
Speaker 2: even when you know, of course being the money thing
Speaker 2: makes you feel different in New York, you know, having money,
Speaker 2: not having money, and that experience is what makes it different.
Speaker 2: But the color of your skin, your religion, anything, it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. Like my mom's best friend was Puerto Rican,
Speaker 2: her other best friend was Jewish. My mom's Palestinian, Like
Speaker 2: it was never a thing, you know, but then and
Speaker 2: you know, her Jewish friend was married to a Dominican guy.
Speaker 1: Like you know what I'm saying, Like it was real
Speaker 1: New York, New York stuff, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So it's just it's really like that.
Speaker 2: So of course when you when I moved to Connecticut
Speaker 2: is when I really started experiencing real discrimination, real because.
Speaker 1: Isn't Connecticut is I would say, it's more white?
Speaker 4: Was this absolutely, so I would experience real discrimination amongst
Speaker 4: black white community, which in America is a real thing,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 3: And I would really.
Speaker 2: Experience it in places like Connecticut, like you really smaller
Speaker 2: towns is where you really start seeing like, oh there's
Speaker 2: still racism, Like it's still a real thing. It's still
Speaker 2: white privileges still, you know. And I got to experience that.
Speaker 2: And then also me being like the only Arab thing
Speaker 2: to hit the you know, at the time, to hit
Speaker 2: the town. It was intense, Like I feel it before,
Speaker 2: it was around that time, and it was like it
Speaker 2: was really hard because I feel like for me not
Speaker 2: being not looking like that, it was like not wearing
Speaker 2: the full scarf, but I would like family members that
Speaker 2: would wear the scarf and stuff like I would experience
Speaker 2: and see what they would go through and it would
Speaker 2: really bother me, you know, like they would get real
Speaker 2: hate for wearing the scarf, like real hate, real discriminate, real,
Speaker 2: real hate speech and all that, and I would be
Speaker 2: like yo, and I would get mad, like yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: still a New York girl.
Speaker 3: So I would be like, yeah, what's up?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah about the way I got to, like for real,
Speaker 2: like go go go. Then you holding me back because
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like you.
Speaker 1: Know you got you ready, I feel your whole energy.
Speaker 2: But like when it comes to people I love, like
Speaker 2: I'm like I'm gonna step you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: Like it's like like you're about to you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, Like none of that. I don't like any
Speaker 2: discrimination or any racism around me, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: because it's just like I have, like coming being a
Speaker 2: New York girl. I remember growing up, my best friend
Speaker 2: group was literally every single race, you know, black, White, Chinese, Asian, Africa, everything.
Speaker 2: So it's like that's all I ever knew. So when
Speaker 2: I started experiencing discrimination, it was like such a foreign.
Speaker 3: Thing to me.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you know, it's like it
Speaker 2: was never a thing that I could accept a like
Speaker 2: or anything. And even now it's like never, I just
Speaker 2: don't stand for any of that. So and I think
Speaker 2: that that's that's that's really been a part of why
Speaker 2: I'm and I just love culture so much that the like,
Speaker 2: even though I'm a hundredsent Palinian, I'm such a blend
Speaker 2: of cultures. And I think that that's in New York
Speaker 2: and me, and that's what I'm so proud of. The
Speaker 2: Connecticut to me was like, yeah, it's good to experience
Speaker 2: small town things that I can relate to literally anyone,
Speaker 2: which is an amazing thing. Like, yes, small town mentality,
Speaker 2: small town people, I can relate to, big city people
Speaker 2: I can relate to you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 2: I can relate to anything because of that, you know.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that that is definitely a real thing. Especially
Speaker 2: in America. Small towns are definitely experiencing a lot of racism.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they are, I one hundred percent agree in
Speaker 1: small towns especially I hate, I hate to say this,
Speaker 1: especially with small white towns. Yeah, Like I don't know
Speaker 1: how it is, like because some of the interviews, when
Speaker 1: we interview some of the guys from the South or Atlanta,
Speaker 1: you know, they definitely paint a picture, but I would
Speaker 1: imagine that environment's majority black with sprinkles of white. But
Speaker 1: but I definitely I went to Upstate New York when
Speaker 1: our family couldn't afford the city life, and yeah, it
Speaker 1: was like, uh, it was like it wasn't fun, it was.
Speaker 1: It was actually that I think the first time I
Speaker 1: ever heard the N word. Yeah, that was the first
Speaker 1: time I see my mom get called innward and I
Speaker 1: was like, what is that? I was really young, like
Speaker 1: y so means her And that was when my parents
Speaker 1: was like, you know, this is what racism is, and
Speaker 1: you gotta go almost above and beyond to like break
Speaker 1: that stereotype, to retrain what has been taught. But now
Speaker 1: you grow up in this household, you're eating the hummus,
Speaker 1: which I'm guessing all the stuff is in there, so
Speaker 1: all it has to be blended.
Speaker 2: Okay, ready to be blended and see what's up?
Speaker 1: So where on this journey does music enter the scene?
Speaker 3: Ooh, I love that question.
Speaker 2: Okay, So music was always a heavy part of my life,
Speaker 2: Like I in the first grade living in Brooklyn because Brooklyn,
Speaker 2: New York is the creative capital to me, like it's
Speaker 2: like creativity galore. You know. So I was in band
Speaker 2: and chorus, like in the first grade, I played cheer
Speaker 2: like that was my first thing.
Speaker 1: Like I was okay, like literally, I've just seen Share
Speaker 1: by the Way Life performance and it was.
Speaker 2: Iconic, like she's, yeah, the goddess and she's just like everything.
Speaker 3: But I didn't know that as a little girl.
Speaker 2: They just had me saying I got you, babe with
Speaker 2: and my my partner Newton at the time, he was
Speaker 2: sunny and he was he was a black boy, but
Speaker 2: you know, it's yeah, but whatever. It was like we
Speaker 2: did it and it was so it was like I
Speaker 2: just remember that being my first performance and the thrill
Speaker 2: that that gave me. And I was in the first
Speaker 2: grade and like growing up Arab Also, my mom was
Speaker 2: Christian convert and my so I was raised mostly Muslim,
Speaker 2: so and I identified with both, like got both religions.
Speaker 2: I'm all, I love God period, but because I love Jesus,
Speaker 2: I went to church. I went to Catholic school, but
Speaker 2: I love the Islam religion so much, so I say
Speaker 2: prayers and both. I could pray both. I love both
Speaker 2: all the things. But for me, it was kind of
Speaker 2: like very very forbidden to do anything like that music creative,
Speaker 2: Oh is forbidden. You can't be half naked, you can't
Speaker 2: be on the stage, you can't be there's.
Speaker 1: Music is hot has well? Looking at your stuff? Now,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing everything has evolved drastically things just.
Speaker 2: Like I have. I was a rebel, but now I'm
Speaker 2: a rebel with purpose, you know.
Speaker 1: Okay? Oh I like that? Okay, there did you just
Speaker 1: come up with?
Speaker 2: There?
Speaker 1: You've been saying that, but like I think I just
Speaker 1: said it that. I want to see that from that one. Okay,
Speaker 1: I got it. Rebel with purpose like it's real life.
Speaker 2: It really is. It really is, but like honestly, because
Speaker 2: the rebel with purpose is a real thing because I
Speaker 2: was a very rebellious child. Like I was very like
Speaker 2: went against the grain. Wasn't allowed to drink and smoking
Speaker 2: and strain and smoking. It wasn't allowed to dress the
Speaker 2: herd stress how I wanted.
Speaker 1: You were your mom's worst night my.
Speaker 2: Mom's worst nightmare, my mom's worst nightmare. And I love
Speaker 2: my mom so much. I love my mom.
Speaker 1: She saw this, she would be sitting here like she knows,
Speaker 1: she knows it.
Speaker 2: She's am I staying again sometimes but whatever, she loves me.
Speaker 2: But you know, it's like whatever, like if at the time,
Speaker 2: it took a long time to get my mom support
Speaker 2: on the music thing. That took a long time because
Speaker 2: when I first started deciding to do music, I remember
Speaker 2: it was always something I've jumped of doing. But when
Speaker 2: I decided to do it, everybody hated. Everybody was against it.
Speaker 1: And how old were you at that time?
Speaker 2: I decided I was going to do music at like seventeen,
Speaker 2: Like I'm.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, they are scared to death. They like, wait,
Speaker 1: no college?
Speaker 2: Yeah music?
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my god, you were killing people. It's one
Speaker 1: thing when you say it at twelve, it's another thing. House.
Speaker 2: Yeah, literally, I said it at seventeen, and I went
Speaker 2: for it. I went, I decided. I went for it,
Speaker 2: Like it was so fast. I decided and I went
Speaker 2: for it so quickly.
Speaker 1: What did going for it look like?
Speaker 2: Like? I just like I remember with it. By the
Speaker 2: time I was eighteen, I tried out for X Factor.
Speaker 2: I got a vocal coach. I wounded up moving back
Speaker 2: to New York. I got an internship wait where were you?
Speaker 1: Oh? From Kinetics six to New York.
Speaker 2: Go back to New York. I got an internship with
Speaker 2: Death Trip You weren't playing. I was not playing around
Speaker 2: when I decided music was what I was going to do.
Speaker 2: And because I always I wanted to figure out what
Speaker 2: I was gonna do with the rest of my life,
Speaker 2: I was like having to go to school, go to college.
Speaker 2: And then my little sister, you know, she's like my baby,
Speaker 2: and she was born and she changed my life.
Speaker 1: She gave me like reason, like it was like this
Speaker 1: little girl hilarious. Yeah, nobody ever says that about the
Speaker 1: little sister. Yeah, nobody said. I love my little brother
Speaker 1: and I look up to him now even though he's
Speaker 1: like thirty, but I had never looked at him and said,
Speaker 1: you give me purpose.
Speaker 3: No, she gave me purpose.
Speaker 2: She gave me life. She really did. She really did.
Speaker 2: Like and then we named her like Jenna.
Speaker 1: We look at you, how old were you when she
Speaker 1: was born. I was like around at sixteen seventeen, Like,
Speaker 1: oh you were around that was around that age?
Speaker 2: Okay, she really So.
Speaker 1: You gots a weigh in on the naming and everything.
Speaker 2: Naming and I had a saying it because Jenna and
Speaker 2: Arabic Jennah means heaven, so Jennah. So that's why I
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, that's her name, because she's my heaven.
Speaker 2: And like literally she.
Speaker 1: Were you and were you? You were the youngest before her.
Speaker 2: I have a little brother too, so he was born
Speaker 2: like right before he moved to Connecticut.
Speaker 1: No, but I'm saying it was you and your older brother.
Speaker 1: Yeah he was older. Yeah, so technically she broke the
Speaker 1: spell of you being the youngest.
Speaker 2: No, it was older brother, me, little brother her.
Speaker 1: Okay, So it was like two said, wow, what makes
Speaker 1: her so special?
Speaker 2: She's just like I always wanted the sister. And then
Speaker 2: it took a long time, but then when I got it,
Speaker 2: and then she looked exactly like me, and it was like, literally,
Speaker 2: this is like my inner child in real life.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So you know when you're like, I'm healing my inner
Speaker 2: child in real life, Like I see her and she
Speaker 2: looks exactly like me. Like even now, like she looks
Speaker 2: a little different, but she looks exactly. She looks like
Speaker 2: she could be my kid. Everyone always thought she was
Speaker 2: my kid. I would walk around and she was my kid.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like a whole thing. Yeah, it was
Speaker 2: so dope like she and she was you know, it
Speaker 2: was kind of like being an Arabic American woman. I
Speaker 2: went through so much as a woman, and I feel
Speaker 2: like I just didn't want her to go through so
Speaker 2: many things that I went through, and I feel like
Speaker 2: like inside outside anything, I just so my purpose was
Speaker 2: like I have to protect her and I want to
Speaker 2: make I want to change.
Speaker 1: What are some all the things that you had to
Speaker 1: go through? If it's okay for you to say and
Speaker 1: comfortable say as a woman that you would go as
Speaker 1: far as to say, I don't want her to experiences like,
Speaker 1: what were those experiences?
Speaker 2: I think an immense amount of abuse and suppression and
Speaker 2: just things that I think every woman goes through, no
Speaker 2: matter who you are or what race you are. But
Speaker 2: I think that being raised the way that I was
Speaker 2: raised and being in like I think the amount of
Speaker 2: pressure that I had on me to be a certain way,
Speaker 2: not being that way, the amount of names I would called,
Speaker 2: the amount of abuse physical abuse. I went through a
Speaker 2: lot of like I went through sexual abuse. I went
Speaker 2: through so much abuse and allowing things that like as
Speaker 2: a kid or as a young adult, or things that
Speaker 2: I just shouldn't have ever allowed or wouldn't her are
Speaker 2: allowed as an adult now, wish that didn't have happened
Speaker 2: to me or wish that I had more protection, you know.
Speaker 2: So it became a thing for me to want to
Speaker 2: protect her and protect younger girls period, like if I
Speaker 2: can be a stronger person and a stronger voice so
Speaker 2: that they don't be cause for me, it was a
Speaker 2: lot of especially as a child. I was a pretty
Speaker 2: young girl, so I had to I got a lot
Speaker 2: of things and didn't have the right amount of protection
Speaker 2: that I feel like I wish that I had, you know.
Speaker 2: And it was kind of like an unfortunate thing that
Speaker 2: just you know, for me, Like I've had so much
Speaker 2: healing from you know, and I think one day I'll
Speaker 2: be able to fully open up and talk about it.
Speaker 2: But I think as a woman, especially with any form
Speaker 2: of sexual abuse, especially as a child, I think it
Speaker 2: affects you for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's in my personal opinion, it is
Speaker 1: the worst form of abuse. The second would probably be
Speaker 1: mental and third would be physical. Old the irony isn't
Speaker 1: that weird, And I think it's just because to unpack
Speaker 1: that wound, it's not like a bruise that you kind
Speaker 1: of like work through and it goes away like that
Speaker 1: wound is just time and a lot of digging if
Speaker 1: you even want to dig, if you want. Your body
Speaker 1: usually will protect itself, especially when you're young. It like
Speaker 1: hides it or blocks it.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: But it's interesting to say that because one of the
Speaker 1: questions I wanted to like kind of touch on is
Speaker 1: if your mom was working as much as you say
Speaker 1: she was, Like who was actually taking care of you
Speaker 1: and your brother?
Speaker 2: I mean, she was the luckily thing about the business
Speaker 2: that she started when she was able to be present,
Speaker 2: and she her side of the business was homeworking, so
Speaker 2: she worked out of the house, so she was able
Speaker 2: to be very present.
Speaker 1: So that was great, But before that she probably wasn't
Speaker 1: right when she was grinding like that. Yeah, because I
Speaker 1: was like, hm, when when she first came here, it
Speaker 1: sounded like it was a lot of pressure. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it's cool that she saw an opportunity where she could
Speaker 1: do both if you think about it like that, Like
Speaker 1: she was like, I could raise my kids and bust
Speaker 1: my and make this money. And she chose that route
Speaker 1: the second she could, which kudos to her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and my mom has tried likes as you know,
Speaker 2: being I feel like being a mother in America, raising
Speaker 2: kids right now and for the last twenty thirty forty
Speaker 2: years is so hard, Like you know, it's so hard
Speaker 2: whether you're single or in a relationship or married or whatever,
Speaker 2: like and being a father as well is really hard.
Speaker 2: But mothers, I feel like, take on like ten times,
Speaker 2: like we have this whole, Like my mom took on
Speaker 2: ten times the stress and probably you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: that pressure, and ten times that that want to like
Speaker 2: I just want to do good for.
Speaker 1: My kids exactly like that driving.
Speaker 2: That driving factor, you know what I mean. And I
Speaker 2: feel like I have only understood that from my the
Speaker 2: love that I have for my sister because I don't
Speaker 2: have kids yet, and for the love that I for
Speaker 2: my family. But that intense love, that intense like yeah,
Speaker 2: my mother has. Yeah, she always was that and I'm
Speaker 2: so blessed to have that. And she tried her best
Speaker 2: and no matter what I feel.
Speaker 1: Like you even would have reveled with purpose, she tried
Speaker 1: her best.
Speaker 2: No, I love you, I want, but like I you know,
Speaker 2: I think that there was a lot that you know,
Speaker 2: when you're a rebel and you're dealing with all these
Speaker 2: things and you're dealing with the abuse, you do it.
Speaker 1: And then that's probably where the rebels.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, because I just didn't feel like, you know,
Speaker 2: you're running away. I was running away from my traumas.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to deal with it. And then as
Speaker 2: an adult, you just have to. It just hits you
Speaker 2: face on. You just start experiencing your trauma and other
Speaker 2: people you just start projecting your traumas or whatever, and
Speaker 2: it's not a thing. So I think for me, like
Speaker 2: healing became like the essential thing because I feel like
Speaker 2: with all of those with all of that trauma, I
Speaker 2: feel like, you know, you never really understand like why
Speaker 2: until you become an adult and then you talk to
Speaker 2: other people who go through it or you're like, damn, okay,
Speaker 2: this is why. Like we all go through the same things. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's crazy, like we really do well and we all
Speaker 2: get out of it the same way, and we're all
Speaker 2: kind of the same and that's what makes us so connected,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I love listening to people's stories. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but I love like all the hoarding and addiction shows
Speaker 1: because you just never you know. I think also like
Speaker 1: growing up in New York, you see, like my parents
Speaker 1: the way they got us. Somehow they successfully got four
Speaker 1: kids to not do drugs really, and it was just
Speaker 1: like going around New York and be like, you know
Speaker 1: that heroin Addicts was a doctor. At some point they
Speaker 1: just smoked a cigarette and just ended up a heroin.
Speaker 1: But after watching these shows, you realize, you know, the
Speaker 1: overall theme in a lot of the shows was like
Speaker 1: mishandled trauma. You'd have a kid that was like a
Speaker 1: varsity student or was doing well, and it was like
Speaker 1: a mishandled trauma. Maybe the mom didn't believe the abuse happened,
Speaker 1: or you know, they kind of brushed it off, or
Speaker 1: they said, hey, if you didn't sneak out at night,
Speaker 1: maybe this didn't happen. It was always like just one
Speaker 1: mishandled like trauma and that spiraled into like a pivot
Speaker 1: or whatever. And and obviously I love people's stories, so
Speaker 1: I not I think about it makes sense that I'm
Speaker 1: obsessed with these shows. But but yeah, it's always a
Speaker 1: mishandled trauma that kind of lead you in the wrong
Speaker 1: lead you yeah, kind of go, this person was going
Speaker 1: straight and then it was a mishandled trauma.
Speaker 2: That's so crazy that you shay that too. Because I
Speaker 2: was just watching this Simon Bios doc.
Speaker 1: I want to see it so bad.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's so good.
Speaker 1: I won her on the show by the way.
Speaker 2: Oh it was so good. God Willing. You know, it's
Speaker 2: kind of happened everything, but it's really good. But it
Speaker 2: was so good. It's so good. I mean, there's still
Speaker 2: more episodes of Think coming, but she it is that
Speaker 2: and it's like trauma catches up to you and then
Speaker 2: it's like this whole thing that you're the mental health
Speaker 2: thing is like a very real thing, and like it's
Speaker 2: you know, the deterioration of it from the trauma and
Speaker 2: the abuse is a very real thing, you know. And
Speaker 2: I feel like for me, I also got diagnosed with
Speaker 2: multiple sclerosis.
Speaker 1: I definitely wanted to touch on that. Yeah, yeah, look
Speaker 1: like because I hear the term.
Speaker 2: Alt oh man what oh shoot, Well, yeah, here's the thing.
Speaker 2: I make it look very good. But it fucking sucks. Sorry,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to be cursing.
Speaker 3: It sucks. It really does. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2: Like I in the beginning was like really like positive
Speaker 2: and happy and it's a blessing. Another thing that I
Speaker 2: feel like all these things Finally I've realized, like, you
Speaker 2: have to talk about it, you have to use it
Speaker 2: because everyone is going through something. Everyone is going through
Speaker 2: something or their family member or something, so it's so important.
Speaker 2: But the reality of it is is, yeah, having a Yeah,
Speaker 2: a disease, no matter what kind.
Speaker 1: It sucks, and it's multiples.
Speaker 2: It's an autoimmune, it's a it's autoimmune. It's a sister.
Speaker 2: It's basically a sister disease kind of to lupus. So,
Speaker 2: and it's kind of likeli or something. People think about
Speaker 2: that a lot. No, it's okay, but it's kind of
Speaker 2: the same thing in a similar name, but different. So
Speaker 2: it's it's it's more of an internal thing. It's your
Speaker 2: immune system. Uh, it's compromised. Immune system is attacking nervous system.
Speaker 2: Lupus is immune system is attacking joints and organs. MS
Speaker 2: system is attacking nervous system, So nervous system is compromised
Speaker 2: as well. So I mean, it's just like your spy
Speaker 2: and your brain. And you know, you can live with
Speaker 2: the disease forever as long as it's regulated and as
Speaker 2: long as you never get attacks. So when I got diagnosed,
Speaker 2: I had an optic nerve attack, I started losing my
Speaker 2: vision in my left eye. Yeah, scary. It was the
Speaker 2: scariest thing in my life. And then I was on
Speaker 2: stereod treatment. I got cured one hundred percent, thank god.
Speaker 2: And then now I'm on a treat and a great
Speaker 2: treatment that has kept me one hundred percent regulated where
Speaker 2: I don't get any attacks, where I'm very healthy. I'm
Speaker 2: very great.
Speaker 1: But you have beautiful, stunning eyes, like you have really
Speaker 1: great eyes.
Speaker 2: No, it was the worst thing of my life. Like
Speaker 2: I was like what And it was like you almost
Speaker 2: felt I almost felt like like that beauty thing it
Speaker 2: was gone because I feel like I was like cross
Speaker 2: eyed and I was like, oh my god, I'm not
Speaker 2: beautiful anymore. And it changes your values because you're like
Speaker 2: with or without you know, the internal beauty that stuff,
Speaker 2: so like you got to be internally beautiful, so you know,
Speaker 2: But I feel like for me, it was it was
Speaker 2: it was a crazy experience. I wasn't able to talk
Speaker 2: about it for a long time. And now I've been
Speaker 2: dealing it with it for so long and it doesn't
Speaker 2: get easier. You just kind of get better at it,
Speaker 2: you know, yea, And it is a very much so
Speaker 2: like I deal with.
Speaker 3: A lot of anxiety and depression.
Speaker 2: I've dealt with a lot of anxiety and depression, and
Speaker 2: that's been my That's that we all do. Everyone who
Speaker 2: has that deals with it, and that's like the good.
Speaker 2: Like if you have anxiety with it, it comes with it.
Speaker 2: And then if you have anxiety and depression, that's good.
Speaker 2: That's good as long as you don't end up in
Speaker 2: a wheelchair, you know what I mean, because there are
Speaker 2: people who literally in a wheelchair. Unfortunately, this disease immobilizes
Speaker 2: you completely, or it can. But now with the advanced technology,
Speaker 2: it can it can.
Speaker 1: Oh there's a chance that it won't.
Speaker 2: Yes, no, there's now with advanced technology. It like it's
Speaker 2: very very very rare because the technology is to advance
Speaker 2: my doctors, you know, I've been going to cedars us
Speaker 2: see like these great places. I went to Yale, Harvard, like,
Speaker 2: I went to like the best doctors, so these doc
Speaker 2: because I've been super interested in not only like you know,
Speaker 2: and finding a cure for it, because there is there
Speaker 2: is a cure for everything. And I feel like for me,
Speaker 2: it's been like you know, learning, I've been getting more
Speaker 2: involved with the MS society and going to more events
Speaker 2: and getting more involved the fundraising events, and we're like,
Speaker 2: they're raising so much more money for research and for
Speaker 2: all the things, and it's so advanced with all the technology,
Speaker 2: with all the research that it's so regulated. Like I
Speaker 2: am doing amazing, Like I am doing better and thank god,
Speaker 2: Like I.
Speaker 1: Worked so hard for you when you were diagnosed.
Speaker 2: I was like twenty one. Wow, it was like really
Speaker 2: like I went on my first national tours when everything
Speaker 2: happened for me so fast. Yeah, it was crazy. I
Speaker 2: started doing music, I got internship, then I started, I
Speaker 2: went on then Boom. Then I went on my first
Speaker 2: national tour.
Speaker 1: How soon after you started the internship and for two years?
Speaker 2: Two years so my first national tour and.
Speaker 1: You moved Who did you move to New York with?
Speaker 3: By myself and my best friend.
Speaker 1: Oh he was oh he was giving your mom straight heart.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, Souker took her good
Speaker 2: until the tour started and stuff. And then I was
Speaker 2: on tour and doing a national tour. Postone this she
Speaker 2: was like, oh, yeah, okay, now you do something.
Speaker 1: And did you have a deal when you got the tour?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was in I was in a I was
Speaker 2: in a deal, but it wasn't the best of deals.
Speaker 1: Of course, the first deals are never the best. Worst
Speaker 1: in the when you're young. Oh yeah, I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever made.
Speaker 2: They got me, they had me. Yeah, they had me,
Speaker 2: they had me. But you know, I'm free, honey. So
Speaker 2: but like I'm not gonna lie, you know. And I've
Speaker 2: signed deal since and it's been great. But like, honestly, yeah,
Speaker 2: as a new artist, you don't know nothing anything. I
Speaker 2: knew nothing, and I didn't have anybody in the industry
Speaker 2: like parents or anything, so I really didn't know.
Speaker 1: I had to like really like build like did you
Speaker 1: have to deal with like the when I'm say, the
Speaker 1: toxic masculinity?
Speaker 3: Come on, let's talk about it.
Speaker 2: I love these conversations.
Speaker 1: I've been in the industry and this is why.
Speaker 2: Yeah, come on, like this is Yeah, we have to
Speaker 2: talk about it more because I feel like it is
Speaker 2: like it's it's a disease in and of itself, Like.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, you have to be like it.
Speaker 1: There's no rule book that comes with this game, right, No,
Speaker 1: there's a beautiful, attractive girl that has her eye on
Speaker 1: the prize and.
Speaker 2: Then you have to navigate through a masculine yary sharkwaters.
Speaker 1: You're in shark shark, and you got to convince the
Speaker 1: sharks that you're not, because I don't even notice even
Speaker 1: with this show, they'll be like, what's the numbers? Looking like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it don't matter. If you have a million good things,
Speaker 1: they still that's to them. Is the verification or is
Speaker 1: it more important because you can touch base with your fans?
Speaker 1: Which one is do you think is more important as
Speaker 1: an artist?
Speaker 2: I think it's like a little bit of both, But
Speaker 2: I think that touching the fans is the most important thing.
Speaker 3: Honestly.
Speaker 2: I think like with appeasing like these those kinds of people,
Speaker 2: they're only appeased when you're like really moving an audience anyway,
Speaker 2: you know, So you got to move the audience. They're
Speaker 2: never a piece. It's never enough, like a million, a
Speaker 2: million villowers, Well, why don't you have ten million? This
Speaker 2: person has fifty million.
Speaker 1: You're well over three, so you're good, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? It would be crazy that if people are
Speaker 1: still coming to you're like, well, where where's that five?
Speaker 2: No, it is that or it's like literally or nowadays
Speaker 2: it's like you got to have those kinds of numbers
Speaker 2: across the whole board, you know what I.
Speaker 1: Mean, like like on every plate, on every.
Speaker 2: Platform, and it's like, okay, like be realistic, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean.
Speaker 1: Also, I think Country Wayne had said it best, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I think there was a period where he
Speaker 1: had Facebook following but not the other followings. But Facebook
Speaker 1: following was that older demo that actually spent money, right
Speaker 1: and like you know, really pulled.
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden, like Facebook started monetizing
Speaker 2: and faces started you make money on Facebook. Now you
Speaker 2: can make money through Facebook and Instagram. So then it's
Speaker 2: like all these platforms change and it's just like it's
Speaker 2: so interesting and it's like okay, so I feel like
Speaker 2: that's what's It's like this weird thing that you kind
Speaker 2: of always have to keep balancing out. It's like, okay,
Speaker 2: I gotta focus on this posting. For me, I'm always
Speaker 2: trying to find that balance because it's always like, you know,
Speaker 2: when I started building the social media I started becoming
Speaker 2: the social media influencer. But it's like I was doing
Speaker 2: music and on tour Billboard first, I just started have
Speaker 2: to start doing this because it was like you have
Speaker 2: to do this as the part of the whole thing.
Speaker 2: You know, you have to post and this and that,
Speaker 2: and people got to know what you're doing. People want
Speaker 2: to know everything about you nowadays. And it's not that
Speaker 2: you don't want people to know everything about you. It's
Speaker 2: just that when you're doing music and you're doing something
Speaker 2: like you want people to focus on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the music is your body of work, and
Speaker 1: it's the closest it's actually your vulnerability right there.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Social media is a different visual more self short term
Speaker 1: visual form. It's got to be. They're really two different worlds.
Speaker 1: But I'm glad to hear that you were able to
Speaker 1: like conquer that second one. That second one is a beast.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. It was like definitely like it's
Speaker 2: still constantly like figuring it out. Oh you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, because once you build, like you constantly figure
Speaker 2: out algorithms, the way the platform is set up, what
Speaker 2: they're doing with the platform on their end, you know,
Speaker 2: because you build this following and then it's like you
Speaker 2: build it and then you kind of god got to
Speaker 2: keep going and you know, revamping it and things. So
Speaker 2: I think it's a learning process. But I've been I've
Speaker 2: been on some lately like like, you know, be patient
Speaker 2: with your process because yeah, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: because like like at some points it is a lot
Speaker 2: of pressure and you kind of become like like, oh,
Speaker 2: like I'm trying to get to this next milestone this list.
Speaker 2: But then it's just like just be patient with that
Speaker 2: because you will get there and it will happen. But
Speaker 2: just at least I've been trying to at least enjoy
Speaker 2: the process, because you know, in this industry it's hard,
Speaker 2: like everybody's there's always something more you have to do.
Speaker 1: There's another metric and another another.
Speaker 2: Goal posted on the metric, and then you never really
Speaker 2: get to enjoy the moment and what's going on in
Speaker 2: the moment. And I think sometimes it's like that's what
Speaker 2: I've been trying to do because I've learned and I
Speaker 2: realized like, oh, I'm trying to get to this level,
Speaker 2: but then this person is trying to get to my level,
Speaker 2: and you not even enjoying this. Sohole.
Speaker 1: You know, My dad had pointed that out when I
Speaker 1: was younger. I had a company it was like magazine
Speaker 1: for ten years, and I would cry him if I
Speaker 1: got a parking ticket. I'd be like, Dad, I'm ready
Speaker 1: jump off a bridge. I got a twenty dollars parking ticket.
Speaker 3: I can't do it.
Speaker 1: That's real, And my dad would be like I think
Speaker 1: it was my dad and my business partner at the
Speaker 1: time who was like, m you need to start taking
Speaker 1: five minutes, even if we're at a major show that
Speaker 1: you produce. Take five minutes. Take it all in. Don't
Speaker 1: even work, don't even say nothing. To take it all in.
Speaker 1: But my dad came up with this idea where and
Speaker 1: I still have it in my house. If you go
Speaker 1: in my house, I don't do it all over my walls.
Speaker 1: I call it the Wall of Fame, which is like
Speaker 1: just it's a hallway because I have a lot of
Speaker 1: stairs and I just put really hard accomplishments on there.
Speaker 1: It's literally ill. It's random posters or whatever, and it's
Speaker 1: just the wall of fame. And it's not like in
Speaker 1: your face, like, hey, this is who I am. But
Speaker 1: if you were to walk the stairs in my house,
Speaker 1: there is literally like the wall of fame minutes the
Speaker 1: most random, hardest shit that I ever set my mind on.
Speaker 1: And I actually pulled it off, you know. I put
Speaker 1: it up there and I don't really look at it,
Speaker 1: but I know it's there. And my dad was like,
Speaker 1: you're getting to the point where the goalpost moves so
Speaker 1: much and you're hitting these goals, but you're not even
Speaker 1: realizing you're not even taking it. You don't even take
Speaker 1: one second to take it in. So that's when a
Speaker 1: twenty dollars or one rejection or one cancelation, you're ready
Speaker 1: to quit because you forgot this wall of fame of accomplishment.
Speaker 2: That's so true too, because I feel like I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna lie like like you have to kind of like
Speaker 2: sometimes when I have those moments, I try to. I've
Speaker 2: been trying to talk to the right people too, because
Speaker 2: you know, when you're in that moment, you can talk
Speaker 2: to the right person who can like literally give you
Speaker 2: that affirmation and give you that reminder like that, like
Speaker 2: remember what you accomplished, remember how much, Remember how far
Speaker 2: you've come, Remember when you started, like those little reminders,
Speaker 2: or you could talk to someone else who will make
Speaker 2: you feel like more shit, like oh you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe you should give a maybe it's not working out,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And I literally had that.
Speaker 1: Moment recently where someone did that, yeah, like.
Speaker 2: With someone really close to me, and it's like, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe you should, maybe you should give up. I don't know,
Speaker 2: Like it's like, what if I'm having this moment, that's
Speaker 2: a last thing I want to hear. You're terrible, like
Speaker 2: literally never come to you advice again.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah you gotta. Also, I think I learned I
Speaker 1: would say a couple of years ago, is that the
Speaker 1: real friends your real day once And this is how
Speaker 1: I judge friendship across the board. You want a friend
Speaker 1: that is happy when you're up, like and also down
Speaker 1: when you're down. Man, there's too many relationships we have
Speaker 1: nowadays where you got the friends that are happy when
Speaker 1: you're up, but they're not down when you're down. And
Speaker 1: now then you have the friends that are down for you,
Speaker 1: will kill for you, but they're not happy when you up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the real friendship, and I think Oprah recently said on
Speaker 1: the clip, is the one that has no jealousy, because
Speaker 1: the one that has no jealousy can actually value when
Speaker 1: you're up and be like, hell yeah, motherfucker. We all like,
Speaker 1: my girl got pregnant the other day. We all celebrated,
Speaker 1: like you got a Yeah, what is it? What is it?
Speaker 1: They find out what is it? You know, we're just
Speaker 1: happy for that went genuinely down to the toes, like
Speaker 1: happy happy, like.
Speaker 2: You swear, you know, real too, like.
Speaker 1: Really because we knew that's what that person wanted, so
Speaker 1: we feel it. Even when they're down, you're showing up.
Speaker 3: And it's weird for me too, it's weird.
Speaker 2: I had this moment, another moment, a lot of moments,
Speaker 2: but I had another moment recently where I sometimes, you know,
Speaker 2: as a artist, you get close to people that you
Speaker 2: shouldn't like. Sometimes you're glad people, you know. Some people
Speaker 2: get close to the glad people. Some my gam people
Speaker 2: have been my best friends and are still mad tight.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you get close to certain gland people and it's
Speaker 2: like not the smartest of the thing. As the artist,
Speaker 2: you're the boss and you're also the like, these are
Speaker 2: your employees, but they become your friends. But it's hard
Speaker 2: because it's like, that's hard when you're like your employees
Speaker 2: your friends because at the same time there has again,
Speaker 2: there has to be a level of respect. So once
Speaker 2: that there's a boundary that gets crossed, so you become
Speaker 2: too personal, the respect is gone, and as the artist,
Speaker 2: people don't realize that we really are the last ones
Speaker 2: to eat.
Speaker 3: Like people don't realize that.
Speaker 1: People don't really dropping gems that really show my honest opinion,
Speaker 1: really show you did the work. But yes, you are right.
Speaker 1: Repeat that again, the last one to eat.
Speaker 3: We really are the last one to eat.
Speaker 2: I was just watching this clip from this songwriter that
Speaker 2: I know that he's a great songwriter and everything, but
Speaker 2: it's like he was saying, oh, like the songwriter is
Speaker 2: the last one to eat. No, the artist is the
Speaker 2: last one to eat. The songwriter eats before even us.
Speaker 2: Everybody eats before us. Everybody eats before us. And whether
Speaker 2: you're signed independent, the money gotta come out of somewhere, yeah,
Speaker 2: somebody's pocket, ye, And it gotta come back to somebody's pocket.
Speaker 2: And if it don't come back, even though you could
Speaker 2: pay you could have a budget five dollars, fifty thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: five hundred thousand dollars, five million dollars, doesn't matter if
Speaker 2: that once that money goes back, you gotta get it return.
Speaker 1: It has to be.
Speaker 2: It gotta be recouped, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 2: then people don't realize that, you know, as the artist, Yeah,
Speaker 2: like the money is coming out and it's coming out
Speaker 2: of your pocket. And that's why it's like people even
Speaker 2: think like, yeah, like I was watching a documentary recently
Speaker 2: with Michael Jackson's bodyguards or something. It was like a
Speaker 2: new one, newer one, and it was like Michael didn't
Speaker 2: have money at the end of his career. Michael, Michael,
Speaker 2: do you know what I mean? Michael? You know, he
Speaker 2: wasn't able to pay so he can't pay his employees.
Speaker 3: Employees' is like, and he needs his bodyguards.
Speaker 2: He can't even pay his bodyguards, and he needs a protection,
Speaker 2: can't even pay his bodyguards or whatever it is. You
Speaker 2: need this and you need that, you can't even pay
Speaker 2: for that. So you try to build relationships and build friendships,
Speaker 2: and then it starts crossing lines or whatever. Even if
Speaker 2: you're paying them, you still around them all the time.
Speaker 2: You want to be friends with them.
Speaker 1: It's so hard, especially if you're starting out and you
Speaker 1: do like we're working with a budget. So say you
Speaker 1: and I are working together and you can't pay me
Speaker 1: as much right right, and you say it, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I believe in you too. That's where the lines do
Speaker 1: get blurred because there now it's like both people crossing
Speaker 1: that little.
Speaker 2: Thing that yeah, yeah, that awkward little boundary thing that
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, it's a trust thing that has to happen,
Speaker 2: or you don't know if you could trust the person.
Speaker 2: You don't know if the person is like but I
Speaker 2: think it's like what you said, it's an exchange. It's
Speaker 2: it's a common, fair exchange that has to happen.
Speaker 1: And I think that people when you're the boss, it
Speaker 1: really that kind of fucks you over the moment because
Speaker 1: it's never it's never a fair exchange, but one person
Speaker 1: is technically holding the burden. So yes, you're right, and
Speaker 1: you with a dagger because you're like, fuck, I should
Speaker 1: have never crossed that line, you.
Speaker 2: Feel me, because it's like, there's never going to be
Speaker 2: a fair exchange because you're when you're the boss, you're
Speaker 2: already in a higher level and no matter what how
Speaker 2: much they get.
Speaker 1: And they're coming in it from a whether it's an
Speaker 1: act of service, they're they're coming to gain. So it's
Speaker 1: it's not a in a weird sort of sense, it's
Speaker 1: I'm coming to get this.
Speaker 2: As much as I can. Yeah, right, you know, and
Speaker 2: it's and then you wind up feeling like, yeah, like
Speaker 2: it's a it's an unfair exchange. So I think for
Speaker 2: me lately, it's definitely been that. It's definitely been like
Speaker 2: truly truthfully, like like it's all a part of the process.
Speaker 2: But then you have to you realize that and you're like, well,
Speaker 2: if all of this is a case, then there's a
Speaker 2: reason why you start realizing that people are the way
Speaker 2: they are. Or even if you're like, oh, they call
Speaker 2: you this and they call you that, whatever, they don't
Speaker 2: know how much it took. They call you a bit
Speaker 2: really because they don't know how well that day, Well
Speaker 2: how why was I a bitch that day? Like how
Speaker 2: much I gotta deal with on a daily basis, Like
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. So I feel like even
Speaker 2: when I used to hear like Jlo used to be
Speaker 2: called that, and I'm like, Jaalo.
Speaker 1: Was a boss goat, the goat working her as working.
Speaker 2: Her ass off, like if she like and I think that,
Speaker 2: you know, it started becoming like a thing that people
Speaker 2: just use it to like, Oh, I don't like Jlo
Speaker 2: because she's mean, and you don't know if Jaylo's meaning.
Speaker 2: I never met her, you meet her, she's mad nice.
Speaker 2: People say the same thing about Nicki and nice. I
Speaker 2: met Nikki. She was so nice to me, So I
Speaker 2: don't know what y'all talking about, Like you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying crazy, So I don't know, like she was
Speaker 2: nice to me. So everyone has their own experiences. But
Speaker 2: I think it's crazy when like the general public judges
Speaker 2: and artists like that when an artist gives nothing, we
Speaker 2: give nothing but love. And you know what I'm saying
Speaker 2: to the world, like, no matter what artist has on
Speaker 2: their personal life going on, it's different to the world.
Speaker 2: We're giving art. We're using our traumas and using it
Speaker 2: to give art to the world. And we live in
Speaker 2: America where it's like all they do and all we
Speaker 2: do is try to tear our artists down. But I
Speaker 2: think like something has to give where we have to
Speaker 2: understand that, like every artist is a human and even
Speaker 2: if they're like they always are trying to like demonize
Speaker 2: the artists, like oh, I've been seeing that about a
Speaker 2: lot about j Lo, and I'm like, I love j Lo, Like.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love her. I think the best
Speaker 1: thing to do is like.
Speaker 2: The greater you are, the more haters you have, and
Speaker 2: that's how you know you're doing.
Speaker 1: Something right exactly.
Speaker 2: That's the tea.
Speaker 1: That's the tea.
Speaker 2: That's the tea.
Speaker 1: And I think at some point we all got to
Speaker 1: realize there's nobody, nobody on the planet, not the richest man,
Speaker 1: not the brokest man, not the one with the most
Speaker 1: baby daddies, the one no kids, whatever. Every person has
Speaker 1: to come face to face with problem. There is no problem.
Speaker 1: There is no person and living on Earth right now
Speaker 1: that doesn't have problems. That's the part of being human.
Speaker 1: And I think if we all walked around with a
Speaker 1: shirt and said hey, I got problems and everybody just
Speaker 1: walked around, they'd be like, well, ship, you know. And
Speaker 1: I was sad about the human races, like, well, I
Speaker 1: got problem. What's your problem?
Speaker 2: With?
Speaker 1: My problems worse than your problem.
Speaker 2: It's like, yo's got a problem for real though that's
Speaker 2: a fact, that.
Speaker 1: Is a yo. We should literally print shirts. But I
Speaker 1: guarantee if you put the whole world and I got
Speaker 1: prom shirts, I got problem, people will just literally compare.
Speaker 2: Problems hard though that person's.
Speaker 1: Crying because they didn't have a McDonald's burger, get them,
Speaker 1: they start hating.
Speaker 2: It stops. Oh yeah, she went through this, he went this, Well,
Speaker 2: I went through this and that's what I there is
Speaker 2: that thing and it's constant, like that separation. We all have,
Speaker 2: like ego, but you gotta realize, like you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, even when you said, well you walk in.
Speaker 3: That's you're the baddest in the room.
Speaker 2: That's your ego. But then you immediately like, well, oh
Speaker 2: should I just had a bad day and I just
Speaker 2: to talk to someone like that's the real you, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. And then it's like you have
Speaker 2: to I've been trying to find that balance. And I
Speaker 2: call her like because my so yeah with lover girl,
Speaker 2: lover girls like me, I'm a lover girl, that's me.
Speaker 2: I'm a love girl. But my alter ego is a
Speaker 2: trat Princess Jasmine. So like literally it's like yeah, like literally,
Speaker 2: so I kind of like have to separate the two
Speaker 2: because I do have my super loving me, you know,
Speaker 2: but then I do have my dragon side, my you know,
Speaker 2: my New York girl don't play with me side. So
Speaker 2: I feel like that is a real and I call
Speaker 2: it a trat Princess Jasmine because Princess Jasmine is the
Speaker 2: only Middle Eastern pop culture girl we got. But you know,
Speaker 2: I love Fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it. I love it. So how would
Speaker 1: you describe this latest AP and all of that.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, So I mean it's an exciting time because
Speaker 2: I feel like now I haven't dropped the project yet,
Speaker 2: I've just been dropping like singles, and I feel like
Speaker 2: with lover Girl, it's been like I like my first project,
Speaker 2: I was like, what is the the name gonna be? Like,
Speaker 2: you know, lover Girl came to me one morning I
Speaker 2: woke up and then like, I was like, I want
Speaker 2: to name it something with love. I was thinking about that,
Speaker 2: and then I just thought about lover girl. And obviously
Speaker 2: Drake did Certified lover Boy and stuff, and people call
Speaker 2: themselves lover boy. And then nobody did love a Girl,
Speaker 2: so I looked it up and then the only person
Speaker 2: who did it was Tina Marie. And and like when
Speaker 2: I first started singing and doing open mics in New York,
Speaker 2: people used to compare me to Tina Marie. These pig
Speaker 2: your voice, you sound like her, so like I was
Speaker 2: like wow, and then I never really like I would
Speaker 2: do my research on Teena Marie. She was one of
Speaker 2: the artists I studied, of course, but then it was
Speaker 2: like I never really heard her name too much. So
Speaker 2: then when I looked up lover Girl, I saw Tina
Speaker 2: Marie the only person who had a song it was
Speaker 2: lover Girl years ago. I was like, all right, I
Speaker 2: gotta do pay homage and she spelled it two separate,
Speaker 2: so I was like, okay, I'm gonna do lover Girl.
Speaker 2: It's official and named the project lover Girl, and then
Speaker 2: I just like I was like realizing, like damn, but
Speaker 2: I got this whole other side to be my trap
Speaker 2: Princess Jazz in sidey.
Speaker 1: I love that name, by the way, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's kind of gonna be like an A
Speaker 2: B side a lot of girls coming out into September,
Speaker 2: and then by January, my birthday, I'm gonna be dropping
Speaker 2: the B side Chrap Prins Jasmine. So it's like yeah,
Speaker 2: like and it's like super fun because it's like lover
Speaker 2: Girl is like totally this side, you know, sweet side Girl,
Speaker 2: sweet Love Girls side, soft Girl, Chatterers, Jasmine is on
Speaker 2: my you know, I'm on my BS. No that I
Speaker 2: like it. I like that.
Speaker 1: So it's like but overall, it seems like it's an
Speaker 1: empowerment album.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Like I feel like Love a Girl, I made
Speaker 2: when I was like more so like in love, and
Speaker 2: it was, you know, all the music was very much
Speaker 2: so like I was in a relationship. I was in
Speaker 2: love and then you know, now I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: not in the relationship anymore.
Speaker 1: And then Princess Jasmine came out and said, Periodey, I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to seeing what Trap Prinscetas Jasmine is saying
Speaker 1: on this album because I ain't in a relationship right now,
Speaker 1: so I need to listen to Trap Princess.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly, That's what I've been on because like
Speaker 2: Love a Girl, I'm not gonna lie like I even
Speaker 2: for me. I love my lover Girl's side. I love
Speaker 2: my that, but the Trappers is Jazzmine and the records
Speaker 2: that that and that energy is definitely what I'm on
Speaker 2: right now, and I feel like it's it's very empowering
Speaker 2: because it's like, you know, there are certain things that
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm rapping more on it, you know,
Speaker 2: and there's some yeah, like literally so it's like there's
Speaker 2: some things that I can't always say singing, and when
Speaker 2: I want to say when I'm on my BS, I
Speaker 2: want to say some things my bs is my bush,
Speaker 2: not my bull, my boss.
Speaker 3: You feel me like you feel me.
Speaker 2: So it's like kind of like I want to say
Speaker 2: things that I just say when I'm be rapping, and
Speaker 2: it's just crazy because I feel like there's no a
Speaker 2: rap girl rapping and singing right now, Like it's a
Speaker 2: whole other thing.
Speaker 1: So it's like I love that you're proud of it too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Like I'm so I'm so excited about this
Speaker 2: era because I'm like, even especially with the trappers to jazz,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of Now obviously there weren't a lot
Speaker 2: of Middle Eastern girls doing it, but now there are.
Speaker 2: There's so many more, and I love it. But I
Speaker 2: feel like for me, it's always about being a chillblazer.
Speaker 2: It's always about like setting the tone. It's always about
Speaker 2: taking it to the next level, takes to the next place.
Speaker 2: And I feel like like being that you know, that
Speaker 2: person that takes it there, Like I want to take
Speaker 2: it there, you know what I'm saying. So I feel
Speaker 2: like in American culture, most of the stuff that we
Speaker 2: listened to is like I grew up in this urban
Speaker 2: rap music.
Speaker 3: J G is my fair rapper.
Speaker 2: I saw did you see my jay Z painting. O.
Speaker 3: Yes, I did, okay, And I was like, okay, And
Speaker 3: they didn't.
Speaker 2: Know it's jay Z because I didn't know it's New
Speaker 2: York and he doesn't really look like jay Z that much.
Speaker 3: His face, he's a little I gave.
Speaker 1: My mom this. My mom drew the picture. Oh your
Speaker 1: mom mission, my mom.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, my mom, love you, Mama.
Speaker 3: I take that back. Then I was like, jay Z,
Speaker 3: so I feel bad.
Speaker 1: The picture she had to work with was so and
Speaker 1: so I said, I was like, I want the biggest
Speaker 1: picture of the.
Speaker 2: Demeanor and everything. I knew it was him, and then
Speaker 2: I knew it was his the MARSI part, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So I was just like, okay, yeah, Brooklyn jay Z And.
Speaker 2: They're like, is that j Zz?
Speaker 1: Mainly like the little water coolers on the side.
Speaker 2: I just always said that I've always wanted to be
Speaker 2: like a female jay Z.
Speaker 1: When I broke like, that's me.
Speaker 2: That was me right, like right, because he's just like
Speaker 2: the blueprint to it all, like you know, just and
Speaker 2: you said the blueprints literally of course fun intended. You know,
Speaker 2: it's like the blueprint to it all, and you know
Speaker 2: it's crazy because it's like, you know, being nowadays, being
Speaker 2: able to be an artist or being able to be
Speaker 2: doing something and then being a boss is just so
Speaker 2: important nowadays to have that element because it creates that longevity.
Speaker 2: Like you said, also, I think it's also that having
Speaker 2: that business element. A lot of artists that I see
Speaker 2: that they do last they had the business element to
Speaker 2: them as well, because if you just like allow other
Speaker 2: you can't. This is a business. This is your craft,
Speaker 2: This is your business, is your stuff, and you know
Speaker 2: you have to have it like it's the most successful
Speaker 2: artists take that very seriously. Yeah, you know, so I
Speaker 2: feel like I take that very seriously. And I feel
Speaker 2: like I see other artists who are just like yeah,
Speaker 2: just who are like they don't know about anything going on,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, uh, not me, you know everything going on.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you know, it's like, as
Speaker 2: an artist, you just want to be creative, So.
Speaker 1: You got to balance both. Tell everybody how they can
Speaker 1: keep up with you, even though I'm pretty sure I
Speaker 1: ain't know how, but go ahead, sure, Instagram handles.
Speaker 2: Yes, follow me on all the things, all the things
Speaker 2: I net x, I n A S dash x or
Speaker 2: is this just I N A s X.
Speaker 1: Yeah, got it all right. Thanks for feeding us some great, amazing,
Speaker 1: homemade hummus. Peace out, y'all. Yay for more eating while
Speaker 1: broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.