Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. You are listening to
Speaker 1: the Vitamin D podcast. I'm your host, Dawn Day and
Speaker 1: for any new guests, welcome. Vitamin D is a podcast
Speaker 1: that focuses on helping you live your best life. Today
Speaker 1: We've got a special guest, but before I get to her,
Speaker 1: not how with your questions? For you? Who are you?
Speaker 1: What is your truth? And what do you do when
Speaker 1: you don't see anyone else representing who you are? Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: Those are some big questions, but they're important here on
Speaker 1: Vitamin D. We give big questions just as much time
Speaker 1: in the light as the small ones, and who I
Speaker 1: am is basically the biggest question any of us can answer.
Speaker 1: We know who we are and who we can be
Speaker 1: based on what we see in the world around us,
Speaker 1: and then what the world tells us implicitly and explicitly.
Speaker 1: But the kicker, and I'm sure many of you are aware,
Speaker 1: is that we don't all get the same messages about
Speaker 1: who we can be or who we are. This conversation
Speaker 1: often comes out in the argument about representation in the media.
Speaker 1: When people see some one who looks like them, who
Speaker 1: lives like them, who loves like them, they're more likely
Speaker 1: to take a leap of faith necessary to follow their dreams,
Speaker 1: whether it be a scientist, a doctor, a lawyer, a politician,
Speaker 1: a singer, or just simply a media entertainer. As a
Speaker 1: black woman, a plus size black woman at that, I
Speaker 1: know the struggle of wondering if I might be what
Speaker 1: people are looking for when they think of a heroine
Speaker 1: or the love interest. Now, through my own personal work,
Speaker 1: I've been able to come into my authentic self, but
Speaker 1: don't get its WestEd and I want a constant journey
Speaker 1: of self discovery. And today I'm happy to talk to
Speaker 1: a very talented young woman who's found her authentic self.
Speaker 1: Today I'm talking with upcoming musical artist Jada Michael. I'm really,
Speaker 1: really blessed to say that my experience with being queer
Speaker 1: was actually relatively simple and positive within my own family.
Speaker 1: Data is based out of Miami and a plus size,
Speaker 1: queer Black woman who was unapologetic about who she is.
Speaker 1: We talk about her popular single Breathe as well as
Speaker 1: her new single Freak, The importance of loving ourselves and
Speaker 1: the resilience that it requires, along with the struggle of
Speaker 1: being authentic and creating your own moment so without further, Ado,
Speaker 1: it's time for your dose of vitamin D D right
Speaker 1: with me and get excited about Jada Michael. How you
Speaker 1: doing today? I'm doing really well. How about you? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm amazing, I'm real good. And um, I just I
Speaker 1: was just thinking about preparing it for this conversation we're
Speaker 1: gonna have because I think it's it's it's going to
Speaker 1: be beautiful. And you know, just having the moment to
Speaker 1: comb through your work is just such a reflection of
Speaker 1: what vitamin D is all about. Yes, so vitamin D
Speaker 1: just if you did not know, it's all of it's
Speaker 1: a pun off my name, and so it's all about
Speaker 1: shed and light. So you can't live without vitamin D.
Speaker 1: And it's just showing our beauty in different ways and
Speaker 1: just being unapologetically who you are and doing what you do. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'm so that's so sweet of you to say that,
Speaker 1: because I really appreciate you bringing this kind of platform
Speaker 1: for this energy to the table because a lot of
Speaker 1: people are interested in this kind of situation right now
Speaker 1: as far as the norm being such negative energy and
Speaker 1: the media constantly. So you're doing important stuff. Girl. Look,
Speaker 1: we all got to be a vesta for something one
Speaker 1: way or another. If we don't choose something, it'll choose us.
Speaker 1: Held on, Wait a minute, what's what what are you
Speaker 1: about to do today? Okay, I'm just here with you.
Speaker 1: It's just us, so I want to welcome you. And
Speaker 1: um you're listening. Folks are listening right now. Who is
Speaker 1: data Michael? I saw that question and I love it.
Speaker 1: You would think it would be an easy question to answer,
Speaker 1: but it's so it's so much deeper than that. I
Speaker 1: can say, Okay, I'm a queer black female and I'm
Speaker 1: moving in the path towards my happiness and to accomplishing
Speaker 1: my desires. I guess that's all I can really say.
Speaker 1: That's the long story short. I love that, and I
Speaker 1: think the thing that's when I thought about like who
Speaker 1: is Jada Michael? I saw truth? That's what I saw.
Speaker 1: You know all of that's the definition of that, but
Speaker 1: it was the truth. It was a boldness like I'm
Speaker 1: reading your bio, so I come across your your your
Speaker 1: your single freak. I was everything that you said in
Speaker 1: the bio, how you want to captivate And when she
Speaker 1: opens her mouth, all of this confidence exudes, this fearlessness.
Speaker 1: I was zoned in from the tone, and I just
Speaker 1: thought and I was like, Wow, had I been a
Speaker 1: few years younger and I saw somebody like you, probably
Speaker 1: what more I could have done or just how the
Speaker 1: projection of life because you don't see that first and
Speaker 1: foremost a curby girl owning her sexiness, owning herself. No,
Speaker 1: I'm so really it's been I feel the same way.
Speaker 1: That's a part of the reason that I've gotten to
Speaker 1: this place is, um, it's odd as as a black
Speaker 1: woman there's more representation, but the big girls just don't
Speaker 1: be getting love. Yeah, it's it's really rough and um,
Speaker 1: I was talking to someone the other day, but also
Speaker 1: when big girls and body sexy, there's very particular ways
Speaker 1: in which is appropriate and overall it's just it's just
Speaker 1: the list of rules that's played out. And I'm really
Speaker 1: really grateful to hear you say that I offered you
Speaker 1: some sort of inspiration the same way you do to me.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure for hundreds of girls as well, because
Speaker 1: it's it's a muth for a Representation is crucial, crucial
Speaker 1: and underminded constantly. But you know, I think it's also
Speaker 1: what you gotta taken consideration to. UM, the representation isn't
Speaker 1: another reason why it isn't there because a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't know that they can own it. I think
Speaker 1: it's all about you, know, how you're stepping into yourself.
Speaker 1: And that's what I saw when I saw this video.
Speaker 1: So I saw this carving girl. Girl. There, Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I'm in the trance already of just seeing you. And
Speaker 1: then go and behold there's another female in the video
Speaker 1: that is your love interest. I don't fight, they're not
Speaker 1: just It was what I feel like right now, especially
Speaker 1: when you talk about truth, because I think right now,
Speaker 1: this whole that's all it is. The vision is just
Speaker 1: tuning in. Yeah, you see of things you gotta you
Speaker 1: gotta work up on. People could talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: this coronavirus is going off, but guess what if your
Speaker 1: health was good how long? Yeah, that's very true. There's
Speaker 1: some weird side effects to the pandemic as far as
Speaker 1: emotionally and spiritually, the way that it's making people gather
Speaker 1: themselves and look at themselves. It's overall like an overwhelming
Speaker 1: time but really building people up, even myself included the
Speaker 1: people around me. There's some people who are struggling, but
Speaker 1: a lot of people people's endurance and ability to have
Speaker 1: faith in themselves and what they can accomplish has been
Speaker 1: really affected by this pandemic in people having to push
Speaker 1: through these uncomfortable a situations for real though, right and
Speaker 1: you know, we talk about these uncomfortable situations. You coming
Speaker 1: out was freak. Was everything, like you said, was against
Speaker 1: the norm. Now we can go on to the usual
Speaker 1: field and say, oh my gosh, that is so amazing
Speaker 1: that you were just bold enough to own your sexuality,
Speaker 1: to own your cars. But can we go a little
Speaker 1: deeper real quick? I mean, that's fine, I'm interested in
Speaker 1: knowing what was that process like to create that video. Well,
Speaker 1: there's like the short term answer, and then within the
Speaker 1: content of the conversation we're having now, I guess technically
Speaker 1: it was a way longer process because when I'm thinking
Speaker 1: short term, it's like I wrote a sexy song, make
Speaker 1: a sexy video, express myself, have fun. But to be
Speaker 1: able to get to that place of having that come
Speaker 1: with so much ease, yeah, that was a long time coming. Exist,
Speaker 1: that was a long time coming. The con vidence and
Speaker 1: the ability to embrace my sexuality in a casual way
Speaker 1: took a really long time because I grew up in
Speaker 1: an environment. I grew up in Reno, Nevada. It's a
Speaker 1: really small, predominantly white town. And so that whole representation
Speaker 1: representation conversation we were having before, I wasn't really getting
Speaker 1: a lot of that UM. And even though I've always
Speaker 1: been a pretty naturally confident person, it was it's very
Speaker 1: odd to look around you in society and even as
Speaker 1: a child, you're not aware, and then you keep keep
Speaker 1: getting these little signs that something about you was unacceptable
Speaker 1: or less than. It took me a long time at
Speaker 1: first even really noticed that. I think it played a
Speaker 1: role in my life, but it took me a while
Speaker 1: to be like, Okay, well, like society is not really
Speaker 1: vibing with the stuff I'm bringing to the table. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know that's something to deal with. I moved to
Speaker 1: Miami when I was twelve. Um, it was a whole
Speaker 1: different atmosphere to be embraced and just be around people
Speaker 1: who felt really similar to me. And I kind of
Speaker 1: got locked up in this process where I felt like
Speaker 1: I wasn't getting any attention or praise um when I
Speaker 1: was growing up in Reno, and I felt like I
Speaker 1: might have been chasing that in a way once I
Speaker 1: did move to Miami and come into people showing me appreciation,
Speaker 1: and even then I was like, damn, okay, So like
Speaker 1: now I'm getting appreciated, people are showing me love, telling
Speaker 1: me I'm beautiful, this is cool, my friends look like me.
Speaker 1: But I'm still kind of chasing an image of having
Speaker 1: people gratify who I am. So even though yes, I'm
Speaker 1: getting more gratification, is it from the people I wanted from?
Speaker 1: Is it from myself? And I just had had a
Speaker 1: long look in the mirror as far as like understanding
Speaker 1: why I'm beautiful to myself, understanding that a lot of
Speaker 1: the definitions of beauty that we've been provided by society
Speaker 1: are bullshit and I don't even know if I agree
Speaker 1: with any of this. So that was like a shocking,
Speaker 1: scary moment to realize, Okay, like I wasn't confident at
Speaker 1: first because someone told me to. Maybe in my confident
Speaker 1: now because someone's also telling me to. It was just like, nah,
Speaker 1: this ain't end. I just kind of had to really
Speaker 1: strip myself there and I kind of pushed myself to
Speaker 1: like start wearing the clothes that I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: like a lot of people say, my body type, this
Speaker 1: isn't for me, but I kind of want to do this,
Speaker 1: and I would keep pushing to to normalize expressing myself.
Speaker 1: And I guess that is what basically led to Freak
Speaker 1: because now I'm at a place in my life where
Speaker 1: it's mundane almost to express myself. So it's really beautiful
Speaker 1: to hear feedback from people with that girl. That was impactful.
Speaker 1: And that's just what blackness and queerness and femininity is.
Speaker 1: I out here trying to step into anything. I'm just
Speaker 1: able to let it down, do what's happening, and people
Speaker 1: are there, that's what they're resonating with. So I guess
Speaker 1: it was my whole life building up to free Now
Speaker 1: that you ask you to mis context, I never really
Speaker 1: thought about it like that, but yeah, it took a
Speaker 1: long time for being sexy to be you know, you've
Speaker 1: listened to the song. It's it's not it's not about showmanship.
Speaker 1: It's about me, my girl. We're about to do the
Speaker 1: most natural thing that you know, humans do. And so
Speaker 1: I think it's really beautiful that people have been able
Speaker 1: to bring such empowerment when for me it was just
Speaker 1: a very casual, you know, experience, as far as expressing myself,
Speaker 1: but people need it so bad. I think that's why
Speaker 1: the reaction has been so positive, because it's not it's
Speaker 1: something unusual to see, to see someone who looks a
Speaker 1: certain way coming into themselves. But I'm blessed that. I'm
Speaker 1: happy that people are are gravitating towards it and like
Speaker 1: finding inspiration within it for sure. And did you find
Speaker 1: that you are hesitant having your love interest to be
Speaker 1: a female? Like, was that your sexuality ever a thing
Speaker 1: for you growing up? I'm just saying, you know, it's
Speaker 1: one thing, like I was saying, like being confident your body,
Speaker 1: but it was you had a couple of layers on
Speaker 1: that was still your true, very true. I got all
Speaker 1: the layers that we got to have to be honest. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm really really blessed to say that my experience with
Speaker 1: being queer was actually relatively simple and positive within my
Speaker 1: own family. UM. I have another sibling who's queer. She
Speaker 1: came out before me, so my parents were like, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of got associated towards what that looked like and
Speaker 1: felt like. Um, But by the time that I came
Speaker 1: into touch with myself, I was already burying in tune
Speaker 1: with my confidence, and the people around me kind of
Speaker 1: were just like when Jada knows what she wants to do,
Speaker 1: just just let Jayda go. So I'm really blessed to
Speaker 1: say that, as far as I've never had anything but
Speaker 1: really positive experiences with my family about women and and
Speaker 1: so freak, I didn't really think twice about having a
Speaker 1: woman in the video. Um, So that that's such a
Speaker 1: blessing for me because I know there's a hundreds and
Speaker 1: hundreds of queer artists out there who have people down
Speaker 1: their neck telling them like, I don't know if you
Speaker 1: should do that, And actually worked with people in my
Speaker 1: past who have told me like like like say she
Speaker 1: and your songs later, but right now it's not gonna work.
Speaker 1: And then what did you abide by that at first started?
Speaker 1: You always say no, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say no, And that's a percent how it was. You know,
Speaker 1: I lied. I lied. There was one time when I
Speaker 1: did because I am pan sexual. So it's not like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not lying by saying he in a song,
Speaker 1: because it's not to say that's impossible. Um, but it
Speaker 1: was it was shocking to experience being told that even
Speaker 1: like you know it's coming, you know, person, it was different,
Speaker 1: you know, like I shoot my video and they want
Speaker 1: to put me in the little ways censure and they
Speaker 1: want to so you know it's gonna come. But it
Speaker 1: was shocking to hear it. But at this point I
Speaker 1: feel very confident and being articulate about like, nah, I
Speaker 1: think I'm almost created the energy around me where it's
Speaker 1: like coming with like business and like designed by sure.
Speaker 1: But if it's about like what's in the pants of
Speaker 1: the person in the video, like that's not a conversation,
Speaker 1: like we're just gonna leave it. I love that And
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of people need to see
Speaker 1: that more because if it's not why or not you're
Speaker 1: gonna look at the somebody's actually ill, really, whether you're
Speaker 1: gonna look at their size, whether they're religious beliefs, it's
Speaker 1: just your truth. And it's like, as long as you
Speaker 1: stay true to who you are, how can you lose? Absolutely? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: And I feel like there was such a large long
Speaker 1: period of time and music where the audience wanted to
Speaker 1: see people in a mold like hot guy, like skinny
Speaker 1: dancer girl, like they wanted this image. But people are
Speaker 1: like kind of sick of that they're gonna read you
Speaker 1: if you're not being authentic. So I just I just
Speaker 1: have a gut feeling that if I were to try
Speaker 1: to fit a mold, especially with me being different, there's
Speaker 1: not really a mold for me to fit, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like y'all are trying to to compare
Speaker 1: me to some big pop hip hop star who you know,
Speaker 1: really beside star who and girl Lizzo holding it down
Speaker 1: like where they like, there's not a mold to fit.
Speaker 1: So that's why I'm just like, authenticity is definitely really
Speaker 1: important to me. And just looking at some coming through
Speaker 1: just on your music, on your YouTube, that was one
Speaker 1: thing you said, It's like I want to show myself
Speaker 1: and it was like you said, this was the first
Speaker 1: time that you came out and you brought that sexy
Speaker 1: and you were bold and daring with it. And the
Speaker 1: fact that it's crossing my desk where I'm at, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: I want to be able to support because it's like
Speaker 1: I see you and I see the truth in you,
Speaker 1: and that makes me think, like, Okay, as you were
Speaker 1: going through these challenges as far as like of I'm
Speaker 1: sure the setback, So just other people having things to say,
Speaker 1: how did you know? And this may sound interesting, this
Speaker 1: may sound because you didn't see representation like you. How
Speaker 1: did you discover that you were beautiful? Did you? You
Speaker 1: said that in your inspiration with your music, how you
Speaker 1: had to Beyonce, your realna and so forth, and then
Speaker 1: you threw in there you said that Ella Fitzgerald, and
Speaker 1: it may be wonder you said your dad had influenced you.
Speaker 1: Did you grow up with your dad? Yeah? I did.
Speaker 1: I did, And a lot of the women on my
Speaker 1: dad said my mom is white, my dad is black,
Speaker 1: and a lot of the women on my dad's side
Speaker 1: of the family were crucial parts and me understanding that
Speaker 1: just because you know, in a white city, it's really
Speaker 1: it's weird to not be around anyone who looks like you.
Speaker 1: I don't care what anyone says. It's it's a it
Speaker 1: takes some time to like really sit into that. But
Speaker 1: I will say as far as where I'm at with
Speaker 1: it now, as far as like understanding why my body
Speaker 1: and how my body was sexy, um and even myself,
Speaker 1: I realized all the contradictions. I am even sexually attracted
Speaker 1: to plus size women. So it's like, how can I
Speaker 1: know the bodies are fine because I'm holler the girls
Speaker 1: who look somewhere go away, but I look so it's
Speaker 1: like I always had it. But that extra step of
Speaker 1: the self love definitely came through family and also just
Speaker 1: a spiritual process. A big part of my confidence, I
Speaker 1: says to my sound contradictory, but I think you'll get me.
Speaker 1: A big part of my confidence and how I look
Speaker 1: is how little I care about how I look. You
Speaker 1: gotta camp through. You get that. I love the boogie,
Speaker 1: I love it all all. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, I really we're talking about vessels. I know
Speaker 1: that my body is really just a vessel for my
Speaker 1: my soul and my brain. It's just you know, some
Speaker 1: flush so that I can walk and function. So I
Speaker 1: kind of really try to connect with my body in
Speaker 1: a simplistic way and it makes me. It's helped me
Speaker 1: reprioritized my brain as far as like, yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: ton of things I could look at in the mirror
Speaker 1: and compare, but there's so many other you know, dark
Speaker 1: forces and things happening in my life. But just the
Speaker 1: way my priorities are set up, the way my body
Speaker 1: looks is really not going to make the list, you know, So,
Speaker 1: what are you doing to get everything online? Are you?
Speaker 1: Is this a meditated What are we doing? There's a
Speaker 1: lot of meditation. I can attribute a lot of it
Speaker 1: to learning how to self soothe and just be a
Speaker 1: independent person in general. Um as far as okay, I
Speaker 1: was in a relationship for a really long time. I
Speaker 1: just got out of relationship, and coming out of it
Speaker 1: makes me realize how much we rely on other things
Speaker 1: for to create the life that you have instead of
Speaker 1: actually providing them for yourself. Say it again one more time.
Speaker 1: You reach out to other people and other things to
Speaker 1: create your life instead of creating that life for yourself.
Speaker 1: Um So, I think just through that process of it's
Speaker 1: a lot of reading myself, a lot of looking at
Speaker 1: myself with a mirror and going, girl, what you So,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of self conversation. It's a lot of
Speaker 1: holding my inner self when times are low, supporting myself,
Speaker 1: you know, just basically creating almost a romantic relationship within myself.
Speaker 1: It has. It has taught me how to just be
Speaker 1: very like self sufficient in that way. And I feel
Speaker 1: like that as I get closer to myself in this relationship,
Speaker 1: my confidence and my comfortable ability within myself just skyrockets,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, beyond accepting to a place
Speaker 1: of like, oh I'm feeling myself. But the closer I
Speaker 1: get to myself, the more you know, the more lit
Speaker 1: me and her hypothetical me her you know what you said,
Speaker 1: like we are only here for a finite amount of time.
Speaker 1: And it's like you in order to love yourself, if
Speaker 1: you talk about living your best life, if you're talking
Speaker 1: about really owning in your gift, like if you got
Speaker 1: this dream right, if you are the vessel, the conduit,
Speaker 1: the instrument to get to the dream that you know,
Speaker 1: that came to you, that keeps you up at night,
Speaker 1: that gets you excited about your life, who am I
Speaker 1: not to love on it? It's it's absurd and it's crazy.
Speaker 1: We are constantly asked and think of it ourselves, what
Speaker 1: our weaknesses? What can't we do? What can we do?
Speaker 1: What can't we do? And we completely ignore the things
Speaker 1: we can't do Slash have already done. It's it's really sad.
Speaker 1: You can ask anybody, ask them so what you love
Speaker 1: about yourself? People are gonna be like, uh my, my,
Speaker 1: you know, like people don't know how to articulate feeling
Speaker 1: positive feelings about themselves, and through that process so much
Speaker 1: other ship comes. Not only the self love and the confidence,
Speaker 1: but just as far as being able to be like
Speaker 1: a resilient person. You know what I mean, because you
Speaker 1: know those positive truths about yourself absolutely. And it came
Speaker 1: to me. I was watching this show. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't get you have to watch too much TV, but
Speaker 1: I stumbled on the show called The Morning Show, and
Speaker 1: it made me think. She made a comment and she said,
Speaker 1: the secret to vitamin D and a lot of things
Speaker 1: have been common, like numbers, Like I'm like metaphysical, I
Speaker 1: believe in God, but a lot of spiritual sense. But
Speaker 1: I'm starting to be aware because I've decided to be
Speaker 1: present and have a sound mind. That whole piece be still,
Speaker 1: which we're gonna talk about in that single breathe in
Speaker 1: a minute, um, but just being in that moment. And
Speaker 1: I said, well, wait a minute. When we talk about
Speaker 1: loving ourselves, is that what you said that your journey
Speaker 1: is it's about being in that truth. But the only
Speaker 1: way to being that truth is that you gotta step
Speaker 1: in the light. Will hold. I don't wait a minute.
Speaker 1: It Vitamin D is that light that we're shining on,
Speaker 1: just like you say you're gonna see the good, the bad,
Speaker 1: and the ugly. And when you're talking about being better
Speaker 1: and doing better, it's saying I'm not hiding, and which
Speaker 1: we can see with any relationship when we see it
Speaker 1: another person. But data, why do you think sometimes we
Speaker 1: don't see it with ourselves, right? I mean, I really
Speaker 1: think it's what we're taught, bra, It's not who tells you,
Speaker 1: Who told you that was a priority. You hear a
Speaker 1: lot about mommy loves daddy if you're talking about traditional
Speaker 1: heterosexual the things that we're taught a lot as kid.
Speaker 1: You love you, I love you, a boyfriend, girlfriend, But
Speaker 1: the whole dialect of talking about yourself as an individual,
Speaker 1: it doesn't even it's not really even commonplace. It's even
Speaker 1: shamed in a way that when you do talk about yourself,
Speaker 1: people will say you're doing it too much, especially as women,
Speaker 1: especially as women. You know, it's like the reasons why
Speaker 1: that is can you know, probably stem from a hundred
Speaker 1: different things. You know, people, lines and lines of you know,
Speaker 1: straight white men trying to piece you know, they're the
Speaker 1: whole other reason that I can get that way. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. Now that we have
Speaker 1: the information that we have that acceptance of yourself and
Speaker 1: just acceptance of the way things are, an awareness, it
Speaker 1: is more commonplace these kind of conversations. I feel like,
Speaker 1: I'm I just turned twenty two, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I've talked to a lot of people and all their
Speaker 1: crowds who were like I wasn't having those conversations, and
Speaker 1: that's a big deal. I'm talking to my slightly younger
Speaker 1: friends about it and the knowledge of like loving yourself
Speaker 1: and not just like as like a little you know
Speaker 1: picture that you hang on your door, really like getting
Speaker 1: down and like treating yourself good, talking to yourself, talking
Speaker 1: to your inner child. Like now we're like, all right,
Speaker 1: we gotta get real because people are depressed and suicidal.
Speaker 1: People are dying, and people been dying every day, but
Speaker 1: it's a different way that we're seeing it now. And
Speaker 1: you're like, yo, I don't have time to be unhappy.
Speaker 1: I don't have time for you adding negative to negativity
Speaker 1: to my space. I don't have time to not pursue
Speaker 1: my dreams. Absolutely absolutely, And a lot of people I
Speaker 1: was saying that with social media, it's so you have
Speaker 1: I'm like a very empathetic person and people have different
Speaker 1: levels of this. But because of the amount of knowledge
Speaker 1: that we have coming through us constantly, videos, you know, blogs,
Speaker 1: we might have our own personal demons. Okay, then everyone
Speaker 1: has a couple of quote a kind of relationships. You're
Speaker 1: dealing with families, demons, friends, even your man, your woman,
Speaker 1: your partners. And then you're watching thousands of videos of
Speaker 1: police brutality, and you know, it's like there's too many
Speaker 1: harsh realities to not be like Nazis. I need to
Speaker 1: be diligent about it because like might as well get real.
Speaker 1: I was in a very very dark situation not too
Speaker 1: long ago this year, and I know myself and a
Speaker 1: lot of people can resonate with this. I have anxiety,
Speaker 1: and I know on my anxiety heightens, I can deal
Speaker 1: with depression. And sometimes when I deal with depression, it
Speaker 1: can move into a suicidal place. And I value myself
Speaker 1: too much to not get serious about my happiness. People
Speaker 1: want to be like, you know, focused on the little
Speaker 1: things like the dream, get a little nine to five,
Speaker 1: like really small minded thinking. And I know if I'm
Speaker 1: like lazy about my happiness and my dreams, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: end up like really not okay, and you'll be in
Speaker 1: a place when you'll be in a dark roman you
Speaker 1: don't even know the lights are off and that's the
Speaker 1: scary part. And I'm not going back there. I've done there,
Speaker 1: and I'm I couldn't have asked for anything to happen
Speaker 1: any other way because the lowlo I got to now
Speaker 1: is the direct reason why the high I'm in now
Speaker 1: feels so grounded and has the more potential to be
Speaker 1: more permanent and lasting because it's something that I've had
Speaker 1: to create and manifest with work. It's not like I'm
Speaker 1: happy because life is going easy because you don't know
Speaker 1: what you've been through. You know what you've been to
Speaker 1: know what you want to go exactly like I did that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so interesting that you said that because
Speaker 1: I you know, I'll talked to people at times and
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, I come off like I'm motivating,
Speaker 1: I'm inspiring, but a lot know what I do is
Speaker 1: to feed myself, and like you said, and sometimes we
Speaker 1: feel guilty in a selfish way, but it's not because
Speaker 1: it's almost like you're pouring in my cup, and when
Speaker 1: I pouring my cup, I can give you my overflowing.
Speaker 1: When I give you my overflow, I'm not missing it.
Speaker 1: In fact, I'm so full. I just want to share.
Speaker 1: Oh girl, I need I'm writing this down in my
Speaker 1: head because that's the realty that overflows what we're looking
Speaker 1: for out here. Bro. That's beautiful though for real to
Speaker 1: be able to feed yourself through your work is a must,
Speaker 1: and we're lucky to have like a creative passion that
Speaker 1: we can feed ourselves spiritually through our work and the
Speaker 1: way that we're like creating a living. So it's like
Speaker 1: I'm a value thatt it. I'm a really do all
Speaker 1: I can to put my eggs in my basket to
Speaker 1: see where I can take music. You know you're you're
Speaker 1: dealing in the same situation to see where you can
Speaker 1: take this dream. Because if I can have my passion
Speaker 1: supporting me style what what I do not do? Where
Speaker 1: can you not go? Imagine that your fewer joy that
Speaker 1: you give. Like I just did a an episode where
Speaker 1: I just wanted to my email back and have people
Speaker 1: ask questions and people are saying, well, things didn't go
Speaker 1: right or sometimes you know, get into a wrong situation.
Speaker 1: But it's like you sometimes have to be in a
Speaker 1: situation you're in, to know where it is you want
Speaker 1: to go, because if you're not happy where you're in,
Speaker 1: it's almost like having a wall behind you. There's only
Speaker 1: one direction to go, and that's forward. Absolutely yeah, And
Speaker 1: it's obviously it's always easier said than done. And there's
Speaker 1: that period of time when you're coming off a hard
Speaker 1: situation where it's kind of like hard to see it
Speaker 1: that way. But the situations that have brought me down
Speaker 1: the hardest I can talk about them now without a
Speaker 1: tear high. It's just it's just it really just goes
Speaker 1: to show you know what time and you know, a
Speaker 1: little bit of care for yourself can can create. Because
Speaker 1: the things I can handle now I couldn't. I couldn't
Speaker 1: handle once. And moving it back to Freak, it's the
Speaker 1: same thing. If I even consider doing wearing half the
Speaker 1: things that I was doing in that video when I
Speaker 1: was like fourteen, I'd be like, but one, age first,
Speaker 1: age appropriate first. But I was watching my Beyonce. You know,
Speaker 1: I just wanted it for myself, but I just felt
Speaker 1: like it wasn't for me. Yes, but you gotta understand that,
Speaker 1: like you and maybe maybe because you know I am,
Speaker 1: and I was born in a different decade than you,
Speaker 1: so maybe I see it differently, But I say it
Speaker 1: probably is a combination of two things. I think time
Speaker 1: has changed where people can, you know, there's more of
Speaker 1: a platform to be you in a sense, whether it's
Speaker 1: you working just working as a workforce, or you know,
Speaker 1: coming out expressing yourself. But I think too, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of consideration that you are definitely wise beyond your years.
Speaker 1: Like it's you know, like I feel like maybe I
Speaker 1: was probably in my late twenties of having this mindset
Speaker 1: that you have and it's just like, my god, where
Speaker 1: you can go with that, and you're talking about the
Speaker 1: different situations that you've been in. It made me think
Speaker 1: about and I mean, girl, I was listening to to
Speaker 1: how you turn your your Lights down Low, the remix
Speaker 1: that you did Girl, I gotta I was crying, and
Speaker 1: then I started going to the actual rep every three minutes,
Speaker 1: the thirty seconds to every day and every covers is written. Okay,
Speaker 1: but I wanna you know, as far as what you
Speaker 1: wrote and you talked about like owning your beauty and
Speaker 1: how your beauty is like this poem and how you
Speaker 1: tell me I don't know if you want to share
Speaker 1: maybe one of your favorite lines from that, but I
Speaker 1: made the rest to know how you vote that I
Speaker 1: was actually the premise of that is um I was doing.
Speaker 1: UM I was gonna do a little performance for an
Speaker 1: eating disorders organization. They were having a conference and they
Speaker 1: were said to sing some songs, and I'm looking through
Speaker 1: like inspirational songs and as far as just like body
Speaker 1: confidence specifically, You're not gonna really find too many songs
Speaker 1: that lose back to the conversation about self love not
Speaker 1: being normal. Eyes back here, so you know, self love
Speaker 1: songs are impossible to find. So um I just wanted
Speaker 1: to really say something that could potentially hit home for
Speaker 1: someone who had an eating disorder, any kind of issue
Speaker 1: with their body. It's funny you said that, because no
Speaker 1: one has You're the first person who has ever really
Speaker 1: like listened to that and brought that up in an interview.
Speaker 1: I don't think about it too much, but I really
Speaker 1: appreciate that you that you felt that because it was
Speaker 1: a vibe and it was a whole vid D that
Speaker 1: I'm about to recite. Let me excuse me, listen to this.
Speaker 1: When she ros, she says, when I look at you.
Speaker 1: The beauty is like a poem. Someday soon you'll let
Speaker 1: your head down and your show them the strength that
Speaker 1: you possess. You shall wear with the s upon your chest.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Man, the strength I answer, if you want
Speaker 1: to say favorite lines, the strength that you possess is
Speaker 1: that's a really important message of that because strength, you know,
Speaker 1: we stigmatize it in a way that you know is unrealistic.
Speaker 1: But the strength that women have in them and even
Speaker 1: people who have to deal with problems of self hate
Speaker 1: and eating disorders, it's like even the fact that you
Speaker 1: are moving each day when you're experiencing that, people view
Speaker 1: their struggles during the day as their weaknesses and who
Speaker 1: they are. When it's like, but here you are the
Speaker 1: next day and you are still feeling those feelings. And
Speaker 1: here we are the next day and you're moving and
Speaker 1: you're smiling, and you are packed me and I want
Speaker 1: to be your friend and we're talking and I'm getting
Speaker 1: light and energy from you. So you know, it's just
Speaker 1: like people don't realize that even within being able to
Speaker 1: endure those weaknesses, their strength within every and every cell
Speaker 1: of that. And then that's an important part about eating disorders.
Speaker 1: Do you do what you disorders? Have you have a
Speaker 1: history of it? I haven't personally, but I know a
Speaker 1: disturbing amount of people who have had to deal with that.
Speaker 1: My mom actually runs an eating disorders rehab center, so
Speaker 1: I'm really I've never had to experience anything like that,
Speaker 1: but it's like almost the norm amongst people. So it's
Speaker 1: very This is sad to say, but it's kind of
Speaker 1: a normal thing for me, Like I can, I can
Speaker 1: maybe say that about fifty of my friends have had
Speaker 1: or do deal with eating disorders. So it still feels
Speaker 1: very close to home because even though it wasn't an
Speaker 1: eating disorder, I did definitely have a lot of self
Speaker 1: hate with my body. So did you overeat? Was food
Speaker 1: of a thing for you? Or we just started like
Speaker 1: this is just naturally my body? Or do you say,
Speaker 1: like I am, I probably have over eaten sometimes. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm gonna be honest that that that happens.
Speaker 1: I have my nights. We have our nights. You know
Speaker 1: a couple of shots. We have a pizza oncelice terms
Speaker 1: of three cent. I've had my nights. We are just
Speaker 1: here for just so. But as far as um, just
Speaker 1: my body type. That's something I've also always really loved
Speaker 1: about myself. Like everyone, all the women in my family,
Speaker 1: we like, I'm I'm tall as hell. I'm six feet
Speaker 1: tall and the number game is irrelevant, but I'm alost
Speaker 1: three hundred pounds anny. I have never even been anywhere
Speaker 1: close to those boxes, you know what I'm saying, when
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to look. So I've always known and I
Speaker 1: was an athlete. I played basketball, I had two a
Speaker 1: day practices, was very strict about my diet, and I'm big.
Speaker 1: There are big people out here, and I know I
Speaker 1: got some skin and little friends who could do some
Speaker 1: damage on a pizza and a burger, and they're gonna
Speaker 1: stay that way. It's just that's that's what it is.
Speaker 1: We are not cloned. It has never been that way.
Speaker 1: It will never be that way, even if we all
Speaker 1: had the same diet and exercise. This practice is honey,
Speaker 1: and that's the that's the beauty of it. And I've
Speaker 1: and I love it. I'm not gonna lie. I really
Speaker 1: I really do love my size, height, height included. I
Speaker 1: love that you got to just be all bundle of
Speaker 1: love just loving on you. But you know, just back
Speaker 1: to that l chick where you're just talking about when
Speaker 1: we're talking about turn your lights down low that poem
Speaker 1: and you're talking about strength. It's so interesting because I
Speaker 1: think sometimes people think um with strengths and any weakness
Speaker 1: and always say, you know, strength is when you decide
Speaker 1: to show your weakness and the light, because I said,
Speaker 1: what allows a diamond to shine are the multitudes of
Speaker 1: cuts that have been placed in it. It's the pressure,
Speaker 1: and it's that cut of maybe you have some loans,
Speaker 1: maybe it's that cut that some people may say you're overweight,
Speaker 1: or that you battle depression, or that you've battled some
Speaker 1: part of your life that wasn't quote unquote perfect, but
Speaker 1: those slices and dices, and and because you sustain when
Speaker 1: you decide to be who you are and own that,
Speaker 1: the beauty of that and the value of that that
Speaker 1: I feel sometimes that people miss. Absolutely people want one
Speaker 1: thing or the other in happiness and within like within
Speaker 1: so many things and it's like nothing's black or white,
Speaker 1: bra like literally nothing one or the other. But yeah,
Speaker 1: accepting those weaknesses is and not to mention because I
Speaker 1: do think it's people mix this up. We're still, of
Speaker 1: course working towards strengthening our weaknesses and over coming them.
Speaker 1: But the people don't realize that the acceptance is a
Speaker 1: part of that process. That would be like no, I'm
Speaker 1: no more crying, you know, like like i gotta go.
Speaker 1: I'm a person, all right, Like it's gonna come up, babe,
Speaker 1: It's gonna come up. That's how deep. That's how emotionally
Speaker 1: impactful situations do it. It's gonna hit you and you
Speaker 1: just kind of when you face it, you can enlarge
Speaker 1: something a problem even though it is a problem so
Speaker 1: much more when you spiral and you keep going, don't
Speaker 1: talk about it, don't think about it. It's the time
Speaker 1: spent is gonna just double of whether you're not if
Speaker 1: you don't follow the alternative of just sitting and being
Speaker 1: like alright, demon like let's stock okay, So how about
Speaker 1: this is perfect? So what we gotta go next? Of
Speaker 1: just right? But you thought if we weren't gonna do
Speaker 1: this today, Jada, don't play with me, Ranny, I'm in
Speaker 1: the right mindset now, I'm ready for it. Oh you know,
Speaker 1: I think that's just right on time what you said.
Speaker 1: You know, you're in this situation everything is coming at
Speaker 1: you where it's like wait, I gotta sit still and
Speaker 1: just breathe. And from my understanding, your track Breathe was
Speaker 1: one of the ones that kind of up leverage your career.
Speaker 1: You had a moment to work with the late great
Speaker 1: Lashawn Daniels, come on, tell me about it, girl. That
Speaker 1: was like so surreal. I'll think back on it and
Speaker 1: think that I'm like delusional, like it didn't happen. But
Speaker 1: to be in that setting with him creating a track
Speaker 1: like that was honestly, like you four a guest, it
Speaker 1: will hold on not somebody's listening has no idea what
Speaker 1: is Breathe about? Okay, breathe? Um. I think my writing
Speaker 1: process it always changes. But a lot of the times
Speaker 1: I'll hear the track, the track from the producer, try
Speaker 1: to kind of see what feelings or experiences within myself
Speaker 1: it reminds me of and go there and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: this is I was like, this is a real cool
Speaker 1: be but like I'm kind of just blank in the
Speaker 1: head right now. So I'm like, the tracks not giving
Speaker 1: me anything. Let me kind of switch my mind focus
Speaker 1: to what's happening in my life. And I just I
Speaker 1: forget when I wrote that. But me and society and
Speaker 1: the people around me. I just felt a lot of panic,
Speaker 1: a lot of like dread, as far as like thinking
Speaker 1: tirelessly about the past, stressing like a mother, or about
Speaker 1: the future. And I just wasn't feeling present within myself
Speaker 1: and I wasn't seeing people feel present. And I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know what I talked. I told Lashawan, like, these
Speaker 1: are just some thoughts that I'm having. The poem that's
Speaker 1: at the end of Breathe was something I wrote a
Speaker 1: long time ago on the A train on the way
Speaker 1: to school because I was really pissed because I missed
Speaker 1: my class and I was like, oh, the worst thing,
Speaker 1: it never happened to me. I end up getting on
Speaker 1: the train and at the next stop, someone else missed
Speaker 1: their stop, and I was watching it all happen as
Speaker 1: if it had just happened to me, and I was
Speaker 1: just like, damn, like we all going through it, like
Speaker 1: we really all are, like have those days where it's
Speaker 1: like I'm pissed, I'm I'm depressed, like nothing's going right,
Speaker 1: And I just watched people really not be comfortable with
Speaker 1: just being It's like there's so many things that we
Speaker 1: want to achieve, and that is it. Go get your bread,
Speaker 1: go get your dreams, but like, look at your body,
Speaker 1: look at your face, look at the breath that look
Speaker 1: at the love and the things that you're able to
Speaker 1: do right now just being on this planet right now.
Speaker 1: Um for reasons that we all still trying to figure out,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to have a song that could
Speaker 1: really help people connect with the fact that, despite anything
Speaker 1: that's going down, like you are, you are being. It's
Speaker 1: like when you get so into the project, it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is crazy, but hold up, I'm
Speaker 1: even tasting talking loving at the same time that all
Speaker 1: of this traumatic stuff is happening. So at every moment
Speaker 1: that there's something happening that's bringing you down in life,
Speaker 1: the fact that you're bringing life is a positive within itself,
Speaker 1: Like the breath connects you to that, and that's why
Speaker 1: we ended up going with just breathe um chorus in
Speaker 1: that song. Okay, so how did you get into the
Speaker 1: likes on the room with Lasan? How did you guys? Me?
Speaker 1: That was we met through a mutual friend and I
Speaker 1: can't even remember who it was. Actually, I believe that
Speaker 1: it was a lawyer of somebody that I had worked
Speaker 1: with in the past who had also done something for him,
Speaker 1: happened to had sent him a couple of songs, and
Speaker 1: I was to be honest and not expecting him to
Speaker 1: be down to work. I was kind of just more
Speaker 1: like thinking I'll get some feedback, because I'm always down
Speaker 1: for feedback, especially from someone of his level. I was like,
Speaker 1: you could drag me and I'm gonna feel so blessed
Speaker 1: to heave and hear it from you. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: he got a hold of the track and he liked
Speaker 1: it enough to want to collaborate, and I was like
Speaker 1: booking ticket, physically packing myself like I'm there, and yeah,
Speaker 1: somehow that happened. It was so educationally, educational, spiritually, musically.
Speaker 1: It just I did come out of that experience a
Speaker 1: different person than I went into it. And that's slip
Speaker 1: music is looking awesome. I'm so happy with my career choice.
Speaker 1: That's all I could really think during that whole period. Wow, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I mean, like, you know, just knowing like his
Speaker 1: catalog Beyonce, Lady Gaga, you know, etcetera. And you know,
Speaker 1: even just like I was tuned into the words and
Speaker 1: just like you're talking about even at times like this
Speaker 1: with COVID and everything. Everybody is in this frenzy, this panic,
Speaker 1: and what we should be doing, we couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: And it's like, you know, while the song you were
Speaker 1: referring to your future in your life that encompasses so much,
Speaker 1: not only as far as our career, but our love
Speaker 1: of our destiny, our purpose, our family, what kind of
Speaker 1: house car and you just said hold off? Says to
Speaker 1: you said, what did you say? Hold on? You know
Speaker 1: I wrote it down. You said, there's greatness of your
Speaker 1: destiny baby steps. Yes, that's the recipe. You can make
Speaker 1: your baby if you just have to breathe. What stop?
Speaker 1: And and just like how you said in the conversation,
Speaker 1: you said, wait a minute, it's like a breath of life.
Speaker 1: Like once you start restricting and holding onto things, that's
Speaker 1: the stress. And that's why when you said like that
Speaker 1: fearlessness and who you are embodying that confidence, it's just
Speaker 1: the freedom that exudes absolutely and sending it back to
Speaker 1: what I was saying about the periods of time when
Speaker 1: you suppress things that it takes to be able to
Speaker 1: release things is a must. Um. So yeah, the breath
Speaker 1: and to even just you know, obviously you still have
Speaker 1: to like face what's going going on in your life.
Speaker 1: But those little moments of this will come and this
Speaker 1: will go. And you know, sometimes we love that things go.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we hate it, but either way, that's what it is.
Speaker 1: And to connect with the timing of life and the
Speaker 1: lack of order can sometimes be very peaceful. And knowing
Speaker 1: that at least at least I got this, I got this,
Speaker 1: like that's that's gonna be there regardless, and that does
Speaker 1: mean a lot, right, right, and and and realizing that
Speaker 1: when you work in that epic flow, like most the
Speaker 1: things that we think are so beautiful, at least myself,
Speaker 1: are things that aren't restricted. Like the water makes me happy.
Speaker 1: You can't stop its flow. It just moves when it
Speaker 1: needs to move, just like the wind. The sun doesn't
Speaker 1: ship Carol, who's out me and outshine? Right? Why we're
Speaker 1: embodiments of those things, you know, like the earth, the wind,
Speaker 1: the sun. We are all we are all vibrations that
Speaker 1: are just here and they're beauty. You know. We go
Speaker 1: out to me and you we're like, damn, this is beautiful.
Speaker 1: We see the animals running, well, this is beautiful. Let
Speaker 1: me watch the Discovery channel. But then we look at
Speaker 1: we're also products of this life and we're like happy.
Speaker 1: Can you give yourself some credit, man, give yourself credit
Speaker 1: on who you've been, where are you going, and what
Speaker 1: you're about to do so loud, on the fact of
Speaker 1: understanding that your location is not your destination. If we
Speaker 1: got out of that mindset, and that's the beauty of it.
Speaker 1: And you know, just having this conversation, I think the
Speaker 1: thing that I value so much is the relationship that
Speaker 1: you've established with yourself. The fact that you do see
Speaker 1: your beauty, the good or the bad, and just to
Speaker 1: know that you're gonna walk in it and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be okay, and guess what, you love it that way?
Speaker 1: Are you a bad chick? You know that you're a
Speaker 1: bad chick. I appreciate it, man, I was. I used
Speaker 1: to be off the rails girl. I'm telling you, it
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been this interview if you were to call
Speaker 1: me a couple of years back. But you know, here
Speaker 1: we are and I'm just the same. I really appreciate
Speaker 1: you saying that to me because I'm getting all of
Speaker 1: the same energy and vibrations back from you and the
Speaker 1: fact that you create the platform. I said it before
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it again, and probably when we're before
Speaker 1: hanging up the platform for these conversations, the right girl
Speaker 1: clicks on this link and here's this conversation between us.
Speaker 1: Could be a monumental, like it can be a game changer.
Speaker 1: I'm just wonder, you know, uh, just some other previous
Speaker 1: products I had read across. I was talking to my
Speaker 1: sister and I was like, Yo, if you had something
Speaker 1: you wanted to ask her, what would you to ask?
Speaker 1: And so, are there any other lgbt Q artists that
Speaker 1: you want to work with? Is that? Is that a thing? Like?
Speaker 1: Is that annoying for people to constantly make it a
Speaker 1: thing that you are l g b t Q or
Speaker 1: is it like, Yo, that's my identity. I'm a black woman,
Speaker 1: I'm a queer woman. What is that? It actually makes
Speaker 1: me laugh because it really just shines the light on
Speaker 1: how rare it is. Like it's funny, like do you
Speaker 1: hear white girls? Like what's it like to be like
Speaker 1: white and skinny? It doesn't make me laugh because but
Speaker 1: it also excites me and I'm happy to like, I'm
Speaker 1: al down whatever people want to share or ask me.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be defensive about it or anything
Speaker 1: like that. That's just like how I go. But it's
Speaker 1: there's a sad part of it when it's like damn,
Speaker 1: like this is foreign, like this is this is a
Speaker 1: foreign thing. But I'm happy to be a pioneer of fatness,
Speaker 1: a fat pioneer. I'm happy to do it because it's
Speaker 1: really people keep thinking of, Okay, so here's like people
Speaker 1: and then here's the other people and all there, and
Speaker 1: now the other people are kind of just like, but
Speaker 1: how we other when we've always been here then queer people,
Speaker 1: there's always been big people, Like this is just you know,
Speaker 1: the time that y'all now want to know what we
Speaker 1: gotta say. So people are like, wow, we want to
Speaker 1: know so bad. But the only reason they ask is
Speaker 1: because they haven't been listening. But I will say, I'm
Speaker 1: very connected to my communities, so I get excited at
Speaker 1: the idea of working with other black women or queer artists. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not something I want to be held to. I know.
Speaker 1: I watch it because people will be quick to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: like queer cover, like we only want queer music, we
Speaker 1: only want this, And if anyone wants to restrict me,
Speaker 1: it's just they're probably gonna end up not being my
Speaker 1: fan because I probably will. My exploration of myself I'm
Speaker 1: sure has a lot of turns that it's gonna take
Speaker 1: in the future. Um but said, I'm gonna work with
Speaker 1: all from um from the internet. Yes, yes, ces C
Speaker 1: S s All. I could just see especial. I adore her,
Speaker 1: I adore Klanni Um but queer and non queer artists alike.
Speaker 1: Collaboration is like everything to me. Even though I love
Speaker 1: being a solo artist, I love to do it. I
Speaker 1: was inquired, I was in musical theater, like. I love
Speaker 1: to work with people and I feel like they're so
Speaker 1: any one whose music has impacted me in any way,
Speaker 1: I'll be down to work with them pop rock, house music,
Speaker 1: trapped like, I just want to be in creative spaces.
Speaker 1: So girl, crossing my fingers. I've never done a feature.
Speaker 1: I've never had any really kind of feature before. So
Speaker 1: I okay, So wait a minute, huh huh. I got
Speaker 1: life tattooed in my mouth because I speak life. What
Speaker 1: are you speaking into existence right now? I don't say,
Speaker 1: foster your fingers? What do you want, Jada, You're right
Speaker 1: stitt in Kalani. Let's hop on a track. It's all good,
Speaker 1: let's catch vibes. I'll roll up and done insane. So
Speaker 1: now we're just waiting for the manifestation to happen. They man, man,
Speaker 1: I have a really good instinct. I have a really
Speaker 1: good instinct that people are gonna want a piece of
Speaker 1: what I'm bringing to the table. And I had a
Speaker 1: lot of doubt with that, like, is my authentic self
Speaker 1: because you know, at the end of the day, I
Speaker 1: want to make money as well. Is who I am
Speaker 1: authentically someone who people are gonna want to see. And
Speaker 1: the more I come into myself, I just feel like
Speaker 1: my brand annoying word, but it's something that people could
Speaker 1: really resonate with and really enjoy. And I wherever that's
Speaker 1: gonna take me. I I just have a good feeling
Speaker 1: about it. So hopefully we'll watch this interview in a
Speaker 1: couple of years and or have another another interview because
Speaker 1: we're Vitamin D is about to go off telling me
Speaker 1: you already right, I have a lot of I don't
Speaker 1: like to have. I don't know if you're in the zodiac,
Speaker 1: but I have some score being on me. I can
Speaker 1: be private, even though I'm very talkative. So even though
Speaker 1: I don't speak too much on what I want and
Speaker 1: who I want to work with. That ship is running
Speaker 1: in me constantly. So just know, even if I'm not
Speaker 1: speaking the manifestation, my heart is pumping for it all
Speaker 1: the time. Well, I'm glad you said that, because you
Speaker 1: know I had I was thinking, you know, as a
Speaker 1: lot of things have manifested for me, it's because you know,
Speaker 1: I really have taken time to really meditate and to
Speaker 1: do the Asian board, and I was wondering myself. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what is the importance? Like why is it so monumental
Speaker 1: to say the vision board. They're like, oh, because you
Speaker 1: gotta see it. But I think also what the thing
Speaker 1: is is the same thing that spearheaded this conversation. I
Speaker 1: guess you know what makes why so many other people
Speaker 1: look at you and wall is all is because of
Speaker 1: the connection that you have in yourself. And it's like,
Speaker 1: we have to be honest. We are a physical part
Speaker 1: of us, and there's a spiritual or energy part of us.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing when when needs to connect, there is magic.
Speaker 1: But let's be real, they exist on different realms, Because
Speaker 1: how is this somebody that can be in the middle
Speaker 1: of Reno, Nevada, or wherever area you grew up at
Speaker 1: where there weren't people that looked like you and knew you,
Speaker 1: knew where you were going with right. So I'm saying,
Speaker 1: if your reality isn't in front of you, well let's
Speaker 1: go down with any relationship. And when we talk about success,
Speaker 1: that's the relationship with self. All you gotta do is
Speaker 1: create the picture because I just gotta see it. So
Speaker 1: my spiritual because my spiritual knows what it is that
Speaker 1: I want, but the physical part I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1: So that's why I think personally that is so important
Speaker 1: to have that vision board because now I gotta reason
Speaker 1: to see it. And then because of that, I'm a
Speaker 1: firm believer that your ears are like an embryo. Now
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you gotta go to the mountaintop, but
Speaker 1: it's the same thing that you said and turn your
Speaker 1: light down. Now that remix you said, you gotta profess it.
Speaker 1: You gotta look in your you gotta look in the mirror,
Speaker 1: and you gotta say yes, absolutely no. I think that's
Speaker 1: really beautiful. The whole ears is the embryo. That is
Speaker 1: a must. And it's not to say that things can't
Speaker 1: happen by chance and come out of nowhere. But I agree,
Speaker 1: like even in the things I've seen, I've had such
Speaker 1: a blessed childhood and family experience, Like there are no
Speaker 1: words to talk about the gratitude of God. But I
Speaker 1: have some home girls within the Queer people of Color community,
Speaker 1: people be going through it and booming right now, Like
Speaker 1: parents just like not accepting them, not loving them, not
Speaker 1: there for them. People battling hunger and homelessness, and they're
Speaker 1: just beaming with light and with opportunities right now. And
Speaker 1: it's just like, you know that has to say something
Speaker 1: because her environment, their environment, a lot of that might
Speaker 1: not set you up for certain things. But when you
Speaker 1: create an environment internally can't bread those outcomes that tutor
Speaker 1: and a solid parental whatever could get you. You can
Speaker 1: do that for yourself. And and it's just crazy that
Speaker 1: we're talking about how self love is so like not normal.
Speaker 1: As you unlock that, you know, like you wonder, like
Speaker 1: what's the purpose of this stuff, Like, you know, get
Speaker 1: your job. A lot of people think these kind of
Speaker 1: conversations are like played out. It's like, girl, like get
Speaker 1: your money, grind happiness. You're gonna have bad and happy days.
Speaker 1: But the outcomes that can come from believing in yourself
Speaker 1: are too absurd and too powerful for me to not
Speaker 1: be like, no, I'm gonna invest in myself. It's it's
Speaker 1: crazy what we can accomplish, like like you said, connecting
Speaker 1: those realms the best that we can, like sparks, sparks
Speaker 1: sometimes not you know, life happened sometimes, but what's possible
Speaker 1: is positive, you know, and and what you're willing to create.
Speaker 1: But I'm telling you, you sparked a lot of different
Speaker 1: light bulbs, even with me, of just one saying that
Speaker 1: the way the sexiness was there, and and you know,
Speaker 1: just even with myself, like when it comes down to
Speaker 1: my own sexuality, I've been attracted to women and man.
Speaker 1: But to see that you owned it, like let me
Speaker 1: just grow. You know, I ain't never said nothing like that, really,
Speaker 1: I ain't never said, but I appreciate that because there
Speaker 1: was such a freedom when I saw you on there
Speaker 1: and it's just like right like co on, like right
Speaker 1: up on there and you're smoking yo j and you
Speaker 1: talked about it and it's just because there is a
Speaker 1: construct that that you're supposed to be this way, but
Speaker 1: you can still be a woman of a believer or
Speaker 1: a woman of whatever, because guess what, don't think that
Speaker 1: whatever you think that makes me amazing. Don't try to
Speaker 1: disregard what everything that makes the matter of who I am,
Speaker 1: because you can't get it without the other. Yeah. Absolutely
Speaker 1: for real though, and people like to act like you're pushed,
Speaker 1: like you're really but know, like those type of things,
Speaker 1: like it just lives within us, that beauty in that light,
Speaker 1: it is natural. It is. It's not for us, just
Speaker 1: the way that people be like, oh it's hard out here.
Speaker 1: There can be a little drop of some something impactful
Speaker 1: in there. And that's what we can do, especially during COVID,
Speaker 1: that's what these little podcasts can do for people. Within
Speaker 1: a day of um, you can still make the choice to,
Speaker 1: you know, guide yourself towards something that like can help you.
Speaker 1: It all comes back to you. Not it sounds kind
Speaker 1: of like selfish, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: when you love yourself, you love the people around you better. Anyway. Hello, Hello, Dang, dang,
Speaker 1: get your vitamin D right here. Oh you know, I
Speaker 1: was about to ask you. I was gonna say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, is there anything that you want to leave
Speaker 1: people with? But you just let it out on the table.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much associated your prompt your questions. You're
Speaker 1: setting me up, You're making me think. I appreciate that
Speaker 1: absolutely well. Thank you for allowing me to operating my gift.
Speaker 1: Thank you for me even just highlighting, underlying, exclamating my
Speaker 1: truth and getting me excited about that. You yeah, almost Lord,
Speaker 1: the whole dead get younger. And that's like, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: And that's why I was like, you know what, I
Speaker 1: have to do everything that I can't possible to put
Speaker 1: you on whatever platform that I can do that, because
Speaker 1: when I see somebody that looks like me and you
Speaker 1: are unapologetically bald queen, I'm gonna I'm gonna set you
Speaker 1: up on there. So best believe they're probably be a
Speaker 1: time again in are you were you located? I'm in Miami,
Speaker 1: so girl, we obviously on zoom now so you hit
Speaker 1: my line. But now I thank you for not only
Speaker 1: believing in seeing the value and me, but being able
Speaker 1: to make the choice. You know, I'm sure you could
Speaker 1: have got a different round with how you did this
Speaker 1: and brought anybody on here who was gonna do whatever,
Speaker 1: but you you making the choice to value people who
Speaker 1: are out here with a message, and you know that's
Speaker 1: a must as far as like as corny as it is,
Speaker 1: but making the world a better place like steps. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is what you said. You said it baby steps
Speaker 1: all the recipe right and and this kind of thing
Speaker 1: is that? So I really appreciated this platform has been awesome, awesome, Okay,
Speaker 1: so let's not make sure that no one forgets you're
Speaker 1: you're single. Lot right now is called Freak, and I
Speaker 1: understand you just released the remix of it. Is there
Speaker 1: anything you want to give a shout out or say
Speaker 1: anything about the single that that for people to check out? Um?
Speaker 1: I love Freak. The remix is a little bit more
Speaker 1: of a Dan five. I feel like people need to
Speaker 1: pick me up right now. I've never released anything like
Speaker 1: how this free mouth sounds. But ride with me and
Speaker 1: I hope that everyone enjoys it and can take something
Speaker 1: from it. Okay, all right, Well, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for sitting with me, and I hope that you continue
Speaker 1: to shine your light. Thank you so much. Hopefully we'll
Speaker 1: speak again soon once all these manifestations we plan coming too.
Speaker 1: I don't know about listen, I'm already walking in it.
Speaker 1: This is a matter of when it's about to show up. Really,
Speaker 1: I appreciate this so much. You're so sweet. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. Thank you bye bye. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you this. I wish I had that kind of clarity
Speaker 1: when I was in my early twenties. But you know what,
Speaker 1: life is a journey and not a destination. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's always time to grow, to learn, to evolve, and
Speaker 1: to change, Okay, And after this conversation with Jada, I
Speaker 1: just hope that it serves as a bike it of
Speaker 1: light and inspray and empowerment to a lot of other
Speaker 1: younger women out there in the world today, and that
Speaker 1: they have a better representation, a guide of what it
Speaker 1: means to be authentic selves and to have someone out
Speaker 1: there that looks just like them. In fact, I hope
Speaker 1: men and women alike understand the importance of what it
Speaker 1: means to be who you are, just the way you are, unapologetically.
Speaker 1: And you know, keep coming back to something I said
Speaker 1: in the episode. Strength is when you allow your weakness
Speaker 1: to shine in the light. Nothing in life is black
Speaker 1: or white. We all have weaknesses, we all have space
Speaker 1: as we feel we aren't living up to our best selves.
Speaker 1: But The moments when we aren't our best selves are
Speaker 1: so important because they show us that despite these temporary faults,
Speaker 1: we're still worthsome We're still capable of being our greatest asset.
Speaker 1: When we accept and acknowledge who we are, just the
Speaker 1: way we are, we make room to tap into our
Speaker 1: true potential. If you're interested in keeping up with Jada Michael,
Speaker 1: you can check your out on social media at the
Speaker 1: Jada Michael on Instagram and Jada Michael nineteen on Twitter.
Speaker 1: You can check out her music on all digital platforms,
Speaker 1: so be sure to check out her new single Freak Okay.
Speaker 1: And as always, you can catch us when you get
Speaker 1: your favorite podcasts each and every Monday with more inspiring
Speaker 1: conversations and insights. And if you're looking to get even
Speaker 1: more finem and day in your life, you can follow
Speaker 1: me on all social media at Dawn day Speaks, That's
Speaker 1: Dawn and d a i Speaks on all social media.
Speaker 1: Until next time, always remember you and your greatest asset.