Speaker 1: Questloft Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. So Up, y'all.
Speaker 1: June is Black Music Pump, and every year we use
Speaker 1: this time to acknowledge something that really can't be overstated.
Speaker 1: Black music is one of the foundational forces behind modern culture. Now,
Speaker 1: back when Teams Supreme and I were doing a Questlove
Speaker 1: Supreme and now on the Quest Loft Show, we've always
Speaker 1: tried to create a space for those stories. So for
Speaker 1: the entire month of June, we're bringing you an episode
Speaker 1: every day focused on the history, influence, and ongoing evolution
Speaker 1: of black music. A team and I duck through the
Speaker 1: catalog and selected episodes that feel especially meaningful for now,
Speaker 1: conversations that inform, entertain and connect the dots between where
Speaker 1: this music comes from where it's headed. Now. Alongside those,
Speaker 1: we'll be releasing four new episodes of Quest Loft Show
Speaker 1: feature trail lasers, innovators, and cultural connectors and visionaries who
Speaker 1: represent the past, present, future of black music. I want
Speaker 1: you to enjoy this.
Speaker 2: Thanks Suprema, Some Suprema, Roll Call, Suprema Son Supremo, Roll Call,
Speaker 2: Supremo Son Supremo, Roll Call Suprema Some Suprema.
Speaker 1: Roll Call Duca Earl Yeah, Milton Burl, Yeah, give it
Speaker 1: a twirl.
Speaker 3: Yeah, London Girl, Suprema Supremo roll Call.
Speaker 1: My name is Sugar, Yeah, what's up a stell? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You need a son? Yeah, I got one to sell.
Speaker 1: Supprimo roll Suprema something Suprema roll.
Speaker 4: My name is Boss Bill Yeah, and I'm on my knees. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I forgot to prepare for roll call.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Forgive me a stell pretty please.
Speaker 5: Sup.
Speaker 2: Supremo Role Suprema So Supremo roll call.
Speaker 6: It's like, yeah, and my girl is Stelle. We ain't
Speaker 6: no substitutes no more. Oh she knows me well.
Speaker 2: Supprima something Supremo role, my names and stell Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I am litty.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm out here doing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: In New York City.
Speaker 1: Came something Supremo roll Suprema.
Speaker 2: Something Suprema roll call, Suprema something something Supremo roll call, Supremo.
Speaker 1: Son son suppering up.
Speaker 4: I hate y'all for not taking American Boy because I
Speaker 4: wanted to do mine around that, but I was like.
Speaker 1: Too obviously, too obvious. Did London Girl because I thought
Speaker 1: was obvious was going to do that. I was like,
Speaker 1: let me, let me go for a little bit deep.
Speaker 1: Let me go a little deeper. I'll go for pretty please.
Speaker 1: It was good.
Speaker 7: That was good. Was you're not my substitute? Normal?
Speaker 1: You know we gotta pay for.
Speaker 7: That was only two seconds heart.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, I was going to say, I was
Speaker 1: trying to figure out a way to incorporate, uh, five
Speaker 1: ft seven being the id height. It was a bladder,
Speaker 1: leave me loud, everybody, everybody against me, against me about it?
Speaker 1: You you were trying to do that.
Speaker 5: I was just having a mumble and it made sense,
Speaker 5: and the mumbles so I can't do five for seven.
Speaker 5: So look we're doing the vibes and John is like
Speaker 5: doing the melody and he's like and.
Speaker 7: I was like, well five seven.
Speaker 1: It makes sense, yes, okay, But I just thought maybe
Speaker 1: the conversion of yeah, I was gonna say it like
Speaker 1: you might would have been like six. But you made
Speaker 1: a lot of low self esteem dudes, feel like you
Speaker 1: mean low.
Speaker 7: The sure man have my bike? Sure guys guy.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Quest
Speaker 1: Love Supreme. I am six ft three, Thank you. I'm
Speaker 1: six for three as well. Great, he'll tell you like
Speaker 1: eight okay, Well you wear hills all the time, Steve,
Speaker 1: my feet are size thirteen. All right, So, brought to
Speaker 1: you by the the good folk of iHeart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host quest Love Jenkins. Uh, Team Supreme is with
Speaker 1: us today. We got a boss Bill in the house
Speaker 1: and sugar Steve Steve Jenkins. Yeah, sure, this is crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you know he don't be rocking his middle name,
Speaker 1: his last name and nothing. So Bertie Jenkins means the
Speaker 1: best name of all time. So I'm sorry, Dice, you
Speaker 1: are Bert Jenkins to light. Yeah, and like was up, Yeah, unpaid.
Speaker 1: Bill must be getting his bills paid because we haven't
Speaker 1: seen him in the month of days.
Speaker 6: He gave me the other day, like I just got
Speaker 6: back from sun Dance and I'm headed to l A.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, he's doing movies. I'm doing movies too,
Speaker 1: but I'm here, damn. But of course Fante promised this
Speaker 1: way back in November. He was going out for cigarette
Speaker 1: So we're still waiting for Dad to come back home.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today, of course, needs no introduction.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, I just got that joke. Actually, after
Speaker 1: like twenty episodes about him going out for cigarettes and
Speaker 1: not coming home. Yeah, that's that's how. Yes, I understand fathers.
Speaker 1: I get it go out from some smokes and dentists.
Speaker 1: He never left, no man, it doesn't smoke. And he
Speaker 1: came home.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I just imagine your dad being like Steve
Speaker 4: Martin a little shopping horrors.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's a reference. Anyway, Ladies and gentlemen, our
Speaker 1: guest today needs no introduction. She is a Grammy Award
Speaker 1: winning singer songwriter, slash mc uh slash voice actress. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I will say. And I got a lot
Speaker 1: of Stephen Universe questions because I've just recently gotten to
Speaker 1: crystal rock technology. I used to be one of the
Speaker 1: people that like laughed at people all right side note,
Speaker 1: like the jazzy fat nasties used to always just walk
Speaker 1: around with like a bunch of crystals in their pockets.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was the kookiest ship ever. And
Speaker 1: now I can't. Yeah on me time. Literally, I keep
Speaker 1: granted and crystals and amethysts. Welcome, Welcome, I feel real silk.
Speaker 7: Welcome.
Speaker 1: She she she hells from my other home, the West
Speaker 1: side of London, West Side. Yes, well, I don't know
Speaker 1: many black people that are from the West side of one.
Speaker 7: There's a whole contingency of us.
Speaker 1: We we are there, I see all right, old ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, welcome my near aquarian capricorn sister. Sell to
Speaker 1: the shell.
Speaker 5: It's it just made me crunchy as hellrib cool cool,
Speaker 5: granola crunchy.
Speaker 1: Got it?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm sorry, sorry.
Speaker 1: Okay, I get it. How are you today?
Speaker 5: I am wonderful. It's beautiful outside. It is really characteristically.
Speaker 1: Nice, beautiful February. It is February. It is It's February. Yeah?
Speaker 1: Is it? Is it? Bill? It's late February. Everybody almost
Speaker 1: We're still here, Steve, please, gentlemen, Steven snapping, Well, you
Speaker 1: mentioned in your I know that we were all winging
Speaker 1: our roll call, but you mentioned New York City. But
Speaker 1: I would like to think that you are you officially here.
Speaker 7: I'm in l A. I'm in LA officially my close
Speaker 7: of it now, So okay, that's kind of how.
Speaker 1: But correct me if I'm wrong A few times like yeah,
Speaker 1: I used to be here. I don't want to say
Speaker 1: like a few times I dropped you off.
Speaker 5: In the same seat and say that no no, not
Speaker 5: like his version, Tell him, no, I've.
Speaker 1: I'm a considerate person. Anybody gets in my car, a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of people. Yeah, the last one that goes home.
Speaker 1: I dropped people off.
Speaker 6: So trip has Estelle saying you got me at some
Speaker 6: point on a stage.
Speaker 7: Pretty much.
Speaker 1: I go back to like eighteenth letter pre eighteenth letter Estelle,
Speaker 1: when Estelle was saying yes and yeah.
Speaker 5: So I remember, like, so the first time we met,
Speaker 5: period was in London.
Speaker 7: I think I opened up you guys used to.
Speaker 5: Be there a lot, and I think I live yeah,
Speaker 5: and I opened up for you a few times at
Speaker 5: different events and venues.
Speaker 1: When I suggest rap, you can, I need you to
Speaker 1: explain something to me because as much as like claiming
Speaker 1: like yeah, London's or second home, London's or second home,
Speaker 1: there's one thing that no one's ever properly explained to me. Okay,
Speaker 1: so there's so and hopefully you can, you know, give
Speaker 1: some clarity to me and our listeners out there. There's
Speaker 1: so many sub genres of music that comes from urban
Speaker 1: London on ground, yeah, I mean there's grime, two step, drumming, bassed,
Speaker 1: E d M, trip hop, acid, jazz, everything. Can you
Speaker 1: properly give us an education or like no, no small task.
Speaker 7: Here, no, Well, on the different subgenres well how all right, So.
Speaker 1: Like I don't know the difference, Like, okay, the the
Speaker 1: is two step under the house umbrella, whereas what's grime.
Speaker 5: Grime is like a sub genre, a subdivision of what
Speaker 5: hip hop and what the kids who weren't specifically like
Speaker 5: rappers and who were into jungle kind of made who
Speaker 5: went into UK hip hop but who were also into
Speaker 5: like dance music and jungle made grime, and like garage,
Speaker 5: it kind of came out of the garage umbrella.
Speaker 7: So like UK hip hop was.
Speaker 5: The founding thing, right, and that came out of dance
Speaker 5: all and all that stuff.
Speaker 7: It's a Rodney P and M guys.
Speaker 5: It had a really big presence and then but at
Speaker 5: the same time it was like dance music, which has
Speaker 5: always been our thing.
Speaker 7: Like we listened to all different types of music all
Speaker 7: the time.
Speaker 5: Right, So you've got you got us going to school
Speaker 5: and being at home listening to like reggae, dance or
Speaker 5: hip hop, right as we know, like standards genres, and
Speaker 5: you got to go to school and you listen to
Speaker 5: like dance and house and trip trippy music, right, and
Speaker 5: it's like acids and all that stuff. And so we
Speaker 5: essentially just merged them all together because that's what black
Speaker 5: people do, and you know, and and so we came
Speaker 5: up with garage, which was like emceing over faster beats
Speaker 5: which were kind of in the house range, okay, And
Speaker 5: that garage became that, and then grime became slow it
Speaker 5: down and wrap a bit more, be a bit more
Speaker 5: swaggy with it, like you can wear echo and whatnot,
Speaker 5: and or you can wear like all the all the
Speaker 5: things that feel like you're rapping, but you're still keeping
Speaker 5: it English because that was our thing we made up.
Speaker 5: And that's where it becomes like a whole, like we
Speaker 5: made this genre now.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the lines.
Speaker 7: Get blurred as far as how you do it.
Speaker 1: But for all right, so when we first went there
Speaker 1: in ninety three, it didn't exist, right, okay, So drum
Speaker 1: and bass was just starting, all right. So to explain
Speaker 1: to our listeners out there, drum and bass is where
Speaker 1: you would take whereas like hip hoppers would take a
Speaker 1: breakbeat and take it as is. I mean, someone would
Speaker 1: chop it up and flip it or whatever. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, like what you hear on the record
Speaker 1: is what you would hear sampled drum and bass. They
Speaker 1: would speed it up almost past forty five to like
Speaker 1: seventy eight, which okay, So my theory is that kind
Speaker 1: of the hip hop experience in America mirrors whatever the
Speaker 1: vice of choice or drug of choice is of a generation.
Speaker 1: So you know, if we so, my five year theory is,
Speaker 1: I'll try to make this quickest pot Uh like sixty
Speaker 1: seven seventy two is our uh what you would say,
Speaker 1: the heroin period seventy two, the seventy seven I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: excuse me. Sixty seven, uh to seventy two, I would say,
Speaker 1: is the joint period. Seventy two to seventy seven was
Speaker 1: the heroin period seventy seven and eighty two. Cocaine eighty
Speaker 1: two to eighty seven, the no forty ounce malt liquor
Speaker 1: eighty seven and ninety two, crack and as as and
Speaker 1: as I'm saying, miss anyone else getting hungry? You know
Speaker 1: it speeds up. Ninety two to ninety seven was the
Speaker 1: chronic period, the weed everything slowed down. Ninety seven to
Speaker 1: two thousand and two was the sexy? Uh what was
Speaker 1: the ecstasy? The sexy? Did he have you got this?
Speaker 7: Did you think about that? About?
Speaker 1: That? Is the period to two to seven is the
Speaker 1: scissor period, the codine period, uh, seven to twelve, twenty
Speaker 1: seven to twelve will be saying that's the Moley period.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well no, that's after No Molly came after two thousand.
Speaker 1: Kind of well, I would say maybe lean. I don't know,
Speaker 1: Ti Pots.
Speaker 6: It's funny, but it's not drum kids that.
Speaker 1: Shout out to those Super Bowl commercials on time commercials.
Speaker 1: Twenty twelve to twenty seventeen definitely, uh, percoset period. And
Speaker 1: now I guess we're currently in between twenty seventeen to
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, which what is the drug of the
Speaker 1: moment right now? Yeah? Wean life.
Speaker 7: We never go out of stats.
Speaker 1: I'm getting high on life. Aureo thins are really good. Okay.
Speaker 1: So my whole point is that the drug, the drug
Speaker 1: that somehow permeates in each era, also determines like what
Speaker 1: the music sounds like. So oh wait, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1: In North and Northeast Philly, everyone's dying from it.
Speaker 7: That we the X K K whatever it's you know
Speaker 7: K Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: It's I don't know why. The north East Philly has
Speaker 1: it the worst.
Speaker 7: Nothing to do?
Speaker 1: Well yeah, sorry, by property there. Sorry anyway, My point
Speaker 1: is that I felt like but the thing is is
Speaker 1: that I don't believe the people did you guys, not
Speaker 1: even did London. I don't call London ever having like
Speaker 1: a crack epidemic or.
Speaker 7: A good question is it's like a consistent thing.
Speaker 5: It's not that it was an epidemic more than it's
Speaker 5: just like it's so no, it's our culture is so
Speaker 5: like you could be the highest of the high. Keep
Speaker 5: calm and carry on. Yeah, this is the culture. It's
Speaker 5: never really been like the drug thing for me. The
Speaker 5: way I looked at it was like it's associated with
Speaker 5: homelessness and you're not doing too well. But now it's
Speaker 5: at a point where you walk, Oh, it's like a
Speaker 5: D boy the higher by it from you know what
Speaker 5: I mean, from the from the from the guys on roadman,
Speaker 5: not D Boys roadman.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: So it was never like, oh, your friend nixt door
Speaker 5: to you is doing drugs and you can see it.
Speaker 7: It was never like that, like obvious everyone smokes.
Speaker 1: Right, right.
Speaker 7: I didn't smoke until I was thirty. I'm quite proud
Speaker 7: of myself. Merely it's so fun. It's a good time.
Speaker 1: But wait, why are you straight snitching like.
Speaker 7: You said it before. I don't feel the snitching if
Speaker 7: you said it before in the show.
Speaker 1: Okay, I might have forgot that might be a symptomy
Speaker 1: back on those.
Speaker 5: Good So it was a bit more of a like
Speaker 5: supplied the mod thing and no one really was in
Speaker 5: it like that. Now it's kind of across the board,
Speaker 5: like what you knew, Like everybody had like the drug
Speaker 5: dealer friends, but like they were also your friends.
Speaker 6: So like what we watching that show now too on Netflix?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Oh God, shout out to Drake in.
Speaker 7: The best way possible, said the best way.
Speaker 1: Bunch of money I want where like I see a
Speaker 1: YouTube show, I see a YouTube show and be like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna give you a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of money to put this on Netflix.
Speaker 7: I want to see this.
Speaker 1: That's that's power, Drake. Thank you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I appreciate sometimes they still need.
Speaker 1: Have you ever watched it?
Speaker 6: I have, don't. I'm saying that because I'm comfortable with you.
Speaker 6: I'm saying that because I'm comfortable with you.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I show need subtitles. Even with Queen Sugar Gott,
Speaker 1: we were all watching the last episode like a cliffhanger
Speaker 1: episode of Queen Sugar, and I showed my television and
Speaker 1: I forgot the subtitles on, and they even hit me
Speaker 1: on Twitter like wait, why are you subtitles on? I
Speaker 1: was like, yo, if you heard Ralph Angel speak, don't.
Speaker 7: You dad talk about that?
Speaker 1: King like that? Not Ralph? And that's Ralph Angel angry
Speaker 1: good morning to me.
Speaker 7: That's fine, jealous, stop it? King Kobe.
Speaker 1: Now you know who's not going to be on the show.
Speaker 6: No Kobe coming, I mean he's coming.
Speaker 1: To the show, is okay?
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know what I'm saying, love you single? Okay,
Speaker 7: I can't even know. I know his mom.
Speaker 1: Oh wait that means something, I think different different. He
Speaker 1: is young?
Speaker 5: Really yeah, he's young and he's a young man.
Speaker 7: I know we're never going to.
Speaker 1: Get to your musical experiences because we're just gonna talk
Speaker 1: about life. It's twenty minutes later, question, do you mean.
Speaker 7: It's a little bro I caught.
Speaker 1: You guys, realized that there's gonna be a line of
Speaker 1: this cub period in your life.
Speaker 7: Right clear. I'm in that space now, not yet, uite.
Speaker 4: Literally, her next album is gonna have a cover of
Speaker 4: Millie Jackson's Young Man, Older Woman.
Speaker 7: You know what No, it is not. That was young.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, younger men for us still moved like rabbits.
Speaker 6: They like, we're not at that age where you want
Speaker 6: to stay younger yet because.
Speaker 5: They just they still even like what are you doing? Hold,
Speaker 5: I'm not teaching you stuff?
Speaker 7: Oh my thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: It's a fight every day all my life.
Speaker 1: You need your own podcast, your own podcast, you don't.
Speaker 1: You don wanted to deal with I heard right exactly. Look,
Speaker 1: I wanted to get to my whole point in the
Speaker 1: whole seventeen minutes. My whole entire point was when I
Speaker 1: was there. Yeah, a lot of cats were just trying
Speaker 1: to be from New York. Yeah, aka the twenty one
Speaker 1: savage syndrome. Like I caught there was a there was
Speaker 1: an interview where like yeah, and then he said spot
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 7: And we're like, wait a minute, what English?
Speaker 1: Yes, And that's weird.
Speaker 7: I didn't know he was from.
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
Speaker 5: Not like you catch somebody young enough, like they're gonna
Speaker 5: the whole accent, everything completely changes.
Speaker 1: Right. But the thing is is that I know that
Speaker 1: you guys have been waiting for this moment all of
Speaker 1: your life. I mean, really, you're pioneering that yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean you're pioneering that the fact that not since maybe
Speaker 1: the Soul, the Soul wave or even I mean no
Speaker 1: really like with Sould the Soul having international acclaim, have
Speaker 1: I've seen, you know, like other countries lead the forefront
Speaker 1: of their movement and be accepted, not like oh, what's
Speaker 1: America doing. Let's do like America. Now, you guys are
Speaker 1: right in the rules, but it's like it's taken Like
Speaker 1: with Mark Morrison, he's a great example. What is what
Speaker 1: is he truly consider? Is he just he's potatoes R
Speaker 1: and B?
Speaker 7: Or is he's Mark Morrison? It was it's R and B.
Speaker 5: Then is to us as pop And that's that's the
Speaker 5: reason why it's such a heavy thing.
Speaker 7: And I said this the other day.
Speaker 5: I was talking, I was at my friends with my
Speaker 5: friends in DC, and I said, thing is, you guys
Speaker 5: have had such a strong culture for your entire like
Speaker 5: as far back as the twenties, like it's been Black
Speaker 5: American culture, despite what you think of it. You guys
Speaker 5: have had it and we haven't.
Speaker 7: It's been maybe since the fifties and the British.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so like we're like looking at it like, well
Speaker 5: that seems to be the strongest thing to do.
Speaker 7: Let's do that, you know, can I ask what it's weird?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 6: Because then when you go to Blacksnian, right, you find
Speaker 6: out that, like the Brits were the biggest committers of
Speaker 6: the whole slavery thing.
Speaker 7: We are in black history mother, right.
Speaker 6: So and I asked the British actresses once. I was like,
Speaker 6: it seems like there's a disconnect between the cultures of
Speaker 6: your motherland.
Speaker 7: Well in a way.
Speaker 5: Too, we came over from me I knew. I know
Speaker 5: exactly where my family's from. My parents came like Senegal, Grenada,
Speaker 5: Sierra Leone, like they came in the fifties.
Speaker 7: They came in the fifties and sixties to the UK.
Speaker 5: So for a lot of us, that's where we start
Speaker 5: again in the European side of the world. But we
Speaker 5: do know and like, my family's big on black history.
Speaker 5: So my dad and my stepdad and my mom they
Speaker 5: teach they taught us that from from like two and one,
Speaker 5: like here's who you are. Go read these three big
Speaker 5: anthologies on sex and race. I remember my mom gave
Speaker 5: me this book set and I had to I read it.
Speaker 7: I was a book one.
Speaker 5: I'm still am and I read it as a kid,
Speaker 5: and I knew about you know, the Black Queens, and
Speaker 5: I knew about how we existed before coming over again
Speaker 5: in the fifties. So like my perception of myself across
Speaker 5: the border is different in general, but like that's where
Speaker 5: a lot of us came from first, and it's a
Speaker 5: big thing. Like we are taught that like in our homes,
Speaker 5: not just because they're not going to teach you to school.
Speaker 5: They taught us the same things you guys know. So
Speaker 5: like our energy and perception of like where we start
Speaker 5: is different, but the culture here is so long range
Speaker 5: and so dominant.
Speaker 7: You guys really have have it, Like I please, I
Speaker 7: don't know want to take this person. I used to
Speaker 7: be like, yo, how do you guys have like and.
Speaker 5: I got to learn about Black Wall Street and YadA YadA,
Speaker 5: and then like times like soldiers, huge questions you.
Speaker 1: Said, don't get offended. We're still asking that question, like
Speaker 1: Malcolm X.
Speaker 7: I understand the context of it, but like at the time,
Speaker 7: I was like, what.
Speaker 6: The like that burning down and why people felt they
Speaker 6: need to get rid of it so that you could have.
Speaker 7: In the grand scheme of life, everything is everything.
Speaker 5: I don't judge it, but like it's like you guys
Speaker 5: have it and and I've had it for so long.
Speaker 5: There's so much wealth in it and it's so much good.
Speaker 5: Despite every attempt to burn down black culture over the
Speaker 5: past two centuries in the US in around.
Speaker 1: The world, how old were you when you discovered your
Speaker 1: voice or your singing voice? I was like seventeen, So
Speaker 1: from the age of zero to seventeen.
Speaker 5: Time, no, no, Like I realized I was good at it.
Speaker 5: I was seven and I realized that I could actually
Speaker 5: do it. My mom made me singing my brother in
Speaker 5: church and everyone clept and I was like, oh, I
Speaker 5: don't know, this is fun.
Speaker 1: And what okay? So what is the what's the the
Speaker 1: black experience in church in the UK compared to it's it's.
Speaker 5: Us just as wild again everything is patterned, right, so
Speaker 5: it's just as wild. We holy go Well for me,
Speaker 5: I went to which is I went to church got prophecy,
Speaker 5: which is like essentially kojik. I was a Methodist. I
Speaker 5: was Muslim. We've been my grandma before I was born.
Speaker 5: So here's the thing West Africa culture. My grandma married
Speaker 5: a muslim man. She was Christian, so for a while
Speaker 5: she had to learn Muslim and then.
Speaker 7: She realized that that was a very oppressive the.
Speaker 1: Version he for a woman.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and we're very women heavy in our family, so
Speaker 5: we've had to dabble per se just to respect it.
Speaker 7: But I remember one time I came from so.
Speaker 1: Here we go.
Speaker 5: So when I was a child, did all the did
Speaker 5: all the religions, and right before we went to real Christianity,
Speaker 5: I went to Africa and we went to my granddad's
Speaker 5: village and I mem my grandma made us walk and
Speaker 5: we get to the village and it's great, but it's
Speaker 5: very Muslim and it's like Gambia. My grandma brings this
Speaker 5: guy back with us who's like the village chief or
Speaker 5: a village dude guy, medicine guy, uh, spiritual guy, and
Speaker 5: he's teaching us Arabic and they're trying to like give
Speaker 5: us these base lessons in my granddad's culture. And my
Speaker 5: mom and I remember, because I'm the big mouth in
Speaker 5: my family, low key loky. Now I'm the big mouth,
Speaker 5: Like I'm the one that's like no, no, no, that's
Speaker 5: not right.
Speaker 7: I'm not doing that.
Speaker 1: You challenge people all day?
Speaker 5: Are you the oldest, second oldest oldest girl. So yeah,
Speaker 5: pretty much. How many nine in my immediate one older brothers, six.
Speaker 1: Girls, second oldest. So you're okay, you're Jackie. Okay, I
Speaker 1: can be everybody.
Speaker 7: Okay, Jackie, look good. That's good Jackie. Oh no, he's
Speaker 7: the like.
Speaker 6: Okay, no, no, you jack natural hair.
Speaker 7: Okay, you are correct. Mixing was terrible, that's terrible, all right, Okay,
Speaker 7: let's got a whole image.
Speaker 5: Wait, no, my edges around, No, thise.
Speaker 7: The butt, all right.
Speaker 5: So he came back and he was teaching us like Arabic,
Speaker 5: and then they came to a part where it was
Speaker 5: like women must be submissive, and I just kept feeling
Speaker 5: like that was wrong, and I said to him, well,
Speaker 5: I don't agree.
Speaker 7: I was like twelve or thirty, you know some shit
Speaker 7: like that. Wow, And I was like, I don't agree.
Speaker 7: Why do women have to not speak?
Speaker 1: Why do we?
Speaker 7: And I went down the line and my mom was like,
Speaker 7: what are you teaching my daughter in this lesson of classes?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 5: Huh no, not them, and she pulled us out the
Speaker 5: Arabic classes and that caused a rift in the family
Speaker 5: to a degree, and then we became real Christians. And
Speaker 5: that's where I kind of was like you know, like
Speaker 5: because you were like half in half. We would go
Speaker 5: to my grandma's My grandma's a matriarch, and that would
Speaker 5: happen in my aunty at my grandma's house, and then
Speaker 5: we would go up our house and it would be
Speaker 5: like Christian Christian, and then we went full Christian with
Speaker 5: that after that, and then and then that was just
Speaker 5: a wild time. It was like don't wait on makeup,
Speaker 5: don't do no things, and like, oh, like you you
Speaker 5: were going to find the husband for you. And my
Speaker 5: mom was like also, no, so here's what's gonna happen
Speaker 5: with me and my children.
Speaker 1: It was we were oppressive Christian.
Speaker 7: Oppressive, but also holy. It was a lot. There's a
Speaker 7: lot going down.
Speaker 5: And then I think it's always been music that kind
Speaker 5: of shifted my trajectory though, because we were in a
Speaker 5: church choir and I remember being nineteen and we we
Speaker 5: used to remix all the words to the song, so
Speaker 5: like Brandy's best friend became Jesus is my best friend,
Speaker 5: and like things like that, and like we did the
Speaker 5: dances and stuff, and I remember one like church, we
Speaker 5: had a church Christmas concept and we were doing the
Speaker 5: whole like yere that do with that.
Speaker 7: He's always been there friend, and the church like the
Speaker 7: pastor got mad, like like, yo.
Speaker 1: Wait, what was he doing to listening to Brandy didn't
Speaker 1: know that reference.
Speaker 5: Well, we were exactly make it, no, but she was
Speaker 5: more mad that, like she was more tight that we
Speaker 5: were dancing and having a good time and she ain't
Speaker 5: like my mom for some reason, and so she said
Speaker 5: she kicked us out.
Speaker 7: The church concept, it's wild up.
Speaker 1: This has been going on three times. I saw a
Speaker 1: church version that they performed the futures percocet. No. I
Speaker 1: don't know how that works, but it was like the
Speaker 1: Christian version, what's the words?
Speaker 7: I don't know, but holy goes chase to christ fan sense.
Speaker 1: Wait a second, I saw it on Freddie Gibbs his Instagram,
Speaker 1: So good a minute. This has been going on.
Speaker 5: So they kicked us out, and my mom was like
Speaker 5: to me after that, you don't have to go back
Speaker 5: if you don't want.
Speaker 7: I said, good, because I'm not.
Speaker 5: And essentially I've never really been a fan of going
Speaker 5: back in the building and doing people's versions of events.
Speaker 5: I kind of I'm very spiritual, and you know, I
Speaker 5: would read the Bible and I pray a lot, and
Speaker 5: you know, crystals, and I listened and I'm in chuning
Speaker 5: and blah blah.
Speaker 1: Blah, spiritual, spiritual, so one of those. So did you, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming I have the same thing that it was
Speaker 1: hard bringing secular music inside the house. Really my whole life,
Speaker 1: Prince punishments.
Speaker 5: All day, Prince, Like go in your room and listen
Speaker 5: to your headphones under the pillow. I had Jodysy and
Speaker 5: I had like this little like Jodasy was my thing
Speaker 5: in my teens, and I had this little black boom
Speaker 5: box and my bedrooms right next to my mom's and
Speaker 5: my bed was right next to the wall, and I
Speaker 5: would play it, but I would put it under my
Speaker 5: pillow to muffle the sound.
Speaker 7: But that's how I.
Speaker 5: Learned how to do harmonies for real, for real, like
Speaker 5: really meld them stuff listening.
Speaker 1: All right, look, hopefully let them go. If you're conservative
Speaker 1: parents and you're listening to me, I'm shocked. But just
Speaker 1: let your kids listen. They're going to listen anyway, yes,
Speaker 1: let them, especially if they got their own phones. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a rat, so just let him listen. So, so
Speaker 1: you're saying that by seventeen, it was fine, Well wait,
Speaker 1: because again when I first met you, I met you
Speaker 1: as an MC. I didn't know you saning, so.
Speaker 7: You're like, what happen?
Speaker 1: Yeah, let go. I was kind of like wait reaped,
Speaker 1: Yeah this is but yeah, like how did hip hop
Speaker 1: affect you?
Speaker 7: My uncle was the one that brought in our house,
Speaker 7: and it was like.
Speaker 1: How old was he?
Speaker 7: He was? Uncle? Was young Uncle? He's just turned like.
Speaker 1: Fifty okay and oh thank you.
Speaker 7: Just to fit like he's like you know, but like
Speaker 7: he was a young uncle.
Speaker 5: He was like definitely like out in the streets doing
Speaker 5: this thing right, like wait, studs, it's crazy have family.
Speaker 1: So what kind of was he? Was?
Speaker 7: He playing Daddy Kane all of that era.
Speaker 1: We would call that classic classic.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so that was his whole thing.
Speaker 5: The one thing I remember he brought that like was
Speaker 5: like my switch onto It was break dancing and we
Speaker 5: used to we used to really break dance as kids,
Speaker 5: like because it was the thing to age right, and
Speaker 5: my mom was like, don't break dance, no more to
Speaker 5: do it was used to like that from break it.
Speaker 7: She like, yo, he broke his neck spinning on his head.
Speaker 1: Before. I don't want to die.
Speaker 7: It's like I stopped, and I realized he didn't. But like,
Speaker 7: you know, she liked me.
Speaker 4: They must have. They must have told that to every
Speaker 4: black parents. Every I heard that one. We didn't have
Speaker 4: insurance back then, but.
Speaker 5: That was my switch into hip hop and like and
Speaker 5: then I just like I just liked it. It was
Speaker 5: like then became cultural as a popular thing. But then
Speaker 5: it became like as I got older, it was like, yo,
Speaker 5: I can really I have a way with putting the
Speaker 5: words together. It's not about poetry for me. It's about
Speaker 5: the rhythm and the rhyme and of it, right. And
Speaker 5: then all my friends were like into it, and then
Speaker 5: like mid to late nineties, I really was doing it,
Speaker 5: Like I.
Speaker 7: Be the only girl in the room.
Speaker 5: We'd be writing songs and I would actually end up
Speaker 5: like finishing off rhymes or writing my own and you know,
Speaker 5: and in friends of just put the verse down, just
Speaker 5: put the verse down, and I was.
Speaker 7: Like, no, I would put the verse down. Did I
Speaker 7: put the verse down? And it became like, well, actually
Speaker 7: I could really do it.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, And so I did it. Well when you're
Speaker 1: I mean, when you're in the thick of it, you know,
Speaker 1: is there truly anybody to look up to. Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, as far as how you get it now,
Speaker 1: I mean, because you're in the mid to late nineties,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that there's a lot of Tim Westwood. Yeah,
Speaker 1: seven nine, I missed to seven nine. Man, all those guys.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, you got to explain something to me.
Speaker 1: What was the deal with the So Solid crew?
Speaker 7: So they all right, they were good, they were like.
Speaker 1: The original all right, So they were the originals of them.
Speaker 7: Yeah, pretty much. They still the only time.
Speaker 1: I mean, as an American, there's there's a certain amount
Speaker 1: of arrogance that Americans have, and I guess like being
Speaker 1: over there, like in our mind it was like no
Speaker 1: one could ever threaten you with the accent. That nice.
Speaker 1: But the guys, you know, like we just like come on,
Speaker 1: like little accent.
Speaker 7: That's cute.
Speaker 1: They weren't.
Speaker 7: It wasn't.
Speaker 1: Don't can you settle? Not a rumor? But okay, so
Speaker 1: we know, at least for that time in the late nineties,
Speaker 1: there were absolutely no firearms. We were told there were
Speaker 1: no firearms.
Speaker 6: In the UK, and then still I thought the UK
Speaker 6: is like the most firearms.
Speaker 1: We're so naive so much wait really happened.
Speaker 6: Because we was like mode on the eye gun control
Speaker 6: because the police, the police.
Speaker 7: Don't have guns. Oh, let's stay there.
Speaker 1: Wow. Ok, I never knew that.
Speaker 7: It's always been okay.
Speaker 1: So we heard a rumor that our beloved Westwood got shot.
Speaker 1: Asked by a member of that crew, I.
Speaker 7: Can neither confirmdi deny who did.
Speaker 1: No one will ever tell the story of why or
Speaker 1: if that happened.
Speaker 7: It's like, you have to understand, that was the.
Speaker 1: Realist hip hop shit ever heard coming out of London.
Speaker 1: That was it was real and he was kind of
Speaker 1: and I almost felt like it was a badge of
Speaker 1: honor for him. Yep, like I got shot, So.
Speaker 7: I'm still here. You gotta understand why did he gets shot?
Speaker 1: Tim Westwood is the figure from BBC that really brought
Speaker 1: a lot of classic hip hop. He was the funk
Speaker 1: master Flex of the UK. He's the voice that you
Speaker 1: hear on top of Public Enemy's classic It takes the
Speaker 1: nation of millions to hold us back. Fresh Start of
Speaker 1: the Week was the name of his his show.
Speaker 6: So he also was a whites man just in case people,
Speaker 6: yes he's a yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean, but I mean he was a
Speaker 1: pioneer source of bringing those shows over and I guess,
Speaker 1: like you know, with how pirate radio was in the UK,
Speaker 1: a lot of offspring, so like cats, like when I
Speaker 1: did two seven nine, that was a pirate radio show,
Speaker 1: but it was like a real operation, like the room
Speaker 1: we're in right now. It wasn't like at that point
Speaker 1: it was the government tire shutting them down and they're
Speaker 1: just like here, keep here, keep going.
Speaker 7: And then it became choice, and then in choice of
Speaker 7: family moved on to choice.
Speaker 1: It was nice two seven nines legit Now seven.
Speaker 7: Nine has been the ja I feel like he's a
Speaker 7: kiss so he was a kiss man.
Speaker 5: He sold everybody, did everybody listen? It's no games, but
Speaker 5: put it in its context too, No, I'm trying to
Speaker 5: put so solid and the vibe. So if you got
Speaker 5: hip hop, hip hop, hip hop, which was two seven
Speaker 5: nine in Westwood, then it became this shift when all
Speaker 5: the music became mixed up right, and then because they
Speaker 5: couldn't quite get a hold on hip hop, it was
Speaker 5: like that's not the new thing coming out. You had
Speaker 5: all these labels investing in new thing, which is garage, right,
Speaker 5: which is this huge scene that was blowing up that
Speaker 5: wasn't hip hop, that wasn't UK hip hop.
Speaker 7: That wasn't like after after establishment the labels.
Speaker 5: And so so solid was that, but So Solid was real,
Speaker 5: we're real dudes, Like they were like out there, some.
Speaker 7: Of them were really out there. There's a couple of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah right still still.
Speaker 5: So like you know, like it was a it was
Speaker 5: a very oh you guys think this is for fun,
Speaker 5: but like you're investing in real humans and real life scenarios.
Speaker 7: So also that.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to pain him as them all
Speaker 1: unreally thust because Greg David also came.
Speaker 5: From they came from that scene, but he wasn't in
Speaker 5: So Solid no parts he was before So Solid, but
Speaker 5: like they were all kind of after the two seven
Speaker 5: nine and and like Rodney p and like I was
Speaker 5: even in that more that scene than I was in
Speaker 5: the garage side and stuff. Like I was really like rapid,
Speaker 5: like I was in the ciphers. I was like doing
Speaker 5: the real uh.
Speaker 1: So all those names at the time that I saw,
Speaker 1: like uh miss Dynamite or Dizzy Rask.
Speaker 5: The street they came at the end of like the
Speaker 5: hit UK hip hop side of stuff, and they really
Speaker 5: ushered in that whole new garage side.
Speaker 7: That's what it was.
Speaker 5: That's what they came all right before so solid and
Speaker 5: then so Solid. It was came in like Wu Tang.
Speaker 5: It was patterned on hip hop, but it was just
Speaker 5: a different kind of sound.
Speaker 1: So did you ever think in your life that there
Speaker 1: would be a breakthrough, because again, like with the culture
Speaker 1: that they had, even I was like when German Vase
Speaker 1: first came out, I was like, yo, this is gonna kill.
Speaker 1: That's why we did it. When you Got Me, like
Speaker 1: we're gonna beat everybody, and even classic we tried, and
Speaker 1: even with well then when Bombs over back Then came
Speaker 1: out and you know that was Andre's version of they
Speaker 1: went to a club one night, I heard let's do that,
Speaker 1: But I never thought.
Speaker 5: I was yeah, because I'm here, I hear you Got Me,
Speaker 5: and everybody knows what that is. People hear bombs and
Speaker 5: people know it, but they don't like rocket difference between.
Speaker 1: If You Got Me and Bombs over back Then, it's
Speaker 1: like like two pages. There were four hero versus.
Speaker 4: Uh zero for versus like something from metal Heads. You know,
Speaker 4: it's like, okay, it's completely different. It's the same gundre,
Speaker 4: completely different sides of this.
Speaker 6: Plus you just teased us anyway, I've been waiting for
Speaker 6: the continuation of what that you just teased us with
Speaker 6: the end of you Got Me, you know, you know
Speaker 6: the I'm just saying, we are still waiting for the red.
Speaker 5: But but when you do things like that, though, especially
Speaker 5: is like it's such a jungle for us. Was our thing,
Speaker 5: Like I'm going to that after school. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 5: playing that all throughout school.
Speaker 7: I might here like.
Speaker 5: Jungleist, amout here losing my mind as a kid, Like
Speaker 5: that's our thing. Wherever we go in the world, that's
Speaker 5: our thing. So when we heard like, oh shit, it's
Speaker 5: on the roots, did like we lost our mortal minds,
Speaker 5: Like it was just because people would come take the
Speaker 5: music and not give it props. But you guys were
Speaker 5: there and like you got people that people loved, like
Speaker 5: I'm opening up for you, Like it was like, nah,
Speaker 5: they embraced us. It's not on some we came in
Speaker 5: to get the vibes and go back, like you guys
Speaker 5: spent time with us and our culture.
Speaker 7: So it was like respect we liked to Today.
Speaker 1: I miss it, so like why do you Well, obviously
Speaker 1: the answer is that the internet has now localized. Okay,
Speaker 1: well I'm saying do you feel as though the Internet
Speaker 1: had as colonized in a bad way? Yes, colonized well,
Speaker 1: and do you feel like the internet has colonized UK culture?
Speaker 1: Because I mean the good news of it is now
Speaker 1: you are all breakout stars and the world can get
Speaker 1: the information at the same time, whereas like there's no breakout,
Speaker 1: there's no But I also feel bad for like, like, okay,
Speaker 1: take miss Dynamite. Remember there was so much hope for
Speaker 1: her to be like, oh my god, this is gonna
Speaker 1: be the next Laurene Hill and blah blah blah, and
Speaker 1: it never happened.
Speaker 5: There were other things behind the scenes that with that though,
Speaker 5: like it it's real life and it's a culture thing
Speaker 5: and you have to make a choice. And I don't
Speaker 5: know her personally in that space to say, well she
Speaker 5: chose blah blah blah or she did this, but you know,
Speaker 5: people give up on what they don't when you don't
Speaker 5: fit into a mold or you don't fit into what
Speaker 5: they think, you know, So there was stuff with.
Speaker 1: It, you mean, the audience of the artists, the audience.
Speaker 5: And the labels, you know, like she wasn't probably going
Speaker 5: to do a certain amount of things you know, and
Speaker 5: she had a kid bang in the middle, and at
Speaker 5: that point that wasn't the excuse. But I'm saying like,
Speaker 5: because look, I walk into a room after her right
Speaker 5: after it to get signed, and I can up front.
Speaker 7: Someone literally said to me, well, we're just working with
Speaker 7: and she and looked at me like I can't take
Speaker 7: that risk.
Speaker 8: And I was just like, really, I don't have a
Speaker 8: boyfriend about to say get Rightnant said us was hurt
Speaker 8: about that, and I was just like, you got the
Speaker 8: last word wild, how about it.
Speaker 4: It's safe to say everybody in this room has heard
Speaker 4: Amy Hye House's debut album, Frank Yeah. I was working
Speaker 4: at Universal when that album was out here in the
Speaker 4: United States and it was supposed to come out here
Speaker 4: and they took it off the schedule because they didn't
Speaker 4: know what to do with it.
Speaker 7: Crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm like, it didn't really feel like it was a
Speaker 1: hard cell. You just listened to the record sounds.
Speaker 7: Like me to hit and roots records and radio. I
Speaker 7: likes anything different the record in that time.
Speaker 4: But the thing is like anybody, like anybody I played
Speaker 4: that record for like they're like, oh, what is who
Speaker 4: is that?
Speaker 1: What is that? Did most people don't know about Frank.
Speaker 1: Most people think like to back it for good contention.
Speaker 1: People thought that that was like her debut. So when
Speaker 1: you're making uh, well, okay, what were the steps that
Speaker 1: led to uh the eighteenth.
Speaker 7: Day my first album? I okay?
Speaker 5: So I took the example. I've been in underground arts
Speaker 5: for my whole life. I've been like an independent on
Speaker 5: underground arts for.
Speaker 7: My whole life.
Speaker 5: And I was the girl that was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: go make these records. I'm gonna go find a distribution deal.
Speaker 5: And I read this book by yourself. Yep, no manager, I.
Speaker 7: Know at the time.
Speaker 5: I've had I've had managers, but I would direct them.
Speaker 7: I'm very much the king of my castle.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I direct and I listened, and I pay attention,
Speaker 5: and I work with people who are incredible. But I'm
Speaker 5: very much an instant gut person. So I was like, man,
Speaker 5: look these people out here. Every time we go to
Speaker 5: a label, they keep talking about we don't know what
Speaker 5: to do, so let's show them.
Speaker 7: And I was like, well, let's go get these distribution deals.
Speaker 5: And so I had the one. I went to it.
Speaker 5: I went to a bunch of labels. They were like, we
Speaker 5: don't know. I said, cool, I'm gonna sure you what
Speaker 5: to do. Got my distribution deal. We sold five thousand
Speaker 5: hands to hand and also like digitally and like not
Speaker 5: digitally but like on the internet.
Speaker 7: At the time, right we were sending like one.
Speaker 5: Or two CDs a week, which was great at the time,
Speaker 5: and then around Europe and the UK, but also five
Speaker 5: thousand within a month. After going to the labels and
Speaker 5: them saying we don't know what to do, had a
Speaker 5: really dope publicist and she put me on every magazine
Speaker 5: you could find a couple of covers where they were
Speaker 5: struggling to get their artists and I had no deal.
Speaker 7: It was just me and my me and my label Stellards.
Speaker 1: What what happened so that the whole time we were together,
Speaker 1: you was you were too short out the trunk.
Speaker 5: Out and then and then and then the next set,
Speaker 5: the next set of times. I definitely was like on
Speaker 5: V two and the same person that was like I
Speaker 5: don't get it, was like, I guess I should sign you.
Speaker 5: I was like, just so we did the deal, and
Speaker 5: even throughout that whole period he was looking at me like,
Speaker 5: so that record free you wrote it.
Speaker 7: I had to get the producer on the phone.
Speaker 5: The disrespect was so thick and so real about young
Speaker 5: black artists. You could have possibly written a record that
Speaker 5: thorough off your own head and off your own heart
Speaker 5: because you're a little black girl from the hood.
Speaker 7: How like you guys don't do that.
Speaker 5: It was that that kind of I called the producer
Speaker 5: and I said, so, did you write any of the
Speaker 5: words or Melody said no, I just play guitar, I said,
Speaker 5: and I put a phone now, And this guy was
Speaker 5: so angry and mortified and like we just go out
Speaker 5: of his way to stop everything with the second album.
Speaker 5: And that's when I know, how did you get.
Speaker 7: Even get to the thirteenth eighteenth day?
Speaker 1: No, but how did you even get James and Omar?
Speaker 1: And you got John Legend on the first record?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I just I was recording Hi Hello.
Speaker 7: The Kanye story is real, like I really did.
Speaker 4: I was in La recording and I love that story
Speaker 4: because because I mean, now, Kanye being who he is,
Speaker 4: you know, you would think that was a Kanye move.
Speaker 7: It's a different gun.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it was a different Kanye than but you
Speaker 4: would think, you know, now, knowing who Kanye is, you
Speaker 4: would go up and ask for you know Kanye's inflation,
Speaker 4: but you went up and ask for John Legend?
Speaker 5: Yeah, because his voice is incredible, And I was I
Speaker 5: get I get my instinct again, right.
Speaker 7: I was like, na, this guy's voice.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 5: My boyfriend at time was like, if you don't just
Speaker 5: go find this guy because you just out here smiling.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's cute and all, but like also like
Speaker 5: I was like, no, I have to find him.
Speaker 7: And then it was just fading.
Speaker 6: Did you know about his education at the time, And like,
Speaker 6: I have a feeling that has a lot to do
Speaker 6: with his success.
Speaker 5: So that's why I was like, John's a smart guy,
Speaker 5: but also he's he's the same thing. He's instinct to
Speaker 5: a degree, you know. And we met traveling and I
Speaker 5: was like, yo, I was finding all this is lovely.
Speaker 5: We're in Record Plant in l A. And I'm like, yo,
Speaker 5: I've got like two dollars to my name to get
Speaker 5: back to the hotel. Can we wrap this up type deal?
Speaker 5: Like I have to leave in a couple of hours,
Speaker 5: And he was. He was there and we connected up
Speaker 5: and I left and he was like, yeah, I just
Speaker 5: like your drive and the fact that you didn't come
Speaker 5: in here giving a crap about a yeay or whoever's
Speaker 5: in the studio is like, no, I came to find
Speaker 5: you to do this record that I have pre recorded
Speaker 5: vocals and lyrics to. Can you sing this pop please?
Speaker 5: And he was like live me here, and I was like,
Speaker 5: I gave it to him, blade it. I was like,
Speaker 5: listen to your own time, all right. I had a
Speaker 5: hard drive and everything. I remember it cost so much money.
Speaker 5: I gave him the hard drive.
Speaker 7: I was so tight, the whole hard drive terrabike. No,
Speaker 7: I don't know. And then like I left and he
Speaker 7: called me. He was like, yeah, it's good. It's good, dude.
Speaker 1: I've known you forever. I never knew the film and
Speaker 1: Louise ending the card jump that it took. Damn dude,
Speaker 1: how come I never did that story.
Speaker 6: I don't have to stop time to stop and talk.
Speaker 7: For real, write a book about all these moments.
Speaker 1: But like.
Speaker 5: This has been my whole I don't I don't wait
Speaker 5: for the opening. I'll just push through the door, you know.
Speaker 5: If I feel the instinct, it's like go go, go,
Speaker 5: go go, you know.
Speaker 1: So even then, I mean, I'm almost certain it was
Speaker 1: just just to get to above water level was a goal.
Speaker 1: Not even to like it wasn't even he I'm gonna
Speaker 1: really kill this game and da da da da da.
Speaker 1: So I mean, by the time you get to the
Speaker 1: second record, what are you thinking.
Speaker 5: By the time we got to Shine, I was grateful
Speaker 5: for John in a way that like people, you know what,
Speaker 5: I'm this person.
Speaker 7: Very loyal, I don't care what.
Speaker 5: John stuck his neck out for me without thinking, like
Speaker 5: everybody that is rare mine and everybody in his team
Speaker 5: at the time was like what is this Like it
Speaker 5: was smoothie Like they dissed me to my face, like.
Speaker 7: I mean, you don't know Aretha like that. I know Aretha.
Speaker 7: I'm just not an Aretha singer.
Speaker 5: Like and it was like a lot of different shots
Speaker 5: at me because I was supposed to be this kind
Speaker 5: of black girl and I come and rapping and singing
Speaker 5: and out of a smoother voice and I'm confident and
Speaker 5: you're not gonna tell me nothing. I came here with
Speaker 5: lubatons and I came here with my with my fashion
Speaker 5: on my vibes.
Speaker 7: You feel me else.
Speaker 5: I was very much like I'm not going to give
Speaker 5: you all those facts, but like also I'm not going
Speaker 5: to take it to heart. I'm just gonna do what
Speaker 5: I came here to do. And and a lot of
Speaker 5: people shout him like why you sign her, Like this
Speaker 5: doesn't make no sense, this is a terrible investment, blah
Speaker 5: blah blah blah blah. And he was like, I've seen her,
Speaker 5: I've seen her work, I've seen a girl.
Speaker 7: Trust me. I'm just here for the ride. He literally
Speaker 7: was saying it to me like, look, if we don't
Speaker 7: need to work together in ten years, please live your
Speaker 7: best life. And essentially we did.
Speaker 5: But you know, but he stuck his neck out for
Speaker 5: me in a way that is unprecedented, and I'm forever
Speaker 5: grateful because I went to the label that were like nah,
Speaker 5: and then like I guess I should sign you. And
Speaker 5: I said to them, after like the first two meetings
Speaker 5: of like, you don't really do this, it's a lie.
Speaker 7: Go find your ghost writer.
Speaker 5: I said to them, So look, next album I have
Speaker 5: John Legends he wants to except produce it. He won
Speaker 5: about five hundred Grammys. This guy is touring out the world.
Speaker 5: These albums gold at this point in the UK, Europe
Speaker 5: and the whole world. And they said to me, who's that?
Speaker 5: And I wanted to punch the wall. I said let
Speaker 5: me go. I said let me go, and they were
Speaker 5: like what I said, no, let me go, Please let
Speaker 5: me go. And then he was like, I said to him,
Speaker 5: so the second album, id ast you to exact produce,
Speaker 5: I'm going to leave the label. He was like, I'll
Speaker 5: sign you. I said, you sure. He's like, yeah, all right, come.
Speaker 1: On, this guy never happens like that, never accepting a case.
Speaker 7: Are you the only release from that? I'm like, wait
Speaker 7: a minute.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: He set the label up to put me out John.
Speaker 5: School Record, John Jon's a G for that.
Speaker 7: People don't know that part, so everyone thinks it's the
Speaker 7: A but it's John.
Speaker 1: Wow. He did.
Speaker 5: He did a lot as far as having my back
Speaker 5: and just support me and not really taking the credit.
Speaker 5: As far as like you know, where people like, oh,
Speaker 5: people say, oh he wrote this, and he wrote that
Speaker 5: for He's like, he's not the one out there shouting it.
Speaker 7: People make up their assumptions. You know. He lets me,
Speaker 7: he knows, he knows my capabilities and stuff.
Speaker 5: Have y'all reconnected, So now that y'all live in the
Speaker 5: same town, I seen him. I see him around like
Speaker 5: we call I'm good friends with the team. We're still
Speaker 5: get like that's family.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, true, true to how music history works. I
Speaker 1: believe that I've heard the story before. The legend of
Speaker 1: American Boy was that was it the last song made
Speaker 1: and it's just like an afterthought it was.
Speaker 7: Will didn't believe that the record was a hit, like
Speaker 7: the music was a hit.
Speaker 5: Because it came from yeah, right, he said, He's like,
Speaker 5: I don't think that's I said, trust me, this is
Speaker 5: what we listened to our own this is this is it,
Speaker 5: this is it.
Speaker 7: And I was literally on the beach in Miami and
Speaker 7: song it was BB Records.
Speaker 1: It it was the Interscope the Songs about Girls, the
Speaker 1: one that nobody.
Speaker 7: B b in the UK. Yeah, in the UK.
Speaker 4: It came out on Interscope here Songs about Girls, Yeah,
Speaker 4: the one that at least nobody here really did.
Speaker 1: They had a couple of joints on when you said,
Speaker 1: rhyme over that beat or I want to.
Speaker 5: Sing over We wrote it like three minutes. I woke
Speaker 5: with it the next day an hour and then and
Speaker 5: then but that every time we played it to people,
Speaker 5: that energy would just shoot up, like it was it
Speaker 5: was like palpable sitting in the room played the record,
Speaker 5: everyone was like, oh vibes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say that probably American Boy
Speaker 1: is probably one of the few songs in this millennium
Speaker 1: now that we at least have two decades under our belt,
Speaker 1: not the age of saw too late. No, especially with
Speaker 1: the especially the way that information happens and like one
Speaker 1: song just instantly replaces another song without you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: you remember how many times you've heard Crazy bout Nols
Speaker 1: Barkley when it first came out. It's sort of like
Speaker 1: you might hear it now, but it's almost like I
Speaker 1: feel like maybe American Boy next to Crazy and Love,
Speaker 1: Like that's one of the songs that won't ever die.
Speaker 1: I it's still on my DJ set right now.
Speaker 6: Somebody just made a remix on I just I was like,
Speaker 6: they still make your remixes still.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's about about three in the past two years.
Speaker 1: TAM's joint. Yeah, I was about to say, like that.
Speaker 5: They trap it out, they put it on TikTok Live
Speaker 5: your Best Life, that's what we want.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid to go there.
Speaker 7: Foolishness is amazing.
Speaker 1: But I gotta go there to know what what song
Speaker 1: to play.
Speaker 4: To play, you know, Taken My Life Back, No, more
Speaker 4: social media for me jealous?
Speaker 1: So was it ever a point where it's like tiring,
Speaker 1: like again, like, are you somewhere between Nirvana smells like
Speaker 1: teen Spirit where they refuse to do it now and day?
Speaker 1: I saw where me and myself and I where they
Speaker 1: just sing we hate the song all over the things
Speaker 1: like is it that? Or you're just like nope, I
Speaker 1: know where my bread is buttered.
Speaker 7: And I had to reset.
Speaker 5: I had records in the UK that people will never
Speaker 5: not let me perform, like that's ninety eighty for me
Speaker 5: and to the point where.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we were down what you said ninety eight?
Speaker 7: I'm just like, do you know the words? Because I do?
Speaker 7: To the second person, are I've forgetting?
Speaker 5: There's so many words in my head, so many my head.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna have a telepromt the fifty five. It is gonna,
Speaker 5: it's gonna happen.
Speaker 7: But he did. I had to.
Speaker 5: I had to reset my energy with that because I
Speaker 5: literally pray for records like that no and I got one,
Speaker 5: and I was like, how dare I be ungrateful and
Speaker 5: saying I don't want to sing it?
Speaker 7: And it makes me happy?
Speaker 5: There's so many ways to sing that record and like
Speaker 5: sometimes I don't say it too and then you have
Speaker 5: to consider that.
Speaker 7: Then I'm saying genuine that that's my new reference. He said,
Speaker 7: if you're.
Speaker 1: Lord, this is amazing. They sing everything everywhere.
Speaker 7: He just why, I'm just.
Speaker 5: I'm the one in the back screaming, look by me.
Speaker 7: It's me genuine Hi. That was this is terrible.
Speaker 5: I was twelve singing something related to say.
Speaker 1: That related to I'm a character on Parks and rec
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, and genuine is me and Redda's
Speaker 1: first cousin. That's revealed in the last episode show. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's yeah, you don't watch.
Speaker 7: I didn't know what's still parks.
Speaker 1: Everywhere. It's the mood tang of comedy.
Speaker 7: I know everybody came from there.
Speaker 1: It's one of the best. Yes, but one of the
Speaker 1: longest running running jokes was about her long lost brother,
Speaker 1: which they had me play. That's genuine is her first cousin.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, she's on a Netflix show.
Speaker 1: That's right, Yes, exactly, genuine.
Speaker 7: I'm going to go watch. Thank you. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: It's shout out to my first cousine, Elgin Lumpkins for
Speaker 1: all of me, which, okay, slight side note, I'll admit it,
Speaker 1: because Bill's like, you fake motherfucker. You know, I forgot
Speaker 1: about the interlude. I totally forgot about that. So even
Speaker 1: in reuh capping your music, I was like, oh, ship,
Speaker 1: I totally forgot about that. What was your what was
Speaker 1: your What was the impetus or at least the process
Speaker 1: in creating this record?
Speaker 5: I was going through a lot, you got. I was
Speaker 5: coming off of like Shine the American boy. All of my
Speaker 5: worlds were completely shifting. And I say that in the
Speaker 5: nicest way. Friends with Wilent. I was Wilent boyfriends.
Speaker 1: What is that whirlwind?
Speaker 5: Like you're not on the ground and you're trying to
Speaker 5: desperately hold onto the ground that you know, because like
Speaker 5: moving it out from under you anyway.
Speaker 1: And with nine siblings also, how does that affect you? Oh?
Speaker 7: It was wild?
Speaker 5: Like my little sister. My family moved out of London
Speaker 5: because so my little sister, one of them was so hyped.
Speaker 5: It was just it was unsettling for them. And that's
Speaker 5: when I realized, I say it to people, to your success.
Speaker 1: I got siblings too.
Speaker 7: Not on purpose.
Speaker 5: One of them got a little whild with it and
Speaker 5: then we had to move the whole Then the whole
Speaker 5: family moved because it was like taking my stuff to
Speaker 5: school and to do the school thing, and like all
Speaker 5: my sisters this, and people liking you for the trainers
Speaker 5: you wore or you brought that your sister's trainers, and
Speaker 5: then news people creeping up around my family house. We
Speaker 5: still sort of lived in the hood a bit and
Speaker 5: going to the drug dealers two doors down and talking
Speaker 5: and I was like, my littlest brother, who's an account
Speaker 5: and a lawyer and an incredible brilliant young man, had
Speaker 5: to go up there and be a big gangster, and
Speaker 5: it's just like, nah, that's my actual family I raised,
Speaker 5: and nah, you know, so I'm dealing with that whilst
Speaker 5: never be in the home and the people that you're
Speaker 5: trying to call your family were out here just not
Speaker 5: having your back.
Speaker 7: It was just a lot going on during the all
Speaker 7: of Me period.
Speaker 5: And then I'm dating a dude who was just wildly trash.
Speaker 1: We all are trash, no, not all of you.
Speaker 7: He was used to start out that way, you know,
Speaker 7: ten years ago he was trash.
Speaker 5: So here we are, uh, almost ten years ago, and
Speaker 5: I was going through a lot and trying to just
Speaker 5: hold onto something that looked like love or looked like
Speaker 5: home and it was all needed to go.
Speaker 1: Is it hard navigating that? Ol? You know, I know
Speaker 1: that where most people either had is their home, but
Speaker 1: I mean you moved to the States and kind of
Speaker 1: without any stable family. Well, I don't know. For some people,
Speaker 1: getting away from the family might be the necessary.
Speaker 5: No, it wasn't necessary more than I just knew I
Speaker 5: had to do that for my career because it was
Speaker 5: like I one, it was just tiring every three months
Speaker 5: getting on the flight and your energy just is up
Speaker 5: and down, right, you know that toured extensively, Yeah, for
Speaker 5: a very long time, and so I imagine doing that
Speaker 5: and then everyone demands all this stuff of you. So
Speaker 5: I was like, I'm just gonna move there. My mom
Speaker 5: was like, I knew it was gonna happen. Eventually, they
Speaker 5: helped me. They sent me off and they would try
Speaker 5: and come and visit, and then the visits dwindled, and
Speaker 5: then I was never home so it didn't really matter.
Speaker 5: And then I would go home to London and I
Speaker 5: couldn't go home, and so they come and see me
Speaker 5: at the hotel for two hours right before I go
Speaker 5: to the to the airport again. And it was just
Speaker 5: like I lost touch per se, not on purpose, but
Speaker 5: by force of we.
Speaker 7: Just didn't have the time.
Speaker 5: So it would be like I was so grateful for
Speaker 5: the hotel suites that I had because the whole.
Speaker 7: Family could come.
Speaker 5: I come crash and I just got to sit down
Speaker 5: and my mom would bring African food and we would
Speaker 5: sit down. Yeah, right, and the whole vibe and they
Speaker 5: were gone, and I have to go back to being
Speaker 5: a stellar ro.
Speaker 7: But you know, there's a lot happening.
Speaker 1: Actually, there's a question I do have that I'm probably
Speaker 1: certain I wouldn't be able to ask had you come
Speaker 1: on the show a year ago. Now you're dealing with Okay,
Speaker 1: where when we say the fuckery that is this current administration,
Speaker 1: you're actually dealing with this two times over. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so what is what is the not not you know,
Speaker 1: def Con five or whatever, but what's the current concern
Speaker 1: of yours or level of fear concern when it comes
Speaker 1: to you traveling overseas or your family coming over here
Speaker 1: or you Because I see where this is about to
Speaker 1: go if Old Money gets a second term in office. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean two weeks ago, there's there's been nine other
Speaker 1: countries added and all them from Africa because of.
Speaker 7: The year the return you think, wow, you really think that.
Speaker 7: I believes Gana added to that.
Speaker 5: No, but because they have other deals with different US countries.
Speaker 5: But I feel like it was just the idea. Here's
Speaker 5: my thing that I've seen you give the energy of
Speaker 5: you scare people, You make them feel like you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, and that is that does more for
Speaker 5: people's energy than people's perception of what's going on than.
Speaker 7: The actual thing, you know what I mean? And I think.
Speaker 5: Ye, And it's like the fear of like, oh well,
Speaker 5: now it's gonna like can we really go there? But meanwhile,
Speaker 5: the energy at the top of it was like, we
Speaker 5: can do this. It's not as crazy as what.
Speaker 1: So it's travel been hard for you coming in and
Speaker 1: out of the States, like like longer at.
Speaker 5: The as soon as I saw that going I actually
Speaker 5: wouldn't apply for my passport.
Speaker 1: Okay, I have dual citizenship, okay.
Speaker 5: So like because I was like, nah, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 5: all my things are here, so let.
Speaker 7: Me make sure I'm good on both sides of the
Speaker 7: of the of the war. Your family's passports, says Britain
Speaker 7: on Yeah.
Speaker 5: But the beautiful thing is we also, like I said,
Speaker 5: I'm very clear, so to your citizenships there we have salive'
Speaker 5: seing the own passports.
Speaker 7: We have different we could go.
Speaker 5: You know, they've done We've done smart things, strategically smart.
Speaker 5: My brother and sisters I love them for this. They're
Speaker 5: very smart about how they handle themselves. And I'm proud
Speaker 5: of them and that, you know, they really hold their
Speaker 5: side of family thing. They don't look at me like
Speaker 5: you got to do. You know, they really are brilliant
Speaker 5: in their own rights. So I'm proud of them. They
Speaker 5: hold it down.
Speaker 1: Five passports, never going to jail.
Speaker 5: Okay, how about that take the heart that's too heart. Yes,
Speaker 5: it's not a game because people, he's wild. This guy's crazy.
Speaker 1: So now now that we are where we are, and
Speaker 1: well the afore mentioned twenty one Savage being one of
Speaker 1: the one of the biggest UK I'm not. I'm still
Speaker 1: like like, oh wait, you're just finding out.
Speaker 7: Now, No, like like whatever I found out.
Speaker 1: Exactly so well, I'm just saying that it's you big.
Speaker 1: It's like, how do you feel about the current climate
Speaker 1: of today's artists that are coming from the UK and
Speaker 1: kind of the.
Speaker 7: I love it.
Speaker 5: I would love to see more of them actually do
Speaker 5: the effective work here though. Okay, Like, besides the big
Speaker 5: pop artists that they pull out the UK, I love
Speaker 5: to see like the R and B and hip hop
Speaker 5: artists do more of the groundwork because I know that
Speaker 5: everyone's always like, yo, you really did it, and I'm
Speaker 5: just like, you should be here doing the radio runs
Speaker 5: and doing the doing the like the smaller the black
Speaker 5: culture things, because it's it's like they're selling you on
Speaker 5: one thing. But the thing I know I had to
Speaker 5: do with the All of Me album, well, thank You
Speaker 5: was work backwards. So American Boy came and it blew right.
Speaker 5: Black people here didn't really know me like that though.
Speaker 5: So when I did Thank You, I was like, it's fine,
Speaker 5: we'ginning and they were like, no, no, no, You're going
Speaker 5: to Mississippi. No no, no, You're going to go see
Speaker 5: some black people and you're really gonna talk and be
Speaker 5: out there.
Speaker 7: And I had to do it.
Speaker 5: And that's the stuff that I think that people miss
Speaker 5: when they say like, oh, you're you're big around the world,
Speaker 5: You're going America, You're gonna clean But you know, Joe
Speaker 5: In and in Champagne Illinois don't know you. You know,
Speaker 5: and it's like and you know, and maybe it's over
Speaker 5: there and Mississippi has no clue.
Speaker 7: Just not.
Speaker 1: My grandmom.
Speaker 5: It's true, like but like real folks who are just
Speaker 5: like in the same way that, like I was.
Speaker 1: Going to say, yeah that it just hit me.
Speaker 7: I don't know, so in.
Speaker 5: The same kind of way, like look, it might be
Speaker 5: the poppingist thing and you might look like, but go
Speaker 5: and do the world my grandma and grandmama, like, you know, like.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, so, that's that was smart
Speaker 1: of you to yo, you're just hitting me now.
Speaker 7: And nobody else has followed. Nobody's looking.
Speaker 1: I can't name it mountain times that we performed in
Speaker 1: Mississippi or Alabama or you know, I mean, at least
Speaker 1: in the last I mean, we don't do miss the
Speaker 1: down South states as much as we do our regular
Speaker 1: because y'all.
Speaker 6: Were built on colleges too, though, don't you think so?
Speaker 6: Because of the foundation in a way.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but then you also have a different way into
Speaker 5: people's spirits with TV, so it's a different you know.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but you still got to get the black vote.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, but still.
Speaker 6: Black people populating in that audience on Jami in this
Speaker 6: research and that.
Speaker 1: Kids put them because all our families are big in
Speaker 1: this for tickets.
Speaker 6: Has nice super Bowl commercial.
Speaker 1: Boss, thank you, you know.
Speaker 5: Matter what they got to do that, I still am
Speaker 5: just like I want to see a Georgia Smith come
Speaker 5: here and do that run and I want to see
Speaker 5: like I want to see miss Banks coming here and
Speaker 5: do you know?
Speaker 7: And I said, and it's that fine line of you
Speaker 7: you don't have to, but you should, you know, I
Speaker 7: said to Sims.
Speaker 5: I was like, you don't have to move here, but
Speaker 5: you should come here and stay for a while or
Speaker 5: come whatever you want to do, like but you don't
Speaker 5: have to, but you should for a while.
Speaker 1: Come.
Speaker 5: You can't sell somebody or tell someone that you get
Speaker 5: their culture if you're not hearing it, you know, not
Speaker 5: the same way like like you went to the UK
Speaker 5: and you lived it, you could talk to it.
Speaker 1: Not for nothing. Well, I mean we did it because
Speaker 1: like we knew they would accept us. But not for nothing.
Speaker 1: When you're when you're fine and okay, you have a
Speaker 1: potential second chapter as a manager, or at least that
Speaker 1: of like almost Carroll Lewis like an agent, because I
Speaker 1: don't think that your average when when when a person
Speaker 1: comes from uh, from where they are to the United States.
Speaker 1: I think nine times out of ten they're just thinking
Speaker 1: of New York, La Vegas, maybe Chicago, like a major
Speaker 1: city whereas you know, people aren't thinking of long range.
Speaker 7: I had to physically do it. That's why I know
Speaker 7: it works.
Speaker 6: You know, like once you see them, don't you see
Speaker 6: your stuf? Like once you see them and you go
Speaker 6: to their town, they love you for life.
Speaker 5: They love you for life. Look, I went to Selma
Speaker 5: and sang Conqueror on the on the not on the
Speaker 5: next day when TV wanted the special and I met
Speaker 5: Tremaine Hawkins. Two to me is like the garden arm
Speaker 5: in gospel things like that, and she knew my record,
Speaker 5: and my.
Speaker 7: Whole heart exploded, like wow.
Speaker 5: Like things like that like lose I lose my mind
Speaker 5: about things like that because it's like this is who
Speaker 5: I grew up listening to as an eight nine ten
Speaker 5: year old in my mom's kitchen and I'm sitting there
Speaker 5: going what and She's stand in front of my face
Speaker 5: singing Conqueror And I almost collapsed, Like but you don't.
Speaker 5: You're not gonna get to those moments where it's those
Speaker 5: people we sound on their shoulders if you don't go
Speaker 5: and touch them there the people, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 5: you're not going to get those And I just feel
Speaker 5: like we have so much great we write the rules,
Speaker 5: come here and talk to people about the rules that
Speaker 5: we write in like, come and help them understand the
Speaker 5: new swerve, the new energy about it all. And from
Speaker 5: our point of view, like it's it's it's wildly lonely.
Speaker 7: It's been wildly lonely for a very long time being
Speaker 7: me and Marsha, Right.
Speaker 9: It's just I tell people all the time, show you
Speaker 9: have to build a tribe, like there has to be
Speaker 9: nine at least nine like minded people.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well I started my label like on that because I
Speaker 5: was like, well, I have all of this to give
Speaker 5: and I want I want to be able to leave
Speaker 5: this legacy, like do the work and you know, come
Speaker 5: here and put time in and you're not going to
Speaker 5: sleep for like twenty years, but it's all right.
Speaker 6: It'll be okay.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I have fun when you're dead, man,
Speaker 5: that's like the only option you'll have.
Speaker 7: Like, so, also, do you like LA now? I like it?
Speaker 7: Do you like it as a single lady?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 6: Okay, I don't think I wanted.
Speaker 7: To clarify because you part is. But here's the thing.
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, I have to change my energy about all
Speaker 5: that things, all that stuff because I potential. It's definitely
Speaker 5: has a couple of potentials out there. I definitely in La. Yeah,
Speaker 5: it's like two three.
Speaker 7: I think it's around.
Speaker 6: Yes, people don't know that that's hard in La.
Speaker 7: This is hard.
Speaker 1: This is the podcast I'm about navigating the single life.
Speaker 7: Short version is trash. No, no, it's not trash. It's
Speaker 7: just my friends always say to me, Look, as hard
Speaker 7: as you.
Speaker 5: Work on your music and your life and your career,
Speaker 5: you have to work on your love life.
Speaker 7: Exactly.
Speaker 1: It's hard.
Speaker 7: So I had to change.
Speaker 5: But wait and you to come out of town. They
Speaker 5: have to come from outtown.
Speaker 6: And then she gave you the speeches she gave me
Speaker 6: about listen, like you have to open your mind when
Speaker 6: you come to l A.
Speaker 7: Angela Nizzle.
Speaker 6: She was like, Angela Nizzle and Don were like, listen,
Speaker 6: you got a day outside your race.
Speaker 7: I was like, but they don't, they don't. I tried.
Speaker 7: It was it was.
Speaker 6: It was interesting, right, It's just not the same, Like
Speaker 6: why go for the second if you want.
Speaker 7: It is the accent.
Speaker 1: I know accent, it's no what I.
Speaker 6: Want, what I want and the day I mean I
Speaker 6: want to.
Speaker 7: I want what I want, you know what?
Speaker 5: But like l A has opened me out though, like
Speaker 5: I am a lot more like I see two sides
Speaker 5: of everything.
Speaker 7: I balanced.
Speaker 5: It's how is that person feeling when they like, I'm
Speaker 5: not human because I can't be a judge baptist.
Speaker 7: Like I've done too much.
Speaker 5: I've been through too much to like put anybody you
Speaker 5: on anything, for anything, on anybody and say well that's that,
Speaker 5: And you know, I just kind of I'm open, but
Speaker 5: also like I want I.
Speaker 7: Want compromise on something. Every day I have to sit
Speaker 7: and be like.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know something you do sometimes chameleonize yourself
Speaker 1: into another person. Slight confession. Okay, so when I went
Speaker 1: to Smart, Black and Funny, it took me eight minutes
Speaker 1: to realize I was sitting with you and Melanie Fiona.
Speaker 7: Are you serious?
Speaker 1: I didn't hear a trace of accent, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: these girls are so nice to me.
Speaker 7: That's wow. We said that I probably had different hair too, and.
Speaker 1: Then Melanie caught me, yeah, your hair was changed. I
Speaker 1: was sitting behind you at first, and then Melanie said something.
Speaker 1: I said, wait, I feel like I know this person
Speaker 1: and her hair was different, and then your accent came out.
Speaker 7: Oh fuck, look.
Speaker 5: Because this is this has been my I've been learning
Speaker 5: American accents too, because every time I go so I'm
Speaker 5: doing acting more acting job.
Speaker 7: I want to Cynthia Rea. But go ahead, get to it.
Speaker 7: You know that's the thing.
Speaker 6: A mirror coming over here. They give me acting jobs.
Speaker 1: You know you're in.
Speaker 7: I've been doing it, let me tell you.
Speaker 5: But like, the thing is, they keep giving me these
Speaker 5: rolls A laugh for my bad is your bike? Because
Speaker 5: I'm just like, first of all, what so they keep
Speaker 5: asking me to be strippers, and I keep being like.
Speaker 7: Where I don't see it.
Speaker 5: I don't have enough you walk away? You know what more,
Speaker 5: I don't have enough for this, okay, and looking like.
Speaker 7: I had to. I had beef with one of my agents.
Speaker 5: Yo, stop sending me in these damn like we know, no, bro,
Speaker 5: better say I guess the hustlers.
Speaker 7: Relax. No, I didn't get that well, I should got
Speaker 7: that one. Not even fun.
Speaker 5: I could have learned how to actually strip, but I
Speaker 5: didn't want to bend on the super Bowl.
Speaker 6: But I have a mild I'm just joking because I
Speaker 6: love her.
Speaker 5: Wait, I love by the way.
Speaker 7: I had. I had a time. It was no stripping story.
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 5: I was in the strip club first time I heard
Speaker 5: my song outside in Atlanta.
Speaker 7: No magic, magic American boy, yeah ship.
Speaker 5: No, it was onyx On and we went there to
Speaker 5: treat the guys because like life on the road. And
Speaker 5: I was like, let's go to trick left there, no right,
Speaker 5: how they gotta go wings, Sure, let's.
Speaker 1: Go yes, based on their wings, shout out, shoutouts.
Speaker 6: All right, listen, you can't even get the names out fast.
Speaker 7: And I know it's so many good strip clubs, good food.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I'm I found Wait, there's a good.
Speaker 7: I love it. It's good because I was like, well,
Speaker 7: here we are, and the other day I was like,
Speaker 7: here we are. This is interesting.
Speaker 1: What is it.
Speaker 7: It's Sam Sam Browse or something like that.
Speaker 5: It's downtown and well I didn't eat the food, but
Speaker 5: the girls, the ladies were love me. And so here's
Speaker 5: the thing. I go in there and I'm just like, again,
Speaker 5: I'm not judging.
Speaker 7: I don't care.
Speaker 5: They'll be your best life, right, And it was just
Speaker 5: always weird when they play my record and the dude
Speaker 5: set it up like we.
Speaker 7: Got some so remember.
Speaker 5: You had you had Lloyd in the house, you had
Speaker 5: like Lloyd and this is this is years ago Lloyd
Speaker 5: bow Wow and a few other singers right early singers,
Speaker 5: R and B singers, and they're like that side of
Speaker 5: the club and I'm just like, oh, ship, oh this
Speaker 5: like ah and I'm just in there trying to like okay,
Speaker 5: but I'm meet over.
Speaker 7: And then the guy, my girl, my assistant.
Speaker 5: Had told the dude that I was there, and she's like, yeah,
Speaker 5: we got real singing in the house.
Speaker 1: And I was like.
Speaker 7: Ship, and then he puts the regular I do too.
Speaker 5: My fan is and I was just like in bask
Speaker 5: and he goes to me, y'all sing the song and
Speaker 5: then I'm singing American Boy, It's gonna and she's like
Speaker 5: she's major and I'm just like, oh, that's pretty good.
Speaker 5: Comes down and then she's like I just love you, you
Speaker 5: just so do You're so cute, you so like you're
Speaker 5: so classy.
Speaker 7: And I was like yeah, okay, and then she hugs
Speaker 7: me and it's like is that weird? Awkward? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 7: and then it happened again.
Speaker 5: It's stadium with thank you with stadium and ship was no.
Speaker 5: They played break my Heart and then they all came
Speaker 5: come up to me in a line like a.
Speaker 7: Greeting with me and Greek line.
Speaker 5: I was like church, they didn't dance for you, so
Speaker 5: but they were like coming to be like nice. So
Speaker 5: it was like no, you're you like, no, don't. I
Speaker 5: will put money in the in the dancer's hand.
Speaker 7: It just considering it.
Speaker 5: It's not gonna happen. I'm an all up. I am
Speaker 5: the killer of vibes. No, I'm like amazing.
Speaker 7: TV story. I had a wild and crazy life.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, Mike, Mike knew about this story. Now,
Speaker 5: the guys hadn't set me up. We were on the
Speaker 5: road and I said to myself, I tweet something like, yo,
Speaker 5: me be like when you I'll be quiet. When I'll
Speaker 5: be quiet when he leaves, I'll be talking again about
Speaker 5: when the first come up on the show, when it
Speaker 5: was first on the show, And I tweet that and
Speaker 5: then team were I was like, yo, what if he
Speaker 5: came to the show tonight, ha ha ha ha. So
Speaker 5: the team make him come to the after party and
Speaker 5: I'm there like oh, my little sister me Stevie J.
Speaker 5: My little sister comes on the road and she's my
Speaker 5: she's my roadie, my homie.
Speaker 7: She come on the roade and.
Speaker 1: She's like Yo.
Speaker 5: I was like, Steve, we're having this whole breakdown and
Speaker 5: our soul right, And stevee J comes.
Speaker 7: In the room and I'm just like, I got ask
Speaker 7: him if this is real? I says, yo. He's like,
Speaker 7: comes up, he say, Yo, get to meet you sis.
Speaker 7: And I'm like hi, and he's like, I said, wait,
Speaker 7: you have to tell me is that real? Like do
Speaker 7: you really be? Is this real? Like the face and
Speaker 7: the face date baby?
Speaker 5: And he does the face and I'm like, okay.
Speaker 7: It gets worse, it gets worse.
Speaker 5: So we end up in the strip club with stebe
Speaker 5: J and my whole team is trying to find a
Speaker 5: way for me to have an interaction with STEVJ and
Speaker 5: the stripper and they're just doing this for their pure
Speaker 5: ships and giggles.
Speaker 7: They're doing this because.
Speaker 5: They're doing this so they can laugh at me and
Speaker 5: so we.
Speaker 1: So I like it.
Speaker 5: No, I didn't have, but I was like weird. I
Speaker 5: go to the bathroom. On the way back, he grabs
Speaker 5: me and he pulls me to the stage and I'm
Speaker 5: just like, oh, what's gonna happen. I'm really my soul
Speaker 5: like oh. And he calls me and it's like a
Speaker 5: big lady and she's like go in and like she's
Speaker 5: going in that boot He's up and no, and she's
Speaker 5: like this girl is uncomfored. I'm just like yeah, And
Speaker 5: so if I'm standing, if her bootie's facing the audience,
Speaker 5: I'm standing with my right side.
Speaker 7: I remembered it. And he's facing me and he's like, yo,
Speaker 7: look at him.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 7: I was like what He's like, yo, look at her?
Speaker 6: Looking at her?
Speaker 7: And he says worse things. I'm just like, oh, it's
Speaker 7: all right, she's doing great, Like look at him, ty,
Speaker 7: I'm traumatized. Why are you going to the strip club?
Speaker 1: You don't?
Speaker 7: I don't, but it's fun and.
Speaker 1: Check it out.
Speaker 5: I gave her the money and I thank you.
Speaker 7: It was so great. She was like keep but I
Speaker 7: feel like they appreciate I don't throw at.
Speaker 1: Them, and I feel you if look where in Vegas
Speaker 1: we're gonna go. We're gonna go to the expeerimid Rhino
Speaker 1: because they have the best French fries ever.
Speaker 7: Okay, I had been there.
Speaker 5: We had a wild belvet, and I've been all the
Speaker 5: ship clubs and the most polite I.
Speaker 1: Can give you a structured breakdown on the best foods.
Speaker 7: I actually I'm very interested in.
Speaker 1: That in Atlanta. Atlanta is actually the bestrip club in
Speaker 1: Atlanta is actually Follies. Like the best dancers. Yes die no,
Speaker 1: not literally they killed. No, they really want to dance
Speaker 1: at Folly because they have a good rate.
Speaker 6: There, like the old Gold Club I got you.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because the owner lets them keep their money. Uh,
Speaker 1: at least more than most do. No, no, no, some will
Speaker 1: tax the ship. He makes a killing off of the
Speaker 1: bar and more importantly the water, which I don't want
Speaker 1: to give a secrets away charges for water interesting, yes, well,
Speaker 1: but he has a great deal on bottle water. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe a friend of ours, a friend of his,
Speaker 1: a friend of ours, but yeah, yeah, fell off the truck.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Follies. It also has great food.
Speaker 6: And commercial to do like a little book. This is
Speaker 6: this is a John said you're not allowed to do those.
Speaker 7: I mean that would be fun, like I would. I'd
Speaker 7: want to know or do a site. I don't know.
Speaker 7: We're looking for someone they have a green book for entertainment.
Speaker 6: Serious at least they start breakfast after, you know, like four.
Speaker 7: No, real life, I have to talk to you about this.
Speaker 1: Why has he ever been Steve? I'm nominating myself for
Speaker 1: this job. So oh god, all right, so we gotta
Speaker 1: wrapped this up, y'all. We we done talked about the
Speaker 1: church in the UK and immigration and pancakes at Folly's.
Speaker 1: So okay, so in love in l A. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: for you, what what is your what is your hope
Speaker 1: for this year? We're already in February, Like, what do you?
Speaker 7: I'm really like, So my main thing is the label
Speaker 7: goes up.
Speaker 5: I have a new artist that I really really really like,
Speaker 5: will go for like in the same way John went
Speaker 5: for me. She's incredible, She's a great singer. She just
Speaker 5: my thing is, I'm not investing in anybody who I
Speaker 5: have to pull from the ground up. I'm investing in
Speaker 5: people who are doing the work and who want to
Speaker 5: actually learn the business and be sustainable on their own.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 1: So where's she from.
Speaker 7: She's from Illinois.
Speaker 1: Okay, she's really Illinois, so respectable. What about Chicago?
Speaker 7: Illinois?
Speaker 5: Family in Chicago and like it's she's been working, you know,
Speaker 5: and she's been really trying to do this. So yeah,
Speaker 5: Jamie Woods, that's a hard Jamie Instagram. But she has
Speaker 5: a beautiful voice. She just stands and things. I believe
Speaker 5: she's going to be incredible. You're going to see it.
Speaker 5: But she also knows the business and is learning it quickly,
Speaker 5: you know. And like, so the label's going up, We're
Speaker 5: doing TVN films, documentaries, We're expanding, like the festival space,
Speaker 5: which is you know, I know a lot of things
Speaker 5: that I see and I understand the position that I'm in,
Speaker 5: and I just want to make sure that going forward,
Speaker 5: anybody that comes here and understands that they have this
Speaker 5: outlet and they have this unique space that they can
Speaker 5: really run down whether you know, because we all need
Speaker 5: we needed that person. I needed that person to It's
Speaker 5: the word out helped me and I had to figure
Speaker 5: out a lot of things myself, you know. So yeah,
Speaker 5: mentoring is essentially the key. So I've you know, a
Speaker 5: lot of our has come through and I definitely.
Speaker 1: Touched folks paying it for it.
Speaker 5: That's happening. Yeah, And essence is she is going and
Speaker 5: like we're going again. We have the batchman, the dancer
Speaker 5: or the soca. I think I feel like I don't
Speaker 5: know if I spoke too soon about that, but I
Speaker 5: got so every year you no essence, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 5: it's not.
Speaker 7: We are, it's diaspora. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Last year we did it with them, and it was
Speaker 5: the first year we sold out. It was the highest
Speaker 5: rated like performance, and so this year we're doing it again.
Speaker 5: And my thing was to make sure that whenever we
Speaker 5: touch down and you understand the diasporas here, it's not
Speaker 5: just about it's it's definitely black culture, but also here
Speaker 5: we are because that's where I come from. Like we
Speaker 5: I never do an American boys show. I'm going to
Speaker 5: do a show and it's bash Man, it's dance all,
Speaker 5: it's all the music is John Bassis House, and I
Speaker 5: want people to know that that's we can touch all
Speaker 5: those spaces about feeling like, oh your alternative, we're all
Speaker 5: you're different. Now, this is what we do as people.
Speaker 5: That's what it is.
Speaker 7: So we're doing that way sence, and that's what we do. Yeah,
Speaker 7: hell you shut it out. We're strong and we get
Speaker 7: it down. We're getting it down there.
Speaker 1: You go, yeah, all right, well sell we thank you
Speaker 1: very much. Uh, we're coming and speaking to us. Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: yes Love All all of your product is now streamable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see in your local record store a track.
Speaker 7: There new records coming this year.
Speaker 1: So beautiful. That's great to hear. All right, well on
Speaker 1: behalf of the team Supreme, sim Steve Boss Bill.
Speaker 6: Club.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're going to strip club right now. Sorry f
Speaker 1: Tickelo you're still smoking cigarettes and all right we will
Speaker 1: see you next week on the next go round of
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.