Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Fante Come Back.
Speaker 3: Supreme Supreme, Roll Supreme Supremo, Roll called Supreme Supremo, Roll
Speaker 3: call Supreme Supreme.
Speaker 4: Roll God, I don't want to alarm Yeah, or across hysteria. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but all the great talents. Yeah, we're born Aquarius Supreme.
Speaker 1: I forgot my.
Speaker 5: Supreme role.
Speaker 2: My name is Sugar.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I love McCoy Tyner Yeah and any rapper. Yeah from
Speaker 6: North Carolina.
Speaker 7: Supreme Supreme, Roll Suprema, So Supremo roll call.
Speaker 5: It's like em yeah and than me.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Ain't nobody, Well, it may be rhapsody.
Speaker 7: WHOA call Supremo Sun Sun Supremo, Roll call Supremo Supremo.
Speaker 5: Roll they call me rap.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm on this show.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Freestyle at the top.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's all I know.
Speaker 7: Ro Suprema su su Supremo, Roll call Supreme Supremo, Roll
Speaker 7: call Supremo Sun Sun Suprema Roll Suprema Sun Sun Suprema.
Speaker 4: Roll Come get it all right, I did it.
Speaker 5: Got a little one. That's cute.
Speaker 4: Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of the nerdiest
Speaker 4: rabbit hole and informative program ever created for music. This
Speaker 4: is Quest Love Supreme. I am quest Love and I
Speaker 4: be sixty three. Shout out to my team Supreme crew,
Speaker 4: Sugar Steve, who I think.
Speaker 1: Is what five? Ten eleven?
Speaker 2: Exactly? Well, it depends what part of me you're talking.
Speaker 1: You'd be five hr anyway, and shout out to Laya.
Speaker 5: What is it?
Speaker 9: Five?
Speaker 1: What you about? Five? Eight?
Speaker 5: That's right, alright, that's good question.
Speaker 4: I was going to say you more like six feet
Speaker 4: when you rock the stilettos, when Leonard uh, when Leonard
Speaker 4: Kravitz is in proximity of you, are you gonna go
Speaker 4: my way? Anyway? Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today, I
Speaker 4: should pretty much have music fans and real hip hop
Speaker 4: hits mad excited. Hailing from North Caakalac, she made her
Speaker 4: professional debut on ninth One is Dream Merchant project way
Speaker 4: back in like two thousand and seven. That's ever as
Speaker 4: a member of the Koli High Collective and also releasing
Speaker 4: I Can't Forget Buzzworthy mixtapes, she's pretty much been bubbling under,
Speaker 4: releasing The Idea of beautif Full in twenty twelve, getting notable
Speaker 4: co signs from like Mac Miller, BJ's Chicago Kid Charles Gambino.
Speaker 4: Of course, twenty seventeens Lia is Wisdom, Layla's Wisdom, Layales.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, all right, I saw the name and just
Speaker 4: started saying your name like you, Layla's Wisdom with spots
Speaker 4: from k Dot and andest In Pat and someone else
Speaker 4: named black Thought, whoever that is. The new rock Nation
Speaker 4: signee got her first round of Grammy nominations, and of
Speaker 4: course we cannot forget twenty nineteen's Eve with an astounding
Speaker 4: Metacritics score of ninety. Let me just let you know, medical.
Speaker 1: Like I use that Metacritic is kind of like it's
Speaker 1: an aggregate.
Speaker 4: It's like rotten tomatoes. So a combination of everyone who's
Speaker 4: reviewed your product. Wow, you get a basically a score.
Speaker 4: So to get ninety is that's some acclaimed that shit.
Speaker 4: Like you know, I prayed just to get eighties, like
Speaker 4: seventy five to eighties. She's getting straight out, she's getting straight.
Speaker 4: A's over here, you know, Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
Speaker 4: to Quest Love Supreme, the one and only Rhapsody here.
Speaker 1: You're lad for yourself too, because I want to, I
Speaker 1: want I want to.
Speaker 9: Huge in the Bengals three right, see they running sixt deep.
Speaker 8: Gold Bot straight up from the fingers to the neck.
Speaker 8: You know what it is.
Speaker 1: You were telling us where your shine came from.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, yeah yeah, so I actually, you.
Speaker 4: Know what, I like the return. I feel like it's
Speaker 4: going to be a righteous return to gold.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's something that.
Speaker 4: I was not able to experience as a kid. I
Speaker 4: was in the plastic phase.
Speaker 5: Of like mcdowia African Medallion, stop Watch. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 5: was allowed.
Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed to have anything back.
Speaker 4: I have to stop Watch because I grew up in
Speaker 4: the era where they would snatch your snatch, your snatch everything,
Speaker 4: you your sneakers. I couldn't wear Jordan's nothing, hip hoppy,
Speaker 4: no king gold, no nothing, So that's real.
Speaker 1: But I could get a stop Watch.
Speaker 8: Yeah, nobody didn't want that.
Speaker 1: So where did you? Where did you?
Speaker 9: I've always like Gold. I mean I went through the
Speaker 9: Wood Medallion stage. I went through that, you know, Zoo Nation,
Speaker 9: African Pictic. But I've always been a fan of Gold.
Speaker 9: I just actually loved Rock Nation.
Speaker 8: And one of the security.
Speaker 9: Guards was like, the history behind gold and Egypt was
Speaker 9: that the kings who loved their wives would adorn them
Speaker 9: and all this gold so you always see the women wearing.
Speaker 4: Mad Yes, that kind of was my first time in
Speaker 4: rock Nation.
Speaker 1: They were just having dice games and.
Speaker 5: Day, okay, I like.
Speaker 10: Your gold combo because it's like you got the banks
Speaker 10: on the chest, but then you were telling me you
Speaker 10: got the thrift on the arms. But it's all shining
Speaker 10: at the same level of shin nasty.
Speaker 8: One of these chest joints is thrifty.
Speaker 5: That what sot reputee?
Speaker 8: You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: As far as no, no, not you, I'm like, as
Speaker 4: far as I.
Speaker 9: Put it in could, I'm always rock fake goal like that,
Speaker 9: I'm keeping with you.
Speaker 8: There you go, this this never this never TD might
Speaker 8: be real. Just the Marry J. Blige and uh some collection.
Speaker 5: There's a Mary J.
Speaker 8: Yeah, she did a collaboration with.
Speaker 9: L Rife Samon. So this is the Sister Love m
Speaker 9: G m j B collection. It's right here.
Speaker 8: And yeah they got this and they got the double
Speaker 8: never TD ear rings. I got those. I got that
Speaker 8: fire Google.
Speaker 1: She's literally googling can we finish the episode?
Speaker 8: Sister Love m j.
Speaker 1: B bringing out the credit card right now?
Speaker 5: I just want to get his sister some live black business.
Speaker 4: We got that, we got that all right, So where
Speaker 4: I start with every episode of Quest Love Supreme, of which,
Speaker 4: like I'm really interested in how your creativity has evolved
Speaker 4: throughout the years, I always start with the question is
Speaker 4: where were you born?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 9: I was born in Whilson, North Carolina. It's a small
Speaker 9: city in the eastern part of North Carolina. But I
Speaker 9: grew up thirty mention from there in snow Hill, North Carolina.
Speaker 9: And that's an even smallest city, population two thousand.
Speaker 8: Like, that's where I was born, around a lot.
Speaker 9: Of woods and fields and you know, going to the
Speaker 9: grocery store with no shoes on, like playing with your
Speaker 9: cousins all day in the dirt.
Speaker 5: You know, your shooters out there. You a shoot.
Speaker 9: I shot B B gun. That's about it. You know,
Speaker 9: I ain't doing nothing more than that. But yeah, that's
Speaker 9: that's how I grew up. I didn't go to my
Speaker 9: first hip hop concert until maybe I was thirteen.
Speaker 8: Montel Jordan does that count?
Speaker 5: So I went on the bill.
Speaker 8: I think that he was the only rapper.
Speaker 1: Bro that's Williams.
Speaker 5: Trying to play my faith. This is how we do.
Speaker 1: It's funny. It's funny.
Speaker 4: You mentioned that I have a friend who is celebrating
Speaker 4: like a milestone birthday. So he's trying to have like
Speaker 4: a ninety steam rap party and have like his rap
Speaker 4: favorites and he's really in the nineties R and B,
Speaker 4: and he wants to get the most bang for his buck.
Speaker 4: The thing is is that Montel, even though he's had
Speaker 4: other hits, you know, this is how we do.
Speaker 1: It's kind of the Black national anthem.
Speaker 8: It is, so to speak.
Speaker 5: It's transformed too. It's like everybody's now.
Speaker 1: But that's the thing.
Speaker 4: But the problem is is I'm trying to push him
Speaker 4: to get He can either get Montel Jordan or he
Speaker 4: could get Drew Hill. And I told him he Drew Hill,
Speaker 4: You'll least get four hits.
Speaker 10: At least the song at least bro so you you
Speaker 10: got to well.
Speaker 5: They're the same price, Drew Hill, what are we talking about?
Speaker 8: Question?
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, that's next.
Speaker 1: That's next somebody? Yes, and uh there's two.
Speaker 5: Pieces like pieces calm girl. I don't forget what that's called.
Speaker 1: Right, But at least he's looking at me like, what
Speaker 1: the fuck with you? Hill? You at least get four
Speaker 1: hits and the thongs?
Speaker 5: Yes, right?
Speaker 4: And with Montel, you get that one. This is how
Speaker 4: we do it, even though there's been other hits. You know,
Speaker 4: he's had other top ten hits. I'm not trying and
Speaker 4: the talk show, Yes, no, that's Montel Williams. And so
Speaker 4: let's let's not totally rabbit hole off the you know,
Speaker 4: the conversation. What I want to know is okay for
Speaker 4: us as snotty Northerners that only come on. Now, let's
Speaker 4: keep it one hundred. We know, we know, we know
Speaker 4: like four cities. No, my family is from Greensboro.
Speaker 8: Yeah, y'all know Charlotte, Greensboro rally probably Now all.
Speaker 1: My family's from Greensboro. But that's all I know.
Speaker 4: And I know like in Greensboro not to talk to
Speaker 4: any woman because I've heard that at least one out
Speaker 4: of the before black women in that city is my cousin.
Speaker 9: Where you're going, We don't want to get into the
Speaker 9: yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, no not at all.
Speaker 4: So like what major city are you was? It was
Speaker 4: snow you said, snow Hill.
Speaker 8: Snow Hill. You're not going to know. The closest rally
Speaker 8: rally is an hour away.
Speaker 9: Really, that's the that's the one that's maybe Fayettville, maybe, Yeah,
Speaker 9: that's like an hour and a half where j Cole
Speaker 9: is from.
Speaker 4: So you're saying that it's more so you're saying that
Speaker 4: the environment was more backwoodsy.
Speaker 8: Yeah, definitely like this, it was closer to.
Speaker 1: My Daughters of the Dust or like, I just want.
Speaker 5: To know the reference because I'm that's dope. That's dope.
Speaker 1: That was dope reference with Darters of the Dust.
Speaker 4: No, well, I'm just saying that in terms of Okay,
Speaker 4: there's when when slavery.
Speaker 5: And the gullers where you're going.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when slavery was ended, there's some freed Africans that
Speaker 4: decided to continue the tradition of of their life as
Speaker 4: they knew it in Africa by living off in the
Speaker 4: far woods. Like really, my my peeps come from Mobile, Alabama.
Speaker 4: So they started Africa Town and practice Yorba religion and
Speaker 4: all that stuff. But they did that also gees in
Speaker 4: North Carolina and whatnot. So I was trying to is
Speaker 4: a movie.
Speaker 5: Yes, oh yes, yes, yes, yes, I know we need
Speaker 5: that deep bro.
Speaker 8: Okay, because I don't do me like that.
Speaker 9: Come on, look at me, Look how I'm dressed, baby,
Speaker 9: I need that far.
Speaker 1: I mean they had a corner store, Okay, I see
Speaker 1: I see you got to.
Speaker 10: Ask her about the second hip hop show. I'm gonta
Speaker 10: redeem herself.
Speaker 1: How big was your household?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: Are you the only child or.
Speaker 9: I'm one of five, three older sisters, one younger brother.
Speaker 9: Me and my brother are a year apart. I'm I'm
Speaker 9: the knee baby, which is next to last. That's that's
Speaker 9: some country ship. Yeah, knee baby, so I'm next to last.
Speaker 9: So yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: Are you the over achiever of the family.
Speaker 9: I think we all over achievers. I'm probably second in
Speaker 9: line though, the middle child. My sister Amanda, she was valedictorian.
Speaker 9: You know, she just did everything right. But I I
Speaker 9: am the overachiever now because.
Speaker 4: I always feel like the middle child or the indistinguishable.
Speaker 1: I'm the last.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm the last girl.
Speaker 9: But all of us did good, like I could say
Speaker 9: my parents did well.
Speaker 8: Yes they did.
Speaker 4: Was your first musical memory that concert? No, what was
Speaker 4: your first musical?
Speaker 9: My first musical memory was Michael Jackson. That's the oh
Speaker 9: for like oh music period period is Michael Jackson. So
Speaker 9: that's what had me hooked from the jump, Like man
Speaker 9: in the mirror, the girl is my all of that,
Speaker 9: Like me and my dad would sit up on like
Speaker 9: Saturday mornings and watch video soul tape them on VHS
Speaker 9: and you know we watch them again during the week.
Speaker 8: Yes, I do that.
Speaker 9: I watch your MTV raps like those are my biggest memories.
Speaker 9: But it all started with like R and B and
Speaker 9: soul music. So Saturday mornings cleaning up, you know, my
Speaker 9: mom's playing Tina Turner.
Speaker 8: Patty the Bell. My dad is a huge Luther.
Speaker 9: Vandrass fan, so I've heard every Luther Vandrass song that
Speaker 9: there is known to man. But those are my first
Speaker 9: musical memories.
Speaker 4: Do you remember the first album that you purchased that
Speaker 4: not just had in the house, but the album that
Speaker 4: you wanted was the first album you purchased.
Speaker 9: The first one I purchased was Aliyah's first album, He
Speaker 9: Ain't Number the Number. The first album that I owned
Speaker 9: was Warren G's Regulate, but my aunt had to get
Speaker 9: it for me because of that sticker. My parents were
Speaker 9: not going for that. I beg her she got it
Speaker 9: for me. That was the first album that I had.
Speaker 9: But the one I bought was Aaliyah It's.
Speaker 4: Called Rap Contraband. When I was young, I couldn't have
Speaker 4: the first UTFO album.
Speaker 1: There was there wasn't even that's crazy. It's a funny thing.
Speaker 1: The funny thing was there was no cursing on it.
Speaker 1: But on one.
Speaker 4: Of those on rox Sannes version of Roxanne rox Sand
Speaker 4: which is like buried on SIDEB, she said like one
Speaker 4: term like all you received was a kick in the ass.
Speaker 4: And then my dad like just took the tape out
Speaker 4: and destroyed the tape.
Speaker 9: So I got one of those the tape I destroyed
Speaker 9: which one It wasn't even like a bigger artist, was
Speaker 9: like a local group that I got from fourth grade.
Speaker 8: And the look was like a.
Speaker 9: Tisket, a task and a condiment a basket. My mama
Speaker 9: came through that door so fast.
Speaker 5: Fourth grade.
Speaker 9: Yah, it was a white tape with black letters. Look,
Speaker 9: I ain't think I was a boy. I survived that day.
Speaker 1: So was it a religious house hold?
Speaker 9: Or I grew up with Jehovah's witness So my mom
Speaker 9: is Jehovah's witness.
Speaker 8: My dad was non denominational.
Speaker 9: Still no, no, no, I'm uh inactive.
Speaker 8: Is I'm more spiritual than religious?
Speaker 5: That's my line?
Speaker 8: So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: Wow so uh man mm hmm no, no, no, but that's
Speaker 4: always I find it that those who are in the
Speaker 4: entertainment business that I have to sort of pass through
Speaker 4: the portals of especially with Jehovah's.
Speaker 10: Them know right, like have you found like your brothers
Speaker 10: and sisters? And because Jill used to be a Jill
Speaker 10: Scott Scott.
Speaker 8: Jill Scott general sound way with T D E.
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, I know. Michael Jackson started as friends.
Speaker 9: Joahill got some nice you know, spoke in my circles.
Speaker 8: Come over to this side.
Speaker 1: Wait, when's the last time you went to Kingdom?
Speaker 8: Go on?
Speaker 1: Bro, No, no, no, I'm only asking.
Speaker 5: Because past needs everything full.
Speaker 4: I've never spoken to someone what goes on, so I
Speaker 4: know that most like the Black of course with Black
Speaker 4: Church experiences and Baptist Church is like.
Speaker 1: Yeah but more conservative and Kingdom Hall Kingdom Halls.
Speaker 8: It was.
Speaker 9: It was honestly, it was like Bible school, like you
Speaker 9: know you have you know of the watch Tower and
Speaker 9: the ways when we come to the paper whatever.
Speaker 8: Yeah, So a lot of times they'll give you Bible readings.
Speaker 8: You go home, you go through the Bible, find the
Speaker 8: verses they give you the watch Tower.
Speaker 9: They'll have paragraphs that pertain to a certain topic, whether
Speaker 9: it's life after death or what do you do about
Speaker 9: blood transfusions? And read through the paragraphs. At the end
Speaker 9: they have questions. You go find the Bible verses and
Speaker 9: answer them. And the next day, you know, they'll have
Speaker 9: a main person that gives a talk, but they're like
Speaker 9: the preacher, but we call it given a talk. And
Speaker 9: then the second an hour you answer the questions as
Speaker 9: a group and then you sing hymns, yeah, but no clapping,
Speaker 9: sing so the whole.
Speaker 1: Like that.
Speaker 4: You know, you're just from behind me of when we
Speaker 4: did the Prince episode. His assistant has a really hilarys
Speaker 4: story of Prince Dragon to Kingdom Hall and she was
Speaker 4: shocked that she thought it was gonna be like a
Speaker 4: black again a black Southern gospel hooting and hollering music thing,
Speaker 4: and you know, the music was very proper, and you know,
Speaker 4: and Prince was singing it and she just couldn't.
Speaker 1: She was like, who are you? Like? What were you doing?
Speaker 4: So you're you said that Montel was your first How
Speaker 4: old were you when we went to this Montell Jordan concert?
Speaker 8: I was in seventh grade, so that it was Montel
Speaker 8: Jordan boys.
Speaker 9: To me, that was the first concert I went to
Speaker 9: the first real hip hop concert I went to.
Speaker 8: I was in college. I don't remember. It might have
Speaker 8: been common common.
Speaker 1: Was Yeah, where did you go to college?
Speaker 8: North Carolina State University.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's kind of the Yeah, I'll say that
Speaker 4: on the East coast, at least down south, at least
Speaker 4: like North Carolina was definitely a common no pun intended central. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there's at least five or six college stops that you
Speaker 4: can make down Oh wait, I'm about to tell you
Speaker 4: a story, like there's one time when I met a
Speaker 4: ninth Wonder and this band I forget their name, oh
Speaker 4: Little Brother, Yeah, I forgot.
Speaker 8: I have heard that story.
Speaker 1: Yes, yep, thank God for that rain storm.
Speaker 4: I want to well, I mean the show was outdoors,
Speaker 4: so it was like an electric electric storm. So we
Speaker 4: only did like one song, and I felt bad for
Speaker 4: everyone that like stood out there to watch it.
Speaker 10: So, like, yo, who was Carolina hip hop before Little Brother.
Speaker 8: Before a Little Brother?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: But even then, that's just like, were there any to
Speaker 4: your knowledge?
Speaker 1: Was there anyone?
Speaker 4: It's weird that Okay, it's weird that you're asking that
Speaker 4: because I know that in ninety seven ninety eight, ninety
Speaker 4: seven ninety eight, there was a major migration of New York.
Speaker 5: Rappers, right school rappers.
Speaker 1: That moved down there. I know that special Edge, Specialleed
Speaker 1: was early.
Speaker 4: Big Daddy came as early, and they were telling us,
Speaker 4: you know back then, like yo, y'all better hurry down
Speaker 4: and get some property before gentrification. Like you could you
Speaker 4: could buy like a twelve room mansion with like marble floors,
Speaker 4: Like you could get some scarface property maybe.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, for like cheap to them.
Speaker 8: You know, Madland?
Speaker 1: Is it that way now? Or has gentrification caught up?
Speaker 8: And I mean it's it's still pretty affordable.
Speaker 9: We're growing like rapidly, so downtown it might get a
Speaker 9: little pricey, but compared to up here, is still cheap.
Speaker 1: Now what city do you live in now?
Speaker 8: I live in Raleigh?
Speaker 5: So are you?
Speaker 4: And you consider that home? That's where you would like
Speaker 4: to stay?
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, is that where you want to die?
Speaker 9: Well, but that's where you want to settle down?
Speaker 8: Settle down is a better word. Yes, I would.
Speaker 9: I would like to settle down North Carolina, but I
Speaker 9: definitely want to move. I've been there my whole life,
Speaker 9: Like I want to live in New York. I want
Speaker 9: to experience l a like maybe go to Africa for
Speaker 9: a little bit. Who knows, you.
Speaker 5: Know, you haven't done it yet.
Speaker 8: I'm found South South Africa. If I could take all
Speaker 8: my family there, I moved there.
Speaker 10: You seem like the type that would circle back and
Speaker 10: reinvest in whatever Carolina has going on.
Speaker 9: Oh definitely, definitely that's home always. So you got to
Speaker 9: reinvest in home.
Speaker 1: What was your come to Jesus moment as far as.
Speaker 4: Knowing that you had something, as far as love for
Speaker 4: hip hop culture, like this is what I want to do.
Speaker 9: Oh I felt like that was early, like like I
Speaker 9: was around ten or eleven, Like I fell in love
Speaker 9: with it when I saw EMC Light's Poor Georgie video.
Speaker 9: So that's the first time, like I saw a female
Speaker 9: doing it and it's just like yo, that video cool.
Speaker 9: So that that was the first time I was like, Wow,
Speaker 9: what is this? And then you know, you you get
Speaker 9: more into it, you know, listening to Warren G. Like
Speaker 9: I said, uh Aliah's hip Hop Flavor Style, Queen Latifa,
Speaker 9: then you know, I listened to Jay's Reasonable Doubt.
Speaker 8: But it was Lauren Hill that really you locked me in.
Speaker 8: I saw the food.
Speaker 5: The food is a score.
Speaker 8: I knew what I wanted to do.
Speaker 5: Then I saw that you said.
Speaker 10: It's funny always want to ask people because you said
Speaker 10: that the score was your ship.
Speaker 5: Nobody ever says anything. I'll blunt it.
Speaker 8: The vocal the remix rock.
Speaker 5: Okay, here's a little one.
Speaker 1: In fact, I've heard bln on reality and its entirety.
Speaker 8: Of course, I couldn't get through it, not so much.
Speaker 5: You know, I ain't mad at you.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, it wasn't no, no, no, it was which one
Speaker 1: was that love? All right, I'm gonna tell you a
Speaker 1: little story.
Speaker 5: They were in the way. We weren't We weren't all
Speaker 5: right in the beginning, weren't all right?
Speaker 1: Here's the deal. Yes there was.
Speaker 4: Now that I'm older and wiser, I know not to
Speaker 4: react off of ninth hand information. Okay, And this is
Speaker 4: me closer to my fifties than you know. This is
Speaker 4: like if this that Dave Chappelle sketch where like you know,
Speaker 4: twenty three year old mirror is talking versus me. Now,
Speaker 4: it was just that, Yes, I felt some sort of way.
Speaker 4: It's okay, Like we were on tour together and it
Speaker 4: was a doggy dog territory and they got out the
Speaker 4: gate first. The score came out, and Ate The Score
Speaker 4: came out in like February ninety six, and Hiladelph Half
Speaker 4: Life came out in September ninety six. So they got
Speaker 4: out the Gate first had three you know, they sold
Speaker 4: eleven million by the time we came out. But I
Speaker 4: was a little salty, he really, I was salty that
Speaker 4: their show slowly started to morph into our show, which
Speaker 4: you know, when they first came out, it was about
Speaker 4: the ritual with the you know they were doing like
Speaker 4: voodoo rituals and all those things, you know, representing Haiti.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were lighting candles.
Speaker 10: And something not those direction. What did he saying? But
Speaker 10: it's okay, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: You really?
Speaker 5: You serious? I don't remember I remember them wrapping in Japanese.
Speaker 4: No no, no, no, no, oh dude in So here's the deal.
Speaker 4: My last day intern at rough House Records, which coincidentally
Speaker 4: was Santi Cole's first day. Santi was my replacement at
Speaker 4: rough House as the intern, and upon leaving, uh, Chris
Speaker 4: Wartz pulled me aside and said, hey, I know you
Speaker 4: guys are having a signing party for you guys signing
Speaker 4: to Geffen Records.
Speaker 1: How many acts you happened. We're like, well, we got
Speaker 1: Jay with the Damager Gang Star is going to come
Speaker 1: and perform some local philiacs. We're really full.
Speaker 4: But then I thought he did give me that money
Speaker 4: for our first video. Wow, what's up? And he says, Yo,
Speaker 4: we got a group that's sort of like in the
Speaker 4: lane of you guys, and can they go on and
Speaker 4: do like, you know, like.
Speaker 1: Two or three songs whatever? And I was like, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I did it. Why do you want to add to this?
Speaker 1: I'll just sign. So here's the thing they get.
Speaker 4: They get to sound check, and the first thing I
Speaker 4: said was, now, let me let me just preface by
Speaker 4: saying that I was the family DVR.
Speaker 1: So it was my job.
Speaker 4: My uncles and my aunts and my mom and everyone
Speaker 4: really didn't know much about programming a VCR and someone
Speaker 4: had to program all their stories. So every Friday, I
Speaker 4: had to come and reprogram myself so they go watch
Speaker 4: their stories during their week on VCR. So I was
Speaker 4: very familiar with all the CBS soap operas. So when
Speaker 4: she walked in, Oh yeah, at the it's like yo, yeah,
Speaker 4: yeah for Master World terms, and she looked at me
Speaker 4: like like I was calling her out, like I think
Speaker 4: she was expecting the sister act too, But I was like, yo,
Speaker 4: Shem was like and looked at me like like I
Speaker 4: was like, I didn't realize that, like I'm about to
Speaker 4: blow your cover that you're a professional soap opera actress.
Speaker 4: And so no, and we became cool and we toured together.
Speaker 4: But the thing was then when they first started, they
Speaker 4: were like lighting the stage with stages and and.
Speaker 5: You know, when they finished White Clubs playing a guitar, like.
Speaker 4: I think what we showed them, what we showed them
Speaker 4: was that, oh, you can sort of do like the
Speaker 4: karaoke hip hop tribute thing, which you know once we're
Speaker 4: like used to well, I mean the thing it was like, okay,
Speaker 4: third verse, we're going to rhyme over this caros one break,
Speaker 4: and the second verse we're going to do a breakover
Speaker 4: this black Moon break and that and when we you know,
Speaker 4: and then as they started doing it was like then
Speaker 4: they called why am I wasting?
Speaker 1: All right? Anyway?
Speaker 5: Hip hop history, for.
Speaker 8: I needed to know why you didn't finish the whole score.
Speaker 4: Now anyway, So my point is that I'll say that
Speaker 4: in ten ninety six, it was it was tense it
Speaker 4: was very tense. So it's hard for me to as
Speaker 4: a listener to listen to that particular album.
Speaker 5: Do you find it interesting?
Speaker 10: He still hasn't listened to What I Do because it's nineteen.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. It's so classic you can't avoid it.
Speaker 4: It's almost like it's almost like Bruce Springsteen is born
Speaker 4: in the USA. All but three songs are singles, so like,
Speaker 4: I know it.
Speaker 5: All and that's the whole album. I just know that song.
Speaker 4: No, but you've heard Dancing in the Dark, cover Me
Speaker 4: and I'm on Fire and Glory Days and like it's
Speaker 4: damn near thriller, Like you know all the songs.
Speaker 1: Anyway, this is not about me.
Speaker 5: Welcome to quest of Supreme Rhapsody anyway.
Speaker 4: So I shot, I will say I love it is. No, well,
Speaker 4: at least I'm man it is.
Speaker 8: That's that's a nice fact. That's a good question at
Speaker 8: the time.
Speaker 1: No, but I know all the songs, like I would
Speaker 1: DJ like the joint the Zealots and.
Speaker 10: I dare you to throw vocab in the next party.
Speaker 10: Can be just can me just get it?
Speaker 1: I love vocas I know.
Speaker 5: I'm just saying nobody does blunt it. That was back
Speaker 5: to my original.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, no no, but I was saying off that
Speaker 4: first record, I loved vocab.
Speaker 1: That was that was my join. That was my join anyway,
Speaker 1: So back to you.
Speaker 6: So you like Lauren Hell huh, I'm trying to get
Speaker 6: back there. Yeah, she was.
Speaker 2: A big influence.
Speaker 4: So what was what was the community like? And the
Speaker 4: one question that I'm glad that you kind of what
Speaker 4: I call matrix dodge is, especially with people that are
Speaker 4: not that familiar with you and they're asking you all
Speaker 4: the time like, well, what's it like being a female
Speaker 4: and rap and you.
Speaker 1: Know, underground d da da da da? But what was
Speaker 1: the environment?
Speaker 4: Because I'll be honest with you, by the time that
Speaker 4: like the turn of the the the millennium, uh, by
Speaker 4: the end of the nineties into the early aughts, Like
Speaker 4: I personally was rather shocked that there was a boom
Speaker 4: bap element or appreciation in North Carolina, which really shocked
Speaker 4: me by when I listened to you know, Little Brother's demo.
Speaker 1: The first time, I was like, wait, where are they're from?
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, same thing, what rhapsod he does, same thing.
Speaker 5: I appreci it. I don't even hear.
Speaker 1: Right, So for me, like, how did you.
Speaker 4: Avoid what we up north sort of associate most hip
Speaker 4: hop from down South, which I guess you could say
Speaker 4: in the nineties we thought that South was booty music
Speaker 4: or that's you know, or the early early stages of trap.
Speaker 4: Like how did you find a hip hop community that
Speaker 4: was you know about the aesthetics of what quote real
Speaker 4: hip hoppers in New York strive to be.
Speaker 9: Well, For one, I think people have a slight misconception
Speaker 9: like if you look at North Carolina, we're more Middle
Speaker 9: East than Deep South, so you.
Speaker 8: Know, yeah, and we're wanted.
Speaker 9: We're probably one of the states that have the most HBCUs.
Speaker 9: So at the time, you got understand, ninety five runs
Speaker 9: straight through North Carolina. So you have a lot of
Speaker 9: artists or New Yorkers that are coming to come to
Speaker 9: school in North Carolina and they're bringing the music with them.
Speaker 9: You have drug dealers coming through, they're bringing the music
Speaker 9: with them. So for us, it's like a melting pot too.
Speaker 9: You got people from Atlanta coming, so, you know, not
Speaker 9: only that's how we got the music, Like, you know,
Speaker 9: there was so much northern influence where we lived, just
Speaker 9: from the colleges and people that came through, you know,
Speaker 9: that's a lot of what we listened to. So we
Speaker 9: listened to boom Back, We listened to a lot of
Speaker 9: New York music, but we all listen to Atlanta.
Speaker 8: We also listen. So when I think about North Carolina,
Speaker 8: it's just a melting pot.
Speaker 9: Like you know, we didn't have like a true Southern
Speaker 9: identity like a Texas you know, but it's still car culture.
Speaker 9: So you got to ride the eye music at the
Speaker 9: same time. So I think that's what it was where
Speaker 9: you know, everybody I know, like we wore tims, you
Speaker 9: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: Like they they had they were the headbands.
Speaker 9: They had some you know, people from the South some
Speaker 9: time to get the New York accent.
Speaker 8: Like that was heavy where I was from.
Speaker 9: Like my cousin used to call itself nas because you know,
Speaker 9: the music and everybody from the colleges that were in
Speaker 9: there was just heavily influenced on us.
Speaker 4: Speaking of I'm jumping way ahead, but you mentioned car
Speaker 4: culture and writing. Indeed, I'm just gonna ask in the
Speaker 4: video for Eve to Hush Yep, where did that car
Speaker 4: come from?
Speaker 8: Oh man, we made a call somebody, somebody brought that through.
Speaker 8: Like that's a rental today.
Speaker 1: Damn it, wait for that for the video.
Speaker 8: Yeah, the green joint with the mcm insize. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 8: Mysa Hill.
Speaker 11: I'm about to say, and she dripped the inside outm
Speaker 11: but somebody they own a car that people use the
Speaker 11: videos and they let us, they let us drip it out.
Speaker 1: Okay, I I thought that was your personal riding.
Speaker 8: No, we ain't there yet.
Speaker 1: You know you will be there.
Speaker 4: Let's start with the affirmations, not even goals effects.
Speaker 5: But when you get there, you probably won't want the
Speaker 5: car with mcm I don't know.
Speaker 8: That's kind of fire with the mcm cs.
Speaker 5: This, this is give them too much.
Speaker 1: Listen.
Speaker 4: This is the lesson that I want anyone listening to
Speaker 4: learn for twenty twenty that most of the times we
Speaker 4: come modest and humble, and we need to be We
Speaker 4: need to be more about I am as opposed to
Speaker 4: I am me and own it, own it instead of
Speaker 4: you know, one of these days we'll get there.
Speaker 10: But you know this is funny because the three of
Speaker 10: us have that whole twenty four hours between our birthdays.
Speaker 10: So I'm really taking this to heart because I know
Speaker 10: that's who you really are. You're fighting that anyway you
Speaker 10: know and rhaps you know you're you're born to.
Speaker 1: Wait, why am I fighting?
Speaker 10: Day?
Speaker 1: I was born?
Speaker 10: No fighting that what you just said is a big
Speaker 10: deal for us. Like we usually aquarium sometimes can be
Speaker 10: like I am when we are dope as fuck instead
Speaker 10: of being like I am like that's an aquarium things.
Speaker 8: Right, That's something I'm working on.
Speaker 9: This, This is what I'm higher vibrations and really owning
Speaker 9: and manifest from.
Speaker 2: I am stoned right now.
Speaker 1: I am stoned.
Speaker 9: I am.
Speaker 2: I am stone.
Speaker 1: So when was the major at the NC State County?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 1: Really all right?
Speaker 5: Because you know why? Because I was a mass calm major.
Speaker 10: And I always told like the younger kids when I said,
Speaker 10: when you go back, when you go to school, like
Speaker 10: intern with your passion. But do some have some kind
Speaker 10: of business major and learn all the information you know,
Speaker 10: numbers wise and formula wise so you can you are
Speaker 10: a business, you need to know how to you know,
Speaker 10: run it.
Speaker 9: So yeah, when I get my taxes done, you don't
Speaker 9: know the lank whatever. But I wish I had done
Speaker 9: marketing if I was okay one, I wish I had
Speaker 9: done marketing, but I did it because I was good
Speaker 9: at numbers. My sister went to school for accounting. You know,
Speaker 9: growing up in the South, it's like get a job,
Speaker 9: get married, and get a job like an accountant a doctor.
Speaker 9: So I was like, I'm good with numbers. I'm gonna
Speaker 9: do that. But I'm way more creative than I am
Speaker 9: with numbers. But I didn't figure out that that's not
Speaker 9: what I wanted to do until my junior year. And
Speaker 9: I was trying to transfer to NYU until I saw
Speaker 9: that out of state tuition, so I chese to, I relaxed.
Speaker 8: I real still.
Speaker 4: That one I tried to be a New York College
Speaker 4: student and it wasn't I wasn't too successful.
Speaker 10: You notice the difference between the HPC used tuition and
Speaker 10: then the big school. Well, I'm gonna just be over
Speaker 10: here at Mark and State.
Speaker 5: Then I don't know some of them HPC, Pricey.
Speaker 10: Well, Spelman's and the leader of the yesuse I went
Speaker 10: to Clark, so they have no more of that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, indeed, I was going to ask Spellman doesn't have
Speaker 4: any more of that C word one hundred million dollar donation.
Speaker 5: I don't know what they did with that money. I
Speaker 5: don't even know her. His wife's name is on the
Speaker 5: building anymore. We're talking about.
Speaker 1: Yeah we still have doctor.
Speaker 6: Okay, I made enough Cosby jokes over the years to
Speaker 6: start now now you can't say.
Speaker 5: It the husks.
Speaker 8: I know what y'all was talking about.
Speaker 5: I know you didn't.
Speaker 4: What prompted the desire to go to New York? Like,
Speaker 4: what did you So you're saying by your junior year
Speaker 4: you wanted to get more serious about your music career.
Speaker 9: And definitely I didn't know at the time at that
Speaker 9: point or we were. We were just it was more
Speaker 9: h two oh, it was an organization.
Speaker 8: Before it was a hip hop group.
Speaker 9: So so explain what was a hip hop organization that
Speaker 9: we started on campus where we we would throw like
Speaker 9: rap battles and free shows and you know, we do fundraisers.
Speaker 8: We did one for J. Dillislopis.
Speaker 9: So it was just something for us to infuse hip
Speaker 9: hop on campus and you get to use all the
Speaker 9: campus you know, speakers and all of that for free.
Speaker 8: So you know, that's what it was.
Speaker 9: So you know, anybody on campus, and we extended to
Speaker 9: the community, could be a part of the organization. But
Speaker 9: you know, there were five of us that just hung
Speaker 9: out more, did music together more, and we ended up
Speaker 9: becoming Koli High.
Speaker 8: Okay, that's what that that's how that kind.
Speaker 4: Of So Kolia is a collective as opposed to a
Speaker 4: group per se.
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay, collective that came.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so how did you grab the attention of.
Speaker 8: Nine Wonder at this time?
Speaker 9: This a summer and h two oh the organization we're
Speaker 9: doing a mixtape, so you know, we got people from
Speaker 9: the campus, people from the community. Everybody does something on
Speaker 9: this particular mixtape. I wrote and recorded my first two songs.
Speaker 9: My best friend knew that, you know, I loved hip hop,
Speaker 9: wanted to rap, so he was just like, yo, just
Speaker 9: do it for fun.
Speaker 8: Nobody gonna judge you.
Speaker 9: So I do this this these two songs put on
Speaker 9: the mixtape, and another guy in the organization at the
Speaker 9: time is shadowing Knife, like he's learning how to lose
Speaker 9: fruity loops and all this. So he's like, well, nine,
Speaker 9: you know, I got this organization, all these kids, do
Speaker 9: you mind coming and talk to us. Knife was like yeah,
Speaker 9: So we go to you know, this guy's his name
Speaker 9: is Foolery, who's in Cooley Hot. We went to his house.
Speaker 9: It was probably like fifteen to twenty of us. Nine
Speaker 9: comes at the time. He plays us snippets of the
Speaker 9: Minstrel Show because it's not out yet. Oh, I get
Speaker 9: to hear a genius. He's telling us about you know,
Speaker 9: how he got with Jay and recorded thread like.
Speaker 8: You know, we're just all these kids.
Speaker 9: It's like campfire, and you know, because he's at the
Speaker 9: time for us, like the biggest thing from North Carolina
Speaker 9: outside of Pete Popo. And after that, he listens to
Speaker 9: the mixtape top to bottom and when it gets to
Speaker 9: my song, it just caught his ear automatic.
Speaker 8: He listened to it probably ten times in a row.
Speaker 5: And the song.
Speaker 9: I listened to him was like, bro, the what you heard,
Speaker 9: but it's it's called The Life. Yeah, the Life, And
Speaker 9: he was like he looked at everybody and its sound
Speaker 9: like we got people that are in groups that have
Speaker 9: been doing music for years that you know, got shows
Speaker 9: that are traveling, and he goes, that's your star right there.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 4: I remember him speaking on you early, I mean way
Speaker 4: before social media like okay player and like other platforms,
Speaker 4: just texting whatever. That he was like, yo, I found
Speaker 4: the one I got. Like he was super early, you know,
Speaker 4: with with with planting the seeds, with with getting your
Speaker 4: name out there.
Speaker 1: But I mean at the time, what would you who
Speaker 1: were your your.
Speaker 4: Your idols or at least your the mcs that you
Speaker 4: kind of looked up to as far as like getting
Speaker 4: your style from.
Speaker 8: And at that time, like I went, I want.
Speaker 1: To ask, like who are your top five rappers? But
Speaker 1: I mean, like just.
Speaker 9: At that like I went through different phases of discovery
Speaker 9: just because of who I were. I was from, Like
Speaker 9: being in snow Hill, it wasn't like, you know, like
Speaker 9: I said, you can go to a lot of hip
Speaker 9: hop shows and we had like a record store on
Speaker 9: the corner.
Speaker 8: I could just go get CD.
Speaker 9: So a lot of like hip hop artists I might
Speaker 9: have got laid on like black on both sides. I
Speaker 9: didn't he until I got in college, you know. So
Speaker 9: at this time my phase J is still my favorite rapper.
Speaker 9: But now I'm getting really deep into Most Death and
Speaker 9: I'm listening to Common Resurrections so to lib quality, Like
Speaker 9: I'm really diving into their catalogs and they're my biggest
Speaker 9: influences at this time, you know though growing up, you
Speaker 9: know and still Lauren, I listened to Lauren Clean my
Speaker 9: Teeth for nas Biggie J. But at this time I'm
Speaker 9: really getting into the rocket sound. So that at that point,
Speaker 9: that's my biggest influence.
Speaker 4: Okay with what Ninth third, Like, how long was it
Speaker 4: until you two collaborated on his uh his dream merchant?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so.
Speaker 8: At the time he said that this was maybe like.
Speaker 1: Volume two, right, volume two, Yeah, seven, I remember that.
Speaker 9: So I met him and he heard those two songs,
Speaker 9: like September October of two thousand and five, we did
Speaker 9: our first song together maybe like five or six months
Speaker 9: after that, uh tab one in Coolie High hit Ninth
Speaker 9: during Christmas one time He's like nine jokingly throw us
Speaker 9: some beats and he just I am them three beats.
Speaker 8: Like Merry Christmas.
Speaker 9: So those were the first songs that I got to
Speaker 9: rap over of his. The first then the next song
Speaker 9: where you know, he was like come to the studio.
Speaker 9: Like he always kind of took us under his wing.
Speaker 9: It just be random, like I would be at work
Speaker 9: at foot Action and I get a text like yo,
Speaker 9: Ninth told us to pull up at the studio just
Speaker 9: out the blue.
Speaker 8: So I'm just I'm like, bass, I gotta go, Like
Speaker 8: straight up. I was like I gotta go, and they they.
Speaker 9: Were like so cool and supportive of that heard you
Speaker 9: before they knew what out.
Speaker 8: I was a good worker. I was so good weird
Speaker 8: they couldn't.
Speaker 1: Even front not inup. You remember Carmichael's story about for
Speaker 1: that she was completely from North Carolina. His people were
Speaker 1: not to see his potential.
Speaker 5: Guess he wasn't.
Speaker 1: I was expecting your story to go a whole another way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you're was returning the Big Girl, your first mix,
Speaker 1: your first solo.
Speaker 8: First solo project. Okay, this summer January twenty ten.
Speaker 4: Okay, yep, So how long did that take to formulate
Speaker 4: and put together and execute?
Speaker 9: Let me see, I signed with nine in two thousand
Speaker 9: and eight, two thousand and nine, and I worked and worked,
Speaker 9: so we probably worked. I just was recording songs. I
Speaker 9: don't think it was like I'm doing a project. I
Speaker 9: was just recording songs. And I probably recorded songs for
Speaker 9: two years. So we worked on it for two years,
Speaker 9: just trying to get my cadence. I still had so
Speaker 9: much to learn, like I go back, like tone of
Speaker 9: my voice, inflections, keeping a consistent cadence, or knowing when
Speaker 9: to switch it in the right spot.
Speaker 1: How is he as a coach great?
Speaker 8: Like night?
Speaker 9: People gotta understand before Knife wanted to be a producer.
Speaker 9: He wanted to be a teacher, so he's automatically just
Speaker 9: still super patient. So he was super patient with me.
Speaker 9: I would get more frustrated with myself than he would.
Speaker 9: So he's a great teacher. Like the way he explained
Speaker 9: things and broke things down and you know, allowed you,
Speaker 9: you know, to figure it out too, Like I didn't
Speaker 9: have to be perfect, but he saw enough growth was like, okay,
Speaker 9: we could put out your first mixtape and just keep
Speaker 9: building on it, Like great teacher, phenomenal.
Speaker 10: Did you get to be in the studio and make
Speaker 10: some of these songs with folks in the studio? Was
Speaker 10: everybody like sending, oh no, you got it, Like you
Speaker 10: gotta understand. Like when Knife creates, he likes people and
Speaker 10: energy around him. So and at the time, the studio
Speaker 10: is on North Carolina Central's campus, so it's open door,
Speaker 10: so you might walk in some days it might be
Speaker 10: twenty thirty people in there, and so like it was
Speaker 10: so much pressure for me because I'm the opposite when
Speaker 10: I create. You know, now I'm more about to ride
Speaker 10: around anybody.
Speaker 9: But at that time, like trying to figure it out
Speaker 9: and not being confident you step in the booth and
Speaker 9: it's twenty people looking at you like what you're about
Speaker 9: to do, and.
Speaker 8: Then you know you're doing it and it ain't all
Speaker 8: the way right.
Speaker 9: So he keeps stopping you, trying to coach you, and
Speaker 9: it's just like I'm going about to go.
Speaker 10: Crazy, and you folks like you got to be in
Speaker 10: the studio with Rod Digga, like Matt Miller.
Speaker 9: Rod Digga, Jean Gray came and worked on I think
Speaker 9: they were trying to work on Phoenix at the time.
Speaker 9: I was there when Wile and Knife were working on
Speaker 9: Back to the feature. Big Sean came through. He and
Speaker 9: Knife were working on some joints.
Speaker 1: What was it like working with Mac Miller?
Speaker 8: And oh that was that was dope. That was easy.
Speaker 8: That was fun.
Speaker 9: Not Mac pulled up. I don't even remember what year was,
Speaker 9: might have been like twenty eleven. He was coming to
Speaker 9: see ninth or whatever and just hey, you've met Mac.
Speaker 8: It's like, you know, how.
Speaker 9: Open and yeah, chill, his his spirit is so you know,
Speaker 9: he heard like some songs. He was like, Yo, you're dope.
Speaker 9: He was like, let's do some joints. Like it's just
Speaker 9: that easy. Like you know, so when.
Speaker 1: You collaborate with artists. Is it more just like send
Speaker 1: me a sixteen or like or do you work in
Speaker 1: real time with them? Sometimes?
Speaker 8: And it's different.
Speaker 9: Earlier on it was just like, yo, just send me
Speaker 9: some sixteens cause at the time I'm just trying to
Speaker 9: prove I could rap. Now now it's different, like for
Speaker 9: me to even reach out, I got to hear you
Speaker 9: on the song. It don't even matter what your celebrity is.
Speaker 9: If I don't hear you, like it could be a
Speaker 9: new artist if I hear their voice, Oh, they be
Speaker 9: dope on this and I'm calling you so it's gotta
Speaker 9: fit right. A lot of times, you know, I tell
Speaker 9: them what the concept is. But you know, I don't
Speaker 9: like to box people in because I want people to
Speaker 9: be as creative as they want to be. So in
Speaker 9: the same way, Kendrick called me and told me, like, Yo,
Speaker 9: this song is about complexion. You know, you know how
Speaker 9: it goes, but boom, then I'm not trying to pigeonhole you.
Speaker 9: So that's what it is for me. I like people
Speaker 9: to be able to create how they create. And if
Speaker 9: it he's tweaking and we'll work on it, or we're
Speaker 9: just flipping and turn into something else, put a different
Speaker 9: beat on it and make it a new song.
Speaker 8: But that's how we that's how I create.
Speaker 10: It's hard to say that's my favorite Rhapsody verse, but
Speaker 10: damn that verse, that complexion.
Speaker 8: Oh thank you?
Speaker 5: Awesome. Can I just ask one more question because you
Speaker 5: were talking about.
Speaker 1: It's your shoe too?
Speaker 5: Oh thank you.
Speaker 10: I don't want to fast forward to eve or anything,
Speaker 10: but I just want to fast forward for a minute
Speaker 10: on the subject. Because on that subject, how do you
Speaker 10: propose to Queen Latifa, who doesn't do features like that?
Speaker 1: Time out? How did you get that verse out?
Speaker 8: That's what I.
Speaker 1: Don't want to sell short. I'm not how did you
Speaker 1: get that verse out?
Speaker 5: But we just pulled up to a creer. We worked
Speaker 5: on it.
Speaker 8: That she killed, that didn't she.
Speaker 1: I wasn't expecting that.
Speaker 4: I thought, all right, when I first heard it, I thought, Okay,
Speaker 4: she's going to sing the hook.
Speaker 8: Or something a lot.
Speaker 4: And then when she started spinning, I was like, oh wait,
Speaker 4: is Raps changing up? You know, because I'm similar, Like
Speaker 4: we had a situation where demoed Big Daddy Kane and
Speaker 4: and instead wound up doing it himself. So at first
Speaker 4: I thought that's what you you were headed to do.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, ship, like he still has it?
Speaker 10: I mean when the last time we've heard in Queen
Speaker 10: la tiva picture. I'm just I do anyone I thought
Speaker 10: that you.
Speaker 1: One was super fire? I didn't.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize how long? What was the what was
Speaker 4: the process or the least.
Speaker 1: Please the process of.
Speaker 4: Because no, this is what I'm asking and I'm not no,
Speaker 4: I'm not even being snarky. Here's the reason for my asking.
Speaker 4: It's it's a lot of times when you ask for
Speaker 4: a favor or verse, especially from someone of stature, depending
Speaker 4: on how they feel about you. And you know, there's
Speaker 4: some people that like if Tarika asked them, you know,
Speaker 4: I'll say that eighty five percent of the time, someone's
Speaker 4: gonna bring their a game. But then there's sometimes when
Speaker 4: people just like maybe phone it in and that I've
Speaker 4: had We've had a few situations where the verse was
Speaker 4: phoned in.
Speaker 1: Wow, and it's like well no, no, no.
Speaker 4: It was just like which one of us is gonna
Speaker 4: say no, can you do it again?
Speaker 1: Like I feel bad when it's that situation where you
Speaker 1: have to.
Speaker 8: And so.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like what's all right? This is all gonna ask
Speaker 4: this is yes, no question. I feel like no, no, no,
Speaker 4: this is yes. It was that her verse coming in
Speaker 4: the door, and that was it and no more.
Speaker 1: No we were or was it worked on?
Speaker 9: And it was it was this is this is how
Speaker 9: it happened. She invited me to a house to work
Speaker 9: on the on the verse. I went to her into
Speaker 9: her home in the studio, we talked, we worked on
Speaker 9: the verse, and we got the song that song.
Speaker 1: Right. No, no, that's all I wanted to know.
Speaker 4: I wanted to know more or less, like how many
Speaker 4: takes and how many redrafts and rewrites and that sort
Speaker 4: of because one draft?
Speaker 5: Okay, can we can we ask about another hard to
Speaker 5: get person? Can we ask? Can we ask about D'Angel?
Speaker 1: Did y'all pull that? Wait?
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell y'all something. This motherfucker and something he
Speaker 4: started and finishing. I'm gonna tell you something. Me and D.
Speaker 8: I love him.
Speaker 4: I just one day I decided to count the paces
Speaker 4: from my house to his house. Currently, now me and
Speaker 4: D have been neighbors. I'm gonna be knowiced to me.
Speaker 4: I didn't know that we.
Speaker 1: Were neighbors for five years and then we've.
Speaker 4: Been neighbors for ten years, and one day I was like, wait,
Speaker 4: let me count.
Speaker 1: I have a doctor's appointment that's somewhere towards his crib.
Speaker 4: So it's like I'm literally going to count the paces
Speaker 4: seventy six steps.
Speaker 5: Yoed us wow, and the albums and a song title.
Speaker 10: I don't know what seventy six steps.
Speaker 4: We've lived seventy six steps from each other for the
Speaker 4: last ten years and we ain't been to each other's
Speaker 4: crib yet.
Speaker 8: That's crazy for the rect.
Speaker 6: Like six months in di'angelo time, So like, don't take
Speaker 6: offense this guy.
Speaker 1: He and Steve.
Speaker 4: Steve was like one of the many engineers on Voodoo
Speaker 4: and Black Uh, but say Black Messiah, Black Messiah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so how I didn't do it?
Speaker 1: How did you get D'Angelo on the record?
Speaker 8: Yo?
Speaker 1: And he's doing a lot on that.
Speaker 4: He's doing arrangements on the record, so it wasn't even like.
Speaker 1: OK, I'm gonna send just this hook game. He went
Speaker 1: in like he's even bobbing in and out. Whatever. How
Speaker 1: did that happen?
Speaker 8: Bud, By the grace of God the universe, Like.
Speaker 1: You don't even know it that real?
Speaker 8: It was, it was.
Speaker 9: It's all chain reaction if we had to pick that sample,
Speaker 9: if just didn't want to get on it, we don't.
Speaker 9: We don't get D'Angelo like out the gate. I knew
Speaker 9: I wanted to do a Wu Tang flip because of
Speaker 9: Nicole Bus record that I I love that record. So
Speaker 9: Knife was going through all the Wu Tang sample banks
Speaker 9: and he ends up picking the Liquid Swore joints.
Speaker 8: So he's like, this is the one. He sent it
Speaker 8: to me. He's like, what you think? It's like, let's
Speaker 8: run with it.
Speaker 9: So he's like, well, if we do it, we got
Speaker 9: to ask for Jesus blessing and ask him to get
Speaker 9: on it because it's his bigger, biggest record.
Speaker 8: Bet we do that. Jesus says yes, so that that's
Speaker 8: a feat in.
Speaker 9: It self for giggit or even one. Let us do
Speaker 9: it and be like yeah, I'll get on it too.
Speaker 9: So we're in the studio mixing with Young Guru like
Speaker 9: like mixing and at the time, like the WU documentary
Speaker 9: of Mike's and Minutes is out, so they're touring, so
Speaker 9: we're trying to schedule like how we can get Jig
Speaker 9: in the studio to get this verse while he's touring.
Speaker 9: While I'm trying to meet deadlines. So he's talking to
Speaker 9: you know, his man to handle that. But you know,
Speaker 9: old boy on the other phone says, well, I'm also
Speaker 9: working with D'Angelo and he happens to be big fans
Speaker 9: of both Ninth One Day and Rhapsody, and I think
Speaker 9: it'd be dope if y'all work together. So it's just like, which, well,
Speaker 9: I mean what you want, Like I'm ready to do
Speaker 9: like a whole new joint. Like I'm like, what do
Speaker 9: you honesaid, I could send him the whole album, like
Speaker 9: we could do some new stuff. I guess there's some
Speaker 9: beats like whatever he wants. I say, he got something,
Speaker 9: he can send it, I can finish it, you know.
Speaker 9: And he was like, nah, I think I think the
Speaker 9: joint that you send Jizzz, you know, would be dope.
Speaker 8: So we send it to him.
Speaker 9: I'm flying all over the place shooting videos, doing press,
Speaker 9: trying to get ready for the album. So he calls
Speaker 9: Knife at the studio and he and Ninth have a conversation.
Speaker 9: But you know, he talks about he's a fan that
Speaker 9: you know how much Wu Tang and the Liquid Swore
Speaker 9: and Liquid Sword Song meant to him like everybody has
Speaker 9: a memory attached to that song, and how much he
Speaker 9: loves Jigs because you know, that was the first person
Speaker 9: from WU that he worked with. So it's just all
Speaker 9: these factors. So you know, he was like, I love
Speaker 9: the record. I love to do it. So you know,
Speaker 9: we got him in the studio. You know he likes
Speaker 9: to record on tape. We probably waited maybe like two weeks.
Speaker 1: That is a record time waiting two weeks. That's like.
Speaker 9: Two maybe three at most, like but yeah, like he
Speaker 9: probably went in the studio every day for like seven days,
Speaker 9: even even when I was we paid for the studio,
Speaker 9: but when like we paid for a certain time, even
Speaker 9: when that was out, he was like, I'm not finished.
Speaker 9: I'll pay for the rest to finish it. I'm just like, yo,
Speaker 9: this is crazy.
Speaker 4: I was wondering because, yeah, I was wondering if he
Speaker 4: did his thing on tape because it's all his vocals
Speaker 4: are very speeded oppressive.
Speaker 8: But yeah, he killed it.
Speaker 5: He ain't featuring nowhere else either.
Speaker 2: What do you do background vocals? And you said you're arranged,
Speaker 2: well arranged.
Speaker 1: Back, but he doesn't do mere background vocals.
Speaker 8: It's just the way he played with his voice.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, and that's majestic.
Speaker 9: And what was ill for me is I did like
Speaker 9: a mock cook before I knew he was going to
Speaker 9: be on it, like the place hold it. To hear
Speaker 9: him sing it, like I was like, yeah, I was
Speaker 9: like I thought he was gonna write something new like
Speaker 9: that in himself was ill to me.
Speaker 1: But you know how to I mean people.
Speaker 6: We look up to our d'angelo's and think that they
Speaker 6: you know, that there are another level, but there's still
Speaker 6: big time music fans, you know, and they fall in
Speaker 6: love with something when they hear it, and they don't
Speaker 6: need to change it, they just recreate it.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 4: So what I'm sort of skipping to your second album
Speaker 4: and so what was the process in the decision to
Speaker 4: roll with rock Nation for yourself?
Speaker 9: Oh, we knew that, you know, as an indie label,
Speaker 9: we can only do so much like budget and marketing
Speaker 9: wise and really getting the exposure that I wanted. So
Speaker 9: you know, when we took the meeting with rock One,
Speaker 9: I'm a big j fan Offgate, but walking into the
Speaker 9: building and at the time, Shaka Pilgrim was the president
Speaker 9: and you walk in and fifty percent of the staff
Speaker 9: of women and it's so so many different coaches, and
Speaker 9: we came in with Lailor's wisdom probably eighty percent done.
Speaker 9: And they didn't ask us to change or sing why
Speaker 9: not one single thing. It was always all right, what
Speaker 9: do y'all want to do? What you envision? Like what
Speaker 9: are you thinking of the music? They never every eve,
Speaker 9: they didn't ask to change or touch anything. And so
Speaker 9: to me, like the energy and just how much they
Speaker 9: love the culture. It didn't seem like I've been to
Speaker 9: death jam I think in Atlantic before, but this was
Speaker 9: this was different. This was all about culture and just
Speaker 9: music and they were really about growing with me. Like
Speaker 9: they wasn't pressure to have a radio single or it
Speaker 9: was just like, you know, we believe in you and
Speaker 9: your talent.
Speaker 8: We just want to how can we help? That's what
Speaker 8: it was. So that's why.
Speaker 4: And how did you feel the morning that the nominations
Speaker 4: came out?
Speaker 8: And I don't know for you, it's kind of phone call.
Speaker 1: Yo.
Speaker 9: Ninth was the first one that hit me because I
Speaker 9: was in la This was like five in the morning,
Speaker 9: so he hit me.
Speaker 8: He was like, Yo, you nominated and you nominated.
Speaker 9: Uh, it wasn't twice twice so I was like, yo,
Speaker 9: what like yo to be nominated, but to even be
Speaker 9: nominated twice like that was crazy for me. It was
Speaker 9: just like people were calling me. I couldn't even answer
Speaker 9: the phone. I had to just sit back and reflect, like, Yo,
Speaker 9: we're here, Like this is a different bar to be
Speaker 9: recognized at the highest level of music when a of
Speaker 9: awards show and then not have no Billboard hits and
Speaker 9: no platinum records, and to be in a category with
Speaker 9: Jay Z and Kendrick Lamar at the same time.
Speaker 8: It's just like man as.
Speaker 10: Not have to change nothing, not even have to play
Speaker 10: on the tight dress.
Speaker 9: I cried a little bit, you know, but yeah, I
Speaker 9: was thankful that I stayed the course of anything.
Speaker 4: So I have to say that your your whole process
Speaker 4: of crafting the Eve album, it's just some amazing ass shit,
Speaker 4: you know, like where where did the idea even come
Speaker 4: from for crafting this? This album as an homage to
Speaker 4: the spirit of the black woman in America in the
Speaker 4: world and their effect like where's the Genesis and the
Speaker 4: seed born?
Speaker 9: Last summer summer twenty eighteen, I was doing an interview
Speaker 9: for the Oxford and this guy named Lamar Wilson he
Speaker 9: was writing a piece on the lineage of Carolina musicians,
Speaker 9: and so he was connecting me with Nina Simone and ROBERTA.
Speaker 9: Flat so like I was just like, yo, I didn't
Speaker 9: I never thought of me connecting with them in that
Speaker 9: way because we just seemed like too, like I just
Speaker 9: look I put them up here, like there's no way
Speaker 9: like reconnected. But the way he broke it down, like
Speaker 9: you're both soul for you know, you're both lyrical. You
Speaker 9: know you both reflect the times and talk about what's
Speaker 9: going on in the community, your storytellers. I was like, man,
Speaker 9: I never thought about it in that way like I
Speaker 9: do come from their family tree. And it made me think, like, yo,
Speaker 9: when I do interviews and people say who are you
Speaker 9: influenced by? Yeah, I say Queen my teeth for MC
Speaker 9: like Lauryn Hill, but I talk about Sicily Tyson, talk
Speaker 9: about I talk about Nikki Giavanni, you know, Maya Angelo,
Speaker 9: And I'm just like man, when I think about who
Speaker 9: I am and who I'm inspired by. Of course, you
Speaker 9: have your village, your mom, but there are so many
Speaker 9: black women that I look up to and too. It
Speaker 9: gave me away creatively to show that there are so
Speaker 9: many different sides of me too, you know. People like
Speaker 9: to say or kind of put me in a box
Speaker 9: sometimes based on the music that I make.
Speaker 8: That you know I had.
Speaker 9: We were in a studio one time and the dude
Speaker 9: was like, Yo, we thought like a party for y'all's
Speaker 9: just like burning incense and y'all listening to my dude
Speaker 9: and all this, And.
Speaker 8: I'm just like, bro, like what are you talking about?
Speaker 9: Like I grew up on Luke, I listened to Go Go,
Speaker 9: growing up, like I'm from snow Hill, North Carolina, Like
Speaker 9: That's the Sticks, like Boon's Fall, Like we listened to everything.
Speaker 8: So there were so many sides of me.
Speaker 9: So it's like this is a way where I could
Speaker 9: take a different woman to not only describe like my
Speaker 9: different personalities, but also talk about them and continue their
Speaker 9: legacies and say that we all are coming all come
Speaker 9: from a family tree. I think after I did that interview,
Speaker 9: like I went home and I'd always wanted to do
Speaker 9: a song about being a tomboy, especially in this day
Speaker 9: and age and what that looks like. And I did
Speaker 9: it because of the way I started the song when
Speaker 9: Aaliyah was alive, and I was like I'm gonna just
Speaker 9: call it Aliyah, And as soon as.
Speaker 8: I did that, it all just clicked came together.
Speaker 9: Yeah, the conversation, it's like, oh, I got this song, Alia,
Speaker 9: I could do this with this this Felicia Rashad taught
Speaker 9: me about motherly love, Nikki Giovanni taught.
Speaker 8: Me the power words and blackness like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in the videos, which I also feel are crucial
Speaker 4: components to the vision of that, like what were the
Speaker 4: concepts for the well, not the concepts, but you know
Speaker 4: as far as like I personally want you to make
Speaker 4: a video almost for every song.
Speaker 5: I know too too.
Speaker 9: I'm trying to make it happen right now. We just
Speaker 9: did a feenie too long ago. Yeah, we did a feenie.
Speaker 9: I still want to add to it. It ain't all
Speaker 9: the way right.
Speaker 5: Wait, so so far you got a Phoenie. What videos
Speaker 5: do you have for which?
Speaker 9: Yeah, oprahj FENI will be the third one. The next
Speaker 9: one I probably want to do Cleo, whoop be, Aliya, Serena.
Speaker 8: I want to do one for every song like I
Speaker 8: see it.
Speaker 5: So no problem putting this list together.
Speaker 1: Because you mentioned the interview that you left earth Kit
Speaker 1: was it just for spacing on the album or just spacey.
Speaker 8: The first draft, we had twenty three songs.
Speaker 9: You know, we we knew like it's too long because
Speaker 9: people today can't digest music in the same way, the
Speaker 9: same way.
Speaker 8: Like they they tap out it.
Speaker 9: At first, I was going to do a part one
Speaker 9: and a part two, so sonically, you know, we have
Speaker 9: this one in the part two is gonna be. It
Speaker 9: was gonna be way more soul for and more boombab heavy.
Speaker 9: That was gonna be like Felicia Rashad DJ Spinderella, she
Speaker 9: has a song.
Speaker 1: Who we are going to get a sequel?
Speaker 8: Harriet? I was, I got, I got different ideas. That's
Speaker 8: more music coming.
Speaker 10: I love you what it's so journal route and you
Speaker 10: said I'm not going to do to Harriet, So I
Speaker 10: was like, maybe there's a Yeah.
Speaker 8: I was Harry's Journal, which when do I name it?
Speaker 8: But yeah, so but there's there's I do like forty women.
Speaker 4: As far as where you are right now, like what
Speaker 4: do you feel that your goals are, Like do you
Speaker 4: have do you have a five year plan as far
Speaker 4: as like this point from now, like developing other acts
Speaker 4: or like just make more music.
Speaker 8: Or definitely make more music. I think it's the foundation
Speaker 8: of everything.
Speaker 9: But I want to expand artistically because you know the
Speaker 9: way I write, Like I want to get into not
Speaker 9: only writing songs that I want to write films. I
Speaker 9: want to get behind the camera and produce documentaries. I
Speaker 9: was in the in the Rock office with Ti Ti today.
Speaker 9: He was like, rap, you need writes, bet pop records.
Speaker 9: It's like, you know, so you know, I definitely want
Speaker 9: to try it. Like I'm just like, let's try and
Speaker 9: see what happens. Just but just do a lot of
Speaker 9: more things artistically. I thought about starting a label. I
Speaker 9: don't know how I feel about that yet. But Missa
Speaker 9: Hilton Son Nicole Brown, he's an EMC, so I want
Speaker 9: to help. I'm helping because you can produce his album.
Speaker 9: That will be my first time like taking that role. Okay,
Speaker 9: but yeah, just like really expand on that, but always
Speaker 9: putting out music, giving.
Speaker 1: Back to what was given to you. Okay, I see that.
Speaker 4: Well, you know again from the Bomber Arts, we really
Speaker 4: thank you for your your your talent and your wisdom and.
Speaker 5: All that blackness, all that queenness. That's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 5: You can't really say that, I'm just speaking for you.
Speaker 5: Can for the sisters. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I can think you can't thank you in the queenness.
Speaker 1: We can say that too, you can.
Speaker 5: You didn't, so I was just feeling like Jewish, say.
Speaker 2: Have you been to Egypt? Because you.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to get that we should be together.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there you go the sugar Steve. Yes, I would
Speaker 4: pay either well, that is, I should pay for us
Speaker 4: to go. That's another episode, of course, Supreme. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 4: thank you one more time.
Speaker 1: Rhaps did he give it up all right?
Speaker 4: Or and behalf of light and Steve and bost Bill
Speaker 4: and yes, even unpaid Bill and font Tiicola, who incidentally,
Speaker 4: uh is still out getting cigarettes and he said he'll
Speaker 4: be be back home any moment. Uh cigarettes, So hurry
Speaker 4: up man.
Speaker 1: He said he was going to get some smokes two
Speaker 1: years ago.
Speaker 4: He's fixing his bathroom now now it's now, let's getting
Speaker 4: some cigarettes.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 4: This is quest Love, and we'll see you on the
Speaker 4: next go round, of course, Love Supreme.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 4: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 4: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.