Latest / The Breakfast Club / Breakfast Club Classic: Mýa Talks Creative Freedom, Navigating the Industry, Independence

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Breakfast Club Classic: Mýa Talks Creative Freedom, Navigating the Industry, Independence · The Breakfast Club

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Every day up weak, click your ass up the breakfast club.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: You don't finish for y'all done? Morning. Everybody is d
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: j n V.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Just hilarious charlamage the guy we are the breakfast club lawl.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: The roast is here as well. We got a special
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: guest in the building.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, maya welcome morning.
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: Is this your first time?
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Is it?
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: I think?
• 0:21
  Speaker 5: So? Wow morning I met everybody before.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: How did you energy this morning? You feel good?
• 0:27
  Speaker 5: I got a good nice rest.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's happening.
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: Tacos for Taco Tuesday.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: She's married to a Mexican, so.
• 0:36
  Speaker 5: Every day is also as well. Yes, I'm good.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: How are y'all doing new album retrospect?
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: What is this album mean to you?
• 0:46
  Speaker 5: M hm? This album is a journey back into time,
• 0:49
  Speaker 5: the time that influenced me to sign up some music,
• 0:51
  Speaker 5: you know, when I fell in love with music for
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: the first time. It was literally sou bunk, R and
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: B that filled my household by days, the collection and
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: my parents had a lot of dancing going on, a
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: lot of singing going on in the living room. But
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: culture as well, the block parties, the skating rinks, those
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: gatherings where your family would come over, laughter, children playing,
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: so it's a celebration.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Nobody could look at you and tell you grew up
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: in that era.
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: Literally, no, I'm a seventies baby.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so the whole experience.
• 1:28
  Speaker 6: But I'm glad that you said that because we were
• 1:30
  Speaker 6: listening to the album and I instantly got Prince. Yeah,
• 1:33
  Speaker 6: So it's like that was totally intentional.
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: Oh yes, the Minneapolis sound. I've worked with Jim and
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: Lewis before, performed with Prince before, but that whole era
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: of funk, the performance, the aesthetics, the fashion, you know,
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: the little expressions and the facial expressions and the hand gestures,
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: just the ultimate performance during that time, the rehearsals. You know,
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: I'm a musician's daughter. Yeah, and it really inspired me.
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: I've done stuff like that before on previous albums. I
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: did a Rick James cover, but I just wanted to
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: embody a whole body of work, which is is what
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: an album is to me. So retrospect is literally digging
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: into the crates of my influences and going back into time,
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: those joyful times of my childhood that first influenced me
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: and introduced me to music.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Performing with PRINSI what.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: Was that like, it was beautiful. You know. I got
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: to see him two nights in a row at the
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: O two in London, and he had a lot of
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: artists join him on that run and I learned a
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: lot just by being there for two nights. There was
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: a jam session of course afterward, at the end of
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: go and of course the conversation about independency, you know,
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: the first conversation i'd met him before that. But he
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: was a big advocate of empowerment, no sampling, playing an instrument,
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: all of those things, and then really investing in your craft.
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: And there were gems that were jopped. See I'm not friends.
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: And I started this independent journey very early before it
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: was a thing, and Len and nine is my label,
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: and I didn't necessarily know what it was all about
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: when I stepped into that new territory, and he was
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: the person that was the voice of reason that sort
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: of kept me on that path even when it got tough.
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: You know, it requires you to of course finance one
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: hundred percent. That's the way I've done it, and you know, grind,
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: but also wear several different hats and wear many roles.
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: And it's been a beautiful educational journey of empowerment, but
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: learning and then also developing relationships when you become the
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: label yourself and figuring it out because you know the
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: business of music, and then also the technological side of
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: things changes every few weeks, there's a new platform. So
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: it was really wonderful just to be in his presence,
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: but also to receive the spiritual conversations, the business conversations,
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: the new business models, the rehearsal conversations, finding your niche conversations,
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: the performance aspect of it, and then encouragement.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: How ahead of what he fine was he?
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: Oh? I mean he was in his own world. He
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: was one of one playing over seventeen instruments, you know,
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: I don't know anybody that does that, and was very passionate, meticulous,
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: very detail oriented. I witnessed him doing a sound check
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: at the O two both nights, and so I actually
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: ran into him on my way to my soundcheck coming
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: from his soundcheck, and he was out there mixing on
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: the board in the front of house.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: And he cares that much about how the audience or
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: the listener receives the art down to the mixing, and so,
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: you know, I get asked often how come there's been
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: an eight your gap in between albums. I mean, I too,
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: have really taken my time to be in that process
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: of mixing. This is the first album that I am
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: releasing independently in Dobe atmos as well as Sony three
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: sixty spatial Audio, which is an immersive experience so that
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: you're like inside of the music's around sound three hundred
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: and sixty degrees. But now that you know they're doing
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: this with music now versus just soundtracks for films, house like.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: What's gonna sound like? I'm just listening on my little.
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: There are headphones actually being developed now so that you
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: can get the immersive experience. Got Yeah, it's so wild.
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: I did the whole test thing at the Sony studios
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: where they have these little wires that they stick in
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: your ears and they can actually see how you're ingesting
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: the sound and then they calibrate it to your ear. Wow,
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: it's crazy. And then they take it off with I
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: don't know how many speakers are around you three hundred
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: and sixty degrees above, left, right, and below, and you
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: cannot tell the difference between like thirty different speakers in
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: the room and the little tiny wired earbuds that go
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: in your ear, like, what's going on right now? This
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: is so advanced.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: So did it take for you to make this whole
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: album retrospect?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: How long would it just whisper? Because my whispering.
• 6:22
  Speaker 7: This is my morning, right she just set We're still early,
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: So so how long did it take you to make this?
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: How long did it take?
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: Who so chilling back? Okay, So I didn't have an
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: actual timeline, you know. I actually cut the very first
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: record in twenty sixteen, which opens my album Give It
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: to You. I released it as a single in June
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: of last year. D Nice is now on it for
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: the album version shut Up Yes, legendary d Nice, and
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: he introduces this album with that song. And so I'd
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: released other albums during that time. There were Smooth Jones
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: that came in twenty sixteen, and then TKO, which is
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: one of the slow Jams Baby Miging Music project in
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: twenty eighteen. In twenty seventeen, I recorded the second song.
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: So it was like in between touring and in between
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: album tours and promotional and grind stuff that I would
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: just go in the studio. My production partner is Migay
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: Mars from fifteen hundred and nothing, and we would get
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: together in between albums. But it was actually the pandemic
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: that was confirmation for both of us, like, Yo, let's
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: start making some playlists that get us out of this
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: funk because this is a very uncertain time for all
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: of us the world. We had so many different directions
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: we wanted to go. There was a mixtape Lang Maya Lanski,
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: but we were like, it's too dark right now, Let's
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: bring the joy. Let's go in this direction. We had
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: a face to face conversation. Look, if we had one
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: direction we wanted to go in, and we only had
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: one choice, which one would you do this one of
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: that one? We chose Joy. And then in the end
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: of twenty twenty is when I rented the studio in Glendale, California,
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: and we got to work and so we literally finished
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: the whole project, just the blueprint without all the features
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: in twenty twenty one.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: But the pandemic inspired that, and then the process of
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: reaching out in the dms, etc. Or relationships that we
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: already had came the features. And then all the legal
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: processes took place over the years and featured artists, clearances
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: and publishing it all this kind of stuff, and now
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: it's seeing the light of day. But I'd also recorded
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: two other albums in between, TKO twenty eighteen and now,
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: so those are already mixed, mastered. I'm ready to go.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Damn.
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: You know, we were working, Yeah, I got to ask.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: You know, when we heard the album, we were listening
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: very seventies eighties, right, Yeah. Then when you walk in,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: I see Londell behind you, yes, sir. Now, Londell is
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: a state manager. I don't if he's still a state
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: manager for the Prince of State. So he's estate managed
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: for princes. Did he have any I guess did you
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: go to him for advice for dealing with Prince and
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: the music to sound, et cetera, et cetera.
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: Well, Londell was very instrumental in Prince's entrepreneurship, you know,
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: and the empowerment behind that. He started in law and
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: does so many other things, and he's been in that
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: practice for such a long time. But he also has
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: a management company, media company, owner of Source magazine, And
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: I'd been dealing with several lawyers to try to get
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: these projects solidified and there was no luck, you know,
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: but Londell has a lot of weight in this business
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: and can literally reach.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Out based on those a couple of people.
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and so I actually know Londel. My dad and
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: I know him for a long time. We've known each
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: other for a long time and we've had business conversations
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: in the past as well. And so I told my dad,
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: I like, look, I'm so frustrated right now with these lawyers.
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: Find out where Londell is. Get him on the phone.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: So we started talking collectively and Londell mentioned, you know,
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: I'm doing other things outside of law. Let me listen
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: to the music, see where you're at. There were lots
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: of conversations to also find out if this was aligned
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: with him, if I was aligned, and what my mission was.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: And it holds that entrepreneurial spirit always, which was also
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: held together by Prince for so long in spirit. You know,
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: we lost him and he's still here in spirit. But
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: Londell is now my manager and leading this thing so
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: that it sees the light of day with a quickness,
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: but also supporting the project with strategy, these other teams
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: that are very necessary to roll things out. And I
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: was just kind of throwing out music during my independent career.
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: So happy anniversary fans, Thank y'll so much for writing
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: with me. But now it's a new day and I
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: want to do it right. I want to do it
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: better and elevate every time. Teamwork makes the dream work.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Gotcha, Sure, it's interesting because you said it's your first
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: three job man eight years. It makes me think, were
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: you protecting your piece, of protecting your artistry?
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: Honestly, I was really just having a ball experiencing what
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: it is to create from a real, free, pure place.
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: It wasn't even protection. It got very addictive when I
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: went independent because I had the freedom to create whatever
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: genre with no ceiling. I wanted to the timeline. I
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: set no deadlines. I didn't have to focus on charting
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: or numbers and validate myself based on someone else's definition
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: of success and all that pressure that does come from
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: the major label system and the investment I knew, excuse me,
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: the investment I knew was going to be very boutique,
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: you know, and very startup under the radar because I
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: started in Japan on my very first few releases, and
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: so it was really fun because I didn't have all
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: those rules, and of course the criticism that comes with
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: releasing a full body of work over me. But that
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: was the time to get acclimated to what this independent
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: journey was about. Do it in a very under the
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: radar situation and a one territory release here and there,
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: mix stapes et peas along the way, and then something
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: magical happens. Your relationships are built, you know the process
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: because of that education and practice, and then you show
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: up and you put together an album, throw it out
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: just for the love. It gets nominated for a Grammy,
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: and then it's additional confirmation to keep going. And Prince
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: always said, you know, I will help you if you
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: stay independent, And there's been so many times you want
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: to throw in the towel, questioning self, is this really
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: worth it? Do I need to go back into the
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: system and all of these things, because it is very
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: hard and you have to be very relentless and resilient
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: in your grind, especially when you're financing one hundred percent
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: of it, and then sometimes people don't even know it exists.
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: So you're also getting oh, you're washed up, or you
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: how come you don't make music anymore? And nobody's paying attention.
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: So nobody's paying attention. So to answer your question, you know,
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: there's been so many times that question mark has popped up,
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: but I don't measure success in the way I used
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: to when I was in the system because there's a
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: new definition that's been introduced to me. My sanity is kept,
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: my spirit's intact. I'm literally having more fun now in
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: my forties than I was as a teenager, just kind
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: of trying to figure it out and understanding that, you know,
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: if it doesn't reach a certain number or a chart position,
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: then you can be canceled, you can leave, you can
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: be shelved. And I love music so much. I think
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: I've protected just the love of the art, not intentionally,
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: but that's what Prince was always talking about, and that's
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: what he was an advocate for, for those he thought
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: or maybe saw a little spark of love and passion
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: in so that they could preserve their art themselves and
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: still work in the business.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: Were you nervous about going into the seventies era because
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: it's it's like, you know, you have to think about
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: what does it fit, where does it fit, and especially
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: with this generation so loving the nineties, the era that
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: you came out and the cool.
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: When it was pure. People comment on this album and
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: they're like, oh, you go into the era when it
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: was pure Rick Jay's But no, I don't even create
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: from that place anymore, from fear based on who I
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: think should like it, or considering every demographic. You'll go
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: in circles trying to do that. My measure of satisfaction
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: is does it feel good to me? You know? Does
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: it feel right? Does it feel ready? Is a modulation needed?
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: Is this in the right key? Do we need to
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: rework this record so it has a little bit more slap?
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: Is the mix right? Is the feature right? Did I
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: do my best on it? Can I live with this
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: in my car over and over and over and over again?
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: Can I write to it? Can I share it with others?
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: You know? And that's where I create from. And if
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: I love it, of course I start sharing secretly and
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: privately to my friends, the people that know me, the dances,
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: my creative director. And you know, you can always test
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: with your fans. We have private chats. You can always
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: go on Instagram live if you really want to test
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: a record before you invest as a business. But no,
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: I don't make music from fear. There's nobody judging but
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: me now, you know. And I'm never nervous about my
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: favorite era of music because I knew, I knew that
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: it hit different during that time. My dad is a
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: singer performer. I watched him and his band in my
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: childhood write in my living room rehearse, and I was
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: just dancing away and singing away with hair brushes and broomsticks.
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: And that's the feeling that I wanted to capture. So
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: you'll get all of that joy from the Trailblazers, the Rich,
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: James Prince, the Tina Marie, the Shalamar, Atlantic Star is
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: all over the ballads, Sos Band, Gap Band, Evelyn Champagne, King,
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: Patrice Russian. So many influences, MJ. You can hear it.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: This is like Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton influences all
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: in that that come from my favorite era of music,
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: which is the late seventies, and then it bleeds into
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: the eighties with synthesizers. And you also have the hip
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: hop element on this project because Mike got Mars the
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: executive producer partner of my as well as Mike and
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: Keys who work with a Nipsey hustle and list goes
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: on and on and on. They know hip hop, they
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: know drums. The iconic pioneers like Jay Dilla are all
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: over you know, they're product, so you get that fused
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: and I'm in love with this project.
• 17:04
  Speaker 8: You said, nobody's judging, but you now, does that come
• 17:07
  Speaker 8: from the independence not that that okay I was gonna asks,
• 17:10
  Speaker 8: or does.
• 17:10
  Speaker 9: It come from where you are in your womanhood now?
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: Like it comes from both places. The independency has allowed
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: me to create from that space of freedom where there's
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: no number that I have to meet, there's no sale,
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: there's no first week pressure. I just want it out
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: in the universe, you know, And that's success for me, Like, hey, enjoy.
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: I might not be here tomorrow. We never know when
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: our last breath is. But the fact that I have
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: birth something and I just put it out for those
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: to enjoy. Whoever's ready to receive it, wants to receive it,
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: stumbles upon it, you know, word of mouth is shared
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: with that's success, you know. And then to bring it
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: to the stage is like a cherry on top for
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: me because I love to perform. And if my dad
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: likes it because I always play it for him being
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: a musician, you know, is he satisfyment? Those are some
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: good years back here, and you know, I'm not really
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: fearful also because of my womanhood, and there are a
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: lot of lessons that I've learned along the way, even
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: in just as a songwriter. Some gems practice I've had,
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: and it's a wonderful journey to just kind of be
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: refined and step out fearlessly. That's the error that my
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: is in. Now.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Do you think modern music lost something emotionally like when
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: everything became algorithm and numbers driven.
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: Well, I think there's pros and cons to everything. You know,
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: Algorithms can definitely be a focus when you're talking about
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: business and return of investment. When somebody's investing because they're
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: putting up some money, they're literally financing something and they
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: want their money back plus some You know, when you're
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: doing it for the fun, it's a little different. Sometimes
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: you're like, I don't care if I'm in the red zone.
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: I can go on debt for this. I'll pay extra
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: to just be there, or I'll pay extra so that
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: this is out and I'll get my money elsewhere, whether
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: it's touring or a brand deal or whatever it is.
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: Algorithms can shoot really affect validation, and I think it's
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: affecting our youth the likes because they're also growing into
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: themselves in real time, and that's a part of what
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: they look too, which is also addictive as how they
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: define themselves, and that can be dangerous As a grown woman,
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: I'm not thinking about that, but of course, you know,
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: when you're talking to a social media team or your
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: PR that's their job to let you know, okay, this
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: is actually working. You should do more of that raw stuff.
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: You don't have to be put together all the time.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: Those are the things I'm still open to because people
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: want to be talked to. You got to connect some way.
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: But algorithms are how businesses make their decisions because it's
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: a risk out here. And if you're not a ticket sale,
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: if you're not putting butts and seats, if you're not selling,
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: then we have some hesitation rights. It's just business, so
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: you can't take it personal, and so I encourage artists
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: to learn the business so that first of all, you
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: can protect your mental health and know that it's not
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: just criticism and an attack on you all the time.
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: It's literally business, and you don't find that out until
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: you become the business. And it's your money, you know,
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: so you gotta of course have tough skin, but it's
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: an awareness, and it's an education, and it's an understanding.
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: So I think all of that is really essential now
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: when you're dealing with other financiers to understand or major
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: labels with a lot of people and a lot of
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: voices involved for your own mental health, but also awareness
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: and how you navigate so that you can still be open,
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: learn as a student, and then move forward with some grace,
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: but also know that everything's not going to be perfect.
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: You know you're gonna have some wins and some losses,
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: but its very essential that you define that yourself and
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: then also have a degree of separation while you're operating
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: in both and they can coexist and they can intersect.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: You know, I was going to ask you know you
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: started so young. I did, But we haven't heard a
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: lot of maya crazy stories. Is that because your dad
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: is still with you now and he's still got in
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: making sure that he's controlling everything else. Because a lot
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: of times when people start young, you start hearing crazy stories.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Eight the industry runs them down, the industry makes them crazy.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: But we haven't heard that no stories from you.
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: I mean, there's always controversy because wild stuff out there,
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: of course that I actually experienced at the birth of
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: you know, a lot of the bottom feeder type of sites.
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: You know, you can't avoid that in a public forum,
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: you know, as a public figure, and everybody's a public
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: figure nowadays, but.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Going to all the bottom feed of sites right now.
• 21:57
  Speaker 8: He's a whole lot afford on her to sit down
• 22:02
  Speaker 8: that y'all did, and I made some notes about just
• 22:05
  Speaker 8: what it felt like being there at the break of
• 22:08
  Speaker 8: it all, because we feel like we get it so
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: bad from what we experience now.
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: Anytime you step out into this world, be prepared to
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: get attacked from every direction. Even if you are mother
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: Teresa and your fundamentals, it does not matter. So you
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: do have to understand that the world that we live in,
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: plus everybody's opinion being who on front Street, it's gonna happen.
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: And if you know that everybody's kind of going through
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: it wonderful. We didn't have social media when I was
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: a teen, so I survived. We had, you know, tabloids
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: and blogs, but I was really under the radar because also,
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: and I'm thankful for that, because I was still a
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: test dummy when I first started. They weren't sure of
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: R and B and if it could live on a
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: rap and rock label. I was literally on Interscope when
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: it was just in rock as an experiment. I was
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: not signed on my first album during their investment to
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: see if it could even work and exist. I was
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: not even signed to Terscope on my first album. I
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: was signed to Hawk Islam out of DC on University
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: Music Entertainment, So it was real soft pedal ish. I
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: didn't get the Britney Spears exposure, but we were positioning
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: and aligning on oh soundtracks, ghettle, superstar pop stuff here
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: and there, good looks to just try to figure it out.
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: So I didn't have the initial I would say, stamp
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: of approval yet I was in a real void gray
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: area like R and B. We don't know what that is.
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: We don't know if that's going to work over here.
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: We're willing to take a chance somewhat. Let's see how
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: it does. But what's the first best business decision? Shout
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: out to Baltimore Drew Hill Cisco. But it's also on
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: the same independent label that helped me break onto the scene.
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: You know, there's a lot of piggybacking that happens when
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: you're new to this business, which is a very competitive business,
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: and I'm thankful for that move, even though that wasn't
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: my first choice for the first single I had a
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: strong camp, you know, my dad was there during that time,
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: and my mom was my accountant. She's always kept me
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: debt free and finances intact, even in the hardest times,
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: you know, so that I'm very responsible, but I also
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: understand how quick and could go out the door. But
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: also you know, to plan for the future of state
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: planning as well and what you want to avoid. So
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: I've been really truly privileged and blessed to have family
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: involved in my business but also present, so just kind
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: of keep me protected from all the things that we do.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Hear about you think social media would have helped your
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: career more heart it both both.
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: You know, you get to know people too much. You
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: can be some strong effects personally spiritually, you know, to
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: open yourself up to the world is dangerous, and I
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: think there's a lot of judgment that's very fragile when
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: you're learning yourself as a teenager. Yeah, I see it
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: all the time with child stars in the public eye
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: trying to grow into themselves. So I think the popularity,
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: and of course the investment might have been enhanced because
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: of the exposure that you get from social media. But
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: it could have gone so many different ways. Are you
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: ready for it? What are the dynamics going on in
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: your personal life? I don't think at that time I
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: would have been ready for too much popularity. I was
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: still learning me. I was also still learning the business
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: and also just how to conduct an interview, how to
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: do radio drops, like the real things when you're just
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: a newbie to any territory.
• 25:56
  Speaker 8: At a lot of fans when they have conversations about
• 25:59
  Speaker 8: your care they always talk about how like your fourth
• 26:02
  Speaker 8: album was like either it was delayed or like the
• 26:04
  Speaker 8: release wasn't as big as fans felt like it should
• 26:06
  Speaker 8: have been. Yeah, and they feel like it was unfair
• 26:08
  Speaker 8: to you and that's why certain things didn't happen for
• 26:11
  Speaker 8: you afterward.
• 26:12
  Speaker 9: How do you feel about that time period of your life?
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: It's so interesting looking back at that time. So when
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: I mentioned Interscope, yes, a series of events go like
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: this hockey slam, you know, signed to an independent label,
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: they invest in you. Demos were shocked to several different labels.
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: Interscope said, yes, but it's still maybe second album, I
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: got signed to Interscope officially did another album. Third album
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: was Mood Rang two thousand and three, did a tour
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: all that, I start wanting to record my fourth album
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: and the budget was closed and they're still recouping. A
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: lot was spent making that third album with Ron Fair
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: and you know, I didn't have management at that time.
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: So I'm now kind of in a transition where I
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: got to either put up my own one and I
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: started to do that, and it was like a lot
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: of money. Every week I was spending in studios twenty
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: thousand over the course of two weeks. I said, this
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: is ignorant. What I'm going to do is go home.
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: I'm want to build a studio. I'm want to build
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: a rehearsal space. But I'm also going to purchase a
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: house so I can have living take care of family,
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: but also cast a crew that's based from my hometown,
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: that's hungry, that's thirsty, provide opportunities, start a foundation. Because
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: something doesn't feel right living in La something is missing,
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: and I was out there by myself, so I called
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: my dad up. I was like, look, I'm not happy here.
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: Let's sit down. I can't create. I don't want to
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: come home and I want to do things from the
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: ground up. He took me to Motown via Sylvia r Own.
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: It was still within the universal system and that's where
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: R and B was supported. It was understood culturally understood.
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: It has a history going back to Detroit. And so
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: Sylvia r Own allowed me to executive produce my own project,
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: and it was a wonderful project called Liberation, which would
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: have been my fourth album. Things happened. There was Napster,
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: there was social media, there was iTunes, and so when
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: you change the release date so many different times, there's
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: the farthest territory furthest territory Japan. That's a whole day ahead, right,
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: And when they changed the release date the last minute,
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: Japan had the album and it was out and then
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: it leaves and then it got shelved, and a whole
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: bunch of other stuff around that time. Well, they're just ahead,
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: you know, regarding a whole day ahead. So they got
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: it before they got the memo, or somebody didn't click
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: in the metadata to check off that one territory. And
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: so once it's out anywhere, it's out, and your whole
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: rollout is fumbled the whole investment. It gets shelved. You
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: can choose to go back in the system. I was
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: just in a place of look processing, which has happened
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: after spending a year and a half literally putting up
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: in some of my own money. Of course, you know,
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: to be thrown out, discarded, dropped all of these things
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: with negligence and made to look like I wasted somebody's money.
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: When I show up, I show up on time. I
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: really invest my own money into situations. I just decided
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: to sit with self for a minute and figure out,
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: you know, well, what it is I want to do.
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: Broadway called immediately, which was wonderful. Prince called immediately when
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: he heard the word independent, and there were these wonderful
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: things that happened immediately for me, where I was quickly
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: gathered up and shown that this actually is probably going
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: to be your greatest blessing. There are opportunities coming. You
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: have a catalog already, But I was always living in
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: this spider flight correctional facility mode. I wants you all
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: to understand that I'm not lazy. I want you all
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: to understand that the perception is not I wasted anybody's money.
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: The perception is is I'm gonna go get this and
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: I'm going to go show you that I mean business,
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: show you that I'm really about this art, show you
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: that I'm really about this music, and do the best
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: I can with what I got to work with, whatever
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: that is. It's always just figuring it out in real time.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: Can you expound on that you said you're always in
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: fight or.
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: Flight correctional facility mold when you're in that devastation after
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: you've had all of this press, all of this expectation,
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: the release dates announced changed, you know, investment made, but
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: also a narrative that says, oh, you wasted two million dollars,
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: the motown money, all these things like you're somebody irresponsible
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: or real high maintenance and doing all these crazy things.
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: That's not the case. Things happen.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I feel like that energy can exist for everybody now
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: if you allow it to.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Because of social media.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Of course, are flight correction you always feel like you're
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: in a fighter flight and ael like you got a
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: correction shit, but.
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: You also get called washed up, you fell off your
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: careers over and all of those things are placed over
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: your head. So you go into a real deep spiritual
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: dive to save yourself. And that's actually what I did.
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: I started studying Outer Space DVDs because I finally got
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: the chance, which was a blessing, to sit down, went
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: to the library, got a library card. And that's how
• 31:29
  Speaker 5: planet and I was borthed by being in this state
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: of self like insignificance but also significance at the same time.
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: We all exist in this very blink of an eye moment,
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: right on this little ball amongst trillions and trillions infinite universes. Yeah,
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: and then what does your world look like? You're no
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: longer a part of that world. It's time for you
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: to build your own from the round up. And it
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: was so spiritual for me, and things just started happening
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: when I finally just made the decision and got out
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: of my funk that I had to prove something to others,
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: others others, and it still stays with you, of course,
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: to just learn the lessons that this was trying to
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: teach me. But I also took myself to where music
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: inspired me. My great grandmother's name was Alberta Davis, and
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: at four years old, I knew I wanted to sing
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: when I heard her sing. My dad is also a
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: singer and at ken Guard Baptist Church in Kensington, Maryland.
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: I witnessed something, but I also felt something so undeniable
• 32:40
  Speaker 5: when I heard her singing and her tenor. Boy, she
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: had a very deep voice in the Baptist church. I
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: took myself in two thousand and seven to go study
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: disciples class and I went to the altar. Just so
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: happens the same day that I go to church to
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: just receive a word. I'm just spiritually called to that.
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: It was the eightieth anniversary of that church that I
• 33:03
  Speaker 5: didn't even know. My great great grandmother, Carrie Davis, founded
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: Wow and that's the same place that I was moved
• 33:13
  Speaker 5: musically through gospel music, and I didn't know what a
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: recording artist was. I just knew that music is in
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: my blood, it's in my veins. I'm on an assignment
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: to do music, and that was my source of everything.
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: And everything has just been so aligned since then because
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: that's always where I pull from, and I'll never forget that.
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: I don't walk alone. It's in this record retrospect on
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: face to face. So I just go back to my roots,
• 33:40
  Speaker 5: my foundational roots, which is black music, but also the
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: core of everything and American music is Black music, and
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: that's what this project is rooted in. So that helps
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: me always get out of anyone when the world is
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: judging you, just to go back and retreat to the
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: time that you fell in love and were spiritually moved
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: where you couldn't even aarticulated at the time. And that's
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: how I picked me back up and keep going.
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: In this era, the seventies and eighties, it resonates with you,
• 34:11
  Speaker 6: so that's how we got retrospect. Are we seeing any
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: visuals because I love the single cover art for just
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: a little bit like this was obviously you in.
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: But your idea.
• 34:23
  Speaker 6: And then also the album cover it gives seventies eighties
• 34:28
  Speaker 6: funk disco.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: I'm reading the.
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: Old sorry that but like I'm breaking it fucked up
• 34:33
  Speaker 6: and just right exactly are.
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: We getting visuals to match this?
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: Yes you are. And I want to give a shout
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: out to my creative director who's been rocking with me
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: for over twenty years, Derek Brown. When I made that
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: shift to go back home, I did an audition. We
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: had a gym audition. He started off as a dancer
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: for me, but he shoots videos now, he edits. He choreographs.
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: He does everything. He's a director, and he put his
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: foot up in my album shoot. He's doing the lyric
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: digital book clip right now. That was his idea. He
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: was there. He's a seventies baby as well. So we
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: key key in my basement or in my studio or
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: in rehearsals or whatever. And we said, you know, I
• 35:10
  Speaker 5: had done a previous photo shoot that leaned a little
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: bit toward more pop eighties and we just both agreed,
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: it's not resonating culturally. This is the culture, this is person.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: We were both there, that's what we wore, that's what
• 35:22
  Speaker 5: the hair looked like. Let's lean into all of it
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: so that people get it when they see it, but
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: also the music compliments it. So that was the thought
• 35:28
  Speaker 5: process behind that. And yes, to answer your question, just
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: a little bit feature into a short yeah, music video,
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: just a little bit featuring Too Short. The music video
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: just dropped a couple of days ago, and it embodies
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: all that the eighties glam, eighties glam from that era.
• 35:46
  Speaker 5: Too shorts and a suit. I've never seen him in
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: the suit before. It's really dope.
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: You're gonna have so much fun performance album on tour
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: because I am you already be having fun? I just
• 35:55
  Speaker 6: started ring DC just oh my god, killing.
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: It with the go go roots. Yeah, having fun.
• 36:01
  Speaker 6: So I totally believe when you say I'm having the
• 36:04
  Speaker 6: most fun I've had like in my life forties.
• 36:08
  Speaker 5: And I've always wanted to do it. I did co
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: Blood It by Rick James, a cover on my third
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: album way back in two thousand and three. I've always
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: wanted to go in that direction. But the labors, the labels,
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: excuse me, the labels were looking at me crossside. An
• 36:23
  Speaker 5: R and B artist wants to do funk, you know,
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: especially on a rock label. It did, but they didn't
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: even get R and B. You see what I'm saying.
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: Interscope was rapping rock. So if you don't understand R
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: and B right, all the things and my influences, it
• 36:39
  Speaker 5: was kind of hard to digest at that time what
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: that was. So now I get to do that, and
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: I'm so happy that it's out in the universe and
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: coming out. But also, you know, I'm looking forward to
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: the tour, the retrospect tour, the Maya Live experience, the
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: real Maya show, and of course bring my Roots. So
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: the arrangements and the dance and the fashion.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: You weren't happy when you was having fun doing like.
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: Course, I was happy. No, no, no, I said, I always
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: wanted to do a funk novel, but also being on
• 37:16
  Speaker 5: a wrap and rock label where R and B itself
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: wasn't even understood when you start talking about other genres
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: that also stem from soul in R and B. But
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: it's hard for others to understand. No, you know, I
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: was always happy for the opportunity. I was always happy
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: to be able to create, and very grateful, and I'm
• 37:40
  Speaker 5: still grateful for all of those things. I'm grateful for
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: all the hitfalls as well, and some of the things
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: that supposedly didn't work out, because they redirect you and
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: propel you into spaces that you wouldn't even start dreaming
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: of if those things didn't happen, and then cultivate you
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: sharpen the iron. So I'm happy all the time, you know,
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: and truly acknowledging how great I do have it. You
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: know that I'm here, I'm breathing, I'll start there, and
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: to have the opportunity every week and day to make
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: somebody else's day a little better through music and the
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: catalog too.
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: I was watching your interview with Gena views that she
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: was talking best of Me. She didn't know Best of
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: Me Part two was a remix to the original.
• 38:26
  Speaker 8: I didn't know that either. I jersey dress. I literally
• 38:34
  Speaker 8: created a jersey dress because of that.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: You do that.
• 38:40
  Speaker 8: So I have a brand called Brown gar Grinding, and
• 38:42
  Speaker 8: we were trying to figure out something for the summer,
• 38:44
  Speaker 8: and I love the music video, so we created the
• 38:46
  Speaker 8: jersey literally because.
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: Of about it.
• 38:53
  Speaker 9: He's a hater, literally that.
• 38:55
  Speaker 8: I had no idea that there was a Jadakis version
• 38:57
  Speaker 8: of Tosaterviews in that interview.
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: It well see it was my street single, so you
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: know it was also a mid temple I knew.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: I know people thought back then that's when Jada and
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: and jay Z were going back and forth. Really they
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: always used to say that Jay did that because he
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: wanted to one up j D Kiss because they have beef.
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: Back then they were going back.
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: And forth as so.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: I didn't even know that.
• 39:24
  Speaker 9: I love that she was I loved that world.
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: It was just a remix.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: How did that come about? I heard you tell him
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: the story, but he was Swiss and something about So.
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: I was in the midst of recording my second album.
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: I did a lot of it in New York and
• 39:40
  Speaker 5: worked with wy Clef got in with Swiss. Always loved
• 39:44
  Speaker 5: Swiss's rhythm on his tracks, and uh, he was playing
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: me some beats. Jimmy Cozier there to Ron Boa, Shanda
• 39:52
  Speaker 5: was there. I picked a specific beat. He was like,
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: oh no, no, no, that belongs to d m X.
• 39:57
  Speaker 5: I beat the back back ba oh no. Swiss did
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: the original featuring Best of Me original mixed featuring Jadakiss,
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: Swiss Peats produced. That was his very first R and
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: B record that he'd ever produced, but it belonged to
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: d m X. The actual beat. There was another song
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: over top of it that I didn't hear, but I
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: think he stumbled upon it by accident, and I said, oh,
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: rewind that real quick. So I said, I want to
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: write to that one, and Jimmy Cozier and I Jimmy Cozier, Yeah,
• 40:34
  Speaker 5: So we're all in the studio, Jimmy Cozier to Ron Viio,
• 40:37
  Speaker 5: Mashanda and I and we just come up with a
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: concept what we wanted to feel like. And that's how
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: Best to Me Part one was born. It was a
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: solo song first might have had a bridge on it.
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: We took the bridge off and put Jadakiss on it
• 40:50
  Speaker 5: because we decided that that would be my very first
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: street single. What they do, or what they consider street
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: singles to be, is to warm up you know, the
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: streets first before you go with chi pop hit.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: We know what it is.
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So we knew that we want a Case of
• 41:08
  Speaker 5: the X to be a single, but it kind of
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: leans toward the pop world a little bit, and we
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: did not want to leave the urban crowd out of this,
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: so we did best to me featuring Jada first. Steve
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: Stout and Hackey Islam were kind of working together. Steve
• 41:23
  Speaker 5: Stout was at Interscope, but Hawk Islam was running the
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: independent label side of University Music Entertainment, and so Steve
• 41:30
  Speaker 5: Stout had all these relationships and had Jay z Hoop
• 41:35
  Speaker 5: on the remix, you know, because of his relationship with
• 41:39
  Speaker 5: him and Makata and I Makata Davis Uh wrote the
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: remix here at the Hit Factory in New York, Masters
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: and then Jay and Irish in the video and Malibu, California,
• 41:58
  Speaker 5: June Ambrose shows up with a jersey. I didn't anything
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: of it. It was I guess, you know, customized to
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: fit my measurements at the time, and that was that.
• 42:07
  Speaker 5: That was the shortest video set I'd ever been on.
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: Six hours total, including hair, make up, glamb time. And
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: then we were done, no choreography, no rehearsals, and then
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: it comes out and kind of like takes hold of
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: the clubs and whatnot.
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: Oh so she bought that and that. You didn't even say, oh,
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: this is what I want to wear.
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: I showed up, didn't know what we were doing.
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: Wow, So did he know?
• 42:37
  Speaker 9: Because I know they've been working together forever?
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: Maybe they did. I wasn't a part of that process.
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: I kind of just showed up, got glam ready. I
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: was fighting to put dances in the video. I was like, Hey,
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: can we at least have two girls and you know,
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: I want to do a little dance or something. You're like, no,
• 42:52
  Speaker 5: we don't have time for that. The shooters here, the
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: shooters then, and we just got to go and run
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: with it before we missed the summer. And that's what
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: it was.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: I didn't make you feel.
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: A little one two step in there here and there
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: to give something more than just be cute. Of course
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: I will, but if the budget doesn't allow or the
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: time frame doesn't allow, then it might not happen.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: So I tried the light. It was a huge cold.
• 43:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Did that success feel empowering or did it come with
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: pressure to compete with like I don't know, other women?
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: Oh no, I didn't feel any competition because we're all
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: number one so different. We were all established at the
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: time doing our individual thing in this business. And that
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: was also very quick. We got in the studio to
• 43:42
  Speaker 5: just lay our backgrounds together on one session in one session,
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: and then we cut our leads separately. Ron Fair was
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: involved in that, Missy as well as Rock Wilder, laid
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: the foundation and blueprint of that record. Ron Fair took
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: our vocals and then he edited them and kind of
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: oversaw the executive production process of that, and that became
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: this version of Lady Marblot.
• 44:07
  Speaker 9: You know.
• 44:08
  Speaker 5: So got into rehearsals for a couple of performances want
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: to Grammy together. There was absolutely no competition. I didn't
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: feel that. I thought it was a blessing. I thought
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: it was wonderful to win.
• 44:22
  Speaker 8: Which is how did you navigate always making sure that
• 44:25
  Speaker 8: that was what happened?
• 44:26
  Speaker 5: Though?
• 44:26
  Speaker 8: Because I feel like during that even earlier on like
• 44:29
  Speaker 8: you had like Brandy Monica, right, and then like Aliyah
• 44:31
  Speaker 8: and I know Brandy and Monica now they talk about
• 44:33
  Speaker 8: it and it wasn't them, it was everybody around them.
• 44:36
  Speaker 8: How did you make sure that like that didn't even
• 44:38
  Speaker 8: come in your atmosphere and you like shut the competition
• 44:41
  Speaker 8: thing down from Rick?
• 44:42
  Speaker 5: Well, it actually never did come into my atmosphere. Maybe
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: if there were another you know, female singer that was
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: similar to me at the time, it could have become that.
• 44:51
  Speaker 9: Yeah, on the record, but it.
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: Always works in the press if there's a little controversy.
• 44:57
  Speaker 9: Yeah, like they leaned into it.
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: They leaned into that narrative often to pit women against
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: each other or even men because it's buzz. It's a
• 45:04
  Speaker 5: big investment with big budgets, individual budgets that have to
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: cohesively come together to make it work like clockwork, and
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: something's happened, you know, in reality, and some things don't.
• 45:18
  Speaker 5: But you can also play up into it in this
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: business and people wouldn't even know. But that's also part
• 45:22
  Speaker 5: of strategy that I've learned that actually works for rappers
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: now and then when anyone when you are just trying
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: to get seen and heard. But I'm thankful I was
• 45:34
  Speaker 5: never a part of that.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: You want to be, you want to be right now you.
• 45:39
  Speaker 7: Talking about that's not even in my nature.
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: I don't like beef. I don't. I don't do beef.
• 45:49
  Speaker 5: You know, I'm begging, That's right?
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Huge, Like, was there was there some type of disconnect
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: between the label and you?
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: Because I just feel like you had a great run.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, but I just feel like with
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: the rector you were on it was another level fans fail.
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, he said, was there a disconnect?
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: I feel like there was another buttons should have been
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: pressed between label management.
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: Well, things happen the way they're supposed to happen, and
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: I really believe in the divine, you know, and of
• 46:23
  Speaker 5: course everything could have been bigger. It also could have
• 46:27
  Speaker 5: been worse, you know. And I'm thankful for the specific
• 46:30
  Speaker 5: exact journey that I've been on because I hear that
• 46:32
  Speaker 5: a lot. I would rather be underrated versus overrated, And
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: now is my time, you know, where I'm so aligned
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: and educated and aware. But like I said, being a
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: test dummy and not being all in from your investors
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: because they're very unsure and uncertain of you. That means
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: a couple of years need to be put in to
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: prove yourself, to prove your worth, to prove that you
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: can as a teenager. You know, So maybe some buttons
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: weren't pushed during that time. And if that's understandable when
• 47:01
  Speaker 5: you're taking a big financial risk in a territory and
• 47:04
  Speaker 5: a genre that you haven't even played with before. So
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: I don't hold that against anybody. I understand that. But
• 47:10
  Speaker 5: it was an opportunity that I took full advantage of
• 47:13
  Speaker 5: by saying, yeah, let's go, let's try this. Yeah, it's wrap,
• 47:17
  Speaker 5: it's rock, and here I am this own little R
• 47:19
  Speaker 5: and B curly from the DMV. It may work, it
• 47:23
  Speaker 5: may not, but I'm going to do everything in my power.
• 47:27
  Speaker 5: But I'm also an art studient. I have discipline. I'm
• 47:31
  Speaker 5: used to rehearsing for twelve hours to get it right
• 47:33
  Speaker 5: or days at a time. So we'll try it, you know.
• 47:37
  Speaker 5: And my parents raised me like that to make sure
• 47:40
  Speaker 5: that whatever I choose to pursue, I will win. I
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: can learn, I can mess up, I can make some mistakes,
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: but I'm at least armed to go for it with
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: no fear and live with whatever happens. And that's also
• 47:55
  Speaker 5: why I'm a huge advocate of arts programs, its programs
• 48:00
  Speaker 5: to instill those life skills that you need to win
• 48:04
  Speaker 5: in any field that you choose to pursue.
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: Was there any record that you didn't want to do
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: or you look back at it it was like, I
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: really didn't want to do that. Yeah, which one.
• 48:13
  Speaker 5: My love is? Like? WHOA? I wasn't really a fan
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: of it when I first listened to it because it
• 48:19
  Speaker 5: was mid tempo. I thought we needed something more dynamic.
• 48:22
  Speaker 5: I thought it was real chill. I love the harmonies,
• 48:27
  Speaker 5: but it was also kind of oh sallacious. When it
• 48:32
  Speaker 5: showed up in my hands, it said a whole lot
• 48:34
  Speaker 5: more that Missy can say because she wrote it. But
• 48:36
  Speaker 5: when Maya, you know, coming from her second album Fear
• 48:39
  Speaker 5: of Flying, is going into this whole grown woman era
• 48:43
  Speaker 5: back then and what that was as a young woman
• 48:46
  Speaker 5: it was. It was a little uncomfortable. I changed some
• 48:49
  Speaker 5: words around so it could fit me, and then okay,
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: I said, in order for this to work, how can
• 48:56
  Speaker 5: I balance this out? So I brought the theater to
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: it in the visuals, where you know, I can live
• 49:01
  Speaker 5: a little bit more with that record. I wanted to
• 49:05
  Speaker 5: go with something else completely out of the box from
• 49:09
  Speaker 5: that project, But what.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: About the real quick?
• 49:13
  Speaker 6: You had me walking around telling niggas like my lother
• 49:16
  Speaker 6: was like whoa boy?
• 49:17
  Speaker 5: What? Like?
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: I was really don't?
• 49:27
  Speaker 9: I was the girl.
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, my like whole thing like my love is like
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: about but it was still like a whole thing for me.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: Pops looking at you liked.
• 49:43
  Speaker 5: That was me?
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: Maryland, Baltimore, Baltimore.
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: Wait, so you didn't want to do the song?
• 49:53
  Speaker 9: Was it the labels pushed to do it? Then it
• 49:55
  Speaker 9: was making you do it?
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: It was, but you know they hold the weight, they
• 49:57
  Speaker 5: hold the power with the finance. I cut everything, you know,
• 50:00
  Speaker 5: just to see if I like it first, and you know,
• 50:04
  Speaker 5: I wanted to go with something a little bit more
• 50:07
  Speaker 5: like I said the Street singles. I wanted to leave
• 50:09
  Speaker 5: with a record called why You Got to Look So Good?
• 50:11
  Speaker 5: And start the way I started my second album and
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: leave with the streets. I did that record with rock Wilder,
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: Why you Gotta Look So Good? The beat was so hard.
• 50:18
  Speaker 5: Lloyd Banks was on it, and it's of course not
• 50:23
  Speaker 5: what people think. I would say, Why you Gotta Look
• 50:26
  Speaker 5: so good? You make it so hard to leave you?
• 50:28
  Speaker 5: Why you Got to Look So Good? I don't want
• 50:29
  Speaker 5: nobody else to have you like, but the beat was
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: so hard and he was like, I can't give you
• 50:34
  Speaker 5: his beat. On one of those occurrences again the beat
• 50:37
  Speaker 5: belongs to jay Z. I was like, please just let
• 50:40
  Speaker 5: me write something to it and if you don't like it, cool.
• 50:47
  Speaker 5: He had to give it to me because he's like, Yo,
• 50:50
  Speaker 5: this is fire. That's what I wanted to be my
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: first single for my third album. But you know, they're
• 50:58
  Speaker 5: thinking about appeal, also thinking about investment, and it worked,
• 51:03
  Speaker 5: but it's not quite the one that I wanted first.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: If people haven't mistake your like laid backness, you know,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: for being mysterious or maybe to be difficult.
• 51:16
  Speaker 5: Maybe I think because you know, I'm just like my parents.
• 51:20
  Speaker 5: They're just real chill, real laid back. They only speak
• 51:23
  Speaker 5: when they have something to say, and they're not really
• 51:28
  Speaker 5: really talking to people. They're very expressive people, maybe through art.
• 51:32
  Speaker 5: My mom is a painter, she's into fashion, she's thrown
• 51:37
  Speaker 5: all my clothes that I went to school in, or
• 51:39
  Speaker 5: they're dance recitals, and they're very artistic people and express
• 51:42
  Speaker 5: themselves differently. Now, you know, when it comes to negotiations
• 51:49
  Speaker 5: or you know, getting on the phone and knowing business.
• 51:51
  Speaker 5: My dad's been in this business sin see, he was seventeen,
• 51:55
  Speaker 5: so he's a very vocal guy when't necessary regarding business.
• 51:59
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I think it can be misconstrued that you
• 52:02
  Speaker 5: may be meek or timid or shy or not confident,
• 52:07
  Speaker 5: or you don't have what it takes or bougie or
• 52:11
  Speaker 5: stuck up or high maintenance. Yeah, that could come with
• 52:14
  Speaker 5: being soft spoken. There's a beast here though, There's a
• 52:19
  Speaker 5: real beast here that comes out when it's supposed to
• 52:22
  Speaker 5: where it's supposed to, you know. And I'm just laid
• 52:25
  Speaker 5: back naturally until I hit that stage period and you're
• 52:28
  Speaker 5: giving it out. But you know, I got friends, We
• 52:31
  Speaker 5: get loud out.
• 52:32
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 52:33
  Speaker 5: It's a time and place for everything in Different parts
• 52:36
  Speaker 5: of my personality come out depending on the environment, you know.
• 52:40
  Speaker 5: And also I haven't really been on Front Street for
• 52:42
  Speaker 5: people to really truly get to know me, you know.
• 52:46
  Speaker 5: And it's also a tricky world to navigate through. During
• 52:49
  Speaker 5: that time when you are meant or actually groomed to
• 52:55
  Speaker 5: be put together, there was artist development. You don't say
• 52:58
  Speaker 5: certain things and inner you got to cross your legs
• 53:01
  Speaker 5: a certain way. You can't just be out here any
• 53:04
  Speaker 5: way you choose like you can now. You know, pregnancy
• 53:07
  Speaker 5: was like, you can't be pregnant, you can't do this,
• 53:10
  Speaker 5: you can't be normal human beings. And I look at
• 53:14
  Speaker 5: a lot of the pioneers and on how they struggle with,
• 53:18
  Speaker 5: oh what the label said about them being a mother
• 53:21
  Speaker 5: or having family time or taking time off, like real
• 53:25
  Speaker 5: human things that are necessary for the train to keep
• 53:29
  Speaker 5: moving forward. Yeah, and those things were punished back then.
• 53:33
  Speaker 5: So I've come from the era of cassette tapes and
• 53:37
  Speaker 5: recording to tape, not pro tools and digital but analog,
• 53:41
  Speaker 5: but transitioning into the new world with just new ideologies
• 53:46
  Speaker 5: and new fundamentals. So I can be a little bit
• 53:49
  Speaker 5: more open now and not punished for it, I think.
• 53:51
  Speaker 5: But I also know myself more to be more open.
• 53:54
  Speaker 8: I saw you talking, I saw you talking to Melissa
• 53:58
  Speaker 8: for it about motherhood and just different things that right
• 54:00
  Speaker 8: now you are focused on your independent music journey, so
• 54:03
  Speaker 8: you can't it's just not your focus right how it's
• 54:06
  Speaker 8: not my focus just right now becoming a mom or
• 54:09
  Speaker 8: being married. And like that whole conversation that people throw
• 54:11
  Speaker 8: on you.
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: Well, I am a godmother, I am the rich auntie,
• 54:17
  Speaker 5: and I enjoyed all of it. I love kids, but
• 54:20
  Speaker 5: that's misconstrued as Oh, she don't like kids. Oh something's
• 54:24
  Speaker 5: wrong with you, you know, or nobody chose her. How
• 54:27
  Speaker 5: come nobody ever wifed you up? Oh they've tried, or
• 54:30
  Speaker 5: they have or it just didn't work out. You know,
• 54:33
  Speaker 5: you don't have a ring on your finger, something's wrong
• 54:35
  Speaker 5: with you. But a ring doesn't hold any weight if
• 54:38
  Speaker 5: the vows are not being adhered to. Ye, what is
• 54:41
  Speaker 5: a ring that I can buy myself if it means nothing?
• 54:46
  Speaker 5: And the fundamentals of what a marriage really means, which
• 54:51
  Speaker 5: I deem sacred, and of course want to be selective
• 54:54
  Speaker 5: in choosing the right ones, so that might take time,
• 54:57
  Speaker 5: that might require me to be solo for a while
• 55:00
  Speaker 5: versus just always being in something because I gotta be
• 55:02
  Speaker 5: taken and chosen for y'all to feel that I'm living
• 55:08
  Speaker 5: in a happy space. But I don't know too many
• 55:10
  Speaker 5: people that are happily married as well. I think for me,
• 55:17
  Speaker 5: the focus hasn't been what the world may want of
• 55:21
  Speaker 5: women and men on the world's timeline. I think it's
• 55:25
  Speaker 5: a beautiful thing. Love makes the world go round and round.
• 55:28
  Speaker 5: I'm an advocate of all of it.
• 55:30
  Speaker 9: It's a lot of love in this project.
• 55:32
  Speaker 5: I yeah, projects, but I love children. Don't get me twisted.
• 55:37
  Speaker 5: I love men, don't get me wrong. It's just when
• 55:42
  Speaker 5: there's a calling and you invest in answering it, but
• 55:46
  Speaker 5: also being an example for the girls out there that
• 55:50
  Speaker 5: may be discouraged in giving up and throwing in the towel,
• 55:53
  Speaker 5: something else is calling you to do something. And love
• 55:56
  Speaker 5: is also all around me. There's different forms of love,
• 56:00
  Speaker 5: which I'm very very clear on and very vocal about.
• 56:03
  Speaker 5: But I'm also an advocate of self love because I
• 56:05
  Speaker 5: don't expect somebody to just come into my world to
• 56:08
  Speaker 5: be my savior and my end all be all happily
• 56:12
  Speaker 5: ever after, because that requires self love for the right
• 56:15
  Speaker 5: one to show up. I want a mirror of me
• 56:17
  Speaker 5: at my best and eyes right to be matched and
• 56:22
  Speaker 5: paired in divine timing with a reflection of the best me,
• 56:29
  Speaker 5: because that means I'm also giving and pouring. I'm not
• 56:32
  Speaker 5: here to be wiped up. I'm not here to be
• 56:35
  Speaker 5: in a situation for validation. I'm here to give the
• 56:38
  Speaker 5: best of me in every area of my life for
• 56:42
  Speaker 5: the world, for myself, or my family, for a companion.
• 56:48
  Speaker 5: But I'm also very aware that, you know, love is
• 56:51
  Speaker 5: all around us every single day in so many different forms.
• 56:53
  Speaker 5: And I'm patient, I'm not seeking. But that's different, you know,
• 56:57
  Speaker 5: for the society that we came up in. But I
• 57:00
  Speaker 5: think it's very different.
• 57:02
  Speaker 9: It's very different.
• 57:06
  Speaker 8: Because of the ownership that you take, and especially coming
• 57:09
  Speaker 8: from the era where they're telling you, guys, how you
• 57:11
  Speaker 8: have to live your life and you've been like kind
• 57:12
  Speaker 8: of built that way as an artist to like know,
• 57:15
  Speaker 8: career career, because I can't do it all. But you
• 57:16
  Speaker 8: take ownership and I can do what I want when
• 57:19
  Speaker 8: I want.
• 57:20
  Speaker 5: Yes, and so can you. But of course, you know,
• 57:22
  Speaker 5: we grew up in a society that says to do
• 57:24
  Speaker 5: it by a specific book and a specific timeline. And
• 57:27
  Speaker 5: if you're not following that, you know, expectant I'd say, flow,
• 57:35
  Speaker 5: Then are you happy? You must not be happy. Oh,
• 57:38
  Speaker 5: that's really bad. It's going to be too late. Your
• 57:41
  Speaker 5: eggs are going to expire. But something's wrong and everything's
• 57:44
  Speaker 5: right for me right now, and I'm living in that space.
• 57:48
  Speaker 5: I don't want to be in the wrong situation. So
• 57:50
  Speaker 5: I'm going to be more patient and align myself but
• 57:53
  Speaker 5: also not expect anything to show up and also lean
• 57:56
  Speaker 5: on another person to make my world great. I'm going
• 57:58
  Speaker 5: to create the best world that I can for me
• 58:00
  Speaker 5: to live in, first for others to live in. Make
• 58:03
  Speaker 5: sure I can, first of all financially take care of
• 58:06
  Speaker 5: another person a baby that is one dependent on me.
• 58:12
  Speaker 5: But I also want to sit my ass down and
• 58:14
  Speaker 5: have the time to do it. Pick you up from school,
• 58:19
  Speaker 5: help you with your homework. I mean, it's so hard
• 58:21
  Speaker 5: as a mother, a working mother, and just in general,
• 58:24
  Speaker 5: I want to be available before I have kids, and
• 58:26
  Speaker 5: I also want to adopt kids. It's not that I
• 58:28
  Speaker 5: don't want kids, it's just not then the focal point
• 58:33
  Speaker 5: and the end all be all of my journey trying
• 58:38
  Speaker 5: to journey.
• 58:42
  Speaker 8: But the reason around is because I feel like a
• 58:45
  Speaker 8: lot of people when they talk to working women or
• 58:48
  Speaker 8: women that have things happening and you say something like
• 58:50
  Speaker 8: what I heard you say in that interview, the pushback is, oh, well,
• 58:53
  Speaker 8: the time clock and you are very much in control
• 58:56
  Speaker 8: of what you want and when you want it. And
• 58:57
  Speaker 8: I was like, I think you can kind of daviogate
• 59:00
  Speaker 8: that conversation a little bit differently now for my own self,
• 59:04
  Speaker 8: but it's the thing of your you've got so much
• 59:08
  Speaker 8: going on. But like when I go home Mother's Day weekend,
• 59:10
  Speaker 8: this weekend, my family, I go home, the first thing
• 59:12
  Speaker 8: is you're doing great, but when you're gonna have a baby,
• 59:14
  Speaker 8: or when you're there some real conversation.
• 59:18
  Speaker 5: But it's also coming from a place of love because
• 59:21
  Speaker 5: experiencing having a baby for many women fathers, there's of
• 59:25
  Speaker 5: course oxytocin on the biological scientific side of things, but
• 59:29
  Speaker 5: it's an experience that changes you forever. It changes you forever.
• 59:33
  Speaker 5: The love is so overwhelming, and it's so pure, and
• 59:36
  Speaker 5: it's so innocent. I mean, I love animals just the same,
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: so I have a ton of animals. But it's coming
• 59:41
  Speaker 5: from a place of love and tradition and our specific
• 59:44
  Speaker 5: culture that we're here, I've realized, because they want you
• 59:47
  Speaker 5: to experience it as well and not miss out on that.
• 59:50
  Speaker 5: Of course, we live in a very interesting time where
• 59:53
  Speaker 5: there's inflation and you want to have your bag and
• 59:56
  Speaker 5: all these things together. But that's not how existence ever happened.
• 59:59
  Speaker 5: We didn't have the modern world. Once upon a time,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 5: women were popping out tribes of babies, you know, for
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 5: a long time ancestrally, and we're just not living in
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 5: that natural world anymore, and so I'm also very aware
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 5: of that so that I can set up, first of all,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 5: a safe lifestyle and a comfortable lifestyle and a supportive
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 5: lifestyle for the life that I might want to build.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 5: And then I'm also growing at rapid rates, discovering new
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 5: parts of myself, new parts of healing, plant medicine, and
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 5: an ancestral wisdom that there's so many things I realized
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 5: I didn't know five years ago, and I want to
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 5: get myself time. It might not necessarily be my own child,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 5: it might be a whole orphanage of hundreds of kids
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 5: that I want to build and invest in. My vision
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 5: might be a little different than you know another person,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 5: but there's love inside of me that I still want
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 5: to give. It just me come across as different because
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 5: it's not non existent right now to the world. But
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 5: I'm working on other things and it just starts with self.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 5: And I've also been on a journey where it's all
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 5: about alignment and all the beautiful things fall into your
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 5: world and not my timing, the most highest timing, and
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 5: I'm good with that.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: Sounds like you went on a journey with mother Aya.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 5: No, I've never done Ayahuasco. But there are other things
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 5: I hear that the world will be put up on
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 5: very soon. You know, it's already being talked about. It's
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 5: not even it's not even drugs, right, But that's not
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 5: for me to speak on today. But administration is about
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 5: to adopt some very powerful stuff that the world is
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 5: going to want to align with because it comes from
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 5: our source, which is God. No man made that, and
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 5: that is not a drug. Drugs come from nature, and
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 5: then it becomes chemical compounds of it. But we're in
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 5: a very unnatural time away from the natural world, and
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 5: we all could use a little recalibration based on you know,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 5: realignment the natural way. That's all I'm gonna saying.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: Did you see all the religious leaders.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: Some of the religious leaders are saying they all had
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: to meet and they got briefed on UFO disclosure.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 5: I've seen a lot of that stuff. I'm deep into
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 5: conspiracy theory, UFOs and outer spaces. Yeah. Absolutely, listen.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: I want the last thing I want.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 6: I want to say, Wow, I want to answer you
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 6: real quick before I say the last thing I want
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 6: to say. You said you want somebody that's a mira
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 6: of you at your highest because I writing. I know
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 6: I'm already married, but it's just something nice when I
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 6: hit my husband be.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 5: Like, So that means you got to take care of
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 5: you inside of your relationship. You can't neglect you just
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 5: because oh it's your duty. Yeah, oh as this title
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 5: to neglect yourself as a mother, neglect yourself as a wife.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 5: You have to show it for you first before you
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 5: can show up for anybody else within that space. That's
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 5: what I've learned and I'm constantly being reminded of. If
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 5: I'm going to show up for you know, my tribe
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 5: the best possible way as a leader of that, then
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 5: that means that I need to block out and carve
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 5: out a moment over here to recalibrate my brain to
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 5: do a woolsaigh, breathe through a thousand. If I have
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 5: to go away for five days so I can be
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 5: my best self. So everybody benefits from that, you know,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 5: if you're a source.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 6: Because we do this thing with me and my husband,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 6: We do this thing where we will ask each other
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 6: like why did you marry me? And I want to
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 6: say now because I wanted somebody.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm not gonna say like that. I'm gonna tell
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: you because he don't need no, don't need to do that.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 6: I want to say I married you because I wanted
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 6: somebody who was a mirror of me at my highest self.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: That's nothing like me, God with me in your life
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: to help you heal.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 5: But you know what else, you know, you don't have
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 5: to be perfect for love to show up as well.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 9: Period love can come.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 5: So I'm not I'm not. I'm not preaching to anybody.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 5: Oh you got to be perfect and be your higher
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 5: self to know because you can literally attract light from
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 5: being your most darkest, broken self in a hole and
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 5: somebody is there to lift you up because they've done
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 5: some work, or maybe because they're just aligning in tune,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 5: whatever the spirit calls that day. They are beautiful people
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 5: that show up in your life at the most devastating time.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 5: So you got to trust that too. Some of them
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 5: are just narcissists and smell the vulnerability, so be aware
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 5: of that. And that's a whole education in itself too.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 5: And I've been through that. But my job for my
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 5: personal journey is I see what being a line means,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 5: and I would only want the best partner. So let's
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 5: start with self to become the best me so that
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 5: I could pour into that person as well. I don't
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 5: show up to any table empty handed. I want to
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 5: pour in just as much as I want to be
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 5: poured into. So that's what I'm saying, without expectation, and
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 5: really give from a place of overflow versus lack. And
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 5: that's up to me to fix or to generate.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 4: All right, all right, my favorite song is falling.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 6: Just wanted to say that, because girl, you're trying to
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 6: wrap it up, But my favorite song is falling.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 4: Girl two thousand and three, that had me like that
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 4: was my favorite song from move Ring.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 6: Now move Ring is my favorite album on my favorite
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 6: song it's falling.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 5: So why is it your favorite, girl?
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 6: Because I thought I was in love in two thousand
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 6: and three and I was telling this, I'm telling you like,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 6: it's a whole era you had in my life now,
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 6: so yes, and that's when you think that you the
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 6: boy that you love and you mean that's the one you.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 6: I'm telling him like, you got me, you complete me,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 6: you got me falling head over heels for you, and
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 6: just and he's just sitting there like okay, yeah, he
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 6: ain't not even hear a song and then when we
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 6: broke up, he heard the song and was like you
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 6: quoting an artist the whole time, But this is not
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 6: a song.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 4: This she told me this, This is this. She told
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 4: me this in my face.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: Maya he married language.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 3: Your little hot ass was sixteen during that time. I
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 3: really maya appreciate.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: What you should do audio books or something.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 5: That's what they tell me. I will, I'll get into ready,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 5: I do guid meditation, all of it. I'll do that
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 5: voice and whatnot.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 6: And in the name was Roger, I should have even
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 6: known like hot as you're a fourteen year old named
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 6: Roger named that grandfather.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 4: I shouldn't even I should and even.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 5: With the letter is toxic.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 4: This is that was But this is my fault. She
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 4: had me in shambles.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: What do you want to have the album? What do
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: you want to have your mind?
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 5: What do I want to hear off the album? My goodness,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 5: let's play the latest single, feature in Too Short?
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, the album comes out next Friday, and
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: we appreciate you for joining us. It's my ladies and gentlemen.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: It's the Breakfast Club.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning every day. Click up the Breakfast Club.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 4: Y'all done,