Latest / The Baller Alert Show / Episode 305 "Muni Long"
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Word with me here you know, bt know how it goes,
- 0:05Speaker 1: shout out oct no real color, what we see? Whole game?
- 0:08Speaker 2: Wait, the Butler book something.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Oh, you can't stand on their ownsle see I already
- 0:12Speaker 1: know you can't with me because with the squad on me,
- 0:15Speaker 1: they get a little They called me.
- 0:18Speaker 2: He love by love he love her.
- 0:23Speaker 3: Ball of Alert.
- 0:24Speaker 2: Welcome to the ball Alert Show.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Podcasts available everywhere you get your podcast. Please continue to like, subscribe,
- 0:29Speaker 1: and share our YouTube page at baller Alert Tv. I
- 0:32Speaker 1: go by the name of Ferrari Simmits.
- 0:33Speaker 4: I'll go on to name you know bt C t.
- 0:35Speaker 1: Of that money log in the building, grab me with it?
- 0:48Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that for me.
- 0:50Speaker 3: I love that for you too, cause you've been you
- 0:53Speaker 3: have a journey you've been on I have. You know
- 0:56Speaker 3: what I'm saying, How are you feeling though? Like I
- 0:58Speaker 3: know you been diagnosed and you know you just recently
- 1:02Speaker 3: said you had autism, Like.
- 1:04Speaker 4: How is that? How's how are you doing?
- 1:06Speaker 2: I mean, I'm still doing me. You gotta keep you pushing,
- 1:09Speaker 2: you know. I think one thing that keeps me on
- 1:13Speaker 2: the right path is just like knowing that everybody has
- 1:16Speaker 2: their own journey and their own unique experience and it's
- 1:21Speaker 2: my life and it's my responsibility to make the best
- 1:25Speaker 2: of it. Sometimes it does get a little tough because
- 1:28Speaker 2: it's like I have so much success based on like
- 1:32Speaker 2: the standard right status quo that when I have my
- 1:36Speaker 2: moments when I am down, it's hard for people to
- 1:38Speaker 2: relate and so they be like girl. So I have
- 1:41Speaker 2: to kind of struggle through those moments on my own sometimes.
- 1:44Speaker 2: But God don't give you more than you can carry.
- 1:49Speaker 3: Yeah, And I've learned a lot through about loopus, through
- 1:53Speaker 3: like Tony Braxton and people who have it, like those
- 1:56Speaker 3: type of celebrities, and they say it inflame, like if
- 2:00Speaker 3: you're if you're worked up or if you're you know,
- 2:03Speaker 3: too excited.
- 2:04Speaker 4: Have you had any flirps do to things like that?
- 2:06Speaker 2: Absolutely? Mostly mine are like in my hands and joints,
- 2:12Speaker 2: so sometimes I can't really like open things as you saw.
- 2:19Speaker 2: But Yeah, it's funny because it's like it's a cash
- 2:22Speaker 2: twenty two because with something like an autoimmune that is
- 2:25Speaker 2: stress related, it's best if you don't talk about it.
- 2:29Speaker 2: But yet if you don't talk about it, there's no representation,
- 2:32Speaker 2: you know, So it's tough. I gotta choose moments when
- 2:37Speaker 2: when I'm feeling good, when there is anything happening like
- 2:40Speaker 2: right now where I'll share, and sometimes I'm just like, yeah,
- 2:43Speaker 2: you know, I don't really want to talk about it
- 2:46Speaker 2: right now because I'm kind of going through it. But
- 2:49Speaker 2: I think, you know, keeping your stress level of down,
- 2:51Speaker 2: stand positive, eating right, getting sleep, and just not putting
- 2:55Speaker 2: yourself in scenarios where you could be triggered, that's really
- 3:00Speaker 2: the key. Mm hmm.
- 3:01Speaker 4: You have a lot of support from your family and husband.
- 3:05Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean I don't really ask for much, very
- 3:09Speaker 2: self sufficient, independent. I like to be by myself. So
- 3:12Speaker 2: when I do, they just give it to me. You know,
- 3:16Speaker 2: it's like dad, can you make me a gro cheese?
- 3:19Speaker 2: You know? So yeah, I'm very I'm very blessed.
- 3:24Speaker 1: Now, if we could take it back a little bit.
- 3:26Speaker 1: You're from Gifford, Florida, which is right by Vero Beach,
- 3:30Speaker 1: a little bit south Florida.
- 3:31Speaker 2: They pushing, they pushing the boundary to border.
- 3:34Speaker 1: What do you say you from?
- 3:35Speaker 2: You say you're from, Yeah, it's becoming smaller and smaller.
- 3:39Speaker 1: I'm a Florida guy And I literally had to look
- 3:41Speaker 1: that up. I was like, yeah, Florida from Okay, because
- 3:51Speaker 1: I've been to Vio, but I didn't know right on
- 3:53Speaker 1: top of Zo.
- 3:54Speaker 4: It's okay.
- 3:56Speaker 2: So we like a train track community, you know, like
- 3:59Speaker 2: they put the MLK train tracks and the you know,
- 4:03Speaker 2: Dollar General in the hood, and then right across the
- 4:08Speaker 2: train track is the beach. So there's literally people from
- 4:13Speaker 2: where I'm from that have never been to the beach
- 4:18Speaker 2: ten minutes down the street because it's not it's a
- 4:21Speaker 2: different neighborhood, you know, it's literally like driving driving hood
- 4:27Speaker 2: hood hood, section eight housing, you know what I'm saying,
- 4:31Speaker 2: and then train track and then boom mansions.
- 4:34Speaker 1: So how was it like for you growing up on
- 4:37Speaker 1: your side on that side of the tracks? Was because
- 4:40Speaker 1: I know somebody saying in the.
- 4:41Speaker 2: Family mom My mom saying yeah, in the navy, my
- 4:46Speaker 2: biological father, my stepfather worked for the Sheriff's department for
- 4:51Speaker 2: many years, I think twenty plus. He still teaches in
- 4:55Speaker 2: the town. Yeah, I I don't know. I was very
- 5:01Speaker 2: so I actually grew up all over the United States
- 5:06Speaker 2: in my younger years. It wasn't until I was about
- 5:08Speaker 2: fourteen that we moved to give For which my mother's
- 5:13Speaker 2: hometown where she was raised as Wabasso, was twenty minutes
- 5:17Speaker 2: down the street. And I grew up on a farm,
- 5:22Speaker 2: and I was very much like if I was hungry,
- 5:24Speaker 2: you just go pick an orange off the tree. So
- 5:26Speaker 2: I didn't really have an actual concept of like status
- 5:30Speaker 2: or like we struggling because we literally lived off the land.
- 5:37Speaker 2: But you know, I didn't have no Jordan's or nothing
- 5:39Speaker 2: like that. Like we didn't have designer clothes. You know.
- 5:43Speaker 2: We definitely was shopped at J. C. Penny, you know,
- 5:45Speaker 2: buy one, get one for eighty eight cents jeans. So
- 5:50Speaker 2: I don't know, I was very oblivious. It wasn't until
- 5:52Speaker 2: I got older that I realized, like, wait a minute,
- 5:56Speaker 2: that's not right, you know, I was. I wasn't. My
- 6:01Speaker 2: mom did a good job with keeping us, keeping us
- 6:04Speaker 2: shielded from that. Yes. I have two brothers, yeah, older
- 6:09Speaker 2: one older one younger, and I had a step brother
- 6:11Speaker 2: he passed away years ago. Uh so yeah, I'm the
- 6:15Speaker 2: only girl.
- 6:16Speaker 3: Oh wow, So you was out there you know with
- 6:19Speaker 3: your milk and cows and stuff too.
- 6:21Speaker 2: We had no cows, but I did feed the chickens.
- 6:23Speaker 2: We used to fish in the pond. We had geese.
- 6:26Speaker 2: I had a pet hog.
- 6:29Speaker 1: Yeah they are pretty smart.
- 6:31Speaker 2: Yeah, well they killed them and broasted them. Yeah you do.
- 6:36Speaker 4: You s.
- 6:38Speaker 2: No, I don't slaughter chickens when we don't do that.
- 6:41Speaker 2: I did have to learn how to gut fish when
- 6:45Speaker 2: I was younger, because again, we live off the land,
- 6:48Speaker 2: so you wasn't allowed. You have to eat what you kill,
- 6:52Speaker 2: so if you kill it, you got to eat it.
- 6:56Speaker 2: I do and I don't particularly. Yeah, a long time ago,
- 7:03Speaker 2: we used to shoot squirrels. I'm just throw it on
- 7:08Speaker 2: the grid.
- 7:10Speaker 3: But like you said, once you you know, hit your
- 7:12Speaker 3: teenage years and stuff like that, you was in like
- 7:14Speaker 3: a sheltered space with your parents and at home and
- 7:18Speaker 3: stuff like that.
- 7:18Speaker 4: But then you got on the internet and you.
- 7:21Speaker 3: Started to do your thing in two thousand and four, right,
- 7:24Speaker 3: two thousand and four was my first video.
- 7:26Speaker 2: Yes, wow did your research?
- 7:28Speaker 3: Yeah, like you said, you were sheltered. So it's like,
- 7:31Speaker 3: you know, I don't think many people you did sleepovers or.
- 7:34Speaker 4: Seminaris something like that.
- 7:36Speaker 3: You know, people on the internet now have friends like
- 7:39Speaker 3: fans who are online, and that's kind of like what
- 7:42Speaker 3: you kind of started doing at that time. You know,
- 7:48Speaker 3: how did that shape you as far as doing your
- 7:50Speaker 3: music in two thousand and four, I think it's kind of.
- 7:53Speaker 2: Like two separate things. I think one my mom didn't
- 7:56Speaker 2: let me do nothing, did lease squat. I remember one
- 7:59Speaker 2: time this boy asked me to the movies for Valentine's Day.
- 8:03Speaker 2: And we've known him, we've known each other since we were
- 8:06Speaker 2: like seven, and he finally was like, yo, can you
- 8:08Speaker 2: like can we go to movies? So I told my mom.
- 8:10Speaker 2: I got all dressed out on my pink and red.
- 8:13Speaker 2: She drove me to the movie theater. The boy came
- 8:16Speaker 2: up to the car. He had chocolate to bear, flowers, balloons,
- 8:21Speaker 2: whole nine yards like you know, miss Sheila. I was
- 8:27Speaker 2: just gonna let her pick the movie, and my mom
- 8:30Speaker 2: was like, okay. One second she rode the windor she said,
- 8:33Speaker 2: y'all think y'all sleep, you know, and mind you. I'm
- 8:36Speaker 2: so like not even I'm so green. I was just
- 8:43Speaker 2: excited that she was lett me do something telling me
- 8:45Speaker 2: about this lady rode down the window and said, you
- 8:48Speaker 2: at the movies. Tell him by and all. I drove
- 8:53Speaker 2: off and the boy was standing there like with the flowers,
- 8:57Speaker 2: like oh, and I was just one little tear coming
- 9:01Speaker 2: down my eye. It's literally for real. And I was
- 9:05Speaker 2: so upset and so hurt. But that was my life.
- 9:08Speaker 2: She didn't let me do nothing. So I think the
- 9:11Speaker 2: computer became my escape right because I could talk to people,
- 9:15Speaker 2: I could make videos and respond to comments, and I
- 9:18Speaker 2: did develop relationships with some of my supporters I still
- 9:24Speaker 2: talk to to this day from years ago. It's one
- 9:26Speaker 2: girl named Liquida. She's buying me gifts and stuff. I'll
- 9:30Speaker 2: invite her to my shows. You know. It's just like
- 9:33Speaker 2: we do create a genuine bonding connection with our fans sometimes,
- 9:38Speaker 2: and it's hard to do that now because people be
- 9:41Speaker 2: like pushing it a little bit, like tellate what I
- 9:45Speaker 2: need to do and talk it to me crazy and
- 9:48Speaker 2: you forget. Like somebody said something like I was gonna
- 9:52Speaker 2: beat your ass if you didn't. I said, who was
- 9:53Speaker 2: gonna be? What?
- 9:55Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, like my favorite song? She said.
- 9:59Speaker 2: They really they pushing it. They be pushing it. So
- 10:02Speaker 2: sometimes I'd be having to like go in, like I
- 10:04Speaker 2: went on on, went in on this girl on TikTok
- 10:06Speaker 2: the other day. She couldn't take it, though, so I
- 10:08Speaker 2: had to erase what I said because I'm like, okay,
- 10:11Speaker 2: people are laughing at her a little too much, and
- 10:15Speaker 2: you know, I know how that feels, so I'm gonna
- 10:17Speaker 2: just take it down and give her a break. But
- 10:19Speaker 2: I have to do that sometimes to let people know.
- 10:20Speaker 5: She's like.
- 10:22Speaker 2: She was just like, girl, you being you're doing too much.
- 10:25Speaker 2: You're a celebrity. People gonna tell you what to do,
- 10:28Speaker 2: you know, And I was like, so, I'm not gonna
- 10:30Speaker 2: say what I said, but I basically gave her a
- 10:32Speaker 2: taste of her own medicine gotch and she couldn't. She
- 10:35Speaker 2: couldn't handle it.
- 10:36Speaker 6: Most fans can.
- 10:36Speaker 2: A lot of people just Internet people, and they just.
- 10:39Speaker 5: Calm, you know, and a lot of people probably don't
- 10:42Speaker 5: think that you're actually gonna see their comment.
- 10:44Speaker 2: They don't. They don't. They don't think that I'm gonna
- 10:47Speaker 2: say anything back. They expect me to be scary. They
- 10:50Speaker 2: also don't expect me to have the personality that I
- 10:52Speaker 2: have because you know, I'm from Florida. Like we we
- 10:56Speaker 2: can't nobody talk junk like somebody from Florida. If you
- 10:59Speaker 2: pissed me off, If you piss me off, I'm calling
- 11:02Speaker 2: you all types of roly poly nick turtlehead.
- 11:06Speaker 4: You know.
- 11:07Speaker 2: You know, if I'm Whitney, I'm Bobby and Whitney Whitney
- 11:09Speaker 2: minus all the extra, you know what I mean. I'm
- 11:16Speaker 2: very much like somebody asked me the other day, like
- 11:19Speaker 2: what R and B songs am I listened to in
- 11:21Speaker 2: my car? I'm like, I'm listening to Big Dude, I'm
- 11:23Speaker 2: listening to money Bag, I'm listening to Key Clock. I
- 11:26Speaker 2: ain't listening to it. I make R and B I
- 11:30Speaker 2: don't listen to it.
- 11:31Speaker 1: Is that like a cleanse for your ears? Sometimes you
- 11:34Speaker 1: just hear it, you write it.
- 11:36Speaker 2: No, I just want to jump on my bed and
- 11:37Speaker 2: throw things like everybody else, you know what I'm saying.
- 11:41Speaker 2: Like I used to remember, for like a year straight,
- 11:46Speaker 2: I would put on bmf Rick Ross and that was
- 11:49Speaker 2: my alarm. Literally, like I'll be in the bed asleep
- 11:53Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, it's like boom boom. I think, oh,
- 11:56Speaker 2: big bitch every morning.
- 11:58Speaker 3: And that's how people you know her Joe's story, Like
- 12:01Speaker 3: as far as you're growing up, you was outside, you know,
- 12:04Speaker 3: skinning fish, you know, playing with hogs. You know, you.
- 12:11Speaker 1: Had a pet hog and then they killed it and
- 12:14Speaker 1: ate it.
- 12:15Speaker 2: Damn so that he was my pet. But they tricked
- 12:24Speaker 2: me it into feeding it and fattening it up and
- 12:26Speaker 2: making me feel like you know, I used to come
- 12:28Speaker 2: home every day from school and be like, hey, Powder,
- 12:31Speaker 2: talk to him. And he was a wild hog, so
- 12:34Speaker 2: he used to he was he was, he was. It
- 12:36Speaker 2: was a big freaking animal. And he would like he
- 12:41Speaker 2: would charge at the fence for anybody else, but for
- 12:44Speaker 2: me he was nice. He would walk over and like,
- 12:47Speaker 2: you know, you talk to and he had these big tusks,
- 12:53Speaker 2: and I would go in the house and get there.
- 12:55Speaker 2: We had an empty chipling bucket that we used to
- 12:57Speaker 2: put our scraps in, so I get the slop bucket,
- 13:00Speaker 2: put it in the traw and sit there and talk
- 13:03Speaker 2: to him. And one day I came home and the
- 13:06Speaker 2: cage was empty. And mind you, my my grandparents lived
- 13:09Speaker 2: on four acres, so it was huge. So I walk in.
- 13:14Speaker 2: I go straight to the cage. He's not there. I
- 13:17Speaker 2: go in the house. I'm like, Granddaddy, what powder. He
- 13:21Speaker 2: took me to the window. It was a big, long
- 13:24Speaker 2: window in the front of the house, and he pointed
- 13:27Speaker 2: to the edge of the yard. So his cage is
- 13:29Speaker 2: over here. He poured it over here, and powder was
- 13:33Speaker 2: there roasting on the spit. And I just remember falling
- 13:36Speaker 2: out and being like and I remember calling my mama,
- 13:44Speaker 2: like mama daval and she said, we don't eat. I
- 13:50Speaker 2: didn't the first day, I did not eat that second
- 13:54Speaker 2: day it was so good. Yeah, he's with me forever.
- 14:00Speaker 4: Did you ever write a song about powder?
- 14:01Speaker 2: I didn't know too much.
- 14:03Speaker 6: We'll be right back with more of the Baller Alert Show.
- 14:09Speaker 6: You're listening to a special edition of The Baller Alert Show.
- 14:12Speaker 2: What's Up?
- 14:12Speaker 4: Is your Girl? Money Long?
- 14:13Speaker 2: And you are now tuned into the Baller Alert Show.
- 14:16Speaker 1: I do want to acknowledge the fact that you were
- 14:18Speaker 1: doing all this and this was dope left well, I
- 14:20Speaker 1: don't want to say it's dope eating powder or dope.
- 14:23Speaker 1: You know, your mom leaving to board the young man
- 14:26Speaker 1: at the movie theater. So when did music come into play?
- 14:30Speaker 1: Was mom singing all the time in the house and
- 14:32Speaker 1: then as we started singing too, and she was like,
- 14:34Speaker 1: oh god, you can sing, or she.
- 14:36Speaker 2: Says she knew I could sing at two years old. Really,
- 14:39Speaker 2: we used to living in Connecticut and there was this
- 14:42Speaker 2: commercial that used to play. I actually remember this too,
- 14:47Speaker 2: and it would go Spirit of Hampton Roots like you know,
- 14:51Speaker 2: it was like a airport commercial or something like that.
- 14:55Speaker 2: And so yeah, and she says she heard me doing
- 15:00Speaker 2: that one day and she looked with the TV was off,
- 15:03Speaker 2: so she knew that it was me nice. And there
- 15:06Speaker 2: was always music in the house. My biological father played
- 15:10Speaker 2: the trumpet. We had pianos in every house that we
- 15:12Speaker 2: were in, upright piano. My mom was always singing. There
- 15:16Speaker 2: was always music playing. She used to have like those
- 15:19Speaker 2: CD towers full. She had like three of them, so
- 15:22Speaker 2: it was like always music every get in the car.
- 15:25Speaker 2: She had the CD book. So, I mean, it was
- 15:28Speaker 2: just kind of like I thought everybody could do it
- 15:31Speaker 2: because that's just how we were in our house, even
- 15:34Speaker 2: my grandma be you know, humming and cooking. My biological
- 15:37Speaker 2: father also could sing. He had like one of those
- 15:40Speaker 2: like high pitch temptations, you know, yes yes, and then
- 15:50Speaker 2: even writing songs like I wrote my first song when
- 15:52Speaker 2: I was eight, and I remember I was vacuuming and
- 15:57Speaker 2: just walking down the hallway. I'm looking at the skyllay
- 16:01Speaker 2: and my brother was like, what song is that. I
- 16:04Speaker 2: was like, I made it up. He's like, no, you didn't,
- 16:06Speaker 2: and I was like, yes, I did. We started arguing,
- 16:09Speaker 2: so we went to my mom and my mom was like, well,
- 16:11Speaker 2: I never heard it before, and then she bought me
- 16:13Speaker 2: a composition notebook, and I started making my own songs.
- 16:18Speaker 2: I just thought everybody did that, And it wasn't until
- 16:22Speaker 2: I started sharing it online, like fifteen sixteen years old
- 16:25Speaker 2: that people were like, will you be making that stuff up? Really?
- 16:30Speaker 2: Even now, people still do that to me. When I
- 16:32Speaker 2: come up with something, they'd be like, you just wrote
- 16:33Speaker 2: that right now. So it's just my gift. Everybody's not
- 16:38Speaker 2: very talented.
- 16:39Speaker 3: So you're writing the songs. You know, you're on the internet.
- 16:43Speaker 3: Two thousand and eight, you decided to go to La?
- 16:46Speaker 3: What decided that in your mind? I'm going to go
- 16:49Speaker 3: to LA and do this thing?
- 16:52Speaker 2: I think I had reached the ceiling here in Atlanta
- 16:56Speaker 2: my first record deal. The guy who signed me, him
- 17:00Speaker 2: and his lawyer made more money than me on the
- 17:02Speaker 2: first record deal I had, and so eventually that money
- 17:05Speaker 2: ran out very quickly actually, and I was like, well, damn,
- 17:09Speaker 2: you know what am I going to do? I found
- 17:13Speaker 2: out about songwriting and I was like, well, I don't
- 17:16Speaker 2: want to go back to Gifford because he need nothing
- 17:19Speaker 2: to do there. But you know, have babies and so yeah,
- 17:24Speaker 2: and get married. I have babies and you know, be
- 17:26Speaker 2: a mom, which there's nothing wrong with that, but that's
- 17:29Speaker 2: not what I wanted, and so I was like, well,
- 17:33Speaker 2: let me go to La do some sessions. I had
- 17:37Speaker 2: no idea that I was going to grow in notoriety
- 17:43Speaker 2: so fast as a songwriter. But when I got out there,
- 17:45Speaker 2: I was doing like five sessions a day every day,
- 17:48Speaker 2: two songs minimum in every session. My first session, I
- 17:54Speaker 2: got a placement with this UK artist named Cheryl Cole
- 17:58Speaker 2: that went number one over there, and then after that
- 18:01Speaker 2: it was just like Selena Gomez who says Chris Brown
- 18:04Speaker 2: doing me at Rihanna, it was like boom boom boom,
- 18:07Speaker 2: you know. But I think it was just because I
- 18:08Speaker 2: was working so much that I had so it's like
- 18:13Speaker 2: a you know, the ratio of songs I had to
- 18:15Speaker 2: choose from made it possible for me to have that
- 18:20Speaker 2: kind of like Snowball.
- 18:21Speaker 1: Are you married at this time? A relationship and get married?
- 18:24Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been married for nine years.
- 18:25Speaker 1: Okay, So so you got married when like where were fifteen?
- 18:31Speaker 1: Where were you then? In Florida?
- 18:33Speaker 2: Uh, California.
- 18:34Speaker 1: You're in California. So how was that like? Because you know,
- 18:38Speaker 1: being married is not easy, that's a whole different job. Yes,
- 18:42Speaker 1: definitely happily married, but she crazy and I'm crazy, so.
- 18:45Speaker 5: It's a little lift.
- 18:46Speaker 1: So I'm just saying marriage is a job. It's so
- 18:49Speaker 1: much communication that needs to be happening, and someone will
- 18:52Speaker 1: like you that has a crazy schedule, and then I'm
- 18:56Speaker 1: not sure you know who your husband is, but how
- 19:00Speaker 1: is that conversation with him when you guys communicating like, hey,
- 19:03Speaker 1: you know.
- 19:03Speaker 2: I have to go to the studio and you might
- 19:05Speaker 2: be on all day. I think there has to just
- 19:08Speaker 2: be a mutual respect, right because it's like this, I've
- 19:11Speaker 2: been working to get to this moment for seventeen years.
- 19:16Speaker 2: You know, you wouldn't want to stop the person that
- 19:20Speaker 2: you love from doing something that they're obviously, you know,
- 19:25Speaker 2: blessed with that is my gifting. But I definitely made
- 19:28Speaker 2: it very clear like you're not stopping nothing. I'm gonna
- 19:33Speaker 2: I'm gonna work, That's what I'm gonna do. And I
- 19:36Speaker 2: think also too, it's just like there's no formula, there's
- 19:38Speaker 2: no one size fit all. You have to communicate, you
- 19:41Speaker 2: have to make time for what's important to you, and
- 19:46Speaker 2: you can't be prideful, which I think that stops a
- 19:49Speaker 2: lot of people sometimes from thriving into relationships because you know,
- 19:54Speaker 2: you don't want to admit when you mess up. You
- 19:55Speaker 2: don't want to be soft, be vulnerable. And also the
- 20:00Speaker 2: death of relationships is trying to please anybody else outside
- 20:05Speaker 2: of the two of you. You know, if you're doing
- 20:07Speaker 2: things for you boys, if you're doing things for the
- 20:11Speaker 2: general public, the perception you already lost. It has to
- 20:15Speaker 2: be a real genuine respect, mutual connection, respect, communication, maturity,
- 20:22Speaker 2: all that.
- 20:23Speaker 4: An he seems supportive of you.
- 20:24Speaker 2: He named your label, he came up with the name. Yeah,
- 20:29Speaker 2: but also too, I think that's part of it, right,
- 20:30Speaker 2: Like sometimes it's just kind to like allow your partner
- 20:39Speaker 2: to feel as if yeah, like of course I don't
- 20:46Speaker 2: need anyone to name anything or write anything, but you know,
- 20:52Speaker 2: if he comes up with a name and it's cool,
- 20:54Speaker 2: why not use that thank you? You know what I'm saying,
- 21:00Speaker 2: like versus being like no things like it's just it's
- 21:03Speaker 2: there's it's not it's kind of productive. There's no purpose
- 21:06Speaker 2: for me to do that. And that's with anything like hairstyle, nails, outfit,
- 21:12Speaker 2: you know, video treatment, Like if you have a dope idea,
- 21:17Speaker 2: why not share?
- 21:18Speaker 1: Do you guys have fun? Time to date each other.
- 21:22Speaker 2: It's a little tough, but I mean again, every day
- 21:26Speaker 2: is what you make it, you know what I'm saying.
- 21:28Speaker 2: I'm happy with walking around the block like I'm happy
- 21:32Speaker 2: with that that, you know, or just sitting outside looking
- 21:35Speaker 2: at stars or Netflix and Jill like, I'm very simple.
- 21:39Speaker 1: How did he get you or how did you get him?
- 21:41Speaker 1: How did y'all get each other?
- 21:44Speaker 2: You know, I honestly don't even I just remember liking,
- 21:49Speaker 2: uh no, That's why I thought he was going to no.
- 21:55Speaker 2: I just remember liking the fact that he was taking
- 21:59Speaker 2: care of me, like health wise, so you know, we
- 22:04Speaker 2: were working out a lot. I had like holistic medicines
- 22:08Speaker 2: and stuff. He was making sure I would take it
- 22:11Speaker 2: because sometimes I don't. I'm not the best way remembering
- 22:13Speaker 2: to take my medicine. So those are the things that
- 22:16Speaker 2: made me be like.
- 22:17Speaker 1: Hmm, you really care about me.
- 22:19Speaker 2: Yeah, they're really love me.
- 22:23Speaker 3: I know you mentioned in one of your interviews about
- 22:25Speaker 3: industry grooming and things like that.
- 22:27Speaker 4: Can you just shed light on.
- 22:28Speaker 3: That a little bit.
- 22:30Speaker 2: I think as I grow, just like as a woman
- 22:33Speaker 2: in maturity, as a creative, I realized that every single
- 22:37Speaker 2: thing I went through was tempering me. You know for
- 22:43Speaker 2: the for where I'm at now, like I was not
- 22:46Speaker 2: prepared at any other time or moment before now, I
- 22:50Speaker 2: wasn't ready. And also as I grow in wisdom, I'm
- 22:55Speaker 2: able to see people, like really see them, and I
- 23:01Speaker 2: can tell like who knows themselves, who's being authentic, who
- 23:05Speaker 2: is being led by an external locus of control meaning
- 23:13Speaker 2: you are moved by outside opinions other than your own
- 23:17Speaker 2: that do not originate f himself. And then internal locus
- 23:20Speaker 2: of control meaning you get your guidance from your intuition,
- 23:25Speaker 2: your gut, what's on your heart. I call it the
- 23:27Speaker 2: God whisper. You know, when you get that instinct to
- 23:30Speaker 2: like grab your coat before you walk out the door,
- 23:33Speaker 2: and then you grab it and then it rains, or
- 23:36Speaker 2: you know, you get the instinct like I don't know
- 23:38Speaker 2: why someone telling me to bring these flip flops, but
- 23:42Speaker 2: I'm gonna bring them, and then you end up needing it.
- 23:45Speaker 2: That's the God whisper. That's what I call it. A
- 23:47Speaker 2: lot of times people ignore it, but when you get
- 23:50Speaker 2: to a certain place of like trusting that and understanding
- 23:55Speaker 2: those are little taps from God, from the universe, from
- 23:58Speaker 2: your angels. You in the right direction. You learn how
- 24:03Speaker 2: to operating that, and so I can recognize when somebody
- 24:09Speaker 2: is doing that. I think when I was younger, I
- 24:11Speaker 2: didn't have that, so I was trusting and putting my
- 24:16Speaker 2: faith in other people. So appreciate you, Shay.
- 24:23Speaker 4: I know that.
- 24:26Speaker 3: You are signed now rights or deal.
- 24:30Speaker 2: I have a partnership with Definitely me, I'm signing myself.
- 24:32Speaker 1: Partnership is dope.
- 24:33Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 24:34Speaker 4: I know that Hours and Hours helped that, right the single.
- 24:38Speaker 2: I think the Hours and Hours was a tipping point.
- 24:40Speaker 2: But I had already built a catalog, a nice little
- 24:45Speaker 2: like catalog about thirty songs, and a bunch of them
- 24:48Speaker 2: were doing really well in terms of independency, Like I
- 24:51Speaker 2: had multiple songs that were hitting a million.
- 24:54Speaker 4: For your Yourself under your Name, My Moneymoon.
- 24:58Speaker 2: And so hours and Hours obviously that's my biggest song.
- 25:01Speaker 2: I think it's got half a billion streams, which is
- 25:05Speaker 2: amazingaire Right, Well, I ever see the other one too?
- 25:12Speaker 4: Me too?
- 25:13Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think it was definitely Hours and Hours.
- 25:18Speaker 2: But I think what the reason why I was able
- 25:20Speaker 2: to get what I was able to get as far
- 25:22Speaker 2: as partnership and revenue share and all that is because
- 25:27Speaker 2: they saw, like, it's not just one. It's not just
- 25:29Speaker 2: a one hit of quitter like she has built. She's
- 25:32Speaker 2: going somewhere with her brand. She has identity. And I
- 25:36Speaker 2: think the true test came recently with like can she
- 25:40Speaker 2: do it again? You know? Is it? Was it just
- 25:43Speaker 2: lightning in a bottle? Was it just luck? And I
- 25:46Speaker 2: think what made for me now is doing the same thing.
- 25:49Speaker 2: Is going viral on TikTok. We got number one at
- 25:52Speaker 2: urban radio. We just released a video yesterday, so if
- 25:55Speaker 2: you haven't seen that, go check that on YouTube, featuring
- 25:58Speaker 2: Lou James, directed by Trinidad James, and that's gray and
- 26:02Speaker 2: I think they're seeing like, oh wow, she does know
- 26:05Speaker 2: what she's talking about. She does know what she's doing.
- 26:08Speaker 2: And it's not any specific formula. It's just the relationship
- 26:11Speaker 2: that I have created with my supporters. It took a
- 26:15Speaker 2: lot more on groundwork, right. I actually have to, like individually,
- 26:21Speaker 2: like every comment, respond with a genuine response, not just
- 26:25Speaker 2: like a mooji like yeah, like I have to actually
- 26:31Speaker 2: right now, I mean just this is just real, like
- 26:33Speaker 2: this is this is how I'm doing it. I'm actually
- 26:37Speaker 2: imagine this is what I was saying to my manager Shaka,
- 26:40Speaker 2: he's over there. I was like him and Jeff. What
- 26:45Speaker 2: the music industry has done in essence is put the
- 26:49Speaker 2: power in the hands of the creator, demographic, your niche.
- 26:56Speaker 2: It's not you the creator. You don't have the power
- 26:59Speaker 2: and neither does the label. Where you get the power
- 27:02Speaker 2: is Imagine if you're in a stadium and it's the
- 27:06Speaker 2: field is crowded, Imagine you the star player walking through
- 27:12Speaker 2: that crowd and not getting attacked, not getting touched, not
- 27:16Speaker 2: getting hounded. If you can do that, then you are
- 27:21Speaker 2: the captain of the ship. There's not a lot of
- 27:23Speaker 2: artists who can do that. Nicki Minaj can do it,
- 27:26Speaker 2: you know, Kanye. Kanye can do it. But it's very hard,
- 27:30Speaker 2: and it's like you have to be so like confident
- 27:36Speaker 2: in who you are to be able to control that space.
- 27:40Speaker 2: You're at a spiritual level. You got to be able
- 27:42Speaker 2: to push your aura out to let people know like, yes,
- 27:46Speaker 2: I'm here, I'm with you, we're in this together. Hey,
- 27:49Speaker 2: how are you? You're beautiful? Oh my gosh, like and
- 27:51Speaker 2: you really it has to be genuine because people can
- 27:55Speaker 2: smell the fear. You can't fake it. So I think
- 28:00Speaker 2: think where my power comes from is I really know
- 28:03Speaker 2: my audience. I really know what they want to see
- 28:05Speaker 2: for me, what they want to hear, and I protect it.
- 28:08Speaker 2: I do not let you know. Sometimes people at the
- 28:10Speaker 2: label will be like, oh, can you do this? And
- 28:12Speaker 2: can you do what this? And can you make a
- 28:14Speaker 2: post about this. I'm like, that's whack. They're gonna know
- 28:17Speaker 2: you know that it's not me. And it's not to
- 28:20Speaker 2: say that people's ideas are whack. It's just they know
- 28:22Speaker 2: my voice and they can tell when I'm trying to
- 28:25Speaker 2: sell them something or when I really am genuinely like, y'all,
- 28:30Speaker 2: I found his lotion, you know what I'm saying. So
- 28:33Speaker 2: it drives my value up because I'm only going to
- 28:36Speaker 2: advertise and stand behind things that I actually believe in.
- 28:41Speaker 2: So when I do speak about something, you know, oh,
- 28:43Speaker 2: I'm gonna go get that because she don't. She don't
- 28:46Speaker 2: just be feeding us, you know, force feeding us stuff.
- 28:49Speaker 2: But it takes longer because I have to actually vet
- 28:53Speaker 2: these things and you know, try things out and spend
- 28:55Speaker 2: my own money, and you know, before I bring it
- 28:59Speaker 2: to my people, I have to have warned, you know.
- 29:03Speaker 2: So it takes longer, it takes more resources, and it's
- 29:07Speaker 2: not like the cool route, you know what I'm saying
- 29:10Speaker 2: where like a lot of these influencers, they're wearing and
- 29:15Speaker 2: testing the hottest stuff as it's you know, blowing up
- 29:19Speaker 2: is about timing for me and finding the right partnerships.
- 29:22Speaker 2: But in the end, at the end of it, I'm
- 29:26Speaker 2: creating this foundation that is very strong, and you can't
- 29:33Speaker 2: it's not shakeable. It's unshakeable. So like if I do
- 29:36Speaker 2: mess up and I have a moment that isn't so great,
- 29:39Speaker 2: it's overshadowed by all the times that I made the
- 29:41Speaker 2: right choices, and I'm fine with that. Like my goal
- 29:45Speaker 2: was never to be uh famous. It's to be able
- 29:49Speaker 2: to express myself at a high level for a very
- 29:52Speaker 2: long time until I get tired of it. And of
- 29:54Speaker 2: course being successful in having brand recognition and people knowing
- 29:59Speaker 2: who I am visually and knowing who I am as
- 30:02Speaker 2: a personality helps to be able to do that to
- 30:05Speaker 2: bring in more opportunities, But that's not the goal. So
- 30:09Speaker 2: I think, as I said before, I wasn't ready before
- 30:12Speaker 2: and now I wouldn't have been able to understand that.
- 30:14Speaker 3: You know, ten years ago, do you think this power
- 30:17Speaker 3: came from when you stepped out of priscillating into money
- 30:20Speaker 3: long I.
- 30:22Speaker 2: Think it so in that transition period, yes, but it
- 30:25Speaker 2: didn't have anything to do with music. It was just
- 30:28Speaker 2: I had asked an old friend of mine, Wilmer Valdorama.
- 30:31Speaker 2: I don't know if you guys watched our seventies show.
- 30:34Speaker 2: He's a fez for an exchange student, and of course
- 30:38Speaker 2: he's grown, he's done, he's on like ncis now. But
- 30:41Speaker 2: I asked him a long time ago. I was like, Wilmer,
- 30:43Speaker 2: how do you know when it's time to grow up?
- 30:46Speaker 2: I think I was like twenty when I asked him this,
- 30:48Speaker 2: and he was like, when you get tired of making
- 30:50Speaker 2: the same mistakes over and over, you start changing things
- 30:53Speaker 2: and tweaking things and doing things differently. And that really
- 30:56Speaker 2: hit me. I had to think about it for a
- 30:57Speaker 2: long time, like what do you mean? What do he
- 30:59Speaker 2: mean by it? And so I started watching how I
- 31:03Speaker 2: talk about myself, watching how I talk about others, watching
- 31:08Speaker 2: when you get that little envious feeling when you see
- 31:10Speaker 2: somebody doing something that you wish you were doing, changing
- 31:14Speaker 2: the momentum of that thought into like, so now instead,
- 31:18Speaker 2: when I see somebody doing something that I want to
- 31:20Speaker 2: be doing, I don't even feel envy anymore. I'm remembering
- 31:23Speaker 2: to say, that's for me. I would love to experience that,
- 31:26Speaker 2: you know, and so you're calling these things into your
- 31:29Speaker 2: experience with a positive polarization versus like the opposite of
- 31:37Speaker 2: that would be dang, how come it? You know it's
- 31:40Speaker 2: never works out for me, mag get right there. It's
- 31:42Speaker 2: always something you gotta watch that. You can't talk like that,
- 31:45Speaker 2: and it takes literally you have to brainwash yourself. So
- 31:50Speaker 2: I was listening to self help books, meditations ask formations,
- 31:55Speaker 2: so basically affirmations in the form of a question, like
- 31:57Speaker 2: why am I so successful? Why does it everything always
- 32:00Speaker 2: happened for me so easily? Why is my bank account
- 32:02Speaker 2: so full? You know, things like that. Before I go
- 32:05Speaker 2: to sleep, first thing in the morning, I'm listening to
- 32:07Speaker 2: my books. I'm turning on It's so much stuff on YouTube,
- 32:10Speaker 2: like for free therapy rey key. Yeah. So, like I
- 32:15Speaker 2: did a very holistic like rebranding as well internally, and
- 32:20Speaker 2: then what you guys see is the product of that
- 32:23Speaker 2: very surface level. You know, how I address how I talk,
- 32:27Speaker 2: my music, my videos, But there's there's so much more
- 32:31Speaker 2: deeper work that I've been doing.
- 32:34Speaker 4: You said you had that conversation with fez. Well, he's
- 32:36Speaker 4: never really fizz.
- 32:37Speaker 3: But at twenty and twenty one, you became a millionaire
- 32:41Speaker 3: or he made the first million.
- 32:43Speaker 4: This is the Bler Alert Show. And just to touch on.
- 32:46Speaker 3: The financial aspect of it, can you just shed some
- 32:50Speaker 3: light on financial decisions and when you get into making money.
- 32:55Speaker 2: I mean, I think I've seen so many interviews where
- 32:57Speaker 2: like people will share when they first started get and money,
- 33:00Speaker 2: they blew it. And I definitely blew a lot, not
- 33:05Speaker 2: understanding just how business works and taxes and what you
- 33:12Speaker 2: can write off and what you can't, and rent and
- 33:14Speaker 2: loaning people money and you know, thinking you're going to
- 33:17Speaker 2: get it back and you never, you never will. You
- 33:20Speaker 2: don't get it back, They don't give it back.
- 33:23Speaker 3: We just had Atl Jacob and he blew his money,
- 33:26Speaker 3: like told him he was gonna blow it. Yeah.
- 33:29Speaker 5: Atl Jacob said that Future said, every every person in
- 33:33Speaker 5: the industry that makes a lot of money goes broke
- 33:35Speaker 5: the first time.
- 33:36Speaker 2: Around second third because it's like you think that when
- 33:44Speaker 2: you get this amount of money, it's gonna change your life.
- 33:47Speaker 2: When you get this car, when you get this jewelry,
- 33:49Speaker 2: when you get that's what you think. And then when
- 33:52Speaker 2: you get it you realize like, oh, hey, you know
- 33:55Speaker 2: that has nothing to do with it, and that's why
- 33:56Speaker 2: you like, you know, you'll see people who are really
- 33:58Speaker 2: wealthy weren't flannel shirts and birkenstocks because it's like none
- 34:04Speaker 2: of that stuff really matters. Money is just a means
- 34:06Speaker 2: to be able to maneuver in the world. So like,
- 34:10Speaker 2: if I want to get up at two am and
- 34:12Speaker 2: fly to Dubai, I need to make enough money where
- 34:14Speaker 2: I can. I can do that and the rules do
- 34:16Speaker 2: not apply to me because I make my own magic.
- 34:20Speaker 2: And the only reason why I understand that is because
- 34:23Speaker 2: I've tried it every other way. Right, So like, as
- 34:26Speaker 2: much as you don't want your baby, I don't know
- 34:28Speaker 2: if you have kids, as much as you might not
- 34:29Speaker 2: want your baby to touch that hot stove, they gotta
- 34:32Speaker 2: touch it to see. See, that's why you don't do that,
- 34:36Speaker 2: you know. And so like, there is something very in
- 34:40Speaker 2: the humanness of like existence, right if that doesn't even
- 34:44Speaker 2: make sense, but you get what I'm saying. There is
- 34:47Speaker 2: just something about us where we gotta see for ourselves
- 34:51Speaker 2: and experience it for ourselves. There is no better teacher
- 34:54Speaker 2: than experience. It doesn't matter how much I tell you
- 34:58Speaker 2: that that's not gonna out good. You're not gonna really
- 35:02Speaker 2: understand it. Yeah, you're not until you you know it,
- 35:07Speaker 2: don't matter how much your mama tell you, or your
- 35:09Speaker 2: sister or whoever, be like, man, treat that girl right,
- 35:11Speaker 2: do the right thing. Until you lose her, You're not
- 35:15Speaker 2: gonna get it. You're not gonna understand. And so I
- 35:20Speaker 2: would just say, man, like, if you plan on being
- 35:25Speaker 2: really successful, plan on losing, plan on losing, you will,
- 35:30Speaker 2: but get back up, Like, get back up, don't let
- 35:33Speaker 2: that stop you. I failed. I can't even tell you
- 35:37Speaker 2: how many times, but I got back up, and I'm like, well,
- 35:41Speaker 2: you know what else am I gonna do?
- 35:42Speaker 1: Is that why you made your name? Money long?
- 35:46Speaker 2: Money long? It's definitely an affirmation for sure, because it
- 35:50Speaker 2: looks like when you look at it, you say, it's
- 35:51Speaker 2: oh it's mooney long, but it's money long.
- 35:54Speaker 1: Yes, why am you?
- 35:56Speaker 2: And I you know it's gonna be different. Also, there
- 36:02Speaker 2: was nobody else with that name. It was nowhere. It
- 36:04Speaker 2: did not exist when I've heard first changed my name.
- 36:10Speaker 2: Now you go online, there's a bunch of I googled it.
- 36:13Speaker 2: I always do that. I do that with like song titles,
- 36:15Speaker 2: any ideas I might have. I Google to make sure
- 36:18Speaker 2: that it doesn't exist exist so that I can own it.
- 36:22Speaker 5: But yeah, I just, uh, there's a bunch of money
- 36:24Speaker 5: loans on the internet.
- 36:25Speaker 3: Now, Yeah, I want to know, how do you how
- 36:29Speaker 3: do you approach a song when you're writing, good question.
- 36:32Speaker 2: I'm channeling so almost like a freestyle most of the time.
- 36:37Speaker 1: Do you have to be there with the producer making
- 36:39Speaker 1: it from scratch too?
- 36:40Speaker 2: Or I don't have to that's ideal though, that's the ideal.
- 36:43Speaker 2: So that's what I've been doing on this project. But
- 36:47Speaker 2: now I could do it to a track like with
- 36:50Speaker 2: Hours and Hours. That was a beat I found on YouTube.
- 36:54Speaker 2: I was just I was washing dishes and I was like,
- 36:57Speaker 2: extremely bored. I hate cleaning up.
- 36:59Speaker 1: Found that beat.
- 37:00Speaker 2: Found that beat. That's a long story, yeah, because I
- 37:06Speaker 2: bought it, but the producer didn't actually have the right
- 37:08Speaker 2: to sell it to me. So it turned into it.
- 37:10Speaker 2: It turned to do a huge thing. We're not gonna
- 37:12Speaker 2: talk about it.
- 37:13Speaker 1: I got flowers on that song because that's a very
- 37:15Speaker 1: slow song on the DJ and in Atlanta, you had
- 37:18Speaker 1: to play that in the club and.
- 37:20Speaker 2: It's the slow you know. I still haven't heard that
- 37:22Speaker 2: song in the club. You haven't heard the song I
- 37:24Speaker 2: heard of the Magic City. But even when you went
- 37:27Speaker 2: to Ladies of R and B, of course, But I
- 37:29Speaker 2: mean like in the club, like everybody's singing it long.
- 37:33Speaker 2: I've never because during the peak of it, it was
- 37:35Speaker 2: COVID and I was not going outside Atlanta. I was
- 37:39Speaker 2: in l A compromised at all. I was not going outside.
- 37:43Speaker 2: I got people are trying to book me. It was
- 37:44Speaker 2: getting mad, like, yo, we got this money for you,
- 37:47Speaker 2: Like you also have to co you know you can't.
- 37:52Speaker 3: You can't play with lupis. That's an auto immune disease.
- 37:55Speaker 3: Like you can'tnot do.
- 37:56Speaker 2: That, yes, because then I'll be in the hospital bed
- 38:00Speaker 2: and you knows all I was trying to do is smoke.
- 38:02Speaker 2: Hookah is not Atlanta has a hookah problem. I'm sorry. Listen,
- 38:09Speaker 2: I've seen somebody at the bus stop with a hookah
- 38:14Speaker 2: at the bus stop. No, it wasn't a portable one
- 38:17Speaker 2: was the glass with the whale at the bus that's
- 38:23Speaker 2: the home. That's the whole Atlanta. Mind you, I live
- 38:26Speaker 2: in l A. I've been there for a decade. And yes,
- 38:30Speaker 2: it is in the sense that you would go to
- 38:32Speaker 2: like the Mediterranean spower the spot and then you could
- 38:36Speaker 2: do hookah at night. They give it to you with
- 38:38Speaker 2: like milk to make it smoother. They put like the
- 38:40Speaker 2: fruit around the rims, and it's the it's the sheisha,
- 38:45Speaker 2: which is like the jelled tobacco. Bro they not giving you.
- 38:49Speaker 2: You're getting regular tobacco and a hookah, and it's not
- 38:52Speaker 2: the coal. They're supposed to come around and tap that
- 38:56Speaker 2: coal every few you know, thirty minutes to tap off
- 38:59Speaker 2: all the soot. So next time when y'all go do
- 39:02Speaker 2: hookah and you pay attention, they're not doing that. But
- 39:06Speaker 2: the call is getting smaller and smaller, so it's not
- 39:09Speaker 2: it's going in the air. So like if you're in
- 39:11Speaker 2: the hookah spot and your throat is burning, when you
- 39:14Speaker 2: go home and you blow your nose and see how
- 39:17Speaker 2: much soot is in your nose, it's so unhealthy. And
- 39:20Speaker 2: then you're not supposed to be smoking out the plastic
- 39:22Speaker 2: because that plastic, all the microplastic is going in your throat.
- 39:25Speaker 2: It's supposed to be a wooden nozzle.
- 39:28Speaker 4: Teach them.
- 39:28Speaker 2: So I'm just like y'all not doing y'all are doing
- 39:30Speaker 2: spook up. That's not who spooky. Yeah, that hooka is
- 39:36Speaker 2: killing young.
- 39:38Speaker 3: When you need to do some some jingles you got,
- 39:44Speaker 3: can you jingle us to a break?
- 39:46Speaker 2: Baller Alert Baller Alert, We'll be right back.
- 39:49Speaker 6: We'll be right back with more of the Baller Alert Show.
- 39:55Speaker 6: You're listening to a special edition of the Baller Alert Show.
- 39:58Speaker 2: What's Up? It's your girl money Long and you are
- 40:00Speaker 2: now watching the Baller Alert Show on what do you want?
- 40:03Speaker 4: On the Bowler Alert Show? Made for Me? Where did
- 40:07Speaker 4: you come up with this?
- 40:08Speaker 2: So I did on the bet Soul Train Awards this
- 40:11Speaker 2: past November, I did a rendition of May for Me
- 40:14Speaker 2: that had a bridge which featured vocalists choir vocalists of
- 40:18Speaker 2: my favorite vocalist, and I did the arrangement for that
- 40:23Speaker 2: with a young man named Juwan who was also singing,
- 40:26Speaker 2: and walteron Millsap and I just wanted, like, sometimes choirs
- 40:31Speaker 2: can be a little cringey, right, but I felt like
- 40:34Speaker 2: this song gave, especially those core changes on the bridge.
- 40:38Speaker 2: It definitely gave like praise and worship because I used
- 40:40Speaker 2: to lead the praise and worship team like when I
- 40:42Speaker 2: was heavy in the church, because that's all my mama
- 40:46Speaker 2: would let me do. Uh. So I decided like, okay,
- 40:49Speaker 2: let me go back to my roots and bring that
- 40:50Speaker 2: into the performance. And it was also probably one of
- 40:53Speaker 2: my more simpler performances I've ever done, because I'm like, Okay,
- 40:56Speaker 2: you know, the only thing you can do is if
- 40:59Speaker 2: you keep going I want up, up and up, you
- 41:00Speaker 2: gotta bring it back down to bring it back up.
- 41:02Speaker 2: Otherwise it's just as you gonna end up like hanging
- 41:04Speaker 2: off the roof by your pinky toe, so you know
- 41:08Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So I had to bring it back
- 41:10Speaker 2: down do something a lot more simple. And then for
- 41:14Speaker 2: the music video, I wanted to do something around Halloween
- 41:18Speaker 2: where it was like Frankenstein kind of I lose my
- 41:20Speaker 2: lover and then I go to the morgue and I
- 41:23Speaker 2: get all these body parts and sold them together and
- 41:26Speaker 2: make my perfect person. But that was a little bit
- 41:29Speaker 2: too gory. And also like sometimes as a black female artist,
- 41:34Speaker 2: you have to understand that while you might not be
- 41:36Speaker 2: because black women are not a monolith. There's email girls,
- 41:41Speaker 2: there's luxury girls, there's the hood girls, there's the bookworm,
- 41:45Speaker 2: nerdy girls, city girls, city girls, you know, so it's
- 41:48Speaker 2: like there's so many different kind of Black women but
- 41:52Speaker 2: what the general public wants to see from a black
- 41:54Speaker 2: woman is a small set of things that they will accept.
- 42:00Speaker 2: And so I kind of understood that, like, Okay, even
- 42:03Speaker 2: though that is going into like the sci fi anime bag,
- 42:07Speaker 2: everybody don't want to see that from me, So let
- 42:09Speaker 2: me just temper it and like turn it down a
- 42:11Speaker 2: little bit. So I teamed up with Trinidad James and
- 42:14Speaker 2: Des Gray and they tweaked my treatment to make it
- 42:17Speaker 2: be AI robot, black people in text, black people in tech,
- 42:24Speaker 2: and so without giving you too much, basically, the concept
- 42:29Speaker 2: was that maybe if you you know, when you think
- 42:32Speaker 2: about the conversation on Twitter and Spiritual World posts a
- 42:35Speaker 2: lot about relationships and the arguments that are happening between
- 42:39Speaker 2: black men and black women and how people feel like
- 42:41Speaker 2: the dating pool is pissed. Thank god, I don't have
- 42:44Speaker 2: to do it, but you know, if you listen to
- 42:47Speaker 2: what the streets are saying, it's hell out here. And
- 42:51Speaker 2: so I remember maybe twenty years ago, thinking, wouldn't it
- 42:54Speaker 2: be cool to see the person that you're talking to
- 42:57Speaker 2: you on the phone and then boom, we have his time,
- 42:59Speaker 2: And so I'm wondering, you know, just putting it out
- 43:03Speaker 2: there especially. I don't know if you guys follow like
- 43:05Speaker 2: any AI pages on Instagram, you're already using it.
- 43:11Speaker 4: No, I'm talking about.
- 43:13Speaker 2: AI is going to take everybody job you're already using.
- 43:16Speaker 5: It's already talking about the AI that they're trying to
- 43:19Speaker 5: prove and the entertainment business to where they trying to
- 43:22Speaker 5: license our voices and face and all this stuff too.
- 43:25Speaker 2: I mean that just becomes a human rights issue, right,
- 43:29Speaker 2: But you're using AI every day, Okay.
- 43:31Speaker 5: I like AI in their term, not the terms where
- 43:34Speaker 5: they trying to legalize.
- 43:36Speaker 3: I will say, Luke James played a good AI at
- 43:38Speaker 3: the end when you yeah put him back together?
- 43:40Speaker 6: Yeah?
- 43:40Speaker 2: Yeah, did that James come from too. I've known him
- 43:44Speaker 2: for a while. I was working with him as a
- 43:46Speaker 2: songwriter producer, and I saw that he was doing a
- 43:49Speaker 2: lot of sexy red stuff. So he transitioned from just
- 43:53Speaker 2: being an artist and being you know, the representative to
- 43:57Speaker 2: now assisting other people when it comes to like style,
- 44:03Speaker 2: creating content, shooting videos and so saw him doing this
- 44:07Speaker 2: thing with sexy read and I was like, man, that's
- 44:09Speaker 2: good for you. And one thing about me, I never
- 44:11Speaker 2: like to engage or reach out to people until I
- 44:14Speaker 2: actually got something for you to do. So I put
- 44:17Speaker 2: it on my list of like I really want to
- 44:18Speaker 2: work with him on something, and I hit him and
- 44:22Speaker 2: he was like, let's go. I'm ready. And when I
- 44:25Speaker 2: tell you like they really like delivering on everything that
- 44:28Speaker 2: they said they was going to do. Because that's another thing,
- 44:29Speaker 2: is like, it's priceless when you can find someone who
- 44:34Speaker 2: can do what they advertise right. And in this business,
- 44:38Speaker 2: there's a lot of people who will say one thing
- 44:40Speaker 2: and then as soon as you get a little cloud,
- 44:42Speaker 2: get some success, they switch it up and then you
- 44:45Speaker 2: know they want to own everything. They want to take
- 44:47Speaker 2: credit for everything. That's whack. It's very whack. But then
- 44:50Speaker 2: there are some people, very few and far between, that
- 44:53Speaker 2: if they say I can get you this, they get it.
- 44:56Speaker 2: They deliver, sometimes they over deliver, they deliver on time,
- 45:00Speaker 2: they do it without complaint. Those are the people that
- 45:02Speaker 2: you want to surround yourself with, and Trinidad is definitely
- 45:05Speaker 2: one of those people.
- 45:06Speaker 4: Okay, is this a song leading into a project?
- 45:10Speaker 2: Absolutely? I have album. I just finished it. Actually, That's
- 45:12Speaker 2: what I'm here for in Atlanta to finish my project.
- 45:15Speaker 2: I'm working with Tricky Stewart Ricky. Yeah, he's executive producing it.
- 45:21Speaker 2: I got songs with Tommy Brown and mister Franks who
- 45:24Speaker 2: did a lot of the Ariana Grande hits that we
- 45:26Speaker 2: know and love. Toron Thomas who did like a bunch
- 45:31Speaker 2: of the stuff with Lizzo about them. Tommy one Record
- 45:34Speaker 2: of the Year, Song of the Year last year, he's
- 45:35Speaker 2: nominated Rock City. He's nominated for Songwriter the Year this
- 45:40Speaker 2: year at the Grammys. I've known him for years. He's amazing.
- 45:45Speaker 2: And then the dream worked with him, and then Ku Carell,
- 45:49Speaker 2: who does all like my background vocals and my vocal production.
- 45:54Speaker 2: He also is part of the reason why I feel
- 45:57Speaker 2: like we won Best R and B Performance for hours
- 46:00Speaker 2: and hours after Grammy's last year.
- 46:01Speaker 3: So Dream Team, I'm excited. Man, you're excited about this
- 46:05Speaker 3: because I love your voice. I like your style, like
- 46:09Speaker 3: you have nostalgia in your voice too, you know, And
- 46:12Speaker 3: I even like watching your perform like that that one
- 46:16Speaker 3: performance that went viral when you're like, what did I do?
- 46:29Speaker 2: I just love having fun, man, being silly and is like,
- 46:32Speaker 2: I gotta always keep that. I gotta always keep that
- 46:35Speaker 2: because you know, people like they turn into it now,
- 46:38Speaker 2: mind you if it's funny. I'm gonna laugh. It was
- 46:40Speaker 2: just one dude that he took that sound and he
- 46:46Speaker 2: made it like when you get in the car and
- 46:47Speaker 2: you'll see hot. Yeah it was.
- 46:51Speaker 5: That was funny that you can laugh at yourself though,
- 46:54Speaker 5: because I feel like a lot of artists do not
- 46:56Speaker 5: like the antics on social media.
- 46:58Speaker 2: But that's just because I know who I am. It's
- 47:00Speaker 2: like that ain't it ain't or nothing.
- 47:02Speaker 5: But you know, when a song came out, I was like, man,
- 47:05Speaker 5: y'all are wearing this song the haters.
- 47:11Speaker 1: I makes me think about my wife.
- 47:12Speaker 2: I love that song, but I did wear it out.
- 47:15Speaker 5: I'm one of those people that would listen to a
- 47:17Speaker 5: song twenty times and one day when I first hit
- 47:20Speaker 5: and what, I really like it, But I don't want
- 47:21Speaker 5: the internet to be playing it too, Like I don't
- 47:23Speaker 5: want to get on the internet. I didn't listen to
- 47:24Speaker 5: this twenty times in my car.
- 47:26Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's, you know, blessed in a curse
- 47:30Speaker 2: because while I'm super grateful and a lot of times
- 47:32Speaker 2: to the way the industry set up. Now, if your
- 47:34Speaker 2: song is not doing that on the internet, they won't
- 47:37Speaker 2: even pay you dust. So it's like you kind of
- 47:40Speaker 2: need it. But I only I only truly appreciate it
- 47:45Speaker 2: when it's organic, Like you know, I did not pay people.
- 47:51Speaker 3: Like the maid for me is like organic because I
- 47:53Speaker 3: think a girl in some blue pants, blue.
- 47:56Speaker 2: Girl in the blue pajamas. It's a lot of beef
- 47:59Speaker 2: going on on TikTok out there because it's two creators
- 48:02Speaker 2: that one guy, one guy named Reuben J. He did
- 48:08Speaker 2: he made a parody making fun of my soul Train performance,
- 48:11Speaker 2: just like walking in the wind because it was crazy
- 48:14Speaker 2: cold and wendy. So you know, his wig is like
- 48:16Speaker 2: doing like this. You know, it's super funny, super funny,
- 48:21Speaker 2: and like he made it like kind of like the
- 48:23Speaker 2: good Christian Sancti Vibe version. And then the young girl Marie,
- 48:29Speaker 2: she took it to the hood. You know, she was
- 48:31Speaker 2: in what was it, TJ Max or something like that,
- 48:34Speaker 2: and some pajamas. I almost bought those same pajamas from Target.
- 48:37Speaker 2: I got the green ones and she was in there,
- 48:40Speaker 2: you know, just like she nugged it out a little bit.
- 48:43Speaker 2: And that's what people are arguing about, like, oh, she
- 48:46Speaker 2: started it first. He started first, Like guys, we all
- 48:50Speaker 2: win it. You know, I'm not mad. I'm not mad.
- 48:56Speaker 1: I do got a question. So when did this guy
- 48:57Speaker 1: Shata come into the picture. Man, it's a good guy,
- 49:00Speaker 1: a good guy.
- 49:01Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I've been working on Chaka for maybe like
- 49:06Speaker 2: six eight months now, I don't know, I'm like six yeah.
- 49:11Speaker 2: Always obviously been a fan from a distance, and he
- 49:16Speaker 2: him and Jeff really like take care of me. And
- 49:19Speaker 2: it's hard for me right to listen to other people
- 49:22Speaker 2: because I'd be worried, like you're just trying to benefit,
- 49:26Speaker 2: you know in some way, like what's the catch. But
- 49:30Speaker 2: they're not like that at all. It's like they can
- 49:32Speaker 2: actually give me advice and give me the reason why
- 49:36Speaker 2: I shouldn't be doing it or I should go this
- 49:38Speaker 2: way versus this way. And we have a great chemistry
- 49:42Speaker 2: where I trust them, you know, And that's like it's
- 49:47Speaker 2: very Yeah, it's very important, especially being a woman, right,
- 49:52Speaker 2: you know, them working with Luda for all these years
- 49:54Speaker 2: is totally different.
- 49:55Speaker 5: Right.
- 49:56Speaker 2: I gotta get hair and make up styling before I
- 49:58Speaker 2: do anything. I gotta I gotta be looking right. I
- 50:01Speaker 2: cannot go outside without makeup on or people are like,
- 50:05Speaker 2: well she looks sick, you know what I'm saying, And
- 50:07Speaker 2: I just look regular. So they understand that they fight
- 50:11Speaker 2: for me as a performer. There are certain things that
- 50:15Speaker 2: I need. Like I went to the Chantey Mor concert
- 50:17Speaker 2: last night and she said it was hot in their
- 50:19Speaker 2: and I was like, this is just me, and then
- 50:21Speaker 2: she said it. She was like, thank y'all for boiling
- 50:24Speaker 2: for me, because I can't sing with the air on,
- 50:27Speaker 2: you know, just certain things like that, or like you
- 50:30Speaker 2: going too a venue and they don't want to cut
- 50:32Speaker 2: the air condition off, so they're blowing all this dust
- 50:34Speaker 2: and cold, they're into your lungs, and then they expect
- 50:37Speaker 2: you to go out there and sing for an hour
- 50:39Speaker 2: and hit these you know, vocal cords. Is that why
- 50:43Speaker 2: she said, shyn your vocal cords. But also like when
- 50:45Speaker 2: you warm up, you're literally imagine like you know, you're
- 50:48Speaker 2: a runner, you're an athlete, and you warm up, you
- 50:50Speaker 2: run around the track, and then you sit in the
- 50:52Speaker 2: cold for twenty minutes, so now you're tight again and
- 50:56Speaker 2: you can hurt yourself that way, you know. So it's
- 50:59Speaker 2: like it's the same thing with a singer. I do
- 51:01Speaker 2: all those warm ups and then you get ready to
- 51:04Speaker 2: go perform on these award shows and right before you
- 51:07Speaker 2: walk on stage, there's the air blowing right on top
- 51:10Speaker 2: of your head. You know, and they got to keep
- 51:13Speaker 2: all those lights cool. So you understand that. But at
- 51:16Speaker 2: a certain point, you know, you need people back there
- 51:18Speaker 2: like Shaka fighting for you to be like, hey, cut
- 51:20Speaker 2: that air off five minutes. You know what I'm saying.
- 51:23Speaker 2: It's very important, man. It's like just those little things
- 51:26Speaker 2: because those womans live forever. It's like, you know, it
- 51:30Speaker 2: might only be a four minute performance, but they're gonna
- 51:33Speaker 2: watch it over and over for years to come. It's
- 51:36Speaker 2: got to be right, you know, it's your legacy.
- 51:39Speaker 5: I gotta say a shout out to J D and
- 51:40Speaker 5: B cox Man because when I tell you every Wednesday
- 51:44Speaker 5: at Ladies of R and B, your songs are in rotation.
- 51:50Speaker 4: You're part of keeping alive. Thank you for real.
- 51:55Speaker 1: Rotation.
- 51:56Speaker 2: Powder Wow, what out it to you?
- 52:04Speaker 4: Exactly?
- 52:09Speaker 2: That's why he said, well y'all to cast out with.
- 52:11Speaker 2: I was like, it's okay, oh yeah, money Line on
- 52:16Speaker 2: the Baller Alert Show.
- 52:17Speaker 3: Before we get out of here, we do have to
- 52:18Speaker 3: ask you for a pep talk.
- 52:20Speaker 2: What's up, y'all? It's your girl money long and my
- 52:22Speaker 2: little piece of motivation for you is get up out
- 52:26Speaker 2: that bed. Ain't no money in that bed. Get out
- 52:29Speaker 2: there in them streets, line them pockets.
- 52:33Speaker 6: Can't get enough of baller Alert. Follow us on all
- 52:35Speaker 6: social media platforms at baller Alertlog on the baller alert
- 52:39Speaker 6: dot com