Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Mickey Guyton On New Album, Industry Obstacles, Lifting Up Black Women In Country Music + More

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INTERVIEW: Mickey Guyton On New Album, Industry Obstacles, Lifting Up Black Women In Country Music + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Everybody is DJ Envy, Jess, Hilarrys, Charlamagne, the Guy. We
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: are the Breakfast Club Justice out of course, maternity leave.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: So Laura le Rosa's feeling.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: In and we got a special guest in the building. Yes,
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: and be Mickey Guiding. Welcome.
• 0:18
  Speaker 4: I am so so so excited to be here.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Well, welcome, it's my feeling.
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: I'm feeling really really good. I just admire you guys,
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: and I've listened to you guys for a long time,
• 0:26
  Speaker 4: so it just really means a lot.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Mickey. We appreciate you having no taste in morning,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: none at all. Thank you very much, thank.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: You, none at all.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Who is Mickey.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: Guiton For people that don't know, you know, I am
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: a black country singer, the first female that has been
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: nominated for a Grammy and Best Performance, a Best Country
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: Performance and Best Country Album. And I've just been fighting
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: the fight and trying to discover all these different country
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: artists to give them opportunities and equality and a genre
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: that started bath.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: And what made you fall in love with country music?
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: So I know I know you would think, well, first
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: of all, a lot of black people love country music.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: I'm from Waco, Texas or Crawford, Texas. And I started, yeah,
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: yes we did, Yes, we did, Yes we did. When
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: you go to the Country Music Hall of Fame, one
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: of the first things you see or black people picking
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: on the porch. So it's really important. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: I'm sure, I'm sure, but yeah, not cotten, but yes,
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: so I was. I went to a a Southern Baptist
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: church and I went to a Texas Rangers baseball game
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: and I was all the way in the noseweeds section.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: I heard a girl named Leanne Rhyme sing the national
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: anthem and I just just loved her voice, and I've
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: just loved it ever since.
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: Wow, when were year like before you decided to get
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: into country music?
• 1:50
  Speaker 6: Like what were you doing singing then? And like what
• 1:52
  Speaker 6: was it like?
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: Man, Yeah, I sang in the church, but I listened
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: to all genres of music. You know. I was a
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: huge fan of Whitney Houston, a huge fan of Brain
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: and Monica, like those are some of the people that
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: I really looked up to. And I don't know, I
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: just decided I was singing demos and I was working
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: with this woman that wrote Sticket, that movie that whatever.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: That movie was a long time ago, and I was
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: singing demos for her and she was like, Mickey, why
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: don't you sing country music? And I was like, well,
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: I've always loved it, but I mean, there's nobody of
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: us that looks like me in that genre. And she
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: was like, well you should, so here I am.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Well, what did define is country music nowadays?
• 2:28
  Speaker 7: Because you know what I want to I remember when
• 2:29
  Speaker 7: they was used to say Taylor Swift was a country
• 2:31
  Speaker 7: music artists, but then she sounded like she was making
• 2:33
  Speaker 7: pop record. Yeah, people say this new album of yours, yeah,
• 2:36
  Speaker 7: is borderline pops?
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: What is country music nowaday?
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: That's a good question because you know, country music borrows
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: from a lot of different genres. You know, if you
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: listen to some of the biggest country artists in the world,
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: they all have trap beats in their music. So that
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: is a good question. What is the sound of country music?
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: It's so funny that a lot of people want to
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: define what country music is, but it really if it's
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: your intention is to make country music, whatever your country
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: music is for you is your music. Because country music
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: is all of our music. I love it.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Don't sound like country to me, but I'm like, well,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: maybe I don't know.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: There's rock influences in country, there's hip hop influences in
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: country music. There is pop and R and B influences
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: of country music. Like genres, really are you know, really
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: coming together? It's becoming genreiss to me personally, But yeah,
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: it's all kinds of music.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: People talk about there's so much racism in country music, right,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: and so many things that.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: You got to fight through.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: But they also said as a kid that you had
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: to face a lot of racism growing up as well,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: going from school to school. So what made you say,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: you know what, I'm just going to keep on with
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: this racism, trading and keep fighting.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: You know, listen, that is a good That is a
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: good question because you know, it shows itself all of
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: the time. It's something you know, sometimes you're just doing
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: the Lord's work. It's so important as black people that
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: we show ourselves in all different facets of this country
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: and in this world because this country was built off
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: of black people. And for me, I loved country music
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: so much and I had I was a little naive
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: when I came into it. At first, I thought, oh,
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: it's going to be good for me, I've got this,
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: you know, I got a record deal right off the bat.
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: I just knew it was going to be easy for me,
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: and it wasn't. And it was really really, really really
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: really hard, and I was getting ready to quit. And
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: as I was getting ready to quit country music, I
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: talked to my husband saying, like, why do you think
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: country music isn't working for me? And he was like, well,
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: you're running away from everything that makes you different. Like
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: country music is three chords in the truth, and you're
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: a black woman that sings country music, so why aren't
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: you writing that from that perspective? So I wrote Black
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: Like Me, this song that was nominated for a Grammy,
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: And from there I started thinking. I was like, Okay,
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: if I'm going to leave this genre, I need to
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: make sure that I can make it easier for the
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: people that come after me. So I started looking for
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: black country singers and I found Britney Spencer, who was
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: just over here. I discovered rain of Roberts and Tanner
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: Rodel and all these different artists, and I was just
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: like trying to show people that we're here, because if
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: black people can see themselves, we will we will come
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: to the genres. If you're in you know, in a
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: corporation and you're in a high powered position, I feel
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: like it is your obligation to make sure that you
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: look out for people that look like you, especially because
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: we are all a part of this world and we
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: shouldn't just be in the shadows anymore. So that was
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: kind of my motivation to keep on this racism trained
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: because let me tell you, it is hard. It's hard.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: What was your biggest challenge?
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: You know, Country radio was one of the biggest challenges
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: for me, you know, going on you know radio tour
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: and country music. You have to do radio tours and
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: you have to go and sing in these like dingy
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: bars and bring people Dicky's barbecue and donuts and singing
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: these Yeah, it's really really hard. And they and all
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: these people can just if they want to play your
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: music or not.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Because I've seen that when Beyonce put out her records,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: so many country stations didn't want to play her record
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: as well. So you totally understood what she was going on.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: And how did you feel when she wasn't nominated for
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: for anything at the CI.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: I was very disappointed. I was very disappointed, you know,
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: like I know what. A lot of it has to
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: do with the voters and who's voting, and a lot
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: of the voters are you know, radio program directors. So
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: that is it is what it is. You know, I can't,
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: you can't. You've got to show up and vote. I
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: guess this is all you can say. I can say.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: It was really definitely disappointing because there was such a
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: chance in a moment to show that all that we've
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: been fighting for, that it's acknowledged. And I mean, she
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: did have one of the biggest albums this year.
• 6:48
  Speaker 7: You think she got to snow Because I asked that
• 6:50
  Speaker 7: same question to somebody in country and they said to me,
• 6:54
  Speaker 7: not really. When I asked that she gets snubbed to say,
• 6:56
  Speaker 7: it's never been about album success. Tons of artists in
• 6:58
  Speaker 7: country don't get recognized. The voting group is a ton
• 7:01
  Speaker 7: of industry from all over the country, and when an
• 7:03
  Speaker 7: artist and he doesn't put forth to effort to do
• 7:05
  Speaker 7: interviews or be a part of the community, it's hard
• 7:07
  Speaker 7: to get them to vote for you. And then it
• 7:09
  Speaker 7: was telling me about like Zach Bryan got screwed.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: I mean, and that's very true too.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: But then they talked about Shaboozie and I've never heard
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: of war and Treaty. They're black. Yeah, so they talked
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: about so Warren Treaty.
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: Tanya was the girl and sister act and sing with
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: Lauren Hill.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: They don't really need to show way. Yeah wow.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: So it's basically it is politics.
• 7:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah, there is.
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: I mean there's politics in every award show, you know.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: I just felt I was just really disappointed because I
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: felt like it was an opportunity for the CMAS as
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: a whole to show like maybe not Album of the Year,
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: but maybe that song like Texas Hold Him because it
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: was a really big song. It would have just been
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: great to see one thing American idol.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: You tried off American you didn't make it.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: I didn't make it. No, No, that show. It's so
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: hard doing shows like that because it's so relative. It's
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: like you're not singing your songs. You're singing somebody else's song,
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: somebody else's hit, and it takes a very special artist
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: to be able to do that.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: I love Randy. I love Randy.
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: I actually had ran into Randy like a week after
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: after I was rejected, and we've just become really great friends.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: He's a really great guy and I love him now.
• 8:32
  Speaker 7: The first track and I was called my side of
• 8:33
  Speaker 7: the Country, What does your side of the country look like?
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: So well, I live you know, I've lived in Texas,
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: but I also live in California, and I the reason
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: why I wrote that song. First of all, I wrote
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: that song with a guy named Tyler Hubbard, who was
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: in that group for Georgia Florida Georgia Line. And we
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: just wanted to write a song because there's so many
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: versions of country music, which is what we were talking
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: about at the beginning of the show, Like there's West
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: Coast country, there's you know, New York country. I feel
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: like there's Middle of America country. And I just wanted
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: to show all the different facets that my side of
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: the country looks like this. I've got a beach, but
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: I also wear cowboy boots. You know.
• 9:09
  Speaker 6: Well, I didn't know that there were like, like, how
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: is the West Coast, East Coast? Like there is?
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Like if you look at like there's Bakersfield country,
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: like there's an artist named John Party. There's very specific
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: kinds of country.
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: And you're really big into hip hop.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: I was, so my son really loves hip hop. Three. Yes,
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: his favorite song is Euphoria at three at three and
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: he knows, and he knows every morning every morning. Really, yes, Mom,
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: play Euphoria Louder, Daddy Louder.
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: How are some of the things that you watching hip
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: hop are? Just your relationships with hip hop artists? How
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: does that reflect your music? I know you're you and
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: CARDI have a.
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: Really good Yeah, you know, I just what I love about,
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: you know, hip hop music is the honesty in it,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: the culture movement of it. You know, it's always hip
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: hop is always in the foreth of what it's going
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: on in life. And just watching hip hop artists just
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: live so boldly and who they are, it's something that
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: I really really admired. Like It's something that singing in
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: country music which made me become bolder and more outspoken
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: about trying to make sure that there was equality. Was
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: watching what is happening about music?
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: How traumatizing is being a black person in country music,
• 10:25
  Speaker 7: especially a black woman, because it feels like it's traumatized
• 10:27
  Speaker 7: so many of the things that you have to deal
• 10:29
  Speaker 7: with just in society.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so many, It'll show up in country music.
• 10:34
  Speaker 6: Yes, you're an emotion more earlier.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, don't made me cry.
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: I noticed it though.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So it's really hard. You know, even with Beyonce's
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: Cowboy Carter and her featuring so many amazing black country artists,
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: even after that, there's still artists that aren't signed, like
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: rain Or Roberts is still not signed, not yet, no wow.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: And so that's why another reason why I wanted to
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: come on here is try to just like you know,
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: encourage your listeners to really be intentional with your consumerism
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: and support all of these black country artists on this record,
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: because it is really hard. We are paving a way
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: that is completely uncharted, like there's no path, there's no
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: formula for black female country singers, you know, like Linda
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Martel left this genre, you know, Money Long dabbled in
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: country music. K Michelle Like, it's so hard.
• 11:40
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: You know, I do believe that black women are the
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: most vulnerable in the world, and so often like we're
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: just set aside, cast aside, you're problematic, you're too loud,
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: whatever it is. And I think that's also why I
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: stick in this sometimes racist, a lot of times racist
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: genre to just protect them.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: M hmm.
• 12:02
  Speaker 7: Is it true that a few years ago when Morgan
• 12:05
  Speaker 7: Wallin used the word nigger, right, you spoke out against it.
• 12:11
  Speaker 7: You received so much backlash that it caused you to
• 12:13
  Speaker 7: go into early label.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: Yes what, yes, stress, Yes.
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: I'm sorry to happen to you and nobody to you.
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: There's the shoes here.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: The water h m hmmm mm hmm.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: That's okay.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: But now we understand you're fighting. You feel like you're
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: fighting by yourself.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: What kept you going after that?
• 12:49
  Speaker 6: How do you go?
• 12:52
  Speaker 8: You know, my my husband, the all the people that
• 12:57
  Speaker 8: have encouraged to come to this genre. I can't just
• 13:01
  Speaker 8: abandon them, you know, you don't just abandon your people,
• 13:07
  Speaker 8: like you can't do that. And there has been so
• 13:10
  Speaker 8: much change that it's happened since then, like going to
• 13:14
  Speaker 8: CMA Fest. You know, I've been going to cmafest for
• 13:17
  Speaker 8: years and I saw nobody, And now there's so many
• 13:23
  Speaker 8: different Black country artists that are coming and being on
• 13:28
  Speaker 8: stages and getting to sing on stages.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: There's black people that are attending cmafest that feel like
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: there's a space for them, Like that is what's happening. So, yes,
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: change is slow, it's hard. There's so much going on
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: that can be very discouraging, but there's also so many
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: things that are happening because we're still here and we're
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: still fighting.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: You feel nobody support you and has your back.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: And oh, I have a lot of people that support
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: me and have my back. Like these people right here
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: have my back.
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: Britney Spencer is like one of my best friends and
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: we talk through so many of these things all the time.
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: There's you know, there's black women in the industry that
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: we confide in each other, that have high power positions,
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: and it's just like we just find each other.
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: I'll go to an award show and I'll see one
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: black person that's working in production and we know each other,
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: like we've known each other for years, So there is
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: like a support Like I do have a family of
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: people that support me. You guys, just even taking the
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: time to talk to me. I have wanted to talk
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: to y'all so much, just to kind of like spread
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: the word and let people know that we're here, so
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: that you can just know that you can support us.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: It would just mean the world and y'all being here.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: Thank y'all.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: The sad thing about it is, I know, for myself,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: I'm not I wasn't really into country music yeah, because
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: I didn't see anybody that looked like me or look
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: like my kids look like. But working up here, you
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: start meeting people and you start it starts opening you
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: up because I never listened to country music, you know.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: But it's sad to say, but when Beyonce did the
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: album made me open up, just like talking about which
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: is sad.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: So for me, it was Alice Randall, Yes, Alice Randall, yes, yeah.
• 15:10
  Speaker 7: Because she she put out a book called My Black
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: My Black Country, actually published it. So when I read
• 15:14
  Speaker 7: the book, you know about it, probably like a year
• 15:16
  Speaker 7: and a half ago, I was just intrigued by the
• 15:19
  Speaker 7: history that black people had in country music. So before
• 15:23
  Speaker 7: that was Beyonce, I just thought this was a great
• 15:24
  Speaker 7: story that people need to hear. And then God put
• 15:27
  Speaker 7: had Cowboy Carter album come out to it just all yeah, aligned.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: And there was a whole influx of country artists even
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: before the ones that you're seeing. There was a movement
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: like this that it happened, like I believe in like
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: the eighties or nineties, and it's just like you get
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: so how often can you keep running in a burning house?
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: You know, and it's just so important again, black people
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: all people to be intentional with your consumerism, like really
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: really think about and just even if you just stream
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: that artist's song once one time of day, like what
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: that could do for that artist, because it's so important
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: In corporations, they hear money. That's where they you know,
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: they hear money, and that's what drives everything, That's what
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: gives us our jobs. And if we can just continuously
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: support them because they need it so much, like support
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: Rain of Roberts, support Tiara, support Shaboozi now that he
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: needs it, he's doing really good. But support Britney Spencer,
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: Tanna Radell, like, go to their shows, go to all
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: of our shows. I have one in New York.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: What is the show Neil this month?
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, you got a whole headline in toy that. What's
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: the first day?
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: You know my first day is twenty six, Yeah, the
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: twenty six in DC.
• 16:41
  Speaker 7: And also once you said once the because I want
• 16:43
  Speaker 7: to expoun on what you were saying. You said, I
• 16:45
  Speaker 7: am proof standing here that you should invest in black talent.
• 16:47
  Speaker 7: There's equity in us and if we just get the opportunity,
• 16:49
  Speaker 7: there's so much possibility.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Yes, so what is the possible possibility?
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: The possibility is to headline your own tour, be able
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: to pay your bills, be able to provide for your family,
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: be able to live your dream of being a country artist.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: There's so many black people that love country music that
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: I don't even think that we realized because we didn't
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: think that the genre was for us, And they are
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: coming out of the woodworks talking about country artists. I
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: don't even know, so you know, That's what I mean.
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: When a Dolly Parton says something like what she said
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: in response to Beyonce not getting a nominated for CMA,
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: does that hurt or help your like your mission of things?
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: Because inside, like he said, people are like, well, no,
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: it's politics, and there's like a you know, people are
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: senior here. But then on the outside it felt like
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: and people reacted to it because it felt like, oh no,
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: this is us being shut out again.
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: Yes, yes, you.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: Know, I've.
• 17:42
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: I think that it does unintentionally on Dolly's parts. Some
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: other people may say that and have a different intention,
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: but I do feel like in her and her intention
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: was not to defend the CMA's like that. I think
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: maybe she's talking about the people in there. I don't know,
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: but I do believe that it can hurt us.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I wanted to talk about your song Scary Love.
• 18:06
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: I have six kids, Charlemagne has four, so that is
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: definitely a scary type of situation. So let's talk about
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: what inspired that song and how it almost geed to
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: is shot.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: Of you, oh Man. So back in twenty twenty one,
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: when my son was nine months old, he ended up getting.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: Really sick and this is during COVID.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: This is during COVID, and he turned septic and had
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: sepsis and I will never forget it. We were sitting
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: in the er and I looked at the nurse and
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: I choked out the words, is my baby gonna die?
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: And she looked at me and she said, I am
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: very concerned right now, and he is the sickest person
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: in the er right now. And that was during the
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: height of COVID.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: So what happened break us down, Like, what did you
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: say now to my knees?
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: I saw him losing consciousness.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: At home and then you just rushed them too that
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: we rushed.
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: Him to the hospital. He was losing consciousness in the
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: car and then he was at that part of that
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: point of like delirium, and I think he was in
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: so much pain, like he just wasn't there. But I
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: saw him slipping away from me, and I remember I
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: just fell to my knees praying.
• 19:10
  Speaker 6: This woman was on.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: A stretcher and she reached down and we just started praying.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: And you know, I have my complicated, you know, relationship
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: with God, and I don't always pray. And I think
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: after the last you know, few years, of all the
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: hate that's been you know, spewing, and when I was
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: getting cyberbullied, a lot of these people had Bible verses
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: and their profile pictures and their profile bios and it
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: was just really hard. So in this moment, like all
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: I could do was pray. And then it made me
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: realize why my mom was so crazy over me growing up,
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: because you think, Mom, I got it, I'm fine, and
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: then you realize, like, she's not fine if something happens
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: to you. So now everything that I do, like getting
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: behind the wheel and driving, I'm praying. Going anywhere, I
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: just pray to get back home to my family safely,
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: because yeah, it is like you don't even realize that.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: And in twenty twenty three, I lost three people in
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: my life in the same month, and so it does
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: like life is so fleeting, Like it's such a blessing
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: to breathe every single day.
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: What are you doing mentally every single day to kind
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: of recharge you? You have a Yeah, I know, I know,
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: and it's just because you're a black woman in a
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: room where you don't I mean, there's more of us now,
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: but it wasn't like that.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's kind of heavy.
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: What are you doing every single day? That kind of.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: So I take these there are a natural they're called
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: stress shield, So it's a natural like anti anxiety medication
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: that I take. I really try to stay away from,
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: you know, social media in a sense of like all
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: the politics, Like I need to see love and light.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: Give me a funny dog video, you know. Snoop Dogg
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: always has the best videos. I love watching his page
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: because they just bring a source of laughter. I think
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: as a whole we just need joy right now. Like
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: it's we're triggered constantly every single day, and so sometimes
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: you know it's okay to just take a sit back
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: and take a break and not look at all that
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: because it's traumatizing every single day.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: You have a think just getting off completely.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Oh, I mean I have my I have my
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: fence stuff. Okay, okay, but that's like my it's just
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: all my son. My son gives me such a source
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: of happiness. I don't want to say that I'm using
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: him to fulfill my happiness, but he gives me such
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: a purpose that I never felt before. And all I
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: want to do is just give him the best life
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: that you could possibly have.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: You'll use your fence to the match energy. Like people
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: being racist to you.
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: I've found myself like typing it out and I'm like,
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: I've got a Scott I am not a YEO reviewer,
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: like leave it alok, yeah, I'll help you. Okay, okay,
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: I'll give you my login.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Why did you have a complicated relationship with God?
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: Well, I just think because you know, all the racism
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: that you see and all these people that claim to
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: love God are saying such terrible things to you, and
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: it just made me feel like like are you really there?
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: Why would you give us this fight in life? You know?
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: And but you know, I'm so grateful that the Lord
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: is near the broken hearted, right, and I think he
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: puts like where his people were, his children, and he
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: looks after us, and so yeah.
• 22:31
  Speaker 7: Before songs like scary love and black like me, what
• 22:34
  Speaker 7: were you writing about?
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: I was just trying to figure out what would advance
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: me in country music. I was trying to write what
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: I was trying to interpret that type of country music.
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: I just wanted to be accepted. So there was sometimes
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: I would go in writing sessions and I'll never forget it.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: You know. They would write a song with oh and
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: his blue eyes, and I'm like, well, the man that
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: I love doesn't have blue eyes. He's got dark brown eyes,
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: you know. And I was, I was writing fake songs
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: about a fake life that I did not live.
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: You would still singing the song anyway?
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: No, No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't sing that. But when
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: we were writing, I didn't even have the courage to
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: be like right, you know, yeah and so but yeah,
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: I was writing about a fake life that I don't live.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: And so I stopped doing that and I started really writing,
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: like just what country music is to me?
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: Are there any of your because I know also to
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: you just you love Globrilla, Yes, and that's like a
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: recent thing for you met her a couple.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: Months ago, Yeah, I see, I love her. She's so
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: beautiful and just such a like sweet kind yeah, like
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: very spiritual. I do. I do. Like she's just I
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: wasn't expecting that, you know, like I love what she
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: says and her songs like, but I just I don't
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: think I was ever paying attention to like who she
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: really is and being around her. She's such a lovely
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: human being, and so is Cardi. I really love her
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: like she is just another person, Like I was expecting
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: something so different because you know, I follow her online
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: and I loved her personality. I loved her and love
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: and hip hop, and then you see her and she's
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: just this very kind and loving person. But I think
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: that's how all we all are. I did not know that, Wow, okay.
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: Would you bring any of the hip hop girls into
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: some of your music?
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: God, and they would have me yes, yes.
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: So it would be just Gloorala Cardi or who else
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: would Oh my god, I love I could see definitely.
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: Glow and I love me. But you know, I think
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: I just love all of them really, they're they're just.
• 24:52
  Speaker 7: I don't know what's the biggest misconception about country music,
• 24:56
  Speaker 7: because because I keep thinking about this Cowboy Carter album
• 24:58
  Speaker 7: and it's just like, did people buy that album? For
• 25:00
  Speaker 7: Beyonce are because they're really interested in country music.
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: I think, you know, those are her fans and they
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: they it's a new genre of music. Why not I
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: want to put on my boots and spurs, even though
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: we don't walk around on our spurs.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: But you know that stereotypical like, yeah, I don't.
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: People don't wear walk you know. I think that's a
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: big misconception of country music. And as much as I
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: have been talking about, you know, racism and country music,
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: there are some really, really really good people in the genre.
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: Like there are you know, like Maren Morris or a
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: girl named cam Tyler. Hubbard is also a really really
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: good person in country music. Chris Stapleton, Jelly Roll. You know,
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: there's a really good group of people in there. So,
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: you know, I don't want to say everybody is horrible.
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: I'm not walking around these streets and people are like
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: waving their Confederate flags at me. That's not happening. But
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: I mean that has happened though.
• 25:57
  Speaker 7: But yeah, I think when you come from the come
• 26:00
  Speaker 7: from the rural South, right, Yeah, I think when you
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: come from the rural South, you know, one thing you
• 26:04
  Speaker 7: do realize in regards to race, it's more so class.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Than yeah anything.
• 26:09
  Speaker 7: Like you know, my my first white friend is a
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: guy named Thomas Evans, Like he used to live right
• 26:13
  Speaker 7: next door to me and him.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, being way on the South, it's like.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: We were just poor. Yeah, you know, we didn't the
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: racial dynamics that we got. Yeah we got older.
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: And I one hundred percent agree with that. You know,
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: my mom grew up really really poor in a town
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: called Rees, Texas, and she said, look, we all needed
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: to eat. It didn't matter what color you are, we
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: all needed to have some of this callous But yeah,
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: it's true. There's the classism for sure.
• 26:39
  Speaker 7: So I wondered, do they not see that, like at
• 26:42
  Speaker 7: least in country music, like we all come from the
• 26:44
  Speaker 7: same place in a lot of instances.
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: I sometimes I don't know, like these are these are
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: questions like I would love to know, because I don't.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: I don't always know. Sometimes I don't even know if
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: people always see it, you know, Like I've gone on
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: a red carpet and a woman said, oh my god,
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: you're so tan, and I'm like, wow, what you know,
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: Like I don't, I don't know. I don't know. There's
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: maybe education that could be something that we need to
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: do more of.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: But who do they want to have the discussion, because
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: it's not like you know, no, of course it's not.
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: They're over it. They are ready to move on. I mean,
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: everybody's ready to move on from the discussion. You know.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: DEI programs are getting shut down all across the board
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: and entertainment. Like it's really like everybody's done. They're over it.
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: And that's really hard. That's a tough pill to swallow,
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: it really is.
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: So how do you see the country music landscape five
• 27:36
  Speaker 7: years from now?
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Do things get better? Do more doors get knocked out?
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't know, if you want to
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: be perfectly honest, I don't know. But we have a
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: lot of people. This woman back here, cameo Carlson, she
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: can come to the cookout. She started a program called
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: Equal Access and they give out grants to all these
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: artists from underserved communities, whether you're gay, black, Latino, whatever
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: you are, to give them an opportunity to record music
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: an album. And so there's people that are really doing things.
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: It's just I don't know. I don't know. I just
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: hope people don't get discouraged and don't want to keep
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: pursuing this genre of music. I hope Shaboozi is showing
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: you know that it can happen for anybody and maybe
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: inspiring more people to come to the genre, because I
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: believe that it is not enough for just one person
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: to be one person of color to be successful in
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: country music. That is not changed. Like you saw Charlie
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: Pride and that was it for the longest time. And
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: so it's like you have to help your people, like
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: change is all of you walking through that door together
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: and being able to have your own lucrative careers. Because
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: once you have your lucrative career, then you can have
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: opening acts that are of color that can have their
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: own careers. That's the only way, in my personal opinion,
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: that I can feel like we can see true change.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Well, let's play a joint off the ape.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Let's play something off that I want to so.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: People can hear exactly what we're talking about. What you
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: want to hear?
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: What you got?
• 29:06
  Speaker 7: My side of the country making me, making me here
• 29:09
  Speaker 7: with you, house on fire good?
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: My side of the country here with you is really good.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: What do you think.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: Fire house, house on fire? All right, Well, let's get
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: to it now. We appreciate you for joining.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: Me so much.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Show.
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: I want to experience a show. Now you got me excited.
• 29:30
  Speaker 6: Maybe I'm gonna send the Morning just Cowboy Carter.
• 29:32
  Speaker 7: Come on, she said, that's why you got it. You
• 29:34
  Speaker 7: should get Mickey guid Who's our house on Fire? But
• 29:36
  Speaker 7: you should also read My Black Country by Alice Randam
• 29:39
  Speaker 7: telling you a gold hand in hand if you care
• 29:40
  Speaker 7: about country music and black people in the country music.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: She breaks it down.
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: I just want to support you. I want you to
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: feel like it's not just you.
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: I really appreciate it. It's not just me and I
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: really you guys again. Just being here and giving me
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: this opportunity to talk to you guys has been a dream.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: Well it's Mickey guiding ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: joining us again.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Anytime you're in I'm pulling up and she's gonna be
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: in town on the thirty if a New York and
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: the thirty.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: If you go Alonge, yeah, I'll go.
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: I'll give you my number.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Okay, see what date that is? What day is that?
• 30:08
  Speaker 6: Please hope it's a weekend.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: No, it's not a weekend. It's Monday, so we can go.
• 30:11
  Speaker 6: Okay, this is for you.
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: Alice Randall is if you have read Oh, okay, okay,
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: I know Alice.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: He's a professor at VANDIL.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: I've gone and spoke in her class before. Noe, okay, absolutely,
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: Alice Randall's been.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: She's been up.
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: Yes, she is well.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, wake that ass.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Up in the morning. The Breakfast Club