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YOLANDA "YOYO" WHITAKER - 'Pennywise Quality' Sandwiches & a Second Act · Eating While Broke

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen witt and today we have very
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: special guests. We all know hers Yo Yo in the building.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: But today I'm gonna take the time to read your bio,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: just a little bit of it, guys, because I think
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: that whether you're a huge fan or a new fan,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: I think just to see like all of your accomplishes nice.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: So I'm go ahead and read it, guys. And I
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: never do this unless the bio is good, Okay. Grammy
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: nominated artists, actress and philanthropist doctor Yolanda yo Yo Whittaker
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: is host of aspires TV's Downright Delicious with Yo Yo,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: a co host on the five time Gracie Award winning
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: syndicated Cafe Mocha radio show.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: You Like Coffee, It's just the Black Girls, Okay, Okay,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: you Mocha, you'r Mocha, You're Momocha.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Okay. No, I'm the same and founder of the Scholarship
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Awarding yo Yo's Arts in Academic School of Hip Hop.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Her credits include Boys in the Hood, Sister Act, Two,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Disney Saturdays in Disney's Saturday, and Loving Hip Hop Hollywood.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: She's a two time recipient of the President Biden's Presidential
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Lifetime Achievement Award, and holds an honorary Doctorate of Philosophy
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: in humanitarianism. That's a big all right. She is an
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: honorary member of Zeta.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I'm a butcher.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: This you can fill in this beta. That's what I'm
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: talking about, incorporated, incorporated. There you go.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Now that's a bio. That's worth a bio. That's work.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: That's some years.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: So we gotta get We gotta get you to make
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: this food. Tell us your life story all the way
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to all of these accomplications. That's a lot you gotta work.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Let me just tell you, guys, just a sidebar for
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: all you'll listeners. She's an all white, stunningly beautiful, like
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: crazy beauty is insane. But she's gonna get in the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: kitchen and hopefully not dirty this white. Go ahead, tell
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: us what you're cooking today, all right.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: So this is one of my broke meals. It's low costs,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: it's easy to do. This chicken is about ten dollars
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: from Walmart or costcos. Bread is really cheap. I like
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: potato bread because it just makes everything is a little expensive.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: We've done the two dollars and nine nine cent bread
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: to back in the days. And this is your simple
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I make it for my kids. I have some cheddar cheese,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: of course, I have my condiments, some mayo and some
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: yellow mustard. I have some banana peppers and some pickles
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: which always seems to be in the refrigerator. When you
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: have nothing else, you can always.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Have these perfect So is this like a rotisserie chicken sandwich?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: This is a rotisserie chicken sandwich. It stretches out, it's
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: considered dinner when we had nothing.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be breakfast today.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: It's breakfast today. It's breakfast today.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: And this, guys, this is affordable. So this whole meal
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: is twenty bucks and it could feed definitely a family
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: of four to six, as if you had the Costco
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: chicken shout outs to the Costco's five bucks. And there's
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: chickens are on steroids. There's three chickens in one right, okay, oh,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and there's gloves free.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, thank you.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Sometimes on the show, people be cooking and then they
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: go on toch they hair. Luckily, Yoyo's hair is up
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: all right. While you get into this chicken sandwich, making light.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: This rotisserie chicken.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Where's the originator of this chicken and meal?
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Story?
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Begin? Is this like something you grew up doing when
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: you were a kid or this As.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: A kid, we would make fried baloni sandwiches.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I've had those before.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I had times differently we would make fried baloni sandwiches.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: But this is just a meal I would make for
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: my kids. Once I became a parent and really racing
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: in trying to be on a budget. Kids not understanding
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: because mama's famous. Mama's famous, and so we had to
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: make do. And when I needed to cut back, I
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: would just make it a nice salad, a nice chicken salad,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: a nice rotisserie chicken sandwich.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I did you wrong? I gave you a butter knife.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: It's all right, Mama can do everything. I'm a mama.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. I have so much respect, man,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I'm not complaining about I'm a mama. Butter knife. I
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: love that slice it. I thought you were going to
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: go up in there and go like this and shred it.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I didn't know.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Mama can do it all.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: You know what's cool about this dish? It doesn't even
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: look like a budget dish. So I'm sure when your
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: kids ate it, they loved it.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: I asked my daughter, I said, what's one budget dish
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: we made? She said, we were on a budget. Great job,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: of course, laugh at I did. I did. She said,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: we used to eat dinner for breakfast. We used to
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: eat breakfast for dinner. And I used to say, okay, okay,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: and we did. When there was nothing in there and
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Mama couldn't go in there and spend three hundred dollars
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: in the market, I said, you want some pancakes and
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: it you know that pancake box is sitting there for.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you something forever. Right, And my daughter
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: came home real hungry after a theme part, and she said,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I want pancakes. I said, say, less, that's the easiest
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: meal with that box of pancake mix. You just had
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the water, it's over.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, oh god. And I would put that's how
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I started, just experimenting with cooking. I would put a
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: little orange juice in my mix, and a little sour
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: cream and a little sugar.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: And so if we'd start when you had your family,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: you already at this point, I would imagine had a
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: huge career in all of this, right, yes, Oh yeah,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: I'm sit over here.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I'm making it in transfer. Yes, I baking this dish
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: as children. Yeah, I have two daughters, one thirty one,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: once twenty two, and my career was in transition in
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: my early thirties. I only had one kid, which was Tiffany.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: At that time, who really saw the transition happening?
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Can you talk about it?
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: My daughter was six about six. The industry was just
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: switching out. It was changing out was yo yo salt
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: and pepper and see like more into the little cam's
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: foxy ground. The whole music industry was shifted.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And then what were your thoughts at that time?
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Are you thinking I'm gonna keep fighting the labels? I
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: love that you thought ahead, though, Sorry, I pulled what
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: do you call that? Pulled all the things so it
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be hard for you.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: That's what you call it, those things, That's what we
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: call it, the tabs. I love that.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I love a lot of wet then, like, I know
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: that sounded that came out funny. I don't like a
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: dry sandwich.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Nobody likes to dry sand.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: And I'm just happy I like mail. I like, I'm
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: gonna do it however you do it because if this
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: sandwich ends up being bombed, I promise you my daughter
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: is going to be introduced to this sandwich. Okay, So
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: take me back. So you're going through the transition of
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the industry switching out. What's going through your mind? Are
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: you thinking I'm gonna keep fighting fighting fighting, or are
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: you gonna try and start to pivot?
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: You know what. I had to make a decision. I
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: had to really switch over from being yo yo. At first,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: I was really trying to dig in. I wrote, I
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: got a sweet kitty cat. Now scus want to make
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: it her kids. So I tried that. I was like,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I just didn't feel right with me and was begging
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: him not to put that stuff out. Lease, But I
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: did try to switch over my flow. I was like, hey,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: you want sexy, I could be sexy. Yeah you want sexy?
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah like sexy.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: It just wasn't mean. Yeah, it just wasn't me. I
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: was just thinking what could I do?
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: That should have been a lot of That's a lot
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of pressure too, because you're saying like that wasn't you,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and then you're trying to be I wasn't can tell
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: you something I could totally relate because everyone I'll be like,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: I could be that sexy person that's not me. I
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: get one hundred percent related.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And I did do it and wanted to
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: switch over from the days of just being this artist
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: that West Coast had a certain look. I didn't want
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: that look. I really I wanted my feminine side coming
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: out of high school and it was all about the kicks.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: It was all about the belts. It was all about
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: the jeans and a cute little T shirt with a
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: V neck, a nice chain. You rocked your hair, so
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: it was your hair, it was your belt, it was
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: your shoes and your jeans that pretty much made the girl.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: And so hip hop just transformed that into more of
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: a hard edge you look that I wasn't always accustomed
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: to you, but coming from the camp of Ice Cube
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: and the Lynch Mob, it just fit the scene of that.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: So I did a lot of that more than I
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: did anything else. So in a way, the woman in
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: me wanted to have more femininity, and then the artist
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: in me wanted to be respected. So it was finding
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: that happy medium that I couldn't do anyway. So in
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: that transition when they were coming out, it was me
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: trying to find the happy medium, and there goes Lauren Heill.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Damn Lauren. Lauren Cass said she said every damn thing
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: I wanted to say.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Shit, No, let me tell you.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: You said no cursing on No, you can Okay, I'm
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: getting Lauren. Why didn't I think of that?
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Laura came out? But you want to know something, Lauren
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: also had a rough period too because she had her babies,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: and I think at that time they weren't embracing. I
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: can't believe that's my phone doing that. I know better women.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I just think just in the industry overall just had
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: it a tough bit until now, Like now we're in
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: an age where I think women have more freedom instead
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: of stuck in what do you call it, like a
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: pigeonhole or hey, the format for all women is this direction,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and now I feel like it's starting to accept different directions.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Would you say, in which direction are you talking about?
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Like there was the era where women had to be
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: sexy or talk about sex or be found.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: That she found a pocket she can get in, and
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: I felt like it was authentic. I didn't feel like
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: it was every artist. When I got into hip hop,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: I felt like I was pigeonholed a little bit because
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: it was you can't do this, you can't do that.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: They were, Oh, are you really a gangster? Are you? Like? No,
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: I'm not really a damn gangster. How could a gangster
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: becoming artist? I was just thinking it was an art form.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Once I got into the industry, there was a whole
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: bunch of when the Boss they said, Oh, the Boss
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: was really not this hardcore girl, she was really this
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: type of person and judging people of those who were
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: talking about gang banging, who really wasn't a gang banger
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: or I'm just saying from the West coast. So to
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: me it started feeling, oh, wait, is that what they're
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: really looking for? Because I wrote Bonnie and Clyde. But
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: I'm really I'm not a gangster. I'm an artist. I've
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: been an artist since I was a young girl. So
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: it was more so of them trying us, trying to
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: figure out where to get it now. When Lauren Hill
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: came in, I felt like it was she was living
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: in her truth. He was able to find that happy medium,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: which is something that brings success because every artist wants
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: to become their authentic self. When you're showcasing your talent
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: to the world and when he came out just you're
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: just too good to be true or lit two shops,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: it's been three weeks to you, we're looking for your friends.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: The way you let hit it and never called you again,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: that's every girl's freaking song, Like, damn, that's me. Why
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: did I think about that? So? I think for I
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: think she really hit the head, the nail on the
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: head when it came.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: To But do you think at that time it was
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: like the labels restricting, Hey, this is the image we
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: want to sell.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: The labels didn't know, they didn't know, you know, what
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: they wanted.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: But even though they didn't know that they were dictated.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: They had they had men behind the men who, especially
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: on the East Coast, had it their way. East Coast
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: wanted their way. And that's why when Cube came out
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: and was able to get his own production company, Street
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Knowledge Production, it was easy for It was easy for
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: us because because Cube was East Coast, representatives such as
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Sylvia Ron and Atlantic Records at that time Warner Music
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: respected him as a man. Okay, we don't know West
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Coast hip hop, but and you're from MWA. You helped
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: create this. You've written for them. We respect what you're doing.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Came in with public enemy. Public enemy had their things,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: they were highly respected, so it was an easy thing
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: to do. Yeah, I don't think I wouldn't say so
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: much labels, mind you. I'm seventeen, just kissed, eighteen years old,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: and we had regional reps repping us, so we weren't
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: really in the forefront. Really you considered us as I
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: consider myself as a major baby.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah you know what I mean, a major baby, as
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: in like with the labels. Yes, wait, are we forgetting stuff?
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: No? Wait, yeah we are what you want?
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Those things pickles and the bananas.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: The bananas, I put them on the side.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Oh you put him on the side.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Let me try, all right, I'm gonna do it your way. No,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I'm doing it your way. Why would you put it
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: on the side.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Didn't you put it in it? No?
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Your face is so funny, you so serious? You like,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: definitely don't do that.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: No, I put it on this side. Right, This is
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: an easy sandwich. This is an easy I was gonna
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: this is an easy sandwich.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: She says. She even put the potato chips on the
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: side too. I know, all right, here Phoebe Mama, Mama,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: yo yo, Okay, Now I get to live the way
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: your kids lived not knowing that we were struggling. Okay,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: so after your chapter with hip hop, what was your
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: next pivot where you were like, oh, what was that
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: transitional pivot where you had to say okay, let me transition.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: After my next said one more time, I can't chew
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: gum and walk at the same time.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: That's the same as me. Oh sorry, look at me.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I'm just taking over.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, you want more pickles?
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, you know what, I'm gonna hook up
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: half my sandwich and make you try it because I'm
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: gonna make it so.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: I know this is how I been making for the kids,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: because yeah, I don't want I don't want that. I
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: don't want that.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: This is what we I hate that about kids. They
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: picked apart a whole sandwich. You put in all that work,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: and they picked it all apart for the one piece
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: that they like. Yep, say oh yeah, I've never had
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: these on a sandwich that I've made. So you're gonna
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: introduce me what is that?
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: I will prepper salt and pepper. If I had some
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: salt and pepper, I will put some salt and pepper.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Some salt and pepper on there. I will put some
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: salt and pepper.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, you gotta throw some chips on the side. So, guys,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna try it Yoyo's way, and then I'm gonna
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: make it my way. I just want to experience the
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: experience first our perfect and then oh no good, Oh
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: it was the bell peppers we eaten? Okay, yes, all right,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yoyo's done made her rotistrie chicken sandwich. I'm gonna try
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Yoyo's original way before I put the ingredients. This is
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the way the kids had it.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, the kids can put whatever they want in it.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: So the original this is if you don't have the
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: peppers and the pickles. Here we go. Yeah, yep, little man,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: you know what it is to the rough tistory chicken
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: so soft? Do you even include the skin too?
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: No? I think the skin off?
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Really? Oh yeah, I just so you know, I'm like
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: a fat kage, So leave all the good stuff on.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna pilot with the peppers. The pickles are
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: eating the peppers.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Playing, and I like kialopeno peppers.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Let me try it.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: These are not hot.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: These aren't hot at all.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: I wanted the green hot ones.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: It's okay though, Oh, really different colors.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, I didn't know that, Like a kilopeno pepper just
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: sliced and it's pickled.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's pickled. Were they supposed to be pickled?
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: To know? These are the jilopenos that the green ones,
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: the dark green. These are banana peppers.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, let's try it with all stuff.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: That's what happens sometime.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: A great sandwich, not bad, right, I mean great? Yeah,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: it's great when you go to a restaurant. This is
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the same quall that's.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: A fifteen dollars sandwich right there. Twelve dollars somewhere else?
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, not bad, go on my bike, I know, right,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: money chow shoe.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: This is great bad.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's the pickles or the peppers,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: but these things in the sandwich and then the rest of.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: The chicken in the bowl and make like a chicken salad.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna try not to eat, try and clear my
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: mouth so I could finish hearing your story about your
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: pivotal transition, because you have a huge resume right.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Now, Yes, thirty five years long time long time.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: All right, now let's get into the tea. Okay, So
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: after your last big hit, you start thinking pivot. What's
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: going on?
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: After my last big hit? I felt like I wasn't confident.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: I felt like I needed to build my confidence up.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: I felt like every time I felt like I was
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: getting into a trap that I wanted to go back
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: to find hip hop and I was trying to get
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: away from hip hop because it was changing. I didn't
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: have the relationships. Once I left a record company, it
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: was hard to get those in contact with the people.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: And then I realized I didn't have my own connections.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: I didn't make my own connections. All of the people
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: who represented me had my connections, so I'd have to
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: call someone to get to someone else. So I was
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: the middle person in my business. I was the last
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: to get paid, even though the check came in my name.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: On the road, I would pay everyone, and I would
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: be the last one to get paid. Do you understand
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying? And then when it came down for
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: me to pivot to transition, I realized, Dag, I'd had
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: to still call people to get my business for me.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like you basically started from ground zero. Even though
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: you had this huge resume, even if I had a
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: huge roller decks.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: I felt like I still had to call people for
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: my business.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Are you uncomfortable doing that?
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: I was because I felt like calling people was allowing
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: and me making the calls was me.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: It was me, that's me. Oh, I never had this
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: phone ever.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: I felt excuse me. I felt like it was me
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: having to show my hand. I had to show my hand.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: I had to. It was me calling people saying I
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: needed them, or using relationships I didn't, or people I
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: didn't really deal with anymore. Building up the courage to say, hey,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: this is yo, yo, but you happen to have information
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: for me, I'd like to call them. Then I have
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: to tell my business, tell them what I'm doing to
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: reach someone else. I was just like, but I did
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: build up the courage before. I was like, I need
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: an assistant. I didn't have an assistant. I was starting
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: from scratch, so it was like, who can I get
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: to be my assistant in a time where I'm trying
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: to rebuild my life, Who can I get to represent me?
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Then I would call, I would say, hey, this is Larissa.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's all I'm talking about.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: You hear that.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: No, I was gonna say, I think every entrepreneur it
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: sounds like you're crossing over to entrepreneurship where you're like,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: you know what, get this job done. But yeah, the alienses.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: I can't tell you how many names I go by.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: It listen and what stopped me When someone' was like
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: is this yo yo?
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: I was like, let me call you back it is.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: I was like, you caught me.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, you know what if they knew
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: your voice, hopefully then they really Oh.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: I was trying to change my voice. I was trying
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: to change my voice.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I do. The secret go to
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: guys is that I have alienses. But I never got
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: on the phone because I'm always afraid that's going to happen.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: So I always do email because back then, you guys
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: didn't have that huge email error where everything we did well.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Email was the thing. Oh yeah, I got a lot
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: of work done with the email in that time when
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: I was trying to figure out my way I went
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: back to school. I said, okay, I'll go back to
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: school to work on my associal stagre in livel arts
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: because I came out of school with twelfth grade and
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: went straight into the industry. So I felt like I
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: lacked confidence in a lot of areas. And then I
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: was getting rolls. I was getting guest starring role Key
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Lolo with Martin on The Martin Show. I was getting
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Boys in the Hood, Minister Society, Sister Act, two Straps,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Who's the Man? Jamie Fox showed them. We used to
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: show all these different shows, but I wanted something. I
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: was like, maybe I should go and auditioned for every
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: show that you see out there, that you see on
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: television or seen in a movie where black girls were in.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I had the opportunity to audition and wasn't getting the rolls.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: They were saying I was green. So I said okay,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: because I never went not good neat work, and so
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: I went. I auditioned. I moved to New Jersey, went
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: auditioned for Lee Strauss, which is one of the best
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: acting schools there is. And it was taking me away
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: from my comfort zone where the expectation for me to
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: be Yo Yo was in LA. For me New York,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: I felt no one knew me. I could put myself away,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: get myself together. I went to school at Bergen College
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: in New Jersey and I would take the train or
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: drive into New York audition. I got in fourteen hundred
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: dollars a month to train myself for acting.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, though, you're very young, what are
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: your parents and everybody staying when you're this is at thirty?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I was thirty, This is twenty.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Nine history young. The move states. Yeah, no, and you
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: didn't have your daughter yet, right, I had one daughter.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: I had one daughter with her pursuing I moved. Yeah,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: very gangster.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there was a couple of years in there.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what it was. I was just ready
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: for it. I think the fear was I had never
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: done anything for myself since I was seventeen. I always
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: had a camp that did everything for me, which handicapped me.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but then you're leaving to pursue your dreams. But
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: also you have the child.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: And we know I had a nanny, Velma Bilma nanny
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: has been with me my entire career. She's helped me
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: with my child passed away. Now, Velma was like a
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: mother to me.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: But she moved with you said, she moved with me?
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and what.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Are you living on at this point? Like the money
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: from the the roles that you booked prior.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: I leased my home. I bought a house in a
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Midworshire district and Whaling Jennings just a good old bull.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: His son's Shooter rented out my house. So Shooter was
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: paying me a nice fee. Whaling Jennings, I would get
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: a fed Ex check. My kids father was in New Jersey.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Uh oh okay, okay, So yeah, but you're you're also
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: It sounds like you're also. You were pretty good at money.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: From young I bought my first house at twenty four yo.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Yo, Yes, can't sleep, people can't sleep.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, I bought my first house at twenty four.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you bought your first house.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: I bought my first house at twenty four.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: It helps you. That house probably helps you a lot.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Our best decision on Whaling Jennings renting that house to
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Whaling Jennings. His sons, Shooter is a big country singer.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Now they lived in there. Build a skalter Shooter. Yes, sure, yeah.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: So do you ever look back and go on of
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: your best purchase decisions is that house? Do you ever
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: think that to yourself?
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: Yes? That real estate was my best investment. Okay, real
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: estate was my best investment.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: But you were making moves. I just want you guys
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to hear this. You okay, you started extremely young, but
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to say, okay, not only that, but I wasn't blowing
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the money. But I bought a home. I don't know,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: did anyone direct you to buy a home.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: I had a business manager and my accountant helped me
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: buy the home, okay, and set it up for me.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: And I wasn't ready to put fifty grand down on
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: a home, and he said, I think it's best that
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: you do it. You have to build your credit at
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: least the house for a year. And then I put
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars and the remaining money that I paid
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: with that year went towards my down payment. Yeah. In
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: two thousand and two, I bought my first home.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Wow. I was just graduate high school. Okay, so wait,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: so now, okay, so you moved to New Jersey. You're pursuing,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: you're doing something for you. I'm super proud of you.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah you get a girl. Yeah, so you finished school.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I finished school. I'm in acting class.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: I went to school. School helped me build my confidence.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: I was thinking I was going to go into education
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: or something like that. Of course, I always thought I
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: was going to be in politics at some point in
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: my life, so I felt like I lacked education in
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: that area. So that helped build my confidence. I struggled
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: with writing. People didn't know I even though I was
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: an artist, and pinned my own stuff along with ice
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Cube and other artists that he brought in to help
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: create the vision for my album. I was a writer,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: but I had trouble writing essays. I had trouble. Really
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: I was very insecure with my writing. So going back
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: to school just helped me that if it's a lot
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: on English, the acting, I went to learn how to
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: act and realized how pretentious I was in life, and
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: so all of these things. It just me like how
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: I was just being something I wasn't living up to
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: standards that really wasn't how I was accustomed to being.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: And it just all these things that I did to
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: work on myself really just help me build my confidence
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: as the woman that I was going to be in
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: the future. I didn't know that then, but all of
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: the things that I've done has helped me in some
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: shape or form. Went to school, learn how to act,
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: went to school to build my confidence, thinking I was
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: just better in my education. It built my confidence. Went
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: to school to learn how to act, and it really
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: helped me center myself, live within my truth, learn out
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: how get real with myself and.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: That it really is girl.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Because it was like we did this cold crying thing.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: They was like, let me see you cry. You would
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: cry cry, Let me see you cry, let me see
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: you cry. I know, but just let me see you cry.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: I know, right, but see that's what I was. We
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: would just I wou was just like going to this
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: whole thing and it's like, yeah, but if you're going
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: to cry, you have to really cry. And that one
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: thing stuck with me and I teach that to the
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: kids today. If you're going to do something, you have
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: to really do it. And it just reminded me of
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: how fake I really was, because people don't really tell
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: you when they know you're not really doing the work
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: to its full potential. And I really wasn't doing everything
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: too its full potential, if that makes sense. Although I
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: was a hard worker, I just wasn't really portion myself.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: I was just thinking I was getting by and I
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: think people believe my shit, and really I'm not sure
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: if they did or not, but.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: It's funny you say that because like I did a
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: I took all the interviews from Eating while Broke, and
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: I said, what do all of our guests that are
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: so to be on this show? You have to be
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: self made, have to be self made obviously come from nothing,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: but anyway, I took all the interviews and they said,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: the cornerstone of everyone, the thing that made everyone great
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: on the show was radical honesty. You could get along
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: with yourself and be as painfully brutally brutally honest. That
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: is the beginning of it, really is. And so I'm
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: guessing that acting school did that for you.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: It really did it, really did. It gave it and
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: going back to school to work on my education really
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: gave me the confidence to go back home and said,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: you know what, I'm not kissing anybody's ass to give
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: me any beats, because you have to kiss ass to
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: get beats. You have to sit in the studio for
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: four or five hours with no one getting any work done.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: I just caught up some of my old friends. Sierra's
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: beat was out my goodies, and I called payback, sayings
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: who worked with QB E forty all the guys, and
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: payback was really cool. I said, payback. Can you give
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: me the instrumental to this beat? And I want to
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: rap on it. So I went in the studio and
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: I wrote a rap my goodies, my goodies, not my goodies.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: When I like spending that paper to get the hair done.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Sex be amazing, you blazing sun and when you walk,
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: you be dragging. I'm bragging. See I'm understanding. Whyle them
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: little help is mad at me? Yo hu Yo far
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: from a hole man by the mow. My God could
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: buy the row to go to blow the cheese. We
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: overseas if we messing with them keys with jet no
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: jet skis on the rail. So I did a whole
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: thing to that. Called all of the radio personalities, got
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: all of their emails, represented myself Larissa, Hello, Larissa hilarious,
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: represented myself as Larissa and was like, hey listen, I'm Larissa.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: You remember the rapper Yo Yo used to work with
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Ice Cube. She has a Goodies remix, the Goodies remix.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Let me just tell you the faith of God and
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: the faith of pushing forward and believe it in yourself
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: and moving with great intention for yourself. Girl. I was
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: performing with Yin Yang Twins with that damn.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Song Wow, and let me just tell you something. Tour
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: you can wrap that all day like this.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, or tour, do you hear me? I was playing
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: on the radio. I was getting people to play the
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: song on the radio people, and you were the one
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: pushing it. People thought Sierra gave me permission to do it.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: I couldn't get paid from it, But all I wanted
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: to do was get you kind out there.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I did the game, and even though you wrote the lyrics,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: you couldn't get paid for.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: No, when you do a remix, you know it's someone
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: else's and it was an unauthorized remix. And normally when
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: you do remixes, you get at the record company pays
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: your front for the remix because sometimes remixes. Yeah, but
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: it was okay. It was okay.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Was away from me to get money exactly what it
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: needed to do.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: And it started me connecting myself back to people because
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: they were like yo yo. And that's why I take care.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: I don't let I do not give my blessings away.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: If I'm the blessing. I introduced myself, who should we
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: talk to? You can talk to me and and some
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: people think that's selfish of me, but I learned when
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: I was younger that when things got bad for me,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: I had to kiss everybody's ass to get somebody's number,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: even if I needed a photo of tupac Oh. I'm
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: doing an interview about Yoyo and tupac Oh. Can we
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: get a photo with you? Oh? Can I call? Let
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: me call somebody. They have all the photos. Give me back,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Like I had to kiss as to get me Damn.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say. Also, though, I noticed that people
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: with a large team like I have a role like
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: we I don't take no from anyone that doesn't have
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the ability to say yes. But a lot of times
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: you'll have people of a certain size and they have
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: a team, and their team low key gae keeps. It's
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: on opportunities that they would say yes to. They're like, wait, listen,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: I didn't know you said no. I would have definitely
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: done that, Listen. It happens a lot.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: And that's why I understand when they say Martha Stewart
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: is a bitch and she's on top of her business,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: because you learn in this industry, especially as a woman,
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: you have to be a bitch. So quote unquote, if
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: that's what you call it, Boston Up, if that's what
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: you call it. I'm in control of my business, not
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: my man, not my friends, not my mother, not my father,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: not anyone who works around me or works with me.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Do you understand. I'm in control of my business, and
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: I make that my business. I treat my ba my
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: business as if it was my baby. I'm not handing
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: my baby to anybody. And you're not gonna tell me
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: what I'm gonna do with my baby. If I say,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: give me back my baby, I don't care if your
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: baby sit for six hours. Give me back my baby, yep.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: And tell me what exactly happened while you was watching
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: it exactly.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: And that said, you have to treat it.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: I tell people this all the time when you have
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: a business, that business is a baby. Especially and I
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: said this before on another podcast, is like your first
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: year of having a business. That baby's an infant. That's
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: with your ears and your eyes, and everything needs to
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: be protected in that infancy.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: In the same way. You don't give your baby away
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: or allow someone to say I'll raise your child for you.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: You can't do it. And a lot of people are
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: like that. I'm more educated, I know more, and I
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: can help you go further. I'm going to raise my
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: own child, honey, and I'll learn my own mistakes the way,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: and then y'all write the book on how to do it.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Next time i'll leave, I'll leave notes on the wall
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: so you can follow what not to do. And you
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: need me to do that. But I need to walk
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: this walk and see the problem I think I had
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: was being spoiled and being a label baby is was
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: I thought everywhere and a lot of people think this.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Everybody's going to give it to you. You don't have
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: to really do anything. They're gonna do it waiting on
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: something to happen. You have to make that stuff happen.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Nothing's coming to you. You have to make it. And
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: I didn't have the confidence because I had the fame
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: before I built my confidence. Yeah, and I didn't know
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: how because people sheltered me. And I think that was
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: probably like an industry thing.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Also you're very young.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: I know, but still that was the best time to learn.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: People know me. We walk in a place and they'll
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: see him and say, oh, come on, it's like got
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: yo yo, Oh, hey yo yo. Come on, hustle me
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: and I make it a point. Now, how you doing? Oh?
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: I got the information? No, I want your information, you
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: can't give you. This is my business phone. I'm sorry,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know. This is not a girlfriend and boyfriend phone.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: This is not just the hotline, this is a business line.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: I used my phone as my business. I can redirect you.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: I'm very good at saying no or let me get
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: someone to help you do that. I'm very good at
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: handling my business. But I had to stop this middle action.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: I wanted to get straight to the from hand to consumer.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, smart, because now you're controlling the ship though, and
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: you're controlling the direction the pivots to everything.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: And that's what pivoted me to a different direction. It
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: started my elevation. That's what started my elevation. I started
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: taking control where everyone was saying once they hurt the song,
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: oh my goodie to remix of games. When I started touring,
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: people were like, oh yeah, let's do this, let's do this,
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: and me not giving myself away again allowed me to
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: really start building a foundation where my beginning was quick.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Saying oh yeah, yeah, definitely, no.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Foundation is there. You see a lot of people fall
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: through those cracks every day, no matter how talented they are.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Do you understand Yo, what happened to so? And they
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: were so?
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: And I also think the industry is one of those
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: industries where you think you're there, everyone's your friend, right,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: and in the second your deal is done and your
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: part in the in the at the table is done.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: It's like everyone doesn't mess with you, right. It's literally
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: I could work at kmart or Target or at McDonald's.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I promise you I will walk away with more friends.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: It's so weird in a short amount of time of
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: working there a year, then I would working ten years
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: in the industry. I don't know what it is about
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: that industry that you don't really you may want out
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: of twenty people, you may walk away with one.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I've made some great friends in the industry. My
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: public relation rep from Atlantic and Christoph's still my friend
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: to this day. She and I still communicate. Billy Johnson Junior.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of people from the day one seventeen.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: From day one. I'm still close with Sylvia Rone and
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: some of the reps that worked with Atlantic Records. But
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: I think that there's a code of ethics. Management comes in,
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: like you say in Gatekeep and some artists who and
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: I teach that to my children at the school of
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: hip hop. You're the gift no one's given. No one's
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: doing you a favor. And I have to teach them
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: that because I'm saying what I wanted someone to say
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: to me. No one's doing you a favor. You are
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: the talent. Don't forget that. Do you understand because people
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: think I'm doing you a favor, Really you understand? You
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: have a right, you have a say soul. And so
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: many people get into this scene where they don't want
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: you to talk to the artists. Don't you know? This
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: is my and that's that game keeping, and it starts
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: young and when you see artists grow. Taylor Swift lover
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: for it.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Oh my Jesus, I love it. I loved me saying
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: something nothing that inspires me more to read it, read it,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Taylor Swifts slap people back.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: But I still have a little bit more to cover
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: with you. So after you're touring and everything, what's the
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: next pivot?
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: The next pivot? Touring getting back out there. I was thinking, Okay,
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: I can't do this forever because still, like I said,
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: like the book, what is it The Alchemist? I felt
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: like young Santiago. I was still going back to chase
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: a dream that I knew I had no solid foundation.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Do you understand to read that book? I never could read.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: I'm young, Santiago, I'm going to read it. Yes, And
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: a German student at least Strausberg gave me the book.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: At the end of our session, we were all departing,
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: and I was the only black girl in the class,
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: and of course faking my way through the whole process.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: That's why I realized how fake I was. Til my
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: professor said, one day, you're gonna do the working or
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: really be good. And I was like, I am doing
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: the work. I am doing the work. I didn't nothing know.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not going home taking coach showers and recreating the scene.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: I'm doing it in the class. But when I went home,
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: I wasn't okay. So the next pivot was I realized
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: that that wasn't a great foundation for me. What could
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: I do? So I was just in search what does
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: an artist do? What else can I do? So I
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: did radio In the beginning of ninety four. I was
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: doing radio with Power one oh six, and I was like,
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: maybe I'll do radio and I'll go back in radio.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: And by the way, I heard it radio. I had
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: another radio DJ on here that they don't pay the
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: women DJs as much.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: Oh I was getting paid seventy grand a month. Yeah,
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: debunking stuff. Yeah No, I was getting paid. And then
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: I was doing sidekigs. Okay, but I worked from the
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: bi up. K was just coming back and Carlos we
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: call him Los. I got in touch with him. I
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: did my research. I went and research everything that. Everything
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: along my journey was intentional. I was showing up for me.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: I got out of that yo yo stage. I got
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: out of people saying, oh you're yo yo, you shouldn't
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: do that. Oh you're yo yo, Let me do it
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: for you. I was very intentional on being grounded and
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: moving with purpose. I got in touch with Carlos. They
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: started doing it early. Really wasn't a lot. I would
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: go in do mornings whenever they needed me, make myself available,
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: small money. Then K got picked up. Okay, I started
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: making money. Steve Harvey came on. I was doing mornings
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: and I used to ask God at that time because
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: I was praying. I was just asking God, please help me, God,
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Please help me, God help me, God help me. And
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: my kids didn't know I was going through anything.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: When you're asking God to help you with what. At
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: that time, it sounded like everything was going good.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: No God, I didn't have any I didn't have anything solid.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: I didn't have anything solid. Oh, I was still and
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: I came back. I moved back home after I finished school.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Home to your home or in California down Jennings died.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: I forget what year that was. And I was coming
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: back home and Shooter and them move. My neighbors wanted
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: them to anyway. They built a skate rap in the back.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: Nice jobs.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: So I moved back home and I was up in limbo.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: My mortgage was over thirty one hundred dollars. I was thinking,
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: what can I do? I know I can't with the
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: money I have, There's no way that I can pay
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: thirty one. I wasn't bringing in thirty one hundred with
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: a child with a nanny, with responsibilities and my bills
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: and all.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: The second child at this point.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: I did not have a second child at that point.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: But what I did was I sold my house. Oh,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: I sold my house. And I think two thousand, two
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: thousand and nine, two thousand and eight was a difficult
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: decision or a very difficult decision. But at that time
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: I cleaned up about two hundred and fifty grand I
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: bought a condo in Beverly Hills. Education good pivot, So
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: good education was big for me. My daughters was going
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: to a private school, and so it was taking that
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: private money away. It was my daughter was in Page
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Elementary right for Fairfax. It took her out of me
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: paying that fee to Beverly Hills have a great school district.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: I didn't have to pay. My daughter played Beverly Hills
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: all the way up to her senior year, which was
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: a great And then Yeah, but through that time, I
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: just hustled and worked, hustled and worked and made my
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: money stay. And there was times where buns would dip
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: low and I'm like, I can't don't ask for nothing,
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: and still trying to figure it out what what am
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: I doing? Television was good. Radio was good for me
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: for a good while.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, and it's only a couple of hours a day,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: I would imagine.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I would work with whatever. I mean. They
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: I had mornings, kid, and I had mornings. Then they
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: put me the mornings with someone else and I ran
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: mornings until they got the station all the way up
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: float and had a decent contract.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Nice, and then I just want to guess you put
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: me back.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: That helped me put back on the map because the
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: world nw yoyo at that point. The world nw yoyo
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: at that point. Yeah, that's me this time.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: But yeah, and on top of this is probably boosting
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: your roller decks even more. Working in radio, it really did,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: because everyone touches radio.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Working in radio gave me the idea to do my
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: school of hip hop because parents, at that time, it
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: was still early two thousand and eleven, twenty ten, parents
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: were saying yo yo. Because I was doing a lot
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: of work and I had my IVWC, the Intelligent Black
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Women's Coalition for the Young Girls, the mentoring program. But
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: parents was like, how can we get my kids into
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: making beats? Or where can I get my kid to do?
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: It was write raps? Learn how to write raps, and
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: can somebody help them? And I was like, Wow, there's
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: no place but Debbie Allen and the other dance academy
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: that's here in Los Angeles that does that.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, there's a lane, there's a lane, there's
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: an opportunity. Okay, So then you started at.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: Twenty eleven, I created the Yoia School of Hip Hop. Wow,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: and we had it was a summer program. We had
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: a list of over two hundred kids. We could only
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: take a hundred kids. And the City of California, Congresswoman
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: Waters and other teams helped me put this up so
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: that it could be a free program. Wow the city.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: So was it a nonprofit? Uh?
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Huh? I have the yo Your School of Hip Hop,
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: Art and Academics program.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, and then I'm only watching your time. Trust me.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: I don't want you to leave you.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: I just want to get to Aspire TV before Yes, yes,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: especially since you're cooking from that I know. Okay, so
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: after the academy, Yes, then where does the Aspire TV
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: come in?
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: Aspire TV, Spire TV. The pandemic happened, the pandemic. I've
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: been cooking my whole career. My friend Sajai, she's part
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: of the team, was showing me pictures in twenty thirteen.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: She was like, look, you were plating food then cooking,
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: and you remember you made this And everybody always has
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: a story, even on tour. I had my own tour bus.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: I would cook for Too Short and Digital Underground and
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Public Enemy you know right. They they would give me
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: the money and I would cook on my tour bus
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: and I would feed them. So cooking has always been
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: in my blood. It was I had a limited selection
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: of what I could cook. And during the pandemic, I
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: just started working on my stretch. There was nothing to do.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: I was in perfume school. I was taking school to
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: make my own perfume. And during the pandemic, and I
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: was cooking, and I was cooking online and every day.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: And I got a call from one of my good
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: friends who would help me with my daughter in Jersey
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: when she was in school in New Jersey, and Rochelle Brown,
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: and we have am and friend and she said, can
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: you send me some of those dishes you make? Girl?
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: I was like, what dishes? I was calling a joy?
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: Can y'all send me dishes? Dishes? And after she said,
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: we had a long conversation, went in the studio. She
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: I was in New Orleans. I'll never forget. Can you
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: get a studio and put together something. I just need
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: you to say this and do this and let me
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: work my magic. You really cooked, you know, you really cooked.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, I really cooked. But during the pandemic,
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: see how God was preparing me because I was stretching myself.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Now, I was gonna ask about this stretching, because you
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: keep saying I was stretching on this time, I was stretching.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: What does that look like?
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: Stretching myself means to showing up. Okay, there was not
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: feeling good in the industry where you're famous and you
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: want to look a certain way. I didn't look a
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: certain way. I didn't have the designer clothes I just had.
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: I was putting on my old guccies from I was
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: pulling out old stuff, putting pieces things together, but just
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: showing up for myself, making myself available, letting people know
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: that I was still out here, that I still existed,
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: that I didn't die, and that the industry didn't kill me.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: And that's one thing I realized that they didn't want
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: me to make it. They're hoping you float back.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's possible for you. Yo, Yo, listen,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: because you fight hard. You fight hard in your pivot games.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: God listen. I trust God like court right here, Yes,
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: And I am a gangster in it. I am definitely
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: a gainster and I do well. People do well by me.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: Doors open, I show up. I'm not afraid of trying
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: new things. I don't get in different lanes that I
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: don't belong in. But I just trust God, and I
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: trust God and I move with intention. I move with purpose,
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: and me serving the community has opened up doors that
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: would have never allowed me to open up had I
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: not gave more of myself. And that's what winning really is,
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: give it more of yourself. So, yeah, downright Delicious, where
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: I'm wipping in that kitchen and every.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: Day Delicious and any other place people can keep up
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: with everything yo yo, everything.
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: Yo yo is on a yoyo fearless all social media platforms.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: Downright Delicious is on every Thursday.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: And it's second season, right, it's second.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: Third season, second or third season. It's going so fast
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: in the kitchen and we're really in the kitchen, yes,
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: and we're doing good on the show.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Of course.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: I want to see you, get to see my lover
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: on the show. And I'm cooking for me and I'm
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: not in this tone. You're not what I'm not in
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: this tone?
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Oh? Why what kind of tone will you being? Like?
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: No? I watched the show girl, I was just I
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: was like, what you he like?
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go to work today, babe. But thank you,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for tuning in, and you
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: guys could keep up with yo yo delicious, downright downright delicious,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: downright delicious at your house struggling and want a good meal.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: This chicken, this is to die for. It is definitely
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: worth the vowering. The only reason why you didn't see
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: us eat is because we was talking.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: Yes, And you know what, you can make it like
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: a chicken salad too. You can make a chicken salad
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: if you have onions. You can put some onions on it,
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: cut up some celery, all that good stuff. Make it
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: like a chicken salad. Throw it on that bread also, and.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: And then definitely keep the banana pepper.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: Banana peppers or the jilapeno peppers. Jalopeno pickle peppers are
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: better because I like a little spice.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: You gotta got the pepper jack cheese or the cheese.
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah my dude loves pepper jack cheese. Yeah I know
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: on his sandwiches. But the kids like the cheddar. I
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: just made it like I'm making for the babies.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: Look, you did perfect. Your story was superb kiss very inspiring. Okay,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: thank y'all for tuning in peace out peace. Now we
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: get to finally