Latest / The Heavy Hitter DJs Podcast / 21 Laura Stylez: I'm Booked More Than Some of Your DJs

Transcript

21 Laura Stylez: I'm Booked More Than Some of Your DJs · The Heavy Hitter DJs Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Be savage on this week's show.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_05: And the very last show, I remember saying specifically, if we're not back on Monday, guys, follow us, follow me at Laura Styles on Instagram and ebro and Rosenberg and Rosenberg be like, yeah, yeah.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_05: And after that day, we got clipped, but we all got on the phone.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_05: You got fired, you got fired, you got fired.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_05: We got fired.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_05: And then we were just like, we're gonna keep this shit going.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: And three, two, one, I'm DJ Enough.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm DJ Camello.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm DJ Cast One, and I'm Lem Books, a K-L Books.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, everyone worldwide, this is the Heavy Hitter DJs Podcast.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, Joe, once again, welcome to another episode of the Heavy Hitter DJs Podcast.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Crowd Mover Lem Books.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Got my guy DJ Camilla.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And today we welcome our very own heavy hitter Laura Style.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say DJ for no reason.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Why the hell would I say DJ?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yo, I almost said DJ.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like a DJ, right?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_04: Hi, thank you for having me.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome, welcome.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: Laura, you are the second female to the pod ever.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: Who was the first?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: Who's the first?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: The first was Steph Cakes.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, okay, okay.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: So this is big.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: This is a big deal for us.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm here.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: And even Steph was like, I made it up here so quick.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like she was.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, welcome.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what you been up to?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to us.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: What's going on with you?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_05: Well, as you know, uh, we have Ibro, myself, and Rosenberg have our show, the Ebro Laura Rosenberg Show that we do that live every week at 8 a.m.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_05: on YouTube, and it's been going really well.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_05: I'm really excited.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_05: We've been growing, and uh, you know, ever since my departure, we call it the plantation.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_05: Ever since, you know, all that drama happened, we recalibrated and we all really wanted to stick together, and we did it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_05: We built our own studio, and and honestly guys, it's been going really fucking well.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, sorry, enemy together.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, go for it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: Go for it.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love the energy.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: I love the way the studio looks, and man, you know what?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: The second chapter for you, like it popped up on YouTube.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: The second chapter for you, I think is amazing.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: You know, nothing lasts forever.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure you had an amazing time over there.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're here.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_05: And it I and it's truly been very gratifying not to have anyone tell you what you can and cannot say.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_05: So it's been really good, and it's been uh honestly, the most humbling thing is how many people have been supporting us.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_05: Because you know, when you're independent, it's a whole different ballgame.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it's like you're to double the work or triple the work, and you have to do everything for yourself, you know.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_05: We've been showing up as talent forever.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_05: Boom, check in, perform, do what you gotta do, and get out.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_05: But this time we really had to, you know, hire an entire staff and and it ended up being really, really good.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm very happy.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_05: And then outside of the morning show that we've been doing, I also we just launched a weekly news show called ELR News with Kevin Ortega Rojas, who's incredible.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_05: He's an incredible um um I he hates when I call him an influencer, a political influencer, but he really has put his platform on and is delivering facts.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_05: And and you know, he was a guest on our show a couple of times, and then, you know, he wanted to do something together.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_05: So we have a progressive news, you know, program that we do half an hour weekly, where we cover like all the big topics that are happening in our community, affecting our community.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_05: And it's been a pleasure working with him.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_05: So we've been growing and moving in there too, in that department.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_05: And then besides that, I'm also running my festival and my foundation.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: Talk about it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, let's talk about let's talk about it.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, wait, but it's what else we're taping on the Friday world.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, let's flashback Friday.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Let's Okay, okay.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody, if someone's saying hello to Laura Styles for the first time and like you're uh you're you're you're you're you're a product of California and go from there.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Go, go, go.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_05: Wait, you have to say my whole life story?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_05: No, no, no.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: We Yeah, yeah, we're taking it back.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna jump around.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna jump around.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it where we're in Cali for anyone has never read a bio from Laura Styles.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_05: So I grew up in the Hollywood and mid-city area of Los Angeles.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, I graduated from Hollywood High School.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_05: I went to Fairfax High School.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_05: I um, yeah, I mean, I I I was there until I was about, I want to say like 18?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_05: About 18, yeah.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_05: Like, and then I moved to New York.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: And then you bust that move to New York.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_03: Laura, do you remember the first time we met?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: Because what I recall I think it was at Cheetah.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_05: It was Cheetah.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, called Cheetah.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it was at Cheetah.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: It was definitely at Cheetah.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I remember, I don't know who you're with.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_03: I I want to say, I wanna say Clarissa.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: I might be wrong.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_05: You are right.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_05: You are right.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_05: You are right.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_05: Rest in peace with my girl, Clarissa.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: And then she introduced me, uh, and very sweet, very nice, and I didn't know you from a hole in the wall.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think the conversation was, I think it was radio, I'm not sure.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was a hundred percent.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: From the rip, and and that's that's what I recall, but I remember that.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you from the West Coast.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_03: Back then, I didn't meet too many people from the West.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, right?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, you know, and we're talking many years ago.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: So to me, you're a New Yorker.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, she's been lost that.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_04: New York is my home.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: They they took Laura, they took your Cali pass a long time ago.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_05: Listen, I don't ever, I I don't like to be the one to claim anything because you know, people are all right.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_05: If you didn't go to high school here, if you weren't born here, you're not a New Yorker, and I respect it.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_05: And I, you know, I respect it, but New York is where I became an adult.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_05: You know, New York is where I became, and I've lived here longer than I lived over there.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, facts.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_03: I think I think after you hit that 10-year run, then that's when you get the you get the check.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like, okay, she's a New Yorker now.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, it's like 27 years already.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_05: I know, I know that.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: I know, but uh I'm saying, you know, the high school factor I think is an important part because that makes that makes but once you hit that 10 years, then you can be like, okay, bring it done that Laura's from New York, but she used to live in Cali.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: That that's what it is.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god, no, I love LA.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_05: Trust me, I love LA.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_05: All right, so you know what's a trip though?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_05: Going back, when I go back to LA, because my mom lives there, right?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_05: I feel like such a stranger.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_05: Like I got you know, the city has changed drastically.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_05: So I everything that I knew is gone.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_05: I grew up there in the in in the 90s, you know, 80s, 90s.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_05: So everything, almost everything I know is gone, which is it's really bugged out.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: But even New York 20 years ago, um the so many high-rises now.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: Look at Long Island City, Queens.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's like another city.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like it wasn't there, right?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_05: Right, right.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_05: But you want to hear something funny?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_05: We interviewed the mayor, mayor mom Donnie, a couple weeks ago, and then we were talking about, you know, like 9-11.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_05: And I was talking about my 9-11 story, how I used to live in Inwood.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_05: I used to live on 207 and Post, like by John's Wright Chicken, and I was gonna take the train down to BMCC and how the train wasn't working, and everybody was freaking out, and I was like, what's happening?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_05: So they were like, So you were here for 9-11, you're here for the blackout.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_05: I was definitely here for the blackout.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Shit.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_05: During the blackout, I was working at Power 105 when it was in Midtown in the Hippodrome building, and I remember because it was on the 18th floor.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_05: God, I remember going up and down those stairs.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_05: And I also remember hitching a ride with people trying to get back up town.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_05: You know, so there's so many moments.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_05: And then what don't get me started on nightlife.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_05: I was at speed, aka bleed, you know?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_05: I was I was the only one I didn't class that I was thinking, I was thinking about this the other day because I was looking at um, I was looking at random in you know how you go down the rabbit holes on Instagram about classic New York institutions, right?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yo, I love listening to people talk about danceteria and limelight and studio 54.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember being at Limelight, high as hell, dancing my ass off till like eight in the morning.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yo, you know, I'm not at church.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: Laura was definitely outside.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: No, I know.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: She was glimpse at Laura.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't Club New York, right?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think so.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you got didn't you do the door club New York at some point or something like that?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_05: I did at some time.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_05: Danielist and all those guys.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: I remember that.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: That was a good one.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I tell you.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_05: My first my first club gig, I I used to I did the VIP list at Cheetah.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: Look at that.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: Cheetah does.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_03: So listen, Laura, your your reason to moving from the West Coast to New York.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: What was that?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Was it that?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Did you want to get into entertainment or was it just a thing?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_05: No, no, no.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_05: It was I wanted to be on radio.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_05: And I figured if I'm gonna be on the radio, I'm gonna go to the number one market and I'm gonna get on the radio if it's the last thing I do.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_05: I was young, I was determined, I I wasn't scared of anything.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_05: I just knew I had a vision.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_05: I had a vision.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: You shot your shot, man.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_05: And I really did it.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_05: And let me tell you, for the first couple of years, that shit wasn't easy, man.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_05: You know, like I was in, uh I was going to school, and it was so funny because I was going to school for communications.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_05: I was working like three jobs, I was living house together.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: We need to hear all of this.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_05: I, you know, I was like, whoever will let me crash in, yo, can I stay with you for a month?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_05: I'll give you some bread.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_05: Like, it really was that because I have no family here.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_05: Like zero.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, there was a lot of times where I got super lonely, but it did help me because when I finally landed my internship in radio, this was like, I want to say, like, three years.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_05: I had already been here harassing everyone, like Camillo like I wanna, I I wanna work with you if you need anything.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_05: And I was that annoying girl being like, I want to work, I want to work.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember Camilo telling me, Not yet, I just got on the air, I just got on the air, so chill out.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_05: You know, but I but we keep in touch.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, all right, all right.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_05: But but yeah, just I remember hustling and finally, um, and shout to my boy Quasi Hewlett.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_05: He used to do imaging at Power 105.1 when Power 105 first launched as an old school station.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_05: I remember.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_05: So they were playing nothing but throwbacks.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_05: It was like the first big competition that Hot 97 had at the time.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: You know, they had no commercials the first time.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_05: You know, they had to make it enticing.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_05: There's a new ones on the block, you know.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_05: But it was cool because I was working with legends.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_05: Like Ed Lover was on there.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um, my my very first gig was working for Moni Love.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, and I I adore Moni.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_05: I learned so much from that woman.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_05: She is an incredible human being.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_05: Not only is she a hip-hop icon, but just as a human being, she is just somebody I truly, truly admire and I inspire to be like because she is phenomenal.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_05: At least my experience with her was always been phenom phenomenal.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, Moni Love was the first person I was working with.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_05: I used to answer her phones and I was like, Moni, I want to learn.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_05: I learned, teach me how to run the boards, teach me how to edit.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_05: So and honestly, you know what amazed me about Moni?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_05: She was in there with her kids.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_05: She would be breastfeeding and cutting up.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Respect that.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Respect that.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_05: I will hold her baby while she did XYZ, but just watching her like navigate, and I used to be like, yo, she's amazing.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_05: She is doing everything and and such a like loving mother.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_05: I would I remember I would help her kids out with their homework, you know, anything just to be just to be helpful.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_05: And I ran into her a couple years ago during Hip Hop 50, and we sat down and had a beautiful conversation, and she was showing me pictures of her kids.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_05: She's like, you know, they still remember you.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, no way.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's so dope.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: But while you were at power, you ended up working with Moni, Ed, also with uh uh uh what's her name?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: I forgot.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_05: Steph Lover.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Steph Lover, like these are names that ring, you know what I'm saying?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, wow, that was dope.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's so dope.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so I was like, I started off with Moni Love on the weekends, and then I worked with Deja Vu.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, Deja Vu, yes, yes, yes.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_05: Deja Book got some embarrassing ass pictures of me.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_05: She used to yell at me all the time because I was always getting into trouble doing everything but what I was supposed to be doing, which was answering the phones.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_05: But but yeah, no, Deja let me, Deja taught me so much, and then I worked with Ed Lover and Steph Lover, and then eventually I ended up working for Star and Book Wild.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, I remember that part.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: But wait, but before you got there, when we met, we met a lot, we met when we were when we were hustling in Spanish radio, La Calle back in the day.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I met you later.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: Let's get into that.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: Hold on, hold on, hold up.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: First of all, you were you were first interned that power, right?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: You did your one-two, you know, sharpening your knife, getting to know everything, and then what happened after that?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_05: So it's important for you guys to understand because it's all linked together.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_05: So I really wanted to be a strong producer.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_05: And I got this from Moni because I was like, look at her producing everything herself.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_05: She's like a one-man band.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_05: That's what I need to do.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_05: I need to make sure that I'm a functioning piece of the puzzle.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_05: So I've always like been really good with very big personalities, you know?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_05: Like I know how to handle, as you guys know, I've dealt with a lot of big personalities throughout my career.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_05: And it's something that I take pride in because I know how to communicate efficiently, but also like help people.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_05: Because I always tell people, like, yo, you got what do you bring to the table?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_05: Why should they allow you in the room?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_05: Like you're actually taking up space.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_05: So you need to make sure that you're of value, you know?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_05: So that's always been my mantra.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_05: And during all that time is when like social media was bubbling, like MySpace, and and I don't even know how the hell I knew you guys remember we were coding.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we already went.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_05: Texting each other, these giant, like, yeah, hell yeah.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_05: So I was coding for all the personalities.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you guys gotta get online, you guys gotta do this.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_05: Like, right, right.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_05: So everybody like really messed with me because I was always trying to like amplify them and tell them and help them.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_05: I've always been that person.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_05: It's like all of us, if we all succeed, then all of us succeed.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: Of course.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_05: So I mean, Camilla will tell you, I used to harass them.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_05: You need to get on Instagram.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yo, let me tell you right now, I don't want to get to that because you're on MySpace Talk, so I don't want to jump into IG, but I I remember it's 2011.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm hanging out on a Friday.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: We're in the we're in the studio at hot, and she goes, Yo, um, you ever tried this?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, what the fuck is this?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: What's the point of IG?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: What?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: Post a picture for what?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yo, she put me on.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you open the account right then and there.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: She planned in the seed.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta post, you gotta do this, you gotta do that.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, all right, all right, no doubt.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Laura put Laura put me on to Instagram.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then from there on, it took off, and then I hit her.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: I hit you up.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: I said, yo, you know about this Snapchat?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what's this?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, yes, do it.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_05: It's so funny because for a lot of people, like, I think like Rosenberg's first post is a picture of me laughing.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_05: My first Instagram post.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: My first post is with you too.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's hilarious.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, this is what you gotta do.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_05: Anyway, so while I was at Power, okay, um, they had um launched something called uh Power Latino HD2.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, good.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_05: And swore to God that this HD2 situation was gonna be a huge hit.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_05: And what it was, it was just like uh high definition radios, and it was like on the same um, I believe it's like you have AM FM, and then you were supposed to have like a high definition um period where all these state new stations were gonna succeed, right?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_05: So they had um Daddy Yankee in studio.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_05: Daddy Yankee in Studio was cutting all of the imaging for it, all the drops, but nobody else spoke Spanish.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: But Laura.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_05: So my boy Quasi was producing, he was like, Come here, Elle, I need you to do this.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I got it.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, hi, say hi to Daddy Yankee.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_05: Mind you, I wasn't really big on reggaeton like that.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I I knew about it, but you know, it was still new.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_05: So me and him are cutting all these, like, you know, all these liners.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_05: I'm telling him, no, say it like this, say it like that.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_05: So we do it.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_05: We voice the channel, the channel launches.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_05: I never thought anything of it because I was like, this is gonna go nowhere.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_05: I'm working, I'm working with Star and Buck Wilde.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_05: You know, that was very chaotic.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_05: A lot happened during that show.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_05: One day I'll, you know, I'll talk more about it.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_05: But I will say, as controversial as Star and Buck Wilde were, like they were very kind to me and they treated me with respect.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_05: They were very respectful.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_05: They were doing disrespectful things, but not when it came to me.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_05: With I had a very, very pleasant um work.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: Rest in peace, Buck Wild, by the way.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: Right, rest in peace, Buck.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_05: So I remember when they got fired because of the legal issues, Big Tigger came in, and Big Tigger really wanted me to work with him.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_05: And I already had work with Tigger because he used to do nights there.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_05: So I already had done a couple of shows with them.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_05: We were all cool, you know.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_05: I was always hanging out, so we were all cool.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_05: But I just at that moment, I didn't I didn't really do it anymore, you know?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_05: I was tired.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, man, I don't know.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_05: I want to do my own thing, I want to try.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm standing on my desk.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: At this point, you're rocking with the big dogs because those were the big dogs back then.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, of course.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but I was, but it's like I wanted to be on air.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_05: Ed lover would give me like little, like, would always pull me on the mic.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember I used to talk a lot until they were like, Yeah, you're not part of the union, so you're a liability.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_05: You can't you can't crack that mic anymore.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, I gotta join the union, you know.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_05: So I became, you know, I joined the union and I was like, now you guys can use me.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_05: And then um, yeah, so like, you know, I'm I'm I'm working with Tig for a little bit.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_05: Me and Tig didn't work together for that long on his morning show because I just I didn't want to do it no more.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_05: And then I get a call, I get a call from Univision, and they were like, hey, we're launching this like station here.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_05: It's reggaeton, but it's also hip hop and reggae because we don't have enough reggaeton music.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_05: And I was just like, all right.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, we heard you on the Power Latino um station and we want you to come in.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_03: You see?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_05: So I said, okay.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_05: So I went for the interview.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember being like, I I guess like at the time, I knew what the hell I was talking about.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_05: Because I had produced major shows and I work with major people.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_05: And right quickly, you know, they gave me they gave me an offer.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_05: They gave me a midday position.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I I remember I remember being so happy because I was like, oh my God, I'm getting a salary.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_05: I don't have to work three jobs anymore, and I don't have to do all these hot jobs because that's all I was doing.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_05: I was working, I used to work at the diesel store on Lexington.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and it was right there.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, I was working at the diesel store.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_05: I was a cashier and I used to help doing windows.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_05: I used to be overnight sweeping sand, like doing all kinds of shit.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_05: Like it was just, you know.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: I love to hear this.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: I love to hear these hustle stories, man.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: Because a lot of people don't understand when it takes to get here, what the hell you gotta do over, man.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, no, that's what I always tell people.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, your dream is over there, but in the meantime, you gotta survive, you gotta maintain.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_05: And I didn't have my mom's couch to fall back on.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_05: Like I literally had needed shelter, you know?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_05: So I was super happy, and I remember going into La Calle, and that's where me and Books met.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's what y'all met.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yo, let me tell you something about La Calle, though.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: Like, like to me, that station, even though I was on hot, I was tapped in because I was like, I understood it.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was Latin, but it was hip hop, but it was and and then when y'all motherfuckers went over there, and I think I believe I spin one, which is my boy from Jackson Gay.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, spin with me.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Uh postal went over there, Ray Mall.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: Raymo, precise.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_03: These are people that we rocking with all the time, and I'm like, yo, what the fuck is going on over there?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: Y'all, y'all were on fire.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: No, because they gave the green light of like, yo, you know somebody who could work, and we all were like, I know at least one person.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, we all got brought in.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then I remember we didn't have a midday person, and I was doing middays for like a good four months, and then they were like, so we hired somebody, and then sh and then comes this one, and I was like, who the hell is this?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: But then I'm not gonna front.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: It took like three seconds, and I was like, Yeah, I can fuck with you.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay, we're gonna be friends.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then yo.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_05: I I I'll tell you though, I I will tell you, the way they did that situation was so shady.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_05: It was so wild because they put us in a terrible position.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_05: No one had told Bugs that they were high looking for somebody.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_05: So he probably felt like I got this, you know, and he was killing it because Bugs is a great on the mic.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yo, my numbers was my numbers were blah blah blah blah.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, wait a minute, what the fuck?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_05: Yo, and then I come in and everybody everyone hates me, Camelo.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_05: Everyone's this person.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, because you were like you're like the new, yeah, really though.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_05: Everyone hated me.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_05: No one would really talk to me.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_05: The only person, the first person, and and books was nice to me, but of course he felt away.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_05: I understood.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember telling the PD at the time, I was like, why would you set me up like that?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_05: Like, why would you do that?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_05: You know?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: Mind you, I want everybody to understand this is about 05, 05, 2005.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_03: 0506.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: So people understand, like, this is a long time ago.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_05: And but but spin one was always a sweetheart to me, and precise were always so welcoming and nice.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember they'd be like, Yeah, I know everyone's a little hard on you, but you're good in my book, you'll be all right.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, I was just like, I was just like, all right, man, I'm just gonna focus and I'm just gonna work and I'm just gonna do what I gotta do.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_05: But after a while, like, and I remember after a while, um, it me and Books became cool.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_05: You know, me and Books had a nice heart to heart, and he was like, You good?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_05: And next thing you know, Boogs got an MTV gig.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_05: And he was out of here, but let me tell you how life works.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_05: While I'm on the air, Boogs got an MTV gig.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_05: Boogs would invite me to co host with him when he had certain specials.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Camillo did it too?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Fuck him.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_05: So he that's but it goes to show you how we are even though things got weird, we figured out a dynamic to help each other out and to like uplift each other.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's right back to what you said earlier, to the point of like, if I'm gonna win, we all gotta fucking win.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: We all gotta set each other up.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that was the better dynamic between me and Laura that it would be like, yo, I got a gig.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: What you doing?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yo, I got a gig, what you doing?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: I got a gig.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: You wanna come?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yo, I got a gig, I'll get you this.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: And like, it just be so that whole bullshit of Lori showing up and I don't know who the hell is this?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yo, she was gone in like two seconds.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yo, like, yeah, well with you.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: Hold on a second, hold on, hold on, hold on a second.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: At this point, at this point, Laura's not a heavy hitter yet.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: Not yet.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_03: So this is very important to understand that y'all, y'all were not vibing in the beginning, but at the same time, y'all were helping each other out.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but and I and that was.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_05: But it was a respect thing, though.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there you go, there you go.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_05: It was a respect thing because listen, even though I was new when it came to radio, I knew what the hell I was doing.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_05: And at that station, everyone was very new.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_05: Very green.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_05: Very green.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_05: So everyone, like I knew how I knew what I had to do to make this money.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_05: I was going back there talking to the sales department, pitching myself.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_05: These are the brands I want to work with.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_05: This is what my interests are.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_05: So I already knew because I had done this for Ed, for Steph, for Moni, you know what I mean?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: And you were rocking with the big dog, so you already knew.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so I just applied all of that to like my strategy.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, then I started coming, getting brand deals.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_05: I started bringing money in.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, people every every station wants you if you're generating dollars, you know?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_05: Of course.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_05: So that was that was really how I shined.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: And speaking on the brand deals, one of the dopest things, I know Lobo was part of it too, and you were like when when Hennessy gave y'all that phone call, and I was like, I was like, wait a fucking minute.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Why like to me that shit was mind-blowing?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because remember, y'all, this 06, 07, and you're like, yo, they're giving a DJ a campaign.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then it made it even doper because we were like, those are our peoples, yo.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: But before we get to that, um, the whole heavyhead thing, I remember the conversation was being had.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: And to be real with you, I had zero issues with it because I was like, yo, this is something new.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Meaning, you know, yo, but she not a DJ, but she not a DJ.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I'm not a DJ.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think collectively, yo, like the conversation was a one-time thing, right?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Camilla, it wasn't even like, nah, I don't think so.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, let's let Laura tell the story.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: I, you know, because this is a very important part of the heavy hitter podcast.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people ask, how do I become a heavy hitter?
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_03: La la la.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, these stories that you're sharing can show up-and-coming heavy hitter DJs or that want to be DJ, heavy hitter DJs, you know, how, what's the process?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: What you know.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_05: At that time, I'm on air and I'm I'm trying to make this money, Camillo.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_05: So I started doing clubs.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_05: I started hosting clubs, and I remember at the time.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_03: And back then it was a big thing.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: It was a very good thing.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_03: It was a huge thing.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was a huge thing.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_05: So I remember I think the very first club I hosted I did with Big Ben.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_05: And after that, I started getting more, and there was there wasn't really any women doing it.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_05: That was really the thing.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_05: There wasn't any women.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_05: Boogs was killing it already.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_05: He was ripping it, and a bunch of other people who were like more OGs, more old school, they were already killing it.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_05: But at least in the Latin urban scene, it was really just me and Bugs.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, other people tried and they did it, and and they were good, but like I was in a temptation.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_05: I was listen, I'm gonna do this, and I was like, I do my research, I strategically plan things out.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and then I would talk to Bugs, like, yo, I'm working at this club, I'll get you something, get me in there, and Bugs would be like, got you.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_05: So me and him were trading gigs, and they I remember I got to a point where it was like I was doing parties with a lot of you guys, a lot of the heavy hitters.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_05: And I definitely remember telling enough.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_05: I and I remember we were in Puerto Rico, and it was Camilla was there, Tony Touch was there.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_05: It was like one of them Puerto Rican weekends, right?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_05: And I was supposed to be, I think I was hosting like an all-white party.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_05: That sounds about right.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_05: I remember telling enough, and I was like, I want to be a heavy hitter, and I I think I would be an asset to you guys.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_05: And he was like, Yeah, I don't know.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_05: We'll see.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I'm booked way more than some of your DJs.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: There you go, talk your shit.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_05: I I'm showing him, and I was like, so you don't need to do nothing for me.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I can get my own work, and he was looking at me like this little bitch.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_05: But you know what it was?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_05: I was just like, I'm just gonna shoot my shot.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and I'm gonna convince you because I believe in myself and I want you to believe in me too, you know?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but that was the key right there because being a heavy hitter is like you have to own your shit.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_03: Now, for DJs, for example, yeah, not from New York, they had to own their city, they had to own their radio station locally, they had it on the club, you know what I'm saying?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: You owned your own lane, you know what I'm saying?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you wasn't a DJ, but it made total sense.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now it made it made so much sense when the conversation came up with exactly what she said.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: She was like, I'm booked like or even more than the DJ.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, that alone right there should show you.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: So like it's one of the because we've had conversations, many of them, with other people.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: Because the key thing, the key thing here is I don't need you.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_03: I'm already doing this.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of a lot of DJs get down with with these crews because they want something.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: They need it.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, no, they expect like a welcome packet of these.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now you get 30 bookings a week.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're gonna put you.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like, no, that was never us.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: That was a good thing.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I love the fact that we never promise nobody a goddamn thing.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: You don't get promised shit.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: You just get promised a brotherhood and a sisterhood.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's the one.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_03: Go and do you and rep the crew in it.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: And that's it.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_03: So go ahead, Laura.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: Go ahead.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: So that's it.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_05: And for me, like, I was running with my homegirls.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I was running with a pack of girls.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_05: Like, that's really how I would show up to the clubs.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: By the way, that's a plus.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's a plus when you rock these clubs.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, when I became a heavy hitter, I was so excited.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_05: And I was just happy.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_05: But I remember one of the one of the things as a woman that I faced in nightlife was like, sometimes people would try to play with my money.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_05: You know, and I remember dealing with promoters where they wanted to either sleep with me or, you know, whatever.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_05: And then some of them didn't want to pay me my money.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember calling him up and calling Camilla and be like, listen, this is what's happening to me.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_05: And like in two seconds, they made calls and they brought everyone in.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_05: And after that, like, my money was handed to me expeditiously.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_05: Like, your money is here as soon as you arrive.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, it was like that was a protection that and the brotherhood that I always appreciated.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_05: And I was uh, and I, you know, because I didn't have that.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_05: I was alone, I was by myself with my girls.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: With nightlife, even to this day, I and I think it's forever, and it's been like that.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_03: Nightlife has been very tricky when it comes to money and business and that.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's a dirty business, man.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a greedy business, it's a cutthroat business.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, most of the time nobody signed a contract for a gig.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: You just don't know.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_03: So so yeah, so back then it was definitely sometimes an issue, and nowadays it is too.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_03: So people out there, the new DJs out there, that shit is not that shit's been happening forever.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Nightlife is is a tricky.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I never would understand when like the night and it gets closer to the end, and you're like, damn, I ain't give him the envelope yet, ain't and then and and you'd be like, wait, so y'all got paid?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you nah, this ain't how it's gonna work out.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_05: I know, I know.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_05: Many nights, books would get my money for me.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Hell yeah.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_05: If he was there, he was like, I'll go get your money.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_05: So he it really helped me tremendously.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_05: Like when I tell you, like, you guys as a brotherhood was like the most beautiful thing for me because I really felt welcomed and I felt protected.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_05: And I just felt like if I needed somebody, like you guys would be there for me.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_05: And you were, it was, it was, it was show improved.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_05: But for the most part, you know, I've always been pretty like independent in everything that I do.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_05: I've been very independent.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_05: So being at La Kaya was so cool, man.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_05: I was finally on air.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_05: We hosted one of the biggest reggaeton shows at Madison Square Garden on a rotating stage.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yo, yo, classic.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: We did that.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: I took full advantage of that.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god, what's some dreams are made of being on that stage?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_03: You guys did you guys changed a genre up there at that time, and and you know, a lot of people don't talk about La Calle.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: Go big it up, but you guys moved the needle to the point that, like, I'll speak for myself, because of you guys, I got a reggaeton show.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: On Sunday, right?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_03: It was 7 p.m.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, like that.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was it was Ebro's idea.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I kept talking about him, but he just on a Sunday, I remember he called me out of nowhere.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yo, you ready to do this reggaeton show?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know how he is.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, Sundays at one in the morning.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, okay, let's do it.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: I you know, I never used to say no to nothing.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I used to watch y'all all the time.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_03: All right, they're doing this, I'm doing that, I'm doing this.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_03: The show got so hot, got so hot that I brought said, yo, let's move this to 9 p.m.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: Sundays.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_03: And and and but you know, I I gotta give I gotta give it to y'all because back then, you know, uh you guys changed the game, man.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_03: That that that era, that time of Latin and hip-hop, playing G Unit and Daddy Yankee and playing Del Calderon and fucking Remy Ma and Fanny.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, like all those names that we mentioned, besides Laura and myself, that ended up at Death Station.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: We all came from hip-hop.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: We just luckily enough knew how to speak Spanish and grew up with a Spanish, you know what I'm saying?
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, and that's why it made it so dope because it's like, yo, we're working at somewhere that we're doing what we've been doing all our lives, listening to hip-hop and talking Spanish, you know what I'm saying?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: But, and I remember it was like whole, like like Laura's reaction to like on a rotating fucking stage at Madison Square Garden.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: Or like, I remember like I'd be like, Laura, I got a Saturday spot, we're gonna be in this bitch for six months.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: Bet.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: Laura would be like, yo, I got a Friday in Jersey, we're gonna be in this motherfucker for like a year.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yo, like we fucking had a time with the reggaeton world.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: I will say that.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_05: I will tell you this.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_05: I want to give a big shout out to DJ Casanova.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, Cast a fucking Nova all day.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_05: DJ Castanoma, let me tell you, remember, I came from hip hop.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not Puerto Rican.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_05: So I used to be like, what are they saying?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I didn't understand.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_03: Laura, tell them where you're from originally because uh everybody in New York probably thinks you're Puerto Rican.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, people think I'm Puerto Rican, Colombian.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_05: No, my family is Guatemalan.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_05: My mom is Guatemalan, my dad is half Guatemalan and half from Belize.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_05: We're Guatemalan, Central American.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_05: So I just remember asking Casanova, like, what does that mean?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what do you do, Daddy?
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_05: You know?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_05: And also, like, I really didn't know a lot of the artists except like the big ones, right?
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my God.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_05: I remember one time I was like, I had to interview Hector Elfather.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_05: And I went upstairs because, you know, I didn't have an assistant.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_05: I was by myself.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, yeah, I'm looking for Hector Elfather.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_05: And he's like, Well so yo.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, oh, let's go.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_05: But we were all so young.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_05: And like, I still like it's so it's really sweet because I still, when I see that like De La Ghetto commenting on my boss, it's so sweet because De La Ghetto was one of the first people that was like on my show.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_05: You know, that's how I met Nina Skye on my show.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, in that era, let me tell you something about the those legends, those legends, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: They don't forget none of us because they were starting, they wanted to be in New York radio, they wanted to be on a hip-hop station.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_03: They wanted so so, like when Don Omar sees me, Daddy Yankee sees me, they always stop.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_03: I remember one time I was connecting flights in fucking Amsterdam, right?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_03: And Daddy Yankee's walking through connecting flights to I guess walking with his whole crew, and then we're like this, and everybody stopped.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_03: He stopped.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_03: He stopped up at the airport.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: He came, yo, Camillo, he can't give me a hug and everything.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: Like that was, I'm telling you, man, we we planted a seed, man.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: No, because it's we were there for all of that shit.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's right back to where you say, like, even though they were doing reggaetón, they always, no matter fucking what, wanted to go to High 97.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: I always remember that.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: No matter what.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: So they used to come see us at La Calle and then be like, why y'all going over there?
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I got it.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: I understood it.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's all they knew growing up.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and like you, I remember we took the MTV cameras to Puerto Rico for like four days and blah, blah, blah.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: Then a couple of months later, I'm doing a gig and Tito El Bambino's on the plane, and he goes, Yo, boogs.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be like, What's up, bro?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then he goes, Yo, when you're bringing the cameras to my crib, like to them, it was like, yo, like, and you're right.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: And De La Ghetto is one of the realest ones still to this day.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_05: So let me, I wanted to pull up this picture, and this is Ghetto, but I'm just gonna put it on the screen.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I'm gonna show you this, and I'll send it to you for the time.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good one, that's a good one.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_05: So, years later, this is uh actress Dasha Polanco.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_05: She was like, Wow, I met you at Madison Square Gardens or like I concert.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_05: She was like, You were so nice to me, and we took a I asked you for a picture, we took a picture together.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_05: And this is like afterwards where I had to interview her.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_05: She came to my show to talk about Orange is the new black and everything that she was doing.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_05: But it's such a it's such a dope picture.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_05: I really don't have pictures from that time.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, that's so dope.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's so dope.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_05: I wish I had more photos, but like, oh my god.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_03: I was putting that earlier.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_03: I got yo, I got so many pics of us.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like, these were the great times at Hanani 7 on a Friday.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_03: Fucking hell yeah, hell yeah.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's around the time that Lola put me onto IG.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_03: Around that time.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but like I it was an incredible time, man.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_05: I had a I remember I had a Saturday night show with Spin One at Precise called the show.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_05: And it was just like, it was ruckus because we would like do that and then run to our clubs afterwards, right?
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_05: Did I was doing a lot of like the live broadcasts from LQs?
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_05: I did all the live.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_05: Remember Club Miami and New Road show?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Club Miami and New Road Show.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: We ate.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: We ate.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: We ate.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, like when I tell you we and then you know what was cool is that not only was I running around in all these clubs, but I also was very into the downtown scene.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_05: So I was like going to Roxy Cottontails parties.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_05: I had all like I was super around it.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_05: I was at watching Khaliz at Splash, which was a gay club downtown.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_05: Like I was very much like downtown, but happened to also exist.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_05: So I've always managed to exist in multiple spaces, which really helped me in in in numerous ways come up.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_05: But I yeah.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's very important also as a DJ as well.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like I never got stuck to the whole, yeah, I was a Latin guy, and of course, predominantly my parties were Latin hip hop.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then those college crowds, I was always having Asian parties.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_03: I was doing Caribbean parties, you know.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_03: Once in a while, Mr.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: C would say, yo, we want to do a set at speed.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_03: What'd you call it?
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_02: Bleed bleed.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yo, speed was the the bottom of them.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like that was the most hip-hop.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_04: But it was the further.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yo, but that was so much fun, though.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think that I think that's what helped all of us that we were all rounded out and we understood.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_03: But okay, enough of La Calle.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_03: That was a time.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, and I would admit, Laura was the person who took me down to the East A Street, not West A Street.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, she would take me to these fucking parties, and I'm like, I bet.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: All these dikes and all these games, we're gonna play this fucking hip-hop, though.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: And like, I would tell people, like, Laura be taking me to some shit, and they'd be like, What do you mean by some shit?
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be like, some shit, bro.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and it was such a good time, and my friends would never understand it, yo.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't get it.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: They would not understand that shit.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, yo, Laura goes to fucking anything that's fun, yo.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like real shit.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think I took you to the box one time and you're like, where do you have me?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, It took me like 10 minutes.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I was like, you know what?
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: Open my boogie.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Let's have a good fucking time.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: But but also, and then after La Calle, the whole um the hot, and then you know, you you you you you had a long run there.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: How many years were you at hot?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_05: So I did, I I think I was at La Calle.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: No, but you went La Calle, then you did the other one, right?
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: The the pulse, right?
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_05: So so this is what happened.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_05: So when La Calle, when La Calle flipped to tropical.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_03: Because by the way, reggaeton started to fall off like in the world.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what it was too?
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: They couldn't sell it to advertisers.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: You couldn't sell that shit because it was a young person's sport, basically.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, reggaeton was for young people.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we couldn't, when we we have these meetings, we couldn't really run supermarket ads.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: We couldn't run beer ads, you know what I'm saying?
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: So La Calle had to go back to where he get the money, which is mommy and papy come get these 30 platanos for$2 at the supermarket.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so it went, it went tropical.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_05: And I've always I've always been a big champion of like, yo, you gotta be happy doing anything that you want to do in order for you to succeed, you gotta be happy.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_05: And I wasn't happy.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_05: I love Jadity Vera, but I don't bought Jedi Vera on a regular, you know what I mean?
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_05: So I was just kind of like, I was doing these events, I was like, I really don't want to be here.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember people were telling me, you're crazy if you quit.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_05: You're gonna quit an on-air position in New York City.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, yo, but I'm not happy.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not happy.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I also felt like I was taking up space.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I know somebody that's that's very passionate about being in tropical music should be here.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: Not me.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_05: Because I really don't care, you know?
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_05: So I remember I quit and I remember everyone told me I was so dumb for quitting, but I was like, I'm gonna figure it out.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_05: I got a job at this really shady radio station called Pulse 87, and I got that call from Starr because Star was doing the morning show at that, and it was just like a really seedy independent station in the middle of nowhere in Brooklyn.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_05: Let's just say sometimes I would get paid in a brown paper bag.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_05: I would get my money.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_05: And I was on air, and I just I remember I just being like, yo, what am I doing?
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_05: What is happening?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_05: I was actively looking for work, and I remember me and Nina Skye got super tight.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_05: And I had gotten a job at Sirius XM.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_05: I'm working for a channel Coca Liente, and even though it was like Latin, but it was still, they were still playing Legaton, so I was like, all right, I can handle this.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I was doing that, and in and I went on tour with Nina Sky.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_05: And they were just very much like, Do you want to be a road manager?
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, sure, what is that?
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I can do it.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_05: So I was on, I went on tour with them.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_05: We were everywhere.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_05: We were in the Netherlands, Maastricht.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_03: We were in the had a hit too, so you know.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but remember that Nicole DJs too, so they do it, they would be booked for DJ sets.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_05: So I was all over Paris.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_05: We went to Germany.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_05: We when I tell you, we traveled, we were all over Europe.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_05: And then eventually, like I would get on the mic, Nicole be like, get on the mic.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_05: So I would get on the mic.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_05: And there was a lot of a lot of um Spanish-speaking parties sometimes.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_05: So I would get on the mic in Spanish and English.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_05: And then the agency that would book Nicole and Natalie were like, yo, you're pretty fire, you're a heavy hitter, that's dope.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_05: Can we book you to start doing gigs without the girls?
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, Yes.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_05: So and I just needed work.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_05: So I was working.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_05: I I remember, yo, I would leave like at the beginning of the month.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_05: I would go to Belgium, I would work, work, work, work, work.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_03: Ah, it's starting to make sense to me now.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_03: Go ahead, go ahead.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, the very last week, the very last week of the month, I would come back here, pay all my bills, check in with the radio station, do some parties, and then go back because I was getting paid in euros.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_05: So I was just like, I'm gonna go make my money over there.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I is this about the time you met Lady S?
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_05: That's how I met DJ Lady S.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_05: Because me and D me and DJ Lady S are got coupled up together in Europe, and that's we would do we would do parties together.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_05: So we me and her were DJing in Paris and in Germany, and we were everywhere.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_05: And in um in Antour, Belgium, we went, God man, I was Helsinki, Finland.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_05: Like we were everywhere.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_03: I've been there, I've been there talking, talk that talk, girl.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_05: So and then eventually when Est would come here, we would got close.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_05: She would stay at my house, and we just got super close.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_05: And then um I came back and I was like, I need to get a I need to come back to work, you know?
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_05: And I was pitching myself to Hot 97 and I would do fill-ins for Cypher Sounds on his morning show on Shade 45.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_05: So I had Cypher talking to Ebro, like you need to hire her.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_05: I had Camillo talking to Ebro.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_05: You need to hire her.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_05: I have bugs.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_05: So he was annoyed hearing my name already.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_05: So finally, I remember having a meeting with him, and he hired me as a part-time digital producer.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, what the hell is that?
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_05: Like, whatever.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_05: Everyone was like, take the job.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_05: Take the job.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_05: You're in the building.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_05: So I was like, all right, man.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_05: So I took the job and I was doing like red carpet interviews for YouTube.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_05: I was miserable.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I want to be on air.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_05: I don't want to be in no damn YouTube.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I'm tight, you know?
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_05: Not knowing that that's the future.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_05: And then I started working for Angie Martinez.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_05: And that's when I was doing like all her digital stuff.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_05: Again, me being like, this is what you gotta do.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_05: You know?
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_05: And and then me and Angie just, yo, we became so cool.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, Angie runs a very tight ship.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_05: And everyone, I remember people being like nervous and scared.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on the ship right now.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: Go ahead.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_05: And people being like nervous and scared, be like, yo, she's the I was like, I don't care.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_05: She's a legend.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_05: I fucking love her.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm I'm going to do whatever I can to make this situation be amazing.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_05: And me and her just work really well together.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_05: I helped her with her uh her website and just anything that came to the point where Angie, when she would before she would only let celebrities fill in, like Terence J, you know.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_05: And then she was like, You got it.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_05: So she started letting me fill in for her show.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_05: And it was amazing.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_05: Are you kidding me?
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_05: I was just like, I was nervous.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, hold on, Kate Hold on, hold on, hold on.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta understand.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: To fill in for Angie.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: On hot.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: Time when radio was on fire.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_03: That shit, like, that shit was everything.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I know.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_03: You made it.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, hell yeah.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: Cause even even like I went on tour with Angie when she was doing her album.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: But like to fill in for Angie, I would sit and be like, yo, this is the chair Angie shit in.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: This is the same chair.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: Is this the chair?
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: But like, but back to you, L, like hearing that shit, the growth, and I was like, what the fuck is El doing filling in for Angie?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like, in a sense, it's like, this shit is happening.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: And did you see that though?
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yo, this shit's happening.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's happening did you see that?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like when those opportunities came up?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, yes, because at the core of it, all I'm a fan.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_05: I love this shit.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_05: Like everyone tells me, like, with between all the ups and downs and the politics, I still love this.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_05: I love it.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_05: I'm a fan.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_05: I'm still having fun, you know?
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, yes.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm blessed.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_05: We're so blessed to be able to do what we love for a living.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I never take that for granted.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember, because I remember being like, so who are we gonna fill in?
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I was like working as a pseudo-producer for her.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_05: She was like, You.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, Hey, what do you mean?
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_05: She's like, Why are you acting brand new?
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_05: Why are you acting like you've never been on the radio before?
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_05: You know the show.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_05: Just don't fuck up.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, okay.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_03: That sounds like Angie too.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and you know, Angie gave me so many amazing opportunities and on and off the air.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I will she will forever be, you know, I think I think she's a shining star.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_03: I think for her who's who's a master at this, you know, you're next to her, you're busting your ass, you're working, you're coming up with ideas for her, and after a while, she's trying, you know, as a master as she is, she starts to trust you and be like, okay, little by little, you know, it's like it's like enough.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_03: We were around enough, and I keep telling everybody, enough's help so many people.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my goodness.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so many people.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_03: And and this is why the fight for him to this day.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_03: I fucking go.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_03: I go, I look around everybody that's all of all of us.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, all of us is because it's DJ Enough.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, literally, and he asked for nothing in return, like zero selfless person you'll ever meet.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_03: Zero in return.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_03: And as I'm like, I'm uh I'm like looking at the whole squad, man, like from the whole crew, everybody, right?
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right, even the ones that are not around right now, and I haven't seen it.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like, like this man helped us all, man.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, and but he trusted us because he saw the passion, right?
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like Angie, she saw your passion, Laura, and and you know, she let you fill in.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_03: You know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_03: You wasn't Nori filling in, you wasn't uh Joe Buttons filling in, you was Laura Styles.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_05: So that was amazing, and then I I remember when there was there were changes.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_05: The big pivotal moment in my career was that I was working for Angie, but guys, I was making like what, like at that time, like what$8 an hour?
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like you had to be making bullshit at that time.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god, or maybe seven, I don't know.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_05: But aka not enough for me to be able to pay my rent.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_05: So I was doing some club gigs, but you know, that was always up and down.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_05: And because I wasn't like, I didn't have like a full-time on-air position, like people weren't really booking me like that.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_05: I still was getting gigs, don't get me wrong.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_05: I was hustling.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_05: I was just like, what am I gonna do, man?
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_05: I gotta figure this out.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember I had gotten a call.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_05: There was a uh a radio st a radio station called 923 Now.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: 923 Now.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_05: 923 Now.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_05: They gave me a call and they were offering me, they were offering me a position, a midday position, full time.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_05: Nice money, too, guys.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_05: Salary.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_05: But it was a it was a top 40 station.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, you know, all this whole time I have been trying to shape my my career.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I don't want to do anything I'm not happy with, you know.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, top 40, and I would listen, I'm like, it's kind of cheesy, like, oh, you know, I went for the interview, they loved me, and I was just like, what am I gonna do?
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_05: So I remember going telling Ibra, I was like, hey, listen, I have to go.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_05: I have to quit.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_05: And he was like, Why are you gonna quit?
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_05: Don't tell me you're gonna get a morning show on shade 45.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, no, that's not even it.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, listen, I'm gonna keep it real with you.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I cannot afford to pay my rent or my bills.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_05: I don't have family here.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_05: Like, and I was crying.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it takes a lot for me to cry.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_05: I was crying, even I'm talking there with tears falling down my face, but I was just like, I was like, I just need to make money and I'm not making enough money here, and I just cannot afford to work here.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember him telling me, he's like, Can you hold on?
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_05: Can you hold on like a couple weeks?
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, I don't have a couple weeks, I have to give them an answer.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_05: And he was like, two weeks, give me two weeks.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_05: There's a lot of changes happening, and I might have something for you.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, I really didn't have two weeks, but I was like, all right, two weeks, my rent will be late, you know?
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_05: And I was just like, I, you know, and I remember talking to Angie and she's like, just you know, wait.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, All right, right.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_05: Fast forward, um, there was a big shakeup on the morning show, and they needed somebody to come in, and they asked me to come in as a producer.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_05: And it was very tense because, you know, like Kay Fox had had gone and they were beloved as a trio, you know, but nobody likes change, you know what I mean?
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_05: Like change is a big thing.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember coming in as a producer, and but they were like, I have a big, I have a big um, I have a long-standing relationship with Rosenberg, with Seif at that time, with the producer Jake, rest in peace.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_05: So uh, and I knew Shawnee, so I I already knew them.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, I was in the room and they would talk to me.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_05: So I started cracking the mic all the time, and then they were like, no, no, no, you need to be, you're gonna be here.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, all right.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_05: So on paper, I was a producer, but I was on air.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_05: Gotcha.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_05: You know, so I rocked that and I behind the scenes, I was, you know, doing my producer thing too.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_05: And um, yeah, and then fast forward, there was a lot of changes during the time.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_05: Eventually, Seif moved to be a the DJ of the show.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_05: Ebro came in, and then it was all four of us, and then Sife left to go on tour with Dave Chappelle and pursue his comedy, and then it became Ebro Rosenberg and myself.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we did that for 11 years.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, on New York radio, you hear me?
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and maybe 12, yeah, I want to say 12 years we did it.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_05: I remember like me dating and being, you know, on air, like still drunk from the night before, to like me being like, guys, I'm pregnant, I'm about to have a baby.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_05: Like when I tell you I lived my life on the air, uh, which is really wild when you think about it, you know, because you have to share a lot about yourself.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_05: And like so it was, it's been a beautiful journey.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_05: It's been a beautiful journey.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_05: That's why I remember when when I got fired from hot, we we knew we were getting fired.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_05: So we would talk a lot and we would say, You think it's gonna be this week?
• 50:44
  unknown: Yeah.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_05: You know, like that's really the atmosphere because we were advocating for better working conditions at the time.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_05: And there was a lot going on.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_05: Long story short, they weren't really happy with a lot of our political stances, and we didn't want to bend our morals for certain things.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, we were just gonna do us.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_05: And at the very last show, I remember saying specifically, if we're not back on Monday, guys, follow us, follow me at Laura Styles on Instagram and ebro and Rosenberg and Rosenberg being like, Yeah, yeah.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_05: And after that day, we got clipped, but we all got on the phone.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_05: You got fired, you got fired, you got fired, we got fired.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_05: And then we were just like, we're gonna keep this shit going.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna stay together, and everyone was like, Yeah, we're gonna stay together.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_05: And that's when you know the show decided to continue.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_05: And it was it the the timing was so perfect because I brought started beefing with Drake.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, right, right, right.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_05: And our and and our show ended up getting a different spotlight quickly, you know what I mean?
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_05: And it kind of just like we made plans and we we built our studio and then we went officially independent, and it's been amazing.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_03: Congratulations, congratulations, let me well let me ask you something real quick, because you know, of course, I've been a follower for years, right?
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_03: We've been watching, but now we're in this new space, you know, you working with Rosenberg and Ebro.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I've I've seen you watch them go at it, right?
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like the last and in my eyes, I look at you every time I look at you, and I'm thinking, Laura's just at this point, let the boys be boys, right?
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, sometimes I'm like, yo, y'all are so oh god, they're so smart and so stupid at the same time.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_03: I I kind of love that shit because that's just me.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_03: I kind of love that shit, and then I look at them and I'm like, they're gonna be all right tomorrow.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_01: That ain't you know, no, but I like seeing Laura going, uh guys.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_05: Because I know, I know when they start pushing certain buttons, and I'm like, this is gonna go somewhere.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_05: Um, literally, literally, that's how she's like, oh shit, wait, uh but even with all the viral moments, like yo, we we're friends like 10 minutes later.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_05: Everyone's good.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yo, I'm sorry, man.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_05: I'm sorry.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_03: I shouldn't say I saw y'all, I saw y'all, what were y'all?
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_03: Not pumpkin picking.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_03: You were doing something.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_03: Apple picking, apple picking, and apple picking, like you know, you could tell there's this there's family, there's unity.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, but that that that that's how it should be anyway.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, it is you know what I mean?
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know once you once you turn that mic or who each other is, you know what I mean?
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_05: But I will tell you, Boogie, and and uh both of y'all can be can can chime in, but like, yo, you're not always that close with the people you work with.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_05: You know, some people are just like, that's my coworker, and it is what it is.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_05: And I understand, and I've had those so many of those scenarios, but yo, Ebro and Rosenberg and myself are genuinely really good friends.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_05: We've spent holidays together.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_05: We know all of our, you know, we our families, our kids know our kids.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_05: Like we hang out, like I, you know, we're at each other's homes.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_05: Like we are very close.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_05: We are very close.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_05: I will say, like, we are very much like real friends.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_05: Like, it's not just like an industry thing.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_05: Like, there's so much more that goes behind the scenes to our our our relationship that, you know, and we share, but we don't share all of it.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_05: But we're very tight.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_05: We're very, very close.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_01: Your foundation that you have going on, that you do the thing every year, like shine some light on that because I think it's amazing what you guys have been doing.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_05: So I I decided to um, I've always given back because I came from a lot of these programs, right?
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_05: Like I was the kid that got like the donated backpack.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_05: When there was a backpack drive because my parents didn't have it.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_05: So to me, I just feel like you have to give back.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_05: You have to do it.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_05: It's my duty because I know what it is to need.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_05: So I have always been a philanthropist in that, in that way.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_05: And me and my one of my best girlfriends, Sharifa Murdock, um, would always team up and just do our little, our little versions of like back to school drive, where we would take like 30 girls and we would call brands and give them backpacks and get them basics, like whether it's like beauty products, clothes, jackets, and we would always talk to them and just try to plant seeds for them to want to do more.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I always feel like our girls need love and they need to be inspired.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_05: It's not always about ability, it's about access.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_05: So I was like, how can we give access?
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_05: So we used to do it on our own, and then one day she was like, let's just make this an official thing.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_05: We created Invision Fest, the Envision Festival.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, you can go to envisionfestival.com, envsnfestival.com, and we do a yearly festival.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_05: It's two days, it's in Brooklyn where we have brand activations, we um have workshops, like every every brand that partners with us, I asked for an educational component.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_05: So we had like Gap come in and do like a uh fashion design workshop, you know what I mean?
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_05: Like to just teach the girls what it feels like to step into those shoes.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, we have amazing panelists.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_05: So like we had rare beauty come in and do color matching, like everything has to be in a way where somebody could take something away from their experience, you know.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_05: So we do that, and then we became official, became a 501c3 two years ago with the Envision Foundation, and it's all tied.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_05: But you know, I just Shreef and I used to fund it ourselves.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_05: You know, that's not sustainable.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_05: So we made it a real business.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_05: And then, um, so now I have this mentorship program that I do.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_05: I launch it in January where I take 25 girls and I pair them with incredible females in the field that they want to be in along with their parents, and they do a whole mentorship program, and we give them, you know, access to like different classes, different opportunities.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_05: Like I hu I host a huge prom drive where we dress 200 girls.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_05: I always believe like prom is so special, and like a lot of my girls never had a quintenera or a sweet 16.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_05: So they had this is like their first social moment.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_05: And the fact that times are hard, and like if your family's worried about putting food on the table, you're not worried about buying a girl a gown.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_05: So at least we could alleviate that.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_05: And we get really nice dresses.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_05: We team up with the uh Brooklyn Academy of Music.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, we work with MYC homeless youth, after school programs, just individual teachers, youth programs.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I've been, I'm very proud of the work that we do.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_05: So we've done it for like three years in a row, send 200 girls to prom.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_05: And uh at the end of the year, we get a huge hygiene where we get community together because even though our girls were giving, I want them to know what it feels like for them to give back.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_05: So we we create these we I call them dignity bags where we collect feminine hygiene products, socks, hats, gloves, and we put together these like care packages and we give them to women in homeless shelters.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, nice.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_05: So it's just give back that really it's it's necessary.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_05: We need to continue to uplift our community and just being guided by our youth and like uplifting them and just helping them with access, it just feeds my soul.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_05: And it's something that I'm very proud of.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_05: So go check it out.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_05: On IG, it's Envision Fest, E-N-B-S N Fest, and then through the website envisionfestival.com, you'll see the foundation and all the work that we do.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_03: There you go.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_03: There you go.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_03: One last thing, one last thing.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_03: Laura, we need your words for up and coming Laura's future Laura Styles.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_03: A girl that the little Laura Styles is in her house right now, thinking of doing this.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it's a different time now.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, radio is not what radio used to be when you were coming up.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_03: Of course.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's you know, now there's a billion platforms.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_03: But any advice to that, to that young female in high school.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_05: So I get this all the time, right?
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_05: Because it's part of what I do with Envision.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_05: But I always tell young people whatever it is that you want to do, you need to study it.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_05: Study the business of it.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_05: Because at the end of the day, you we are looking for a career, we're looking for a job, you need to make money.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_05: I have tons of young people that come up to me, they're like, I want to do what you do.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, So what do I do?
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, We hang out with rappers.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, that's maybe 10% of what we do.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, but maybe five.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, but it's a business, you know.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_05: So please understand like what it is.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_05: How does it work?
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_05: How do ratings work?
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_05: What is, you know, how do how does the whole like infrastructure work?
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_05: What are the different opportunities that you can get within a radio station?
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_05: Like, whatever it is that you want to do, do your research and find out where you fit in.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_05: Because it's very easy to just be general and be like, I want to be a movie star, I want to do this.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_05: Well, what are you doing to get you there?
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_05: So I always tell people, research, get educated in the field you want to be in.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_05: And right now we're in a beautiful time where it's like it's so easy.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_05: Like when we were coming up, like there was no this, you know, these kind of platforms where we could broadcast, you know, remotely.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_05: And I always tell people too, like nowadays, it's like people really don't invest in making stars.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_05: They find what you're already doing.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_05: They're looking for people with movements already.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_05: So build your independent movement.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_05: And you will be able to pitch yourself with value if you already have a fan base.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_05: If you have currency already in the space that you want to exist.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_05: So that's really that would be my biggest advice.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_05: Like, and always look at what you want to do, see who else is doing it, and see how you can be different.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_05: What's gonna make you unique that's gonna make you stand out?
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_03: I like that, Laura.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's that was great.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_03: That was c that was that's what I wanted to hear.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, L, moving forward, uh, still with the morning show thing, still with the foundation.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_01: Anything else we need to know?
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_05: Not really.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_05: Honestly, that's been keeping me super busy, but support our movement.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_05: Um, follow us, subscribe on YouTube, the Ibra Laura Rosenberg Show.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_05: And also, you at there you could check out ELR News Weekly, where we give you a progressive 30-minute news show of everything that's happening in the world as we dive straight into politics and how our country's burning up in flames and how you know help each other out to sustain.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_05: But uh, but yeah, and you know, follow me on Instagram, you know, at Laura Styles with a Z on all platforms, and you know, I and support the work that we do through Envision and the Invision Foundation.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_01: It is, y'all, the philanthropist, the entrepreneur, the entertainer, the heavy hitter, Laura Straza.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_03: You are you are a true heavy hitter.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_05: Heavy hitter, heavy hitter.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_05: I love ya, I love y'all.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_01: Go ahead and make sure you subscribe to the heavy hitter DJs podcast, break the joke, and share it with someone who cares about the roots of what moves us.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the crowd move for our book.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the big Spanish guy, DJ and up.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_03: I'm DJ Camelo, and I'm DJ Act One.