Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Roxanne Shante Speaks On Her Legacy, Friendship With Nas, Advice To Female Rappers + More

Transcript

INTERVIEW: Roxanne Shante Speaks On Her Legacy, Friendship With Nas, Advice To Female Rappers + More · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.
0:04
Speaker 2: Everybody is DJ Envy just hilarious, Charlamagne the gud We
0:08
Speaker 2: are the Breakfast Club. La La Rosa is here as well,
0:11
Speaker 2: and we got a special guest in the building. We
0:13
Speaker 2: got the Queen and queens get the money we have,
0:16
Speaker 2: Rock said Shante, welcome, Hey.
0:18
Speaker 1: You, thank you. I appreciate that.
0:20
Speaker 3: How are you feeling one, I feel absolutely blessed. Okay,
0:23
Speaker 3: you know, and I feel good.
0:25
Speaker 1: I feel good.
0:25
Speaker 3: I think I've learned to age and and I enjoy it.
0:30
Speaker 3: So because I don't fight age, I feel good every
0:32
Speaker 3: day be messed up.
0:35
Speaker 1: I feel good.
0:36
Speaker 2: Well, congratulations, you got a Lifetime Grammy Achievement Award.
0:40
Speaker 4: How did that feel?
0:42
Speaker 1: That was amazing?
0:43
Speaker 3: You know when they first even contacted me and told me, like, listen,
0:45
Speaker 3: we're gonna give you a Lifetime Achievement award at the Grammys.
0:49
Speaker 3: And then when I heard the class that I was in,
0:51
Speaker 3: which happened to be Prince and Frankie Bevery and Frankie
0:54
Speaker 3: Valley and taj mahall the clash. You know, when you
0:57
Speaker 3: first hear all of them and then you say, okay,
0:59
Speaker 3: and you're adding rocksne It was just incredible to me.
1:01
Speaker 3: But it also shows perseverance, It shows patience, It shows
1:04
Speaker 3: something that you know, a lot of people need to
1:06
Speaker 3: have that understanding that when it comes to hip hop
1:08
Speaker 3: and even when it comes to getting into entertainment and careers,
1:11
Speaker 3: some things are going to take time. Sometimes it's the
1:13
Speaker 3: slow grind. Yeah, you know, it's the slow It's the
1:15
Speaker 3: slow burn that makes the encegnse smell good.
1:17
Speaker 2: Did they have a hip hop category when you guys
1:20
Speaker 2: were first putting out records?
1:21
Speaker 3: No, they didn't, and then all of a sudden they
1:23
Speaker 3: did come up with one. And then I remember we
1:26
Speaker 3: had to everyone got together and wanted to boycott because
1:29
Speaker 3: they had took it back out then they added it in.
1:31
Speaker 2: So yeah, definitely was it bittersweet a little bit because
1:34
Speaker 2: it was like, I feel like I should have been
1:36
Speaker 2: recognized a long time ago for my achievement to what
1:38
Speaker 2: I've done in this industry.
1:40
Speaker 3: Honestly, no, because if I was going to get a Grammy,
1:43
Speaker 3: I would prefer to have it for lifetime achievement. That
1:46
Speaker 3: means that it really focuses on everything that I've accomplished,
1:50
Speaker 3: you know, like when you see my Grammy, My Grammy
1:52
Speaker 3: represents the person who didn't sell millions of albums. You know,
1:55
Speaker 3: my Grammy represents the person that said no to a
1:58
Speaker 3: lot of things that people said yes, you know what
2:01
Speaker 3: I mean. So therefore it has like a little more
2:03
Speaker 3: of a significance to me personally. So I would love
2:06
Speaker 3: to have it that way as opposed to you know,
2:08
Speaker 3: because sometimes people will look at the Grammy and say, Okay, well,
2:10
Speaker 3: we know they're gonna get the Grammy this year because
2:12
Speaker 3: they had the hottest video and they had this and
2:13
Speaker 3: they had that. But in order to have a lifetime,
2:16
Speaker 3: you know, you have to put a lifetime in and
2:18
Speaker 3: not everybody's gonna last a lifetime. Some people gonna get
2:20
Speaker 3: a hot five years, some people might get a good ten.
2:23
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I've had a strong.
2:24
Speaker 5: Forty and you're the first solo female rapper to do that.
2:27
Speaker 5: To do so like, to receive this recognition, absolutely, that's amazing.
2:32
Speaker 6: It was sitting in that moment like for you because
2:33
Speaker 6: it is a first. You are getting it because of
2:35
Speaker 6: the entirety of your career. Now, just the moment when
2:38
Speaker 6: you get that call and you're sitting in it is like,
2:40
Speaker 6: oh wow, or is it like boom, duh.
2:43
Speaker 3: No, for me, it was like I really it was
2:45
Speaker 3: like hard. It was hard for me to just understand,
2:47
Speaker 3: like this is really happening. Because when you come into
2:50
Speaker 3: the industry, you come into the industry for like three things,
2:52
Speaker 3: and that's to get a record deal, because you want
2:54
Speaker 3: to make sure that you get a record deal so
2:55
Speaker 3: you're gonna make a lot of money. And then too,
2:57
Speaker 3: you want to make sure that you do that great album.
2:59
Speaker 3: You want to go platinum, you want to be on Billboard,
3:01
Speaker 3: that type of thing. But then you also want to Grammy.
3:04
Speaker 3: I think everyone that goes into the music industry, you know,
3:07
Speaker 3: as far as a performer or making records, you want
3:10
Speaker 3: a Grammy. So for me it was like after a while,
3:13
Speaker 3: I didn't expect that, but I also knew that I
3:15
Speaker 3: wasn't gonna stop being me, Like I was not going
3:17
Speaker 3: to change being Roxanne Chante. So if I was destined
3:20
Speaker 3: to have a Grammy, then it's gonna come, whether I
3:22
Speaker 3: sell a million records or not. And that's the reason
3:25
Speaker 3: why sitting there, I was like, Okay, I am really
3:27
Speaker 3: sitting here, like I am really next to them, Like
3:30
Speaker 3: literally I had to reach out and touch people because
3:32
Speaker 3: I was like, I really isn't Like, yeah, let me
3:34
Speaker 3: just make sure, you know. And I took my daughter
3:36
Speaker 3: with me and I kept touching her. She was like, man,
3:39
Speaker 3: you're gonna mess up my meek up I'm touching you
3:42
Speaker 3: know that type of stuff. But yeah, so definitely, I
3:44
Speaker 3: truly enjoyed it.
3:45
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask, you know, I was talking to Sydney,
3:48
Speaker 2: who's there, she does our digital and she was like,
3:50
Speaker 2: you know, she watched the Rock Sande Chanta just roxyne
3:53
Speaker 2: Chante movie, loved it, but she was like, there was
3:56
Speaker 2: much about it that I missed out of it. And
3:58
Speaker 2: she was like, you know, she really didn't go went
4:00
Speaker 2: to the group homes that she went into. When this
4:02
Speaker 2: that and the YETHERA, why was that taking out? Why
4:04
Speaker 2: was that not ad dress? Because I even heard you
4:06
Speaker 2: say something that you know, you've seen a better situation
4:09
Speaker 2: in the group home than in our actual home.
4:12
Speaker 1: Yes, so why was that taking out so much?
4:14
Speaker 3: You know, when we did the Rock sand Rox sand movie,
4:16
Speaker 3: you know, a big shout out to Pharrell, Forrest Whitaka,
4:20
Speaker 3: you know, Mimi Valdez, Nina Banjovi, big shout out to
4:23
Speaker 3: them for making this happen. But when we did the movie,
4:25
Speaker 3: and when I told the story, literally every day everybody.
4:28
Speaker 1: Was in tears, you know, because I was in the streets.
4:30
Speaker 3: For a very long time, and being a young girl
4:32
Speaker 3: in the streets and being a pretty girl at that,
4:34
Speaker 3: you know, there's a lot of things that can happen,
4:36
Speaker 3: you know, and it makes it makes you kind of cold,
4:38
Speaker 3: it changes you a little bit. And so we only
4:41
Speaker 3: did three years of my life because at first we
4:43
Speaker 3: weren't really prepared. Felt like the world was prepared for
4:46
Speaker 3: the full Rock sand Chante story. You know what I'm saying.
4:48
Speaker 3: It's not something that you could really sit back and
4:50
Speaker 3: be like, you know, it had a lot of gasping moments.
4:52
Speaker 3: And then when we were doing the movie, one of
4:54
Speaker 3: the things about it was the young lady who played me.
4:56
Speaker 1: Her name is Jante Adams. It was her first time.
4:59
Speaker 3: She had just came out of school June twenty sixth
5:01
Speaker 3: and July fifth, we had her already taping. This was
5:03
Speaker 3: her first time being in a movie, and there were
5:05
Speaker 3: a lot of things I didn't want to subject her to,
5:07
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, because I knew that coming
5:09
Speaker 3: in the industry, it's whatever you are first presented as
5:13
Speaker 3: is what you continue to be in the industry.
5:15
Speaker 1: I don't care how much you try to change.
5:17
Speaker 3: They see you as that first time they were introduced
5:19
Speaker 3: to you, and so I didn't want her to have
5:21
Speaker 3: any nude scenes. I didn't want her to have any
5:23
Speaker 3: strong sexual scenes. I didn't want her to have any
5:25
Speaker 3: strong abuse scenes. So that this way her standard for
5:28
Speaker 3: what she is going to have in the industry, and
5:30
Speaker 3: it shows in the work that she did following up
5:32
Speaker 3: working with Denzel and doing such other great movies and
5:34
Speaker 3: doing plays and stuff like that. I was also thinking
5:37
Speaker 3: about her, so I was like, listen, we can't put
5:39
Speaker 3: that in, but it'll make a hell of a book.
5:42
Speaker 1: You know. We can't put that in, but I want
5:44
Speaker 1: to talk about this part.
5:45
Speaker 3: And then even the extension of my movie, because people
5:48
Speaker 3: say it just stops so abruptly. I didn't get a
5:50
Speaker 3: chance to introduce them to BIZ. So now hoov has
5:54
Speaker 3: done the extension of that. So now we're looking to
5:56
Speaker 3: like the part two of everything that I've done is
5:59
Speaker 3: now getting ready to show up in this new project,
6:01
Speaker 3: which is incredible to me.
6:02
Speaker 2: I break that with Kovy here, Lexarykooviy, can we get a.
6:05
Speaker 4: Chair for coovie?
6:06
Speaker 2: And over there and while we're getting a chair for him. Now,
6:10
Speaker 2: how did Biz get introduced? Biz Macking? How did he
6:13
Speaker 2: get introduced?
6:14
Speaker 3: He was sleeping in the hallway in Queensbridge, like this
6:17
Speaker 3: is that was my introduction to Biz.
6:19
Speaker 1: Mark was sleeping in the hallway in Queensbridge.
6:22
Speaker 3: But he was sleeping there because he was working with
6:24
Speaker 3: Chan and he was he Biz had the energy that
6:28
Speaker 3: we all needed because he said We're gonna be stars.
6:31
Speaker 3: And I really couldn't see that because We're sleeping in
6:34
Speaker 3: the movie theaters on forty second Street and I'm putting
6:36
Speaker 3: my feet across biz lap because I hate sticky floors,
6:39
Speaker 3: like still today, Like I will lose it right if
6:42
Speaker 3: the floor is sticky, I will get up in mop
6:44
Speaker 3: in the middle of the night. That is one of
6:45
Speaker 3: my things, you know, because I don't want the floor
6:47
Speaker 3: to be sticky, you know. And so for me, one
6:50
Speaker 3: of the things was Biz would always say, don't worry
6:53
Speaker 3: about his shiny, like we're gonna be stars. And I
6:55
Speaker 3: mean we got karate flicks playing. I mean, if anybody
6:58
Speaker 3: that went to his funeral they saw that, you know,
7:00
Speaker 3: I kept my word at the end of everything that
7:02
Speaker 3: we were gonna do regarding it, but he had that
7:05
Speaker 3: energy that we all needed. And even when my DJ
7:08
Speaker 3: told me, like you listen, I'm not gonna play for
7:10
Speaker 3: you no more da da da, he said, look, I
7:12
Speaker 3: will beatbox the entire show for you. And he beatboxed
7:16
Speaker 3: so much that night he literally had to put his
7:18
Speaker 3: lips inside of ice water.
7:20
Speaker 1: And so these are the stories that people didn't get
7:23
Speaker 1: a chance to see.
7:24
Speaker 3: So that was the extension with Koov saying, you know what,
7:27
Speaker 3: the story has to be told, and there's no way
7:29
Speaker 3: that you can tell a Coov Bismarcky story without Kov
7:33
Speaker 3: of course, so Coov gives you the whole vision of
7:37
Speaker 3: how it takes place from Koolv's eyes and what he's seeing,
7:40
Speaker 3: you know, which is incredible. And my daughter gets a
7:42
Speaker 3: chance to play me, you know, because it's gonna be rocky,
7:44
Speaker 3: and okay, that's how you do.
7:47
Speaker 1: It well, Koobe.
7:48
Speaker 6: I would love to hear you know your take on
7:51
Speaker 6: putting the project together, because I remember you posted something
7:53
Speaker 6: and you were talking about how you still cry when
7:55
Speaker 6: you hear certain bis my key song I do, and
7:58
Speaker 6: you mentioned that the story, the story if his life,
8:00
Speaker 6: could never be told the right way unless you two
8:02
Speaker 6: did it right, and now you're doing it so I
8:04
Speaker 6: think that. I mean, it's gonna be exciting to watch,
8:07
Speaker 6: but I would love to hear, you know, you talk
8:08
Speaker 6: about putting together.
8:10
Speaker 4: If she didn't bring the vision with the Rock Sanne
8:12
Speaker 4: Rock Sande movie, right, who thinks they gonna make a
8:14
Speaker 4: movie about your life?
8:16
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
8:17
Speaker 4: And that movie was so good? He said, Damn, we
8:21
Speaker 4: all got a movie really like like you know, we
8:24
Speaker 4: the Juice crew, we every member has a movie, yes, right,
8:27
Speaker 4: and then we started losing members so and we lost
8:31
Speaker 4: mister Magic first before all of this even happened. So
8:35
Speaker 4: we're saying, damn, we didn't get a chance to make
8:36
Speaker 4: a magic movie. Shani got a chance to make her movie.
8:40
Speaker 4: Biz left, I gotta make a movie. People might not
8:44
Speaker 4: know my role in the crew. I'm gonna tell about
8:47
Speaker 4: this whole story through my eyes because I remember Biz
8:52
Speaker 4: getting down with Shan first because Biz was Shan's beatbox first.
8:55
Speaker 4: Then Shante putting them on the roll with her, and
8:58
Speaker 4: then she bringing the bize in me and Kine and
9:01
Speaker 4: Swann on and then you know, everybody just coming on.
9:07
Speaker 4: But it was because of her allowing her platform to
9:10
Speaker 4: be shared with us because we all had something, but
9:13
Speaker 4: she had it. You see what I'm saying. She had
9:16
Speaker 4: that gift and it came across and when we all
9:19
Speaker 4: she took us all on the road with him. Every
9:20
Speaker 4: last one of us performed with her. So I can
9:23
Speaker 4: tell that story now you know. I did it in
9:26
Speaker 4: the books. I got three books out right, so you know.
9:29
Speaker 4: And for people that don't know the Symphony, the Symphony two,
9:32
Speaker 4: DJ Koovie Never Sleeps. These are all stories about all
9:35
Speaker 4: of us. It's not just about me. It's about all
9:38
Speaker 4: of us, the journey and everything like that. Big shot
9:40
Speaker 4: to Lucio Dutch for writing those books for me. And
9:43
Speaker 4: we put together this movie and the script is incredible.
9:47
Speaker 2: How did y'all know Biz Macky was the one?
9:49
Speaker 1: Right?
9:50
Speaker 2: Because if you look at Biz, you've ever been around Biz,
9:54
Speaker 2: you'd be like, no way he's gonna be.
9:56
Speaker 4: A successful rap because he always is joking. He was
9:59
Speaker 4: like the big teddy be as like, how.
10:01
Speaker 2: Did you know he was going to be the one?
10:03
Speaker 1: Because he never gave up.
10:04
Speaker 3: He literally dreamed like on moments when I was like, listen,
10:08
Speaker 3: I'm about to go back to Dayton hustlers because this
10:10
Speaker 3: is my word.
10:12
Speaker 1: We all have those times.
10:13
Speaker 3: Well I've been there, Yeah, exactly, like listen, I need
10:16
Speaker 3: a fur y'all playing you know what I'm saying. And
10:19
Speaker 3: I know I could get this, And so he still
10:22
Speaker 3: had that like, no, this is what we're gonna do.
10:24
Speaker 1: This is it.
10:25
Speaker 3: And so even going through you know, not only going
10:27
Speaker 3: through group homes but also going through foster care, Biz
10:30
Speaker 3: always wanted to be loved. He always felt like he
10:33
Speaker 3: was the last to be chosen. He was the last
10:35
Speaker 3: to be picked, he was the last to be fed,
10:37
Speaker 3: he was the last to be dressed.
10:38
Speaker 1: And he was like, don't worry, we're gonna be the first.
10:40
Speaker 1: You watch and see what happens. We're gonna be the first.
10:42
Speaker 3: So nobody knew the backstory of what we were going
10:46
Speaker 3: through in order to even become this, Like before the
10:49
Speaker 3: Rock Sands Chantay, in the Rock Stands Revenge, you know,
10:52
Speaker 3: nobody knows about you know, forty second Street and being
10:55
Speaker 3: night kids and different things like that.
10:57
Speaker 1: And with Biz, you just knew that it's something magic.
11:00
Speaker 3: Cool about him, Like literally when you looked at him,
11:02
Speaker 3: because he wasn't a nice looking one and and he
11:06
Speaker 3: smiled like as if there was bright whites and baby,
11:09
Speaker 3: they wasn't and he had a mile and he just
11:12
Speaker 3: had this whole vibe about him that was just incredible.
11:15
Speaker 3: And you say, you know what, his energy and his
11:17
Speaker 3: magic rubs off because sometimes we just need that magical
11:21
Speaker 3: person next to us, you know what I mean. And
11:24
Speaker 3: then he made all of us have that magic. And
11:26
Speaker 3: I realized, Okay, you know what, I can be that
11:28
Speaker 3: magical person for somebody, because Biz was that for me.
11:31
Speaker 3: So you become an incredible hype man. But then before
11:34
Speaker 3: you know it, you become the front man.
11:36
Speaker 2: Was it true that Biz had ownership of part ownership
11:39
Speaker 2: of Teletubby's Was that true? That was always a rumor
11:41
Speaker 2: that went around, And I was just curious.
11:42
Speaker 1: With you mess around with Busy on hab.
11:52
Speaker 3: Well, Busy Biz could create some entertaining stories and because
11:57
Speaker 3: of that is another reason why he was one of
12:00
Speaker 3: the greatest entertainers ever.
12:02
Speaker 1: So no, I'm not. I don't know, you know what
12:04
Speaker 1: I'm saying, because that's between him and his estate whether
12:09
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But if that's the case,
12:12
Speaker 1: then I'm definitely the purple one.
12:16
Speaker 2: As I said, that was one of the one interviews
12:18
Speaker 2: I'm upset we missed, right I would always see Biers
12:22
Speaker 2: on the road, right because after you know, he rapped,
12:24
Speaker 2: he started getting into DJ and heavy and I would
12:27
Speaker 2: always see him on the one and I would always say, Yo,
12:28
Speaker 2: you gotta come and be like and he would call
12:30
Speaker 2: Charlamagne would call myself and that was the one that
12:32
Speaker 2: I was like, I would just love to sit down
12:33
Speaker 2: and just talk to Biz.
12:35
Speaker 1: I would love to man.
12:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know, like Biz was the connector. I'm
12:42
Speaker 4: still with her to this day. He connected me with everybody,
12:47
Speaker 4: like all of us. Like she shared her platform. Biz
12:50
Speaker 4: connected the people the other pieces to go to the puzzle.
12:53
Speaker 4: And you know what I'm saying. And like she said,
12:55
Speaker 4: his stories, whether they were true or not, it made
12:59
Speaker 4: you feel good.
13:01
Speaker 1: And that's why everybody, everybody was his friend.
13:03
Speaker 4: Everybody everybody like that, you know what I'm saying. So
13:06
Speaker 4: you would love the stories because the stories would get
13:09
Speaker 4: your attention to pay attention to the talent. And his
13:11
Speaker 4: talent was he believed. He believed that, like you say,
13:16
Speaker 4: the little engine that could, Yes, that was the ultimate
13:19
Speaker 4: hip hop little engine that could. Because he didn't wasn't
13:22
Speaker 4: the best rapper, he wasn't the best beat box, he
13:24
Speaker 4: wasn't all of these things, but he'd loved to do it,
13:28
Speaker 4: and he said, we're gonna be stars. We're gonna be stars.
13:31
Speaker 1: Watch Watch.
13:32
Speaker 4: And when he said it, you know, as much as
13:35
Speaker 4: you would say yeah right, it put that battery in
13:39
Speaker 4: your back to say let's go, let's make it happen.
13:42
Speaker 4: And then we put we all did you know I'm saying,
13:43
Speaker 4: because everybody got their super talent, we like you know,
13:46
Speaker 4: we combined forces and we became that juice crawl star
13:50
Speaker 4: thing like the super Friends super Friends, we came together.
13:53
Speaker 4: Everybody got their own talent, and we respected each other's talents,
13:57
Speaker 4: but we all pushed each other to be better.
13:59
Speaker 2: The one thing that I was always bothered me about
14:02
Speaker 2: Legends is I felt like you guys crawl so everybody
14:06
Speaker 2: else could run, right, And I always felt like I
14:11
Speaker 2: love the flowers, and I'm sure you guys love the
14:13
Speaker 2: flowers too, But I always felt like the industry did
14:16
Speaker 2: you guys dirty right As DJ's producers, rappers, performers, you know,
14:23
Speaker 2: they ate and made billions of dollar off this thing
14:26
Speaker 2: that you put on your back and did it for
14:27
Speaker 2: the culture and did it because this came from the heart.
14:30
Speaker 2: And I don't feel like you guys ever made the
14:32
Speaker 2: right money for that, you know what I mean? Because
14:34
Speaker 2: you still have to put your kids through school and
14:36
Speaker 2: your kids through school. How did that always make you
14:38
Speaker 2: feel like the industry did you dirty? Like you never
14:40
Speaker 2: got what you was deserved?
14:42
Speaker 1: You know?
14:43
Speaker 3: For me, I think I might be one of the
14:45
Speaker 3: only ones that was not angry, Like I just was
14:49
Speaker 3: never angry. I felt like, what I'm supposed to have,
14:51
Speaker 3: I'm supposed to have. What I'm going to get, I'm
14:53
Speaker 3: going to get it is destined, and so I never
14:56
Speaker 3: looked at.
14:56
Speaker 1: It like, Okay, well, why aren't they picking me? And
14:58
Speaker 1: why don't I have this? And why can't I have that?
15:01
Speaker 3: Instead, I would look at some of the things that
15:03
Speaker 3: some of the artists would go through, because if we
15:05
Speaker 3: look at it now, like if we tally up everything
15:08
Speaker 3: right now, I'm in a better position than anybody that
15:12
Speaker 3: was hot in the eighties, and that's both financially, mentally physically.
15:17
Speaker 3: At this point in my life, I am better than
15:20
Speaker 3: most of them, if not all of them. And the
15:23
Speaker 3: reason why is because I was willing to wait patiently
15:26
Speaker 3: until the universe said here, you can have it. I
15:28
Speaker 3: came in the industry at fifteen, at fifteen years old,
15:31
Speaker 3: you give me a million dollars, it's gonna be gone
15:32
Speaker 3: in a year. Why because I'm gonna want a car.
15:35
Speaker 3: I'm gonna want this, I'm gonna want that. I'm gonna
15:37
Speaker 3: want these things. Okay, So now you give me a
15:39
Speaker 3: million dollars in my fifties, I'm gonna maintain that for
15:43
Speaker 3: the rest of my life. Why because I've already been
15:45
Speaker 3: put in a great position. And when we talk about
15:47
Speaker 3: being put in a great position, you know, I'm on
15:50
Speaker 3: I have a show.
15:51
Speaker 1: You know, have a nice day. L cuj's Rock the
15:53
Speaker 1: Bells Radio and I have a show.
15:55
Speaker 3: And we started off with thirty thousand listeners per day
15:58
Speaker 3: and now we're reaching millions per day. So he had
16:03
Speaker 3: el seen the vision and was like, look, your voice
16:05
Speaker 3: and your storytelling and your experience, we need to have
16:08
Speaker 3: you on every day. So he set us up. So
16:10
Speaker 3: automatically I went and got cool V. Because there's no
16:12
Speaker 3: way that I could be in any position of growth
16:16
Speaker 3: and not look behind me and see one of my
16:18
Speaker 3: Juice crew members, like they have to.
16:20
Speaker 1: Be in the room. I need them in the room.
16:22
Speaker 3: That is the energy and the magic that comes along
16:25
Speaker 3: with being loyal to each other. So when I look
16:28
Speaker 3: over and I see V I know I'm going to
16:29
Speaker 3: have a nice day. I know I'm going to have
16:31
Speaker 3: a great day. So because of that, the success of that,
16:34
Speaker 3: and then ALON comes to Paid in Full Foundation, which
16:38
Speaker 3: NOS is a part of, and because of the Horowitzes,
16:40
Speaker 3: and they say, well, listen, you know what.
16:42
Speaker 1: We want to sit you down, and this is what
16:44
Speaker 1: we want to tell you.
16:44
Speaker 3: For everything that you've done in the industry, for all
16:46
Speaker 3: of these years that you've done, all this hard work,
16:48
Speaker 3: and you've been overlooked and you've been overshadowed and all
16:51
Speaker 3: of these other things, we have something for you and
16:54
Speaker 3: we want you to know that this is what you
16:55
Speaker 3: can have. So literally, they made me a millionaire. So
16:59
Speaker 3: when they made me a millionaire, I remember doing an
17:01
Speaker 3: interview and they said, well, now that you have the
17:04
Speaker 3: money which I would have never saved from then, the
17:07
Speaker 3: money that I would have never had from then, you know,
17:09
Speaker 3: from everything that went on between people going through drugs
17:12
Speaker 3: and different things like that.
17:13
Speaker 1: Now that you have this money, what is it that
17:16
Speaker 1: you do now?
17:17
Speaker 3: And the first thing I said is sleep, because I
17:21
Speaker 3: never knew what it was to sleep. I knew what
17:23
Speaker 3: it was to rest. I knew what it was to
17:24
Speaker 3: take a nap. I knew what it was to catch
17:26
Speaker 3: a quickie, that type of thing, but I never knew
17:29
Speaker 3: what it was to sleep. Since I was fifteen years old,
17:31
Speaker 3: I never knew what it was like to just get
17:33
Speaker 3: under the covers and sleep. So when I received the check,
17:36
Speaker 3: I slept, you know, And I told them, I said, like,
17:39
Speaker 3: for the first time in my life, I know what it's.
17:41
Speaker 1: Like sleep and not worry and.
17:44
Speaker 3: Not worry and not have to be woke up because
17:47
Speaker 3: now I got something to do a job I have
17:49
Speaker 3: to do, you know.
17:50
Speaker 1: Now do I get up to go to work? Absolutely?
17:52
Speaker 1: I love my job. I do what I do.
17:53
Speaker 3: But the main thing is I now know what it
17:56
Speaker 3: is to sleep. And so some people don't understand, you
18:00
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. Like for me, that's what it was.
18:03
Speaker 3: So that money brought me some.
18:05
Speaker 4: Sweet Yeah, well I was mad a little bit, as
18:14
Speaker 4: I was pissed because you think about it like this, right,
18:17
Speaker 4: I gotta blame myself first and foremost for signing contracts
18:22
Speaker 4: and not getting the lawyer, just being happy to be
18:24
Speaker 4: in the room. But we was teenagers because at that time.
18:27
Speaker 3: And I don't mean to cut you up, but let
18:28
Speaker 3: me just say this. At that time, you don't know
18:30
Speaker 3: the difference between your signature and the autograph, So anytime
18:33
Speaker 3: paper is put in front of you, you automatically sign
18:35
Speaker 3: it because you don't know the difference between your signature
18:37
Speaker 3: and not that young not exactly, So what you're doing
18:40
Speaker 3: is you're just signing, you know what I mean.
18:42
Speaker 4: And now, to this day, I have never received a
18:46
Speaker 4: royalty for no record I ever made. And we got
18:48
Speaker 4: double platinum, platinum, goal, all of that, and we find
18:51
Speaker 4: out later that all of these people are making money
18:54
Speaker 4: off our music. And that's cool. But when you're trying
18:57
Speaker 4: to shut me out, cut me in, find a way
19:00
Speaker 4: do something. You've been making money for thirty something years
19:03
Speaker 4: off of my legacy, biz, legacy, chante, whoever. You know
19:07
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, Like our whole crew, none of us
19:10
Speaker 4: had our publishing right, none of us had all of
19:12
Speaker 4: these things right. So I'm not crying about it now
19:14
Speaker 4: because I always end up on my feet, you know
19:16
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. Like we smile every day. I love
19:19
Speaker 4: right now. I'm not dwelling on the past, but it's
19:22
Speaker 4: still money being broken down. Even if you can't give
19:25
Speaker 4: me what you owe me from back, then, break it
19:27
Speaker 4: down with me right now.
19:28
Speaker 1: You getting it.
19:29
Speaker 4: You just supporting your families. I got great grandkids, not grandkids.
19:33
Speaker 4: I'm not grandkids, got kids. So while we can't get
19:36
Speaker 4: this money right now, and I'm not upset because we're
19:39
Speaker 4: working on the project right now, and I just need
19:41
Speaker 4: people to get these investors together to make this project happen,
19:44
Speaker 4: because I know it's ready, I know it's right, and
19:46
Speaker 4: we're gonna do it.
19:47
Speaker 5: Well, let me just say, somebody's great grandfather, you look good.
19:50
Speaker 1: Well, thank you.
19:54
Speaker 5: Going back to what you were talking about about the movie,
19:57
Speaker 5: the Rock Saint Chante movie, right, the young lady that
20:00
Speaker 5: played you, I know you said that she was right
20:01
Speaker 5: out of acting school.
20:03
Speaker 1: She just graduated out of Carnegie Mellon.
20:05
Speaker 5: Just just graduated, right, And you said there was a
20:08
Speaker 5: lot of things that you didn't put it in because
20:09
Speaker 5: you didn't want to subject her today.
20:10
Speaker 1: You didn't want to party through that.
20:12
Speaker 5: Was that also because you felt like she couldn't she
20:17
Speaker 5: was so fresh and knew that she wouldn't be able
20:19
Speaker 5: to embody all of that trauma. Your story is yes
20:24
Speaker 5: enough to like you said, people were crying on set
20:26
Speaker 5: every day while you're telling them the stories. Do you
20:29
Speaker 5: feel that she could really convey that with her being
20:33
Speaker 5: such a fresh like right out of school.
20:35
Speaker 3: Well, you know, honestly, she she won Breakout Actor of
20:40
Speaker 3: the Year from Sun Dance from my movie so amazing.
20:43
Speaker 3: It was never a question of her ability, it was how.
20:47
Speaker 1: Would they see her?
20:48
Speaker 3: Like I sat back and I noticed that there were
20:50
Speaker 3: a lot of actors that had played parts that were
20:53
Speaker 3: never able to get out of them. So if she
20:55
Speaker 3: played rock sand chante, you know what I'm saying that,
20:58
Speaker 3: and baby my numbers was high like chaps, okay, And
21:05
Speaker 3: I didn't want to put her in all of those positions,
21:07
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. Literally, you know, I didn't
21:09
Speaker 3: want to do that to her, and so I just
21:11
Speaker 3: wanted to make sure that when they viewed her, they
21:13
Speaker 3: saw the talent that had to be played emotionally in
21:16
Speaker 3: every part, rather than have her play something else.
21:19
Speaker 1: So that's really what I felt from that.
21:21
Speaker 6: I wanted to go back to something you mentioned too,
21:23
Speaker 6: with the rock the Bells of elkuj Yes, I was
21:27
Speaker 6: reading about. I think this was when he was advertising
21:29
Speaker 6: last year's show, The Owner like you got your minority
21:32
Speaker 6: owner in the brand too.
21:33
Speaker 1: Yes, that is amazing as well.
21:35
Speaker 6: And I think that I think a lot of people
21:37
Speaker 6: don't talk about that part of what he does with
21:38
Speaker 6: Rock Thebells and how important it is and that being
21:40
Speaker 6: a foundation.
21:41
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about his first.
21:43
Speaker 6: Phone call to you about that and kind of how
21:45
Speaker 6: that felt and how it came together.
21:47
Speaker 3: Well, how this whole thing came about in order for
21:49
Speaker 3: me to have to have a nice day. Show was
21:51
Speaker 3: I did an interview, and I was doing an interview
21:53
Speaker 3: about the movie. And I was doing the interview with
21:55
Speaker 3: l And We're sitting there and we are talking and
21:58
Speaker 3: we are laughing, and he is saying, you know what,
22:00
Speaker 3: I feel like, you're interviewing me.
22:01
Speaker 1: He said, you need to be doing this.
22:03
Speaker 3: He said, I'm getting ready to start up this company
22:06
Speaker 3: and I'm getting ready to start this radio station. He said, Look,
22:09
Speaker 3: this is what we're gonna do. B. That's how he does.
22:10
Speaker 3: He goes, that's what we're gonna do.
22:12
Speaker 1: He still be locking the lips. Yeah up here he
22:15
Speaker 1: was doing it. Yeah, yeah, he still does. He's like, yeah,
22:17
Speaker 1: so look this is what we're gonna do. B.
22:19
Speaker 3: I'm gonna make you part owner, which means everything you
22:22
Speaker 3: work for and how you build this, you're gonna see
22:24
Speaker 3: the benefits from it, you know, And not that that
22:27
Speaker 3: was more of an incentive for me to work harder
22:29
Speaker 3: because I was gonna work harder for him anyway. Regardless,
22:31
Speaker 3: I was gonna do this. I'm gonna always put my
22:33
Speaker 3: best foot forward. You're my brother, I trust you. This
22:35
Speaker 3: is what you say we're gonna do. This is what
22:37
Speaker 3: we're gonna do. But just know that the checks on
22:40
Speaker 3: the back is a nice incentive, you know what I'm
22:42
Speaker 3: saying that that's a nice little come along to know
22:44
Speaker 3: that you're an owner. But then it also makes you
22:47
Speaker 3: know the importance of how we represent it. So yeah,
22:50
Speaker 3: so definitely. So the phone call was like it wasn't
22:52
Speaker 3: even a phone call, it was a face to face
22:53
Speaker 3: and literally I left La. When we did get to
22:56
Speaker 3: New York, he had already set it up for me.
22:58
Speaker 3: He was like, look, I know that you you had
23:00
Speaker 3: not really done radio, and this is not something like
23:03
Speaker 3: I didn't know how to work a board and everything else.
23:05
Speaker 3: So they had to get a whole team together for me.
23:08
Speaker 3: And getting a team together was like a difference because
23:11
Speaker 3: I didn't just come on as talent. It was like, Okay,
23:13
Speaker 3: we're going to get everything that you need and all
23:15
Speaker 3: you have to do is be you. And that's exactly
23:18
Speaker 3: what he allowed me to be. You know, and being
23:21
Speaker 3: an owner and having others that are also owners is
23:24
Speaker 3: just incredible because it makes you say, like.
23:26
Speaker 1: Look what we've built. You know, look what his vision saw.
23:30
Speaker 3: And he understood the importance of ownership because he was like,
23:33
Speaker 3: you've done so many things, and you've built so many
23:35
Speaker 3: things for other people. Now it's your turn to say, look,
23:38
Speaker 3: this is what I built and this is what we have.
23:39
Speaker 1: And I thank him for that, Like literally we call
23:41
Speaker 1: him to Todd Fowk.
23:42
Speaker 4: You see right now, you know what I'm saying, listen
23:45
Speaker 4: because everything he said in the beginning, and I wasn't
23:47
Speaker 4: even there for that. She told me all of that.
23:50
Speaker 4: But everything that he said in the beginning, what you
23:53
Speaker 4: see now he said it back then and we've been
23:55
Speaker 4: on the radio for five years now. He said it then.
23:58
Speaker 2: I love it about the importance of NAS, right, you said,
24:01
Speaker 2: NAS made you a millionaire. Yes, talk about the importance
24:04
Speaker 2: of NAS because I feel like NAS's is an l
24:08
Speaker 2: Both of them are like the forgotten artists. And when
24:10
Speaker 2: I mean the forgotten. We all know they get busy
24:11
Speaker 2: or they we all know they got classic albums. We
24:13
Speaker 2: all know they get nice, but I don't think we
24:15
Speaker 2: talk about them enough. So talk about the importance of
24:18
Speaker 2: NAS to you.
24:18
Speaker 3: And you know, with Nas, it's like watching my little
24:22
Speaker 3: brother grow up and be exactly what I knew he
24:25
Speaker 3: was gonna be. You know, people would say to me
24:27
Speaker 3: all the time, like, why didn't you ever say about
24:30
Speaker 3: how you and Nas met? And I said, because it
24:33
Speaker 3: was genuine. That's me talking to my brother. That's not
24:35
Speaker 3: a conversation that I'm going to tell everybody. I'm not
24:37
Speaker 3: going to tell you every time I tell my sisters
24:40
Speaker 3: or my brothers that I'm gonna beat them up if
24:41
Speaker 3: they don't do right, I'm not gonna do that. And
24:43
Speaker 3: so he chose to reveal that to the public. He
24:46
Speaker 3: did that first in his documentary. He was like, listen,
24:49
Speaker 3: and then Sean Tay said this to me, and it
24:51
Speaker 3: made me understand that because you can see even with
24:54
Speaker 3: your your siblings or even those who are in your
24:56
Speaker 3: neighborhood because they grown up in Queensbridge, you know where
24:59
Speaker 3: there's fifty teen tenants on paper, but thirty thousand any
25:02
Speaker 3: given day because somebody's always living with somebody, somebody's always on,
25:06
Speaker 3: somebody couching the projects.
25:07
Speaker 1: But that was like a little city, but we all
25:10
Speaker 1: knew each other.
25:11
Speaker 3: And I remember seeing Nas and saying like, Yo, you're
25:13
Speaker 3: gonna be great, Like it's just something about you and
25:16
Speaker 3: I know you are, so stay away from them before
25:18
Speaker 3: I get you, you know. And then he was like,
25:20
Speaker 3: I'm gonna rhyme, and I was like, yeah, but you
25:22
Speaker 3: make sure you have it together because at one time
25:24
Speaker 3: he wanted to rhyme, but he also wanted to make
25:27
Speaker 3: sure that his crew k'n. And I'm saying like, so
25:30
Speaker 3: you're just writing for everybody, right, you know, so I
25:33
Speaker 3: need you to just do this for you because you
25:36
Speaker 3: are going to be special. There is something about you
25:39
Speaker 3: and I know it because I've always had to be
25:41
Speaker 3: my own hype person to tell myself like your listen,
25:44
Speaker 3: you're gonna be special. And the same energy that I
25:46
Speaker 3: would get from Bis like saying like we're gonna be
25:48
Speaker 3: you know the connection. You know who's gonna be something.
25:52
Speaker 3: And sometimes you can sit back you just honestly don't
25:54
Speaker 3: want to say it, but you know who's not gonna
25:55
Speaker 3: make it.
25:56
Speaker 1: You know who's not gonna make it. You can bring
25:58
Speaker 1: them along, but you know they not gonna make it. Yeah,
26:01
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
26:03
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you ever thought about signings back then?
26:07
Speaker 3: No, And I'm gonna tell you why the record company
26:10
Speaker 3: was already not paying me. They weren't treating me right.
26:12
Speaker 3: I lived in the hood literally, you know I lived.
26:15
Speaker 3: I lived in the area where Coov came to see
26:18
Speaker 3: me and Kov got hurt. That's up to him to
26:20
Speaker 3: elaborate on it. But I was living in Newark at
26:28
Speaker 3: the time, and I remember Kov coming to see me
26:31
Speaker 3: literally to bring me money because the record company wasn't
26:35
Speaker 3: doing what it was supposed to do. And so I
26:38
Speaker 3: would never take anyone and bring them into what I'm
26:42
Speaker 3: going through. That's almost like someone who's in an abuse
26:44
Speaker 3: situation and then you bring somebody else alongs for them
26:46
Speaker 3: to get abused to, you know what I'm saying. Instead,
26:48
Speaker 3: I'll just take all this abuse myself, you know, and
26:50
Speaker 3: then whatever I get from it or benefit from it,
26:53
Speaker 3: I'll come back and I'll share it with you. But
26:54
Speaker 3: I don't want to see you go through this. I
26:56
Speaker 3: want you to take a different path. I see something
26:58
Speaker 3: better for you. So even when they would come to
27:01
Speaker 3: me like, yo, I need to get signed, not to
27:03
Speaker 3: this label. Oh I want to do not this one,
27:06
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. And so that's the reason
27:08
Speaker 3: why I never thought signing. But also too, I was
27:10
Speaker 3: never taught the business. You know, they gave me the business, okay,
27:16
Speaker 3: but I was never taught the business, and so because
27:19
Speaker 3: of that, I didn't know about writers and publishing and
27:22
Speaker 3: everything else. So even now because I've never received royalties
27:26
Speaker 3: and I've never received any of those, and it's crazy
27:29
Speaker 3: because we were just they had just sent me this
27:31
Speaker 3: plaque and everything else. Let me know that rox Sands
27:34
Speaker 3: Revenge is certified platinum. And this was a year when
27:37
Speaker 3: they were like, oh, no rappers are going platinum. It's like, listen,
27:39
Speaker 3: Roxannes Revenge certified platinum. And for me to sit back
27:43
Speaker 3: and say, well, you know, I still didn't receive royalties
27:44
Speaker 3: from it, but the universe has paid me so well.
27:47
Speaker 3: You know, I'm a breast cancer survivor. My kids are
27:50
Speaker 3: good with everything that I exposed them to. My son
27:53
Speaker 3: is amazing. You know, I'm married to a handsome husband.
27:57
Speaker 3: Bullhead bowl legs.
28:05
Speaker 1: Shut you know.
28:07
Speaker 3: So one of those things like when I sit back,
28:11
Speaker 3: I would have never thought that my life would be
28:13
Speaker 3: as good as it is now, you know. So I'm comfortable,
28:17
Speaker 3: though there's a lot of things that I should pursue
28:19
Speaker 3: and go after.
28:19
Speaker 6: I was legally, though, you don't ever just want to
28:22
Speaker 6: now you got you got the lawyer of money. Now,
28:24
Speaker 6: you never just want to figure it out because I've
28:25
Speaker 6: not coming you.
28:27
Speaker 1: I'm with you.
28:30
Speaker 4: I ain't crying about it, but I damn letting people
28:33
Speaker 4: know that. Listen, big shout to Isaac Kay's son, because
28:37
Speaker 4: I just listened to him talk about copyright terminations and
28:41
Speaker 4: all of these things like that and bringing that awareness.
28:44
Speaker 4: So we never had that, you know.
28:46
Speaker 1: What I mean.
28:47
Speaker 4: And it's out here now. So any artists coming up
28:49
Speaker 4: looking to paperwork, don't sign nothing without a lawyer. I
28:53
Speaker 4: don't care if it's your parent, did your parent ain't
28:55
Speaker 4: in the music business. Have a lawyer on hand. Because
28:59
Speaker 4: I saw my contract for two hundred and fifty dollars.
29:03
Speaker 1: For a beeper.
29:04
Speaker 4: No, no, I bought a beeper. I bought a people. No,
29:07
Speaker 4: I bought a people with the two fifty I mean,
29:09
Speaker 4: but I went back in the room, I said, listen, man,
29:12
Speaker 4: I got to go get a deeper right now. So
29:14
Speaker 4: y'all ain't got nothing else I can sign. They sign.
29:17
Speaker 4: I signed the record deal, so they gave me five
29:20
Speaker 4: hundred dollars. I ain't getting nothing. And that's just being
29:26
Speaker 4: you know, at the time, at the moment, because we
29:28
Speaker 4: living for right now. We never live for the future,
29:31
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. And you know, luckily I've
29:33
Speaker 4: been able to navigate through this thing called life and
29:35
Speaker 4: make it. But man, it's been hard. You know what
29:38
Speaker 4: I mean, big shot to my brother that held my
29:41
Speaker 4: ass up for the last twenty years, big prev. You
29:43
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. So we make it. But all
29:48
Speaker 4: of those mistakes we made, we don't want nobody to
29:50
Speaker 4: make the mistakes no more. And were not crying about
29:52
Speaker 4: the mistakes. We do want our money, I know. She
29:55
Speaker 4: told mon Yeah, I ain't worried about it because she
29:56
Speaker 4: got the big check. Can But you know what I'm saying, Listen,
30:01
Speaker 4: anybody that can help help, and you can't. Cool. We
30:04
Speaker 4: still gonna keep pushing. We got things to.
30:06
Speaker 1: Do this Isaac.
30:07
Speaker 2: You said, man, he has fan base. I want to
30:08
Speaker 2: slow to fan base. Yes, and also you know I'm
30:12
Speaker 2: one thousand percent into telling me stories, right, Yes, I'm
30:16
Speaker 2: a hip hop ad im from Coin, So it's how
30:18
Speaker 2: I grew up, is what I saw, it's what I lived,
30:20
Speaker 2: and I feel like these stories need to be told
30:22
Speaker 2: so much more. You hear these stories when it comes
30:24
Speaker 2: to country music, you hear when it comes to pop music,
30:26
Speaker 2: and I feel like we should hear it when it
30:27
Speaker 2: comes to hip hop because there's so many avengers and
30:30
Speaker 2: superheroes that helped me get by and that I was
30:34
Speaker 2: excited to. I mean, I remember had to be fifteen
30:38
Speaker 2: twenty years ago and you called me to do your
30:40
Speaker 2: opening of your ice cream shop. Sure, yeah, I mean
30:44
Speaker 2: with things like that, it's just like a different respect,
30:46
Speaker 2: and I just want to say thank you for what
30:48
Speaker 2: you did for this industry, especially for y'all for me,
30:51
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, it's like no other you know
30:53
Speaker 2: what I mean. But that's why I told my DJ
30:55
Speaker 2: is so close, because I feel like nobody ever fucks
30:58
Speaker 2: with us and they just let us go to the wasistline.
31:00
Speaker 2: But that's why I do it so much, because I
31:01
Speaker 2: just want people to know that without any of this,
31:03
Speaker 2: there would none it would be none of this, you know.
31:05
Speaker 4: Yes, And that's why I love her because she always
31:08
Speaker 4: said even when I couldn't DJ for, she pulled another
31:12
Speaker 4: person in the crew. She pulled Cane up to DJ for.
31:14
Speaker 4: She pulled all everybody's been Shante's DJ by far, she's
31:19
Speaker 4: had I probably had the most DJs in hip hop,
31:22
Speaker 4: you know.
31:26
Speaker 3: Me.
31:27
Speaker 4: And see, that's what I'm saying is the truth. But
31:29
Speaker 4: she's never shot away from sharing her platform and whatever
31:34
Speaker 4: we can get, we can get her all get it together.
31:36
Speaker 4: So right now, I'm just so happy to be with
31:38
Speaker 4: her right now doing what we're doing. Life is beautiful.
31:42
Speaker 4: It's beautiful because she's glowing like a mom.
31:47
Speaker 5: I want to ask you, how do you feel about
31:49
Speaker 5: female rap today?
31:50
Speaker 1: You know, when I think.
31:51
Speaker 3: About female rappers today, especially like them being my hip
31:54
Speaker 3: hop sisters, of course, there's gonna be some things that
31:55
Speaker 3: your sisters do that you're gonna be like, Okay, now,
31:57
Speaker 3: I didn't want you to do that. But I also
32:00
Speaker 3: understand that when it comes to hip hop, it's a
32:02
Speaker 3: reflection of what we're dealing with.
32:03
Speaker 1: It's a reflection of society.
32:05
Speaker 3: It's a reflection when people say, oh, I remember when
32:08
Speaker 3: female rappers used to wear they clothes.
32:09
Speaker 1: I remember when women used to wear their clothes, you
32:11
Speaker 1: know what I mean.
32:12
Speaker 3: So you can't just put that on just female rappers
32:15
Speaker 3: because that's just not the case. And then also too,
32:18
Speaker 3: you need to look at it where it's their costume,
32:21
Speaker 3: it's their uniform for work. They're not walking around the
32:23
Speaker 3: house like that all day, you know, They're not in
32:25
Speaker 3: front of their children like that all day. So because
32:28
Speaker 3: of that, I think sometimes people really read them wrong
32:31
Speaker 3: and don't understand how hard it is. Because if you
32:33
Speaker 3: think it's hard being a woman, try being a black woman.
32:36
Speaker 3: If you think it's hard being a black woman, then try.
32:38
Speaker 1: Being a black female rapper. You know what I mean.
32:41
Speaker 3: It gets harder as it goes on. The more hats
32:43
Speaker 3: you add to it, the more difficult it is. You know,
32:46
Speaker 3: it's a lot of weight on us on what we
32:48
Speaker 3: represent and how we do present ourselves. Now, the thing
32:51
Speaker 3: that I do love about it is that now they
32:53
Speaker 3: understand the business. So because they understand the business, they've
32:55
Speaker 3: taken more control. They say what they're gonna do, what
32:58
Speaker 3: they're gonna wear, where they're gonna go, you know, and
33:00
Speaker 3: hopefully that is the case for most of them. So
33:02
Speaker 3: when you see the success that they have now, it's
33:05
Speaker 3: an honor for me to sit back and say, you
33:06
Speaker 3: know what, I started in the parks, so that she's
33:08
Speaker 3: at the palladium.
33:09
Speaker 1: I started at here where she's at the palace.
33:12
Speaker 3: You know, I was able to battle these men, where
33:14
Speaker 3: now she doesn't even have to battle anything her most
33:16
Speaker 3: her choice now is what burking she's going to carry
33:19
Speaker 3: and where she's going to go and what cars she's
33:21
Speaker 3: going to get in. And if I had anything to
33:23
Speaker 3: do with that, then it's truly an honor for me
33:24
Speaker 3: because I sit back and I smile.
33:27
Speaker 1: You know. I think that's where you see the fact
33:29
Speaker 1: that I don't have any.
33:29
Speaker 3: Anger, because I don't have any envy for it, no
33:31
Speaker 3: pun intendeny. But the main thing is I love to
33:35
Speaker 3: see them succeed, and as with anyone, you want to
33:37
Speaker 3: see the next generation do better.
33:39
Speaker 1: So when they getting these multimillion.
33:40
Speaker 3: Dollar deals, I'm like, yeah, that's what you do. You know,
33:43
Speaker 3: when they're going up to these awards shows and they're
33:45
Speaker 3: speaking their mind without somebody telling them, don't say that.
33:48
Speaker 3: Don't get up there and feel that way. You know,
33:50
Speaker 3: I love it. So female rappers today, I embrace them all.
33:54
Speaker 1: Know what I'm saying. I don't have a favorite. And
33:57
Speaker 1: that's not a political answer.
33:58
Speaker 3: The reason why is because I'm a person who goes
34:00
Speaker 3: through a lot of different emotions.
34:01
Speaker 1: So I might have a Doche day.
34:03
Speaker 3: When I'm having a Dochey day, you know what I'm saying,
34:04
Speaker 3: it could be my anxiety, you know. But then I
34:08
Speaker 3: can also have my Cardi B Days, and you know,
34:10
Speaker 3: I can have my Megan days, and I can even
34:12
Speaker 3: have my Remy days.
34:13
Speaker 1: And like Queen Latifa days.
34:14
Speaker 3: It just depends on how I'm feeling emotionally when it
34:17
Speaker 3: comes to because I'm a person who listens to music emotionally.
34:20
Speaker 3: So therefore I don't have a favorite because what can
34:22
Speaker 3: be a good day is a good day, and what
34:23
Speaker 3: can be a bad day.
34:24
Speaker 1: As a bad day.
34:24
Speaker 5: And that's the beauty of it, right because each female rapper,
34:27
Speaker 5: to me these days, it's so different. Everybody not the same.
34:30
Speaker 5: And I know you hear the conversations about all rap
34:33
Speaker 5: is the same already. Now, everybody's not the same. Like
34:35
Speaker 5: you said, you got your Doughie days, yeah, you know.
34:37
Speaker 5: So that's the beauty of what the It's like a
34:40
Speaker 5: mixed pool, absolutely.
34:42
Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
34:43
Speaker 2: How does it feel to see your daughter jumping into music.
34:46
Speaker 1: You know what, I love it.
34:47
Speaker 3: I love it, you know, to see her like when
34:50
Speaker 3: my daughter's name is call me Taji, your name is Taji.
34:52
Speaker 3: And when I get a chance to hear her sing,
34:56
Speaker 3: deep down in my heart, I was like, damn, she
34:57
Speaker 3: got my voice, thinking like that it would have been
35:00
Speaker 3: my voice, you know what I mean, that's my voice.
35:04
Speaker 3: And when I look at her physique, I'm like, that's
35:06
Speaker 3: my body, you know. So I'm that type of mom
35:09
Speaker 3: and I love it, and I encourage her. You know,
35:11
Speaker 3: she doesn't choose to want to use my support with things.
35:14
Speaker 3: And I'm telling her all the time, like listen, I
35:16
Speaker 3: could get you there. She says no, because I need
35:18
Speaker 3: to earn it. And I feel honored that the fact
35:20
Speaker 3: that I helped her have that in her to want
35:23
Speaker 3: to earn it on her own.
35:24
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's you. Yeah says yeah, Yeah, she definitely is.
35:27
Speaker 1: She definitely is.
35:28
Speaker 3: So I can sit back and smile, like you can
35:30
Speaker 3: see how my face just lights up and writes up
35:32
Speaker 3: when it comes to her, and seeing all the things
35:34
Speaker 3: that she does and now even playing me in the movie,
35:37
Speaker 3: Like anybody that wants to portray rock Sand and Shante,
35:41
Speaker 3: they must use my daughter or I don't get permission.
35:43
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, I love that you're doing that. Yeah, I listen.
35:46
Speaker 3: If it's gonna be me, it's gonna come from me,
35:49
Speaker 3: It's gonna be me, you know what I mean. So
35:51
Speaker 3: there's been quite a few projects now that she's been
35:53
Speaker 3: able to do, like documentaries for other people. They be like, oh, yeah, no, listen,
35:56
Speaker 3: we would like to have somebody play you know you
35:57
Speaker 3: won't you'd like to have my daughter play me?
35:59
Speaker 1: She's on her.
36:01
Speaker 6: Do you find yourself being harder on about her actual
36:04
Speaker 6: business business, like the paperwork because of everything you went
36:06
Speaker 6: through with paperwork and misunderstanding thing in your career, Like
36:10
Speaker 6: are you like, no, let mommy do this, like let
36:12
Speaker 6: me get in there?
36:13
Speaker 3: No see, because mommy don't know how to do it.
36:15
Speaker 3: So we just send everything to the lawyers. But what
36:17
Speaker 3: I am very on her about is when she goes
36:21
Speaker 3: to do certain recordings in certain places. I'm one of
36:24
Speaker 3: those moms like I don't trust certain situations because I've
36:26
Speaker 3: seen a lot.
36:28
Speaker 1: So when she.
36:28
Speaker 3: Tells me, oh, I'm going to a studio. What a studio?
36:31
Speaker 1: Who he worked with?
36:33
Speaker 4: What he say?
36:34
Speaker 1: You facetied me?
36:36
Speaker 3: She'd be like mine, I don't want to put you
36:37
Speaker 3: on put me on speaker, or come home, because I
36:42
Speaker 3: know what it's like to be out there and not
36:44
Speaker 3: have nobody to put on speaker. So then people think
36:47
Speaker 3: that they can do anything to you. I need them
36:50
Speaker 3: to know that I'm around the corner, literally, and I
36:54
Speaker 3: don't care where she's at. I'm coming because if I'm
36:56
Speaker 3: not around the corner, then the things that I've done,
36:58
Speaker 3: I know somebody who's ran on the corner.
37:01
Speaker 1: It was going to come, you know.
37:02
Speaker 3: And so sometimes I think she feels like I hover
37:05
Speaker 3: over her too much with certain things, but it's a
37:07
Speaker 3: safety factor. And then when she sees certain things in
37:09
Speaker 3: the news and stuff like that, she'd be like, yeah,
37:12
Speaker 3: my mom, of course, yeah, she would have had a fit.
37:14
Speaker 3: And you want them to feel that way, you know,
37:16
Speaker 3: you know, did she did that? She's twenty six?
37:18
Speaker 5: Twenty six?
37:19
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, twenty six, Yeah, yeah, she's twenty Wait, she
37:22
Speaker 1: had thirty. She you was right about everything said she
37:25
Speaker 1: was twenty six.
37:26
Speaker 6: My last question for you, and I'm going back again,
37:29
Speaker 6: but you've been saying so much. I'm just like all
37:30
Speaker 6: taking it in that I didn't want to interrupt. You
37:32
Speaker 6: mentioned earlier about how you honor Biz at his funeral. Yes,
37:35
Speaker 6: with the thirty six Chambers.
37:36
Speaker 1: Uh oh yeah.
37:39
Speaker 6: I didn't see it, but I saw reports about it.
37:41
Speaker 6: And when I read it, knowing, well, not knowing you personally,
37:44
Speaker 6: but just knowing the history of you guys relationship, I'm like,
37:46
Speaker 6: why they had to be tough for her? But it
37:48
Speaker 6: probably like it was y'all's thing, Like I know he
37:50
Speaker 6: had acted, but jokingly said that he wanted you to
37:52
Speaker 6: do that.
37:52
Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah.
37:54
Speaker 3: What happened was we were sitting inside of a movie
37:57
Speaker 3: theater on forty second Street and it was a three
37:59
Speaker 3: for one movie theater, and that's where, back in the
38:02
Speaker 3: days you could see three Chinese flicks and they would
38:04
Speaker 3: play all night long.
38:06
Speaker 1: And we were in there and it.
38:07
Speaker 3: Was thirty six Chambers, it was The Five Deadly Venoms,
38:10
Speaker 3: and it was Monkey King Kung Fu.
38:11
Speaker 1: And the reason why I remember that is because it
38:13
Speaker 1: played all night, you know.
38:15
Speaker 3: And so we were sitting there and I had my
38:17
Speaker 3: feet across his, and he was like, yeah, you know,
38:20
Speaker 3: when I die, this is what And now, mind you,
38:22
Speaker 3: we're teenagers and we're talking about dying. Wow, you know,
38:25
Speaker 3: at this time, we're teenagers and we're talking about dying,
38:28
Speaker 3: and he was like, when I die, that's what I
38:30
Speaker 3: want you to do at my funeral.
38:31
Speaker 1: I want you to come in there, and this is
38:33
Speaker 1: what I wanted.
38:33
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, so at my funeral, I want
38:35
Speaker 3: you to come running in at mine and be like teacher, teacher,
38:38
Speaker 3: why you leave me? You know, like that's exactly what
38:41
Speaker 3: I wanted to happen. And so I remember my family
38:44
Speaker 3: seeing me with this karate suit and they was like.
38:46
Speaker 1: Oh, no, no, mine, you're not going to do this character.
38:50
Speaker 4: We didn't think she was going, you know.
38:50
Speaker 1: What, cause I was ready. I was gonna be.
38:52
Speaker 3: I was gonna put the gee on, I was getting
38:54
Speaker 3: the belt. I was coming down ready because this is
38:58
Speaker 3: my brother. I gave him him my word, and I'm
39:01
Speaker 3: doing this to the grave, like this is what I'm
39:03
Speaker 3: gonna do. And so they were like, no, you can't
39:07
Speaker 3: have that. So somebody had took the suicide. I had
39:09
Speaker 3: on my regular clothes. But what I did was I
39:11
Speaker 3: took a sheet from the hotel and when I walked
39:14
Speaker 3: up there, I wrapped a sheet around me like a
39:15
Speaker 3: monk and draped it across me, and then I delivered
39:19
Speaker 3: the speech from thirty six chambers. You know, and that
39:21
Speaker 3: was so that he could understand that my.
39:24
Speaker 1: Brother, you did well.
39:25
Speaker 3: You know, you left me cut Master Coovie, because it's
39:28
Speaker 3: always like they always want to leave you something. And
39:30
Speaker 3: so I was like, you left me cut Master Coovie,
39:33
Speaker 3: and my brother you did well. And I felt good
39:36
Speaker 3: and I was able to sleep at night regards to
39:38
Speaker 3: how anybody felt, regards to what cameras caught it, regards
39:41
Speaker 3: to what anybody thought.
39:42
Speaker 1: That was my word to my brother, and my word
39:44
Speaker 1: to me is everything. Yeah, he wanted you to do that,
39:46
Speaker 1: and there you go. And so we did it, and
39:48
Speaker 1: you know what, I was thankful for it.
39:50
Speaker 3: Honestly, he still left us too soon, but I was
39:53
Speaker 3: thankful that we got a chance.
39:54
Speaker 1: To grow up and do that because we were.
39:57
Speaker 3: Talking about doing that as teenagers. But you well into
40:00
Speaker 3: our fifties and be able to do that still made
40:03
Speaker 3: me feel good, like, Wow, we really lived a lifetime.
40:07
Speaker 2: We appreciate y'all for joining us.
40:08
Speaker 1: Coolvie.
40:10
Speaker 4: I don't even think I was gonna see on Mike today.
40:12
Speaker 5: Listen.
40:13
Speaker 2: Thank y'all legendary. Well, we appreciate you guys again. And
40:16
Speaker 2: you know, anytime you're doing anything, come on up. When
40:18
Speaker 2: your daughter is ready to play a song, Come on.
40:21
Speaker 1: Up, absolutely absolutely, that's the Breakfast Club.
40:25
Speaker 4: Good morning, wake that ass up in the morning.
40:28
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club