Latest / The Bootleg Kev Podcast / #333 - Janelle Monáe
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, what's up, Y'all's Janelle Monnee. Check me out on
- 0:03Speaker 1: the Bootleg keV Podcast.
- 0:08Speaker 2: Bootleg keV Show special guest in here. Thank you for
- 0:12Speaker 2: Cominge Monee.
- 0:13Speaker 1: Thank you for having me Bootleg keV.
- 0:16Speaker 2: Yes, I was telling you this album that you have
- 0:20Speaker 2: released it just first of all, I heard you had
- 0:22Speaker 2: a good time last night celebrating I did. I did,
- 0:26Speaker 2: great album. It feels like the summer. It feels like
- 0:29Speaker 2: pool vibes. It feels like, you know, barbecue in water, mm,
- 0:35Speaker 2: alcohol in the air.
- 0:38Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, well, thank you so much for listening.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely have vacation vibes on my mind.
- 0:46Speaker 2: I mean, you're also in the water on the cover.
- 0:49Speaker 1: So yes, you know it's all about being I'm more
- 0:52Speaker 1: like I will say, I'm like water these days. You know,
- 0:56Speaker 1: that's what life. You gotta you gotta roll like.
- 0:59Speaker 3: That for you.
- 1:00Speaker 2: Like I think like you obviously we know that like
- 1:05Speaker 2: Afrobeats is kind of like finally getting it's like just
- 1:08Speaker 2: do commercially, but for you to have like Egypt eighty
- 1:11Speaker 2: on the project repeatedly, they're kind of like the family
- 1:16Speaker 2: that started afrobeats. Yeah, so I don't think a lot
- 1:22Speaker 2: of people know that is that was that something like
- 1:24Speaker 2: you consciously wanted to do, like kind of give them
- 1:27Speaker 2: their light, because I think that was pretty dope to
- 1:30Speaker 2: have them on the album.
- 1:31Speaker 1: All yeah, No, shay Yun Kuti, who is the son
- 1:35Speaker 1: you know, if you guys don't know, is the son
- 1:36Speaker 1: of Fela Kuti, who is just legendary.
- 1:40Speaker 2: The founder of afrobeats, the.
- 1:42Speaker 1: Founder of so much of the music that we love
- 1:45Speaker 1: from the continent. And we had done like a couple
- 1:49Speaker 1: of shows together and you know, he definitely is making
- 1:53Speaker 1: his dad proud, but he's his own person and he's
- 1:56Speaker 1: just sick when it comes to horn playing. And I
- 1:58Speaker 1: was like, I want to make sure that we have
- 2:02Speaker 1: his touch because it's important to me that the diaspora
- 2:06Speaker 1: is seen here. You know, this is a super Pan
- 2:08Speaker 1: African album. Blackness from every corner. You know, all of
- 2:12Speaker 1: my friends are from you know, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Jamaica, Caribbean,
- 2:19Speaker 1: and it's beautiful when our music, you know, America, North America,
- 2:24Speaker 1: all of our music cultures can talk to each other.
- 2:26Speaker 1: So that was that was important on this album that
- 2:29Speaker 1: you saw saw this melting pot of like I guess,
- 2:34Speaker 1: appreciation and love for for all things us and.
- 2:38Speaker 2: It sounds like very good, like it's it'd be like
- 2:40Speaker 2: some people try to pull stuff in and it's like,
- 2:42Speaker 2: you know, it just sounds like like it sounds great
- 2:45Speaker 2: and organic. So I agree. Yo. I wanted to ask
- 2:49Speaker 2: you because obviously are you from Kansas City, Kansas to Missouri.
- 2:52Speaker 3: Kansas City, Kansas all day? You gotta know it?
- 2:56Speaker 2: Are you like super hip to like because on the
- 2:59Speaker 2: other side of the order there's Casey Mo and there's
- 3:02Speaker 2: like Tech nine is like the biggest guy.
- 3:04Speaker 1: I love Tech nine. Yes, I've been doing Tech nine
- 3:08Speaker 1: for a long time. We used to be well he
- 3:11Speaker 1: probably wasn't doing these, but I would remember performing at
- 3:15Speaker 1: events where he would be and performing talent shows. That
- 3:21Speaker 1: was all I did. Five hundred dollars first prize and
- 3:25Speaker 1: Tech nine was like always the guy in Kansas City legendary.
- 3:30Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 3:30Speaker 2: I just always want because I was such a small
- 3:32Speaker 2: place in terms of like musically.
- 3:35Speaker 1: I think he's on the Missouri side, but we share
- 3:37Speaker 1: a city and we all. I was always performed, we
- 3:41Speaker 1: were performing at the same events. We would always somehow
- 3:44Speaker 1: end up in the same sort of studio with the
- 3:46Speaker 1: same people. Yeah, I have a whole whole nother past.
- 3:49Speaker 1: The Weirdos too, that was another rap group. I used
- 3:52Speaker 1: to be sort of in that group singing. We were
- 3:54Speaker 1: like a more I don't know, like experimental fujis.
- 4:02Speaker 2: Oh wow, Yeah, I like that.
- 4:04Speaker 1: We we love the Fujis and we were like, how
- 4:07Speaker 1: can we make it even more weird?
- 4:09Speaker 3: You know when we did stuff together?
- 4:10Speaker 2: So you know what I mean. I realized too recently
- 4:13Speaker 2: because I just revisited I revisited Idlewild for like the
- 4:17Speaker 2: first time. It feels like in like ten years. Wow,
- 4:20Speaker 2: Because I'm a huge Outcast fan. I got Equimini right there. Yeah,
- 4:22Speaker 2: but that's like the last real I guess body of
- 4:27Speaker 2: work we got from both of them. And you're on
- 4:29Speaker 2: that body of work, it's got to be a big
- 4:32Speaker 2: like do you ever like think like, damn, I'm on
- 4:33Speaker 2: the last Outcast album like that?
- 4:35Speaker 3: Yes, this is legendary.
- 4:38Speaker 1: They're legendary and just as people, I love them, you know,
- 4:41Speaker 1: they they've always been sort of like mentors to me.
- 4:43Speaker 1: Big Boy did a lot for my career, sure, you know,
- 4:46Speaker 1: and and I always thank them. And then even artistically
- 4:49Speaker 1: when you look at Outcasts, you know, they always pushed
- 4:54Speaker 1: something new, you know, you got the roots of funk
- 4:57Speaker 1: and and but they the way that they did it
- 5:00Speaker 1: was super innovative and it definitely inspired me to to
- 5:04Speaker 1: to start wanting to when I first started out to
- 5:08Speaker 1: be comfortable and confident.
- 5:11Speaker 3: In being unique.
- 5:13Speaker 2: I was gonna say, they did such a good job
- 5:15Speaker 2: of reinventing themselves every album, And you've done a good
- 5:17Speaker 2: job of kind of reinventing yourself every time you put
- 5:19Speaker 2: a new body or workout. Is that something that because
- 5:23Speaker 2: I think fans sometimes get wrapped up in like liking
- 5:26Speaker 2: their favorite artists for like Justice, But I feel like
- 5:30Speaker 2: the greats, like we think of Kendrick yourself obviously cast
- 5:32Speaker 2: like they always are reinventing themselves, like every project, Like
- 5:36Speaker 2: you know, for you, is that something like do you
- 5:38Speaker 2: always want to make sure when you're putting out a
- 5:39Speaker 2: new body of work or you start recording that you
- 5:42Speaker 2: maybe experiment a little bit more.
- 5:44Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, it's fun.
- 5:45Speaker 1: I love the journey and evolving and finding out new
- 5:49Speaker 1: things about myself, discovering new things about what I can do,
- 5:52Speaker 1: redefining that for myself on my turn, my own turn, right.
- 5:57Speaker 1: I mean, you know, as artists, you make the rules.
- 6:00Speaker 1: So everything you know from me today. I literally made
- 6:02Speaker 1: up those rules that this is this is what I
- 6:04Speaker 1: want to do, and you know, this is how I'm
- 6:06Speaker 1: living my life at this time. And it's always beautiful
- 6:09Speaker 1: to be able to honor where you are at that time.
- 6:13Speaker 1: You can look back on every album and.
- 6:15Speaker 3: Like, wow, you remember where I was?
- 6:17Speaker 2: Where were Yeah? Yeah, yeah, talk about because obviously I
- 6:21Speaker 2: think a lot of people don't realize that, like you
- 6:25Speaker 2: have like an incredibly sick label and like a guy
- 6:27Speaker 2: like Jadenna started with you. Yes, And I think Jodenna
- 6:30Speaker 2: is somebody who is a fucking beast of an artist.
- 6:33Speaker 2: I agree, he doesn't get enough credit.
- 6:35Speaker 3: I agree.
- 6:36Speaker 2: I kind of feel like Classic Man was like a
- 6:38Speaker 2: gift in the curse because it was such a big record. Yeah,
- 6:40Speaker 2: you got to dive into Jodenna's catalog. Yeah, super talented.
- 6:43Speaker 3: And he actually just released a new album.
- 6:45Speaker 2: Yeah he did, he did. And I was gonna say, like,
- 6:49Speaker 2: for you, what is your well when it comes to
- 6:54Speaker 2: the label side and your creative company, what approach do
- 6:57Speaker 2: you take when it comes to finding talent or just
- 6:59Speaker 2: working with somebody.
- 7:01Speaker 1: Well, right now, you know, my career has taken off
- 7:06Speaker 1: in the time that I'll just have to be completely
- 7:08Speaker 1: honest being an artist and sort of having a label,
- 7:11Speaker 1: and then yes, it's a lot, but even even you know,
- 7:15Speaker 1: even with Ja Dinna, we're family, you know, like I
- 7:18Speaker 1: always I'm always, like more so of a big sister
- 7:21Speaker 1: to him. If he needs advice, or if he wants
- 7:23Speaker 1: me to listen to a mix, or if he's like
- 7:25Speaker 1: should this go on the album?
- 7:26Speaker 3: Or what do you think about this?
- 7:28Speaker 1: We talk and and business wise, if he needs advice,
- 7:33Speaker 1: I'm there for him. But for the most part, I
- 7:36Speaker 1: like to artists should like be in control of what
- 7:39Speaker 1: it is that they're doing. I don't ever want to
- 7:42Speaker 1: talk over that, get in the way of that. And
- 7:45Speaker 1: also be honest about just what I can take on.
- 7:48Speaker 1: You know, I think everything is partnership level. I think
- 7:51Speaker 1: right now you don't even need a label. Nobody needs
- 7:53Speaker 1: a label, really, you really don't.
- 7:55Speaker 2: I mean to go straight to the people.
- 7:56Speaker 3: You can go straight to the people.
- 7:58Speaker 1: Obviously being independent, I've been into an independent artist with
- 8:01Speaker 1: no major label backing. I have my own label, right
- 8:04Speaker 1: and I know what it's like to sell CDs out
- 8:06Speaker 1: of your trunk. I know what it's like to live
- 8:08Speaker 1: in a boarding house, you know, working at office depot
- 8:12Speaker 1: selling CDs out of your trunk, Like, I totally get that,
- 8:15Speaker 1: and it's you know, it's it's hard. It's difficult for
- 8:17Speaker 1: independent artists. But I think if you you know you,
- 8:21Speaker 1: you can rewrite the rules as well.
- 8:24Speaker 2: I was gonna say for you, like you are also
- 8:26Speaker 2: like a huge actress you are in I mean, what
- 8:31Speaker 2: was the class? What a horror movie you're injury? Like?
- 8:34Speaker 2: Was it Annabella?
- 8:34Speaker 3: Oh yes, Antebellum.
- 8:36Speaker 2: Yeah, for you when you're in like acting mode, right,
- 8:41Speaker 2: because I know it's it's a lot to like act
- 8:44Speaker 2: and like you have to give your mental space to
- 8:47Speaker 2: like being someone else? Does it take away a lot
- 8:50Speaker 2: from the music m like you have to be in like, okay,
- 8:53Speaker 2: I'm turning down roles because I'm working on music. Or
- 8:56Speaker 2: can you do both simultaneously?
- 8:59Speaker 1: I think with me music, I have to be in
- 9:01Speaker 1: the studio on, hands on with it. I can't just
- 9:03Speaker 1: you know, I need to be writing, collaborating, living it,
- 9:08Speaker 1: you know, touching it, feeling it. I engineer a lot
- 9:12Speaker 1: of my sessions, so even.
- 9:13Speaker 2: You're running your own pro tools.
- 9:15Speaker 1: Yeah, well I work out of logic. Oh oh yeah,
- 9:19Speaker 1: I work out of logic. Yeah, and I can work
- 9:21Speaker 1: out of pro tools, but I prefer to do logic.
- 9:24Speaker 1: But yeah, so just I need to be super hands
- 9:26Speaker 1: on with music, so I do have to say no
- 9:30Speaker 1: sometimes to you know, roles that may come in. It
- 9:33Speaker 1: may come in, and sometimes that's difficult. But music has
- 9:37Speaker 1: been so good to me a lot of the you know,
- 9:41Speaker 1: I think that I got a lot of my movie
- 9:42Speaker 1: roles because of my music career, because people were able
- 9:45Speaker 1: to see me and go into different characters. With Glass Sunyon,
- 9:49Speaker 1: the movie I just got finished doing, Ryan Johnson said
- 9:53Speaker 1: that he was like, I saw that you could be,
- 9:56Speaker 1: you can embody these different characters, and this is what
- 9:58Speaker 1: we need in this movie. You know. It is because
- 10:00Speaker 1: of your film for Dirty Computer and seeing you in
- 10:03Speaker 1: your different music videos and I was like, oh, she
- 10:06Speaker 1: can do this, So I'm gonna always make time for music.
- 10:10Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 10:10Speaker 2: What was it like working on set with the Craig
- 10:13Speaker 2: guy that the double Daniel Craig.
- 10:15Speaker 1: I love Daniel, I love I love He's so humble.
- 10:19Speaker 1: James he killed as James Bond and he's so much
- 10:23Speaker 1: more though too, Like I didn't even just talking to him.
- 10:25Speaker 2: He had that role that he plays in those two movies.
- 10:27Speaker 1: Yeah, manz no his range is just incredible, seeing I'm
- 10:32Speaker 1: going from that southern drawl to you know, I'm Daniel,
- 10:36Speaker 1: like the British accent.
- 10:38Speaker 3: Such a sweetheart.
- 10:39Speaker 1: The whole cast, Edward Norton, I mean, Fight Club was like,
- 10:42Speaker 1: it's like my top five, me too, Kate Hudson, all
- 10:45Speaker 1: of them legendary.
- 10:46Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a wild cast. If you just like,
- 10:51Speaker 2: how much was the budget for this movie? Right?
- 10:53Speaker 1: Exactly exactly, No, we we had a wonderful time. We
- 10:56Speaker 1: shot that in Greece, and in fact, it actually made
- 11:00Speaker 1: me get inspired to do this album. I shot that
- 11:05Speaker 1: film and in the same year I wrote this album.
- 11:07Speaker 2: Really was it because Greece is like a vibe, low key.
- 11:10Speaker 3: It was vacation vibe.
- 11:12Speaker 1: It's like, oh, man, like, what kind of what do
- 11:15Speaker 1: I want to hear when I'm here? You know, when
- 11:17Speaker 1: I'm on an island. I mean I didn't pay to
- 11:19Speaker 1: go there. I mean obviously the studio got me there,
- 11:21Speaker 1: and I was just so inspired, and I started thinking
- 11:24Speaker 1: about how I wanted to feel even when I couldn't
- 11:27Speaker 1: go on vacation. I need an album that sounds like
- 11:30Speaker 1: you're on vacation. And I just knew my producer was
- 11:33Speaker 1: sending me music while I was on set. I was
- 11:35Speaker 1: picking the drums and different things, and by the time
- 11:39Speaker 1: I shot Glass Sungon I came back, I already had
- 11:42Speaker 1: a musical.
- 11:42Speaker 2: Bed like yeah, flottenl.
- 11:46Speaker 1: I definitely wrote and plotted.
- 11:50Speaker 3: Well. I'm also plotted a lot while I was on set.
- 11:53Speaker 2: Yeah, has what has been the most uncomfortable role you've
- 11:57Speaker 2: played as as someone who acts, because I do feel
- 11:59Speaker 2: like there's a there's a lot that comes with that gig. Yeah,
- 12:03Speaker 2: kind of die.
- 12:04Speaker 1: I think Antebellum was tough. I don't know if I'll
- 12:07Speaker 1: ever do a role like that again. It was really
- 12:09Speaker 1: tough to go and be on a plantation and you know,
- 12:14Speaker 1: play an enslaved person in modern day times.
- 12:17Speaker 3: It was a lot on.
- 12:18Speaker 2: Sea that seems deep. Its heavy.
- 12:20Speaker 3: Yeah, it was very heavy.
- 12:22Speaker 1: And it took a lot for me to get that
- 12:24Speaker 1: off of me too, because immediately after I wrapped, my
- 12:28Speaker 1: friends were like, let's go to Mexico, and so I
- 12:30Speaker 1: was like, I need a vacation. But I couldn't shape
- 12:34Speaker 1: that role and I would just remember showing up just
- 12:37Speaker 1: like being super uneasy.
- 12:39Speaker 3: I'm like, girl, what the fuck is wrong with you?
- 12:41Speaker 1: And I'm like, listen, I lived basically lived on the
- 12:44Speaker 1: plantation for two months. You know. I did it for
- 12:47Speaker 1: my reasons, to chant, to honor, you know, my ancestors,
- 12:50Speaker 1: and to bring awareness, you know, to to a lot
- 12:54Speaker 1: of injustices. But yeah, I don't think I think that
- 12:57Speaker 1: was probably my hardest.
- 12:58Speaker 2: So when they say, like, when you act, you can
- 13:00Speaker 2: like get into the role. I just saw, Uh the
- 13:04Speaker 2: guy who plays Franklin sat on Snowfall say he like
- 13:07Speaker 2: channeled the devil to be Franklin Saint it's Snowfall, and
- 13:09Speaker 2: he's like it, like it messed with him, Like after
- 13:12Speaker 2: the show is over a little bit.
- 13:14Speaker 1: Yeah, people don't realize you're you're living and breathing. And
- 13:17Speaker 1: I always you know, stay out into the universe, like
- 13:21Speaker 1: reduce Janelle Money. I want you to see the spirit
- 13:24Speaker 1: of this character. And and yeah, a lot, a lot,
- 13:27Speaker 1: a lot of times it's hard to shake those rolls.
- 13:29Speaker 2: Off somebody who you had as a mentor, which not
- 13:31Speaker 2: a lot of people can say, is uh, rest in
- 13:34Speaker 2: peace to Prince Prince, who's one of the greatest creators
- 13:36Speaker 2: of all time, quite possibly the most talented musician ever.
- 13:40Speaker 2: He's up there the guitar. He could do it all
- 13:43Speaker 2: how did you guys initially connect?
- 13:46Speaker 3: Well, he.
- 13:48Speaker 1: Is always The story just still freaks me out, and
- 13:51Speaker 1: that freaks me out, but just I can't even believe
- 13:54Speaker 1: that it happened.
- 13:55Speaker 3: But he was supposed to show up. I was opening
- 13:58Speaker 3: up for.
- 13:58Speaker 1: Raphael Sadek doing Yeah, exactly, my first album, and I
- 14:04Speaker 1: get a knock after I get finished performing, and you know,
- 14:07Speaker 1: I had I remember, I had a sinus infection that day.
- 14:09Speaker 3: I was just like.
- 14:11Speaker 1: Loopy and this really really pretty girl knocks on the
- 14:16Speaker 1: door and she was like, I have somebody who wants
- 14:17Speaker 1: to talk to you. And the girl was DJ Rashida,
- 14:21Speaker 1: who was Princess DJ at the time, but I didn't
- 14:23Speaker 1: know that that was, you know, his DJ, And she
- 14:28Speaker 1: just gives me the phone and then I'm like hello,
- 14:31Speaker 1: and I'm like congested and I'm just like hello, and
- 14:34Speaker 1: he's like hello Janell and I'm like, Hi, who is this?
- 14:41Speaker 1: This is Prince Prince, Yeah, Prince, I was supposed to
- 14:47Speaker 1: come to your gig, but they gave me the wrong time.
- 14:50Speaker 3: And I'm like what, like.
- 14:53Speaker 1: Just freaking out or trying not to because I don't
- 14:56Speaker 1: want to embarrass myself. And so then he proceeds to
- 14:59Speaker 1: say listen. I was was to come, we're having a
- 15:01Speaker 1: jam session. You know, do you and the band want
- 15:03Speaker 1: to come back and you know jam? And I was like, yeah,
- 15:06Speaker 1: we want to come back and jam. And the rest
- 15:10Speaker 1: was history. The rest was on the Minneapolis towards No
- 15:14Speaker 1: he was in La So what he would do is
- 15:16Speaker 1: and he was one of the best like party throwers
- 15:19Speaker 1: that you will ever know.
- 15:20Speaker 2: I mean, we have seen some Chappelle skits that I mean.
- 15:24Speaker 1: I don't know how true those kids are, but my
- 15:26Speaker 1: interactions with him have always been like can play guitar
- 15:31Speaker 1: and party like till the sun comes up seven in
- 15:36Speaker 1: the morning. I didn't leave that night, me and my band,
- 15:38Speaker 1: we did not leave till seven in the morning.
- 15:41Speaker 2: So this was a jam session day seven.
- 15:44Speaker 3: In the morning.
- 15:45Speaker 1: It was it was just it was amazing. And he
- 15:47Speaker 1: was just talking to me. He was like he was
- 15:48Speaker 1: telling me everything he loved about what he had seen
- 15:51Speaker 1: me do. And I was like, I didn't even know
- 15:53Speaker 1: you looked on the internet.
- 15:55Speaker 2: Right, like you know who I am.
- 15:56Speaker 1: I'm just like I would just think you would be somewhere,
- 16:00Speaker 1: get up in some sort of castle, you know.
- 16:05Speaker 3: Right with no Wi Fi.
- 16:06Speaker 1: But he was very aware and I always tell people
- 16:10Speaker 1: the best thing about him is like even though he
- 16:12Speaker 1: was mysterious, he never let his mystery get in the
- 16:16Speaker 1: way of his mentorship. He was always like wanting to
- 16:20Speaker 1: give advice and you know, open up if you have
- 16:24Speaker 1: any questions about the business. And didn't even charge me
- 16:27Speaker 1: anything to be on my album.
- 16:29Speaker 2: Give me the most. You have three pretty serious mentors, Prince, Puff, Daddy,
- 16:34Speaker 2: Big Boy. Give me three lessons each of them of you.
- 16:39Speaker 1: Wow, Prince is like obviously like the blueprint for you know,
- 16:48Speaker 1: owning your you know, like as an artist, not being
- 16:53Speaker 1: afraid to fight for what you were old on the
- 16:56Speaker 1: business side of things, and also creating a blueprint.
- 17:04Speaker 3: That felt so free.
- 17:06Speaker 1: And you could do anything, you know, and just and
- 17:10Speaker 1: just also speaking with him, he just always reminded me
- 17:16Speaker 1: that musically there was nothing that I could not do.
- 17:20Speaker 1: And I think with Puff, who has been a person
- 17:24Speaker 1: of his word, you know, we have a partnership together.
- 17:27Speaker 1: When he had first heard me and doing the science
- 17:31Speaker 1: fiction singing about that and you know, doing doing whatever
- 17:38Speaker 1: I wanted to do as an artist creatively, he always said, like,
- 17:42Speaker 1: I don't want to mess that up. I just want
- 17:45Speaker 1: the rest of the world to see what I saw.
- 17:47Speaker 1: What I just saw tonight. I just want to help.
- 17:49Speaker 1: So I called him at a really good time. And
- 17:53Speaker 1: you know, he's just always been an advocate for me.
- 17:57Speaker 1: If I need to have like any busines in his conversations,
- 18:01Speaker 1: I can, I know I can call him and you know,
- 18:04Speaker 1: listen to him as well.
- 18:06Speaker 3: And then he just taught.
- 18:06Speaker 1: Me to just like be a fan of your own
- 18:09Speaker 1: ship too, you know, promote your stuff.
- 18:12Speaker 2: If you love it, you promote your ship.
- 18:14Speaker 1: Yeah, you worked hard, and I think with big Boy,
- 18:18Speaker 1: Big Boy was just I mean, I gotta give it
- 18:21Speaker 1: to him. You know. The reason why Puffy even knew
- 18:22Speaker 1: about me was because of the work that Big Boy
- 18:27Speaker 1: gave to me. I was singing back up, I was
- 18:28Speaker 1: also on Idle Wild. You know, he was really really
- 18:31Speaker 1: promoting me with Purple Ribbon. He taught me the important stuff.
- 18:34Speaker 1: I think, staying with family, like staying with the people
- 18:38Speaker 1: for like a little little bit. Yeah, my, but I
- 18:42Speaker 1: always had my label, but I would do partnership. Yeah, yes,
- 18:50Speaker 1: look at you. A lot of people do not remember kill.
- 18:53Speaker 2: A Mike Scar This new album, when is it coming out?
- 19:00Speaker 2: I listened to it a couple of weeks ago. It's incredible,
- 19:03Speaker 2: one of the greatest rappers of all time.
- 19:05Speaker 3: I gotta I gotta listen to it.
- 19:06Speaker 2: Yeah, it's incredible. Who has the best parties? Prince or Diddy?
- 19:10Speaker 1: Ooh, that's so tough because both of them know how.
- 19:14Speaker 3: To party, the legendary party different.
- 19:18Speaker 1: It's different. I wonder if they I never went to
- 19:21Speaker 1: a party where they.
- 19:21Speaker 3: Did it together. The world. Yeah, it would explode, like Prince.
- 19:27Speaker 1: Party, man, because you're gonna get music from like both
- 19:30Speaker 1: of them are going to play the best music, have
- 19:32Speaker 1: the most beautiful people there, good food. I don't know,
- 19:40Speaker 1: Princeville listen, I please, because it's good for different reasons,
- 19:50Speaker 1: like for different reasons, so both both, I'll say both
- 19:53Speaker 1: like that.
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- 22:19Speaker 2: the interviews, it's obviously Pride month, and you are someone
- 22:22Speaker 2: who's a non binary person.
- 22:24Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you.
- 22:25Speaker 2: I think that we are in like a weird area
- 22:29Speaker 2: of like education when it comes to like people kind
- 22:32Speaker 2: of being ignorant of what that means. And I think that, like,
- 22:36Speaker 2: there are certain people who have a hard time adjusting
- 22:40Speaker 2: to certain pronouns, and can you kind of just like
- 22:43Speaker 2: if because you are you? Also are you? She slash
- 22:47Speaker 2: hers one of your pronounces and then also.
- 22:49Speaker 3: They them and free, ask motherfucker?
- 22:51Speaker 2: Free motherfucker is the most important one. Yes for you, though,
- 22:55Speaker 2: like can you kind of? I feel like there should
- 22:58Speaker 2: be some etiquette out there for like people who are
- 23:00Speaker 2: still kind of adjusting, especially like in the hip hop world.
- 23:03Speaker 2: I feel like this is all new, Like why it's
- 23:06Speaker 2: important to make sure you respect someone's pronounce?
- 23:10Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, we are all here having
- 23:14Speaker 1: this earth human experience, and we want to be happy
- 23:20Speaker 1: in that and be happy in our identities. You know,
- 23:23Speaker 1: even if I have this saying embrace the things that
- 23:26Speaker 1: make you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable.
- 23:30Speaker 3: And I just live by that.
- 23:31Speaker 1: And my hope is that as we're having this earth experience,
- 23:37Speaker 1: everybody can understand that we come from different walks of life.
- 23:40Speaker 1: Some people are a different evolutions and discoveries on who
- 23:45Speaker 1: they are. And just because you may not understand anything
- 23:48Speaker 1: doesn't mean that you shouldn't respect it, right. So, I
- 23:51Speaker 1: think in terms of me being non binary, I think
- 23:55Speaker 1: I was non binary a long time ago. I just
- 23:57Speaker 1: didn't have the language. And so that's it's important. That's
- 24:00Speaker 1: why it's so important to even have certain words and
- 24:03Speaker 1: and and a community putting, you know, the words to
- 24:06Speaker 1: how you're feeling. I mean, Prince said it best. I'm
- 24:09Speaker 1: not a woman, I'm not a man. I'm something that
- 24:11Speaker 1: you'll never understand. And I always identify with that word,
- 24:15Speaker 1: you know, with those words.
- 24:16Speaker 2: Prince might have been the first non binary polist.
- 24:21Speaker 1: Listen, So I feel all of me, you know, I
- 24:23Speaker 1: feel I feel all of me. I honor all of me,
- 24:27Speaker 1: and I see my my spirit and and and me
- 24:32Speaker 1: outside of the binary constructs of I think that's what today.
- 24:36Speaker 2: I think a lot of people don't understand what it means. Right.
- 24:39Speaker 1: It's they can google it, It's very definitely. It's it's
- 24:42Speaker 1: out it's out there, you know, the Google. As my
- 24:46Speaker 1: older older aunt will say.
- 24:49Speaker 2: I always tell people to like, if you're so wrapped
- 24:54Speaker 2: up on calling somebody the wrong thing because it makes
- 24:57Speaker 2: you feel better, but it makes someone else feel bad
- 25:00Speaker 2: about themselves. Yeah, it's like, how much of an inconvenience
- 25:03Speaker 2: is it to like respect a word? Like you're not
- 25:08Speaker 2: asking somebody to like do anything crazy, like just call
- 25:11Speaker 2: somebody what they prefer to be called, because if you
- 25:13Speaker 2: if you don't, it could potentially, you know, make someone
- 25:16Speaker 2: feel bad.
- 25:16Speaker 1: You know, yeah, yeah, you know. Compassion. I think also
- 25:20Speaker 1: education is important, you know. I think once we get
- 25:23Speaker 1: more educated on what it means and you you really
- 25:29Speaker 1: have conversations with folks, you will realized you may have
- 25:32Speaker 1: more in common with them than you think. And yeah,
- 25:35Speaker 1: my hope is that That's why I love being That's
- 25:37Speaker 1: why I love music, That's why I love art, That's
- 25:39Speaker 1: why I love making it because what I'm able to do,
- 25:42Speaker 1: and what we're able to do is bring people together
- 25:44Speaker 1: and have these conversations at concerts. You're learning different things,
- 25:48Speaker 1: and you know, and I love and happy pride. I
- 25:51Speaker 1: don't know when this is coming out, but this is June,
- 25:53Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, I love that we're also in a
- 25:59Speaker 1: space where we're celebrating us unapologetically as you can see,
- 26:03Speaker 1: and sometimes that triggers and it has as we see
- 26:06Speaker 1: with the laws that are being made right now, it's
- 26:08Speaker 1: crazy against you know, my trans family and lgbtq I
- 26:12Speaker 1: plus community being a part of that community. Imagine me
- 26:16Speaker 1: not having the platform that I have and having to
- 26:18Speaker 1: sort of live in a small town and you know
- 26:21Speaker 1: everybody supports uh anti lgbt q I plus bills and
- 26:27Speaker 1: anti you know, uh trans bills and even being black
- 26:32Speaker 1: right now, you know they're taking out black history in Florida,
- 26:36Speaker 1: you know, horrible, horrible person. So you know we have
- 26:40Speaker 1: to It's serious, like respecting people's it all matters.
- 26:45Speaker 2: Yes, it's funny too because they're like like I don't
- 26:48Speaker 2: want to say there because I don't like to I
- 26:49Speaker 2: don't like to group anybody in. But a guy like
- 26:52Speaker 2: the Scantists, for example, will scream about how everything's getting censored,
- 26:58Speaker 2: like and everything's like cant culture. But then you're canceling
- 27:03Speaker 2: like yeah, like you know, like black history, like in
- 27:06Speaker 2: a state. It's kind of crazy. It's like, yeah, people
- 27:10Speaker 2: politicians are are crazy. You have Doughchi on the album,
- 27:13Speaker 2: who's one of my favorite new artists. Obviously she's cool,
- 27:16Speaker 2: she's incredible. She's from Canaba, Yes, she's a I did
- 27:19Speaker 2: radio in Tampa, so it's dope to see her doing
- 27:22Speaker 2: her thing.
- 27:22Speaker 3: But she's too and she's.
- 27:25Speaker 2: Like very high level creative. Like I saw her when
- 27:28Speaker 2: she first signed with TD. She did like this like
- 27:31Speaker 2: industry performance and it was so crazy. What was it
- 27:33Speaker 2: like working with her all of that?
- 27:36Speaker 1: Like we have kindred spirits and you know, I just
- 27:40Speaker 1: as soon as I heard her music, I loved her
- 27:42Speaker 1: and I felt her spirit. And then when we met,
- 27:45Speaker 1: she just told me how much of an inspiration I
- 27:47Speaker 1: was to her, and watching me gave her, you know,
- 27:51Speaker 1: a lot of confidence to just do her, you know,
- 27:56Speaker 1: and you see that, you see that she is somebody
- 27:58Speaker 1: who's tapped in, you know, to her innovation and what
- 28:03Speaker 1: makes her unique. And I love that about her. And
- 28:07Speaker 1: it was beautiful. We were in the studio. We had
- 28:09Speaker 1: so much fun making phenomenal like that song. Because when
- 28:14Speaker 1: I heard Persuasive, I was like, Oh I love this song.
- 28:17Speaker 1: I love it. And so when we got together when
- 28:19Speaker 1: I was working on my project, I was like, oh,
- 28:21Speaker 1: you would be perfect for this sort of song. And
- 28:26Speaker 1: I didn't even tell her. I played her like five
- 28:28Speaker 1: songs and I didn't even tell her this is a
- 28:30Speaker 1: song I want you to be on.
- 28:31Speaker 3: She heard phenomenal.
- 28:32Speaker 1: She was like, she jumped up, say hey, so she's
- 28:36Speaker 1: she's just humble, creative, a beautiful person. She came over
- 28:40Speaker 1: last night to celebrate with me. Oh nice, Yeah she
- 28:42Speaker 1: I didn't even know she was coming. She surprised me.
- 28:44Speaker 2: So that's dope for you. Did you have any idea
- 28:49Speaker 2: that you were going to break Twitter when you flashed
- 28:52Speaker 2: the crowd when perform, because you you own Twitter for
- 28:56Speaker 2: about a week.
- 28:57Speaker 3: Oh my god, No, I did not.
- 28:59Speaker 1: I literally was at my friend's party, living my life
- 29:03Speaker 1: as I always do, and you know, I did not.
- 29:07Speaker 1: I was having a good time. I felt like I
- 29:09Speaker 1: was in a safe space, right, and that's it. I
- 29:13Speaker 1: was honoring exactly how I was feeling.
- 29:16Speaker 2: So yeah, because like, did you, I mean, you had
- 29:18Speaker 2: to have some sort of idea this is gonna be
- 29:20Speaker 2: on the internet a little bit.
- 29:22Speaker 3: I was very shocked that.
- 29:23Speaker 1: I mean, after after I realized that there were so
- 29:27Speaker 1: many cameras, you know, because I try not to live
- 29:30Speaker 1: my life like I'm.
- 29:31Speaker 3: Janelle Mone, there are cameras.
- 29:32Speaker 1: Let me let me not yeah, and these and the
- 29:35Speaker 1: party that I was at was the same party that
- 29:38Speaker 1: inspired my album. So I know a lot of the
- 29:40Speaker 1: people who were there, and you know, they've been to
- 29:44Speaker 1: my place and we've created a safe space with everyday
- 29:48Speaker 1: people and with Wonderland and our parties, and so it
- 29:52Speaker 1: didn't really come out until like that video was older.
- 29:57Speaker 1: It was old, so somebody was like, well, me, now capitalized,
- 30:01Speaker 1: and that's the world we live in. Let me capitalize.
- 30:04Speaker 1: Like it was, nobody posted anything safe space. And then
- 30:08Speaker 1: when they sort of saw I think my visual that
- 30:13Speaker 1: I put out, they were like, oh, well, while we're here,
- 30:17Speaker 1: I saw her last you know, last week. But it's
- 30:21Speaker 1: all love, free the nipple, free the nipple. I mean,
- 30:26Speaker 1: Rick Ross has freed his nipple. I support him.
- 30:29Speaker 2: You're right about that.
- 30:30Speaker 1: Di'angelo when he did Untitled, he was freed his nipple,
- 30:33Speaker 1: you know that from behind that piano and freed the nipple.
- 30:36Speaker 3: You know, I can go on and on.
- 30:39Speaker 1: Times, right, DJ Kallet you know we support free the
- 30:42Speaker 1: nipple right for all people.
- 30:44Speaker 2: I agree that it is a double standard that T shirt.
- 30:48Speaker 3: Yeah, and so so it helped.
- 30:50Speaker 2: With the promotion because now everybody's like, I mean you
- 30:52Speaker 2: were trending.
- 30:53Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, listen, I lived my life. I think
- 30:56Speaker 1: I never think like, ooh, this is going to get
- 30:58Speaker 1: them talking. I'm having an earth experience and of honoring
- 31:03Speaker 1: all of me.
- 31:04Speaker 3: That's it. That's all I can do.
- 31:07Speaker 2: Give me. If you're on an island stranded for three
- 31:10Speaker 2: hundred and sixty five days, you can only bring five
- 31:12Speaker 2: albums with you on an iPod.
- 31:14Speaker 1: Now stop it. First of all, an iPod. I have
- 31:17Speaker 1: not heard that word.
- 31:18Speaker 2: So you're not going to have Wi Fi island.
- 31:21Speaker 1: Here's your phone, so I have to use Well, my
- 31:23Speaker 1: iPod died though.
- 31:24Speaker 3: Though that's a okay, I don't know, right, Okay, it's
- 31:28Speaker 3: it's to keep it, keep.
- 31:32Speaker 2: It there, going to be suage.
- 31:35Speaker 1: Well, I'm definitely taking the age of pleasure because I
- 31:38Speaker 1: know that we made that project to be on an island,
- 31:40Speaker 1: to be on an island to transport me and if
- 31:44Speaker 1: I need a soundtrack to that, to to that that
- 31:48Speaker 1: experience that I want to have. Oh okay, I have
- 31:54Speaker 1: to take some prints. So maybe I'll take Purple.
- 31:58Speaker 3: Rain all right, mm.
- 32:03Speaker 1: He has so many albums. I gotta take some Stevie.
- 32:06Speaker 1: I gotta have some comfort.
- 32:07Speaker 2: Shout to Stevie.
- 32:08Speaker 1: Innervisions or Music of my Mind one of those. I
- 32:15Speaker 1: also would probably take just soundtrack. I would take mm
- 32:27Speaker 1: some Harold Bud. He has an album Harold Bud, which
- 32:32Speaker 1: is like it puts me in a super meditative space.
- 32:38Speaker 1: Oh god, this is tough. This is really really tough.
- 32:41Speaker 1: I don't even know why I'm answering this. I just
- 32:43Speaker 1: feel like I'm gonna be like, why didn't I say
- 32:45Speaker 1: that album?
- 32:47Speaker 3: What else would I take? What else do I?
- 32:49Speaker 2: What about? Give me a hip hop one?
- 32:50Speaker 1: Oh? Okay, maybe I might take.
- 32:59Speaker 3: Maybe I take the below.
- 33:00Speaker 2: Okay, speaker Box club.
- 33:03Speaker 3: That's a nice speaker box exactly.
- 33:06Speaker 1: That would take that because that's like I remember wanting
- 33:10Speaker 1: to make like music, like fun, creative. I remember that
- 33:16Speaker 1: that that helped me tap into to my own uniqueness.
- 33:21Speaker 2: You mentioned Stevie Wonder. Uh, Stevie Wonders awfully obviously a
- 33:25Speaker 2: fan of yours. When you meet Stevie Wonder, what is
- 33:28Speaker 2: that like? So like, I feel like he's got like
- 33:30Speaker 2: one of those people kind of like princes. They I
- 33:32Speaker 2: feel like they might have an aura you.
- 33:33Speaker 1: See around them for sure, for sure, if Nora, but
- 33:36Speaker 1: also very funny, such a jokester, such a trickster, will
- 33:40Speaker 1: say whatever is on his mind. I'm like, you should
- 33:43Speaker 1: let people see more of this side of you, because
- 33:45Speaker 1: people do put he I mean, his music, it's like holy,
- 33:50Speaker 1: you know, he's the blueprint for a lot of a
- 33:53Speaker 1: lot of music. But just to like m He was
- 33:56Speaker 1: on my last project, Dirty Computer, and just I recorded
- 34:01Speaker 1: him talking. We had just a conversation and we were
- 34:04Speaker 1: just talking about all the heaviness.
- 34:05Speaker 3: This is somebody who's.
- 34:06Speaker 1: Lived in multiple generations, you know, somebody who was here
- 34:12Speaker 1: pre integration and got a chance to usher in so revolutions,
- 34:19Speaker 1: you know, with his music, and he just has stories
- 34:22Speaker 1: that nobody has, right.
- 34:24Speaker 2: He probably does. There's not a lot of people who
- 34:26Speaker 2: are walking this earth through can tell stories like him.
- 34:30Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 34:30Speaker 1: Just a beautiful spirit and yeah, I love him. I
- 34:34Speaker 1: love him all right.
- 34:35Speaker 2: So the album is out. Everybody go get a.
- 34:37Speaker 1: Page of pleasure. And did we talk about how I
- 34:39Speaker 1: did the album?
- 34:40Speaker 2: How'd you do it?
- 34:41Speaker 3: Okay?
- 34:41Speaker 1: So my friends that I was talking about that same
- 34:43Speaker 1: party everyday people, Yep, they could not find a spot
- 34:48Speaker 1: and so I offered our spot wonder Land in La
- 34:51Speaker 1: We have a spot in Atlanta.
- 34:53Speaker 2: And now in La creative space.
- 34:55Speaker 1: Yeah, creative space, you know, studio, indoor, outdoor vibes, right,
- 34:59Speaker 1: and and I offered our spot, and I was like,
- 35:03Speaker 1: let's do like maybe one hundred people test everybody is
- 35:07Speaker 1: during the pandemic and the people who are at the
- 35:12Speaker 1: party again, most beautiful brown and black people from all
- 35:16Speaker 1: of the globe, from Africa, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica,
- 35:23Speaker 1: the Caribbeans, New York, LA, Midwest, like all of us
- 35:28Speaker 1: together in a safe space and in the pandemic when
- 35:32Speaker 1: you hadn't been around people reintegrating. It was just like
- 35:37Speaker 1: but it was like, oh, this is life, Like, this
- 35:41Speaker 1: is what we fight.
- 35:42Speaker 2: To protect, right, this is what we're missing. That's what
- 35:44Speaker 2: we're missing.
- 35:46Speaker 3: Yeah, and to you, and.
- 35:47Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, I know I want to make
- 35:49Speaker 1: a soundtrack. I want to make a soundtrack to this
- 35:51Speaker 1: lifestyle because I want to see that joy.
- 35:53Speaker 3: You know.
- 35:54Speaker 1: I oftentimes our safe spaces are police come in, shut
- 36:02Speaker 1: it down. And to see us having that joy, complete
- 36:07Speaker 1: strangers getting to know each other, feeling so free was
- 36:11Speaker 1: something that I only dream of and I always want
- 36:13Speaker 1: for everybody. And so I just started making the music
- 36:18Speaker 1: for the parties. That was it I said, tell my DJ,
- 36:21Speaker 1: don't say it's me. I'm gonna make like two to
- 36:23Speaker 1: three songs.
- 36:23Speaker 2: Just play them in the mix.
- 36:24Speaker 1: Play it and if people are not shazaming, it's not
- 36:27Speaker 1: going on the album. If people are going to go
- 36:30Speaker 1: sit down, it will not make the album. And that's
- 36:33Speaker 1: how I made the Age of Pleasure with my friends.
- 36:36Speaker 1: For our friends.
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- 39:38Speaker 2: to the interview. So you were testing out records in
- 39:40Speaker 2: real time, Yeah, without anyone knowing.
- 39:43Speaker 1: That's what was yeah on without people knowing. And I
- 39:45Speaker 1: was just in the corner with a drink, like, oh yeah.
- 39:49Speaker 1: And then that's I tested all my songs float, Water, Slide,
- 39:53Speaker 1: you know, Champagne, shit, Lipstick, Lover, just like that, and
- 39:57Speaker 1: it's just it feels really good to be able to
- 40:01Speaker 1: sort of have it out because I've been living with
- 40:03Speaker 1: it for so long, me and my friend.
- 40:04Speaker 2: It's like a great way to like it. I mean,
- 40:05Speaker 2: it's the same way like when people go try to
- 40:07Speaker 2: like they're in Atlanta, they go to the strip club
- 40:08Speaker 2: and to try to test the record. You know, it's
- 40:10Speaker 2: like you want to see how people react.
- 40:12Speaker 3: In time because the right people.
- 40:13Speaker 1: I got super specific about that too, because oftentimes we're
- 40:17Speaker 1: like we want everybody, and I was like, no, let
- 40:19Speaker 1: me get specific. If my friends fuck with it, yes.
- 40:22Speaker 2: It's yeah, And it's like a genuine reaction if they
- 40:24Speaker 2: don't know what it is or know that it's you.
- 40:26Speaker 1: Exactly, You'll be able to see like an unbiased Yeah, exactly,
- 40:31Speaker 1: that's pretty great.
- 40:32Speaker 2: How many songs didn't get you Zamed?
- 40:34Speaker 1: You know, maybe a couple, you know, we will not
- 40:37Speaker 1: talk about them. We'll develop those and maybe they'll become something.
- 40:40Speaker 1: But I'm so proud of what we've been able to do.
- 40:42Speaker 1: And shout out to Nate Rocket Wonder and since A
- 40:44Speaker 1: Bueno and Nana Quapina. They were with me providing that
- 40:47Speaker 1: safe space you know, as I you know, evolve, it's
- 40:51Speaker 1: it's a you, and they kept the fun in it
- 40:53Speaker 1: because I was like, I have to make sure that
- 40:56Speaker 1: when I'm in the studio, I'm not overthinking, I'm not
- 41:00Speaker 1: thinking about everybody. I'm getting specific and I'm having a
- 41:04Speaker 1: good time. You know, the journey is just as important
- 41:07Speaker 1: as the result.
- 41:08Speaker 2: I was going to say when you record, because like
- 41:10Speaker 2: you know, you hear like certain artists just have like
- 41:13Speaker 2: hard drives of just unreleased music, and then there's other
- 41:16Speaker 2: artists who are very specific and intentional when they record
- 41:19Speaker 2: music and they take a little bit more time. Do
- 41:21Speaker 2: you like, how big is the pull up music you're
- 41:24Speaker 2: pulling from to pick to put on the album?
- 41:27Speaker 1: I didn't have like ooh, I did twenty songs. Like
- 41:30Speaker 1: I knew the sounds, right, I knew like what I want.
- 41:34Speaker 1: I knew float. I wanted that to be sort of
- 41:36Speaker 1: the cornerstone, the entry point into the album. I knew
- 41:41Speaker 1: I wanted the sounds to be super horny. This is
- 41:44Speaker 1: the age of pleasure. I knew that I wanted to,
- 41:49Speaker 1: you know, because we were listening to afrobeats at the parties.
- 41:52Speaker 1: We were listening to reggae Caribbean, we were listening to
- 41:55Speaker 1: Ama Piano. We were listening to all of that, so
- 41:58Speaker 1: that naturally seeped over.
- 42:00Speaker 3: To the sounds.
- 42:01Speaker 1: So once I knew the musical bed, I then would
- 42:04Speaker 1: take themes like Lipstick Lover, for instance, that's really really
- 42:08Speaker 1: really my life, you know, being the person either put
- 42:11Speaker 1: lipstick on somebody's neck or somebody put lipstick on my neck.
- 42:15Speaker 1: And I was like, that's a song. I looked in
- 42:17Speaker 1: the mirror, saw the Red Prince.
- 42:19Speaker 3: That's a song.
- 42:20Speaker 2: That's a song.
- 42:21Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it.
- 42:22Speaker 1: You write about those things that happened. So once I
- 42:24Speaker 1: got specific about again who it was for, how I
- 42:29Speaker 1: wanted people to feel, it was easy.
- 42:32Speaker 2: It was like water, so you'll go from just an
- 42:34Speaker 2: idea of like looking in the mirror seeing lipstick and
- 42:37Speaker 2: be like, okay, yeah, there's a song I gotta make.
- 42:40Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 42:40Speaker 1: Oh well, speaking of instead of doing twenty fifty songs,
- 42:44Speaker 1: I actually have a spreadsheet where I wrote down fifty concepts,
- 42:48Speaker 1: oh between fifty and eighty concepts.
- 42:50Speaker 2: So it'll be like a spreadsheet of like ideas like that. Yeah,
- 42:53Speaker 2: you'd be like, you know what, I feel like I
- 42:55Speaker 2: can go somewhere with this.
- 42:56Speaker 1: Yeah, like ooh, you know, she kissed me on my
- 42:59Speaker 1: neck lipstick prints. I got to write about that, you know,
- 43:02Speaker 1: I would just things that happened at the party. I
- 43:05Speaker 1: like the way that I saw him look at her.
- 43:08Speaker 1: You know that's that's a line, like I'm just going
- 43:11Speaker 1: watching everything. And you know, as Nina Simone would say,
- 43:15Speaker 1: an artist's job is to reflect the times.
- 43:18Speaker 3: And a time was had.
- 43:20Speaker 2: The time was had, it was. I mean, you've learned
- 43:22Speaker 2: from the best. Yeah, Prince and Puffy, what are we
- 43:25Speaker 2: talking about?
- 43:25Speaker 1: Okay, we talk about Grace Jones though, Let's talk about
- 43:28Speaker 1: the women.
- 43:29Speaker 3: Okay.
- 43:30Speaker 1: Grace Jones is on this project. Yeah, I mean she
- 43:33Speaker 1: taught me so much, you know, even as I'm on
- 43:36Speaker 1: my own journey of honoring all of me. You know,
- 43:39Speaker 1: she's done a lot of what I've already done in
- 43:41Speaker 1: her own way, and so it was just great to
- 43:43Speaker 1: have her in the studio. I spent seventy two hours
- 43:45Speaker 1: with her. Wow, and she recorded a lot of stuff.
- 43:48Speaker 1: And so you have her on there speaking French, you
- 43:50Speaker 1: have nia Along.
- 43:51Speaker 2: I was gonna ask the n Along that's on the
- 43:53Speaker 2: album is the nia Along me alone?
- 43:54Speaker 1: Oh? Ni Along the one and the ni Alone? Yeah,
- 43:59Speaker 1: she came over over and recorded and she always like
- 44:02Speaker 1: she's amazing.
- 44:03Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean obviously shout out to Friday, you.
- 44:05Speaker 3: Know, yeah exactly. That helped and boys in.
- 44:09Speaker 2: The hood, I mean she's yeah, she's one of them.
- 44:12Speaker 2: She is when you're growing up.
- 44:14Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, one of the leaders. Yeah for me too.
- 44:21Speaker 1: That's how I knew. I was like, oh, I'm definitely queer. Yeah,
- 44:24Speaker 1: ne A long as my girlfriend.
- 44:25Speaker 2: So did ne Along. Was she the one who made
- 44:28Speaker 2: you realize you attracted the women?
- 44:29Speaker 1: Definitely was the first. I don't know, maybe not the first,
- 44:34Speaker 1: but she confirmed it.
- 44:36Speaker 2: Son Along confirmed I could get down with checks for sure.
- 44:40Speaker 1: For me. Yeah, when I saw her, I was like,
- 44:43Speaker 1: but then I didn't know if I wanted to be
- 44:44Speaker 1: her or be with her. She's one of those people
- 44:47Speaker 1: where you look at her and you're like, I want
- 44:49Speaker 1: to be just like that. And obviously I am inspired
- 44:51Speaker 1: by her.
- 44:52Speaker 2: And which movie was it that you saw her in?
- 44:54Speaker 2: It made you be like.
- 44:55Speaker 3: Jesus boys in the hood.
- 45:00Speaker 1: And then love Jones for sure, I mean, come on,
- 45:04Speaker 1: you know, but I'm so happy to have her as
- 45:07Speaker 1: a friend and you know, like a big sister. And
- 45:11Speaker 1: you know, even went down to when I was releasing
- 45:14Speaker 1: my press photos. Before I released them, she you know,
- 45:17Speaker 1: I let her see them and she was like, oh
- 45:19Speaker 1: you should you should release that, like this is the
- 45:21Speaker 1: one you coming out the water like this is it?
- 45:23Speaker 1: So there were a lot of wonderful women from Doci
- 45:27Speaker 1: to am Marae to Grace to Nia to Sister Nancy.
- 45:30Speaker 2: Which is dope to I was gonna say, it's also
- 45:32Speaker 2: dope to see Sister Nancy because obviously Sister.
- 45:34Speaker 3: Nancy's oh jo g let's talk about.
- 45:38Speaker 2: Og in the reggae world, like, man, like what is
- 45:42Speaker 2: the Like, how do you get a hold of Sister Nancy?
- 45:46Speaker 1: I just reached out, Like who do you reach out to?
- 45:50Speaker 1: I just have my I had somebody on my team
- 45:52Speaker 1: who knew her nephew, and then we got in touch
- 45:56Speaker 1: with her. And when I got on the phone with her,
- 45:58Speaker 1: she knew a lot about me and I was like, what,
- 46:01Speaker 1: I love you, and I just her story is so cool.
- 46:04Speaker 1: You know her during the time that she came up,
- 46:07Speaker 1: reggae DJ's were not for women. Reggae dj specifically women
- 46:11Speaker 1: who DJ during that era were not really accepted, you know,
- 46:15Speaker 1: they were told Her family told her to go do this,
- 46:18Speaker 1: you need to be doing this, and she was like, no,
- 46:20Speaker 1: this is what I'm gonna do. And now you can't
- 46:22Speaker 1: go to a house party or a reggae or party
- 46:24Speaker 1: in general without playing Bomba.
- 46:26Speaker 2: I was gonna say. She was one of also, like
- 46:27Speaker 2: one of the most sampled songs ever ever.
- 46:30Speaker 3: Yeah you can.
- 46:31Speaker 1: And so to get her to do some original stuff
- 46:34Speaker 1: was just like just the dream come true, you know.
- 46:38Speaker 2: And so, yeah, well, the body of work is out, Yes,
- 46:41Speaker 2: go stream it, go download, and go buy it. I'm
- 46:43Speaker 2: sure you got some crazy merch. Is it out?
- 46:45Speaker 3: Yeah, merch? Go to JMA dot com.
- 46:48Speaker 2: I need tours on the way tour.
- 46:51Speaker 1: Yes, I'll be touring the end of August through the
- 46:54Speaker 1: middle of October.
- 46:56Speaker 3: We are.
- 46:56Speaker 1: We are all North American tours right, tour stops now, and.
- 47:04Speaker 3: I haven't announced Europe yet.
- 47:06Speaker 2: Are Do you know who you're taking on the road
- 47:07Speaker 2: with you.
- 47:08Speaker 1: I'm still picking because I'm going to do some opening
- 47:11Speaker 1: acts in different markets, all the people that I love.
- 47:14Speaker 1: Yet I think Jideo may do some dates as well,
- 47:16Speaker 1: so it'll be great. It's gonna feels it's a movement, movement.
- 47:23Speaker 2: The theaters are TV screen soon that that you have
- 47:26Speaker 2: in the in the pipeline.
- 47:27Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm working on a TV show about the Josephine Baker,
- 47:32Speaker 1: who was also an inspiration is also an inspiration for
- 47:35Speaker 1: me in her time as a spy during the French resistance.
- 47:38Speaker 1: A lot of people don't know, like they see the
- 47:40Speaker 1: banana skirt and you know, obviously she was super liberated
- 47:44Speaker 1: and she had moved to France because America wouldn't even
- 47:46Speaker 1: let her perform in some of the clubs.
- 47:48Speaker 2: And I'm not even I don't know who that is.
- 47:49Speaker 3: You don't know who.
- 47:49Speaker 1: Josephine Baker, Oh my god, like the freest spirit, you know,
- 47:55Speaker 1: doing that for the French resistance. But she was an
- 47:58Speaker 1: incredible performer. Mister chaining artists, Yes, beautiful.
- 48:04Speaker 3: While being a.
- 48:05Speaker 2: Specially are you playing her?
- 48:06Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to play her, So I'm excited. I'm ready. Yeah,
- 48:11Speaker 3: it's gonna be great.
- 48:12Speaker 2: Have you as a streaming network?
- 48:14Speaker 1: Yeah, well we're partnering with A twenty four.
- 48:17Speaker 2: A twenty four they did, they do and uncut Gems
- 48:21Speaker 2: and yes, by the way, Moonlight one of my favorite movies,
- 48:24Speaker 2: like ever, such an incredible movie.
- 48:27Speaker 3: My first movie was that, Like did.
- 48:29Speaker 2: You understand like being in that movie? How one? It
- 48:33Speaker 2: obviously was critically acclaimed, but it also felt like a
- 48:36Speaker 2: very important step in the kind of just like normalizing
- 48:40Speaker 2: like being gay kind of like in the urban community
- 48:43Speaker 2: a little absolutely, like did you realize that when you
- 48:46Speaker 2: guys were filming that movie?
- 48:47Speaker 1: When I read the script, you know, it just brought
- 48:49Speaker 1: tears to my eyes just thinking about how so many
- 48:51Speaker 1: people were going to be seen that that probably would
- 48:56Speaker 1: never have imagined anybody telling their story, you know, from
- 49:00Speaker 1: the ghettos of Miami to Atlanta, you know, deep down
- 49:03Speaker 1: south around the world, like little black boys would would
- 49:06Speaker 1: feel seen. And it was just great to be an ally,
- 49:10Speaker 1: you know, playing an ally in the in the film
- 49:13Speaker 1: as Teresa. A lot of people I can't tell you
- 49:15Speaker 1: the number of people that come up and like, because
- 49:17Speaker 1: of Teresa, I know how to be an ally and
- 49:22Speaker 1: be supportive to my younger you know, sibling or cousin
- 49:25Speaker 1: or you know, younger person in my life. And so yeah,
- 49:29Speaker 1: I didn't know that it was gonna It just meant
- 49:31Speaker 1: something to me, and so I'm happy it meant something
- 49:34Speaker 1: to a lot of other people because there right, yeah, yeah,
- 49:37Speaker 1: I got yeah film a movie, movie of the year
- 49:42Speaker 1: or what do you call it? Is it? And the
- 49:44Speaker 1: war goes to Best Picture. Yeah that was a whole debacle.
- 49:48Speaker 1: But we don't even go into that because remember they
- 49:50Speaker 1: called somebody else and then we.
- 49:52Speaker 3: Had to go up and get them off. Yeah.
- 49:55Speaker 2: Yeah, you get one of those at home.
- 49:58Speaker 3: No, unfortunately.
- 49:59Speaker 2: But you know, I always wonder how that works, because
- 50:02Speaker 2: I know.
- 50:02Speaker 3: It's in my heart. I don't know.
- 50:04Speaker 2: I think they're going to start giving like engineers and people.
- 50:06Speaker 3: Like as they should.
- 50:07Speaker 2: Yeah, like if you're in the movie.
- 50:10Speaker 3: Come on oscars, send me my the writer and the director,
- 50:15Speaker 3: the director.
- 50:16Speaker 1: Sometimes I think the producer. I don't know, I need
- 50:19Speaker 1: to like check listen, it'll give me something.
- 50:23Speaker 3: More, you know what.
- 50:25Speaker 1: Actually, if I get one or if I don't I
- 50:27Speaker 1: love the work like I love I love me. Even
- 50:30Speaker 1: if Moonlight never got nominated, I'm so proud that was.
- 50:35Speaker 2: They put out some amazing content. Beef Beef was them right.
- 50:38Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't seen Beef pretty Will, but everything everywhere
- 50:41Speaker 1: all at once.
- 50:43Speaker 2: That one definitely the best movie.
- 50:46Speaker 3: Change like that changed the game.
- 50:48Speaker 2: So good.
- 50:49Speaker 3: Yeah, good, all right.
- 50:49Speaker 2: I appreciate you coming through, Thank you for having go
- 50:52Speaker 2: get the new album. Looking forward to everything else you
- 50:54Speaker 2: got coming on the way toward coming soon.
- 50:56Speaker 1: All that good, all right, good to see you too.
- 50:59Speaker 2: I appreciate y'all watching another interview brought to you by
- 51:02Speaker 2: our good folks at hard Dean. Now listen, y'all, when
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- 52:16Speaker 2: Las Vegas. Thank y'all, man, I love these guys. They're
- 52:19Speaker 2: like family to us. And hey, we're gonna drop another
- 52:21Speaker 2: interview soon. If you're watching this, you're at the end
- 52:23Speaker 2: of the interview. Though, much love