Latest / Corie Sheppard Podcast / Angela Hunte: The Real Story Behind “Empire State of Mind,” “Party Done” & Learning to Walk Again

Transcript

Angela Hunte: The Real Story Behind “Empire State of Mind,” “Party Done” & Learning to Walk Again · Corie Sheppard Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_03: My laptop is called The Million Dollar Laptop.
0:02
SPEAKER_03: Because in that laptop is songs from 15, 17, 18 years ago that you could still bust today.
0:09
SPEAKER_03: Was really thinking about New York and wanted to write something about New York City.
0:13
SPEAKER_03: Let me play this for Jay-Z.
0:14
SPEAKER_03: They said they hated it.
0:15
SPEAKER_03: Alicia Keys had that demographic that he hadn't reached yet.
0:19
Corie: Any of Jay-Z bars and that I've written.
0:21
SPEAKER_03: Me person.
0:25
SPEAKER_03: Gellin' them the Malachi.
0:27
SPEAKER_03: What the hell is that?
0:28
SPEAKER_03: When you see me in the place, party done.
0:30
SPEAKER_03: I was pregnant actually when I wrote it.
0:32
SPEAKER_03: That I originally wrote party done for fan.
0:35
SPEAKER_03: My house was the house.
0:37
SPEAKER_03: Biggie used to be in there, Pac used to be in there, everybody was.
0:41
Corie: Do you know what?
0:42
Corie: What's happening here?
0:43
Corie: What would you like?
0:44
SPEAKER_03: We line, we chillin'.
0:46
SPEAKER_03: Monbonami.
0:47
SPEAKER_03: I don't even know what I mean.
0:48
SPEAKER_03: But come on.
0:49
SPEAKER_03: I'm st- I what does monbonami mean?
0:51
SPEAKER_03: I'm not French.
0:53
SPEAKER_03: What does that mean?
0:55
SPEAKER_03: Sony was very interested in me writing all over the world.
0:58
SPEAKER_03: If you when you put me over the internet, it just charts fired.
1:02
Corie: Where?
1:05
SPEAKER_03: My dog is gonna go like this.
1:06
SPEAKER_03: I know I can't be what I wanna be.
1:09
SPEAKER_03: If I work hard at it, I'll be where I wanna be.
1:11
SPEAKER_03: B, be.
1:12
SPEAKER_03: He said, but you're gonna do it and you're gonna be kids.
1:16
SPEAKER_03: Two years now I had a huge health care and I need a heart search.
1:22
SPEAKER_03: I thought it was lights out.
1:26
Corie: You are no light on the core, step on the story, step on story, step on corey, step on podcast.
1:34
Corie: Mommy, look at the true.
1:36
Corie: Don't let this one.
1:37
Corie: It's gonna be sexy.
1:42
Corie: The notion of the thing that I was doing in the beginning where I asked to like and subscribe, and it looked like that.
1:46
Corie: So I just want to do that over, please.
1:48
Corie: Like, share, subscribe, comment, and tell us how you feel about the episodes.
1:52
Corie: We're always looking forward to your feedback, and you would not believe how much it helps when you actually subscribe and you're not just watch your favorite person and then cut.
2:01
Corie: Subscribe to the channel, help we grow.
2:03
Corie: Bang.
2:04
Corie: Welcome to the Cory Shepherd Podcast.
2:05
Corie: Thank you for everybody who's tuning in religiously.
2:08
Corie: Welcome if this is your first episode.
2:10
Corie: If this is your first episode, you choose on your episode to start.
2:13
Corie: We have with us the great Angela Hunt, songwriter, performer, actress, a little bit.
2:18
Corie: You know what I mean?
2:18
Corie: I'm supposed to some acting on things recently.
2:26
Corie: It is nice to have you.
2:28
Corie: It's a blessing to have you here.
2:29
Corie: Thank you.
2:30
Corie: Passing true for the guy.
2:31
SPEAKER_03: I passing true real quick.
2:32
SPEAKER_03: I came for the Caribbean Music Awards and um I'm here.
2:36
Corie: What show does your visit?
2:38
SPEAKER_03: It was short.
2:39
SPEAKER_03: I literally came in the morning of the awards, did the awards, had a show the next day that no one told me about.
2:45
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
2:47
SPEAKER_03: But it's okay.
2:48
SPEAKER_03: We survived it.
2:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
2:49
SPEAKER_03: After I was in St.
2:50
SPEAKER_03: James, just having a ball, a blast, I did that.
2:54
SPEAKER_03: And now I'm here with you.
2:55
Corie: This episode could end now.
2:57
Corie: St.
2:57
Corie: James is acknowledged as the best place in Trinidad to be we can acknowledge that.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: Listen, the only place you could walk down the street with a whole plate of food and nobody cares.
3:05
Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:09
Corie: Matter of fact, if you don't do it, they might want to live here for it.
3:12
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
3:12
SPEAKER_03: So I try to sit and I just eat on the street.
3:15
Corie: Nice, nice, nice.
3:16
Corie: Maybe I should ask you about that performance because I was peeping it and I saw you doing in front of a pan side, like a full orchestra.
3:23
Corie: What was that?
3:24
Corie: What's the experience?
3:25
SPEAKER_03: Um, I'm gonna tell you the truth.
3:28
SPEAKER_03: I feel like I almost beat my pants twice.
3:34
SPEAKER_03: Because I was, I'm not gonna lie, I was so scared.
3:37
SPEAKER_03: And then I kind of got misinformed.
3:39
SPEAKER_03: So I didn't really know what I thought we were doing, like a little lime, little pan yard action jamming.
3:46
SPEAKER_03: Hey, parties are and then I walked in and I said, We're in Napa.
3:52
SPEAKER_03: What are we, what are we doing back here again?
3:54
SPEAKER_03: And the conductor looked at me like, I said, What do you have that stick doing?
3:59
SPEAKER_03: Like, what like this is a real thing.
4:02
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Oh, oh no.
4:04
SPEAKER_03: I was out all night till 5 a.m.
4:07
Corie: Instant James.
4:10
SPEAKER_03: Like, what we doing?
4:12
SPEAKER_03: He said, You'll be all right.
4:14
SPEAKER_03: The vibes will make your voice saucy.
4:17
SPEAKER_03: I was like, okay.
4:19
SPEAKER_03: But I was honestly, that was like a childhood dream of mine to do that.
4:24
SPEAKER_03: So I quickly had to shake up real fast.
4:28
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, okay, so what song we doing?
4:29
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, Mom Bonami, because I always thought like Mom Bonami was like a pan song.
4:34
Corie: Oh, you had that in mind from then?
4:36
SPEAKER_03: I I did.
4:36
SPEAKER_03: I always thought I never hear nobody play it.
4:39
SPEAKER_03: Funny enough.
4:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
4:40
SPEAKER_03: But in my mind, I thought, yeah, this is a pan song.
4:43
SPEAKER_03: He said, no, we're not doing that.
4:45
SPEAKER_03: I said, so what are we doing?
4:47
SPEAKER_03: He was like, Empire State of Mind.
4:49
SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh my goodness, yes, you can't be serious.
4:53
SPEAKER_03: He was like, Yeah.
4:54
SPEAKER_03: And we're doing the original version.
4:55
Corie: Oh, nice.
4:56
SPEAKER_03: Which is, you could have more, it's a lot more loose.
5:00
SPEAKER_03: It's the same exact chorus, but it's just a singing verse.
5:04
SPEAKER_03: So I said, okay, you want me to sing Empire State of Mind, the original version that no one has heard.
5:09
SPEAKER_03: Great, let's go.
5:10
SPEAKER_03: This is gonna be so interesting.
5:14
SPEAKER_03: But actually, it was really, really good.
5:17
SPEAKER_03: One thing they did though that was crazy, they put on a video before.
5:22
SPEAKER_03: And so he tells me, Go and watch the video.
5:25
SPEAKER_04: Right.
5:25
SPEAKER_03: And so I'm watching this video and I'm bawling in tears because the video is just like this super sad story of my life.
5:33
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, Oh, is that about you?
5:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I'm like, gee, thanks.
5:36
unknown: Great.
5:37
SPEAKER_03: Just before you perform?
5:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
5:39
SPEAKER_03: Why not?
5:39
SPEAKER_03: Come on.
5:40
SPEAKER_03: Tears and everything.
5:41
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no problem.
5:42
SPEAKER_03: Let's go.
5:44
SPEAKER_03: So we went and we did it, and it was vibes.
5:46
Corie: It was amazing.
5:47
Corie: Like looking at it, you wouldn't be able to tell any of that because you'll just carry it on.
5:51
SPEAKER_03: It was very emotional because I was like, seriously, like, yo, in Barataria, where I grew up partially with my grandmother and my cousin.
6:00
SPEAKER_03: I used to seriously be in the backyard with my little brush going, I want to tell everybody thank you for this award, and acting like there was an entire pan orchestra behind me.
6:11
SPEAKER_03: That was like my dream.
6:12
SPEAKER_03: I was like, I am going to perform with a pan orchestra.
6:15
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, here we are.
6:16
SPEAKER_03: And then no one told me this is what we're doing.
6:19
Corie: Well, you don't tell yourself so much years are going by good.
6:22
SPEAKER_03: So quickly I had to get focused and say, okay, let's make this a memory.
6:28
Corie: Right.
6:28
SPEAKER_03: For good or bad.
6:29
Corie: Okay.
6:30
SPEAKER_03: Let's do it.
6:31
SPEAKER_03: Thank goodness it was good.
6:32
Corie: It was good.
6:32
Corie: It was great.
6:33
Corie: It was great.
6:33
Corie: Congrats on fulfilling that dream.
6:35
Corie: Maybe I should talk to you about those emotions because you're on stage, there's an emotion that you perform with and an emotion that you bring yourself to the table with.
6:42
Corie: Two key moments in particular, I remember recently.
6:45
Corie: Tell me which one.
6:46
Corie: One was with Kes.
6:48
Corie: I saw you and Kess together on Kess's last tour.
6:51
Corie: So you take some time out to talk about how much he's done for us.
6:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
6:54
Corie: What's that moment like on stage for you?
6:56
Corie: You did Mona Bonami then yes?
6:58
SPEAKER_03: You know what?
6:59
SPEAKER_03: First of all, let me just let me just make this because people don't ever know what got what happens before and what you know what has led to that moment.
7:08
SPEAKER_03: I was in France.
7:10
SPEAKER_03: Not only was I in France, I was behind God back in France.
7:14
Corie: Like the Anne of France.
7:16
SPEAKER_03: Like the Anne of France.
7:18
SPEAKER_03: And they're like, do you think you could come to New York and do this show with Cass?
7:21
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, sure.
7:25
SPEAKER_03: And I looked at my manager, like, how are we getting back to New York?
7:28
SPEAKER_03: Like we're we were like in a very, very big situation in France.
7:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
7:36
SPEAKER_03: And it was like, okay, we're gonna cut this short and we're gonna go.
7:40
SPEAKER_03: Like he's calling me, like, let's go.
7:43
SPEAKER_03: That's something, again, I've always wanted to do.
7:45
SPEAKER_03: I've always wanted to do a song with him.
7:47
SPEAKER_03: I've always wanted to perform with him.
7:48
SPEAKER_03: I was like, let's go.
7:50
SPEAKER_03: Cool.
7:50
SPEAKER_03: Didn't even ask him, well, what were we doing?
7:52
SPEAKER_03: It's just, yeah.
7:53
Corie: You tend not to ask these things.
7:54
SPEAKER_03: You just we're going.
7:56
SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna tell a little secret.
7:57
SPEAKER_03: I might get her in trouble, but it's cool.
7:59
SPEAKER_03: We made it to the show.
8:01
SPEAKER_03: So we're on this journey to get back to New York, right?
8:04
SPEAKER_03: It's crazy.
8:06
SPEAKER_03: Everyone is trying to leave France.
8:07
SPEAKER_03: We can't get no flights out.
8:08
SPEAKER_03: We're taking whatever.
8:09
SPEAKER_03: We don't need no, we in coach.
8:11
SPEAKER_03: We good.
8:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, good.
8:12
SPEAKER_03: Like we go.
8:12
SPEAKER_03: We're getting on this plane.
8:14
SPEAKER_03: I happen to be on the plane with his publicist.
8:17
SPEAKER_03: The publicist was like, hey, I have Angela, she with me, so we're good.
8:23
SPEAKER_03: Package is with me.
8:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
8:25
SPEAKER_04: We say, cool.
8:26
SPEAKER_03: The package is secure.
8:28
SPEAKER_03: So we say, okay, cool.
8:29
SPEAKER_03: So now I'm like, hey, going all the way back to America, I have a partner.
8:32
SPEAKER_03: We're cool.
8:32
SPEAKER_03: It's like we know each other for 50 years.
8:34
SPEAKER_03: Nice.
8:34
SPEAKER_04: No problem.
8:36
SPEAKER_03: We got to Turkey.
8:37
SPEAKER_03: We had to stop in Turkey.
8:41
SPEAKER_03: And it's me and her, two black women, six feet tall, on display, Turkish Airlines, and now we're in Turkey.
8:50
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
8:50
SPEAKER_03: She's like, oh my God, let's go shopping.
8:52
SPEAKER_03: I was like, yeah.
8:53
SPEAKER_03: Because there's all kinds of stores in this Turkish airport.
8:56
SPEAKER_03: Right.
8:58
SPEAKER_03: And we just walking around and we like, why don't we have a drink?
9:01
SPEAKER_03: And we have a drink.
9:03
SPEAKER_03: And we sit out, we're drinking.
9:04
SPEAKER_03: I'm ordering steak.
9:05
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, the steak is good here.
9:07
SPEAKER_03: You know, let's have the steak.
9:08
SPEAKER_03: Board in flight.
9:11
SPEAKER_03: We're like, is that our flight?
9:16
SPEAKER_03: I said, we came this far to miss this flight.
9:19
SPEAKER_03: Imagine.
9:20
SPEAKER_03: Are you kidding me?
9:20
SPEAKER_03: So we had to run through the airport.
9:22
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I really don't care if you make this flight.
9:26
SPEAKER_03: I am going to make this flight.
9:28
SPEAKER_03: And I left her and literally, she's like, you're right, because I I will get fired.
9:32
SPEAKER_03: So it's cool.
9:34
SPEAKER_03: You go and you, because if I don't bring the package back, now we'll see.
9:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
9:39
SPEAKER_03: We did end up making the play like by the skin of our teeth.
9:43
SPEAKER_03: So that was hilarious within itself.
9:45
SPEAKER_03: So we were just completely jet-lagged and completely tired.
9:48
SPEAKER_03: We made it to New York.
9:49
SPEAKER_03: We get to New York.
9:50
SPEAKER_03: When we get to New York, we get to the show.
9:53
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, guess this is a stadium.
9:56
SPEAKER_03: Wait, what is going on?
9:58
SPEAKER_03: It's like how many thousands of people?
10:00
Corie: Angela, you don't ask too much questions.
10:01
SPEAKER_03: I don't really ask too much questions.
10:03
SPEAKER_03: I really need to ask more questions.
10:06
SPEAKER_03: Listen, I really, really do because I just, I don't know.
10:10
SPEAKER_03: If it if I know you, I worked so hard, we go in.
10:13
SPEAKER_03: What do you need from me?
10:14
SPEAKER_03: I hear.
10:14
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
10:15
SPEAKER_03: So I was set up really, really good because I really didn't know what he had planned.
10:21
SPEAKER_03: And I know that Mumba to me, which I found out is like one of his favorite songs.
10:26
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, wow, that's crazy.
10:29
SPEAKER_03: And he's like, came out on the stage.
10:32
SPEAKER_03: That moment was surreal.
10:34
SPEAKER_03: Again, I was like so emotional.
10:36
SPEAKER_03: And I think I was just so emotional because I'm not really an emotional person.
10:42
SPEAKER_03: And I don't get the chance to be emotional.
10:46
Corie: I'm gonna check in with the crew here to see if it's a good idea.
10:48
Corie: Check in with the crew, check in with the crew, is that true?
10:52
SPEAKER_03: I don't really, I don't really get everything is like, right, right, okay, that was messed up, cool.
10:59
SPEAKER_03: You know, stone face.
11:02
SPEAKER_03: But I was just like, that's years of having to be that person.
11:06
SPEAKER_03: And then I was just really, really shocked.
11:07
SPEAKER_03: It's such a small gesture of bringing flowers on the stage.
11:11
SPEAKER_03: I looked at him like, are you kidding me, dog?
11:15
SPEAKER_03: Like, he's like, man, we gotta give you your flowers.
11:17
SPEAKER_03: And I I've never really had that.
11:20
SPEAKER_03: And in that moment, you gotta understand, New York was on fire.
11:25
SPEAKER_03: The Knicks just wanted was crazy.
11:27
SPEAKER_03: And then I turned around and he put the Knicks hat on me, he put the Knicks shirt on.
11:31
SPEAKER_03: You can't make that up.
11:33
SPEAKER_03: You cannot make that up.
11:34
SPEAKER_03: I was like, Kez, you win.
11:37
SPEAKER_03: Hands down.
11:38
SPEAKER_03: He is definitely a friend and someone who absolutely made sure that I stayed in music.
11:48
SPEAKER_03: He told me in the airport one day, randomly saw him in the airport, and he looked at me and was like, I listened to everything you do.
11:58
SPEAKER_03: Trust me, you have to keep doing music.
12:01
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Really?
12:04
SPEAKER_03: I was like, okay.
12:06
SPEAKER_03: I will.
12:07
SPEAKER_03: But it was really, it was really honestly a moment that I was really thinking of not doing it anymore.
12:13
SPEAKER_04: Really?
12:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
12:14
SPEAKER_03: You have to be honest with yourself.
12:16
SPEAKER_03: You're not always like, this is great.
12:18
SPEAKER_03: And I want to do this.
12:19
SPEAKER_03: There comes times you go like this.
12:22
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes, sometimes when you see artists, you have to give them a little grace.
12:25
SPEAKER_03: When you see them going, oh, I'm going through a little mental thing, they just go into a moment because you're always creative.
12:30
Corie: Of course.
12:31
SPEAKER_03: You know, and sometimes you need a break from that to just be a person who just wants to think normally.
12:40
Corie: Hey, I guess I got to turn that off.
12:41
Corie: I don't agree.
12:42
Corie: The side is wants to go.
12:43
SPEAKER_03: No, my head is turning 24-7.
12:46
SPEAKER_03: I literally have to like, the only time it stops is when I sleep.
12:50
SPEAKER_03: And then sometimes I dream in songs.
12:51
SPEAKER_03: You know, so it never really stops.
12:54
SPEAKER_03: So sometimes you just need a moment, but I wasn't sure if I was gonna do music again personally for other people and other things, yeah.
13:02
SPEAKER_03: But me personally, I was like, I wasn't sure because you like Tiana Taylor one time, she said, you know, you give so much.
13:10
SPEAKER_03: And then you like, hello.
13:14
SPEAKER_03: You know, is it reaching the people?
13:15
SPEAKER_03: It's connecting to the people.
13:17
SPEAKER_03: But then in between all that craziness, you find these pockets of love.
13:23
SPEAKER_03: You find people that come up to you and you like, oh, that's why I do it.
13:28
SPEAKER_03: All right, all right, all right, all right, all right.
13:30
SPEAKER_03: Music coming soon.
13:31
Corie: It brings itself back.
13:32
Corie: Yeah, oh yeah.
13:33
Corie: But Mon Bonami was one of those because you saw people's reaction to it.
13:36
Corie: I mean, what year was this when you did Mon Bonami?
13:38
Corie: Anybody remember?
13:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, it was like 2015 somewhere around there.
13:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so the song is That song is crazy because actually there was another song on it.
13:51
SPEAKER_04: Right.
13:52
SPEAKER_03: And I've never done anybody else's song.
13:55
SPEAKER_03: I'm horrible at doing other people's song.
13:57
SPEAKER_03: If you saw me do somebody else's song, you swear I can't sing.
14:01
SPEAKER_03: What's the word?
14:02
SPEAKER_03: What's the note?
14:02
SPEAKER_03: I'm horrible at taking directions from other people.
14:05
SPEAKER_03: It's just how it goes.
14:06
SPEAKER_03: And my engineer was with me for a very long time.
14:09
SPEAKER_03: He was looking at me like, I don't think this is working.
14:12
SPEAKER_03: I said, you know what?
14:14
SPEAKER_03: Take her voice off.
14:16
SPEAKER_03: Stop.
14:16
SPEAKER_03: Just play the song.
14:18
SPEAKER_03: And literally, I was looking out the window and he had the mic in my face, and I was like, mon bonhomme.
14:25
SPEAKER_03: I don't even know what I mean.
14:26
SPEAKER_03: But come on.
14:27
SPEAKER_03: I'm I what does mon bonami mean?
14:29
SPEAKER_03: I'm not French.
14:31
SPEAKER_03: What does that mean?
14:34
Corie: When vibes.
14:35
SPEAKER_03: It was vibes.
14:36
SPEAKER_03: I was like, sound good to me.
14:38
SPEAKER_03: Okay, let's go.
14:39
SPEAKER_03: Mon bonhomme.
14:40
SPEAKER_03: You couldn't have a better time.
14:42
SPEAKER_03: You always have someone I call in all little night out with him.
14:46
SPEAKER_03: Got a week.
14:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, me lock up in the bedroom.
14:49
SPEAKER_03: Literally was one take.
14:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
14:52
SPEAKER_03: One take.
14:53
SPEAKER_03: All the way to.
14:54
SPEAKER_03: He wants to give me the sugar.
14:56
SPEAKER_03: I tell him when we get his baby.
14:57
SPEAKER_03: If he wants me by his side, he better work hard.
15:00
SPEAKER_03: And he only looked at me going, I guess I should keep recording.
15:03
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I think you should.
15:05
SPEAKER_03: Because I just called it the being.
15:08
SPEAKER_03: That is God.
15:10
SPEAKER_03: That can't be you.
15:12
SPEAKER_03: How could you just literally even I went back to try to sing it over again?
15:18
Corie: Yeah.
15:19
Corie: The first thing is, what was it?
15:21
SPEAKER_03: So that song is super special to me.
15:24
SPEAKER_03: But party done was such a and you know, I feel like Caribbean people as a whole, not just trainers, and I just gonna blame them.
15:34
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna blame your whole Caribbean.
15:36
SPEAKER_03: Like it give us that, give me that again.
15:38
Corie: No matter what.
15:40
SPEAKER_03: Of course, but I do most of my music in America.
15:44
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so most of my music is pop music.
15:47
SPEAKER_03: There, we are in the business of giving you what you don't know you want yet.
15:54
Corie: Okay, okay.
15:54
Corie: Not going back.
15:55
SPEAKER_03: Well we do.
15:56
Corie: Gotcha, gotcha.
15:57
SPEAKER_03: You know, you're supposed to give the people things that they don't even know they want until they hear it and they're like, wow, I didn't know I need this.
16:03
SPEAKER_03: I did not know I need this.
16:05
SPEAKER_03: So I'm not afraid to jump off the ledge.
16:10
Corie: Oh, it was way off the ledge.
16:11
SPEAKER_03: I thought it was off the ledge because I heard what's Bungie for song?
16:15
SPEAKER_03: Techno Technology?
16:16
SPEAKER_03: Is that what's the name?
16:17
SPEAKER_03: Bungie.
16:18
SPEAKER_03: That song that really broke out commercially for the same.
16:20
SPEAKER_03: Differentology.
16:21
SPEAKER_03: Different.
16:23
SPEAKER_03: And I was good for naming other things.
16:25
SPEAKER_03: So baby.
16:31
SPEAKER_03: I will name in the right place.
16:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
16:34
SPEAKER_03: So let's just, yeah, we just roll.
16:36
SPEAKER_03: Just go.
16:37
SPEAKER_03: I know what you mean.
16:39
SPEAKER_03: So I heard that, and when I heard that, I was so inspired.
16:43
SPEAKER_03: I was like, yeah, they're ready.
16:45
Corie: Oh, I see.
16:47
SPEAKER_03: I I thought so.
16:49
SPEAKER_03: So I know she's gonna kill me, but I love her.
16:52
SPEAKER_03: I love you, fam.
16:54
SPEAKER_03: But I originally wrote party done for fan.
16:57
unknown: See.
16:58
Corie: So one of the fronts of the jail, do you have party done written early?
17:01
SPEAKER_03: Um no.
17:02
Corie: Okay.
17:02
SPEAKER_03: I had heard it and I just thought it was such a mash of like just a bevy of things.
17:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
17:08
SPEAKER_03: And yeah, and I was like, this is who, if I have to come in, because my mother was kind of like on me, we we doing, we doing for us.
17:17
Corie: You know, yeah.
17:21
SPEAKER_03: People don't understand.
17:21
SPEAKER_03: I might have not been born here, but please believe me.
17:25
SPEAKER_03: She's like, we doing for us.
17:30
SPEAKER_03: I was like, mommy, what can I possibly do?
17:32
SPEAKER_03: She's like, you could do a lot.
17:34
SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, okay, and that kind of like was the turning point for me to come in this.
17:39
SPEAKER_03: And I was doing a lot of stuff for Diplo.
17:43
SPEAKER_03: And when I was doing a lot of stuff for him, I noticed he was taking a lot of like our music, but he wasn't telling people where it came from.
17:57
SPEAKER_03: Let me take a drink.
17:58
SPEAKER_04: It's a flying.
18:05
Corie: Don't forget you could also reach out to us to advertise on the show and have your brand place here, anywhere here.
18:11
Corie: You could get your brand.
18:12
Corie: So don't just call to get on the show, right?
18:14
Corie: We'll call and get you on the show to we know you have big brands and you do great work in this country.
18:18
Corie: But don't forget, you could also advertise with us to help support the stories of our countries and our region going out to everybody.
18:26
Corie: Help you out, though.
18:27
Corie: Just don't just call your friend, don't just call David to come on the show.
18:30
Corie: And advertise, you know what I mean?
18:32
Corie: Pay, spell.
18:33
Corie: How are we going?
18:34
Corie: Which way are we going back?
18:35
Corie: How does this go back this way?
18:36
Corie: Back to the conversation.
18:38
Corie: A drink to the truth.
18:42
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
18:43
SPEAKER_03: So that really bothered me, honestly.
18:45
SPEAKER_03: And I don't, I'm not saying it was his fault, but it was definitely your position to say, hey, you vibe into this thing you've never heard before.
18:51
SPEAKER_03: This is where it comes from.
18:52
Corie: Well, you can shed light on this.
18:53
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
18:54
SPEAKER_03: And that really is what made me say, hey, I want to step into this, but I want to put my spin on it.
18:59
SPEAKER_03: And then kind of party done kind of happened that way.
19:02
SPEAKER_03: I was pregnant actually when I wrote it.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Buddha, the he's like also like a co-manager of mine.
19:09
SPEAKER_03: He also does like all the music that I do personally for me and other people in the industry.
19:14
SPEAKER_03: He was like, yo, I got this song.
19:15
SPEAKER_03: You need to come right now.
19:17
SPEAKER_03: Come voice this.
19:18
SPEAKER_03: I was like, no.
19:19
SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm pregnant.
19:20
SPEAKER_03: What are we doing, really?
19:22
SPEAKER_03: He's like, come and do this song.
19:23
SPEAKER_03: And I was like so angry that I had to walk up these steps to get to where the studio was.
19:29
SPEAKER_03: And I was so out of breath that I got upstairs and I went, What is this?
19:33
SPEAKER_03: And I only hear I was like, What?
19:38
SPEAKER_03: I was like, killing them them arrash me.
19:40
SPEAKER_03: What the hell is that?
19:41
SPEAKER_03: When didn't you see me in the place?
19:42
SPEAKER_03: Patty done.
19:43
SPEAKER_03: I was literally telling him, leave me the hell alone.
19:46
SPEAKER_03: You're getting on my nerves.
19:47
SPEAKER_03: Patti's over.
19:48
SPEAKER_03: Now going back downstairs.
19:50
SPEAKER_03: To go and be greedy and eat food because I was very pregnant.
19:54
SPEAKER_03: And he was like, Great, that's all I need.
19:56
SPEAKER_03: And he literally chopped it up with that.
19:59
SPEAKER_03: I went back and did a verse.
20:01
SPEAKER_03: But that was all he needed to actually make the song.
20:04
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then I was like, yo, we should play this.
20:07
SPEAKER_03: They're gonna, I think it was like it was some Caribbean event that happened in New York.
20:12
SPEAKER_03: They ended up coming to the studio and I was like, Yeah, this is good, but let me play you what I'm doing.
20:21
Corie: I was like, So what you was working on there was a reference or was a demo?
20:23
Corie: Yeah, it was a reference.
20:24
Corie: Okay.
20:24
SPEAKER_03: It was a reference, and she heard it.
20:25
SPEAKER_03: And I don't know, I think maybe she at listen, songs hit people's ears at times.
20:31
SPEAKER_03: It was like three in the morning, some crazy time.
20:34
SPEAKER_03: Maybe she was just like, but I know she had just also found a place where she won.
20:39
SPEAKER_03: I think it was Rise.
20:40
SPEAKER_03: Oh Ray's Raise, sorry.
20:45
Corie: But do you think it's always close to the closest?
20:49
SPEAKER_03: Um, it's never too far.
20:51
Corie: All isn't it?
20:52
SPEAKER_03: I might, yeah, you know, so bear with me.
20:54
Corie: Yeah, yeah.
20:56
SPEAKER_03: So yes, she adjusted that, which is a great song.
20:59
SPEAKER_03: Right.
20:59
SPEAKER_03: When she played it, I was like, oh yeah, this is yeah, this is kind of like really better than this.
21:03
SPEAKER_03: Like, I can see what you're saying.
21:05
SPEAKER_03: So she didn't, you know, it was cool.
21:08
SPEAKER_03: It it happened, whatever.
21:10
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, my manager's like, yo, we should put it out.
21:13
SPEAKER_03: I was like, put it out where?
21:14
SPEAKER_03: To do what?
21:16
SPEAKER_03: No one would want to listen to that record.
21:18
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, I'm gonna go in the hospital and have this baby because this is I don't know what you're on right now, but okay, fine.
21:26
SPEAKER_03: And he was he was very cool with Marshall.
21:30
SPEAKER_03: I had met this is something about me and Marshall that people don't know.
21:33
SPEAKER_03: Years ago, like 2002 or 2001, this is when he wanted to be a pop man.
21:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he was in just thinking about the song we did in Sweden.
21:46
SPEAKER_03: One day, Marshall, I'll go, we need to stop it.
21:51
SPEAKER_03: He was on his journey.
21:52
SPEAKER_03: Okay, nice.
21:53
SPEAKER_03: And he was doing something, and I said, And we're in Sweden, and I'm like, That's Marshall Montano, what you doing here?
21:59
SPEAKER_03: He's like, What you doing here?
22:01
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, no, what you doing here?
22:03
SPEAKER_03: Two black Caribbean people in Sweden, like, what are we really doing here?
22:07
SPEAKER_03: In a place where they only did like Baxter Boys, Britney Spears, like it was it was weird.
22:12
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, you should put me in the room with him, because I kind of think Yeah, good figure sometimes.
22:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:17
SPEAKER_03: And it was interesting, but that was like kind of like, he said, one day we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna do something.
22:24
Corie: Because we ended up Yeah, so early as this is really 2002.
22:27
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, yeah, okay, whatever.
22:30
SPEAKER_03: So fast forward, he reached out to him.
22:33
SPEAKER_03: He was like, yo, I got this track, but Angela, I wanna put this out.
22:37
SPEAKER_03: See if he liked it literally three minutes later.
22:40
SPEAKER_03: He was like, yo, yo, tell Angela this, I got this.
22:47
SPEAKER_03: I was like, you gotta have the evidence.
22:49
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to have this baby.
22:51
SPEAKER_03: That's what I'm doing.
22:53
SPEAKER_03: But he literally like voiced the record, I feel like that day, put his part on him, and it came back.
22:58
SPEAKER_03: I never really thought anything about it.
23:00
SPEAKER_03: Again, ill-informed as per usual.
23:02
SPEAKER_03: Angela never knew what was going on.
23:05
SPEAKER_03: Record comes out.
23:06
SPEAKER_03: Don't even really know they put the record out.
23:07
SPEAKER_03: I don't even really know what was happening.
23:10
SPEAKER_03: And he said, You need to come to Trinidad.
23:13
SPEAKER_03: I said, No.
23:14
SPEAKER_03: I just had a baby.
23:16
SPEAKER_03: And I come into Trinidad.
23:17
SPEAKER_03: He's like, Yeah, you are.
23:18
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, no, I'm not.
23:22
SPEAKER_03: And he was like, yeah.
23:24
SPEAKER_03: And my husband was the one who was like, listen, because my husband knows he married a woman of culture.
23:34
SPEAKER_03: So he don't mess with me.
23:36
SPEAKER_03: So he was like, listen, I don't want you 10 years from now coming back telling me, you know, had I gone to Trinidad and Tobago, I would have been a star, you know, I would have, I would have done it.
23:48
SPEAKER_03: He said, I don't want that.
23:49
Corie: You might understand.
23:50
SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
23:51
SPEAKER_03: He goes, and he looks at, he looks at our door, he's like, she don't know you.
23:55
SPEAKER_03: She don't know who you is.
23:57
SPEAKER_03: Get on the plane and go.
23:58
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, really?
24:00
SPEAKER_03: Should I do that?
24:01
SPEAKER_03: And he's like, yeah.
24:02
SPEAKER_03: Oh, wait, the baby is who he said?
24:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
24:05
SPEAKER_03: Baby.
24:06
SPEAKER_03: He said, she don't know who you is.
24:08
SPEAKER_03: Anybody is our mother right now.
24:11
SPEAKER_03: Anybody can know who you is.
24:13
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, you kind of rank.
24:16
SPEAKER_03: Okay, cool.
24:17
SPEAKER_03: And it was a whole, it was a whole thing.
24:19
SPEAKER_03: Had my belly band.
24:21
SPEAKER_03: And it was like, hey, you're gonna put on this costume.
24:23
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, yo, y'all are doing the most right now.
24:27
SPEAKER_03: And I really didn't know.
24:28
SPEAKER_03: I really thought that I was coming to a club to do a little thing.
24:33
SPEAKER_03: I don't know why I always think it's a little thing.
24:36
Corie: You always in the best stadium.
24:40
SPEAKER_03: I walk out, I'm like, it's so much people.
24:44
Corie: Wait, do you find a lot of this on your walkout?
24:45
Corie: This is Marshall Monday.
24:46
SPEAKER_03: This is Marshall Monday.
24:48
SPEAKER_03: Marshall, for anybody who's been to Marshall, you know, there's a tunnel, and I on the other side of the tunnel.
24:54
SPEAKER_03: And Marshall's like me.
24:59
SPEAKER_04: Mm-mm.
25:00
SPEAKER_04: On the night.
25:01
SPEAKER_03: I'm not doing it.
25:03
SPEAKER_03: I was like, I'm not, I'm not coming out there.
25:06
SPEAKER_03: I haven't been on the stage in years.
25:08
SPEAKER_03: Like, no.
25:10
SPEAKER_03: He said yes.
25:12
SPEAKER_03: And the funny thing that night, Marshall Monday, he had on an Adidas.
25:16
SPEAKER_03: Go from here.
25:24
SPEAKER_03: Angela Hunt and the fly.
25:26
SPEAKER_03: So sorry.
25:30
SPEAKER_03: So he had on the same, he had on Adidas suit like me.
25:33
SPEAKER_04: It was just it was crazy.
25:35
SPEAKER_04: Coincidence.
25:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Sener G was mad.
25:37
SPEAKER_03: So we go out.
25:39
SPEAKER_03: This stage was big.
25:42
SPEAKER_03: That's a big stage.
25:43
SPEAKER_03: I was like, I have no breath for this.
25:47
SPEAKER_03: He was looking at me, telling me, run this way, run that way.
25:49
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, we can't run no more.
25:51
SPEAKER_03: Milk coming out, all kind of shit happening.
25:57
SPEAKER_03: I swear.
25:58
SPEAKER_03: Milk was coming out for my.
26:01
SPEAKER_03: Oh my God.
26:02
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
26:02
SPEAKER_03: I never talk about this again.
26:04
SPEAKER_03: To even release this out of my mouth right now is really funny.
26:07
SPEAKER_03: It was just a moment.
26:09
SPEAKER_03: And I was just like, this is crazy.
26:11
SPEAKER_03: But at the end of that performance, he had like hugged me and we had like this long hug.
26:16
SPEAKER_03: And he was in my ear and he was like, Yeah, yeah.
26:19
SPEAKER_03: They're gonna love you.
26:21
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, okay, I don't know who it is, but yeah.
26:26
SPEAKER_03: There we go.
26:27
SPEAKER_03: And then he was like, okay, so we got like 20 shows.
26:31
SPEAKER_03: I was like, yo, bro, I'm going back home.
26:34
unknown: What do you mean?
26:36
SPEAKER_03: You know?
26:36
SPEAKER_03: And then next thing you know, I was FedEx and Milk Home.
26:40
SPEAKER_03: It was crazy.
26:42
SPEAKER_03: 75 shows in.
26:44
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what is going on?
26:46
SPEAKER_02: I got poor Faye looking at me like you say, Yeah, take this off.
26:50
SPEAKER_02: Look at you.
26:51
SPEAKER_02: Yo, there you're some power form.
26:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, gone.
26:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, gone.
26:55
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, girl.
26:59
SPEAKER_03: Nah, it was all good.
27:01
SPEAKER_03: It was all gone.
27:03
SPEAKER_03: So, yeah.
27:04
SPEAKER_03: And then we it was gone, you know, after that.
27:09
SPEAKER_03: So he was like, he he knew.
27:12
SPEAKER_03: He said, Angela's a writer.
27:13
SPEAKER_03: They don't know, no one knew who I was.
27:16
SPEAKER_03: What I did, how long I went back into music.
27:20
SPEAKER_03: They had no idea.
27:21
SPEAKER_03: Because Caribbean people don't Google, it don't exist.
27:26
Corie: Yeah, we don't document ourselves though.
27:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that's okay.
27:28
SPEAKER_03: It's cool, it's no problem.
27:30
SPEAKER_03: So, you know, I didn't know it was my job to fulfill everyone, but hey, it's okay, no problem.
27:38
SPEAKER_03: It's all right.
27:40
SPEAKER_03: So I I remember saying, I have this record.
27:45
SPEAKER_03: So he came to the studio and he sat around and he said, Play the record.
27:49
SPEAKER_03: Should the record come on?
27:50
SPEAKER_03: Bam! Bon boney.
27:52
SPEAKER_03: And I just he was like, yo, you did it again.
27:59
SPEAKER_03: Are you serious?
28:00
SPEAKER_03: I was like, Oh yeah, this is what we do, right?
28:03
SPEAKER_03: But I don't think we should come out with the another thing like that.
28:07
SPEAKER_03: This is this is our vibe.
28:09
SPEAKER_03: It was benchata, it was salsa, it was the accordion, it was things in soca you you don't really hear.
28:17
Corie: So when you have that, the you the you did the production of everything over there, the period myself got you.
28:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so Buddha is a lover of soca.
28:26
SPEAKER_03: He loves so, but he's Dominican.
28:30
SPEAKER_03: So he always has a way of mixing things in just records that, yeah, you could just, it was different.
28:37
SPEAKER_03: That was also, it was Zook, it was Kompa.
28:40
SPEAKER_03: It was like all those elements mixed in that record, and it just resonated, especially with the women and the men too.
28:46
Corie: Yeah, everybody.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: Everybody.
28:48
SPEAKER_03: It was just something that you hear that you just want to like release yourself, you know?
28:51
Corie: Yeah, for sure.
28:51
Corie: Like I'll tell you something, right?
28:53
Corie: We have um like Christmas time here, Paran, right?
28:55
SPEAKER_03: And there's a little bit of like I don't know what parameters are sure.
28:59
Corie: I like lava.
29:00
Corie: I make it a parang first.
29:02
Corie: They tell me the other day, I need to um they say presumed the knowledge.
29:07
SPEAKER_03: Clean up, clean up.
29:08
Corie: The real journalists call them every now and again.
29:12
Corie: But we have this little side up in Paramet, right?
29:14
Corie: And I will play with them fellas and thing, and there's a there's a calypso rose song that they always sing, they say feel like dancing.
29:21
Corie: Bad, bad song.
29:22
Corie: And this is this fellow's known for that.
29:23
Corie: So somewhere in three o'clock in the morning that everybody's tired, they will play that.
29:26
Corie: And I keep hearing the quad pattern and thing, and my mind just started fetting and romanting too soon.
29:31
Corie: Mom boom, and I say, All right, I'm gonna drop that in the middle.
29:34
Corie: I said, when the dancing that I'm bringing in that.
29:37
Corie: I know a lyric, yeah.
29:38
Corie: But I know I know somewhere in the thing I just say, hold me down and know that coming.
29:43
Corie: I know that's coming.
29:43
Corie: But something will fit in and say, She don't want to make my coffee until she's awake early.
29:47
Corie: Something will fit with drunk, right?
29:49
Corie: And the way that went down, I talk about old people who just glad they come in their home at three o'clock in the morning.
29:54
Corie: And the way that song went down.
29:55
SPEAKER_04: Really?
29:57
Corie: I talk about people who feel like you sing the song.
29:59
Corie: I don't tell them, no, there's a big, big song.
30:02
Corie: But that song does something to people in the countryside everywhere.
30:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
30:07
Corie: I wonder what's it feeling like when you see something like that?
30:10
SPEAKER_03: The best part for me is when the chorus comes and ever I I just be like, here, take it.
30:16
SPEAKER_03: It's yours, sing it.
30:17
SPEAKER_03: You know, it is such a euphoric feeling.
30:21
SPEAKER_03: You work so hard for just one person to go, hey, I like that.
30:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
30:27
SPEAKER_03: You know?
30:28
SPEAKER_03: So when people come up to me and they're like, I know you're tired of people coming up to you, what?
30:32
SPEAKER_03: Never.
30:33
SPEAKER_03: Never.
30:34
SPEAKER_03: No, you work your whole life for people to enjoy the music that you make.
30:39
SPEAKER_03: You hope and you pray and you wish.
30:41
SPEAKER_03: Hey, for me, I always tell people, yo, you can tell me you love it or you hate it, but please don't tell me, yeah, it was cool.
30:46
Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:47
SPEAKER_03: The ambivalence as the worst.
30:49
SPEAKER_03: You never want that.
30:51
SPEAKER_03: Because I just like you just don't care.
30:53
Corie: Maybe I could vouch for it, and I see you do something.
30:55
Corie: I yeah, I play with humor.
30:56
Corie: Maybe it's that same year, Mombo and me.
30:58
Corie: You were there.
30:59
Corie: So yeah.
30:59
Corie: On the truck.
31:00
Corie: Yeah.
31:00
Corie: And you come off the truck.
31:02
Corie: Yes.
31:02
Corie: Yeah, I see you on your road.
31:04
Corie: I say, all right, this was a bad idea.
31:05
Corie: When I see your step dominating, I say, let me see how this goes.
31:08
Corie: I always come off the truck.
31:10
Corie: Absolutely.
31:11
SPEAKER_03: I remember that.
31:12
Corie: Yeah.
31:12
SPEAKER_03: And Marsha was if he was on top of the truck, he was like, What are you doing?
31:16
SPEAKER_03: What are you really doing?
31:18
SPEAKER_03: It was like I was like, shouldn't we come off the truck?
31:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:24
SPEAKER_03: Isn't that what you're supposed to do?
31:26
SPEAKER_03: Why are we just chilling on top the truck?
31:28
SPEAKER_03: The party is down here.
31:30
SPEAKER_03: You know, I could never play masks when I was younger because then it just was forbidden to do that.
31:34
Corie: Not your thing.
31:35
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
31:36
SPEAKER_03: My grandmother was like, behind the gates.
31:37
Corie: Yeah.
31:39
SPEAKER_03: Stop.
31:44
SPEAKER_02: Stand up behind me.
31:46
Corie: None of that.
31:50
unknown: Yeah.
31:51
SPEAKER_02: Korean parenting is a fresh.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: You just behind the gates.
31:54
Corie: But you know, I remember when I see it, I say, all right, she ain't gonna last long in this ground here.
31:58
Corie: But you stay.
31:59
Corie: Yeah.
31:59
Corie: You stay.
32:00
Corie: That was tons of people come.
32:01
Corie: Because that was people from party done.
32:03
Corie: There's people who want to see it since then to tell you.
32:05
Corie: Because I think the boat songs.
32:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
32:07
Corie: Songs so new and so fresh in his space.
32:09
Corie: Yeah.
32:10
SPEAKER_03: But I didn't know that artists don't generally do that.
32:15
SPEAKER_03: So again, Angela with no knowledge, right?
32:18
SPEAKER_03: And it's like a real thing.
32:19
Corie: And the thing is, you know, if people don't see you at all.
32:21
Corie: Right.
32:22
Corie: So people could standing off.
32:24
SPEAKER_03: It's really very much stando.
32:25
SPEAKER_03: And then also, too, it shocks people.
32:27
SPEAKER_03: They're like, wow, we thought you was like a.
32:29
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
32:30
SPEAKER_03: People thought many things when they heard the party, then they thought I was Indian.
32:34
SPEAKER_03: They didn't know what I was.
32:36
Corie: Yeah, I think the song, the weird song, it's on Party done.
32:40
Corie: It's like it's a small person.
32:41
Corie: Yeah.
32:41
Corie: I think to me, you know, you're thinking is it remember precious back in the day, remember?
32:45
Corie: And I think can you have somebody who's diminutive, but any comes.
32:49
SPEAKER_02: Like six one with a very deep raspy voice.
32:56
SPEAKER_03: So it definitely, I didn't notice like when I would go out and perform, people just, they would just stare at me like, wow, okay, she's real big.
33:04
SPEAKER_03: But I there's a lot of things that I didn't know that artists didn't do that I did.
33:09
SPEAKER_03: So there was a juvet, a Trinidad Juvet, right?
33:14
SPEAKER_03: Like one of the big ones, right?
33:17
SPEAKER_03: And I'm not gonna butcher nobody's name no more.
33:20
SPEAKER_03: So I went in front of the stage.
33:23
SPEAKER_03: Oh, you did that?
33:24
SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
33:26
SPEAKER_03: So I was like this.
33:29
SPEAKER_02: And voice singing, and voice said, What are you doing?
33:35
SPEAKER_02: He literally, in the middle of the show, he was like, Wait, what are you doing?
33:41
SPEAKER_02: I was like, and water and paint only coming, and I only like, yeah.
33:46
Corie: That might be party to do it so you could get it for me to do it.
33:50
SPEAKER_03: I don't care.
33:51
SPEAKER_03: That's what, like, I guess I'm I'm always defining the rules, and it's alright.
33:55
Corie: Fair, fair, fair.
33:57
Corie: So you're saying you're not emotional in the beginning, but I remember that moment with you and Marshall and the hook was emotional.
34:01
Corie: Yeah.
34:02
Corie: What was it?
34:02
Corie: Is it something that I heard?
34:03
Corie: You said I wanted to be on a stage and trying to singing, so can you have that dream too?
34:07
Corie: Like the pan signed?
34:08
SPEAKER_03: No.
34:09
SPEAKER_03: I I didn't know when I got out the airport and I got in the cab, or the driver, whatever, sure.
34:15
SPEAKER_03: Right?
34:17
SPEAKER_03: I was like, why is the song on the radio?
34:20
SPEAKER_03: I was like, What's going on?
34:22
SPEAKER_03: And we drive, car over here, car over here, shop over here, playing it, playing it.
34:29
SPEAKER_03: And I'm driving through, coming from the airport, going, Wait, what is happening?
34:35
SPEAKER_03: So, and I'm going straight to the stadium, so I'm like, wow.
34:39
SPEAKER_03: I was like just a rush of emotions.
34:43
SPEAKER_03: I'm thinking, this man is gonna put me on a stage and no one is gonna know this record, and that's okay.
34:48
SPEAKER_03: Like, that's what you're supposed to do.
34:50
SPEAKER_03: You're supposed a lot of times you get on a stage and someone doesn't know your song.
34:53
SPEAKER_03: Your job is to make them like the song when they come off the stage.
34:58
SPEAKER_03: And then everyone started singing the song.
35:01
SPEAKER_03: So that shocked me to the core.
35:06
SPEAKER_03: I was just, and I looked at him and he was like, I told you, I didn't tell, I was telling Angela it was our big song.
35:12
SPEAKER_03: I was like, You did say it.
35:15
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
35:16
SPEAKER_03: I was just looking at him like, you know, this is crazy.
35:19
SPEAKER_03: Like, look at all these people singing this record.
35:21
SPEAKER_03: Like, this is crazy.
35:22
SPEAKER_03: And then I was thinking about my mom.
35:25
SPEAKER_03: This is what she wanted.
35:27
SPEAKER_03: This was for her.
35:28
SPEAKER_03: You know, so it's what you're doing for we.
35:31
SPEAKER_03: What are you doing for we?
35:33
SPEAKER_03: I need to know.
35:35
SPEAKER_03: Okay, I need to know.
35:37
SPEAKER_03: Because with all that I had done, I really didn't make it until I worked with Melissa Etheridge.
35:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
35:43
SPEAKER_03: That's what I'm gonna say.
35:44
SPEAKER_03: You make it now.
35:46
SPEAKER_03: Come to my window.
35:48
SPEAKER_03: I was like, yeah, mommy.
35:50
SPEAKER_03: I make it.
35:51
Corie: That's what Caribbean parents for.
35:53
Corie: That's what I go here for.
35:54
Corie: Maybe you should talk about some of those early days.
35:56
Corie: Baratari is the original.
35:58
Corie: You weren't born here, I said.
35:59
Corie: No.
36:00
SPEAKER_03: So I was born in New York.
36:01
SPEAKER_03: Um, I was born in Brooklyn.
36:03
SPEAKER_03: My family's originally from South, from Kokia Village.
36:07
Corie: Oh, Kokia Villada part out.
36:09
Corie: That's some people in Kokia.
36:10
Corie: I can't afford to take that.
36:11
Corie: They go see bad.
36:14
SPEAKER_03: It kind of got out a little bit already.
36:16
SPEAKER_03: And then it was like, okay.
36:17
SPEAKER_03: I was like, I don't ring too well, but okay, pick up yourself, okay, man.
36:23
SPEAKER_03: So I was like, okay.
36:24
SPEAKER_03: But yeah, that's the core.
36:26
SPEAKER_03: That's where we're originally from South.
36:28
SPEAKER_03: But then I guess my grandparents, they moved to Baratario, 6th Street.
36:34
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I'm gonna be honest, what led me back to Trinidad?
36:38
Corie: You know, in America, when you don't behave in too well, grandma's display.
36:45
SPEAKER_03: You're going to go get some disciplinary actions.
36:50
Corie: That's what it was.
36:51
Corie: I needed some disciplinary.
36:52
Corie: Oh.
36:52
Corie: What kind of age are you talking about?
36:53
SPEAKER_03: You're giving us well, we always came every year.
36:57
Corie: Okay, I got you.
36:58
SPEAKER_03: Right.
36:58
SPEAKER_03: But the permanent, listen, I'm gonna talk about this.
37:02
SPEAKER_03: I want to talk about this real bad because there's some people that bully me real bad.
37:07
SPEAKER_03: When I get Yankee, talk now, so we can talk.
37:12
SPEAKER_03: I was like, this is crazy.
37:15
SPEAKER_03: And the first time a teacher hit me on my knuckles, I was like, carry me off.
37:20
SPEAKER_03: Please take me back to America.
37:25
Corie: Yeah, not used to this.
37:30
SPEAKER_03: But like it became like kind of permanent, like around I feel like eight to like 14.
37:35
Corie: Oh, about eight.
37:36
SPEAKER_03: Eight to like fourteen.
37:37
Corie: So what school you were in over there?
37:38
Corie: What y'all giving into trouble in New York?
37:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, it was a school in Brooklyn called PS244.
37:43
Corie: Okay.
37:43
SPEAKER_03: In the Flatbush area.
37:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I was, God, I was rude.
37:49
SPEAKER_03: Because music was the only thing that mattered to me.
37:52
SPEAKER_03: So I was singing since I was three.
37:56
SPEAKER_03: So for me, it I used to just be in the people's class, like, yeah, this soon is gonna be over.
38:01
SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, and I beatboxing on the desk, doing things I just was not supposed to be doing.
38:07
SPEAKER_03: Gotcha at all times.
38:09
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so my mom was like, Yeah, you gotta go.
38:12
SPEAKER_03: Go to your grandmother.
38:13
SPEAKER_03: And then I was at some point not behaving, and then they sent me to bless shit.
38:18
Corie: So yeah, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
38:20
SPEAKER_03: Then I went deep country.
38:22
Corie: You in exile, right?
38:24
SPEAKER_03: I was in exile.
38:26
SPEAKER_03: Listen, I told Masha that story one day, and that man laughed his entire inside out.
38:32
SPEAKER_03: He said Azure, because he has called me city kitty.
38:34
SPEAKER_04: Right.
38:34
SPEAKER_03: I don't do grass.
38:37
SPEAKER_03: No, I don't do dirt.
38:40
SPEAKER_03: I don't do, if anything moving on a wall, I'm like, I'm yeah.
38:45
SPEAKER_03: City kitty.
38:47
SPEAKER_03: I am not made for nature.
38:52
Corie: So where was life up there?
38:54
SPEAKER_02: When I get to this carrot house, because that's what it was.
38:59
SPEAKER_02: There was a man that used to come and bring groceries once a week for me.
39:05
Corie: So I kind of never said far crying from flat bushes.
39:09
SPEAKER_03: Once a week.
39:10
SPEAKER_03: I don't know, he may remember, but his name was he has some sasa or something, something and he would come.
39:17
SPEAKER_03: And my mother said, Okay, we're gonna wash some clothes, and we're going down by the river and we wash some clothes.
39:22
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Wow, look what I have.
39:30
SPEAKER_03: I don't even think some of my family know that.
39:32
SPEAKER_03: Me and my mom was like, All right, this is where we was because we whatever.
39:36
SPEAKER_03: We thought both of us was misbehaving, my grandma was like, both of them can leave.
39:41
SPEAKER_03: Come out here.
39:43
SPEAKER_02: Oh, sorry, sorry.
39:46
Corie: Yeah.
39:47
Corie: How long you stay up there?
39:48
Corie: How long?
39:49
SPEAKER_02: It was too long.
39:50
SPEAKER_02: It was too long.
39:53
SPEAKER_03: It was a long time.
39:54
Corie: So you didn't enjoy like the beach on the north coast scenery and I'm not gonna lie, I didn't.
39:59
SPEAKER_03: Amongst all the animals, I did, I learned life lessons.
40:03
SPEAKER_03: I could skin a good chicken, I could kill a snake with one.
40:11
Corie: Discipline, discipline.
40:14
SPEAKER_03: And um, yeah, um, what else I could do?
40:20
SPEAKER_03: Like, yeah, I could definitely kill a chicken good.
40:23
Corie: Yeah, you're good.
40:26
SPEAKER_03: Oh, and I could definitely gut old kingfish like quick.
40:30
SPEAKER_03: Some of those skills have not come in handy.
40:35
Corie: Maybe they laid something line with me.
40:38
Corie: So from there, it's back to bar, sorry.
40:40
SPEAKER_03: I did.
40:41
Corie: Yeah, what school what school you were in here?
40:43
SPEAKER_03: It was called St.
40:43
SPEAKER_03: Andrews.
40:44
SPEAKER_03: It was a up Moloch Hill.
40:45
SPEAKER_03: It was like a, I believe it was a St.
40:47
SPEAKER_03: Seven-day Adventure School, if I'm not mistaken.
40:48
SPEAKER_03: Okay, good.
40:49
SPEAKER_03: I can't remember too good.
40:50
SPEAKER_03: But um, I did find some of my friends, they contacted me and they was like, You remember me?
40:54
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Yeah, you beat up that boy for me who was like Yankee girl.
40:59
SPEAKER_03: They bullied me real bad in that school.
41:02
Corie: Yes, we tend to do you come in with accents on together.
41:04
Corie: I was tall, yes, yeah, all of a good feeling.
41:07
SPEAKER_03: So tall.
41:07
SPEAKER_03: I think the boys did like me and they just didn't know what to do.
41:11
SPEAKER_03: Is it like, hey, got too?
41:12
SPEAKER_03: I said, mm-hmm.
41:13
SPEAKER_03: Come and come and get some of this stuff.
41:18
SPEAKER_03: Excuse me, real bad.
41:20
SPEAKER_03: Big up St.
41:21
SPEAKER_03: Andrews.
41:21
Corie: For sure, for sure.
41:22
Corie: If it's St.
41:22
Corie: Andrews, then we know you are names, right?
41:24
Corie: If it's St.
41:24
Corie: Andrews, it might be something closer to that.
41:27
Corie: That we're sure about.
41:28
Corie: That would be a saint.
41:28
Corie: We get it.
41:29
Corie: Yeah.
41:30
Corie: So three years old singing, where'd the inspiration come from, mommy?
41:33
Corie: And then was into music or what?
41:34
Corie: No.
41:35
SPEAKER_03: Nobody.
41:36
SPEAKER_03: Nobody.
41:36
SPEAKER_03: Everybody in my family was like really like medicine.
41:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
41:40
SPEAKER_03: Nurses, doctors, that type of thing.
41:42
SPEAKER_03: So I don't know.
41:44
SPEAKER_03: All I know is that I would constantly hear music and I would constantly hear harmonies and in my head, and I would just start singing.
41:50
SPEAKER_03: And then somewhere around like four or five, I realized I think I sound like the people on the radio.
41:56
SPEAKER_03: Because I would sing with it and it would just sound so blend.
41:59
SPEAKER_02: I got you.
42:00
SPEAKER_03: Right?
42:01
SPEAKER_03: And then I met this guy when I was about 11, and he was like, You ever heard Stevie Wonder?
42:08
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, no, because there was no music in my house.
42:12
SPEAKER_03: So at that time, all the people that everybody knew, I didn't know.
42:16
Corie: Okay, okay.
42:16
Corie: Right?
42:17
Corie: So Granny was in church on thing, or there was more gospel and that kind of thing, or no music at all?
42:21
SPEAKER_03: She was watching the rest, to be honest.
42:25
SPEAKER_03: It was not even, it was like nothing.
42:29
SPEAKER_03: Like, I go tell my age right now, but I feel like it was like two channels at that time.
42:33
SPEAKER_03: For sure.
42:34
SPEAKER_03: So it was like Sesame Street or WWF.
42:39
SPEAKER_03: That was it.
42:40
SPEAKER_03: So there was just no music.
42:42
SPEAKER_03: Here and every now and then, Christmas, you get a good spiral and something every now and then.
42:47
SPEAKER_03: But that was really it.
42:48
SPEAKER_03: But I listened to Stevie Wonder, and I remember him telling me, listen, you there's a scale, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
42:56
SPEAKER_03: And he's like, you do harmonies in between those.
43:00
SPEAKER_03: Like Stevie Wonder.
43:01
SPEAKER_03: Stevie Wonder's never really is things in his head you just don't even understand.
43:05
SPEAKER_03: He goes, you need to listen to that, and you'll find your way.
43:09
SPEAKER_03: And I remember listening to the whole Key of Life album and memorizing every single background.
43:16
SPEAKER_03: And that's when I was like, oh my God, these are the things that I'm hearing.
43:19
SPEAKER_03: This is what I'm hearing in my head.
43:21
SPEAKER_03: And I did have an aunt who used to have some serious house parties in Brooklyn.
43:31
SPEAKER_03: And I remember being in the bedroom and I remember looking at us to be like, watching them drink and you know, playing everything, kitchen on and rows and all the time.
43:43
SPEAKER_03: And I remember like that was probably my earliest memories of really like the music.
43:48
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
43:48
SPEAKER_03: You know?
43:49
SPEAKER_03: My aunt Marty Brenda.
43:51
SPEAKER_03: She was she was a party.
43:54
SPEAKER_03: And that was like my first time really hearing music.
43:59
SPEAKER_03: And then I just I never stopped.
44:01
SPEAKER_03: I knew there was no plan B.
44:03
SPEAKER_03: This was what I had to do.
44:05
Corie: From as early as then.
44:06
SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
44:07
Corie: Yeah, yeah.
44:07
Corie: Just getting it out to you.
44:08
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
44:09
Corie: So, what how did you pursue it?
44:10
SPEAKER_03: You just continue singing or you went to Um, you know, like, you know, when they have like Ojo and they radio stations here and stuff, and they go to like the neighborhoods and they'll do like little events in the neighborhood, like, hey, this this day we're gonna be on Usakoro.
44:24
SPEAKER_03: So we have like that in America where the radio station would come into the neighborhood and they would do talent shows.
44:29
SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
44:30
SPEAKER_03: So I was doing all the talent shows and I started winning all the talent shows.
44:35
SPEAKER_03: Um, I was telling my mom I was lying, I was doing something else without outsending the people.
44:41
SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
44:42
SPEAKER_03: I was singing the song.
44:43
SPEAKER_03: I I started like rapping first because my voice was so different, and no one sounded like me.
44:50
SPEAKER_03: I just kind of like hid my voice for a long time.
44:53
SPEAKER_03: And then I joined the gospel choir, and that's when I found a place where I belong.
45:00
SPEAKER_03: Everybody sang loud like me.
45:02
Corie: I gotcha, gotcha.
45:03
SPEAKER_03: You know, the used to be like, Angelo, we hear you and only you.
45:09
SPEAKER_03: Bring it back down.
45:11
SPEAKER_03: And from there, I just yeah, I just kept going.
45:13
Corie: Just went from there.
45:14
Corie: So what made you leave Trinidad again?
45:15
Corie: You started behaving.
45:16
Corie: Oh yeah, I started behave.
45:18
SPEAKER_03: All right, I couldn't do bless shears no more.
45:21
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, you learn your lesson.
45:24
SPEAKER_03: I learned my lesson real quick.
45:26
SPEAKER_03: I was like, yep, I need to go back.
45:29
SPEAKER_03: I need to go back to Brooklyn.
45:30
SPEAKER_03: But I I do say, and it's good for me to talk about it because I've never really talked about this, except to like Marsha is the only person that really ever said this to.
45:40
SPEAKER_03: But that time it really made me who I am.
45:46
SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't, I would have no regrets.
45:48
SPEAKER_03: It was amazing.
45:49
SPEAKER_03: Everything that we went through, it was amazing.
45:52
Corie: Hey, quick one before we get back into the conversation.
45:55
Corie: Y'all always in the comments asking about part two, right?
45:58
Corie: Guess where part two is now?
45:59
Corie: It's on Patreon.
46:00
Corie: Join us on the Patreon, subscribe so you could get extended versions of the conversation.
46:04
Corie: And not just this episode, but all the episodes in the back catalogue.
46:08
Corie: So when you're done taking the first hour here, go and subscribe, files.
46:12
Corie: And you'll take in two plus hours of the best conversation you'll ever see.
46:16
Corie: Bang.
46:18
SPEAKER_03: So I come back to America now, and hip-hop is huge.
46:22
SPEAKER_03: Huge.
46:23
SPEAKER_03: Like Brooklyn is just on fire.
46:26
SPEAKER_03: We were just producing all these great rappers at the time.
46:30
SPEAKER_03: So it's Jay-Z, Biggie.
46:32
SPEAKER_03: And I lived in this spot in Brooklyn where you would literally come off the Brooklyn Bridge and you'd go a couple of streets, and when you turned, it was my house.
46:43
SPEAKER_03: So my house was the house.
46:46
SPEAKER_03: Biggie used to be in there, Pac used to be in there, everybody was doing what?
46:50
Corie: What was happening here?
46:51
Corie: What were you?
46:52
SPEAKER_03: We line in, we just chilling.
46:54
SPEAKER_03: Just chilling, you know, and then I kind of got known as a ghostwriter.
47:00
SPEAKER_03: I was writing like a lot of stuff.
47:02
Corie: Okay, wait, how do we get from the salon shows to here?
47:04
Corie: Because now this is late 90s.
47:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this is late 90s.
47:07
SPEAKER_03: So I was starting to do the shows, uh huh, and it I just kind of like got known from the shows.
47:12
SPEAKER_03: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
47:14
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like a guy's girl.
47:16
SPEAKER_03: So I could write for guys really, really well.
47:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
47:20
SPEAKER_03: So I just started kind of like doing that.
47:22
SPEAKER_03: So I would go to like all these hip-hop producers and kind of like go in the studio and be like, yo, you should say that.
47:29
SPEAKER_03: I had bars.
47:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
47:31
SPEAKER_03: You know, and a lot of them knew that, and they were just kind of like, like, Ange, come to the studio.
47:37
SPEAKER_03: And that led into the era of hooks.
47:39
SPEAKER_03: Girls on hooks.
47:41
Corie: Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
47:42
Corie: Right?
47:43
SPEAKER_03: Singing a little come in, they want you to do a little part, you'll sing a little part.
47:46
SPEAKER_03: And I did a lot of stuff like that.
47:48
SPEAKER_03: So that was kind of like my entry in.
47:51
SPEAKER_03: And I was very reliable.
47:52
SPEAKER_03: So meaning like I could come in, I was always quick, I was always fast, and I could always do exactly what they needed me to do.
47:59
Corie: I'm with you, I'm with you.
48:00
Corie: So, but uh, I guess at that point you discover your singing voice in nowhere is this from Stevie One day's writing.
48:05
Corie: How would it come about?
48:07
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I was in a studio and Mariah, it was Mariah Carey, I think it was, and it was a it was a guy named Corey Rooney, a huge producer in America.
48:16
SPEAKER_03: He has done everything from Michael Jackson to all just huge hits.
48:22
SPEAKER_03: And I was in a lobby and I was singing.
48:26
SPEAKER_03: But everybody kind of had at that time known me for rapping and doing hooks.
48:32
SPEAKER_03: And he was like, Who's singing?
48:34
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Oh, I'm so sorry.
48:35
SPEAKER_03: I you know I was like, I didn't need to interrupt the session.
48:39
SPEAKER_03: And he's like, No, that was you?
48:42
SPEAKER_03: Did you write that?
48:43
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Yeah, I did.
48:45
SPEAKER_03: And he's like, Yo, you have to sing, and you should really write.
48:49
SPEAKER_03: And that was the beginning.
48:51
SPEAKER_03: He literally like brought me in and was like, you need to be a writer and a singer.
48:57
SPEAKER_03: And then I ended up getting my first record on Motown.
49:01
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
49:01
SPEAKER_03: And I was signed to a very, very, very prolific, amazing man by the name of Gerald Busby, who was like the godfather in the industry.
49:12
SPEAKER_03: And he said to me, he pulled to me in his office one day, and he said, Listen, you're gonna do this right now.
49:19
SPEAKER_03: You're signed, you're gonna be an artist, this is gonna be great, but you're not gonna do this for long.
49:23
SPEAKER_03: You're going to be a very prolific writer.
49:25
SPEAKER_03: And I was about 19 or 20, and I just looked at him like, yeah, I don't know what you're talking about.
49:31
SPEAKER_03: I'm serious.
49:32
SPEAKER_03: I'm so serious.
49:34
SPEAKER_03: I was like, I really don't know what you're talking about, but I'm gonna respect you because you're the president of Motel.
49:39
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
49:40
SPEAKER_03: Because I was like, a writer.
49:42
SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna be a writer.
49:44
SPEAKER_03: He must have known something that I didn't know because he was completely spotted.
49:48
SPEAKER_03: It literally panned out exactly the way that he said.
49:51
SPEAKER_03: He said, You're gonna be a writer first, and you're gonna be really, really big, and then you're gonna come back and be an artist.
49:57
SPEAKER_03: Oh, he said that then?
49:58
SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
49:59
SPEAKER_03: He said this, and he was like, It's gonna happen in that order, and he said, You're gonna see.
50:04
SPEAKER_03: Just live the journey, you know?
50:07
Corie: Yeah, I suppose.
50:08
Corie: And I guess your heart is set on an artist at the time.
50:10
SPEAKER_03: So you Yeah, my heart was set on being an artist, so I was like, okay, you know, whatever.
50:17
SPEAKER_03: But I did listen, and I also realized I was a horrible artist.
50:24
SPEAKER_03: Like, meaning I wanted to be on stage, I wanted to write the songs, I wanted to be in the studio, but I didn't want to be on the red carpet, I didn't want to do the interviews.
50:33
SPEAKER_03: I was a horrible artist in that way.
50:34
SPEAKER_03: It was like, well, you gotta do this.
50:35
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, why?
50:36
Corie: Yeah, you want somebody to promote, yeah.
50:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, can't we just put out records?
50:39
SPEAKER_03: It's like, does this all have to go with it?
50:42
SPEAKER_03: So I was like bad in that way, and I was like, I really don't want to do this.
50:46
SPEAKER_03: I just want to like, yeah, maybe I should do this for other people.
50:49
SPEAKER_03: Because I don't like this other side of it.
50:51
SPEAKER_03: I don't feel like you really get to be yourself.
50:54
SPEAKER_03: And I don't like not being me.
50:56
SPEAKER_03: And so that edge ushered in writing for other people.
51:00
Corie: I understand, understand.
51:02
Corie: So even when you're you're talking about late 90s hip-hop, there's no admission that there's writers.
51:08
Corie: People don't say that they have any rights.
51:09
Corie: Not at that time.
51:10
Corie: No, that's not cool.
51:11
Corie: Right, yeah.
51:12
Corie: So even doing backgrounds, you're getting credits for the things that you're doing or throwing the lines here and there, also?
51:17
SPEAKER_03: No.
51:17
SPEAKER_03: No.
51:18
SPEAKER_03: So you're just in flu full blown, doing your thing, and you ain't getting no credit.
51:22
SPEAKER_03: You might get slick, you know, a couple of hundred dollars under the table.
51:25
SPEAKER_03: But you're not really getting credit for a lot of stuff that you did.
51:28
SPEAKER_03: Because a lot of stuff that my voice records are on, and I got no credit for.
51:32
Corie: Yeah.
51:32
SPEAKER_03: You know, just street credit.
51:35
Corie: Well, is that that's a council something, I suppose.
51:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
51:37
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it gets your name out there, people know who you are.
51:41
SPEAKER_03: But I slowly and quickly realized also that the money was behind the scenes.
51:48
SPEAKER_03: I was like, this pays being a writer.
51:51
SPEAKER_03: This is great.
51:52
SPEAKER_03: And then everyone started telling me, like, if you want to be an artist, you could be an artist.
51:56
SPEAKER_03: But if you become a writer, you could use your writing stuff to support yourself.
51:59
Corie: I suppose.
52:00
SPEAKER_03: As an artist.
52:03
Corie: I suppose.
52:03
Corie: Yeah.
52:04
Corie: For the business side of it.
52:05
Corie: 100%.
52:06
Corie: Gotcha, gotcha.
52:06
SPEAKER_03: And I also took a moment to say, hey, if I'm really gonna do this, like this is really something I'm gonna do, I want to learn everything.
52:15
SPEAKER_03: So that began the journey of like, I'm gonna learn every instrument in the studio because if I'm gonna be a writer, I'm gonna be different than everybody else.
52:23
SPEAKER_03: You need to know what mic I need to sing on.
52:25
SPEAKER_03: This is what channel you need to have my voice on.
52:28
SPEAKER_03: You need to have me at this DB.
52:30
SPEAKER_03: You need to have this, like, I learned the studio.
52:33
SPEAKER_03: So when I walked in the studio and all the other writers didn't know any of the buttons, I'm like, because you're gonna walk in a studio and you're gonna have an engineer who might mess you, mess you up real bad.
52:44
SPEAKER_03: I'd be like, you can remove yourself out of that seat, sir.
52:46
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
52:47
SPEAKER_02: You and I take it in for me.
52:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we're not doing that.
52:52
Corie: So, your original days of writing, who you're getting the opportunity to write for?
52:55
Corie: Who they calling you in for, or what type of artist?
52:58
SPEAKER_03: Um, at the time, one of the first artists I had written for was Left Eye.
53:04
SPEAKER_03: Right before she passed.
53:06
SPEAKER_03: Um, she was working on a solo album, and she was like like one of the first artists that was like, I like this girl's music.
53:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I want to use this.
53:14
SPEAKER_03: And that was like my you just need one.
53:17
SPEAKER_03: And then everybody kind of goes, who is you know, who is that?
53:21
SPEAKER_03: So she was first, and then right after her was Britney Spears.
53:26
Corie: I see.
53:27
SPEAKER_03: That was my next, that was my next big thing.
53:31
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then 9-11 came in on 9-11.
53:35
SPEAKER_03: I was on my way on a plane to London to start working over there.
53:40
Corie: This was on D 9-11, right?
53:42
Corie: Not 25 years later, like yeah.
53:44
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
53:45
SPEAKER_03: That was I I got signed, I got my publishing jail, and I was out the door.
53:48
SPEAKER_03: And I said, listen, I want to work in America, but I want to work in Europe.
53:52
Corie: Yeah.
53:53
Corie: Just not feeling fulfilled at working in any states at the time.
53:56
SPEAKER_03: I knew that Europe was coming with that blue eye.
53:59
SPEAKER_03: So I just, I don't know.
54:00
SPEAKER_03: When I go into the business, I delve into everything.
54:02
SPEAKER_03: So I am a person who likes to research like what's happening.
54:07
SPEAKER_03: I said, DJs are about to be the new artists, and these white girls in London are coming and they can sing.
54:14
SPEAKER_03: And that's exactly what happened.
54:15
Corie: Yeah, you see it from then.
54:17
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
54:17
SPEAKER_03: I was there working with young Amy, working with young Adele, and like they were all young at the time.
54:23
SPEAKER_03: I was like, I don't know what's in the water, but these girls, they they sing and it's coming, and that time, you know, you usher in how much smaller the world got because of just the internet.
54:34
Corie: Yeah, I guess, I guess.
54:35
SPEAKER_03: You know, so before it was like such separation, now everything was so accessible.
54:41
Corie: Yeah, I guess when you start off writing, you're like you say, artists together, artists writers, everybody in the same studio, and then changed.
54:47
Corie: Yeah.
54:47
Corie: People sending songs to people and that kind of thing.
54:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, we empty the yeah, I don't need to be in a room with you, and I just send you the song that ushered in.
54:53
SPEAKER_03: So you were able to be all over.
54:55
SPEAKER_03: But Sony was very interested in me writing all over the world.
54:59
SPEAKER_03: So I was what you call like a top line writer.
55:02
SPEAKER_03: So you put me anywhere, you put me in Uzbekistan.
55:04
Corie: I'm that's something I don't understand because it feels like to write something, at least for me.
55:09
Corie: Yeah, you know, that you would have to be specific or stronger in one genre or the other.
55:13
Corie: But like when you look at your discography, it's just a little random.
55:16
SPEAKER_03: It's just it's very random.
55:17
SPEAKER_03: It's if you when you put me over the internet, it's just chats fire.
55:20
Corie: Yeah.
55:21
Corie: Where?
55:22
Corie: It's like holy same person could do these things.
55:24
Corie: Right.
55:24
SPEAKER_03: And that's exactly it's just like it's like a splash, right?
55:27
SPEAKER_03: But that's what I wanted to do.
55:28
SPEAKER_03: I want I set it, set out initially from day one to be a genreist writer.
55:35
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I see.
55:36
SPEAKER_03: So I wanted to do that because there was nobody else who was doing that.
55:39
SPEAKER_03: There's nobody who was like doing pop and he was doing RB and he was doing rap, he was doing country, he was doing everything.
55:45
SPEAKER_03: But that is what a top line writer does.
55:47
SPEAKER_03: You are expected to walk into any studio, any genre, and perform.
55:52
Corie: Yeah.
55:53
SPEAKER_03: So being under that, and that's a lot of pressure.
55:56
Corie: I'm thinking it is.
55:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
55:58
SPEAKER_03: It's a lot of pressure.
55:59
SPEAKER_03: Like, oh my God.
56:00
SPEAKER_03: Like it, you walk it in studios and you're just like, it's a what?
56:04
SPEAKER_03: It's a dance record, it's 126 BPMs.
56:08
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
56:09
SPEAKER_03: And you want a melody.
56:10
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
56:12
unknown: Cool.
56:13
SPEAKER_03: And there's a lot of faking it till you make it.
56:16
SPEAKER_03: I wasn't always the right person for the job.
56:18
Corie: Right.
56:19
SPEAKER_03: But I know it was in my blood.
56:21
Corie: Mm-hmm.
56:22
Corie: Okay, get it done.
56:23
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna get it done.
56:24
Corie: I wanna read something here, right?
56:25
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
56:26
Corie: Marco in your page a little bit.
56:27
SPEAKER_03: Hey.
56:28
Corie: Oh, it's like class time.
56:29
Corie: This back to Blanchest again.
56:31
Corie: Anybody wanna get sent to Bartari?
56:33
SPEAKER_01: Anybody wants to put on the reverse wash clothes?
56:38
unknown: Sorry.
56:39
Corie: Yeah.
56:40
Corie: I want to read something out of him.
56:42
Corie: I can't read so well under this under this water drinking here.
56:46
Corie: 2001, left NYC on 9-11.
56:49
Corie: My mom said, Don't come back.
56:50
Corie: I'm good.
56:51
Corie: Trini moms uh strong said, Go live your dream.
56:55
Corie: Oh, young Brooklyn Angie will be so proud right now for you to end out to be.
56:59
Corie: Never give up.
56:59
Corie: Hashtag flatbush.
57:01
Corie: They tell me emotional out there, you know.
57:03
Corie: They don't read your thing there already, but you're not emotional and thing.
57:06
Corie: I saw that.
57:07
Corie: Yeah.
57:07
Corie: And I wondered, like, even before we get to when you left.
57:12
Corie: New York is a funny place.
57:14
Corie: New York sports.
57:15
Corie: Let me talk about that first, right?
57:16
Corie: Because I I know that when you you have um you have iconic songs about New York, it could be career-making, right?
57:22
Corie: You have Billy Joel, they have Frank Satra.
57:24
Corie: Many of them came over here.
57:26
Corie: And um, I never thought of being a World War the Knicks win anything.
57:29
SPEAKER_03: Anything.
57:30
SPEAKER_03: Sorry, I'm a Knickerbocker horror boy for real.
57:33
Corie: It looked bad.
57:34
Corie: Like I keep seeing Joe Button every year saying, yeah, next is the year for next, but all New Yorkers, right?
57:39
SPEAKER_03: We always will be with you, but we know it's not really happening.
57:41
Corie: Yeah, it's not happening.
57:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
57:43
Corie: I think you saw the impact of this song with the Yankees many times.
57:47
Corie: I wonder what it felt like when the Knicks this year.
57:49
Corie: Like I saw you're posting things like this when the next one.
57:51
SPEAKER_03: I will tell you this.
57:54
SPEAKER_03: 15 years ago, that song came out.
57:56
SPEAKER_03: I know it's hard to even.
57:59
SPEAKER_03: Right?
58:00
SPEAKER_03: When it first came out again in Angelo fashion, I was like, what the going on?
58:07
SPEAKER_03: This song played so big.
58:09
SPEAKER_03: Right?
58:10
SPEAKER_03: I'm so serious.
58:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
58:12
SPEAKER_03: And Jay-Z was like, he texts us and was like, make sure, make sure she watched the VMAs.
58:18
SPEAKER_03: I was like, why?
58:20
SPEAKER_03: And I went out to dinner, didn't watch the VMA.
58:22
SPEAKER_03: So I missed the whole little mama moment.
58:26
Corie: Well, you didn't see that?
58:26
SPEAKER_03: I didn't see that.
58:27
SPEAKER_03: Of course.
58:29
SPEAKER_03: Right.
58:30
SPEAKER_03: So when the Yankees won, I don't think I really understood what was about to happen.
58:36
SPEAKER_03: You know, just the mayor and everybody saying, yo, and then Derek Jita and everybody, it was just Mayhan.
58:43
SPEAKER_03: But I still was like, oh, I gotta get back to work.
58:46
SPEAKER_03: Like I was just, I just always felt like if you celebrate too quickly, you're not gonna be hungry anymore.
58:52
SPEAKER_03: You're not gonna be passionate anymore.
58:54
SPEAKER_03: Just don't look, I don't look at charts, I don't look at anything, I don't look at numbers, I just leave that to the people who wanna do that.
59:00
SPEAKER_03: I just move on to the next song.
59:03
SPEAKER_03: So the first time, I didn't really understand the impact, and I didn't also, I didn't enjoy the song.
59:11
SPEAKER_03: This time, so we're watching me all watching the game, like, yo, they might really do this.
59:17
SPEAKER_03: This look like this is really gonna happen.
59:19
SPEAKER_03: And I remember I have like footage of me watching it, and I am screaming to the top of my lung.
59:25
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, no voice.
59:26
SPEAKER_03: This is not even about the song.
59:27
SPEAKER_03: This is me personally, Angela Hunt, I'm Knicks.
59:31
SPEAKER_03: In New York, you're a Knicks fan.
59:33
SPEAKER_03: You're not allowed to be anything else.
59:35
SPEAKER_03: It just is what it is.
59:36
SPEAKER_03: So I was like, yo, this is happening.
59:39
SPEAKER_03: So we we already saw games where it was down to the second, and they bust a left, and they shut up, bustle right, and then here we is, you know.
59:47
SPEAKER_03: Now it's a good left and a good right.
59:50
SPEAKER_03: So and then they won.
59:51
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, oh my god.
59:54
SPEAKER_03: And then it was like the song was just it was insane.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_03: And the video I was getting back from New York, I was like, yo, this is crazy.
1:00:06
SPEAKER_03: This is so to also now children being here.
1:00:11
SPEAKER_03: Of course, right?
1:00:12
SPEAKER_03: Children weren't born, yeah.
1:00:14
Corie: They're big enough to understand, too.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_03: They're big enough to understand what's happening.
1:00:18
SPEAKER_03: And, you know, of course, your mom, you're never cool.
1:00:22
SPEAKER_03: High school now.
1:00:23
SPEAKER_03: Oh my god.
1:00:24
Corie: In the game.
1:00:24
SPEAKER_03: I'm in the game.
1:00:26
SPEAKER_03: I am mama.
1:00:28
Corie: Yeah.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_03: Please believe it.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_03: I am mommy.
1:00:32
SPEAKER_03: You know, they they're very proud.
1:00:34
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_03: And I'm happy for them that they're able to enjoy it with me.
1:00:40
SPEAKER_03: So that is very to the core, like super exciting.
1:00:44
SPEAKER_03: And then just happy for like all the all the people who didn't get to really enjoy the wins of the Knicks when they were out.
1:00:52
SPEAKER_03: I was a part of the real the generation of Oakley and you know, like the real Knicks.
1:00:58
SPEAKER_03: Not it.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_03: Go on, no disrespect.
1:01:01
SPEAKER_03: Go out that part.
1:01:02
SPEAKER_03: Brunson, you're good.
1:01:04
SPEAKER_03: You're real good.
1:01:05
Corie: You better say that.
1:01:06
Corie: You're real good.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_03: But they all know that we're very nostalgic about the play.
1:01:13
SPEAKER_03: Sure, sure.
1:01:14
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, it was an epic moment.
1:01:16
Corie: What was the origins of it?
1:01:17
Corie: How did how did the song come about?
1:01:19
Corie: What did it start off?
1:01:20
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's funny.
1:01:22
SPEAKER_03: Um, I actually was in London.
1:01:24
SPEAKER_03: Sorry, I wasn't in New York, like some epic story that people think you was on the train.
1:01:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, of course.
1:01:29
SPEAKER_03: Oh my god.
1:01:30
Corie: You had to change up his story to suit them.
1:01:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, it was not the story.
1:01:33
SPEAKER_03: I was in London and I was very homesick and was really thinking about New York and wanted to write something about New York City.
1:01:43
SPEAKER_03: So that's really how it came about.
1:01:45
SPEAKER_03: The session was not for Jay-Z, it was for someone else.
1:01:50
Corie: It was?
1:01:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_03: It was we were we were in a session for sting.
1:01:54
SPEAKER_03: For sting.
1:01:54
SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
1:01:55
Corie: And he had a New York song in mind.
1:01:56
Corie: That's what they wanted, or you had a No.
1:01:58
Corie: Okay.
1:01:58
SPEAKER_03: They wanted something completely different.
1:02:01
SPEAKER_03: And I was just like, he had the piano keys up on like another computer.
1:02:07
SPEAKER_03: Like he was working on just the keys.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_03: True.
1:02:10
SPEAKER_03: It's a sample.
1:02:11
SPEAKER_03: Um, Love and O Two Way Street.
1:02:13
SPEAKER_03: So those who know, those who are of a certain age.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_03: Shh.
1:02:17
SPEAKER_03: We don't need to say anymore.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_03: No, we don't.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_03: We'll just leave that out.
1:02:22
SPEAKER_03: Right?
1:02:23
SPEAKER_03: So it was a sample, and it was just the keys.
1:02:31
SPEAKER_03: I was like, what's that?
1:02:32
SPEAKER_03: What's that?
1:02:33
SPEAKER_03: That's something I was talking about, but we need to do this.
1:02:35
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, but what's from that?
1:02:37
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
1:02:38
SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, yo, if you just give me five minutes to bust this down real quick.
1:02:41
SPEAKER_03: That's literally what happened.
1:02:43
SPEAKER_03: Did it, song came out.
1:02:46
SPEAKER_03: Pen never even touched the pad, we just kind of like came out with a song and then boom.
1:02:51
SPEAKER_03: I never thought anything of it after that.
1:02:53
Corie: So wait, this is in the session with Sting or this at this point with J-Z and there.
1:02:57
Corie: So when he came up with it, the ideas that have Sting to it?
1:03:01
SPEAKER_03: That was our projection.
1:03:03
SPEAKER_03: So when you're in the studio, like you could be in the some, you they can commission you to say, hey, well, they're going in and y'all gonna go work for Sing.
1:03:12
SPEAKER_03: That doesn't mean Sting is gonna take the song.
1:03:15
SPEAKER_03: We are coming up with something for a project that he's currently working on.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_03: We just we want to see what you come up with.
1:03:22
Corie: That doesn't mean it's a giveaway.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_03: So this is what this was.
1:03:26
SPEAKER_03: This was the session of like, okay, let's see where we come in, we'll put in our submission and so wait.
1:03:31
Corie: From a business standpoint, is yours when you're in those sessions is understood that whatever ideas will use, you're free to do it what you don't do.
1:03:38
SPEAKER_03: That's exactly what happened.
1:03:39
Corie: Okay, nice.
1:03:40
Corie: Congrats.
1:03:42
SPEAKER_03: All right, buddy.
1:03:43
SPEAKER_03: You don't, you know, it's okay.
1:03:48
Corie: The nice thing is like sting and fee and on the same level.
1:03:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, that's a hell of a song to refuse.
1:03:54
Corie: Just say it.
1:03:56
SPEAKER_03: So he it's not that he didn't like it, it never really reached him.
1:04:01
SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
1:04:01
SPEAKER_03: Okay, okay, okay.
1:04:02
SPEAKER_03: It just we ended up doing another song that everyone in the room felt this is what we should be focused on.
1:04:09
SPEAKER_03: Go on and let, you know, her get her little idea out.
1:04:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's taking her five minutes, but I'll do it.
1:04:16
SPEAKER_03: And then could you imagine hearing that for the first time?
1:04:18
SPEAKER_03: It sounded like some Broadway in New York, concrete jungle.
1:04:22
SPEAKER_03: It would, it just was like, what?
1:04:24
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, okay, cool, at least it's out.
1:04:26
SPEAKER_03: They call my my laptop is called the Million Dollar Laptop.
1:04:31
SPEAKER_03: Because in that laptop is songs from 15, 17, 18 years ago that you could still bust today.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_03: Right?
1:04:41
SPEAKER_03: And so I was like, okay, we'll just put it in the laptop, which is exactly what happened.
1:04:46
SPEAKER_03: And my publisher heard it and was like, let me play this to Jay-Z.
1:04:51
SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh, funny you say that.
1:04:53
SPEAKER_03: We did send it to Jay-Z.
1:04:54
SPEAKER_03: He said they hated it.
1:04:56
SPEAKER_03: So we're not doing that.
1:04:58
Corie: Yeah.
1:04:58
Corie: For real?
1:04:59
Corie: So that's what happened.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_03: That's what happened.
1:05:01
SPEAKER_03: He, you know, I don't think his side ever really admits that, but that's what happened.
1:05:07
SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't let it say it's keeping 100% funky.
1:05:11
SPEAKER_03: That's what happened.
1:05:12
SPEAKER_03: Right.
1:05:13
SPEAKER_03: Um, and they said they hated it.
1:05:15
SPEAKER_03: It's okay.
1:05:15
SPEAKER_03: Many people say they hate songs.
1:05:17
SPEAKER_03: And that's okay.
1:05:18
SPEAKER_03: Every songs are like souls, they will find a home.
1:05:21
SPEAKER_03: Right?
1:05:22
SPEAKER_03: And I was never worried about that song, finding a home.
1:05:24
SPEAKER_03: It could have been your mother singing on the out.
1:05:27
SPEAKER_03: It would have been good.
1:05:29
SPEAKER_03: I I personally think so.
1:05:32
SPEAKER_03: And then eight months later, he heard it again.
1:05:36
SPEAKER_03: I was like, and I was like, oh wow.
1:05:40
SPEAKER_03: Now the record wasn't gonna go to someone else.
1:05:43
SPEAKER_03: At that time, you had Gaga was now interested.
1:05:47
SPEAKER_03: So she was like, I love this record, and I'm I uh that if if I had a choice, it would be it would be her.
1:05:56
SPEAKER_04: Sure.
1:05:57
SPEAKER_03: And um, but he was like, Yeah, no.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_03: I will rap over y'all.
1:06:02
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:06:03
SPEAKER_03: Just like that.
1:06:04
SPEAKER_03: And just like that, he did.
1:06:05
SPEAKER_03: For sure.
1:06:06
SPEAKER_03: He was like, I will rap over y'all.
1:06:10
SPEAKER_03: I understand what you're saying.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_03: I understand you are talking.
1:06:14
SPEAKER_03: This is a love letter to New York.
1:06:15
Corie: Okay.
1:06:16
SPEAKER_03: And it was.
1:06:17
Corie: Oh, so he's saying you're talking about Gaga as doing the record, not a collaboration.
1:06:20
SPEAKER_03: No.
1:06:20
SPEAKER_03: Oh.
1:06:21
SPEAKER_03: I was her.
1:06:22
SPEAKER_03: It just went through many phases.
1:06:24
SPEAKER_03: It started with the staying idea.
1:06:26
SPEAKER_03: And then I think somebody else heard it.
1:06:28
SPEAKER_03: I think they was going to give it to German TV for like for something.
1:06:31
SPEAKER_03: And then her AR heard it and was like, I'm literally getting on a plane to go to Japan to play this for her in person.
1:06:41
SPEAKER_03: And I didn't really have a relationship with that core group of people in music.
1:06:46
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, oh, this is great.
1:06:47
SPEAKER_03: Like, yeah, I don't really, I haven't done a lot of music with them.
1:06:51
SPEAKER_03: So I was hell bent on staying over here.
1:06:54
Corie: Of course.
1:06:55
SPEAKER_03: But, you know, a song goes where it's supposed to go.
1:06:58
Corie: Yeah, I guess when you say the whole broadway thing, you could kind of hear Gaga doing it too, I suppose.
1:07:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I just, yeah, he just was like, I I knew she would do what it was supposed to do.
1:07:08
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then after we did it, Kanye West heard it with Jay, and he was like, Who's the girl on the hook?
1:07:15
SPEAKER_03: And it's like, oh, that's the girl right who wrote the song.
1:07:19
SPEAKER_03: And he's like, You need to leave that girl on the hook.
1:07:24
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I'm so flatted.
1:07:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:07:30
SPEAKER_03: But nobody knows who I am.
1:07:33
SPEAKER_03: And I really love this record.
1:07:35
SPEAKER_03: And I really think you need a big, you don't even have the demographic for this record.
1:07:40
SPEAKER_03: Now I'm not saying this to Jay-Z.
1:07:41
SPEAKER_03: I don't want to think people like I ain't face saying this.
1:07:45
SPEAKER_03: I ain't in Jigga Face saying this.
1:07:48
SPEAKER_03: It's kind of like Texas back and forth and very way more formal.
1:07:52
Corie: Sure.
1:07:53
SPEAKER_03: But he didn't have the demographic.
1:07:55
SPEAKER_03: And I, Alicia Key sounded like the tone of the record.
1:07:59
SPEAKER_03: She was from New York.
1:08:00
SPEAKER_03: He had already did a lot of records with other people from New York, you know.
1:08:03
SPEAKER_03: Of course, I think Beyoncé chimed in at some point.
1:08:06
SPEAKER_03: It was like, girl, you from Houston?
1:08:07
SPEAKER_03: I had to sit this one off.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_03: You had to take a seat on this one.
1:08:13
SPEAKER_03: Love you, B.
1:08:14
SPEAKER_03: But yeah.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_03: I don't think this one is gonna be it.
1:08:19
SPEAKER_03: No.
1:08:19
SPEAKER_04: Right?
1:08:20
SPEAKER_03: Um, he had already done records with Mary J.
1:08:22
SPEAKER_03: Blige.
1:08:22
SPEAKER_03: It just made sense.
1:08:24
SPEAKER_03: And then Alicia Keys had that demographic that he hadn't reached yet.
1:08:30
SPEAKER_03: Right?
1:08:30
Corie: And so more brother, more pop.
1:08:33
SPEAKER_03: More border, more pop.
1:08:34
Corie: Yeah.
1:08:34
SPEAKER_03: But white people, she had the white people.
1:08:37
Corie: I tried.
1:08:38
Corie: I tried.
1:08:39
Corie: Come on.
1:08:41
SPEAKER_03: I know my manager over there going, say it.
1:08:45
SPEAKER_03: She has the white people.
1:08:49
SPEAKER_03: So that's what you know in America when we say demographic.
1:08:52
Corie: Yeah.
1:08:53
Corie: Oh, it's true, it's you know.
1:08:54
SPEAKER_03: That's what we mean.
1:08:55
Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:08:56
SPEAKER_03: You know, you didn't really have that.
1:08:58
SPEAKER_03: She did.
1:08:58
SPEAKER_03: And it would just make it broader because we just felt the record deserved that chance.
1:09:05
SPEAKER_03: Um, and he didn't agree at first.
1:09:07
SPEAKER_03: He thought he really, and I people have demo wired this.
1:09:09
SPEAKER_03: They hear a record.
1:09:10
SPEAKER_03: This this is it.
1:09:11
SPEAKER_03: I don't hear it.
1:09:13
SPEAKER_03: I don't hear it anywhere.
1:09:14
SPEAKER_03: He did not.
1:09:15
SPEAKER_03: He absolutely did not.
1:09:16
Corie: Okay, so wait, at this point, you're not flashing back to the beginning of the career.
1:09:19
Corie: Go to the show.
1:09:21
SPEAKER_03: In your hole.
1:09:22
Corie: When you show up, you show up when it's time to get emotional again.
1:09:30
Corie: So warm up.
1:09:33
Corie: You're not flashing back to the person who told you, like, hey, you'll be a writer and artist.
1:09:37
Corie: You're not feeling that way.
1:09:38
Corie: Because I think in like for me or for anybody, might see a moment like that and be happy that somebody like Jay-Z won them, and I'm like, no tell the sickies and let me do this.
1:09:49
SPEAKER_03: I I'm always, you know, maybe to a fall.
1:09:53
SPEAKER_03: I'm always focused on like, what is the best outcome for this?
1:09:57
SPEAKER_03: You may not be the best outcome for it.
1:10:00
SPEAKER_03: I mean, in hindsight, it didn't matter really who was on the records with what it was gonna do, what it was gonna do.
1:10:06
SPEAKER_03: But um, I thought it was the right thing to do, and I still think it was the right thing to do.
1:10:09
SPEAKER_03: It was the right thing to do.
1:10:10
SPEAKER_03: I think she brought something to it that was amazing.
1:10:13
SPEAKER_03: I was watching her at the parade, and I was like, yeah, it was the right thing to do.
1:10:19
Corie: Yeah.
1:10:19
SPEAKER_03: No regrets.
1:10:20
Corie: No regrets.
1:10:21
Corie: You don't you get that sometimes with songs like when you write for the amount of people you've written for, and you as an artist, you feel like you should have just kept this one.
1:10:30
unknown: Yeah.
1:10:32
Corie: You're the only person who ever admit that in the most people ask that same question.
1:10:38
Corie: They are everybody is saying I don't know if I would have done his song, what he personally do with his song, and all that.
1:10:45
SPEAKER_03: As we say, you feel that.
1:10:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, listen.
1:10:53
SPEAKER_03: Every time you write a song, even though people could give you that speech, you know, well, I do this for the people, and you know, this is it's a piece of your soul.
1:11:02
SPEAKER_03: You're literally chipping off a piece of your soul.
1:11:04
SPEAKER_03: You have come to the understanding that once I write this, this is gone.
1:11:08
SPEAKER_03: It belongs to everyone else.
1:11:10
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right?
1:11:11
SPEAKER_03: But they're definitely things that you feel like, yo, that this is this was for me.
1:11:17
SPEAKER_03: This should have been for me.
1:11:18
SPEAKER_03: I should have really kept this one.
1:11:20
SPEAKER_04: So personal.
1:11:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:11:21
SPEAKER_03: I will I will definitely say, let me give you an example.
1:11:24
SPEAKER_03: In we blood.
1:11:26
SPEAKER_03: That's a record that uh one of our writers, Andrew Hitts, and myself.
1:11:33
SPEAKER_03: I wrote a little bit of that, but I that record was for me.
1:11:36
Corie: Yeah, that's you.
1:11:37
Corie: Talking about yourself.
1:11:38
SPEAKER_03: Twee blood.
1:11:39
Corie: Blood, it didn't be blood.
1:11:41
SPEAKER_03: I was like, it's me.
1:11:42
SPEAKER_03: I'm about to trap all over that.
1:11:45
SPEAKER_03: Give me that record.
1:11:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:11:47
SPEAKER_03: Here they go.
1:11:48
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna let play it for Marshall.
1:11:50
SPEAKER_03: And Marshall was like, yeah, thanks.
1:11:51
Corie: Yeah, bye.
1:11:52
Corie: It was nice.
1:11:53
Corie: Yes.
1:11:53
Corie: I appreciate it.
1:11:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:11:55
SPEAKER_03: I think I wouldn't do the better job.
1:11:57
SPEAKER_03: Oh, you think so?
1:11:57
SPEAKER_03: He said, Angelo, you don't do power soaker.
1:12:00
SPEAKER_03: Sit down.
1:12:01
SPEAKER_03: I was like, I can though.
1:12:05
Corie: Yeah.
1:12:05
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
1:12:06
SPEAKER_03: Of course, there's things that you wish you, you know, you can.
1:12:08
Corie: Well, he said you don't do power soaker, but you can affirm here that it starts off rapping and thing, right?
1:12:12
Corie: Absolutely.
1:12:12
SPEAKER_03: Any of Jay Z barzing that I've written, me personally I know that and we could end out.
1:12:25
Corie: I could have bet my life.
1:12:27
Corie: I could have put my head on a block, all this talk about who writes and thing and who write on that and then go in the studio whole day and thing.
1:12:32
Corie: I know it's how to have a trinity behind that.
1:12:36
SPEAKER_03: Why do you want to?
1:12:37
SPEAKER_03: Is that Trinity do that?
1:12:38
SPEAKER_03: Of course.
1:12:39
Corie: Of course.
1:12:40
Corie: Come on.
1:12:40
Corie: Come on.
1:12:41
SPEAKER_03: They're like, we don't care if she's born in Brooklyn.
1:12:43
SPEAKER_03: We claim it she.
1:12:44
Corie: 100%.
1:12:45
Corie: Yeah.
1:12:45
Corie: Oh, was Blanche Shears finest?
1:12:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
1:12:50
SPEAKER_03: Blanchish book of yourself.
1:12:52
Corie: So where's this now?
1:12:53
Corie: Where's your focus now?
1:12:55
SPEAKER_03: Television and film.
1:12:56
Corie: Yeah.
1:12:57
SPEAKER_03: So I've been scoring.
1:12:59
SPEAKER_03: I um have my own television and film company because I was writing so many songs for shows.
1:13:06
SPEAKER_03: I did a lot of stuff for 50 Cent Shows for see don't never know the names, I don't know the name.
1:13:14
SPEAKER_03: What's the name of the people?
1:13:15
Corie: No Power.
1:13:16
SPEAKER_03: What's the power?
1:13:17
Corie: 50 Cent Power.
1:13:18
Corie: Okay.
1:13:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that one.
1:13:21
SPEAKER_03: Hey, listen, it's best sometimes that you don't know because when I go into these situations, I'm I'm not biased.
1:13:26
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
1:13:27
SPEAKER_03: But I was writing a lot for his song, his shows, a lot of other shows, streaming stuff, and and I knew that my career was going more into television and phone because my catalog is very heavily synced.
1:13:38
SPEAKER_03: For those of you who don't know, being synced is you know, you do a lot of commercials, a lot of movies and things, secret lives of pets.
1:13:45
Corie: Like well, hey, there's money in the things.
1:13:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, man.
1:13:49
Corie: Gotcha.
1:13:49
SPEAKER_03: That's what the artist thing I was like, I don't know about that.
1:13:54
Corie: And we here wait till another bother me.
1:13:56
Corie: So that's what he focuses in.
1:13:58
SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, I will I have my own television and film production company.
1:14:01
SPEAKER_03: I actually was a direct an up-and-coming director for like 16 years.
1:14:05
SPEAKER_03: That was like my corporate job when I when music wasn't paying the bills.
1:14:09
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I worked a lot in film and television.
1:14:12
SPEAKER_03: And so I have this huge background, and I was pinned to be like the new female psych.
1:14:19
SPEAKER_03: And I remember going to like the director of the company, like, yeah, so I know you don't know, but like I'm a singer and I'm gonna go back to music.
1:14:26
SPEAKER_03: And it's like, you're nuts.
1:14:28
SPEAKER_03: Because I was about to be this breakout director.
1:14:32
SPEAKER_03: But about a year, almost almost two years now, I had a huge health scare and I had a major heart surgery.
1:14:43
SPEAKER_03: And I mean, I thought it was lights out, like, you know, but somehow, you know, I came to how we know how we came through it for sure.
1:14:52
SPEAKER_03: It wasn't, it wasn't my time.
1:14:53
SPEAKER_03: I was supposed to be here.
1:14:55
SPEAKER_03: And that's when everything changed for me.
1:14:59
SPEAKER_03: It was like, oh no, it's what I'm doing with this now.
1:15:05
SPEAKER_03: What am I saying?
1:15:07
SPEAKER_03: All the things that's all the things that I knew I had to do, I had to do.
1:15:20
SPEAKER_03: So when people didn't see me in music, they didn't understand.
1:15:23
SPEAKER_03: I was getting mad, I was literally learning how to walk talk all over here.
1:15:27
SPEAKER_03: Oh no, no, no, this was 2023.
1:15:30
SPEAKER_03: In the 2024.
1:15:34
SPEAKER_03: So it was like a really long recovery and so it wasn't like I didn't want to make music, I really couldn't make music at that at that time.
1:15:44
SPEAKER_03: It was the focus was to get better.
1:15:46
SPEAKER_03: I was so lucky to be able to just be alive and not have to actually go through what it could have been, you know.
1:15:56
SPEAKER_03: So I have the scars that will always be with me, and I'm proud of them because I said, okay, well, what am I supposed to do now?
1:16:09
SPEAKER_03: And that's when it would become very clear.
1:16:12
SPEAKER_03: So I have to fulfill this other part of my life.
1:16:15
SPEAKER_03: I have to do this television film.
1:16:17
SPEAKER_03: So one of the first things I did was Judas and the Black Messiah.
1:16:20
SPEAKER_03: And I have a song named Black Fault.
1:16:22
SPEAKER_03: Shh, it's a very big song, it's called Welcome to America, and it just took off, and I just started rewriting for all these films.
1:16:29
SPEAKER_03: 12 Years of a Slave, and many, many movies that I've been doing over the years.
1:16:33
SPEAKER_03: So people's like, you're not doing so.
1:16:34
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, yeah, I'm over here making these movies because God told me that I have to do this.
1:16:40
SPEAKER_03: Um and I moved with God because I'm just a vessel.
1:16:43
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
1:16:43
SPEAKER_03: Right.
1:16:44
SPEAKER_03: And I was doing it so much I decided, hey, you know what?
1:16:48
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna open my own television and you know, production company, and I'm gonna come up with my own shows and have my own films because I'm a black woman with training in my blood, and we just do things that you're not supposed to do that as you guys are saying.
1:17:04
SPEAKER_03: We dream bay.
1:17:06
SPEAKER_03: And I knew that um I was I knew that I had to do music.
1:17:11
SPEAKER_03: One, because of gas that day in the airport.
1:17:14
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know.
1:17:15
SPEAKER_03: He didn't know that I had just had surgery.
1:17:17
SPEAKER_03: I don't think he even really understood the magnitude.
1:17:20
SPEAKER_03: He just kind of like was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you have to get back to the music.
1:17:23
SPEAKER_03: I was like, I am.
1:17:26
SPEAKER_03: I I was just like just getting up on my feet, just actually like walking stronger, talking stronger.
1:17:34
SPEAKER_03: And I was just getting DMs from people like, you know, you just can't come out and make one record, you know.
1:17:40
SPEAKER_03: When you're coming back with a next record, I'm like.
1:17:43
Corie: If you only know.
1:17:44
SPEAKER_03: If you only know.
1:17:46
SPEAKER_03: But you know, I'm so happy now to just, I feel like I'm so happy because I'm doing so many things that I love and so many things that I wanted to do.
1:17:54
SPEAKER_03: These films have to be made because they're based around how diaspora.
1:17:58
SPEAKER_03: I have to tell the story.
1:18:01
SPEAKER_03: You know, and it's gonna be done in a way that I feel is so prolific because of the music that I'm gonna put behind it.
1:18:07
SPEAKER_03: That's what makes me different than a lot of directors.
1:18:09
SPEAKER_03: They have to find this music and search for it where I'm just gonna do it.
1:18:14
SPEAKER_03: So we have a lot of projects that are coming out that is gonna be so cool.
1:18:18
SPEAKER_03: And then I just started like literally working on this new project like about three weeks ago.
1:18:25
SPEAKER_03: Um and yeah, I'm in the studio doing that and making these films.
1:18:30
Corie: Gotcha, gotcha.
1:18:31
Corie: Well, congrats, congrats, and we're glad to hear that you're good health-wise and everything is good.
1:18:35
Corie: So it's good to have you here.
1:18:36
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
1:18:36
Corie: And good to have you the way you show up.
1:18:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:18:38
Corie: You know, like again, when I saw you with the patent side of us, nobody would ever think anything wrong with you, much less fully performers at Kess, you know, together good.
1:18:45
Corie: I suppose it's a thing that we do all the time, it's just kind of assume people okay.
1:18:49
SPEAKER_03: A lot of people think, you know, because I at one point I think I had to shave my head, but I had actually just shaved my head because I just was tired of hair.
1:18:55
SPEAKER_03: And I just shave my head, it was like nothing really going on.
1:18:59
SPEAKER_03: But I think pe some people were questioning things because I got really small because my metabolism, I just couldn't, I would eat, but I just wasn't gaining weight.
1:19:06
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
1:19:06
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so it's a lot of things were speculated.
1:19:10
SPEAKER_03: Is it cancer?
1:19:11
SPEAKER_03: Is it this?
1:19:11
SPEAKER_03: It was that, and no, it wasn't.
1:19:12
SPEAKER_03: It was just a problem.
1:19:13
SPEAKER_03: I had that when I was small.
1:19:16
SPEAKER_03: And it just no one knew.
1:19:18
Corie: Yeah, manifest then.
1:19:20
SPEAKER_03: Of course, no one knew.
1:19:21
SPEAKER_03: So, but by the grace of God, by the most high, I'm here with a voice.
1:19:29
SPEAKER_03: Um, and yeah, I'm grateful.
1:19:32
SPEAKER_03: Very grateful.
1:19:33
Corie: Yeah, we're very grateful for you showing up, sharing some of that voice with us.
1:19:36
Corie: I have one request, right?
1:19:37
Corie: Before you go.
1:19:38
Corie: I think you should boast more.
1:19:40
Corie: I think you should do more stuff like this.
1:19:42
Corie: Tell people because you know, it's funny when you talk about when it's You're not the first.
1:19:46
Corie: Yeah, people feel like we as people from the Caribbean, Trinidad, in particular in New York case, we need to know the things you accomplish.
1:19:53
Corie: We need to see ourselves because these youths depending on it.
1:19:56
Corie: Some of them feel the block there on is the only place in the world.
1:19:58
Corie: No, no, it's more.
1:19:59
Corie: And you have to adjust in blanchis ready, people escape.
1:20:03
SPEAKER_01: All the people coming out of blind chi.
1:20:05
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we should put a name to it.
1:20:07
SPEAKER_01: Blanche.
1:20:09
SPEAKER_01: Let's come.
1:20:09
Corie: I gotta tell you, Nilo could be happy to hear tell that story, you know.
1:20:12
Corie: But it's nice to hear you talk about some of the work that you do.
1:20:15
Corie: I wonder if when you're abroad and you're sitting wondering these people should stop on my name, but they don't know, they think it's party done.
1:20:20
Corie: Yeah, yeah, they don't know.
1:20:22
SPEAKER_03: And I'm okay, I was okay with that till one day somebody said something real disrespectful.
1:20:31
SPEAKER_03: And we go, uh we're gonna be there.
1:20:33
SPEAKER_03: And with that, it was it was very disrespectful, and I was like, So I I'm gonna have to put you in your place now.
1:20:42
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna have to really put you in your place now.
1:20:44
SPEAKER_03: Also he was shorter than me.
1:20:47
Corie: That's most of us.
1:20:48
Corie: That's all of us you're talking about.
1:20:50
Corie: I know that's an emotional.
1:20:52
SPEAKER_03: I can tell you one thing, it was really, really bad.
1:20:54
Corie: Okay, okay.
1:20:55
SPEAKER_03: And I can tell you one person who was in the car.
1:20:59
SPEAKER_03: Ola was in the car.
1:21:01
SPEAKER_03: Oh when this happened.
1:21:03
SPEAKER_01: And Ola was like, oh God, Angie, Angie doesn't never get mad.
1:21:08
SPEAKER_01: What did I do, Angie?
1:21:11
SPEAKER_03: Oh my goodness, Angela.
1:21:13
SPEAKER_03: Oh god, oh god, oh god, Angela, she's mad.
1:21:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was I was definitely tearing somebody up because I had had enough.
1:21:24
SPEAKER_03: Because they had really said some disrespectful things, like, who she thinks she is?
1:21:27
SPEAKER_03: Why should she go first in the show?
1:21:29
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I don't care where you put me.
1:21:31
SPEAKER_03: You can put me anywhere.
1:21:32
SPEAKER_03: I'm over here so innocently, just like you can put me anywhere.
1:21:35
SPEAKER_03: You over here, boast and go, who she thinks she is?
1:21:37
SPEAKER_03: But let me know, let me let you know who I am.
1:21:40
SPEAKER_03: Because what I'm not gonna let you do is take the disrespect off my legacy and my name.
1:21:44
SPEAKER_03: Let's not do that.
1:21:45
SPEAKER_03: I would never do that to anybody.
1:21:48
SPEAKER_03: Your work is your worst, and you are your worst.
1:21:51
SPEAKER_03: And you can only be worth something if you stand up for who you are.
1:21:56
SPEAKER_03: So I'm always gonna do that.
1:21:57
SPEAKER_03: I'm always gonna tell people to do that.
1:22:00
Corie: Well received, received, received.
1:22:02
Corie: Ladies and gentlemen, Angela Hunt.
1:22:04
Corie: Thank you very much, man.
1:22:05
Corie: Thank you very much.
1:22:08
Corie: This was I don't know what it's taken to.
1:22:11
Corie: I don't know.
1:22:11
SPEAKER_03: Let me let me give a high fight and fly.
1:22:16
Corie: Keep him in the shot at all time.
1:22:18
Corie: No, thank you so much.
1:22:21
Corie: It's all good, it's okay, it's okay.
1:22:23
Corie: Thank you so much.
1:22:24
Corie: Okay, okay.