Latest / Eating While Broke / INAS X - Home Grown Hummus
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
- 0:03Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very
- 0:06Speaker 1: very special guests, recording artists in naz x is in
- 0:11Speaker 1: the building. Hey, hey, I am really excited to have
- 0:16Speaker 1: you here.
- 0:17Speaker 2: I'm so excited to be here.
- 0:18Speaker 1: So you really look like you are really into cooking, right.
- 0:23Speaker 2: I'm so excited about this, Like literally it's dope because
- 0:26Speaker 2: this idea that we went to is like, so like
- 0:29Speaker 2: this just excited me up.
- 0:30Speaker 1: Yes, what are you gonna be having us eat today?
- 0:33Speaker 3: Okay, so today we're gonna be having.
- 0:35Speaker 2: Hummus samas, the organic original homemade Arab ways.
- 0:43Speaker 1: I love that. I love that because basically, what you're
- 0:47Speaker 1: telling me is that instead of me buying hummus from
- 0:51Speaker 1: the containers, that I can actually make it at home
- 0:54Speaker 1: and it's budget.
- 0:55Speaker 2: Friendly, literally so much more budget friendly and just just
- 0:59Speaker 2: better take.
- 1:00Speaker 1: Really, so we gonna find out today.
- 1:03Speaker 3: It's literally real, let's get it. I'm excited about it.
- 1:05Speaker 1: Yes, so tell us what it takes to make homemade hummus.
- 1:32Speaker 2: Okay, So we have the chickpeas.
- 1:35Speaker 1: And these are canned so people don't have to boil
- 1:37Speaker 1: them in.
- 1:39Speaker 2: And we love Goya products always always, so yeah, the
- 1:42Speaker 2: Goya product will work. But whatever product chickpeas boom. And
- 1:46Speaker 2: then honestly, the lemon juice and the olive oil, I
- 1:49Speaker 2: don't know. If we have our olive oil.
- 1:50Speaker 1: We can have someone run and get it.
- 1:52Speaker 2: Yeah, the olive oil, the lemon juice just crucial like anything.
- 1:56Speaker 2: Middle Eastern they always put lemon juice and olive oil anyway, always.
- 1:59Speaker 1: Oh really, even in all the all the like cooking dishes.
- 2:03Speaker 3: Cooking always get olive oil.
- 2:05Speaker 2: Is like our especially Palestinians, like olive oil is the.
- 2:10Speaker 3: Thing because we like grow olives.
- 2:11Speaker 2: So it's like oh yeah, like my mom would tell
- 2:14Speaker 2: me like oh yeah, we would grow olive trees. Like
- 2:16Speaker 2: literally you might like to. I would drink the olive oil,
- 2:18Speaker 2: organic real organic stuff. Drink yeah, like my grandpa would
- 2:21Speaker 2: drink the olive oil. Is like so healthy. But it's
- 2:23Speaker 2: like olive oils.
- 2:24Speaker 1: And everything sound healthy. Okay, have you ever drink.
- 2:28Speaker 3: Ours in America?
- 2:29Speaker 2: Because they put so much stuff on our stuff, So
- 2:31Speaker 2: I don't know if we could do that, but you know,
- 2:33Speaker 2: olive oil is there. We go in the extra virgin period,
- 2:36Speaker 2: So I don't know about these brands, but you know,
- 2:38Speaker 2: like it's so good, Like I honestly olive oil and
- 2:40Speaker 2: everything for us Arabs?
- 2:42Speaker 1: Is it? Okay?
- 2:43Speaker 2: Oil and a lemon juice. You gotta put the lemon
- 2:45Speaker 2: juice and everything.
- 2:46Speaker 1: Literally, Okay, what are the other ingredients?
- 2:48Speaker 2: And then just a bunch of seasonings. So some of
- 2:50Speaker 2: the seasonings are like you know, some traditional and then
- 2:52Speaker 2: some stuff. I'm going like a little out because I
- 2:54Speaker 2: like to like season my stuff.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Okay, so season the taste.
- 2:58Speaker 2: And there's peppers, yes, so we have Do we have
- 3:02Speaker 2: the peppers?
- 3:02Speaker 1: Yeah, in that little orange case? Oh my god, yes,
- 3:05Speaker 1: but I don't know if those were the right ones.
- 3:06Speaker 2: Oh no, these aren't the right ones. But we're gonna
- 3:07Speaker 2: just use this as an embellishment at the end. That's
- 3:10Speaker 2: what was cute. It'll be cute chipotle peppers and a
- 3:12Speaker 2: double sauce ooh a doubo Okay, cool.
- 3:14Speaker 1: Well, I don't know what roasted peppers in a can
- 3:18Speaker 1: look like.
- 3:19Speaker 3: I don't know, Like literally, I think it was supposed
- 3:21Speaker 3: to be the jar.
- 3:22Speaker 1: The jar. I tried, I tried. I didn't know what
- 3:24Speaker 1: I was looking for.
- 3:25Speaker 3: No, I ain't a roast chef in here.
- 3:26Speaker 2: We just be doing it.
- 3:28Speaker 1: But we were doing it and we're doing it right,
- 3:30Speaker 1: and you have garlic and onions teach us how to
- 3:33Speaker 1: make it.
- 3:33Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, so literally, okay, the thing is is like
- 3:36Speaker 2: the garlic and the onions, I would have liked to
- 3:38Speaker 2: like roast it up and stuff to make it a
- 3:40Speaker 2: little bit that, But since it's not that, we're not
- 3:42Speaker 2: gonna put them in today.
- 3:43Speaker 1: We're just gonna have them as cute little decoration.
- 3:45Speaker 3: Cerations on the side.
- 3:46Speaker 2: Okay, But okay, so we're gonna start with the chickpeas.
- 3:50Speaker 1: Got it?
- 3:51Speaker 3: Now?
- 3:51Speaker 2: Do we get started?
- 3:52Speaker 4: Yes?
- 3:52Speaker 1: Get started? And do we have to I'm genuinely really
- 3:57Speaker 1: invested in this. I'm hoping that I never buy how
- 3:59Speaker 1: much again after this. But do we have to drain
- 4:03Speaker 1: the liquid out of the key?
- 4:04Speaker 2: Yes, we do it.
- 4:06Speaker 1: You could use those blue keys.
- 4:07Speaker 5: Look, I'm asking all the right questions, really, okay, honestly,
- 4:11Speaker 5: just like like, we do have to drain it out
- 4:14Speaker 5: because this water that they have it's sitting in it's.
- 4:18Speaker 1: Just you know, it's like fermented or something.
- 4:20Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fermented, And it's not really like necessary because
- 4:23Speaker 2: the thing is you're supposed to soak the chickpeas overnight
- 4:26Speaker 2: if they're fresh fresh chicken, you know, but they're already
- 4:29Speaker 2: soaking them, so it's like perfect because.
- 4:31Speaker 1: You have to Oh they're not soft in there.
- 4:32Speaker 3: Yeah, they're soft now because they soaked them.
- 4:35Speaker 1: So if I were to get a bag of chickpeas,
- 4:38Speaker 1: the dry one.
- 4:39Speaker 2: You can just soak them overnight and then they come
- 4:41Speaker 2: like this and they become fermented and stuff and then
- 4:43Speaker 2: you just like drain it out.
- 4:45Speaker 3: You can use that too.
- 4:46Speaker 1: Oh I don't have to boil them.
- 4:47Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't have to boil them. So the thing
- 4:49Speaker 2: is is if you do boil them, it's like the replacement.
- 4:52Speaker 2: Either you soak them or you boil them.
- 4:53Speaker 3: Either.
- 4:54Speaker 2: Or we have this other dish called food and it's
- 4:56Speaker 2: like garbonzo beans.
- 4:58Speaker 3: Is that what it is? Or these are the girls.
- 5:00Speaker 2: It's another bean. I only know in Arabic it's fooled,
- 5:03Speaker 2: but like literally it's another bean. And with that one
- 5:05Speaker 2: you cook and that you have to cook that one.
- 5:07Speaker 3: This one is optional.
- 5:08Speaker 2: You cook it.
- 5:08Speaker 3: You can soak it every night.
- 5:09Speaker 1: Okay, So for all y'all listeners, you can actually get
- 5:12Speaker 1: the bag, soak it overnight and then wake up put
- 5:15Speaker 1: it in a blunder.
- 5:15Speaker 2: Yeah, let's think, let's get it very excited.
- 5:19Speaker 1: We ain't never had this dish ever in the history.
- 5:21Speaker 1: This is three seasons and we've never had anybody make
- 5:24Speaker 1: homemade humus.
- 5:25Speaker 3: Oh my god, this is so exciting.
- 5:28Speaker 2: It's so crazy because I would wake up in the morning,
- 5:31Speaker 2: like growing up, and then this would be like our breakfast,
- 5:33Speaker 2: you know, like yeah, and I hated it growing up, right,
- 5:36Speaker 2: I hated it, Like I was like I don't want that,
- 5:38Speaker 2: Like I don't want it.
- 5:40Speaker 1: And then because you ate it so much.
- 5:41Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like you know, you were so used to it,
- 5:44Speaker 2: you know, you get so used to it and stuff.
- 5:45Speaker 2: And then I literally like then it became a viral sensation.
- 5:49Speaker 2: And then I was like that everywhere as home as
- 5:51Speaker 2: helmus hummus, and I'm like, as an Arabic girl, it's
- 5:54Speaker 2: the most interesting thing ever to see, you know what
- 5:56Speaker 2: I'm saying, Because you're like, I would have never thought that,
- 5:58Speaker 2: like things like this would have been viral because I
- 6:01Speaker 2: was a little girl.
- 6:01Speaker 3: You just grow up like it's a part of you know.
- 6:02Speaker 2: What I'm saying.
- 6:03Speaker 1: It's like a part of the culture. It's like if
- 6:05Speaker 1: you're if you're a Jamaican and you eat like jerk chicken.
- 6:08Speaker 1: All yeah, well I don't even use jerk chicken. Yeah
- 6:12Speaker 1: something like who was it? Like Trevor Noah had a
- 6:14Speaker 1: joke about his friend that was Indian and his friend
- 6:18Speaker 1: like just hated eating different versions of curry every day,
- 6:21Speaker 1: and Trevor was like so annoyed with eating I think
- 6:26Speaker 1: just school lunch. So they would like trade or whatever,
- 6:30Speaker 1: because that kid was just like, I can't even look
- 6:32Speaker 1: at the curry. Dang. Okay, we're just kidding, all right,
- 6:36Speaker 1: were we only need one?
- 6:38Speaker 2: Need one anyway, We're gonna try it all out, okay,
- 6:40Speaker 2: so boom, but we got this stuff in here, the
- 6:43Speaker 2: chickpeas in here. We gotta throw in the olive oil,
- 6:46Speaker 2: of course, because.
- 6:47Speaker 1: It's how you know you a real cook. Right here.
- 6:49Speaker 1: She she didn't even pull out a measure and she
- 6:52Speaker 1: never was there's not even a measuring anything on the table.
- 6:55Speaker 1: She just took the olive oil and she just ran
- 6:57Speaker 1: it through. Okay, got it. She was signed a generous
- 7:00Speaker 1: for y'all listeners. She was generous the olive oil, okay.
- 7:04Speaker 2: And then when I was honestly, it would be cute
- 7:06Speaker 2: if we had like whatever, but we're just gonna throw
- 7:07Speaker 2: in these seasonings, like straight up this season. Okay, So
- 7:10Speaker 2: I love me some garlic. We gotta put the garlic
- 7:13Speaker 2: garlic powder. I would have loved to roast a garlic
- 7:16Speaker 2: and put in the fresh garlic nothing like it. But
- 7:18Speaker 2: since we don't have that, we're gonna just put in
- 7:20Speaker 2: the garlic powder.
- 7:22Speaker 1: And when you say you roast, what does roasting look like?
- 7:24Speaker 2: When I just put it on the stove and then
- 7:26Speaker 2: put it with some oil and.
- 7:27Speaker 1: Just like like almost like a saltee. Yeah, so it
- 7:31Speaker 1: has that like little.
- 7:32Speaker 2: I start getting my terminology for my cooking up. Oh
- 7:35Speaker 2: my goodness's yeah. I like, yeah, the onion garlic nothing
- 7:40Speaker 2: like it. Always we saw ta onion and garlic in
- 7:43Speaker 2: every dish too.
- 7:44Speaker 3: That's not always.
- 7:45Speaker 1: Onion, garlic and lemon. Ye. And you're and your first generation,
- 7:51Speaker 1: did you at all grow up in Palestine?
- 7:54Speaker 2: No?
- 7:56Speaker 1: Have you visited?
- 7:57Speaker 3: No?
- 7:58Speaker 2: Okay, so my whole life Palestine has been more unfortunately,
- 8:02Speaker 2: you know, high family members go back there and you know,
- 8:05Speaker 2: just come back different. So it always gave me a
- 8:08Speaker 2: like damn, like I want to go back there so bad.
- 8:11Speaker 2: But you know, it's like there's traumatizing, it's traumatizing.
- 8:14Speaker 3: Yeah, my mom had a very traumatizing experience.
- 8:16Speaker 2: So I think that for me it was always like
- 8:19Speaker 2: I always have dreamed to go back, but I always
- 8:21Speaker 2: like in the right time one day, you know what
- 8:23Speaker 2: I mean, And that's like the dream and the goobo.
- 8:24Speaker 2: Now for me, it's like I love like going back
- 8:28Speaker 2: to any of the parts of the Middle East. Like
- 8:31Speaker 2: I stopped in Dubai and I was like, oh my god,
- 8:33Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, you just feel the vibe
- 8:34Speaker 2: because I feel like being in the Western world, being
- 8:37Speaker 2: in America, like it's so different when you go to
- 8:40Speaker 2: that side of the world, and I really haven't experienced
- 8:42Speaker 2: it as much as I need to, you know what
- 8:44Speaker 2: I'm saying, Like as much as I want to. And
- 8:46Speaker 2: I mean, like there's so many places right now out
- 8:49Speaker 2: there that are just so beautiful, soapopen and just so
- 8:51Speaker 2: like it that I haven't seen yet that I'm just
- 8:53Speaker 2: dying to see. But of course, like I want to
- 8:55Speaker 2: go back so bad, but I've never spent as much
- 8:57Speaker 2: like time there or anything. I went to Egypt when
- 8:59Speaker 2: I'm like sixteen with the family, and that was like
- 9:02Speaker 2: the closest thing I kind of got to it because
- 9:04Speaker 2: Egypt is right across you know, the water. But yeah,
- 9:08Speaker 2: that's it. And I one day, one day, god willing,
- 9:10Speaker 2: we'll be going back, you know what I mean? One
- 9:11Speaker 2: day that's the goal, because honestly, I'm not gonna lie.
- 9:14Speaker 2: It's such a we just want to, you know, you
- 9:16Speaker 2: want to experience the motherland.
- 9:17Speaker 3: You know what.
- 9:17Speaker 1: Yeah, of course I think it's I think it's important.
- 9:19Speaker 1: But I also understand as a Jamaican, I ain't been back,
- 9:23Speaker 1: and all my Jamaican friends like talk crap because they're like,
- 9:26Speaker 1: you've never been there and you're a Jamaican and dah
- 9:28Speaker 1: dah da da. I'm like, man, you hear all these
- 9:30Speaker 1: stories about stuff that may have happened in your family.
- 9:34Speaker 1: You like, I don't know if I'm ready to do that.
- 9:36Speaker 1: But now that I'm older, I'm like, yo, it's definitely
- 9:38Speaker 1: on my bucket list. But when I was younger, you
- 9:40Speaker 1: couldn't pay me to go back there because that was scary.
- 9:42Speaker 2: It was scary. Yeah, you hear all these stories.
- 9:44Speaker 3: But then now you're like, oh.
- 9:45Speaker 2: My god, I really want to go.
- 9:46Speaker 1: Yeah I want to. I want to.
- 9:47Speaker 2: I want to roots.
- 9:48Speaker 3: Yeah, your roots exactly.
- 9:50Speaker 2: And that's what's so important, And honestly, a lot of
- 9:52Speaker 2: Arabs will do that to me too. They'll be like,
- 9:54Speaker 2: but you've never gone back or I speak Arabic, that's
- 9:56Speaker 2: my first language technically, oh okay, yeah, but it's very
- 9:59Speaker 2: like broken, like it's like we say Macusa, so it's
- 10:02Speaker 2: like it's like broken, like you know what I mean,
- 10:03Speaker 2: because it's americanized because I speak English so much.
- 10:06Speaker 1: Now do do the Palestine? Does the Arab culture judge
- 10:11Speaker 1: if you're you're your is it Arabic?
- 10:16Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 10:16Speaker 1: Is it? If it's like not perfect? Because I know
- 10:19Speaker 1: in the Spanish community they all judge. Yes, they discriminated.
- 10:24Speaker 2: The Arabs in the Latin community and the Arab basic
- 10:28Speaker 2: so much alike, like my mom's that's friend growing up
- 10:30Speaker 2: saying it's like Puerto Rican That's why I use like
- 10:32Speaker 2: Adobo Goyle products, Like I just like, you know, my
- 10:34Speaker 2: favorite food is Puerto Rican food technical because I'm just
- 10:38Speaker 2: like so obsessed with the whole Spanish culture period. But
- 10:41Speaker 2: I feel like it's the same way, like it's very
- 10:44Speaker 2: judgmental if you're not if you don't speak clear like
- 10:47Speaker 2: Spanish or clear Arabic, they're.
- 10:48Speaker 3: Like super judgments.
- 10:50Speaker 2: How you're saying no, No, they talk, you know, a lot
- 10:52Speaker 2: of crap. Yeah, it's the same way. And it's the
- 10:54Speaker 2: same way too, I know in the Latin community and
- 10:57Speaker 2: the Arab community of like if you're Puerto Rican and
- 10:59Speaker 2: Dominican and yeah, it's a little different.
- 11:01Speaker 1: Like you know, yeah, they'd be like, don't get it,
- 11:02Speaker 1: don't get it messed up, got it messed up.
- 11:04Speaker 2: It's the same thing with the Arabs. But honestly, for me,
- 11:07Speaker 2: like you know, now, for me, I love it all.
- 11:10Speaker 2: Like people think I'm Latino all the time and I'm
- 11:12Speaker 2: from New York, so I love it. I'm like, yeah,
- 11:14Speaker 2: oh they are all like what, like, I'm very much
- 11:19Speaker 2: so that, you know. So I feel like cause we're
- 11:22Speaker 2: so we're so like entertime. So me, I'm just like
- 11:24Speaker 2: if someone confused me for Latino, or someone confused me
- 11:26Speaker 2: for another Arab thing, I love it.
- 11:28Speaker 3: People get really offended by that.
- 11:30Speaker 2: They're like, don't do that, don't do that, I'm not
- 11:32Speaker 2: that or whatever, and I'm like whatever.
- 11:34Speaker 1: Like people will literally confuse me for Latino. They'll be like, yeah,
- 11:37Speaker 1: Puerto Rican or they so I keep telling myself if
- 11:42Speaker 1: I learned Spanish, I'm claiming.
- 11:44Speaker 2: Noah, if you walk up on me and you're like, oh,
- 11:47Speaker 2: are you Puerto Rican.
- 11:50Speaker 1: If I know how to speak it, I'll be.
- 11:51Speaker 3: Like a Spanish country.
- 11:53Speaker 2: They they they start speaking to me in Spanish and
- 11:56Speaker 2: then I get by, but then it starts getting.
- 11:58Speaker 3: Mad real like busted.
- 12:00Speaker 2: Okay, I really am not for real because my actient
- 12:03Speaker 2: be on place and they'll be like, oh, you speak Spanish,
- 12:06Speaker 2: just go in okay, But then I want to learn sometimes,
- 12:09Speaker 2: so when I go, like, I'll go because Mexico's right there,
- 12:11Speaker 2: So I'll go to Mexico, take a trip, and then
- 12:13Speaker 2: it's literally like well, they'll start speaking to you, and
- 12:15Speaker 2: then you're like, okay, teach me some Spanish. And then
- 12:18Speaker 2: they want to speak English. It's like no, no, no,
- 12:20Speaker 2: Like my aunt can do that to me too. They'll
- 12:22Speaker 2: speak to me in English and I'm speaking into them
- 12:23Speaker 2: Arabic and I'm like, speak to me in Arabic so
- 12:25Speaker 2: I can get my Arabic up, and then they start
- 12:27Speaker 2: speaking to me English.
- 12:27Speaker 1: I'm like they like, we don't have time to do this, yes,
- 12:31Speaker 1: like no, no.
- 12:31Speaker 3: No, don't play with us right now. Don't play with us.
- 12:33Speaker 1: I get that though, too, because whenever I'm around like
- 12:36Speaker 1: my Spanish friends. You know what I do. I tell
- 12:38Speaker 1: their kids. That's what I learned. If you go after
- 12:41Speaker 1: the kids, yeah, they're more likely to help you out
- 12:44Speaker 1: and be like, all right, could we could do this,
- 12:45Speaker 1: We could talk to you in Spanish, but adults always alike, yeah,
- 12:49Speaker 1: that's over.
- 12:49Speaker 2: It, like literally, and I'm like, well, I'm trying to
- 12:51Speaker 2: get my stuff up. You know, I don't got nobody
- 12:53Speaker 2: to practice with. You know what I'm saying. We out
- 12:55Speaker 2: here in La you know what I'm saying. But I
- 12:58Speaker 2: think even for my mom, I only speak to my
- 12:59Speaker 2: mom in Ah, so it's weird because then when I
- 13:01Speaker 2: speak to her in Arabic, I just feel so weird.
- 13:03Speaker 2: But some people speak to their parents in Arabic and
- 13:06Speaker 2: that's how they keep it up, you know what I mean.
- 13:08Speaker 3: Me, I've only spoken to my mom in English.
- 13:10Speaker 2: Like technically, we taught my mom English when she came
- 13:12Speaker 2: all out here to New York from Palisade, and she
- 13:15Speaker 2: just was just learning from like the like TV shows
- 13:19Speaker 2: and stuff, and then we were speaking only English. She's working,
- 13:21Speaker 2: and then that's how she learned English. So we, like
- 13:24Speaker 2: her kids like kind of told her English.
- 13:25Speaker 3: And that's a lot of it.
- 13:26Speaker 1: And how good is her English anything? Really?
- 13:28Speaker 3: Yeah, she sounds like.
- 13:29Speaker 2: A New York like, you know, Middle Eastern woman, you know.
- 13:33Speaker 1: But you know from New York. I'm gonna be like
- 13:35Speaker 1: hitting you up when I'm on that side, Like, well,
- 13:37Speaker 1: I was saying, take me back to what was going
- 13:40Speaker 1: on in the era of you eating hummus to not survive,
- 13:44Speaker 1: but you know, in the times of just take me
- 13:47Speaker 1: back to what was going on during the time of
- 13:49Speaker 1: eating and making homemade hummus.
- 13:52Speaker 2: You know, I feel like, for me, it's really crazy
- 13:56Speaker 2: because like you know, when you're a kid, you like
- 13:59Speaker 2: just you just take so many things like for granted,
- 14:02Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, And I feel like even
- 14:04Speaker 2: like things like this, it's like, you know, yeah, like
- 14:06Speaker 2: I guess it's this is just such a cheap meal
- 14:09Speaker 2: that you can make no matter what, no matter cause
- 14:11Speaker 2: I grew up in Brooklyn, Like I was born in Brooklyn,
- 14:14Speaker 2: New York. You know, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York, which
- 14:16Speaker 2: is a very Latin community. And when I was a teenager,
- 14:20Speaker 2: my mom she started a business, and my mom my
- 14:23Speaker 2: stepdad they started a business together. So it started kind
- 14:26Speaker 2: of like we experienced being very broke, having no money,
- 14:29Speaker 2: living in like a two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. You
- 14:31Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, having no money, like literally like
- 14:34Speaker 2: small two bedroom apartment building.
- 14:35Speaker 1: And how many siblings do you have?
- 14:37Speaker 2: I have three, but at the time, it was just
- 14:39Speaker 2: me and my older brother. Okay, so I have a
- 14:41Speaker 2: little brother and little sister as well. They're my like babies.
- 14:44Speaker 2: My siblings are my everything. But me and my older
- 14:46Speaker 2: brother was just us at the time. And then my
- 14:49Speaker 2: little brother was born and then we wounded up when
- 14:51Speaker 2: I was around a teenage, like around there in New York.
- 14:54Speaker 2: When you start when you're like like living in New York,
- 14:57Speaker 2: you either are broke or you got money. Period, either broke.
- 15:00Speaker 2: There is no real class and if you're able to
- 15:02Speaker 2: live in New York City, you're either broke you got money.
- 15:04Speaker 3: So we were just broke.
- 15:05Speaker 2: So when my mom started her business when I was
- 15:07Speaker 2: a teenager, because she was my mom was really a
- 15:10Speaker 2: self made woman.
- 15:11Speaker 1: Like she sounds like she came by herself.
- 15:13Speaker 2: She came by herself with my father oka and yeah,
- 15:16Speaker 2: like it didn't unfortunately work out with my father, so
- 15:18Speaker 2: then you know, like her she met my stepfather and
- 15:21Speaker 2: it was kind of like my mom was Christian.
- 15:24Speaker 3: My father and my stepfather were both Muslim Arab men.
- 15:27Speaker 2: So I mean my mom being a coming to America
- 15:30Speaker 2: and having to work and figure it out and having
- 15:32Speaker 2: both parents having to you know, it's hard, you know,
- 15:35Speaker 2: and it kind of I saw my mom really like
- 15:39Speaker 2: for her kids go so hard and figure it out.
- 15:42Speaker 2: Like she was working at supermarkets in Brooklyn, like working
- 15:45Speaker 2: at you know, like arrest someone else's restaurant, working on
- 15:48Speaker 2: wherever she could work to figure it out and make
- 15:50Speaker 2: the money for her kids. And you know, then she started,
- 15:53Speaker 2: her and my steps id were working for this person
- 15:55Speaker 2: that was in this business, and they figured out the business.
- 15:59Speaker 2: And then my mom was like, I could do this.
- 16:01Speaker 2: So then she was like I could do this on
- 16:03Speaker 2: my own. I'm gonna do it, you know what I'm saying.
- 16:04Speaker 2: And then you know, I'm a kid, so I don't
- 16:06Speaker 2: know what's going on, and she just like and she
- 16:09Speaker 2: was basically by herself in America. Her family was like
- 16:12Speaker 2: in Palasine or around the world, you know, like and
- 16:15Speaker 2: her my mom being Christian, my father being Muslim. Marrying
- 16:18Speaker 2: each other was a very Romeo Juliette story, like it
- 16:21Speaker 2: was like forbidden, you know, so like they fell in love.
- 16:24Speaker 2: But of course moving to America and Brooklyn, New York,
- 16:26Speaker 2: you know a lot, it was a different thing. Yeah,
- 16:28Speaker 2: it was different era, Like it was hard, it was
- 16:30Speaker 2: too hard. So but my mom had that really like
- 16:33Speaker 2: she's like the ultimate. She's like my biggest inspiration. She's
- 16:36Speaker 2: such a self made iconic woman to me because I
- 16:39Speaker 2: saw her really figure it out. You know, we were
- 16:42Speaker 2: like so broke living in Brooklyn. I was always a
- 16:44Speaker 2: broke friend, you know what I mean. I was always like,
- 16:46Speaker 2: had no money, no nothing, like you know, I remember
- 16:48Speaker 2: going to like the grocery store, going anywhere and being
- 16:51Speaker 2: so jealous or being so jealous of my rich friends.
- 16:54Speaker 3: Like god, I wish I was whatever I had.
- 16:55Speaker 2: More, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, And then when
- 16:57Speaker 2: my mom started her business when I was a teenager,
- 17:00Speaker 2: like it didn't really start doing well, and then it
- 17:03Speaker 2: started doing well. Out of nowhere, we moved to Connecticut.
- 17:06Speaker 1: So in New York, you know, most people.
- 17:08Speaker 2: Either moved to Connecticut, or they moved to Jersey, or
- 17:10Speaker 2: they moved to Long Island, or they moved out of
- 17:12Speaker 2: New York unless you got money, like ye to afford
- 17:15Speaker 2: New York. And if you want to afford New York.
- 17:17Speaker 2: But so we moved to Connecticut, and as a teenager,
- 17:20Speaker 2: my whole world changed. Like it was like what the
- 17:22Speaker 2: heck is going on? You know what I mean?
- 17:24Speaker 3: And at the time I was like so not with it.
- 17:27Speaker 2: But then when after it happened, it was like I
- 17:29Speaker 2: don't know everything kind of like, yeah, everything started changing
- 17:33Speaker 2: and I experienced a different life in Connecticut, Like I
- 17:35Speaker 2: was now the friend that had more money.
- 17:37Speaker 1: You know, and and more space, right, did get stuff?
- 17:41Speaker 3: Yes?
- 17:41Speaker 2: And when yeah, Like it was kind of like a
- 17:43Speaker 2: thing where it was like you experience how people like
- 17:47Speaker 2: change with you, how people like when I didn't have money,
- 17:49Speaker 2: they treat you away, and then when you start having
- 17:51Speaker 2: some like some like people start, it's like different. But
- 17:54Speaker 2: it's like it was always like I was always like
- 17:56Speaker 2: as a kid, I was like I wanted people to
- 17:59Speaker 2: like me so hard and so bad. So when I
- 18:02Speaker 2: didn't have the money, you know, I was always like, oh,
- 18:04Speaker 2: I want more, I want more, I want more. And
- 18:06Speaker 2: then when I had more, you start realizing that people
- 18:09Speaker 2: might not always want to know you or to be
- 18:12Speaker 2: friends with you for you. They might just be doing
- 18:14Speaker 2: that for what you have. Yea you know, so it
- 18:17Speaker 2: was weird, but I experienced both, and I am so
- 18:20Speaker 2: thankful now as an adult that I get to experience both.
- 18:23Speaker 2: And then as an adult, I experienced both having no
- 18:26Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying and.
- 18:26Speaker 3: Having you know what I mean.
- 18:27Speaker 2: So it's like good to experience both so you really
- 18:29Speaker 2: realize things of you know what I mean.
- 18:31Speaker 1: People like Dinnell did that also, Like was there difficult
- 18:36Speaker 1: like friendship dynamics with that change.
- 18:38Speaker 2: Yeah, the friendship dynamics were always really challenging for me
- 18:41Speaker 2: because like it was like I always had a lot
- 18:44Speaker 2: of friends, I was always really popular, I was always
- 18:46Speaker 2: really pop, and I was always that. But it was
- 18:48Speaker 2: really hard for me to like I had like a
- 18:52Speaker 2: like you know, like you know, having immigrant parents and
- 18:55Speaker 2: this that they were figuring it out. It was a
- 18:57Speaker 2: hard family life. So I always went out and seek
- 19:00Speaker 2: that validation from my friends and seek that validation. And
- 19:03Speaker 2: I feel like movie to Kataga was the hardest thing
- 19:04Speaker 2: ever because I was the only Arabic girl.
- 19:07Speaker 1: Next question, and then there was a period. We all
- 19:11Speaker 1: know this period.
- 19:13Speaker 2: You feel me, Okay, we got I don't.
- 19:17Speaker 1: Even I don't know how to safely say this in
- 19:21Speaker 1: the right words. But there was a period where America
- 19:26Speaker 1: was I would say discriminatory towards Arabs of You know
- 19:32Speaker 1: after around nine to eleven. You're from New York where
- 19:35Speaker 1: you and you were during that did you have to
- 19:39Speaker 1: like come face to face with any of that even
- 19:41Speaker 1: though you don't don't fully look have the look or
- 19:45Speaker 1: did you have the look or what was that experience?
- 19:47Speaker 2: Like you know what, I'm not gonna lie, like being
- 19:50Speaker 2: in Brooklyn, New York is such a melting pot and
- 19:53Speaker 2: it's the most magical place in the world to me,
- 19:55Speaker 2: Like I've been so many places in the world, there's
- 19:57Speaker 2: nothing like New York. I love it more than like anything,
- 20:00Speaker 2: you know, there's nothing like it because it's like it's
- 20:02Speaker 2: such a melting pot. I never felt like I was different,
- 20:05Speaker 2: even when you know, of course being the money thing
- 20:08Speaker 2: makes you feel different in New York, you know, having money,
- 20:10Speaker 2: not having money, and that experience is what makes it different.
- 20:12Speaker 2: But the color of your skin, your religion, anything, it
- 20:15Speaker 2: doesn't matter. Like my mom's best friend was Puerto Rican,
- 20:18Speaker 2: her other best friend was Jewish. My mom's Palestinian, Like
- 20:20Speaker 2: it was never a thing, you know, but then and
- 20:25Speaker 2: you know, her Jewish friend was married to a Dominican guy.
- 20:27Speaker 1: Like you know what I'm saying, Like it was real
- 20:29Speaker 1: New York, New York stuff, you know what I'm saying.
- 20:31Speaker 3: So it's just it's really like that.
- 20:33Speaker 2: So of course when you when I moved to Connecticut
- 20:35Speaker 2: is when I really started experiencing real discrimination, real because.
- 20:40Speaker 1: Isn't Connecticut is I would say, it's more white?
- 20:43Speaker 4: Was this absolutely, so I would experience real discrimination amongst
- 20:58Speaker 4: black white community, which in America is a real thing,
- 21:02Speaker 4: you know.
- 21:02Speaker 3: And I would really.
- 21:03Speaker 2: Experience it in places like Connecticut, like you really smaller
- 21:06Speaker 2: towns is where you really start seeing like, oh there's
- 21:08Speaker 2: still racism, Like it's still a real thing. It's still
- 21:10Speaker 2: white privileges still, you know. And I got to experience that.
- 21:14Speaker 2: And then also me being like the only Arab thing
- 21:18Speaker 2: to hit the you know, at the time, to hit
- 21:21Speaker 2: the town. It was intense, Like I feel it before,
- 21:25Speaker 2: it was around that time, and it was like it
- 21:27Speaker 2: was really hard because I feel like for me not
- 21:30Speaker 2: being not looking like that, it was like not wearing
- 21:32Speaker 2: the full scarf, but I would like family members that
- 21:35Speaker 2: would wear the scarf and stuff like I would experience
- 21:38Speaker 2: and see what they would go through and it would
- 21:39Speaker 2: really bother me, you know, like they would get real
- 21:42Speaker 2: hate for wearing the scarf, like real hate, real discriminate, real,
- 21:46Speaker 2: real hate speech and all that, and I would be
- 21:48Speaker 2: like yo, and I would get mad, like yeah, I'm
- 21:50Speaker 2: still a New York girl.
- 21:51Speaker 3: So I would be like, yeah, what's up?
- 21:52Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
- 21:56Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 21:56Speaker 2: Yeah about the way I got to, like for real,
- 21:59Speaker 2: like go go go. Then you holding me back because
- 22:01Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like you.
- 22:03Speaker 1: Know you got you ready, I feel your whole energy.
- 22:09Speaker 2: But like when it comes to people I love, like
- 22:12Speaker 2: I'm like I'm gonna step you know what I'm saying,
- 22:14Speaker 2: Like it's like like you're about to you know what
- 22:16Speaker 2: I mean, Like none of that. I don't like any
- 22:19Speaker 2: discrimination or any racism around me, you know what I mean,
- 22:22Speaker 2: because it's just like I have, like coming being a
- 22:24Speaker 2: New York girl. I remember growing up, my best friend
- 22:27Speaker 2: group was literally every single race, you know, black, White, Chinese, Asian, Africa, everything.
- 22:35Speaker 2: So it's like that's all I ever knew. So when
- 22:38Speaker 2: I started experiencing discrimination, it was like such a foreign.
- 22:41Speaker 3: Thing to me.
- 22:42Speaker 2: But at the same time, you know, it's like it
- 22:45Speaker 2: was never a thing that I could accept a like
- 22:47Speaker 2: or anything. And even now it's like never, I just
- 22:49Speaker 2: don't stand for any of that. So and I think
- 22:51Speaker 2: that that's that's that's really been a part of why
- 22:53Speaker 2: I'm and I just love culture so much that the like,
- 22:56Speaker 2: even though I'm a hundredsent Palinian, I'm such a blend
- 22:58Speaker 2: of cultures. And I think that that's in New York
- 23:00Speaker 2: and me, and that's what I'm so proud of. The
- 23:01Speaker 2: Connecticut to me was like, yeah, it's good to experience
- 23:05Speaker 2: small town things that I can relate to literally anyone,
- 23:09Speaker 2: which is an amazing thing. Like, yes, small town mentality,
- 23:12Speaker 2: small town people, I can relate to, big city people
- 23:15Speaker 2: I can relate to you know what I mean, Like
- 23:16Speaker 2: I can relate to anything because of that, you know.
- 23:19Speaker 2: But yeah, that that is definitely a real thing. Especially
- 23:22Speaker 2: in America. Small towns are definitely experiencing a lot of racism.
- 23:25Speaker 1: So yeah, they are, I one hundred percent agree in
- 23:29Speaker 1: small towns especially I hate, I hate to say this,
- 23:32Speaker 1: especially with small white towns. Yeah, Like I don't know
- 23:35Speaker 1: how it is, like because some of the interviews, when
- 23:37Speaker 1: we interview some of the guys from the South or Atlanta,
- 23:40Speaker 1: you know, they definitely paint a picture, but I would
- 23:43Speaker 1: imagine that environment's majority black with sprinkles of white. But
- 23:48Speaker 1: but I definitely I went to Upstate New York when
- 23:52Speaker 1: our family couldn't afford the city life, and yeah, it
- 23:55Speaker 1: was like, uh, it was like it wasn't fun, it was.
- 23:59Speaker 1: It was actually that I think the first time I
- 24:00Speaker 1: ever heard the N word. Yeah, that was the first
- 24:03Speaker 1: time I see my mom get called innward and I
- 24:05Speaker 1: was like, what is that? I was really young, like
- 24:08Speaker 1: y so means her And that was when my parents
- 24:10Speaker 1: was like, you know, this is what racism is, and
- 24:13Speaker 1: you gotta go almost above and beyond to like break
- 24:16Speaker 1: that stereotype, to retrain what has been taught. But now
- 24:23Speaker 1: you grow up in this household, you're eating the hummus,
- 24:25Speaker 1: which I'm guessing all the stuff is in there, so
- 24:27Speaker 1: all it has to be blended.
- 24:29Speaker 2: Okay, ready to be blended and see what's up?
- 24:31Speaker 1: So where on this journey does music enter the scene?
- 24:35Speaker 3: Ooh, I love that question.
- 24:37Speaker 2: Okay, So music was always a heavy part of my life,
- 24:42Speaker 2: Like I in the first grade living in Brooklyn because Brooklyn,
- 24:46Speaker 2: New York is the creative capital to me, like it's
- 24:50Speaker 2: like creativity galore. You know. So I was in band
- 24:53Speaker 2: and chorus, like in the first grade, I played cheer
- 24:56Speaker 2: like that was my first thing.
- 24:57Speaker 1: Like I was okay, like literally, I've just seen Share
- 25:01Speaker 1: by the Way Life performance and it was.
- 25:04Speaker 2: Iconic, like she's, yeah, the goddess and she's just like everything.
- 25:08Speaker 3: But I didn't know that as a little girl.
- 25:09Speaker 2: They just had me saying I got you, babe with
- 25:11Speaker 2: and my my partner Newton at the time, he was
- 25:15Speaker 2: sunny and he was he was a black boy, but
- 25:19Speaker 2: you know, it's yeah, but whatever. It was like we
- 25:22Speaker 2: did it and it was so it was like I
- 25:24Speaker 2: just remember that being my first performance and the thrill
- 25:26Speaker 2: that that gave me. And I was in the first
- 25:28Speaker 2: grade and like growing up Arab Also, my mom was
- 25:33Speaker 2: Christian convert and my so I was raised mostly Muslim,
- 25:37Speaker 2: so and I identified with both, like got both religions.
- 25:40Speaker 2: I'm all, I love God period, but because I love Jesus,
- 25:44Speaker 2: I went to church. I went to Catholic school, but
- 25:46Speaker 2: I love the Islam religion so much, so I say
- 25:48Speaker 2: prayers and both. I could pray both. I love both
- 25:50Speaker 2: all the things. But for me, it was kind of
- 25:53Speaker 2: like very very forbidden to do anything like that music creative,
- 25:58Speaker 2: Oh is forbidden. You can't be half naked, you can't
- 26:01Speaker 2: be on the stage, you can't be there's.
- 26:04Speaker 1: Music is hot has well? Looking at your stuff? Now,
- 26:09Speaker 1: I'm guessing everything has evolved drastically things just.
- 26:12Speaker 2: Like I have. I was a rebel, but now I'm
- 26:14Speaker 2: a rebel with purpose, you know.
- 26:16Speaker 1: Okay? Oh I like that? Okay, there did you just
- 26:20Speaker 1: come up with?
- 26:20Speaker 2: There?
- 26:20Speaker 1: You've been saying that, but like I think I just
- 26:23Speaker 1: said it that. I want to see that from that one. Okay,
- 26:28Speaker 1: I got it. Rebel with purpose like it's real life.
- 26:31Speaker 2: It really is. It really is, but like honestly, because
- 26:34Speaker 2: the rebel with purpose is a real thing because I
- 26:36Speaker 2: was a very rebellious child. Like I was very like
- 26:39Speaker 2: went against the grain. Wasn't allowed to drink and smoking
- 26:43Speaker 2: and strain and smoking. It wasn't allowed to dress the
- 26:45Speaker 2: herd stress how I wanted.
- 26:47Speaker 1: You were your mom's worst night my.
- 26:49Speaker 2: Mom's worst nightmare, my mom's worst nightmare. And I love
- 26:53Speaker 2: my mom so much. I love my mom.
- 26:55Speaker 1: She saw this, she would be sitting here like she knows,
- 26:58Speaker 1: she knows it.
- 26:59Speaker 2: She's am I staying again sometimes but whatever, she loves me.
- 27:02Speaker 2: But you know, it's like whatever, like if at the time,
- 27:05Speaker 2: it took a long time to get my mom support
- 27:07Speaker 2: on the music thing. That took a long time because
- 27:09Speaker 2: when I first started deciding to do music, I remember
- 27:12Speaker 2: it was always something I've jumped of doing. But when
- 27:14Speaker 2: I decided to do it, everybody hated. Everybody was against it.
- 27:18Speaker 1: And how old were you at that time?
- 27:20Speaker 2: I decided I was going to do music at like seventeen,
- 27:22Speaker 2: Like I'm.
- 27:22Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, they are scared to death. They like, wait,
- 27:25Speaker 1: no college?
- 27:25Speaker 2: Yeah music?
- 27:26Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my god, you were killing people. It's one
- 27:29Speaker 1: thing when you say it at twelve, it's another thing. House.
- 27:32Speaker 2: Yeah, literally, I said it at seventeen, and I went
- 27:34Speaker 2: for it. I went, I decided. I went for it,
- 27:36Speaker 2: Like it was so fast. I decided and I went
- 27:38Speaker 2: for it so quickly.
- 27:39Speaker 1: What did going for it look like?
- 27:40Speaker 2: Like? I just like I remember with it. By the
- 27:43Speaker 2: time I was eighteen, I tried out for X Factor.
- 27:45Speaker 2: I got a vocal coach. I wounded up moving back
- 27:48Speaker 2: to New York. I got an internship wait where were you?
- 27:51Speaker 1: Oh? From Kinetics six to New York.
- 27:52Speaker 2: Go back to New York. I got an internship with
- 27:54Speaker 2: Death Trip You weren't playing. I was not playing around
- 27:56Speaker 2: when I decided music was what I was going to do.
- 27:58Speaker 2: And because I always I wanted to figure out what
- 28:00Speaker 2: I was gonna do with the rest of my life,
- 28:02Speaker 2: I was like having to go to school, go to college.
- 28:04Speaker 2: And then my little sister, you know, she's like my baby,
- 28:07Speaker 2: and she was born and she changed my life.
- 28:09Speaker 1: She gave me like reason, like it was like this
- 28:11Speaker 1: little girl hilarious. Yeah, nobody ever says that about the
- 28:16Speaker 1: little sister. Yeah, nobody said. I love my little brother
- 28:20Speaker 1: and I look up to him now even though he's
- 28:22Speaker 1: like thirty, but I had never looked at him and said,
- 28:25Speaker 1: you give me purpose.
- 28:26Speaker 3: No, she gave me purpose.
- 28:27Speaker 2: She gave me life. She really did. She really did.
- 28:29Speaker 2: Like and then we named her like Jenna.
- 28:31Speaker 1: We look at you, how old were you when she
- 28:35Speaker 1: was born. I was like around at sixteen seventeen, Like,
- 28:37Speaker 1: oh you were around that was around that age?
- 28:39Speaker 2: Okay, she really So.
- 28:40Speaker 1: You gots a weigh in on the naming and everything.
- 28:43Speaker 2: Naming and I had a saying it because Jenna and
- 28:46Speaker 2: Arabic Jennah means heaven, so Jennah. So that's why I
- 28:50Speaker 2: was like, Okay, that's her name, because she's my heaven.
- 28:52Speaker 2: And like literally she.
- 28:53Speaker 1: Were you and were you? You were the youngest before her.
- 28:56Speaker 2: I have a little brother too, so he was born
- 28:58Speaker 2: like right before he moved to Connecticut.
- 28:59Speaker 1: No, but I'm saying it was you and your older brother.
- 29:01Speaker 1: Yeah he was older. Yeah, so technically she broke the
- 29:04Speaker 1: spell of you being the youngest.
- 29:06Speaker 2: No, it was older brother, me, little brother her.
- 29:09Speaker 1: Okay, So it was like two said, wow, what makes
- 29:12Speaker 1: her so special?
- 29:13Speaker 2: She's just like I always wanted the sister. And then
- 29:16Speaker 2: it took a long time, but then when I got it,
- 29:17Speaker 2: and then she looked exactly like me, and it was like, literally,
- 29:21Speaker 2: this is like my inner child in real life.
- 29:23Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
- 29:23Speaker 2: So you know when you're like, I'm healing my inner
- 29:27Speaker 2: child in real life, Like I see her and she
- 29:30Speaker 2: looks exactly like me. Like even now, like she looks
- 29:33Speaker 2: a little different, but she looks exactly. She looks like
- 29:35Speaker 2: she could be my kid. Everyone always thought she was
- 29:37Speaker 2: my kid. I would walk around and she was my kid.
- 29:39Speaker 2: You know, it's like a whole thing. Yeah, it was
- 29:42Speaker 2: so dope like she and she was you know, it
- 29:44Speaker 2: was kind of like being an Arabic American woman. I
- 29:47Speaker 2: went through so much as a woman, and I feel
- 29:49Speaker 2: like I just didn't want her to go through so
- 29:51Speaker 2: many things that I went through, and I feel like
- 29:53Speaker 2: like inside outside anything, I just so my purpose was
- 29:56Speaker 2: like I have to protect her and I want to
- 29:58Speaker 2: make I want to change.
- 29:59Speaker 1: What are some all the things that you had to
- 30:01Speaker 1: go through? If it's okay for you to say and
- 30:03Speaker 1: comfortable say as a woman that you would go as
- 30:07Speaker 1: far as to say, I don't want her to experiences like,
- 30:09Speaker 1: what were those experiences?
- 30:11Speaker 2: I think an immense amount of abuse and suppression and
- 30:16Speaker 2: just things that I think every woman goes through, no
- 30:19Speaker 2: matter who you are or what race you are. But
- 30:22Speaker 2: I think that being raised the way that I was
- 30:25Speaker 2: raised and being in like I think the amount of
- 30:29Speaker 2: pressure that I had on me to be a certain way,
- 30:32Speaker 2: not being that way, the amount of names I would called,
- 30:35Speaker 2: the amount of abuse physical abuse. I went through a
- 30:37Speaker 2: lot of like I went through sexual abuse. I went
- 30:39Speaker 2: through so much abuse and allowing things that like as
- 30:43Speaker 2: a kid or as a young adult, or things that
- 30:45Speaker 2: I just shouldn't have ever allowed or wouldn't her are
- 30:47Speaker 2: allowed as an adult now, wish that didn't have happened
- 30:51Speaker 2: to me or wish that I had more protection, you know.
- 30:54Speaker 2: So it became a thing for me to want to
- 30:56Speaker 2: protect her and protect younger girls period, like if I
- 31:00Speaker 2: can be a stronger person and a stronger voice so
- 31:03Speaker 2: that they don't be cause for me, it was a
- 31:06Speaker 2: lot of especially as a child. I was a pretty
- 31:08Speaker 2: young girl, so I had to I got a lot
- 31:11Speaker 2: of things and didn't have the right amount of protection
- 31:14Speaker 2: that I feel like I wish that I had, you know.
- 31:17Speaker 2: And it was kind of like an unfortunate thing that
- 31:19Speaker 2: just you know, for me, Like I've had so much
- 31:23Speaker 2: healing from you know, and I think one day I'll
- 31:26Speaker 2: be able to fully open up and talk about it.
- 31:28Speaker 2: But I think as a woman, especially with any form
- 31:30Speaker 2: of sexual abuse, especially as a child, I think it
- 31:34Speaker 2: affects you for the rest of your life.
- 31:36Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's in my personal opinion, it is
- 31:40Speaker 1: the worst form of abuse. The second would probably be
- 31:43Speaker 1: mental and third would be physical. Old the irony isn't
- 31:46Speaker 1: that weird, And I think it's just because to unpack
- 31:48Speaker 1: that wound, it's not like a bruise that you kind
- 31:52Speaker 1: of like work through and it goes away like that
- 31:54Speaker 1: wound is just time and a lot of digging if
- 31:58Speaker 1: you even want to dig, if you want. Your body
- 32:00Speaker 1: usually will protect itself, especially when you're young. It like
- 32:04Speaker 1: hides it or blocks it.
- 32:05Speaker 3: Right.
- 32:05Speaker 1: But it's interesting to say that because one of the
- 32:09Speaker 1: questions I wanted to like kind of touch on is
- 32:11Speaker 1: if your mom was working as much as you say
- 32:14Speaker 1: she was, Like who was actually taking care of you
- 32:17Speaker 1: and your brother?
- 32:19Speaker 2: I mean, she was the luckily thing about the business
- 32:22Speaker 2: that she started when she was able to be present,
- 32:25Speaker 2: and she her side of the business was homeworking, so
- 32:29Speaker 2: she worked out of the house, so she was able
- 32:30Speaker 2: to be very present.
- 32:31Speaker 1: So that was great, But before that she probably wasn't
- 32:35Speaker 1: right when she was grinding like that. Yeah, because I
- 32:38Speaker 1: was like, hm, when when she first came here, it
- 32:41Speaker 1: sounded like it was a lot of pressure. Yeah, but
- 32:43Speaker 1: it's cool that she saw an opportunity where she could
- 32:46Speaker 1: do both if you think about it like that, Like
- 32:48Speaker 1: she was like, I could raise my kids and bust
- 32:52Speaker 1: my and make this money. And she chose that route
- 32:55Speaker 1: the second she could, which kudos to her.
- 32:57Speaker 2: Yeah, and my mom has tried likes as you know,
- 33:01Speaker 2: being I feel like being a mother in America, raising
- 33:05Speaker 2: kids right now and for the last twenty thirty forty
- 33:09Speaker 2: years is so hard, Like you know, it's so hard
- 33:12Speaker 2: whether you're single or in a relationship or married or whatever,
- 33:15Speaker 2: like and being a father as well is really hard.
- 33:18Speaker 2: But mothers, I feel like, take on like ten times,
- 33:21Speaker 2: like we have this whole, Like my mom took on
- 33:24Speaker 2: ten times the stress and probably you know what I mean,
- 33:28Speaker 2: that pressure, and ten times that that want to like
- 33:31Speaker 2: I just want to do good for.
- 33:32Speaker 1: My kids exactly like that driving.
- 33:34Speaker 2: That driving factor, you know what I mean. And I
- 33:36Speaker 2: feel like I have only understood that from my the
- 33:40Speaker 2: love that I have for my sister because I don't
- 33:41Speaker 2: have kids yet, and for the love that I for
- 33:44Speaker 2: my family. But that intense love, that intense like yeah,
- 33:48Speaker 2: my mother has. Yeah, she always was that and I'm
- 33:50Speaker 2: so blessed to have that. And she tried her best
- 33:52Speaker 2: and no matter what I feel.
- 33:54Speaker 1: Like you even would have reveled with purpose, she tried
- 33:57Speaker 1: her best.
- 33:57Speaker 2: No, I love you, I want, but like I you know,
- 33:59Speaker 2: I think that there was a lot that you know,
- 34:02Speaker 2: when you're a rebel and you're dealing with all these
- 34:04Speaker 2: things and you're dealing with the abuse, you do it.
- 34:06Speaker 1: And then that's probably where the rebels.
- 34:09Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, because I just didn't feel like, you know,
- 34:12Speaker 2: you're running away. I was running away from my traumas.
- 34:15Speaker 2: I didn't want to deal with it. And then as
- 34:17Speaker 2: an adult, you just have to. It just hits you
- 34:20Speaker 2: face on. You just start experiencing your trauma and other
- 34:22Speaker 2: people you just start projecting your traumas or whatever, and
- 34:26Speaker 2: it's not a thing. So I think for me, like
- 34:28Speaker 2: healing became like the essential thing because I feel like
- 34:32Speaker 2: with all of those with all of that trauma, I
- 34:35Speaker 2: feel like, you know, you never really understand like why
- 34:39Speaker 2: until you become an adult and then you talk to
- 34:41Speaker 2: other people who go through it or you're like, damn, okay,
- 34:43Speaker 2: this is why. Like we all go through the same things. Yeah,
- 34:46Speaker 2: it's crazy, like we really do well and we all
- 34:49Speaker 2: get out of it the same way, and we're all
- 34:50Speaker 2: kind of the same and that's what makes us so connected,
- 34:53Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.
- 34:54Speaker 1: So I love listening to people's stories. I don't know why,
- 34:58Speaker 1: but I love like all the hoarding and addiction shows
- 35:01Speaker 1: because you just never you know. I think also like
- 35:04Speaker 1: growing up in New York, you see, like my parents
- 35:06Speaker 1: the way they got us. Somehow they successfully got four
- 35:10Speaker 1: kids to not do drugs really, and it was just
- 35:14Speaker 1: like going around New York and be like, you know
- 35:16Speaker 1: that heroin Addicts was a doctor. At some point they
- 35:19Speaker 1: just smoked a cigarette and just ended up a heroin.
- 35:26Speaker 1: But after watching these shows, you realize, you know, the
- 35:30Speaker 1: overall theme in a lot of the shows was like
- 35:34Speaker 1: mishandled trauma. You'd have a kid that was like a
- 35:36Speaker 1: varsity student or was doing well, and it was like
- 35:39Speaker 1: a mishandled trauma. Maybe the mom didn't believe the abuse happened,
- 35:43Speaker 1: or you know, they kind of brushed it off, or
- 35:45Speaker 1: they said, hey, if you didn't sneak out at night,
- 35:46Speaker 1: maybe this didn't happen. It was always like just one
- 35:50Speaker 1: mishandled like trauma and that spiraled into like a pivot
- 35:58Speaker 1: or whatever. And and obviously I love people's stories, so
- 36:01Speaker 1: I not I think about it makes sense that I'm
- 36:03Speaker 1: obsessed with these shows. But but yeah, it's always a
- 36:06Speaker 1: mishandled trauma that kind of lead you in the wrong
- 36:10Speaker 1: lead you yeah, kind of go, this person was going
- 36:12Speaker 1: straight and then it was a mishandled trauma.
- 36:15Speaker 2: That's so crazy that you shay that too. Because I
- 36:17Speaker 2: was just watching this Simon Bios doc.
- 36:19Speaker 1: I want to see it so bad.
- 36:20Speaker 2: Oh, it's so good.
- 36:21Speaker 1: I won her on the show by the way.
- 36:22Speaker 2: Oh it was so good. God Willing. You know, it's
- 36:25Speaker 2: kind of happened everything, but it's really good. But it
- 36:27Speaker 2: was so good. It's so good. I mean, there's still
- 36:29Speaker 2: more episodes of Think coming, but she it is that
- 36:32Speaker 2: and it's like trauma catches up to you and then
- 36:34Speaker 2: it's like this whole thing that you're the mental health
- 36:38Speaker 2: thing is like a very real thing, and like it's
- 36:42Speaker 2: you know, the deterioration of it from the trauma and
- 36:45Speaker 2: the abuse is a very real thing, you know. And
- 36:47Speaker 2: I feel like for me, I also got diagnosed with
- 36:50Speaker 2: multiple sclerosis.
- 36:51Speaker 1: I definitely wanted to touch on that. Yeah, yeah, look
- 36:53Speaker 1: like because I hear the term.
- 36:55Speaker 2: Alt oh man what oh shoot, Well, yeah, here's the thing.
- 36:58Speaker 2: I make it look very good. But it fucking sucks. Sorry,
- 37:01Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to be cursing.
- 37:03Speaker 3: It sucks. It really does. I'm not gonna lie.
- 37:06Speaker 2: Like I in the beginning was like really like positive
- 37:09Speaker 2: and happy and it's a blessing. Another thing that I
- 37:12Speaker 2: feel like all these things Finally I've realized, like, you
- 37:15Speaker 2: have to talk about it, you have to use it
- 37:17Speaker 2: because everyone is going through something. Everyone is going through
- 37:21Speaker 2: something or their family member or something, so it's so important.
- 37:23Speaker 2: But the reality of it is is, yeah, having a Yeah,
- 37:27Speaker 2: a disease, no matter what kind.
- 37:29Speaker 1: It sucks, and it's multiples.
- 37:32Speaker 2: It's an autoimmune, it's a it's autoimmune. It's a sister.
- 37:37Speaker 2: It's basically a sister disease kind of to lupus. So,
- 37:40Speaker 2: and it's kind of likeli or something. People think about
- 37:44Speaker 2: that a lot. No, it's okay, but it's kind of
- 37:47Speaker 2: the same thing in a similar name, but different. So
- 37:49Speaker 2: it's it's it's more of an internal thing. It's your
- 37:51Speaker 2: immune system. Uh, it's compromised. Immune system is attacking nervous system.
- 37:56Speaker 2: Lupus is immune system is attacking joints and organs. MS
- 38:00Speaker 2: system is attacking nervous system, So nervous system is compromised
- 38:03Speaker 2: as well. So I mean, it's just like your spy
- 38:05Speaker 2: and your brain. And you know, you can live with
- 38:07Speaker 2: the disease forever as long as it's regulated and as
- 38:10Speaker 2: long as you never get attacks. So when I got diagnosed,
- 38:13Speaker 2: I had an optic nerve attack, I started losing my
- 38:15Speaker 2: vision in my left eye. Yeah, scary. It was the
- 38:18Speaker 2: scariest thing in my life. And then I was on
- 38:21Speaker 2: stereod treatment. I got cured one hundred percent, thank god.
- 38:23Speaker 2: And then now I'm on a treat and a great
- 38:25Speaker 2: treatment that has kept me one hundred percent regulated where
- 38:28Speaker 2: I don't get any attacks, where I'm very healthy. I'm
- 38:30Speaker 2: very great.
- 38:31Speaker 1: But you have beautiful, stunning eyes, like you have really
- 38:36Speaker 1: great eyes.
- 38:38Speaker 2: No, it was the worst thing of my life. Like
- 38:41Speaker 2: I was like what And it was like you almost
- 38:43Speaker 2: felt I almost felt like like that beauty thing it
- 38:46Speaker 2: was gone because I feel like I was like cross
- 38:48Speaker 2: eyed and I was like, oh my god, I'm not
- 38:49Speaker 2: beautiful anymore. And it changes your values because you're like
- 38:53Speaker 2: with or without you know, the internal beauty that stuff,
- 38:55Speaker 2: so like you got to be internally beautiful, so you know,
- 38:58Speaker 2: But I feel like for me, it was it was
- 39:01Speaker 2: it was a crazy experience. I wasn't able to talk
- 39:04Speaker 2: about it for a long time. And now I've been
- 39:06Speaker 2: dealing it with it for so long and it doesn't
- 39:08Speaker 2: get easier. You just kind of get better at it,
- 39:11Speaker 2: you know, yea, And it is a very much so
- 39:13Speaker 2: like I deal with.
- 39:13Speaker 3: A lot of anxiety and depression.
- 39:15Speaker 2: I've dealt with a lot of anxiety and depression, and
- 39:17Speaker 2: that's been my That's that we all do. Everyone who
- 39:21Speaker 2: has that deals with it, and that's like the good.
- 39:23Speaker 2: Like if you have anxiety with it, it comes with it.
- 39:26Speaker 2: And then if you have anxiety and depression, that's good.
- 39:29Speaker 2: That's good as long as you don't end up in
- 39:30Speaker 2: a wheelchair, you know what I mean, because there are
- 39:32Speaker 2: people who literally in a wheelchair. Unfortunately, this disease immobilizes
- 39:35Speaker 2: you completely, or it can. But now with the advanced technology,
- 39:39Speaker 2: it can it can.
- 39:40Speaker 1: Oh there's a chance that it won't.
- 39:42Speaker 2: Yes, no, there's now with advanced technology. It like it's
- 39:46Speaker 2: very very very rare because the technology is to advance
- 39:49Speaker 2: my doctors, you know, I've been going to cedars us
- 39:52Speaker 2: see like these great places. I went to Yale, Harvard, like,
- 39:55Speaker 2: I went to like the best doctors, so these doc
- 39:57Speaker 2: because I've been super interested in not only like you know,
- 40:00Speaker 2: and finding a cure for it, because there is there
- 40:02Speaker 2: is a cure for everything. And I feel like for me,
- 40:04Speaker 2: it's been like you know, learning, I've been getting more
- 40:07Speaker 2: involved with the MS society and going to more events
- 40:09Speaker 2: and getting more involved the fundraising events, and we're like,
- 40:12Speaker 2: they're raising so much more money for research and for
- 40:15Speaker 2: all the things, and it's so advanced with all the technology,
- 40:17Speaker 2: with all the research that it's so regulated. Like I
- 40:20Speaker 2: am doing amazing, Like I am doing better and thank god,
- 40:24Speaker 2: Like I.
- 40:25Speaker 1: Worked so hard for you when you were diagnosed.
- 40:27Speaker 2: I was like twenty one. Wow, it was like really
- 40:31Speaker 2: like I went on my first national tours when everything
- 40:34Speaker 2: happened for me so fast. Yeah, it was crazy. I
- 40:36Speaker 2: started doing music, I got internship, then I started, I
- 40:39Speaker 2: went on then Boom. Then I went on my first
- 40:41Speaker 2: national tour.
- 40:42Speaker 1: How soon after you started the internship and for two years?
- 40:46Speaker 2: Two years so my first national tour and.
- 40:49Speaker 1: You moved Who did you move to New York with?
- 40:52Speaker 3: By myself and my best friend.
- 40:53Speaker 1: Oh he was oh he was giving your mom straight heart.
- 40:56Speaker 2: Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, Souker took her good
- 41:00Speaker 2: until the tour started and stuff. And then I was
- 41:02Speaker 2: on tour and doing a national tour. Postone this she
- 41:05Speaker 2: was like, oh, yeah, okay, now you do something.
- 41:07Speaker 1: And did you have a deal when you got the tour?
- 41:09Speaker 2: Yeah, I was in I was in a I was
- 41:10Speaker 2: in a deal, but it wasn't the best of deals.
- 41:13Speaker 1: Of course, the first deals are never the best. Worst
- 41:16Speaker 1: in the when you're young. Oh yeah, I don't think
- 41:20Speaker 1: I've ever made.
- 41:21Speaker 2: They got me, they had me. Yeah, they had me,
- 41:23Speaker 2: they had me. But you know, I'm free, honey. So
- 41:26Speaker 2: but like I'm not gonna lie, you know. And I've
- 41:28Speaker 2: signed deal since and it's been great. But like, honestly, yeah,
- 41:30Speaker 2: as a new artist, you don't know nothing anything. I
- 41:33Speaker 2: knew nothing, and I didn't have anybody in the industry
- 41:35Speaker 2: like parents or anything, so I really didn't know.
- 41:37Speaker 1: I had to like really like build like did you
- 41:39Speaker 1: have to deal with like the when I'm say, the
- 41:43Speaker 1: toxic masculinity?
- 41:44Speaker 3: Come on, let's talk about it.
- 41:46Speaker 2: I love these conversations.
- 41:51Speaker 1: I've been in the industry and this is why.
- 41:53Speaker 2: Yeah, come on, like this is Yeah, we have to
- 41:56Speaker 2: talk about it more because I feel like it is
- 41:59Speaker 2: like it's it's a disease in and of itself, Like.
- 42:02Speaker 1: You know what I mean, you have to be like it.
- 42:05Speaker 1: There's no rule book that comes with this game, right, No,
- 42:08Speaker 1: there's a beautiful, attractive girl that has her eye on
- 42:12Speaker 1: the prize and.
- 42:13Speaker 2: Then you have to navigate through a masculine yary sharkwaters.
- 42:17Speaker 1: You're in shark shark, and you got to convince the
- 42:19Speaker 1: sharks that you're not, because I don't even notice even
- 42:33Speaker 1: with this show, they'll be like, what's the numbers? Looking like, Yeah,
- 42:36Speaker 1: it don't matter. If you have a million good things,
- 42:38Speaker 1: they still that's to them. Is the verification or is
- 42:42Speaker 1: it more important because you can touch base with your fans?
- 42:45Speaker 1: Which one is do you think is more important as
- 42:47Speaker 1: an artist?
- 42:48Speaker 2: I think it's like a little bit of both, But
- 42:50Speaker 2: I think that touching the fans is the most important thing.
- 42:53Speaker 3: Honestly.
- 42:53Speaker 2: I think like with appeasing like these those kinds of people,
- 42:56Speaker 2: they're only appeased when you're like really moving an audience anyway,
- 43:01Speaker 2: you know, So you got to move the audience. They're
- 43:03Speaker 2: never a piece. It's never enough, like a million, a
- 43:06Speaker 2: million villowers, Well, why don't you have ten million? This
- 43:08Speaker 2: person has fifty million.
- 43:09Speaker 1: You're well over three, so you're good, you know what
- 43:12Speaker 1: I mean? It would be crazy that if people are
- 43:14Speaker 1: still coming to you're like, well, where where's that five?
- 43:17Speaker 2: No, it is that or it's like literally or nowadays
- 43:19Speaker 2: it's like you got to have those kinds of numbers
- 43:21Speaker 2: across the whole board, you know what I.
- 43:23Speaker 1: Mean, like like on every plate, on every.
- 43:25Speaker 2: Platform, and it's like, okay, like be realistic, you know
- 43:28Speaker 2: what I mean.
- 43:28Speaker 1: Also, I think Country Wayne had said it best, like,
- 43:32Speaker 1: you know, I think there was a period where he
- 43:35Speaker 1: had Facebook following but not the other followings. But Facebook
- 43:38Speaker 1: following was that older demo that actually spent money, right
- 43:41Speaker 1: and like you know, really pulled.
- 43:43Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden, like Facebook started monetizing
- 43:45Speaker 2: and faces started you make money on Facebook. Now you
- 43:47Speaker 2: can make money through Facebook and Instagram. So then it's
- 43:49Speaker 2: like all these platforms change and it's just like it's
- 43:52Speaker 2: so interesting and it's like okay, so I feel like
- 43:55Speaker 2: that's what's It's like this weird thing that you kind
- 43:57Speaker 2: of always have to keep balancing out. It's like, okay,
- 44:00Speaker 2: I gotta focus on this posting. For me, I'm always
- 44:02Speaker 2: trying to find that balance because it's always like, you know,
- 44:04Speaker 2: when I started building the social media I started becoming
- 44:06Speaker 2: the social media influencer. But it's like I was doing
- 44:09Speaker 2: music and on tour Billboard first, I just started have
- 44:13Speaker 2: to start doing this because it was like you have
- 44:15Speaker 2: to do this as the part of the whole thing.
- 44:18Speaker 2: You know, you have to post and this and that,
- 44:21Speaker 2: and people got to know what you're doing. People want
- 44:22Speaker 2: to know everything about you nowadays. And it's not that
- 44:25Speaker 2: you don't want people to know everything about you. It's
- 44:27Speaker 2: just that when you're doing music and you're doing something
- 44:30Speaker 2: like you want people to focus on that.
- 44:33Speaker 1: Yeah, And the music is your body of work, and
- 44:36Speaker 1: it's the closest it's actually your vulnerability right there.
- 44:39Speaker 2: Right.
- 44:39Speaker 1: Social media is a different visual more self short term
- 44:44Speaker 1: visual form. It's got to be. They're really two different worlds.
- 44:49Speaker 1: But I'm glad to hear that you were able to
- 44:51Speaker 1: like conquer that second one. That second one is a beast.
- 44:54Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. It was like definitely like it's
- 44:57Speaker 2: still constantly like figuring it out. Oh you know what
- 45:00Speaker 2: I mean, because once you build, like you constantly figure
- 45:03Speaker 2: out algorithms, the way the platform is set up, what
- 45:05Speaker 2: they're doing with the platform on their end, you know,
- 45:08Speaker 2: because you build this following and then it's like you
- 45:09Speaker 2: build it and then you kind of god got to
- 45:11Speaker 2: keep going and you know, revamping it and things. So
- 45:15Speaker 2: I think it's a learning process. But I've been I've
- 45:17Speaker 2: been on some lately like like, you know, be patient
- 45:21Speaker 2: with your process because yeah, you know what I mean,
- 45:25Speaker 2: because like like at some points it is a lot
- 45:28Speaker 2: of pressure and you kind of become like like, oh,
- 45:30Speaker 2: like I'm trying to get to this next milestone this list.
- 45:32Speaker 2: But then it's just like just be patient with that
- 45:34Speaker 2: because you will get there and it will happen. But
- 45:37Speaker 2: just at least I've been trying to at least enjoy
- 45:39Speaker 2: the process, because you know, in this industry it's hard,
- 45:41Speaker 2: like everybody's there's always something more you have to do.
- 45:45Speaker 1: There's another metric and another another.
- 45:47Speaker 2: Goal posted on the metric, and then you never really
- 45:49Speaker 2: get to enjoy the moment and what's going on in
- 45:52Speaker 2: the moment. And I think sometimes it's like that's what
- 45:54Speaker 2: I've been trying to do because I've learned and I
- 45:56Speaker 2: realized like, oh, I'm trying to get to this level,
- 45:58Speaker 2: but then this person is trying to get to my level,
- 46:01Speaker 2: and you not even enjoying this. Sohole.
- 46:03Speaker 1: You know, My dad had pointed that out when I
- 46:05Speaker 1: was younger. I had a company it was like magazine
- 46:08Speaker 1: for ten years, and I would cry him if I
- 46:10Speaker 1: got a parking ticket. I'd be like, Dad, I'm ready
- 46:12Speaker 1: jump off a bridge. I got a twenty dollars parking ticket.
- 46:14Speaker 3: I can't do it.
- 46:15Speaker 1: That's real, And my dad would be like I think
- 46:18Speaker 1: it was my dad and my business partner at the
- 46:20Speaker 1: time who was like, m you need to start taking
- 46:23Speaker 1: five minutes, even if we're at a major show that
- 46:25Speaker 1: you produce. Take five minutes. Take it all in. Don't
- 46:29Speaker 1: even work, don't even say nothing. To take it all in.
- 46:31Speaker 1: But my dad came up with this idea where and
- 46:33Speaker 1: I still have it in my house. If you go
- 46:35Speaker 1: in my house, I don't do it all over my walls.
- 46:37Speaker 1: I call it the Wall of Fame, which is like
- 46:40Speaker 1: just it's a hallway because I have a lot of
- 46:42Speaker 1: stairs and I just put really hard accomplishments on there.
- 46:46Speaker 1: It's literally ill. It's random posters or whatever, and it's
- 46:51Speaker 1: just the wall of fame. And it's not like in
- 46:53Speaker 1: your face, like, hey, this is who I am. But
- 46:55Speaker 1: if you were to walk the stairs in my house,
- 46:57Speaker 1: there is literally like the wall of fame minutes the
- 47:00Speaker 1: most random, hardest shit that I ever set my mind on.
- 47:03Speaker 1: And I actually pulled it off, you know. I put
- 47:06Speaker 1: it up there and I don't really look at it,
- 47:08Speaker 1: but I know it's there. And my dad was like,
- 47:11Speaker 1: you're getting to the point where the goalpost moves so
- 47:14Speaker 1: much and you're hitting these goals, but you're not even
- 47:16Speaker 1: realizing you're not even taking it. You don't even take
- 47:19Speaker 1: one second to take it in. So that's when a
- 47:21Speaker 1: twenty dollars or one rejection or one cancelation, you're ready
- 47:25Speaker 1: to quit because you forgot this wall of fame of accomplishment.
- 47:29Speaker 2: That's so true too, because I feel like I'm not
- 47:32Speaker 2: gonna lie like like you have to kind of like
- 47:35Speaker 2: sometimes when I have those moments, I try to. I've
- 47:38Speaker 2: been trying to talk to the right people too, because
- 47:41Speaker 2: you know, when you're in that moment, you can talk
- 47:43Speaker 2: to the right person who can like literally give you
- 47:45Speaker 2: that affirmation and give you that reminder like that, like
- 47:48Speaker 2: remember what you accomplished, remember how much, Remember how far
- 47:51Speaker 2: you've come, Remember when you started, like those little reminders,
- 47:54Speaker 2: or you could talk to someone else who will make
- 47:56Speaker 2: you feel like more shit, like oh you know, yeah,
- 47:58Speaker 2: maybe you should give a maybe it's not working out,
- 48:01Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And I literally had that.
- 48:05Speaker 1: Moment recently where someone did that, yeah, like.
- 48:08Speaker 2: With someone really close to me, and it's like, well, yeah,
- 48:11Speaker 2: maybe you should, maybe you should give up. I don't know,
- 48:13Speaker 2: Like it's like, what if I'm having this moment, that's
- 48:16Speaker 2: a last thing I want to hear. You're terrible, like
- 48:19Speaker 2: literally never come to you advice again.
- 48:21Speaker 1: Well, yeah you gotta. Also, I think I learned I
- 48:24Speaker 1: would say a couple of years ago, is that the
- 48:27Speaker 1: real friends your real day once And this is how
- 48:31Speaker 1: I judge friendship across the board. You want a friend
- 48:36Speaker 1: that is happy when you're up, like and also down
- 48:40Speaker 1: when you're down. Man, there's too many relationships we have
- 48:44Speaker 1: nowadays where you got the friends that are happy when
- 48:46Speaker 1: you're up, but they're not down when you're down. And
- 48:48Speaker 1: now then you have the friends that are down for you,
- 48:51Speaker 1: will kill for you, but they're not happy when you up. Yeah,
- 48:54Speaker 1: the real friendship, and I think Oprah recently said on
- 48:57Speaker 1: the clip, is the one that has no jealousy, because
- 49:00Speaker 1: the one that has no jealousy can actually value when
- 49:03Speaker 1: you're up and be like, hell yeah, motherfucker. We all like,
- 49:06Speaker 1: my girl got pregnant the other day. We all celebrated,
- 49:09Speaker 1: like you got a Yeah, what is it? What is it?
- 49:12Speaker 1: They find out what is it? You know, we're just
- 49:14Speaker 1: happy for that went genuinely down to the toes, like
- 49:17Speaker 1: happy happy, like.
- 49:18Speaker 2: You swear, you know, real too, like.
- 49:21Speaker 1: Really because we knew that's what that person wanted, so
- 49:24Speaker 1: we feel it. Even when they're down, you're showing up.
- 49:27Speaker 3: And it's weird for me too, it's weird.
- 49:28Speaker 2: I had this moment, another moment, a lot of moments,
- 49:31Speaker 2: but I had another moment recently where I sometimes, you know,
- 49:35Speaker 2: as a artist, you get close to people that you
- 49:37Speaker 2: shouldn't like. Sometimes you're glad people, you know. Some people
- 49:40Speaker 2: get close to the glad people. Some my gam people
- 49:42Speaker 2: have been my best friends and are still mad tight.
- 49:45Speaker 2: Sometimes you get close to certain gland people and it's
- 49:47Speaker 2: like not the smartest of the thing. As the artist,
- 49:49Speaker 2: you're the boss and you're also the like, these are
- 49:52Speaker 2: your employees, but they become your friends. But it's hard
- 49:55Speaker 2: because it's like, that's hard when you're like your employees
- 49:58Speaker 2: your friends because at the same time there has again,
- 50:00Speaker 2: there has to be a level of respect. So once
- 50:02Speaker 2: that there's a boundary that gets crossed, so you become
- 50:05Speaker 2: too personal, the respect is gone, and as the artist,
- 50:09Speaker 2: people don't realize that we really are the last ones
- 50:11Speaker 2: to eat.
- 50:11Speaker 3: Like people don't realize that.
- 50:13Speaker 1: People don't really dropping gems that really show my honest opinion,
- 50:18Speaker 1: really show you did the work. But yes, you are right.
- 50:22Speaker 1: Repeat that again, the last one to eat.
- 50:24Speaker 3: We really are the last one to eat.
- 50:25Speaker 2: I was just watching this clip from this songwriter that
- 50:27Speaker 2: I know that he's a great songwriter and everything, but
- 50:29Speaker 2: it's like he was saying, oh, like the songwriter is
- 50:31Speaker 2: the last one to eat. No, the artist is the
- 50:34Speaker 2: last one to eat. The songwriter eats before even us.
- 50:37Speaker 2: Everybody eats before us. Everybody eats before us. And whether
- 50:41Speaker 2: you're signed independent, the money gotta come out of somewhere, yeah,
- 50:45Speaker 2: somebody's pocket, ye, And it gotta come back to somebody's pocket.
- 50:48Speaker 2: And if it don't come back, even though you could
- 50:51Speaker 2: pay you could have a budget five dollars, fifty thousand dollars,
- 50:55Speaker 2: five hundred thousand dollars, five million dollars, doesn't matter if
- 50:57Speaker 2: that once that money goes back, you gotta get it return.
- 51:00Speaker 1: It has to be.
- 51:01Speaker 2: It gotta be recouped, you know what I'm saying. And
- 51:03Speaker 2: then people don't realize that, you know, as the artist, Yeah,
- 51:06Speaker 2: like the money is coming out and it's coming out
- 51:08Speaker 2: of your pocket. And that's why it's like people even
- 51:10Speaker 2: think like, yeah, like I was watching a documentary recently
- 51:13Speaker 2: with Michael Jackson's bodyguards or something. It was like a
- 51:15Speaker 2: new one, newer one, and it was like Michael didn't
- 51:18Speaker 2: have money at the end of his career. Michael, Michael,
- 51:20Speaker 2: do you know what I mean? Michael? You know, he
- 51:22Speaker 2: wasn't able to pay so he can't pay his employees.
- 51:24Speaker 3: Employees' is like, and he needs his bodyguards.
- 51:26Speaker 2: He can't even pay his bodyguards, and he needs a protection,
- 51:29Speaker 2: can't even pay his bodyguards or whatever it is. You
- 51:31Speaker 2: need this and you need that, you can't even pay
- 51:33Speaker 2: for that. So you try to build relationships and build friendships,
- 51:36Speaker 2: and then it starts crossing lines or whatever. Even if
- 51:38Speaker 2: you're paying them, you still around them all the time.
- 51:41Speaker 2: You want to be friends with them.
- 51:42Speaker 1: It's so hard, especially if you're starting out and you
- 51:45Speaker 1: do like we're working with a budget. So say you
- 51:48Speaker 1: and I are working together and you can't pay me
- 51:50Speaker 1: as much right right, and you say it, I'm like, Okay,
- 51:52Speaker 1: I believe in you too. That's where the lines do
- 51:55Speaker 1: get blurred because there now it's like both people crossing
- 51:59Speaker 1: that little.
- 52:00Speaker 2: Thing that yeah, yeah, that awkward little boundary thing that
- 52:04Speaker 2: you're like, oh, it's a trust thing that has to happen,
- 52:07Speaker 2: or you don't know if you could trust the person.
- 52:08Speaker 2: You don't know if the person is like but I
- 52:09Speaker 2: think it's like what you said, it's an exchange. It's
- 52:12Speaker 2: it's a common, fair exchange that has to happen.
- 52:15Speaker 1: And I think that people when you're the boss, it
- 52:18Speaker 1: really that kind of fucks you over the moment because
- 52:21Speaker 1: it's never it's never a fair exchange, but one person
- 52:25Speaker 1: is technically holding the burden. So yes, you're right, and
- 52:30Speaker 1: you with a dagger because you're like, fuck, I should
- 52:33Speaker 1: have never crossed that line, you.
- 52:34Speaker 2: Feel me, because it's like, there's never going to be
- 52:36Speaker 2: a fair exchange because you're when you're the boss, you're
- 52:38Speaker 2: already in a higher level and no matter what how
- 52:41Speaker 2: much they get.
- 52:42Speaker 1: And they're coming in it from a whether it's an
- 52:46Speaker 1: act of service, they're they're coming to gain. So it's
- 52:49Speaker 1: it's not a in a weird sort of sense, it's
- 52:52Speaker 1: I'm coming to get this.
- 52:55Speaker 2: As much as I can. Yeah, right, you know, and
- 52:57Speaker 2: it's and then you wind up feeling like, yeah, like
- 52:59Speaker 2: it's a it's an unfair exchange. So I think for
- 53:01Speaker 2: me lately, it's definitely been that. It's definitely been like
- 53:04Speaker 2: truly truthfully, like like it's all a part of the process.
- 53:08Speaker 2: But then you have to you realize that and you're like, well,
- 53:10Speaker 2: if all of this is a case, then there's a
- 53:12Speaker 2: reason why you start realizing that people are the way
- 53:14Speaker 2: they are. Or even if you're like, oh, they call
- 53:16Speaker 2: you this and they call you that, whatever, they don't
- 53:19Speaker 2: know how much it took. They call you a bit
- 53:21Speaker 2: really because they don't know how well that day, Well
- 53:23Speaker 2: how why was I a bitch that day? Like how
- 53:26Speaker 2: much I gotta deal with on a daily basis, Like
- 53:28Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. So I feel like even
- 53:29Speaker 2: when I used to hear like Jlo used to be
- 53:31Speaker 2: called that, and I'm like, Jaalo.
- 53:32Speaker 1: Was a boss goat, the goat working her as working.
- 53:36Speaker 2: Her ass off, like if she like and I think that,
- 53:38Speaker 2: you know, it started becoming like a thing that people
- 53:41Speaker 2: just use it to like, Oh, I don't like Jlo
- 53:42Speaker 2: because she's mean, and you don't know if Jaylo's meaning.
- 53:44Speaker 2: I never met her, you meet her, she's mad nice.
- 53:47Speaker 2: People say the same thing about Nicki and nice. I
- 53:48Speaker 2: met Nikki. She was so nice to me, So I
- 53:50Speaker 2: don't know what y'all talking about, Like you know what
- 53:52Speaker 2: I'm saying crazy, So I don't know, like she was
- 53:55Speaker 2: nice to me. So everyone has their own experiences. But
- 53:57Speaker 2: I think it's crazy when like the general public judges
- 53:59Speaker 2: and artists like that when an artist gives nothing, we
- 54:02Speaker 2: give nothing but love. And you know what I'm saying
- 54:05Speaker 2: to the world, like, no matter what artist has on
- 54:07Speaker 2: their personal life going on, it's different to the world.
- 54:09Speaker 2: We're giving art. We're using our traumas and using it
- 54:12Speaker 2: to give art to the world. And we live in
- 54:14Speaker 2: America where it's like all they do and all we
- 54:16Speaker 2: do is try to tear our artists down. But I
- 54:18Speaker 2: think like something has to give where we have to
- 54:20Speaker 2: understand that, like every artist is a human and even
- 54:23Speaker 2: if they're like they always are trying to like demonize
- 54:25Speaker 2: the artists, like oh, I've been seeing that about a
- 54:27Speaker 2: lot about j Lo, and I'm like, I love j Lo, Like.
- 54:31Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love her. I think the best
- 54:33Speaker 1: thing to do is like.
- 54:34Speaker 2: The greater you are, the more haters you have, and
- 54:36Speaker 2: that's how you know you're doing.
- 54:37Speaker 1: Something right exactly.
- 54:39Speaker 2: That's the tea.
- 54:40Speaker 1: That's the tea.
- 54:40Speaker 2: That's the tea.
- 54:41Speaker 1: And I think at some point we all got to
- 54:45Speaker 1: realize there's nobody, nobody on the planet, not the richest man,
- 54:48Speaker 1: not the brokest man, not the one with the most
- 54:51Speaker 1: baby daddies, the one no kids, whatever. Every person has
- 54:56Speaker 1: to come face to face with problem. There is no problem.
- 54:59Speaker 1: There is no person and living on Earth right now
- 55:02Speaker 1: that doesn't have problems. That's the part of being human.
- 55:07Speaker 1: And I think if we all walked around with a
- 55:08Speaker 1: shirt and said hey, I got problems and everybody just
- 55:11Speaker 1: walked around, they'd be like, well, ship, you know. And
- 55:15Speaker 1: I was sad about the human races, like, well, I
- 55:17Speaker 1: got problem. What's your problem?
- 55:18Speaker 2: With?
- 55:18Speaker 1: My problems worse than your problem.
- 55:19Speaker 2: It's like, yo's got a problem for real though that's
- 55:23Speaker 2: a fact, that.
- 55:24Speaker 1: Is a yo. We should literally print shirts. But I
- 55:28Speaker 1: guarantee if you put the whole world and I got
- 55:30Speaker 1: prom shirts, I got problem, people will just literally compare.
- 55:32Speaker 2: Problems hard though that person's.
- 55:36Speaker 1: Crying because they didn't have a McDonald's burger, get them,
- 55:41Speaker 1: they start hating.
- 55:42Speaker 2: It stops. Oh yeah, she went through this, he went this, Well,
- 55:45Speaker 2: I went through this and that's what I there is
- 55:48Speaker 2: that thing and it's constant, like that separation. We all have,
- 55:53Speaker 2: like ego, but you gotta realize, like you know what
- 55:56Speaker 2: I mean, even when you said, well you walk in.
- 55:58Speaker 3: That's you're the baddest in the room.
- 55:59Speaker 2: That's your ego. But then you immediately like, well, oh
- 56:01Speaker 2: should I just had a bad day and I just
- 56:02Speaker 2: to talk to someone like that's the real you, you
- 56:04Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. And then it's like you have
- 56:06Speaker 2: to I've been trying to find that balance. And I
- 56:10Speaker 2: call her like because my so yeah with lover girl,
- 56:12Speaker 2: lover girls like me, I'm a lover girl, that's me.
- 56:15Speaker 2: I'm a love girl. But my alter ego is a
- 56:17Speaker 2: trat Princess Jasmine. So like literally it's like yeah, like literally,
- 56:21Speaker 2: so I kind of like have to separate the two
- 56:23Speaker 2: because I do have my super loving me, you know,
- 56:26Speaker 2: but then I do have my dragon side, my you know,
- 56:28Speaker 2: my New York girl don't play with me side. So
- 56:30Speaker 2: I feel like that is a real and I call
- 56:32Speaker 2: it a trat Princess Jasmine because Princess Jasmine is the
- 56:35Speaker 2: only Middle Eastern pop culture girl we got. But you know,
- 56:39Speaker 2: I love Fun.
- 56:40Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it. I love it. So how would
- 56:43Speaker 1: you describe this latest AP and all of that.
- 56:47Speaker 2: Yes, yes, So I mean it's an exciting time because
- 56:50Speaker 2: I feel like now I haven't dropped the project yet,
- 56:53Speaker 2: I've just been dropping like singles, and I feel like
- 56:55Speaker 2: with lover Girl, it's been like I like my first project,
- 56:59Speaker 2: I was like, what is the the name gonna be? Like,
- 57:01Speaker 2: you know, lover Girl came to me one morning I
- 57:04Speaker 2: woke up and then like, I was like, I want
- 57:07Speaker 2: to name it something with love. I was thinking about that,
- 57:09Speaker 2: and then I just thought about lover girl. And obviously
- 57:11Speaker 2: Drake did Certified lover Boy and stuff, and people call
- 57:14Speaker 2: themselves lover boy. And then nobody did love a Girl,
- 57:16Speaker 2: so I looked it up and then the only person
- 57:17Speaker 2: who did it was Tina Marie. And and like when
- 57:20Speaker 2: I first started singing and doing open mics in New York,
- 57:23Speaker 2: people used to compare me to Tina Marie. These pig
- 57:25Speaker 2: your voice, you sound like her, so like I was
- 57:27Speaker 2: like wow, and then I never really like I would
- 57:29Speaker 2: do my research on Teena Marie. She was one of
- 57:31Speaker 2: the artists I studied, of course, but then it was
- 57:33Speaker 2: like I never really heard her name too much. So
- 57:35Speaker 2: then when I looked up lover Girl, I saw Tina
- 57:37Speaker 2: Marie the only person who had a song it was
- 57:38Speaker 2: lover Girl years ago. I was like, all right, I
- 57:40Speaker 2: gotta do pay homage and she spelled it two separate,
- 57:43Speaker 2: so I was like, okay, I'm gonna do lover Girl.
- 57:45Speaker 2: It's official and named the project lover Girl, and then
- 57:48Speaker 2: I just like I was like realizing, like damn, but
- 57:50Speaker 2: I got this whole other side to be my trap
- 57:52Speaker 2: Princess Jazz in sidey.
- 57:53Speaker 1: I love that name, by the way, you know what
- 57:55Speaker 1: I'm saying.
- 57:56Speaker 2: So yeah, it's kind of gonna be like an A
- 57:57Speaker 2: B side a lot of girls coming out into September,
- 58:00Speaker 2: and then by January, my birthday, I'm gonna be dropping
- 58:03Speaker 2: the B side Chrap Prins Jasmine. So it's like yeah,
- 58:06Speaker 2: like and it's like super fun because it's like lover
- 58:08Speaker 2: Girl is like totally this side, you know, sweet side Girl,
- 58:11Speaker 2: sweet Love Girls side, soft Girl, Chatterers, Jasmine is on
- 58:15Speaker 2: my you know, I'm on my BS. No that I
- 58:18Speaker 2: like it. I like that.
- 58:20Speaker 1: So it's like but overall, it seems like it's an
- 58:23Speaker 1: empowerment album.
- 58:25Speaker 2: Absolutely, Like I feel like Love a Girl, I made
- 58:27Speaker 2: when I was like more so like in love, and
- 58:30Speaker 2: it was, you know, all the music was very much
- 58:32Speaker 2: so like I was in a relationship. I was in
- 58:34Speaker 2: love and then you know, now I'm like, you know,
- 58:37Speaker 2: not in the relationship anymore.
- 58:38Speaker 1: And then Princess Jasmine came out and said, Periodey, I'm
- 58:44Speaker 1: looking forward to seeing what Trap Prinscetas Jasmine is saying
- 58:48Speaker 1: on this album because I ain't in a relationship right now,
- 58:50Speaker 1: so I need to listen to Trap Princess.
- 58:52Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly, That's what I've been on because like
- 58:54Speaker 2: Love a Girl, I'm not gonna lie like I even
- 58:56Speaker 2: for me. I love my lover Girl's side. I love
- 58:59Speaker 2: my that, but the Trappers is Jazzmine and the records
- 59:02Speaker 2: that that and that energy is definitely what I'm on
- 59:05Speaker 2: right now, and I feel like it's it's very empowering
- 59:08Speaker 2: because it's like, you know, there are certain things that
- 59:11Speaker 2: I feel like I'm rapping more on it, you know,
- 59:13Speaker 2: and there's some yeah, like literally so it's like there's
- 59:16Speaker 2: some things that I can't always say singing, and when
- 59:19Speaker 2: I want to say when I'm on my BS, I
- 59:21Speaker 2: want to say some things my bs is my bush,
- 59:23Speaker 2: not my bull, my boss.
- 59:25Speaker 3: You feel me like you feel me.
- 59:27Speaker 2: So it's like kind of like I want to say
- 59:30Speaker 2: things that I just say when I'm be rapping, and
- 59:32Speaker 2: it's just crazy because I feel like there's no a
- 59:33Speaker 2: rap girl rapping and singing right now, Like it's a
- 59:37Speaker 2: whole other thing.
- 59:37Speaker 1: So it's like I love that you're proud of it too.
- 59:39Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Like I'm so I'm so excited about this
- 59:44Speaker 2: era because I'm like, even especially with the trappers to jazz,
- 59:47Speaker 2: there's a lot of Now obviously there weren't a lot
- 59:50Speaker 2: of Middle Eastern girls doing it, but now there are.
- 59:52Speaker 2: There's so many more, and I love it. But I
- 59:54Speaker 2: feel like for me, it's always about being a chillblazer.
- 59:56Speaker 2: It's always about like setting the tone. It's always about
- 59:59Speaker 2: taking it to the next level, takes to the next place.
- 1:00:01Speaker 2: And I feel like like being that you know, that
- 1:00:05Speaker 2: person that takes it there, Like I want to take
- 1:00:07Speaker 2: it there, you know what I'm saying. So I feel
- 1:00:08Speaker 2: like in American culture, most of the stuff that we
- 1:00:11Speaker 2: listened to is like I grew up in this urban
- 1:00:14Speaker 2: rap music.
- 1:00:14Speaker 3: J G is my fair rapper.
- 1:00:16Speaker 2: I saw did you see my jay Z painting. O.
- 1:00:18Speaker 3: Yes, I did, okay, And I was like, okay, And
- 1:00:20Speaker 3: they didn't.
- 1:00:20Speaker 2: Know it's jay Z because I didn't know it's New
- 1:00:21Speaker 2: York and he doesn't really look like jay Z that much.
- 1:00:23Speaker 3: His face, he's a little I gave.
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: My mom this. My mom drew the picture. Oh your
- 1:00:27Speaker 1: mom mission, my mom.
- 1:00:29Speaker 2: I'm sorry, my mom, love you, Mama.
- 1:00:30Speaker 3: I take that back. Then I was like, jay Z,
- 1:00:32Speaker 3: so I feel bad.
- 1:00:33Speaker 1: The picture she had to work with was so and
- 1:00:36Speaker 1: so I said, I was like, I want the biggest
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: picture of the.
- 1:00:39Speaker 2: Demeanor and everything. I knew it was him, and then
- 1:00:42Speaker 2: I knew it was his the MARSI part, you know
- 1:00:44Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
- 1:00:44Speaker 3: So I was just like, okay, yeah, Brooklyn jay Z And.
- 1:00:46Speaker 2: They're like, is that j Zz?
- 1:00:49Speaker 1: Mainly like the little water coolers on the side.
- 1:00:52Speaker 2: I just always said that I've always wanted to be
- 1:00:54Speaker 2: like a female jay Z.
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: When I broke like, that's me.
- 1:00:56Speaker 2: That was me right, like right, because he's just like
- 1:01:00Speaker 2: the blueprint to it all, like you know, just and
- 1:01:02Speaker 2: you said the blueprints literally of course fun intended. You know,
- 1:01:06Speaker 2: it's like the blueprint to it all, and you know
- 1:01:08Speaker 2: it's crazy because it's like, you know, being nowadays, being
- 1:01:11Speaker 2: able to be an artist or being able to be
- 1:01:13Speaker 2: doing something and then being a boss is just so
- 1:01:17Speaker 2: important nowadays to have that element because it creates that longevity.
- 1:01:20Speaker 2: Like you said, also, I think it's also that having
- 1:01:23Speaker 2: that business element. A lot of artists that I see
- 1:01:25Speaker 2: that they do last they had the business element to
- 1:01:28Speaker 2: them as well, because if you just like allow other
- 1:01:30Speaker 2: you can't. This is a business. This is your craft,
- 1:01:32Speaker 2: This is your business, is your stuff, and you know
- 1:01:35Speaker 2: you have to have it like it's the most successful
- 1:01:37Speaker 2: artists take that very seriously. Yeah, you know, so I
- 1:01:39Speaker 2: feel like I take that very seriously. And I feel
- 1:01:41Speaker 2: like I see other artists who are just like yeah,
- 1:01:43Speaker 2: just who are like they don't know about anything going on,
- 1:01:46Speaker 2: and I'm like, uh, not me, you know everything going on.
- 1:01:49Speaker 2: But at the same time, you know, it's like, as
- 1:01:50Speaker 2: an artist, you just want to be creative, So.
- 1:01:53Speaker 1: You got to balance both. Tell everybody how they can
- 1:01:56Speaker 1: keep up with you, even though I'm pretty sure I
- 1:01:57Speaker 1: ain't know how, but go ahead, sure, Instagram handles.
- 1:02:01Speaker 2: Yes, follow me on all the things, all the things
- 1:02:04Speaker 2: I net x, I n A S dash x or
- 1:02:07Speaker 2: is this just I N A s X.
- 1:02:09Speaker 1: Yeah, got it all right. Thanks for feeding us some great, amazing,
- 1:02:14Speaker 1: homemade hummus. Peace out, y'all. Yay for more eating while
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app,
- 1:02:41Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.