Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: MC Lyte On New Album, The Evolution Of Hip Hop, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett, Personal Life + More

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INTERVIEW: MC Lyte On New Album, The Evolution Of Hip Hop, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett, Personal Life + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club Morning, everybody in st j Envy, Jess, hilarious,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Charlamagne the guy.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: In the building icon a legend, royalty man, Ladies and gentlemen,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: we have MC light Welcome.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: How are you feeling this morning?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I feel good. I feel energized. The weather is really
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: giving me New York.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's New York. Horrible, horrible. It's the first time
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: you've been on Breakfast Club.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: No, No, how do you feel when you hear that icon?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Legend, it's all true. Pioneers is another one you should add.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: How do you feel because you look a little taken
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: aback when you heard it?
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: No, actually, that's not what I felt coming through the hallway.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I didn't expect big and a big style.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: It feels good, I guess, yeah. I feel like I'm
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: still doing work, you know. And I think there's also
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: a whole host of people that really don't understand why
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: other people say that.
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: Well, one of the reasons.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: You are the first female rapper to release a full
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: solo album with Light as of Rock back in eighty eight.
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: Did you even understand the gravity of that. Did you
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: even know what that meant back then?
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Absolutely not. Yeah, No, I went in. As a matter
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: of fact, I can look at it now and see
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: that it was an audition. But when they asked me
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: to come to Staten Island to meet with the record label,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I just was going. I had my little rhyme book.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I asked my mom could I go? I think it
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: was on a school night, and so I met the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: guy that really I grew up in hip hop with.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I write my rhymes the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: same way that he taught me how to write my rhymes.
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: And so I got on the ferry. I went all
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the way over there, and you know, I had my
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: rhyme book. I pulled it out. I said my rock
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: milk was like, say something to this, okay, And I
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: say something to that, you know, And literally that's how
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I crammed understand you and paper thin and light as
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: a rock and all of that was born. But No,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I just felt like I was I was just doing
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: what I loved.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: What got you into to rapping back then? Right?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Because everybody thought back then it was gonna be a trend,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: it was gonna be here for a little bit and
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: then gone and growing up in Queens. What got you
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: into saying I want to do this and what made
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: you say I'm gonna take it serious to make this
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: a quote unquote career.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Right, Well, I grew up in Brooklyn, Brooklyn.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: I don't know why.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: It was just a little different, although I did spend
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of time in Queens, in far Rockaway, that's
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: where my grandfather lived. I think after listening to Mellie
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: mel with the message and sequence and you know, all
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: of the cold crushed brothers, and spending time in Harlem
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: with my grandmother and all of my cousins over there,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: it wasn't until I heard Salt and Pepper, And then
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: when I heard them, I was like, oh, wait a
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: minut in it. I think I might be able to
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: do this. And then at that time I felt like
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I had something to say, which was I kram to
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: understand you, you know, the drug scene and seeing crackheads
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: in Brooklyn, seeing heroin addicts in Harlem. It was like, Okay,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I got a message from my generation.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: Didn't you.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: You lived in Brooklyn for a second, right, No, I
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: was born in Brooklyn.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Oh, somebody told me that y'all lived like a block
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: away from each other between Rutland between ninety first and
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: ninety second in Rutland Road.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my grandfather lived there, so I would go there
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: in the summers to see my grandfather.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: We see, I was on the summer in the summers,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I was with my.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: Grandfather in Queens. Yeah.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: That's why, because people always seen you in Queens and
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: people always see me in there in that in Starres City.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: So I have a grandfather in on over there, and
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: then I had one in Starres City. So back then,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: what your parents did in the summer time when you
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: off for school, there was no camp. They drop you
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: off a grandpa's house and then they pick you back
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: up on Friday. So I would I would spend a
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: lot of time.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: In Brooklyn because you was ea East flat Bush between
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: each flash Butch on the borderline of Brownsville.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, New Lots, Sutter Ave and I think once
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: you crossed that train track you was in Brownsville, which
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I shopped in Picking Avenue. That's where you get the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: cheap sandals, jellies and lees and things that you needed
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to look cool. In what I call the Caribbean part
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: of Brooklyn. I'm a fake in Jamaican too.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: Yes, how were you able to clear like all the
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: violence that's them from like that the crack era?
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Oh I don't. God, you know, I've seen, matter of fact,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: all of the guys that I grew up with, the
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: olde of Roughneck to all of the guys that I
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: grew up with are no longer here.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they all died by the hand of violence.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: But you know, looking at how you grew up in Brooklyn,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: you know, I always say that the same thing with queens.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: I always used to say that even though selling drugs
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: were bad, there was some type of I would say,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: they would control the streets right, so you wouldn't see
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of the crime that you see now. Back
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: then you would see a lot of drug dealers shooting
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: each other. But now it just seems like there is
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: no nothing. It just seems like people are running wild.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Did you notice that back then, where it was like
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: it was rules like you don't mess with older women.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: You don't rest with the kids.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: If the kids were doing something wrong, the drug dealers
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: would actually tell them, no, no, you got to straighten up,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: or this, that and the other.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: I don't see that anymore.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: And I feel like, as fed up as it sounds,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I feel like that's why the streets are a little
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: messed up. There is nobody out there controlling the streets
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: and making the kids do the right thing.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Did you see that as well growing up?
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: You know, I hadn't thought about it, but now that
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: you put it out there, it does seem a little lawless,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: like if anything goes and very much no rhyme or reason,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you know. So yeah, I think back in the days,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: it's like, no, leave that one alone, that's not it.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Or you know, like I've heard stories from pac and
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: different guys that said they wanted to go that route,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: but the guy said, nah, this ain't for you. Stay
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: over there. We're going to support you in that area
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: and not try to tempt you over here. So yeah, no,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't know if that exists. It might.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: You said something else to you said, you want to
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: go audition like those they had auditions back.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I didn't know it was an audition.
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: Ok.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: It wasn't until later I was like, yeah, I guess
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I was auditioning, you know, because they wanted to see
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: what I had. The guy that I grew up with
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: writing rhymes with or whatever. He called me up. He
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: was like, there's a record label they're looking for a female.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: M see, do you want to go out there? And
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: literally it hinged on my mother saying yes or no,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: so she was like, you know what, okay? And at
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: that point I had been going to Latin Quarters and
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: I had already recorded with Clark Kent because he was
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: a friend of a girl that used to work at
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: chi Che's Mexican restaurant, because that's where I work. And
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I met him and I said I had this rhyme
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and he was like, come to Brooklyn. You know the
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: innocence of it all here. I am going to this
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: guy's basement in Brooklyn, and like it could have ended
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: so many different ways. However, I laid the first rendition
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: of O Kram to understand you down on there. So
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: by the time I got to Milk and Them, I
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: had already been with George Lucy and who was Full
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Force's father. He would come over. I would rehearse with
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: the brush in the living room and get my chops
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: up sand salt and pepperonns and actually a much more
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: comfortable speaking like this, But because I've always been taught
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: to come from the diaphragm. I'm always on extra. So
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: when I talk like this, people like, what's wrong, I'm
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: just talking.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Do you remember when you got your first deal and
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: how much the first deal was, how much you got paid.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: I don't even think. Well, I got an advance which
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: was five thousand dollars Jesus, and I took that five
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars and I put it on my Jetta like
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the whole thing, like, oh, yeah, that's all I need
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: is a car. But then when I started touring, when
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I started making money, and then I got a house,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: and then without budgeting or anything, by the time I
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: furnished the house, I had nothing to cover my windows
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: with and so I had to.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Put sheets and blind I had to put sheets.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Up in the window and have my manager stop buy
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: and be okay with that scene. And it wasn't until
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I went out on the road the next time that
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I could finish the house. So, you know, there's so
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: much more money being made in this business, and I
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: can only hope that the youngins are doing the right
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: thing with it, because there are ebbs and flows.
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, were you in high school in your first single? Yeah? Wow? Great.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I was in the Great. No, I think I was
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: in my last year of school.
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: With a whole single out.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, single came out in the winter, and so
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: I was in school and I wanted to grad. I
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: wanted to get out of school early, so I took
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: extra courses at Boys and Girls High the summer before.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: So I was out by January and I was headed
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: to Norfolk State University. I already put my money in.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I was gonna be a well, like I'm a Sigma
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Gamma roll soro right now, but I was headed somewhere else.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: So in any case, I went and decided I needed
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: a job until I was gonna I was gonna save
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: my money up, and so I went and became a messenger,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: so I know every street.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: In New York City.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: And so I did that, and yeah, I was in school.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: So you never went to Norfolk.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I never made it to Norfolk State University because I
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: got the record deal and my mother was like, this
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: is just too much. You can't go away and do
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: this and do that.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Because most parents would be like no, no, no, forget this
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: rap I'd go into that wanted.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: To be separated, and because it's just she and I
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: and so I went to Hunter for two days and
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: on the second day they said, there's a tour in Copenhagen,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: you the Youngsters and Audio two, and that was it.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: And you went out there. Did you get any money
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: from because you sold millions of records? Did you get
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: any of that publishing royalties anything back?
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Then?
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Slightly slightly, but nothing like you should I should have.
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I mean this is a treacherous game. And what's interesting
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: is on the internet now is like every nook and
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: cranny you can see truth being told.
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: Which is really true.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, you got some people that are just like, look,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: this is how the record deal works.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: No, which I think is really admirable of those people
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: to kind of speak their truth.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: You mentioned Audio two. We all related the room that
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: was Matt Robinson of the Yeah.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I mean it wasn't It wasn't something that other people
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: came up with. It was the story that we told. Yeah,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: And it was because you know, Nat Robinson, who was
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: my manager, basically took me on as one of his
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: children and he had to sit down talk with my
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: mom and she was like, Okay, what's happening here. He
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: was like, We're going to take care of her, and
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: literally when I would get off of the stage, I
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: would be right back in the hotel room. There was
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: no room for me to mess around or mess up
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and have you know, stories being told about mc light.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: So I thank him for keeping me safe. And because
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: of that, his children became somewhat like my brothers.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: Wow, So that's interesting record. We hear all the challenges
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: that female rappers face now, so I can only imagine
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: how it is when you're the first person over the hill.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: The first person over the hill takes all the shots.
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: So I was gonna ask, how did you just?
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: I guess they protected. Was it because of people like that?
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely because of that Robinson? And then also because
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: of security. When I think about back in those days,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: I had three security guards with me at all times,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: simply because we just didn't know what would happen or
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: could happen, and you don't want it to happen. And
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: then you know, it's almost like leaving your bag in
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a car. You don't why leave it in the car.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Then you're gonna have to chase down how you know
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: who has it? How can I get it back? So
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: we didn't want anything to happen and yeah, I paid
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: three security guards and.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: That was that. Your mom's idea, was that the label's
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: idea or.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: No, it was management because we didn't want to take
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: any chances. And I think it wasn't until maybe I
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: was twenty five I took my first trip alone, which
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: was really enlightening because I felt like all that time
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I had I couldn't see because they was in front
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: of me. So once I was like, oh, wow, did
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: you go this is life? It might have been Kona,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: it might have been Yeah, what the hell's ConA Hawaii?
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Hawaii, Hawaii? Like he knew it was. You didn't know
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: what corner was.
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: I didn't.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: I was just going to later. But did did your
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: life change in high school?
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: Like? Is that when the startom first kicked in?
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Uh? Yeah, I guess it was when people started to
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: recognize me. Oh but you know what because they knew
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I told him I was coming out with a record.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: But while I was doing messenger work, is when I
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: went to deliver the package to the is it the
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: great building? The Grayson Building is somewhere on off the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: forties on the east side, And I went into the
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: mail room and this guy say yo yo yo, and
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: he called some people from the back. He said, that's
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: empty light.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, how the hell, I.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Said, what do you know? He said, I got the
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: magazine and it was a picture of k Rock and I.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: So it was like, oh shit, my cover is blown.
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: Did you quit?
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Not yet?
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: I was waiting for uh well, I still lived at home,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: so I didn't really need the check. But I wanted
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the check because I was going to school, I was
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: going to get ready to go to Norfolk, and so
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I wanted to stack my chips up. But no, I
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: had to wait for that day for my management to
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: tell me that we had the record deal and I
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: could quit.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: How has it been watching the evolution of hip hop
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: from eighty eight to now?
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: It's been great. I mean literally, we have taken this
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: gift from God and blown this thing all the way
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: out out of the hemisphere. Like I would have never thought,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: first off, that I could support myself, support my mom,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: give jobs to you know, that's my niece right there.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: And what other people have been able to do for
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: their families. And the breakfast club and the you know,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the clothing lines and the podcast and the I mean,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: it just goes on and on. It's a dream for
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: all of us to really do what it is that
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: we love.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: When did it start to slow down for mcla because
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: growing up, I mean it was you name it, it
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: was Chi Chid Child, the records were flowing. Then it
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: seemed like there was a switch in hip hop a
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: little bit. And I would say, maybe that's when Kim
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: and Foxy that ever started to turn around. So when
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: did it start to slow down and why was it?
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I think, like many many times, there's maybe a song
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: or an artist that comes in and switches the whole situation.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I think Naughty by Nature did that, and then I
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: think Biggie did that, and you know, on and on,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: and for me, I think what happened was in seven
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: or ninety eight, specifically, I had an album that I
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: really worked hard on without the help of an R
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: because they were doing LSG. And I'm talking about Merlyn Bob.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: You know, he's a really good friend and I respect him.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: He did a lot of things for me during my career,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: but during this time, once I finished the album, he
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: came back and said, we need to take some of
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: these songs off, and I was like, what, Like at
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: that time, I let my ego, you know ride, And
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: I was like, you can't tell me what to take off.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: You wasn't even here for this, you know. I was
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: too emotionally attached to working with the track masters and
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: working with LL and Beanie Man and Pharrell and Missy
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: and Total. And I had this jam packed album with
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: way too many songs, and so I think the focus
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: wasn't there. And then they asked me to go back
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: in and work on a new album, and I was like,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I just got out of the studio working on a
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: new album. And after that point, or during that point,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Will Smith had started a record label. He was like, light,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: if you ever want to come over here, let's do it.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: So at that time my manager was like, you know what,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: maybe we should take him up on his offer. And
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: we did, and as soon as we did, he lost
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: his distribution, which was with Interscope Overbrooke, Overbrook, Yeah, And
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I was just like okay, and I was getting a stipen.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: It's like Will Smith had the bag at that time.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: That's when every movie was popping. He had what kel
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Spencer at that time. He still got the bag now,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: but that time was one of the highest though, and
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: he was just it was a lot going on.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: And kel Spence was one of the people that was
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: riding with me, and so once he lost the distribution,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: I was sitting there getting a stipen and I was like, Okay,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: I don't want them to make the call that the
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: stipend is over. Let me make the call and say,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: you know what all I need is this the songs
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: that I've done already and one more stipend check and
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: then I'm gonna go make this thing happen. Because they
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: were just sitting and James Lassiter was like, I don't
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: want him thinking about nothing but Ali right now. And
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: so we're waiting for him to talk music with us,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: but they don't want him to talk music because they
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: want him to win this Oscar, which is you know,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I gotta respect that. And so that's when everything was
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: just like, okay, what I'm gonna do now? Dammit, I
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: should have went to Norfolk State.
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: How does that not affect like your personal relationship? Door right?
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: Because I've read read Jada's book and y'all like the
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: best of friends, so clearly there's a family vibe there.
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: Y'all are family. How does that affect y'all?
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: You know personally when you feel like.
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: Well damn, we Bob thought we suposed to be doing
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: this professionally, but I need to think the move a
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: certain way.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: What's up? Yeah, I don't talk to Jada about Will stuff,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and I don't talk to Will about Jada's stuff, especially business,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: you know, because I.
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: Talk about you and Will.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, Well, what would happen is I would call Will
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: anyway and then he would tell me what he wanted
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to do. But he can't do what he wants to do.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: He has to rely, like many of us, on other people.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: So I consider all of us to be the quarterbacks.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: And once we throw the ball, somebody got to take
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: it down the field, and if they don't want to
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: go down that way or they don't want to play
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: on that field, you're kind of subject to what it
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: is that you rely on them for. And so James
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: was like, clear, he didn't even want us talking to
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Will about music. So I was already going against the
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: grain by calling him saying, okay, what we're gonna do?
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, it's just one of those things
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: where all of it went different. Sylvia Rohne was like,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: what are you doing in La? I need you on
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the streets of New York City. People need to see you,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, I'm trying to act, you know.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: So when it came the one thing that Nat Robbinson
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: said to me, and though he said many things throughout
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the years which helped, but the thing that I remember
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: most is We're gonna make you popular independent of a
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: hit record. And once he said that, that gate that
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: allowed me to dream bigger, to see, Okay, I need
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: to prepare myself for all these other moments. I want
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: to do voiceover, let me go to coaching, I want
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: to act, let me go to class, and so that
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: kind of opened up the spectrum for me.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: It's interesting because all of y'all had those opportunities that
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: seem like early like you saw you clean the teefa
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: and ice cubes and the wheels.
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: Was that like a thing?
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: No, it really was, and why my route went differently.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: As I left William Morris very early, we had gotten
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: some word that some shows for me had gone to
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: other people. Promoters were complaining that they were trying to
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: get me and they couldn't. And so my manager said,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: you know what, we need to go to a performance
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: agency that just does performance We tried to keep theatrical
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: at William Morris, but they don't break it up, and
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: so at that time I wind up going with another
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: agency who was spectacular. I worked all through the nineties
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: to this day. If you look on Spotify, I've got
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: more listeners in Germany and you know, France and Spain
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: than I do in some of the states in the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: United States of America, which is really odd to me,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: but that's just the way it is. I spent a
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: lot of time over there, and so while they were
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: doing their shows, I was out touring, and so I
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: didn't do my sitcom until you know, two three years ago,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: which was fun too because I was really present for it.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Most of the twenties went by in such a flash,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: like I think, you're blessed enough to have a second
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: chance around so you can actually see it happening.
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: And you know, another reason you're a pioneer.
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: You're the first solo woman rapper to receive a gold
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: record with Roughneck.
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: I didn't feel to get a.
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: Gold with that record because you said that was old
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: to like the people around you right.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Honestly, at the time, it felt good to be acknowledged
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: for any record, but I guess that's sort of like
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: you know how it is. They say Denzel gets recognized
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: for training day, it's like, roughneck, that's really okay, I'll
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: take it. It was great. I remember we were on
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: tour and they had the phone in the bag, the
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: big box phone, the big box Bowe and my manager,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: you know, we were pulled over on the side at
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: some road in or whatever getting food and he walked
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: up and he said, you've been nominated, and I was like, okay,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: that's great. So they read it off at Radio City
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and of course I come out the year deep Cover.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: Is out.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Damn yeah, and I was like, damn, that was quick.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: You know, like you're one of the reasons that men
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: are so toxic, you know, between the hardcore era hip
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: hop and you saying that when a lady want.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: A rough neck, right, oh yeah, that's terrible.
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: That's how we got to be.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry you. When I perform now, I'm like, where
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: all the rough Okay, where's all the reform? I'm sorry
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: about that.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: You ever go back and look at that You said
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: you were on a tour.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Do you ever go back and look at some of
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: the horrible places that you stayed and the disgusting places
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: that you ate, But back then it was normal.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: It was. Yes, I when I think about the days
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: in and how all of us was like rammed up.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: In a room, it was normal, Like it was five
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: of us in room. When somebody slept on a bed,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: somebody stepped on the floor, somebody was on the couch,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: red roof in holiday inns.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: And you know, it's not until you've lived a better
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: life that you can look back and say, oh my God.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: And even in the midst of it, like after Rough,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: you know, I toured on those Budweiser fests with all
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the R and B people like so I was the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: only hip hop artist with Keith Sweat and BBD, and
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the way they were treated. They had full meals, they
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: had warm rooms that were furnished, totally and completely different
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: from a hip hop tour with ten different you know,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: rap artists, and then let alone touring with Janey that's
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: a whole nother situation. But what it does is it
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: teaches you what you should expect and and what you
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: should make people responsible for. So yeah, it was. It
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: was definitely a learning curve.
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: You know. One of my favorite versions from you was
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: on self destruction.
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: But even back then, you always had socially redeeming messages.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: In your in your in your in your music.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: Why did you feel the need to address social and
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: political issues back then.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Well, I attended an African school as a kid called
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: wait wu see shoe lay and excuse me. There were
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: certain values that we just learned, and I felt like
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I needed to use my voice for something important. And
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: because my mom worked at North General Hospital in Harlem,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: and when I would go see her, I would get
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: on the elevator. She was on the seventh floor, but
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I think on the third or fourth floor was the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: rehabilitation center. So sometimes getting into the elevator, I would
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: see heroin addicts that had decayed veins and holes, and
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: I just was like, what a rough life. I need
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: to say something to my peers in hopes of them
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: never going this route. And then aside from that, I
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: saw Ford apache the Bronx really early in life, and
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, they put her on drugs.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: They made her a drug addict. So no, you don't
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: need to be anywhere around that. So I think that's
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: wherehere it stems from.
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: You think you think artists now have a cultural responsibility
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: to use their voice for advocacy and just to spread messages.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I would think so, but that's not the story that
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: most of us tell. I do think that there is
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: room for everyone, and I always have to use what
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: it is that I know. Heavy D wasn't that, but
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: we still loved him. He promoted love, which I think
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: is one of the most portant important aspects of life.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Will was never that, but we love him still. He
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: made us feel good and feel confident and strong. So
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: I think it's room for it all. But I do
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: think it shouldn't be ignored.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: You think that's missing in hip hop now, like the
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: self destruction type of records, people coming together for good,
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: because you don't really see that anymore. I don't think
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: you can get a self destruction type of record now.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: I think we could if someone who is. I think
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: if Kendrick said we're going to do it, it would
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: kind of been you gotta give the power to those
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: who have it at this moment. And if they decided
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: that that's what they wanted to do, I'm sure what happened.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: Who put self destruction together?
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Arrest one Karis won and he called everybody and said,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: let's do it in everybody blah, absolutely, and.
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: You haven't put out album in ten years, but you
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: got new I'm coming out called one on one.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and why are you getting back into this crazy game?
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: L L challenged me. He did, Yeah. We did a
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Leading Women define as one of those annual events Deboraly does,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: and so I did a fireside chat with him, and
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: in the midst of it, you know, he says, I'm
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: putting out new music. I was like, oh, that's great,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: he said, when you putting out music, and I was like, well,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know. He's like, stop being scared. I was
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: like scared once he said that, and I was like, Okay,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I gotta get to it. And I had been working
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: on music, but I had been working on music so
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: long at that point it was just like, Okay, I'm
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: just working on music with no real plans to do
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: anything with it. And then finally I said, now's the time.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: In twenty fourteen, I did a really great record called
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Legend Yeah, and the guy, the executive producer, was not
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: such a good guy, and he took advantage of the
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: producers that were on the record, and I just was like,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get into that hell, and so
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I'd rather give it away than get into the game
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: of the promotion and marketing and involving these guys who
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: really weren't being taken care of in the right way.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: And so that kind of fell by the wayside, and
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I think that took a little bit of theme out
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: of me as well. But this new one I really
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: enjoyed making it.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: You got a song of King King with Queen Latifa,
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: where you're uplifting and honoring good men. Is that your
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: way of a toning for roughneck?
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Sure thing?
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: You know what's so crazy is I guess so emotional
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: when I see, like the winning team, that moment of
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: vulnerability when they've won and they're showing one another, you know,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the respect and the love and the honor, and you
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: can see all of the turmoil that they've gone through
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: for the whole season. But also I see a lot
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: of young guys who have found the woman that they
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: want to be with, but perhaps they're not with other
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: guys who have made that step into what it really
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: takes to enter into manhood. And so it's like, nah,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: she ain't the one, or you know, you've got to
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: be able to decide who is good for you, And
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: so I just wanted to, you know, uplift those who
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: have made those decisions in hopes of the younger on
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: the way to being king can say, oh, that's a
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: good thing creating and creating the spotlight for the role
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: model so that they can become what it is that
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: others will look at and say, I can be that.
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: I wasn't being back in the studio with Queen La Tiefa.
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: Just spending that time with her.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: It was great. You know, we send we spend a
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: bit of time together preparing for her shows. So we've
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: done maybe about four shows with her this year. And
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: when I say we, I mean myself and Yo Yo
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and Money Love, Money Love tours with her all the time.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: But when she calls in the pack, we all come
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: in and we get to spend a couple of days together.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: But this it was so funny. I was in the studio.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: I told her I'm gonna be in the studio from
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: two to two. She shows up at midnight. She's like, yo, eMac, okay,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I'm here. And she shows up and I'm like, I
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: play it for her and I'm like okay, and she
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: goes okay, and she goes into the studio, and so
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: my promise to her is do this and I don't
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: want nothing else from you. Well with this song, right,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: And so that makes it easy for her because she's
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: got a lot on her plate. And so if I'm
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: expecting her to do this and that in the video
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: needs to show up for this this this is like
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: like she's not gonna wind up doing the song. So
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: I'm like, just get in there and do it. This
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: is all I need right now. And so she just
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: went in.
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: There's something about you, Queen and tea for Salt and Pepper.
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: It's like we celebrate y'all, but it's like I don't
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: feel like you're celebrated.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: The way you you properly should be.
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: It's like we have a way of.
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: Doing it with the guys, like you know, the holes
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: and the naves and all them, that we don't do
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: with the women.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: And I don't I don't know if I know how.
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: You gotta go back and error too.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: You said you gotta think when you talk about Queen
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Latif for MC light Salt and Pepper, you gotta go to
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: slick Rick because that's that same eraror and they don't
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: do it for.
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: Those I talk about the women, but you talking about.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Artists in the two thousands, which is a different age group.
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: What are you talking about two thousands.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Two thousand, Nas, jay Z, they trans they transcended to
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: where they transcended to the two thousand tens. You gotta
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: think mc light was more slick, Rick ll cool J
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: and those type of artists.
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: In the ninetiesne with the nineties, keep on keeping on
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: with the nineties.
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: I don't want to be down.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Remix covid Ton sit it the twenty ten era. The
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: two thousands to two thousand's.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Just lasted all the time. But I think to dabbling
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: that for a minute because I don't I don't know
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: that I have the right answer, but it's spawning a thought,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: which is you you only really need a one powerful champion,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and Will has had that, LLL has had that, jay
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Z has had that. Nas was able to garner that
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: after the beef with jay Z. So you have to
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: have a champion that sees the worth, which really comes
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: down to helping you, you know, get to the dream
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: or the goal. But it's also a business. It's about
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: making money. So if they see a way in for
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: everyone to be able to benefit. Then they spend a
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: little time and energy there. It would take someone who
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: people respect to say this is the one to pay
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: attention to. And I guess I was on my way
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: to that with Will saying come on, you know, join
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: a label. And during that time I did a record
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: with you know with him that was multi platinum. I
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: showed up on the soundtracks, you know. So when you're
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: able to really diversify is when you can see some
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: level of success. But I do agree with you that
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: it could be more more done.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: I feel like the eighties artists had a tough time,
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: and I feel like we don't celebrate those artists enough
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: right where we talk about lights.
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: And I mean eighties artists though.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: Well I started in eighty eight, I got one off
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: in eighty eight, but even the early nineties. Yeah, but
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: most of my success is in the nineties. But what
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: I can say is Soda Will Soda ll Nas was
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: shortly after he came in ninety two, said I wasn't
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: too even ll I.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: I don't feel like Llll gets the love and respect
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: that he should for what he has done. Like, if
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: you really think about it, people talk about top fives.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: LL should be in that conversation. A lot of times
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: he's not, which is crazy to me. You think about
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: what LL did and what he trans send it to
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: what he is. I feel like he doesn't necessarily get
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: the love that he should get. Big Daddy came the
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: same way.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: Who else in that same error.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: I guess I'm in the circle that gives the love
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: so and I see the respect. And now with his
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: new brand and the new platform that he has, I think,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: you know, for me, success is tied to how many
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: others can you help? Or are you lifting up? Who
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: are you reaching back to pull up? And he's definitely
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: been able to do that and put a lot a
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: lot of people to work who who haven't been to
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: work in some time.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: So when you say champion, do you mean like like
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: managers are executive from a label?
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: It could be just association, you know. I think Fat
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Joe flows a lot of power to Remy and you know,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: back in the days, we needed that, right, So every
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: female kind of came through the ranks through some men
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: who were who exuded some power at that point. And
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: now today is like women are popping up all over
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: the place, not really needing a co sign from anyone,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: but from the era which we held it. Everyone that
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: you name sort of outlasted the posse that they were
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: a part of. But yet, what's the next what's the
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: next space, what's the next spot? And a lot of
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of agents kind of want to
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: be those guys, you know, so it's like, how can
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: I help them? Now I'm associated with them, So I've
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: got this machismo thing going on, and they've held on
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: to their agents for really long. I'm probably one of
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: the I'm probably one of the artists who has kind
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: of skipped around a lot. And it's not that I'm
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: not loyal, it's just that, Okay, what are we going
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: to do now? What is the next level up? And
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: So throughout my career, I've had three managers, one for
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: thirteen years, one for thirteen years, and now I'm with
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: this one for about fourteen years now. I've moved agents
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: because I'm not gonna stay with someone who doesn't believe
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: in what it is that I'm doing and your vigor
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: for me can't wayne. I need to feel like we're
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: in this together. And if you telling me to go
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: do a new record and I just did one, it
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: just doesn't feel good. So I'm gonna go where the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: love is.
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: The reason I bought y'all three yep, queenitin for the
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: Salt and Pepper and yourself because y'all are like the
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: prototype for every single woman rapper that we've seen. That
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: there's something every single woman rapper, every type of woman
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: rapper we've seen, from the rapt das to the making
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: the style. Think whoever it is, there's something from one
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: of y'all in.
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: All of them.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: And I am, you know, clearly from Salt and Pepper,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: you know, and Shy Rack. And it's so funny because
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Dougie talks about this hip hop tree. Have you ever
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: heard him talk about this? It's like this hip hop
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: tree with these four branches, and everybody sort of stems
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: off these of these branches. And so I'm clearly from
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: the Shahrock, Salt and Pepper, and yeah, I see it.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: I see it in Rhapsody, I see it in Tierra Wack,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: I see and many others. But it feels I mean,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: I think everybody in the same instance as being themselves,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: and so I think that's important. I Missy as a
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: matter of fact, feels like MC light and Salt and
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Pepper and like, she's this wonderful amalgamation of all of it,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: including you know, Mary included.
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: I think once upon a time the Source had a
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: magazine where they had all the female MC's and they
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: named us all and she was the innovator and so
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: and I think that captures her because she's able to
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: create what's not there and like like a comment, you know,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: and just throw it into the zegeist.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: Now when they called you to be the voice, because
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: now I feel like you're the voice of award shows now.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: And yes, when they called you, did you first say yeah,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it, or did you say I don't know
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: if I want to do that?
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Oh? Well, you know what, I had done it for
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: VH one Hip Hop Honors. I was backstage interviewing people
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: and doing stuff and then I guess one of the
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: producers that also works on BEET said we need to
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: get her over here on this one. And so to
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: me it made sense. I was ready. As a matter
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: of fact, I was going to Norfolk State University to
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: major in communications to do radio because I heard Carol
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Ford and I was like, oh, her voice kind of
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: sounds like mine. It's kind of raspy. Maybe I can
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: do that, and so here it is full circle. I'm
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: able to use my.
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: Voice any voice of the work you've done that we
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: don't know about. You're playing a cricket or something.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: I don't know, no, but you know what it's. It's
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: it's funny listening to you do voice of work. It's
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: live right when you do voice of work.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Most of it.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: How do you go in and out? Because sometimes something
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: happened on stage and you have to have a straight voice.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: All right, I'm saying, like, how does that?
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: The bumpers are already pre done, so so I don't
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: have to worry.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: About that any awkward moment when you're like, oh, oh shit,
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: I gotta get this on right.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: No, I think the most the most thing that's kind
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: of out is when I'm doing perhaps the Emmys, where
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: I'm unfamiliar with the pronunciation and so it has to
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: take a little bit of time. And I'm from New York,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: so I'm always putting the accent on the wrong thing.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: So I have to rehearse to make sure that I
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: properly say people's names, because that I mean when someone's
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: getting an award or no, I'm an the least you
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: could do is say the person's name correctly.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah you mentioned somebody, did you say, Sylvia are own
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: that told you to get back to New York.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Sylvia. I was her first signing as a as
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: an executive, and so yeah, she wanted me back in
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: New York. And at that time, I was appearing on
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Yvettley Bowser's For Your Love, so I had a recurring,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: recurring character and I was in acting class and I
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: was like this the next this, the next move. But yeah,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: she wanted me back in New York. She felt like
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: it was really important as an MC and being in
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: hip hop that I not lose my grounding, which eventually
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: I did because people didn't see me here and probably
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: felt like it wasn't important that I didn't see that
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: it was important enough. And yeah, no, I was, well,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, people see what it is that you put
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: into it. So if you're aware everything is happening, then
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: it's like, okay, committed to the process. But if I'm
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: in California, which everybody thinks is La La Land in
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: the first place, it's like, okay, how serious is she
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: taking this? Especially the record label and the people that
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: work at the label, because I'm sure it wasn't just
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: her who wanted me back here. It probably was the
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: marketing people and the radio people and everybody else. And
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: so I stuck to my guns and was like, no,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: I'm in La to learn. I was in acting class
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: for two years, acting school for two years, and I
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: was ready for that next step.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: Well, back then, it was no social media too, right,
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: So you would see everybody like you would see ll
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: you know on Jamaica Avenue. You would see, you know,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: Big Daddy camee downtown Brooklyn or Harlem Halem. I seen
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: run DMC the first time at TSS. So you would
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: see your local artists around and the fact that they
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: didn't see you. There was no social media to be like,
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: I'm here still, you know, right right, people.
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: Still see things and they remember things though, Because one
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: of my homies told me to ask you about an
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: Italian made white truck that you had in the nineties.
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: Oh and then he was the only one in the
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: States with it. Well, it was like what kind of
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: truckle do that?
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: It was a Laforza and there were thirty five hundred
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: in the United States, and I got it at an
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: auction in California, and I had it driven here and
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: then somebody broke a window and it took forever for
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: me to get it. It was one year. It was
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: made in nineteen eighty nine, and it was Fiat and
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Maserati and Ford got together and made this car for
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: one year, and so I wound up giving it to Milk.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: It was a pain in the ass.
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: I was about to ask, you don't still have it, right?
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: And I needed for my car.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: He might still have Milk.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: I tried to ask him a question about it. Years later,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: he was like, don't ask. I was like, because I
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: think he thought I might want it back, and I
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: gave it to him out of convenience because I was
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: moving and I didn't know what to do with it.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: I was just like, he had take it. But it
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: definitely was one of those that people looked at. When
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: you rote down the Black, It's like, what is that?
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: It was fun for a while, but it wasn't properly made.
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: And you got another song on your album called Change
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: Your Ways? How important is self reflection and accountability?
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, it's everything. It's your whole experience, And
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: you know, I've learned so many things throughout the years
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: about me still learning about me what it is. People
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: will tell you what you like before you even know
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: what you like. And so for me, I think the
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: move to LA actually allowed me to claim my independence
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: and my independent thought. And so, yeah, self reflection and
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: you have to quiet. You have to have things quiet
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: enough to even be able to really understand what it
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: is that you can do to be better or how
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: it is that what you do just said wasn't okay.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: This life of an entertainer, everyone is always telling you
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: how good you are, how right you are. Taking case
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: in point, I remember being told at an early age
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: you shouldn't work with women because they're too emotional. Well,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: what I found out was for me, I don't have
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: to be emotional at all working with guys. This is
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: the what I taught myself. As a matter of fact,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: I could say whatever to you, do that, please get
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: that done. Yeah, but you know, no emotion at all,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: not really understanding that it affects men when you talk
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: to them like that as well. But more importantly, I
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: wasn't ready to be responsible in my tone and how
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: it is that I communicated what it was that I wanted.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: And with women, you ain't getting away with that. You
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: ain't just saying something any old kind of way. It's like,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: excuse me, can you say that in a way that
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: I can have it? And so it just made me
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: more responsible for how it is that I communicate, because
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: to me, it's not being mean. It's just straight to
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: the point, this is what I'm looking to have done.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: But when you're on the receiving end of that, you go, oh, okay,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: wait a second, I could put a little bit more
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: heart into that, a little bit more love into that,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: And so yeah, self reflection.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: Is really I always wanted to know when when you
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: were out in Foxy and Kim and Trina and Kaya
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: came out, what was your thoughts at that time, because
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: that's when hip hop changed a lot and people were
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: going at them so heavy.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: What were you What were your thoughts? I remember we
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: were on tour and I got on the bus and
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: someone had music played and it was something bitch, the bettop,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: the deep bitch, but the bee bitch, and I was like,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: what is this. I said, you gotta turn this off.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: I was at a club in Los Angeles and I
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: heard the guy say something something bitch. I went over
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: to the DJ, and I said, can you turn this song?
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: And he said, okay. How different of a world that
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I would even ask a DJ to turn that and
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: he would turn it off. Now, that would never happen.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: I'm from the East Side going anywhere. None of the
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: male rappers called women bitches. None of them, not cares one, not,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: will not LLL. Not anyone that I had ever heard
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: on the East Coast referred to a woman as that.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: So it was completely out of the stratosphere for me.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Even seeing Biggie and Puffy in a jacuzzi with women,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: I was like, Oh my goodness, what's happening here? So
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: things were changing very quickly. I didn't really know how
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: to feel about it, except this is crazy. What do
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: we do now?
• 48:08
  Speaker 5: Do you feel like it was systemically done?
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: But I asked that about rap and television because, as
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: you said, the.
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: Rappers weren't talking like that.
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: Then all of a sudden it was just an abrupt change, right,
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: same thing with TV. We had all of these positive
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: images of black people that it was just an abrupt
• 48:24
  Speaker 4: change reality TV.
• 48:26
  Speaker 5: Do you think that it was systemically done?
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: Just now? When you said that, I thought of it
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: really starting on the West Coast. I think it was
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: maybe NWA. I would really like to note who used
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: it first in a record. I think it was different culturally,
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: and what was happening in New York wasn't necessarily happening
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: in the South, and wasn't happening on the West coast.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: And I think once we began to merge all of
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: these cultures together is when it became okay to call
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: someone a dog. I remember being in the airport and
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: somebody from somewhere else said something to my dancer and
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: was like, what up, dog? And my dancer was like, dog,
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: who the hell you calling dog? But it wasn't a
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: bad thing. It meant you, my dude, you min egg,
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: you know, with the way that we reference, you know,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: perhaps someone that we have affection for or in that case.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: So I just think it's it's different culturally systemic. I'm
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: not sure I have entertained this conversation before, like what
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: is the brink? Is it the door that has now
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: opened to you can say anything that actually happened with
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: the sitcom? You know, I had them tell me, you know,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: we can curse in this. You can say whatever you want.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: Because they kept looking at the scripts and they didn't
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: see anything, and I said, no, this is how I wanted.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: I remember sitcoms where you didn't need that, and I
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: wanted it to be wholesome. I wanted, but they kept saying,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: this is streaming. You could say whatever you want. Thanks
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: for letting me know. We're gonna keep it right here.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I think the flood the doors opened and
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: it was just whatever, however do it?
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: Did the label have ask you to change at all
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: and say sound more like this, or do this.
• 50:26
  Speaker 5: More weight, let's clothes exactly get sexy?
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Never because we were too early. They didn't know what
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: to tell us to do. And it worked, you know,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't until a whole new thing came in
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: which you had to you know, growth is what happens.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: But I do remember doing a photo shoot and I
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: must have been about twenty one, and I was ready
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: to think I was a little sexy. Was something tight on?
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: And Sylvia saw the photo shoot and she called me
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: and she said what is this. I was like, oh, well,
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: I'm growing up. She said, no, you're not. You're gonna
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: stay as young as possible for as long as possible.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: Put your genes on and get out in the street
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: and take a photo and show your youth. And that
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: was the cover of Act. Like you know, so we
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: did a whole new shoot and you know, I thank
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: her for that.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: You still speak to Sylvia and I do.
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: Did it bother you watching all of your personal stuff
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: play out so much on social media or just online?
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: Like right, I don't know that it bothered me so much.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: I just love having the opportunity to get them told.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: So at that point, you've said whatever you want to say,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: I get to say whatever I want to say, which was,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: you know, really difficult back in the day to be
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: able to give your opinion very straightforward. We had no
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: platform that we could technically use, and so yeah, say
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: what you want and then I'll say what I want.
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: Really so like they wouldn't like you say something like
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: this happened back the day. They wouldn't set up an
• 52:08
  Speaker 4: interview with you on.
• 52:10
  Speaker 5: Radio, our magazine or I remember.
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: Those headlines like such and such in my own in
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: their own words, right, you know what, right?
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: Right? Possibly, But then it would be some back and
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: forth and you'd have to Now you can just write
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: what you want to write, put it up and people
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: can have it. So when when the whole divorce thing happened.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: I just saw all of this stuff that says he
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: was trying to get this or she got to keep her.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: It's not she got to keep He was never trying
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: to do that. We had a prenup. He's got his
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: own stuff that I'm sure he was happy that I
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: didn't want any part of it, and so we made
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: an agreement very early on that we'd have a prenup
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: and that would be it. So I didn't. I just
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: didn't like the turn that they were taking. But it's
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: not like I didn't expect it anything to get a click,
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: you know, people will say. So I just was happy
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: that I was able to set the record straight.
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: How challenging had they been for you, you know, if
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: at all, to constantly have people assume you were gay?
• 53:15
  Speaker 5: Can I remember when they announce you would do what?
• 53:17
  Speaker 5: Everybody was like?
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: I thought, right, yeah, I remember Jess hilarious. I think
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: she posted something that was like what and in the news,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: you know, and you know, to me, it's just when
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: I said, people will say that you like something before
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: you even know what you like.
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: And my biggest thing with the young with the younger
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: generation is don't be so prepared to put yourself in
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: a box. You're learning your you know, life is what
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: it is, coming out of teens into your twenties. You're
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: seeing things I had to learn much later on in life. Life.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Everything you think, does it need to happen? Right? It
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: can be a thought and stay there. Everything that you
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: see other people do doesn't have to be the life
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: for you. And you know, growing up as an only child,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: things are impressionable. It's like, oh, okay, that must be
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: the thing. Okay, wait a minute, hold, okay, we're not
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: doing that. Okay, And so for me to be able
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: to choose my life for myself is extremely important. So
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: did it bother me? Perhaps in the beginning, but then
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: it just became oh okay, well that's how you want
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: to feel. That's great. And that's not saying that those
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: types of things didn't happen in my life. But that's
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: not all. That's not all of who I am.
• 54:51
  Speaker 5: And so oh so the rumors did stem from somewhere.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: But when you're young, especially in this business, it's like, okay,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: you think it, Okay, let's make that happen. Conspiracy theory, well, well,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: the sad part about it is. Many people get stuck there, right,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: and so they're stuck with what it is that other
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: people want them to be or are comfortable with them being.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: You can't possibly look like that and want to do that,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: or you can't you can't possibly look like that and
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: want to be with a man or find men attractive,
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: or me getting married. First off, I'm way more traditional
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: than anybody would ever assume. So me getting married was
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: because I believe in the sanctity of marriage of partnership,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: and it not working was devastating for me. But it
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: also called to action, me being responsible for the way
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: that I speak, for the way that I behave, and
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: being accountable for someone else's feelings. And so now they
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: say you call in who it is that you are.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: I'm a much better person. So who I have called
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: in is a reflection of that. And I love him
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: And so are we in a hurry to get married? No,
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: he's been married in divorce. I've been married in divorce.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: So being married isn't exactly the thing that we're all
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: jumping in to be in once you've experienced it, but
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: it is something that we're working towards. And he's so
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: totally different from a rough.
• 56:46
  Speaker 5: Neck, I would hope. So yes, when.
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: My family you know, met him, as like, oh my god,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: and he's really a ray of sunshine and so different
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: from any type that I've ever been with. And so
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: I had to learn that that's okay. You know, he's
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: from Philly, so he's got the swag. Does it necessarily show? No,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: But you know what, I love everything that's happening on
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: the inside, and he feels the same way about me.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: So many men would be like, oh, well, I've heard this,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: and you know, I'm not sure, but he can get
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: past all of that and see who I am and
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: just love me for who I am.
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: Which is most important.
• 57:36
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 57:36
  Speaker 4: I'm going to ask too, like when y'all because I
• 57:38
  Speaker 4: feel like all of y'all are so blessed to find
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: your tribe early, Like I feel like you and Queen
• 57:42
  Speaker 4: the Teeth and Jada all y'all found each other very
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: very early. When somebody like Jada is writing a book,
• 57:48
  Speaker 4: does she call you and say, okay, like I'm going
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: to share these stories, Yep, I'm going to talk about this.
• 57:53
  Speaker 5: I'm going to talk about that. So I want you
• 57:54
  Speaker 5: to know that this is out there, Okay.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: That's what sisterhood is, and that's why we're friends. Because
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: had a book came out and I was in it
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: and she had said nothing, I'd be like, Okay, what
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: what's up? Oh I didn't get a chance. No, we don't.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: We don't have those those discrepancies where for some reason,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: something happens in the other one. If if her name
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: comes up in an interview, yo, check this out. I
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: was at the such and such and this came up,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: and this is what I said. I don't want you
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: to you know, I don't want it to come to
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: you any other kind of way. We take care. And
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: in these types of friendships, you gotta take care because
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: there are so many areas where people are careless that
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: if we're gonna depend on one another in a true friendship,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: you gotta take care of it.
• 58:44
  Speaker 4: Because in the books she addresses rumors of y'all being together,
• 58:48
  Speaker 4: and I'm like, well, what if people don't know that?
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: Now and now when light and somebody does an interview,
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: they're gonna ask that question.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: Well, I think the point is it never was, never
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: was right. So she can bring that up, it would
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: not be an issue at all. And for her, I
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: guess it was important. Maybe people addressed her with that
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: more than they did with me, because I've never been
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: approached with is that, you know? So yeah, I'm happy
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: for her that she was able to get all of
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: what it was that she was feeling out in the
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: book and also celebrate our friendship, you know, and because
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: it is true that we have a sisterhood, if it
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: only feels right that it would be reflected and spoken
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: about in the book, and if that were removed, it
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: would it would sort of be like, really, don't we
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: have a friendship? Not that I needed to be in
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: the book, but when you're evaluating truth and what is
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: I would expect that it would be there.
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, you were in the books. She speaks so
• 59:55
  Speaker 4: highly you like you want her pillows. How important is
• 59:59
  Speaker 4: it to have the people in this business?
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: They it's not many, So it's it's extremely important someone
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: that's gonna understand and the and the truth is too
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: with Jay when we talk and there's a few friends
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: that I have that are like this. We can go
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: from topic to topic without an announcement that the topic
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: is about to change. Some people are razzle dazzled, be like,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: oh what are we talking? About now, next thing, Keep up,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: keep up, you know. So we're able to to converse
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: about so many topics from here to there. Nothing is
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: too trivial, nothing is too high brow, and that's what
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: you want. I have a lot of virgo friends.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: You know, by the way, and be nothing wrong with
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: a good virgo.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, nothing wrong with a good virgo. My man is
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: a virgos.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: Watch he's had a couple of done him dirty, the
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: ones he picks. O.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 5: Is that right?
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: Don't say it like that.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 5: Now, you got a new children's book coming up with
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 5: a band band?
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, well we'll say that because we're coming
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: at the end of the year when we're back with that.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: Well sure, but Van Van is such she's so special. Yeah,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: she's with our management firm. She's so special, you know.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: Sometimes talking with her, I'll forget. Matter of fact, we
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: had lunch with them not too long ago, and there
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: was something that was written and she said, what is that?
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: And I said it? And she said what is that word?
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: And I said it. I said, do you know what
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: that means? She says no, And then I tell her
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: what it means. And it just dawned on me that
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: she doesn't read because she's just entering into kindergarten years old. Right, Yes, well,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: she has full on conversations with.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: You handling our contracts. Oh I need.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you. She is so on top of
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: her game. I'm so excited about her career and her
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: life and what's ahead of her. And it's really a
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: blessing to be involved with her career at this stage.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: And her family are so loving and they're both educators.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: And you know, when I look back at MC's and
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: who have had parents as educators, there's so many of us,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: from Heavy to Law to Common and Kanye, and it's
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: quite a bit of us. So I think she's got
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: so much going for her. I'm excited.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 5: And what is Sunny Girl Ink?
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: That is the management and production firm that we have
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: got you, doctor Lynn Richardson, and I matter of fact,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: Sunny Girl was just a loan out company in the beginning,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't until she came on as COEO and
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: asked me what did I want to do? And I said,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: I want to make this a full fledged management company
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: and she said okay, And so we've worked at it
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: and it's one of my proudest moments to be involved
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: with the career of others.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 4: Has the mc lighte story been properly told you?
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 5: No? Do you want to tell it? Sure?
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: I've had some documentarians, you know, We've taken meetings and
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. So I think when the right person
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: is there, I think it'll all kind of flow. Westbrook
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: is looking at doing the scripted version, so I don't
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: know what might come first.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: Are you performing this weekend?
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: I'm performing this week on Saturday. We've moved the show.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: Is this when you came back to New York's disgusting?
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: See? I do. I did have a really great day
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: yesterday the sun was out. But in any case, we're
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: going to be a Cony Island amphitheater. So I'm excited.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: We got some folks in the house. The god rock
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: Him is coming through, and Tretch and low La Brook
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: is gonna show up. We had a chance to meet,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: uh maybe a year ago, I think, yeah, yeah. And
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: then we've got oh E. P. M. D Is coming
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: and we've got a couple of surprises as well. So
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to be in New York specifically, b K.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 4: Who ows you like when like when you walked into
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 4: I literally bowed to you like, who who who makes.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 5: You feel like that?
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: Who bows to me?
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: I to you? But who makes you feel that like.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: I want to bow? Always rock him? He's so he's
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: so who he says he is, which I can appreciate.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: Kress One. Will, Yeah, Will and Will and Jada have
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: been so supportive of my career. And I remember there
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: was a time, like after the divorce, I would talk
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: to Will and he was like, light, just just keep
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: being that well of goodness, Just keep being that well
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: of goodness. And then I'd say, Oh, what am I
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: gonna do? What am I gonna do next? He was like,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: just sit in silence, it's gonna come to you. Just
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: just keep evolving into the best you that you can be.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: And you know, not too long after that, I got
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: the sitcom in the middle of the pandemic, and I
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: just was like God, you know, God is showing up.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: But they have definitely been there to remind me of
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: who I am and the power that I hold.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: M like the album let's play something off the album
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: what you want to hear?
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 5: King King k King King King King.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 4: All Right, Queen Latifa, we appreciate you, we love you,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 4: we value you, and we appreciate you MC like you
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: are an icon. You are one of the reasons that
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 4: we're even sitting in this studio because it's foundation that
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 4: people like you.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 3: Las one comes out in September. Yes, and make sure
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 3: you go pick it up and thank you again. It's
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 3: the Breakfast Club. It's empty light, wake that.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 5: Ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.