Latest / The Breakfast Club / Issa Rae’s Insecure Rewind Podcast ‘Block Party’ + Building Your Foundation & Remembering Your Why

Transcript

Issa Rae’s Insecure Rewind Podcast ‘Block Party’ + Building Your Foundation & Remembering Your Why · The Breakfast Club

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm a homegrowd that knows a little bit about everything
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and everybody.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: You know, if you don't lie about that, right, Lauren
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: can't even hot. Hey, y'all, what's up.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: It's Lauren Rosa And this is another episode of the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Latest with Laura l Rosa. This is genalitly dive on
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all things pop culture, entertainment, news, and all of the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: conversations that shake the room.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Baby, now we all know my low riders.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: We always start off with a behind the scenes of
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the grind checking and it is the start of the week.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: It is Monday, and you know, I think you know Monday.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: For me, it always symbolizes the chance to like start fresh,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: like no matter what it is that you do, no
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: matter what your profession is, you know what your focus is.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Daily Monday is like a new sense of like optimism.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I feel like Sundays are like the preparation for that
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: is like, Okay, you know Friday, you're still dealing with
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: whatever was throwing your way that week, you know, good, bad,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: or indifferent. Saturday put it behind you. You might be
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: out grab a drink. You're not really locked in to
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: all of the things. You're kind of like numb on
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: a Saturday. Sunday is the day where you really tap in. Okay,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: my week is about to start.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I want to.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Clean out this place so I can bring in what
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: this new week is going to usher. And then Monday, baby,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the ushers come out with the white gloves, the flat
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: shoes in the church and the hats okay, and usher
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: in all the new things, all the new blessings and
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: new lessons of a new week. And for me, I'm
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: always excited about new and what new is to come
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: in life in a week, in a month, and a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: day in an opportunity. But I do think that there
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: are things that you know as you're going into deeper
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: deeper into these new weeks, these new months, you know,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: deeper and deeper into whatever goals you have set for
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: yourself this year, and y'all know the years flying by
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: like summertime is here.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I think that, like foundation is important.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I talked to you guys on my last episode and
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: shout out to some of the low riders on X
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and Threads. I saw you guys discussing a bit about
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: what we talked in the behind the scenes of the
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: grind check in on X. One person tweeted me so
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Angellie Writing tweeted me shout out to Angelie riding one
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: of our low riders on X and she says, I
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: love seeing creatives grow in real time.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: At Lord on the Road said thanks for the transparency.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: And we talked a lot in that last in our
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: last episode, if you did not take a listen to
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the episode prior to this one before pressing that play button,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: make sure you go and press the play button on
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: that prior episode, after this one or before and come
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: on right back over.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Up to you. But we talked a lot about just
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: you know, building and trying to figure that out.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Man, how real that gets and what I'm experiencing in
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: real time, and you know, and I think, my big
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: you know thing, I'm learning a lot of while doing
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: all of that. It's like no matter, you know, the
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: new team that you build, the new opportunities you walk into,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the new rooms you walk into, whether they're going good
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: or not. Foundation is important, and foundation comes with a
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: lot of discipline, a lot of different discipline. And foundation
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: also comes with a lot of honesty and accountability execution.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: But it also comes with like understanding.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: That you know, direction is important, and I think sometimes
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: you know, when you're creative, when you're a dreamer, when
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you're a person getting up every day to accomplish anything,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: even if it's just getting your kids to school on time.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I think sometimes like we forget to think about like
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: what the overall, you know, big picture of the stuff is,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Like we're just focused on that one thing, Like all right,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I got to get the kids to school on time.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I got to make it to work on time.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I got this presentation at work, and I'm just trying
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: to get through it and impress my boss.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: I you know, I'm me.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: I'm preparing for my segments the night before I get
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to work the next day.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Yo, I just want to nail these segments.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I want the room to love what were talking about,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: a love of conversation, and then boom onto the next day.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: But as I began to just navigate different things in
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: my personal life and career, I think a lot of
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: what I'm learning is like things can't just be like
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: one thing onto the next. You'll never build a real
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: foundation that way. And when I say foundation, I don't
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: mean like a nonprofit organization or a business or anything.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I mean like an actual foundation, Like you think about
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: a house, like what is your house built on that
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: is going to keep the structure of your home there
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and appreciating and growth and value and you know best
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: protecting all the people that you bring into your house.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And I made the example of like, you know, us
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: just preparing for something and it done whether we do
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: well at it or not. But normally if you do
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: well at it, it's easier for you to just be
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: like did that all right?
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: That period? Move on.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I brought that up because one of the things that
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I had had a very heavy thought about today and
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I was like, I know that this is God and
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: everything that I'm doing, I gotta go back to like
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: always remembering like what, like what is the end goal?
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Like we are here now and we are doing things,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: but what is that end goal? And there was a
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: time where you know, this happens with anybody doing anything,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: like when you first get into something or start doing
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: something or even like a new relationship, everything is so
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: like you know, you're wide open and you know, googly
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: eyes and all the things, so you're not really thinking
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: too much about what you were thinking about before you
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: had that new thing, Like you know, all of the yo,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: if I just get this shot, here's what I really,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: you know, want to stand for. Here's the message I
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: really want to put out into the world. Here's the
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: laying of growth I really want to see for myself.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Here's a legacy I want to leave. Or in a relationship,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: here's the way I really next time. Here's how I'm
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: going to love a person. And then you get the person,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: or you get the opportunity and you in it and
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: you feeling like that for a while, and then things switch,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: things happen, But it's always about remembering what that original
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: why was and that once you have those conversations with yourself,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I think you know, the foundation building isn't easy.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie to y'all. This stuff is not
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: easy whatsoever.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Especially shout out to all my first generation people out there.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: And I'm not an immigrant, I don't mean first generation
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: to the country, but y'all too, I'm just not in
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: that you know, pool of people. When I say that,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: people always think I'm saying that like I'm a first
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: generation citizen.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: When I say first generation, I mean first generation, like
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: of success level, first generation college grad Like there's a
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: lot of things that I'm doing that you know, my
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: immediate family has never witnessed.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: So I'm figuring things out in real time.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: And before I had a lot of these things to
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: figure out, I knew like, all right, when I get
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: this shot, here's how I'm gonna run this up.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Here's how I'm gonna do this.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: And now when you get in it, you accomplish a
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: lot of those goals and it's like, oh but wait,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: you got to sustain it. You gotta make this make
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: sense so that you know, next generation coming behind you
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: ain't got a ABC and D.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: So that's a lot to figure out.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: And as I'm having these conversations trying to build team
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and you know, all these things, that stuff is so
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: important to me because I want people aligned with what
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: that goal is for myself, you know. And that's what
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I'm saying, like it's so important to be able to
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: kind of like take a step back out of everything
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: when you get a chance to schedule that time, like
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I scheduled time for myself this weekend and even next
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: weekend to know that like, Okay, I ain't gonna be
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: doing much like even if I go, you know, to Delaware,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: be with my family. Even that in a sense helps
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: me always remember, like you know before things are moving
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: so fast where you kind of couldn't take a second
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: to sit.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: And think what were you thinking of? What was the goal?
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: What were you saying you needed to be disciplined in
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and why? Like get back to the essence of the
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: why and then understanding that will help you bring in
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the right people.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: You know, at least on face value hiring firing is
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: a thing.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: But yeah, like, man, everything is growing pains and I
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: am actively going through it. But this isn't a whate
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: was me conversation about that at all? Like I'm actually
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: like excited to be going through this. I feel like
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: it signals growth. It signals like I said, that started
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: a week. How that fresh feeling is if it signals
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: that for me, Like, Okay, new levels mean you know,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: new people coming in me, new levels, new opportunity, new
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: things that we'll get to do together.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: So I'm excited.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: If anybody else is going through this in real time
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: in their life, I want to hear from y'all. Lauren
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: l Rosa lo r e n l O r O
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: SA everywhere y'all know the behind the scenes of the grind.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Checking for me is a chance to really sit down
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: and just kind of put all the thoughts together that
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I've had circulating in my head for the last like
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours, but also to really just check in
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: on myself because I know I don't take the time
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: to do it, so I do it here with y'all, hopefully,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: because I'm reflecting. Y'all love reflecting with me and really
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: taking the time every day when you listen to the
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Latest with Laura La Rosa, are really checking on yourself
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: as well too.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Now let's get on into the latest, man.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I watched a podcast that really just made me, y'all
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: talking about like figuring things out for the first time
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and your why and your purpose and just all of
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: those things for real, but also being an artist and
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: also having something to say. I watched the Insecure rewind
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: podcast Ray that Ester Ray just drop and she dropped
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: this podcast with Princess Penny, who was you know, her
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: right handing and everything they did with Insecure the show
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: on HBCU Wow on HBO, And I was sitting there.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: For that hour like I need this podcast so bad.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: So on its surface, this podcast and a podcast is
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: called block Party b l occ Party, and anybody that
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: watched Insecure will understand why that name is so reminiscent
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: of you know who. We watched c D grow into
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: on the show and all of her life journey as
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: she was figuring out foundation and all the things.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: It's an Insecure we.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Watch podcast and they visit all of the moments from
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: the show that were like big moments and talk through them.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: But they also like revealed behind the scenes stories and
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: unpacked everything now ten years later and even reading that
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: has been ten years since Insecure drops. Insecure dropped on
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: October nineth, twenty sixteen on HBC Child I keep being
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: about to see, say HBCU. Insecure drops on October ninth,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen on HBO. It doesn't even feel like ten years,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Like I feel like ASA's affect of what she did
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: with Insecure, it's still so fresh and people are still
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: following that model or attempting to when creators are still
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: feeling real bold and you know out here like the
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: black creatives and storytellers and even just like the coloring
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: of black content. And when I say coloring, I mean
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: like the actual coloring, like the colors that you see
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: on the like the screen when you're watching watching it.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I feel like Insecure changed a lot of that for
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: how people were shooting black people, the angles, the like.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: It's just so much cinematically that it changed that I
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: still see today. So it still feels so fresh. There
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: was so much storyline wise that they changed that I
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: still see today. Even just having two black girls, brown
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: skinned black women as leads of a major network TV show, Like,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: there's still not a lot of that. So Insecure still
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: feels so freshly groundbreaking because it just it meant so
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: much at the time, and it's just I don't know
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: if she's still here, Like it doesn't feel like ten
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: years whatsoever. But yeah, so they sit down and they
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: had these conversations. They dropped their first episode. The first
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: episode was an hour long, and let me tell y'all something,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed every single minute of an hour. So we're
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: going to get into it. I think people don't talk
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: enough about well, I feel like I'm gonna say people
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: don't talk enough about the successive Insecure, But I just
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: went on for like twenty minutes about the successive Insecure.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: I think people talk about the.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Successive Insecure, but I don't know. I just want to
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: talk some more about it. So Insecure hit I remember.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Because I went to did he used to have these? Wow?
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Saying did he used to have and then leaving people
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: on a cliffhanger about what adventure about to mention is
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: crazy and twenty twenty six? But did he used to
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: have these Revolt conferences in Miami And it was literally
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: like a huge conference. He would bring all of the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: biggest up and coming creators, creators that.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Was you know, already up.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: It would be like a range, but like you could
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: walk around and literally just run into anybody, like celebrities,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the biggest producers in the music game, in the television game, EPs,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: executives like I remember going there and I just used
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: to walk around with like resumes for people for companies
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: that I was because at the time, I was like,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: you know, being an actual talent in the industry.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: I was like, man, everybody's trying.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: To do that's it's so hard to do and I
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: didn't really have a real or anything like that. I'm like,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: if if I could just use my degree to get
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: in an entertainment company, I work my way on camera
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: or wherever else. So I would go to the Revolt
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: conference and just try and figure it out, like anyway
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I could, like yo, who has a marketing team?
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Who has this?
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: But I remember the year that I graduated from college,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and mind you, I was so broke, Like the only
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: reason I was even able to go shout out to
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: my friend Brittany, who used to run a website called
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I Hate my Publicist dot com. God bless her. I
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: was only able to go because my friend Brittany. I
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: told her that I wanted to go. I couldn't afford
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the flight. I was out of college, not working whole,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: you know, marketing degree, but wanting to work in the
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: creative fields.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I was interned in New York and a.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Casting development the team for a major casting company.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: But I wasn't making any money. It was an internship.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: And she was like, I have extra points Southwest points
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: for flights. I'll get your flight and then we can.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: She was like, I already have a hotel room. Don't
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: worry about it. When you get it, just throw it
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: back to me. And I was like, are you serious
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: and she was like yeah. I was like, okay, cool.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: So I called my grandmother and I was like, Hey,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I'm going to this conference. It could really be helpful
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: with me finding a job. Can I borrow some money
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: to like get some clothes to go and like have
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: money while I'm there. So she yelled at me for
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: about an hour, but nonetheless she supported it, and I
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: went and I remember the panel. One of the panels,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: the first panels that I went to, was a panel
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: about people creating online, specifically on YouTube.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: And at the time, YouTube was so new.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: The first ever upload was published in April of two
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: thousand and five, and I believe this was what if
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: I graduated from college in twenty fourteen, so this had
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: to be like twenty fourteen, So YouTube was still you know,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: a couple some years knew, like people were still trying
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: to figure out how they were going.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: To use it.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: And honestly, I feel like it was more so people
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: outside of music artists. Like I feel like music artists
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: got it, they knew what to do with YouTube, but
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: everybody else, Like I remember, people were trying to figure
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: out like talk shows and stuff on YouTube, and that
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: was relatively new around the time that I graduated, shows
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: on YouTube and I was like unheard of.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: But Easter Ray had a show on YouTube called Aqua
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Black Girl.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, there was a lot going on on YouTube,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, but I feel like people still
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: didn't understand it, like you still had to explain it.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Like when I used to reach out for interviews on
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: YouTube when I first moved to LA, people thought that
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: I was insane and I was still submitting them to outlets,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: but people were like, what, You're not on like a
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: like a like a network, Like no, But she had
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: an Aqua Black Girl, and she was like, she wasn't
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: even famous at this point. People knew her because the
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: show was so like viral and people were starting to
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: like watch it, but she was not famous. And I
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: remember going to the panel and listening to her speak
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and listening to her talk about just trying to figure
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: out money and you know, all these things.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: In order to put Akua Black Girl on TV, and
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: it was just so fired.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: And then to see, you know, where she transitioned and
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: how the deal came to HBO, I felt like I
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: was a part of her journey. So when I say
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: people don't talk about Insecure success enough, I just feel
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: like people, unless you were like really closely watching Lisa
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: or you try to do it yourself, you don't understand
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: how hard it is to do what she did and
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: do it well to the point where like she's I mean,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: like Amy, not like you know, all these things have
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: happened for her and too her. Since I'll stand in
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: she was, you know, Prime Time Emmy Awards. I'll stand
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: in Comedy Series in twenty twenty. I'll Standing Lead Actress
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: in a Comedy Series. It's a Ray twenty eighteen, twenty twenty,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. These are all nominations. Notable nominations. I
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: was Standing Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Jaron Rigi,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: who plays Molly Insecure, Golden Globes Best Performance by an
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Actress in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy Eater Ray
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, and twenty twenty two. I mean,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: the list goes on and on and on and on
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: and on. There's been NAACP Image Awards nods as well too,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Like I am just always in awe of her, so
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: listening to this podcast and hearing her break it down,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: the first thing that they come out the gate swinging
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: with is the fact that Tony.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Rock was supposed to direct the show.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I cannot imagine Insecure with Tony Rock directing it.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Let's take a listen, because Lisa couldn't either.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Like, HBO really wanted Chris Rock to direct because he
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: was fresh off Top five. It was fresh off Top five,
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: but he was based in New York, and I was
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: very much like, this is an LA show. And they
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: flew me out as my first time ever flying first
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: class to go meet him. He was staying in like
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: the Amandarin hotel, and he was also like freshly going
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: through a divorce, and you know, I was initially excited
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: about the process back because I love Top five.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Obviously Chris Rock is a legend.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: But when we met, there was like a couple of
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: things that were evident, and so I left.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: I spent the night in that.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: Let's just hotel, put on the road and slippers and
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: just kind of like like, oh no, they really want this,
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: and I don't think he's he wants this and he's
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: ready for it right now.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: And so when I flew back, it was also we
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: can shoot in New York, yes, and fake LA for
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: New York. Yeah, fake New York for LA, which is
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: like you can't. Yes, he wanted to fake New York
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: for LA.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: He was like, we'll shoot the exteriors in LA, but
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: everything else can be in and I was like, but
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: their window, Like, but I don't want to show off
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: LA and what about exteriors?
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Went back to HBO. They were like, how did it go?
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: He seemed like it went well, he's he's into it,
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: and I was like, oh, man, great, and I was
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: telling my managers. I was like, yeah, I don't think
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: he's right. And I talked to you and I was like,
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: this is this just doesn't feel right. And so ultimately
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: you said that brilliant thing where you were like things
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: have a way of working themselves out.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: And I was like cool.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: And I remember I still called him and I went
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: to voicemail and when I hung up, he had called
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: me at the same time, left me a voicemail and
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: was like, Hey, I'm going through a lot right now.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: You know, I just want to let you know, like
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: thank you for considering for the pilot, but like I
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: just can't.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: And I was like, but I do think that it's
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: a testament to Lisa.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Again, we go back to what we opened up this
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: podcast episode with with understanding like what was the reason
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: in the beginning, and her really understanding what her reason was,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: what her story is she wants to tell and stick
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: it to that now it worked out where she didn't
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: have to break Chris Rock's heart and let's take a
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: listen to how God worked that all out.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: And then years later the show aired, was in Atlanta
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: at a party and Insecure was like in a second,
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: second season, and I saw him. He look great, he
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: look happy, and he was like, yo, Insecure is great.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, man, thank you so much.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: That means a lot coming from you. He was like,
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: I want to fuck your shit up. I was like, validation,
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: thank you so much, Chris, thank you for me Chris
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: to like admit that that's that's do you know what's
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: funny about that story you just told, which I do
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: think is specific to I think the way black people
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: sometimes have to move in this business versus our counter
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: our counterparts.
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: Which is sometimes when you like like you think you
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: just have to kind of accept what they tell you.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and because you're so like.
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: I got this opportunity, I don't want to mess it up,
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: so even if I don't feel it's right, I'm kind
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: of going along with something I know kind of in
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: my gut isn't right. But whereas sometimes our counter are like, no,
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: I'm not doing that, and there's no blowback to it.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: But we have to think a lot of times if
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: I say this now, how is that this? Am I
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: gonna come across?
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Like this?
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: You got to do all this battles.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Yes, I have to decide like okay, I'll accept this
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: now so that maybe I'll be granted grace later to
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: get this you know other And you still operate like that,
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: but when something is so clearly wrong, like you just
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: have to speak.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Up man, like.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: I, yeah, I can't even imagine happy to be the
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: person that would have made that phone call if it
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: did not work out like that, Like I literally cannot
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: even imagine that, because you hear eas to say. Even today,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: there are times where you got to take certain things
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: on a chin because you're like man, as a black
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: creative in this space, in this entertainment realm doing all
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: these things now, especially at a high level where she's at.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: You know, you feel like all right, like if I
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: don't do this this way, the opportunity will be going.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: That is such an anxiety point, Like you're always thinking
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: about if I wake up tomorrow and because of one decision,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: one no one whatever or all of this just stops.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: And I think anytime Black people are in a space
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: where we're being treated as a unicorn, either because we
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: are because at that level, the others haven't seen it
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: yet because we know we're not like we know it
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: would be hella us. Like you know, you can think
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: of people in your life right now that have been
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: dope at what they're doing.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: They just don't have the platform.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: But to a certain extent, I think success is really
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: garnered because it's like there are a lot of people
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: that are talented that can do something.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: But.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Everybody that there's like an it factor that everybody doesn't have,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: and I think everybody's IT factor for the people who
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: have it, it's completely different than the next person's.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: So to a certain extent, you are kind of a unicorn.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: But I hate saying that about black people because it's
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: like I don't know, I just don't like the whole
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: like black people and we got to be magic to
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: make it work. But anyway, I digress. There's I don't know,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: there's such a pressure point at that like when you're
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: succeeding at a certain level, you know, as a black person,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: as a space in a space, or even if it's
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: just not like a black person in a space. When
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: you are extremely successful in a space and you're doing
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: it at a certain level, and you're accomplishing things for
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: a company or within you know, a certain area of
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: your life, there's a pressure to top yourself but also
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: to keep it.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Going because things change around that success.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Your lifestyle changes, the bills change, the people depending on
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: you change, the way you look at yourself changes. Your
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: level of here's what I can accomplish, so here's what
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I have to keep accomplishing changes.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Right, So now.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: You're trying to figure this all out on a whole
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: different you know what I mean, a whole different situation,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: like completely different. And it's more so like the conversation
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: about like upkeep, but also understanding that like there's always
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: this feeling of like I might not get let back in.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Now they talk a bit about the casting, and I
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: thought that this was important to include because I think
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: that this was another really brave now I'm sticking to
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: my guns moment by Isa Ray where she talked about,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: you know, even with keeping her molly as the leads
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: of the show, was intentional and say a listen.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: I had a very I had very specific types in mind,
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: you know, like again this is based off of a
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: real best friend of mine, and so my best friend
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: is actually a dark skinned, beautiful black woman, straight hair,
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: like I had a specific archetype, and I remember, you know,
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: even in casting choices, I was very specific. I was like,
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: I don't want to do the oh, dark skinned, light
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: skin combination that's always in these black shows. I'm like,
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: these are two dark skin leads because this is true
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: to life.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: And I was very specific.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: About that and that, you know, casting would still send
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: scent tapes and I'd be like.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: No, no shade.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: But I was just like, I'm just not looking at
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: I'm looking at this. And then for Lawrence, I was open.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: But do you remember our first casting me we met
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: with these initials when were interviewing casting directors. The first
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: ones that we interviewed were like, we're thinking of for Lawrence,
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: like a j Ellis type, and I was like, he's
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: like kind of too handsome, and I was like nah,
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: And we ended up not hiring those casting directors and
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: we went with Vicky Thomas and Crew and Jay and
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: Ellis ended up auditioning and I was still like.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: M he's great, but.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: And then that was still in my mind. But casting
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: generally and getting ahead of myself. Like outside of Molly,
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: I was generally open, but I wanted to have like
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: real people, definitely not celebrities.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Man, I was watching this video on Instagram. It came
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: across my feet. There's an adult photographer. I believe he's
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: out of la His name is jp W Photo. I've
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: actually like, I've been following him for some time. He
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: has really really dope work. So he posted this video.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: We're going to play some of the audio, but I
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: want to give you guys some context since you can't
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: actually see it. So in the video he has Aknook,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: who is a world famous supermodel. At this point, we
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: have Drew Ski, we have Ryan Coogler, and we have
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Keky Palmer, and he's talking about you know how bold,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: new and fresh you have to be as a creative
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: during his time because you're learning in front of the world.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: We're also building empire and business. And it really made
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: me think of Asa Ray. Let's tay, I listen to
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: the video and then we'll come back.
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: Why not you, Seriously, what if I told you that
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: you could be up next? Because when I saw drews
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: keys Erka Kirk video which Tid me die laughing. It
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: made me realize something that the next generation of icons
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: is already here, and we're literally watching those icons get
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: built in real time. We probably just don't realize it
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: yet because we're living in it. But years from now,
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: people are going to look back at this era the
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: same way we look back at generations before us. And
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: I think what's so refreshing about somebody like Drewski is
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: that he's willing to go the extra mile with his
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: bits and takes the risks comedically because he's at hungry
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: and that hunger really matters because a lot of the
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: legends that came before us, they were hungry too, but
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: they built what they needed to build. They became icons, millionaires,
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: they build empires, businesses, families, they're put up and the
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: legacies are now cemented. Now it's time for this generation
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: to push things forward, and you can see that shift
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: happening everywhere, especially in this digital space, And honestly, I
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: think it's beautiful watching the torch get pass with grace
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: and going back to creating lineage. I think about the
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: lineage of like Eddie Murphy or Martin Lawrence, Ta Drewski
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: or Angela Bassett, t Kiki Palmer or Spike Lead to
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: Ryan Coogler or Naomi Cambell to a Nakii.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it really made me think of Ray because
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: I mean I modeled when people ask me, like, you know,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: who are people that you look at in the industry
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and doing things that you want to do.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: She's always wanted to people that I name.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: It has been for a long time, and even not
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: just because of her professional accolades, Like I feel like
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: just her as a person, I've never met her in person.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: If this episode gets the East or anybody that knows her,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I would love to meet her and would love to
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: sit down and interview her anything, even if she don't
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: want to get on camera interview, would just love to
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: shadow her for a.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Day, a week or two.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: I just think she's one of the brilliant minds, because
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: I do think that it you know, it's it's like
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: we have a new genre and era of celebrity, and
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: with this new era and genre, not even just celebrity,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: but a new era and genre of business men and women,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: of professionals of shoot like anything that exists in what
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: people are successful at, like painters, dentist, therapists, psychiatrists, like
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: everything is different nowadays because everything is hyper social media
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: and hyper internet, and all of social media and internet
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: is driven off of people and clicks and which results
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: into ads and engagement, which equal the way that people
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: make their money. So because of that, there is such
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: a hyper you know need to critique and have conversations
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: online and do all these things. So it's like you're
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: literally learning this new space as you go in front
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: of the world, as the world is critiquing you very
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: very loudly, which also can affect either in a negative
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: or positive way your dollar unless you learn how to
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: fail and achieve in front of the world and use
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: all of it to teach yourself things and build a business.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: And I feel like it takes very strong people to
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: be able to do that on a high level, right,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: because I mean I'm talking about like Drew Ski, Kiki Palmer, right, Like.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: These are people. Drew Ski has skits.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: That are viral like every other month, every month, and
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I mean viral to the point where like Fox News,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Pundits and CNN and us over here on the pop
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: culture side or having it like he causes conversation that
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: like literally shakes the world today from an Instagram and
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: YouTube upload of a sketch comedy by the way, right,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: But that is what comedy did years and years ago
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: and does with a lot of people nowadays, with like
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the Dave Chappelle's you know, but like he's doing it
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: in a very different way than the Dave Chappelle came
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: up doing it. So he's learning so much in real
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: time while also filtering out critique, noise or whatever, but
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: saying very true to his core and to his process
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: of always remembering the game plan, like what was the
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: game plan in the beginning, what was the appeal?
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Why was it that? Where do I live in all
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: of this? Like, you know, because now things are changing,
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: But like.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: I am who I always been, and how do I
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: continue to express that but elevate the way that I
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: do it in the look and in the conversation, right,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: and in the things that I tackle. Ray for me
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: is a person that would I would totally throw her
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: in this conversation because everything she's figuring out to do.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Even with this podcast like Living Single, you know, they
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: had to rewind podcasts as well, hosted by Kim Coles
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: and Erica Alexander, and I thought that that was amazing
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: because we love and breathe those shows, and we don't
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: know if we don't get any more of living single
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: on camera, but at least we can get the podcasts
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: and talk through it with the cast. And I think,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: you know, if I'm I'm just inferring here, but I'm
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: assuming Ray saw something like that understood the value of it,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: just because number one of she always seems like she's
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the person that wants to inspire the next creator, but
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: also she loves the art, and I feel like her art,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: even if she doesn't know it, teaches other people. So
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: it's taken back to her like why of things like
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: when I first discovered Ray on YouTube with Aqua Black Girl,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: not only was she doing Aqua Black Girl, but her
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel Even then she would platform other series that
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: were like smaller series so that she could like showcase
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: up and coming actors, writers, directors. I know she just
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: dropped and this was years ago, she just did you know,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: just this year dropped a short whole series on TikTok
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: that is doing extremely well. So again always going back
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: to like what was the plan from the beginning, but
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: being able to remember that while building a foundation by
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: doing all of it in public, while building real business
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: that leverages beyond just one or two vibral moments. Y'all,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: you're gonna need to really sit down and relax every
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Sunday and be optimistic about every Monday when you really
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: lean into that bad because there's a lot that comes
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: with it. To who much is given, much is required. Well,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: that conversation is live and full. If you guys want
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: to go and check it out with a Princess Penny
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: on YouTube, it is called block Party b l o
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: cc party. It's on the Hooray Media YouTube channel. That's
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: rays production Company Media Company, so go check it out.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I'm Laura l Rosa again. This has been another episode
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: of the Latest with Laura l Rosa.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: This is your daily dig, you.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Know, all things pop culture, entertainment, news, and all of
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the conversations that shake the room. Baby. I tell you guys,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: every episode, y'all could be anywhere with any old body
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: talking about all of these things. But y'all choose to
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: be right here with your girl, and I appreciate you.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: I'll catch you in my next episode.