Latest / The Breakfast Club / Janelle Monae and Jidenna Interview

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Janelle Monae and Jidenna Interview · The Breakfast Club

0:01
Speaker 1: Real people, real celebrity join the Breakfast Morning. Everybody is
0:08
Speaker 1: DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlomane, that guy. We all the
0:10
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club special guests in the building with us this morning. Guests,
0:13
Speaker 1: I should say, mister Nell Mune and you brought your artists.
0:16
Speaker 1: That's because you can't pronounce the good morning. How y'all doing.
0:25
Speaker 1: It's good to see you in your Instagram. I saw
0:28
Speaker 1: you taking yoga. That's why I said, now I'm at Yes,
0:31
Speaker 1: I'm right there. All right, what's your dinner? From everywhere?
0:38
Speaker 1: From from a lot of places. Okay, yeah, I'm not
0:40
Speaker 1: an army brat, but I was born in Wisconsin, grew
0:43
Speaker 1: up in Nigeria, Boston, California, working Atlanta, but I live
0:48
Speaker 1: in East flat Bush. It's confused. You look like you
0:50
Speaker 1: came out of the time, fresh out of the Malcolm
0:51
Speaker 1: X movie. Thank you. Yeah, that's I'll take that as
0:56
Speaker 1: a conflisolute. Let's plain your look to the people because
0:58
Speaker 1: you got the thing you got to. It was like
1:01
Speaker 1: a curl, the finger curl. You're ready to run for office? Yeah,
1:06
Speaker 1: I am what is that? That's a finger finger curl?
1:09
Speaker 1: You do that every morning? You finger it. I have
1:11
Speaker 1: to not like that curl. The curl absolutely yeah, I mean,
1:22
Speaker 1: I mean the look came out of studying the Gym
1:25
Speaker 1: Crow era. Honestly. Yeah, I feel like we live in
1:28
Speaker 1: the new Gym Crow right now. You know, the media
1:30
Speaker 1: is really catching wind of it, but it's been going
1:32
Speaker 1: on for a long time. So I just study how
1:34
Speaker 1: men really carried themselves in that era and then formed
1:37
Speaker 1: what we see now. You even got the pocket watch
1:39
Speaker 1: now I'm taking it's hard to pull that off. Yeah,
1:41
Speaker 1: you got to be a certain distinctive type of brother,
1:43
Speaker 1: a certain amount of elegance to pull off the big words.
1:48
Speaker 1: You always exactly, God, that was the classic man. That's
1:53
Speaker 1: your single right now? The classic What is the classic man?
1:56
Speaker 1: Classic man is a man who carries himself with dignity,
1:59
Speaker 1: a certain amount of poise, discretion, excellent taste. I meet
2:03
Speaker 1: a lot of classic man. I think you all a
2:05
Speaker 1: classic men as well. You know, I believe that it
2:12
Speaker 1: really is a celebration of integrity, and a lot of
2:18
Speaker 1: the ogs that I grew up admiring really held themselves
2:21
Speaker 1: in a certain regard, especially when I lived in la
2:24
Speaker 1: in South Central A lot of them, you know, they
2:26
Speaker 1: got their chest up like this button all the way
2:29
Speaker 1: up top. Those are the men that that really inspired me.
2:32
Speaker 1: I took it as a classy but you whooped somebody's
2:34
Speaker 1: ass hearing the song. Yeah, you're not afraid to roll
2:37
Speaker 1: up your sleep. You do a couple of curses out
2:38
Speaker 1: there that like, boy, I'm dressed up in I mean,
2:42
Speaker 1: that's how it's been, That's how that's how it's been.
2:44
Speaker 1: It's only recently, you know, hip hop era, that we
2:47
Speaker 1: started to dress down, if you will, right, And I
2:50
Speaker 1: just like that as a kid as a kid, like
2:52
Speaker 1: as a young and you dressed like that. Definitely not
2:55
Speaker 1: I wish I could say I did, but I definitely
2:57
Speaker 1: didn't know. I have my I have my fitted as
3:00
Speaker 1: you can. I have my Tim have my my. It
3:02
Speaker 1: wasn't a V neck back then. You just had a
3:05
Speaker 1: little T shirt jeans. That's why you shouldn't stereotype people,
3:07
Speaker 1: because you see the guy in Tim's and Jean sacking
3:09
Speaker 1: his pants like i'mna stan away from him. But he'd
3:11
Speaker 1: be the soft one. And absolutely Chas called himself to
3:16
Speaker 1: soften all the way through. I'm saying, Wonderland Record, that's
3:23
Speaker 1: your old label. Yeah, what made you want to start
3:25
Speaker 1: your own label. Well, I mean I came up from
3:27
Speaker 1: you know puff, um did he gave me my Okay? Sorry,
3:32
Speaker 1: look yes, so I'm ready to get back a lot
3:36
Speaker 1: of people helped me get to where I am, and
3:38
Speaker 1: I've always had my print, but we didn't have distribution.
3:41
Speaker 1: And so UM, once I felt like there was a
3:44
Speaker 1: void in in in having female business people who no
3:50
Speaker 1: talent when they see it um able to see visionary
3:53
Speaker 1: artists and see something remarkable like Jadenna. I wanted to
3:57
Speaker 1: make sure that I was the one leading the way
4:00
Speaker 1: for that, and so um, I spent a lot of
4:02
Speaker 1: time last year just really humbling myself like it would
4:06
Speaker 1: be Jadina and artists, a few other artists and we
4:09
Speaker 1: would literally just sleep on the floor, cook for each
4:12
Speaker 1: other and just write music and have conversations about the
4:16
Speaker 1: music industry, about minorities, about um, what was going on
4:20
Speaker 1: you know in today and how we could help. And
4:25
Speaker 1: as I humbled myself, um, I just a lot of
4:30
Speaker 1: great opportunities started to come to me. Not that it's
4:35
Speaker 1: just that I've always been a humble person, but you know,
4:37
Speaker 1: you just want to go back to the roots, like, okay,
4:40
Speaker 1: what does this mean? You know? I have great leadership qualities. Um,
4:45
Speaker 1: I'm in a very great place in my career where
4:48
Speaker 1: I'm releasing the music that I want to. I have influence.
4:51
Speaker 1: What else can I do? And so um, I've just
4:54
Speaker 1: been excited about Wonderland Records and what we're gonna do.
4:57
Speaker 1: How did you in the music industry? Actually I met
5:00
Speaker 1: Jordinna at a masquerade. I don't believe that. I believe
5:02
Speaker 1: that you were time traveling because you know what, and
5:05
Speaker 1: we can we can go exactly. You know what we
5:09
Speaker 1: are all We always have our clones, you know, so
5:12
Speaker 1: my clone did most definitely meet him in the gym
5:15
Speaker 1: crow era, But no, we really met at a masquerade
5:17
Speaker 1: on the West Coast. We invited you. I heard through
5:19
Speaker 1: my Space. Yep, through my Space. This is when I
5:22
Speaker 1: first I was about my business. That was when I
5:29
Speaker 1: was on my Yeah. So I've known him, I've known
5:32
Speaker 1: I've known Jordinna for years. So when we met, we
5:35
Speaker 1: met at the masquerade face paint. It was crazy and
5:40
Speaker 1: we ended up just filling our kindred spirits and understanding
5:44
Speaker 1: what our purpose was. And we've kept in contact and
5:46
Speaker 1: when I got into position to help him with his career,
5:50
Speaker 1: I did it. Now You've always had the Wonderland collective though,
5:53
Speaker 1: and so now doing the label? What made you decide,
5:56
Speaker 1: you know, to go with Epic with La Reid? Did
5:58
Speaker 1: you guys already have a relationship. Well, La had had
6:01
Speaker 1: been a fan of mine for a while and I
6:03
Speaker 1: had recently recently reconnected with him in an outcast show,
6:07
Speaker 1: and so, um, he was just really excited. He pushed
6:11
Speaker 1: me up on stage. He was like, I just you know,
6:13
Speaker 1: love you, and I want to figure out what we
6:15
Speaker 1: can do together. And when I reached out to him,
6:18
Speaker 1: uh and told him I had something very special, very
6:21
Speaker 1: special group of artists for him to meet, um, he
6:25
Speaker 1: instantly fell in love offered us to do this is
6:27
Speaker 1: because young man, right, he was not he was not playing.
6:36
Speaker 1: He was like, I'm not missing this opportunity to pass
6:39
Speaker 1: up an opportunity to be in business with you. No money. Now,
6:41
Speaker 1: when you said you first met, what you guys attracted
6:43
Speaker 1: to each other? Or was it just because somebody at
6:45
Speaker 1: your mid space and you go to parties, not just
6:47
Speaker 1: you know I want to hear his music? No attraction?
6:49
Speaker 1: Well I was performing at the party. He was also performed.
6:52
Speaker 1: So I was about my business then and I'm still
6:54
Speaker 1: about my business now. So with that said, what that said, No, no,
6:59
Speaker 1: what that said. When you have asked that if it
7:00
Speaker 1: was a man who was going to attracted to each other,
7:06
Speaker 1: I'm just asking question. Listen, Jodenna is nice looking, and
7:11
Speaker 1: any woman watching this right now, I hope y'all can
7:14
Speaker 1: see that and realize why I did sign him. But
7:17
Speaker 1: most importantly, again, visionary artists, people who have ideas as
7:22
Speaker 1: well as vision um. I think that what he's doing
7:24
Speaker 1: right now is going to be um something that the
7:28
Speaker 1: music industry and hip hop industry has not seen. He
7:32
Speaker 1: has a different perspective, his story is very unique, and
7:35
Speaker 1: the way that he tells his stories lyrically as a rapper, Yeah, okay,
7:44
Speaker 1: got crazy, But it seems like you can sing as
7:48
Speaker 1: well from the record I mean yeah, I mean, I
7:51
Speaker 1: mean that's where hip hop is now though, right it's
7:53
Speaker 1: all melodic, So I think that we are at a
7:58
Speaker 1: different phase in hip hop where the old school really
8:01
Speaker 1: did not embrace melody in the way that the new
8:04
Speaker 1: school is embracing it now. So absolutely, you know, I
8:08
Speaker 1: walked that line. I've heard you refer to your music
8:10
Speaker 1: as as swinky. That's usually a term reserve for fashion. Yeah,
8:14
Speaker 1: so what does swinky mean? Well, the music is called swank.
8:18
Speaker 1: Swanky means classy and funky, and so I believe swank
8:22
Speaker 1: to be a sound that's really the evolution the next
8:25
Speaker 1: stage of hip hop. It violates certain rules, like I said,
8:29
Speaker 1: like a full embrace of melody. Um. The culture really
8:33
Speaker 1: is about going to a party dressed to the nines,
8:36
Speaker 1: but then sweating out your dress, sweating out your suit.
8:42
Speaker 1: For some reason, would he'd be considered he's definitely swanky.
8:45
Speaker 1: You know. I think Outcast has a lot of a
8:50
Speaker 1: lot of that sound that really made you feel that vibe.
8:53
Speaker 1: I feel that there's Farrell Uh and jay Z, especially
8:58
Speaker 1: when they collapsed with make you feel that. So it's
9:00
Speaker 1: not something that comes out of nowhere, you know. I
9:03
Speaker 1: definitely respect everybody that that that inspired the sound and
9:07
Speaker 1: the culture. Now as by the way, it's different. It's
9:12
Speaker 1: not like you heard on radio before. And the video
9:14
Speaker 1: is too. The video was dope. But did you get
9:15
Speaker 1: nervous at all because it's it's not like it's it's
9:19
Speaker 1: not that bounced, it's not that that New York you
9:22
Speaker 1: know boom bat sound. No, no, no, no, we knew,
9:25
Speaker 1: we knew it was special, you know when we wrote it.
9:28
Speaker 1: I mean we wrote um Jor Dinner Road Classic Man.
9:31
Speaker 1: We were there when he was writing it, and the
9:34
Speaker 1: rest Nanna who's also part of the production team, and Roman,
9:39
Speaker 1: who was another artist on Wonderland Records. When they were
9:41
Speaker 1: writing it. We knew it was special, and that's what
9:43
Speaker 1: we move on. You know. We knew it was remarkable.
9:46
Speaker 1: We knew that we hadn't heard men speaking in that way,
9:50
Speaker 1: singing in that way, rapping in that way. And so
9:52
Speaker 1: I was excited because we were going to be bringing
9:54
Speaker 1: something special. Seem like a party all night in the
9:56
Speaker 1: student that seemed like that session it was, it really was.
9:59
Speaker 1: I mean everybody just got in. I mean we was
10:02
Speaker 1: fixing special drinks, reaching for each other. We had a
10:06
Speaker 1: good time during the process of writing, of writing this music,
10:09
Speaker 1: working on this EP. I picture like, did y'all all
10:12
Speaker 1: like stay in the house together. I don't know why
10:14
Speaker 1: I pictured this, but with Wonderland, I know you said
10:15
Speaker 1: you had to humble yourself and take it back to that,
10:18
Speaker 1: you know, sleeping on the floor. Was everybody there together
10:21
Speaker 1: for like months on the house we were we were
10:24
Speaker 1: it was in Wonderland, and we again literally on the floor,
10:30
Speaker 1: nobody slept in a bed. We were like, we're gonna
10:32
Speaker 1: take it back to the basics, and it really helped
10:34
Speaker 1: our process. I wouldn't even know Tuxedo. You know, nobody
10:38
Speaker 1: was was really them them themselves if the world perceived
10:41
Speaker 1: them to be. When we came into Wonderland, we just
10:43
Speaker 1: stripped that away and and we focused in on the
10:46
Speaker 1: music and the ideas and really collaborating with each other
10:49
Speaker 1: and not being afraid. Like I will say, this process
10:53
Speaker 1: in writing EPIS has made me a more experimental artist,
10:58
Speaker 1: Like I'm experimenting with new sounds, new ideas, new concepts.
11:01
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not really inspired to repeat anything that
11:05
Speaker 1: I've I've done. Um So, I'm excited for you guys
11:08
Speaker 1: to hear that too, because you guys super private. She
11:12
Speaker 1: had us in white tunics. Go, what the hell? We
11:17
Speaker 1: agreed we have gone one sixteen Street. You know what
11:21
Speaker 1: the tunic is? No, you know what it's really when
11:26
Speaker 1: everybody was wearing a quadruple XIL shirts, I mean, tunic
11:32
Speaker 1: is what that was trying to be. But we were
11:35
Speaker 1: all dressed, um in tunics on this in the grass
11:39
Speaker 1: in Wonderland. Um So we definitely feel because we didn't
11:42
Speaker 1: feel like who feels like you know, you go to
11:44
Speaker 1: bed at five in the morning trying to get dressed.
11:47
Speaker 1: It's just like where that. Sometimes we didn't bathe, We
11:50
Speaker 1: just kept we slept in that got up, we didn't.
11:53
Speaker 1: We were focused on ideas, we were focused on music.
11:56
Speaker 1: We were we were really saying, look, if we're gonna
11:58
Speaker 1: do this, we gotta do it. Don't come in here
12:01
Speaker 1: trying to flick your hair down. Don't don't. I don't
12:05
Speaker 1: mess up because we don't want to wash We didn't
12:07
Speaker 1: want to wash out the phone. We got to keep that.
12:11
Speaker 1: You keep that in the music. Now are you really
12:13
Speaker 1: are you ready for the stress of being an executive
12:15
Speaker 1: because you've been an artist and how artists can get
12:17
Speaker 1: this scrunt to it like when out? Sure? Um, I
12:22
Speaker 1: think that I've always known Like again, I've known Jadna.
12:27
Speaker 1: We have a duo named the Cotton Roman, same beauty.
12:31
Speaker 1: These have been my friends for a really long time.
12:33
Speaker 1: They've helped with my project. So it's it's organic um
12:36
Speaker 1: our relationship and I'm more like I'm in the music industry.
12:41
Speaker 1: I'm here if you need any questions answered, if you
12:44
Speaker 1: have any concerns, and I just want to also say
12:46
Speaker 1: that it was inspired by a dream that we had. Um.
12:49
Speaker 1: There was a dream that we had that we were
12:52
Speaker 1: swimming to this boat and all of us, all of us, yeah,
12:57
Speaker 1: we well, Nate the producer, Um brought it to us
13:01
Speaker 1: and we just kept we kept talking about like water,
13:04
Speaker 1: water kept coming up in our minds, and there was
13:05
Speaker 1: this dream that we had of the artist swimming and
13:09
Speaker 1: we were all swimming to this boat and no artists,
13:12
Speaker 1: no person was going to be left behind. And this
13:14
Speaker 1: was before I had talked This was a year before
13:16
Speaker 1: I talked to La Read. So we were not even
13:18
Speaker 1: thinking about a label deal. We were just saying, as
13:21
Speaker 1: a collective, we wanted to create more water to redefine
13:24
Speaker 1: the creative you know, the creative waters within the music industry.
13:29
Speaker 1: And so when we got that offer with LA it
13:33
Speaker 1: then no, no, no, I'm skipping. Then a year later
13:35
Speaker 1: we went to Mexico and literally had a water experience
13:40
Speaker 1: where all of us were there. We got stung by jellyfish.
13:43
Speaker 1: We were trying to swim. It was a mess. Yes,
13:46
Speaker 1: And so the dream kind of happened, and it taught us,
13:49
Speaker 1: you know, there were people who couldn't swim as much
13:51
Speaker 1: as others. They hadn't felt what it felt like to
13:53
Speaker 1: get stung by jellyfish. We had to put each other
13:55
Speaker 1: on our backs and like some people were dipping each
13:57
Speaker 1: other down in the water, just trying to help every
14:00
Speaker 1: about to get to land because we all were freaking out.
14:02
Speaker 1: We were freaking audition to go through. You got to
14:08
Speaker 1: go through. Because one of one of the things that
14:12
Speaker 1: um I had actually talked to, had the opportunity to
14:14
Speaker 1: meet Jimmy Aben and I talked to him and he said,
14:16
Speaker 1: you guys, don't don't mess up the vibe that you guys.
14:19
Speaker 1: They're gonna be people who say, you know, oh such
14:22
Speaker 1: and such, we can do this for you, or you're
14:24
Speaker 1: not doing this right. Let you should leave them. And
14:26
Speaker 1: you know that's what happens in the music industry. People
14:28
Speaker 1: want to divide, and those experiences taught us that we
14:31
Speaker 1: have to We came here together. We got to stick together.
14:33
Speaker 1: When you see your brother or sister, you know, off
14:36
Speaker 1: message or just out not remembering what we're doing this for,
14:40
Speaker 1: it's up to you to put them on your back
14:42
Speaker 1: and take them to land. Don't let them drown. Do
14:44
Speaker 1: you get to save money because you got an expensive
14:46
Speaker 1: habit over there, like sneakers are like, that's an expensive habit.
14:52
Speaker 1: You hear a little very well kept thank you that
14:57
Speaker 1: you know, it looks a lot more expensive than the
15:01
Speaker 1: The style developed from thrift shops and thrifting. I couldn't
15:04
Speaker 1: keep up with the trends. Everybody's spending sixty seventy dollars
15:07
Speaker 1: on T shirts nowadays, so I was like, okay, let
15:09
Speaker 1: me do something else. Go to thrift shops. You see
15:12
Speaker 1: a suit, buy that suit for five ten dollars. You
15:16
Speaker 1: go upstate, though, up state in New York, not here nowadays, Buffalo.
15:19
Speaker 1: You gotta go up up go to Canada if you can,
15:23
Speaker 1: you get that suit, and you really spend money on
15:26
Speaker 1: the on the local tailors, you know, a little mom
15:29
Speaker 1: and pop shop, and all of a sudden, you've only
15:31
Speaker 1: spent bout fifty dollars and you have yourself a new suit.
15:34
Speaker 1: So it looks a lot a lot more expensive than
15:37
Speaker 1: it is. All the suits, the majority of the suits
15:39
Speaker 1: that I wear were designed and styled by Whipper Wiley,
15:43
Speaker 1: who's on my team, and a lot of the pocket
15:46
Speaker 1: squares and the ties were designed by Kittery. So it's
15:49
Speaker 1: it's it's predominant in house. I am co designed. I'm
15:54
Speaker 1: not a stylist, but but I got style. Now is
15:58
Speaker 1: the true that you have a slogan coming dry and
16:00
Speaker 1: leave what almost it's come dry and leave wet. Put
16:04
Speaker 1: that kind of pressure on you, don't just selling opiate? Right? Well,
16:13
Speaker 1: we have soires that we that we host and in
16:16
Speaker 1: those at those choires, we have women coming in backless dresses.
16:20
Speaker 1: We have men coming in knickers, and they come dressed
16:23
Speaker 1: to the nines and they come dry. But we want
16:26
Speaker 1: to make sure you sweat. Yeah, our generation where I'm
16:34
Speaker 1: like using the three am category of your mind. You know,
16:39
Speaker 1: it's all about our generation really letting loose. And that's
16:42
Speaker 1: what Wonderland. That's why I'm at Wonderland Records, because Wonderland
16:45
Speaker 1: is not afraid to let loose. Yeah. You know, you
16:48
Speaker 1: go to the party. Everybody turned up for like two
16:50
Speaker 1: seconds and last in the check they fall. It's it's yeah,
16:55
Speaker 1: and we we don't we don't know what it's like.
16:57
Speaker 1: I listen to my sisters, they're talking about the eighties,
16:59
Speaker 1: the seventies, my mom talking about the sixties. Everybody used
17:03
Speaker 1: to really actually cut loops, so that's what comes dry
17:06
Speaker 1: leave wet means. So you said it the closest to expensive. None.
17:08
Speaker 1: If I'm going to the trip stop by the fifty
17:10
Speaker 1: dollars too, I'm not afraid it's worth that right, right
17:12
Speaker 1: exactly now. In the video in your video, there's a
17:14
Speaker 1: scene where cops are harassing or rest and a young
17:17
Speaker 1: African right, and you guys walk up. What does that represent?
17:22
Speaker 1: It represents what's going on and has been going on
17:24
Speaker 1: in New York City, and you stopped the cop and
17:26
Speaker 1: started talking to the cop during the rest. I said, man, yeah,
17:29
Speaker 1: it's going bad well, and I don't think it ended bad.
17:33
Speaker 1: I hope it didn't have that in the video. It
17:35
Speaker 1: hasn't ended bad badly in my life. You know, I've
17:38
Speaker 1: I've often found friends on the police force, you know,
17:43
Speaker 1: the officers that I think really represent that job to
17:48
Speaker 1: the fullest. I do think it's a very noble and
17:51
Speaker 1: honorable profession if if done righteously. Right, I think the
17:57
Speaker 1: issue we're having nowadays is just at the institu Tuan
18:00
Speaker 1: has been militarized and so that we feel that we're occupied.
18:03
Speaker 1: You know, I'm in East Flatbush, I'm hearing the rad
18:06
Speaker 1: siren and we're in We're not in Palestine. Uh, And
18:11
Speaker 1: I'm feeling I'm I'm you know, it's it's designed to
18:15
Speaker 1: scare you. Now, do you think that African Americans, young
18:17
Speaker 1: African Americans should dress differently? You know, because you know,
18:20
Speaker 1: when I'm looking at the video, I'm looking at the
18:22
Speaker 1: guy in the video, he has a hood in jeans,
18:24
Speaker 1: baggy and you know, and then I look at you
18:26
Speaker 1: walk up. Do you feel that we should dress more
18:29
Speaker 1: respectful and look a little better as as young African
18:31
Speaker 1: America have been taken you there simply because you had
18:34
Speaker 1: a suit on. There's a lot of things you can
18:36
Speaker 1: get away with when you wear a suits. But I
18:38
Speaker 1: don't think that everybody should dress in suits. I think
18:40
Speaker 1: you should dress how you feel comfortable. You know. It's
18:43
Speaker 1: it's it's better to walk and carry yourself and whatever
18:46
Speaker 1: it makes you feel comfortable. For me, a suit suits me.
18:49
Speaker 1: But for the young Latino and African American Uh boy
18:54
Speaker 1: in the video and for the ones that I've actually
18:56
Speaker 1: worked with in New York and other cities, they can
18:58
Speaker 1: wear what they want. But people, you should be aware
19:01
Speaker 1: of that people are gonna perceive you a certain way.
19:04
Speaker 1: But in no way, shape or form. I think a
19:06
Speaker 1: classic man has to dress in a three piece suit.
19:08
Speaker 1: It's much more important that you you you carry yourself.
19:13
Speaker 1: So you can wear a V neck and jeans and
19:15
Speaker 1: Tim's in a fitted Yankee cap and you're a classic man.
19:20
Speaker 1: You can wear a mechanic outfit and you could still
19:23
Speaker 1: be a classic man and has nothing to do with
19:26
Speaker 1: the price of your garment. Has everything to do with
19:31
Speaker 1: your character. Absolutely, Yeah, you do. Do you do yoga?
19:34
Speaker 1: Would you know? I do? You know? She's taught me
19:36
Speaker 1: some new moves tree pose. All I knew was the
19:40
Speaker 1: downward dogar. I mean that's what got me on something new.
19:46
Speaker 1: For about the last year, I really got into it. It
19:49
Speaker 1: It was one of the rituals we did when we
19:51
Speaker 1: were working on working on the compilation, and we would
19:56
Speaker 1: get up, some of us would would lead it. I
19:58
Speaker 1: didn't really know anything. I started to do beak from
20:01
Speaker 1: yoga and then or back room however you want to
20:04
Speaker 1: pronounce it. But I started to do that. And then
20:07
Speaker 1: recently when we were doing the project again, I started
20:11
Speaker 1: to just experiment with different ways to be balanced. And
20:14
Speaker 1: so yoga does balance me um a lot, and I
20:20
Speaker 1: saw it as bending and never breaking, and so I
20:23
Speaker 1: just kind of applied that to my life, Like I
20:25
Speaker 1: love beacrom yoga, but you got a shower before you
20:27
Speaker 1: do that. That's all She's trying to keep the fun. Yeah. No,
20:34
Speaker 1: Sometimes when I go if the people in there having showered,
20:37
Speaker 1: like if it's early in the morning, people might roll
20:38
Speaker 1: out of bed and just can't make the whole room smell. Yeah, terrible,
20:42
Speaker 1: I've I've smelled that before. But I go in and
20:46
Speaker 1: I have to get what I need. I can't be
20:47
Speaker 1: worring about them stinking. I got to get my piece
20:49
Speaker 1: of mine. And you said, you look at a piece
20:50
Speaker 1: of mind balance. You said, he's looking to be humbled,
20:53
Speaker 1: Like what what? What? What? What did you feel like
20:54
Speaker 1: you needed to change? I just felt like I would
20:57
Speaker 1: change you a little. Maybe I wouldn't say that just
21:01
Speaker 1: as a person. You know, evolution is important to me,
21:04
Speaker 1: and evolving and if I'm not learning from my mistakes
21:07
Speaker 1: or um too much in my head, you know, if
21:12
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be a leader and try to lead somebody,
21:14
Speaker 1: how can I lead when I'm I'm not balanced? You know?
21:17
Speaker 1: And I think when I knew that I have I
21:20
Speaker 1: have these leadership qualities I'm surrounded around puff and you know,
21:24
Speaker 1: I have the support of La Reid, and you know
21:27
Speaker 1: the support of um you know Melody Hobson, who's an
21:31
Speaker 1: investment an amazing investor in Black Woman, and I have
21:34
Speaker 1: a support of all these people. I met George Lucas
21:37
Speaker 1: and Steven Spielberg and it's like, Okay, I'm a young
21:40
Speaker 1: black girl from Kansas. I have a clear, big opportunity
21:45
Speaker 1: to move forward and to develop my business and be
21:51
Speaker 1: just as great as these people. You know, I come
21:53
Speaker 1: from My grandmother was of sharecroffer in Aberdeen, Mississippi. So
21:58
Speaker 1: I come from a line of women who have worked
22:01
Speaker 1: hard and built nothing out of something, and so I
22:04
Speaker 1: knew that there was something I can do. So when
22:06
Speaker 1: I when I got the opportunity to get this label
22:08
Speaker 1: and to lead in the way that I needed to,
22:10
Speaker 1: I knew that I needed to get my mind right
22:12
Speaker 1: for real, Like I wanted to make sure that when
22:14
Speaker 1: I'm feeling low and I need to be more balanced,
22:17
Speaker 1: I have to figure out ways of how to deal
22:19
Speaker 1: with it, because you can't get lost in the music
22:21
Speaker 1: industry balance Cookie Hills go home, look my Hills and
22:26
Speaker 1: go home. I wish it was that simple, No I do.
22:28
Speaker 1: I was just home with my mama and I have
22:31
Speaker 1: the opportunity to buy her her first car. So that
22:34
Speaker 1: was like a huge thing for me last year. This week,
22:39
Speaker 1: no I got our BMW okay okay, Yeah, I saved
22:42
Speaker 1: up and I was like, do a couple shows, and
22:44
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give my mama a couple of shows. You
22:46
Speaker 1: could save up, I would thinking, Now I've seen you
22:48
Speaker 1: perform several times. It's always been an experience, and you
22:51
Speaker 1: talk about evolving and not wanting to do what you've
22:53
Speaker 1: done previously. So what's gonna happen now with the live show?
22:56
Speaker 1: What's going to be different about that? Because it's always
22:58
Speaker 1: been amazing and people always discussed thank thank you babe.
23:01
Speaker 1: We'll see, like I'm I'm I'm excited with this project
23:05
Speaker 1: that we're putting out um and it's gonna be great
23:08
Speaker 1: for the summertime. My contribution again is like I'm just
23:12
Speaker 1: in a space where, if you know, my music, I
23:15
Speaker 1: experiment with so many different sounds. And when I look
23:18
Speaker 1: at some of my heroes like Michael Jackson, Prince, you know,
23:22
Speaker 1: even Madonna, they never repeated themselves and they always figured
23:26
Speaker 1: out new ways to shock and and to m reinvent themselves.
23:30
Speaker 1: And so that's what I'm gonna do. We have a
23:32
Speaker 1: song together called Yoga. Yes it's jamming. Oh it's so jamming.
23:38
Speaker 1: And people are not going to be able to expect
23:40
Speaker 1: y'all when y'all see it, y'all gonna be like, oh
23:42
Speaker 1: my god. I'm not gonna give too much away, but
23:44
Speaker 1: just know that that I'm not yoga. No no, no no, no,
23:50
Speaker 1: no no. It's great. You know, part party, part ponder
23:56
Speaker 1: h part part party. Yeah, yeah, it's and you just
24:01
Speaker 1: have to listen to it. I just want I want
24:04
Speaker 1: you guys to jam to a first and hopefully you
24:08
Speaker 1: find some things in there that can can help you
24:10
Speaker 1: find your way. I mean, how many times if people
24:12
Speaker 1: ask you, speaking of not repeating yourself, how many times
24:14
Speaker 1: if people ask you to take pictures and recreate that
24:17
Speaker 1: Solange wedding photo. Ah, I haven't been No, I haven't
24:21
Speaker 1: been asked. And that's my friend. That was a beautiful
24:23
Speaker 1: wedding like those two. Alan has directed a lot of
24:26
Speaker 1: my videos, and you know, Solange is a friend um
24:30
Speaker 1: as well. And so to even be there, I was,
24:32
Speaker 1: I was. He did a classic man, you know, and
24:35
Speaker 1: he made a cameo, So it's all family. You know,
24:38
Speaker 1: when when we get together, we try to make sure
24:40
Speaker 1: that we're creating more opportunities for you. A lot of
24:42
Speaker 1: legendary artists have embraced you as well, but that you
24:45
Speaker 1: look up to who has impressed you the most that
24:47
Speaker 1: you've been like, oh my god, I can't believe this
24:50
Speaker 1: person is you know, Janelle money Fan Wow who um.
24:56
Speaker 1: We were kind of out, Uh, I don't know. I
25:00
Speaker 1: mean again for me, Stevie wondered, you know, to do
25:04
Speaker 1: that tribute. When we did, I think it was a
25:08
Speaker 1: few days after Grammys. That was the one when he,
25:12
Speaker 1: you know, reached out to me and told me that
25:14
Speaker 1: he had listened to my music and he was singing
25:16
Speaker 1: some of my lyrics and m and the President, you know, Michelle,
25:20
Speaker 1: the First Lady Michelle and the President. I'm like, they
25:23
Speaker 1: are so busy in my mind leading the world. But
25:28
Speaker 1: when you realize that your music is reaching the White
25:30
Speaker 1: House and it's in the hands of people who can
25:32
Speaker 1: change this world for better, it is definitely something that
25:36
Speaker 1: I that don't take lightly because I'm like, if y'all
25:38
Speaker 1: listen in the tight rope and that song was about balance,
25:42
Speaker 1: and about tipping on your haters and when people try
25:44
Speaker 1: to pull you down, and it's it's about oppressive people.
25:47
Speaker 1: If they're getting that and they're they're doing better and
25:49
Speaker 1: doing a better job because of because of my music,
25:52
Speaker 1: I feel like I have a bigger responsibility, you know
25:54
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's like the president is listening, he
25:57
Speaker 1: could be making decisions and like, you know what, I
26:00
Speaker 1: heard this girl song today. I ain't even gonna I'm
26:03
Speaker 1: not even about to push that button. So now some
26:05
Speaker 1: people say like like you have a great career, but
26:07
Speaker 1: some people said jail a minute when they should be
26:09
Speaker 1: a little bigger. Do you feel like you feel like
26:12
Speaker 1: why I push other artists now when you still could
26:14
Speaker 1: be focusing on yourself. No, because it is because this
26:17
Speaker 1: is a movement and I can't do it alone. I
26:20
Speaker 1: know that these artists are just as visionary as me.
26:23
Speaker 1: I know something when I see it, because and able
26:27
Speaker 1: to see the things that make me special preserve those
26:32
Speaker 1: it allows me to see that in other people. And so, um,
26:36
Speaker 1: this is a movement and I knew that it was important,
26:38
Speaker 1: and I'm glad you even mentioned that. I knew that
26:41
Speaker 1: it was important to get my tribe with me to
26:44
Speaker 1: make sure that when we come in this time, we're
26:47
Speaker 1: not working around with y'all. I don't I don't even
26:50
Speaker 1: use the cuss, but I'm about to tell you no,
26:53
Speaker 1: it's serious. It is in terms of black female artists
26:56
Speaker 1: and just black music in general. Um, it's a lot
27:00
Speaker 1: of marginalization that has been happening, and of course it
27:05
Speaker 1: pisces me off. I was listening to a song that
27:08
Speaker 1: I had done on the Electric Lady, and I was like, man,
27:11
Speaker 1: this song is amazing. What the hell you know? And
27:14
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking about it. Just it's going to take
27:17
Speaker 1: more people to push forward to sound, to push forward
27:21
Speaker 1: ideas that are as big as mine. You don't know
27:25
Speaker 1: what category to put you in, you know, And when
27:28
Speaker 1: you think about I think, I think it'll be great.
27:31
Speaker 1: I think with EPIS, I think with Wonderland Records. I
27:34
Speaker 1: think that this is gonna be a time where I
27:37
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna go somewhere different this time, and I'm
27:39
Speaker 1: excited about that. I think when I came in, my
27:41
Speaker 1: main focus was my messaging. Um just you know, people
27:45
Speaker 1: look at the black and white and when I wear
27:47
Speaker 1: the tucks and you know, when we were a uniform
27:49
Speaker 1: as like you know, she's rebelling against or not rebelling,
27:54
Speaker 1: but she's not trying to conform. But it was all
27:57
Speaker 1: about just being in control as a woman. And I
28:00
Speaker 1: think if everybody was wearing tuxedos, I might be the
28:02
Speaker 1: one that's naked. I just you know what I'm saying.
28:04
Speaker 1: It's just one of those things where if just just
28:07
Speaker 1: because I'm a woman, I don't have to go into
28:09
Speaker 1: those stereotypes. But now I'm at the point where I
28:12
Speaker 1: can experiment a little bit more. I think that people
28:14
Speaker 1: know my intentions and I come in peace. But I
28:17
Speaker 1: mean business. Are you gonna pay your artists failure? Are
28:19
Speaker 1: you're gonna do like Puff you used to do his artists? Now,
28:22
Speaker 1: let me tell you. I'm not gonna talk about Puff,
28:24
Speaker 1: because that's who gave me my start. You know, when
28:26
Speaker 1: I got the label, I went down to Miami and
28:27
Speaker 1: I thanked him. Yeah, I flew in just to say
28:30
Speaker 1: thank you, and and I left at stake that I
28:37
Speaker 1: never Puff. I'm taking the same approach once. You know,
28:40
Speaker 1: she swerved question about paying artists family, No, let me
28:43
Speaker 1: tell you, no, let me tell you what they got
28:46
Speaker 1: they are taking care of. This is family and if
28:49
Speaker 1: they ain't happy, they come. This is not exactly I
28:54
Speaker 1: give my artists. I give my artist suit, but no,
28:57
Speaker 1: this is not count Yeah. I do want, I do
29:00
Speaker 1: want to say this that I don't flex as I'm
29:03
Speaker 1: the boss or I don't. We're all, we're friends, we
29:07
Speaker 1: love each other. This is a movement. I'm just here
29:09
Speaker 1: to God. If we're on a boat, I'm captain for
29:11
Speaker 1: a little bit, and I might not be. I'm they,
29:13
Speaker 1: I might need them to captain me. You know, We're
29:15
Speaker 1: just there to as any tribe, to to uplift each
29:19
Speaker 1: other and to make sure that we don't fall or
29:21
Speaker 1: nobody trying. She's the most humble captain I can speak that.
29:25
Speaker 1: Everything she's saying is genuine right now. I know a
29:27
Speaker 1: lot of people say that and then behind closed doors
29:29
Speaker 1: they're not that. Janelle Monee definitely is. So it's been
29:32
Speaker 1: a pleasure to be beside you and really not never
29:37
Speaker 1: feel like you were above or below me. You were
29:40
Speaker 1: just always uh leaving the room for growth, but still
29:44
Speaker 1: a general at the same time, I honestly, let's have
29:47
Speaker 1: a big USB moment right there. That was positive. But
29:49
Speaker 1: the EB is coming out next next month. Yes, it's
29:52
Speaker 1: it's it's called and we were inspired by baseball terminology
29:56
Speaker 1: if if nobody is familiar. I just learned it myself
29:59
Speaker 1: when going through it. But Baseball terminology of you know
30:03
Speaker 1: Pitt it is. It's a game changer, and we're just
30:08
Speaker 1: excited about it. Uh. Jadenna is the first with Classic Man.
30:11
Speaker 1: We're getting a lot of support on that. We'll have
30:13
Speaker 1: a song called Yoga, Uh coming out soon's according to
30:17
Speaker 1: our soul clocks, and we have a deep Cotton Uh
30:21
Speaker 1: Saint Beauty and we have Roman and all of these
30:24
Speaker 1: artists right and produce. Uh. They're playing their instruments live.
30:28
Speaker 1: I mean they're getting in their ten thousand hours. They're
30:30
Speaker 1: studying their heroes and realizing, because you know, music has
30:33
Speaker 1: changed so much. Music coming out right, so it's like
30:36
Speaker 1: get your live performance up, work hard, stay humble, and
30:39
Speaker 1: just take it back to the old days when people
30:41
Speaker 1: were just talented as hell. And you you, you're so
30:44
Speaker 1: talented that they have got no choice but to see
30:46
Speaker 1: you like we see you cannot see me now, you
30:49
Speaker 1: cannot not see me right now. I'm talented and I'm
30:52
Speaker 1: here and I'm remarkable. So we're doing well. Thank you.
30:59
Speaker 1: You beautiful skin. Let me touch dermatology. Baby, I love it.
31:04
Speaker 1: Y'all are so let me tell y'all, y'all are great,
31:06
Speaker 1: and I appreciate you guys coming and just you know,
31:10
Speaker 1: talking to us and um again, actually you came to
31:13
Speaker 1: talk to us. Thank you. Well, you know, it's early
31:16
Speaker 1: in the morning, so my wire, my wires just went.
31:20
Speaker 1: Now let me tell you, look, this is my house. Okay,
31:22
Speaker 1: this is my house. But yeah form cover to talk
31:24
Speaker 1: to me date makes she pick up the album. And
31:27
Speaker 1: we appreciate you guys for joining us. Thank you absolutely.
31:33
Speaker 1: Good morning, Good morning,